Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 27 No. 28
Thursday, August 17,1989
$15.00 Per Year
FRUIT OF THE VINE — Helen Paluha and her grandson, Chaz,
harvest grapes to be made into altar wine for liturgies at St. Augustine
Parish in Covington. Story and photos on pages 6 and 7.
NCCB Views Challenges
In New Abortion Debate
BY MARK PATTI SON
WASHINGTON (CNS) - The U.S.
Supreme Court’s July 3 ruling that allows
states to enact more restrictive abortion
statutes “marks the beginning of a new
debate,” said a statement issued Aug. 9 by
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Ac
tivities.
The debate requires that “many voices
must be raised in defense of life,” said the
statement, titled “The Supreme Court’s
Webster Decision: An Opportunity to De
fend Life.”
“We do not intend to be ruled out of this
or any social debate,” said the seven
bishops on the committee, headed by Car
dinal Joseph L. Bernardin of Chicago, in
the statement.
Ruling in Webster vs. Reproductive
Health Services — one of the most hotly
debated abortion cases since its original
Roe vs. Wade ruling 16 years ago — the
Supreme Court upheld most parts of a con
troversial Missouri law making it more
difficult to obtain an abortion.
The bishops said the new ruling “opens
up challenges” to “develop and expand ef
forts” in the areas of:
— Education and public information.
— Pastoral services for women, children
and families.
— “Public policy efforts to ensure effec
tive legal protection for the right to life of
the unborn.”
The statement said the “central truth”
about the humanity of the unborn child “is
often obscured in the current debate,
where abortion is presented solely as an
exercise of personal autonomy or as a con
flict between state prerogatives and the in
dividual right of privacy.”
But “as Catholics and as U.S. citizens we
have a duty to participate in shaping our
nation’s public policies so that they truly
protect, nurture and defend human life,”
the statement said.
The bishops said anti-Catholic sentiment
“has never been entirely absent from the
pro-abortion campaign,” but abortion-
rights advocates seem to be trying to put
new life into it “now that the efforts of
(Continued on page 8)
Texas Bishop Lauds Rep. Leland
BY LAURIE HANSEN AND INES PINTO ALICEA
WASHINGTON (CNS) - Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas,
who died in an airplane crash on his way to a refugee camp
Archbishop Asks
Prayers For Lawmakers
With profound sadness we learned today of the
tragic death of Texas Congressman Mickey Leland.
The Catholic community of North Georgia joins all
men and women of good will in mourning the loss of
this outstanding public servant. In a world where
millions are dying of starvation and where half of the
people are insufficiently fed, Congressman Leland
distinguished himself as a leader in the fight against
hunger.
I call upon the pastors of the Church of Atlanta to
lead their people this week in special prayers that our
Loving God will grant him a merciful judgement and
bring comfort and consolation to his grief-stricken
family and colleagues. We are all diminished by the
untimely death of Congressman Leland. May his ex
ample of dedicated service in the struggle to feed a
hungry world inspire us to increased devotion to that
cause which cost his life.
We also express our profound sympathy to the
family of Congressman Larkin Smith of Mississippi
on his untimely death and urge a remembrance in
your prayers for the repose of his soul and the con
solation of Our Lord for his family. May he rest in
peace.
- Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ
in Ethiopia, was “a man on a mission” haunted by the
plight of the hungry, said Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of
Gal veston-Houston.
“Mickey wanted his career to make a difference. He
worked hard at being a Catholic,” said Bishop Fiorenza,
adding that he had worked with Leland on Houston housing
issues.
The bishop, who celebrated Mass Aug. 10 at St. Anne’s
Catholic Church in Houston, Leland’s home parish, made
the comments in Aug. 11 and 14 interviews with Catholic
News Service.
Leland had “witnessed the angel of death hovering over
the skins and bones” of the starving in Africa, said Bishop
Fiorenza, making reference to a story Leland often told
about a little African girl, suffering from extreme
malnourishment, who died in front of him while he was talk
ing to a relief worker about her.
A U.S. Air Force helicopter Aug. 13 found the wreckage of
the small twin-engine airplane that disappeared six days
earlier while carrying Leland and 15 others to a refugee
camp in Ethiopia.
Leland, 44, who was in his sixth term in the House of
Representatives and was chairman of its Select Committee
on Hunger, was on his sixth visit to refugee camps along the
Ethiopian- Sudanese border when his charter plane crashed
into a rocky cliff 300 feet below the peak of a 4,500-foot
mountain.
There apparently were no survivors among the nine U.S
passengers and seven Ethiopians aboard the plane.
The camp is home to some 57,000 Sudanese exiles.
Basilian Father Vincent Thompson, associate pastor at
St. Anne’s Parish, told CNS Aug. 14 that Leland was known
at the parish for “his concern for the underdog and the
poor.”
He said the baptism of Leland’s child at the parish last
August had “turned into a dramatic event” in the church’s
(Continued on page 15)
Appointments
Most Reverend Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J., archbishop of
Atlanta, has approved the recommendations of the Provin
cial of the Passionist Fathers, Very Reverend Columkille
Regan, C.P., of the Superior General of the Fransalian
Fathers, Most Reverend Emile Mayoraz, M.S.F.S., and of
the Provincial of the Dominican Fathers, Very Reverend
Paul J. Philibert, O.P., and announces the following priest
ly appointments:
Father Thomas McCann, C.P. has been appointed pastor
of the parish of Saint Paul of the Cross in Atlanta, effective
July 28, 1989.
Father Melvin Shorter, C.P. has been appointed
parochial vicar of the parish of Saint Paul of the Cross, ef
fective July 28,1989.
Father Kenneth W. Bayer, M.S.F.S., presently serving as
pastor of the parish of Saint Lawrence in Lawrenceville,
has been appointed pastor of the parish of Saint Patrick in
Norcross, effective Sept. 1,1989.
Father Martin J. Kopcik, M.S.F.S., presently serving as
parochial vicar of the parish of Saint Patrick in Norcross,
has been appointed pastor of the parish of Saint Lawrence
in Lawrenceville, effective Sept. 1,1989.
Father John C. DeVore, M.S.F.S., presently serving as
parochial vicar of the parish of Saint Lawrence, has been
appointed parochial vicar of the parish of Saint Patrick, ef
fective Sept. 1,1989.
Father Joseph J. M. Thevenet, M.S.F.S., presently serv
ing as parochial vicar of the parish of Saint Patrick, has
been appointed parochial vicar of the parish of Saint
Lawrence, effective Sept. 1,1989.
Father Edward E. Everitt, O.P., has been appointed
pastor of the parish of Holy Cross in Atlanta, effective Sept
9, 1989.