Newspaper Page Text
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 28 No. 8
Thursday, February 22, 1990
$15.00 Per Year
U.S. Bar Group
Backs Abortion
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — After emotional debate the
House of Delegates of the American Bar Association Feb.
13 overwhelmingly backed a woman's freedom to have an
abortion without legal interference.
The resolution was approved 238-106 by the ABA policy
making body during its meeting in Los Angeles. It backed
"fundamental rights of privacy and equality” and opposed
“legislation or other governmental action that interferes
with ... the decision to terminate the pregnancy.”
ABA Treasurer Joseph P. Nolan, a leader in the fight
against the resolution, resigned his post after it passed.
Several other ABA delegates who opposed the resolution
threatened to resign during the two-hour debate.
Also opposed to the resolution were ABA President L.
Stanley Chauvin and President-elect John J, Curtin Jr.,
who takes office at the association’s national convention in
„ August.
Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York, chairman of the
U.S. bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, called the
association’s action “a sad day for both the legal system „
„ and for human rights.” 3
In a statement issued in Washington Feb. 15, he said that £
in the lawyers’ debate over the resolution “millions of g
voices went unheard — the voices of defenseless children in g
* their mothers’ wombs.”
“Who will protect their rights, if lawyers won’t?” he ask
ed.
Noting the ABA’s advisory role in the nomination of
federal judges, he asked, “Will ratings of judicial
nominees’ qualifications by the ABA henceforth be based
on judicial competency or on a predetermined pro-abortion
political agenda?”
(Continued on page 12)
INSIDE
Black Catholics
archbishop seeks
to redefine commission page 2
The Place
moving
“uptown” ...page3
Lent
rules listed .. page 4
Covenant House
Cobb volunteer
tells of her work page 5
"Daisy" Criticized
stereotypes racism,
Atlanta priest says page 13
PAPAL APPROVAL — Director Alan Brown
takes a bow and the singers smile happily as
Pope John Paul II applauds the performance.
All the 79-year-old lady needed was a bed, really. She had
been sleeping in a broken chair with her feet propped up on
a box ever since returning to her apartment following a
hospital stay.
A crumpled card from Catholic Social Services led her to
Aging Services where Betsy Styles, program director,
answered her phone that December morning.
“There is a bed at St. Vincent de Paul Society for me,”
pleaded the anxious caller, “but I have no way to get it to
where I am.”
Mrs. Styles went to the caller’s apartment to make ar
rangements, but what she found was her client sitting in a
wheelchair because of a fractured hip, surrounded by a
dilapidated sofa, an unusable bed and the chair she had
been sleeping in for days.
Contacting various agencies, Mrs. Styles was able to
raise enough money to pay for the delivery of the bed and to
send some additional furniture as well. She found bedding
from Northside Shepherd’s Center, had lamps repaired by
a volunteer, and even surprised her client with Christmas
gifts from St. Pius X High School and a tree. Done. The
woman was sleeping in her own bed on Christmas morning.
This is just one example of some 228 people who turned in
1989 to the capable, caring hands of Betsy Styles and Pat
Chapman, parish program facilitator for Aging Services at
CSS. People from the most affluent neighborhoods to the
poorest sections of the archdiocese of Atlanta are asking for
help from Aging Services.
“So often, when a call comes in for help in finding housing
for the elderly, it begins with a simple question,” explains
The choir of St. Jude Church in Sandy Springs
performed at the pope’s public audience Feb. 7.
See page 7.
Mrs. Styles. Quoting the caller, she continues, “I called
because I wanted housing.” It soon becomes “but what I
really need is a human being who will hear the hurt.”
Betsy Styles and Pat Chapman are accustomed to listen
ing. They each feel that so many times “the client frequent
ly has to be calmed to be able to hear and understand the
possible options...So many of these people are drowning in a
sea of phone numbers.”
When not out in the field, both have what is a “telephone
ministry” helping as many people as possible. And helped
or touched are the people of the archdiocese. Touched is the
devastated son whose father, once a tower of strength, is
now a childlike version of his former self. Touched is the
widow who, unkempt and hungry, wiles away endless hours
in front of her TV. Touched is the bitter, even angry grand
child who can vent her frustration at a Caregiver Support
Group.
Betsy Styles and Pat Chapman head up a number of pro
grams which are supported, in part, by the Archbishop’s
Annual Appeal. Money from the drive is tunneled back into
the archdiocese for use in elderly services in many forms.
INFORMATION AND REFERRAL
This service involves giving readily available sources of
help on the elderly to individual callers at 881-6571, Aging
Services. The assistance to the lady sleeping in the chair is
an example of networking under this program. Names of
(Continued on page 6)
Aging Services Staffers Ease Anxiety
BY MILAM McGRAW PROPST