Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 28 No. 14
Thursday, April 5. 1990
$15.00 Per Year
St. Paul Of Cross
School To Close
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Sister Thea Dies; Messenger Of Black Giftedness
Because of continuing enrollment difficulties and finan
cial shortfall, the school at St. Paul of the Cross parish will
be closed at the end of the current school year.
The decision was reached by the archdiocese recently,
and teachers at the elementary school in northwest Atlanta,
whose contracts were due for renewal March 30 under arch
diocesan policy, were notified on that date that their con
tracts would not be renewed for the 1990-91 school year.
A letter to St. Paul’s pastor, Father Thomas McCann, CP,
from Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ. formally notify
ing him of the decision was delivered April 3.
The parish has been staffed by the Passionist Order since
it was erected in November 1954 and the school building
belongs to the religious order, but the school is under the
governance of the archdiocese.
In January 1990 the all-black school was serving 127
children in kindergarten through seventh grade, according
to Sister Roberta Schmidt, CSJ, secretary for education for
the archdiocese, while the archdiocese's educational con
sultants have recommended that schools serve at least 200
students a year to continue to be viable. Fewer than 25 of
the students are Catholic.
Figures provided by Sister Roberta Schmidt indicate that
the school has served fewer than 200 children annually
throughout the 1980s. with a high of 192 enrolled in the
1986-87 school year.
A task force at the parish level has been looking at viabili-
i Continued on page 15
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TEACHING MOMENT —Archbishop Eugene
A. Marino, SSJ, instructs young people about to
be confirmed at St. Ann’s in Marietta. In two
separate liturgies March 31, he administered
the sacrament to 172 at the Cobb County parish.
See page 7.
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Sister Thea Bowman, the
valiant, frail educator, evangelist and gospel singer who
often moved audiences to tears of joy with her message of
black giftedness, died of bone cancer March 30 at her home
in Canton, Miss. She was 52.
‘‘She was one of the most remarkable women of our
time,” said Auxiliary Bishop Joseph A. Francis of Newark,
N.J., a longtime friend.
Although she struggled with debilitating bone cancer
since 1984, Sister Bowman — a Franciscan Sister of
Perpetual Adoration for more than 30 years — continued to
give lectures and workshops. She drew capacity crowds
wherever she went.
When she spoke about black Catholicism, her message
was always essentially the one she gave last August at a na
tional meeting of black Catholics in Atlanta: ‘‘We are called
to share our gift of blackness with the church.”
Although she was most noted for her lectures and
Cathedral Chrism Mass Opens Holy Week
BY PAULA DAY
The Chrism Mass, called by some a ‘‘celebration of the
birthday of the priesthood,” will be celebrated Tuesday,
April 10 by Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, at the
Cathedral of Christ the King.
Priests from throughout the archdiocese will con-
celebrate the Mass with the archbishop and renew their
commitment to priestly service in the Church. The liturgy
will begin at 10:30 a.m.
During the Mass Archbishop Marino will consecrate the
oils and chrism to be used during the year in the parishes of
the archdiocese in administering four of the Catholic
Church’s seven sacraments.
The oil of catechumens, olive oil, is used to anoint the
chest of inf ants being baptized and is poured with chrism in
to the baptismal water blessed during the Easter Vigil.
Chrism, a mixture of oil of catechumens and balm, is also
used during baptism to anoint the crown of the head; during
confirmation to anoint the forehead of persons being con
firmed; during the ordination of a priest to anoint the can
didate’s hands; and during the ordination of a bishop, the "
candidate’s head.
Chrism is also used to consecrate the altar and the
building during the dedication of a new church. The four
corners and center of the altar, as well as the four walls of
the structure, are anointed in the form of a cross. Oil of the
sick, also olive oil, is used in the sacrament of the sick to
anoint the hands and forehead of the one receiving the
sacrament.
Since Catholics receive these sacraments at crucial
moments in their faith journey, the consecration of these
elements by the archbishop is a sign of the bond that unites
the chief pastor of the Church in Atlanta to the faithful.
The Chrism Mass, celebrated during Holy Week, com
memorates the institution of the sacrament of Holy Orders
by Jesus on the night before He died. During the last supper
with His apostles, He directed them to take His place and
continue celebrating the Eucharistic meal in His memory.
(Continued from page 3)
workshops on black Catholic culture and life, she was also a
gifted liturgist, singer, writer on spirituality, teacher and
artist.
The bone cancer and chemotherapy so weakened her that
in her final two years she had to speak from a wheelchair
and often had to rest for hours before and after a talk.
Shivering and exhausted beneath several layers of
blankets after a stirring talk last June to a national meeting
of the U.S. bishops in South Orange, N.J., she told reporters
(Continued on page 2)
INSIDE
Death Row Mass
celebrated
by archbishop page 6
Second Draft
of women’s pastoral
issued page 8
Catholic Reporter
inside Lithuania page 9
Around
The Archdiocese ••••page 18