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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 as M W < X % < a z j 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