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PAGE 4 - The Georgia Bulletin, July 19,1990
STATEMENT
A Deep Loss
The resignation of our beloved archbishop is a blow
that came with little warning.
A loss for the whole Church, it carries a special sadness
for Atlanta’s archdiocese where ordinary people have felt
themselves special and privileged to have him as leader
for the last two years.
Difficult days and good ones have been lighted by
Archbishop Eugene Marino’s warmth and ever-present
smile, his spontaneous presence walking the Catholic and
Christian message into Y’s and boardrooms, prisons, clubs
and banquet halls.
Dubbed “Atlanta’s Good Shepherd” just prior to the
sad news of his departure, the archbishop had walked a
path deep into Atlanta’s and Georgia’s heart in only two
years. Although he cannot be replaced, we can walk the
paths he cut for us, with the help of his inspiration and
encouraged by his abiding belief in us.
We pray for his full recovery and his return to service
in the Church as the gifted bishop he is.
The first called to walk the new road is Bishop James
Lyke, OFM, who has accepted warmly a demanding role
as apostolic administrator. For his obvious stature in the
Church and vigorous willingness to serve in this new and
unusual way, we are grateful and offer to him a welcome
that is Christian and open to new possibilities.
--GRK
Monsignor George G. Higgins
Democracy In The Church
The Vatican’s recent Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of
the Theologian states at one point that "standards of conduct
appropriate to civil society or the workings of democracy cannot
be purely and simply applied to the church."
"Purely and simply" -- of course not. If democracy means a
form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the
people and exercised by them either directly as in the Greek
city-states or indirectly through a system of representative
democracy as in the U.S. system of government, then it must be
said that the church is not and cannot be a democracy in the
literal sense of the word.
The reason for this has been stated by a number of contempo
rary theologians. Many of them, it should be noted, favor the
greater democratization of the church. Yet they start from the
premise, as stated, for example, by Father Patrick Granfield,
professor of theology at The Catholic University of America,
that "the church is not simply another political entity but a
unique religious society" and that any application of democracy
to the church "has to take into account this uniqueness."
It would be fair to say, I think, that Catholic scholars across
the board agree in substance with Father Granfield’s statement.
It is important to note again, however, that many favor a greater
degree of democratization of church structures. Father Granfield
is, again, representative of their thinking. In an essay on ecclesial
democracy he writes:
"Is ecclesial democratization theologically possible...? A
distinction must be made between calling the church a democra
cy and urging democratization.
"On a theoretical level, the church is not a democracy. Since
the non-hierarchical members of the church do not legitimately
possess sacred power, they can neither transmit it to others nor
divest it from those who do possess it. This is the accepted
position of the church....
"On a pragmatic level, however, there is no intrinsic reason
why democratic elements cannot be incorporated into the
ecclesial system....
"Hence, institutionalized participation of the laity and clergy
in decision making, in accordance with the principle of
subsidiarity, would be a democratic adjunct to hierarchical
power."
Father Granfield and other scholars who share his point of
view are at pains to remind us that ecclesial democratization, in
the qualified sense in which they are using the word, is not a
new thing but has its roots deep in Christian tradition.
If it has been in obsolescence in recent centuries, it is now in
a period of revival, thanks in no small part to the influence of
the Second Vatican Council with its emphasis on shared
responsibility and its equally strong emphasis on the role of the
laity in the life and mission of the church.
For present purposes, there is no need either to summarize in
detail the theological arguments in favor of shared responsibility
in the life and mission of the church or to catalogue the many
new structures which are being developed experimentally within
the church in an effort to implement the principle of
coresponsibility. Moreover, it would be foolish to try to predict
what forms coreponsibility will take in the future.
As the British journalist Peter Hebblethwaite has put it
epigrammatically, "We cannot predict the future because we are,
as it were, in the middle of an unfinished German sentence —
and the verb which will give it its final meaning comes only at
the end."
Copyright (c) 1990 by Catholic News Service
RESOUND
A FIRST STEP
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To the Editor:
So the candidate claims to be pro-life. As reader Elaine
McFall suggests, that ideally would mean the candidate would
support such issues as minimum wage, day care and health care
funding, education, low cost housing, prison reform, Social
Security, employment support as well as abortion restrictions.
These are all important issues, but not equally important
issues.
The pro-life candidate and his supporters recognize that the
most immediate of all issues is abortion. Why? Because abortion
terminates a human life, the unborn baby is killed. From the
baby’s standpoint there is no middle ground, no possibility of
compromise, no negotiation, no choice, no defense.
Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco wrote, “Abortion
is the axe at the root of the tree of human rights.” Social issues
such as those listed, civil rights such as racism and discrimina
tion, will not get the attention and support they should until our
society controls the holocaust of abortion which everyone in
their hearts knows is terribly wrong.
The pro-life candidate offers a step in the right direction.
Right the most horrendous social ill first and then get on with
correcting the others. If we don’t get the abortion issue under
control, what is the point in trying on the others, for we are
certainly hypocrites.
Jerry Walden
Stone Mountain
The Week In Review
NAMES AND PLACES -- Bishops need the brotherly
collaboration of their national conference to confront such
problems as the alienation of women, priestly malaise and a
restless laity, according to Cardinal Joseph L. Bemardin of
Chicago. Episcopal unity is especially important at a time when
‘ ‘people inside and outside the church make money by attempt
ing to portray ... a divided hierarchy,” he said. The cardinal
discussed the work of the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops in a talk at the NCCB’s third retreat-style assembly,
held at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif, in late June,
but copies of the speech were not released until mid-July by the
NCCB in Washington.
ARCHBISHOP THOMAS A. TSCHOEPE OF Dallas has
resigned, and Coadjutor Bishop Charles V. Grahmann has
succeeded him. The resignation, accepted by Pope John Paul H,
took effect July 14. On Dec. 17, Bishop Tschoepe turns 75, the
age at which bishops customarily submit their resignations to the
Vatican. Bishop Tschoepe led the Dallas Diocese since 1969.
Bishop Grahmann, 59 had been the founding bishop of the
Diocese of Victoria, Texas, from 1982 until his appointment m
1989 as Dallas coadjutor.
*****
AROUND THE NATION — In an ‘ ‘open letter’ ’ church social
justice groups have urged federal budget negotiators to remember
the needs of the disadvantaged and to levy any tax increase
fairly. The letter published in The Washington Post July 12,
asked negotiators at a budget summit to “keep as your primary
goal the protection of our most disadvantaged citizens, along
with the health of the nation’s economy.” The letter had 100
signers from Catholic and Protestant organizations including
Catholic Charities USA: the Jesuit Social Ministries National
Office: Network, a religious-led Catholic social justice lobby; the
Jesuit-run Center of Concern; and the McAuley Institute, a
Sisters of Mercy organization involved in housing for the poor.
WISCONSIN’S CATHOLIC BISHOPS have called on church
child care centers to “make the needs and values of families
their highest priority.’ ’ Their recommendation was included in
a policy statement drafted by a committee of Catholic school and
social service agency officials at the bishop’s request. According
to the document, child care is “one of the most important
challenges facing society and the church in the 1990s. How we
address this issue will say much about how seriously we take our
role as stewards of the next generation, as well as how commit
ted we remain to the family.” Child care, also known as day
care, has been an issue of concern across the nation and in the
U.S. Congress, where a House-Senate conference committee was
deliberating different House and Senate bills as of mid-July. The
U.S. Catholic Conference, public policy agency of the U.S.
bishops, supported the initiative.
THE NUMBER of U.S. Catholics has topped 57 million,
according to figures in the 1990 Official Catholic Directory. The
total of 57,019,948 Catholics, a jump of more than 2 million
from 1989’s figure of 54,918,989, is due largely to the inclusion
of Eastern-rite Catholics, according to Jeanne Hanline, managing
editor of the directory, published by P. J. Kennedy & Sons of
Wilmette, Ill. The directory was released June 21. The number
of Catholics showed a slight rise to 55,062,842 when Eastern-rite
Catholics and Catholics on Puerto Rico, Guam and St. Thomas,
Virgin Islands, were not taken into account.
*****
INTERNATIONALLY ~ Figures for 1988, the last year for
which worldwide Catholic statistics are available, show there are
906 million Catholics in the world — 18 percent of the planet’s
population, according to Vatican statistics. The figures show
Catholics keeping pace with the overall increases in the number
of people in the world. They include an estimated 15 million
Gatholics living in countries, mostly under communist rule,
where reliable statistics could not be obtained. The Catholic
population rose 13 million over the previous year. The 1988 data
is contained in the 447-page Vatican Statistical yearbook
published in July. The five countries with the largest Catholic
populations are Brazil with 127 million; Mexico, 79.3 million’;
Italy, 56.3 million; United States, 54.6 million; and Philippines,
50 million. The figures also show a continuing drop in the
number of priests and a continuing rise in the ratio of Catholics
per priest. At the same time, the figures show a continued
increase in the number of seminarians.
NICARAGUA will need up to $9 billion in foreign aid over
nine years to rebuild its economy, said Cardinal Miguel Obando
Bravo of Managua. The United States and Western European
countries have made clear that their aid will be “strictly tied to
our promise of reconciliation,” he said in an interview with the
Milan-based Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire. The interview
appeared July 15.