Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 28 No. 32
Thursday, September 20, 1990
$15.00 Per Year
FAMILY SUPPORT - In rural Polk County, churches have established
a unique link to families through a support program for new parents.
Above, Sister Elizabeth Racko, DC, interviews Janell Holtzclaw, the
• mother of Jeffrey and Paige.
. Ecumenical Program Helps
• New Polk County Parents
American Bishops Delay
Vote On Women's Pastoral
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (CNS) - The planned
vote this November by the U.S. bishops
on a pastoral letter on women has been
deferred, partly because the Vatican sug
gested consultation be held first with
other bishops’ conferences, Archbishop
Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati an
nounced Sept. 13.
Archbishop Pilarczyk, president of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops,
said that when the bishops meet in No
vember they will discuss the current draft
"as an information item," but no vote will
be taken until the broader consultation is
carried out.
The decision to delay a vote was made
by the NCCB Administrative Committee,
a 50-member committee of conference
officers and committee heads, which met
in Washington Sept. 12-13 to establish the
agenda for this fall’s general meeting of
the bishops. Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM,
is a member of the Administrative Com
mittee.
In his statement Archbishop Pilarczyk
(Continued on page 13)
Sister Sponsa, Children
s Safely Evacuate Liberia
BY RITA McINERNEY
Even after Sister Mary Sponsa
slipped in the mud and broke an ankle
early in August, she had no intention
of leaving her 28 children at Our Lady
of Fatima Rehab Center in Cape
Palmas, Liberia.
By Aug. 15, the leg had swollen and
was giving her a lot of trouble. She
was told she would have to find a
good doctor. For that she had to go to
the neighboring country, the Ivory
Coast.
The ferry that carries passengers
from Cape Palmas over the Cavally
River to the Ivory Coast had been
destroyed by President Samuel Doe’s
soldiers. Sister Sponsa, her bad leg
wrapped in a towel and wearing a
sneaker on her good foot, and a com
panion sister were taken over the deep
river in a canoe.
Shortly after, the rebels arrived in
Las Palmas. “We got out just in
(Continued on page 12)
BY PAULA DAY
Polk County, Georgia has no licensed
obstetricians or hospitals that deliver
babies. But it does have an Infant Needs
program.
Begun in October, 1989, under the
directorship of Sister Elizabeth Racko,
DC, the program gives emotional, educa
tional and economic support to financially
troubled new parents. It is part of Samari
tan House’s ecumenical effort to help the
indigent. Samaritan House is an emergen
cy food pantry and referral service spon
sored by the Ministerial Association of
Cedartown, the seat of the West Georgia
county.
Sister Elizabeth is sensitive to the
effect of financial worries on couples
trying to be good parents. “The birth and
early years are such a beautiful time in
parents’ lives,” the Religious observed.
“To be in financial turmoil erases the joy
of that birth and the child becomes a
burden. This burden often begins the
cycle of child abuse.”
She does not see the role of the Infant
Needs program as one to break that cycle,
but her three-year service on the Polk
County Child Abuse Council alerted her
to the need for work in this area.
To date, 38 families or individual
mothers have participated in the Infant
Needs program. The women have ranged
in age from 14 to 39 years, according to
Samaritan House records, with the majori
ty being in their late teens and early
twenties. While participants come from
the varied racial and ethnic groups in the
county, they all share the same burden,
financial poverty.
The 1989 recorded population of Polk
County was 35,045. Figures from the
Georgia Center for Health Statistics show
there were 158 pregnancies within the 10-
19-year-old group that year, a rate of 51.7
per 1,000 pregnancies. The rate for this
age group was 48.8 for the entire state. In
the county, infant deaths from any cause
in 1989 were at a rate of 9.4 per 1,000
births. While this data does not prove a
need for the program, it does indicate
(Continued on page 6)
SAFE AND SOUND - Young Liberian girls, cared for by Sister Sponsa
Beltran, have been safely evacuated to the Ivory Coast, as civil war
continues in their homeland.