Aug 4, 1995

Page 1

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News & Herald Serving Catholics in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte

Volume 4 Number 42

August

4,

1995

Knights Of Columbus Gather For State Installations In Fayetteville By CHARLIE

BOWLING

FAYETTEVILLE

About 500 members of the North Carolina Knights of Columbus attended the annual organization meeting and Installation Banquet July 21-23 at the Howard Johnson

harder with youth programs which in-

about evenly divided between the Charlotte and Raleigh Dioceses.

ball,

Deputy Luther J. Stultz took over the reins from James L. Neely, who has served in that office for the past two Other elected officials installed at the Saturday evening Mass celebration years.

included Father Thomas J. Gaul, State Chaplain, John A. Harrison, State Secretary,

Group Worked To Calm Anger Towards Susan Smith

Robert J. Singer, State Treasurer,

Susan Smith

to death for killing her

two

young sons last October would not have brought the boys back "and would reflect negatively on us as Christians," said Father Richard Harris, pastor of

"To prison

its

in the first

my way

percent.

of thinking,

in

life

Union's tiny Catholic parish. On July 28 Smith was sentenced to life in prison after she was convicted of killing her children by rolling her car into a lake while they were strapped in

reads:

their car seats.

tality."

Father Harris, pastor of St. Augustine Church, was among those who gathered for a series of prayer services sponsored by the Downtown Ministerial

At the July 25 meeting at Duncan Acres United Methodist Church, Father Lennart Pearson, pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity, said it takes

Association during the Smith trial. They were held in hopes of softening attitudes

community.

Father Harris said the ministers decided to hold the prayer meetings to help project a positive

which has

at its

"Welcome

image of the town, entrance a sign that to the City

hospitality to

foster programs for vocations, but they provide financial support for seminarians for all the years of their studies. Southern Pines was singled out as con-

tributing to 11

seminarians and their

sister council in Pinehurst has three

0 years

1

Grand Knight

The 21 year

million and Carolina.

it

is

Some

by

six

over $6.7 used entirely in North $25,000 was contribtotal is

known

as the

semi-

RSVP

program.

Other fund-raising efforts benefited priest retirement, disaster relief to the

flood areas in Georgia and assistance

and funding to scholBelmont Abbey College. A check was presented to the Direc-

arships at

inception in 1974," Stultz said. local

is

tor of

Room at the Inn and a pledge made

to continue their support to the

home

in

Charlotte. It was announced that about 200 Knights volunteered recently to act as

uted to Special Olympics by the coun-

ushers at the Charlotte Coliseum for the

and state. "Considering that we live in a state with so few Catholics, we need to continue our award winning growth com-

visit

cils

of Mother Teresa.

A total of were also

1 1

new

installed

District Deputies

from the Charlotte

Diocese.

Reflections

of Hospi-

more than

is

golf.

will continue their theme, "In Solidarity With Our Priests." Many of the local councils not only

for Oklahoma City

since

like a thousand deaths,"

bowling and

The Knights

retarded people in the State. "That

about what we raised

he told the New Catholic Miscellany, newspaper of the Charleston Diocese. "She will have to think about her terrible crime every day." is

all local

narians in what

to increase that figure this year

lenged

Anthony M. Petite, State Advocate and David L. Onofrio, State Warden. State Deputy Luther Stultz acknowledged the success of "Operation Lamb" which raised over $650,000 to assist

He challenged each

By PAUL A. BARRA UNION, S.C. (CNS) Sentencing

Warden David Onofrio chalcouncils to work even

clude State volleyball, basketball, soft-

State

Ministerial

State

They represent over 8,300 members

ticipated

Four members of SPLUNGE (L-R) Erin Leonard, Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, High Point, Patrick Reich, Youth Minister at Immaculate Conception Church, Hendersonville, AN Taylor, St. Paul the Apostle Church, Greensboro and Onie Rodriguez, St. Matthew Church, Jacksonville, Fla., spend some of theirtime gardening for Hope House, a residential home in Asheville, for men and women suffering from AIDS. Photo by Eduardo Perez

cent net growth goal in 1995, '96," he added.

from 84 councils paralong with family members.

Hotel. Delegates

Lending a green thumb.

pared with the other 50 states," Stultz stated. "We should exceed our five per-

make

Of Bells Mark 50th Anniversary Of Bombing Tolling

a good

WASHINGTON (CNS)— Remem-

residents, tormented by a too horrible to imagine and pes-

an ecumenical gathering, but one of the things we have in common is the need for forgiveness," he said. Since the murders and the town's

brances of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki "carry a unique burden," said a Catholic moral theolo-

from a fuller context that included Pearl Harbor and "the total brutality of the Japanese and Nazi expansion." But troubling questions still sur-

by intrusive press coverage, reacted by advocating the death penalty

human

face, he said, questions about alterna-

inundation by reporters, "things will never be quite the same for any of us,"

race must learn

from the 1945 destruc-

tive strategies, other motives, Allied

the rural Southern

town about capital

punishment.

Many :nme tered

for Smith.

who

Most of the 100 or

so people

turned out for the weekly services

opposed

A

that sentence.

CNN-Gallup-USA Today

poll

onducted during the trial found 68 perent of Americans polled favored the ieath penalty. South Carolina is considred to be at least as tough, with a

governor and attorney general who owed to be tougher on crime when they ivere elected in

1994.

Augustine parishioner Marion yrd, a Union native, opposed capital unishment and said he thought life in son would be no break for the mother, ho ki lied her 3-year-old and 1 4-monthSt.

ld sons.

"This

is

gian in a reflection on what the tion of the

two Japanese

cities.

all

At the final prayer service, Father Harris stressed the need for healing in

insistence on unconditional surrender, and the need to drop a second bomb.

peoples a special moral scrutiny," said Father Francis X. Meehan, writing in

Father Meehan, who s pastor of S S Simon and Jude Parish in West Chester,

Union.

The Catholic Standard and Times, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadel-

Pa., said the

phia.

enshrined even then in international law

said Father Pearson.

Remembering "requires of

"In this humbling and unbelievable

tragedy which has befallen our city where our tradition is that no one is a stranger and that all are welcomed we

and his path to peace, unity and healing," he said. Another parishioner, Myrna B. Kennedy, said she was astounded at the strength and number of voices of her

His article, "Hiroshima: The Search for an Objective Morality," was published to mark the 50th anniversary of the Aug. 6 and 9 blasts. Across the country, other observances included special Masses, peace vigils and the tolling of bells. Achieving objectivity about the

See Smith, Page 12

bombings is hard, said Father Meehan, because people remember that they saved

move gently among ourselves to find his strength

American

lives

and cannot be isolated

i

tions

most troubling moral ques-

come from "a criterion of morality

and within

all

religious traditions: the

norm granting immunity to civilian populations

from

direct attack

and

terror."

He called the 50th anniversary "less a time to celebrate, and more a time to beg the wisdom of God." In Missouri, Archbishop Justin F. Rigali of St. Louis recalled remarks made

See Bomb, Page 6


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Aug 4, 1995 by Catholic News Herald - Issuu