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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