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News & Herald Volume 3 Number 15 • December
Serving Catholics in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte
10,
1993
Total Forgiveness, Healing:
God's Job, Not Therapist's By
CAROL HAZARD Associate Editor
Seen your therapist lately? about your priest?
One
treats the psyche.
The
How other
treats the soul.
Therapists address a person's bro-
kenness. But unlike priests, they cannot offer the Lord' s healing forgiveness
whole again. no coincidence
and
say
it's
that
psychotherapy has gained in popularity while interest in confession has dwindled. The problem is something has been lost in the exchange.
"We
lost the treasure piece," says
Newnan, director of Faith Forma"As
Chris
tion for the Diocese of Charlotte.
human
he says.
good job
we need to identify our them by name and express
nothing to be afraid of
"It is
can
sail
along better."
The Church is less stern than it was 30 or 40 years ago, and there are signs confession is making a comeback. "I used to leave confession feeling like a sinner; today
I
leave feeling like a
forgiven child of God," says Wynette
O'Connell of
St.
Peter Church, Char-
lotte.
After a decade of materialism, the
1990s
is
shaping up to be a period of re-
evaluation.
sorrow for them." has been neglected. Re-
"People have concluded they can
ceiving the forgiveness of Christ through
only hide their shame so long and try to
The
ritual
convince their conscience that sin
used to leave confession
Reconciliation services will be offered throughout the Diocese of Charlotte during the third
"I
week of Advent. Although
feeling like a sinner; today
is
the screened confessional
is still
used, face-to-face confession
CAROL HAZARD
Photo by
gaining in popularity.
I
leave feeling like a forgiven child of God."
Panel Says Clinton Plan May Leave Many Without Health Care WASHINGTON (CNS) — Despite on universal access
the Clinton proposal
now
before Con-
the Sacrament of Reconciliation
longer a weekly or monthly
is
no
Asheville.
On any given Saturday, 25 to 30 people are lined up for confession at St. Lawrence. During Advent, confession is heard every day except Monday. Father Kaltreider attributes the interest at
the basilica to the "grace that flows forth ritual.
Most Catholics go to confession twice a year during Advent and Lent and maybe not even that much, says
from Perpetual Adoration."
—
—
Lines for confession are forming
Father Ed Sheridan, pastor of St. Gabriel
The plan's long phase-in period for the poor which does not fully integrate them until after the next presidential election leaves them "quite vul-
Church, Charlotte.
law.
nerable" to political manipulation, said
Fighting 'Intolerable Racism'
to health
care, the Clinton
"Many poor people
are out of the
habit of seeking out health care, and
I
don't think that' s going to change," said
Anita L. Allen, a professor of law at Georgetown University who holds a law degree and a doctorate in philosophy. That was just one of the problems cited by Allen and other panelists at a Dec. 2 briefing on legal perspectives on health care reform, sponsored by the
Georgetown University Law Center
—
—
Gostin, an adjunct professor of health
Harvard University and executive director of the American Society of Law and Medicine. "They may well not be brought in at law
at
as occurred after Massachusetts
all,"
approved a state health care reform plan that had a phase-in period for the poor, he said. Dr. M. Gregg Bloche, a medical doctor and attorney, said the American
VATICAN CITY (CNS) John Paul
II
— Pope
praised the efforts of the
U.S. Church to battle the persistent and "intolerable" injustice of racism in soci-
The pope sitive issue
also spoke about the sen-
of translating liturgical texts,
saying the translations must be "free
from doctrinal ambiguity and ideologi-
people are "not being psychologically
cal influence."
or politically prepared" for the fact that
The pontiff spoke Dec. 4 to bishops from California, Nevada and Hawaii, the final group of U.S. prelates to make
care reform plan "flies in the face of everything we know about what regulatory structure will
work and what won't."
"The Clintons know that America' most serious malady is that we're too serious, what we need most is a good laugh ... and so at just the right time within the next few weeks, the president or Mrs. Clinton will reveal that this
one grand, mirthful joke," he
bill
"rationing
—
if that's
defined as the
denial of potentially beneficial health
—
is inherent in the Clinton plan." "People are not being prepared for the reality that costs cannot be contained" without the denial of some ben-
care
efits,
said Bloche, an associate profes
sor of law at
Georgetown and an adjunct
professor in the department of health
policy and
management
Hopkins University
at
Johns
in Baltimore.
Allen said her concerns about health stemmed in part from her
care reform
Even Lawrence Gostin, a visiting professor of law at Georgetown who
experience growing up in a military family. Despite the availability of free medical care to members of the military
served on the "ethics cluster" of the national Health Care Reform Task Force
and their families, "there are many, many unhealthy people in the military ... and
is
headed by Clinton,
first
lady Hillary
said.
Rodham
saw some "major problems" in
that leads
me
to worry."
See Health, Page
their
ad limina
year. His talk
visits to the
was
Vatican
this
a largely positive
assessment of the bishops' actions in favor of church unity, social justice and
some of
the worst race riots in recent
U.S. history occurred
last year,
leaving
52 people dead. The pope noted that the U.S Church had reached out to racial and ethnic groups in spiritual and social ways, rec-
ecumenism. The pope said
ognizing the special contributions of native, black
and Hispanic Americans.
He said these programs, "far from avowing separation or isolation among groups," aimed at showing the Church as a sign of
human
unity.
more general way, he said, American Catholics have shown generosity in social justice programs. The In a
situation today calls for further efforts
respond to "growing poverty, homelessness and unemployment" as well as a crisis of values that leads to fragmentation and aggressiveness in human behavior, he said. "Christian consciences must be awakened to a true sense of concern for the poor and oppressed, the weak and defenseless who cannot be excluded to
that in carrying out
their jobs the bishops are often chal-
lenged by a "persistent racism which undermines the foundations of a just and democratic society." "Racism is an intolerable injustice by reason of the social conflicts which it provokes, but even more so by reason of the way in which it dishonors the inalienable dignity of
all
human
beings,
irrespective of their race or ethnic ori-
gin," he said. 1
Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, where
.
ety.
in
He said the Clinton health
See Confession, Page 2
Pope Praises U.S. Bishops For
Washington. The most negative assessment came from Roy A. Schotland, a Georgetown law professor who is an expert in administrative law.
at
other parishes as well.
reform plan may leave large segments of the population outside the health care system, according to a panel of experts on health care and the
stress
is
OK," says Father Carl Kaltreider, pastor of the Basilica of St. Lawrence,
gress.
its
...
When I go to confession, my life is a lot
beings,
sins, call
not done a
people along in the sacrament, Father Sheridan says. Yet, there is extraordinary grace in it. "Confession is a beautiful thing,"
better. I
the grace to continue
Some
The Church has in bringing
Leading the group was Cardinal
—
from their share in the universal destination of the earth's goods," he said.
On
the issue of liturgical texts, the
pope emphasized
that
it
was
See Racir