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CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF EVANSVILLE VOLUME 21
NUMBER 20
FEBRUARY 1,1991
Ad hoc diocesan school board
to be formed to advise bishop
By PAUL LEINGANG he said, that means they should not be
Message Editor professional educators. They might be
People who attended a special
meeting on Catholic education with
Bishop ' Gerald A. Gettelfinger raised
their hands to show their support for a
plan to establish an ad hoc diocesan
school board.
About 250 parish and school
representatives, pastors, principals and
teachers met With Bishop Gettelfinger at
Memorial High School, Evansville, on
Wednesday, Jan. 23. The bishop used
an overhead projector to help present
and explain his approach to the struc-
ture of Catholic education in the
diocese.
At the conclusion of the 90-minute
meeting, the bishop asked for a show of
¶lands from those who supported a plan
to establish an ad hoc diocesan school
board, those who opposed such a plan,
and those who were ambivalent. More
people favored the establishment of the
board than those who opposed it, and
there was more ambivalence than
q opposition.
Bishop Gettelfinger has asked the
deans of each of the seven deaneries in
the diocese to submit the names of three
persons to be considered for member-
ship on the ad hoc board. One person
from each deanery will be selected.
The bishop said the board members
• should be 'lay persons. In this case,
priests, sisters or brothers.
The ad hoc board will serve as
another source of ideas and concerns
from around the diocese, and also as a
sounding board for educational pro-
posals, said the bishop.
People opposed to the establishment
of such a. board expressed concerns
about a diocesan board dictating finan-
cial matters -- teachers' pay, for exam-
ple -- to a parish board. Others were
concerned about a diocesan board forc-
ing parish schools to consolidate.
Bishop Gettelfinger said the diocesan
board would advise him on setting
diocesan policy, while local decisions
would be made by local boards.
The ad hoc board is a temporary
structure, to serve until a diocesan
synod establishes a more permanent
system of governance, said the bishop.
The overall diocesan school struc-
ture, as presented by the bishop, laid
out in graphic form the various relation-
ships and responsibilities among
diocesan, parish and interparochial
leaders, staff and boards. The bishop
used a chart displayed by an overhead
projector to plot the various connec-
tions between the bishop and pastors,
between the director of schools and
school principals, and between various
boards and the schools and parishes
they ,serve.
President Bush defends decision
to wage war in the Persian Gulf
By JERRY FILTEAU
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As religious
organizations geared up to handle Per-
Sian Gulf war refugees, Catholic leaders
expressed growing concern about the
conduct of the war and its effects on in-
nocent victims.
In response to some Catholic and
other church officials who argued that
going to war was unjustified, President
Bush defended his decisions and
Policies Jan. 28 in a speech to the Na-
tional Religious Broadcasters associa-
tion.
He took up the main principles of just
War theory in the Catholic theological
tradition and addressed them point by
Point.
To the main argument of many
critics, that warfare was not yet a last
re " "
sort, he answered that extraordinary
diplomatic efforts" to reach a,peaceful
Solution had been exhausted.
t "Secretary of State Jim Baker made an
extraordinary effort to achieve peace ....
And sadly, Saddam Hussein rejected
out of hand every overture made by the
United States and by other countries as
Well. He made this just war an in-
evitable war."
He also defended U.S. conduct in the
War, savin that des ite "wanton, bar-
E J O P
oa ..... 'J
|t: nc bombing ofcwflmn areas by Sad-
dam, the allied forces "are doing
] 'eVerything possible, believe me, to
avoid hurting the innocent."
Iraq's missile attacks on Israeli cities,
is massive oil spillage in the Persian
t.;ulf, its apparent mistreatment ot
Prisoners of war and its calls for inter-
rlational terrorism provoked moral con-
demnation.
, Pope John Paul II prayed in his Sun-
,: . Uay Angelus talk lan. 27 that "the
tragedy under way not be made still
more grave and inhuman with unaccep-
table actions" violating "natural
ethics" and "current international con-
ventions."
"The increasing notices about the
fate of prisoners of war and of the
danger of a recourse to the weapon of
terrorism are reasons for great
sadness," he said.
Alluding almost certainly to the huge
oil spill in the Persian Gulf that was ap-
parently unleashed by Iraqi forces in the
second week of war, the pope also ex-
pressed concern that "catastrophic en-
vironmental risks" had been added to
the war's "enormous" destruction and
loss of life.
While most U.S. Catholic bishops
reserved judgment on the morality of
President Bush's decision to go to war,
several publicly opposed it.
Among the sharpest criticisms were
those of two Alaska prelates, Arch-
bishop Francis T. Hurley of Anchorage
and Bishop Michael H. Kenny of
Juneau.
"I see our going into battle as an of-
fense against God and a crime against
humanity. This war is immoral," said
Bishop Kenny in an editorial Jan. 22 in
his diocesan newspaper, Inside
Passage.
"The thought of the dying and
devastation that have already happened
and are yet to be breaks my heart," he
added. "I condemn this war with all my
being."
Immediately after the war began
Archbishop Hurley announced that he
disagreed with the decision. In a col-
umn published Jan. 25 he said he was
"just not persuaded" that all alter-
natives to war had been exhausted or
that its costs in life, material resources
See PRESIDENT page 3
St Philip School,St, Philip, Students d teachers celebrated Ye!low
5to rmember the men and women serving in :
Msage Photo by MaryAnnHughes
Message subscription drive begins
with four full-circulation parishes
By PAUL LEINGANG
Message Editor
By the first week of February --
Catholic Press Month -- begins, four
parishes have already submitted their
lists of subscribers to the Message for
the 1991 circulation drive.
Parishioners of St. Martin Church,
Whitfield, and St. Mary Church,
Shoals, were the first -- their names
were sent in by the pastor of the two
parishes in the Washington Deanery,
Msgr. Carl Shetler. Both parishes are
"full circulation parishes" and pay the
lowest subscription rate in the diocese.
Also among the earliest reporting
See MESSA GE page I0
Page 2
-- March for Life
i i,
Page 6
-- Bulletin Board
II " • '" L I" I I
-- People
-- SchoolNotebook
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