The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
You never know what you'll
fincl when you read statistics.
A report from the Bureau of
the Census is a good example. It's
the kind of report Dan Quayle
could have used when he was criti-
cized for his comments about Mur-
phy Brown.
Here is what it says, plain and
simple: "Children living with mar-
ried couples live in better condi-
tions."
The information released by
the U.S. Department of Commerce
Feb. 4 goes on to provide some de-
tails from the new report, which is
entitled Housing America's Children in 1991.
Children of married couples generally live in
better housing than children who live with other
arrangements, according to the Bureau of the Cen-
sus.
What is "better" housing? The report deals only
with material things, not loving family relationships
or such qualities as faith or hope. "Better" housing
-- Perspective---
Census confirms value of marriage, chil ,,,
To be specific, the census report noted
__. Washington Letter
PAUL R.
INGANG
EDITOR
according to the report means ma-
terialistically better.
Children of married couples
live in affordable houses that were
in good physical shape. Children
living in other settings tended to
live in older, smaller, rental units
that had more physical and struc-
tural problems.
Who are these households
with children? Thirty-five percent
of white households include chil-
dren, 47 percent of African-Ameri-
can households have children and
55 percent of Hispanic-origin
households included children•
Most African-American families lived in cen-
tral cities. Many Hispanic families lived in central
cities or metropolitan areas. Half of the white
families lived in the suburbs. That may not be
surprising, you say, but here's a fact from the sur-
vey data that should make everyone take notice:
Households with children feel good about where
they live.
majority of households with children,
their living arrangements, held
• S"
their homes and neighborhood • :.
Among the facts of good news is an
fact. For a substantial number of
children, housing has become an
modity. Approximately 2.4 million
incomes below the poverty levels spent:
of their incomes for housing. :
What should we conclude from
figures? That stable family life -- even
any mention of faith or morals -- is
dren than any other arrangement, in 0ur:
world. That's what the facts seem to saY
benefits of having married parents.
And what about the parents?
say that having children improves
their lives -- since households with
ally have a favorable opinion of their
neighborhoods.
If stable marriages and c
tive influences on society, why are
preach about the Christian values
i!::i
Judicial activism: Judges weigh beliefs against the laW
By PATRICIA ZAPOR
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) --
The most responsible way to
serve as a civil court judge may
be to ignore most influences in
one's life except those related
directly to interpreting the
law.
But Judge James L. Buckley
of the U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
peals for the District of Colum-
bia believes when religious be-
liefs lead a jurist to a different
moral conclusion than does
legal interpretation, a judge
should be prepared to drop out
of the case rather than jeopar-
dize the requirements of the of-
rice.
As courts are increasingly
involved in deciding about
abortion, where public law and
church teaching are at odds,
Catholic judges throughout the
country each day face the pos-
sibility of being assigned a case
in which their moral standards
conflict with what their jobs re-
quire of them.
In Massachusetts, for exam-
ple, many Catholic judges de-
cline to take cases in which
they might be compelled to au-
thorize abortions for minors
who fear having to tell their
parents.
i i ill ii
The MESSAGE
4200 N. Kentucky Ave.
Evansville, IN 47720-0169
Weekly newspaper of the
Diocese of Evansville
Published weekly except last week in
December by the Catholic Press of
Evansville
Publisher .............. Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger
Editor ............................................ Paul Lengang
Production Manager ........................... Phil Beget
Circulation ................................... Amy Housman
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Stafft wnter ............................ Mary Ann Hughes
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Cq3yrkjtt 4994 C.nhdJc P E'am,.lle
In a Jan. 26 speech at The
Catholic University of America
in Washington, Buckley, a
Catholic and former U.S. sena-
tor from New York, described
the role of his religious beliefs
as significantly different now
that he's on the federal bench•
"When I took my oath of of-
fice as a federal judge, I
solemnly swore that I would
'administer justice ... according
to the best of my abilities and
understanding, agreeably to
the Constitution and laws of
the United States,"' he told a
forum sponsored by the univer-
sity's Catholic Lawyers Guild.
Unlike his time in elective pub-
lic office, service in the judi-
ciary means sometimes "the
justice I am sworn to adminis-
ter is not justice as I might see
it."
Cases before the Court of
Appeals present significantly
fewer personal moral chal-
lenges than what faces lower
court judges, Buckley acknowl-
edged.
Boston attorney Joseph I.
Mulligan estimated that as
many as 20 percent of Superior
Court judges in Massachusetts
decline to take cases of minors
seeking a judicial bypass to get
around the requirement they
notify a parent before having
an abortion.
Mulligan, a member of the
Catholic Lawyers Guild, said
one result )f so many judges
refusing such cases is that
those jurists who do hear them
are seen as likely to approve
any waiver requests.
In eight years on the appeals
court, Buckley said, he has yet
to be given a case in which his
sense of morality conflicted
with legality.
"Should I ever be asked to
hear a case in which the appli-
cation of the law might result
in my material complicity in an
immoral act, I would have to
examine my conscience and, if
it so dictated, recuse myself,"
he explained. "What I may not
do is bend the law to suit my
conscience•"
Texas state Judge Alonzo T.
Rodriguez, a permanent dea-
con in the Corpus Christi Dio-
cese, doesn't have to consider
approving abortions for minors
the state has no such
parental notice law -- but he
occasionally does preside over
cases in which a conviction
might bring the death penalty.
Capital punishment cases in
Texas are fairly narrowly de-
fined, however, requiring con-
viction by a jury and strictly
setting out criteria jurors fol-
low in recommending a sen-
tence.
If the law left the decision
up to judges, Rodriguez said,
he would "have to disqualify
myself every time."
In his talk at Catholic Uni-
versity, Buckley differentiated
between the role religious be-
liefs may play in the lives of
public servants who are elected
and those who are appointed.
Public servants who are
elected or are otherwise ac-
countable to voters, such as po-
litical appointees who serve at
L:?:: ¸ ! / :!<:? : /; !i; ) i :: •
A self-evident truth: Abortion is not healthcare
To the editor:
Our Declaration of Indepen-
dence says, "We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Cre-
ator with certain inalienable
rights, that among these are
life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness."
Would you look up in a dic-
tionary (I did) the words, "en-
dowed," "certain" and "inalien-
able?"
Then please call or write
your three Congress persons
and let them know that you do
not want abortion to be part of
any health care program.
Abortion is not health care.
(This too is self-evident!)
Mary Rita Crowe
Rochester, N.Y.
the pleasure of the president,
should be comfortable relying
on their religious convictions
in decision-making, said Buck-
ley.
"It is, quite simply, fatuous
to suppose that a public official
can check the religious compo-
nents of his convictions at the
door before entering the coun-
cil chambers of government,"
he said. "It follows, then, that
under our constitutional
arrangements, a Catholic pres-
ident and Catholic members of
Congress need never apologize
for the fact that their recom-
mendations or votes may re-
flect their religious beliefs."
North Carolina District
Court Judge William Con-
stangy learned the hard way
that the policy of church-state
separation clearly applies to
conduct in a courtroom.
Constangy, a Catholic,
opened daily courtroom pro-
ceedings by reciting a prayer
aloud. In June 1993 the U.S.
Supreme Court refused to re-
view a federal appeals court
rulirng of October 1991 that
said Constangy violated the
separation of church and state•
,t the time
the court's
solutely the
the
"Every ds
court
are dr
message; e
message
sexual
sity," said
time that we
to change
Buckley
University
gious p
judge's beliefs
ultimately
has the final
For
necessarily
his role as a
from his
ample, he
that parents
tenced in his
their children
moral
And "in
for spiritual
"Sometimes
cisions that
they come fro1
only explanatior'
Bishop's sc
The following activities and events are
schedule of Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger"
Confirmation at St. Benedict
Saturday, Feb. 5, 4:30 p.m. CST.
Confirmation at Holy
ville, Sunday, Feb. 6, ,
Catholic Schools Sing, St,
Evansville, Sunday Feb. 6, 3 p.m.
Catholic
fast, Sarto Retreat House,
CST.
Confirmation at Resurrection
ville, Wednesday, Feb. 9; 7 p.m. CST.
Installation of Bishop
Ill., Thursday, Feb. 10.
Ministry Appreciation Mass
John Church
Supper with Pre-sems,
Feb. 13, 4:45 p.m. CST.
Joint meeting of Priests'
Council, budget planning, TuesdaY,
