The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
--- Perspective--
Connecting our public lives to our religious p
"They broke the cross into
pieces and put them back into the
box," said the woman. My wife and !
I had just met the woman and her
husband, and we were exchanging
stories about where we had lived
and some of the experiences we had
had.
She was describing what hap-
pened when she and her husband
and children moved to a country in
the Middle East.
The incident she reported took
place as their luggage was in-
spected at the border. The cross
had been a present from the par-
ents to their son, to mark a special occasion.
The luggage inspector deliberately took the
cross from its protective package and broke it into
two pieces, and then returned it to its packaging, she
said, "so that we would know what had been done."
A sign of Christianity was not permitted in that
country. The inspector wanted to make sure that the
new arrivals became aware of that fact. It would not
By PAUL R.
LEINGANG
EDITOR
have been enough to confiscate the
cross -- it had to be broken.
Once in the country, they lived
an unusual Catholic life -- at least,
unusual by our standards and expe-
rience. Their priest had a full time
job and celebrated with them, when
he could, in secret. When he could
not join the small community of
Catholics, one of the lay persons led
the group in a Scripture service.
The children were instructed to
call the priest by his first name. If
they were to meet in a store or on
the street, the priest's activity could
not be accidentally revealed by
someone calling him "Father."
The family's story has been in my thoughts
and reflections, and it leads me to wonder and to
suppose, and to think such thoughts as "What if..."
and "How would I have reacted?"
First, I have to feel thankful for the free ex-
pression of religion in our own country. At times,
however, it seems that some people are seeking to
protect us from religion instead of protecting
freedom to practice it.
Second, I have to wonder how our own
would fare under a repressive system.
faith be stronger if it were more difficult to
it? Is it too easy for us to say, "I'm a
Third, I wonder who among us is
Washington Letter
tel
forward in a leadership position. If the
gathers to pray, to work, or to have fun -- will
one step forward to preside? When we work,
seems to be no lack of leadership. When we ....
for fun, there seems to be no shyness. But
pray, leaders seem more reluctant to step
-- as if embarrassed or uncertain.
It is easy for me to say that there should
distinction between our public lives a
practices. It is easy for me to say that
beliefs must govern our business practices.
penalty for making such statements.
Having heard the story of the
the Middle East, I look forward to a new
ing when I read the Acts of the Apostles. In
ways, we are all "early.Christians."
New tactics take pro-life report to the courts, into
By NANCY FRAZIER O'BRIEN
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) --
Nearly 21 years after the U.S.
Supreme Court removed most
state restrictions on abortion,
the pro-life community is try-
ing some new tactics to keep
down the number of abortions
here and abroad.
For Rep. Christopher H.
Smith, R-N.J., the strategy is a
lawsuit against the U.S.
Agency for International De-
velopment, accusing the
agency of violating federal law
by giving funds to the United
Nations Population Fund de-
spite its support for forced
abortions and sterilizations in
China.
For a new project called Real
Choices, the tactic is dialogue
with women who have had
abortions, with those who help
women through crisis pregnan-
cies and even with those who
help them have abortions.
And for the National Council
of Catholic Women, the latest
idea is a woman-to-woman pro-
gram that matches experi-
enced mothers with pregnant
women to help ease the
stresses of pregnancy and as-
sure the baby a healthy start
in life.
Smith, co-chairman of the
Hotse Pro-Life Caucus, joined
with Chinese nationals Tong
Wai Zhang and Zhen Hue Guo
Nov. 9 in suing AID in U.S.
District Court for the District
of Columbia.
Smith said the agency vio-
lated the Kemp-Inouye law
which bans U.S. funding of
=any organization or program
which, as determined by the
president of the United States,
supports or participates in the
mangement of a program of
coercive abortion or involun-
tary sterilization."
The agency, which had not
given money to the U.N. popu-
lation group since 1985, gave it
$14.5 million in fiscal 1993
after President Clinton said
none of the money should go to
China. Another $50 million is
budgeted for fiscal 1994.
"The Clinton administra-
tion's action in this instance
trivializes the nightmare of
forced abortion and involun-
tary sterilization in China,"
Smith said. "It whitewashes
the U.N. Population Fund's
complicity in these heinous
crimes."
Nancy O'Brien, vice presi-
dent for public relations of
Feminists for Life, joined
Smith at the press conference
announcing the lawsuit, and
said she was there "to defend
the lives of women who live
half a world away."
"My so-called feminist sis-
ters ... talk about defending
the reproductive rights of
women," she added. "And yet,
when a government uses force
to take away the right of a
woman to have a child, my so-
called feminist sisters fade into
the woodwork."
Another official of Feminists
for Life, vice president Freder-
ica Mathewes-Green, was tak-
ing a different tack toward
women who support legal abor-
tion, as director of the Real
Choices project.
Kaitlyn's version of original sin
To the editor:
The timing of Bishop Get-
telfinger's comments on disci-
pline was certainly coinciden-
tal and seemed to overwhelm
me.
Just two days before I read
it, my four-and-a-half-year-old
granddaughter, Kaitlyn
Woehler, gave her account of
Original Sin, in an early
evening phone conversation
with me.
At the start of the Bishop's
article in the Message on
Sept. 24, I thought, "Oh, oh,
someone should refresh his
memoryab6tit:Adam and Eve
and Original Sin." Then I read
on and was somewhat relieved
to find that he hadn't forgot-
ten, after all.
Just the same, I would like
to share Kaitlyn's version. Her
vocabulary was amazing.
"Adams and Eve lived in the
Garden of Eden. They had no
discipline. The devil visited
them disguised as a snake. He
promised them if they would
eat the fruit they would be as
good as God. So they ate the
fruit."
I said, "That is when they
ate the apple, right Kaitlyn?"
She said, "No, Granny, it
was a peach. This was a peach
tree. They had to leave the gar-
den."
See what happens when you
have no discipline.
To me, this was pleasant en-
tertainment.and sent me to
bed with a smile on my face
and a whole lot of gratefulness
in my heart for Kaitlyn and for
all of our grand and great-
grandchildren. We do not have
to rely upon the late night
movies for entertainment.
Cleo Zirkelbach
Evansville
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. Getteffinger
Emr ............................................ Paul Leingang
Pmctn Manager ........................... Phil er
Cirlaon ................................... Amy Housn'l
Advesing .................................... Paul Newland
Stafff wnler ............................ Maly Ann Hughes
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C 1993 Press o Evansvi
"As a pro-life advocate who
was once pro-choice, I am
heartened by a shift in recent
years in both movements," she
wrote in a Nov. 3 letter to Kate
Michelman, president of the
National Abortion.Rights Ac-
tion League.
"As both sides turn away
from intractable legal battles,
we discover that pregnancies
are not political tokens, but in-
timate realities borne in the
bodies of women for whom
abortion is usually a last, and
reluctant, choice."
In an effort to reduce the de-
mand for abortion, the Real
Choices project is making an
"outreach to the pro-choice
community" in order to "help
make a little bit of peace and a
little bit of progress on the
thorny issue of abortion," Ms.
Mathewes-Green said at a
Nov. 10 press conference in
Washington. The aim of the di-
alogue is to find out what types
of assistance women need to
keep them from having abor-
tions.
As of Nov. 12, there had
been no response to her letter
to Ms. Michelman, nor to her
Nov. 8 letter asking support of
the project from President
Clinton and first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton.
The Real Choice
includes a
of those who run
sist women in
cies and face-to-face
women who
tions. Those dial(
small groups of
already taken
geles, Cleveland,
Washington and
in Phoenix, Orla
and Boston.
Among backers
is the National
Catholic Women,
ing its own
to Mothers, or
in the Northern
The program is
of the Resource
National
vent Infant
"Experience
programs seems t
that a c
gram of re
a parenting
fewer low
fewer reports of
more childhood
and an overall
child
ticle on the
written for the
Junior Leagues ]
Child Health
Bishop's sc
The following activities and events are
schedule of Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger.
