Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, December 7, 1973 Page: 2 of 6
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Gulf Coast Register/South Texas Catholic and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries.
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Page 2
TEXAS GULF COAST CATHOLIC
Friday, December 7, 1973
r
Family Clinic
“Love Has Gone
Out Of Mu Life”
By James J. Rue, Ph.D.
1 have been married nine years and have
rive children. I find that the love has just gone
out of my marriage completely. This is not an
overnight happening but has been going on for
the past three years. I just do not love my
husband.
In the early years of our marriage 1 took
quite a lot of abuse from my husband, but I
always forgave him and tried to keep our
relationship intact. While 1 was busy taking
care of our ch ildren he was working. He never
wanted me to get out by myself. Either I went
out with him occasionally, or 1 stayed home.
I am very depressed now and find myself
relying on alcohol to settle my nerves. 1 don't
think I can go on living a lie. 1 would like to
take my children and try to rebuild my life
and Find happiness. What do you suggest?
Married love and companionship need to be
cultivated particularly in the years .of
childbearing when additional stresses are
placed on husband and wife in their parental
roles.
Five children in nine years constitutes a
formidable responsibility for both parents,
and each must assimilate a wide variety of
tasks and sacrifices involved in their rearing.
Otherwise, one parent feels overwhelmed as
he assumes a disproportionate share of
responsibilities.
You and your husband have undergone
additional complications in your relationship
because of the unsolved problem of abuse in
the early years. Although you do not explicitly
say so, it would appear that you have built up
considerable resentment toward your
husband. Since neither of you have been
totally honest and confronted each other with
your feelings, you and your husband have
become estranged.
CONTROLS INTERESTS
He attempts to control your behavior and
activities by dissuading you from any
legitimate recreational interests outside the
home. And you in turn retaliate by your
declaration that you no longer love your
husband. Moreoever, your dependence on
alcohol a^ a source of consolation indicates
that you need someone, primarily your
husband, to lean on for emotional succor.
Without being aware of it, you and your
husband are mobilizing your energies to
antagonize the other rather than to seek ways
to cooperate for the overall benefit you would
j realize in your relationship as husband and
aggMHjwiwnis.
When there is sufficient good will to
redirect a relationship, then the husband or
wife, whoever is willing to take the initiative,
should proceed to mend the scars that have
weakened the marriage.
Because you are sensitive to the lack of
marital love, it is recommended that you
proceed along a positive course of action to
regain the warmth and understanding vital to
a happy marriage.
What can you do considering your feelings
of depression and declaration of a loss of love
for your husband?
You may find that if you approach your
husband at an appropriate time when he is
rested and in good spirits that he, too, may be
eager to reveal his innermost feelings. He
may be as desirous as you are of
rediscovering the love and warmth you once
felt for each other.
MAKE PLANS
If your husband is agreeable, you can work
out a plan of responsibilities and activities
which will enable you to comprehend the
needs and goals of the other as an individual
and as part of a marital team.
Practically speaking, this means that one
Friday evening your husband may wish to go
bowling with the men from his office or play
poker with them for recreation while you stay
home with the children.
On an alternate and mutually agreed upon
evening, you may pursue some hobby or
activity independent of your husband while he
maintains supervision of the children.
At least one evening a month should be set
aside so that the two of you can share some
social event or recreation together as
husband and wife. In this way a mutually
satisfying evening will stimulate both of you
to seek other ways of pleasing each of you. A
sustaining sexual relationship, with an honest
discussion of problems, will be a decisive
contribution to rebuilding your marriage.
Your attitudes toward each other will
change significantly if you make an effort to
minimize the areas of tension and
misunderstanding that exist and concentrate
instead on areas of agreement.
You will find that in the long range
perspective it is easier to rebuild a marriage
than to shatter seven lives and begin again
without a husband and father unless, of
course, your husband is adamant and does not
wish to cooperate. In such an event
professional counseling would assist you
through a difficult life transition? '
Perhaps we shall have to relearn the lesson of history
that the road to true social reform and human happiness
is also the road to a return to God.
- SOCIAL JUSTICE Statement
Letters to the Editor...
Dear Editor:
In reference to your November 23rd, 1973
issueofthe Texas Gulf Coast Register (sic), I
could not help notice the extensive coverage
of Fr. Lawrence White’s appointment as
Diocesan Vocational Director and the
enumeration of his many, many other duties
and responsibilities, with photograph and all!
However, you failed to mention that Fr.
Louis Joseph was also appointed on the same
date as the Assistant Vocational Director. In
the past, the Vocational Director and his
assistant have worked as a team, with neither
one “lording” it over the other.
I do think that if your newspaper had not
wasted so much space on reminding your
readers again ad nauseam of Fr. White’s
many other duties and responsibilities, you
would have found the space to give Fr. Joseph
an unsought but much deserved by-line.
Rev. Domingo de Llano
Human Development: A Boon to the Poor”
which described the development of the Casa
de Manana Apartments. Your notation
suggests that the project was initiated,
financed, and directed by the Corpus Christi
Economic Development Corporation (CC-
EDC). This is not true.
This project was initiated and is being
constructed under the direction of the Casa de
Manana Home Builders & Developers. Carlos
Nieto and Roosevelt Martinez are the owners
and genera] contrctors. Carlos Nieto, as
superintendent, has supervised all the
construction and manpower involved in the
project.
This contract was issued by the Federal
Housing Administration to tKe Casa de
Manana Home Builders, thus becoming the
first minority contractors to develop such a
large housing project. So how in the world did
you ever conceive that CCEDC had instigated
such a project?
Sincerely,
Ms. Guadalupe Nieto
We sincerely regret the oversight regarding
Father Louis Joseph’s appointment as
assistant vocation director.
Dear Editor:
I recently ran across a £hoto layout in your
(Vol. IX No. 26) November 2.1973 issue of the
Gulf Coast Register udder “Campaign for
The article in question referred to the
Campaign for Human Development’s "boon
to the poor", CCEDC was the recipient of the
largest grant to date in our area. Casa tit,
Manana has been one of CCEDC’s many
beneficiaries. We could have shown photos of
other projects; we selected Casa de Manana
thinking the publicity would be beneficial to
this very worthwhile project.
r
texas gulf coast
CATHOLIC
'■•iiiiishot) wrekiY, except the Iasi week of December ana the last week of July.
Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Corpus Christi
President.........................Moot Rev. Thomas J. Drury, D. D.
Editor end Business Manager.................Father Raymond Pena
Circulation Manager...............................Mrs. Irene Doyle
Advertising Manager............ ..................Mrs. Alice Price
Address all communications to:
TEXAS GULF COAST CATHOLIC
I*. O. Box 2584. Corpus Christi, Texas 78403
Telephone - 882-6191 Ext. 34
Price: $4.00 per year
Entered as Second Class Matter United States Post Office
Corpus Christi, Texas
EDITORIALS
A Grave Disservice
Newsweek has done itself as grave a
disservice this week as it has done to the
American priesthood.
A priest by definition and by vocation is
vulnerable and people who take cheap shots
at them individually or collectively deserve
our pity.
In its piece on priests who date, the
magazine declares that “thousands of U. S.
Catholic priests are experimenting with what
they call the third way’ - a priestly life style
that includes close personal relationships
with women, leading sometimes to sex, but
seldom to marriage.”
The piece appears credible since it quotes
Father Eugene Kennedy, the author of an
extensive psychological study on the
American priesthood. Father Kennedy has
written to Newsweek to protest the
sensationalism of the article and to suggest
that the article “got out of hand" in focusing
attention on isolated cases of obvious
immaturity on the part of priests.
Of course, there are priests who are
immature and priests who sin and there will
be until they ordain angels, but the
impression that this is becoming general
practice flies in the face of all available
evidence and common sense.
Just recen'Iy, a study of doctors indicated
that a deplorable percentage said they had
sex with patients. One can just see an earnest
editor scratching his head and saying, “Could
this be true of other professional people?"
It won’t be long before someone surveys the
legal profession, if it hasn’t already been
done. And nurses, and teachers, and
bookkeepers, and editors, and maybe you.
As Father Kennedy points out, immaturity
is a common problem for American men.
Ordination or marriage — or non -
marriage — can’t always solve it. It takes
grace — divine grace — and that doesn’t
necessarily come in a horizontal position.
Phyllis McGiniey has written a wonderful,
warm and understanding book about the
human relationships among some ery strong
individuals who became saints. It’s called •
“Saint-Watching" and it tells about how St.
Francis de Sales helped St. Jane Chantal and
how St. Francis of Assisi found strength and
wisdom in St Clare.
Maybe it’s old fashioned to talk about saints
and saintliness but enough of us have been
privileged to know saints in our own day and
even in our own family, so that this sleazy
kind of journalism leaves us sick to our
stomach.
For the cynics in the profession, the
News wee!: piece is the kind of story that gets
exhumed when circulation is dipping.
(The Vermont Catholic Tribune)
The Spirit in Action
Church and Culture—Interdependent
Hie Church, taking into consideration the
many links between the message of salvation
and human culture, has throughout the ages,
followed the pattern laid down by God in
revealing himself in time to his people by
speaking through his Incarnate Son according
to. the culture of different ages. Again the
Church has also used in her proclamation of
the Good News the current modes of culture
proper to all nations. Thus, the Christian
religion became greatly influenced by the
cultural environment in its expressions and
vital forms. For “at the same time the Church
sent to all peoples of every time and place is
not bound exclusively and indissolubly to any
race or nation, nor to any particular way of
life or any customary pattern of living,
ancient or recent. Faithful to her own
tradition and at the same time conscious of
her universl mission, she can enter into
communion with various cultural modes, to
her own enrichment and theirs too” (Past.
Const., art. 58). This stands to say that no one
can play down the great influence of the
Church on the various cultures. Since genuine
religion, as propounded by the Church, is life
and deals with the life and culture of fallen
man, and consequently treats of the
wholeness of human life in the perspective of
salvation, religion — and particularly the
gospel — must always be preached in the
language and within the cultural framework
of man. Culture indeed furnishes the tools and
the meaningful expressions for the preaching
of the gospel. In this way, the gospel can be
the “salt of the earth” ever more. It keeps
alive man in the pursuit of his goal, it makes
him honorable by the recognition of his own
personal dignity and of that of others; it
affords him to be healthy for a long time
during his life and sensitive to all cultural
changes, thereby making him aware of his
need of renewal. For, only the uncultured
man blocks himself to change, or as the
priest-psychiatrist, Marc Oraison, loves to
put it, “only idiots never change.”
MORAL FORCE OF THE GOSPEL
Due to its spiritual and moral force, the
gospel is infinitely more than a means in the
hands of the Church for promoting human
culture; nevertheless, it makes a distinct
contribution to human culture. From this, one
cannot conclude that the Church lends herself
to be a more superstructure of any particular
culture. She uses and promotes culture as a
vital exprssion of human existence as man
expresses his total vocation in the whole of
life. Actually, if we attend to the comparative
culture and to the sociology of religion, we
find that the Church is always ready to
capitalize on the present opportunities of
culture. In fact, the Church aware that before
she can improve a culture and take
By Fr. Ignatius P. Chetcuti
advantage of its values, she must know man
as well as how culture may influence his
affective life in his whole approach to truth
and love. It is also the conviction of the
Church that one cannot arrive at the
knowledge of man without knowing his
cultural background. Finally, it is almost
impossible to expect the conversion of the
individual person and of groups without
taking into proper consideration the
necessary transformation of culture.
Hence, the Church would have no mission to
promote a perfect culture unless she based
that mission in the preaching of the gospel,
which cannot neglect all cultural questions,
such as the wholeness of man, his dignity as a
person, his development, and above all, the
development of his capacity to understand
and to want what is honest, just and true, and
to reciprocate love fully. In view of the
tremendous impact of man’s cultural
environment, the Church cannot preach love
without insisting on responsibility for the
improvement of human culture.
The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways’
Footnotes:
Pope *aul Speaks Out On the Eucharist
By Father Lawrence E. White
• —>
■: *
In reading over the November issue of
L’Osservatore Romano, I came across an
article concerning the recent decree of the
Holy Father regarding “Holy Communion
and Devotion to the Eucharistic Mystery out-
side Mass.” Even though it was not the docu-
ment itself, I found the commentary most
interesting, and one that left me eagerly
waiting to get a copy in my hands, nierefore I
want to share my discovery with you for I am
sure that most of you do not receive
L’Osservatore Romano.
Remember that the following is only a
summary of the recent document.
“Hie present document of the Sacred
Congregation for Divine Worship dated 21
June 1973 and entitled De Dacra Communione
et de Cultu Mysterii Eucharistic! extra
Missam, contains norms and liturgical texts
for Holy Communion and for devotion to the
Eucharistic Mystery outside Mass.
“This matter was previously regulated by
the Roman Ritual, the typical editions of
which were issued from 1614 until 1952.
“The new document represents a revision
of all the previous Eucharistic rites, a
revision which has been based on texts
published in the last ten years. The document
derives from these texts a synthesis
concerning devotion to the Eucharist, and
outlines a number of rites in harmony with
the liturgy as brought up to date according to
the norms and principles of the Second
Vatican Council.
“The above-mentioned sources include, as
well as the teaching of Vatican II on the
Eucharist, the Encyclical Letter Mysterium
Fidei of Paul VI (1965) and the Instruction
Eucharist icum Mysterium of 1967. These
documents are mentioned and quoted at
length in the Praenotanda, which, according
to the practice of the Sacred Congregation for
Divine Worship, constitute the basic
introduction to every document.”
COMMUNION OUTSIDE MASS
“Since sacramental Communion is the
climax of participation in the Mass, the
document emphasizes that there should be a
legitimate impediment preventing atten-
dance of Mass itself. In fact one cannot speak
of Communion, or of devotion to the
Eucharist, without relating them to the Mass. ^ <9
Instruction given by pastors must follow the
outline of the rite and emphasize this unity
between liturgy of the Mass and Communion.
“There are also some practical details
condoning the time and place of Communion,
the vestments to be worn by the minister, and
the precautions to be taken in order that the
reverence due to the Blessed Sacrament may
be always ensured.
“The length of the Eucharistic fast is one j
hour. However, for the sick and the elderly j
and those looking after them, the period of j
fasting is reduced to about a quarter of an -
hour. \
“The rite comprises: a penitential act, t
similar to that at the beginning of Mas, a §|
liturgy of the Word, the saying of the Lord’s J
Prayer, the sign of peace and, after \
Communion, a prayer and the final blessing.”
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Pena, Raymond. Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, December 7, 1973, newspaper, December 7, 1973; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth835442/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .