Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 41, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 1972 Page: 2 of 6
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TEXAS GULF COAST CATHOLIC
Friday, Feb. 11, 1972
ooo
By Bernard Lyons
Commercial Uses
For Your Church?
Ideas for parish councils may come from
most anywhere- which only goes to prove the
wisdom of sharing responsibility in a com-
munity of concern.
Adman E. B. Weiss, writing in Advertising
Age, suggests that churches call in
management consultants, and that one of the
they do is to find commercial uses for empty
churches and the property they stand on
OPPORTUNITY
“To put it bluntly,” Weiss writes, “I think a
unique opportunity is emerging that could
bring some segments of marketing into a
mutually beneficial relationship involving
mutual social and economic benefits.
“Like our hospitals, the church has tended
to function with something less than required
efficiency, and (again like so many hospitals)
has tended to look askance at such strictly
commercial practices as management of
physical assets - not to mention financial
planning, budgeting, accounting.’’
Weiss believes this is a delicate topic.
“Some will insist that it raises the old
charge of money-changers in the temple. But
this is an age in which priests and ministers
and rabbis and nuns are challenging
traditions. They are challenging traditions for
religious, secular, social and economic
reasons.”
MONEY TROUBLES
“One explanation (there are many, of
course) for the sorry financial plight of the
church is the amazingly few hours each week
that the church edifice, as well as the land on
which it rests, is used,” says Weiss.
“True, the church edifice tends to bo used
for more hours than it was yean ego, but the
total still tends to be inadequate. Fun-
damentally, a major part of the church
building remains unused for most of the
week.”
Rising cokts make it comput^rfy,dis»erts<r.v
Weiss, that more of the church structure and
the land be used for income-producing ac-
tivities.
“It would have been incredible, only a year
ago,” says Weiss, “toexpect to see an article
in Barron’s, the financial journal, on a day
care center that is renting space in a chur-
ch!”
IDEAL FACILITIES
Barron’s quotes the head of that day care
center, “Our purpose irafre-scbod education,
and church facilities fe ideal for it There
they ait, empty and unused virtually all week
long.”
Weiss points out that hospitals have leased
part or all of their excess space to outside
businessmen. Hospitals now have gift shops
and cafeterias - which serve outsiders as well
as hospital personnel and visitors.
Railroads have leased their excess ter-
minal space in many cities.
The Guggenheim Museum on New York’s
Fifth Avenue has rented out its auditorium to
a theatrical group for a normal commercial
run.
The Museum of Modern Art, also in New
York, permits the use of its facilities by
corporations for board of directors’ meetings.
“Why use an art museum building for
commercial purposes?” asks Weiss.
“Because even well-endowed museums now
contend with economic problems. This
situation it currently as common
among museums as among churches.”
TIME TO EXAMINE
Admitting he has no idea where the concept
will wind up, Weiss says that it appears to him
that the church building and the ground on
which it ia located will be studied for socially
acceptable commercial uses.
“Moreover, this same examination will
take place in museums, libraries, and other
public and semi-public properties.’
EDITORIALS
Liturgical Dialogue
Preparation for Lent
>r
By Fr. J. Wm. Hennel
Lent is only one week away. It is not just a
season for “giving up,” but one of the most
important parts of the Church’s year. Far this
reason it is not too early to start getting ready
for it
The Second Vatican Council explains the
true meaning of Lent It says: “The Lenten
season has a twofold character: l) it recalls
baptism or prepares for it; 2) it stresses a
penitential spirit By these means Lent
readies the faithful for celebrating the
paschal mystery after a period of closer at-
tention to the Word of God and more ardent
prayer.
“In the liturgy itself and in liturgy-centered
instructions these baptismal and penitential
themes should be more pronounced. Hence:
“(a) Wider um is to be made of the bap-
tismal features proper to the Lenient liturgy;
some elements which belong to a now-lapsed
tradition may be restored.
“(b) The same approach holds for the
penitential dements. As regards instruction,
it is important to impress on the minds of the
faithful not only the social consequences of
sin, but also the fact that the real essence of
the virtue of penance ia hatred for sin as an
offense against God. The role of the Church in
penitential practices is not to be passed over,
and the people must be taught to pray for
sinners.
“During Lent penance should be not only
internal and individual, but also external and
social The practice of penance should be
fostered according to the possibilities of the
present day and of a given area as well as of
individual circumstances” (Const Sac. Lit,
109-110),
The penance of which the Council speaks is
not the almost casual act of contrition we are
accustomed to when wo go to confession, but
the “metanoia,” change of heart, which the
~ Nfw American'BHHe translate*-** “reform.” *
VritVa change. ii?JM^fr«eXk*^f -oar life, t
pointing all of "it in the direction God would
have It go.
The Liturgical Commission of the Ar-
chdiocese of Baltimore (320 Cathedral Street,
Baltimore, Maryland 21201) has published an
excellent suggestion for carrying out the
Council’s wishes in the booklet Repent and
Believe. It is a program for the last three
weeks of Lent, culminating in a communal
penance service on Wednesday of Holy Week.
Except for gathering enough priests on the
final night so that individual confessions will
not take too long, this program can probably
be used with good effect in most parishes.
Ave Maria Press (Notre Dame, Indiana
46556) also has brought out a booklet con-
taining useful suggestions. It is the Rev.
William A. Bauman’s Lent and the New Holy
Week. Although the greater part of the
booklet is concerned with Holy Week itself, it
contains valuable suggestions for the ob-
servance of all of Lent
Naturally, the devotion of the Stations of the
Cross should have an important place in our
celebration of Lent But since this whole
season is pointed toward the celebration of
Jesus’ resurrection triumph and our sharing
in the new and glorious life it won, the
Stations should be less a commiseration with
our Savior’s physical sufferings than an in-
spiration to make a proportionate effort to
share in his victory. Logically this devotion
should close with a Fifteenth Station, “Jesus
Rises from the Dead.”
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is an
ideal setting for this Fifteenth Station. In it
for a few brief moments we share in the
glorification which our Savior won by his
passion; we'hiring to earth his enthronement
by his Father because “he became obedient
unto death, even death on a cross.”
Celebrated in this manner, Lent can be
truly a time of “metanoia,” “repentance
which leads to the forgiveness of sin,” the
change of heart which produces the reform of
our life that points it in the direction Which
God wants it to take.
Fast and Abstinence
Ash Wednesday, February 16, and Good
Friday, March 30, are days of fast and ab-
stinence. The law of abstinence forbids the
use of meet, and the law of fasting allows only
one full meal a day, but does not prohibit
taking some food in the morning and evening.
The law of abstinence is binding on those
who have completed their 14th year of age.
Those who have completed their 2lst year and
up until the beginning of their 60th year are
bound by the law of fasting.
the Other Handm
Advent—In February?
by Dolores Curran
We do a lot of celebrating in our home, the
family paraliturgy kind of thing. We’ve been
doing it so long that it’s pretty natural to us
and we don’t wait for the big days anymore:
Advent, Ash Wednesday, and the baptismal
celebrations.
Lately, since our three-year-old has learned
to articulate and defend his place in the
family, we’ve been celebrating all sorts of
filings, a new sandbox, an old teddy bear, a
crumpled fender (never mind who did it), and
so on.
I’m getting a little uncomfortable about our
parental role in all this. Should we stifle Steve
when he says, “Let’s have Advent for the lost
football?” In February?
I should explain that he uses the word
“Advent” in place of family prayers. It all
started during file last Advent season when
each night one of us said, “Time for Advent.”
He picked up the word and now we have
advents for the stray kitty (they praying that
it will stay and I praying that it will move on-
Poor God can’t win), for the trash men, for
safe trips, and for the Cookie Monster. I asked
Steve the other night what advent means and
he replied, “It means candles and singing and
God stories aqd holding hands and things like
that,’
texas gulf coast
CATHOLIC
Pointed weekly, except me I Ml week ot December and the ImI week o« July.
Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Corpus Christ!
President ..................Most Rev. Thomas J. Drury, D.D.
Editor and Business Manager.........Father Raymond Pena
Associate Editor.....................Father Lawrence White
Circulation Manager......... .Mrs. Irene Doyle
Address alt communications to:
TEXAS GULF COAST CATHOLIC
P.O Box 2504, Corpus ChrtsB, Texas 70402 ||£p^|
Telephone - H2-61I1 Ext. 34 '**"?&*
Price: $4.00 per year
Entered as Second Class Matter United States Post Office
Corpus Christ!, Texas /
It wasn’t a bad definition so I let it pass,
particularly because these family
para liturgies mean a lot to a three-year-old.
Steve understands that they are special
events in which each of us participates and he
wants to participate as fully as his older
brother and sister.
We have always varied the formal during
Advent a no Lent to keep it from becoming a
formula and when ten-year-old Beth asked to
direct it one night for a change, we happily
agreed. She did a great job and the following
night six-year-old Mike asked to do it This
from the son whose primary Advent interest
up to then had been in seeing how far he could
blow the wax from the candles across the
dining room table when it was over. He had a
reverent if unusual ceremony.
Then Steve said, “My turn tomorrow.” The
Bishops’ Liturgy Commission would never
approve it but it will remain in our family
memory treasure book forever. Steve started
out by having us light all the candles. “No,
Steve,” we said. “It’s only the second week.
We can’t light all the candles.”
“Yep, we can,” he replied. “God needs to
see better.” We lit the candles.
Then we sang Gloria-just the word for
about three full minutes. It’s the only
Christmas song £teve knew that he took
advantage of it. Thai, he had us all hold hands
while he told a story about the three kings
caning to visit Jesus in a dune buggy.
“A dune buggy?” exclaimed Mike. We
started to laugh but one look at Steve’s face
told us he was hurt We listened to the rest of
his incredible tale with serious expressions,
daring not to look at each other.
The final portion of Steve’s Advent
ceremony was his handing each of us a crib
piece and having us take it for a walk around
the house. I drew a donkey. “They been in the
manger all day,” he explained. “They need to
getout and run a little.” We walked them and
then blew out the candles. (More wax and
more scolding.)
Lent isn’t too far off and I don’t know if I’m
up to it. Now that the kids have discovered
creativity in family prayer, I’m getting a
little nervous. They’re praying more and
enjoying it more. I didn’t count on that. I’m
beginning to fed as uncomfortable as a
bishop.
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ETERNAL LIFE RAFT
m
Truths Men Live By
Legalized Manslaughter
by Rev. John A. O’Brien, Ph.D.
Millions of families were shocked on the
night of January 15, the eve of the Super Bowl
game in New Orleans, when the ABC carried
the Frazier-Daniels heavyweight prize fight
on its national network. Champion Joe
Frazier, with a weight advantage of 25
pounds, belted his young challenger un-
mercifully from one corner of the ring to
another.
Five times he knocked Daniels to the
^canvas in the four rounds ianfil the one-sided:
contest was stopped in' the fourth, as Daniels
lay drooping over the lower strands of the
ropes, unable to move. It was a brutal
spectacle.
Even the crowd, hungry for the sight of
blood and knockdowns, was screaming to the
referee to stop the fight But with incredible
callousness he allowed it to continue until the
pathetic victim could no longer stand up.
Since 1900 more than 400 men have died as a
result of injuries received in the ring, while an
uncounted army of brain damaged punch-
drunk ex-boxers eke out an existence in a
shadow land. Emerging unscrathed, Frazier,
already a millionaire, received a guarantee of
$250,000 from Century Telesports Network,
promoters of the fight, while Daniels received
a $35,000 guarantee
A quarter of a million for less than 12
minutes of work in beating an opponent into
virtual insensibility. Wbr < a strange scale of
values we hold up to our youth!
Even more disturbing and distressing is the
carrying of the sordid and brutalizing
spectacle into millions of homes by the ABC
The Spirit In Action
network. This was the first time that a
heavyweight title fight was televised over a
national network since Muhammad All
knocked out Zara Folley oa March 22, 1987.
It is difficult to believe that the American
people want to have such cruel barbarous
and debasing exhibitions carried into their
homes. True, they need not tune them in. But
why should young people, or older ones far
that matter, be sutye^g. tp such temp-
tations." '
The nation has enacted’legislation to ex-
clude cigaret ads from the television screen.
Why should it not likewise exclude such
debasing and brutalizing spectacles as prize
fights?
Sports writer Jim Murray, a syndicated
columnist, recently described a TV narrator
who shouted the gory details of the merciless
dismemberment of a prize fighter named
Quarry.
“Quarry is bleeding from the nose!”
screamed the enthusiastic announcer. “He
can’t see out of his eye! His lip is split He’s a
punching bag!”
Commented Murray: “If there is a nobility
in prize fighting, it lies not with the crowd,
which is a collection of 16,000 sick jokes.
Boxing today is about as scientific as an
avalanche. You fight with your face. It’s for
people who would cackle at watching a sledge
hammer on the Venus de Milo.”
Reflecting the thought of the Holy See,
Osservatore Romano, the Vatican City daily,
characterizes prize fighting as a brutal sport
which “should be condemned.” In short, prize
fighting is legalized manslaughter.
Of Possible Realizations
by Fr. Ignatius P. Chetcutl
It would be rather ingenuous to believe that
in order to bring the good work to its desired
realization it is enough to train people to will
it; as a matter of fact, people, oftentimes, are
in the grip of certain trends in life that enable
them to orient themselves toward some
particular direction: contradictions,
doublecrossings, mergers and separations
frequently set in, thereby a good set of
possibilities may be offered. Furthermore, it
could also be foreseen that such instances will
not be the last either.
As it is vain to remake history by fixing as a
starting point sane unimportant event, so it is
necessary to acquire the sense of the possible
that emerges out of the amalgam of all the
data, such as natural resources, production
plants, manufactured goods, social poten-
tials; all these would explain the manifold
aspects and the relative flexibility which
otherwise would be proportionate to material
realities. Here the temptation to act on the
basis of social potentials and of the shifting
opinions is strong indeed; for, it is very easy
to impose simplistic ideas, myths - fa some
time at least. But modes do change fast
Therefore, it would be more feasible to act on
all levels in respect to reality, keeping in
mind their characteristics and flexibilities.
In any event, for sane reason or another,
all plans, even those that appear to be the
best cannot be carried out, and Christians too
are tempted to let themselves be driven
towards a kind of simplistic idealism that
they cannot figure out why opposition to what
they have set their hearts on could be
possible. Thereupon in the midst of such
conflicts the Christian has recourse to prayer,
which will be only answered if what he means
to undertake is In conformity with the will of
God, otherwise it is bound to become a magic
means only from which no good result will
ensue.
Hence, not all that is the fruit of pure
imagination is feasible, and not all that is
feasible is possible. The choice must
therefore lean towards what is possible,
without putting aside supernatural
possibilities. Consequently, it is of essential
importance fa the militant to acquire a sense
of possibility because without it, he would be
unable to set up the layout of a project, to find
a solution or to devise ways and means
whereby to accomplish it, and so everything
will be doomed to failure. It is a fact that an
idea seeps very slowly into reality, in-
stitutions evolve by stages, friends, even
those endowed with the best goodwill are
hard to become convinced at times, and the
most faithful collaborators may present
serious difficulties.
On the other hand, reality resists strongly
idealism, and be who possesses the sense of
realizing knows it well so much so that he
does not attempt to tackle anything reel
without feeling sure that he could modify it
freely as the need arises; he does not en-
courage the masses by impulses other than by
those he is certain that they will accept and
follow, without losing sight of the passions
and illusions of the masses themselves.
It is a rather painful task to conduct a
possible plan to completion without com-
mitting the fault of opportunism, without
trading your own influence or becoming liable
to injustice. However, a balanced sense of
justice should be maintained in all sincerity
and loyalty which are the qualities proper to
the Christian who is familiar with truth and
love.
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Pena, Raymond. Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 41, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 1972, newspaper, February 11, 1972; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth835859/m1/2/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .