South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. [18], No. [27], Ed. 1 Friday, November 26, 1982 Page: 4 of 12
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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Opinion
Fat* 4
p
For the
community
By Ken Pesck
Two Sundays ago I had an unusual experience. Walking into
Corpus Christi’s St. Patrick’s Church at 9:58, 1 noticed there
was almost no space left. My Fiancee and I could hardly Find
two spaces together. As Mass began, I observed that 30 to +0
people had to sit in the choir loft. Why was this Mass so crowd-
ed? As Mass continued I began to understand.
This celebration at 10 a.m. was different from other
parish liturgies. People enjoyed being there. They participated
with the spoken responses as well as by singing, it was the first
time I felt a sense of community in a Corpus Chrisfi parish.
There seems to be two causes for this — one, many in the
congregation had children in the C.C.D. program. But the
main reason seems to be the service itself. When Msgr. Patrick
Higgins delivered his homily, he applied the scripture to the
everyday lives of the people Many priests would have been
Guest Column
tempted to demonstrate their grasp of scripture, leaving us
“pew” Catholics bored to tears, but not this rnan The music
was also tremendous. Because of the leadership of Mr. Paul
David Laudadio, more than one-half of the congregation sang —
quite a remarkable feat for a iniddle-ciass, Catholic parish. I
questioned him about his success. He replied that his goal and
challenge was, “to convey the Mass to all present ” He ac-
complished this by using a variety of hymns, old and new. I also
mentioned that it appeared as if Paul David’s role was to lead
the singing, not perform. To this comment he replied that he
should not be the main focus of the liturgy, but rather the
catalyst for participation.
In my opinion, Paul David and Msgr. Higgins understand
the role of the liturgy. It should be an artion beginning with the
community for the benefit of the community. It cannot be a
stage for the performances of the priest or music ministers, as
these actions tear down instead of build up the body of Christ.
Ken Pesek is a teacher and liturgist at Incarnate Word
Academy in Corpus Christi.
The Human Side
The great harvest
By Father Eugene Hemrick
N€ News Service
I wonder how many people know tha» in the
mid- 1930s the number of U.S. farms peaked at
some 6.8 million. Today there are fewer than 3
million. We are losing about 30,000 farms each
year.
By 1979, the number of people living on farms
had dropped 76 percent, from 32 million to
about 8 million. It is not known how many
families these people represent. But it is clear that
in the middle years of the 20th century the family
farm has been weakened.
Some years ago National Geographic
magazine published an issue in which it por-
trayed giant farm combines capable of harvesting
acres of crops in one big sweep. Pages on
futuristic corporate farming suggested that farm-
ing would become a push-button, one-person
operation. The familiar father, mother and child
of the traditional farm were nowhere be seen.
National Geographic’s picture of modern far-
ming is seen by many as the sure hope of our
ever-increasing population.
However, anxiety over the demise of the fami-
ly farm was strongly expressed in a 1979 state-
ment of the U.S Catholic Conference committee
on Social Development and World Peace. Begin-
ning with a social justice principle, »♦ '"as said
that the greater the number of persons wno own
their own land, the better for society. In effect,
that meant the greater the number of farmers
who have their own farms, the greater the
number of people with a personal relationship to
the land. And that relationship is precious.
Dependent for their livelihood on forces of
nature they cannot control, farmers have their
hand on the pulse of the created world. They feel
the rhythms running through all of life.
Anyone who has raised a garden knows the
personal pride that comes from cultivating food
and how the effort deepens one’s understanding
of nature’s laws and of God.
In an industrialized, computerized and, unfor-
tunately, often depersonalized world, farmers are
a realistic reminder of the value and greatness of
nature.
The document of Vatican Council II known as
the Constitution on the Church in the Modern
World urged us not to forget the precious
qualities of the family farm lest the farm fall into
the hands of impersonal corporate owners so con-
cerned about production and profit that the rich
value of humanity's personal relationship to the
earth is overlooked. It takes little study and
reflection to realize how easily good intentions
about the big push-button farm could succumb to
forces of greed, lust for power and hoarding.
May I make a suggestion? Would it be possible
for adult education programs to investigate some
of the most recent church documents on farm-
ing? Included would be the text I’ve already
mentioned by the USCC committee, the 1980
statement of a large number of Midwestern
bishops titled “Strangers and Guests,” and the
1975 statement by the bishops of Appalachia,
“This Land is Home to Me.”
The concern taken to better understand our
farmers might just make the difference in how
many farm families remain on the land in the
future, contribute g not only food for the body,
but also for the soul
Father Hemrick is director of research for
the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
(Copyright (c) 1982 by Nc News Service)
Capital Comments
Reflections on the November election
By Richard Daly
Without sounding too partisan, I
think it’s fair to say that a number of
good things happened last November 2.
For one thing, it appears that in
Texas at least the amount of money a
candidate is able to spend on a < ampaign
for public office is not the most impor-
tant factor in determining the outcome.
Governor Bill Clements spent at least
$12 million dollars and had the benefit
of incumbency, and was still upset by
Attorney General Mark White. Perhaps
even some of the candidates who are
capable of raising large amounts of
money will begin to consider the ad-
visability of campaign spending caps.
The second delightful outcome was
the results of the voting on Proposition
Two which will enable the Legislature,
if it wishes, to increase the amount of
state aid to dependent children. The
voters of Texas by an overwhelming
margin agreed lo let the Legislature
spend up to one per cent of the total state
budget for needy children. Most
observers agree that it was primarily the
support of this proposition by almost all
ci the church community in Texas,
especially the Christian Life Commis-
s'on of the Baptist General Convention,
e Texas Conference of Churches, and
the Texas Catholic Conference, which
insured its passage.
A very interesting sidelight on the
Proposition Two vote was the roll that
Lt. Governor Bill Hobby played in its
passage. Especially in the closing days of
his campaign Hobby often abandoned
his prepared remarks to launch into a
plea for the passage of Proposition Two,
Even though he knew he was well ahead
in the polls, it was still a very admirable
thing tor the Lt. Governor to do since he
already had the support of those pushing
for Proposition Two.
Another heartening outcome on elec-
tion day was Jim Hightower’s victory in
the Agriculture Commissioner’s race.
For those who are concerned about the
future of the family farm in Texas as
well as the plight of migrant and
seasonal farmworkers, Hightower’s
election is the very best of news. If
anyone in state government can bring
family farmers and farmworkers
together to work for mutually beneficial
goals it is Jim Hightower.
One big question that is raised by the
results of the November 2 elections is the
future of the two-party system in Texas.
Clements' loss, coupled with some
significant defeats of Republicans in the
State House and Senate have probably
sidetracked, for the time being at least,
the move of conservative Democrats in-
to the Republican party. Many conser-
vative Democrats have been seriously
considering such moves and a couple,
notably Attorney General candidate
Bill Meier and Congressional candidate
joe Wyatt, actually did it this year.
It is doubtful that any more conser-
vative Democrats will move in that
direction at least until after the 1984
elections.
And speaking of 1984, there certainly
is a lot of discussion about who will run
for the United States Senate seat that
will be up for grabs that year. The
Republican incumbent Senator John
Tower seems to be hedging on his deter-
mination to make the race. Former
Governor Dolph Briscoe has already
said he will probably run against Tower
or whomever the Republicans put up.
Some Democratic names that have sur-
faced as possible candidates are
Railroad Commissioner Buddy Temple
and Congressman Kent Hancc.
Some observers think that a natural
scenario would be for Dolph Briscoe to
be elected in 1984, serve until 1990, at
which time retiring Governor Mark
White (age 50) would be ready to
assume the Senate seat.
In speaking of Murk White, one has
to wonder if he might not prove to be an
attractive Vice Presidential candidate
sometime, although probably not in
1984. Perhaps that would be the year
that the Democrats might nominate the
junior Senator from Texas as Vice
President, the man who is probably
more responsible for Mark White’s elec-
tion than anyone else, Lloyd Bentsen.
Brother Richard Daly is Executive
Director of the Texas Catholic Con-
ference.
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Feist, Joe Michael. South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. [18], No. [27], Ed. 1 Friday, November 26, 1982, newspaper, November 26, 1982; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth840346/m1/4/?q=food+rule+for+unt+students: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .