Collected Works Online
Articles written for “The Wanderer”, a national Catholic weekly newspaper founded in 1867.
THE WANDERER
September 4, 1975
A San Francisco novelty company has succeeded where yours truly and (I hate to say it, but) all the other Wanderer writers have consistently failed. This company has been able to put the entire problem of dogmatic relativism into 27 simple words. Here they are:
THE WANDERER
July 10, 1975
Three persons received awards at the Eleventh National Wanderer Forum at an awards banquet on Saturday evening, June 28th, at the Hilton Hotel in St. Paul. The awards are given by the Wanderer Forum Foundation to Catholics who have defended Magisterial teachings in their work for the Faith.
Continue reading “Wanderer Forum Honors Boland, Mrs. Robinson, Marshner”
THE WANDERER
July 3, 1975
John Cardinal Krol is preparing something unique for the bicentennial year, 1976. While other Americans are making fools of themselves by running around in powdered wigs reciting the speeches of long-dead patriots, the Cardinal is inviting Catholics and others who glory in the name of Christ to come to Philadelphia and adore the living God. From August 1st to 8th, 1976, Krol will host the 41st International Eucharistic Congress, an event dedicated to moral and spiritual renewal through devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
Continue reading “The Abortion Issue Intrudes On The Eucharistic Congress”
THE WANDERER
June 26, 1975
WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Rogers (D., Fla.), chairman of the powerful Health and Environment Subcommittee of the House, to which all health authorization bills are referred and to which, therefore, HEW, NIH, and all the rest of Washington’s vast medical- governmental complex must come with outstretched hands — Paul Rogers went on record Thursday, June 5th, as opposing the use of family planning research monies to develop or improve abortion techniques.
THE WANDERER
June 19, 1975
Editor’s Note: With a few notable exceptions, Catholics in this Country have given little attention to the Vatican’s Declaration on Procured Abortion, issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last November. In the following commentary on this landmark document, Mr. Marshner demonstrates that the Declaration is more than a moral exhortation against abortion; it is a call for Catholics and all men of goodwill to take the offensive against all those who seek to institutionalize — in the name of the common good—this most heinous of crimes.
Continue reading “The Vatican’s Declaration On Procured Abortion”
THE WANDERER
June 12, 1975
EDITOR’S NOTE: We publish herein a commentary by contributing editor W.H. Marshner in which he reviews the recent series published in THE WANDERER (2-20, 2-27, and 3-6, 1975, issues) about the Archdiocese of Cincinnati with respect to the state of religious education and catechetics in that See. Mr. Marshner also responds to the criticism made of the articles by Most Reverend Joseph L. Bernardin, Archbishop of Cincinnati, who asserted the reports were “unfair” and constituted unjust criticism and ridicule of “innocent people.” We discussed our intention to publish Mr. Marshner’s response with Archbishop Bernardin and invited his Excellency to submit whatever commentary he might wish to make for concurrent publication. Elsewhere on this page we publish Archbishop Bernardin’s reply.
Continue reading “Was I Never In Cincinnati?”
THE WANDERER
May 29, 1975
Mr. Ford’s highly touted rescue of the Mayaguez and its crew from Koh Tang Island contains an element of bitter irony. The operation brought scores of U.S. naval vessels and hundreds of U.S. aircraft within 40 miles of another island, where there is something much more important to rescue.
The other island is Phu Quoc. On it are 42,000 refugees from Communist aggression, two-thirds of them Roman Catholics. Many are orphan children. At least three hundred of them are nuns. Some of the priests there are the very ones who 20 years ago led their congregations in toto, on foot, from Hanoi to the South, seeking safety. This Spring, when Hue and Da Nang fell, the same congregations moved again to Phu Quoc, sometimes with the help of U.S. naval vessels. Now the same vessels steam by and ignore them.
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
May 22, 1975
WASHINGTON, C.C. — The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) has quietly terminated a program that mailed unsolicited sex information and “condom stamps” in unmarked envelopes to teen-age boys.
These stamps, subsidized with the taxpayers’ money, read as follows: “Condom information service: worth $1 on purchase of one dozen condoms. … Write brand name here.”
In other words, HEW was setting up shop as the world’s largest drugstore and at the same time drumming up business by offering what was supposed to become the Green Stamps of the sexual revolution.
THE WANDERER
May 22, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Members of the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the so-called Catholics for a Free Choice staged a three-hour protest march in front of the residence of the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Jean Jadot, on Sunday, May 11th — Mother’s Day.
The purpose of the march was to celebrate a mother’s legal right to kill her unborn children and to attack the Roman Catholic Church for its alleged role in seeking to restrict this “right.”
THE WANDERER
May 15, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Abortion referral agencies across America are tied into a lucrative, black- market adoption racket, according to testimony presented Monday, April 28th, before Sen. Walter Mondale’s (D., Minn.) Subcommittee on Children and Youth.
Robert J. McAuley, a reporter with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, testified on the results of a month-long investigation carried out by himself and three other reporters. The investigation uncovered “a national network, with Cleveland as one of the hubs, in which babies were channeled into the hands of couples willing to pay as much as $25,000 to adopt them.”
THE WANDERER
Our Second Century of Lay Apostolate
April 24, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eyewitness reports reaching the State Department and the White House in recent weeks indicate that massive “liquidation” is taking place behind Communist lines in South Vietnam, a slaughter in which Roman Catholic priests and bishops are among the targets.
At Ban Me Thuot, for example, the Viet Cong (VC) established a “public tribunal” which immediately summoned the local Catholic bishop and two priests. The three men were executed without further ado, shot in the back of the head. All of the area’s school teachers, 450 men and women were taken out of town and executed.
Continue reading “Reds Engaging In Massive “Liquidation” In S. Vietnam”
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
April 17, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Shortly before The Wanderer went to press (April 10th) we received the report that, after several hours of debate, the U.S. Senate had just voted 54 to 36 to table the Bartlett Amendment to S. 66. (For text and discussion, see The Wanderer, April 3rd, 1975, p. 4).
Earlier, the U.S. Catholic Conference, on April 7th, had advised members of the U.S. Senate that the Conference had decided to support the Bartlett Amendment.
The decision was announced in a letter circulated among the senatorial offices by Mr. James L. Robinson, head of the USCC Office of Government Liaison. The text of the letter follows.
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
April 17, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Communist insurgents who captured two-thirds of South Vietnam’s provinces in the past month, have already begun executing religious leaders, according to Fr. Raymond deJaegher, a Belgium- born priest working here on Vietnamese refugee problems.
Bishop Nguyen Huy Mai of Ban Me Phuot, the capital of Darlac province, and at least two “and probably more” priests have been shot by the Communists, Fr. DeJaegher told The Wanderer April 9th. In addition, the Bishop of the new diocese of Phan Thiet and seven priests are also known to have been executed.
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
April 17, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the face of a possible collapse of resistance of South Vietnamese forces against the current Communist onslaught, Sen. Jesse Helms (R., N.C.) has appealed to President Ford to utilize the U.S. Seventh Fleet to evacuate two million or more S. Vietnamese to safe haven. Sen. Helms sent the following telegram to the President on April 3rd:
Continue reading “Senator Jesse Helms… Appeals To President For Massive Evacuation Of S. Vietnamese”
THE WANDERER
April 10, 1975
As soon as Congress returns from the Easter recess, pro-life forces on Capitol Hill will introduce an amendment to the Family Planning and Population Research Act of 1975 (S. 66 and H.R. 4925). This amendment will bring economic hardship to mad scientists all over America and save the lives of human babies who would otherwise perish in the course of “research.”
Continue reading “An End To Federal Abortion Research?”
THE WANDERER
Our Second Century of Lay Apostolate
April 3, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Jesse Helms (R., N.C.) has moved to dispel what he called “a number of erroneous impressions” created by a National Catholic News Service (NC) story disseminated on March 10th. The story dealt with Helms’ oral testimony on that date before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, which is currently holding hearings on anti-abortion measures.
THE WANDERER
April 3, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Robert M. Byrn, a specialist on criminal law and a professor at the Fordham University Law School, presented to the Bayh Subcommittee March 10th hearings what almost amounted to a small encyclopedia on the question of the legal consequences of a Federal abortion prohibition. With a wealth of argumentation drawn from State and Federal court decisions, Byrn attacked the feasibility of a States’ rights amendment, then zeroed in on the consequences of a mandatory amendment of the type proposed by Buckley, Helms, or the National Right to Life Committee. The fundamental question at issue was this:
Continue reading “Byrn Upholds HLA Workability At Bayh Hearings”
THE WANDERER
April 3, 1975
Sen. Dewey Bartlett (R., Okla.), on March 11th, 1975, introduced an anti-abortion amendment to the Family Planning and Population Research Act of 1975 (a part of S. 66 — see The Wanderer, March 20th, p. 4). As a result of criticism from colleagues, however, Bartlett decided to abandon that amendment in favor of a new, more specific one.
The older amendment has not been withdrawn but will not be called up for a vote. The new amendment was introduced on March 26th, with the cosponsorship of Sen. Jesse Helms (R., N.C.).
Continue reading “Bartlett Changes His Amendment: A New Action Imperative”
THE WANDERER
March 27, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate hearings on the human life amendments resumed Monday, March 10th, under the gavel of Sen. Birch Bayh (D., Ind.), and under the shadow of the Edelin verdict. Bayh, who has been studiously noncommittal throughout the yearlong inquest, dropped hints for the first time that an amendment protecting fetal life “after viability” would probably enjoy his support. Reference to the Edelin case was made by all five of the morning’s witnesses: Senators Buckley (R., N.Y.), Packwood (R., Ore.), and Helms (R., N.C.), followed by lawyers Robert Byrn and Harriet Pilpel.
THE WANDERER
March 20, 1975
Did you ever hear of the Dingell Amendment? It prevents Federal funds from being used by HEW to pay for abortions under the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act, to which it was attached in 1970. It is still on the books. It says, ‘‘None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
March 13, 1975
WASHINGTON – Hugh Scott (R., Pa.), Minority Leader of the Senate since 1969 and one of the most powerful allies of Planned Parenthood in Washington, has begun drafting a constitutional amendment to “restrict” abortion.
THE WANDERER
February 27, 1975
Despite its extraordinary advantages, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is on the brink of a peculiar kind of trouble. I called it a “crisis of confidence” in the first installment of this report, because it compromises the trust which Cincinnati’s most zealous Catholics have in their Church leadership (which means in the last analysis, their hierarchy).
Continue reading “Cincinnati: Archdiocese On The Brink (Part II)”
THE WANDERER
February 20, 1975
A pastor nearing sixty, with a history of heart trouble, is transferred; the bishop assigns a younger man to take his place. An ordinary sort of event, which happens every year in every Catholic diocese, uncontroverted and unnoticed. Thus, too, in early October, 1974, Fr. Francis Flanagan is transferred from St. Bartholomew’s Parish in suburban Cincinnati to a smaller, less taxing place in the rural town of Russia, Ohio.
Continue reading “Cincinnati: Archdiocese On The Brink”
THE WANDERER
February 20, 1975
If you, the reader, are in basic agreement with The Wanderer’s understanding of Catholic social doctrine, and if you live within striking distance of one of these five cities: San Antonio, St. Paul, Atlanta, Sacramento, or Newark, then Holy Church needs you badly.
THE WANDERER
Our Second Century of Lay Apostolate
January 30, 1975
WASHINGTON, D.C. — More of everything — more people, more roses, more eminent speakers — marked the second “March for Life,” Jan. 22nd, 1975, as a massive success. On the western steps of the U.S. Capitol, it was part politics, part revival, and part hootenanny, as an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people sang, clapped, and shouted this single message: “Give Life a Chance.”
