Category: The Wanderer

Articles written for “The Wanderer”, a national Catholic weekly newspaper founded in 1867.

Cardinal Cody Ponders School Revolution

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Cardinal Cody Ponders School Revolution

W. H. Marshner

THE WANDERER
(Special to the Wanderer)
JANUARY 18, 1973

WASHINGTON — The most radical plan ever proposed for the wholesale secularization of Roman Catholic schools is now on the desk of His Eminence John Cardinal Cody of Chicago. Although rejected by the Cardinal once before, the plan has been slightly amended and re-submitted. The amendments do not affect the heart of the proposal, which would have the effect of depriving pastors (including, ultimately, the Cardinal himself) of all real authority over their parish schools. This time, however, the plan is expected to be approved.

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CHD Director Promoted

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CHD Director Promoted

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
January 11, 1973

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fr. Robert V. Monticello, executive director of the Campaign for Human Development (CHD), has been named associate General Secretary of the U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC), the second highest administrative position in the Conference.

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Georgetown Sex Advisor Linked To SIECUS

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Georgetown Sex Adviser Linked To SIECUS

W. H. Marshner

THE WANDERER
December 28, 1972
(Special to the Wanderer)

Fr. Robert Baumiller, S.J., whose role in the production of a Georgetown University student sex manual has drawn fire from Cardinal O’Boyle, has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).

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The Forum

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The Forum

THE WANDERER
December 21, 1972

MY VIEWS WERE CARICATURED …

Editor, THE WANDERER:

I hope your readers will not be misled by the caricature of my views given by John J. Mulloy in your November 16th issue. In my published writings I have repeatedly said that history is not all progress, that change is not automatically for the better, and that criteria are necessary to evaluate proposed changes. I have likewise said that “to evaluate new and appropriate expressions (of the Faith), suited to the mentality of the times, is primarily the responsibility of the Church’s Magisterium. But the theologian has the function of exploring new possibilities and of seeking in this way to be of service to the Church” Continue reading “The Forum”

Msgr. Bordelon Quits: Pressure Rumored

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Msgr. Bordelon Quits:
Pressure Rumored

W. H. Marshner

THE WANDERER
December 2, 1972
(Special to the Wanderer)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Msgr. Marvin Bordelon has resigned from the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). He was director of the Division of World Justice and Peace (which was part of the larger department of Social Development and World Peace), and his resignation becomes effective December 31st.

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Importing Allende’s Line

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Importing Allende’s Line

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
December 21, 1972

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At the end of last month the Latin American Bureau of the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) set up shop as America’s foremost importers of Chilean- Marxist propaganda. But the Chilean supplier was not the foundering Allende government; it was a committee of eighty American missionaries of various denominations working in Chile.

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Business As Usual… Fr. Rausch Succeeds Bishop Bernardin

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Business As Usual. . .

Fr. Rausch Succeeds Bishop Bernardin At USCC

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
DECEMBER 14, 1972
Our Second Century of Lay Apostolate

WASHINGTON – In a move that strongly indicates continuity rather than change of direction, Fr. James S. Rausch has been elected unanimously to succeed Archbishop Joseph Bernardin as General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and the United States Catholic Conference (USCC).

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Cardinal O’Boyle Attacks Georgetown Sex Manual

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Cardinal O’Boyle Attacks Georgetown Sex Manual

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
December 7, 1972
(Special to the Wanderer)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Six medical students at Georgetown University wrote a 46-page booklet called Human Sexual Response- Ability for the benefit of their fellow students. They were guided by a faculty advisor named Fr. Robert C. Baumiller, S.J., who is an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Fr. Baumiller has already made the pages of the Wanderer (12-2-71) on this little book on sex. They claimed that the booklet was “purely informational” but that line did not wash with their Bishop, Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle. He read the thing and called it “potentially dangerous to spiritual welfare.” He got on the back of the Georgetown administration to have the booklet withdrawn as incompatible with the Catholic character of the University. The only response, however, was from school president, Fr. Robert J. Henle, who said the administration was not responsible. It was a student project and hence, not “official” he said. Nobody here but us chickens.

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The Bishops’ Agenda… Who Makes It And What Is It Like?

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The Bishops’ Agenda …
Who Makes It
And What Is It Like?

THE WANDERER
November 23, 1972
(Special to The Wanderer)

WASHINGTON — For the benefit of readers who have never attended the annual meeting of the American Bishops, it may be useful to say a word about the fat mass of documents, which, taken together, represent the Bishops’ “agenda documentation.” This contains the texts of reports to be approved (each committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) makes a report, as does each office in the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) — though, of course, every one of them does not necessarily report at every meeting) and of statements to be issued by the conference.

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Cardinal Carberry Unmasks Hannan Report

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Cardinal Carberry
Unmasks Hannan Report

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
November 23, 1972
(Special to The Wanderer)

ARLINGTON, Va. — John Cardinal Carberry revealed during the annual Bishops’ meeting here an astounding documentary source in the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry, chaired by Archbishop Hannan of New Orleans. Continue reading “Cardinal Carberry Unmasks Hannan Report”

Criticism Abounds At Bishops’ Meeting

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Criticism Abounds At Bishops’ Meeting

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

November 23, 1972
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)

ARLINGTON. Va. – The general meeting of the American Bishops, the second one they have held this year, convened at 9:30 a.m., November 13th, in the Marriott “Twin Bridges” Motor Inn, located in Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. The choice of site was dictated by the desire to escape the affluent image conveyed by meeting in luxurious downtown hotels, according to Mr. Russell Shaw, the chief information officer for the Bishops. At last Spring’s meeting, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton created some notice by staying in the local YMCA for the same motive. This year, Bishop Gumbleton is once again staying elsewhere, perhaps because the Marriott, though surely less grand than the Statler Hilton, is a poshy enough place in its own way.

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Virginia Bishop Cracks Down On Disobedient Priest

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Virginia Bishop Cracks Down
On Disobedient Priest

W. H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
(Special to the Wanderer)
November 9, 1972

WASHINGTON — Bishop John J. Russell of Richmond has removed Fr. Robert J. Walsh, pastor of St. Mark’s Church, Vienna, Va., for employing the unauthorized Communion-in-the- hand method of distributing the Blessed Sacrament and for repeatedly ignoring orders to desist. Demoted and transferred, Fr. Walsh is to become an assistant in Portsmouth, Va., while the pastorate at St. Mark’s goes to Fr. Robert C. Brooks.

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Permanent Committee On Priestly Life And Ministry: A Case For The Negative

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Permanent Committee On Priestly Life And Ministry?:
A Case For The Negative

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
November 9, 1972

At their annual meeting next week, the American Bishops will be asked to vote on a proposal to form a permanent committee and secretariat on priestly life and ministry, to take the place of the present Ad Hoc Committee chaired by Archbishop Hannan of New Orleans. Their Excellencies should approach this decision with extreme care. On paper, an affirmative vote by the Bishops will do nothing more than approve the general idea of having such a committee and staff. Continue reading “Permanent Committee On Priestly Life And Ministry: A Case For The Negative”

The Wright Intervention

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THE WRIGHT INTERVENTION

W.H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER (Section Two)
November 2, 1972

In September of 1971, a “joint assembly” of priests and Bishops met in Madrid to adopt guidelines on pastoral action. When they were finished, a week later, they had approved a gigantic document, divided into seven parts (ponencias — an untranslatable word which means both “theses” and “chapters”). Each part consisted of a long body of texts followed by 50 or so “propositions” or conclusions, each of which had been voted on separately. The finished document was held to be a milestone in Spanish Church history, and its approval by the full hierarchy of the national conference was thought to be a rubber stamp affair. Continue reading “The Wright Intervention”

A Threat To Every American Priest

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A Threat To Every American Priest

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
The Hannan Committee Report
November 2, 1972

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Priestly Life and Ministry, organized to implement the results of the half-million-dollar study of the priesthood, and presided over by Archbishop Philip Hannan of New Means, has completed its initial report, or rather, the initial part of its initial report, which has been sent to each of the Bishops.

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Fr. McManus Stunned By Vatican Moves

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Fr. McManus Stunned By Vatican Moves

W. H. Marshner

THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
October 26, 1972

DETROIT — Fr. Frederick R. McManus, director of the secretariat of the Bishops Committee on the Liturgy, denounced steps taken by the Holy See in recent months to regulate intercommunion, sacramental absolution, and minor orders as “negative indications of retrenchment and misunderstanding.” McManus made the remarks during a “State Of The Liturgy” address to the national meeting of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, held here October 9th through 13th.

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Liturgists Badly Split On Key Issues

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Liturgists Badly Split On Key Issues

By W.H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
October 26, 1972

DETROIT — The 1972 Detroit meeting of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, co-sponsored by the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy and the Archdiocese of Detroit, revealed deep splits and strongly divergent tendencies among the several hundred delegates as well as between the delegates and their federal leadership. Indeed, a hefty minority of American dioceses sent no representatives to this meeting at all, preferring to “vote with their feet,” as several well- informed persons told this reporter.

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This Time Father McHugh Has Gone Too Far: Part 2

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This Time Fr. McHugh Has Gone Too Far

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
October 26, 1972

PART II

When the head of the Family Life Division of the USCC decides to repudiate the chief Catholic doctrine relating to family life, namely the indissolubility of marriage, he needs a plausible gimmick. It would never do simply to come out and say, “Marriages are dissolvable.’’ One must come up with some ingenious way of saying, “I pledge allegiance to the Catholic doctrine,” while emptying the doctrine of all vitality. The trick, if you will, is to promote the Faith into Heaven, so that here below more comfortable ideas may prevail. And the exact method of performing this trick may be learned by reading the October 7th issue of America, in which Msgr. McHugh signed a committee document called “The Church and Second Marriages.”

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This Time Father McHugh Has Gone Too Far: Part 1

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This Time

Fr. McHugh Has Gone Too Far

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
October 19, 1972

I

Msgr. James T. McHugh’s years as head of the Family Life Division of the USCC have been years of unparalleled opportunity for prophetic witness. These have been the years when the Church was left standing totally alone on contraception, almost alone on abortion, alone on the indissolubility of marriage, alone even on the nature of marriage. Yet, incredibly, American Catholics are less certain about these teachings now than they were ten years ago, less certain both in their own minds and in their grasp of what the Church herself teaches. Somehow, the heroic stand which the Church has made for truth and human love has not been communicated to vast numbers of the laity. How has this been possible? In greatest measure, of course, the fault lies with an anti-Catholic press, and with apostate Diocesan bureaucracies. But it would be hard to deny a share of the blame to one man.

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Decrees Give Layman More Status In Church

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Decrees Give Layman More Status In Church

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
SEPTEMBER 28, 1972

Like a lot of things Rome does, the two decrees released last week on the reform of “minor orders” (henceforth to be called “ministries”) made nobody very happy, at least in America. The so-called liberals were furious over the exclusion of women, while the conservatives were angered by yet another series of “changes.” Some were genuinely terrified that the Church might be depriving herself of exorcists, and one knows with moral certainty that somewhere, probably in California, a nut-group is already proclaiming that suppression of the sub-diaconate means extinction of the priesthood.

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National Congress on the Word of God: A Two-Edged Sword

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National Congress On The Word Of God: A Two-Edged Sword

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

The Wanderer
September 21, 1972

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Rome was informed that a national effort would be made in Washington this September to produce a renewal in preaching, Cardinal Villot dispatched a letter to Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle expressing the Holy Father’s delight at the idea and his blessing upon the enterprise. One sentence in that letter sums up the advice Rome wanted to give to the American sponsors and participants: “In short, preaching must proceed,” Villot said, “from deep conviction, serious learning, and loving compassion.”

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