local
Battalion/Page 3
November 22, 1982
italion/Pagel
inter 22,
Aggie bishop visits A&M
Fa
"Wl Id by Elaine Engstrom
Battalion Staff
I They lined up on New Main
Drive to hitch rides into Hous
ton, watched “Curly Fox and
Texas Ruby” on the television in
the uilding and read
Buck Rogers space comics. And
$ome of them prayed.
I They were the students of
Texas A&M University in the
years near the end of World War
II. They were waiting for their
time to serve their country, most
of them as soldiers. One, in par-
pcular, found a different way to
Serve.
Bernard Ganter was a fresh-
pan chemical engineering stu
dent at Texas A&M during the
1944-45 school year, but left the
^University to become a Catholic
jriest. Today, Ganter is a bishop
n the Beaumont-Port Arthur
Diocese of the Roman Catholic
Hhurch.
Ganter, 54, was in town
Jaturday to visit the campus and
St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
He watched the Texas A&M-
lexas Christian University foot
ball game, attended a barbeque
at St. Mary’s and said mass at the
liurch on Sunday morning.
Ganter, pne of 12 bishops in
lexas, said he knows of no other
jggie bishop, although the state
£s many Aggie priests. His dio-
Kse. or area of authority, in-
itludes more than 95,000 Catho-
lijlits.
Before becoming a bishop,
I r^l]§GatUer was a priest at Sacred
■ ^ Heart Catholic Church in Hous-
Bon. He was transferred to Tul-
fisa, Okla., where he was one of
he banks, nitfie state’s two bishops. Five
n bonds ai ■fats ago, he was transferred to
hese bonds »H eauniont ' ,
ked by procM n die days when he attended
hxasA&M, Ganter said, life on
.i\ an a S l0 |Hnipus was very different from
Unite(l '(today.
Bishop Bernard Ganter
There wasn’t much develop
ment in Bryan either. There was
nothing south or east of the Uni
versity. University Drive just
had a few stores and the Campus
Theater.
“On Wellborn, there was a
train depot and a passenger
train made daily stops coming to
and from Houston. But most
students hitched rides on the
highway by New Main Drive. It
was easy to get rides then, espe
cially if you were wearing your
military uniform. Not too many
students had cars back in those
days.”
Ganter chose to go to Texas
A&M because he was too young
to get into the service and be
cause it was cheaper than other
schools.
“Even though I only went one
year, I’m an Aggie,” he said.
In high school in Galveston,
Ganter considered joining the
priesthood. But, he didn’t pur
sue the idea until he came to
Texas A&M. While on campus,
he met the Rev. Tim Vallenta of
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in
Bryan. Vallenta said weekly
mass for students at a little
chapel on Nagle Street near St.
Mary’s current location.
Vallenta and Ganter became
friends and, with Vallenta’s en
couragement, Ganter left school
to enroll in a seminary in
LaPorte. From seminary, he
went to graduate school for
three years at the Catholic Uni
versity of America in Washing
ton, where he studied canon law.
Canon, or church, law is used in
church administration.
The situation of the country
during those years also influ
enced Ganter.
“A lot of families were hurt
ing,” he said.
“There was a lot of suffering
as a result of the war. I wanted to
give my life to help these people.
lie
“School went all year round,”
ment you Ifie said.
ou musUniiflH "There wasn’t a Memorial
ndependent'Hudent Center like there is now.
and dictate
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LESLIE
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DEATHTRAP
>> Walter Kerr,
N.Y. Times
AN ABSOLUTE KNOCKOUT
A Paramount Theatre Production
John M Bernardoni. Executive Producer
Presented by
MSC Town Hall/Broadway
Sun., November 21,1982 at 8 p.m.
in Rudder Auditorium
Tickets:
Zone II $ 9 50
Zone III $ 8 50
For more information call the MSC Box Office
845-1234
There are very few individuals
who are brought into people’s
lives as intimately as a priest. We
share their joys as well as their
sorrows and suffering.
“It’s similar to an old family
doctor. Now that’s been lost be
cause the doctors have become
so professional.”
Ganter, who has been a priest
for 30 years, recently attended a
national conference of bishops
in Washington. At the confer
ence, Catholic bishops from all
over the United States approved
a rough draft of a 110-page pap
er on nuclear arms.
In May, the bishops will vote
on the final draft of the docu
ment. The paper is being pre
sented by the bishops to stimu
late discussion and decisions on
nuclear arms and warfare.
“The bishops think that nuc
lear war is wrong,” Ganter said.
“We advocate a bilateral freeze
between the U.S. and the Soviet
Union to try and disarm.”
Ganter’s expressed concern
for the future of the United
States and the young people
who will live in it.
“It’s not my world anymore,”
he said. “It’s yours (the young
people). When I was a young
man in college, it was a very dif
ferent world. It’s a great world,
but it has some scary things in
it.”
A&M researchers study
political action groups
by Brian Boyer
Battalion Reporter
Corporations can use public
policy committees to ensure
business interests are repre
sented more effectively in gov
ernment, Texas A&M resear
chers say.
A study conducted by the
Business and Public Policy
Group, part of the University’s
management department, con
cluded that individual sharehol
ders seem to want to become in
volved in corporate political
efforts.
But Dr. Gerald Keim, leader
of the group, said that corpora
tions have been reluctant to get
shareholders involved in politic
al activity.
“If a small percentage of
those people were politically in
formed on the issues that affect
the corporations,” he said, “so
that they didn’t make their vot
ing decision on the basis of rhe
toric, campaign slogans, bum
per stickers or party af filiation ...
I think the corporate sector
would be much more ef fectively
represented in the political pro
cess.”
Most large corporations rely
on lobbying and political action
committees (PACs) to represent
their interests in government.
PACs make contributions to
candidates for public office,
especially for legislative races.
PAG contributions are limited
by federal campaign laws to
$5,000 per candidate per elec
tion.
Keim disagrees with accusa
tions that PACs “buy” elections
by supplying campain funds.
“It strikes me that, far from
buying votes and buying politic
al influence, the PAG phenome
non that we’re seeing is much
more like protection money in
the days of the mob — you can’t
afford not to make a contribu
tion,” he said.
Candidates solicit contribu
tions from the PACs, Keim said.
No PAG can hope to buy a candi
date because that candidate may
have received several contribu
tions from PACs with competing
interests.
“1 don’t think the PACs are
subverting democracy, but on
the other hand, I’m not con
vinced that PACs are very effec
tive either, in terms of repre
senting anyone’s interest,” he
said.
Corporations could have bet
ter representation, Keim said,
through constituency building
programs — designed to pro
vide stockholders with informa
tion on key issues and encourage
them to let their representatives
know their stand on issues.
A survey by the Business and
Public Policy Group indicated
that individual shareholders
represent a potentially effective
political force for corporate in
terests.
The survey, which included
shareholders from six major
corporations, indicated that 65
percent of the shareholders re
sponding to the survey agreed
with corporate positions on pub
lic policy issues. Ninety percent
of the respondents were in
terested in receiving informa
tion on key issues from the cor
poration.
Corporations will begin to
abandon PACs in favor of share
holder constituency programs
which Texas A&M has
pioneered, Keim said.
“We’re going to be right up
front working with these com
panies as more and more of
them get involved,” he said.
now open:
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Open till 8 p.m. on Thursday
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(Across from Randy Sims Bar-B-Que)
The Best Pizza In Town! Honest.
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846-3412
Shiloh Place — 693-0035
AFTER 5 P.M. — MIN. $5.00 ORDER
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