Peter Garcia

On September 6, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla visits Archbishop Bernardin, then the head of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Cardinal Wojtyla stays overnight at the cathedral and celebrates Mass there. (Two years later Cardinal Wojtyla is elected pope and takes the name John Paul II.)

In the fall, the archdiocese launched the Lay Pastoral Ministry program. This program was designed to educate lay Catholics to be pastoral ministers in the Church. A branch of the Athenaeum of Ohio, it is now called Lay Ecclesial Ministry Formation.

Mother Teresa, foundress of the Missionaries of Charity and now known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, makes her first of three visits to the greater Cincinnati area.  The other visits were in 1981 and 1982.

Fifty men enroll in the newly established permanent diaconate program. After the Second Vatican Council, the Church called for a renewal of the vocation of deacons in the ministry of the Church.

Following the Second Vatican Council, Archbishop Leibold launches the sixth archdiocesan synod (Synod ’71), involving, for the first time, a significant number of laity in planning for the Church’s future. After a year of preparation, over 3,000 delegates gathered in assembly and voted upon documents that provided new guidelines for the life of the archdiocese. The synod strengthened the role of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council and the Priests’ Senate.