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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association qf Georgia.
Published Quarterly by the Publicity Department,
409 Herald Building, Augusta, Georgia.
VOL. I. CONVENTION NUMBER No. 4
A CALL BY THE BISHOP.
It is our desire to see The Bulletin become a means
of communication ^between all parts of the Diocese,
not merely confining itself to letting them know what
the Laymen’s Association is doing, but letting the
Catholics of Georgia know what the Church is doing
all over Georgia, and what the "Church is doing ail
over the United States. To do this we need the per
sonal interest of every Catholic in the Diocese. We
ask the priests particularly to take an active interest
in the matter. Any details of their work will be
gladly received by The Bulletin editors. The Bulletin
has a future, and a great one. All should help in this
work. (Signed)
BENJ. J. KEILEY,
+ Bishop of Savannah.
The above from the Bishop is respectfully called to
the attention of every Catholic, cleric and lay, in
Georgia. The Bulletin, while remaining distinctively
the mouthpiece of the laymen and their Association,
will, by the co-operation of the Reverend Fathers,
as indicated by the Bishop, become a means of com
municating official and parochial news, and can be
made to greatly assist every worthy endeavor. '
THE EDITOR.
A MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Beginning with December The Bulletin will be issued
monthly, and will be sent to all subscribers at $2.00
per year. Every member of the Association includes
this amount in his or her subscription, but all others
desiring the publication will be expected and required
to pay the above price which has been fixed to cover
cost of production and mailing. The reason for the
change to a monthly is that three months was found
to be too great an interval for the accomplishment
of the object of The Bulletin which is primarily to
keep our people informed of the work of the Associa
tion, to keep them abreast of general Catholic events
and to bring to their attention answers to current ob
jections raised by non—and anti-Catholics.
The Bulletin has been singularly successful. It was
an experiment that succeeded at once. The first issue
was widely praised, and the third was everywhere
hailed as excellent. From every part of the country
come calls for it. Indeed, more copies are sent out
side than within Georgia. Naturally, this put too
great a burden upon our appropriation, and was
hardly fair to those Georgia Catholics who were sub
scribing for work within the State. The new price
will do away with this objection, the out-of-State
readers paying for what they get.
Some details are yet to be worked out and will
be settled at the approaching meeting of the Finance
Committee, but the editors are determined that the
standard set by the quarterly will be maintained by
the monthly, even if it is not raised, though this is
the consummation we have set our minds upon.
INTELLIGENT WORK.
The ladies of the various Catholic organizations of
Augusta are going about education of the growing
Catholics along lay lines intelligently. The leaders
are preparing a course to be worked in harmony with
the publicity department of the Association that will
supplement the Sunday School instruction. It will be
designed to make the young men and women familiar
with those points of teaching which are most fre
quently attacked and will help them to answer the ob
jections commonly voiced by the ignorant and bigoted
non-Catholics met in the ordinary walks of life.
In this instruction, which will be a part of every
meeting of each female Catholic Society in Augusta;
the pamphlets of the Association will be used, and
the question box will be employed. Questions asked
at one meeting will be submitted to the publicity
bureau, and the answers read at the next gathering.
This is practical instruction for laymen. It will in
no way conflict with the work of the clergy and Sun
day School workers, but will supplement it. The
ladies who are conducting these classes are in daily
touch with non-Catholics, and are familiar with the
methods of attack they employ and realize the need
of informing the youngsters so that they can give cor
rect answers to all questions.
In this connection it is not out of place to state
that in St. Mary’s Academy in Augusta one of the
classes is using the Association pamphlet, “Catholics
and the Pope,’’ as a textbook.
This is the kind of Catholic lay activity that will
count in the long run most of all. Education along
Catholic lines is the one thing that will ultimately
remove prejudice against Catholics in Georgia. The
more we study the matter the more we are con
vinced that lack of education is responsible for the
bigotry that is so rampant in the State. Every now
and then we run across an educated man who is a
believer of the falsehoods against us, but nearly every
one who thus expresses himself shows by his spelling
and writing and punctuation the lack of even a com
mon school education. Teach the young the truth.
Catholics have nothing to fear from investigation.
What we desire is a rigorous searching into our teach
ings. They will bear the closest inspection. The
ladies of Augusta are proceeding along the right lines.
Persevered in, their work can not fail to bring suc
cess.