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10 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA THE BULLETIN The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia. Published Monthly by the Publicity Department, 409 Herald Building, Augusta, Georgia. Subscription Price $2.00 Per Year ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1921-1922 P. H. Rice, Augusta President Col. P. H. Callahan, Louisville, Ky Hon. Vice-Pres. ,T. J. Haverty, Atlanta First Yice-Pres. J. B. McCallum, Atlanta Secretary Thomas S. Gray, Augusta Treasurer Richard Reid, Augusta—-Editor and Publicity Director Miss Cecile C. Ferry, Augusta....Asst. Publicity Director VOL. II SEPTEMBER, 1921 No. I 0 THE ATLANTA CONVENTION Last month in this column the belief was expressed that the 1921 convention would not only be the great est in the history of the Catholic Laymen’s Associa tion of Georgia, but that it would be the greatest gath ering of Catholics ever staged in the Southeast. Any one of the three hundred delegates and members who journeyed to Atlanta for the convention Sunday, Sep tember 1 1, will tell you that The Bulletin was correct in its prediction. From the opening of the convention with prayer by our Rt. Rev. Bishop, to its close, with the singing of “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name,” there was not a moment which might not be called perfect from near ly every standard. It was a warm day, but that did not matter. The hundreds who filled the Marist College Hall paid but little attention to the high temperature. They have the rest of the year to worry about such details and trifles of life. The thanks of the Association goes out to the At lanta Branch of the Laymen’s Association for the un paralleled entertainment for the visitors. The hotel accomodations at the Ansley, the lunch at the Capital City Club everything was perfect. The convention closed a year’s work. Another year lies before us. What it will bring we do not know. But we do know that the membership of the Associa tion is actively behind the officials to the last man and woman. We know that the people of Georgia are gen erally fair. We know that the Association has no in tention of departing from the dignified manner in which it has previously answered misstatements and groundless insults, which are, we can gratefully say, not as numerous as they once were. The Association shall be guided in the future by the same spirit of truth and moderation which has aided it in the past. It cannot but succeed. WHY MURDER IS WRONG “The murder of the Catholic priest in Alabama last week by a Protestant preacher is one of a long chain of incidents proving our foolishness in placing the Catholics on the vantage ground of martyrdom, states a Georgia sectarian paper, and it continues: “How long will we persist in the error that two wrongs make a right? This poor man, this father, had lost the confidence of his own daughter and in a fit of madness, no doubt enough to try any man’s soul, he goes and murders this Catholic priest. And from Rome to Calcutta the press tells of this man’s act and adds countless adherents to the Catholic faith.” No word of regret that a man has been slain by a fel- lowman! No word of condemnation for the fanaticism which prompted the act! No horror at the deed ex cept insofar as it reacts to the advantage of the Cath olic Church! About two wrongs making a right certainly they do not, especially in this case where the two wrongs or any others come from the same source. “Not whose hand, but whose brain prompted the murder?” is the query of the Columbus Enquirer-Sun. The unfortunate man who now sits in a Birmingham jail, with his hands stained by the blood of the man he slew, would without doubt never have committed the deed were it not for the anti-Catholic propa ganda of men like the Junior Senator from Georgia. The Church has lost a loyal son in the death of Father Coyle. But between the priest, cold in his tomb, and the man charged with the deed, which of us would not choose to be the former? CHURCH AND STATE “What the country needs most is a good five-cent cigar,” Former Vice-President Marshall was quoted as saying in the days immediately preceding his re tirement from public life, last March. Mr. Marshall is wrong. More than anything else, the country needs more men like himself. Mr. Marshall is a Presbyterian elder, and in this capacity, according to The Boston Transcript, he con tributes to the Presbyterian New Era Magazine, an article in which he protests against the mixing of re ligion and politics. “It may not contribute to the harmony of the church music,” Mr. Marshall writes, “but after much deliberation, however discordant the note may be, it is my opinion that it should be struck. And as I have less to lose than anyone else, I have concluded to strike it. “It is no infrequent occurence to have some zeal ous brother inform me that we must be up and stir ring as Protestants, or the Roman Catholic Church will seize the reins of government in America. May be this foolish statement accounts for the fact that the church to which we belong, in common with other Protestant denominations, in an effort to prevent the union of Church and State, is, unconsciously, I hope, doing those things which look very much like an at tempt to unite the American Republic and the Protes tant churches of this country.” Mr. Marshall thus voices a thought which has been struggling for expression in the minds of many of us for many a day. We have often wondered how our non-Catholic brethren, most of them not members of Mr. Marshall’s church, can consistently howl from the house-tops the charge that the Catholic Church is struggling to get control of the government, call on all “true Americans” to resist the attempted union of Church and State, and then turn around and send clergymen to Congress. Surely ministers have a right to represent a dis trict in Congress if the people so desire. But if a priest were elected to Congress, and there are many over whelmingly Catholic districts in the country, these op ponents of Church and State could see in their mind’s eye the non-existent army of the Pope marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to take control of the Capitol. There are approximately 20,000,000 Catholics in the United States. In the century and a half of its existence there has been but one Catholic priest elect ed to Congress, and that one about a century ago, and from a pioneer state. The next century and a half will perhaps witness an even smaller number of priests in Washington in legislative capacities. All of which proves that there are none so blind as those who will not see.