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EIGHT THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF' GEORGIA DECEMBER 21, 1937 THE BULLETIN The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia RICHARD REID, Editor 815-816 Lamar Building Augusta, Georgia Subscription Price $2,00 Per Year Published monthly by the Publicity Department with the Approbation of the Most. Rev. Bishops of Raleigh. Charleston. Savannah. St Augustine and Nash- ville and of the Rt. Rev Abbot. Ordinary of Belmont. ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1937-1938 ALFRED M. BATTEY. Augusta President J. J. HAVERTY, K. S. G., Atlanta ...First Vice-President J. B. McCALLUM. Atlanta Secretary THOMAS F. WALSH, Savannah Treasurer RICHARD REID, Augusta Executive Secretary ISS CECILE FERRY. Augusta, Asst. Exec. Secretary Vol. XVIII December 21. 1937 No. 12 Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, at the Post Office at Augusta, Ga„ under act of March, 1879. Ac cepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103. Act. of October 3, 1917. authorized September 1. 1921. Member of N. C. W. C. News Service the Catholic Press Association of the United States, the Georgia Press Association and the National Editorial Association. Christmas Greetings Through the pages of The Bulletin I extend to our de voted clergy, religious and laity heartfelt good wishes for a holy and happy Christmas and for a New Year abounding in God’s choicest blessings for soul and body. Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta.' A Religion in the United States RECENT Associated Press dispatch from Atlantic City quotes the Rev. Frank E. Gabelein, Protestant minister and headmaster of the Stony Brook School for boys on Long Island, as asserting that of 55,000 young sters attending certain schools in New York, more than 16,000 have never heard of the Ten Commandments. Speakers at the Methodist Episcopal conference held in Atlantic City estimated that of the 49,000,000 young people in the United States, 36,000,000 have never set foot inside a church of any denomination. Practically all of these children attend schools where religion is not taught. It is extremely improbable that parents not interested enough to have their children at tend church or Sunday school will themselves instruct them in religion. Two-thirds of the non-Catholic children of the nation have no religious instruction, according to Protestant authorities. One-half of the Catholic children of the United States attend Catholic schools, and have religious instruction daily. Most of the others attend Sunday school, or religious vacation schools, and the number being reached through these channels is gradually in creasing. _ Nevertheless, the general situation in reference to the lack of religious instruction is of deep concern to Cath olics as well as to other religious-minded people. With a majority of the children, of the nation getting no re ligious education, what is to prevent the United States from becoming predominantly pagan in population? And if the United States becomes predominantly pagan, what is to prevent it from going the way of other pagan na tions? Peace to Men of Good Will O N the approach of the blessed Christmas season in this 1937th year of the Christian era, we look out upon a world wracked by an international war in China, civil war in Spain, mutual hatreds between peoples of neighboring and distant countries, suspicion and dis trust between classes and other evils which convulse the hearts of the followers of the Prince of Peace and Love. But every evil which today threatens civilization with disaster finds its roots in antipathy to the teachings of Him Who came into the world that it might have love more abundantly. Nations would not be at each other’s throats in the Orient, or snarling at each other and one another in the Occident, and making the Iberian penin sula a bloody arena, and capital and labor would not be locked in deadly battle if the world would open its heart to the principles of the Divine Babe of Bethle hem. The world is perplexed today by the evils afflicting it, by wars and rumors of war, by hatred of man for his brother, by the sufferings of the millions of human beings who have not the wherewith to sustain life even in a meagre manner. That very perplexity is a hearten ing note. Before our Lord came into the world, those in high places or in low were, with few notable exceptions, un concerned by the evils and the sufferings of mankind. “Am I my brother's keeper?” they asked with Cain. It was the Church established by Christ which gave them the first positive, unequivocal answer: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” In ancient pagan times, the killing of all captives taken in war and of the entire populations of captured enemy cities was accepted as one of the hazards of war. as the killing of men on the field of battle is today, and the enslavement of any the victims chose to spare was an all but universal custom.. Today the killing of enemy non-combatants sends such waves of indignation rolling from hostile and neutral territory to the culprit’s shores that accusations of this character are considered one of the most effective means of outlawing a nation at the bar of international public opinion, even by those who have no scruples in that direction themselves. One looking at the world today and witnessing the manner in which even those nations professing to be Christian are lagging behind Christian principles in their practices would have reason for discouragement and despair if it were not for the realization of the dis tance the world has traveled toward the Christian ideal in the centuries since the first Christmas. These prin ciples, which have been responsible for the great masses of Western civilization and indeed of the world looking upon war as an evil to be mitigated and eliminated in stead of as a necessity, are still at work in the world, and while their influence may be scant in some places and at some times, their cumulative effect in the world is increasingly evident in every century. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” was the summation of the philosophy of the ancient pagan world, as it is of the modern pagans. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” is the heart of Christian philosophy and of the spirit of the modern world where and to the extent that it is Christian. Amidst the current strife, there fore, and amid the economic troubles with which our civilization is afflicted as we again observe Christmas, -we pray that the spirit of the Infant Babe of Bethlehem will make us all his sons and daughters of good will, and that. He will shower upon us all those choice bless ings He had promised to men of good will. A vigorous protest has been spontaneously registered by the National Council of Catholic Women and the National Council of Catholic Men to a broadcast Sun day evening, December 12, which burlesqued the Bib lical account of the Garden of Eden in a manner which was not only irreverent, but indecent. The selection of the screen actress, Mae West, for the principal role added insult to injury. The program was presented over a national network and sponsored by Chase and Sanborn. Benedict Elder in The Louisville Record says that Father Coughlin's return to the radio is not a triumph of Father Coughlin over Archbishop Mooney but a tri umph of the Detroit priest over himself. Wealth—Spanish and American T HE tale of “the wealth of the Church in Spain” is being used by the Leftists and their sympathizers to give a semblance of justification to the outrages in flicted on religion in that unhappy land. The Rev. Thomas Feeney, S.J., in his booklet on the subject recalls that the government in Spain by a series of partial and complete confiscations in 1812, 1820, 1835, 1837 and 1868, seized all church property. There was government aid, but as late as 1913 only two priests were receiving as much as $500 a year, and most of them got $200 or less. In 1931, this meagre assistance, with which the state salved its conscience for the seizur^ of church properties, was discontinued. As long ago as 1876, priests were required by government decree to pay over to the state one-fourth of the free-will offerings they received. The insincerity of the accusations of the Leftists is demonstrated by the fact that it was not merely the al legedly “wealthy” clergy they killed, but thousands of self-sacrificing nuns and humble men, women and chil dren. Just how the radicals helped the masses by kill ing them and destroying their churches is riot evident to a discerning mind. The New York Times of November 24 reports that the endowment of Harvard University has increased $7,000,000 during the year, and that the endowment of the university, according to the figures of Henry L. Shat- tuck, treasurer of the university, is now $141,941,666. That is many times the real or reputed wealth of all the Catholic colleges and schools in Spain, arid yet no one in this country seems to be particularly concerned about it—nor are we. But let a Catholic university or college accumulate such an endowment, through the generosity of its friends, and we’ll hear plenty from the atheistic radicals. Dixie Musings May Christmas bring to all our readers every possible joy and bless ing, and may the New Year be one of spiritual and material prosperity. The number of letters we receive stamped with Christmas seals, each one -purchased to aid a work of mercy, is a heartening indication that the pessimists who foresee no hope are wrong. There never would be a seal sale for the benefit of suffering human beings If it were not for the teach ings of Him Who demanded of His followers that they love their neigh bors for the love of God. We have some very .attractive lit erature from the Japan Chamber of Commerce in New York, telling how Japan has always striven to befriend China only to have China force- her into a fight to defend herself. Our reading had given us the impression that Japan hit China because after wards China hit her. The Pathfinder for November 13 asserted that “since late in the fifth century the Roman Catholic Church has specifically sanctioned the wor ship of saints.” Some child from a Catholic grammar school ought to drop around and straighten out the editor on this point. Newspaper work is very instruc tive. We learned this week the dif ference between sanitarium and san atorium, but haven’t time to explain it here. The difference is not as great, however, as that between sight and vision, usually regarded as synonyms. Webster’s New Interna tional Dictionary so regards them. Far be it from us to disagree with the great Noah, but he apparently never observed the different reac tions they occasion when used to de scribe a lady. hamantash to remind them of anti- Semitic Haman. What will they eat to remind them of Hitler? We cotdcl make several suggestions. Bishop Cannon, back from Europe expressed himself as being displeas* ed with the United States, Europe* the Oxford Conference and a few other things. Which only goes show how displeasure breeds diet pleasure. The Bishop once said that he tash- ed an intoxicating beverage on% once in his life, and that was when he sampled some beer when he was young. He didn’t like it. If he had liked it, the whole political history of his generation might have been changed. Father John B. Kelly, chaplain of the Catholic Writers’ Guild, located at 128 West Seventy-First Streep New York, is lecturing under the aus» pices of the Guild on Joyce Kilmef and Father Francis P. Duffy, who were his devoted companions due* ing happy, historic years. It was through Father Kelly that we me| the famed chaplain of the immorta* Sixty-Ninth Regiment, and through Father Kelly also that we claim ao quaintanceship with Kenton Kilme% the son of the beloved poet. Dtei James J. Walsh, himself a close, friend of both Joyce Kilmer and Father Duffy, says that “there i& perhaps no man living today who knows more intimately the recesses of Joyce Kilmer’s heart and that oi Father Francis P. Duffy than does Father Kelly.” The Greenville (S. C.) Piedmont pleads for people not to desecrate the beautiful name of Christmas by the substitute Xmas, and the Ander son (S. C.) Daily Mail expresses the hope that the clergy will do what they can, especially in the pulpit, to dis courage the thoughtless custom. “X” is given in the Catholic Ency clopedia, Vol. 1, Pg. 27, as an abbre viation for the name of Christ our Savior and Xmas would, therefore, be a proper abbreviation for Christ mas. But with the indifference to Christ now so appallingly evident in the Christian world and the ignoring by the world of the basic meaning of Christmas, the point of The Pied mont and The Daily Mail is well made. A bronze statue of Father Duffy stands in the north end of Times Square, where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue, watching over it as he did in the days when he was pas tor of the Times Square parish, thaf of the Holy Cross on Forty-Second Street. And Father Joseph A. Me* Caffrey, his successor, has a hearjt no less large than the “Fighting Chaplain.” There is no playground for the children in the Times Square section. Father McCaffrey, deeply concerned by the lack of such facilities, finally) acquired a lot on West Forty-Third Street, two blocks from Broadway* at its assessed value ($80,000 as w4 recall it), although the market value was imcomparably higher, and equipped it for the little ones, an expensive undertaking, because the condition of the lot. which had to be filled in and paved. The Quitman (Ga.) Free Press as serts that “the civil war in Spain would have ended long ago if it had not been for the supplies and troops furnished the rebels by Germany and Italy.” Possibly the Free Press right; the Communists from So viet Russia and the radicals from France plus thousands of Red sym pathizers from other countries, in cluding at least two thousand from the United States, would have blown the Spanish people to eternity. The evidence may be found in the back files of any newspaper which pub lishes the news comprehensively and impartially. Moral Wrong an Economic Evil T HE Columbus, Ga., News-Record editorially cites the problem presented by current statistics on the relation between deaths and births; even with the de cline in the death rate, the decline in the number of births presents a population crisis. Statistics quoted by leading insurance companies show, the editorial says, “that the proportion of women of child-bearing age has diminished for many years past and will inevitably continue to do so. This will result in diminished birth rate, even if the present average size of families is maintained.” From every section of the nation come reports of fewer children in public schools. New teachers are now ap pointed only to succeed those who die, are retired or re sign; there are few new schools being opened anywhere in the United States, and those due only to a shift in population. The government is devoting its attention to financing homes “for the typical American family of four,” the parents and two children. All history teaches that a dwindling population pre sages a dying civilization. Only the flow of immigra tion has retarded the evil; immigration has been stop ped. There are those who get a certain satisfaction out of lack of immigration and a dwindling birth rate among the children of recent immigrants as well as among the descendents of immigrants of the eighteenth and seven teenth centuries. But a declining potential market for our cotton and other Southern products due to birth control, which the Catholic Church condemns as sin, will demonstrate again that sin is an economic as well as a moral evil. If the people of Spain were not with TYanco, his entire army would not be large enough to police the territory he has captured, not to mention carry on the war against the Leftists. The people' need no polic ing; they maintain order them selves. The Leftists asserted that their fight is with “the hierarchy,” and to prove it they go out and burn down the churches and kill - humble and defenseless nuns, priests and people. Their fight is with religion, and they make no pretense about it in this country, where you can hear relig ion denounced by them from soap boxes in the principal cities of our country. The Leftists are anti-religious, but that does not make the Rightists and religion synonymous. "In medio state virtus;” the Church travels her .confident Way in the middle of -the one-way road of progress toward real liberty, equality and fraternity, be ing diverted neither by the radicals of the Left or the reactionaries of the Right. Head Coach Harry Mehre, of the University of Georgia football team for the past ten years, and connected with the University for fourteen years, has resigned. Coach Mehre’s teams defeated Yale five consecutive times; in ten seasons his teams have won 59 games, lost 34 and tied six. This year’s team lost only three games, to Holy Cross. Florida and Tennessee, and to Holy Cross and Florida by the slightest possible margins; it tied Georgia Tech and Auburn and defeated Oglethorpe, South Carolina, Clemson. Mercer and Tulane. Mr. Mehre did a splendid job of coaching at Georgia; he did a magnificent one as a representative of the traditions of Notre Dame, his alma mater. He is enshrined perma nently in the hearts of University of Georgia men of his years at Athens, and in the hearts of housands of its alumni. The Jews have a new problem, ac cording to Harper’s. They eat un leavened bread. Motzoth to recali the persecution by Pharaoh, and This amount of money could have fed a great number of people, but who can estimate the number ot young lives it prevented from being crushed beneath the wheels of great trucks when the little ones tried to get in a game of baseball in the busy streets? And who can determine the number of young lives it snatch ed from careers of crime by making available facilities for recreation in a wholesome atmosphere? And who can calculate the millions of words of scorn poured out by the Commun ists on the Catholic Church without one word of recognition of the self- sacrificing labors of its Father Mc Caffreys, whose worries would be so substantially mitigated by apply ing such sums in other directions? Incidentally, the playground is fqr all the children of the neighborhood? not merely those of the parish. The last time we were in Holy Cross Church, Father McCaffrey urged all at the Mass to drop some thing. into the poor box at the door as they went out. “And if you must make a. choice between the church collection and the poor box,” he said, “choose the poor box.” While we have wandered to the Times Square region—we never know where we shall end up when we start this column and want n« smart suggestions from the audience —we might quote Anthony B. Fergu son, president of the Advertising Club of Harlem,-the greatest Negro community in the world, who is quoted in the Macon Telegraph as saying that although the Negro con stitutes only 5.1 per cent of the pop ulation of New York City, he com prises 14.5 per cent of the unem ployed. Editor Henry McIntosh, editor ot The Albany Herald, has organized the “I Don't Believe It” Club. When the members are told any gossip or scandal .they wait patiently to the end .then look the informer in the eye and say: “I don’t believe it.” We have joined the club, and, in the absence of conclusive evidence, we don’t believe what the New Dealers tell us about the Conserva-* fives, or what the Conservati-ves tell us about the New Dealers, or what the Republicans tell us about the Democrats, or what the Democrats tell us about the Republicans, or what the C. I. O. tells us about the A. F. of L., or vice versa, or what the capitalists tell us about both, or what both tell us about the capital ists. Make out your own list. ‘Augusta Yeggmen Being Sought for Job in Greenville,” according to the Greenville (S. C.) News. We have experts in all lines in Augusta. Rush Burton of the Lavonia -Ga.) Times, is worried about his two- year-old grandson who goes to Church with a nv-';le and romes home with six cents. H R.