Bulletin (Monroe, Ga.) 1958-1962, April 19, 1958, Image 4

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PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, April 19, 1958. The Soviet's Good Humor Man JOSEPH BREIG Many A Mason Must Fool ... My Guess is that many a Ma son must feel slightly ill over the situation in Oregon. Scottish rite 33rd degree Ma sons in that state have teamed up with POAU in an effort to take free text* books away form children in Gat h ol i c schools. POAU, if you have for gotten, is short for Protestants and Other ___ __ Americans United for Separa tion of Church and State. Its chief tool in this noble en deavor is what it calls “separa tion of church and state.” POAU’s main reason for be ing is to makes things difficult for Catholic Americans. POAU HAS NO USE for the separation set forth in the Con stitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establish ment of religion.” That means that Congress is forbidden to set up a govern ment church and compel people to adhere or contribute to it. The Constitution does not sat isfy POAU. POAU wants “sep aration” to mean that religious citizens (especially Catholic cit izens) are not entitled to the same government benefits as non-religious citizens. In practice, POAU policies add up to government discrimi nation against Catholic Ameri cans. POAU is nothing if not small; nothing if not petty. POAU does not want children in religious (for which read Catholic) schools to ride in school buses. POAU does not want them to enjoy the services of public health doctors or nurses. POAU does not want Catholic American youngsters to get any of the government aids that oth er children get — including' textbooks. POAU wants hospitals ope rated by religious denomina tions to be excluded from fed eral aid. SURELY, SAID THE PHY SICIAN who heads the staff of one hospital, POAU “does not expect reasonable men to be lieve that the operation of. a modern hospital staffed by doc tors and nurses of all creeds, and caring for men of all faiths and no faith alike ... is propa gation of religion in the sense that funds used for such pur pose are for the establishment of a religion.” Wrong, doctor. Precisely that is what POAU wants people to believe. POAU fought a proposal that Congress give religious schools the same excise tax exemption enjoyed by public schools for necessary educational equip ment. If a religious school buys a typewriter to teach typing, POAU wants the school taxed. Oh, POAU can be piddling small. IN OREGON, Scottish rite Masons, by their own admission, are working with POAU to de prive Catholic school children of free textbooks. To this end, the rite’s educa tion committee circularized a statement to 2,000 public school teachers. The statement falsely alleged that Catholic schools teach “gov ernmental doctrines that are foreign and contrary to the American concepts of govern ment.” “This is evident,” said the Scottish rite statement, ‘by sim ply reading the textbooks.” This amounts to saying that the State of Oregon has been giving un- American textbooks to Catholic children. STUFF AND NONSENSE. Anybody is perfectly free to ex amine any textbook used in any Catholic school in the land. Any body who will do so will find that the charges are prepos terous. The Masonic statement went on to say that the Church (the statement calls it a “sect”) “de mands that the public support its sectarian schools.” And fur ther, that the Church “schemes and demands for itself a mo nopoly on all education.” More stuff and nonsense. A week before the Masonic falsehoods were distributed, Gov. Robert D. Holmes of Ore gon denounced the campaign against free textbooks as plain downright bigotry. One thing is certain — it sure is small. It sure is petty. It sure is enough to make many a Ma son feel slightly ill. Theology For The Layman IS W V? c out I K U Little-Known Facts for Catholics C\, I ftiiir>r>A\/ _ . . . By M. j. MURRAY OapTrfjM. N.C.W c. I»m» g«n*» 56 have: been - ■ - 9 AT M (By F. J. Sliced) We have now come to the hardest part of our examination of spirit. I approach the writing of this section with dread. It will have much sweat and strain in it, for you, for me; but everyt hing will be easier afterwards. We begin with a state ment that sounds nega tive, but isn’t. A spirit dif fers from a material thing by having no parts. Once we have mastered the meaning of this, we are close to our goal. A part is any element in a being which is not the whole of it, as my chest is a part of my body, or an electron a part of an atom. A spirit has no parts. There is no element in it which is not the whole of it. There is no division of parts as there is in matter. Our body has parts, each with its own specialized function: it uses its lungs to breathe with, its eyes to see with, its legs to walk with. Our soul has no parts, for it is a spi rit. There is no element in our soul which is not the whole soul. It does a remarkable variety of things — knowing, loving, ani mating a body — but each one of them is done by the whole soul, it has no parts among which to divide them up. This partlessness of spirit is the difficulty for the beginner. Concentrate on what follows,— a being which has no parts dc^es not occupy space. There is hard ly anything one can say to make this truth any clearer: you merely go on looking for it, until suddenly you find your self seeing it. The most any teacher can do is to offer a few observations. Think of anything one pleases that occupies space, and one sees that it must have parts, there must be elements in it which are not the whole of it — this end is not that, the top (Continued on Page Five) YeaO° AT JrAO slNCE (By David Q. Lipiak) Q: In addressing a priest, when does one use the term "Reverend" as distinguished from "Father"? What is the dif ference between the two terms, anyway? A: The term “Reverend” is generally recognized in books of etiquette here in the United States as the formal mode of address not only for priests, but for most non-Catholic ministers and clergymen. “Father,” on the other hand, is the familiar form of address ing a priest employed through most English-speaking coun tries. Its use implies a know- lege of the spiritual fatherhood of the priesthood. Scripturally, the title is based on such pass ages as St. Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians: . . You are my dearly be loved children . . . Yes, you may have len thousand schoolmas ters in Jesus Christ, but not more than one father; it was I that begot you in Jesus Christ . . (I Corinthians IV; 14-15) THE DISTINCTION between “Reverend” and “Father” hing es upon the respective adject ives, formal and familiar. Thus, “Reverend” would properly be used when re- ferring to a priest for mally in print (as in an offi cial newspaper or a program) or when addressing a priest’s name on an envelope, or when intro ducing a priest during a public, more solemn occasion (a gradu ation ceremony, for instance). When writing the title, the ab breviation “Rev.” is permissible. Being a formal mode of ad dress, however, "Reverend" should always be followed by the priest's full name; i.e.. Rev erend John J. Smith. It is a breach of good manners ever to use the term alone, or together with only the priest's last name; I.e., Reverend Smith. According to standard etiquette manuals, there is no exception to this rule. FURTHER, whenever the pos- (Continued on Page Five) • * • VIM WWTTl rw»*vffv?i ! Jottings .. ! (By BARBARA C. JENCKS) ► ► AAAAA AAAjji Ail ji A, • WHERE SHALL we seek a hero? What qualities do you think are necessary for heroism? What type of person in history do you consider a hero? Is it one who has already been estab lished in memory’s hall of fame? Is it one who died successful or with the world labeling him as a failure? What one quality would you have in your hero? Conviction? Courage? Idealism? Dedication? Ambition? Humili ty? Recently Saturday Review treated this subject of heroism. It listed forty heroic figures: lit erary, artistic, patriotic. It asked readers to select three of the number whose quality and cha racter most appealed to them: They were a strange assortment ranging from St. Francis down to Voltaire and including Ein stein, Caesar and William of Orange. The editors were also interested in finding what read ers would select as qualities for heroism. In a questionnaire at the end of the article, it asked: Which great historical figure would you recall to deal with the present world crisis based on their ability to understand the nature of the problem and their ability to inspire a follow ing of leadership. • THIS QUESTION, I threw out to my class and required a paper on it. The results proved interesting. One felt that there was no one in the past who could cope with the today of Atomic Energy and Sputniks and Recessions. She therefore set out to compose a hero for today. He would have the wis dom of Aquinas, the vision of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and have the leadership of Washington and Lincoln. Another wrote a paper entitled “F i n d Me Somebody New.” She felt that little people who coped with omni-present obstacles like term papers, 2:00 a. m. feedings, supporting a fam ily on a limited income were heroes, too. This all lead to a lively classroom discussion on heroism and heroes in general. Do we want a man who does something heroic or one who is heroic in himself? Must one master himself before he can master others. Ironically the roster of heroic figures listed in the Saturday Review were those who lived immoral lives, com mitted suicide, drank them selves to death, betrayed friends, etc. Is this. the stuff of heroism? • THIS RECALLED an arti cle I once read in a Boston nwespaper following the staging of the play, “Saint Joan.” The reviewers stated that “the plays that capture the imagination are still those that present human beings of heroic character. Play goers want to watch stage men and women who are like us in our human weakness but above and beyond us in courage. What makes Saint Joan great is Joan herself, one of the most heroic women in history. Her heroism lies in the fact that she ig ; true to herself though it costs her life” This would seem to hold a pretty air-tight, sensible defi nition of heroism. Saint Joan is one of my all time hero choices. She had all the qualities to make my kind of hero — cou rage, spirituality, dedication — but dedication to the right cause! Another thought which would combine this discussion of heroes, heroism, little people, dedicated people, courageous people is accented in the Voca tion Month appeal. It takes the stuff which makes heroes to turn a young person’s steps from the secular pursuits of comfort and sensuality and glamour and wealth today towaM a dedicat ed life where all is given to God to be used for others. What better hero type than the priest, the nun, the brother in their hidden lives of sacrifice. Here we find the hero for whom we seek. f r ionS • Vfj: les ia Ojus Moss'd^ Gatby&'c Cnureh, if a. feiuarkabU example of modern, f \ OrdutectUre beiaq developed in post-war' FRAfJCE- -the Peace or Westphalia honed m OSNABAUCK, GERMANY, IN I64J 76 END THE 30 >t/!RS WAPO? Between Catholics and moresTANTs /s strangely : Commemorated in OsNABRuck on October 2s each year ay boys Parading Riding HooOy SHARING OUR TREASURE Gladys Baker's Happiest Day By REV, JOHN A. O'BRIEN, JPh. D. (University of Notre Dame) kAAAAAA The greatest success in getting splendid Catholic books to the mass market has been achieved by Doubleday and Company, New York, publishers of the famed Image Books. Launched by John J. De laney, a young Catholic edi tor of vision and resource fulness, this series of books cove ring a wide variety r ^ of C a t h o lie topics is reaching an audi ence of unprecedented magni tude: 4,000,000 readers. They are the means of lead ing an ever growing number of truth seekers into the Church. This is illustrated by the ex perience of Gladys BYk£r, a fea ture writer for many newspa pers and author of I Had to Know, her conversion story. “For years,” began Miss Bak er, “I’ve read, on an average, a book a night. Following that custom, I opened one night The Road to Damascus, and was so fascinated that I went lickety- split through it. Here was a sharp departure from any book I had ever seen on Catholicism.. Whereas books of Catholic doc trine per se had repelled me, here was a fresh breeze cutting across the ordinary stuffy pre sentation of philosophers and theologians. “It contained the stories of 15 outstanding writers of Eng land, Canada and the United States on their conversion to Catholicism. Here was a group of intellectuals revealing the most intimate experiences lead ing to their finding of security at last in the arms of Mother Church. And revealing as if a Pentecostal coal had touched their lips. “The slender red volume op ened with the story of Evelyn Waugh, British novelist, and ac claimed as one of the most bril liant stylists of our day. He ended his thrilling story with the advice, ‘Come inside. You can not know what the Church is like from the outside.’ That intrigued me. “So too did the story of Rasa- lind Murray, former wife of the great historian Arnold Toynbee and daughter of Professor Gil bert Murray and Lady Mary Howard. I was strangely stirred by her conclusion: ‘Catholicism has been for me the door to a limitless new world of know ledge. If I were to sum up in one word its most essential gift ... I would say Lite.’ “After reading the gripping story of Gretta Palmer, a news- woman like myself, I determin ed to get in touch with her. We had lunch together in the Ritz Garden, and she arranged for my instruction by Monsignor (now Bishop) Sheen. Under the skilled direction of this scholar ly and gracious priest, I read book after book on Catholicism. “The ones which moved me most were those in which noted converts told how they found the fullness of divine truth in the Church founded by Christ Himself. St. Augustine, John Henry Newman, Robert Hugh Benson, Ronald Knox, Sigrid Undset, Jacques Maritain, Tho mas Merton, Gene Fowler and other noted converts were my intellectual and spiritual com panions for several months. And what a galaxy of great souls they are! “Like them I too discovered that Christ had established not a multitude of Churches but one Church, and had given to her the authority to teach all na tions. Monsignor Sheen receiv ed me into the Church and gave me my fisrt Holy Communion. It was the happiest day in my life. I had come home. “It all started when I read The Road io Damascus, now an Image Book. That book will start any truth-seeker on his way to the Catholic Church — the trysting place of all truth and man’s true home on earth.” The moral? Get all the Image Books into your city’s public library. Buy a dozen yourself and circulate them. They will help you share your treasure with many. Washington Newsletter Says That Communism Is More Dangerous Today Than Ever Sometimes the first to suggest a reform is last to accept it. (By J, J. Gilbert) WASHINGTON—From a va riety of authoritative sources re newed warnings have been is sued on the menace of com munism. These seem to be very much needed because of a hobbling' complacency which threatens to overtake the West, and particu larly the United States. One reason ascribed for this com placency is an ignorance of what communism really is. The Kremlin and its confed erates had one of thier “great est years of triumph” in 1957, the U. S. House of Representa tives Committee on Un-Ameri can Activities has reported. The committee maintains that it has come to “the inescapable con clusion that the menace of the international .communist ap paratus increases each day.” Judge Harold R. Medina said “people nowadays are getting so they think communism is on the run and they don’t need to worry anymore.” “That’s not so,” he added. “The hard core of communists are working just as hard as ever. There is more reason now than ever before to fear the communists. They are more dangerous now than ever.” The Judge rates as an au thority. He presided over the 10-month long trial of the 11 top U. S. Communists in 1949, Now comes “Masters of De ceit,” the new book by J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Against a background of some 40 years of close observation of com munists and their activities, he (Continued on Page Five) THE Unless the men in the Krem lin are complete fools, they could not have seriously be lieved that the American peo ple would be taken in by the “let’s-be-pals” gospel which the new Soviet Am bass a dor, Mikhail Men shikov, h a s been spread ing with un- p r e c edented ami ability since he ar rived on our shores two months ago. The siren song the genial So viet good humor man is singing to whoever will listen is so com pletely at variance with the venomous chorus that rises dai ly from the banks of the Volga that no American in his right mind is likely to be deceived by it. If, therefore, there is a pur pose behind the bizarre per formance of the new Ambassa dor —• and there must be one — it cannot be to convince the American people that Moscow has suddenly been seized with a great yearning to be buddies with Americans. Rather one suspects that the Soviet rulers, who, whatever else they may be, are expert propagandists, see an oppor tunity to use the American press and other American media of communication to spread among the peoples of Europe, Africa and the Middle and Far East the message that world tensions would dissappear if the United States would only grasp Rus sia’s out-stretched hand. WIDE CIRCULATION Coming from the Soviet press and radio such sentiments as Ambassador Menshikov has BACKDROP By JOHN C. O’BRIEN been voicing would be consider ed suspect in various parts of the free world. But the Rus sians apparently believe that, reported by the American press and radio as the utterances of a Soviet representative on American soil, they would ac quire a stamp of authenticity they otherwise would not have. Messrs. Bulganin and Khru shchev are familiar enough with the manner in which we operate to know that, however much they may mistrust the billing and cooing of the new Ambassa dor, American newspaper and radio editors will give the wid est circulation to his speeches and interviews. Generous sum maries of his remarks will be carried throughout the world even by the Voice of America, an agency of the government. The picture our friends out side the Iron Curtain will get from American reports will be that of a spokesman for the Soviet government exuding good will and pleading with a reluctant America to meet the Russians half way in a sincere effort to let bygones be bygones. A sample of the sweet reason ableness the Ambassador will be beaming across the seas from our shores was given in a speech the other day to the Washington press corps, the first such appearance by a So viet diplomat in 27 years. The Ambassador recalled the tradition of friendship that had its source in such distant times as the struggle of the young American republic for indepen dence, “when the Russian peo ple supported by every means the natural desire of the Ameri can people to become free.” VILLIFICATION UNABATED He reminded his audience of the partnership between the United States and his country during the Second World War against a common aggressor. “Will this friendship ever be forgotten by our people?” he asked, conveniently overlook ing the efforts of the Soviet government over the years to convince the Russian people that the United States and the oilier western allies had done their utmost during that war to betray and destroy the Soviet Union. And almost at the same mo ment that Menshikov was as suring the American press that the greatest desire of his gov ernment and of the Russian peo ple was to be good neighbors of the United States, the Moscow press and radio were carrying on unabated, their steady cam paign of detraction and villifi- cation. The Russians were told that the United States inspired the French attack on a Tunisian town near the Algeria border. North Korea communists, dom inated by Moscow, kidnapped an American-piloted South Korean plane and a few days later shot down an American military plane near the North-South Ko rean border. Only the Russians would at tempt to maintain such violent ly contradictory positions at one and the same time. And the disturbing thing is that they are fooling a great many of the un committed peoples. A recent poll in New Delhi, the Indian capital, revealed that for every person who thought the United States was doing most to bring about world peace, four thought the Russians were the real seek ers after peace. Help For The Problem Drinker This We Believe When a man or a woman suffers from the disease of al coholism (men out-number wo men five to one), there are two problems presented. There is the drinker’s own problem—his in ability, alone and unaided, to control his appetite for al cohol. Then there is the problem fac- e d by the drinker’s fam ily — a mul tiple problem of emotional, so cial and financial aspects. For the compulsive drinker himself there can be no help unless and until he wants help. This means unless and until he admits to himself that he has a problem, that his drinking is beyond his own control. It is the great tragedy of alcoholism that so many who are afflicted with the disease and who would find help, just will not recog nize the nature of their afflic tion. It takes humility for a man to admit that he is saddled with a burden which he cannot carry alone. Often the victim of alcoholism must hit bottom before he finds the himility that is the prelude to conquest. Even when he faces the fact of his problem, the compulsive drinker is further blocked by a black fear. He knows that any kind of therapy will be aimed at helping him to get along without alcohol. The prospect of days and weeks without al cohol, not to mention a life time, is a vision that he cannot bear to contemplate. If some magic word could be spoken or some drug given that would for ever take away all desire for a drink, he could accept that. But he knows that it isn’t going to be that easy; and so he may re ject all efforts to help him. For the problem drinker who does want help, Alcoholics An onymous is the most readily available, the least expensive and probably the most lasting form of therapy. Alcoholics An onymous (more commonly term ed simply “AA”) is a move ment so well known as to need no lengthly description. It is a voluntary association of men and women, alcoholics only, who are banded together for the sole purpose of helping them selves and each other to get sober and to stay sober. The suc cess of the AA technique of mutual therapy is attested to by the remarkable growth which has characterized the movement since it began about two dec ades ago. At last. report there (By FATHER LEO THESE) were more than 200,000 AA members in 16 countries. That seems like a lot, until we recall that there are an estimated 4,000.000 victims in our own country alone. The AA members meet week ly in their local groups, with out dues and without officers. Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief — they come from every walk of life, including the clergy. It is in the weekly meetings, plus the in-between assistance given to each other in moments of crisis, that the members of AA progress through the following “Twelve Steps:” 1. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unman ageable. 2. We came to believe that a Power greater than our selves could restore our sanity. 3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we under stand Him. 4. We made a search ing and fearless inventory of ourselves. 5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to an other human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these de fects of character. 7. We humbly asked Him to remove our short comings. 8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. We made direct amends to such people when ever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. We continued to take per sonal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spi ritual awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others, and to prac tice these principles in all our affairs. Alcoholics Anonymous is as close as the telephone. “AA” is the very first listing in almost every telephone directory. The problem drinker who can sum mon the courage to lift the re ceiver and to dial the local AA office, is on the way to re covery; he has taken the first step. If he fears to commit him self to the extent of a phone call, a written request to the AA office will bring explana tory literature by return mail, with only a box number show ing as the return address. Or the victim of alcoholism can write to AA Headquarters, P. O. Box 459, Grand Central Annex, New York 17, N. Y. Whether he tel ephones or writes, the inquirer should know that the person who answers will be an alcohol ic like himself. There are no “outsiders,” no professional re formers in AA. Everyone who works in A A is a volunteer who is fighting the problem himself or herself. 3% lulbttn 416 8TH ST., AUGUSTA, GA. Published fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Reverend Arch bishop-Bishop of Savannah, the Most Reverend Bishop of Atlanta, and the Right Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont. Entered as second class matter at the Post Office, Monroe, Georgia, and accepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided by paragraph (e) of section 34.40, Postal Laws and Regulations. REV. FRANCIS J. DONOHUE REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN Editor Savannah Edition Editor Atlanta Edition JOHN MARK WALTER Managing Editor Vo[ - 38 Saturday, April 19, 1958 No. 23 ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1957-1958 GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus __ President E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honorary Vice-President MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon Vice-President TOM GRIFFIN, Atlanta Vice-President NICK CAMERIO, Macon , _ Secretary JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta Treasurer ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary MISS C.ECILE FERRY. Augusta Financial Secretary