Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, May 3, 1958
* '• ‘
JOSEPH BREIG
New Springtime Of History
From time to time in the past
couple of years, I have been
criticized for what some readers
have considered my pollyanna
optimism.
I have never quarrelled with
these people.
My only reply
has been to
remind them,
mildly, that I
was viewing
with alarm 30
years ago,
when they
were pointing
predicting a bright future for
the world.
I was looked upon as a pessi
mist then.
The difference in judgments
has been due to a difference in
facts understood and faced.
THIRTY YEARS AGO, capi
talism seemed hellbent upon its
own ruination, and deaf to all
appeals for reform; while almost
nobody realized the menace, the
black wickedness, the damnable
hypocrisy and the insane fanti-
cism of the communist conspira
cy against all nations.
with pride and
Somewhat to my surprise, I
have lived to see capitalism rev
olutionized — and that peace
ably — while communism’s
cruelty and falsity have torn
the blinders from the eyes of
everyone but fools and scoun
drels.
I have seen nations uniting
for defense; truth prevailing
over abominable lies; the United
Nations surviving where the
League of Nations collapsed.
And I have felt the wind of a
new spirit of social justice, of
concern for fellowmen, and of
humility blowing across the
world.
I HAVE SEEN A GIGANTIC
TURNING toward God, includ
ing millions obeying the direc
tions of Our Lady of Fatima, 1
have watched while an un
known priest, Father Patrick
Peyton, became world-renown
ed by preaching family prayer
to an astoundingly receptive
mankind.
For those and other reasons, I
have concluded — and have
said publicly — that the worst
is over, and that the strange,
wonderful, touching and exas
perating family of the human
race was about to find itself
making a breakthrough into a
noble new age.
I have been rather alone in
my opinion — as I was alone in
the opposite judgment 30 years
ago. But now I find myself,
astonishingly, in the best com
pany on earth—that of Pope
Pius XII.
I AM AWARE THAT THE
HOLY FATHER would like it
to be little mentioned that
Christ appeared to him in his
apparently fatal illness a few
years ago, and gave him to
understand that God willed that
he continue to lead the Church
for some time to come. But I
think it wise to remember that
fact when weighing the force
of what Pope Pius XII con
cludes about the future.
He voiced his judgment a few
weeks ago in a supremely con
fident — indeed a soaringly
cheerful — address to 100,000
members of Italian Catholic Ac
tion youth in St. Peter Square.
Pope Pius never speaks with
out due thought. But in this
case it seems to me that his
words become even more im
pressive in the light of the fact
that only a fortnight earlier, he
had cancelled his anniversary
celebrations to show his dis
pleasure with an anti-clerical
smear campaign in Italy.
THE POPE'S HAPPY OUT
LOOK, in other words, was due
to his considered belief that, the
positive factors enormously out
weigh the negative in our time.
What did he say?
Pie said that “all the world is
reawakening,” and mankind
“stands on the threshold of a
new springtime in history.”
Humanity, said Pope Pius, is
emerging from its “dark winter”
of errors, lies, hatred, dishon
esty, broken families, and dev
astated and disunited nations.
He spoke of the vast increase
in works of welfare; of the al
most unbelievable progress of
science, and of the delivery of
men from crushing manual la
bor. And he continued:
“Also in the life and activity
of the spirit, there are evident
signs of reawakening . . . We
also note evident signs of a re
awakening in social life.
“For the first time, men are
aware not only of their increas
ing independence, but also of
their marvelous unity. That
means that humanity will be
come always more ready to feel
itself a part of the Mystical
Body of Christ.”
In this “springtime of the
world,” the Holy Father said,
there will yet be some “winds
and storms.” But “there is pass
ing through the world a voice of
reaction against evil.”
So it has seemed to me also.
Theology
For The
Layman
(By F. J. Sheed)
As we have seen, a steady
gaze will show us that a being
which has no parts, no element
in it that is not the whole of it,
cannot occupy space. Continue
to gaze, and we see that it can
not be chang
ed into any
thing else, it
cannot by any
natural pro
cess be de
stroyed. We
have at last
arrived at the
deepest truth
about spirit — spirit is the being
which has a permanent hold
upon what it is, so that it can
never become anything else. Ma
terial beings can be destroyed
in the sense that they can be
broken up into their constituent
parts: what has . parts can be
taken apart. But a partless be
ing lies beyond all this. Nothing
can be taken from it, because
there is nothing in it but its
whole self. We can conceive, of
course, of its whole self being
taken out of existence. This
would be annihilation. But just
as only God can create from no
thing by willing a being to ex
ist, so only God can reduce a
being to nothing by willing it
no longer, to exist: and for the
human soul, God has told us
that He will not thus will it out
of existence.
A spiritual being, therefore,
cannot lose its identity. It can
experience changes in its rela
tion to other beings — e.g. it
can gain new knowledge or lose
knowledge that it has; it can
transfer its love from this object
to that; it can develop its power
over matter; its own body can
cease to respond to its animat
ing power and death follows
for the body — but with all
these changes it remains itself,
conscious of itself, permanent in
the flux of things, indeed by
memory dominating the flux
and bringing the parts under
tribute, casting its hold forward
over the future.
The student to whom all this
is new should keep on thinking
over these truths, turning back
to them at odd moments — on
(Continued on Page Six)
I
I
(By David Liplak)
Q. Has there been a change in
recent years with regard to the
ruling that women should wear
hats in church? Lately on sev
eral occasions I've noticed wo
men going into church without
hats, even for Benediction. It
seems that the custom of not
wearing hats in church is more
prevalent among younger wo
men and teenage girls.
A. Women are generally ob
liged to have their heads cov
ered while attending church
services, unless approved cus
tom or special circumstances
dictate otherwise. Men, on the
other hand, ordinarily must re
move their hats during sacred
functions. These rules hold true
regardless of whether worship
is being conducted inside or out
side of church.
SO READS the law of the
Church, as defined in Canon
1262:
"Both inside and outside the
church, men shall assist at sac
red ceremonies with their heads
uncovered, unless the approved
usage of the people or particu
lar circumstances require a dif
ferent practice; women (shall
assist at them) with heads cov
ered and dressed modestly, es
pecially when they approach the
holy table."
BY VIRTUE of a tradition
dating from Apostolic times, and
explicitly mentioned by St. Paul
(I Corinthians 11, 5 sq.), it is
also common practice for wo
men to cover their heads when
ever making a visit to church
or any place wherein the Bless
ed Sacrament is reserved. This
tradition, as St. Paul implies,
is based on reasons of propriety
and modesty.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN that
a woman must never venture in
side a church without a head
covering. Because many women
nowadays are apparently not in
the habit of wearing a hat every
(Continued on Page Six)
Question
Box
—-—* "—-—^—- -
Jottings ...
(By BARBARA C. JENCKS)
rrr r r r r r -rrrrrrrjj
.. . . . /j,,. |
• FIFTY YEARS seems like
a great many years. What
would I wish to accomplish in
fifty years? What do you wish
to be at fifty? If you have pass
ed fifty and had the opportunity
would you do things over much
differently? Fifty years is a
great number of years; it is half
a century in the measure of his
tory. How many of us right
now could account for our
years? They dribble past us one
by one. Year piles upon year
and we do not change. We plan
to reorganize next year or clean
house next month. The years
pass and we are the same. We
are no bigger or better in the
eyes of God with the passing of
time. What have we done with
our talents and our time? Fifty
years is a long time to waste in
empty pursuits. Fifty years,
however, is a very short time
when it is spent in the service
of God.
• A VERY DEAR nun friend
of mine marked her golden jub
ilee of religious profession last
week. For fifty years, she has
been bound to God by vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience.
She has lived these vows around
the clock in Ireland, France,
England, India and the United
States. She is a missionary and
has served God in his poor and
needy in the far-flung family
of the world. Think what fifty
years represents in the nun’s
case! Besides and more import
ant than all else, she has spent
several hours of every one of
these days of these fifty relig
ious years before the Blessed
Sacrament in chapels of her or
der across the face of the earth.
Would that we all could look
to or back on such golden years.
Such a life makes most of us in
our little pursuits and with our
little toys like midgets and
dwarfs. My life was blessed
when it brushed briefly but
meaningly against this-quite re
markable Franciscan Mission
ary of Mary. She taught me
what courage was and faith and
dedication to God. She was a
soldier of Christ in the strict
est sense. I would only wish
that some of her experiences
could be written for public per-
usual but I think far too much
of her to cause her embarrass
ment in a eulogy on occasion of
her jubilee. Her fifty years of
unflinching dedication are her
best testimony. Those of us who
are fortunate enough to know
her as a friend know some of
the milestones which have
marked those years and as we
respect and admire her, we also
love her.
• TODAY on campus, a
sister was buried. She was just
fifty. I watched from my room
window the long procession:
probably 200 black garbed nuns
with bowed heads moving slow
ly in procession with the stark
black small casket of the sister
following on a caison-like car
riage. The bell in the church
tolled the number of years of
her profession. It was a deeply
beautiful thing to watch. One
sister who is just fifty has died,
her fifty years, the later filled
with much physical pain, were
God’s. Another Sister has spent
all fifty years in the service of
God. Somehow in her late teens
she knew exactly what she
wanted to do with that life of
hers. They both chose well. How
good it is to live in the Lord.
How great it must be to die in
the Lord. Fifty years is a very
long time or it is a very short
time.
A few more weeks and more
New Year’s resolutions will be
carried out—and quietly buried.
Experience helps a man recog
nize his mistakes after he makes
the-same one several times. -
Q T
Li
R A N G E 8 U T T R U
,itfle-K itown Facts
By M. J. MURRAY
- 5 Wcs«turvc*lv^
for Catholics
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THE OLDEST M BEIT TANy- depicts
the WHOLE LIFE of Christ ft OKI
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MONTREAL
BUILT 182q, REPLACING EARLIER
CHURCHES OF 165-6 AND (672.
ACCOMMODATES 12,000
PEOPLE, AND IS ONE OF THE
LARGEST CHURCHES ON -
THE NORTH AMERICAN
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7?' CENTURY ABBESS OF WHITBY, '
VEUYEREO THE TOWN FROM A PLAGUE OF SNAKES.
SHARING OUR TREASURE
Insurance Agent "Sells" Catholic Faith
By REV. JOHN A. OBRIEN, Ph. D.
►^ AAAAA ^ A ^J Universi1 *' of Nol?e DamG >.
By Rev, John A. O'Brien, Ph.D.
(The University of Notre Dame)
Mr. John O. Shields, 803 South
Meramec St., Clayton, Missouri,
a member of Immaculate parish,
is a life insurance agent who has
used his salesmanship to “sell”
the Catholic faith to four per
sons and is
currently in-
struct! n g
three pros-
pects. He
takes an act
ive part in the
Catholic Cen
sus and Infor
mation Pro
gram which Archbishop Ritter
launches each year throughout
the St. Louis archdiocese. For
four successive years that cru
sade has averaged more than a
thousand converts.
“I believe in the life insurance
I sell,” began Mr. Shields, “and
I also believe that the Catholic
religion faithfully practiced is
an eternal life insurance. Hence
I wouldn’t be true to my con
viction if I didn’t try to sell the
Faith to others.
“I explained to my sister-in-
law, Marjorie Shields, that it
would be worthwhile looking
into the teachings of the Cath
olic Church, of which her hus
band and children are members.
I pointed out that a family is
more united when they are
bound together by the ties of
a common faith, and explained
that she would not be pressured
into joining the Church, and
indeed wouldn’t even be admit
ted unless she believed in it.
“Marjorie perceived that she
had nothing to lose, and perhaps
much to gain, by taking a course
of instruction. So I took her to
the Inquiry Forum conducted by
Father Harkness, S.J., at St.
Francis Xavier Church. He has
been giving public instructions
for years and inquirers feel free
to attend since they are not ask
ed to commit themselves and
are not monopolizing his time.”
“Yes,” I said, “he’s been a
pioneer in the use of the In
quiry Forum and has sent me
copies of ingenious drawings he
uses in his instructions. He has
received hundreds of converts
and helped to spread the use of
the Inquiry Forum to many par
ishes.”
“When the three months
course ended,” continued Mr.
Shields, “Marjorie saw that the
Catholic religion is the one true
Faith and embraced it. Now her
family is more closely united
than ever, with all attending
Mass and receiving Holy Com
munion together.
“This was the approach I used
also with Carl W. Lothman,
whose wife and daughter are
Catholics. 1 took Carl to Father
Harkness’ Inquiry Forum and he
had nearly completed it when
he. was stricken with a heart
attack and died suddenly. Since
he had expressed a desire to em
brace the faith, Bishop Leo
Byrne, pastor of Immaculata,
ruled that he had received bap
tism of desire and buried him
from the Church. ’
“As a result of reading Win
ning Converts (University of
Notre Dame Press), I was in
spired to install and service a
pamphlet rack in a neighbor
hood drug store. Mrs. Carl John
son took from it a pamphlet
which opened her eyes to the
divine origin of the Catholic
Church. She phoned me that she
and her husband wanted to
learn more about the Catholic
religion.
“So I arranged for their in
struction with the Fathers at St.
Mary Magdalen parish, R i c h-
mond Heights, in which they
reside. Three months later both
of them were baptized and they
are now devout and enthusias
tic Catholics. It shows the im
portance of having well-stock
ed pamphlet racks not only in
church vestibules but also in
bus, air and railroad terminals
and in stores.
: “Right now I’m instructing
three prospective . converts and
find it intensively interesting.
I’m using Finding Christ's
Church (Ave Maria Press, Notre
Dame, Indiana), to excellent ad
vantage. Please pray that God
will give them the gift of faith
and lead them to the baptismal
font.”
HISTORIC BOOKS TO LIBRARY
A 1745 first edition of Charles Linnaeus’ “Flora Suecica,” a
work on botany, gets an approving inspection from Father
Colman Farrell, O.S.B., at left, Librarian, St. Benedict’s Col
lege, Atchison, Kan., and Rt. Rev. Cuthbert McDonald,
O.S.B., President of the college. The rare volume is part of
a collection of 194 old books given to the college by an
anonymous donor, as a memorial to the late Rev. Edmund
J. Cummins, of Plaltsburg, Mo. The collection consists of
works by classic authors of ancient and modem literature,
scientific pioneers, and scholars in many fields, from the
I6U1 to.the 19th Century. (NC Photos)
The Plight Of The Older Worker
BACKDROP
THE
Almost since the day he took
office more than four years ago,
Secretary of Labor James P.
Mitchell has been begging in
dustry to let down the barriers
to the employment of the
older work
er — the man
or woman
who has pass
ed 50 years of
age.
With untir
ing zeal and
unflagging en
ergy he has
pleaded the cause of workers,
who, when they lose a job after
passing the prime of life, find
it difficult, if not impossible, to
get another. He has caused stu
dies to be made of the proficien
cy of the so-called older worker
in an effort to break down the
prejudice of employers against
him.
All of these studies support
the conclusion that the worker
passed 50 is just as productive
as a man in his twenties or
thirties. Yet the problem of the
older worker remains unsolved.
The pitiful plight of men who
find the gates of employment
locked against them because of
their age is now engaging the
attention of a group of Sena
tors — Hubert H. Humphrey, of
Minnesota; Richard L. Neuber-
ger, of Oregon; Estes Kefauver,
of Tennessee, and Pat McNa
mara, of Michigan.
OUTMODED PRACTICES
They have introduced a bill
providing for a White House
conference to be called by the
President not later than Dec. 31
of this year to consider the out-
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
moded practices in the employ
ment and compulsory prema
ture retirement of middle-aged
and older persons.
Humphrey was moved to pro
pose government action by the
almost tearful pleading of a
man who called on him at his
office in the Senate office build
ing. This man, who was 53, in
good health and eager to work,
told the Senator in tones of des
peration that he was unable to
get a job because of his age.
“They say I am too old,” said
the man, who had had steady
employment until he lost his job
less than a year ago. “I am 53
and have two daughters in high
school and boy in junior high.
My wife is not too well and
she worries about me. What can
I say to them, Senator? Can I
say I cannot support you any
more because I am too old?
Can’t the government do some
thing?”
Humphrey believes that the
prejudice against the old work
er is a survival from the last
century when, because of rigor
of toil and the primitive state
of medical diagnosis and treat
ment, men reached their un
productive years early and died
at an early age. Even as late as
1900, the average life expec
tancy was only 46 years.
Conceptions of impairments
due to old age formed then,
Humphrey points out, still
seem to have currency among
employers today. Yet in recent
years, thanks to the widespread
use of labor saving devices, men
are not worn out at 50. Not only
that, they live longer — ave
rage life expectancy of a male
is now 67 years — and this
means that their working years
must be prolonged if they are
not to become embittered wards
of the state m the declining
years of their life.
STEADY WORKERS
The assumption that a man of
50 is not as good a worker as a
younger man has been tho
roughly exploded by controlled
tests comparing the output of
workers m the two groups.
The Department of Labor’s
studies show that the older
worker’s average output in a
factory is not appreciably dif
ferent from that of workers in
their twenties and thirties. The
older worker, moreover, has
been shown to be more depend
able than the younger worker.
He is absent trom his work
bench fewer days in the year
and is less prone to change jobs.
A study by the University of
Illinois of 3,000 workers 60 years
of age or older, produced sim
ilar evidence of employability.
This demonstrated that there is
no speeific age at which work
ers become unproductive. Su
pervisors reported that on the
whole workers of 60 years of age
or older were as good as, or su
perior to the average younger
workers with reference to over
all performance, absenteeism,
dependability, work volume and
human relations.
Considering all this proof that
the man who has reached 50
has many productive years of
labor ahead, it is a crying shame -
that employers continue to give
him the cold shoulder when he
seeks the opportunity to support
The Alcoholic's Family
This We Believe
If some member of our fam
ily were to develop what seem
ed to be a serious physical ill
ness, very few of us would un
dertake to doctor the sick per
son ourselves. We would be
afraid that, in our ignorance,
we might do
the sick per-
s o n more
h a * m than
good. If we
did have to
care for such
a patient, we
should want
to learn all
that we could
ness.
This same principle should
guide us if a member of our
family is a victim of alcoholism.
With the best of intentions we
can, through ignorance, hinder
rather than help the problem
drinker. We should know for ex
ample that alcoholism simply
will not respond to scolding, to
coaxing, to reasoning or to per
suasion. To say to the alcoholic,
“If you really loved me, you’d
quit drinking,” is even less ef
fective than saying to a tubercu
lar patient, “If you loved me,
you’d stop coughing.”
Similarly ineffective is an ap
peal to religion. To tell the al
coholic sufferer, “If you would
pray more and go to confession
and Holy Communion oftener,
you could overcome your drink
ing,” makes about as much
sense as to tell the diabetic, “If
you practiced your religion bet
ter you could burn up your
blood sugar like everyone else.”
The alcoholic does need the help
of prayer and the sacraments to
give himself spiritual strength;
but these means of grace, as we
know, are not intended by God
to provide physical or psycho
logical therapy.
An especially unfortunate ap
proach is to say to the problem
drinker, “Aren’t you ashamed
to be breaking your children’s
hearts and disgracing them in
front of their friends, not to
mention the bad example you
give them? Don’t you care for
your children at alJ?” The al
coholic does love his children,
his wife, his parents. Whether
or not he admits it to anyone
else, he does realize what he is
doing to them; realizes it yet
cannot stop. As a consequence
his guilt feelings are intensi
fied, his interior agony increas
es, and he drinks harder to kill
the pain. This is the alcoholic’s
living nightmare: to watch him
self crushing the ones he loves
the most, and yet not to be able
to stay in his own hand.
There are so many things that
the wife (or parents) and family
of an alcoholic needs to know.
They need first of all to know
the nature of the disease with
which they are dealing. For that
purpose a book like “Primer on
(By FATHER LEO TRESE)
Alcoholism” by Marty Mann
(published by Rinehart & Co.)
should be read. This book, and
many others on the problem,
can be procured at any public
library or book store. Factual
information also can be had for
the asking from the National
Council on Alcoholism, 2 East
103rd St., New York 29, N. Y.
Yet, even with an understand
ing of the disease, there still are
many problems that face the al
coholic’s family daily. Should I
pour his liquor down the drain
when I find it, or at least hide it
from him? (Strangely enough,
the answer to that one is no).
How can I protect the children
from being harmed by their fa
ther’s condition, and what can I
tell him? If I take the children
and leave, will that wake him
up or will it finish him? What
should my attitude be when he
is sullen and irritable during
his sobering-up periods? Should
I try to check his excess by go
ing with him when he is on a
drinking spell? These are the
kinds of questions that arise.
Members of the problem
drinker’s family circle should
know that there exists for them
an association which parallels
Alcoholics Anonymous. Origi
nally this fellowship of persons
whose lives are affected by an
alcoholic sufferer called them
selves non-Alcoholics Anony
mous. More recently the name
has been shortened to Al-Anon,
and Al-Anon groups now exist
in most cities. A phone call to
the local A A office, (the first
number in the telephone direc
tory) will provide information
concerning the location of the
nearest Al-Anon group. Or in
formation can be obtained from
Al-Anon headquarters, P. O.
Box 1475, Grand Central Annex,
New York 17, N. Y.
Where no Al-Anon group ex
ists, any two or more interested
persons can get a group started.
AA headquarters or Al-Anon
headquarters gladly will fur
nish all needed assistance in
establishing a new group.
Some members of Al-Anon
are wives, husbands or other
family members of a person
who already is a member of
AA. An AA’s task of self-re
habilitation is made much eas
ier when those close to him
learn, as members of Al-Anon,
how they can support him in
his efforts. Other participants in
Al-Anon are family members
whose problem drinker is not
yet a member of AA, perhaps
not yet ready to admit that he
needs help. In this case the fam
ily members learn how they can
cope with the problem which for
the present they must live with.
They learn too the attitudes that
will most help their loved one
towards an ultimate recovery.
There is much that family
and friends can do to help the
victim of alcoholism, if only
they know how to go about it.
Their love for the sufferer
would be questionable indeed,
if through culpable ignorance,
they failed to extend to him
the help that only they can give.
At least the people who aren’t
thankful for what they receive
should be thankful for what they
escape.
0% lulbtin
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 MARKWALTER
Managing Editor
Vol. 38 Saturday, May 3, 1958 No. 24
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 T Auditor
JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta — __ Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary