Published By The
Catholic Laymen's
Ass'n Of Georgia
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH EDITION
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH
Serving
Georgia's 88
Southern Counties
Vol. 39, No. 4.
MONROE, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1958
10c Per Copy — $3 a Year
Pilgrims Visit Ireland And England
History Brought To Life
By Visit To Ancient Ruins
This is the second of a series
on the Savannah Diocesan Pil-
grimayc to Lourdes.
By Rl. Rev. T. James
McNamara, V.F.
It is 8:00 o’clock the night of
Tuesday, April 22nd. Awaiting
the Savannah Diocesan Lourdes
Pilgrimage on the runway of
Idlewild Airport, New York, is
the giant Trans World Airliner
with accommodations for 103
passengers.
With only 23 passengers book
ed for the crossing, our Pilgrim
age members have the plane
pretty much to Themselves. The
skies are overcast and a misty
cold rain is falling, but nothing
can chill the radiant enthusiasm
of the members of the Pilgrim
age Party. A brief pause on the
steps of the plane for a picture
and then aboard.
Soon New York is behind us,
the broad Atlantic below us and
Ireland ahead of us. We were
not too long in flight when the
clock showed an advance of
five hours.
Moved along by favorable tail
winds and what seemed a quick
ly rising sun the first of the
many thrills of our Pilgrimage
was experienced. There was Ire
land with its. fascinating coat
of variable green below us —
a lovely countryside which
seemed to spell a hundred thou
sand welcomes. And indeed, the
countryside’s spelling was so ac
curate because we were no soon
er on the runway of Shannon
Airport than we heard our name
called. There to greet us were
priests of some of the Clare
County parishes who had come
to welcome us in their own
name and in the name of our
own Archbishop O’Hara. They
were soon joined by Mr. Keyes,
brother of Sister Mary Michael,
Superior of St. Mary’s Home,
Savannah. With the River Shan
non, famed in song and story,
on our left, we were soon on our
way by motorcoach to Killarney
and its lovely lakes and hos
pitable International Hotel.
The next morning we learned
why the Irish can weep in their
laughter and why their beauti
ful and tuneful lyrics suggest
tears as well as smiles. It all re
flects the bright sunshine which
floods Ireland and which, still
shining, is so often moistened
by a gentle falling rain. So it
was with us the next morning
when we left the International
Hotel for Mass. No sooner had
we stepped out into the bright
sunshine than the rain, more
soothingly than threatening, en
veloped us.
Filled with the beauty of the
countryside which we had trav
elled the day before from Shan
non to Killarney, with a sort of
Fire
Damages
Rectory
AUGUSTA — Fire swept the
second and third floors of Sac
red Heart Rectory on the eve
ning of Sunday, July 13th,
Firemen from Engine Com
panies 2, 3, 4, 6 and 9 responded
to the fire. Through their ef
forts the blaze was confined to
the west section of the Rectory.
Fire officials have placed the
damage in excess of $8,000.
The work of the firemen pre
vented what could have been a
disasterous fire because Sac
red Heart School is next door to
the rectory, and Sacred Heart
Church is located on Greene
Street, directly to the rear of
the Rectory.
The Jesuit Fathers, who staff
Sacred Heart will have use of
part of the large rectory which
was built many years ago to
house the faculty of Sacred
Heart College which was op
erated by the Jesuits.
avaricious avidity we entered
the Motorcoach for the trip to
Dublin. The beauty of the day
before was again in evidence
but not as consistently, because
the sequence of farms and old
oastle ruins was not as sequen
tial. Now we were passing
through, from time to time, an
ciently-established urban areas
such as Cork and Waterford, all
of which flooded our memory
with reminiscences bolstered by
ancestry and long ago instilled
SAVANNAH — In a solemn
ceremony held at Belmont Ab
bey Cathedral in Belmont on
Friday, July 11, Father Aug
ustine W. Cunningham, O.S.B.,
made his final religious pro
fession.
Frater Augustine is the son
of Mr, and Mrs. Bernard W.
Cunningham of Savannah.
Known to his friends in Savan
nah as “Bill,” Frater Augustine
was born in Louisville, Ken
tucky. He attended Benedictine
Military School in Savannah
SAVANNAH •— The Saint
James Parish Youth Club was
host to a large group of teen
agers of the other Savannah
parishes at a dance held in Bar
bee’s Pavilion on the Isle of
Hope. Music was provided by
two bands and records. Every
parish youth club in Savannah
was represented, and guests
were present from two parishes
in Augusta and Thomasville.
The dance was arranged
through the efforts of Alec Bar
bee, proprietor of the Pavilion,
and the Club officers. Charles
Jurgenson is president of the
St. James Youth Club. This
event was the first of a series
of interparochial events being
planned for the Catholic youth
BRUNSWICK — Religious
Vacations Schools were conduct
ed in Brunswick and Jesup for
a three-week period during the
month of June. The classes were
Jesuits lame
lew Pastor For
Augusta Church
AUGUSTA — The Rev. Peter
F. O’Donnell, S.J., Pastor of
Sacred Heart Church since 1953,
has been transferred to St.
Anne’s Church in West Palm
Beach, Florida.
Succeeding Father * O’Donnell
is the Rev. John E. O’Donohoe,
S.J., who served Sacred Heart
here from 1934-46. He left Au
gusta for a teaching position in
Spring Hill College near Mobile.
Father returns to Augusta from
this post.
The change was effective July
23rd.
by the narration of the older
Irish of the Cathedral Parish in
the early days of our priesthood.
Toward evening, and still on our
way to Dublin, we stopped for
a brief spell at the famous mon
astic ruins of Glendalough. If
stones could speak, here we
would have heard the history of
the greatness of ancient Ireland
—of St. Kevin and others, whose
piety and learning gained for
Ireland the enviable description
(Continued on Page Eight)
and graduated from Belmont
Abbey with the A.B. degree in
1957. He entered the Benedic
tine Order and made his first
profession in July, 1955.
The profession of solemn
vows is the final profession of
the young monk. The Benedic
tine ceremony is replete with
symbolic meaning, and the som
ber ritual reflects the young
monk’s dying to the world in a
ceremony akin to a Requiem,
followed by the rising with
Christ to a new life with all the
joy and pomp of the liturgy.
of Savannah by the parish youth
clubs. Father Herbert Wellmeier
is Diocesan Director of Youth.
Father John D. Toomey is mod
erator of the St. James Youth
Club. Mrs. William R. Ruehr-
wein, chairman of the DCCW
Youth Committee, was in charge
of the adult committee atttend-
ing the dance.
The following members of the
St. James Youth Council were
introduced during the intermis
sion: Charles Jurgensen, pres
ident; Julie Miller, vice presi
dent; Judy Phillips, secretary;
Frank Schwarz, treasurer; Jane
Rourke, spiritual chairman;
Nancy Cunningham, cultural;
Patricia Prouty, social; and
Bobby McBride, athletic chair
man.
taught by the Sisters of St. Jos
eph and by the Misses Mary
Stauss, Honey McGee, Dawn
Macauley and Martha Mason,
students from St. Rose’s Col
lege in Albany, conducted by
the Sisters of St. Joseph of Ca-
rondelet. In Brunswick the
classes were concluded with a
dialogue Mass celebrated by the
Rev. Joseph M. Kane, S.M. In
Jesup a religious pageant was
presented. The closing Mass was
celebrated by Rev. Albert J.
Hebert, S.M.
Those receiving awards for
perfect attendance were Carol
Dugger, Helen George, Yvonne
Lott, Lois Ann Owens, Shirley
Bowen, Patricia O’Hara, Mary
George, Charles George, Randy
Bowen, Tommy Bowen, Patricia
Grace, Diane Vigna, Angela
Vigna, Chris Vigna, Cathy
George, Allida Joyce, Glenda
Yursich.
In Brunswick the average at
tendance was fifty students a
day, while in Jesup there was
an average of forty-five present
daily.
Savannahian Makes
Final Religious Vows
St. James Host
Teenagers Attend
Youth Club Dance
Conduct Religious Vacation
Schools At Brunswick, Jesup
Do You Have
A Vocation?
Young men desirous of
studying for Ihe Sacred
Priesthood of the Diocese of
Savannah are requested to
contact their own pastors or
the Chancery Office in Sav
annah.
Encyclical Warns Of 'Universal Extermination'
Pontiff Urges Prayers
For Persecuted Church
SAYS JUST PEACE
DOES NOT REIGN
rt
(Radio, N. C. W. C. News Service)
■ VATICAN CITY—Prayers for the persecuted Church were
called for by His Holiness Pope Pius XII who reminded at the
same time that only by a return to Christian precepts can men
found a just society.
The Pope also warned that the powerful weapons now at man’s
disposal make possible “universal extermination.”
SKETCH OF PROPOSED CHURCH—Shown here is the architect’s sketch of the church
planned for the newly erected parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, South Columbus. Pastor of the
parish is the Rev. William P. Dowling. Plans call for the church to have a seating capacity of 800.
These warnings were contain
ed in a new encyclical entitled
“Meminisse Juvat” (Most Mind
fully Recalling) from its two
opening words.
The encyclical urged Catho
lics throughout the world under
the leadership of their bishops
to join in a novena of prayer
before the feast of the Assump
tion (Aug. 15) for the intention
of the persecuted Church. It re-
(Editorial. . .
Even The Least Of His Brethren
Webster defines the term “welfare” as used in certain
contexts, such as Department of Public Welfare as “Exemp
tion from evil or'calamity.” The spectacle, then, of the director
of a county Department of Public Welfare actually advocating
the infliction of evil or calamity upon mental unfortunates is an
anomaly at once puzzling and sad. Puzzling because in some
Alice-in-Wonderlandish way the common welfare is to be
provided for by the mutilation of. selected innocent persons.
Sad because a dollar value has been placed upon the human
soul and human rights.
We consider it a real and sarious misfortune that the
executive director of the Welfare Department of one of the
largest counties in Georgia has seen fit to place a maximum
price tag on the welfare of those who, through no fault of their
own, are considered mentally deficient. It is alleged that the
cost of caring for such persons is too high. Therefore, these
persons should be driven out of existence through “eugenic
sterilization.” How much farther can one travel from the
love and compassion of Christ? How deep can one bury the
Ten Commandments?
The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” withdraws from
all jurisdiction over innocent life and forbids all notable muti
lation of a morally innocent human being. Eugenic sterilization
is a grave injury to a human person depriving him of a
power as integral to human nature as the power of sight or
speech. The State did not give these powers, and can no more
remove them than it can amputate the hand of a pickpocket.
The State can segregate a thief for a long or short period,
but it has not the right to mutilate him. And the unfit are not
even guilty of a crime by being unfit.
The State exists to protect its innocent citizens, not to
injure and mutilate them. The Machiavellian principle that
“The end justifies the means” is an immoral principle. It is
not lawful to do evil that some anticipated good may come.
We wonder how the advocates of this disgusting and ne
farious practice of eugenic sterilization will justify their
stewardship before the Master. For their actions cry out with
the terrible question of Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Will they stand on the right hand or the left hand of Our
Divine Lord when he says sorrowfully to them, “As often as
you did it to one of these, THE LEAST OF MY BRETHREN,
you did it. unto me.”?
Iraq, Newest Mideast Hot
Spot, Rich In Biblical Lore
BEIRUT, Lebanon, (NC) —
Iraq, newest hot spot in the
strife-torn Middle East where
Arab nationalist army officers
have ousted the pro-Western re
gime of King Faisal II, has more
than 200,000 Catholics and is the
traditional scene of many bib
lical events.
Iraq, a former Turkish pro
vince which gained independ
ence following a period of Brit
ish control after World War I,
is a predominantly Moslem na
tion of 5,200,000 people. The
Catholic minority of 203,915
mainly belongs to the Canadian
Rite.
Members of the Rite, which
uses Syrian as its liturgical
language, are descendants of
Nestorian heretics who returned
to the Church. The Rite’s lead
er, Patriarch Joseph VII Ghani-
ma of Babylonia of the Chal
deans, died earlier this month in
Baghdad.
Although less than five per
cent of the population of oil-
rich Iraq is Catholic, the nation
has seven archdioceses, three di
oceses and two independent
missions. Baghdad alone is the
headquarters for archdioceses of
the Armenian, Chaldean, Syrian
and Latin Rites. It is also the
site of Al-Hikma University
conducted by American Jesuits.
The Jesuits from the New
England province launched a
$750,000 building program for
the university last October with
grants from the Catholic Near
East Welfare Association, the
Ford Foundation, the Gulben-
kian Foundation and the Iraq
Petroleum Company. The uni
versity has so far been using the
buildings of Baghdad College,
the equivalent of an American
High school, which has been op
erated by the Jesuits for 27
years. The staff of the school
and university today numbers
45, of whom 29 are priests.
Slightly larger than Califor
nia, Iraq contains the valleys of
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
where an advanced civilization
existed as early as 4,000 B. C. It
became the center of the ancient
Babylonian and Assyrian em
pires, and centuries later be
came for a time the chief city
of the Moslem world. The Gar
den of Eden and the Tower of
Babel have their traditional
sites here.
CENSUS PLANS
DON'T INCLUDE
RELIGIOUS QUERY
WASHINGTON, (NC) — The
Census Bureau has announced
the studies it plans to make be
tween now and 1960, but no
plans were disclosed for the stu
dy of religious affliction.
When the Bureau announced
in Decembr, 1957, that it would
not ask about religion in the
1960 population and housing
census, it said that possibly such
a question might be asked in
later censuses or in a national
sample.
In February, 1958, the bureau
released statistics from a sam
ple survey of the civilian pop
ulation in which it asked the
question, “What is Your Re
ligion?”
The new statement announc
ed the bureau will seek informa
tion on business, manufacturing
and mineral industries in Janu
ary, 1959; on agriculture in the
fall of 1959 and on population
and housing in 1960.
FORTY MILE TRIP—Mrs. Monroe Miller drove the Vigna children of Darien to the Vacation
School at Brunswick for three weeks. The round trip totaled forty miles per day. Shown here
are, left to right: Mrs. Miller, Chris, Angela and Diane Vigna.
Confirm
Appointment
WASHINGTON, (NC) — The
Senate has confirmed without
opposition President Eisenhow
er’s appointment of John A.
McCone, Los Angeles business
man, as a member of the Atomic
Energy Commission.
Mr. McCone, a Catholic lay
man and a Knight of St. Greg
ory since 1955, represented the
President at the March, 1956,
celebration of the 80th birthday
and 17th anniversary of the cor
onation of His Holiness Pope
Pius XII.
called that the popes have al
ways exhorted the faithful to
turn to Our Lady in times of
danger when Christian peoples
and the Church have been
threatened.
“At present, though the war
like clash of peoples has calmed,
a just peace does not however
reign,” the Pope said. “Men
have not been brought together
in brotherly understanding.
“Latent seeds of discord, in
fact, insert themselves and from
time to time threateningly erupt
and hold minds in anxious tre
pidation, so much so that the
frightful weapons now discov
ered by human genius are of
such inhuman power that they
can drag down and submerge in
universal extermination not
only the defeated, but also the
victors and the whole of human
ity.”
Against this frightening back
drop of the possible extermina
tion of mankind, the Pope said:
“We express the ardent wish
that in every part of the earth
Catholics, during the novena
which usually precedes the feast
of the Assumption of the august
Mother of God into heaven,
should rise up public prayers,
particularly for the Church
which ... in certain areas is
vexed and afflicted.”
The encyclical instructed all
bishops to bend their efforts so
that “with your exhortations
and your example, the faithful
entrusted to you may come to
the altar of the Mother of God
on the established days in as
great a number and as prayer
fully as possible.”
It listed the following inten
tions for the prayers urged by
the Pope: that pastors who are
kept from their flocks or who
are impeded in the free exercise
of their ministry may be rein
stated as soon as possible; that
the faithful, disturbed by de
ceits, errors and discord, may
attain complete concord and
charity in the full light of truth;
that all who are in the uncer
tainty of doubt and who are
weak may be strengthened by
divine grace so that they may
be ready and willing to suffer
anything rather than break away
from the Christian faith and
Catholic unity; that individual
dioceses may have their own le
gitimate shepherd; that Chris
tian law may be freely promul
gated in all regions and among
all classes; that youth in ele
mentary and high schools, in
workshops and fields may not
be ensnared in the ideologies of
materialism, atheism and hed
onism; that the roads of truth
may open everywhere and no
one will place obstacles in its
way, and that missionaries may
return as soon as possible to
their people.
“May all faithful implore
these things of the divine Mo
ther,” the Pontiff added. “But
let them not forget to ask for
forgiveness for the same per
secutors of the Christian re
ligion in keeping with the im
pulse of that charity for which
the Apostle of the Gentiles did
not hesitate to say ‘bless those
who persecute you’.”
Causes of the great dangers
threatening the world, the
(Continued on Page Eight)
