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> PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, August 9, 1958 JOSEPH BREIG Day The War Ended I wonder how many of us have forgotten that World War II ended on the feast of the As sumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven. In the western hemisphere, the date was August 14, 1945—the eve of the feast. In Japan, where the cease - fire halted the strife, the feast itself had dawned. It ’ Day. was Assumption Our prayers had been answer ed. The rosaries we had recited, the Communions we had re ceived, the sacrifices we had made, had saved Christendom once more, as so often in his tory. Now, we are engaged in a world-wide novena, led by Pope Pius XII, for a profounder peace. The novena will close on an other Assumption Day, next Friday. WE PRAY for much more than a sheathing of swords, which in our time take the form, as Pope Pius said, of weapons of such human power that they can “submerge in universal ex termination not only the defeat ed but also the victors and the whole community.” We are asking God, through Our Lady, for the reunion of mankind in one family. How can this be accomplish ed? Only by a turning to God as our Father; only by a return to His house, like the Prodigal Son. If we will put away our prides and lusts, we will find God waiting with open arms. But we must not sit with the pigs praying only with our mouths. We must rise up and go back to our Father’s house. Then we shall find ourselves stepping from darkness into light, from hatred into love, from ugliness into beauty. AS POPE PIUS, venerable with years and sacrifice, told us in his encyclical calling for this novena, “Every intelligence not enlightened by the light of God separates itself little by little from the fullness of truth. Dis cords arise, increase and grow.” The mind and heart discon nected from God are like lamps when a storm has torn down the electric lines. Where there should be illumination, there is a blind groping. There cannot be true peace on earth, there cannot be a happy human family, when the Church is persecuted, and when even many who think themselves Christians wallow in pigsties of evil reading, entertainment and behavior. “A state without religion,” Pope Pius said, “cannot have moral recitude or order.” So much for communism. "MANY WRITE and spread their works,” wrote the Holy Father, “not to serve truth and virtue, or to give readers a true diversion, but to excite turbid passions for the purpose of gain, or to offend and soil with lies, calumnies and abuses all that that is sacred, noble and beau tiful.” So much for the litera ture, drama and entertainment which leaves unclean the hands of the western world. We pray, therefore, for a vast pilgrimage of mankind to the atonement needed to make of our planet what the poet Francis Thompson envisioned it to be— a guest censer, wreathed in clouds like incense, swinging in adoration and love before the throne of God. We address our nine days of special petition to God through Mary because God made her our Mother in making her Mother of our brother and redeemer, Christ. BECAUSE CHRIST is our Savior, He is the way to God. Because Mary is His Mother, she is the way to Christ. God so willed it even in the Garden of Eden, when He promised a champion who would come through the woman to crush the head of Satan. We pray with trust and confi dence. Never has our Mother re fused us. “We invite all the flock entrusted to us to place themselves confidently under her protection,” wrote Pope Pius. “. . . It is certain that at the end, the Church, like Christ our Redeemer . . . will have a peaceful victory over all ene mies . . . We nourish the hope with certainty that she (Our Lady) will not in any manner put aside . . . the universal pray ers of Catholics.” Theology For The Layman (By F. J. Sheed) The heavenly Father has a Son, the Gospels are full of their relation. We must now look at it more closely. A son is a distinct person from his father, there is no way in which a fa ther can be h i s own son. But though they are dis tinct persons, they are like in nature—the son of a man is a man, of a lion a lion. In this solitary case, the Father’s nature is infinite; so the Son too must have an infinite nature. But there can not be two infinite natures — one would be limited by not being the other and by not hav ing power over the other. There fore, since the Son has an in finite nature, it must be the same identical nature as the Father’s. This truth, that Father and Son possess the one same nature, might remain wholly dark to us if St. John had not given us another term for their relation —the Second Person is the WORD of the First. In the first eighteen verses of his Gospel (to be found at the end of Mass) we learn that God has uttered a Word, a Word who is God, who is in the bosom of the Father, by whom all things are made, who became flesh and dwelt among us. God then utters a Word: not framed by the mouth, of course, for God has no mouth, He is pure spirit. So it is a word in the mind of God, an Idea, the Idea He produces of Himself. The link between having a son and having an idea of oneself is that both are ways of producing likeness; your son is like in nature to yourself; your idea of yourself bears some resem blance to you too—though it may be imperfect, for we sel dom see ourselves very clearly, too many elements are seen wrong, too many not seen at all. But the Idea that God has of- Himself cannot be imperfect. (Continued on Page 5) Jottings ... (By BARBARA C. JENCKS) j Question Box By David Q. Liptak Q: If ihe cloistered contem plative life is more noble and ef ficacious than the active life, as you stated in your recent col umn, where do the countless numbers of ordinary men like myself fit into the picture inso far as sanctity is concerned? A. The contemplative life in which prayer is markedly em phasized over good works, is of its nature higher than the active life, objectively taken. Although the contemplative life is com monly associated with the clois tered life, however, it does not follow that the contemplative life is synonymous with the cloistered life. Rather, the latter is but one of the most effective objective means toward the pos session of the contemplative life. Nor is it among the ordinary means, for it is evident that rel atively few men or women are specially called by God to be cloistered monks or nuns. The vast majority of men on the other hand, are called to vocations in the world. Each person is assigned a particular role by means of which he can accomplish the most good, and glorify and love God the most. Vocations vary from individual to individual, but they are all meant by God to fulfill His glory and His love in the world. “The difference between the various vocations,” writes Thomas Mer ton in “No Man Is an Island,” “lies in the different ways one enables men to discover God’s love, appreciate it, respond to it, and share it with other men.” EVEN THE different voca tions can be arranged theoretic ally in a hierarchy, from the less to the more noble. But in the concrete that particular voca tion will be best for an individu al to which he or she has been called by God. Regardless of what specific role a person is called upon to play in the world, moreover, he is still held to (Continued on Page 6) AS THOUSANDS CON VERGE upon Lourdes this sum mer of the centennial annivers ary of the apparitions how many actually experience the famous epigram: “For those who believe in miracles no explanation is necessary, for those who do not believe in miracles no explana tion is possible.” Thus a Jew, Franz Werfel, began his movie about the Catholic saint Berna dette who 100 years ago was visited by Our Lady at a French grotto called Lourdes. Through the years non-Catholics, Jews, scientists, medical men have come to speculate, sneer, deride and have stayed to pray and lat er write convincing testimonies. The scoffers and cynics still come. One was a “Time” news man. Under the section “Relig ion” in the July 21st issue of the magazine which selected Nikita Khruschev as man of the year, the major item is about the tasteless souvenirs exploit ed by Lourdes merchants. "TIME" has a well-established reputation of preference for cuteness and cleverness rather than clarity and correctness. In its “Timese” style, the writer lists gimmicks such as neckties that glow in the dark with Ber nadette’s image, corkscrews with Bernadette’s head, fountain pens, hour glasses, blessed candy and soap. Such commercialism offends and affronts most Cath olics and in no way reflects Catholic attitude as the article might imply to the untutored reader. On St. Patrick’s Day, it is hardly the Irish who hawk gawdy green souvenirs of harps and flags and hats. It was this aspect of the “number-one shrine of Christendom” which “Time” chose to feature. What is the purpose of such an arti cle? While taking inventory at the huckster’s stands did the re porter miss the real story. Amid the junky souvenirs did he fail to look out and see stretchers and wheel chairs and crutches and canes. Why his dominant ir- revelent irreverency? Buried in the report titled in “Timese” cuteness, “Piracy in Piety,” was the fact that huckstering does not go on inside the shrine’s gates and that the Bishop there has struck hard at the commer cial offenses. TO MANY "TIME" readers this will add grist to their anti- Catholic prejudices. Few will receive the true picture which is the journalist’s obligation to report. We can only anticipate the clucking letters which will appear as result. What a con trast the letter recently received from a Sister at Lourdes. Al though it will never make an edition of “Time,” we reprint it as a study in contrast. “How can I ever tell you of the last three days. We tried to make good use of every minute of the time because we were representing all of you and wanted to earn as many graces and blessings as we could. Our hotel was about half a mile from the grotto and through streets you practically had to elbow your way along. We made the trip back and forth four times a day. I just can’t put it on paper — the hundreds of peo ple praying in every language, the sights of long jrows of stretchers and wheel chairs at the grotto and the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, crowds walking the steep Way of the Cross in pouring rain. It was all a sight you would see no place in this world. On Sunday 6000 Little Singers chanted a solemn Mass pontificated by the Card inal of Paris. The new church holds 20,000 people. It was pack ed, all standing for the two hour service. There was a sermon in French, followed by a short one in Spanish, another in Italian, another in German, and a very Sh RANGE BUT TRU .ittle-Known Fact* for By M. J. MURRAY Catholic* Oopyrtfht. 1958, N.C.W.C. Non Svrrtoo E %e aerial of ike VATICAN RADIO STATION IS UNIQUE — IT IS IN THE FORM OF A CROSS. fc I? lif.vmte Di THE AMBROSIAN RITE k FOLLOWED IN MILAN if CATHEDRAL,ITALY, PERPETUATES THE EARLY CHRISTIAN PRACTICE OF ordaining laymen to minor order* TO FULFILL SPECIFIC CHURCH TASKS — THUS THE CATHEDRALS SIX ’’PORTERS are ordained minor clerics who WILL NOT ORDINARILY BECOME PRIESTS. &&&*■( i THIS CHURCH AT GLEN DA LOUGH — ONE OF ST KEVIN'S SEVEN CHURCHES-DATES TO THE CENTURY AND IS ONE OF Ireland's Finest PRESERVED BUILDINGS - ML SHARING OUR TREASURE Anti-Catholic Becomes Convert Apostle By REV. JOHN A. O'BRIEN, Ph. D. (University of Notre Dame) --- (The University of Notre Dame) When Herb Dir, a young grad uate of Notre Dame, set a bud dy of his at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, straight on a number of points of Catholic doctrine, he little realized that he was starting a chain reaction that has al ready led four persons into the fold. It shows how important it is for a Catholic to answer questions about the Faith, and how often it leads the inquirer into the Church. Herb and his convert, Charles H. Armstrong, are now in the graduate school at Notre Dame working for the M. A. degrees. Knowing of my interest in con verts, Charlie and his wife, Helene, dropped into my office for a visit, and here’s the inter esting story that unfolded. “I was reared,” began Charlie, “in Elizabeth City, North Caro lina, .where Catholics are few and far between. My mother is a Methodist and my father is without any church affiliation. But the Baptist Church hap pened to be nearest, so I went to its Sunday School and later was baptized. After attending the University of North Caro lina and East Carolina College, I entered the army at Fort Jack- son, near Columbia, South Carolina. “In the same band, and also playing trombone, was Herb Dir, a Notre Dame graduate, I had the wildest ideas about the Catholic Church. I heard a speaker at a Revivalist meeting say that Catholics had no Bible. I often heard it said that nuns were kept prisoners and that the bodies of infants were often dug up from graves in the convent yards. “They were the typical Maria type of horror stories so widely circulated and believed in the South. So I began to unload on Herb. Then he really went to work on me. He brought me down to the Notre Dame Book Store, run by the Vandergrifts, and got me a copy of The Faith short one in English. We all consider it something like a miracle to see at least 10,000 at night carrying lighted candles walking in procession . . . little five years old toddle along with their candles walking in proces sion and very old people shuf fle along with their candles and no one gets burned. The Rosary plaza in front of the old Bascil- ica holds about 10,000. The pro cession ends up there after sing ing 60 verses of the Lourdes hymn. The whole 10,000 boom forth with the Creed and then close with a goodnight hymn to the Blessed Mother. After that the group disperses almost in silence. We had the privilege of taking part in six processions. During one evening procession, it rained throughout but no one paid the slightest attention. They just walked right on sing ing away and getting soaked. There were no umbrellas.” Two people visit Lourdes, you see. One saw piracy and the other piety. of Millions, published by Our Sunday Visitors, and a large number of pamphlets. “I devoured the book and read a new pamphlet almost every day. One pamphlet, How lo Find Christ's Church, pub lished by the Catholic Truth Society of New York, was filled with charts showing the Cath olic Church to have been foun ded by Christ. They were reve lations to me. Then Herb took me to Chaplain Robert F. Scully and he instructed me and re ceived me into the Church, with Herb serving as sponsor at my baptism. “So enthusiastic was I over my discovery that I wanted to share it with everyone. I put many Catholic pamphlets in the reading room and interested Allen Alexander, also in our band. The Charleston diocese was then conducting a Crusade for Souls with every parish con ducting an Information Class. Allen attended the class at St. Joseph’s, Columbia, conducted by Father Dennis McKevlin. He baptized Allen and I was his godfather. “Back at East Carolina Col lege I interested Andrew W. Caudill, then took him down to St. Peter’s in Greenville where Monsignor Charles Gable in structed him and baptized him. I was godfather again. “After dating Helene Vaughan who was then teaching near Greenville, I interested her in the Faith and then brought her to Monsignor Gable’s Informa tion Class. Three months later he baptized her and I married her. Now Helene is teaching in Christ the King parochial school and I’m teaching part time at St. Joseph’s High School.” Four zealous converts! What a precious chain reaction Herb Dir started when he explained the Faith to a fanatic anti-Cath- olic, and replaced slander with truth| Norman J. Wrigley Services in Atlanta ATLANTA, Ga. — Funeral services for Norman Joseph Wrigley were held July 16th at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Msgr. Joseph Cassidy officiating. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Elks BPOE, and the American Photo Engravers Assn. Survivors are his wife; daugh ter, Mrs. Robert K. Shepard and Mrs. C. J. Aycock, Jr., both of Atlanta; sisters, Mrs. Joe Peer, Mobile, Ala., and Mrs. Gregory Murphy, Sr., of Atlanta; brother, William H. Wrigley, Jr., of Miami, and 16 grandchildren. Services For Mrs. J. F. Stanley ALBANY, Ga. — Funeral services for Mrs. James F. Stan ley were held at St. Teresa’s Church, Rev. Marvin J. Lefrois officiating. Mrs. Stanley was a member of St. Teresa’s Church and the Knights of Columbus Auxilliary. Survivors are her husband, James F. Stanley of Albany; and a sister, Miss Bessie Bruce Harris of Albany. Illness Is Too Expensive THE The high cost of hospital and medical care is causing grave concern among the medical pro fession and health insurance groups, to say nothing of the American people generally. Hospital ad- ministra t i o n expenses have been soring, doctor’s fees have been going up and new drugs and diagnostic and treatment procedures are becoming in creasingly expensive. In an effort to keep up with the up ward trend of medical care costs, voluntary and commercial health insurance companies have increased premiums. Yet, many are now finding that they must further increase their charges or curtail benefits under their policies. The cost of medical care, which for a number of years be fore the Second World War re mained relatively stable, started climbing after the war. In re cent years it has risen higher than any other item in the Con sumer Price Index compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. HOSPITAL COSTS In April, 1958, the medical care index reached 142.7, as compared with an overall cost- of-living index of 123.5. Of all the elements in the care of the sick the cost of hospitalization has risen most sharply. A De partment of Labor study cover ing a 20-year period, 1936 to 1956, showed an over-all in- BACKDROP By JOHN C. O’BRIEN crease of 85 per cent in the cost of medical care. But hospital rates in the same period jumped 265 per cent. This compared with increases of 73 per cent in general practitioners’ fees and 60 percent in surgeon’s fees. Daily per-patient costs of operating a general hospital in the United States, on the aver age, now amount to more than $25. Hospitals in one state, for example, report that their costs have risen from $14 a patient a day in 1948 to $*25.58 this year. Much of the increased cost represents a rise in payrolls. Even so, hospital workers are still paid less than comparable workers in other institutions, and hospital administrators warn that further wage increases will have to be granted if the hospitals are to retain their em ployes. A widespread need for new expensive equipment will further increase the outlay of the hospitals. The sharp rise in hospital ization costs has thrown many hospitalization insurance plans, both voluntary and commercial, into precarious financial con dition. For example, the Blue Cross organization, which reim burses hospitals for services furnished persons covered by the plan has had a dig deeply into reserve or increase charges to subscribers. In many states, the Blue Cross has asked the state insurance regulating agencies to permit increases in premiums ranging from 16% to 40 per cent. The Blue Cross of Maryland, now seeking a 20 per cent increase, presented testimony to the state regulating authorities to the effect that 96 % per cent of the money it took in from standard- rate subscribers was needed to pay hospital bills. Unless more revenue was forthcoming, offi cials of the organization testi fied, the plan would exhaust this year 40 per cent of reserves that it took 20 years to build up. IS RISE JUSTIFIED? Health experts are sharply divided on the question of whether the sharp rise in the cost of medical care is justified.' While some critics have accused the hospitals of in efficiency, others hold that the rise in hospitalization costs was unavoidable. Hospital admini strators point out that the insurance plans have encour aged the insured to insist oh hospital treatment in cases where it is not essential. An official of the American College of Surgeons has maintained that provisions in insurance policies for payment of surgeon’s fees have led to the performance of a high percentage of unneces sary operations. In any event, the health insurance plans have reached the point Where they are run ning the risk of pricing them T selves out of the market. If the day comes when they cannot provide insurance against medi cal costs at a reasonable cost, we may expect to see agitation for a compulsory, tax-supported health insurance plan compar able to that in force in Great Britain. Expect To Be Tempted This We Believe Do you ever have temptations against faith? Unless you are a rare individual, you do. You may be frightened at times by the intensity of temptations. Perhaps you look upon the Sacred Host at the Eleva tion of the Mass, and suddenly out of nowhere comes the question, “I wonder it it’s true, if Jesus really is there?” Or possibly you go to confession and as you examine your conscience comes a jab of doubt, “Can the priest forgive my sins; or for that mat ter does God really care what I do?” Or maybe you stand by the coffin of someone beloved and there comes an awful feeling that you’ll never see him again, that this whole business of im mortality is a lot of wishful thinking, that when we’re dead we’re dead period. Temptations against faith may vary in their frequent and in tensity, but most of us do have them. This is to be expected. If he can undermine the very foundation of our spiritual life, why should the devil bother with side-issue temptations against chastity or charity or justice — and maybe have us' escape in the end through an act of perfect contrition? Of course the devil sometimes must work through side-issue temptations in order to get at our faith. It is instinctive for human nature to seek interior peace. Inner conflict puts us under terrific strain and it is im mensely painful to live at war with ourselves. If the devil can make attractive to us a desire that is contrary to our religious ideals or beliefs, he has created a state conflict. To find peace we either must renounce the desire, or we must convince our selves that our religious princi ples are mistaken. Sometimes the forbidden de sire is in plain sight where we can see it: to date a divorced wo man for example, or to use con traceptives, or to hang on to a hate, or to “get ahead” without hindrance from conscience. At other times the forbidden desire may be a hidden one which we have suppressed out of our con scious mind. Then, not recog nizing the conflict within, we see only the end product: the temptation against faith. In human nature as God planned it, there was complete control of reason over desire. Desire would awaken onl-y at the command of reason. Desire would seek its objective only with the permission of reason (By FATHER LEO TRESE) and under reason’s guidance. Original sin gravely disturbed this harmony of interaction be tween reason and desire. Not only was there a weakening of reason’s control, but reason’s clarity of vision was obscured, so that it no longer could judge with absolute accuracy. It be came possible for desire to dis guise itself as good and to lead its master, reason, where it would; like an evil child leading his drink-befuddled father to disaster. We should not of course con fuse a weak faith with an inquir ing faith. It is not a temptation against faith to wonder, “Now is that so?” or to ask, “How can that be?” Thoughts like these are good, if we will follow them up and discover the answers. God wants us to use the mind He has given. He is pleased to have us learn all that we can of the truths that He has revealed. Our only danger here is that of pride — a reluctance to be lieve just because we cannot understand. Humility of mind is essential to religious inquiry, a humility based upon our real ization that the finite human mind never can plumb the depths of the infinite mind of God. The keenest human in tellect, souring to the very zenith of its capacity, will find areas of mystery in God and His ways, areas of Unknown which must await eternity for their knowing. Assuming that we are doing our best to live our faith, we never should be frightened by temptations against faith. Faith is God’s gift, and He will not revoke it or let us lose it except by our own fault. In deed, it is in being tempted and in resisting temptation that we gain grace and merit in the practice of our faith. An un troubled faith is something to be envied; but an untroubled faith may be only an untried faith, not necessarily a strong faith. When temptations to unbelief do plague us, we should know that this is a time to pray and run. These temptations have roots that are emotional or dia bolical, and neither kind wil( yield to reason. The time td inquire and to reason about the truths of faith is when we are calm and emotionally secure. Right now, in thjs moment of temptation, we are like a man standing under a street light with shots coming at him from the surrounding darkness. This is not the time to be a hero, not the time to stand and fight against adversaries we cannot see. ,* It wisely has been said that in temptations against faith, as in temptations against purity, victory is found in flight. So, with a cry for help, “I do be lieve, O Lord; help Thou my un belief,” we run for cover. We resolutely turn our thoughts to neutral matters until temptation has passed. Men who borrow trouble find 1 the interest eats up the prin cipal. Eternal Truth is changing the universe. — Mary Baker Eddy 0% HuUrtttt 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. Subscription price $3.00 per year. Second class mail privileges authorized at Monroe, Georgia. Send notice of change of address to P. O. Box 320, MonrOe, Georgia. REV. FRANCIS J. DONOHUE REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN Editor Savannah Edition Editor Atlanta Edition JOHN MARKWALTER Managing Editor Vol- 39 Saturday, August 9, 1958 No. 5 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 _I__ Auditor JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary