Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, December 27, 1958
JOSEPH BREIG
Boy On
Christmas means more to me
with every year that passes —
but the statement is one that re
quires explanation. To begin
with, I am not precisely sure
now what the holiday meant to
me when I
was three or
four or five
years of age.
I s u p p o se
there must
have been at
least one oc
casion in my
childhood
when Christmas struck me with
wonder rather like the wonder
to which we look forward in
Heaven. But if so, I confess that
my memory of it is vague.
There are two Christmases
that I remember vividly —
doubtless because they did not
go at all as scheduled. Once I
sat down sobbing at the tree be
cause I did not find an electric
train — and an electric train
was the thing upon which my
heart was set.
FORTUNATELY, my father
was in the toy business, and he
bundled me in blankets on a
sled and drew me through a fall
of great soft snowflakes to the
store, where he unlocked the
door, went in, and came out
with a box containing a train,
which he placed on my lap.
I have never forgotten how I
marvelled at the thought that he
possessed a key to that holy of
holies, a toy shop. Exactly what
the word “father’' meant to me
at that time I do not recall; but
at least I knew that somehow I
had some extraordinary being
who could unlock a toy store.
The other Christmas that I
remember well was rather a
Christmas Eve than a Christmas
Day. I had been put to bed but
did ndt go to sleep; and I could
hear the subdued sounds of
some 'kind of super-important
business going on in the parlor,
which was just down the hall
from my little bedroom.
I WAITED, with what now
strikes me as astonishing capa-
city-for-eonspiracy in one so
very young, until I felt certain
that every one was absorbed in
whatever was going on. Then I
eased open my door with infi
nite stealth, crawled along the
hall close to the wall, wormed
my way on my stomach through
the doorway and settled down
under a couch to watch while
the Christmas tree was trimmed.
Thus did I discover what I
had suspected — that Santa
Claus was a pleasant fiction.
A Sled
Only much later in life did I
realize that as a symbol of the
spirit of Christmas as it was liv
ed centuries ago by the Arch
bishop St. Nicholas, Santa Claus
is true with the very heart of
truth.
But now Christmas to me is
not a date or a day at all, but a
being. Christmas is a Person.
Christmas is Christ. Christmas
is my other Father, God, caring
so much about me and my fel-
lowmen as to send His only Son,
God like Himself, to become one
of us in our own human nature
to redeem us so that we and He
can live together forever.
ON THAT EARLY Christmas
Day when I wanted a toy train,
I was a child and my father was
a man, and I did not understand
him because the mind of a small
boy is not the mind of a grown
adult. But I trusted him and I
saw that he had power to give
happiness to me because he had
the key to the toy store. It was
enough; I was content.
Now I am a man with chil
dren of my own, but of course
I do not understand our Father
God, I do not understand God
in Christ, because He is divine
and I am human, and the little
knowledge of a man is not the
infinite wisdom of God. But I
trust Him, and I know that he
has power to give me happiness
because He has the key to the
wonders of eternity. And I know
He is good; He was born for me
in Bethlehem, and died for me
on Calvary. It is enough; I am
content.
SUCH IS the meaning of
Christmas for me now. Christ
mas is Christ in His Church,
Christ present with us in the
Mass, Christ in whose Mystical
Body — that is, the Church —
we are members. And because
we are members of Him, we are
members also of one another.
And so Christmas is Christ and
you and I together at Mass, of
fering ourselves to God with our
fears and our courage, our
laughter and tears, our success
es and failures.
Life with God, forever and
ever, is even more mysterious
than the toy store seemed to the
four-year-old boy who was
drawn there on a sled through
the falling snow by the awe
inspiring man who was his fa
ther. But if we are not afraid in
childhood when our fathers are
with us, we need have no fear
when we are with God in Christ
at Mass on Christmas Day. Such
is now the meaning of this holy
day for me.
Seasons CjeectlngS
HOWARD
LUMBER COMPANY
"ONE BOARD OR A TRAINLOAD"
J. W. CARSON W. B. BADGER
1900 Milledgeville Road —= Augusta, Ga.
PHONE 2-0451
Theology
For The
Layman
We of the laity have not giv
en much attention to the doc
trine of the Blessed Trinity. We
have not, for the most part, met
God’s desire to be known with
a desire to know Him. One
strong reason
is that we do
not quite see
what there is
in the doc
trine, spiritu
ally, for us.
The diffi
culty here is
in the princi-' i
pie the same as with every or
ganic experience. You cannot
know what food will mean to
you till you eat it, or the joy of
marriage till you marry. So with
our doctrine. Only by taking it
to yourself and living with it
can you find what there is in it
for you.
Yet even to one who has not
had the vital experience, some
things can be said.
Thus we learn that God has
an adequate object for His infi
nite loving power. It is wonder
ful for us that He loves us: But,
as we have seen, it would be
idle to pretend that we are an
adequate object for infinite love
— we can neither comprehend
it nor respond to it, save in the
most meagre way. It is as
though a man on a desert island
had only a dog to love — he
simply could not love with the
fullness of love possible to a
man. It is only in the inter
change of love with an equal
that love reaches its height. If
God had none to love but His
inferiors, it would be hard to be
lieve that God is love. But God
is not thus doomed to love with
out ever finding an adequate ob
ject. In Son and Holy Ghost in
finite love is infinitely accep
ted and infinitely returned.
Again, knowledge of the three
Persons enriches our awareness
of what is meant by ourselves
being made in God’s image.
Man is not only a unit com
posed of matter and spirit, by
his spirit and its powers made in
the image of the infinite spirit.
Man cannot be understood as a
unit at all, he is a social being,
linked organically with others,
neither brought into being nor
maintained in being save by
others. Community is of his
very essence. And now we know
that there is community within
the very being of God, so that
by that too we are in His image.
Contemplating God we learn the
secret of community, wonder
fully defined by St. Augustine—-
a community is a multitude
united by agreement about the
things they love. We learn the
truth expressed by St. Thomas
—where each one seeks his
rights, there is chaos. For the
secret of the divine community
is infinite giving.
As one goes on letting the
mind live with the doctrine, new
things are constantly emerging
to answer the question what
gain is there in it for us. But
even if no such things emerg
ed for our obvious and statable
profit, it still remains that our
principal reason for accepting
it and clinging to it is that it is
true, and it is true about God.
Intellect is one of the great twin
powers of the soul. In so fas as
it remains unnourished, our per
sonality lacks full development.
The food of the intellect is
truth, and this is the supreme
truth about the supreme Being.
Merely as truth, it would be a
defect of human dignity to ig
nore it. Thinking that there is
only one Person in God is in
comparably worse than thinking
that the earth is flat. People
would find the latter piece of ig
norance intolerable, quite apart
from any practical difference
that the earth’s sphericality
makes to us: it would be shame
ful not to know. But ignorance
about the supreme Being is
worse poverty than ignorance
about any of the lesser beings
He has created of nothing. Of
these greater truths, as of all
truths, the rule remains that it
is sufficient reason for accept
ance that they are true. If there
were no other profit, that is suf
ficient profit.
We cannot go on forever talk
ing about the Blessed Trinity. It
will be one of the joys of hea
ven that we shall be under no
pressure to move away to other
topics. Next week we must be
gin to talk of the beings God has
created. Meanwhile we may
summarize. God is Trinity. The
How Do You Rate
Facts of Faltl
, r /W>l
on
By Brian Cronin
1. The first of the Apostles to die for Christ was: (a) Judas
Iscariot? (b) St. James the Less? (c) St. Peter? (d) St.
James the Greater?
2. “Gospel” is an Anglo Saxon word meaning: (a) Holy Words?
(b) Truth? (c) Good news? (d) Sermon?
3. Green, the color of vestments worn on the Sundays after
the feasts of the Epiphany and Pentecost, is symbolic of:
(a) Hope? (b) Joy? (c) Penance? (d) Mortification?
4. The Liturgical Book containing the Divine Office is called
the: (a) Gospel? (b) Breviary? (c) Missal? (d) Epistle?
5. St. Joachim was the father of: (a) Our Lady? (b) St.
Joseph? (c) St. Peter? (d) Judas Iscariot?
6. On special occasions, the Pope is carried aloft on a plat
form and chair by 12 thronebearers who are called: (a)
Chamberlains? (b) Noble Guards? (c) Sediari? (d) Palatine
Guards?
7. Who was the Catholic who was commonly known as “The
Father of the American Navy”? (a) Charles Carroll? (b)
Stephen Moyland? (c) John Barry? (d) The Marquis de
Lafayette?
8. Who did Christ call “The Salt of the Earth”? (a) The Ro
mans? (b) The Pharisees? (c) The Gentiles? (d) The
Apostles?
Give yourself 10 marks for each correct answer below.
Rating: 80-Excellent; 70-Very Good; 60-Good; 50-Fair.
ANSWERS: 1 (d); 2 (c); 3 (a); 4 (b); 5 (a);
6 (c); 7 (c); 8 (d).
SHARING OUR TREASURE
School Mates Help Find Christ's Church
By REV. JOHN A. O'BRIEN. Ph. D.
(University of Notre Dame)-
Arriving at St. John’s Cathe
dral in Boise, Idaho, to preach
on the Crusade of Souls at the
11:45 Sunday Mass, I found the
altar boy had not yet arrived.
So I served the Mass celebrated
by a recently ]
ordai n e d
priest, Father !
Perry Walter j
Dodds.
“The cru
sade being
% a unehed
jointly by the
Bishops of Or
egon and Idaho,” said Father
Dodds after the Mass, “means
more to me than to most Cath
olics because I’m a convert and
I know how much it helps to
meet the outsider more than
half way. Cradle Catholics don’t
realize how hard it is for a truth
seeker to go alone to a rectory
and knock at the door.”
“That’s true,” I remarked,
“and that’s why Archbishop
Howard of Portland, Bishop
Leipzig of Baker and Bishop
Byrne of Boise determined to
launch this joint Catholic Cen
sus and Information Program.
How did you become interested
in the Faith?”
“I was reared a Methodist,”
he replied, “in Kimberly, Idaho,
where there were only a few
Catholics. The first one I became
well acquainted with was Lola
Britt, a high school classmate.
I used to josh her about being
a ‘fish-eater.’ She stood her
ground, however, and gave good
reasons for her Faith.
“Not only that, she lived the
Faith, and had the respect and
admiration of every student in
that overwhelmingly Protestant
school. Lola got me interested
in the Faith and, when I went
to the University of Idaho at
Moscow, I began to read about
it.
“The doors of the Catholic
Church there — St. Edward’s —
were always open, and I began
to go there and pray. I would
browse among the pamphlets in
the vestibule and buy one or
two on nearly every visit. They
further sharpened my interest.
At the Beta Theta Phi fra
ternity house where I lived were
two exemplary Catholics, Nor
man Lodge and Richard Lint.
Once again I could see, as in the
case of Lola Britt, how much
the Catholic faith meant to them
and how it helped them live
upright lives. They not only set
me a good example but also en
couraged me in my study of the
Catholic religion.
“One night I went to St. Ed
ward’s Rectory to start instruc
tions, but when I got to the door
I became panicky and couldn’t
ring the bell. When I got back, I
told Richard Lint about it. So he
phoned Father Earl A. Stokey,
made an appointment, and came
with me to the first instruction.
“As I had read The Faith of
Millions,, The Faith of Our Fa
thers and numerous pamphlets,
I was already convinced of the
truth of the Catholic religion.
The evidence of the foundation
of the Catholic Church by Christ
15 centuries before a Protestant
denomination saw the light of
day was as overwhelming to me
as to the noted intellectuals who
tell of their conversions in The
Road to Damascus.
“Baptized by Father Stokey
September 25, 1948, my cup of
joy was filled to overflowing.
After graduating from Idaho
University, I decided to study
for the priesthood. At the end
of my first year of theology at
St. Thomas Seminary, Denver,
to my great joy my parents em
braced the Faith.
“When I celebrated my first
Mass in May 1958, Father Sto
key was deacon. At God’s altar I
prayed for all who had helped
lead me into Christ’s true
Church. I pray too that God may
make me a generous channel of
the grace of faith to many truth
seekers, and thus share my pre
cious treasure with others. This,
Crusade for Souls will be my
first chance to do this, please
God, on a large scale.”
Pope John Speaks In English
Publicly For First Time, Says
He’ll “Do Better” In Future
VATICAN CITY, — His Holi
ness Pope John XXIII high
lighted the first weekly general
audience of his pontificate by
speaking publicly in English for
the first time.
The Pope prefaced his attempt
by saying he was in his “Novi
tiate” as far as English is con
cerned. He promised to “do
better in the future.”
The occasion marked the first
of the regularly scheduled Wed-
Trinity is not an extra, it is
God. If men omit the doctrine of
the Trinity, because they do not
know it, they can still be talk
ing about God. But, if knowing
it, they omit it, how are they
talking about God? How are
they talking to God?
nesday general audiences grant
ed by the Pontiff, who resumed
the practice of weekly meetings
with the people long followed
by Pius XII.
At noon the Pontiff was car
ried on a portable throne into
the Hall of Benedictions amid
the loud acclaim of some 4,000
people of different nationalities.
Seated on the throne he spoke
first in Italian, then in French,
English and Spanish, addressing
a few words of greeting to per
sons of each nationality group.
Speaking in Italian he deliver
ed a brief discourse in which he
expressed his impression of the
unity of the Faith, derived from
seeing so many nations together.
He said this is a unity which
(Continued on Page 5)
Murray's Proposal For Nuclear Weapons Testing
THE BACKDROP
Thomas E. Murray, former
member of the Atomic Energy
Commission, appears to be win
ning support for his opposition
to a total ban on the testing of
nuclear weapons by the United
States.
In an effort
to escape from
the embarras-
ing position 1
into which the :
Soviet Union
forced the
United States
when it im
posed a ban on testing early this
year, President Eisenhower on
August 22 announced a unilater
al moratorium on all United
States nuclear weapons testing.
This went into effect on No
vember 1.
As a sequel to this directive
an International Conference on
the cessation of nuclear weapons
tests was called and it is still in
session in Geneva.
SOVIET TRAP
Murray, who served as advis
or to Senator Albert Gore, the
United States observer at the
deliberations in Geneva, be
lieves the United States test ban
was a mistake. He also chal
lenges the wisdom of the Pres
ident’s endorsement of a test
inspection system prepared by
his scientific advisers which ad
mitted that relatively small
Russian underground blasts
could be detected.
The Soviet Union has been
trying to trap the United States
into banning for all time further
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
nuclear testing. In return for
such an agreement, Moscow has
indicated that it would be will
ing to work out an inspection
control system later. But the
United States, well aware that
the Kremlin would stall on set
ting up an inspection system
once it attained its objective, is
insisting that the inspection
agreement must go hand in
hand with the permanent ban on
testing.
Murray, however, is skeptical
about entering into any agree
ment with the Russians for a
total banning of nuclear tests. In
an address at a recent dinner of
the Alumni Association of Cath
olic University, at which he re
ceived the Cardinal Gibbons
medal, Murray argued that a
total test ban would serve only
to weaken the security of the
United States.
An expert in the atomic en
ergy field, Murray understands
as well as any one the danger
to the health of human beings
from radio-active fall-out. To
eliminate this danger, he has
long advocated a ban on large,
multi-kiliton, nuclear explo
sions.
Such tests, he maintains, are
no longer necessary because
United States strength in large
nuclear weapons is adequate for
waging all-out nuclear war.
Moreover, the real danger is no
longer all-out nuclear war but
a series of limited wars in which
the Soviet Union could inflict a
“kind of piece-meal defeat” on
the United States.
To enable us to fight limited
wars, Murray contends, we need
an arsenal of small nuclear wea
pons. In the development of
these and other nuclear wea
pons, Murray believes, the Rus
sians are still ahead of us.
Aware of their superior posi
tion, the Russians, Murray sug
gests, would like to halt nuclear
weapons development in the
United States. For, then their
immense numerical superiority
in ground forces would give
them an advantage in waging
limited wars around the globe.
For the United States, instead
of the total ban proclaimed by
the President last August, Mur
ray is proposing a continuation
of the testing of small-yield
nuclear weapons underground
and of anti-aircraft or anti
missile-missile warheads in out
er space. This could be done, he
maintains, without subjecting
civilians to the danger of ex
posure to radio-active fall-out.
For many months, Murray has
stood virtually alone in advo
cating the development of an
improved system of low-yield
nuclear weapons. But since his
return from Geneva, Senator
Gore has urged the Eisenhower
Administration to modify its
ban against testing to permit
testing of small nuclear wea
pons underground.
And the Administration is
said to be considering propos
ing to the Russians that such
underground testing be exempt
ed from the proposed test ban
agreement.
Jottings...
(By BARBARA C. JENCKS)
l I
• ONE OF the very nicest
traditions associated with the
Christmas season, it has always
seemed to me, is that of ex
changing greeting cards with
friends far and wide. Even this
revered custom has not entire
ly escaped the commercialism of
the season. F. Robert Edman of
the Catechetical Guild of St.
Paul estimated that two billion
Christmas cards will be ex
changed this year but only one
in three was expected to have
a theme faintly resembling the
fact that Christmas is Christ's
birthday. A quick canvas in
shops here gave a more optimis
tic picture. Perhaps this is due
to the fact that the city is also
home of two major Catholic ed
ucational institutions. There are
6.000 men at Notre Dame and
1.000 women at Saint Mary's
who probably will buy their
Christmas cards in the city of
South Bend. Out of respect for
the religious tastes of these
youth the cards may be slanted
in a religious line. At any rate
the cribs were more in evidence
than the cocktail shakers and
the snow queens were over
ruled by the madonnas. Yet
there are always a few cards
which have no business in the
Christmas card division and for
which no clerk could justify
whether he is in Indiana or
Georgia. Why they are not ex
cluded altogether, I cannot un
derstand. If you see any dis-
taseful cards in shops in the
area, make it a point to bring
them to the attention of the
manager. This is a beginning,
Christmas is one holiday which
should not be made the brunt
of an offensive card designer.—
• ACCORDING to the Cate
chetical Guild, we run into still
another problem in card selec
tion. No longer is it enough to
send a religious card but we
must make sure that it is both
gramatically and theologically
correct. The Christmas quota
tion most erroneously being
quoted is the message from the
Gospel of St. Luke. Which do
you think is the correct version:
“Peace to men of good will” or
“peace, good will toward men?”
Check your missal and Bible if
you do not know immediately.
Of course, the answer is Peace
io men of good will. The other
answer makes living and salva
tion a sure thing whereas peace
comes only to the soul who tries
to follow the word of God.
• THE IDEA of Christmas
card exchange seems best to
capture the ideal spirit of the
season. It seems to capture it
even more than the feverish
frenzy of gift buying. The an
nual gymnastic procedure both
physical and financial that we
put ourselves, through each year
matching up names with gifts
and trying to outdo each other
in appearance and ingenuity
holds little of the original sig
nificance of Christmas giving.
The giving of Christmas pres
ents is supposed to be moved
from a pure spirit of the ex
pression of generosity. The giv
ing of presents is supposed to
reveal the Godlikeness of man.
How often in the fury of the
shopping pace today, surround
ed as it is with brash commer
cialism, do we stop to remember
this? It would seem however,
that some of this accompanies
the procedure of selecting, and
addressing and inscribing
Christmas cards. The price of
the card means little. A small
five-cent greeting with a note
enclosed bringing news of a
friend means far more than the
elaborate engraved and imprint
ed card. A card list prompts
warm memories and long
thoughts. We make our annual
visits with our friends across
the country and abroad through
Christmas cards. We give some
thing of ourselves in the pro
cess. It is not cold and automatic
and begrudged the way gift ex
change process is so often con
ducted. And as we wish our
friends well at this holiest of
seasons, it is only fitting that it
be conveyed on a card that
bears a theme denoting the an
niversary of the birth of Christ.
NO END
The thing some men don’t
seem to realize is that they can
learn a little every day and still
not know it all.
Question
Box
By David Q. Lipfak
Q: Would you publish a brief
explanation of what a cardinal
is and what his chief functions
are? And what is the meaning
of such terms as "cardinal
priest/' "cardinal deacon," etc.?
A: Cardinals comprise the sen
ate of the supreme pontiff, and
rank after him in prelatial dig
nity.
The title cardinal comes from
the Latin cardo, i.e., “hinge.”
Its modern meaning originated
in the fact that the earliest per
sons to possess the title were
chosen from among the ranking
priests permanently attached
(hinged) to certain major
churches in and around Rome.
In time the adjective cardinals
(English “cardinal”) has pri
mary reference not to the fact
that ranking priests to their re
spective churches, but rather to
their superior dignity over other
clerics. So St. Augustine used
the term in the fifth century.
The right to create a cardinal
belongs exclusively to the pope.
Although in the past nominees
were not always in holy orders,
(the last cardinal not a priest
was Cardinal Mertel who died
in 1899), present law stipulates
that before a person is created
a cardinal he must be at least a
priest of exceptional learning,
piety and prudence. (Today car
dinals are usually chosen from
the episcopacy.) The creation of
cardinals generally takes place
in a convention known as, a con
sistory.
THE NUMBER of cardinals at
one given period in history has
varied considerably. Pope Sixtus
V (d. 1590) set the number at
(Continued on Page 5)
Huiirtut
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 MARK WALTER
Managing Editor
Vol. 39 Saturday, December 27, 1958 No. 15
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1958-1959
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus 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 CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary