Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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