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Mikoyar/s Tiresome Answers
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JOSEPH BREIG
SOME FACTS ABOUT CUBA
I am not impressed by the
shocked reaction of . editorial
writers to the executions in
Cuba following upon the over
throw of the murderous Batista
government.
For one
thing, these
journal ists
wrote in haste,.
without wait
ing for the
fuller infor
mation t h at
c e r t a inly
would have
given them second thoughts.
For another, they dp not seem
to grasp firmly the truth that
peace is the work of justice, and
that sentimentalism is not re
ligion.
Further, they have not yet re
alized that it is high time to
call a stern halt to the plunder
ing of Latin American nations
by successive dictatorships.
Finally, they do not see that
national and international thugs
will continue to fill the world
with torture and terror until
they learn that they cannot do
so without facing an accounting.
ONE NEWSPAPER denounc
ed revolutionary leader Fidel
Castro for violating the Latin
American “tradition” that to the
victor belongs the spoils, but the
vanquished must always be al
lowed to find asylum in some
other country.
This is simply attacking Cas
tro for not being immoral. He
was eminently right, not wrong,
for refusing spoils while insist
ing that malefactors in places of
power be brought to justice.
Dale Francis, editor of the
Lone Star Catholic and corre
spondent for Our Sunday Vis
itor, is one newsman who went
to Cuba to get the facts about
the revolution and the execu
tions.
Francis knows Cuba. He spent
a couple of years there with his
wife, Barbara, assisting mission
aries in the work among the
Cuban poor.
I HAVE KNOWN Dale Fran
cis for years. I have yet to meet
a man more patient, more de
liberate, more kindly, or slower
to jump to conclusions.
Francis cabled from Cuba the
story of what had happened to
five young men of Catholic Ac
tion, whom he had met when
they gave religious instructions
in a Cuban village.
They were arrested by Batista
agents after Christmas. Follow
ing the overthrow of the Batista
regime, their bodies were found
by a priest searching through a
pile of 60 bodies.
“They had been shot first in
the arms,” Francis wrote, “not
once but many times, rising up
from their wrists. Bullets tore
through their bodies in non-vital
places — the ears, the chin, the
cheeks. They had been slashed
with knives in a manner too
horrible to detail.”
ARCHBISHOP Enrique Perez
Serantes of Santiago told Fran
cis that in his province alone,-
Batista agents murdered more
than 5,000 persons. Throughout
Cuba, the victims numbered at
very least 20,000.
These were people who died
horribly because they spoke or
acted in defense of elementary
human rights — while Batista
and his followers lived in lux
ury, and piled up huge fortunes
out of payoffs from gambling
casinos — some of the operators
of which, to America’s shame,
were Americans.
Auxiliary Bishop Alfredo
Muler of Havana told American
newsmen that although he does
not usually favor capital pun
ishment, and the Church is al
ways inclined to forgive, in this
case the death penalty was jus
tified.
BISHOP ALBERTO MARTIN
of Matanzas Province said, “The
position of my Church in Matan
zas Province is that the trials
and executions are fully justi
fied. In some cases, the people
would have been justified if
they had taken justice into their
own hands and had killed
known criminals without wait
ing for a trial.”
Three ministers in charge of
the Protestant seminary in Ma
tanzas sent telegrams to Pres
ident Eisenhower and Congress,
upholding the Castro revolution
and calling for a halt to Ameri
can criticism of the executions.
Dr. Francisco Muller, director
of the Havana morgue, said that
Batista agents, during Batista’s
reign, dumped the beaten or
bullet - ridden bodies of 600
youths at the morgue’s door.
Ivory-tower protests against
swift punishment for such
crimes, it seems to me, come
with ill grace from newspapers
which went into paroxysms of
moral indignation over a gift of
a vicuna coat, and received po
litely a man like Anastas Mik-
oyan only two years after the
Soviet butchery of the Hungari
an people.
F - y:
Theology
For The
Layman
By F. J. Sheed
The universe God created has
two vast divisions — spirit and
matter. We had a long look at
these two before proceeding to
the study of God and I strongly
urge readers new to Theology to
re-read Sections 3-6.
From the piont of view of
creation, the
one difference
between them
is paramount.
For while ev
erything made
by God bears
the mark of
its Maker, so
that to the ob
servant eye it points straight to
Him and tells much of Him, spi
ritual beings alone are made in
His image and likeness.
We have here something like
the difference between an art
ist painting a picture — of a
landscape, say, or a friend —
and painting a self-portrait. The
material universe is God’s work
of art, but spiritual beings are
His self-portraiture. Our own
soul is a spirit, so that every
man bears a portrait of God,
painted by God, within him. It
is painted by God, for every
soul is a new creation, made by
God in His own image; but in
most of us the likeness of God
is sadly defaced by sin.
Man’s soul, of course, as we
have already seen, is not the
highest of created spirits, it is
the lowest. Over it tower the
angels. They are pure spirits—
that is, they have no bodily ele
ments at all — simply minds
and wills, minds knowing, wills
loving, both at an intensity of
power beyond our conception.
That angels exist we know by
God’s revelation. Science, which
has developed marvelous skill
in the examination of matter,
can make no pronouncement at
all as to these beings in whom
there is no faintest element of
matter.
We call them angels — the
word means messengers — be-
. cause of so many instances in
Scripture where God uses them
to convey His will to men; but
of course they do not exist for
us, any more than we for them:
we and they alike exist for God.
Yet they are our mightier bro
thers and their love and their
(Continued on Page 5)
Question
Box
By David Q. Liptak
Q. Do we know anything for
certain about Our Lady's death?
A. The constitution defining
the dogma of the Assumption,
promulgated by Pope Pius XII
on November 1, 1950, passes
oyer any dear reference to the
faftjOf the Blessed Virgin’s
ifibath. So much is evident from
the central formula of the docu
ment, which alludes specifically
not to the death of Our Lady,
but rather to the completion of
her life on earth; “. . . the Im
maculate Mother of God, the
ever Virgin Mary, having com
pleted the course of her earthly
life, was assumed body and soul
into heavenly glory.”
However, the same constitu
tion cites the words of many
Church Fathers who took for
granted that death visited the
Blessed Virgin as a prelude to
her assumption. And this is the
majority opinion of theologians
on the matter.
Those who have questioned
the fact of Our Lady’s death
commonly base their main argu
mentation upon her Immaculate
Conception. Since she was free
from original sin, they maintain,
she must have been free from
death, which is a penalty of
original sin.
Their argument is answered,
first, by pointing to the fact that
Christ Himself died. Being God,
He did not have to die, yet none
theless freely accepted death for
our sins. Mary as the new Eve
(a concept stressed by the Holy
Father in his definition of the
Assumption) shared the lot of
her Son, step by step. Thus she
also died.
Liturgical observances of the
feast of the Assumption as far
back as 1300 years ago have
generally assumed that Our
Lady died prior to her glorifica-
(Continued on Page 5)
Jottings.
(By BARBARA C. JENCKS)
• THIS PLACE where I sleep
and work is a kind of world
within a world. It is in a way a
miniature city of God. This does
not mean that it is like heaven.
It is not like heaven because it.
is peopled with mortals like
myself ; who. are yet far from
perfection. Human beings el
bowing each other in the jour
ney to heaven vetoes an idyllic
situation. Although we travel
the same route on the same
train, we get tired, lonely, dis
couraged and irritated. It would
be that way in Dublin or Bos
ton or Rome, of course! It was
ever meant to be this way less
we settle for a stop this side of
our final destination. Anyway
I live in a Catholic world. I
live with people who are bound
by the same faith. There is no
attack on the Church. There is
no need to defend the Pope, the
saints or the liturgy. Sure there
is the occasional theological ar
gument and the sophomoric stu
dent who will say boldly: “I
wish I had gone to a state uni
versity.” The end is the same
for all of us nonetheless be we
Republicans or Democrats, beau
tiful or ugly, chemistry majors
or English teachers, German or
Irish.
• IT IS a world apart from
the world I move in during va
cations and off campus visits. It
is here I best can see what the
realization of the Church Unity
octave would mean. The unity
of faith! When I go home on
vacations, I hear all kinds of
conversations on trains and
buses; in restaurants and de
partment stores. So much of this
is based on the lack of a hope
and faith and trust in God. I
am rudely awakened. It is like
coming from another planet.
The world is not all Catholic.
The world does not have this
precious gift of faith as I have.
Some appear not even to think
about it or wonder about it, so
concerned are they with the du
ties of their little cities of men
whifcb last but for a little while.
I also often talk with other peo
ple who challenge me concern
ing my Church. They know not
the sacredness of the holy sac
rifice of the Mass, they do not
know and love the Blessed Mo
ther. They cannot understand
why we must go without meat
or attend Mass each Sunday—-
and wonder of wonders to the
person who goes every day! Out
there, you meet them everyday.
Many judge our Church by you.
I know that outside of prayer,
there is nothing as powerful as
charity. “What you are shouts so
that I can hardly hear what you
are saying.” Sometimes we
Catholics fail in our example.
We have the keys to the king
dom but they are misplaced
among our human effects. I
know that no memorized doc
trine or easily quoted scriptur
al passage or sharp retort is go
ing to convert anyone to my
Church. It is hard to remain
silent when someone attacks it.
Yet I must learn to murmur
“Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do.”
• BACK in my little world,
I pondered all these things dur
ing the Church Unity Octave. I
am overcome with humility that
the gift of faith had been given
to me, I would wish that others
might see and thus believe as I
have. I pray for those who be
lieve and those who do not
believe. There are many sincere
non-Catholics who put us to
shame in their practice of chari
ty and whom we would do well
to model in this area. Would
that they could hear the music
By Brian Cronin
1. Which of these Catholic statesmen signed the Declaration
of Independence?: (a) Roger Brooke Taney? (b) Charles
Carroll? (c) James Shields? (d) John E. Kenna?
2. Oberammergau, Germany is the scene of: (a) The Nativity
Play? (b) An apparition? (c) Luther’s birthplace? (d) The
Passion Play?
3. What is the name of the well-known religious order whose
name, when translated, literally reads “The Hounds of
God?: (a) The Dominicans? (b) The Jesuits? (c) The Fran
ciscans? (d) The Paulists?
4. The most solemn part of the Mass—that is, from the Sanctus
to the Pater Noster—is called: (a) The Mass of the Faith
ful (b) The Mass of the Cathecumens? (c) The Canon?
(d) The Proper?
5. The Church on earth is commonly called: (a) The Church
Suffering? (b) The Church Militant? (c) The Church Tri
umphant?
6. Every priest is entitled to say three Masses on: (a) Good
Friday? (b) Christmas Day? (c) Easter Sunday? (d) Ash
Wednesday?
7. Because he did not consider himself worthy of dying like
his master, one of the apostles was ..crucified head down
ward. He was: (a) Simon? (b) Philip? (c) Paul? (d) Simon
Peter?
8. The initial letters “I. H. S.” represent: (a) Jesus, in Greek?
(b) The Trinity? (c) Catholic, in latin?
Give yourself 10 marks for each correct answer below.
Rating: 80-Excellent; 70-Very Good; 60-Good; 50-Fair.
ANSWERS: 1 (b); - 2 (d); 3(a); 4(c); 5(b);
6 (b); 7 (d); 8 (a)
SHARING OUR TREASURE
Wins Converts At County Fair
By REV. JOHN A, O'BRIEN, Pb. D.
—-—(University of Notre Dame) —■
South of the Mason Dixon
line there is a vast area, in
which the percentage of Cath
olics is smaller than in parts of
China and Ja
pan. It em
braces, among
other states,
Georgia, North
and South Ca
rolina, Missis
sippi, and Ar
kansas. Blaz
ing a mission
ary trail through that territory
for 17 years has been Father
Patrick Walsh, O.P., whose
whole priestly life has been a
magnificent demonstration of
the truth that the Catholic
Faith is not to be hoarded but
to be shared.
In the ten summers in which
I did street preaching in the
South, I ran across the foot
prints of Father Pat, as he is
affectionately called by Cath
olics and non-Catholics, more
frequently than those of any
other missionary. He has shown
that we do not have to go to
foreign lands to do missionary
work and that the greatest mis
sionary field in the world is in
our own back yard.
In 1949 Father Pat designed
and built the first complete
church on wheels. The aim was
to put on the roads what the
original Extension railroad cars
put on rails—a complete church
—and bring it into towns, vil
lages and rural areas. Thousands
of people were thus enabled for
the first time to see the interior
of a Catholic church and to
meet and talk to a priest.
“Our job,” said Father Pat,
“was to plant the seeds of faith
bv street preaching, spreading
literature, going from house to
house and inviting families to
visit our trailer mission chapel
and attend our outdoor services..
For the past five years we went
to state and country fairs, where
we established religious exhib
its: the miniature church
Christmas crib, a 16-foot cruci
fix. charts showing the origin of
the Church and of the Bible.
“At the South Carolina State
Fair and the County Fairs at
Charleston and Sumter we pass
ed opt 20.nno pieces of litera
ture. including pamphlets in
which were enclosed postal
cards inviting them to take a
free correspondence course in
the Catholic religion. Some 60
persons are now taking that
which would be fulfillment to
the words in their hearts. I pray
for those who stray that they
might know the particular joy
of the returning exile to the
house of his Father. And for
those who are continually seek
ing. restless, changing, unsatis
fied, thirsting may they come to
rest in “the home of the lonely”
as Cardinal Newman often re
ferred to the Church. What a
dream come true it would be if
all men could dwell in the unity
of faith as we do here in this
miniature city of God.
course. We met couples that had
been married out of the Church
for many years and got a num
ber of them to straighten out
their marriages.
“At the close of the Chales-
ton Fair I was rather tired after
three solid weeks of standing at
the midway ten hours a day,
talking at the microphone, invit
ing people to visit our exhibit
and answering questions. I was
beginning to wonder what it has
accomplished, when the super
visor approached me.
“ ‘Father,’ he said, ‘you will
never know all the good your
exhibit has done. Three years
ago when you were here, you
gave some pamphlets and a lit
tle crucifix to a family. As a
result they took instructions, all
were received into the Church
and the children are now at
tending the Catholic school at
Georgetown.’
“It proves that if we 'do our
part to scatter the seeds far and
wide, God will see that some of
it falls on good ground and
brings forth a precious harvest.
We need more Catholics to call
at homes, distribute pamphlets,
invite families to parish Infor
mation Classes and go with
them. When families can’t at
tend, Catholics should offer to
instruct them in their own
homes.”
Now stationed at St. Stephen’s
Priory, Dover, Massachusetts,
Father Pat Walsh has given an
eloquent demonstration of what
Catholics — priests and laity ■—
can accomplish when they
“preach the Gospel to every
creature.”
Reinterred
In a closing ceremony of the
Paulists’ Fathers centennial
year, the remains of their
founder, Father Isaac Thomas
Hecker, C.S.P. (above), were
reinterred in a newly-erected
sarcophagus at the Church of
St. Paul the Apostle, New York
City. Father Hecker died Dec.
22, 1888 and was originally
buried in the vault of Old St.
Patrick’s Cathedral, Mott
Street, where he was received
into the Catholic church in
1844, The body was later trans
ferred to the Mortuary Chapel
of St. Paul’s church. (NC
Photos)
THE
If the visit of Anastas Miko-
yan, the first deputy premier of
the Soviet Union, has taught us
anything, it is the futility of at
tempting to bring about a better
understanding between the
United States and the Soviet
Union by an
exchange of
visitors.
Mikoyan
came here
with a pre
conceived im
age of the
United States,
and, apparent
ly, nothing that he saw or heard
caused him to change it in the
slightest degree.
From what he said in meet
ings with government officials,
American business men and the
press, no man can be sure what
his mission was. He spent most
of his time telling us that we
are responsible for most of the
world’s ills and that the posi
tions of the Soviet government
are unimpeachably correct.
MOSCOW'S TERMS
He reiterated with tiresome
frequency the official Soviet
line that Russia wants peace
and coexistence with, the free
world and that the United
States is stubbornly obstructing
the achievement of this goal.
When efforts were made to pin
him down as to the terms upon
which the communists and the
free world could live together
in peace, he made it clear that
the terms were those laid down
in Moscow.
The cold war could be ended,
he suggested, if the United
States would give up its mili
tary bases in Europe, withdraw
its troops from Europe, renounce
BACKDROP
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
the mutual security pact with
Generalissimo Ghaing-kai-shek
and turn over Formosa to the
Chinese Reds.
He held out the hope that the
Berlin issue could be negotiated.
Yet he made it clear the Soviet
Union was standing pat on its
proposal that the Allied troops
withdraw from. West Berlin and
that the western powers and
Russia guarantee the existence
of that now free oasis in com
munist East Germany as a so-
called free city.
If the Allies undertook to use
force to maintain their positions
in West Berlin, the Kremlin’s
Number Two man said ominous
ly, “Force will be met with
force.”
Particularly in his meetings
with the American press did
Mikoyan reveal the width of the
abyss that divides the commun
ist from the free world mind.
These meetings showed clearly
the impossibility of and under
standing between those living
on either side of the Iron Cur
tain. For the communists and
the western world do not use
words in the same sense.
It was intervention, Mikoyan
insisted, when the United States
sent troops into Lebanon at the
request of the Lebanese gov
ernment and then in a few
months withdrew them without
spilling a drop of blood. It was
not intervention when Soviet
troops poured into Hungary and
put down with much bloodshed
a government established by a
revolution of the Hungarian
people.
DIFFERENT WORLDS
The American press, the vis
itor maintained, is not a free
press because it prints “distor
tions and untruths” about the
Soviet Union. The Soviet press,
however, is a free press, when
it prints the wierdest and most
malicious distortions, to say no
thing of downright canards,
about the United States, because
it is telling what every Russian
knows to be the truth.
If no one in the Soviet Union,
including the press, criticizes
the government that does not
mean that the Soviet people
are not permitted the freedom
of speech that Americans have;
it simply means that the gov
ernment is doing a good job and
there is no occasion for criti
cism.
Mikoyan had two hour-long
sessions with the press in Wash
ington, to say nothing of briefer
exchanges with interviewers in
other parts of the country. Near
ly every newsman who partici
pated in these interviews came
away with a sense of hopless
frustration.
They came to the only con
clusion open to them: commun
ists and non-communists live in
different worlds, they see things
through different eyes, they
judge things from different
standards and live by a different
set of values.
There is still, however, much
talk in official quarters of en
couraging a freer exchange of
visitors between the United
States and the Soviet Union.
Such visits may do no particu
lar harm. But it seems obvious,
as Mikoyan departs, that bring
ing communists to this country
by the boatload would not alter
the image of the United States
fostered by all the Kremlin’s
propaganda agencies.
PLANNING NEW CHURCH
COUNCIL WILL REQUIRE
A COMPLEX MACHINERY
By James C. O'Neill
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
VATICAN CITY, — The ac
tual machinery which will
transform the Church’s forth
coming general council from a
desire expressed by His Holiness
Pope John XXIII into a highly
organized reality has yet to be
set up.
But in this as in many other
matters in the history of the
Church the past will serve as a
guide and tradition most likely
will be consulted.
Pope Pius IX expressed the
desire to hold the last ecumeni
cal council in 1864 — five years
before it actually opened. In
these times of air travel and
rapid communicatioin it can be
safely assumed that the time
interval will be much shorter.
However, no date has yet been
set.
The date, according to past
tradition, will be published in
a papal bull of convocation. Yet
even before this comes to light
much organizational work has
to be accomplished.
It has been a papal custom to
call upon the cardinals resident
in Rome to express in writing
the subjects which they think
should be discussed during 1 the
council. Again modern means of
communications will enable all
the world’s cardinals, except
those behind the Iron Curtain,
to share in this task. However,
it must be remembered that
the questions which will be put
before the council will be only
those submitted by the Pope.
In the last council a certain
number of bishops from the Lat
in and Oriental rites also were
consulted in drawing up the
agenda, which set a precedent
for the same thing occurring
this time.
In fact much of the prelimi
nary work on these suggestions
will be done in the congrega
tions of the Roman Curia, ad
ministrative center of the
Church. It is in these 11 congre
gations that the world view of
the Church is most clear and
from these through their various
cardinal prefects and secretaries
will flow suggestions and pro
posed topics. Certain it is that
the Pope himself and those who
share with him the task of gov
erning the Church will shape
the ultimate outcome.
The organizational task facing
those who will have to prepare
the program of the council will
be immense. But there exist in
Rome the administrative per
sonnel and facilities. The opin
ion of the Roman Curia is that
there will be set up by the Pope
a special commission of cardi
nals and various experts in the
many fields of Church life to
shape the agenda which the
Pope will ultimately place be
fore the bishops of the world.
As the time nears for the
council the cardinalitial com
mission will subdivide into
committees drawing up the or
der of the subjects and to pre
pare the plan of the council.
Since such a meeting involves
so many bishops and so many
possible topics, it is necessary
to lay out an exact and precise
ly detailed order of discussion.
Among those things which
must be decided is whether tit
ular bishops will take part, al
though it is widely assumed that
such will be the case. However,
only bishops resident in Sees
have an inherent right to sit in
such a council. Even cardinals
who have not been consecrated
bishops are included in the
council by means of an ecclesi
astical ruling rather than by a
natural right inherent in their
office.
Once convened the council
has ordinary and supreme au
thority in the universal Church,
subject to the approval of its
decisions by the Supreme Pon
tiff. The meeting will be in pri
vate, except those at which de
crees of the council are promul
gated by the Pope in public.
While the exact outlines of
the council are now of neces
sity very dim, there is in the
organization of the Church all
the necessary means to set up
the Church’s 21st council on a
scale never before seen by
Christendom.
EXPECT 1500
AT COUNCIL
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
VATICAN CITY — About
1,500 or more high Church of
ficials may take part in the ec
umenical council which His Hol
iness Pope John XXIII has an
nounced he will call.
An official document will be
published before the council is
convened, detailing who is to
attend, but in the meantime,
speculation at the total number
in attendance may be made on
the basis of canon law.
Church legislation says these
persons have decisive votes in
such councils: Cardinals, patri
archs, primates, archbishops and
residential bishops, abbots or
prelates nullius and superior of
certain monastic congregations.
Titular bishops, if they are in
vited, may also vote.
The 1958 “Annuario Pontifi-
cio,” the official yearbook of the
Church, contains statistics indi
cating these persons may total
about 1,500, exclusive of the
titular bishops who would raise
the total to more than 2,000 if
invited.
In addition, the Pope or the
commission that organizes the
council may very well invite ex
perts in theology and canon law
to attend the meeting, though
they will function only as con
sultants. No reasonably accurate
estimate of the total number of
these experts can be made in
advance.
FALSE FRONT
Character is what a man real
ly is — reputation is what he’d
like other people to think he is.
Uneasy lies the head that tries
to make a living without work
ing for it.
©If* lallrtUt
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, February 7, 1959 No. 18
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