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Serving
Georgia's 88
Southern Counties
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH EDITION
Published By The
Catholic Laymen's
Ass'n of Georgia
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH
Vol. 40, No.
MONROE, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1959
10c Per Copy — $3 a Year
St. Thomas More
St. Thomas More (above), was
an outstanding English lawyer,
and first layman to hold the
office of Chancellor of Eng
land. He declined to support
King Henry VIII’s divorce and
refused to sign the oath of
supremacy of the King. He was
i'm prisoned, and after 15
months was beheaded on Tower
Hill, July 6, 1535. He was
canonized in 1935 by Pope Pius
XI. His feast day is celebrated
throughout the Catholic world
on July 6. (NC Photos)
Prelate Scores
Obstructing Of
Religious Call
PITTSBURGH, (NC) — What
gives the Serra movement its
special distinction is its devo
tion to the cause of the diocesan
priesthood, Archbishop John F.
Dearden of Detroit declared at
the 17th annual convention of
Serra International here.
He said that each convention
serves as a sounding board for
re-echoing this devotion.
Archbishop Dearden scored
any parental opposition to voca
tions, and encouraged the Sei
rans to promote the right ap
praisal of the priesthood, for
‘ the priesthood is an extension
in our time of Christ in His
Church.”
The Archbishop stressed two
qualities which typify those who
aspire to the priesthood: one,
a special and devoted reverence
for the Mass, and the other, a
tender and filial love for the
Blessed Mother.
Special Prayers
Offered For
Meldrim Victims
SAVANNAH—Special prayers
for victims of the tragedy which
occurred at Meldrim and their
relatives were offered at ail
Masses in the diocese on Sun
day, July 5th.
Archbishop Gerald P. O’Hara,
Bishop of Savannah, and Apos
tolic Delegate to Great Britain,
cabled from London that “My
heart goes out in deepest sym
pathy to families of the victims.”
Bishop Thomas J. McDonough,
auxiliary-bishop, said that “ail
of us were overcome with grief
at the great loss of life ... To
the bereaved, I have extended
the sympathy and prayers of our
priests and people. 1 was par
ticularly happy to learn that
many of our priests were on
hand to offer consolation and
encouragement to the victims.”
The death toll has risen to 22
as the result of the derailment
Sunday, June 28th, of several
railroad cars containing butane
gas from a freight train as it
passed over a tressel near a
bathing and recreation area of
the Ogeechee River at Meldrim,
Georgia which is located 20
miles northwest of here.
The tank cars exploded,
spreading flames across the wa
ters of the bathing area and its
shoreline, killing' many as they
swam.
FIRST SINCE 13th CENTURY
ARCHBISHOP ^
CONFIRMS 14 j
PRISONERS v
LONDON, (NC) — Arch
bishop Gerald P. O’Hara, Bish
op of Savannah, and Apostolic
Delegate to Great Britain, ad
ministered the sacrament of
Confirmation to 14 prisoners
during a visit to Wormwood
Scrubs, big London jail.
The Archbishop was also cel
ebrant of the Dialogue Mass in
which the men participated,
and he preached and gave Ben
ediction.
Final Report Meeting, July 15
LAUNCH GENERAL DIVISION
OF SAVANNAH CAMPAIGN
SAVANNAH — A very suc
cessful first report meeting of
Catholic Primate Of
Canada Gives Degree
To Anglican Primate
QUEBEC, (NC) — Laval Uni
versity’s honorary doctorate of
letters was presented to the
Anglican Primate of Canada by
the Catholic Primate of Canada
at' a convocation here.
Recipient of the degree was
the Most Rev. Philip Carring
ton, who h a s been Anglican
Bishop and Archbishop of Que
bec for the past 24 years.
The degree was presented to
Archbishop Carrington by
Archbishop Maurice Roy of
Quebec in his capacity as
chancellor of the historic uni
versity.
Archbishop Carrington deliv
ered the commencement ad
dress after receiving the degree.
He cited the relations of the
French and British races in
Canada as being “a friendship
like that which unites members
of one family.”
Two Retreats
For Women At
Mt. de Sales
MACON — This year two
retreats for Catholic Women
will be held at Mt. de Sales
Academy, Macon.
The first will begin the
evening of July 21st and end
the morning of July 24th. The
second will begin the evening
of July 24th and end mid
afternoon July 26th.
Reservations may be made
directly with the Sisters at
Mt. de Sales.
the Alumnae Division has giv
en impetus to St. Vincent’s
Academy Building Fund Drive
which is being conducted by
the Alumnae Association in an
effort to raise tjhe $250,000
needed for a new school build
ing. A final report meeting for
this division is scheduled for
July 15 at which it is expected
that most of the 45 captains
representing the various gradu
ating classes will be able to
announce 100% participation
from members of their classes.
The General Division of the
campaign was launched on
Thursday, July 9 when the key
note address was given by
Francis W. Kelley, the general
chairman of the Division. Also
on the program were Sister M.
Bernardine, R.S.M., and Sister
M. Michelle, R.S.M., the super
ior and principal of St. Vin
cent’s respectively, who stress
ed the need for more facilities
to keep pace with ever-increas
ing enrollment and the general
co-chairman, Mrs. John E. Por
ter and Mrs. William C. Brod
erick who gave the details of
the campaign.
The honorary chairmen of)
this division are Sister M.
Kiernan, R.S.M. and Sister M.
Fidelis, R.S.M., and in addi
tion to Mr. Kelley they will be
assisted by the following: Jos
eph J. Hutton and Frank H.
Emerick, Team 1 (AAA); Mrs.
Fred W. Williams and Miss
Joan H. Harty, Team 2 (AA);
Mrs. Eugene D. Entelman and
Mrs. John E. Corcoran, Team
3 (A); Mrs. Barth E. Shea III,
Team 4 (Professional); and
Mrs. Mary L. McAfee and Miss
Lucy Distefano, Team 5
(Friends of St. Vincent’s). In ad
dition to the chairmen, each
team will consist of six cap
tains and thirty workers.
Pope John's First Encyclical Appeals
Directly To Separated Christians For
Reunion With The Catholic Church
DOCUMENT DEALS WITH
TRUTH, UNITY AND PEACE
Franciscan General Tours U. S.
Maronite Patriarch Paul Pierre Meouchi of Antioch is
shown at ceremonies in Rome as Pope John XXIII bestowed
the pallium upon him. It was the first time since the 13th
century that a pope personally conferred the pallium on a
Maronite patriarch. Lebanese residents of Rome and Leba
non’s Ambassador to the Holy See witnessed the cere
monies. (NC Photos)
KERALA CATHOLICS BURY
13 SLAIN BY RED POLICE;
SHOWDOWN STILL TO COME
(Radio, N.C.W.C. News Service)
TRIVANDRUM, India —
Catholics of Kerala paused to
bury their dead, but remained
undaunted in their decision to
resist the communist-ruled new
education law.
Thirteen Catholics were slain
by police who opened fire on
unarmed crowds demonstrating
against the regime in three
Kerala towns. Only Catholics
were killed, even though Hin
du Nairs and Catholics are both
leading the protests against the
school law, and the three main
opposition political parties unit
ed in demonstrations seeking to
force the Red government to
resign.
This led to charges f r o m
Catholics and non-Catholics
alike that the state government
is trying to isolate the Catho
lics for persecution and to
make it appear that it is the
Catholics who are creating the
trouble.
The highest death toll was in
Ankamali, where police fired
at Catholics who staged a dem
onstration when one of their
number picketing a commun
ist-run liquor store was beaten
and arrested by police. Four
Catholics were killed instantly;
three died later.
Thousands of the faithful ga
thered at the church and cem
etery for the joint funeral of
five of the dead. Syro-Malabar
Rite Archbishop Joseph Pare-
cattil offered the Requiem
Mass. Another Ordinary of the
same rite, Bishop Sebastian
Vayalil of Palai, gave the ser
mon.
A message from Latin Rite
Archbishop Joseph Attipetty of
Verapoly, who is chairman of
the Catholic Bishops’ Confer
ence of Kerala, was read at the
funeral.
The other six Catholics slain
lost their lives in suburbs of
this state capital. Two were
members of a group of Cath
olic fishermen who were shot
while picketing a government
school in Puluvila. Four others
died in a similar incident in
Vetukad.
As reports reached here to
the effect that Indan Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
was preparing to visit India’s
most Christian and most liter
ate state to study the situation,
members of the Catholic hier
archy spoke out against the
communists’ anti - Catholic
charges.
Auxiliary Bishop Peter Pere
ira of Trivandrum declared
that the Catholic Bishops “have
nothing to do” with the at
tempts to force the communist
government out of office.
“This is a political matter
which concerns the general
public and the state’s political
parties,” he said. “The Bishops
are concerned only with educa
tion and the schools.”
Denying . government charg
es that crowds of demonstrators
had been assembled by the toll
ing of church bells as “utterly
false and made up by the po
lice,” Bishop Pereira said the
government is trying to make
it seem that “only the Catho
lics oppose them.” The Bishop,
who issued the statement after
making a personal investiga-
(Continued on Page 6)
ST. VINCENT'S DRIVE—Miss Joan H. Harty and Mrs. Fred
W. Williams, co-chairmen of the AA Section of the General Di
vision which was launched on July 9 as part of the Building
Fund Drive of St. Vincent’s Academy.
(Radio, N.C.W.C. News Service)
VATICAN CITY — His Holi
ness Pope John XXIII in his
first encyclical appealed di
rectly to separated Christians to
reunite with the Catholic
Church and to pray for the suc
cess of the coming ecumenical
council.
The 12,000-word document
dealt with truth, unity and
peace. In it the Pope also reaf
firmed the papal condemnation
of communism and warned that
a war with nuclear weapons
would be destructive to both
the victor and the vanquished.
Then encyclical, as is cus
tomary, was addressed to the
Catholic hierarchy, clergy and
faithful, taut in the section deal
ing specifically with unity the
Pontiff spoke directly to Pro
testants and to dissident
churches of the East.
In referring to the unity of
the Catholic Church’s doctrine,
government and religious prac
tice, the Pope said:
“May this wondrous mani
festation of unity therefore, by
which the unity of the Catholic
Church stands forth for all to
see, may these desires, these
prayers by which she implores
from God the same unity for
all .move your mind end rouse
it in a' salutary manner; We
say your — for We are speak
ing to those who are separated
from the Apostolic See.
Assuring separated Christians
of his paternal love, the Pope
einphasizzed the following:
“Note, We beg of you, that
when We lovingly invite you to
the unity of the Church We are
inviting you not to the home of
a stranger, but to your own, to
the Father’s house which be
longs to all.”
After stating that the success
of the ecumenical council he
plans to convoke depends more
on prayers than on human ef
fort, the Pope continued:
“To take part in this prayer
ful appeal to God, We invite
most lovingly those also who —
though they are not of this fold
—yet reverently worship God
and with good will strive to
keep His commandments.”
In the first section of the en
cyclical letter, Pope John cited
the ignorance of truth, the con
tempt for truth and the delib
erate effort at turning away
from it as the “source and root
of all evils which affect indi
viduals, peoples and nations
with a kind of poison.
He said that “though we have
the power to arrive at natural
truths by the aid of the mind
itself, this result — particular
ly in what concerns religion and
right conduct — is not obtained
by all without difficulty, and
often there remains some ad
mixture of error.”
Moreover, as supernatural
truths cannot be attained by
reason, he continued, “unless
(it) is enlightened and incluenc-
ed by divine powers ... so all
are obliged to embrace the
teaching of the Gospel, and if
this is rejected the very foun
dations of truth, goodness and
civilization are endangered.”
Therefore, the Pope added,
the press has a special duty to
stand by the truth.
“In a special manner then,”
he explained, “We are com
pelled to exhort to a careful, ex
act and prudent exposition of
the truth those who by means
of books, reviews and daily
papers — so abundant at the
present time — make such a
great contribution to the teach
ing and training of the minds
of their fellow citizens, espe
cially the young, into the mold
ing of their opinions and the
regulating of their habits. These
same men are gravely bound in
duty not to disseminate lies,
Father Augustine Sepinski, O.F.M. (left), of Rome, Minis
ter General of the Franciscan Order is visiting Franciscan
establishments in the United States. He is pictured here in
St. Louis with Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter (center) and
Father Pius R. Barth, O.F.M., provincial of the Friars’ Chi-
cago-St. Louis-Province. (NC Photos)
CATHOLIC-OWNED KOREA
DAILY AGAIN SHUT DOWN
error, obscenity, but only truth
—and in particular to publicize
what leads not to vice but to
good and virtuous practices.”
Pointing out that in the fields
of radio, motion pictures and
television, men likewise have a
responsibility to the truth and
to fight evil, the Pope stated:
“It is therefore necessary to
confront evil and erroneous
writings with what is right and
sound. Against broadcasts, mo
tion pictures and television
shows which incite to error or
attractions of vice, (there) must
be projected those which up
hold truth and. strive to pre
serve wholesome morality.”
“This kind of harmonious
unity which is sought among
peoples and nations, it is neces
sary to promote more and more
among classes of citizens. Un
less this is achieved, mutual
hatred and rivalries, as we have
seen, can exist; these will re
sult in disorderly assemblies,
rioting, and sometimes even in
murders, together with the dai- SEOUL, Korea (Radio, NC) —
ly diminishing and endanger- Seoul’s Catholic-owned daily,
ing of public and private re- Kyonghyang Shinmun, whose
sources.” closing by the Korean govern-
The Pontiff stated that as the ment in April brought on a
head of the Universal Church storm of protests, has been shut
he is in an exceptional position down again only seven hours af-
to give counsel on peace io the f- r “ court order said it could
world’s statesmen. resume publication.
“We exhort to this harmony The Court of Appeals here
and peace those, particularly, ruled that the newspaper, Ko-
who hold the reins of govern- rea’s second largest, could re-
ment in their hands,” he stated, open pending a decision on its
“Because we have a position case by the country’s Supreme
above interstate rivalries, and Court.
embrace all nations with a like Then, after an emergency
charity, and are influenced by two-hour cabinet meeting, the
no earthly advantages, no mo- Korean government suspended
tives of political domination, no Kyonghyang Shinmun’s publish-
desires in this present life, we j n g license. The daily staff was
are of the opinion that, when notified of the suspension while
we speak on this serious ques- preparing what would have been
tion, we can be judged and the paper’s first edition in near-
listened to with fairness and ab- \y two months,
sence of bias by all men no i n April the government had
matter their race.” canceled the paper’s license. The
The Holy Father also criti- Court of Appeals ruled that the
cized those who are trying to pap er could reopen because the
stir up unrest between social cancellation of a publishing li-
classes and “trying to disturb cense without taking the step of
human society.” He observed suspen ding the license is an ex-
that at present many of the dis- cess i ve measure.” The govem-
tinctive marks between classes ment has now suspen ded the li-
have lessened because of pro- cense .
gress in the labor field. Kyonghyang Shinmun, which
He called attention, however, j s mana ged by the Seoul apos-
to too many differences in ma- j- 0 i; c vicariate, was originally
terial possessions . . . too many gj^ down by the government
causes of enmity between vari- on charges that it was under -
ous groups,” deplored the spec- mining democracy and the coun .
ter of unemployment, and urged try , g security . The government
government leaders to provide
work.
He exhorted “those who hold
responsible positions in the
various fields of human labor,
and on whom the lot of the
workers and sometimes their
very life depends, not only
that they take careful account
of the wage the workers obtain
by their labor in the recogni
tion of their rights, but also
that they really consider them
as men, or rather, as brothers.”
Lastly, in this sphere of ac
tivity, he stressed the need for
the unity of the family as a bas
ic unit of society.
He made this recommenda
tion to the family:
“Let the father of the family
take the place of God among
his children, and not only by
his authority but by the upright
example of his life also, stand
also accused it of deviating from
its “lofty religious position and
the ideals of Catholicism.”
In answering the government
charges, Bishop Paul Ro, Apos
tolic Vicar of Seoul, denied that
the paper had deviated from
Catholic ideals and said:
“Animated by the spirit of
Catholicism, the policy of the
paper has been directed toward
the betterment of the Korean
people.”
The Bishop also declared that
it had not “confused religion
with politics.”
Regarding the new suspension
order, a statement issued by the
government information office
said:
“Respecting the view of the
court, the government w i t h-
draws its earlier order for can
cellation of the publishing li-
suspension an “excessive abuse
of authority.”
He declared that because of
the daily’s “great merit . . .
during 13 years of fighting com
munism the paper should be
given its license.”
Pope Blesses
Activities Of U. S.
Catholic Press
VATICAN CITY — His Holi
ness Pope John XXIII called
the Catholic press not only im
portant but necessary to the
Church as he bestowed “bounti
ful blessings” on the Catholic
press in the United States.
The blessings were given to
all members of the staff of the
NCWC News Service, its Rome
bureau and all members of the
Catholic Press Association of the
United States.
The Pope granted his bless
ings during an audience given
to Frank A. Hall, Director of
the N.C.W.C. News Service.
The Holy Father was eager to
be told about the various ac
tivities of the National Catholic
Welfare Conference and asked
questions about it through his
interpreter, Msgr. Oddone Tac-
oli.
“Ah, the Catholic press and
what it does for the Church!”
the Pontiff exclaimed. “It is a
work that is not only important
but necessary. Its activities in
the U. S. are vast and vital. It
works very hard, but I must say,
‘lavora, lavora, lavora’ (work,
work, work), for the Church
needs all the devoted things you
do.”
Re-elected
clearly in the first place. Let cense and suspends the publica-
the mother, however, rule firm- Lon of the paper,
ly and agreeably over her off- Bishop Ro made no comment
spring by gentleness and vir- on ’ he latest government move
tue in the domestic setting; let and Kyonghyang Shinmun s
her behave with indulgence and publisher, Han Changu, has said
love towards her husband, and he is undecided as to what ac-
along with him, let her careful
ly instruct and train her family,
the most precious gift given by
God, to live an upright and re
ligious life.”
The Pope also attacked re
ligious indifference as an atti-
(Continued on Page 5)
tion he will now take.
Korea’s Catholic Vice Presi
dent John M. Chang, one of the
founders of Kyonghyang Shin
mun and leader of the Demo
cratic party which opposes the
ruling Liberal party of Presi
dent Syngman Rhee, called the
Father Gabriel T. Stapleton.
S.D.S, (above), of Lancaster,
N. Y., is the first person to ba
re-elected for a second term
as President of the National
Catholic Theatre Conference,
in its 23-year history. Tha
group will hold its 12th biennial
convention at Notre Dame Uni
versity, August 18-20. (NCJ
Photos) ...—--j