Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—THE BULLETIN, July 25, 1959
Ceylonese Archbishop Again
Warns Against Nationalization
Threat Facing Catholic Schools
DATE SET FOR DEDICATION
The great upper church of the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D. C., will
be dedicated on Friday, November 20. The Shrine,
largest Catholic church in the United States, is the
nation’s tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is
the country’s patroness under the title of her Im
maculate Conception. (NC Photos)
Upper Church Of National
Shrine In U. S. Capital
To Be Dedicated Nov. 20
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
NEGOMBO, Ceylon, — Cey
lon’s only Archbishop has again
protested against the continu
ing threat of nationalization of
Catholic schools here, and
warned: “Do not touch our
schools. We shall resist unto
blood.”
Archbishop Thomas B.
Cooray, O.M.I., of Colombo
spoke at Ave Maria High School
here and called on the govern
ment to make it clear that de
nominational schools will be al
lowed to continue.
He said that there has been
a relentless campaign to include
religious schools in a “soulless,
lifeless and godless . . . govern
ment system of education.”
He denied that this predom
inantly Buddhist nation’s Cath
olic schools seek to make con
versions, and he called such
claims “wild accusations.”
Catholic schools in this coun
try have been involved in con
troversy for more than two
years. In May, 1957, the gov
ernment ruled that no new pri
vate schools could be establish
ed.
Then a Buddhist commission
proposed the nationalization of
ail private schools. Later a so-
called compromise proposal —
backed by some members of
the government — was put for
ward by the Buddhist Advisory
Council and the All Ceylon
Buddhist Congress.
The compromise called for
the nationalization of all private
schools in which more than half
of the students were of a relig
ious faith different from that
of the school’s administrative
authorities.
The most recent calls for na
tionalization have come from
the Sasana Commission report
and a Ceylon Daily News Ar
ticle on June 20 by S. de P. Ku-
laratne, president of the Bud
dhist Congress.
These demands came after
Education Minister W. Dahana-
yake said earlier this year that
the government had no inten
tion of nationalizing private
schools.
Observers here believe that
the influence of Mr. Kularat-
ne’s group has declined since
the recent resignation of Marx
ist . ministers from the cabinet.
Three other Buddhist groups,
BERLIN, (NC) — More than
a score of persons were hurt
and about 20 were arrested as
a result of a clash between Pol
ish Catholics and communist
police in a Polish villiage near
Lublin, according to reports
reaching here.
The clash occurred when the
Red authorities decided to raze
a chapel and shrine in Kraznik
Fabryczny on the grounds
where they had been erected
without authorization.
Some 300 Catholics, according
to the reports, gathered at the
chapel to protect it and battled
Red police who tried to disperse
them. Joined by hundreds of
others, they later marched on
the village hall and police sta
tion.
Police reinforcements were
brought in from nearby Lublin
and used tear gas and clubs to
break up the crowd in a fight
that lasted through the night.
Krasnik Fabryczny is one of
the communist-planned “new
towns” and was built around a
metallurgical plant. As is the
custom, the Reds made no pro
vision for a church. The vil
lage's Catholics then set up a
shrine and a chapel on a va-
Scrviccs For
M rs, Mary Knox
SAVANNAH — Funeral serv
ices for Mrs. Mary A. Knox,
were held at the Church of the
Most Blessed Sacrament July
8th.
Survivors include three
nephews, Thomas L. Odum, Jos
eph F. Odum and James J. Mc
Grath, all of Savannah; and one
niece, Mrs. E. H. Giuffrida, of
Miami.
representing a majority of that
faith’s adherents here, have
come out against nationaliza
tion.
In his speech here Archbish
op Cooray challenged anyone to
prove that Catholics have used
their schools to make conver
sions. That has never been the
policy, he said, and added:
“Proselytizing non-Catholic
children in our schools by hold
ing out to them the bait of sec
ular education is no part of our
system of evangelization.
Schools are with us not the
proper means for the conversion
to our Faith of non-Catholic
children, but only a necessary
agency for the instruction of
those who are either already
Catholic, or have made up their
minds to become Catholic.
“Hence when we are compell
ed by the force of local circum
stances to admit non-Catholic
children to our schools, not only
do we not begrudge them the
guarantee of a conscience
clause, but the rule in all our
schools is not to admit such to
attend religious instruction, or
to take part in any act of relig
ion except upon the formal re
quest of their parents.”
Archbishop Cooray answered
the argument that the abolition
of Church schools is necessitat
ed by the need for religious in
struction for non-Catholic stu
dents attending Church schools.
A good denominational school
with living religious principles,
he said, can create a sound mor
al background on the natural
law which is common to all hu
man beings. It is to be doubted
that a religionless state school
can create even this minimum
of a sound moral atmosphere,
he stated. .
“If the teaching of religion is
to depend on the state, with the
change of views of each gov
erning party, the policy regard
ing religion will have to change.
And if an ungodly or material
istic government comes into
power, then it will be the end
of all religion. Tibet is a sad
example,” he continued.
The real solution, the prelate
concluded, is for each religion
that sincerely cares for relig
ious education to have its own
denominational schools for its
children.
cant lot. Visiting priests cele
brated Mass in the chapel.
Reports state that the inci
dent has not been reported in
the Polish press and quote the
office of the Warsaw archdio
cese as saying that more than
1,000 such shrines have been
built in Poland recently with
out official authorization.
Services For
Levi E. Miller
SAVANNAH — Funeral serv
ices for Levi E. Miller were held
July 6th at Sacred Heart
Church.
Mr. Miller is survived by his
wife, Mrs. Julia C. Miller; two
daughters, Mrs. Edward J.
Limehouse, Mrs. Earl Daniel
Pardue and one son, Joseph L.
Miller, all of Savannah and sev
en grandchildren.
Stamp of Faith
This new West German 20-
piennig postage stamp, marks
the first exhibition in 25 years
of the "Holy Robe” at the Trier
Cathedral, July 19 to Septem
ber 20. According to tradition,
.the robe is the seamless gar
ment worn by Christ at his
Crucifixion for which the sol
diers cast lots. (NC Photo)
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
WASHINGTON — The great
upper church of the National
Shrine of the Immaculate Con
ception here will be dedicated
on November 20.
A religious edifice ranking
among the most imposing in the
world, and a project which has
engaged the attention of Ameri
can Catholics for 39 years, the
shrine will then be ready for
services.
Announcement of the dedica
tion was made by His Eminence
Francis Cardinal,. Spellman,
through the office here of the
National Shrine. The Cardinal-
Archbishop of New York is
chairman of the shrine’s board
of trustees.
The shrine will be incomplete
in some of its exterior details
and will lack most of its interior
ornaments planned for the fu
ture, it was made clear in con
nection with the announcement.
The edifice is the largest
Catholic church in the United
States and one of the seven lar
gest religious structures in the
world.
Archtecturally, the shrine
has been described as being
contemporary in style but in the
spirit of the Romanesque and
Byzantine. Its classical .lines
harmonize with the monument
al buildings of the National
Capital, and the edifice gives
Washington another great place
of pilgrimage.
The dedication will mark
completion of the second of
three stages in the construction
of the shrine. The great church,
massive in size and beautiful in
the harmony of its proportions,
has been built through the col
lective effort of Catholics in all
parts of the United States. Non-
Catholics, too, have contributed
to the great undertaking.
The shrine has been built as
an act of homage to the Mother
of God. It is also a plea for her
intercession and protection, as
the Blessed Virgin is the pa
troness of this country under
the title of her Immaculate
Conception. She was so chosen
by the Bishops of the United
States in 1846.
In the first stage of the
Shrine’s construction (1921-
1931) a crypt church and a crypt
area were built. This crypt
church, large and colorfully
adorned, has been the scene of
imposing religious ceremonies
for some three decades.
With the advent of the de
pression, followed by World
War II, there was a period dur
ing which little new work was
done on the edifice.
In the second stage of con
struction (1954-1959) the upper
church has been built.
The shrine has an over-all
length of 459 feet, and its great
est width is 240 feet. Its multi
colored dome is topped by a
cross, whose tip is 237 feet
above the ground. The campa
nile, or bell tower, also is sur
mounted by a cross, reaching
239 feet above the ground.
The shrine is located in the
northeast section of Washing
ton. Its campanile and dome
dominate much of the National
Capital’s skyline.
Completing the first leg of a long journey, these five Korean orphans behaved like seasoned
travelers upon their arrival at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport from the Columban
Sisters’ hospital in Mokpo, Korea. There to greet the youngsters was Rev. Lawrence M. Willen-
borg, Archdiocese of Seattle’s director of resettlement Accompanying the children was Sister
Mary Enda, former hospital superior and now a member of the Mokpo hospital's medical staff.
Sent to-the U. S. under the auspices of the Catholic Committee for Refugees, N.C.W.C., the chil
dren have been adopted by families in three states. The children and their final destination are
from left Hwa Sun Paik, 8, Quincy, 111.; Myong He Mae, 2, Calais, Me.; Sung Yun La, 3, Los An
geles; Myong Soon Lee, 7, Chicago; and Kwang Myong Suk, 3, Santa Rosa, Calif. (NC Photos)
More Than Score Injured, 20
Arrested In Battle Between
Catholics And Polish Police
Ruling Indian Party Charges
Kerala Reds Stirred Agitation
By Passage Of Education Law
(Radio, N.C.W.C. News Service)
NEW DELHI, India — India’s
ruling Congress party charged
here that the education law
passed by Kerala’s communist
government pushed tension in
that state to the point where
anticommunists had no choice
but to start their campaign of
agitation.
Party leaders, headed by Mrs.
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter,
issued a 14-page statement con
demning Red rule in India’s
smallest and most literate state.
Kerala’s communist regime,
which has been in office since
the spring of 1957, has repeated
ly tried to make it appear that
the current unrest in the state
was stirred by Catholics. The
All-Congress party said in its
statement, however, that the
real cause of the trouble is com
munist misrule. It said that if
the Reds are allowed to remain
in power for the full five-year
term, it will prove the “end to
all democracy in Kerala and a
grave threat to it in the rest of
the country.”
The Congress leadership also
asserted that a broad section of
Kerala’s population believes
that the rule of the communists
has “amounted to subversion of
a)l vital things for which de
mocracy and the Indian Con
stitution stood.”
Archbishop Joseph A. Fer
nandes of Delhi and Simla also
spoke here on the Kerala crisis.
Noting that the anti-Red meet
ings and demonstrations in Ker
ala have been, going on since
mid-June, he said they seem to
have been of no avail. “T h e
communists want to dominate
the whole of India,” he said.
“Things are now very bad in
Kerala.”
Archbishop Fernandes echoed
a statement made earlier in the
week by His Eminence Valerian
Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of
Prayer Crusade
Asked By
Berlin Cardinal
(Radio, N.C.W.C. News Service)
BERLIN — Berlin’s Cardinal
used the radio to urge a world
wide crusade of prayer and
work for international under
standing, which he said could
smooth the way to the peace
that it sought by the Geneva
foreign ministers’ conference.
His Eminence Julius Cardinal
Doepfner, Bishop of Berlin,
made a special broadcast to his
people on the morning of (July
13,) the day the Big Four for
eign ministers resumed their
efforts to solve the Berlin cris
is at Geneva.
Addressing the Catholics of
his diocese — which includes
West Berlin, Soviet-occupied
East Berlin, and part of the
Soviet Zone of Germany, Card
inal Doepfner said;
“The Geneva meeting has re
sumed. Let us resume our pray
ers too. All news of the misery
of suppressed peoples longing
for peace, and of the difficul
ties in the negotiations (in Ge
neva) with the Russians, we
should understand as a call to
prayers.”
Speaking over Radio Free
Berlin, the 45-year-old Prince
of the Church said that, how
ever far they are from the Ge
neva conference table, Catholics
have a mission to spread an
atmosphere of peace in daily
life, achieving brotherly love
through justice and unselfish
ness. Failure to realize Chris
tian principles and brotherly
love in itself fosters continual
tion of the coldness in the inter
national atmosphere, he said.
“Let us send our prayers to
Geneva, this town of so many
disappointments and hopes,”
Cardinal Doepfner said. “Let us
go on with the work of pro
claiming the peace of Christ
everywhere.”
(On landing at the Geneva
airport the previous day, U. S.
Secretary of State Christian
Herter expressed guarded hope
concerning the Berlin question.
He said in a prepared state
ment:
(“I believe it is possible, with
goodwill on both sides, to reach
an agreement. Foremost in our
minds, of course, is the freedom
and future of the more than
two million people of West Ber
lin.
(“Our earlier discussions here
had revealed possible elements
Bombay. Addressing a mass
meeting in Bombay, Cardinal
Gracias said the issue confront
ing the people of Kerala is that
of tyranny versus freedom.
In Kerala, meanwhile, two
more persons were killed by
communists. They were among
15 persons attacked by armed
Reds in Thuruthikkad. A Cath
olic priest suffered serious stab
wounds during the same attack,
He is Father Jacob Eranakkal,
who was hospitalized in Tiru-
valla.
The two deaths in Thuruthik
kad brought to at least 18 the
number of anticommunist
demonstrators slain by the Reds
in Kerala since mid-June. Six
teen of the dead were known
to be Catholics.
In Alleppey, a Red stronghold
in Kerala, Bishop Michael Arat-
tukalam of Alleppey charged
that communist rowdies were
making repeated attacks on the
local Catholics, and that the
Red-controlled police were pro
viding no protection.
And in Trichur, two Catholic
boys picketing a government
school were attacked by a- com
munist mob and had to be hos
pitalized.
The Kerala demonstrations
got under way when the Cath
olics and Hindu Nairs — who
together run most of the 7,000
nongovernment schools in Kera
la — announced they were
keeping their schools closed.
They charged the new educa
tion law is aimed at letting
the communists take over the
schools, and said their schools
will remain closed until the
controversial clauses of the sta
tute are repealed.
All three major noncommun
ist parties in Kerala — the Con
gress and Socialist parties and
the Moslem League — seized
the occasion to launch a state
wide campaign of passive re
sistance to the regime.
of agreement concerning spe
cific arrangements for Ber
lin . . .”
(Resumption of the Big Four
foreign ministers’ conference
followed a three-week recess.
The foreign ministers of France,
Great Britain, the United
States and the Soviet Union had
conferred together for six weeks
without reaching agreement
when they recessed.)
Pope Blesses
Our Lady Of
Fatima Statue
(Radio, N.C.W.C. News Service)
VATICAN CITY — His Hol
iness Pope John XXIII has
blessed a statue of Our Lady of
Fatima that is destined to stand
on the edge of the New York
state freeway.
The nearly 60 - foot high
bronze statue, by American art
ist Martin Winter, was carried
into Vatican City by freight car
for the ceremony.
The Pope and part of the pa
pal court were joined for the
blessing by Americans, Arthur
McNamara, of the Knights of
Columbus of Westchester Coun
ty, and August F. Stavarsky,
president of the Madonna of
Fatima Committee of New
York, who was the principal or
ganizer of the project. Also pre
sent was Father Christopher
O’Toole, C.S.C., Superior Gen
eral of the Congregation of
Holy Cross.
The statue will stand on the
grounds of the Good Counsel
College, conducted by Sisters of
the Divine Compassion, at
White Plains, where it will ov
erlook the freeway. It will be
surrounded by Stations of the
Cross whose construction will
be supervised by Mr. Winter,
who made the five-ton marble
tomb of Father Isaac T. Hecker,
founder of the Congregation of
St. Paul (Paulists). The tomb
is in the facade of the Church
of St. Paul at Lincoln Square in
New York.
The Fatima statue, costing
$50,000 and weighing 22 tons,
was designed at Italy’s religious
art center of Pietrasanta and
cast at Castoria. It was trans
ported by railroad car to Vati
can City. Because of its size it
had to be brought in through
the little used rail gate of the
Holy Office.
Mr. Winter, who is also work-
Christian Democrats
Regain Political
Leadership In Sicily
PALERMO, Italy (Radio, NC) ’
•—The Catholic-oriented Chris
tian Democrats have regained
political leadership in Sicily.
Ferdinando D’Alcontres,
Christian Democratic candidate,
has been elected president of
the Sicilian regional assembly.
It is the first time that Christian
Democrats have been able to
win majority support since last
winter, when Silvio Milazzzo,
head of the Christian Social
Union, bolted from the party.
He formed a majority with the
help of the communists, Social
ists, monarchists and neo-fas
cists.
President-elect D’Alcontres
defeated the Millazzo-backed
candidate, Benedetto Majorana
della Nicchiara, by a vote of 45
to 41. The victory was achieved
through support drawn from
Monarchist and Neo-fascist dep
uties.
It came despite a rebellion on
the part of some of the 34 Chris
tian Democrats who had object
ed to the alliance with the Mon
archists, most of whom had
supported Milazzzo. Milazzo will
not be represented in the re
gional government’s cabinet of
ministers.
The victory of D’Alcontres is
a significant one for the Chris
tian Democrats because it fol
lows regional elections in June
which apparently had tipped
the balance of power to Milaz-
zo’s Christian Social Union, the
dissident group that had co
operated with the communists.
The Union split from the
Christian Democrats several
months ago. It formed a coali
tion with parties of the extreme
right and left, including the
communists.
The Union’s action in coope
rating with the Communist par
ty is believed to have prompted
the Holy See’s recent decree
warning persons against voting
for candidates of noncommunist
parties who have collaborated
with the Reds.
JOElcNEIL
NEW MACON
GRAND KNIGHT
MACON — Joe G. McNeil is
the new grand knight of Macon
Council No. 925, Knights of
Columbus, succeeding Irvin F.
Impink, who commences a three
year term as trustee. The Rt.
Rev. Msgr. Thomas I. Sheehan,
pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic
Church, is chaplain of the coun
cil.
Other officers are Robert M.
Hobson, deputy grand knight;
James G. Ryan, chancellor; Phil
ip F. Powell, warden, Frank X.
McFague, recorder, Sam Vullo,
treasurer; R. H. Casson, advo
cate; Jack Kemper, inner guard;
William Syme, Jr., outer guard;
and N. J. Camerio, lecturer.
Charles J, Schroeder and J.
Thomas McGoldrick are the oth
er trustees serving with Impink.
The Six Point Program will be
led by James G. Ryan, as gen
eral chairman. Heading the six
committees will be Jack Guglieri
and Carl B. Perry, Catholic Ac
tivity; Johnny J. Deep and Nor
man B. Smaha, Council Activi
ty; Irvin Impink and John J.
McCreary, Membership - Insur
ance; Thomas M. Carr and R. H.
Casson, Fraternal Activity; Wil
liam Keenan and Jack Kemper,
Youth Activity; Public Relations
and Chatter Editor, George Lan
dry, John J. McCreary and W.
Pat Von Benken.
Semi-monthly meetings on the
first and third Tuesday evenings
at 8:15 o’clock are held at the
Knights of Columbus Hall, 538
High Place.
ing on designs for a 30-foot sta
tue of St. Joseph for the White
Fathers’ St. Joseph Seminary in
New York, said his concept of
the Fatima statue “is more con
temporary than most.”
“It’s a bit ahead of its time,”
he stated. “Its size is not its
most important aspect. Speak
ing as an artist, I can say that
the experience of working on it
has been the most important ef
fort in my work up to this
point.”
After the statue was bless
ed, it was transported immedi
ately outside of Vatican City.
It will be shipped to the U. S. at
the end of July, and is ex
pected to be dedicated in early
September.
