Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

iLt-l. —J. iTlil/ JD U j ... 1 0.1 i M.1 J 1 ? X.&OJ JOSEPH BREIG OUT Or MAM7 OML I like to try to get to the bot tom of things. Since we return ed from our tour of the West, I have been asking myself, “What are the reasons — or some of the reasons — that Americans are able to be at home with one another almost from the time they meet, as if they had been next- door neighbors all their lives. Bowen Car- son is one of many cases in point. He is a cattle rancher, weatherbeaten and hard-mus cled, accustomed to the air of the uplands, and to the huge sweep of the western sky, land and mountains. I am a writer; a prisoner of a typewriter; I am confined to a desk with an office wall a few feet from my nose. Bowen, furthermore, is more than 20 years older than I am. Religiously, he is a Presbyterian, and I am a Catholic. He is a frontiersman, a pioneer; I am, a traffic-harried city dweller. And yet we were on good-friends terms 15 minutes from the mo ment when we saw each other for the first time on Bowen’s ranch near Cascade, Mont. WHY? THE SAME question interested Fred Michelson of St. Louis, whom we met at Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Fred is as much younger than I as I am younger than Bowen Carson, and his life is at least as different from mine as Bowen’s. He is in the Air Force, and for him the sky and the distances are larger even than Montana’s. But Fred and I, like Bowen and I, swiftly became friends. Fred had been ordered from a post in the southeast to one in the far West. In a little foreign car, he was touring much of the nation while on furlough. He talks slowly because he is think ing deeply; he dredges up words to express his conclusions. What was the chief impression he re ceived during his travels? It was the same as mine — the friend liness, neighborliness of Ameri cans. PEOPLE ARE open, sincere,” said Fred, “They tell you about themselves, and ask you about yourself. In no time at all, you know them, and they know you. I am not quoting him word for word; but that was the bur- of what he felt. It was what I felt too — about Bowen Car- son, about Fred Michelson, about dozens of others. But why are Americans so easily able to be like that? There are a lot of reasons. One is the American climate of free dom and equality. No bureau crat interferes with your trav els. There are no passports, no borders, no questionnaires. Ob serve the traffic laws — which are only for your protection — and you may go where you please in this immense nation. ANOTHER REASON for our neighborliness is the fact that neighbors we are, no matter how widely separated. Bowen Carson and Fred Michelson and I — along with 175 million other Americans — read the same news every day, see the same television programs, root for one or another of the major league baseball teams, eat the same kinds of food, and deeply be lieve in the American doctrine that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights. Another factor, I think, is our industriousness. Bowen Carson knew without asking that I worked for a living; that in my own way I had known my ups and downs, my successes and failures, as had he. And I knew that Fred Michelson was plan ning for his life work after his Army career was completed. What I mean is this—there is, by and large, only one class in America. It is the working class, and we all belong to it. I SENSED instantly Bowen Carson’s unspoken happiness over what he had accomplished in 40 years while he developed his ranch from a 400-acre farm without an animal on it, into a 7,500-acre spread, sprinkled with 500 or 600 head of cattle. He was humbly proud, and he had a right to be. And because I too have worked hard, I understood. Bowen and his wife Beulah, with Bob and Jinnie Broderick and Mary and I, piled into Bow en’s auto and rode miles across his grazing lands, passing 1 cattle and antelope, and emerging up on a high rise from which we could see huge buttes in the distance, and far behind a moun tain range piled with snow. The vista was breathtaking; but what impressed me more than the scenery was the thought of a man and wife com ing into these gigantic spaces and conquering them through years of sheer courage and devo tion to the job. America is great beyond description, and it has made Americans — and Ameri cans have made it. Theology Foi The Layman F. J. Sheed So all men were involved in the catastrophe of Adam’s sin. We are all born with natural life only, without the super-natural life of sanctifying grace. That was the chief thing Adam lost for each of his descendants. A certain p r e cision is neces sary here. We sometimes slip into thinking that if he had not sinned he would have kept grace and we could have inherited it from him. But grace is in the soul; and we do not inherit our souls, each soul is a new creation. Adam’s obedience was the con dition on which we should all have come into existence with grace as well as nature. He dis obeyed, the condition was not kept, we are born without sanc tifying grace. That is what is meant by be ing born in original sin, which is not to be thought of as a stain on the soul, but as the absence of that grace without which we cannot, as we have seen, reach the goal for which God destined men. We may be given grace later but we enter life without it, with nature only. And our nature too is not as Adam’s was before he failed the condition, but as it was after. The gift of integrity, guarantee ing the harmony of man’s na tural powers, has gone. Each of our powers seeks its own out let, each of our needs its own immediate gratification; we have not the subordination of all our powers to reason and of reason to God which would uni fy all our striving; every one of us is a civil war. At two points principally the disorder is at its worst, the pas sions and the imagination. Passions are good things given for man’s service; but in our ac tual state they dominate us as often as they serve us—more of ten indeed, unless we make an effort at control which costs us appallingly. They were meant to be instruments which we should use: instruments should be in our grip, only too often we feel as if we were in theirs. The imagination is a good Question Box (By David Q. Lipfak) Q. Last issue's question on the Bible being the soul rule of faith stemmed, as I recall, from a religious discussion which took place between neigh bors. Frankly, I'm surprised that the answer did not make some [reference to the utter futility of discussing religion with oth ers. From personal experience I maintain that such discussions accomplish nothing, and only lead to s'erfduiT •'arguments. I think everyone should stick to the rule of never discussing reli gion. Do you agree? A. As a general rule, the principal “never to discuss reli gion” is both unreasonable and unchristian. And it is fre quently used as a subterfuge for indifference, crass ignorance or spiritual weakness. THIS PRINCIPAL IS unrea sonable because natural reason demands continuing investiga tion into the relationship be tween God and ourselves. Nor mally one of the most practical and rewarding methods of pur suing this investigation is by means of sincere, candid dia logues. Thus, facts are sifted, howsoever slowly, from error and half-truth. Thus, too, parti cular truths are confirmed in the mind, their multiple aspects recognized, and their effects known. ADAMANT REFUSAL TO discuss religion is likewise es pecially unchristian because of the obligation, incumbent upon the faithful, to become Christo phers—to bring the principles of the Gospel into the forums of the world insofar as they licitly and prudently can. Our Divine Lord was unquestionably severe in His criticism of those who hide the lamp of the Faith bestowed upon them as a free gift by God. Catholicism holds (Continued on Page 5) *-—-———-— -— —■— Jottings... (By BARBARA C. JENCKS) bis- . J1E • WHAT DO nursery rhymes have to do with outer-space? A goqd deal, according to a sev enty-year-old nun who more than sixty years ago set aside . “Dolly Dimple Fly Away” and “Toby Tyler” for tomes on phi- iisophy and theology. It seems ' that the imaginative writers of nursery rhyrfte&Vand children’s stories reached outer- space long before any erudite scientist with chart ! Trh d involved measure ments. Look at Jack in the Beanstalk, for example, and the cow that jumped over the moon. Outer-space then wasn’t such an unheard of adventure for gen erations of tousled headed sleepy youngsters who have climbed to the heavens with Jack or sail ed over the moon on the back of a cow. The literary trafficking in celestial realm is heavy. Such tales especially designed to in terest grown-up children are C. S. Lewis’ “Out of the Silent Planet” and Saint Exupery’s “The Little Prince.” Astrological heroes such as Leo, the lion, Draco, the dragon, the three .bears and the deities such as Venus, Jupiter and Mars have been outer-space familiars for generations. • IN A SPEECH entitled “The Sky is Not the Limit,” Sister Madeleva, whose own poetry soars high in the celestial realms, pointed out the literary history of outer space. She said that universe places are more plaus ible for us today than America was to the people of Columbus’ age. The Church has welcomed the exploration of space for it opens new paths in the know ledge of God who created the skies and seas and heavens and planets. It is again evidence of the power, majesty and might of the Creator. If only man search ed for God with the intensity as that for the secrets of science and the control of outer-space. • THE LITTLE PRINCE of St. Exupery’s classic says: •“What is essential is invisible to Ihe eye.”' So it is with many- things today. We strain a n d. struggle and the simple [things,’ the '• essential things j |re’;. right there in our rnihfL A Wlfdie’ plank ejL a yorld of- bi|tgr ■ space can; be contained in our minds. This . is far greater a miracle, than a* ^oc^e^spiFatiS|(*''6ff' tbwtfrd“the moon. The nun in her speech reminded that every time we say “Our Father,” we have trans cended time and space. Every time we say “Hail Mary,” we have moved into immortal and supernatural areas of human existence. Every time we recite a litany, we pass beyond the boundaries of merely natural human experience. We who ac knowledge God as supreme Cre ator of heaven and earth, have extra stock in this area of outer-space. We follow with in terest the great advances of science for they reveal the won ders of Almighty God. Our minds soar in contemplation be fore these wonders even as the writers of nursery rhymes in the long ago wrote fantasies on the moon and stars and planets. Yet we know that not science but God puts us into orbit and fills our hearts with that which the entire world cannot contain! Mrs. Ira A. Taylor Atlanta Services ATLANTA — Funeral serv ices for Mr. Ira A. Taylor were held June 30th at the Sacred Heart Church, Rev. Robert W. Ripp officiating. Survivors are Mr. A. J. Fra zier, Mr. and Mrs. Leon J. Faer- ber, all of Chattanooga; Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Frazier, Jensen Beach, Fla. How Do You Rate Facts of Faith By Brian Cronin 1. What is commonly called the “Pope’s chapel”? (a) St. Peter’s Basilica? (b) St. John Lateran’s? (c) The. Sistine Chapel? (d) St. Mary Major? 2. What is the color of the stole worn by the priest in ad- , ministering the sacrament of penance? (a) Purple? (b) Black? (c) Red? (d) White? 3. On what occasion did the Blessed Virgin speak the Mag nificat? (a) The Annunciation? (b) The finding of the child Jesus? (c) The Visitation? (d) The marriage feast of Cana? 4. The Catholic Youth Organization was founded in Chicago in 1930 by: (a) Father Flanagan? (b) Bishop Shell? (c) Bishop Sheen? (d) Cardinal Stritch? 5. Which order is responsible for the direction of the Holy Name Society? (a) The Jesuits? (b) The Franciscans? (c) The Augustinians? (d) The Dominicans? 6. To whom did Jesus say: “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God”? (a) Nicodemus? (b) Pontius Pilate? (c) St. John the Evangelist? (d) St. Joseph of Arimathea? 7. “Defender of the Faith” was a title conferred by Pope Leo X on: (a) Mary Tudor? (b) Henry VIII? (c) Napoleon? (d) Cardinal Newman? 8. After Abel’s death, Eve gave birth to a baby boy named: (a) Cain? (b) Henoch? (c) Seth? (d) Elias? Give yourself 10 marks for each correct answer below. Rating: 80-Excellent; 70-Very Good; 60-Good; 50-Fair Answers: 1 (c); 2 (a); 3 (e); 4 (b); 5 (d); 6 (a); 7 (b); 8 (c) lussion Scientific Equipment In U. S. Schools? THE BACKDROP SHARING OUR TREASURE Bringing Neighbor To Mass Wins Family By REV. JOHN A. O'BRIEN. Ph. D. (University of Noire Dame) — By Rev. John A. O'Brien, Ph. D. (University of Noire Dame) Have you ever invited a friend or neighbor to Mass or any of the other services? If not, you are neglecting an important means of sharing the Faith. Such attendance _often serves to kindle a spark of interest that ultimate ly leads to em bracing the Faith. This is illustrated by the experience of Dorothy A. Groesser o f _____ Whittier, California. “I had been a member of a ‘High’ Episcopal Church,” re lated Dorothy. “We considered it a branch of the Catholic Church. When Don and I moved to California, I was shocked to discover that the local church bore no resemblance to the ‘Catholic branch,’ of which I had been a member most of my life. “It was like any Protestant sect except for the use of the Book of Common Prayer, I mentioned my plight to my Catholic neighbors, James and Anne McManus, and they im mediately invited me to attend Mass with them. I did so, and was so impressed with the rev erence and beauty of the service that I went regularly with them. “They are an exemplary Catholic family and I could see how much , their religion meant to them. I became- convinced that the Catholic Faith was His Church, was completely lacking. There could be no in- between in dealing with God. I prayed for guidance and start ed a novena to the Blessed Vir gin. Thanks be to God, Don too had a change of heart and we both took instructions from Fa ther Nee. Within two months we were conditionally baptized, with the McManuses as spon sors, and made our First Holy Communion. “We are now a happier and closer family than I had ever thought possible, Don too is a devout Catholic and our family is dedicated to the Sacred Heart, Father Nee presented us with a beautiful statue and enthroned it. a few weeks ago. “Every day our holy Faith means more to us. We thank God for leading us into the One True Church, and we’ll try to prove our gratitude by sharing our precious treasure with many others.” Father O’Brien will he grate ful to readers who know of any one who has icon two or more converts if they will send the names and addresses of such per sons to him at Notre Dame Uni versity, Notre Dame, Indiana. (By John C. O'Brien) A foretaste of what lies ahead if the Soviet Union sets serious ly to work to carry out its threat of an economic offensive against the United States has recently come to the attention of Congress. A senate committee will decide in the next few days whether to forbid Ameri can schools and colleges from using Federal money to buy Russian scientific equipment. Dozens of our schools and colleges have decided that Russian apparatus for the teaching of the sciences is the best buy available and they want to use funds they may get Under the 1958 Na tional Education Act to buy it. GRIST FOR PROPAGANDA MILL Domestic manufacturers of such equipment naturally are alarmed over the Soviet com petition and they are pressing for Federal legislation to keep it out. They admit that the Rus sian equipment is the better buy, but they contend that the Soviet Union is quoting prices far below the actual cost of manufacture in an attempt to destroy the American scientific equipment industry. Protectionist members of Con gress strongly disapprove of this “dumping” of Soviet merchan dise, mainly for the reason that it offers unfair competition to American products. But they also are fearful that to let the Soviet equipment come into this country would provide new grist Ey JOHN C. O’BRIEN for the Soviet propaganda mill. Having already convinced people in a wide area of the world that Soviet educational methods are superior to those of the United States, if they could become the principal supplier of scientific equipment for American schools, the Russians could go on to say, “See, the United States even has to come to us for the equipment it uses in its schools.” The uproar over the appear ance of Soviet laboratory appa ratus in this country started be cause of the initiative of the head of a Massachusetts import firm who happened to notice last year what appeared to him to be well-designed science teaching equipment in the back ground of a picture of a Russian classroom. The importer inquired of the Department of Commerce if there were any rules against importing such equipment. Upon being told there were none, the importer went to Russia to in vestigate. He found the equip ment was not only well-made and of an advanced design but that it could be bought for one- twentieth of the cost of com parable products of American manufacture. The importer put in a trial order for $40,000 worth of micro scopes, spectrometers and the like. With scarcely any adver tising on his part, he received about 1,200 inquiries and 53 firm orders from American high schools and colleges. U. S. MANUFACTURERS DOZING? While the domestic scientific equipment industry complains that the Russians are selling below cost in the hope of cap turing the American market, the importer contends that this is not the whole story. He told the Senate committee that the American equipment manufac turers, heretofore secure behind a tariff wall, had been dozing, making no effort to improve their products or reduce prices. The importer noted that in 1956 the American Association of Physics Teachers had drafted a memorandum expressing dis satisfaction witli the “high cost, relatively poor quality, lack of imagination and paucity of new developments in the current offerings of apparatus supply houses in this country.” The Senators who are spon soring the legislation to prohibit schools from using Federal funds to buy Soviet equipment say they hold no brief for the domestic manufacturers, Never theless, they contend, as Sen. Kenneth Keating, of New York, put it, “the Russians have de liberately cut their prices in these products in order to flood our market and our schools with their equipment, thus seeking to achieve a major propaganda and political victory and at the same time seriously undermine an important domestic indus try.” The “dumping” is a technique which the Russians, presumably would extend to other types of manufacture in an effort to out do American industry. So,* whether or not the prohibition against Soviet scientific equip ment is passed, the outcry is certain to trigger a broader study by Congress of the threat of the Soviet trade offensive. Author Of “The Nun’s Story Say Book Part Fact, Fiction In Symposium On Controversy NEW YORK, (NC) — The author of the controversial “The Nun’s Story” writes in a Catho lic magazine that her book is a combination of facts and fic tion. Kathryn Hulme says In the June 27 issue of America, a na tional weekly review published here, that she “strove to render anonymous” the identity of the principal character’s religious community, as well as the com position of her family. But, Miss Hulme writes, the Belgian Congo experiences of Sister Luke, the main character are real as was the description of the formation of the nun. “I related in my book, as faithfully as possible, what I had absorbed about life in a Euro pean convent a quarter-century ago from a trusted friend who experienced it the n,” Miss Hulme wrote, adding: “If, in these formative years, I deliberately left out of my story certain aspects of life in a community of women, that was my writer’s privilege — to edit out the banal and dwell, as far as I was able, on what I thought brave and beautiful in the nun’s formative period.” Miss Hulme acknowledges that “from a few congregations there came cries that my name less order was too severe, that it gave a lopsided idea of real con vent life.” But, she continues, “these cri tics seem to miss two points — that I was writing exclusively of one nun and of her response to her situation and that I was de- THE STORY LADY Maureen Wenk Hanigan THE RUNAWAY BIRD Once there was a little brown Cuckoo bird who lived in his what I; too needed, and hoped- Own neat little brown house, in to istarl instrifetiohs-. ,<But Don the living room of another big objSecte% strenuously. I felt that house. The people in the big a home wilh a religious barrier house didn’t talk to the little would be harmfd] to oUr child. Cuckoo bird very often, but he t&D..\ve compromised and went was one of the most important back to the Epiicopal Church.— memfeeys-of ' hst the same! He had a special job. He had to tell everyone what time it was. In the morning when he would call coo-coo, everyone knew that it was time “I joined with other Anglo- Catholics who likewise could not countenance the Protestant worship and practices of the local church. We sought to es tablish a mission church where to get up. And when the" little we could hear Mass on Sundays boy and girl were eating their breakfast and the daddy was reading the paper the little bird would call coo-coo, coo-coo, again and then the children knew they had to hurry to reach school on time, and their and holidays and go to confes sion, where roast beef dinners would not be served on Friday nights and the sacrament for the sick would not be kept in a desk drawer. “When the bishop threatened daddy would jump up and hur- to excommunicate us for ‘trying to cause a schism,’ most of us joined a struggling new Anglo- Catholic mission 20 miles away. One of our discussions on Bap tism gave me occasion to tele phone Father Raymond Nee at ry for the office, and their mo ther would start to do the dish es and hurry to the grocery store. Everyone knew it was time to hurry when the Cuckoo bird called them. Best of all they loved the little bird to St. Bruno’s Catholic Church. He tell them it was time for sup- not only answered my question per, and when they started to but asked me many more. yawn he would pop out again “We joked about converting and send them all off to bed. each other. His parting shot was, ‘You’ll be back;’ I was. The ac- But one day something hap- ,. „ . r- • i /-a. u • P en ed. The little Cuckoo decid- tion of the Episcopal Church in ,, .... ... . , ea that he wasn t very lmport- South India in uniting with ant, and he wanted to run away Protestant sects which did not and be a wi]d bird , If thfi fam _ even believe in Holy Orders or ily wanted to know what time the Holy Eucharist was a mam- it was they could look at the festation of spiritual bankruptcy electric clock in the kitchen So and a betrayal of the historic when everyone was asleep the faith of the Episcopal Church. little bird popped out of his I was shocked to think that in house and flew across the liy . one place it professed one set ing roora and right out the of doctrines and a different set 0 p en window into the big in another place. world. He thought he was going “The mark of unity, which to be much happier than he Christ said was to distinguish had ever been before. A NEW BIRD “Let me see,” he said. “Now that I have run away I will have to be something else be sides a Cuckoo bird — for who ever heard of a wild Cuckoo? I know — I’ll be a Woodpecker. I know just what they do!” He flew to the nearest tree and started to peck at the bark. Just the way he knew a Wood pecker would. But his bill was n’t hard enough for him to be a Woodpecker, and it hurt him when he tapped the bark. He decided right away that being a Woodpecker wasn’t such a very good idea. “I’m pretty sure I had better be something else,” said the lit tle Cuckoo. Perhaps I can be a Chickadee. They have a very pretty song, and I’m sure I’d like to sing like they do.” So he stood up as tall as he could, and opening his little throat as wide as he could, he tried to sing a lovely song. Oh, ■ my, it sounded just awful. He sounded even worse than when he had a cold in his Cuckoo clock. He looked all around and hoped none of the other birds had heard him. Right then and there he decided not to be a Chickadee! But just the same he would not give up. He had another fine idea. He would be a Nuthatch. They can walk frontwards down a tree, and no other bird can do that. So down the tree the little Cuckoo start ed, and kerplunk, he landed flat on the ground. The poor little Cuckoo picked himself up, and patting down his tiny feathers, began to feel just a little sorry for himself. He decided he would fly by the window of his old house, and just take a little peak inside. It was morning now, and he won dered how the family was do ing without him. HOME AGAIN When he arrived he could hardly believe his eyes! No thing was right. The children hadn’t gone to school, the mo ther wasn’t fixing breakfast, and their ’ daddy Wasn’t even awake yet. “Dear me,” thought the Cuc koo, “it is time to hurry. Every one will be late. I guess the electric clock can’t tell them what time it is because it hasn’t any little bird living inside. There is just one thing for me to do.” No sooner had he thought, than he flew right back in the window and across the living room to his own little brown house. Then he opened the door just as fast as he could and called COO-COO, COO-COO, in his biggest voice. scribing a European order of 25 years ago considerably more rig orous in discipline then than now, and certainly different from many American congrega tions.” Miss Hulme’s book, center of much controversy over its accu racy as a portrayal of a mission ary Sister’s life, is based on the experiences related to her by an unnamed woman who was in re ligious life for 17 years, but left the community. The author’s comments are part of a symposium, in Ameri ca discussing the book and the movie made from it. Other con tributors are the film’s director, three unidentified nuns and the magazine’s film critic. The bringing together of such opin ions — especially those of the author and of the film director who brought her work to the screen — is considered an un usual editorial accomplishment. Director Fred Zinneman main tains the book “opened my eyes —and the eyes of millions of people all over the world—to the enormous vitality and strength and permanence of re ligious life.” He said he hopes his film will transmit his reaction to the book which “stated clearly that nuns are not like other people, (but) showed how, step by methodical step, the personalities of young girls are refined, distilled and transfigured until they are fin ally able to strive for boundless freedom of life liberated from personal emotions and concerns «.. Above all, it pointed out the (Continued on Page 5) Right away, everyone started to hurry, and he knew that he had done his job well. He un derstood too, that he was so im portant to the family that he could never go away and leave his lovely little brown house again. all]? Sulfrtw 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. 40 Saturday, July 11, 1959 No. 3 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