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DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH EDITION
Serving
Georgia's 88
Southern Counties
Published By The
Catholic Laymen's
Ass'n of Georgia
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH
Vol. 40, No. 7
MONROE, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1959
10c Per Copy — $3 a Year
Dedication Mass Sept. 1 1 th
St John Vianney Seminary
To Open On September 1
SAVANNAH — On Septem
ber, 10th St. John Vianney Pre
paratory Seminary will open its
doors to its first class.
His Excellency The Most Rev.
Thomas J. McDonough, D. D.
J. C. D., Auxiliary-Bishop will
be celebrant of the Dedication
Mass which will be offered
Thursday, September 11th, at
12:00 o’clock noon.
In February of this year Bish
op McDonough announced the
beginning of an intensive drive
for Vocations to the Diocesan
Priesthood. During the course of
this vocational program, Father
’William V. Coleman, vice-
Chancellor and Rector of the
new Seminary spoke to all 7 th
and 8th grade students in the
Diocese and personally inter
viewed all the 8th grade boys.
Special prayers were offered
throughout the Diocese until
Pentecost Sunday, begging the
intercession of Mary Queen of
the Clergy and St. John Vianney
sm ■■ < ■
ST. JOHN
MARIE VIANNEY
(NC Photo)
to bring about an increase in
Seminary enrollment. “The es
tablishment of this new Minor
Seminary is a worderful an
swer to these prayers,” said
Bishop McDonough.
The new Seminary has been
placed under the Patronage of
Mary Queen of the Clergy and
St. John Marie Vianney. St.
John Vianney was a priest of
the Diocese of Lyons, France,
who died in 1859 and was raised
to the honors of Sainthood by
Pope Pius XI in 1925.
“Humility, gentleness, pa
tience and cheerfulness, inform
ed by the Love of God were the
hallmarks of his life,” said Bish
op McDonough, “and we pray
the Holy Patron of our new
Seminary to instill these same
virtues in the souls of all the
etudents at St. John Vianney
Preparatory Seminary.”
All the seminarians will be
ninth grade students. One grade
will be added each year and the
full four year high school
course will be inaugurated in
1962.
ROME’S NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE-100 YEARS
••••
Retreat For
Priests Opens
September 14th
SAVANNAH — The Priests of
the Savannah Diocese will be
gin their annual Retreat at the
Trappist Monastery of Our Lady
of the Holy Ghost Conyers, on
Monday, September 14th.
All Diocesan Priests, except
those ordained this year, will
make the Retreat. The Retreat
will be under the direction of
His Excellency, Bishop Thomas
J. McDonough, Auxiliary Bishop
of Savannah and will be given
this year by the Right Rev.
Augustine Moore, O. C. S. O.,
Abbot of the Conyers Monastery.
The exercises will,come to a
close on Friday September, 18th.
During this week, most of the
parishes of the Diocese will be
staffed by the Religious Order
Priests of the Diocese.
The universal Cannon Law of
the Church requires all secular
priests to make a spiritual re
treat at least every three years
and the Council of Baltimore,
which enacted many laws for
the Clergy and Faithful of the
United States decreed that
secular priests in the United
States must make a Retreat at
least every two years.
The custom of an annual re
treat is in accordance with the
Encyclical on the Priesthood, of
Pope Pius XI, which urges
periods of spiritual Retreat on
all priests as necessary means
of sanctity.
Ave Marie Hall, Pacelli High School
Dedications At Columbus
Planned September 8th
Three U S. Cardinals, 50 bishops and 300 American priests will meet at the Pontifical North
American College, in Rome, October 10 to 13 to observe the 100th anniversary of opening
of the college and for the 70th annual meeting of its alumni association. His Holiness Pope John
XXIII is expected to be present at the ceremonies on October 12. This view looking towards
St. Peter’s Basilica, shows the new buildings erected in 1953. (NC Photos)
Official
Appointments
The following appointments
have been announced by His
Excellency The Most Rev. Tho
mas J. McDonough, D.D.,J.C.D.,
Auxiliary Bishop:
THE VERY REVEREND
JOHN D. TOOMEY, S. T. L.,
appointed Vicar for Religious.
THE REVEREND GEORGE C.
JAMES, Assistant Pastor to the
Blessed Sacrament Church,
Savannah.
THE REVEREND PEROT
FIERO, Assistant Pastor to St.
James Church, Savannah.
THE REVEREND KELVIN
BOLAND, newly ordained,
Assistant Pastor to St. Mary’s
Church, Augusta.
Peace And Friendship Soviet Style
(BY VINCENT J. GIESE)
(This is the second in a series
of inside reports from Vienna on
tiie seventh JVarid 1 ontli Festi
val held July 26 to August 4.
They are written by Vincent J.
Giese, editorial director at Tides
Publishers of Chicago, who is in
Vienna as an American partici
pant at the Festival.)
Vienna — “Frieden Fraun-
schaft” (Peace and Friendship)
is the slogan of the 7th World
Youth Festival in this stoic,
old world city, but it certainly
has not been the spirit of the
350 Americans participating in
the Festival.
For the first four days of the
Festival, two factions of the
American delegation were lock
ed in open, parliamentary war
fare for control of the leader
ship of the delegation — an ex
perience which has embarrassed
the International Preparatory
Committee (Soviet Politburo)
and which will go down in Fes
tival history as perhaps the first
and last test of democracy
staged within the festival itself.
For those sincere Americans
who came to Vienna in the ex
pectation of some kind of fair
play, the flaunting of democratic
procedures, the use of dilatory
tactics, the rough shod dismissal
of the will of the majority, and
roughneck methods on the part
of the International Preparatory
Committee have been a shock-
experience of totalitarian meth
ods. I had read about these
things in the history of the
last war and in books on Soviet
strategy, but I never quite ex
pected it to happen in my own
life. This has been the lesson of
Vienna which the majority of
Americans are carrying back to
the U. S. A. with them.
FULL OF HOLES
In itself the lesson has shot
holes in all the advance propa
ganda build-up of the Festival
that it was to be a free and open
festival. Whatever glimmer of
freedom and openness that has
come through was provoked by
the American intra-delegation
fight, and that was quickly put
down, almost as quickly as the
Hungarian revolution.
To reconstruct the sequence
of events of the first four days,
let me state simply these facts:
—T w o groups of American
participants were organized and
sent to Vienna; the United
States Festival Committee,
(USFC), out of New York City,
and the American Youth Festi
val Organization (AYFO), out of
Chicago. From all indications,
the leadership of the USFC was
Communist, the leadership of
the AYFO was anti-Communist,
although anti-communists and
Communist sympathizers were
to be found in both organiza
tions
—In an open meeting of
Americans on the opening night
of the festival a battle for lead
ership of the American delega
tion broke out in a heated and
tense inter-play of forces.
—The battle lines were clean
cut. A group of leaders from the
New York group had been
working with the IPC in prepa
ration for the Festival and were
in no mood to risk losing that
leadership in a free and demo
cratic meeting. On the other
side, the Chicago group wanted
a freely held election to deter
mine the leadership of the full
American delegation and want
ed several proposals voted on
which would guarantee that
Americans be recognized as par
ticipating in the Festival as in
dividuals and not as an official
group representing American
youth. Chicago also wanted a
safeguard that no political state
ments would be issued on be
half of the American delegation
during the course of the festival.
Since the battle lines were
drawn, numerically, rather
closely down the middle, New
York did not want to risk any
votes. When the meeting got
out of hand, the head of the
International Preparatory Com
mittee, Jean Garcias, was sum
moned into action, at which
point he stormed the meeting
and announced that no Ameri
cans were presently being offi
cially recognized since someone
had stolen 150 accreditation
cards from the office, and there
fore no decisions reached at our
meeting would be recognized.
New accreditation cards were
promised for the next day. The
Russians won round one, from
a tactical point of view, but
American reporters were at the
meeting and the news of the rift
in the American delegation was
cabled around the world. It also
COMMANDS CATHOLIC WAR VETS
bishop McDonough to
BLESS NEW BUILBINGS
At the annual convention of the Catholic War Veterans of
America, held in Pittsburgh, Robert T. O’Leary (left) of
Baltimore is congratulated by Bishop John J. Wright of
Pittsburgh on his being elected national commander of the
CWV. Looking on is outgoing commander Peter Hopkins
of Yonkers, N. Y, (NC Photos)
DEBICATIONS SEPT. 13 & 20
SAVANNAH — His Excellency The Most Rev.
Thomas J. McDonough, D.D. J.C.D., Auxiliary-Bishop
will dedicate ihe new St. John's School, Valdosta, on
Sunday, September 13th.
Dedication of the new Nativity School, Thunder
bolt, is scheduled for Sunday, September 20th.
ONLY HALF KERALA BATTLE WON,
INDIAN CARDINAL SAYS; ASKS
FOREIGN PRESS TO STUDY REPORT
electrified other delegations at
the Festival.
Then, for three days the Chi
cago faction was frustrated in
its attempts to convene another
representative meeting to vote
openly for leadership. At several
meetings, the American Press
was forcibly thrown out, on the
basis that Americans were not
a delegation, but that we were
holding rump meetings. In the
process, two four-man steering
committees were elected from
each faction to negotiate over
a meeting for free elections and
to deal with the IPC. Hours and
hours of negotiations failed,
reminiscent of the Summit
meetings in Geneva, where the
Russians were in no mood to
make any compromises.
Failing at this, the Chicago
leadership called for an open
meeting of all Americans to vote
on a leadership at which a ma
jority of the Americans in
Vienna attended and voted
upon an eight man steering com
mittee to lead the delegation
in the simple administrative
matter of securing tickets for
seminars, cultural events, etc.
The International Preparatory
Committee refused to recognize
the eight man committee, and
continued to deal only with the
original leadership out of New
York with whom thej had work
ed in making preparations for
the Festival.
It became obvious as the
events unfolded the first four
days that the IPC wanted the
(Continued on Page 6)
BOMBAY, Radio, NC) — His
Eminence Valerian Cardinal
Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay,
said here that even though the
President of India has removed
the communist government of
Kerala state from office, “only
half the Kerala battle is won.”
“The greater battle remains,”
he said. “We are worried about
Kerala. Kerala’s people should
be very vigilant, and not be
complacent after their victory.”
India’s sole Cardinal, speaking
at a meeting of the Catholic
Association of Bombay, declar
ed that it is standard commun
ist technique never to admit
defeat, and always to be con
fident about the next round.
His speech followed the pub
lication of an official version of
the report by Kerala’s non
communist governor, Rama-
krishna Rao, concerning the
conduct of the elected com
munist government of the state.
Cardinal Gracias called the re
port the “best justification of
the stand we took in Kerala.”
Then, noting that certain for
eign papers had been critical of
the agitation against the Kerala
Red regime, and also critical of
Indian Prime Minister Jawa-
harlal Nehru’s stand (which
eventually brought about the
regime’s ouster), the Cardinal
said:
“I would ask American news
papers to examine the Gover
nor’s report and tell us whether
there is more democracy in
America than here in India.
“The Catholic citizen is at
full liberty to vote for any par
ty or individual whose views,
principles or programs do not
conflict with Catholic faith and
morals. Consequently he cannot
vote for a party officially con
demned by the Church.
“The Catholic vote must un
reservedly go to candidates of
fine character and public spirit.
For India’s moral crisis is even
greater than the material.”
O’Briscoll
lamed By
Retreatants
SAVANNAH — Desmond V.
O’Driscoll is the new president
of the Savannah Retreat League
of the Catholic Laymen’s Assn,
of the Diocese of Savannah.
A communicant of the Cathe
dral of St. John the Baptist,
O’Driscoll was elected at the
23rd annual retreat of the
league held during the past
weekend at Camp Villa Marie
at Grimball’s Point. He suc
ceeds John R. Ciucevich as
president. Ciucevich is a com
municant of the Blessed Sacra
ment Church.
Other officers elected are R.
A. Brennan, first vice presi
dent; Paul Hernandez, second
vice president; Joseph Hutton,
third vice president, and E. B.
McDonald, secretary.
About 70 laymen representing
parishes and missions through
out the diocese attended the re
treat which was supervised by
the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Andrew Mc
Donald, chancellor of the dio
cese, assisted by the Rev. Wil
liam V. Coleman, vice chancel
lor.
COLUMBUS — His Excellen
cy The Most Rev. Thomas J.
McDonough will preside at two
dedications in Columbus on
Tuesday, September 8th.
At 11 a. m. His Excellency
will dedicate the new r Ave Marie
Hall which houses St. Francis
Hospital School of Nursing.
That evening at 8 p. m., Bishop
McDonough will dedicate Pacelli
High School.
Ave Marie Hall contains 30,-
000 square feet of space. The
building will provide ample
space for all social, educational
and attractive living accom
modations. The main floor con
sists of a spacious lobby, sev
eral loungefc, and business offi
ces for the Faculty. The lower
floor has two lecture halls, a
combined fiction and profes
sional library, a science and nur
sing laboratory, and in the east
wing a large gymnasium- audi
torium occupying 2500 square
feet equipped for motion pic
tures, games, meetings, and
dances.
There is a well equipped
kitchen for use of the students
in their off hours. The third
floor consists of double bed
rooms each with individual
desks, dressers, and clothes
closets. A complete bathroom is
provided for each double bed
room. The most modern type of
air conditioning system, will
provide for individual room
control. The cooling system is
furnished by a steam absorption
unit.
The Sisters of Saint Francis
came to Columbus from Pitts
burgh, Pennsylvania in 1947 to
build their 145 bed hospital
which opened in 1950.
A shortage of nurses since the
time of its opening has led the
Sisters to push ahead the provi
sion for the School of Nursing
which was made in the original
Charter of the Hospital.
Pacelli High School, the first
Catholic high school to be built
in the western area of the Sav
annah diocese, is a modern one-
story structure, which adjoins
the two Holy Family Elemen
tary School buildings. It con
sists of four academic class
rooms, two science labs, library
and workroom, conference
room, principal’s office, boys’
and girls’ locker rooms, and a
sport director’s office.
In order to fulfill its aim of
providing the maximum in the
spiritual, intellectual, physical,
cultural, and social develop
ment of its students, Pacelli
High offers both a college prep
aratory and general high school
course.
This year’s faculty includes:
Rt. Rev. Monsignor Herman J.
Deimel, pastor of the Holy
Family Church, Spiritual Mode
rator and Religion instructor;
Sister Mary Aurelia, R.S.M.,
principal; Sister Mary Eliza
beth, R.S.M., Sophomore Mode
rator, Spanish and the Social
Studies; Sister Mary Annunci-
ata, R.S.M., Freshman Moderat
or, English and Latin; Sister
Mary Leonard, R.S.M., Music
Appreciation; Mr. John Cozart,
Science and Math; and Mrs.
Samuel Sherrill, Librarian.
Approximately 90 Catholic
freshmen and sophomore boys
and girls will be enrolled in the
high school this year. Among
the co-curricular activities of
fered are a complete sports pro
gram for both boys and girls,
the school newspaper, “The
Pacellian,” active participation
in the Muscogee County Junior
Red Cross program, the spon
soring of “Macbeth” and “The
Comedy of Errors” by The
Players Incorporated of the
Catholic University of America
in February of 1960, and stu
dent membership in the parish
C.Y.C. in which many of the
students take an active part in
the spiritual, cultural, physical,
and social activities of this
group.
Pacelli High School, original
ly called Holy Family High
School, opened for the first time
last September with an enroll
ment of 34 freshmen. At the
time of the death of Pope Pius
XII, His Excellency, the Most
Rev. Thomas J. McDonough,
changed the name to Pacelli
High School, thus giving to the
students a remarkable saintly
and scholarly patron. This year
a Sophomore Class is added to
the school; in 1960 the Junior
Year is to be added and in 1961,
the addition of the Senior Year
will complete the four-year
High School.
On the spacious grounds of
the school which is located at
Trinity Drive and Forrest Road
are a regulation football field,
baseball diamond, and outdoor
basketball and volleyball courts.
The erection of this first
building on the Pacelli High
Campus marks a new era in tire
history of Catholic education in
Columbus. According to plans,
a gymnasium and class room
wing will be added in the fu
ture. Little did those four Sis
ters of Mercy, arriving in 1862
to open St. Joseph Academy,
realize that in less than 100
years, Columbus could boast of
an elementary school with an
enrollment of over 600 Catholic
children and a growing new
Catholic High School.
The Sisters of Mercy of the
Province of Baltimore together
with Diocesan Priests and
Catholic lay teachers staff
both Pacelli High School and
Holy Family Elementary School
which opened in 1951 when the
existing St. Joseph Academy
could no longer accomodate the
growing Catholic population of
Columbus and surrounding vi
cinity.
Says Laos
Grisis To
Discredit US
VATICAN CITY, (NC) —
Tension in the southeast Asian
Kindom of Laos is being “cre
ated artificially” by the commu
nists to discredit the United
States even while the proposed
Eisenhower-Khrushchev visits
command the attention of the
world, an editorial in the Vat
ican City weekly, L’Osservatore
della Domenica, states.
“Tension being created artifi
cially in southeast Asia is in
tended to prove to all Asiatics,
whether or not they are com
munists, that the aggressive
‘imperialism’ of the Americans
is a daily reality, that the ex
change of visits, the smiles and
high level talks are not enough
to destroy it,” the article, writ
ten by Federico Alessandrini,
says.
“In other words one wishes to
stress, on the eve of the Khru
shchev and Eisenhower visits
that the United States still to
day is the epitomy of aggressive
and colonial ‘capitalism’ and
that communism alone is the
hope of the oppressed.
“On this point Peking and
Moscow are in full agreement
for ideological, tactical and
strategic reasons. Laos is only
a pretext,” the editorial con
tends.