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■ PAGE' 4—THE BULLETIN, December 26, 1959 Seriate Committee Investigates Drug Prices JOSEPH BREIG IF YOU LOVE HIM Christmas is a many-million- ed rejoicing. But at this time of year, it would be good for each of us to find a moment of soli tude in which to ask, “What is Christmas to me? What am I to Christmas?” It is easy, s t a n d i n g at the Crib, lis tening to ca rols, or revel ing in the glow of color ed lights, to think oneself in love with heart is not moved in the pres ence of an infant? And who is not reverent at the thought of omnipotence helpless, of the divine entering the human for our sakes? It is right and good that in the Christmas season we should feel the romance of redemption, and be lifted up. ALL THE SAME, the Christ in the Crib is the same true God and true man, the same Son of God and Son of Man, as the Christ on the Cross, and as the Christ Who taught and com manded. He had seven level words for ■us that sum up and define our • right relationship with Him. “If you love Me, keep My com- : mandments.” That is the test we must apply. ' If we love Him, we keep His J commandments. We do not, per- : haps, begin by keeping them in 'complete perfection, or continue invariably in total loyalty. But . at very least we fight our way toward that goal. THAT IS OUR AIM and our ; heart’s desire. For this we strive •and do not stop striving. If we ‘fall, we repent and get up and go on. Though we fall time and 'again, we will not quit. “He who hears you, hears ’Me,” Christ said to His apostles. •“He who despises you, despises | Me.” And before that, He spoke • to Simon—“Thou art the Rock, 'and upon this rock I will build • My Church, and the gates of ‘Hell shall not prevail against ‘it.” “If you love Me, keep My ^commandments.” And among these are the commandments of !the Chiych, even the least of them, because Christ is in His Church- “unto the-'consumption 'of the world.” > "I WILL GIVE to thee,” Christ said to *£eter the Rock, ■ “the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever thou -—— shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven; and whosoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be lossed also in Heaven.” The appeal of the Infant in the Crib reaches out to us, and to respond is easy. But the in fant, like the Man, would de mand of us manfulness, were He to speak. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” To limit these commandments to the ten given on Mount Sinai and the six handed down by the Church—to obey only the bare essentials of those—would not be the action of one who truly loved Christ. Kneeling at the Crib, can we say that we are proving our love by living the life of the Church, and obeying and de fending the many truths the Church teaches? Or, perhaps, do we reject the Church’s stand on the rights of those of all races? DO WE HOLD our own nar row and selfish opinion—and not the Church’s—on the duty of powerful nations to assist the weak? On the natural right of human beings to migrate to areas where they can prosper? “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” One command ment, given by Christ through the Church, is as easy as not eating meat on Friday. Another is as difficult as loving one’s enemies, or keeping marriage holy. Each of us has his own spe cial problems. For one, it may be a fierce nationalism, the ape of patriotism, that counsels against cooperation with other peoples. For another, it is per haps stinginess toward those in need of toward one’s parish. MAYBE INTELLECTUAL at tainment, or wealth, or power, attracts us more than the call to holiness. But Christ, with that level look, says, “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his im mortal soul.” Our weakness may be as con temptible as lying abed when we ought to be at Mass; or it may be as huge and hellish as pride that looks down upon some, and fawns upon others. But “if you love Me keep My commandments.” The Infant in Bethlehem means that, every bit as much as the Man dying on Golgotha. Christmas and Calvary—they are of one piece. Theology For The Layman By F. J. Sheed THE CHURCH IS CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC Christ, then, had chosen that His work for the redemption of men should be carried on while the world should last—by Him self, of course, but through a society of men. Peter (M a 11. 16-18) that He should build the Church upon him, and Peter must have been at once delighted and puzzled, wondering what this Church might be. With the words uttered just before Our Lord's ascension into heaven (Matt. 28, 19-20), the nature, purpose and structure of the Church were made clear. Peter and the other apostles were to be its key men; till the end of time it would be Apos tolic. And till the end of time it would be Catholic. The glory of this last word is inexhaustible. Here we must be content to look at its bare meaning. Catholic, we say, is from a Greek word meaning universal. What does universal mean? The word contains two elements—all and one, all in one. In His first commission to Peter, Our Lord had made clear what He meant by “one”—His Church was, to be built upon the Rock, Peter was to have the keys and a power to binding and loosing which God Himself would ratify. In His final com mission to the Apostles, He made clear what He meant by “all”—a threefold all: all na tions, all doctrines, all ages. When we say the Nicene Creed we call the Church “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic.” Rightly we speak of these as her four marks. Pause upon the marks. They mean outward showings, visible to anyone who troubles to look; they do not require the eye of faith, any rational observer can see that they are there. He may not see the importance the ''Catholic sees in them, but once he knows what we mean by the marks, (Continued on Page 5) He had promised Jottings .. (By BARBARA C. JENCKS) Question Box By David Q. Liplak Q. Would you please answer these questions for me: 1) What is meant by a "month's mind Mass?" 2) Is there more than one kind of Requiem Mass? 3) Why is it that an announced Mass for a deceased person is sometimes said or sung in vest ments other than black? and 4) Why is it that Requiem Masses cannot be celebrated except on certain days? A. “Month’s mind” is a popu lar name designating the special Requiem Mass used for the thir tieth day following death or burial. A Requiem Mass is so called from the first word of the In- troit. Requiem means “rest,” which is one of the three key petitions found in the Mass. The other two are peace and light. Thus, , the opening sentence of the Introit reads, “Eternal rest give to them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon .them.” Requiem Masses are easily distinguished from all others: first; because they are celebrat ed in black vestments; and sec ondly, because of certain cere monial variations (i.e., there is no intrbductory J u d i c a no t psalm, Gloria, Ite Missa est, or Hast Blessing; the Agnus Dei is (terminated differently, etc.). There are, however, several •specific kinds of Requiem Mass- ’es. Three are used in general 4er~ deceased lay persons. The first of these is the funeral Mass jitself, which is meant for the .day of death or the day of iburial. (This, incidentally, is the same Mass used for the month’s mind, although in the latter, a different Prayer, Secret and Postcommunion are used.) ’ The second kind is the anni versary Mass of Requiem, 'which, obviously, is reserved for the anniversary of death or burial. The third kind is known as the “daily” or “ordinary” jMass of Requiem. It is celebrat- (Continued on Page 5) Christmas is a time for wish ing. Tonight I wish I were many things other than a writer with a Christmas column to produce. Every year it is the same prob lem. I yearn to write the stars out of the sky and to bring reader^ to their knees before the wonder of the season. I never can. I wish that I were a little girl again so that I might recapture the innocent wonder of Christ mas. It would be worth a king dom to view the world as a five- year-old again at Christmas. The innocence of childhood fails to see the world of the grownup with its complexities and distractions. Perhaps that is why all men love Christmas, it takes them back to the inno cence and safety of childhood. I would like to be the mother of a little boy at Christmas, too. I would like to take him on my lap and read the story of anoth er little Boy’s Christmas many hundreds of years ago in the city of Bethlehem. At Christmas I wish, too, that I were a cloistered nun far from the distractions of the holiday world. I yearn to escape from the frenzied crowds which at tempt to take all the magic and music from the season. I could contemplate then away from all distractions and meaning and promise of Christmas. And if I were a cloistered nun this night, I would never for a mo ment forget those out in the world imprisoned by the tan gibles of Christmas. Nuns, no matter how old they are, hold some of the starry-eyed Christ mas wonder of children. Alas, I am a writer. I am not a little girl again or a cloistered nun or the mother of a little boy. I have only words at my disposal to translate the feelings which set my heart aflame. Words never appear as inade quate as they do at Christmas. Christmas is something sa cred. It is silence and reverence and peace and joy. These things cannot escape at the snap of a writer’s fingers or at the com mand of an editor for a Christ mas story. I can never write the stars out of the sky at Christmas as much as I desire. It matters little. For everyone holds his own private thoughts about Christmas. Inspiration is in the air and is not dependent on the words of a column. One does not have to be a mother, a nun, a little girl or a writer to know the wonder of Christmas and to hold it close. All we must do is contemplate again the birth of a Baby Who is God. Mrs. Lillian Corley Services In Augusta AUGUSTA — Funeral serv ices for Mrs. Lillian Hueber Corley were held December 10th with a requiem mass at St. Patrick’s Church, Rev. Ar thur Weltzer officiating. Survivors are two sisters, Mrs. Dennis P. Sheridan of San Antonio, Texas, and Miss Cas- sie Hueber of Augusta, and sev eral nieces and nephews. SERVICES FOR J. R. SWEENY SAVANNAH — Funeral serv ices for John Ronan Sweeny were held December 9th at the Cathedral of St. John the Bap tist. How Do You Rate ?n Facts of Faith (By Brian Cronin) 1. Father Bernard Hubbard, the well-known Jesuit, is noted for his missionary work in: (a) Africa? (b) Korea? (c) In dia? (d) Alaska? 2. The stone in a cardinal’s ring is: (a) Sapphire? (b) Ruby? (c) Amethyst? (d) Emerald? 3. Members of the Order of Friars Minor are more commonly known as: (a) Trappists? (b) Carmelites? (c) Cistercians? (d) Franciscans? 4. St. Vitus is the patron saint of: (a) Invalids? (b) Doctors? (c) Comedians? (d) Actors? 5. The first Bible was printed in 1452 by: (a) William Cax- ton? (b) Martin Luther? (c) King James?, (d) Johann Gutensberg? 6. To whom was Rachel married? (a) Jacob? (b) Cain? (c) Moses? (d) Isaac? 7. Complete the sixth Beatitude “Blessed are the clean of heart . . .”?: (a) “. , . for they shall possess the earth”? (b) “. . . for they shall be called the children of God”? (c) “. . . for they shall see God”? (d) . . for they shall be satisfied”? 8. Who was the last of the prophets before the coming of Christ?: (a) St. James the Greater? (b) St. John the Bap tist? (c) Daniel? (d) Jeremias? Give yourself 10 marks for each correct answer below. Rating: 80—Excellent; 70—Very Good; 60—Good; 50—Fair ANSWERS; 1 (d); 2 (a); 3 (d); 4 (c); 5 (d); 6 (a); 7 (c); 8 (b) SHARING OUR TREASURE The Faith Brought Happiness 7 — Says Jewish Convert By REV. JOHN A. O’BRIEN, Ph. D. n r r j j i , j (University of Notre Dame) _ As the result of her long ex perience the Church advises her children to marry Catholics, as she has seen many mixed mar riages wind up unhappily. Even at best, they leave much to be desired. When they do occur, the Catholic party should set an inspir ing example by living his Faith and thus demonstrating the wonderful help the Catholic religion af fords. This will frequently lead the non-Catholic into the Church, as shown by the ex perience of Herbert Gordon of Great Neck, New York. “I was in the Air Force,” said Herbert, “and was keeping company with Iris Alvira, a de vout Catholic. Though reared in the Jewish' faith, 1 * 1 * * * * * rarely at tended the synagogue. Iris ex plained that it would be neces sary for me to take some pre marital instructions which would enable me to understand the obligations I would assume in marrying a Catholic. I went with her to St. Aloysius rectory where- Father Christopher Hunt ington ministered to us.” “What a small world!” i re marked. “Father is himself a convert, and shortly after his ordination wrote for me the story of his conversion, which I included in the volume, The Way to Emmaus, published by Our Sunday Visitor. It is beau tifully told and his story, along with those of other converts in that book, has helped to lead quite a few into the Faith.” “I’m glad to hear that,” con tinued Herbert. “After receiv ing a few instructions from Fa ther, I signed the marriage promises, agreeing that the chil dren would be raised Catholics and that I would not interfere with my wife’s practice of her Faith. Since there was nothing in the promises requiring me to change my religious position as a ‘do-nothing,’ I was quite satisfied. “When I came out of the Air Force, we settled down to what I thought was a normal married life. But I soon began to realize that something was missing i n our marriage, and it constantly preyed on my mind. I admired the way my wife faithfully at tended Mass. She was so happy in her religion and seemed to get to much more out of life that I actually envied her. So without any prodding I became more interested in the Catholic way of life. “When our son Paul was born, he was baptized by Father Huntington. Determined to be the best father any son ever had, I began to think, ‘that means I’ll have to become a Ca tholic.’ I could not raise him properly unless I lived the Ca tholic life myself. Finally through the help of a good Ca tholic friend, Fred James, I en rolled in the religious instruc tion correspondence course of fered by the Knights of Colum bus. “After completing it in Au gust’ 1958, I contacted Father Huntington and received addi tional instruction from him. I was baptized in September and received my First Communion the next day. How wonderful it was to receive our Eucharistic Lord! My heart was filled with joy. I felt that there must be more to life than I was getting out of it, and I find that the Catholic faith fills that viod. “Now my mind and con science are at ease in the pres ence of God. The peace and happiness which Jesus has al ready brought me has greatly enriched my life. My only con cern is how I can repay Him. Though I’ll never be able to repay this debt completely, my life is now worth while in just trying. Thank God, my son will not miss this part of life as I did so long, because Jesus will be part and parcel of his daily life.” Father O’Brien will be grate ful to readers who know of any one ivho has won 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. Sayannah Services Mrs. Elizabeth Jordan SAVANNAH — Funeral serv ices for Mrs. Elizabeth (Eliza) Rankin Jordan were held De cember 9th at St. Benedict the Moor Church with a Solemn Requiem mass. ,. .. . » uuii, vie lor uie auention of a distinguished visitor to St. Ann’s Infant Home, conducted by the Sisters of Charity in Washington. The surprise visi- *° r " —His Excellency Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, Apostolic Delegate to the United States, who brought gifts for the tots. Photo by Reni. (NC Photos) THE BACKDROP By JOHN C. O’BRIEN The high prices of drugs are receiving attention from Fed eral law enforcement agencies and are the subject of an in vestigation now being conduct ed by the . Senate Judi ciary Com mittee’s anti trust and mo nopoly sub committee. What the investigati n g bodies want to know is whether the major producers of pharmaceuticals have been entering into agree ments to keep the price of drugs up. That the public is resentful of the high cost of medication has been amply shown by the large volume of complaints re ceived by the Senate sub-com mittee in the last two years. Senator Estes Kefauver, the subcommittee’s chairman, said recently that the committee has received more complaints about the charges for drugs than about the cost of any other commodity. SALES INCREASE Concern over drug prices has grown since the introduction of the so-called “wonder” drugs on which physicians have come to rely as specific remedies for particular diseases. These in clude the cortisone derivatives, the antibiotics, the antihista mines, the tranquilizers, the oral medicines for diabetes and the like. The production of pharmaceu ticals is now big business. Sales this year are expected to total around $2,500,000,000 as com pared with $941,000,000 in 1947 and only $354,000,000 in 1937. Each year during the past dec ade the industry has added be tween 300 and 400 new pro ducts. More than 500 new drugs were put out in 1958. It has been estimated that nine out of ten prescriptions today call for drugs that were unavailable be fore the Second World War. Among sufferers from cer tain chronic diseases, who are in constant need of medication, the high cost of drugs is a mat ter of serious concern. Some 1,600,000 sufferers from diabe tes muit always have with them insulin or one of the new oral medicines. Thousands of suffer ers from arthritis are dependent upon drugs for relief from their pains. The United States has devel oped some of the finest medi cines in the world, but the fear is, as Senator Kefauver puts in, “that prices may be getting so high that people can’t buy them.” More than a year ago the Federal Trade Commission is sued a complaint against the six major producers of antibiotics charging that by various agree ments and the licensing of pat ents they had “fixed and main tained arbitrary, artificial and non-competitive and rigid pric es.” And two years ago a House committee pointed out that bids on Salk vaccine, produced by five companies, to public health authorities were substantially identical. Two voluntary reduc tions in the price of the vaccine were made when the demand exceeded the supply. But in re cent years the price has remain ed steady although supply had caught up with and exceeds the demand. MONEY FOR PROMOTION In support of their contention that where the supply of a drug is controlled by a few firms the prices are kept high, critics of the industry point out that whenever free competition has come into play the price has dropped sharply. For example, in 1943, a 100,000-unit vial of penicillin cost $20; by 1947 the price had dropped to 30 cents. The price of procaine penicillin, an improved form introduced in 1948, slid in one year from $10 to $6 and to 60 cents by 1956. The drug manufacturers have denied all suggestions that pric es are maintained at an artifi cially high level by collusive agreements. They maintain that competition in the industry is keen and that this accounts for the virtual identity of prices. Moreover, they contend, large amounts are spent in research and develpoment of new drugs. Initially, they argue, the price "to the public must reflect a part of the development cost. Critics of the industry con cede that research and develop ment is costly. But they com plain that the industry spends too much on promotion, a bus iness cost which enters into the price to the consumer. The in dustry spends vast sums circu larizing the 200,000 physicians in the country. This, according to the president of the New Jer sey Medical Society, is a waste of money, for “most of this lit erature is never read.” The pharmaceutical industry may be, as its leaders maintain, highly speculative and competi tive. But the facts remain, ac cording to government statis tics, the rate of profits runs higher — twice higher — than the rate of profits in manufac turing in general. Patkcr WbartoaV* View from die Rectory AUTOMATIC PRAYERS “Does anyone aboard this submarine know how to pray?” “I do.” “Good. You pray. The rest of us will put on escape lungs. ■ We’re short one.” This is the only occasion I can think of in which a person’s habit of prayer would be a drawback. Anyway, you wouldn’t want to use an escape lung and leave someone else be hind. Or would you? It’s kind of frightening to think that there are people all around us that haven’t the faint est idea how to pray. Not every one, of course, can be expected to know lots of formal prayers. As any struggling convert or little tot preparing for his first Holy Communion can tell you, we Catholics have cornered the market on prayers to be mem orized. Yet we insist that a “good morning” or a “thanks” or a “sorry”—if they come deep in the heart—are worthwhile prayers. It’s as simple as that. Don’t let our Age of Automa tion fool you into thinking all prayer must also be mechan ized. Prayer is simply a heart- to-heart talk with God, and someone who can’t do this is in sad shape indeed. Ever since the first people on earth offered sacrifices to show their depend ence in God, every prayer is supposed to be an outpouring of our interior attitude. All this needs to be said. Our beautiful and colorful ceremon ies often cause us to be charged with a formalism like the Phari sees of our Lord’s time. Some outside the Church think we judge a person’s sanctity by the number of Rosaries, he can “get through” during the day. No truth to these charges. The Church insists in season and out of season on purity of heart and truly interior holiness. But we have to admit that it’s easy to fall into bad habits. Unless we keep our hearts working, we can pray in a slipshod way. Our lips can be reciting the Our Father while our minds wash the dishes or play football. One extreme of automatic prayer is the Litany of Saints I once overheard in church. The little old lady was somewhat deaf, and her audible prayers sounded something like an air pump. On this occasion, she was reading from her prayerbook, and I could make out these words: “All the saints on this page, pray for us. All the saints on this page, hear our prayers. From all the things on the last page, deliver us, O Lord.” She must have said a hundred of these litanies in a day! The Rosary, too, is not sup posed to be like a spinning prayer wheel. It’s true that it consists of a constant repetition of Hail Marys. But an essential part of the Rosary is meditation on : the mysteries of our Lord's life. Better to say one Rosary devoutly and thoughtfully than to “get through” five in a care less and distracted way. We begin almost all our pray ers with a very sacred symbol, the Sign of the Cross. This an cient sacramental brings to mind the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and our Redemption by Christ’s death. Unfortunately, it sometimes becomes a mechani cal motion which looks lake a waving away of cobwebs. And the super-speed of the action in dicates that the words accom panying it can’t be more than this: “Na-fa-son-hol-go-men.” Even during that holiest ac tions, the Mass, it’s possible to miss the spirit by too close ap plication to the letter. The es sence of participation in the Mass is a spirit of offering of yourself in union with Christ’s perfect offering of Himself. Using a Missal is an excellent custom if it helps us to keep our mind on the essentials. But if the book is followed so slav ishly that we spend our time in a flurry of flipping pages and rapid prayers, the spirit can be lost. Even lighting a candle in church should represent the love in our heart, not take its place. One little rascal knelt before his lighted candle. But he became uneasy when his pal knelt beside him. After eyeing the newcomer for a while, he finally leaned over and whis pered: “Pray on your own candle.” That’s kid stuff. The candle power will not be diminished by a hundred kids praying on it. The candles we light, the in cense we burn, the Masses we attend, the novenas we make— all these are supposed to repre sent an interior disposition. Only we can put this in our souls, or take it away. Our external ceremonies, ac tions and prayers are necessary. We’re not angels floating around this earth. We are crea tures of both body and soul. As long as the soul is brought into the prayer, our outward expres sions of devotion are pleasing to God and quite natural to us. Just so we keep the soul in the prayers. I’ll wager next Sunday’s col lection that the sailor on the sinking submarine put every thing he had into his talk with God. No distracted, ho-hum, mechanical attitude for him at a time like that. Too bad we can’t always im agine we’re on a sinking ship when we pray. If we could ha bitually give our chats with God such attention and devo tion, we would be saints in a jiffy. It’s fine if we use our lips for prayers. But we have to re member that it’s really our heart that is speaking. Services For Robert- Grant, Sr. SAVANNAH — Funeral serv ices for Mr. Robert Grant Sr. were held December 14th at St. Mary’s Church. Survivors are Mr. Robert Grant Jr., Mrs. Willie Mae Tay lor Grant and family. uJIj? luUrtttt 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, December 26, 1959 No. 15 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