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APPROACHES TO CHRIS
TIAN UNITY, by C. J. Dumont,
O.P., translated by Henry St.
John, O.P., Helicon, $4.50.
(Reviewed by
William A. Sessions)
The approaching Ecumenical
Council has set the theme of
unity — with its varying dimen
sions — squarely before the
modern Catholic world. What
does the term mean? Father Du
mont answers some of the possi
ble questions that could be ask
ed. Like all modern Europeans,
Father Dumont seeks a return
to a unity of culture that cannot
\ allow the barbarities of the last
decade. In this spirit, he pro
ceeds to outline possible means
by which individual Catholics
may contribute to Christian
unity.
Father Dumont’s first steps
are very concrete. Christian
unity already exists — in the
liturgical cycle of the year. This
cycle, Father Dumont demon
strates, is implicit therfore in
the life of every Christian. Unity
then is not some abstraction but
a means of sanctification. This
thesis, similar to Father Tavard’s
in this country allows every
Christian, no matter his posi-
j tion, an immediate place in the
development of unity.
His later chapters also develop
this theme of the place every
Catholic in the search for Chris
tian unity. JPrayer, work for
unity, better comprehension of
the actual teachings of the
Church on unity, and finally an
intimate understanding of the
relationship between the theo
logical virtues — faith, hope,
and charity — and unity! These
elements comprise Father Du
mont’s thesis that the search for
unity starts now, wherever the
individual Christian desires that
unity.
THE PARADISE TREE, by
V Gerald Vann, Slieed & Ward,
' $4.00.
(Reviewed by
William A. Sessions)
The famous Dominican is ob
viously attempting an experi
ment that is admittedly incom
plete. Nevertheless, it is a fas
cinating experience just to fol
low the line of Father Vann’s
correlation between Jungian in
sights and the three centers for
the Christian living out the pat
tern of his existence; the ten
commandments and the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass and the
seven sacraments.
Father Vann’s main thesis is,
as one might expect, that mod
ern Christians have lost the
rhythmic pattern — the dance,
to use his terminology — of
these three centers. Legality has
taken over the vital response.
Sometimes in proving his thesis,
Father Vann is revolutionary.
Sundays,- he maintains, are not
necessarily days of rest, The
emphasis, he says, is keeping
the Sabbath holy, not neces
sarily avoiding work. He attrib
utes our current interpretation
to historical derivation.
The book illustrates once more
Father Vann’s great grasp of
the problems of the modern
world and his recognition that
something approximating a rev-
• olution is required before the
true pattern of Christian living
can be recovered.
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THE RESPONSIBILITY OF
THE ARTIST, by Jacques Mari-
tain, Scribner’s, $2.95.
(Reviewed by Elizabeth Hester)
“What is the moral respon
sibility of the artist with respect
to others and to himself?”
The above question, lifted both
from the jacket and the author’s
foreword, is what Maritain at
tempts to answer in the four
chapters of this small book.
The first chapter clarifies the
distinction between art and
morality. Maritain, following a
Thomistic thesis, defines art as
performed “for the good of the
work” and morals as existing
“for the good of the man.” In
directly the two may act upon
each other, but as functions
they are absolutely distinct.
The second chapter, entitled
“Art for Art’s Sake,” refutes
that in any pure sense there can
be such a thing. The material
of one’s life and attitude must
go into any object one creates,
and thus a work will by neces
sity reflect the morality of the
artist. This is particularly true
for the novelist, a type of artist
given more attention than any
other in this book. Maritain bor
rows a phrase from Mauriac to
cover the artist’s obligation: he
should “purify the source,” i. e„
himself.
The third chapter, “Art for
the People,” swings the balance
in the opposite direction, declar
ing that if the artist has a moral
obligation to. the people, the
people in turn have a consider
able obligation to the artist. The
author protests the State as a
censor and asks for the artist
the respect and generosity of
society. Maritain believes that
art, like prayer, is for the good
of the soul and must be allowed
to form naturally at its source
without the distortions of super
ficially experienced external
pressures such as nationalistic
and religious fevers. To resist
such pressures is part of the
artist’s responsibility, a kind of
action strikingly dramatized by
the late Boris Pasternak.
In his fourth and last chapter
the author tackles one of the
knottiest problems in the novel
ist’s life. If he has not lived
boldly and with wide contacts,
how can he know life to write
about? And if he has lived so,
how can he escape having been
touched by evil? Maritain
argues that to look upon evil
is not automatically to be evil.
And in this, though Maritain
be right, the artist usually fights
uphill. The fact is, people rarely
read closely enough to learn
whether an author is for or
against what he writes about;
they assume, simply, that the
arthur is what he writes about.
And the problem, like the ever
lasting question of censorship
itself, remains hung in a deli
cate balance.
Mauriac has a gentle even
style suggesting kindliness and
warmth. He is not an exciting
writer, but he is a pleasant and
rewarding one.
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FATHER MADDEN’S LIFE
OF CHRIST, by Richard R.
Madden, O.C.D., Bruce, $2.95.
Father Madden is happily re
membered as author of the de
lightful Men in Sandals, a popu
lar, humor-filled account of the
life of a Carmelite monk. He
is now vicar at the Carmelite
Monastery in Youngstown, Ohio,
where he gives retreats to teen
agers, for whom his Life of
Christ has been written.
The author’s special appeal is
his ability to speak to youth on
their own level. He makes the
personality of Christ shine bril
liantly so that, knowing the real
Christ, young Christians will
want to follow Him.
It is Father Madden’s idea
that everyone, sometime in his
life, hears Christ’s call, “Come,
follow Me.” It is his concern
•that every young man and wom
an, hearing the call, may answer
it promptly and generously,
even heroically if necessary.
Therefore he presents Christ as
the Hero whom they may elect
to follow rather than another
less worthy.
“His wanderings,” he says,
“no longer take Him along the
edge of the sea, but into the
schools and the drugstores. His
call is the same. Follow Me! So
we follow Him . . . and if He
does not choose to send us out
into the world to do great things
for Him, then, little by little,
the world will come to us, be
cause the world will see in us
something of Him . . .”
THE SON OF MAN, by Fran
cois Mauriac, World, $3.00.
(Reviewed by Flannery
O’Connor)
M. Mauriac’s meditation on
Christ reveals, as might be ex
pected of any man’s meditation
on the Lord, a good deal more
about himself than about Christ.
One comes away from this book
impressed afresh with Mauriac’s
sense of Christ’s presence in the
contemporary world, but re
membering perhaps longer cer
tain pictures of Mauriac as a
child, his feet sweating in his
cold shoes as he waits on a
freezing morning to go to
school. This is a novelist’s medi
tation; Mauriac is always able
to impress the reader with a
strong sense of the flesh — all
men’s flesh that Christ takes on
— and of the anguish of the
human situation. In this book he
provides a specific answer for
the Jansenism of which he has
often been accused.
He proposes in the place of
that anguish that Gide called
the Catholic’s “cramp of sal
vation,” — obsession with per
sonal salvation — an anguish
transmuted into charity, ang
uish for another. Thus for Sar
tre, “hell is other people,” but
for the Christian with Mauriac’s
anguish others are Christ. We
realize that this way of looking
at life was so completely left
out of Mauriac’s youthful Cath
olic education that it has had to
come to him as a discovery of
later life. This is a valuable
book, one which will provide
the reader with unforeseen in
sights into the Incarnation.
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SAINT JEROME: THE AGE
OF BETHLEHEM, by Charles
Christopher M i e r o w, Bruce,
$3.50 .
St, Jerome we recently
learned, is patron saint of li
brarians; and since we’re inter
ested in libraries, that added
one more reason to a good num
ber for which we were already
interested in St. Jerome.
Dr. Mierow’s biography ap
proaches its subject through his
personal writings. Formerly pro
fessor of Classical Languages
and Literature at Colorado Col
lege, Dr. Mierow undertook af
ter retirement the translating of
St. Jerome’s one hundred fifty
letters, written fifteen hundred
years ago. Becoming fascinated
with this early Christian writer
who could devastate his literary
opponents in the best Ciceron
ian style, the retired professor
decided to go to Europe and
pursue Jerome down the streets
of Venice, Rome, Constantinople,
in the sun-bleached desert of
Chalsis and finally to the bleak
cell a few steps from the birth
place of Christ.
Dr. Mierow preferred not to
lean too heavily on the works
of others. He explains: “Jerome
once said: It is not by the bril
liance of great men, but by my
own strength that I must be
judged. Other writers had ex
plored the regular sources and
wrote biographies. I wanted to
let him speak for himself.”
He preferred to write about
the Jerome who caught his fan
cy through the sweep and spirit
of the translated letters which
he quotes at length. “Here was
no day-as-dust scholar . . .” he
exclaims. “Jerome was always
intensely alive, easily swayed
by his feelings. His affections,
human traits and failings make
Jerome more appealing . . .”
Had they been contemporaries,
St. Jerome and Dr. Mierow
might have found much in com
mon. The saint, long before his
conversion, had read all the
Green and Roman classics and
his letters are shot through with
references to them. Jerome’s
enormous correspondence was
one of the paradoxes of his life;
how incongruous to hide him
self away in the desert while
his voice wandered all over the
world. It also provides the great
est insight into his character,
Dr. Mierow says. “As h|e could
love deeply, so too he could hate
with all the power of his being
... he hated error. If a friend
strayed from the path of ortho
doxy, Jerome . . . went to lengths
of vilification not exceeded by
the greatest of the Roman satir
ists, and he had read them all.”
Jerome once dreamed that
Christ would accuse him of be
ing more of a Ciceronian than
a Christain. Dr. Mierow is both.
His teaching career has given
him a thorough knowledge of
the Roman world and his af
finity for the language in which
Jerome wrote and lived. The
book is illustrated with photo
graphs taken by the author.
Continued Emigration Cause
0f Anxiety, Irish Bishops
Declare In Joint Pastoral
THE BULLETIN, September 3, I960—PAGi
DUBLIN, (NC) — The Irish
Bishops have stated that con
tinuing large-scale emigration
from Ireland is their “most ob
vious cause of anxiety” and a
source of many social and eco
nomic evils.
The Bishops spoke in a joint
pastoral letter issued in connec
tion with the promulgation of
the decrees of their 1956 nation
al synod. The decrees of the
synod, which have been approv
ed by the Holy See, are now
being communicated to the cler
gy. They will be into effect
November 15.
The Bishops said in their pas
toral:
“So long as emigration con
tinues we are bound to use
every means to safeguard the
religious life of those who leave
our country and to secure that
they shall not merely preserve
the Faith in themselves but
shall become, by God’s grace,
the means of communicating it
to others.
“Special measures have been
taken to this end in recent years
and the prayers and active as
sistance of all the faithful are
asked in this most important
field, of the lay apostolate.”
The Bishops said that through
the 'development of modern
means of communication Irish
men at home as well as abroad
are today in more direct and
frequent contact with influences
hostile to the Faith than they
have been in former times. They
added that “our defense must
largely be found in a sound
Christian education. Important
progress has been made in the
essential matter of religious in
struction of the young.”
The Bishops’ pastoral, similar
to the one they issued at the
time of the national synod in
1956, also declared that the
traditional aspects of Catholic
ism in Ireland “are as manifest
now as they have ever been.”
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Commemorative
These, they said, include high
standards of morality and fideli
ty to religious duties, cordial
relations between the clergy and
laity and the sanctity of family
life.
The Pius X institute, which
must still receive final approval
from the Holy See before being
considered as fully established
pontifically, is the eighth secu
lar institute of priests and lay
men to approved at the pre
liminary level by the Holy See.
Although it works at ail lev
els of society, its special con
cern is Catholic action and
Christian perfection among
workers in industrial areas. Its
activity and membership are
now confined to the U.S. and
Canada, but through its publi
cations and contacts it is reach
ing persons in 40 countries, ac
cording to Mr. Demers.
Only one in 10 of its pro
fessed members may be priests
and 'its council consists of two
priests and three laymen. The
institute has not published any
membership figures.
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The 500th anniversary of the
death of Prince Henry the
Navigator, is commemorated
on this postage stamp of
Portugal. To discover new
lands and to make Christians
was the chief motive of the
Catholic prince who sent out
his captains to discover Bra
zil and a sea route around
Africa to India. The presi
dents of both Portugal and
Brazil attended a Mass cele
brated by Manuel Cardinal
Goncalves Cerejeira, in his
honor at Sagres, Portugal.
(NC Photos)
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Why Don’t You Become A St. Christopher
Safe Traveler?
WHAT IS A ST. CHRISTOPHER SAFE TRAVELER?
IT'S YOU AS A MEMBER IN THE
ST. CHRISTOPHER SAFETY LEAGUE.
As a Member you will receive:
1. Mailings of Safety Rules for driving and pointers
on how to check your car for safety.
2. A St. Christopher Car Emblem which you will be
proud to display.
3. A St. Christopher Key Case with your Membership
Number imprinted in case of loss.
4. A Driver's Prayer to St. Christopher as a reminder
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What The St. Christopher Safety League
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The St. Christopher Safety League is sponsoring a nationwide effort to
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