Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—TnE BULLETIN, September 17, 1960
WHAT PROFIT HISTORY?
With the success of the Russian Revo
lution more than forty years ago, Interna
tional Communism embarked on its avow
ed campaign of world conquest. The
campaign continues, unabated, to this day.
It is carried on by means of subversion and
armed aggression in all parts of the world,
by men who hold allegiance to no Father-
land, but only to the principles of Marxism-
Leninism.
So well has this campaign to enslave
the world succeeded that there is in the
United Nations today a large and powerful
bloc of Communist dominated nations,
which by concerted efforts have, for fifteen
years, kept the entire world in the grip of
a “cold war.”
Not one of these nations has ever cast
a vote or embarked on any course of action
not calculated to further the Communist
plan of world domination, power struggles
within the Communist party, and “strained
relations” between Communist countries
notwithstanding.
Yet, in spite of the history of more
than forty years of Red aggression and
conquest — in spite of the unmistakable
record of 15 years of concerted Red actions
in the United Nations, the United States
Department of State expressed surprise
that Russia will this year lead the fight
for U. N. recognition of Communist China
—surprise that Communist Yugoslovia sup
ports Communist Russia in its condemna
tion of U. N. activity in the Congo.
We’re surprised, too. But not at the
Communists.
THE BEAM AND THE MOTE
We read in a local newspaper the
other day that still another group of Pro
testant ministers and laymen has declared
that any Catholic, as President of the
United States, would be under pressure
from the Hierarchy of his church and might
not be able to withstand it altogether.
The latest pronouncement comes from
a group of 150 ministers and laymen claim
ing membership in 37 denominations,
meeting in Washington, D. C. as the “Na
tional Conference of Citizens for Religious
Freedom.”
Led by a New York minister and wide
ly known author, Dr. Norman Vincent
Peale, the group apparently is worried
about the candidacy of a Catholic because
they fear that Catholic Bishops would
bring pressure to bear on a Catholic presi
dent to circumvent the Constitutional
guarantees against the establishment of a
State Religion and to deprive non-Catholics
of their religious freedom. Against the
background of the entire history of the
Catholic Church in the United States and
the repeated assurances by various mem
bers of her Hierarchy that the Catholic
Church is perfectly happy with her position
under our form of government, such unfair
assumptions of wholesale subversion on the
part of the American clergy deserve no
further refutation.
But we are sorry that the prospect of
a Catholic in the White House has filled
Dr. Peale and the National Conference of
Citizens for Religious Freedom with such
worry, doubt and fear.
Perhaps they might find some measure
of peace of mind by reading a best-selling
book which tells how people may be rid
of anxiety, fear, neuroses, etc. It’s called
“The Power of Positive Thinking” by . . .
. . . by , . . yep . . . that’s what it says, all
right ... by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.
Subscription TV Experiment
THE BACKDROP
The answer to the question,
“Is the public sufficiently dis
enchanted with its present
television fare to pay for a
different type of entertain
ment?” may soon be forth
coming.
A company
in Hartford,
Conn., has
applied to
the Federal
Communica
tions C o m-
mission for
a license to
operate a
subscription television station
on an ultra high frequency
channel for a test period of
three years.
Hartford was chosen for the
experiment because it fulfills
the FCC requirement that at
least four commercial stations
be on the air in a test area.
Also Hartford is near enough
to major entertainment, sports
and educational centers to
make a variety of high quality,
box office programs available.
TOP ENTERTAINMENT
Sponsors of the test station
hope to present a varied pano
rama of entertainment, cul
tural events and educational
features from the world’s lead
ing motion picture studios,
legitimate theaters, opera
houses, concert halls, stadiums,
arenas and classrooms.
Negotiations have been open
ed with Hollywood’s top
studios for bringing to Hart
ford by way of subscription
TV some of the latest motion
pictures, such as “Ben Hur,”
“Can Can,” and “From the
Terrace.”
Serious musical and dra-
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
matic offerings of the quality
of “Sound of Music” and “An-
dersonville Prison” are also
being sought from Broadway
producers. If the company’s
application is approved and
sufficient support is forth
coming, the sponsors hope to
augment their programs with
grand opera, ballets, and sym
phony concerts from the con
cert halls of Europe as well as
the United States.
Educators also are being
sounded out about the feasibil
ity of offering for a modest
fee credit courses in various
subjects and non-credit courses
for adults who wish to aug
ment their formal education.
No commercials are con
templated, the company’s ap
plication states specifically
that commercials will be pro
hibited during any subscrip
tion offering.
The television industry has
taken a dim view of subscrip
tion television, maintaining
that the public is content with
westerns, private-eyes, variety
programs and 1930 motion pic
tures which it now gets free
by putting up with the annoy
ance of interruptions for com
mercials.
But the sponsors of the pro
posed Hartford experiment
contend that this assumption
has never been put to a test.
Pilot runs of subscription tele
vision have been offered in a
few areas but never on the
scale contemplated by the
Hartford station.
COMPLAINTS INCREASE
The volume of complaints
about commercial television
have been mounting steadily
in recent years. But no one
WASHINGTON LETTER
View
from tSa©
FISHY STORIES
11
llectory
By Th® Rev. Robert H. Wharton
JOSEPH BREIG
knows, because no sustained
programming of paid tele
vision has been offered,
whether the public is suffici
ently disgusted with the pres
ent television fare to shell out
good money for superior en
tertainment.
Owners of television sets in
the Hartford area would be
able to subscribe for paid pro
grams with a very small in
vestment. in additional equip
ment. For less than $10 they
could have a decoding unit
attached to their sets, with
which, by a flip of a switch,
they could bring in a subscrip
tion program. No subscriber
would need to keep coins on
hand; all the subscriber would
have to do is remove at the
end of each month a billing
tape from the decoder showing
how much he owed for the
programs he had watched and
forward a check to the station.
Sponsors of the test station
are confident that they could
bring top entertainment into
Hartford living rooms for a
cost well within the means of
families of moderate incomes.
For the most of a single ad
mission to downtown Hartford
movie theaters — 90 cents to
$1 — they say they could pro
vide a Class A motion picture
for an entire family. A few
special programs would cost
more, a charge of $3.50 might
be necessary for a heavy
weight championship fight.
The debate about the feasi
bility of subscription television
has been going on for several
years. A test such as that con
templated for Connecticut’s
capital city could settle the
argument one way or another.
What Is School For?
In this third article in my
series about education and re
ligion, my hope is to say some
thing helpful about separation
of church and state as it re-
1 a t e s to
schools.
Concern
over “sepa
ration” is the
only factor
that can rea
sonably ex
plain, for in
stance, the
Am e r i c a n
Civil Liberty Union’s hostility
to any tax consideration for
parents of pupils in religious
schools.
Those who oppose sharing
by such parents in the school
taxes they pay argue as fol
lows:
Such taxes should go to the
public (i.e., government ope
rated) schools. The reason: Re
ligious schools exist to pro
mote religion. If government
helped such schools, it would
be violating church-state sep
aration. It would be using the
taxes of citizens of various re
ligions — or none — to pro
mote one or more religions.
THE FLAW in that position
lies in the fact that religious
schools do not — repeat not -—
exist merely to promote relig
ion.
Religious schools exist to
teach everything that needs to
be taught—including religion.
At least nine-tenths of the
time, effort and money of re
ligious schools goes to teach
the subjects taught by public
schools.
Religious schools meet the
same educational standards as
other schools. They teach what
governments judge that pupils
need in order to be good citi
zens.
They perform for future cit
izens the same government-
decreed function as do public
schools. They give to a nation
the same service.
IN ADDITION, they stress
the two things that give such
direction, purpose and aim to
both education and govern
ment.
Those two guiding and inte
grating factors are religion and
morality.
Right here, we come face to
face with what might be called
a cause of public amnesia.
Millions seem to have for
gotten that what we broadly
call democracy was made pos
sible by the wide acceptance
of religious truth, and by the
public morality which relig
ious trust fostered.
The origins of the demo
cratic (or republican or parlia
mentarian) system reach back
through centuries of Christi
anity and Judaism.
Destroy religious truth and
its effect upon people and in
stitutions, and you destroy de
mocracy. The communists
know this: many ip. the free
world forget it.
THE NORTHWEST ORDI
NANCE — as much a part of
America’s basic legal inspira
tion as are the Declaration of
Independence and the Consti
tution — puts the matter
pointedly.
The ordinance asserts that
schools and the means of edu
cation are to be forever en
couraged BECAUSE “religion
and morality are necessary to
good government.”
The Northwest Ordinance
thus views education as a chief
means of preserving religion
and morality which it sees as
indispensable to survival of
democratic nations, democratic
freedoms, and inalienable hu
man rights.
In this light, not only should
religious schools be vigorously
encouraged: in addition, every
thing possible should be done
to preserve the religious herit
age of youth in public schools.
TO INTERPRET “separation
of church and ' state” as for
bidding sane measures toward
those ends is to misuse “de
mocracy” to undermine de
mocracy.
The ultimate practical effect
of the outlawing of religion is
to put education at the mercy
of the agnostic, the atheist and
the irreligious secularist.
When that is done, the anti-
religious minority rules, in the
education of future genera
tions, over the religious ma
jority, along with the religious
heritage of the western world,
are brushed rudely aside, and
the very existence of demo
cratic institutions is gravely
imperilled.
WASHINGTON — Experts
here reportedly are in dis
agreement as to the differenc
es between Red China and
Soviet Russia. They are not
of one mind as to how serious
they are, and whether they are
growing worse.
In any event, one thinks the
Free World can take any com
fort from assertions that the
two communist giants are at
odds. Their reported disagree
ment is over whether all-out
war between communism and
the Free world is inevitable;
whether the Free world is to
be subjugated violently or by
“peaceful coexistence.”
There are some who think
it just possible that the dif
ferences do not exist at all, or
are relatively insignificant,
and that the whole thing may
be encouraged as a device to
throw the West off its guard.
Seemingly more experts think
there are differences between
Red China and Soviet Russia,
but that the West will not pro
fit no mater how they turn
out. It is argued that if the
differences are patched up the
solid Red front will be as
strong as ever, but if they get
worse one or the other, more
likely Red-China, may force
the world into war.
J. J. Gilbert
A propaganda theme that is
being plugged by both Red
camps is that capitalism is no
longer in the ascendancy; that
socialism (communism) will
shape history from this point
onward. By stating this thesis
over and over, as though it
were an accepted fact, the
Reds could be exerting a great
deal of influence on uncom
mitted areas of the world.
Moscow is reported to hold
that, since capitalism is in de
cline, there is no need for war.
Peking is preaching that, de
spite its decline, capitalism
“will cause trouble” as long as
it can breathe, and therefore
must be exterminated by force.
All the while, both Red
camps keep up a vicious at
tack upon the Free World. In
a single day, one could read
reports of such attacks in all
parts of the world -— Latin
America, Africa, Asia and Eu
rope — in multi-language
broadcasts and in publications.
And, apparently, it is the same
every day. Language which in
other times would have caus
ed serious international situa
tions was used repeatedly and
carelessly. Western personali
ties were attacked; Western
motives were impugned.
A Moscow broadcast, given
very wide dissemination,
blandly claimed Marxism-
Leninism “resolutely condems”
the exporting of revolution.
Another broadcast the same
day from the same source said:
“Now, as before, the basic
source of the danger of war is
imperialism. This is clearly ob
vious from the policy of the
Western states, primarily the
United States.”
The same day Peking radio
attacked President Eisenhower
in one broadcast, and in an
other said the people of the
Congo “are waging a valiant
struggle against the aggression
and intervention by the im
perialistic bloc headed by the
United States.”
And there were many, many
broadcasts of the same ilk in
these areas, and in other plac
es the same day. All of them
attacked the West, and chiefly
the United States.
It may be that Peking and
Moscow really differ as to how
to subvert and conquer the
West, and particularly the
United States.
It may be that Peking and
Moscow really differ as to
how to subvert and conquer
the West, and particularly the
United States- but they cer
tainly do not differ in the
Fallen-away Becomes Catholic Lay Missionary
SHARING OUR TREASURE
Reverend J. A. O'Brien, University of Notre Dame
To remain strong, healthy
and vital, the Faith must be
practiced. Otherwise it be
comes weak, sickly and may
even die. That’s what happen
ed to the faith of Robert Prud-
h o m m e of
Mountain
View, Cali
fornia, now
a lay mis-
sionary in
T anganyika.
“At the age!
of 19,” re-
1 a t e d Mr.
Prudhomme,
“I drifted away from the
Church, largely because of
ignorance and indifference.
“I married out of the
Church. Through getting to
know some Protestants who
had been missionaries in
China, we began to study the
scriptures and joined the
Methodist Church. In 1954 we
were accepted as missionary
candidates and with our four
children went to Nashville for
a year’s study of anthropology,
missiology and linguistics, The
following year we flew to
Liberia where I was the princi-
determination to do .it, by one
means or another.
pal of a Methodist mission
school and my wife was a
nurse.
“During those two years I
read a number of books sup
plied by local Irish priests. I
had never been well grounded
in the Catholic Faith and now
I was beginning to realize
what a tragic blunder I had
made. The more I read about
the Church’s history and her
establishment by Christ, the
more clearly I perceived that
I had abandoned a divine reli
gion only to embrace a man
made creed.
“The Methodists at our mis
sion, like other Protestants,
interpreted the Bible as each
saw fit. There was no author
ity to decide which interpreta
tion was right. One could be
lieve that Christ was merely
a human being or was God.
Obviously both beliefs couldn’t
be correct. The Sunday serv
ices seemed increasingly emp
ty-
“I read Stoddard’s ‘Rebuild
ing a Lost Faith’ and Cardinal
Gibbons ‘Faith of Our Fathers’
and realized that the Catholic
religion is not a sect but the
one divine religion on the face
of the earth. I hungered for
the forgiveness received in the
sacrament of Penance and for
the nourishment of the Holy
Eucharist. My brother David
wrote me long letters of ad
vice and encouragement.
“I resigned, returned to the
U.S.A. and made a retreat at
El Retiro, the Jesuit retreat
house in Los Altos, California.
There I adjured my errors and
was received back into the
household of the Faith. My
wife Bernice became inter
ested, studied the Faith for a
year, and she too came to
realize that Christ founded
only one Church and gave it
authority to teach all nations.
“Bernice was received into
the Church and our four chil
dren were baptized. Now,
thank God, we are a truly
united family, attending Mass
and receiving Holy Commun
ion together. Wanting to thank
God for His great gift, we of
fered our services to Bishop
Blomjous of Tanganyika, who
needed a teacher for the mis
sion school at Mwanza, on the
south shore of Lake Victoria.
“He cabled ‘Come.’ So here
we are to serve Christ and His
Church, I as a teacher, Bernice
as a nurse. The White Fathers
have a junior seminary here,
(Continued on Page 5)
The two dauntless fisher
men were trolling on a lake
in northern Minnesota. The
muskies were vicious that day,
and snapping at everything
—but they absolutely refused
to be hook
ed. “I say
we q u i t,”
said one fish
erman fin
ally.
“OK by
me,” agreed
the other. “I
don’t mind
their having
Sunday dinner off my bait, but
what gets me is when they
shove their heads up, lean
back on their flippers, and use
my line for dental floss.”
If you believe this fish story,
and most of the other tales told
by fishermen whose eyes are
bigger than their fish, then
you are credulous. Webster
says that credulousness is be
lieving something on insuffi-
. cient evidence, and’ it’s a fact
that we don’t usually look for
much evidence before we latch
onto something.
All Mrs. Wimpfheimer has
to do is mention that Gladys
dyes her hair, and the story
is snapped up for immediate
passage over hot telephone
wires: We’ve always heard that
all red-heads have fiery tem
pers, that persons with high
foreheads have unusual intel
ligence, that horseshoes bring
good luck. We like to believe
all these things because—well,
because everyone says they’re
true.
In the field of religion, we’re
more than ready to accept sto
ries about the Fatima letter,
crying Madonnas, prophecies,
and all kinds of signs and rev
elations. Why? Because credu
lousness is an infirmity of the
human race.
Some of this weakness
comes from our lack of logic.
We’re like the account execu
tive who was told to provide
an exhaustive study about
fleas. He laborously trained a
medium-sized flea to jump
over his finger every time he
said “Hup.” Then he pulled
off two of the flea’s six legs.
“Hup,” he grunted. The flea
jumped over his finger.
Off came two more legs.
“Hup,” repeated the executive.
Again the flea jumped. Then
he pulled off the flea’s last two
legs. Alas, the flea no longer
moved. The executive nodded
sagely and wrote in his report:
“When a flea loses all six of
its legs, it becomes deaf.?’
Another reason for our over
eagerness to believe things, it
seems, is the fact that we face
mysteries every day — even in
our advanced age of science.
Who knows what we’ll find on
Mars? Electricity, a pretty
common thing in life, still re
mains mysterious to us. With
so many unknowns around us,
we find it easy to give cred
ence to almost every unknown.
So what? So this discussion
of credulousness merely leads
up to an explanation of faith.
There’s a world of difference
between faith and credulity.
Unbelievers may charge ; that
we believe in fairy tales, that
our doctrines are nothing but
highly organized myths. We
know, however, that our faith
in things unseen rests on solid
foundations.
r Faith ih general means to
accept something,; on the . au
thority of someone elsf. His
torians tell us t h a t George
Washington and Julius Caesar
lived. We accept what they say
on natural faith. If Millicent
comes inside and tells you it’s
raining outside, you accept
what she says on natural faith.
Why do we believe the his
torians? Because they are
trustworthy. Why do we be
lieve Milly? Because she was
outside; she has no reason to
lie; she knows what she’s talk
ing about. We don’t know it’s
raining because we haven’t
seen the raindrops, but we be
lieve it’s raining with perfect
confidence. That’s faith. Nat
ural faith.
Our supernatural faith is not
so different. God reveals to us
that there are three Persons in
one God. We haven’t seen God,
and we could never figure out
that there should be a Holy
Trinity. But we firmly believe
in the doctrine that there are
three Persons in one God.
Why? Because God told us
about it, and He knows what
He’s talking about and would
n’t lie to us. That’s faith. Su
pernatural faith.
Supernatural faith — ac
cepting something on God’s
authority — is therefore per
fectly reasonable. You can be
sure if it’s God’s word.
Because our faith in God’s
revelation rests on these solid
supports, it is unwise for us to
be too gullible in other mat
ters. It’s a scandal to those out
side the Church if we seem to
be willing to latch onto any
old belief.
Superstition, illogical beliefs
and behavior, insistence on the
validity of our opinions when
they are only opinions — all
these have no place in a Cath
olic’s makeup. The Church has
always insisted on the im
portant place of reason in our
life; any unreasonableness,
therefore, gives outsiders the
impression that our dogma S
spring from a flimsy source. ■
There’s a place for good-luck
charms, fishy stories, ridicu
lous notions and fairy tales in
the realm of fun. They have no
place in the realm of faith,
which is made up of solid
truths revealed to us by our
Creator.
By David Q. Lipiak
Q. About there being fire
in hell — are we actually
supposed to believe this lit
erally, It seems to me that
most non-Catholic Christians
have long since abandoned
the literal interpretation. Is
it possible that we may do
the same? If not how can we
begin to explain how real
fire can affect a spiritual
soul?
A. That a measure of the
sufferings endured by the con
demned in hell is somehow
due to real fire is theologically
certain.
WHEN SPEAKING of hell,
Christ repeatedly employed
the word “fire,” although He
could have chosen any one of
many other similar terms.
Thus, in the description of the
Last Judgment, He said: “De
part from me, accursed ones,
into the everlasting fire which
was prepared for the devil and
his angels.” (St. Matthew
XXV:41) And on another oc
casion He said: “It is better for
thee to enter into life maimed,
than, having two hands, to go
into hell, into the unquench
able fire.” (St. Mark IX, 42)
IN REFERRING to hell on
^another occasion, the Savior
used the word “Gehenna,” a
term which Was commonly ap
plied by the Jews in this con
text. Gehenna (i.e., Ge-hin-
nom: “the Valley of Hinnom”)
served as Jerusalem’s general
dumping ground. For hygenic
reasons, great bonfires were
always kept burning there.
Since the Jews knew that hell
was characterized by great
fires, they saw “Gehenna” as
symbolic of hell.
IN THIS same sense, the
early Fathers and ecclesiastical
writers compared hell to fiery
places like volcanos. St. John
Chrysostom viewed hell-fire
as similar to the consuming
(Continued on Page 5)
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Published fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of
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Second class mail privileges authorized at Monroe, Ga. Send
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REV. FRANCIS J. DONOHUE REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
Editor Savannah Edition Editor Atlanta Edition
JOHN MARK WALTER
i Managing Editor
Vol. 41 Saturday, September 17, I960 No. 8
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS
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