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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) Sty* lulfrtttt 416 8TH ST., AUGUSTA, GA. Published fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Reverend Bishop of Savannah; and the Most Reverend Bishop of Atlanta. Subscription price $3.00 per year. Second class mail privileges authorized at Monroe, Ga. Send notice of change of address to P. O. Box 320, Monroe, Ga. 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