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PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, November 12, 1960
CASTRO'S INVASION SCARE
THE BACKDROP
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
Most Americans are com
pletely baffled by Fidel Cas
tro’s studied efforts to make it
appear that the United States
is getting ready to attack his
island by force.
He trotted out the invasion
goblin in his
four- hour
tirade before
the UN gen
eral assem
bly. Back
on home soil
he exhorted
his people to
get ready to
defend their
homeland against the “Yanqui
invaders.” The imminence of
an American invasion has
been the constant theme of
Raul Castro, chief of his bro
ther’s armed forces, and Dr.
Paul Roa, the foreign minister.
HELP FROM K
In whipping up the invasion
scare, Castro has had a help
ing hand from Nikita Khrush
chev and his puppet press and
radio. While he was attending
the UN meetings, the Soviet
leader warned about the sup
posed aggressive intent of the
United States toward Cuba.
And more recently the Soviet
press and radio predicted an
invasion would be staged be
fore election day and suggest
ed that Havana would be
bombed by American planes,
“in a few days.”
One explanation of Castro’s
invasion scare is that he is
merely resorting to the well-
known tactic of dictators when
they are unable to make good
on promises to their people. To
aHay discontent among the
Russians, Khrushchev has
made his people believe that
they are in constant danger of
aggression . by , the United
States and other Western pow
ers. To rally his own people
around bis revolutionary gov
ernment, Castro, it 'is suggest
ed, is resorting to a similar
tactic.
But some State Department
observers believe that both
Castro and Khrushchev have
another aim in mind. They
suggest, that.the invasion scare
is being used as an excuse for
putting in the hands of the
Cuban army the type of mili
tary hardware needed, to put
down a popular rebellion.
Conclusive evidence has
been amassed by the State De
partment of a massive build
up of armaments by the Castro
regime. Within the last few
weeks the Soviet Union has
been pouring into Cuba MIG
fighters, helicopters, 90-ton
Stalin tanks, heavy artillery,
mortars and machine guns.
In order to justify such an
.arms build-up among his own
people, Castro, State Depart
ment observers suggest, felt
the necessity of convincing
them that they were threat
ened by invasion from the
United States. To give plausi
bility to the threat, the Cuban
dictator organized the peons
into “people’s, militia” and
armed them with rifles of
Second World .War vintage.
CUSTODY OF ARMS
But many State Department
experts suggest that the heavy
arms are to be used against
the Cuban people if they rise
in revolt, not to protect the
island against the hypothetical
invasion from the United
States.
In support of this conjec
ture, the experts point out that
Castro has taken care that the
tanks and heavy artillery and
the military aircraft have not
been entrusted to the “people’s
militia.” These destructive
weapons are in the exclusive
custody of the regular army
commanded by Raul Castro.
In any battle between the
Cuban people and the military
forces, the experts note, the
military power would lie with
the army. Peons armed with
rifles would be wholly inef
fective against devastating
fire from tanks and heavy ar
tillery. It was the tanks and
big guns which the Soviet Un
ion sent back into Hungary,
when it seemed the freedom
fighters had won, which crush
ed the revolt and put the Hun
garian people back under the
communist heel.
The Russians, it is believed,
have cautioned Castro against
the danger of a revolt, signs of
which have already been ob
served in mountainous parts of
the country. The communists
also have impressed upon the
Cuban dictator that he must
have heavy armament to sup
press a general uprising. Cas
tro, apparently, is welcoming
Soviet help in insuring his
hold upon Cuba by making
ready to deal effectively with
a widespread rebellion, should
one come.
The Great and the Small
MARINE WINS HIS SWEETHEART
JOSEPH BREIG
SHARING OUR TREASURE
Poor Souls That's Us
Reverend J. A. O'Brien, University of Notre Dame
Don’t you have some non-
Catholic friends? Wouldn’t you
like to share with them a pre
cious treasure? What is the
greatest treasure you possess?
It’s your holy Catholic Faith.
It is wo-rth
more than
all the gold
and dia
monds in
the world.
It is the di-
v i n e truths
which show
you how to
live in this
world so that you will save
your immortal soul and
achieve eternal life and hap
piness in heaven.
It was because a young ma-
ranie, George Thomas Bull of
Rochester, New York, had a
non-Catholic friend whom he
loved that he took pains to
share his most precious treas
ure with her. The girl is
Doris Fennell of St. Simon Is
land, Georgia. “I was a fervent
Baptist,” rfelSted Doris, “and
went to the Baptist Sunday
School in the morning, to the
Community Church in the af
ternoon and to the study club
of the Baptist Training Union
in the evening.
“Later on I went to Miami,
where I worked. I belonged to
the U.S.O., where I met a
young marine, George T. Bull.
We took a liking to each other
and soon were dating quite
often. When our friendship be
gan to blossom into love,
George explained many points
of his Catholic Faith to me
and brought me to Mass;
“It was a neiv experience
for me, as there are but few
Catholics in Georgia and I
knew virtually nothing about
the Catholic religion. As the
Mass was in Latin. I didn’t
understand too much of what
was going on at the altar. But
later with the aid of a prayer-
book, I was able to follow the
prayers fairly well.
“An Inquiry Class was be
ing conducted at St. Mary’s
Church and I attended it reg
ularly. I felt at ease as there
were about 25 others in the
class. I was somewhat startled
to learn that the Baptist
Church was not founded by
John the Baptist, as I had
naively imagined, but by John
Smyth in Amsterdam in 1600.
This is explicitly stated in
‘Religious Bodies: 1936 U. S.
Religious Census,’ published
by the U. S. government.
“I began to see that the var
ious Protestant denominations
all came into being only in
the last few centuries. In 1624
Luther founded the first Prot
estant Church, called after
him, the Lutheran Church.
Ten years later King Henry
VIII established the Church of
England, commonly known in
this country as the Episcopal
Church. It was not until 1739
that John and Charles Wesley
founded in England the Meth
odist Episcopal Church.
“It is difficult to think of
such man-made creeds as hav
ing any divine authority or
sanction, and the bottom be
gan to fall out of my prot-
estantism. I wanted a divine
religion, founded by Christ
Himself. To my surprise I
found that the Catholic
Church alone traced her origin
to Christ and that the Apostle
Peter was the first pope.
“I went to Columbus, Ohio,
to work, and there I took an
other course of instruction
from Father George Barendt
at the Church of the Holy
Spirit. The Church had a clear
logical answer for all my
questions and her doctrines, I
saw, were founded upon
Scripture and the teachings of
the Fathers and Doctors of
the early Church.
“I was baptized and, when
I received our Eucharistic
Lord, George came from Notre
Dame University to receive
with me. My heart was filled
with rapture. George and I
were married at a Nuptial
Mass, and God has already
blessed us with a child. Never
can I sufficiently thank
George for sharing his treas
ure with me or God for the
priceless gift of faith.”
Father O’Brien will be grate
ful to readers who know of
anyone who has won tivo or
more converts if they ivill send
the names ond addresses of such
persons to him at Notre- Dame
University, Notre Dame, In
diana.
WASHINGTON LETTER
WASHINGTON — A Sen-,
ate -subcommittee has warned
that communist success in ma
nipulating anti-American mob
violence will encourage them
to “further efforts” in this
field on “a larger scale.”
The warning was made by
the Senate Internal Security
Subcommittee in a special
staff study of the anti-Ameri
can riots in various parts- of
the world which have claimed
headlines so often in recent
years.
Beginning in 1948 with the
violence in Bogota, Colombia,
during the Ninth Inter-Ameri
can Conference, the study
surveys communist techniques
in stirring up or using riots in
Caracas, Venezuela, in 1958;
La Paz, Bolivia, in 1959; and
most recently last May and
June in Tokyo.
The study notes that “in
some Latin American coun
tries, and in Japan, Commu
nist parties controlling an in
significant minority of the to
tal votes cast, have resorted to
the policy of manipulating and;
inciting mobs, to accomplish
political and diplomatic objec
tives in the interest of Soviet
foreign policy.”
The purpose of this commu
nist tactic has been to defeat
the objectives of the U. S. gov
ernment and to “humiliate its
spokesmen and representa
tives.”
The study states that the
U. S. government has not in
J. J. Gilbert
the past been properly prepar
ed for such occurrences.
The communists have not
made the mistake of acting too
openly in these affairs. As the
study notes, “for the most part
the communists operate behind
the scenes, making use of un
informed and excitable teen
agers, students, and illite
rates.” , . . .. -•
A favorite -technique of the
Red trouble makers has been
to exploit economic problems
and nationalist emotions, ac
cording to the subcommittee
findings.
In their actual carrying-out,
anti-American riots have
closely paralleled the tactics
taught in special schools for
international communist ag
ents ih the Soviet Union, the
study says.
Furthermore, by allying
themselves during the riots
with other political groups, the
communists have succeeded
in minimizing police action
against the mobs..
A finding chilling in its im
plications about the commu
nist attitude toward violence
is that “the Communist party
does not deplore bloodshed in
connection with anti-Ameri
can riots in the belief that
such occurrences t*«nd to ex
cite the mob to greater vio
lence.”
The study asserts that lead
ers of Communist paries in
Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela
and Japan have been in Mos
cow where they have received
instruction “in handling mobs
and military techniques.”
In addition, the study warns
that the Chinese communists
have been of assidtanda to
communists elsewhere by pro
viding training, money and
propaganda in connection with
anti - American outbreaks.
“This is, no doubt, the result
of an agreed-upon division of
labor with the U.S.S.R.,” the
subcommittee document says.
Among the special advan
tages for the communists in
tactics of mob violence, ac
cording to the study, are the
following:
—All the risks are taken by
citizens of the country involv
ed. “No Soviet lives need be
sacrificed.”
—Democratic governments
are put at a disadvantage
“since they are dedicated to
safeguard human life and lib
erty” and will not engage in
ruthless suppression as the
Soviets did in Hungary.
—Rioters can use homemade
weapons easily available with
out outside aid.
—The police or army of a
country are likely to be de
moralized when faced with the
necessity of suppressing an
outbreak by their fellow
countrymen.
—Mob violence “has a ten
dency to gather momentum.”
-—If the government hesi
tates to put down the violence,
(Continued on Page 5)
It strikes me that November
ought to do something more
for us than stir us up to do
some special praying for the
souls in Purgatory.
In addition to that, this
time of year
ought to jolt
us into real-
i z i n g that
getting to
Purgatory is
not what
ve should
i i m at as
he ambition
of our lives
as Christians.
Getting to
be our goal.
We are all keenly aware
that Purgatory is very much
the opposite of a lark. We
don’t like to think of our rela
tives being there, or our
friends — or anybody else.
Therefore we shake our
selves out of our spiritual
lethargy and take part in the
November devotions for the
Holy Souls.
BUT SOMEHOW we don’t
put the same determination
and vigor into the work of
our own sanctification the
year around.
I suspect that a peculiar
human psychology, having to
do with our attitude toward
time and toward death, is the
cause of this illogical behavior.
The thing is, we can imagine
the Holy Souls suffering
greatly, right now, right this
minute. We can’t quite imag
ine ourselves dead — not now.
Sometime, yes; but it’s a
vague, distant, unreal some
time.
Thinking about the Holy
Souls is like seeing somebody
suffering grinding pain, and
knowing that we can help to
free him from it by making a
comparatively small spiritual
effort.
THINKING ABOUT our
own death, and our own judg
ment, is another matter; There
are various factors which con
spire to fool us — and make
fools of us.
For one thing, death is some
thing that happens to the oth
er fellow. We can’t quite
vividly realize that it is going
to happen to us.
For another thing, death
seems far in the future. We
delude ourselves that we’ve
got a lot of time. We can get
busy preparing to die — later.
And yet the plain fact is
that the time to prepare to die
is always now. It’s right now
whether we are eight or 18 or
80 years old. It’s every day
from morning to night.
AFTER ALL, Purgatory
wouldn’t exist if people didn’t
put off, and neglect, the things
that they ought to be doing for
their sanctification just as
they do other things for their
worldly welfare.
We buy insurance, for in
stance, to protect our loved
ones from material want —
but we leave undone what
ought to be done to protect
them and ourselves from spi
ritual need.
Many of us take endless
pains about the education,
health and social training of
our youngsters — and yet do
little to surround them with
the protection of our prayers
and good works.
IN NEGLECTING our chil
dren in this way, we neglect
ourselves. Or conversely, in
neglecting ourselves, we neg
lect our children.
And it’s all because we can’t
seem to imagine ourselves
dead. And yet die we will, as
sure as we’re alive. It’s our
only way of arriving in the
next, and endless life.
If providing for ourselves
spiritually were impossible or
terribly difficult, we’d have
an excuse. Bui Christ'has put
into our hands, as members
of His Church, the means of
doing it.
Indeed, he has heaped up
the means. He has given us,
for the taking, the Mass, the
sacraments, the sacramentals,
countless indulgences, the
Rosary, the Sacred Heart de
votion — the list could go on
and on.
CHRIST IN His Church —
which means Christ in you
and in me — doesn’t want us,
in Purgatory. He wants us in
Heaven. He wants us there the
instant we die, if only we’ll
make ourselves capable of
Heaven.
We can’t go there until we
are capable, any more than we
could enjoy great music if we
were tone deaf, or great paint
ings if we were color blind.
Making ourselves capable
ought to be the central busi
ness of every hour of life.
One wonderful thing about
it is that the holier we become,
the more we can help the
souls in Purgatory, because the
better we are, the more pow
erful our prayers in their be
half.
CHRIST STILL LIVES IN NAZARETH
SUM AND SUBSTANCE
By Rev. John B. Sheerin, CSP
(Editor, The Catholic World)
In rftid-September I visited
Nazareth in Israel. It was an
unforgettable experience.
What impressed me / most,
however, was not the cave
that is said
to have been
the home of
the Holy
Family. It
was rather
a “building
cooperative”
on a hillside
of Nazareth
that struck
me most forcibly.
It is commendable to pre
serve the sacred shrines asso
ciated with the life of Our
Lord but this “building co
operative” was an example of
living Christianity, Christ at
work among His poor.
'GRINDING POVERTY'
The inspiration and prime
mover of this project is Father
Paul Gauthier, former direc
tor of the seminary of Dijon
in France. A few years ago he
came out to Nazareth to make
a film on the life of Christ,
taking scenes of everyday life
ih the Holy Land to illustrate
the Gospel. He found grinding
poverty among the people. So
cially and economically these
Greek Catholics were having
a hard time.
Father Gauthier resolved
he would do his best to im-j
prove their situation. He help
ed build Archbishop Hakim’s,
new Greek Catholic seminary,
working shoulder to shoulder;
with the laborers.
After that he began his “co
operative.” With the aid of
loans from . the Government,
he started building operations.;
He hired some laborers to(
work all day. Others worked
part-time, especially those who
worked on the cooperative af
ter they had finished their
day’s work at their regular oc
cupation.
These part-time workers
were struggling fathers of
families who could not afford
to buy their own homes from
landlords. Through the “co
operative” they were able to
attain their dream of a home
for their families. Thus, Fa
ther Gauthier helped relieve
the unemployment situation to
a small degree at least by hir
ing workers and he gave fa
thers of families a place they
could call their own. He has
already completed 72 homes
and is now going ahead with
plans for 72 more.
JEWS CORDIAL
Of course, he has his prob
lems but so did the Holy Fam
ily. His trust in God, however,
is equal to any problem and a
holy impatience drives him on.
He actually suffers to see his
men out of work.
\ Two years ago when the co
operative slowed down for a
While, Father Gauthier work
ed in a Jewish Kibbutz or
“collecti^lir and received in
valuable' experience helpful
for his own cooperative pro
ject. He was cordially received
in the Kibbutz, had his own
altar for Mass and his Jewish
co-workers even prepared a
Christmas tree for him and
the small group of Christians
who entered the Kibbutz along
with him.
This group is now the core
of his project. They share his
meals (in his 8’ by 8’ hut) and
offer Mass with him in his
cave-altar, a short distance
from his hut. A visitor cannot
fail to realize as he bends
down to enter this cave that
Christ is still living and work
ing among His poor in Naza
reth.
FEAR
m the
1.1 Rectory
By Th« Rev. Robert H. Wharton
An airline was conducting a
training flight for new per
sonnel. During the takeoff, the
trainee flight engineer noticed
suddenly that one of the en
gines was belching billows of
black smoke.
For a mo
ment he was
panic-strick
en, but he
quickly re-
covered.
With the
wrench that
he had in
his hand, he
reached out and tapped the
pilot on the shoulder.
“We’re on fire,” he said.
The pilot soon had the plane
back on the ground. The green
engineer was explaining to the
ground crew how calmly and
cool-headedly he had spotted
the trouble, how quietly he
had the pilot’s attention to it
without panic or excitement.
As he was talking, he saw
the pilot being carried from
the plane on a stretcher.
“What’s the matter with him,”
he asked.
“Broken shoulder,” some
body said.
If you think about it, the
pilot is lucky he got off with
only a broken shoulder. When
ol’ man panic gets someude
in his grip, there’s no telling
what terrible things may re
sult.
Fear is a perfectly respect
able emotion that’s supposed
to be a part of our makeup.
When it is controlled and
properly used, it can help us.
Without some fear of disease,
for instance, we’d take too
many chances and neglect
medical research.
We take safety precautions
because we have a reasonable
fear of accidents; we build up
our defenses because we right
fully fear a terrible enemy
across the seas. We most of
us — don’t go 100 miles an
hour in our car because we
know the car is a movable ob
ject and it might meet an
irresistible object. All reason
able fears.
The world today, however,
is full of unreasonable fears.
It might be that we have many
natural reasons for being quite
scared, but there are just as
many supernatural reasons
why we shouldn’t lose our
heads about this thing.
Many of us, of course, have
those age-old fears called
phobias, which we got when
we were kids because the
neighbor’s boy bopped us on
the head with a hammer. Or
mother was frightened by a
grasshopper. Or we woke up
one morning to find a rattle
snake sharing our bed and,
for some reason, snakes now
give us cold chills.
There’s a phobia for every
occasion—fear of high places,
fear of elevators, fear of cats,
fear of being buried alive, fear
of dirt — and fear of fear.
These phobias, deeply rooted
in our subconscious, generally
go away if we use our reason
enough. Spend a night in a
rattlesnake’s cage, and you’ll
get rid of that fear of snakes
— if you live.
These days our conscious
minds find a lot to be fright
ened about. It used to be that
people died. Now they arrange
to “pass away” or become “de
ceased” or “fall asleep”—any
thing but die. After they died
in the old days, they were
buried by an undertaker. Now
they are handled by a mor
tician or mortuary consultant
or funeral counselor—or even
an obsequial engineer.
This psychopathic fear of
death leads to a very unrealis
tic attitude toward life and its
curtain-time, and it sometimes
makes it hard for a priest to
get permission to administer
the Last Rites.
Besides an over-all fear of
what the future might bring,
what with hydrogen bombs
lying around here and there,
we find excessive fear or oth
er religions, foreigners, Ne
groes, Jews, Catholic (that’s
us), and just about everyone
and everything we don’t fully
understand.
The only thing that can give
us peace of mind is, of course,
trust in the Providence of God.
If there ever has been a per
fect medicine, a cure-all for
every ailment of humanity —
it is this conviction that God
really cares.
There was a school of
thought which held that God
made the world and then let
it run its merry course, but
we Catholics have never sub
scribed to that. We believe
firmly that God loves us, that
He is interested in everything
we do, that He arranges things
to work out for our good.
Christ knew that fear was
and would be a common af
fliction of mankind, so He
tried to reassure us in the
Sermon on the Mount. He
pointed out that God takes
care of the birds of the air
and the lilies of the field.
“Are you of much more value
than they?” He asked.
The only solution for ex
cessive fear, then, is confi
dence in God’s love and power
and goodness. This confidence
leads to love, a love which in-,
fallibly conquers fear.
The only other solution is
for you to dig an underground
cave and retire to it for the
rest of your life. Even then,
a snake would probably move
in with you and spoil the
whole thing.
Question
Box
(By David Q. Lipiak)
Q. Why is if fhat ihere is
no special feast in honor of
God Ihe Father? There are so
many feasts in honor of God
the Son, and Pentecost com
memorates ihe Holy Spirit. Is
there some theological reason
why a feast in honor of the
Father is inappropriate?
A. Since Jesus Christ, the
Incarnate, Son of God, is both
our Redeemer and our Media
tor, the liturgy (which com
prises the official acts of wor
ship and prayers of the
Church) is, as a general rule,
addressed to God the Father,
through God the Son, in God
the Holy Ghost. Thus it is,
for example, that the Mass
Collects conclude with the
formula (or its equivalent):
“Through our Lord Jesus
Christ, who livest and reignest
with Thee (the Father), in the
unity of the Holy Spirit . . .”
"NO SPECIAL FEAST is
celebrated in honor of the Fa
ther,” writes Gerard Monta
gue in a treatment of this
question, “because liturgical
feasts are primarily concerned
with the work of our redemp
tion and sanctification, which
are attributed not to the Fa
ther but to the Son and to the
Holy Spirit.”
THE WORD attributed here
is a technical term, having ref
erence to the fact that, accord
ing to our imperfect manner
of conceiving the Blessed
Trinity, certain divine opera
tions are especially associated
with one of the Three Divine
Persons in particular. God the
Father, for instance, is usually
associated with beginnings (i.
e., the creation of the world);
God the Son, with intellect
(wisdom); and God the Holy
Ghost with love (holiness). In
reality, of course, all these at
tributes are common to the
Three Divine Persons, who
possess the identical Divine
Nature, equally and totally.
BECAUSE OF these princi
ples, a special feast in honor
(Continued on Page 5)
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 MARKWALTER
Managing Editor
Vol. 41 Saturday, November 12, 1960 No. 12
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