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I s PAGE 4 THE BULLETIN, November 26, 1960 SbPlQUS PROBLEMS FACE NEW PRESIDENT THE BACKDROP Although at the moment no American troops are engaged in battle anywhere in the world, the incoming President will have to deal with more serious threats to the Free World than c o n f r onted Preside nt E i s enhower when he first took office in 1952. On Inau guration Day eight years ago, United Nations troop cans, were engaged in a bloody war against North Korean and Chinese com munists in Korea. This was then the only active threater of communist aggression. During his campaign the President had given a pledge to do his utmost to end the fighting in Korea. As we all know, in a few months, the communists did agree to a truce which left Korea divided. Since then trouble spots throughout the world have multiplied.. Today there is; scarcely any tranquil corner of the globe. Close to home a totalitarian police regime, closely allied to the Soviet Union and . the Chinese communists, has been installed in Cuba. The com munists appear to have esta blished a beachhead 90 mites off the shore of Florida from which to attempt the spread of communism throughout South America. South America is now a definite target for communist subversion. How successful the communists will be only time By JOHN C. O’BRIEN will tell. But there is no denying that in several of the South American states, Fidel Castro has a large following of Communists and left-wing ers including student groups, and many existing govern ments may be in danger. All of the revolutionary parties below the Rio Grande have one thing in common: they are violently anti-American. Another area in which the forces of the Free World and the communists are locked in battle in Africa, where the tide of nationalism and anti colonialism is running high. At the moment tension runs highest in the Congo. There the communists are working ceaselessly to thwart the United Nations and install Patrice Lumumba, a com munist sympathizer, in power. Other newly established African governments friendly to the Soviet Union are Ghana, Guinea and the United Arab Republic. Virtually all of the new African states are sup porting those Algerians who seek complete independence from France. France itself seems on the verge of civil disorders over General Charles De Gaulle’s proposal for an Algerian plebi scite on the independence question, and the communists are openly supporting the Al gerian independence party. The lull in West Berlin can not be expected to last much longer. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is expected to re new his demands for an end of the Allied occupation in West Berlin. Fie has threaten ed to recognize the East Ger man communist government if he does not get his way and this would confront the new President With a crisis of the utmost immediacy and gravity. Not since the French gov ernment granted independence to its colonies in Indo-China has the Far East shown so many signs of instability. Abetted by the Chinese com munists, the Sed in Laos are gaining ground and the gov ernment seems to be hesitating between neutralism and capit ulation to the communists. Should Laos go, there would be little hope of saving any part of Indo-China for the West. Even in South Korea, the new head of government, Dr. John M. Chang, has been com pelled to deal with reckless students mobs, who, apparent ly blind to the communist menace to the North, are call ing for unification of the country. And American mili tary men on the ground are expressing alarm over the de cline in the strength and morale of the South Korean Armed forces. The new government in Ja pan is committed to the mu tual security treaty with the United States, but the left wing elements who kept Presi dent Eisenhower out of Japan are still a serious threat to the established authorities . Another worrisome situation for the incoming president is the growing neutralism in Great Britain, evidenced in the fight in the Labor Party against Party Leader Hugh Gaitskill on the issue of throwing the Americans out of English bases and unilateral disarmament. :, mainly Ameri- Thanksgiving JOSEPH BREIG Philosophy Kindles Interest Of Student SHARING OUR TREASURE Reverend J, A. O'Brien, University of Noire Dame What is the first step in leading a friend into the Catholic Church? It’s to kin dle an interest in the Faith. Once that is done, he will be gin to exam- »,, ine it and its w claim to be ' I the one true Faith. When 1 that investi- g a t i o n is cond u c t e d with an open mind and in a spirit of humility and prayer, the per son is already well along on his way to the Church’s open door. This is illustrated in the conversion of Frances Cleaton of Huntington, West Virginia, now Mrs. James Ryan of St. Paul. “I was reared in West Virginia,” she related, “where Catholics constitute only about three per cent of the popula tion. We belonged to the Meth odist Church, but at 15 I join ed the Presbyterian. “Much of the social life in southern communities is cen tered around the church, its organizations and activities. These loom up large and not infrequently Protestants join the church which offers the most attractive social program. I went to Marshall College and took a minor in philosophy. “This brought me in touch with Catholic philosophy and especially with the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. I began to see that Christian philoso phy for the 1 first 15 centuries was Catholic philosophy, since the Catholic Church was vir tually the only Christian Church in existence for all those centuries. Protestantism is a Iate-comer on the scene. My interest in the Catholic religion was further quicken ed by Boby Mitchell, a devout Catholic, with whom I was keeping company. Bob ex plained some of the teachings of the Church and, despite the disapproval of my parents, I went across tewn to Sacred Heart rectory and took in structions from Father Gocke. When Bob returned to his home in Toronto, I got a job there, and attended the In quiry Class conducted by the Paulist Fathers at St. Peter’s. “Our romance petered out and I returned to West Virgin ia, and took a job at the Greenbrier Hotel at White Sulphur Springs. Despite my Protestant rearing, I could not escape from the truth that now haunted my waking hours: the Catholic is the great historic Mother Church of Christen dom and the only one founded directly by Christ and autho rized to teach in His name. “I had been praying and go ing to Mass and decided the time had come to take the step that would cut me off from my family and virtually all my friends. I went to the little Catholic church in the town and told the pastor, Father Edward Belanger, that I want ed to become a Catholic. To my surprise he started me on a course of instruction — my third — wanting to be sure that I was well grounded. “Once again I had occasion to note how all the doctrines are rooted in Scripture, in the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the early centuries and in the ancient teachings, practice and traditions of the Church. Truly Catholicism is historical Christianity; they are identical. The Mass brings Christ to us and enables us to receive Him in Holy Com munion. “Upon completing the in structions, I was admitted into Christ’s true Church and with throbbing heart received our Eucharistic Lord. Joy flooded my soul. I had come home at last. Wanting to live, at least for a while, in a Catholic en vironment, I came to Notre Dame, got a job as secretary, met Jim Ryan, a graduate stu dent in chemistry, and married him. Jim is teaching at St. Thomas College and God has already blessed us with two children. Never can I thank God enough!” JOTTINGS HE IS THE BOY" “Something has spoken to me in the night, burning the tapers of the waning years; something has spoken to me in the night and told me I shall die; I know not where. Saying: ‘To lose the earth you know for greater knowing; to lose the life you have for a greater life; to leave the friends you loved for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth . . ” —Thomas Wolfe • DEATH IS MY friend. It holds no terror or blackness for me. At times I await it impatiently. Often I am home sick for heaven and feel as an exile or a pilgrim in this world, when all my appetites and desires are heaven- weighted. I love the somber reminder that November brings. I love the prayers from the Masses of the dead. A friend often tells me that my concept of death is too romantic. Perhaps it is. She says that I have never felt the searing separa tion of a loved one who is suddenly removed from the dearness and closeness of association — the smile, the voice, the handclasp, the phy sical presence. Death has but cast its shad ow over my path and perhaps it is for this reason that I By BARBARA C. JENCKS talk so bravely about it. Yet we look upon our own death with less emotion than we do on the deaths of those whom we love. Dying oneself holds all fulfillment, all end of long ing. It is joy unspeakable for it is union with God. Death of our loved ones means depriva tion of pleasure —- our source of delight has gone beyond our ph7/sical reach. We mourn for ourselves and our loss. We cannot really mourn for our loved ones for they are gone to that land of which we are exiles and that neither ear has heard nor eye seen what glory awaits. • SOMETIMES WE become even closer to the loved ones who have left us for greater living and loving. The traffic of life, the glare of the sun — externals sometimes and deaf en us to those loved ones. We see them in human view. In death we see and eval uate them with the eyes of the soul. They are ours per haps more than they ever were before. There is a bond and peace which surpasseth any earthly experience.. In our immediate grief we cannot at first see this. No longer can the tearing, biting, searing physical impediments come between us and our dear ones. As we grow older, they say heaven is no longer the strange unknown land of our youth. More and more it will be peopled with those whom we knew and loved in this life. Yet most of all there will be God whom we have hun gered for since our birth. We are strangers and exiles on this earth. Why is it that we are lonely even amidst the most compatible of friends? Why even when at home is our appetite not completely satisfied? There is always the ache and the yearning for something else. All is not complete. It was not meant to be. • AT TIMES, we get brief fleeting overwhelming glimps es of heaven in this world so as we might cry out: “It is too much, too much.” I would not have it known that I was hap py in this world. The beauties of an autumn day, the music, literature of the masters, the warmth of the kitchen at home, the sharing of one’s goals and thoughts with some one dear —■ all these are visi ble signs God has given to whet our appetites even more for the meadows of heaven. At times, we cannot imagine heaven being more beautiful than earth, our companionship with the saints more delight ful than the comrades of our choice. Yet even in the midst (Continued on Page 5) What, Then, Are You? Man’s chief need today is rediscovery of himself. While we are exploring space, we ought to send ex peditions into the mysterious frontiers of our own magnifi cence. We have forgot t en or half-f o r- gotten, h o w almost un belie vably wniide rful and valuable we are. You might say we have made a vice out of the indispensable virtue of humility. We have become blind to our own pricelessness. Language itself reflects our lack of wisdom about what we are and what we are meant to be. Words limp and fall the mo ment we ask them to bear the burden of expressing the mag nificence of human beings. We have an odd phrase: we say, “no matter how humble” somebody is. USING THE WORD in that way, we distort it. We make it mean, “no matter how un important.” But there is no such thing— there will never be any such thing—as an unimportant hu man being. Indeed, no thought of man or angel can completely en compass the heighth and depth of the importance of every last one of us. God alone can grasp that in its totality. We on earth cannot do more than use feeble examples and parallels. IF WE HAVE some notion of what a human being is, and what his existence means, we fumble and grope with words like “kingship” and “queen- ship” in the attempt to sug gest the reality. We say that we are all meant for nobility, for royalty. But earthly royalty is h trivial, passing thing. It docs not really matter whether you and I are born to the castle, or to the hut. What matters is that we are destined, if we will accept our destiny, to be sons and daugh ters of God Himself. Forever we are to share His life and Flis riches. We know that this means that we are to partake of an infinity and a perfection of beauty and goodness: and truth —and therefore to be happy beyond the wildest possible flights of the most soaring imagination. "NO MATTER how hum ble”—what an expression! In that sense, the sense of being of small consequence, no one is humble; God forbids it. True humility is the virtue that underlies all virtue. But it must be a right humility, not a muddled distortion. Humility means that you glimpse the greatness in which you were created, and the timeless heights to which you are called—but that you know it all comes from God. The more soaring your sense of the splendor for what you are, and what you are called to, the more sublime your hu mility can be. ST, FRANCIS was the hum blest of Men—but his vision of man’s destiny was so glorious that sometimes he found him self bodily lifted in ecstasy toward God. He chose obscurity and pov erty—but tipped the balance of -the world. He transformed millions, and transforms them still. His holiness is a force greater than empires. To the magnificence of man and his destinj' 1 , the attention of humanity soon will be call ed by the approaching world council of the Church. Human history will be pro foundly affected by this as sembly. If it achieves what Pope John hopes for it, the fragmentation of mankind will be halted, and -a coming- together in understanding and love will begin. THERE IS NOBODY alive who does not have a stake in this council. It will remind us vigorously of the splendor of the truth about what we are, and what we ought to rise to. Each of us, therefore, ought to see to it that we make our personal contribution to the success of this gathering. Do not think for one mo ment that it is all up to Pope John and the other Bishops. It is up to us, too. The minds and hearts of men and women must be made ready by God’s grace for a new era for the family of humanity. In prayer, in almsgiving, in repentance for sin, in an in spired turning to the nobility of our creation and our des tiny, let us all contribute gen erously, so that the council will achieve everything possi ble in the service of God and man. THE ISSUE THAT WILL NOT DIE SUM AND SUBSTANCE Now that Catholics have survived the barrage of anti- Catholic propaganda let loose in the recent political cam paign, it might be a good idea for us to take a second look at some of this material. Much of it is old stuff, such as the bogus K of C oath. Some of it is old stuff in a new form. A cen tury ago, th the Vatican sending agents to the White House and of hordes of ignorant, Vatican- dominated immigrants invad ing our shores in a mass ef fort to overwhelm the native Protestants. The latest version of that story, as used in the campaign, was that President Kennedy would break down our immi gration laws and let loose waves of Catholic refugees and immigrants upon the country. CHURCH AND STATE Yet underneath all-this mass of incredible ami--highly im- By Rev. John B. Sheerin, C.S.P. aginative anti-Catholicism there was one item that ought to receive our undivided atten tion. It was the charge that the Vatican disapproves of separation of Church and state and might strive to give Cath olicism a preferential status in America by exerting influence on a Catholic president. As one correspondent in a Protestant magazine wrote: “The obvious difference be tween Quakers and Baptists on the one hand and a Roman Catholic on the other is that the former have no hierarchy with both the ability and the disposition to dictate to their adherents concerning matters of private and public policy.” To this latter statement we might respond that Protes tants do have a clergy with both the ability and the dis position to put over the Prohi bition law, which they did. But there are many Protes tants who just as sincerely de nounce Protestant clericalism in the enacting of the Volstead Act as they would denounce Catholic clericalism if it dic tated legislation tomorrow. In other words, there is sin cere and honest Protestant concern about official Vatican policy in this matter of Church-State relations. It is an issue that will not die with the elections but will reappear with new vitality in the com ing months. The fact is that Catholic teaching on Church-State rela tions is in process of develop ment. Its precise formulation has not yet been hammered out. Why then are Protestants fearful? Because they are pain fully aware^ that many Euro pean prelates and theologians look askance at the concept of separation of church and state. It is true that our own American hierarchy for 180 years has been assuring Prot estants that even if Catholics eventually predominate in the population, they will not tam per with the First Amend ment. But many sincere Prot estants fear that the Vatican does not see eye to eye with the American hierarchy. VAST DIFFERENCE Why do so many European theologians look with suspi cion on the idea of separation of Church and State? Because (Continued on Page 5) THE LOADED question Rectfawry Th« Hay. Robert H. Wharton A mother, her arms filled with groceries, got on a bus with her son, about five. The boy had the fare and dropped it in the fare box, then seemed to feel that a word of ex planation was in order. “I’m pay ing the mon ey,” he told the driver in a voice clear ly audible at the back of the bus, “My mother is loaded.” This poor woman was mere ly loaded with packages. But there are millions of our countrymen who are habitual ly loaded with package goods. Or the contents of same, rather. Drinking, when you get right down to it, is the great American hobby. For too many, though, it’s not a mere hobby—it’s their major occu pation. An interesting new book, “The Commonsense Book of Drinking,” says that the Unit ed States has about 65 million adult drinkers who manage to keep the alcohol content in their blood at a sensible level; 5 million who drink to excess regularly; 1 million outright addicts; and 35 million tee totalers. Presuming that this column has 10 readers, this means that one of you—you rascal, you—drinks too much. The book also throws a brick at the Irish. The highest rate of addictive drinking, says the author who was prob ably reared in London, is found among Americans of Irish origin. Imagine that! I doubt that nationality has anything to do with alcholism, unless a person has too much Scotch in him. Besides, even if addictive drinking is often present among the Irish, it is probably seldom found—the doses being taken in the base ment when the little woman isn’t looking. For Irishmen or Englishmen, Afghans or Hindustans, how ever, imbibing too much is wrong. Drunkenness is a sin against the Fifth Command ment. The Commandment states simplv, “Thou salt not kill.” but it has become a catch-all for all kinds of faults—murder, anger, hatred, revenge. cmarreling, impa tience and drunkenness. Over-drinking is r e a 11 v wrong, however, because it takes awav our most precious natural gifts—reason and free will. The difference between vou and a horse—besides the fact that you don’t use a feed- bag—is your intelligence. He mav have horse sense—but if he had reason, he’d be riding you around. Whenever your mind is completely stupefied, the drinking is a mortal sin. This hannens when vou start drinking from a lady’s slipper, especially a toeless one. Or when you do Irish jigs on the table. Or when, the next morn ing, you don’t remember what vou ’did last night and might have trouble figuring out who vou are. And your mouth tastes as if the Russian : army had .marched through ;jt|^with their muddy boots on. - ■> I Even incomplete drunken ness, moreover, is a venial sin. This means your thinking is fuzzy, your speech is thick, and your legs are rubbery. One of the greatest evils of excessive alcohol, however, is its harmful effects. Money is pouring iown the gullet, work is neglected, the kids go hun gry, the wife sits home alone, vou fight with your best friends. Or you might be like the well-sozzled gentleman at the party who was assuring his hostess (who held a tray of drinks in her hands): “Thanks, no. If I have too many of those things, I say things that I later regret, you old bat, you.” The solution to the problem, of course, is to take it easy. Put a limit on the number of drinks you’ll take at one sit ting. Lots of persons do this, but their limit is about 17. And by seven they think that Na poleon was their grandmother. Total abstinence is a good way to solve the problem too. There are several types of per sons who shouldn’t drink at ail: 1) alcoholics, 2) those who become pugnacious after a few beers and want to fight every one in the place, especially the big bruiser in the next booth, and 3) those who become too peaceful after a few drinks—• they couldn’t care less. Drinking in moderation, of course, is perfectly all right. One or two drinks that relax are fine—but the seven that paralyze solve nothing. Even St. Paul plugged moderation when he said, “A little wine is good for thy stomach’s sake.” The trouble is that too often it’s not wine, it’s gin; it’s not a little, it’s a gallon; and rather than soothing the stomach, it’s inviting the vil lage blacksmith to move into the head next morning. The loaded question is a big one in the lives of millions of Americans. That’s why we need to re-establish sensible drinking habits in adults, and pound into the heads of the young folks the dangers of bottled dynamite. The drinking question is loaded, as well, with serious challenges for a successful life and eternity. Question Box (By DAVID - Q~ LJPTAKP Q. My child is nearing that age of moral awakening when, I realize, I must begin to guide him explicitly in terms’ of right and wrong. Yet how can I integrate this moral awakening with his religious consciousness, which has already been manifest for some time? If God is suddenly presented to him as the avenger of the the moral order, isn't it like ly that his spontaneous con cept of God's goodness might thereby suffer? A. How to help a small child integrate his awakening moral conscience with his religious conscience is a problem every parent must face. If it is met awkwardly or not at all, a child’s spiritual outlook will be distorted, perhaps seriously. ONE PARAMOUNT RULE in this matter: parents should never invoke God merely as a buttress for their own au thority. In the words of one psychologist: “Since such sun- nort would be needed chiefly when more disagreeable de mands are made on the child, these appeals would run the risk of alienating the child from God.” Thus, the child’s religious conscience itself would be damaged. : THE MORAL iiqnsfcience of a youngster cannot be proper ly educated, of course, without direct reference to religion, for God is the center and the final end of the moral order. But in introducing this notion to a small child, a parent would do well to stress the positive facts that (1) the moral law consti tutes God’s own plan for man’s happiness; and (2) since God is all Goodness and all Beauty, the moral way of living is nec essarily the best way. AFTER A CHILD has be gun to assimilate these nrin- (Continued on Page 5) Wift 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 26, 1960 No. 13 ASSOCIATION OFFICERS GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus President MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon Vice-President TOM GRIFFIN. Atlanta \ Vice-President NICK CAMFRIO. Macon Secretary JOHN T. BUCKLEY. Augusta Treasurer ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary