Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, December 10, 1960
DECLINE IN READING
THE BACKDROP
In the Sunday edition of a
daily newspaper there appear
ed recently three articles, all
critical of the failure of the
schools to teach Junior to spell
and to read.
The com
plaints were
not new. For
some years
deans of col
leges have
been report
ing that a
large per-
c e n t age of
their fresh
man failed in their first year
because they did not know
how to read. Some colleges
have introduced remedial read
ing courses which they re
quire freshmen to take along
with their first year subjects.
In the business world the
“howlers” in spelling by
stenographers and secretaries
are notorious.
EXPERTS GIVE UP
The most alarming fact in
the newspaper articles was
not, as one reported, that 99
out of every 100 high school
students cannot write a five-
minute theme without making
some kind of mistake, but that
many of the education experts
appear to have thrown up
their hands.
The experts’ defense seems
to be that education for the
modern student must be made
easy, pleasant and painless.
You simply cannot, the educa
tors say (not all, but many),
put this generation of students
through the boring drill in
phonetics, spelling, parts of
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
speech and rules of composi
tion that their fathers and
their grandfathers were sub
jected to.
You cannot even ask a child
of this generation to read any
of the English classics from
cover to cover. He doesn’t
have the time, too many other
interests compete for his at
tention. So now we have, one
of the articles reports, capsule
sized condensations of such
books as “David Copperfield,”
“A Tale of Two Cities” and
“Swiss Family Robinson.” Un
abridged, it seems, these class
ics would be too long for to
day’s high school freshman.
in their effort to make the
classics painless, some educa
tors have gone further. They
have eliminated words in lit
erary classics that might have
sent Junior to the dictionary.
To spare him such boring
drudgery, an edition of “Ben
Hur” has been published
which screens out all words
not on the approved Thorn
dike vocabulary list for the
sixth grade.
If you wonder why a high
school freshman must not be
asked to read Dickens un
abridged, the preface to the
aforementioned collection of
abridged classics gives the
reason:
“The American youth of to
day in a quandary twirls the
dial of the radio to learn the
movie progra ms available
calls his girl by telephone and
makes a date, bprrows his
dad's car for the evening and
an hour later the boy and girl
are watching their favorite
screen stars.”
TELEVENGLISH?
There you have it. Junior
just has too many other im
portant things to do to find
time to wade through the
great books which have form
ed the literary taste of his
forefathers. The chances are
that sooner or later a filmed
version of many of the classics
will turn up at the neighbor
hood movie and he and his
girl can get the story without
straining their eyes on print
in a book.
Not all educators, of course,
have thrown in the sponge to
radio, television, dates and
movies, but the amazing
thing is that so many of them
scoff at the idea of going back
to the old-fashioned drills in
the basic elements of the Eng
lish language.
So, unless parents demand a
change in instructional meth
ods, we may expect to con
tinue to have high school
graduates who can’t distin
guish between a preposition
and an adverb, who cannot
spell, who do not know the
most elementary rules of Eng
lish grammar, who have never
read all the way through a
single classic of English liter
ature.
We may even see the fulfill
ment of the prophecy of Clif
ton Fadiman, the critic, who
recently wrote:
“It is likely that in 50 years
the Televenglish professor will
be examining an obsolescent
minority idiom known as Eng
lish, just as today the aca
demic linguist studies the ar
got of thieves or the slang of
the hashhouse counterman.”
Boy's Prayer Leads to Father's Conversion
SHARING OUR TREASURE
Reverend J. A. O'Brien, University of Notre Dame
Conversion is due to the
grace of God, and this is com
monly channeled through a
person. We can all become
channels of that grace if we
live upright and devout Chris
tian lives
and strive |
zealously to Wtf ' N
share the [, f ^
source of | JbPW
our spiritual
happin ess
with others
Many Jewish j
people have
become es
tranged from
their ancient
faith and are eager to learn
about Jesus Christ and the re
ligion which He founded.
This is illustrated in the
conversion of Solomon Ross
of Providence. “I was born of
Jewish parents,” related Mr.
Ross, “and observed the He
brew holydays, especially the
Passover and the Day of
Atonement. I became a travel
ing salesman and my work
brought me from Michigan to
Providence.
“There I met a lovely girl
of Italian extraction, and soon
we were very much in love.
As she was under the legal
age, we got her parents’ per
mission to marry in a civil
ceremony. Neither of us was
especially religious, but I
would keep the high holydays
and she would go once in a
while to the Catholic Church,
in which she had been bap
tized.
“About seven years ago we
decided it would be best for
our three children to be
brought up Catholics. They
were enrolled at St. Edward’s
School, instructed by a Sister
of Mercy, and baptized by
Father Frederick Halloran. I
heard a rumor that, if a Cath
olic marries outside the
Church, he can’t be buried in
a Catholic cemetery. I was
worried about my wife.
“I talked it over with Father
Halloran and found the mat
ter could be remedied by the
validation of our marriage in
the Church. This we had done,
so my wife could receive
Communion again. My oldest
son Ted had graduated from
La Salle Academy, my wife
and children were all Cath
olics, but none had ever in
vited me to join their Faith.
“Ted was suddenly stricken
with cystic fibrosis, an incur
able disease, and was at the
point of death. ‘Dad,’ he said,
‘I know I’m dying. Promise
that you’ll not cry, but pray
for me.’ God spoke to me
through my son. I wanted
desperately to help my son jn
the way he desired, but I
didn't really know how to
pray. I determined to learn at
once.
“I went to St. Edward’s rec
tory and told Father Sweeney
that I wanted to become a
Catholic so I could pray and
receive Holy Communion for
my son, and help him most
effectively. Father brought me
over to the convent where
Sister Mary Raphael, R.S.M.,
gave me a splendid course of
instructions. When I told Ted
what I was doing, he said,
‘Dad, I’ve prayed for seven
years that you would become a
Catholic.’
“How my heart was stirred
as I learned about Jesus and
the love that prompted Him
to die on Calvary’s cross for
our redemption. The noblest
figure in the Jewish race and
the Son of God, Jesus fulfilled
the prophecies of the Old Tes
tament and proved Himself to
be the long expected Messias.
Catholicism is the flowering of
Judaism and in becoming a
Catholic I simply entered into
the fullness of my Jewish in
heritance.
“With Bishop MeVinney’s
permission I was baptized by
Father Sweeney at home, so
Ted could be present. Then
with my wife and Jennie car
ing for Ted, I went to the Sis
ters’ convent where I received
my first Holy Communion.
Tears were in my eyes as I
offered our Eucharistic Lord
for the boy whose prayers had
brought me into my full in
heritance.”
Father O’Brien will be grate
ful to readers who know of any
one who has won two or more
converts if they will send the
names and addresses of such
persons to him at Notre Dame
University, Notre Dame, In
diana.
JOTTINGS
CLOSE EVEN IN DEATH
Good News... for Hint
JOSEPH BREIG
IS THE LAW SICK?
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[from flie
jail)
6 Hectory
fe iHl By Tha Rav. Hobart H. Wharton m
"I called at your new house
loday
To hear the words you do
not say
To watch the eyes I cannot
see
The hands you do not give
to me
And found a home austere
and new
That has enshrined and
hallowed you
I love this house where you
are dead
Your new grave leave me
comforted."
—Sister Madelva
• IT HAS BEEN just a year
now since Mother Bribe began
the final stage of her journey
to God. At this time last
year, she knew that soon she
would be Home. How many
associates, acquaintances, com
panions we find along the way
to heaven but how few qualify
for the sacred title of “friend.”
Mother Bride was one of the
few such persons who has
blessed my life. The scriptures
remind that a friend is to be
preferred to riches and I know
the truth of this well. Where
as wealth, health, fame, have
passed me by, I have known
something far greater in the
blessing of a few tried and
trusted friends.
Mother Bride has known the
beauty of God’s house and the
By BARBARA C. JENCKS
dwelling place of His glory for
almost a year. I thought of
her, as I do every day at Mass,
particularly as I read the Mass
for the first Sunday of Advent.
It read: “Behold the day of
salvation is nearer than when
we came to believe . . . the
day is at hand!” Mother Bride
read these words last year and
knew indeed that it was true
for her. Certainly there must
have been joy for this soul
who had loved God “from her
youth to her gray hairs.” “The
night is advanced, the day is
at hand” for all of us the bell
tolls sometime. Advent is a
preparation for this day whe
ther it is now, tomorrow, next
year or 20 years away. I
thought what a great blessing
it was that Mother Bride an
ticipated the last Advent,
knowing the secret that death
to this world was with her
and soon she would be an exile
no longer to the everlasting
hills of heaven.
* MOTHER BRIDE has re
mained close to me even in
death. At the convent where
she served as superior and
where she died, the nuns re
port that “all speaks of her . . .
an evergreen she planted, the
St. Francis placque she put on
the wall, the dogwood in
bloom, the violets, and the lil
ies of the valley.” Only once
since her after-Advent death
did I experience the sting of
earthly separation. That was
the day I visited her grave for
the first time. Unlike the poem
quoted above, her grave did
not leave me comforted. I
could not find her there. Only
silence met me as I visited her
in her new home, strange with
its simple white-washed cross
and the little mound of earth.
This was what remained of the
person of Mother Bride! No
warm greeting, handclasp, no
wonderful accent, joking re
mark, dancing blue eyes greet
ed me. All was still. The dia
logue was one of silence and
sobs. I was grieving for my
self and her strange reception
instead of realizing that
Mother Bride was experienc
ing the joys of “In Paradisim.”
She was home. I was the exile.
I do not find my dead friend
in that quiet convent grave
yard which holds its own kind
of dignity ana beauty. I find
her in the chapel at daily
Mass, I find her in the lines
of Irish poetry, in the authors
she loved best, Ronald Knox,
Padraic Pearse. I find her in
the beautiful things where her
spirit still lives. Now again to
day, I find her in the Advent
Mass which she read as it toll-
(Continued on Page 5)
A man goes into a bank. He
hands a note to a teller.
The teller reads, and pales.
Not wishing to be shot, he
hands the man the money de
manded.
The intru
der departs
quickly. He
jumps into
a car and
speeds away.
The, teller
touches a
button.
Bells clang
frantically.
Warnings go to police head
quarters.
Sirens scream. From every
direction, police cars converge
on the crime scene.
Roadblocks are set up.
DETECTIVES go into action.
The mayor and the police
commissioner demand results.
Newspapers roll off the
presses, with big black head
lines.
Editorials are written.
Radio and television broad
cast bulletins.
Photographers set up their
cameras. The teller is inter
viewed. So is the bank man
ager- So is the chief of police.
Authorities all around the
area—perhaps across a state,
or several states—are alerted.
EVERY RESOURCE of law
enforcement is thrown into the
effort to capture the holdup
man.
The hand of society is turn
ed against him. He is like a
hunted animal.
He has no apologists.
Nobody says that after all,
Marilyn Monroe’s marriage
to Arthur Miller has now bro
ken up after four highly pub
licized years of heart-throb
bing headlines. It was a sur
prise that it lasted so long.
For the aver
age Holly
wood mar
riage is well
on the way
to the rocks
after the
first year.
Why do
Holly wood
marriai ges
break up so
to be generally assumed that
film idols are a dissolute group
and that promiscuity and lech
ary are the very climate of
the film Capital. I think how
ever that the answer to the
question is more comp!ex than
this. It is probably nearer the
truth to say that broken Holly
wood marriages are caused by
a combination of factors, of
which s e x u a 1 imrqorhlity is
perhaps only one of the minor
factors.
MAIN REASONS
Some of the most-married
actors and actresses have been
rather decent and normal hu
man beings. Take for instance,
Clark Gable. As a rough-and-
tumbie roughneck he was a
all he did was to steal some
money.
Nobody argues that bank
robbery can’t be defined.
Nobody says that laws for
bidding holdups are uncon
stitutional.
Psychiatrists do not rush
into the public prints with
statements that there is some
thing to be said for theft—that
maybe people need a bit of
stealing for the good of their
psyches, or something.
When the man is caught, he
is brought to trial.
He has an attorney to de
fend him, but the prosecuting
attorney presses the case re
lentlessly.
SOCIETY must be protected.
.Property rights must be in
sured.
Citizens must not have guns
pointed at them; their lives
must not be ruthlessly threat
ened.
The evidence is heard. Guilt
is established. The prisoner is
ordered to stand up for sen
tencing.
The judge is severe. The
court brooks no doubletalk.
There is no hesitancy about
punishing the offender.
The jurist has public opinion
on his side, solidly and unani
mously, and he knows it.
The offender is ordered to
prison. Swift retribution—
that’s the ticket. That’s what
we must have if we are to pre
serve civilization.
It is so with durg-peddling.
With burglary. With drunken
driving. With any number of
things.
By Rev. John B. Sheerin, C.S.P.
pleasant change from Rudolf
Valentino. He was well liked
by friends and acquaintances
and had a distinguished record
in the Air Force. Yet the fact
is that this manly and whole
some movie idol was married
five times.
There seem to be two main
reasons for the early crackup
of film idol marriages: broken
homes and self-centeredness.
According to. the New York
Herald-Tribune Hollywood
columnist Joe Hyams (Novem
ber 15th) a recent study of one
hundred random biographies
of film stars revealed that 86
out of these Hollywood stars
came from broken homes.
The second factor, self-
centeredness, seems to grow
almost inevitably out of the
very nature of a box-office
idol’s role. As Hyams says,
movie idols “are doomed to
live in a private world sur
rounded by mirrors in which
they are compelled to stare at
their image until like Narcis
sus, the boy in the fable, they
fall into the river and drown
while trying to embrace their
own image.”
So the film star must con
centrate on self to keep up his
box-office appeal. It is this
self-centeredness which gives
him the drive and dynamism
not a bank robber, or a dope
peddler, or a drunken driver.
Suppose what he is attack
ing is not property, or health,
or life and limb, but the very
humanity of human beings—
the thing that distinguishes
them from beasts and worse
than beasts.
Suppose the man is a
pornographer.
Suppose his business is
making degenerates and lech
ers out of decent people—es
pecially young people.
Suppose he is making mon
ey by preying, like a jackal,
like a hyena, like an obscene
vulture, on his fellowmen.
Suppose he is stirring fiend
ish passions that emerge in
weird lusts, in cruelties, in
prowling viciousness.
SUPPOSE HE IS doing what
he can to make it unsafe for a
woman to walk from a neigh
borhood store to her home.
Suppose he is something
crawling out of a filthy
swamp; a shameless, drooling
being.
Oh, well, then that’s differ
ent.
Then the police say, what’s
the use in bringing him in;
he’ll get off.
Then the prosecuting attor
ney says, what’s the sense in
bothering; the courts will go
around and around in circles,
saying, who can define ob
scenity. The judge won’t sen
tence him—or if he does, a
higher court will reverse him.
And so this vile enemy of
man and society plies his low
business—and not a siren is
heard, not one black headline
is seen in the newspapers.
that enables him to succeed
in a business that demands
that he project his ego. Like
wise it demands that the sexy
actress project her ego, the re
sult is that the more they fall
in love with themselves, the
more they unfit themselves for
loving other human beings.
Instead of being great lov
ers, the role they play on the
screen, they are actually fail
ures in love. They may be
box-office successes but they
are also tragic human failures.
They are incapable of loving
in real life.
WEAR MASKS
Coming from broken homes,
the film idols are often un
happy individuals who are
only too ready to play a part
in the world of make-believe.
So the sexy star, afraid of
showing the world her real
personality, puts on a mask.
The more unhappy she is, the
more' she becomes devoted to
the mask. But her problem
arises when in the close in
timacies of married life, she
tries to shed the mask and be
herself. There is very little
left of her real self.
Wearing a mask continually
has consumed all her spon
taneity and she finds it al
most impossible to develop a
(Continued on Page 5).
A lady was taking her
grandson on a cross-country
trip and before they went,
they decided to keep a diary.
Every night before he went to
bed, the boy wrote about what
he had seen
during the
day.
When they
came to
the Grand
Canyon, he
seemed to
be extremely
i m p r e ssed.
A f t e r he
went to sleep, Grandma decid
ed to peep into the dairy and
find out what he thought
about this wonder of nature.
Scrawled in his boyish
handwriting was: “Today 1
spit more than a mile.”
That’s the eternal spring
time of youth. Excitement in
a trip to the zoo, a holiday
from school, the first train
ride—and a record spit.
Some persons manage to
keep their youthful zest for
life even as the middle spreads
and the hair recedes. Hopes,
dreams, ambitions are not
qualities which youth may
hoard along with its strange
lingo and zany actions. Youth
ful interests and youthful
thoughts are taken away by
age, but abandoned by ennui
When I was a little shaver
and big people mentioned en
nui, I thought it was a person.
I was even more convinced
that it was a he when I read
the following: “Ennui has
made more gamblers than
avarice, more drunkards than
thirst, and perhaps as many
suicides as despair.” That guy
is dangerous, I thought.
Then Webster opened my
eyes to the fact that it was an
it. He says that ennui is pro
nounced an-we, and that it
means “a feeling of weariness
and dissatisfaction; tedium;
boredom.”
So ennui- is a thing, not a
person. But it’s still danger
ous. I’m inclined to agree that
plain old boredom is respon
sible for more avarice, alcohol
ism and suicide than all the
difficulties of life rolled up
into a ball and hitting a per
son on the head.
It’s amazing, when you
think about it, that someone
could really become bored
with life. Just the excitement
of keeping ahead of the in
come tax and the grocer’s bill
is enough. But there’s also the
thrill qf wondering if Mr.
Khrushchev is going to push
that button some day, of dodg
ing a million maniacs behind
the wheels of cars these days.
Unpleasant things all—but not
dull.
No one will ever be over
come by Webster’s “feeling of
weariness and dissatisfaction,”
however, as long as he is in
terested in God. Maintaining
a healthy spiritual life is
enough to dispel boredom.
If it’s excitement you want,
think about the story of our
first parents and their tragic
fall from grace. Consider the
long history of man yearning
for a redeemer, and the “full
ness of time” when God Him
self became one of us to snatch
uS from the pain of separation
from Him. The whole plan of
redemption through the sacra
mental life of the Church is
not only a tale of beauty, but
one that has furnished rich
food for thought for devout
souls throughout the centuries.
It’s true that not everyone
can enjoy the full fruits of
contemplation. But everyone
surely can find some zest in
the struggle of the spiritual
life. How can a person be
bored when he’s waging a
war on three fronts? It’s the
never-ending battle against
the world, the flesh and the
devil. This battle, too, is some-
timefe unpleasant—but not dull.
.On the natural level, life
should I be; rewarding enough.
Very few - of us enjoy fame,
wealth, or power. But there is
pleasure in so many things if
we would but open our eyes
and ears, to the best things
in life-, which are free.
Just. -, gs . .the contemplative
finds, a, fylh life in communion
with God, the cultured person
can find unlimited joy-in the
beauty of nature, the laughter
of happy children, the rich
ness of music and the wealth
of good literature.
Ennui comes only when we
withdraw from the two worlds
in which we live—God’s na
tural life and His supernatural
life. Both worlds are full of
wonder, but their excitement
is lost when we retire to the
small world of self.
A novelist once described
one of her characters thus:
“Edith was a small country,
bounded on the east, west,
north and south by Edith.”
When we become Edith-like
we became bored, having no
new interests and having
nothing to take us out of our
selves.
The cure for selfishness, and
its companion ennui, is to be
come interested in the excit
ing world around us, the
spiritual world within us and
the interesting characters mov
ing about in both worlds.
Question
Box
By David Q. Liptak
Q. Last week I chanced
upon a television program
during which a Protestant
minister was answering
questions apparently tele
phoned in to him while he
was on camera. What dis
turbed me particularly was
the lack of accuracy with
which he represented cer
tain Catholic teachings. In
response to a query on birth
control, for instance, he
launched into an emotional
apology as if to give the im
pression that birth control is
the same as contraception,
Commenting on a question
concerning divorce, he seem
ed to imply that a decree of
nullity granted by the Cath
olic Church is comparable to
ihe Protestant concept of di
vorce. Shouldn't responsible
commentators, whether on
radio, TV or in newspapers,
be careful to check their use
of terms before making as
sertions?
A. Inaccuracy of expression
in theological matters is, un
fortunately, much too common
an occurrence in the commu
nications media. Perphas ordi
nary newspaper reporters or
newscasters, can frequently be
excused for such lack of pre
ciseness. But it unquestionably
jars one’s sense of fairness to
see or hear responsible indi
viduals representing theologi
cal concepts in a cloudy, ill-
defined manner.! Unfortunate
ly, too, many Catholic “popu-
larizers” are not blameless in
this same regard.)
TO IMPLY, at any rate, that
the Catholic Church condemns
“birth control” as such is a
meaningless assertion, because
in reality birth control can be
either moral or immoral. What
the Church proscribes, specif
ically,. is immoral birth pre
vention by means contrary to
the natural or divine positive
laws; that is, (1) any deliberate
frustration of the marital act
such as contraception;, (2) di
rect Sterilization and (3) direct
abortion. Hence, unless the
meaning of “birth control” is
clear from the context in
(Continued on Page 5)
0%
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 auihor.zeri 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, December 10, 1960 No. 14
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus . President
MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon Vice-President
POM GRIFFIN, Atlanta Vice-President
NICK CAMERIO, Macon Secretary
JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta Treasure!
ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
JOHN MARKW ALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary
MISS CECI.LE FERRY, Augusta — Financial Secretary
BUT SUPPOSE the man is
FILM IDOLS CAN'T STAY MARRIED
SUM AND SUBSTANCE
quickly?. 11 seems