Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, January 21, 1961
The Image Of Georgia
One evening last week, a nationally
known television network news commen
tator publicly commended Georgia state
officials and the authorities of the Univer
sity of Georgia for the swift and decisive
action which prevented large-scale public
disorders and possible violence on the eve
of the admission of two negro students to
the State University at Athens. J
He even went so far as to suggest
that some officials and institutions in the
north might emulate the conduct of our
state and University officials, and the or
derly and friendly behavior of the ma
jority of University students.
His voice was only one of many rais
ed in praise for a state which apparently
had been able to cope admirably with a
potentially dangerous situation represent
ing, as it does, a radical departure from
social customs which have endured for
more than two hundred years.
Georgia received the plaudits of a na
tion because she seemed determined to
prove to the country, her belief that the
best interests of society can never be serv
ed by submission to the will of riotous mob
action, and her determination that the rule
of law shall not surrender to the rule of
rocks and epithets.
We believe that the many tributes ac
corded our state and the University of
Georgia were neither undeserved nor pre
mature, in spite of the violence which fin
ally did erupt and which culminated un
fortunately in the suspension of the two
negro students.
For though an irresponsible gang, to
whom authority is merely a challenge to
be met and overcome, succeeded in blur
ring the national image of Georgia at its
best, by their violence, we are, most of us,
a law-abiding people. And Georgia’s citi
zens will never agree with a rock-throwing
mob of ruffians that “Due Process of Law”
is merely an archaic phrase found in an
ancient and musty document, instead of an
integral and essential safeguard of true
democracy.
Moreover, we are religious people, and
we are prayerfully confident that the peo
ple of our state will demonstrate by re
flective and responsible Christian action,
that the ugly chant of “Nigger, go home”
will never stifle the voice of Christian
conscience demanding, as it has for almost
two thousand years, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.”
REVIVAL OF TITHING
THE BACKDROP
JOSEPH BREIG
OUR GREAT SISTER
SUCCESS STORY
omftm
Hectory
By Th» Rev. Robert H* Whutsa
Recent news items about
the adoption of the historic
church tithe reflect the grow
ing distaste among pastors of
Catholic churches for the cur
rent methods of raising money
for church
suppor t—
c a r n i v a Is,
suppers, raf
fles and the
like.
All of these
devices con
sume time
and energy
which the
clergy believe could be put to
better use. But in all but a
few very wealthy parishes
they are necessary because of
the minimal contributions to
the collection plate by most of
the laity.
ANCIENT. CUSTOM
The tithe —contribution of
one-tenth of one’s income —
is older than Christianity. It
was levied in ancient Babylo
nia, Persia, Arabia, Egypt,
Rome and even China by the
civil authorities for the sup
port of the rulers.
Among the Hebrews the
tithe was ordained by the Old
Testament in the verse “each
year you shall tithe all the
produce that grows in the
field you have sown . . .”
The earliest example of the
tithe in Christian time was an
edict of Charlemagne enjoin
ing payments for maintenance
of the clergy, the poor and the
fabric of the Church. The
Council of Trent also imposed
upon the faithful the duty of
contributing one-tenth of the
produce of the land to support
of the Church.
As early as 786 A. D., a
“At dusk, when it is very
still,
I think I am alone until
The little child I used to he
Comes in, to sit and talk
with me . .
—Anna Bird Stewart
❖ * *
• COMES the first of a new
year and the long winter days
and we become reflective. We
think of the days, the years,
the people, the events which
have gone before. We think of
the dead child which is al
ways alive in us. It is time like
. these, I wish I were the poet,
the singer of songs, the Sand
burg and the Wolfe. Writers,
they say, must be terrible ego
tists to think that what they
have to say is important
enough to be written and im
mortalized in print. It becomes
terribly urgent that I write,
that I put down the feelings
and thoughts and experiences
like a word transfusion into
the hearts of others. With
panic insistence with abandon
ment of pride, I must choke
out by story. Someday, I may.
Today, I will tell a little of it.
At the age of twenty-one, I
was born! I became aware for
the first time of life, its pur
pose, its meaning. I saw the
world as one blind suddenly
seeing. The objects, the tokens,
the properties were seen for
the first time. This earth was
not my lasting home. I was
heir to another world which
will have no end, no limita
tion, no suffering, no. inade
quacy. My life began twenty-
one years later than my peo
ple’s.
This New Year’s day, I
heard a priest say that be
tween our getting up and get
ting down, the morning and
evening prayers, he hoped that
every day of the coming year
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
synod in England recognized
the obligation of tithing. And
tithing statutes for the support
of the Established Church re
mained in the English stature
books until 1936.
Tithing was in force among
Protestant denominations in
this country in colonial days it
gradually fell into disuse. Un
til recently, however, the cus
tom of tithing, according to
Msgr. John E. Kelly, director
of the National Catholic Wel
fare Conference Bureau of In
formation, was virtually un
known in Catholic parishes in
the United States.
Revival of interest in the
tithe as a means of church
support began earlier among
Protestant denominations than
among Catholic parishes. Since
1850, ten major Protestant
groups have initiated tithing
campaigns with results which
Protestant authorities consider
amazing. Contributions by
parishioners in many instances
have doubled or tripled. The
increased support has enabled
Protestant denominations to
build hundreds of new
churches and doubled the
number of foreign and domes
tic missions.
INCREASED INCOME
One of the first experiments
with the tithe was undertaken
by an Episcopal Church in
Port Huron, Mich. The rector
of that church was moved to
propose the tithe when he
discovered that Seventh Day
Adventists in his city were
giving from four to seven dol
lars a week per family to the
church while the wealthier
Episcopalian communicants
were contributing from 50 to
80 cents a week.
By BARBARA C. JENCKS
we could see just one in
stance in which God had
shown particular care for us.
I can look back upon my life
and see the constant thread of
His care. Events I counted as
tragedy were advancements;
events I counted as prizes
were setbacks. All the days to
my twenty-first year were di
rected toward the greatest
event of my life — my becom
ing a Roman Catholic.
Several weeks ago, I quoted
Clare Boothe Luce as saying:
“God does not let a day go by
without sending someone or
something to seek entry .for
Him.” He did and still does.
If I had a lonely or unhappy
childhood — and many people
refuse or are ashamed to ad
mit this of themselves — it
was to make me long for God.
If I was a restless college stu
dent seeking to fill my empti
ness with sorority ritual, popu
larity in successfully bidding
for class offices, it was to
make me seek only for God
and after that no wordly tok
ens would satisfy.
As long as I can remember,
I wanted to write. I had an
incurable curiosity about the
why and what of things. Was
it an accident that my first
job was with a Catholic news
paper? They say success is
counted dearest by those who
do not succeed. On the natural
level, I have never become a
Dorothy Thompson or written
the great American novels as
I had once hoped. One of those
friends who has blessed my
life said that if ever I did find
success in writing and secu
rity, I would not have the
hunger for God that marks
my days. It is the people
whom I have met along the
pilgrim path which have
marked and influenced me
After the introduction of the
tithe, contributions to the Port
Huron Episcopal Church rose
from $12,000 to $55,000 a year.
The experiment was so suc
cessful that tithing was adopt
ed by the entire Episcopal dio
cese for the eastern half of
Michigan’s lower peninsula.
Tithing also has been intro
duced among churches of the
Presbyterian, Congregational,
Lutheran, Methodist and Bap
tist denominations. By 1957,
churches with over 35,000,000
members had adopted the
tithe in one form or another.
The Mormons, of course, have
practiced tithing longer and
with greater success than any
other denomination.
Among Catholic parishes
the movement toward tithing
is only beginning. Last Octo
ber, Bishop Maurice Schex-
nayder called for tithing in
his diocese of Lafayette, La.,
noting that “God Himself
established that method of
what we know as church
support.”
Two Ohio parishes, one in
Cleveland, the other in Louis
ville, have adopted tithing
within the past few months.
The latest parish to join the
movement is St. Joseph’s of
the Palisades, West New York,
New Jersey.
Churches which have tried
tithing report that the first re
action of parishioners is, “Oh,
I could never give that much.”
Experience shows, however,
that wherever tithing has
been initiated, parishioners in
crease their contributions sub
stantially even though they
may not meet the requirement
of 10 percent of their incomes.
more than any single experi
ence of my Catholic years. It
is not success, talent, fame,
health, opportunity, study but
people who are my great
source of thanksgiving.
We hear much about the
single woman’s apostolate.
Several books have been writ
ten about it lately and many
more magazine articles. This
is the loneliest of all roads
for a woman to walk. Woman
was made to be a mother and
never to have held a child of
my own in my arms is a great
sacrifice. A woman may be a
mother in a spiritual sense,
too. And perhaps an even
greater sacrifice is not to have
been able to dedicate all un
der vows to Almighty God.
Yet God’s ways are mysterious
and I cannot for a moment
question His will which has
been so clearly manifested to
me.
This is the age of the lay
apostolate. All over the world
lay people are doing things
for God unprecedented in
Catholic history. The layman’s
age is here. Dr. Thomas
Dooley is a well known ex
ample and there are hundreds
of lesser known who are also
dedicating their little fortunes
and talents here and abroad.
Lay apostle Eddie Doherty has
called, in exaggerated terms,
the Catholic writer’s aposto
late next to that of the priest
as the writer’s pulpit takes in
the entire world.
Perhaps the personal out
pouring in this column will
help one reader to contemplate
in awe the wonderous work
ings of God upon just one soul.
Each of us has a story and
each can trace the marvelous
intercession of God through
out his days even as I do.
The potential of Latin
America for the near future
is so gigantic as to stagger the
imagination.
The region’s undeveloped
natural resources are tremend
ous, and the
population is
soaring to-
the 600 mil
lion mark.
One of the
gravest ques-
t i o n s con-
fronting
mankind to
day is this:
will Latin America’s enormous
power in coming years be at
the service of good or evil; of
God or anti-God; of man or
anti-man,?
The situation is dangerous
enough to make one shiver;
and yet it is richly promising.
The promise, indeed, grows
out of the peril.
Danger is the goad that was
needed to move people to ac
tion.
COMMUNISTS ARE DOING
all the mischief' they can, but
Catholics are coming vigorous
ly to life.
The western world, now
prospering, must move to help
Latin America.
The people there are over
whelmingly Catholics; but
they have not been conspicu
ous, generally, for religious
practice or religious literacy.
They have suffered for
many years from a serious
shortage of priests; and with
out priests, religion languishes.
The faith, however, is deep
and strong. It is brave and
sacrificial, it runs all through
Should non-Catholic chil
dren be allowed to attend
Catholic schools? That is a
question that presents a prob
lem that is rather uncommon
in the United States yet it
is a burning
question in a
few sections
of our coun-
try.
I suppose
most of us
feel that the
presence of
nioin-Catholic
children in
our schools is a great tribute
to our system of education.
We swell with pride when a
Protestant parents tells us
that he is sending his little
girls to “the Sisters” because
he feels they teach the child
discipline and the three Rs."
CONFLICT
Yet there are some Catholic
authorities who maintain that
it is not fair to. non-Catholic
children to send them to our
schools. The argument usually
advanced is that listening to
Catholic teaching, especially
in moral matters, is psycho
logically harmful to ’4he child
of non-Catholic parents. The
idea is that such teaching is
usually in striking contrast to
the child’s way of life at home
and it starts up inner conflicts
the fabric of life. It needs only
awakening, inspiration and di
rection.
If Catholic Action is success
ful, Latin America can be
come the greatest Christian
civilization ever seen on earth.
OUT OF THESE neighbor
nations of ours there can rise
apostolic activities that will
astonish the world.
Conversely, Latin America
could be turned into a hell of
godless materialism, threaten
ing freedom and human rights
everywhere—and not least in
North America.
Anything that anybody can
do to contribute to the right
future for Latin America will
prove, in the long run, to be
a great service to all mankind.
Fortunately, farsighted and
important movements are
afoot.
Pope John has created a
pontifical commission for Latin
America to assist the region
in the vast strides forward
which it must take.
The American and Canadian
bishops, in consultation with
those of Latin America, are
extending strong and helpful
hands.
BEFORE LONG, the first
contingents of Pope’s Volun
teers— laymen and laywomen
—will be going from North
America to offer their skills
and energies to Latin Ameri
can lay movements.
The fragmentation of the
Church in Latin America,
caused by difficulties of com
munication and transportation
in the past, is being overcome.
Lay people have assembled in
pan-American Catholic Action
and tensions within the child.
Take for instance the matter
of divorce. The Catholic teach
er will explain in no uncertain
terms the sinfulness of divorce.
Then the non-Catholic child
will go home to his parents,
one or both of whom may be
divorced. If the child respects
his teacher, he will begin to
feel uneasy about his parent
or parents.
His. natural affection for
them will find itself in con
flict with his admiration for
his Catholic teacher. He has
been told that divorced per
sons are living in sin and his
youthful mind does not recog
nize perhaps the difference
between “subjective” and “ob
jective” sin. The inevitable re
sult will be a dangerous men
tal and emotional distrubance
within the heart and mind of
the child.
One way to handle this
question is to say the same
problem often presents itself
to a Catholic child and yet
you would not therefore de
prive a Catholic child of a
Catholic education. That is,
the child’s parents may be in
volved in a bad marriage, even
though they are Catholics. Or
they may be validly married
but living a dissolute life ut
terly at variance with what
the child is being taught in the
LANDS
congresses, and have drawn
up a program.
American and Canadian
Catholics will contribute funds
to create seminaries in which
Latin American young men
will study for the priesthood
and learn the principles of so
cial justice which the region
desperately needs.
The Confederation of Latin
American Christian Trade
Unionists has pledged itself to
work hard for land reform and
for free associations in which
farmers will obtain the rights
to which they are entitled.
CASTROISM is a present
menace; but it can be over
come. Latin Americans must
be shown that the way out of
present difficulties is not the
anthill state, which reduces
everybody to a common mis
ery and enslavement.
Conditions are bad; but 15
years ago they were worse in
many European regions. In
that space of time, thanks to
American generosity and the
application of the Church’s so
cial teachings, Europe has
surged into prosperity.
If those teachings are obey
ed, all the world can make
dizzying progress into a new
order of things in which the
dignities and rights of human
beings will be respected and
promoted.
Mankind must be seen as
one family in which everyone
is responsible for the good of
all the other members, and are
responsible for each one. Latin
America, with its profound
Catholicity, can take leader
ship in this vast change if it
is given the help it needs.
Catholic school.
SOLUTION
Some years ago, a young
Catholic woman, Pat Groom,
sent an interesting letter to a
Catholic magazine. She had
been a “pagan” child at a
Catholic academy and her
family had been touched by
divorce but she became a con
vert while still in school. She
proposed an eminently correct
solution to the problem, main
taining that the secret lies in
the manner of teaching in our
schools, not in the trick of re
jecting non-Catholic appli
cants.
According to Miss Groom,
just as Christ “suffered the
little ones to come unto Him,”
so the Catholic teacher must
teach the little ones that come
to him but always in the fash
ion and manner of Christ
Himself. That is, the Catholic
teacher must clothe the bare
bones of catechism doctrines
with the warmth of Christ’s
charil y.
He must not dare to teach
children the judge the con
sciences of others, to loathe
their own parents, but to love
all, even sinners. “It is not
easy to teach the truth of the
moral order and stimultane-
ously to teach love for those
who disrupt this order. Our
(Continued on Page 5)
A New Englander and his
wife had taken up a home
stead in Oklahoma. It was a
hard, unrelenting battle and
at length age and infirmity
came heavily
Know ing
that her
time was not
long, she
called her
husband to
her.
“Orville,”
she said, “I
want you to
send me
back to Vermont after I’ve
passed away.”
“But, Myrtle,” protested the
husband, “that would cost a
mint of money. I could buy a
windmill for what it would
cost.”
“I know,” sighed Myrtle,
“but I just couldn’t lie still
in a grave this far from the
old homesite.”
“Well, don’t you fret,” said
Orville. “I’ll tell you what I’ll
do. Suppose we try you here,
and if you don’t lie still, then
I’ll ship you back to old Ver
mont.”
There’s a man with a sound
mind for money matters. Or
perhaps a man with a death-
grip on the purse strings.
Orville’s only trouble is that
he’s a man. This being the
case, he has inherited a dis
turbing tendency which we
call avarice, greed or covetous
ness. When he was a baby,
little Orvie would clutch his
toy with the tenacity of a
drowning man grapsing a
straw. Now he’s willing to let
his poor wife lie in foreign
ground.
The desire for possession,
however, is common to all
men—and the ladies, too. By
itself, it’s not a vicious thing.
God gave us the instinct so
that we’d stir ourselves to get
out and earn a living.
But when the desire for
goods gets out of hand, it’s
plain old avarice, one of the
seven deadly sins. Very few
of us are as stingy as the man
who gave his little girl a dime
not to eat any supper, then
sneaked the dime away while
she was asleep, and then
wouldn’t give her any break
fast because she lost the dime'
No wonder they call the kid
“Bones.”
Nor would we want to be
like King Midas, whose touch
turned everything to gold. His
trouble was that even his food
was 14-karat and therefore
rather hard to digest. Our
trouble would be that the gov
ernment would take 90 per
cent of everything we touched
and we’d be poorer than ever.
But greed is still a part of
our makeup. Have you noticed
that no one seems to worry
about the state of Uncle Thick-
penny’s health? The burning
question is this: How much
has he got? Even before uncle
is breathing his last, the rela
tives have divided his posses
sions among themselves.
Maybe you saw the cartoon
which I thought was so ex
pressive of human nature. It
showed the smiling butcher
with his thumb on top of the
platform of the scales, and the
smiling housewife with her
hand under the platform hold
ing it up.
A fool and his money are
soon parted, they say. But
even a wise man has to be
careful of the swindlers all
about. Even in the little
things. One fellow, while stay
ing at a hotel, called down
stairs for a deck of cards. The
bellboy delivered them in
fifty-two separate trips, one
card at a time. Some tip.
Our modern age fosters the
idea that worldly success is
the criterion of spiritual suc
cess. I think they call it mid
dle-class morality, or some
thing like that. But when you
get to the heart of it, neither
wealth nor poverty is a dis
grace in itself.
The important thing is our
attitude. If the wealthy man’s
favorite book is the hand
book, he’s in bad shape. If the
poor man grumbles all the
time about his bad luck, his
attitude is not good.
Some think that the Bible
says money is the root of all
evil. It doesn’t. St. Paul says
that the love of money is the
root of all evil. There’s quite
a difference.
The important thing, then,
is to look upon money—and
all worldly good, in fact—as
on loan from God. We’re not
owners, but stewards who
must account for our use of
God’s gifts.
The spirit of poverty, which
is the opposite of avarice, will
keep in control our desire for
gadgets, our trying to “keep
up with the Joneses,” our love
of the influence that money
brings, our demand for only
the finest things, and our
seeking of security in posses
sions rather than in God.
Prince or pauper, we have
to cultivate this spirit if we
want to guarantee a safe ar
rival in heaven. But chances
are that the story of our life
will be a success story—not if
we have attained a comfor
table middle-class satisfaction,
but if we have learned the un
comfortable attitude of pover
ty-stricken men owing a lot
to God.
Question
Box
By David Q. Liplak
Q. Why do we usually
join our hands when we
pray? Is ihis an ancient cus
tom?
A. The practice of holding
hands flat, one against the oth
er, palm against palm, is not
a very ancient prayer attitude.
It derives from a feudal Ger
manic gesture symbolic of the
relationship of a vassal toward
his lor<^p|hus, Father Joseph
Jungmsfl .^rites in his defini
tive- wqpt qh.tlie Mass:
"THIS USAGE with its
symbolism expressive of sub
missiveness, of the resignation
of one’s own power to a higher
ope, is tjjfibeti| back to Teutonic
culture,,if akin to the cus
tom b$| whieh r a vassal or a
liegemih wowed homage and
fealty by placing his hand in
that of his lord.”
A SIMILAR explanation is
given hv, another commentator
in the'§fece|nber, 1958 Worship
magazine:
"WHEN A VASSAL receiv
ed a grant of land from his
feudal lord, he had to swear
solemnly that he would be
faithful and loyal to him . . .
This he did, in front of him,
his hands joined together . . .
and placed between the hands
of the lord.”
THIS SAME ATTITUDE of
prayer has survived the cen
turies and is now recognized
by the Church in her liturgy.
The celebrant of Mass, for ex
ample, joins hands together
at various times during the
Holy Sacrifice. Specifically,
the rubrics direct the priest to
“join his hands before his
breast, the fingers extended
and touching each other, the
right thumb over the left.”
ANOTHER POPULAR AT
TITUDE for prayer nowadays
is folding the hands with the
fingers closely interlocked. Of
obscure origin and not offi
cially adopted into the liturgy
as such, this gesture, is cer
tainly as conducive to prayer
as any other. One author has
seen in it a sign of confession
and self-control. “Our hands
take the same position,” writes
Father Romano Guardini,
(Continued cn 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 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, January 21, 1961 No. 17
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 CECILS FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
JOTTINGS
A TIME FOR REFLECTION
Non-Catholic Children in Catholic Schools
SUM AND SUBSTANCE
By Rev. John B. Sheerin, C.S.P.