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Middle Classes Provide Nucleus Church In Latin America Lacking In Lay Leadership The following article is by the editor of Our Times, week ly newspaper of the Yakima Wash., diocese, who recently returned from a 15,000-mile flying visit to Latin America as part of a team of U.S. Catho lie journalists who held press seminars with their counter parts in Peru, Brazil and Ven ezuela. By Raymond Ruppert (NCWC News Service) What did you find in Latin America on which American Catholics could help build a vtial Christianity? The question was put to me FLOWERLAND GREENHOUSES Retail — Wholesale Greater Atlanta Deliveries Flowers for Every Occasion Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd. Chamblee, Ga. — GL.7-3455 SMI-NEL, REALTY CO. Homes Near Pius X Hign School, Our Lady of Assumption, Immac ulate Heart of Mary. Wm. E. Ham, BU. 9-5880; J. E. McKeaney, CE. 7-2944 Office, GL. 7-0798 Multi-List Realtors 3665A Clairmont Rd., Chamblee, Ga. 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I thought back to a morning in Lima, Peru, when I had sat between Auxiliary Bishop Jose Dammert of Lima and Roberto Perez del Pozo, a civil engi neer by occupation and a lead er in Catholic Action by choice. While Bishop Dammert nod ded in agreement, Perez told me that Catholic Action in Lima, a city of over a million people, could number about a thousand active lay people Over the course of many years he estimated, perhaps 5,000 lay people had been in and out of Catholic Action. Several questions were put to Perez. How do the Catholic Actionists operate? What do they hope to accomplish? He explained that the people in Catholic Action meet every two weeks in groups formed according to occupations. En gineers meet with engineers attorneys with attorneys and so forth. They discuss concrete situations and try to apply Catholic ideas and principles back to their jobs — but with out flaunting the fact that they are Catholics. The technique is tried and tested. It is used by the Young Christian Workers and the Christian Family Movement for example. It is the tech nique of look-judge-act urged by His Holiness Pope John XXIII in Mater et Magistra. And yet, as I sat there talk ing with Bishop Dammert and Perez, I could not shake the feeling that somehow these ef forts at penetrating society with Catholic teachings have been far from successful. Perez conceded that the up per class, the people with mon ey and power, had been writ ten off as too materialistic; they would not help bring Christ to the marketplace. The lower class had to be discount ed; the millions who are im poverished are too concerned, necessarily, with the day-by- day struggle to get enough food. This left the middle class, small in number, lacking in political or economic power, torn by a desire for the ma terial advantages the upper class possesses. These of course are only one reporter’s opinions and views, based on a trip that certainly qualifies no one as an expert on Latin America. But much of what I was to see and hear in Latin America confirmed in my mind the impression I took away from that meeting with Bishop Dammert and Pe rez. In Caracas at the end of the trip I was anxious to check my impressions. I cornered Fa ther Alberto Ancizar Mendoza, S.J., director of the school of journalism of the Catholic Uni versity and a priest who has a genuine knowledge of Latin America. I told him I had gathered two principal impressions: —that Catholic lay leader ship is lacking because of the materialism of the upper class, the poverty of the lower class and the weakness of the mid dle class. —that the faith of the pre- dale's CELLAR RESTAURANT PEACHTREE AND IVY STREETS CHARCOAL BROILED STEAK CHICKEN — SEAFOOD Hours: 11 a. m.-ll p. m., Luncheon through Dinner VISIT BEAUTIFUL DALE'S COFFEE HOUSE Lobby Imperial Hotel 6 a. m. * 10 p. m. dominantly Catholic popula tion in Latin America is piety which seldom leaves the pews and rarely is translated into ef fective social action in govern ment or in business. Father Ancizar agreed. From these impressions I drew the conclusion that the hierarchy would be forced more and more, to speak out on social and political issues because of a shortage of lay spokesmen. Those who seek to keep the Church ineffective and silent may use this as an excuse to restrict and harass the Hierarchy. This would be a tragedy not only for the Church but for Latin America, which needs the guidance of the Church’s teachings for its social devel opment in a time of great un rest and change. But what did I find in Latin America on which American Catholics could help build a vital Christianity? I answer: 1) A love for the Church among the masses, a love that must be recognized as emotion al and not intellectual. 2) A growing awareness among the hierarchy that the Church’s social doctrines must be applied to the economic and ploitical life. 3) A middle class which, de spite its lack of numbers and weakness, wants to serve the Church. Much of the American effort to aid Latin America today is directed toward the lower class. Food is distributed to the starving; reading and writing are taught the illiterate; hy giene and sanitation are brought to villages; catechism and the sacraments are brought to the spiritually un dernourished. Someday, perhaps, the lower class will move up a rung on the ladder. We should pray that when that happens their deep faith and the social doc trines they have assimilated from missionaries, both priest ly and lay, will be reflected in what they do. Meanwhile in a time that can accurately be described as a time of emer gency for the Church, these social doctrines must penetrate the wall that has been erect ed between the Church and the world. Our best hope and the target for our efforts, I suggest, should be the middle class. This is not to say that we should stop or lessen our ef forts to aid the poor, but that we increase our attention to the middle class. This mission to the middle class could take shape in vari ous forms. It might be that the National Council of Catholic Men and the National Council of Catholic Women could be effective instruments. We could aid the Church greatly at harvest time if we could now transplant, nurture and cultivate a few shoots off the age of the laity” in the Unit ed States to Latin America. It is Catholic lay people like Perez, outnumbered but trying valiantly to bring Catholic so cial doctrine to life in Latin America, who need the help of Catholic lay people in the United States. Sound driving calls for low er speeds on residential streets, particularly near park ed cars, says the Allstate Motor Club. Most child traffic acci dents occur when a youngster runs into the street from be hind a parked car. Italian Restaurant Spring at North Ave., N.W. TR. 6-9666 10:30 A. M. ’til Midnight Italian and American Antipasto — SpaghetU Brasciole — Pizzas Students Protest Communist Suppression THE BULLETIN, December 9, 1961—PAGE 3 Some 2,000 college and university students in Sao Paulo, Brazil, recently led a rally protesting the suppression of freedom in Hungary, Cuba and East Berlin. The rally, organ ized mainly by Catholic student leaders of the Civic Student Union of Brazil, protested executions in Cuba, commemorated the Hungarian uprising of five years ago, and con demned the Berlin wall as inhuman.—(NC Photos). ARGENTINE BISHOPS TELL FRONDIZI CHURCH BACKS ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS BUENOS AIRES (NC)—Ar gentina’s Catholic Bishops have assured President Arturo Frondizi of full Catholic sup port for the Alliance for Pro gress, a hemispheric effort backed by the U. S. to raise Latin America’s social and ec onomic life. Antonio Cardinal Caggiano, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, spoke on behalf of his fellow Bishops at a meeting between them and the President. This took place shortly before Pres ident Frondizi left for consul tations with U. S. Ambassador to the U. S. Adlai Stevenson in the West Indies and a tour of Canada. Cardinal Caggiano said the Bishops had put their weight behnid the Alliance for Pro gress at their annual plenary assembly, just over. “Our responsibility is to think in terms of man as a whole, and to do everything possible to improve what al ready has been done by the Church on behalf of economic and social well being,” he told President Frondizi. “The Catholic Church, recog nizing the statement made to the peoples of America at Pun-* ta del Este on August 17, 1961, states that she will join in the common effort of the Alliance for Progress, cooperating as much as possible in economic and social development, in the solution of the great educa tional problems, in the solu tion of problems related to the advancement of farming fam ilies and farm workers, and problems of urban and rural housing, in accordance with her abilities.” After the meeting, a govern ment spokesman said Presi dent Frondizi had welcomed the statement of the Bishops “on the participation of the Church in the country’s eco nomic development.” He said: “The executive power will welcome with great interest any moves the Argen tine Bishops may offer in this matter.” He added that the President “also mentioned relations be tween Church and State, and his wish to fit them properly into the realities of the nation, in order to give the Church the freedom she needs for her apostolic action.” Cardinal Caggiano told re porters that the Bishops’ meet ing had not dealt with a cur rent railroad strike in Argen tina, or with problems posed by communism in Argentina. “Our agenda has two points,” he said, “seminaries, with their plans of study, training and discipline, and the organiza tion of catechism teaching throughout the republic.” PRELATE IN BOTH RITES OPTIMISTIC FOR FUTURE OF YUGOSLAV CHURCH VIENNA, (NC) — An opti mistic view of the Church’s future in Yugoslavia was sup plied here by a prelate who leads both Eastern Rite and Latin Rite Catholics in that country. Archbishop Gabriel Bukatko referred to the fact that there are three priests — one dioces an and two Religious — for ev ery 1,000 Byzantine Rite Cath olics in the country, which has been under communist rule since World War II. Another sign of hope, he said, is the large number of young men now studying for the priest hood in Yugoslavia. Archbishop Bukatko, who stopped here en route to Rome for a meeting of the prepara tory commission for the . lay apostolate of the coming ecu menical council, is Coadjutor Archbishop of the Latin Rite Archdiocese of Belgrade. He is also Apostolic Administrator of the Byzantine Rite Krizevci diocese. The Church in Yugoslavia, depending entirely on contri butions of its members, is suf fering financial hardships, the Archbishop reported. But in some cases, including his own, he said, the clergy has been al lowed to retain a few acres of former Church lands and cul tivate them for subsistence. Beatification Cause Studied VATICAN CITY (Radio, NC) ■The Sacred Congregation of Rites has studied the beatifica tion cause of an Italian Sister who served as a nurse and was a victim of murder. She was Sister Agostina Pietrantoni of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who worked in Rome’s Santo Spirito Hospital in the late 1800s. She was born near Rieti, Italy, on March 27, 1864, the daughter of a farm family. She became a Sister in 1887. and was assigned to the Rome hos pital whero she became known for her dedication to the sick. Archbishop Bukatko said that he is personally working the plot of land allotted to him. The 48-year-old prelate declared that he was thorough ly enjoying this kind of labor. According to Archbishop Bukato, the participation of bishops and priests in direct labor on the land has improved relations between them and their peasant flocks. He noted, however, that for elderly priests the situation is a hard ship. In 1957 Archbishop Bukatko visited Ukrainian Rite Cath olics in Canada and the United States. MARRIAGES O- -O | SMITH-HERPIN | O O DECATUR — Miss Leslie Anne Helpin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Emile Herpin, and Sidney Lee Smith, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Lee Smith of Jacksonville, Fla., were married November 24th at St. Thomas More Church. O- GAYHART-HARRIS -O O- -O SAVANNAH — Miss Nancy Helen Harris, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Charles Har ris, and Donald Francis Gay- hardt, son of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Patrick Gayhardt, were married at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist Novem ber 25th, Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough, Bishop of Savan nah, officiating. FRED A. YORK PEST CONTROL SERVICE Our Slogan — Nearly Right Won't Do Our Service — Always Guaranteed Our Products On Sale At Office CALL FOR FREE INSPECTION OR INFORMATION 766 State St., N. W. Phone TR. 5-8378 Atlanta. Ga. 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