Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, April 28, 1962
ISSUE TAKEN ON CLASSROOM SHORTAGE
The Backdrop
One of the primary argu
ments advanced by advocates
for Federal aid to education
is the supposed acute short
age of classrooms.
Various estimates of the
number of new classrooms
F'^l'UL "*!j needed have
lH been pub
lished by the
H United States
Office of Ed
ucation, the
H National Ed
ucation As
sociation and
other sup
porters of
the Federal aid proposal. The
estimates differ one from the
other but they support the
common conclusion that
school construction has not
kept pace with the growth in
school population.
SPEAKS WITH
AUTHORITY
Only recently the accuracy
of these statistics has been
questioned by a man trained
in the use of them—Maurice
H. Stans, budget director in
the Eisenhower administra
tion. He found discrepancies
in estimates published at dif
ferent times by the same ag
ency. He suggested that the
public was entitled to a lot
more facts on what individ
ual school districts really
r|eed before committing bil
lions of dollars of Federal
money to a school construc
tion program.
Proponents of Federal aid
have contended that such aid
is necessary because the local
school districts have fallen
down on the job. Undoubted
ly, a few have failed to meet
their obligations, but Stans
attempts to show that by and
large the local districts have
paced school construction to
their needs.
The former budget director
JOHN C. O'BRIEN
cites figures from, the Office
of Education to show that
during the decade from 1950-
60, more than 600,000 new
classrooms were built. During
the same period the enroll
ment required only 400,000
classrooms. Thus, Stans
points out, some 200,000 class
rooms were available to re
lieve overcrowding.
STATISTICS CITED
Since 1956, American com
munities have been building
an average of 70,000 class
rooms a year. In the four
years from 1956 to 1960 the
number of classrooms in
creased 23 per cent, while
enrollment increased only 15
per cent. And during the
same period the number of
pupils in a classroom declined
from an average of 29 to 27.1.
Looking ahead, statisticians
estimate that from 1965 to
1970 the average growth in
the school population will be
about 600,000 a year. If school
districts continue to build
only 50,000 classrooms a year
—a slower rate of increment
than prevailed in the last four
years of the decade of the 50’s
—Stans notes this would pro
vide enough facilities to take
care of the student growth
and give 25,000 classrooms a
year to replace old ones or
reduce the average pupil
count per classroom.
Stans also challenges the
contention of the advocates
of Federal aid that states and
local communities are finan
cially unable to meet rising
educational costs. In the last
decade, he points out, states
and local communities in
creased revenues for school
purposes 164 per cent, while
enrollment during the same
period expanded only 43 per
cent.
RATE HAS SLOWED
Another fact which Stans
maintains the advocates of
Federal aid conveniently
overlook is that the rate of
annual increase in the school
population has slowed down
The peak increase in elemen
tary and secondary public
school attendance occurred in
the fall of 1953, when enroll
ment jumped by 1,400,(>00
Since then, the postwar birth
rate has subsided so that now
the annual increase in school
population is about 1,000,00.
With the enrollment pres
sures lessened and with the
expected increase in the gross
national product, Stans sug
gests that there is no reason
to believe the states and local,
communities will not be able
to raise the revenues to meet
their obligations to education
Advocates of Federal aid
maintain that thousands of
school districts have reached
the ceiling of the bonding
limits for school debt. Yet
Stans cites a 1959 statement
of the Department of Health
Education and Welfare that
only 237 of the more than
40,000 school districts had
reached the limit of the bor
rowing capacity.
CLOSER TO PROBLEM
Local school districts, in
Stans’ opinion, are better
able to judge their classroom
needs than planners in Wash
ington.
He cites the case of a school
district in Minnesota which
voted down a $1,300,000 bond
issue for the construction of
a new high school. They did
so, he notes, not because they
were opposed to providing
classrooms for their children
but because they felt the pro
posed school was extrava
gantly designed. Six weeks
later they enthusiastically
voted a $200,000 bond issue
to build a school which they
felt fully met their needs.
BERTRAND RUSSELL’S DRAGON
Sum and Substance
REV. JOHN B. SHEERIN. C.S.P.
President Kennedy painted
a bright and cheery picture
of the future in his talk at
the University of California
J^e saw the power of Com
munism- -waning: “No one
can doubt
that the
wave of the
future is not
the conquest
of the world
by a single
do g m a t i c
creed but
the libera
tion of the
diverse energies of free na
tions and free men.” He went
on to say that in spite of the
fact that the threat of therm
onuclear war will continue
to hang over mankind, “we
can have a new confidence
today in the direction in
which history is moving.”
It is good to hear an op
timistic note at this time
when the Soviets are rattl
ing their rockets once again.
But I confess that the Pres
ident’s talk left me cold. He
rested all his hopes for a bet
ter future on the acquisition
of knowledge, citing our uni
versities as reservoirs of cre
ative ideas and repositories
cf “the long view of the shore
dimly seen.”
I realize he was speaking
to a predominantly academic
audience and that he was ex
pected to emphasize the in
tellectuals’ contribution to
future peace and progress.
But he need not have put all
his eggs in one basket. Mere
knowledge is no cure-all for
the world’s ills.
HEART MUST
MELLOW MIND
Knowledge is one of God’s
greatest gifts but the true in
tellectual knows it is limited
in its scope. On the very day
on which the President was
giving his California talk,
President De Gaulle was an
nouncing that he intended to
“crush without pity” the
armed insurrection in Al
geria. The hate in the hearts
of those ruthless O.A.S. ter
rorists is not something that
can be cured by mere know
ledge.
In fact, this “most educat
ed century” is also the cen
tury that has known more
diabolic hate than any other.
Unless man’s heart mellows
as his mind increases in
knowledge, he is only in
creasing his capacity for evil.
Religion is the force that
mellows the heart and dis
ciplines its unruly passion.
The word culture comes from
“cultura,” the tilling of the
soil, but in its profoundest
sense the word connotes a
harrowing of the heart.
Without religion, the educat
ed barbarian (like the Nazi
scientists) is only a few steps
away from the jungle.
Recently I was browsing
through a copy of Bertrand
Russell’s Why I Am Not A
Christian. I came across the
following line: “It is possible
that mankind is on the
threshold of a golden age;
but, if so, it will be necessary
first to slay the dragon that
guards the door, and this
dragon is religion.” Why
does he regard religion as a
dragon? Because he feels that
fear is the foundation of all
religion and that religion
perpetuates those inhumani
ties the world should out
grow.
FALSE CONCEPT
But I found that Russell
has a mistaken concept of
religion, a concept rife in the
palmy days of Victorian ra
tionalism. He sees the whole
idea of God as one borrowed
from Oriental despotisms
and he claims that religion
teaches men to fear the
world and be terrified by it.
Therefore he would kill
the dragon that stands at
the door to progress. Yet it
seems to me that Bertrand
Russell is a Christian in spi
rit in spite of his condemna
tion of religion. He is seeking
for a force that will induce
men to love each other. He
asserts that fear can be erad
icated from human life by
means of education and re
form of economic and poli
tical institutions. He really
means that love can remake
the world.
Unconsciously he yearns
for the loving Christ he
claims to despise. He is so
preoccupied with the faults
of individual Christians (the
Inquisition and all that), that
he does not really see into
the essence of Christianity,
the love of God and love of
man for the sake of God.
MARK OF CHRISTIANS
We individual Christians
are to blame. We often give
non-believers the impression
ours is a religion of fear. We
obey the Commandments but
we lack love and outsiders
sense the fact. Like the fool
ish virgins in the parable we
carry lamps but there is no
oil of life in them. Being
members of the Mystical
Body we are present at the
wedding feast but we wear
no wedding garment of love.
Christ said that the dis
tinguishing mark of the
Christian is “that you have
love for another.” If we put
this in practice, Bertrand
Russell’s dragon will become
an angel of light.
He Is Risen, He Is Here
y «.
' AY
C
■0 r
’i0‘
SW’ T
A '■
PUBLIC SCHOOL AND GOD
It Seems to Me
CHURCH'S DIVINE ORIGIN WINS MORMON
Sharing Our
Treasure
I would like to share my
holy Faith with a non-Cath-
olic friend but I don’t know
how to go about it.” Such is
what many Catholics . say.
You Too Can Win Souls, pub
lished by The Macmillan
Company, New York ($3.50),
will help them. It embodies
the most effective methods of
kindling the non-Catholic’s
interest. One
of these is
bringing a
non-Catholic
to a Catholic
service o r
even to visit
the church.
The fruitful
ness of this
method is il
lustrated in the conversion of
REY. JOHN A. O'BRIEN
Mrs. Maxine Bierlein of Pas
saic, New Jersey.
“I was raised,” related Mrs.
Bierlein, “as a member of the
Reorganized Latter Day
Saints, whose headquarters
are at Zion, Illinois. I attend
ed church services and Sun
day School regularly and lat
er became a Sunday school
teacher. I married David
Bierlein who, although raised
in a Catholic foster home,
had never been baptized. I
made it clear that any chil
dren we might have would
be raised in my Church.
“A casual acquaintance in
vited my sister-in-law and
me to visit the Shrine of St.
Therese on our way shop
ping. This beautiful church
on the south side of Chicago
was only a few blocks from
our apartment. It was the
first time I had ever enetered
a Catholic church, and I was
strangely moved by a feeling
of awe in the presence of
great holiness. Tears came to
my eyes. My sister-in-1 a w
shook me angrily and told
me to quit acting like a fool.
“I was similarly affected
when my husband and I
went with our friends, Mr.
and Mrs. John Lambert, to
Midnight Mass on Christmas
Eve. I seemed to sense the
presence of God. While Dav
id was away during World
War II, I began to search for
the true Church. In holy
Scripture I read the warning
against false prophets, and I
'continued on page 5)
There are those who say
that religious knowledge is
the business of the home and
the church, not of the school
at least not the public (gov
ernment-sponsored) school.
Three facts
make that
attitude un
tenable.
First: in <
world men
! aced by com
munism
armed and
p r opaganda
strong god
lessness, the spiritual defens
es of freedom and human
rights cannot be too sturdy.
The school should be the
powerful ally of the church
and the home.
Second: schooling emptied
of theological insight and in
spiration is a deadly danger,
in the long run, to the home
the church and the nation.
Third: such schooling is a
menace to education itself.
Inevitably, education loses
direction, cohesiveness and
force in the absence of vision
about the purpose of life.
WITHOUT THE spiritual
values that religion fosters,
education loses the soul that
is its deepest vitality. The re
sult is a gradual, crumbling of
the foundations of civiliza
tion in morality and civic
virtue.
In our time in particular,
nothing other than religious
truth and motivation can
permanently direct man’s
awesome new powers into the
ways of peace, and away
from nuclear self-extermina
tion.
Communism drives this
home to us with great force,
by reverse logic.
Precisely because it is ir
religious, communism keeps
the world in turmoil with its
threats, plots, falsehoods and
hideous degradation of hu
man dignity.
WHO DOES NOT want to
see communism replaced by
religion?
Who would deny that a re
turn of communists to God,
and to the spiritual concept
of existence, would be like
the removal of a knife from
the heart of mankind, and
the healing of a terrible
wound?
There is really no wisdom
—there has never been any
wisdom—in neutrality in the
endless struggle between re
ligion and irreligion in the
affairs of humankind.
Communist education in
atheistic materialism and
brute imperialism should be
vigorously countered by free
world education in the things
of the spirit, and in the in
alienable nobility of human
beings as creatures of God.
FURTHER, the free world
ought to educate against the
errors that menace it from
within — secularism which
acts as if God didn’t matter;
paganism which blinds one to
everything but the flesh and
the appetities; indifference
which won’t bother about the
splendid truths that set us
free.
JOSEPH BREIG
Public schools should be
making their great contribu
tion to the religious—and
right—view of mankind and
mankind’s future.
But how, it is asked, can
they do so, seeing that they
are supported by the taxes—
and educate the children—of
widely differing citizens—
some religious, some unreli
gious and a few anti-reli
gious?
That this is a knotty prob
lem, no one denies. But that
it is impossible of solution
is not true.
IT WILL REMAIN unsolv
ed only if people who care
unselfishly about the future
of the world allow them
selves to be bemused by the
propaganda that nothing can
be attempted because “sepa
ration of church and state”
forbids it.
True separation—the sepa
ration intended, for instance,
by America’s Founding Fath
ers—does not forbid it at all.
Only a false and distorted
notion of separation ties our
hands.
People who see the gravity
of the need must correct that
distorted notion. They must
begin to act, with wisdom,
prudence, dedication, and
reverence for the rights of
every one.
THE RIGHTS of religious
citizens must not be thrown
on the scrap heap merely be
cause unreligious or anti-re
ligious people are vocal
about THEIR rights.
In simple justice, public
schools have a duty to serve
the religious parent, as well
as the irreligious. Further, re
ligious schools are entitled to
respect, encouragement and
help in the great service they
give to the free world.
It is a serious mistake to
allow the slogan, “separation
of church and state,” to be
misused in such a fashion as
to let irreligious parents bend
the public schools to their
will, while court decision aft
er court decision spurns the
rights of the vast majority of
citizens who are religious.
A 'MYSTICAL ECCENTRIC’ WRITES
Jottings
By BARBARA C. JENCKS
“Jesus I praise You because I have known sickness
and pain. I praise You because I have known poverty,
failure and contempt. I praise You because I have suf
fered the parting of death . . . Grant that I may al
ways sip from Thy Chalice, I am unworthy to drink
from, and support me every moment with the strong
enfolding arms of Your love.”
Caryll Houselander
* * * *
• HAVING JUST READ and reviewed Caryll House-
lander's remarkable biography, I am inspired in all di
rections with the material within. It does not often hap
pen ^ that one can find a biography which is spiritual,
inspirational and at the same time entirely entertaining
and engrossing. More and more, we find that we are not
lonely sufferers. The things we once imagined peculiar
only to ourselves, we find again and again in others. We
are not apart from the Mystical Body but very much in
volved with it. Our experiences are not unique, our
thoughts, our aspirations are found over and over in
others. As a result of reading Caryll Houselander's story,
I have five pages of single-typewritten-spaced quotes
culled from the nearly 400 pages. I find myself reading
biographies and novels with a pencil in hand to catch
particularly poignant passages, and those to which my
heart and mind answer: "ah, I have felt like that. I know
exactly what she means." And so I would share a few of
Caryll Houselander's quotations in a column today, hoping
some readers may find them inspirational, helpful and
in some cases identifiable with their own thoughts, even
as I did.
uncharilableness. Caryll in her humaness spent
the day after a party writing letters trying to unsay the
uncharitable remarks ,she had made. She said that the sure
cure for a person you -do not like is to pray and do penance
for that person and love will grow in perspective. She tells
the story of talking one day uncharitably with a priest:
“I was running someone down, saying beastly things
of them. Suddenly I noticed that his eyes were shut. You
are not listening, I said. He replied, ‘I cannot listen to
that; you see we are both present at Mass. While you
were trying to make me think ill of X, Christ Our Lord
was offering Himself to redeem them.’ But we are not at
Mass, I said, and he said, ‘when your thoughts are hard
or bitter or sad, let the sanctuary bell silence them. It is
always ringing somewhere.”
• HERE IS HER CURE for "the blues." She writes: "I
know that every time I try for a job and fail, every time
my headache comes violently and makes me lie in bed
useless, every time I try to show out God's meaning and
it all goes wrong, it is none the less on every occasion a
~ (continued on page 5)
Parental Neglect
San Juan, P R - Lack of
parental affection and a "sex
ual whirlwind” atmosphere are
among factors responsible for
the large number of adolescent
marriages and illegitimate
children here, says “ElPiloto”
weekly Catholic newspaper.
Charging 11,000 children
were born in a single year to
mothers aged 15 to 19,-half
of them unmarried-the paper
said, “A third part of the girls
who marry between 14 and 18
. . . are already pregnant at that
time . . . Thus youngsters are
cast into the social and sexual
whirlwind at an age when they
feel insecure to handle thefn-
sleves.”
Schools Threatened
Colombo, Ceylon - Ceylon’s
top Catholic newspaper charged
that some Buddhist members of
the Nativnal Education Com
mission appear intent on a
‘‘quick death” for all Christian
schools.
The Messenger, weekly of the
Colombo archdiocese, spoke-out
against a commiss on |slib-
committee’s move for govern
ment seizure of the remain-
Training Program
Washington - Training pro
grams designed to prepare
priests, religious and laymen
for apostolic work among
Spanish-speaking persons will
be offered this summer at the
Catholic University in Ponce,
Puerto Rico.
The courses will be conducted
by the University’s Institute for
Inter - Cultural Formation,
which was founded in 1947 under
the patronage of Francis Car
dinal Spellman, Archbishop of
New York.
Movie Condemed
New York - The Italian-made
movie, ‘‘Bell’ Antonio” dis
tributed by Embassy corpora
tion has been placed in the con
demned class by the National
Legion of Decency.
Said the Legion, “Morally
obscure in the development of
its theme (Impotency), this film
in effect condones male prom
iscuity as a mark of manli
ness.”
Fair Wages
Buffalo, N Y. - The pay a
worker receives should be de
termined by principles of
equality and justice and not by
market price alone, the direc
tor of the Buffalo Diocesan
Labor College said here.
He said, however, that “it
is important to remember that
pay must equal the contribution
of the individual.”
‘ ‘The market price alone can
not determine renumeration,
but equality and justice should
determine it,” he stated.
K. of C. Praised
Washington - Rep. M Blaine
Peterson of Utah, in a state
ment placed in the Congression
al Record April 18th praised
the Knights of Columbus, who
are this year observing their
organization's 80th anniver
sary.
Peterson said the K. of C.
has been active in “safeguard
ing of Christian morality, in
culcating ideals of American
patriotism, promoting the ad
vance of tolerance, concern for
the education of youth and other
humanitarian ends.”
RFE Easter Broadcasts
i
New York - Special Easter
programs, including a broad
cast of the Pope’s Easter mes
sage, were beamed behind the
Iron Curtain during the Easter
season by Radio Free Europe.
RFE spokesmen here said
the Easter broadcasts to com
munist-ruled East Europe be
gan on Holy Thursday and con
tinued through the Easter sea
son.
ing private schools of Ceylon.
Endorsement of the subcom
mittee recommendation by a
large majority of the full com
mission was seen highly
probable.
Lay Help
London - A plan to give lay
men some responsibility in the
administration of parish and
diocesan funds has been ad
vanced by a pastor in Liver
pool.
Funds collected in each
parish would be sent to a cen
tral Diocesan pool for redis
tribution to the parishes on the
basis of need. Pastors would
be relieved 'of responsibility
for raising funds.
Soviet Children
Berlin - Soviet Russia’s con
stitutional guarantees of “free
dom of conscience” do not apply
to children, according to the
top Soviet youth organizer.
“Our deepest responsibility
is to shield children from the
influence of parents and rela
tives who are believers,”
Sergei P. Pavlov told a con
vention in Moscow of Komso
mol, the Soviet league of young
communists, according to re
ports reaching here. Pavlov
is the League’s first secre
tary.
Saints Lives
Rome - A contract to pub
lish an English version of the
“Bibliotheca Sanctorum,” a
collection of biographies of
saints produced by scholars of
the Pontifical Lateran Univer
sity here, has been agreed on.
The first volume of the Eng
lish edition is scheduled,to be
published by Hawthorn Books,
Inc., of New York in 1963.
Free Too Fast
Beira, Mozambique - The
rapidity with which former Af
rican colonies have been grant
ed independence is a serious
danger to Catholic territories
on this continent, a Portugese
bishop has warned here
Bishop Sebastio Soares de
Resende of Beira spoke in a
pastoral letter calling on the
Catholics of his diocese to
start a “Crusade for a Better
World. ”
He declared, “Everyone
knows that the present moment
in Africa and in Mozambique
is a particularly difficult one.
The just and necessary evolu
tion of the peoples of this con
tinent has often not developed
with the balanced care which
would have been of the great
est advantage to all.
“Alarming rapidity has been
preferred and resource to
brutal violence, which has not
only sacrificed irreplaceable
values but has facilitated a
return to savagery which
pleases no one and gravely im
perils Catholic territories
which by their human, econom
ic and social development were
filled with promise for the
future.”
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 Archbishop of
Atlanta. Subscription price $3.00 per year. Subscription in
cluded in membership in Catholic Laymen’s Association.
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 Mark waiter, Managing Editor
Rev. Lawrence Lucree, Rev. John Fitzpatrick
Associate Editors, Savannah Edition
Vol. 42
Saturday, April 28, 1962
No. 24
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus President
MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon 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