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PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, July 7, 1962
Month of the Precious Blood
A DANGEROUS DECISION
Whatever the harm done to
the children of New York State
by the United States Supreme
Court last week, the unfortu
nate decision handed down in
the “Regents Prayer” Case
may pose a very grave dan
ger to the entire Nation.
For it serves to advance,
among the unwary the dan
gerous and un-American
notion that governmental
“neutrality” in the field of
religion necessarily pre
cludes any and all religious
influence from public life and
institutions.
Mr. Justice Douglas’ con
curring opinion goes so far
as to challenge the practice
of opening Congressional and
Court Sessions with prayer
as well as the custom in many
states, of appointing official
chaplains for their legis
latures on the grounds that
“once government finances a
religious exercise it inserts
a divisive influence into our
communities.” The public ac
ceptance of, and even enthus
iasm for, these practices and
customs for more than 175
years is refutation enough for
Mr. Douglas’ charge.
For the United States is not,
after all, a ‘secular nation.’
Its heritage, spirit and highest
ideals are neither ‘agnostic’
nor ‘atheistic.’ And, contrary
to the claims of those who
profess to be the victims of
discrimination by official gov-
ermental acknowledgment of
God, it remains a fact that
the highest court in the land,
an official arm of the fed
eral government has declared
that we are “a religious
nation.”
Said the Court in 1892 (Holy
Trinity Church vs. United
States), “This is historically
true. From the discovery of
this continent to the present
hour, there is a single voice
making this affirmation . . .
“If we examine the con
stitutions of the various States
we find in them a constant re
cognition of “religious obliga
tions.” Every Constitution of
every one of the forty-four
states contains language which
either directly or by clear im
plication recognizes a pro
found reverence for religion
and an assumption that its
influence in ALL human
affairs is essential to the.
well being o f the com
munity . . .
“There is no dissonance
in these declarations. There is
a universal language per
vading them all, having one
meaning; they affirm and re
affirm THAT THIS IS A RE
LIGIOUS NATION. These are
not individual sayings, dec
larations of private persons;
they are “ORGANIC UTTER
ANCES: THEY SPEAK THE
VOICE OF THE ENTIRE
PEOPLE.”
Finally, to those who sup
pose that the Government must
be indifferent to religion, or
that it can even afford to be,
we recommend these wo rds of
the Father of our Country:
“Of all the dispositions and
habits which lead to political
prosperity, religion and mor
ality are indispensable sup
ports. “IN VAIN WOULD
THAT MAN CLAIM THE AT
TRIBUTE OF PATRIOTISM
WHO SHOULD LABOR TO
SUBVERT THESE GREAT
PILLARS OF HUMAN HAPPI
NESS, THE FIRMEST PROPS
OF THE DUTIES OF MEN AND
CITIZENS” . . . Let it sim
ply be asked, where is the
security for property, for re
putation, for life, if the SENSE
OF RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION
desert the oaths which are the
instruments of investigation
in courts of justice . . .
“It is substantially true that
virtue or morality is a neces
sary spring of popular govern
ment. The rule indeed, extends
with more or less force to
every species of free govern
ment. WHO THAT IS A SIN
CERE FRIEND TO IT, CAN
LOOK WITH INDIFFERENCE
UPON ATTEMPTS TO SHAKE
THE FOUNDATION OF THE
FABRIC?” (Emphasis Ours)
IS WIRETAPPING 'DIRTY BUSINESS’?
Sum and Substance
New York City was stirred
recently by the death of a 19-
year-old girl in a doctor's
office. District Attourney Frank
O’Connor of Queens County ob
tained a warrant for the arrest
of the physi
cian on an
abortion
charge.
He said his
men had been
“ observing ”
the doctor’s
office for three
weeks but had
not tapped his
telephone because of the
dubious legality of wiretapping.
“If there had been wiretapping
in this case,’’ said O’Connor,
“this girl's life probably would
have been saved.”
The old debate about wire
tapping has been going on now
for many years. A number of
states have passed very
specific laws about this form
of eavesdropping but Congress
has been reluctant to clear
up the obscurity in Federal
law on the subject.
Some juristictions and legis
lators argue for a total ban
on all wiretapping and they
usually base their case on
“the right to privacy.” They
point to large scale violations
of this right all over the country.
A few years ago in New York
it was discovered that a band
of private detectives were oper
ating an arrangement whereby
they could listen in on 100,000
telephone lines in Manhattan. s
Businessmen tap the lines of
competitors, labor racketeers
REV. JOHN B. SHEERIN. C.S.P.
tap the phones of hostile wit
nesses in court cases and some
companies even have their own
phones tapped to track down
thefts of employees.
Those who argue for a total
ban on wiretapping agree with
Justice Holmes that all wire
tapping is “dirty business.”
There is another viewpoint,
however, that disagrees with
Holmes.
The lawyers and lawmakers
who hold this second viewpoint
claim that some wiretapping is
legitimate provided it is done
under proper Constitutional
restrictions. They consider it
not only legitimate but even
necessary for protection of the
civil community against
organized gangsters.
In New York, Maryland,Nev
ada and Massachusetts the state
law permits law officers to
wiretap provided they give
evidence before a judge
showing reasonable cause to
believe that a certain crime
has been or is about to be
committed. The permission can
be given by the judge only for
a restricted class of crimes
and for a specific phone.
The Federal law, in contrast
to these state laws, is very
obscure. The Federal Commun
ications Act forbids anyone to
’’intercept and divulge” mes
sages. The FBI have taken that
to mean that wiretapping is
allowed but cannot be used as
evidence in courtrooms.
Attourney General Kennedy
has been asking Congress to
clear up this chaotic situation
and to frame a law which will
permit, under stringent safe
guards, the gathering and use
of wiretapping evidence in cer
tain classes of cases.
It is noteworthy that Great
Britain and Canada, which pride
themselves on their concern
for civil liberties, allow limit
ed wiretapping.
The Fourth Amendment does
not forbid all searches and
seizures but only those that
are “unreasonable.” The prin
ciple that a man’s home is his
castle has been subjected by
American courts to reasonable
exceptions for the sake of the
common good.
Our courts have allowed
police to read private letters
provided the letters have been
seized by permission of a
judge or court. In this way,
law enforcers have been able to
discover information about per
sons reasonably suspected of
criminal activity. Good law
tries to strike a balance between
security of private rights and
protection of the community.
Last year, District Attourney
Frank Hogan of New York City
had a strong case against seven
national narcotic distributors
operating a multi-million dol
lar ring. Yet he had to abandon
the case because much of his
evidence came from wire
tapping.
The present Federal law pro
hibited him from introducing
this evidence. It’s time for
Congress to stop “dragging its
feet” and to start action on
a new law that would safeguard
reasonable privacy and at the
same time enable law officers
to stamp out organized crime.
sr<r
sUC/ ' .-'O'?'A* <
■
-'A
MUST MEN BITE DOGS?
It Seems to Me
At the root of many of jour
nalism’s error is the old say
ing of a famous editor that if
a dog bites a man, that’s not
news; but if a man bites a dog,
that’s emphatically news.
The state
ment was in
tended to em
phasize that
news is not
w h a t
is routine,
but what is
unusual. But
that concept
is much too superficial to serve
as a philosophy of journalism.
In the ruthless struggle for
circulation, many editors ca
tered to the lowest instincts of
readers by playing up the sen
sational and sordid. In doing
so, they whetted the appetite
for more of the same. . . or
worse.
Journalists taught readers to
savor trash and vice. Then they
tried to justify their publica
tions by arguing that people
wanted that sort of thing . . ,
“we’re only holding a mirror up
to life . . .and we’ve got to stay
in business.”
No one’s got to stay in the
business of the sordid.. .and the
mirror reflected mainly not
life, but the dregs of life.
The chairman of General
Foods Corp., Charles G. Mor
timer, in his address to the
American Newspaper Pub
lishers Association, put the
matter this way:
“It is said that there is no
news in decency and virtue . . .
I believe there is. Recently my
hometown paper has been suc
cessfully featuring stories of
juvenile DECENCY . . .After
all, news can be what you make
it. Leo Burnett, an able Chica
go advertising agent, says good
advertising is built around the
'inherent drama’ in a product.
May there not be ‘inherent
drama’ in much that is con
structive that people are
doing . . . ?”
There not only may be-there
is. Journalism can com
municate the “excitement of
the constructive” to readers
any time they choose to do so.
After all, they communicate it
to their children at home. They
take the lazy way when they
fill publications with trash, to
the serious injury of the free
world and the degradation of
readers.
Some sections of the religious
press are dull--although not de
grading. But some religious
publications are bright, because
they are produced by journalists
who “feel the excitement of the
constructive” and communicate
it.
Mr. Mortimer told the edi
tors that he is confident that
journalists are inventive and
creative enought to present the
constructive interestingly if
they will put their minds to it.
He proposed an experiment:
“Once or twice a week, for
the next month, sit down with
JOSEPH BREIG
the day’s issue of your own
newspaper. Read it through,
column by column, paragraph
by paragraph, and mark with a
red pencil--red for danger--
every heading, subhead, cap
tion, article, editorial, feature
or cartoon which you feel would
be likely to serve the evil pur
poses of Mr. Khrushchev and
his scheming minions, or of
other unfriendly politicians or
agitators . . .
“In the same spirit, and with
equal earnestness, I would ask
my fellow advertisers to join
me in sitting down every so
often with copies of their com
pany’s current advertisements-
and a red pencil—and reading
them with the same critical
eyes, editing not only for
honesty but for good taste.”
In advertising as in other
forms of communication, Mr.
Mortimer insisted, “freedom
of speech and of the press”
should be tempered with “wis
dom of speech and of the press. ’ ’
Mr. Mortimer’s appeal was
concerned with false ideas of
the free world which are propa
gated abroad by American pub
lications, movies and the like.
We need a right phislsophv
of journalism. We need a right
morality of journalism also. A
journalist has no more right to
howl scandals in headlines than
a housewife has to whisper them
over the telephone, or behind
her hand at neighborhood gath
erings.
THE JOURNALIST, in fact,
has less right, because he is
reaching countless more ears
than the gossipping woman. The
harm that he does is multiplied.
Journalists should develop a
pride of profession; they should
decline to be reduced to the
role of peeping Toms holding
vigil around the haunts of mor
ally loose celebrities.
Mr. Mortimer challenged
journalists to “reflect more
of the time a picture” of
“reasonably intelligent people,
going about their affairs with
a great deal of decency,
efficiency, purposefulness and
goodwill; a people genuinely
concerned with the peace of the
world and the welfare of others,
whether their skins be white,
black, brown or yellow. “
I hope the editors and adver
tisers were listening.
"LIFE IS DEEDS NOT DAYS"
Jottings
By BARBARA C. JENCKS
“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths.”
* * *
Why did the Atlanta-bound plane from Paris crash, killing
men and women who added so muchi to a city, state and
nation?
“Why did a man like Dr. Dooley die at 34 while others
live out useless, empty lives wearing out their welcome
on earth?” This question is asked in a hundred ways in
time of the tragedy, untimely deaths. Why do the good have
to die so young of such tragic deaths?
History is filled with records of the untimely deaths of
young and gifted- Mozart, Keats, Shelley, Byron. I think
of my own particular literary favorites: Thomas Wolfe,
Dylan Thomas, Rupert Brooke, Joyce Kilmer and Padraic
Pearse. None of these poets and writers saw their fortieth
birthd t> .
Some spent themselves in pursuite of their art. Brooke,
Kilmer, Pearse will be remembered as patriots and heroes
as well as artists. Their deaths had reason. It is not how
long we live but how we live which marks our star for eternity.
Thomas Wolfe seemed to sense that he was haunted by
early death when he wrote:
’“Something has spoken to me in the night and told me
that I shall die. . . to find a land more kind than home,
more large than earth.”
Dylan Thomas with his savage attack on life became stilled
in a quiet beauty when he mediatated on his birthday:
“It was my thirtieth year to heaven stood there then in
the summer noon.
Though the town below lay leaved with October Blood.
O may my heart’s truth still besung on this high hill in
a year’s turning?”
And there was Joyce Kilmer, man, soldier, child of God,
who wrote:
“Lord thou didst suffer more for me than all the hosts
of land and sea.
So let me render back again this millionth of Thy gift.”
And Pearse, the Irish patriot-poet, and some say saint,
who wrote:
“I have squandered the splendid years that the Lord
God gave my youth in attempting impossible things, deeming
them alone worth the toil.”
The greatest life ever was lived in thirty-three years
(Continued on Page 5)
L
DORIS REVERE PETERS
nAwerA
YOUTH
SHOULD SHE INVITE BOY
TO COME IN, GIRL INQUIRES
Dear Doris:
Should you ask a boy to come
in when he takes you home after
a date?
Delores
This depends on the time and
how well you know the boy.
If it is early, and your pa
rents are up it’s all right to
ask him in. There might even
be time for a sandwich and
coke.
If you arrive home late your
date won’t expect to be invited
in. However, he will not want
to leave you standing on the front
steps or outside an apartment
building. You can say good-bye
and thank you just inside the
door.
WHAT KIND OF EYEGLASSES
WOULD BE
MOST APPROPRIATE?
Dear Doris:
We had our eyes examined
in school last week and I have
to wear glasses. What color
frames would look best on me?
I have light brown hair (not
quite blond) and blue eyes. I
am 16.
Judy
There are many light brown
and light tortoise shell frames
that should harmonize with your
coloring. For contrast, you
might also look well in a light
blue frame--if it is the right
shape. Besides color, the shape
of the frame should also be
attractive. Try on many before
making a choice.
PARISH CLUBS FOR
WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS
Dear Doris:
I would like to know why the
churches do not have clubs for
widows and widowers ?The have
sodalities for single girls and
guilds and societies for the
married men and women, so why
can’t they have a club for widows
and widowers?
It would be real nice to have
a Catholic club like that so we
could have a social life. Any
thing you can do to get some
thing like this started would be
appreciated by many of us who
would like to have a night out
once in a while.
Mary
Some of the most active mem
bers of the Altar Societies are
widows. Many active Holy Name
Society members are widowers.
There are many other church
groups which do not exclude
you because of your marital
status or age.
Check with your pastor.
There are probably one or more
groups of particular interest
to you already inexistence. And
pastors always appreciate
knowing of women who have the
motivation and energy to devote
time to parish activities.
It is not the policy of this
column to promote any particu
lar club or group. And since
in your letter (condensed above)
you indicated a certain
neighborhood within an area
it appears to be a local or
parish problem. If there are
no organizations or activities
in your parish perhaps your
pastor will appreciate your help
in getting one started.
ACCEPT INVITATION,
GO TO PARTY,
GIRL IS TOLD
Dear Doris:
Recently I was asked to a
party a month away by a boy
I like very much. Then I broke
up with him because he did
not want me to talk to other
boys. Now I miss him and would
like to see him again. But
how can I break the ice? To
complicate this another boy has
asked me to the party. What
should I do?
Confused
First, make up your mind
as to whether you really want
to renew a friendship with a
boy who is so possessive. He
sounds unreasonable. How can
you not speak to other boys,
particularly at a party?
All you can do about breaking
the ice is to wait. When you
see him again be casual, plea
sant and friendly. He may or
may not invite you out again.
O f course you could tell him
outright you have changed your
mind and would like to go to the
party. But this could prove
embarrassing. Suppose he has
asked someone else in- the
meantime?
My suggestion is to accept
the invitation of the second boy,
go to the party and have a good
time.
YOUTH WORRIES UNDULY
ABOUT RECEIVING LINES
Dear Doris:
I’m worried. Would you
please tell me what is the
procedure at a Prom when there
is a receiving line of chaperons?
Johnny
Don’t worry. The receiving
line is usually near the door
so the procedure of “going
through it” is over in a hurry.
It’s painless and often fun.
Whether the chaperon knows
you or not, give your name to
the one first in line. (Chaperons
are human, too, and often draw
a blank when they see a familiar
face in a large crowd.) Then
introduce your date by men
tioning the chaperons name
first, such as “Mrs. Smith
this is Mary Jones.”
(Doris Revere Peters ans
wers letters through her
column, not by mail. Please
do not ask for a personal re
ply. Young readers are invited
to write to her in care of
The Bulletin.)
I QUESTION BOX j
\ j
(By David Q. Liptak)
Q. Relative to the ques
tion of federal aid to education,
which was discussed recently,
how would one go about an
swering these objections: (1)
The public schools constitute
“the cradle of democracy and
the bulwark of the nation,”
hence they alone should be sup
ported by government; (2)
Private schools are like
private beaches or play
grounds, hence those who
want them should pay for them.
themselves; and (3) If a fede
ral aid program to all schools,
private as well as public, be
comes law, it would result in
the strange circumstance of
Catholics helping support Pro
testant schools, as well as their
own. Could you answer these in
brief?
A. The assertion that the pub
lic schools comprise “the cra
dle of democracy and the bul
wark of the nation” is true
in the same sense that the
(Continued on Page 5)
416 8TH ST., AUGUSTA, GA.
Published fortnightly by tile 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 Markwalter, Managing Editor
Rev. Lawrence Lucree, Rev. John Fitzpatrick
Associate Editors, Savannah Edition
Vol. 43 Saturday, July 7, 1962 No. 3
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