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I
PAGE 6—THE BULLETIN, July 21, 1962
Red China Refugee Weeps
At Meeting Priest; Heard
Last Mass 10 Years Before
By Father Ivar S. McGrath, J
S.S.C.
(N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE)
TAIPEI, Formosa — "Are
you a Catholic priest?"
The refugee who spoke was
a thin, unhealthy-looking man
of middle age who had escaped
Red China during this spring’s
refugee flood into Hong Kong.
He had just arrived in Formosa.
When I told him yes, I was
a Catholic priest, tears sprang
to his eyes and rolled down
his cheeks.
"I am a Catholic," he said,
"From Peiping. I haven’t heard
Mass in 10 years."
Peiping, the capital, is the
communist show-piece and a
city visited by foreign tourists.
Were not the churches open
there?
"The Peiping churches are
open," he said, “but few people
attend Mass. The reason is that
the churches are in charge of
the ‘progressive’ priests of the
‘national church.’
"There is no freedom for
the Church in Peiping."
We spoke at a reception
center set up in suburban Tai
pei by the Free China Relief
Association. My new friend,
Chang Chung-uan, was among
62 refugees brought here from
Hong Kong aboard the ship Sze
chuan on June 27. They were
the first group of refugees to
reach here under the Nation
alist government’s plan to take
any or all of the 60,000 refu
gees who reached -- and suc
ceeded in staying in -- Hong
Kong during April and May’s
mass exodus from Red China.
Chang told me he had used
a letter from a sick friend in
Canton as an excuse to leave
Peiping in January. Canton is
the Chinese city nearest to Hong
Kong, and a springboard of es
cape into that British colony.
He said he was captured twice
by Hong Kong police and sent
back into Red China, but he
returned to Hong Kong a third
time and succeeded in eluding
police.
Chang said he was not mar
ried. One does not press such
questions. Those who reach
freedom must live in dread
for any left behind.
The refugees were housed in
two large dormitories sur
rounded by a pleasant garden.
Most of the refugees are men,
and most are from Kwangtung
province, which borders Hong
Kong.
The youngest was aged 11,
one of three brothers who
reached Hong Kong in May with
their father. The oldest is 71-
year-old Lai Mei, who opera
ted a small tea shop in a
Kwangtung village before near
starvation prodded him to take
his ancient body into Hong Kong.
In the group were farmers,
fishermen, workmen (some of
them skilled), students (mostly
of high school age), a former
high school principal, a former
college principal, and a doctor.
Three of the ten refugees I
interviewed were Catholics.
I inquired if there was any
one from Hupei province, in
central China, the part of main
land China with which I am most
familiar. 1 was introduced to
36-year-old Peng Chiao - fei,
who proved to be a native of
Hankow, and a Catholic, named
Paul.
Paul told me his family had
been Catholic for three gener
ations, that he had once studied
at a minor seminary.
“I haven’t been to Mass for
ten years. People are not per
mitted to do so. For six years
I haven't seen a priest," he
said.
Paul said the cathedral in
Hankow now is the headquar
ters of a state-sponsored ath
letic association.
"However, Catholics still
pray in their homes. They even
continue to hang religious pic
tures on the walls."
Paul, who had been impri
soned for three years, reached
Canton with forged documents.
He and others were permitted
to cross over to Hong Kong in
May.
Paul was twice arrested by
the Hong Kong police and for
cibly returned to Red China.
At the third attempt he suc
ceeded in evading the police.
The only other native of Hu
pei in the group, Ch’eng Fu-
when, also a Catholic, was in
structed and baptized in 1949
in Canton by Bishop Thomas
Niu. Bishop Niu, even then a
refugee from his see of Yang-
ku in North China is now Apos
tolic Administrator of Formo
sa’s Chiayi diocese. (Fu-shen
returned to Hankow again be
fore making his final dash for
freedom.)
Paul and a trained mechanic
from China’s northern Heilun-
gchiang province, Yuan, T’ao
(who joined us as we spoke--
he had taken five years to work
his way from the north to Kwan-
gtunr), said they had heard
news of Formosa and the free
world by listening at night,
secretly, to the Voice of Free
China and VOA. This is pos
sible only in the cities where
private radios are not too un
common. Both said they dared
not repeat what they heard to
others.
Before leaving the refugee
center I spoke to a 15-year-
old boy who had traveled alone
all the way from the war-time
capital of Chungking, in Szech
uan, to Hankow, from Hankow
to Canton, and from Canton to
Hong Kong. He had traversed
half of China.
Chou Shu-lai is the boy’s
name. His father had been a
Nationalist party member and
had been imprisoned while Shu-
lai was still a child. He did
not remember his father.
He and his family had al
ways been marked and pointed
out by the communists as "re-
actionaires" because of the fa
ther. As a result, according to
the boy, after he was graduated
from primary school, he was
refused entrance to middle
school. He then decided to reach
Hong Kong.
"But you were brought up
under the communists. What
did you know of the non-com
munist world?" I asked.
"Why, from the Hong Kong
produced movies, of course!"
It seems the propaganda mov
ies produced in Hong Kong by
Communist - controlled com
panies are popular in Red
China, and the people are en
couraged to see them at a
nominal price.
Although the Hong Kong mov
ies are communist inspired and
attacking the capitalist system,
they carry shots of Hong Kong
with well-fed and well-clothed
"capitalists," both Chinese and
foreign. It is not hard to ima
gine how attractive this sleek
prosperity would appear to a
boy brought up in a dreary,
state-controlled world, where
drab clothes and food ration
ing were the rule.
It was Shu-lai, a non-Chris
tian,,,Who scoffed when I asked
whether any churches were open
in Szechuan.
"Churches? Why even the
hilltop Buddhas have been de
stroyed. There are no longer
images of household gods in
the homes. That’s all super
stition and must be removed,
the communists told us."
As I left the refugee recep
tion center the tables were be
ing set up for the midday meal,
chopsticks and bowls laid out.
The refugees were gathering
cheerfully to eat to repletion
of rice and vegetables, some
meat and fish.
New
Helena
Bishop
WASHINGTON, (NC)--His
Holiness Pope John XXIII has
appointed Msgr. Raymond G.
Hunthausen as Bishop of Hele
na, Mont.
Msgr. Hunthausen has been
serving as president of Carroll
College in Helena.
The appointment was announ
ced recently by Archbishop
Egidio Vagnozzi, Apostolic De
legate in the United States.
Bishop-elect Hunthausen was
born in Anaconda, Mont., Aug
ust 21, 1962, the son of Antho
ny Gerhardt and Edna Marie
(Tuchscherer) Hunthausen. His
father is deceased. His mother
still resides in Anaconda.
He attended St. Paul’s ele
mentary school and St. Peter’s
high school in Anaconda, Car-
roll College and St. Edward’s
Seminary, Kenmore, Wash. He
was ordained in Anaconda, June
1, 1946. by the late Bishop
Joseph M. Gilmore, whom he
now succeeds. He made post
ordination studies at St. Louis
University, the Catholic Uni
versity of America, Fordham
and Notre Dame University.
He received the master’s de
gree in organic chemistry in
1953 from Notre Dame. DePaul
University, Chicago, awarded
him an honorary doctor of laws
degree in 1960.
The Bishop-designate joined
the faculty of Carroll College,
in the department of chemis
try, in 1946; served as ath
letic director and coach at the
college from 1954 to 1956, and
became president on April 5,
1957. He also served as vo
cations director in the Diocese
of Helena in 1956, and was
created a domestic prelate with
the title of Right Reverend Mon
signor in August, 1958.
Archbishop Says Congress Should
Act To Halt Obscenity Flood Sure
To Follow Supreme Court Decision
(N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE)
SAN ANTONIO, Tex., An
archbishop appealed to Con
gress "to hammer out legal
machinery" which will dam the
flood of obscenity he said was
sure to inundate the country
in the wake of a recent U.S.
Supreme Court decision.
Archbishop Robert E. Lucey
of San Antonio said the court
ruling was made (June 25) in
the Manual Enterprises vs. Day
case. He commented: "This
decision hamstrings one of the
chief instruments which can be
used to curtail the propagation
of printed obscenity—the Post
Office Department."
"Somewhere in this complex
problem, legal minds in Con
gress should be able to make
a distinction between obscenity
and other printed matter,"
Archbishop Lucey said. "We
could then do away with at least
the most obnoxious and most
patently obscene material.
"If we do nothing at all and
this particular decision tends
to discourage us from doing
much," the prelate continued,
"we seriously jeopardize our
national moral welfare for we
thereby throw our children to
the wolves of obscenity and
we risk a return to that un
wise investment which would
make us blanch if we could
see or realize it in advance."
The Manual enterprises case
involved Herman L. Womack,
Washington D.C., publisher of
magazines printed for homo
sexuals, who had been convic
ted of sending obscene mater
ial through the mails. In a
6-to-l decision, the court up
set his conviction.
“While we are not unaware
of the dangers of permitting
administrative bodies the right
of censorship," Archbishop Lu
cey said, "still we think it
possible for Congress to ham
mer out legal machinery which
can rid us of mass distribu
tion of obscenity even worse
than that considered by the
Supreme Court in the Womack
case."
In the statement issued here
Archbishop Lucey pointed out
that a great deal of printed
obscenity is manufactured out
side the United States. He
added: "Heretofore the severe
penalties which accured to peo
ple using the mails for ob
scene purposes have prevented
this material from fanning out
all across the nation. We pre
dict that in the light of this
court ruling these imported ma
terials will reach deep into the
heartland of the nation."
Archbishop Lucey expressed
fear that the decision "ham
stringing" the Post Office De
partment may "well dis
courage" that Government
agency "from its responsible
vigilance and from using what
authority still remains to it
to prevent mass distribution
of imported and domestic ob
scenity."
A more precise definition by
the Supreme Court of what it
considers obscenity was called
for by the Archbishop.
"Heretofore," he said, "the
court has based its considera
tion of what is obscene on this
phrase from the (1957) Roth
case—‘whether to the average
person, applying contemporary
community standards, the
cominent theme of the material
taken as a whole appeals to
prurient interest.’
"The court in the Manual
Enterprises case," Archbishop
Lucey continued, "now adds to
the prurient interest condition
another like phrase, ‘patent of
fensiveness,’ and suggests that
both patent offensiveness and
prurient interest must be pre
sent before a case can be es
tablished against obscenity in
the mails."
Archbishop Lucey said it is
difficult to see how Post Of
fice authorities or the judiciary
can apply "so vague a defini
tion without at the same time
risking erratic enforcement or
no enforcement of local, state
and national legislation on the
subject of obscenity."
"Further to render a legal
decision which makes it pos
sible for printed obscenity di
rected to sexual deviates to be
mailed on the grounds that the
material would not have prur
ient interest for the average
individual," Archbishop Lucey
said, "seems to serve the cause
of the minority while usurping
HEADS SERRA - Fred J.
Wagner, an insurance execu
tive from Tiffin, Ohio, has
been elected president ofSer-
ra International, Catholic lay
organization devoted to the in
crease of priestly vacations.
Mr. Wagner, a former Ser-
ra International vice presi
dent, was elected June 27
during the organization’s
20th annual convention in
Philadelphia. Serra clubs are
now located throughout the
U.S. and in six foreign coun
tries. (NC Photos)
the rights of majority."
Archbishop Lucey noted "a
dangerous trend in several re
cent high court decisions." He
singled out particularly the
court ruling which declaredun-
constitutional the recitation of
a prayer composed and recom
mended by the New York State
Board of Regents and recited
in New York state public
schools.
GAINESVILLE
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Gainesville, Ga.
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little
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MEMBER F.D.I.C.
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JOHN I. RENKA HUGH H. PEELER
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We Have Had The
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The McGregor Co.
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