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TEN
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
JANUARY 4. 1958.
FOREMOST EVENTS OF CHURCH
IN U. S., THROUGHOUT WORLD
(Continued From Page Nine)
vation . . . Annette Dionne Is
First Of Famous Quints To Mar
ry .. . San Marino Red Regime
Falls As Anti-Communists Take
Power . . . 200,000 Pilgrims At
Closing of 40th Anniversary Rites
At Fatima Shrine . . . Luke E.
Hart Reelected K. of C. Supreme
Knight . . . Pope Inaugurates New
Vatican Radio Station.
NOVEMBER
U. S. Bishops at their annual
Washington meeting: issued a
statement entitled “Censorship,”
terming press freedom a basic
right but insisting public morals
must be safeguarded; called U.
S. citizens to a traffic safety cam
paign, and set aside December!
29 as a day of prayer for the i
world’s persecuted peoples. Bal
timore’s Archbishop Francis P.
Kcough was reelected NCWC ad
ministrative board chairman.
vWith the death of Adeodato
Cardinal Piazza, 73, Sacred Con-
sistdrial Congregation secretary,
thg Sacred College of Cardinals
was reduced to 57 members. Death
also claimed: Bishop John G.
Bennett. 66, of Lafayette in Indi
ana, who was succeeded by Coad
jutor Bishop John J. Carberry;
Rep. Augustine B. Kelley, 71. of
Pennsylvania, in Washington;
Ernest Leger, 81, father of Cardi
nal Leger in Montreal; and An
tonin Zapotocky, 72, Church pre-
secutor four years as Red Czecho
slovakia president. Salina’s Bish
op Frederick W. Freking was con
secrated in Rome. Diocese of Al
toona, Pa.. was renamed Altoona-
Johnstown. Auxiliary Bishop
John W. Fearns of New York
was consecrated.
Trappist Abbot Augustine
Moore of Our Lady of the Holy j
Ghost Abbey in Conyers, Ga., was :
•istalled. Catholic Theological!
Society’s 1957 Cardinal Spellman j
Award went to Sulpician Father!
Gerard Telle of Montreal. Eugene
Kennedy, Jr,, Boston, designer, j
: ‘nd John McShain, Philadelphia,!
builder of the National Shrine of i
‘he Immaculate Conception in ;
Washington, were awarded Day-
ton University’s 1957 Marianist
Award. Mount St. Mary’s College,
Kmmitsburg, Md„ marked its
150th founding anniversary. Hen-
/ W. Flannery, Washington, was
reelected Catholic Association for;
International Peace president.
Catholic Church Extension Socie
ty had its greatest year aiding U.
S. missions, it w-s j-eocu-ted at the
52nd annual Chicago meeting.
Sacred Congregation of Religious
ruled men in religious communi
ties may not take permanent
vows before completing compul
sory military service in countries
where it exists.
Other November headlines:
Holy Father Composes Prayer
For Priesthood Vocations ... Je
rusalem Patriarch Protests Israeli
Efforts to Make Christians Be
come Jews . . . U. S. Bishops’
Relief Agency Aided 40 Million
Needy in 53 Nations in Past Year,
Report Says . . . New Anti-Church
Drive Launched In Red China . . .
India’s Bishops Condemn Red
Anti-Catholic School Bill, Birth
Control Campaign . , . Pope Gives j
Advice On Intricate Problems
Facing Anesthetists.
DECEMBER
Pope Pius established the Dio
cese of New Ulm, Minn., and
named Msgr. Alphonse Schlad-
weiler of St. Paul the first bishop.
The Holy Father also named:
Msgr. Howard J. Carroll, NCWC
general secretary, Bishop of Al-
toona-Johnstown, Pa,; Auxiliary
Bishop Clarence J. Issenmann of
Cincinnati, Bishop of Columbus;
Father Leonard P. Crowley of
Minneapolis, Auxiliary Bishop of
St. Paul, and Msgr. Victor J.
Reed of Tulsa, Okla., Auxiliary
Bishop of Oklahoma City and
Tulsa.
Cardinal Spellman left New
York on his annual Christmas
visit to U. S. troops in Alaska and
the Far East. Msgr. William J.
McDonald was named rector of
the Catholic University of Ameri
ca. Auxiliary Bishop John M.
Fearns of New York was con
secrated. Margaret Ann Nichols,
of Milton, Mass., a junior at Regis
College, Weston, Mass., was nam-1
ed “Outstanding Catholic Youth!
of 1957.”
Pilgrims crowned the shrine of
Beauraing', Belgium, on the 25th
anniversary of the apparitions of
Our Lady to five children there.
Pittsburgh’s Bishop John F. Dear-
den marked the silver jubilee of
his ordination. Xavier University,
Cincinnati, awarded the St. Fran
cis Xavier Medal to Jesuit Father
Aloysius J. Breen of the universi
ty; Judge Edwin G. Becker of the
Cincinnati school board, and Stan
Musial. St. Louis Cardinals base
ball star. A booklet by Columban
Father Patrick O'Connor, NCWC
News Service Far East correspon
dent. reported that adult converts
in South Korea had increased 10-
fold to 31,912 since 1949.
Other December headlines:
Catholic Faith Spreads In Africa
Diocese Where Mau-Mau Terror
Raged, Bishop Says . . . Ger
many’s Ruhr Has Its Own Diocese ;
After 28-Year Wait . . . Chinese !
Bishops, Priests Deny Red Claims
They Back Red-Dominated ‘Patri
otic Association of Catholics’ . . .
Governor, Other Dignitaries Pre
sent At Rededication of Steuben
ville (Ohio) Cathedral . . . Racial
Problem Is Worldwide One, Card
inal Stritch Declares . . . Census
Bureau Head Says No Question
On Religion Will Be Asked In'
1960 Census.
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New Outbreaks Of Hostility
CONTINUED RED PERSECUTION OF CHURCH
BEHIND IRON CURTAIN MARKS PAST YEAR
The Bishops of the United
States called on the nation’s
faithful to make Sunday, Decem
ber 29, a Day of Prayer for the
Persecuted. All Christians and
other men of good will were
urged to join in the observance.
The following article reviews the
abuses suffered by the Mystical
Body during the past year.
* * *
By George J. Robinson
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
This year, the 40th anniversary
of the Bolshevik Revolution
which cast the fire of militant
atheism upon the world, saw the
continued persecution of the
Church in the Iron Curtain coun
tries. It also saw new outbreaks
of anti-Catholic hostility in other
parts of the world influenced by
the Reds and other forces hostile
to the Church.
A glance through the news re
ports of 1957 shows that the
Kremlin, not satisfied with its
control over the satellite coun
tries, inspired anti-religious ac
tivity in places as far away as
India.
In Kerala, India’s most Catholic
and literate' state, communists
won control of the state govern
ment in February and have since
waged a battle to gain control of
all education there and to pass
laws that will enable them to take
over all Catholic schools.
The Moslem-controlled govern
ment of the new African nation
of Sudan began taking over Cath
olic mission schools in its south
ern region last April in an ap
parent effort to minimize the in
fluence of the Church on the
Christian and pagan natives in
that area.
The Church’s missionary effort
has also been greatly hindered by
the extreme to which “apartheid”
— racial segregation — has been
pushed in the Union of South
Africa.
That country is stepping up its
drive to bar non-whites from at
tending school or even worship
ing with their white co-religion
ists.
In the countries which have
unwillingly come under the dom
ination of Russia, persecution of
the Church continued as a regular
policy during 1957, although there
was improvement in the Church’s
position in Poland.
The major incidence of com
munist persecution was in China,
where the government stepped up !
its efforts to alienate China’s!
Catholics from Christ’s Vicar in j
Rome by establishing a so-called !
Patriotic Association of Chinese
Catholics.
Formation of the Patriotic As
sociation in Peking during the!
summer apparently was one of |
the opening guns of a highly or- |
ganized onslaught against the
Church. It was one more piece
of evidence of the divisiveness of
materialistics and atheistic com
munism, working always to turn
people against their most cherish
ed traditions and beliefs to make
them slaves of the state.
Reports from China indicate
that many of the clergy and lai
ty attending the Patriotic Associ
ation’s meetings were coerced
into doing so. Observers abroad
have expressed the fear that the
new communist program in Chi
na “foreshadows the most drastic
persecution of Catholics in China
since the Reds took over in 1949.”
The Reds released two Ameri
can Jesuit Fathers from years of
imprisonment last spring, and al
lowed them to go home. But the
ranks of the foreign missionaries
in China is now down to a mere
handful, and in the course of the
year the communists have ar
rested and jailed priests and lay
men on one pretext after an
other, hitting hard at the clergy-
most outspoken in their devotion
to the Holy See.
According to a report received
from Bishop Dominic Tang, S.J.,
Apostolic administrator of the
Archdiocese of Canton, he and his
clergy and religious are being
subjected to severe Red pressure.
Special indoctrination periods are
held twice each week and the
clergy are forced to attend. Af
terwards, each priest and nun at
the meeting is questioned and
asked concerning their opinion of
what has been said by the govern
ment speaker at the meeting.
Bishop Tang, who has not ac
cepted any., of the “invitations”
to attend these meetings, has been
called to the Government’s Bu
reau of Religious Affairs and giv
en detailed instructions as to how
to conduct his archdiocese.
Twice weekly the Canton ca
thedral is the site of a meeting
during which speakers sent by
the Patriotic Association de
nounce the Supreme Pontiff and j
the Bishops of the Church.
In Czechoslovakia, Archbishop
Josef Beran of Prague, the coun
try’s spiritual guide, has been
held in detention since 1949. His
whereabouts remain unknown
and there is no sign at all that
the government plans to release
him.
In late summer, two Domini
can Sisters in Moravia were sen
tenced to prison terms for “anti-
state” activity. They were ac
cused of harboring Father Vaclav
Filipec who had earlier been im
prisoned for operating a “spy
ring.”
Also sentenced in June were
a group of Salesian Fathers and
Sisters who were charged with
anti-revolutionary and treason
ous activity 7 .
Certainly, even in the light of
these few instances, there is no
sign of any slow-down in perse
cuting the Church in Czechoslo
vakia.
One authority on the Church in
that country, writing in a French
Catholic weekly, said that the
Red government of Czechoslo
vakia is favoring the creation and
development of national church-
(Continued on Page Eleven)
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