PAGE 4—THE SAVANNAH BULLETIN, March 8, 1958.
—ra
Joseph Breig
Two Into Seven Gives Us—?
I have shown that evidence
taken from “Who’s Who in
America” is utterly inadequate
to support the statements about
“American Catholic mediocrity,”
made by Msgr. John Tracy Ellis
and Father
John J. Cava
naugh.
I have dis
posed, I think,
T>f the idea that
the judgment of
the secular
world is to be
taken as in any
sense conclusive.
Let me now examine the state
ment that, of the seven Ameri
cans in the Pontifical Academy
of Science in 1954, “only two were
products of Catholic education.
Members of the Pontifical
Academy are selected by the
Pope and his advisors on the basis
of their scientific competence, not
their religion.
American Catholics make up
about one-fifth of the American
population. Two are considerably
more than one-fifth of seven. If
anything, the statistic is evidence
of Catholic superiority, not in
feriority.
I was dumbfounded by Father
Cavanaugh’s accusing remark
that only 10 of the 96 U. S. sena
tors are Catholics.
Each state has two senator?,
whether its population be 10 mil
lion or a half-million. Everybody
knows that Catholics are concen
trated in the populous states.
Many states are overwhelming
ly not Catholic, and would not, at
present, send a Catholic to the
Senate if he were the greatest
statesman of all time. Senator
counting is worse than meaning
less in any discussion of Catholic
competence.
Msgr. Ellis found that Catholics
in graduate schools are compara
tively few. It would be hardly
short of miraculous if they
weren’t. Catholics are compara
tively poor; they have compara
tively large families; they must
contribute, out of their limited
funds, to Catholic education,
Catholic charities, the missions,
and so on.
It would be preposterous to ex
pect Catholics to compete at pres
ent in sending children to gradu
ate schools. They do well to get
them through college; in many
cases, to get them through high
school.
Father Cavanaugh tells us that
of 50 business leaders named by
Forbes magazine, only two are
Catholics, and one of those is a
convert, Henry Ford II. That is to
say, Catholics are not wealthy.
Should they be?
One of America’s leading pas
tors once remarked to me in his
city—a great metropolis—there
was not one Catholic millionaire.
He boasted of the fact, as indicat
ing that Catholics generally valu
ed many things more than money,
including generosity to religion
and charity, and justice to com
petitors and employes.
Father Cavanaugh says further
that somebody named Chesley
Manly undertook to name, for a
newspaper (the Chicago Tri
bune?) the 40 best American col
leges, and did not mention one
Catholic college.
“This is not the place,” Father
Cavanaugh went on, “to evaluate
the criteria or the methods used
by Chesley Manly.” It was either
the place to evaluate them, or it
was the place to refrain from
quoting Chesley Manly as an
authority.
One of the things I particular
ly dislike about this whole affair
is the huge silence about the facts
which balance the picture.
I realize that Father Cavanaugh
and Msgr. Ellis wanted to make
a point, and as I have said, I sym
pathize with their objectives.
Nevertheless . .
In all intellectual honesty, can
we ignore the big-as-a-mountain
fact that American Catholics
started at the bottom a generation
or two ago, as hewers of wood
and drawers of water, and have
been working their way up
against tremendous odds?
Should we not focus the pic
ture by remembering (as a dra
matic illustration) that 65 per
cent of the fathers of our Ameri
can bishops had only an elemen
tary school education, and only
five per cent were college gradu
ates?
My own father had two terms
m a country grade school—which
would be neither here nor there,
were it not that a large popula
tion of Catholics could tell a sim
ilar story.
I think of one of the most
erudite men I know—holder of a
couple of doctorates, professor in
a top technological institute, di
rector of a government research
program, nationally sought-after
as a science consultant. His fa
ther herded pigs in Europe as a
boy. The son, by the way, is not—
repeat not—in Who’s Who in
America.
Theology
For The
Layman
(By F. J. SHEED)
I cannot say how often I have
been told that some old Irishman
saying his rosaary is holier than
I am, with all my study. I dare
say he is. For his own sake, I hope
he is. But if the only evidence is
that he knows less theology than
I do, then it is evidence that
would convince him nor me. It
would not convince him nor me. It
all those rosary-loving, taber
nacle-loving old Irishmen I have
ever known (and my own ances
try is rich with them) were avid
for more knowledge of the Faith.
It does not convince me because
while it is obvious that an ig
norant man can be virtuous, it is
equally obvious that ignorance is
not a virtue; men have been mar
tyred who could not have stated a
doctrine of the Church correctly,
and martyrdom is the supreme
proof of love: yet with more
knowledge of God they would
have loved Him more still.
Knowledge serves love—it can
turn sour of course and serve
pride or conceit and not love, and
against this we poor sons of Eve
must be on our guard.
Knowledge does serve love. It
serves love in one way by re
moving misunderstandings which
are in the way of love, which at
the best blunt love’s edge a little
—for example the fact of Hell can
raise a doubt of God’s love in
a man who has not had his mind
enriched with what the Church
can tell him; so that he is driven
piously to avert his gaze from
some truth about God in order to
keep his love undimmed. But
knowledge serves love in a still
better way—as these articles will
show—because each new thing
learned and meditated about God
is a new reason for loving Him.
Now a Catholic might feel that
all this is convincing enough, but
that none of it is for him all the
same: the Church does not com
mand him to go deep into theolo
gy; if his soul is not getting all
the food it might it suffers no
hunger pangs, the half-dark
seems pretty light to him, he
knows he loves God: and any
how it is his own business.
Now insofar as a Catholic is
satisfied with what he is getting,
(Continued on Page Seven)
Question
Box
Jottings ...
(By BARBARA C. JENCKS)
(David Q. Liptak)
Q: During a meting of one of
our parish societies lately we had
a discussion on the matter of
church support. Here are some of
the questions and objections
which are raised, Would you care
to comment on them? First, one
person maintained that there was
altogether too much talk about fi
nances in church, and that such
talk is entirely out of place in the
pulpit.
A: Far from being a topic un
fit for discussion in church, the
matter of church support is a
moral subject which must be
preached, since it involves a strict
obligation binding all Catholics in
general by virtue of the law of
the Church, the dictates of reason
and the will of Christ.
“To contribute to the support of
the Church” is one of the chief
ecclesiastical precepts listed in
the catechism. This precept is it
self founded, ultimately, on 1) the
law of reason and 2) the explicit
teaching of Our Divine Lord.
On the law of reason, because
justice demands that the faithful
bear their fair share of the fi
nancial burdens necessarily as
sumed by the Church in its spirit
ual ministry. (Arguing from jus
tice, St. Thomas compares the
public support of clerics to that
of rulers or soldiers.)
ON CHRIST'S own teaching,
because Our Divine Lord includ
ed the duty of church support in
his instructions to the Apostles.
The apposite text is contained in
St. Matthew’s tenth chapter, es
pecially the injunction, “The la
borer has a right to his mainten
ance.”
Q: During the debate a few
took the stand that the law of
church support was not very
serious.
A: Basically, as a general norm,
the duty of providing material
support for the Church is un
questionably a grave one, incum
bent on all the faithful taken as
a whole. This principle follows
(Continued on Page Seven)
(Jottings’ guest columnist today
is Sister M. Annice Donovan, C.
S. C.. chairman of the Department
of Philosophy at Saint Mary’s
College, Notre Dame, Ind. On the
occasion of the feast of Our Lady
of Lourdes, Feb. 11, in the cen
tennial year of the apparitions.
Sister Annice discusses “Our
Lady and Light.” She will have
Marian articles published this
year in both the “Review for
Religion” and “Spiritual Life.”)
* * *
* JUST ONE HUNDRED years
ago, Feb. 11, 1858, the Mother of
Christ, appeared to a simple, un
assuming 14-year-old girl of the
beautiful Pyrenees region of
France. Little Bernadette Soubi-
rous, for reasons unknown to us
of this “enlightened” atomic era,
was chosen to receive the favor of
beholding this beautiful Queen of
Heaven and being charged with
a mission directly from her.
It is of no value for us to get
lost in a maze of proposed rea
sons for Our Lady’s choice of an
undernourished, asthmatic child
belonging to the lower income
bracket and scorned by the so-
called influential of the town.
Considering those other chosen
souls, Juan Diego, the Aztec In
dian convert, and the children of
Fatima, it might occur to us that
though we are not able to give
Mary’s reasons for selecting these
particular people, we might apply
Our Lady’s own specific works to
all of them. Certainly we have
precious few authentic words
from the Blessed Mother but in
her “Magnificat” we hear: “He
hath cast down the mighty from
their thrones and He hath ex
alted the lowly.”
» THIS IS an age which has
became almost fanatical with the
preoccupation of applying the
energy of light and heat to nu
clear weapons. It is rather dis
heartening to think of the number
of people who remain impervious
to the highest light of all—the
eternal life-giving “Light.” How
much peace and joy are within
the reach of everyone who will
but permit this Light to enter his
life. The heart of a child or of
anyone who possesses a truly
child-like heart has constant ac
cess to this Light. The divinely in
spired writers of the Holy writ
made use of the phenomena of
light as a symbol of grace. Christ
applied the symbol of light to
Himself: “I am come a light unto
the world.” How fitting that the
woman “full of grace” should
appear surrounded by light in her
universally-known apparitions at
Lourdes, Guadalupe and Fatima.
--More swiftly than the light of
the sun does the Mother of
God come to her supplicating
children. More penetrating than
any radiant rays is her influence
when the darkness of sin holds
sway. And more powerful than
the total energy of solar rays
throughout the centuries is her
power over souls,
• SO DURING the centennial
year celebrating Our Blessed Mo
ther’s apparitions at Lourdes and
honoring her Immaculate Concep
tion may we have the good for
tune to be drawn into the light
of Mary’s loving gaze. And may
she so form Christ in us that we
will give to her Divine Son an
other human nature through
which to believe in, love and
obey His Father. For this is the
glorious vocation of every true
Christian, to passively and humb
ly receive the Light and walk in
it. Are we not all candles to be
lighted before we can cast any
light at all?
Bad luck is the unsuccessful
man’s excuse for poor manage
ment.
If the world owed us a living
we wouldn’t be shipped into it
C. O. D.
S TRANGE BUT TRU
Little-K nown Facts for Catholics
By M. J. MURRAY
Copyright, 1858, N.C.W.C. New* Service
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SHARING OUR TREASURE
A Friday Hamburger Opens The Door
By REV. JOHN A. O'BRIEN, Ph. D.
(Universilf of Notre Dame)
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Who would have thought that
a simple hamburger ordered on
Friday would prove the open
door to the Catholic faith for a
university coed? Yet that’s what
it was for Floretta Tackertt, a
student at
Creighton Uni
versity, Omaha,
Nebraska.
“I came from
a small town,”
began Floretta,
“that was Pro
testant to the
core, with two
churches, a Methodist and a Con
gregational — my church. Dad
had studied for the Baptist min
istry, and Sunday school was a,
MUST. My sister, Felecia, and I
attended services every Sunday,
rain or shine. Like the U. S. mail,
we went through.
“At Creighton a group of girls
invited me to lunch. To me Fri
day was simply another day, so
I ordered a hamburger. The girls
were horrified. Gently they ex
plained they were all Catholics
and didn’t eat meat on Friday as
a little mark of reverence for the
day on which Christ died to re
deem the world, and as a little
act of sacrifice, penance and love.
“Had there been a knothole
handy, I’d have crawled in and
pulled the knot in behind me.
That Friday hamburger made me
curious about as swell a group of
girls as I’d ever met. This religion
of theirs must have something, I
felt, to induce them to observe it
so carefully.
“So when my roommate invited
me to Sunday Mass at St. John’s,
I was ready to go. For the life
of me I couldn’t understand a
word the priest said until he
came to the sermon. Then he gave
a perfectly sensible sermon in
English but then reverted to
Latin.
“The intense piety of the wor
shippers, the atmosphere of rev
erence, the feeling of being in
God’s presence, the marvelous
beauty of the altar, the priest in
his flowing robes, flanked by four
college boys — all stirred me
deeply. The whole Mass was like
a Shakespearean drama — only
more so. I went back again and
again.
“The ‘Standing Room Only’
sign was out for every Mass. Half
the congregation filed up to the
rail for Communion. What
brought them out in such num
bers every Sunday? What brought
them to that rail? What was this
Communion? Confession? Peggy
Wall and Ann Schuetz patiently
answered my unending queries,
and their edifying example but
tressed their answers and made
them click.
Each Sunday and each Friday
I went to Mass with Peggy and
Anne. The brooding hurricane
was gathering force. Desperately
I tried to escape. I went back to
my own church. The sermon was
excellent, the music uplifting —
but something was lacking. What
was it? It puzzled me all day.
“By evening I was edgy, and
walked out into the clear crisp
night. I entered St. John’s, always
open, and knelt in prayer. Slowly
I raised my eyes. There was the
‘eternal light’ — the sanctuary
lamp — keeping its silent vigil.
It flashed the answer. Suddenly I
knew! There was a difference. It
was the Real Presence — Jesus
Christ — in that tabernacle!
“This was the mysterious at
traction which, like a subtle mag
netism, drew people to the Church
and to the Communion rail.
Christ was in His Church keeping
watch, as He had promised, over
His flock.
“Anne brought me to Father
Henry Linn, S. J., who gave me
a thorough course of instruction.
The logic of the Church creden
tials permitted no escape. Sand
wiched in between instructions
were good, old-fashioned gab-
sessions with another wonderful
priest, gentle and kind, Father
Thomas S. Bowdern, S. J., later
president of Creighton.
“My parents gave the green
light, and Father Linn baptized
me. The following Sunday with
Anne and Peggy kneeling beside
me, I received my first Holy
Communion. The turmoil was
over. Peace flooded my soul. I had
come home.”
Immaculate Heart of Mary, the work of Florence Kroger, is
being given in colored print form, to listeners of the Sacred
Heart Program. The painting, being made available to
viewers and listeners of the 1,000 radio and TV stations
carrying the program throughout the world, is being sent
in response to the express wish of the Holy Father that all
Catholic families be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart
during the centennial year of the apparitions of Our Lady
to Bernadette at Lourdes. (NC Photos)
Johnny Can't Read Russian
THE BACKDROP
Now that the United States and
Russia have entered into a cultu
ral exchange program providing
for' an exchange of vis
itors between the two
countries, it seems pertinent
to raise the question whether we
have any great
number of
Americans
properly equip
ped to visit the
Soviet Union.
How many of
us have more
; h a n a frag-
aentary know
ledge of Russia’s history? More
important still, how many of us
can converse with a Russian in
his own language?
The inability of Americans to
speak any kind of a language
other than their own is one of our
most serious handicaps in our
dealings with foreigners through
out the world. Not only are our
tourists tongue-tied in a non-
English speaking country, but few
of our government representa
tives abroad qualify as linguists.
A New York food broker, for
example, returned recently from
a visit to India with a report that
“not one American official in
India speaks Hindustani, while
many of the Russian representa
tives speak it well.”
This first hand observation
serves to bolster the complaint of
Marion B. Folsom, Secretary of
the Department of Health, Educa
tion and Welfare, that the “Unit
ed States is probably weaker in
foreign language abilities than
any other major country in the
world.”
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
SPOKEN EVERYWHERE?
Often an American tourist, who
has had the good fortune to en
counter English-speaking head-
waiters in almost every corner of
the globe, may be heard to boast.
“You don’t need to know a for
eign language; English is spoken
everywhere.”
The fact is, however, that 2,-
000,000,000 people—three fourths
of the worlds’ population — do
not speak English. They speak
languages which are rarely, if
ever, taught in the United States.
Of the major 24 languages spoken
around the world, only Spanish
and French are studied by any
appreciable number of Ameri
cans.
Even those Americans whose
parents brought a foreign lang
uage from the old country and
used it continuously in the home
throw away their opportunity to
become facile in a second tongue.
A survey of a group of some 500
college students about to go
abroad showed that 20 per cent
were offspring of immigrants who
spoke their native language. Yet
fewer than 5 per cent of these
second generation Americans
could speak the language of their
parents.
Those Americans who have to
learn a foreign language in our
schools and colleges have but a
limited choice of the world’s
tongues. Most of our schools make
no pretense of- teaching many
languages which are spoken by
vast numbers of people. Such
languages, for example, as Chi
nese, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi, Indo
nesian and Swahili, are taught in
only a handful of language cen
ters.
RUSSIANS LEARN ENGLISH
Yet, Chinese is the native lang
uage of nearly twice as many
people — some 500,000,000 — as
speak English. Arabic is the na
tive tongue of approximately
65,000,000 people in the Middle
East, that turbulent part of the
world where the West and the
Soviet Union are currently en
gaged in a struggle for domi
nance.
Hindi is the key language of
India, Swahili the language of
Central Africa, the continent of
the future, and Farsi is widely
used from Iran through Afghani
stan and Northern India to Tibet.
Few Americans who do study
languages in our schools and col
leges acquire a good reading
knowledge of a foreign tongue,
not to mention conversational fa
cility. For example, the group of
college students already men
tioned, when tested for profi
ciency in the language they had
studied in school, made a miser
able showing. Only 30 per cent
could satisfactorily translate an
easy paragraph of colloquial
English into a foreign language,
the attempts of 49 per cent were
incomprehensible and 21 per cent
did not even try the translation.
By contrast with the Soviet
Union, we are linguistically il
literates. Only 15 per cent of our
college students and less than 15
per cent of our high school stu
dents study any foreign language.
All Russian students, however,
are required to study foreign
languages for six years. Some 10,-
000,000 Russians are studying
English. According to the United
States Office of Education, fewer
than 8,000 Americans are study
ing Russian.
A Husband Speaks To Husbands
This We Believe
Last issue in this column I dis
cussed a letter from a mother
whose doctor has told her that
she should bear no more children
for a period of two years. My re
marks sparked a letter from Jos
eph Breig, who is a well known
Catholic writer and also the fa
ther of a sizable family. His is a
letter for which I am grateful.
With twenty-seven years of mar
riage behind him, Joe’s comments
will be far more meaningful than
any words of mine could be. Here,
quoted verbatim, are the reflec
tions of an experienced parent:
“The first thing this mother
ought to do is to consult another
doctor — a Catholic of solid faith,
long experience and common
sense. He might find that there
is no physical reason for avoiding
pregnancy. And is it certain that
rythm won’t work? This is a mat
ter that ought to be double-check
ed with a Catholic physician. He
should be a man of wisdom be
cause the problem is as much
psychological as physical. Na
turally, the wife is tired and dis
couraged, trying to rear five chil
dren so close together, and with
money problems plaguing her.
“Also my guess is that her hus
band has not grown up yet. He is
not fully a man. If he were, he
wouldn t hesitate over tackling
the job of staying away from his
wife for a year or two to protect
her health. As St. Paul said, man
and wife are two in one flesh, and
no man hates his own flesh but
cherishes it. Therefore he cher
ishes his wife as he cherishes him
self. This husband should face up
to his duty. He should be manly
enough to do whatever is neces
sary to preserve his wife’s health.
“Nobody knows better than I
how strong is the sex urge. But
the trouble is that we’re over-con
scious of it nowdays, because of
the world in which we live. We
need to realize that there are hun
dreds of other things which can
absorb our attention and give
pleasure. Many husbands and
wives make the mistake of getting
too ingrown upon each other and
upon home life. They lose sight
of the many interests which
would keep them occupied and
happy, and divert their minds
from sex. They forget that mar
riage is also a companionship
and a sacrament, and that it of
fers a great deal more than the
bodily union.
“Cheerful friendships with
others, evenings out or evenings
with friends in, games, sports,
outings, cook-outs, visits to points
of interest, visits to the Blessed
Sacrament, parish work and so
on, can make rythm or even long
abstinence not too hard at all.
With proper recourse to the Mass,
the sacraments and prayer, and
with an offering of the sacrifice
to God, abstinence can contribute
mightly to the maturing and the
(By FATHER LEO TRESE)
greater santifieation of husband
and wife. Often a crisis like this
couple’s is actually an opportuni
ty for a fuller, nobler and happier
life. It is a chance to put sex in
its proper place and to make mar
riage a much finer thing. The
Situation is in no way unusual.
Most couples come up against it
Sat one time or another. It calls, for
mature and intelligent solution.
“I am convinced that many hus
bands remain mediocre because
they do not face up to this chal
lenge. It is a psychological fact
that sexual self-control confers
power upon the mind and direc
tion upon the energies. It is also
an open highway to spiritual
growth, to greater holiness and
to a far higher happiness than
the husband and wife had known
before. No, it isn’t easy, but it’s
no harder than working to ad
vance oneself in an occupation
or profession, or training for
athletic proficiency, or any one
of a dozen other things we do.
“And I don’t think it’s psycho
logically wise to talk about such
cases in terms of martyrdom —
not unless we get a firm hold on
the truth about the martyrs. As
you said, St. Agnes was so happy
to be martyred that her execu
tioner wept. Why? Because Agnes
realized that heaven is such a
rollicking wonderful existence
that she’d be a fool to compare it
with earthly life. She didn’t feel
martyred; she felt privileged. She
knew that the executioner’s ax
was opening a world of dazzling
joy to her.
“Well, the right use of rythm,
or abstinence, can open a much
more splendid world for a hus
band and wife. Only in that sense
are they martyrs — in the sense
that a glorious opportunity to go
into a higher happiness is theirs.
No married couple ever really
find the finest joys of marriage
until they have first put sex into
its place and shown it, by George,
who is boss. And the way to put
it in its place is to turn your back
on it deliberately when the time
comes, and put your mind on
other things.”
With some omissions, regret
fully made because of space limi
tations, that is Joe Breig’s letter.
With his permission I pass it on
to you. From the vantage point
ot his own years of happy mar
riage and parenthood he has said,
much better than I ever could say,
some honest truths that need
saying.
M. S. Balberchak
Services In Atlanta
MARIETTA, Ga. -— Funeral
services for Mr. Michael Stephen
Balberchak were held February
25th at St. Joseph’s Church, Rev.
A. A. Wall officiating.
Survivors are six daughters,
Mrs. Peter Midwetz, White Ha
ven, Pa.; Mrs. Edward Oleksy,
Stratford, Conn.; Mrs. Mario Le
onardi, Waterbury, Conn.; Mrs.
Andrew Furman, Bridgeport,
Conn.; Miss Joan Balberchak, Ma
rietta; two sons, Mr. Paul Balber
chak, St. Augustine, Fla.; Mr.
Mike Balkerchak, Atlanta; one
sister, Mrs. Joseph Lesko, Bridge
port, Conn, and several grand
children.
Services For
Mike LaPresta
ATLANTA, Ga.—Funeral serv
ices for Mr. Mike LaPresta were
held February 27th with a re
quiem Mass at. the Chapel of Our
Lady of Perpetual Help.
THE SAVANNAH BULLETIN
416 8TH ST., AUGUSTA, GA.
Published fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Geor
gia, Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Reverend Archbishop-
Bishop of Savannah.
Entered as second class matter at the Post Office, Monroe, Georgia,
and accepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided by para
graph (e) of section 34.40, Postal Laws and Regulations.
REV. FRANCIS J. DONOHUE JOHN MARKWALTER
Editor Managing Editor
Vol. 38 Saturday, March 8, 1958 No. 20
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1957-1958
E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honorary Vice-President
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus T _, President
MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon 'p*~- -- • - Vice-President
TOM GRIFFIN, Atlanta ; - 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
