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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 TLORERIA ' STAIRCASE ■ TSSEStt leading from. SAR DAMASO Courlyara'S^Zi^ to the Vatican, Secre tdricdcX \ — audience halls 6- Tbpcd apartments, Was built by "Pope Leo X u/iih low steps’ so that horses Could be ridden, up them, / L1LLA ■ CROSS’ on lonely FYUNGDALE MOOR. YORKSHIRE, — ENGLAND, is 1300 yeans oto . “ \f / ~Tfh? RTpsa/cjC ' / IS TUE A/eW 1/, Lu I or tPombosw a f Xr/uLce . ' \ S SHARING OUR TREASURE A Friday Hamburger Opens The Door By REV. JOHN A. O'BRIEN, Ph. D. (Universilf of Notre Dame) < i i 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 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