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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s Association
of Georgia.
, RICHARD REID. Editor.
Published Semi-Monthly by the Publicity Department
''09 Lamar Bldg. Augusta, Georgia.
Subscription Price. S2.00 Per Year.
„ ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1921-1922.
H. Rice, K. C. S. G., Augusta President
‘ ol. P. H. Callahan, K.S.G., Louisville, Ky...Hon. Vice-Pres.
• • J. Haverty. Atlanta .First Vice-President
; • McCallum, Atlanta Secretary
• nomas S. Gray, Augusta Treasurer
R‘chard Reid, Augusta Publicity Director
Misg Cecile C. Ferry, Augusta ...Assistant Publicity Director
VOL. IV. JULY 30, 1923 NO. 14
Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, at the Post
Office at Augusta, Ga., under Act of March, 1879. Accepted
for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section
1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized September 1, 1921.
A Gratifying Decision.
The experience of the Catholic Laymen’s Associa
tion of Georgia has convinced it that most of the
opposition to the Church is the result of ignoraficc of
its teachings or practices, or worse. Catholics are
judged by most anti-Catliolics not by what they be
lieve but by what they are supposed to believe. It has
Jocen the aim of the Association since its inception to
.acquaint the misinformed with the true beliefs of
(Catholics, and the results have been most gratifying.
.Only a small fraction of the number of anti-Cath-
rtlics of our fair country arc Georgians. In every
slate in the Union there are thousands of people whose
opinion of Catholics is based upon the description of
them propounded by those who are interested in hav
ing them misunderstood and hated. There is need,
therefore, in every state of the Union for work such as
the Catholic Laymen’s Association is doing in Georgia.
It is gratifying to learn, therefore, that a start in
this direction was made at the recent Catholic Press
Association convention at Indianapolis, at which reso
lutions were adopted urging establishment of bureaus
of information in every city in the United States and
Canada having a population of over 50,000, these bu
reaus to answer public statements detrimental f*
Catholics, to furnish free information on Catholic
subjects to the public and the press, and to answer in-
q dries on Catholic topics.
The American people have a failing for passing reso
lutions and then passing them up. That this will not
he the fate of these resolutions is assured because of
the personnel of the committee appointed to put them
into effect,, a committee composed of three of the
most able Catholic journalists in America, Monsignor
.1. F. Noll of The Sunday Visitor, F. R. Breen and E.
Lester Muller of the Baltimore Catholic Review.
The resolutions follow:
“Whereas, The whole country, and particularly the
middle west is deluged with false, slanderous and
misleading statements about the Catholic church and
its teachings, and the aims, of American Catholic citi
zens, and
“Whereas, The great body of non-Catholics who arc
impartial and fair-minded Americans are often misled
and prejudiced by the printed matter so widely circu
lated and by the false and vicious statements of pre
judiced Speakers and the statements that appear even
in some of the daily papers, and
“Whereas, Our non-Catholic fellow-citizens, gener
ally speaking, do not have presented to them in the
daily press, or through any other agency any response
to the false and malicious charges circulated to the in
jury of the Catholic church and Catholic American
citizens,
“Therefore Be it and it is hereby resolved that the
Catholic Press association of the United States and
Canada, in convention assembled suggest the crying
need for a Catholic bureau of information for non-
Catholics to be established with a central headquar
ters and with branches to begin with in every city of
the United States and Canada of over 50,000 popula
tion, the ptirjidfcc of which shall be to furnish free of
charge to the press, to the public, and to all enquirers
accurate information about the Catholic church, its
teachings and institutions, and to refute and promptly
answer any public charges detrimental to our faith or
to our people.
“And that with tlie consent of this convention the
president tie and he is hereby requested to appoint a
special committee of ways and means to carry out the
purpose of this resolution.”
The Divorce Evil.
VIII—SOME CAUSES
First, is ignorance.
Divorce is an evil. It is opposed to the natural
order; it is opposed to divine law; it is demoralizing
to the family; it is destructive to the home. Its every
aspect is bad. Its every prospect is bad. All of its ten
dencies are damaging to society and ruinous to the
individuals involved. And yet, this unmitigated evil
is not only tolerated but is Actually approved by many
persons who would not approve what they know is
grave wrong. It shows a defect in education.
The so-called moderns of society who have discard
ed faith, in order, they say, to think for themselves,'
have failed to go through with the thing; they do not
think. This defect of thought is apparent in a num
ber of modernisms but it is pronounced in respect of
marriage. Ask the modernists if marriage is good,
and "they will answer: “Of course, it is good; no one
advocates free love!” But divorce contradicts mar
riage. It is a direct and emphatic negation of mar
riage. It is a legal and social destruction of marriage.
If, therefore, marriage is good, divorce must be evil.
Marriage is, indeed, good. It is the rational con
trol set over the animal propensities of our nature in
respect to the reproduction of the species. Nature
Dixie Musings
Catholic Comment
herself has set a control over the lower animals in
this respect; but she has set none over man. Man is
expected to use his rational faculties to control his
conduct, while the lower animals are ruled by in
stinct and passion. Hence, marriage, the union of
In these days of slogans, not the
least successful of them is one
which runs: “A satisfied patron is
the best advertiser.” A satisfied pat
ron is one who comes back again and
CATHOLICISM AND POLITICS.
From the Catholic Sun, Syracuse.
To the thinking man the constant
attacks on the Catholic church
should be an inducement to exam
ine. Surely, if the Church is what
one man and one woman in the relationship which
perpetuates the race I
Marriage is really a science, the science of human
perpetuity. It is the intelligent direction of the nat
ural means by which the race goes on. It is, indeed,
the first of all sciences, because it is the first of all
means by which rational control is asserted over our
anmial propensities. It is a token of human intel
ligence, the first mark of distinction between the hu
man and the animal of our nature. Marriage is for
man; Nature controls the beast.
The science of marriage is to make it happy, not
to dissolve it. To declare it dissolved is an admis
sion of rational incompetence. Nay, it is an admis
sion that the animal propensities of our nature, in
a given case, are permanently beyond rational con
trol ;which seems about the last word in human fail-
brings others with him. Judged by
this standard, the Georgia laymen’s
retreats have many satisfied patrons,
if a retreatant may he referred to
as a patron.
Two years ago the first retreat for
men was held at Macon. Seven
traveled the 130 or more miles each
way from Augusta to make the re
treat. These seven were on hand for
tlie second retreat last year, that
time at Augusta. Six of the seven
made the third retreat this month.
Atlanta’s repersentatives of 1921
have not missed a retreat, although
they must travel six hours or more
by rail to reach the retreat house.
Rctrcatants from Macon and Mill-
edgeville have been no less faithful.
its enemies maintain it is there is no
room for it in this country. But—
yes, there’s a but—the Church has
millions of members here, the great
majority of them decent, law-abid
ing, patriotic citizens. Ask any one
if he ever heard the faintest refer
ence to oru .iary politics from the
pulpit; ask him if in all his experi
ence as a Catholic he was ever to
vote this or that way by the Church
authorities; asking him any other
question having to do with the
.charges of the enemy, and he will
truthfully tell you that he never
heard any of the topics discussed in
church or at any Catho.ie meeting.
HOW TO ASSIST AT MASS.
From the Missionary, Washington,
D. C.
The good man, unless he is ignorant on this score,
wilt never dissolve marriage. He will study the con
ditions of married life, search out the cause of un-
liappinss and strive to remove or anticipate them by
education and training. He may perhaps separate
the parties as a last resort; hut he will no more think
of dissolving the marriage than the physician will
think of killing his patient.
The physician’s patient may wish to die; there
may be reason to believe he will be better off dead;
nevertheless, even aside from the moral point, a phy
sician who brought about his death would be forever
discredited as an incompetent. The science of med
icine is to cure, never to kill. So it is with divorce,
which is the death of marriage. The parties may
wish to be divorced; there, may be reason to believe
they will be better off, divorced; nevertheless, the
science of marriage is to preserve it, never to dis
solve it, and, aside from the moral point, it is thor
oughly discreditable to society to declare it dissolved.
Ignorance of the true purpose of marriage; igno
rance of the true relationship created in the marital
union; ignorance of the dignity and the responsibil
ity which attach to the marriage relation; ignorance
of the natural order and the natural law governing
the union of the sexes; ignorance of the history of
the family, of the rise and fall of nations, of the
principles of sociology, biology, ontology; of all the
fundamental requirements for the perpetuation of
our race; ignorance is the first cause of the divorce
evil.
The second is unbelief.
All cannot be educated in the many important mat
ters related to. the science of human perpetuity. In
deed, considering the many races and tribes over the
world, the many zones and climes which they in
habit, and all of the vicissitudes of their existence
from generation to generation through centuries and
ages of time, who could have the mind, the knowl
edge, the vision, to take in the whole picture, point
out the indispensable requirements of our nature, and
formulate the science of human perpetuity? None,
of course, hut God. Marriage is not, it could not he,
of human devising. God instituted it when He
created the first man and the first woman and bade
them multiply and replenish the earth. It is God’s
scientific formula of human perpetuity.
Belief in God and acceptance of His Word comple
ments the inadequate knowledge that man of himself
acquires touching this profound thing and marriage,
embraced in reason, sympathy and faith, serves to per
petuate our race while it gives us happiness and joy.
Without belief in God man is thrown back upon him
self alone, his knowledge inadequate, his sympathy'
uncertain, his reason without guide, his heart without
faith, and his whole being without anchor or moorings.
To one who does not believe in God, marriage is a
chain, a legal convention, a sublimated bill of owner
ship, which a little-, cross-grain experience will make
humiliating and unbearable. Divorce is the conse
quence. It is done gently, perhaps generously, but as
a matter of course.' Unbelief is a most pregnant
cause of the divorce evil.
Third, is wilfulness.
Right-meaning persons would not resort to divorce
Or countenance it, if they had faith in God, or if they
were educated to the sociological problems which mar
riage alone can solve, as God’s law in the matter is
merely in advance of human intelligence. But many
persons are wilfull, and in their wilfulness is summed
up a number of causes of divorce. /
Such persons, though they may believe in God, arc
unwilling to make sacrifice, unwilling to practice for
titude, unwilling to observe any sort of discipline in
their lives, unwilling to forego their own pleasure and
self indulgence, either for God’s sake or for any other
reason. They gro^ up that way, perhaps petted and
sppiled by their elders, constantly encouraged to assert
their “rights” and seldom reminded of their duties,
until they acquire a distorted vision of life, in which
the image of Self is made to stand out in exaggerated
proportions while God and the human race occupy him,
distant places in the background of their minds. Sucli
is the character of most persons who resort to divorce
and remarriage.
Twelve Georgians have been pres
ent at every retreat since the move
ment was inaugurated in 1921, and
all were obliged to travel over one
hundred miles for at least one of
them. The twelve are J. J. Spald
ing and D. J. Hayes of Atlanta, P.
H. Rice, Matthew S. Rice, James B.
Mulherin, Richard Reid, Hugh Kinch-
ley, and T. P. Kearney of Augusta,
R. W. Hatcher of Milledgeville and
Jas. L. McCreary, Ed. A. Shearidan
and Martin J. Callaghan of Macon.
Eleven more have attended twe
consecutive retreats, Stuart A. Cash-
in of Augusta the first two, and the
following the second and third: Rob
ert J. Morris and E. W. Gillespie of
Atlanta, and T. P. Doris, Jr., James
Brodie, Edwin J. Dorr, Karl Scliler,
Capt. E. J. O’Connor, Jerome Ji
McCarthy, J. P. McAuliffe and J. L.
Herman.
It is no reflection on the previous
retreats to say that the 1923 event
was the most successful of the three.
The 1924 retreat will, if it be God’s
will, surpass this one. But thus
far the honors go to 1923. There
were thirty-seven present, as against
thirty-five of last year and twenty of
the year previous. The men seemed
to know better how to make a re
treat. They had acquired the fac
ulty of meditation. They did not
dismiss business from their minds;
they merely changecl businesses, and
devoted to the business of making
the retreat all the earnestness, en
ergy and intelligence that they ap
ply to their daily tasks.
Not to exaggerate when referring
to something with which we are
very favorably impressed is a‘'mat
ter of great difficulty. But some
times it is impossible to exaggerate.
No one ever exaggerated when des
cribing the majesty of Niagara or
the grandeur of the North Carolina
mountains. Nor ean we exaggerate
when we tell of the depths touched
by the soul-searching discourses of
the eloquent, scholarly, deeply reli
gious president of Loyola University,
Father Cummings.
Sacred Heart College, where the
retreat was (held, is in a populous
neighborhod of a city of nearly 60,-
000, yet the retreatants were as com
pletely cut off from the outside
world as if they were hidden away
in a monastery in the heart of the
hills. Charles S. Bolder of Augusta,
tax collector, hank director and
planter, took it upon himself to see
to it that the retreatants were well
fed during their stay at the col
lege, even though he had to arise
at four o’clock each morning to do
it. When distinguished guests, Pres
idents, for instance, come to Augus
ta and desire to sample Georgia bar
becue, it is Mr. Bohler who is call
ed in to satisfy their apetites. There
fore the retreatants were better than
well fed. The Catholic women of
Augusta, assisted by Spring Hill
College boys, saw to it that they
were well served. And Father Ryan
was the spirit behind it all.
There have been many retreats
for laymen hejd throughout the Uni
ted States, hut we doubt that any
ever had such a glorious climax as
that which marked this one. The
retreat ended at the eight o’clock
Mass Sunday, July 15, at which one
of the retreatants, Captain Bice, was
honored by investure as a Knight
Commander in the Military Class in
the Order of St. Gregory the Great.
All the brilliancy and richness of
ceremony the Church throws around
such occasions was enacted in every
detail before a congregation of Cath
olics and non-Catholics that taxed
the capacity of Sacred Heart Church.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Savan
nah honored the occasion by his
presence, celebrating the Mass after
A friend of mine, a parish priest
thinks there is a growing habit of
going to Mass without book or beads,
and of hearing Mass by just stand
ing, sitting and looking on. He has
watched Catholic congregations for
some years past; the good old cus
tom of praying all through Mass is,
amongst the younger generation, dy
ing out; and the number of those
who just stand and look on is in
creasing. This negligent way of as
sisting at the Holy Sacrifice is now
common enough. Since he first be
gan to notice their negligent attitude
he has taken notice, from time to
time, of what the congregation were
doing. Women do far better tliaa
men in this respect; but it is quite
common to look across a church and
see row after row of men without
a book or beads; without the faint
est sign of moving lips; and, often,
with a distracted and far-away look
in their eyes. Of course, distrac
tions arc hard to throw off; and
one must be reasonable. But, he
does not like the disappointment of
book and beads.
THE CATHOLIC PRESS.
From the Michigan Catholic.
Catholic means universal. The
wide-awake Catholic is interested in
the work of the Church in other
parishes, states and countries. But
sixty per cent of the news concern
ing her activities, trials and progress
is suppressed by the ruling press,
and much of the remainder is often
unreliable. It would be asking too
much to expect more from a press
which is mainly a business proposi
tion and tries to cater to all its
readers, a majority of whom are not
Catholic.
When a man wishes to learn some
thing about auto mechanics, be reads
an auto journal. He does not find
the technical information he wants
in a movie magazine.
The Catholic who wants to know
what the Church is doing reads a
Catholic paper, and lie is not satis
fied with a pious periodical filled
with prayer-book stories and good-
goody poems.
the Knighting of Captain Rice, pio
neer retreatant.
Bishop Keyes hopes to sec the
retreat movement flourish like a
green bay tree. His interest is in
dicated by the fact that he has
agreed to act as spiritual director
of the organization of retreat pro
moters. “Next year we hope to liave
more than twice as many retreat
ants,” he told those who made the
retreat this year..
St. Francis de Sales once compared
the soul to a watch, which should
“be wound up daily to God, and
once a year at least taken to pieces
for its work to be examined more
minutely in order that its defects,
if there be any, might be repaired.”
Many feel that this does not ap
ply to them, hut among those who
took this to heart and made a re
treat recently at Staten Island, N.
Y., were a United States Senator
from Massachusetts, the governor of
Rhode Island and the Mayor of
Providence, he may he an ex-May-
or. These just happened to be three
gathered with dozens of others who
at the retreat house one week-end.
Another argument for Catholic
schools—practically every man who
made the Georgia retreat attended
a Catholic school. The three nota
bles mentioned above are graduate*
of a Catliolie college-
Imitation is the finest form of
flattery. A non-Catholic organiza
tion in Augusta followed the men’s
retreat with a one day retreat is
the country. The idea is not patent
ed. But the results practically arfe