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fHE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGI \
JULY 10, 1928
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen's Association
of Georgia.
RICHARD REID, Editor.
Published Semi-Monthly by the Publicity Department with
the Approbation of the lit. Rev. Bishops, of Raleigh, Char
leston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile and Natchez.
MOD Lainar Building. Augusta, Georgia.
Subscription Price, $2.00 Per Year.
FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
S. T. Mattingly, Walton Bldg •.. Atlanta, Ga.
^ ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1924-25.
£• H. RICE, K. C. S. C., Augusta President
COL. I\ H. CALLAHAN. K.S.G., Louisville, Ky., and ADMI
RAL WM. S. BENSON, K.C.S.G., Washington, D. C.
Honorary Vice-Presidents
L J. HAVERTY, Atlanta First Vice-President
£• B. McCALLUM. Atlanta Secretary
THOMAS S. GRAY, Augusta Treasurer
RICHARD • REID, Augusta Publicity Director
MISS CECILE C. FERRY, Augusta. .Asst, Publicity Director
VOL. VII. JULY 10, 1926. . No. 13
Member of N. C. W. C. News Service and of the Catholic
Pfcss Association of the Uuited States and Canada.
Entered an 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 Sec
tion 1103, Oct of October 3, 1917, authorized Sept 1, 1921.
The Laymen s Retreat
The annual retreat for laymen will be conducted
at Sacred Heart College, Augusta, from Thursday
evening, July 15, to the following Sunday morning.
The retreat will be under the direction of Rev. David
J. Foulkcs, S. J., of the Jesuit Mission Band of New
Orleans. The relreatants will remain at the college
during the days of the retreat. The expenses will be
met by private voluntary contributions.
This mere announcement will be sufficient to
bring to Augusta all those who have irfade a retreat
before if they can possibly arrange it, even by a great
sacrifice. They know the value of a retreat; they
know the consolation, the “peace which surpasseth
understanding” that these few days spent apart from
the world and walking with God bring them.
Religious make an annual retreat. Nuns, brothers,
priests, bishops, the Holy Fattier himself, all retire
from the world for a period of prayer and meditation;
it is considered essential for them, although their
lives are in a way perpetual retreats. A retreat is
even more necessary for the layman, living in the
world and being subjected to its materializing in
fluences as he is.
A retreat is a season of spiritual stock-taking.
No merchant or business man in his sound mind would
go into another year without taking stock. It is very
important that he know where he stands in a financial
way. But our chief concern upon this earth is not
to pile up wealth but to save our souls. A spiritual
taking of slock is therefore more important than one
in business.
An application blank for the jetreat, which has
the wholehearted approval of our Rt. llcv. Bishop,
who is spiritual director of the Retreat Association,
will lie found elsewhere in The Bulletin. It should
be mailed at once in order to facilitate arrangements.
The Eucharistic Congress
Tn all the numberless years that the sun has been
blazing its pathway through the heavens, never did
it look down upon scenes such as those it brightened
when the Twenty-Eighth International Eucharistic
Congress was held in Chicago. Never before in the
history of the world did so many people gather from
such distances at one Unite for any purpose as they
did on the shores of Lake Michigan to honor our
Divine Lord in the Holy Eucharist, to express their
faith in this central dogma of their Church.
The doctrine of the Eucharist is perhaps not as
hard to believe today as in the days of our Saviour
because of thb wonders of science which by the rush
of wheels change great cities thousands of miles away
from the darkness of night to the brilliance of mid
day, warm gigantic structures, ntove long trains of
heavy ears with amazing speed and transmit with
starting clearness the voice of a speaker to unseen
thousands and even millions in distant places. To
continue the parallel, made by the Cardinal Archbishop
of Chicago at the opening of the Congress: ‘‘Who will
honestly say in the face of wonders such as these
and the many science will yet produce, that to the
God Who has buried such wonderous things in our
universe the miracle of the Eucharist is impossible,
that He Who can multiply the flames of light and the
sounds on the waves of the air by millions cannot
cause His real Body and Blood to come down oil thou
sands of altars at the call of His priests and he taken
under the cover of bread as the food for the millions
of His children into their souls.” ,
Sous and daughters of the Catholic Church be
lieve without the shadow of a doubt that God can
and docs cause His real Body and Blood to coirfe
down upon altars at the call of His priests a3 He
promised at the Last Supper; it was to profess their
belief in Jesus Christ in the Eucharist that they
journied from all parts of the United States, from
Canada, Mexico and South Amercia, from every corner
of Europe, from Asia, Africa, Australia and the South
Sea Isles, the great and the lowly, the prince, the pre
late, the priest and the pilgrim, and in such numbers
aad with such devotion that Cardinal Mundelein could
say: “No King on earth, no emperor of Rome was
ever honored as Jesus Christ is honored today in the
City of Chicago.”
The Eucharistic Congress has its message for non-
Catholics as well as for Catholics. In the materialistic
twentieth century when the spirit of the world seems
to be utterly apposed to that of religion and when
pseudo—scientists proclaim that religion has been re
legated to the junk pile with other outworn nfyths,
the Catholic Church holds the greatest demonstration
of religious faith the world has ever seen, one based
on a dogma that has been handed down unchanged
through nineteen hundred years, fn a day when na
tions seem seething with hatred, one million Catho
lics from every nation under the sun meet in a gath
ering permeated with love and to honor the Sacrament
of Divine Love. In a day when the spirit of the world
strives to exile God from its affairs, an unprecedented
gathering turns to Him and adores Him in His Real
Presence. Like Peter of old, they say: “To whom will
we go, O Lord? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”
In Jesus Christ is the solution of every difficulty fac
ing the world today. And the Holy Eucharist is Jesus
Christ. May the Eucharistic Congress bring to our
brethren not of the household of the faith a realiza
tion of file ineffable sweetness of the Sacrament of
the Altar and of the Divine Heart burning there with
tenderest love for perplexed and suffering hnirtanity.
No Reason For Antagonism
The State, published at Columbia, S. C., recently
quoted at length a New York clergyman’s views on
the literature of the day. Said this clergyman:
“Tile most important group I would call the writ
ing men—literary fellows who are straining every
nerve to foist upon America the ultra sophistication,
the blase civilization of Europe. There is no sim
plicity, no old fashioned morality in their literature.
There is the decadent type of the old French litera
ture they are pouring out to poison and stain the
mind and character of American youth.
“They prefer Broadway with its dirty plays and
indecent naked revues. They prefer the Broadway
of shamelessness where, in the phrase of the day
‘everything goes.’ They prefer the Broadway where,
after seeing a dirty show, the sophisticated go to a
rotten night club, where we read that, in the midst
of drinking and naked dancing, murder has been done
at 4 o’clock in the morning.”
These expressions “might have fallen from the lips
of a'minister in Spartanburg, S. C., Wadcsboro, N. C._
or in any other typical Southern community,” The
State remarks. “They would have evoked general ap
proval ; indeed they might have proceeded from one
of the traveling evangelists who so often arouse or
revive religious feeling.”
But, says The State, “the speaker was not a Bap
tist, Methodist, nor a Presbyterian. He was Rev. John
M. Gillis a member of the Paulist Fathers of the
Roman Catholic church, and he was addressing 4,000
members of the Holy Name Society at breakfast before
going with them in a body to holy Communion in
St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“The State has made the quotation by way of show
ing how little is the reason or excuse in South Caro
lina, in North Carolina, or anywhere else for sectarian
antagonisms, whether between Protestants or between
Protestants and Roman Catholics. Father Gillis’ ex
pressions were exactly typical of the opinion of the
majority of the Christian people of South Carolina,
of whom less than two per cent are Roirfan Catholics.”
Father Gillis’s name is James M., not John, and
Communion breakfasts are partaken after and not
before Holy Communion, but these innocent inaccura
cies add to the effectiveness of the editorial since
they indicate that the sentiments expressed came from
a non-Catholic. Thinking non-Catliolics, like Asso
ciate Justice Hines, who recently declared in an ad
dress to the Bar Association of Georgia that although
he did not believe in the teachings of the Catholic
church, “1 do know that Catholics believe in the
preservation of the American home and the American
governintent,” agree with the comment of The State.
They see the Catholic Church arrayed against every
evil, driving them back gradually, without doing vio
lence to the free will of man; operating not with
revolutionary force but with progressive energy, a
plan of action that centuries of experience have taught
it is the only logical and psychological one.
With the Catholic church unalterably opposed to
the things Christian-minded people agree are evil, it
seems thgt instead of experiencing opposition on all
sides the 7 Catholic church, with its influence for good,
should be welcomed as an effective ally. Religious
and educational leaders admit that the greatest
danger facing this country today comes from the
growing irreligious spirit; most of our present evils
may be traced to it. The Catholic church, with its
twenty or more millions of menfbers in the United
States, is the greatest American bulwark against the
rising tide of materialism and irreligion. The forces
of agnosticisirf realize the fact and direct their at
tacks upon her; non-Catholic Christians do the cause
of Christianity and religion a poor service when they
assist anti-religious forces in their destructive efforts.
DIXIE MUSINGS-clt^L
Rack home again among the red
lulls of Georgia, we gaze in medi
tating mood down the green val
ley of the placid Savannah and
wonder if the Eucharistic Congress
were not only a glorious dream.
But piles of accumulated matter
sent out from Chicago and Wash
ington by the N. C. W. C. News
Service and demanding immediate
attention convince us of the real
ity of tlie scenes of the congress,
the equal of which we do not ex
pect to see again this side of etern
ity.
The Catholic editors reached
Chicago from Detroit where they
had been in convention. The first
ceremony they witnessed after
Mass and Communion Sunday
morning was the solemn opening
of the congress at the Cathedral,
described elsewhere in this issue.
The great Cathedral was filled be
yond its seating capacity long be
fore even the priests in the pro
cession filed in. There were enough
bishops in the congregation to fill
the average church in Georgia and
enough prelates to fill many city
edifices.
Cardinal Bonzano, papal legate,
and Cardinal Mundelein, host to
the congress, were the speakers at
the mass, before which the papal
brief was read. Inside the Cathe
dral was a scene perhaps never be
fore witnessed outside Rome—
the Papal Legate ten cardinals,
hundreds of archbishops, bishpps
and abbots as well as monsignori,
and thousands of priests. Swarm
ing around the great Cathedral
were tens of thousands of the lai
ty ; only 250 members of the laity,
newspapermen were in the Cathe
dral. But amplmcrs enabled the
others to follow the mass and the
addresses of the cardinals. It
was a queer sensation for those in
side the Cathedral to hear the
thousands outside applaud the Car
dinal legate and the cardinal arch
bishop of Chicago. We hear much
about the conflict between religion
and science. Here was science,
through the amplifier and the ra
dio, aiding religion by bringing
the words of the cardinals and the
music of the mass to millions of
cars outside the edifice.
The congress “is a manifesta
tion of faith—a tremendous visible
act of faith,” declared the Cardi
nal Legate in his opening address.
He paid tribnte to the Holy Father,
to America, to Chicago, to Cardinal
Mundelein. But the congress is to
honor Christ, he said, for “with
out Christ all else iis vain.” This
is why St. Paul filled with the
spirit of Christ, exclaimed: “I live,
now, not I but Christ livetli in
me!’ What a perfect realization
of the end for which Christ gave us
the Eucharist” Which the con
gress was convened to honor.
A million Catholics came to Chi
cago, drawn from the ends of the
earth. “Far be it from us to look
upon it as a demonstration of our
strength and numbers,” declared
Cardinal Mundelein. Little
would it avail us wer- it to vaunt
our superiority and our own glory.
Rather it is our hope that the ex
ample of our vivid attachment to
the Holy Eucharist and our evident
appreciation of the gift that is ours
therein, may encourage the multi
tude of earnest souls outside the
church to learn for themselves of
this marvelous condescension on
God’s part to us humans” in the
sacrament of the Eucharist.
Chicago during the congress held
some of the most learned theolog
ians in the world! There were no
deep, technical treatises expound
ed as sermons; the simple faith of
Pasteur’s Briton peasant’s wife
seemed to be their keynote. There
were pageants such as the Roman
Emperors in all their glory never
achieved, with the Papal Legate as
the central figure, liut there was a
note of humility running through
out—the glory was reftrred to our
Divine Lord in the Eucharist. The
greatest demonstrations the coun
try had ever seen were those work
ed up in times of patriotic fever
when the people were convinced
that their liberties were at stake,
their homes endangered, their lov
ed ones threatened; here was a
gathering perme'ated, as a Miss
issippi Protestant remarked, by a
note of harmony, good will, love
and purely voluntary.
The weather for the congress was
ideal for the first four days, and
for all but 15 minutes of the fifth
day; it was ideal for the spirit of
the congress during those 15 min-’
ut'es. Showers threatened Monday,
hut suddenly the clouds retreated
and the sun streamed out in glo
rious victory. Thursday, when the
procession of the Blessed Sacrament
was being held at Mundelein, the
heavens opened. We have seen the
same thing happen during a police
parade in New York; in 30 seconds
Hie sidewalks were deserted by
their tens of thousands; in another
thirty the police themselves were
under cover. At Mundelein hail
pounded the aged prelates, the wind
all but tore their vestments from
them, the rain drenched them and
blotted out the line between the lake
and the greensward, but the pro
cession went serenely on. All hut a
haudful of the million pilgrims stuck
by their posts, and when the Lord
God of Hosts was borne among
them, down on their knees on the
muddy ground they went to pay
homage to their Creator and Re
deemer., What greater demonstra
tion of faith could one ask? And
what is more needed in our mate
rialistic 20th century?
Sixty thousand children sang the
Mass at the Stadium Monday morn
ing. Two hundred and fifty thou
sand occupied the interior of the
great field; an even larger number
surged around the field and along
the lakefront. We caught a glimpse
of our Rt. Rev. Bishop in the color
ful procession; Bishop Hafcy, of
Raleigh, Bishop Barry of Florida,
Bishop Allen of Mobile, Bishop Ge-
row of Natchez, Bishop Smith of
Nashville, were also there from the
Southeast. So were Abbot Charles
of St. Leo and Abbot Vincent of Bel
mont. attired in cope and mitre,
Cardinal Bonzano presided at the
Mass celebrated at a great altar
erected under the blue dome of
heaven.
Archbishop Curley delivered the
sermon. As he gazed out over the
congregation, stretching a quarter 0 f
a mile away to the other end of the
stadium and more than half that
distance across, he saw the great
est audience one n^an had ever
spoken to up to that time. The
radio and amplifiers brought his
words to other hundreds of thou
sands. Thousands of sisters occu
pied seats in the stands on the gos
pel side.of the field. Seated among
them as a simple pilgrim was the
governor of New York.
Tuesday morning at the Mass at
the Stadium, Captain Rice, presi
dent of the laymen’s association;
was one of the three guards of
honor io the Legate, the guards be
ing attired in the uniform of a
Knight of St. Gregory. The attend
ance was even larger than the pre
vious day. In the evening 250,000
Holy Name men thronged the sta
dium. After the addresses by Sen
ator Walsh and several Cardinals,
all of them on the subject of the
Holy Eucharist., the lights were ex
tinguished, and the 250,000 Holy
Name men lighted candles they car
ried. TEe result was awe-inspiring.
The beauty of heaven was reflected
in that scene.
The Blessed Sacrament was expos
ed continuously at the Cathedral of
the Holy Name. The Cathedral was
thronged at all hours of the day. A
Holy Hour for newspapermen was
scehduled for Tuesday morning from
two to three. Arriving there at
that time we found the edifice sur
rounded by many hundreds and the
body of the church well filled
Masses started at three o’clock, and
were celebrated continuously until
late in the morning, thousands re
ceiving Holy Communion. Laborers
and the great of the nation prayed
together throughout the long watch
es of the night. No indication here
that religion is losing its force!
The procession at Mundelein was
the climax of the Congress. We left
the hotel not long after five in the
morning, after having attended Mass
and received Communion there,
reaching Mundelein, thirty-two miles
away, a few minutes before eleven
o’clock ;Cardinal Hayes was deliv
ering the sermon. If it were not for
our press card we could not have
hoped to get within a half mile of
the Mass. While endeavoring to
reach the press box we lost our
traveling companion. Benedict El
der, of Louisville, Ky., and we have
not found him vet. Our exit was ac
complished by following the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, which played
at the Mass, over a two foot dam
across the lake. Trains were still
discharging capacity loads at Mun
delein when we started back for Chi
cago in the afternoon. We were al
most a thousand miles away before
some of the pilgrims to Mundelein
were back in Chicago.
There was no commercialism con-
nccled with the Congress. One lad
with no conscience collected a dollar
each from a number of motorists for
parking on what developed to be a
public highway, hut incidents of this
kind were rare. There wero GO,000
automobiles at Mundelein, officials
of the Congress estimated. When
ever there was a traffic jam air
planes were sent up to observe con
ditions; traffic was then diverted
over less traveled' roads and the
difficulty solved. Airplanes flew ov
er the grounds almost/ continuously
carrying photographs of the ceremo
nies hack to Chicago or tdlung aeri
al pictures of the gathering.
The Georgia delegation made a
splendid impression. Its members
were distinguished by red hat hands
inscribed with a gold Georgia. Pro
bably three hundred Georgians were
there, a magnificent showing for a
Diocese of 20,004). Other Dioceses in
the Southeast VCere also well repre
sented. It was our pleasure to meet
our Rt. Rev. Bishop near the Sta-
(Continued on page 1) ,^j(