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J&uttrMn
Official Organ of the Catholic Laymens Association^&or^ia
“TO BEING ABOUT A FRIENDLIER FEELING AMONG GEORGIANS, IRRESPECTIVE OF CREED”
The Only Catbsltc
Newspaper Between Bal
timore and New Orleans
TEN CENTS A. COPT.
VOL. VIII, No. 9.
AUGUSTA, GA., MAY 7, 1927.
ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY
$2.00 A YEA it
u. s,
YEAR B04.574 CATHOLIC
Kenedy’s Official Publication
Gives Church Membership
in 1926 as 19,483,286.
(By N. C. W. C. News Service.)
New York.—Substantial gains in
the number of Catholics in the Unit
ed Stales, in the number .of priests,
of churches and of schools, and in
virtually every department of Cath
olic endeavor, are recounted in the
1927 edition of The Official Catholic
Directory, which has just been pub
lished hv P. J. Kenedy and Sons
of New York.
r According to the directory there
I are now 19,483,296 Catholics in the
United States. This is an increase of
604,574 over the 1926 membership
recorded by the volume, and al
though 103,100 of the number are ac
counted for by the inclusion in. the
General Summary of the Vicariate-
Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands,
the gain still remains large.
There are now 24,990 priests serv
ing 17,651 churches. This is a gain
of 638 priests, and an increase of 271
churches. There are now 6,995 pa
rochial schools in the United States,
an increase over last year of 176, and
the number of pupils attending these
schools is now 2,167,241, a gain of .94,
775. There has been a substantial
increase in the number of seminar
ies. There are now 13,988 as against
12 595 last year. This is a gain ot
1,39.3, an indication that vocations
to the priesthood are on the increase
rather than on the decrease.
The number of orphans in orphan
asylums is somewhat less than it
was last year. There are now 128
Homes for the Aged as against 117
listed in the 1926 Official Catholic
Directory, and 613 hospitals arc list
ed in the 1927 edition.
There are 17 archbishops and 99
bishops, making a total of 116 in
the Hierarchy' of the United States.
The 1927 Official Catholic Direc
tory has been improved in a dozen
respects over the 1926 book, both in
its contents and in typographical ap
pearance and ease of use. These im
provements have undoubtedly made
it one of the finest volumes of its
kind printed. The pages are con
siderably increased in size and the
bulk of the book is considerably les
sened, making both for beter appear
ance and usahlencss.
In addition, the text matter has
been increased and several new and
important features arc included.
* Chief among them is a map in col
ors showing the Provinces of the
United States and the limits of each
archdiocese and diocese.
There are included, as well, in this
edition for the first time, statistics
of converts throughout the country.
While several of the larger Church
divisions did not report the number
of their converts for this, the first
summary, even with these omissions
the total reaches 35,751. It is ex
pected that next year complete data
in this respect will he available.
Another feature of interest is the
inclusion of data regarding the dio
cesan agencies of Catholic charities
in the United States. This informa
tion is grouped under the various
States. Data concerning mission ac
tivities in the country has been re
arranged, and the missionary com
munities are now listed separately
and the misionary societies grouped
together, both under the general
( headings Home Missions and Foreign
Missions. Much data also are given
on the foreign missions conducted by
the various Orders and societies in
the United States.
Still another feature which is new
for this year is the inclusion of sta
tistics on hospitals.
Methodist Bishop Asserts Calles’
Laws Are Bad For All Religions
D. F. Kelly, Chicago, First
Life Member of C. P. A.
D. F. KELLY
Chicago—Simon Baldus, president
of the Catholic Press Association an
nounces that the distinction of be
ing the association’s first life mem
ber belongs to D. F. Kelly, one of
Chicago’s most prominent citizens
This announcement is of importance
at this time for the reason that at
the seventeenth annual convention
of the Catholic Press Association,
which will be held at Savannah, Ga.
May 19, 20, 21, a nation-wide drive
for life members will he launched.
The life membership fee is one
hundred dollars Mr. Baldus announ
ces. A carefully worked out plan,
which will provide for the enrol
ment of 500 life members in the
United States, will be presented to
the convention. Its adoption will
create a permanent fund of $50,000
to be invested in interest bearing
securities, the yearly yield from
which will be distributed as
awards among Catholic authors and
writers generally. The fund will be
known as the Catholic Literary
Awards Foundation of the Catholic
Press Association, and will make
possible the annual distribution of
$2,500 in awards. Great interest has
been aroused by the announcement.
Mr. Kelly, the association’s first
life member, is president of The
Fair, one of Chicago’s biggest depart
ment stores. He is prominent in
civic and social affairs. He was one
of the organizers of the Associated
Catholic Charities of Chicago in 1918,
and has been its president from the
beginning. He was created a Knight
of the Order of St. Gregory by Pope
Benedict XV; and a Knight Com
mander of the same order by Pope
Pius XI. He is a commissioned Lieu
tenant Colonel of the Illinois lie-
serve Militia. In 1924. De Paul Uni
versity conferred on him the degree
of doctor of laws.
Bishop McConnell of Pitts
burgh Tells Civic Club It Is
Wrong to Blame Catholics
For Recent Train Attack
(By N. C. \V. C. News Service.)
Pittsburgh.—The Calles laws hear
ing on religion in Mexico were flatly
characterized as “bad” by Bishop Mc
Connell, head of the Methodist
Church for the Pittsburgh district,
in an address here April 25. They
hamper the operation of all religions
he said:
Bishop McConnell spoke before the
Hungry Club, a group of men or
ganized to seek understanding on
current questions. A week before,
the club had heard William F. Mon-
tavon, head of the N. C. W. C. Legal
Department and an authority on Lat
in American affairs, who condemned
not only the religious persecution in
Mexico but also Calles’ policy of
throwing justice and the laws of the
country to the winds in seeking to
win his ends. Each of the meetings
was attended by more than 400.
While he saw the agrarian prob
lem as the key to the Mexican sit
uation and discussed oil and land
seizures, Bishop McConnell devoted
much time to the religious phase of
the question. Notably, he denied
several of the charges glibly made
against Catholics in Mexico by uni
formed persons.
Neither the Catholic church nor
the oil companies, he ass-erted, want
intervention in Mexico by the Unit
ed States. In this connection, he
cited the Pastoral Letter on Mexico
issued by the United States Bishops
which denied any such intent. He
praised the Pastoral Letter warmly
and, pointing to its moderation, de
clared that I here is far too much in
cendiary talk today on Mexico.
Bishop McConnell also asserted
that it si wrong to blame the Cath
olic Church for the recent bloody
train attack in Mexico. He praised
a large group of the Mexican Cath
olic clergy.
With regard to religious persecu
tions of the past, which are con
stantly being brought into discus
sions of the Mexican situation, he
said that in general Proteslants were
as much to blame as Catholics—that
it was a question of ins and outs.
Bishop McConnell’s clref pica was
that there he no war in Mexico. He
was introduced hv Joseph A. Beck,
prominent Catholic attorney of
Pittsburgh.
Mr. Montavon. in his address a
week before, asserted that the Cath
olic Church in Mexico is not dis
obeying the laws of the country and
that it has not appealed to the peo
ple of the United States to defend
it with force and never will.
Plans for the entertainment of the
Catholic Press Association in Savan
nah are well in hand under the di
rection of a committee of Savannah
laymen, headed by Col. M. .1.
O’l-eary. The Savannah committee
has arranged an elaborate program
for the distinguished visitors, who
will come from every section of the
United States and Canada; the pro
gram will be announced in the next
issue of Tlie Bulletin. It is the Sa
vannah committee’s intention to en
tertain the convention as it never
has been entertained before and to
make it worthy of Savannah’s repu
tation for hospitality. The conven
tion comes to Georgia and Savan
nah at The Bullelio’s invitation.
HALF OF MEXICO’S
BISHOPS EXILED
Most of Others in Hiding—
Expulsion of Bishops Viola
tion of Constitution Calles
Pretends to Hold So Sacred
Loyola University Dean to
Attend Savannah Meeting
REV. CLAUDE J. PEUNIN, S. .1.
Father Pernin, who will deliv
er an address on Fiction in
Catholic Magazines at the meet
ing of the magazine section of
the Catholic Press Association
of the United States and Canada
in Savannah May 19-21, is d' 4
of the department of English
Literature at Lovola University,
Chicago, and widely kno~n in
educational and literary circles.
Father Pcrnin, who is also an as
sociate editor of Extension Mag
azine, was the official broadcast
er of the great Encharistic Con
gress in Chicago last June. His
address at the C. P. A. conven
tion will be discussed by Rev.
Benedict Brown, O. S. B., Mein-
rad. Ind., editor of The Grail,
and Miss Ames Roberts Martin,
associate editor of Good Counsel
Magazine. Philadelphia.
EH. THEN BECOMES
MOBILE BISHOP MAY A
Archbishop Gurley Consecra-
tor, Bishop Keyes and Bis
hop Gerow Co-Consecrators
Groups Join in Good Will Move
(By N. C. W. C. News Service.)
New York.—The creation of a per
manent commission of Catholics.
Protestants and Jews which seeks to
promote a better understanding and
to shape the public mind toward just
treatment of all groups, has been
announced by the American Hebrew,
an organ which for some time has
stood for amity among people of dif
ferent faiths.
The members of the commission
’ are the Rev. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman,
Martin Conboy, Judge Victor J. Dow
ling, the Rev. Francis P. Duffy, Dr.
W. H. Fauncc, Judge Irvings Leh
man, former Ambassador Ilenry
Morgentlian, Dean Roscoe Pound of
Harvard Law School, and Babbi Ste
phen S. Wise.
A large part of the commission’s
work will consist in opinion making,
while it will also combat propagan
da tending to cause strife between
races and creeds, such as that re
cently aimed against the Knights of
Columbus and the Jews. The oppres
sion of minorities by foreign govern
ments, as in the case of the Jews in
Rouniania. will he acted upon too.
The commission will avoid political
entanglements and will have no of
ficers nor any regular program of
action. It will meet when there aris
es need to redress a wrong.
Sixteen of the thirty-three Bi
shops of Mexico in charge of Sees
have been driven from the country
by Calles, and of the seventeen re
maining, the N. C. W. C. says, all but
four are reported to he either under
arrest or in hiding. Total expulsions
for the week ending April 23 were
eleven, four archbishops and two
bishops, all exiled from the land of
their birth, without notice or trial
and in direct violation of the Con
stitution which the Calles govern
ment pretends to hold so sacred.
The latest move of the govern
ment followed the attack on a pas
senger train near Guadalajara by
revolutionists and which the Calles
officials charged the bishops with
inspiring, a charge the bishops vig
orously denied. In an effort to in
cite the people the government is
sued a statement stating that in the
attack the daughter of a former
president of Mexico was killed; it
lias since been shown that this was
not true.
On April 21 six bishops were sum
moned to the office of the. Minister
of the Interior and told they must
leave the country that night; he ac
cused them, because of their silence
following the recent pastoral of the
Bishop of Durango, of taking part
in the rebellion which is now seeth
ing through the land and which the
Washington Post describes editorial-
(Continued on page 8)
(Sperial to The Bulletin.)
Baltimore, Md.—When The Bul
letin reaches its readers this week,
the Diocese of Mobile will have a
new Bishop and Bt. Rev. Thomas J.
Toolcn, I). 1)., will have received
episcopal consecration and be ranked
is a successor of the Apostles and
take his place in the list of saintly
and able prelates who have headed
the Church in Alabama and Western
Florida since its erection a century
or so ago.
The consecration takes place Wed
nesday in the Baltimore Cathedral,
with Most Rev. Michael J. Curley, D
D., Archbishop of Baltimore, as con
secrating prelate, assisted by Rt. Rev,
Michael J. Keyes, D. D., Bishop of
Savannah, and Rt. Rev. IVchard O.
Gerow. I) D., Bishop of Natchez, co-
consecrators. The sermon will.be
delivered by Bt. Bev. Joseph A. Cun-
rane, pastor of St. Andrew’s Church
here.
Rev. William A. Toolcn, the Bish
op-elect’s brother, pastor of St. Ed
ward's Church, arch-priest at his
first Mass, and Rev Dr. John I. Bar
rett, Arclidiocesan Director of Edu-
ation, a fellow-student of the new
Bishop in his high school, seminary
and university days and an associate
fContir"”- 1 on page 5.)
Governor’s Reply
Wins Universal
Commendation
Nation’s Press and Leaders
Acclaim It as Convincing
and Conclusive Document.
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
New York.—Governor Alfred E.
Smith’s answers to questions put to
him by Charles C. Marshall, ail at
torney of New Yerk, to elicit his
views as an American citizen and
presidential candidate respecting the
relations of Church and State in
America are pronounced even by
new-papers of hostile political opin
ions as proofs at once of Ilia loy
alty to his religion and to his coun-
trj\ The press hails the gover
nor's reply not only as a complete
and convincing exposition of' his
Americanism hut as an epochal pro
nouncement on the subject of the
Catholic's fealty to his failh and his
fatherland.
The answers were published gen
erally in the newspapers April 18.
anticipating the date originally fixed
for their release by the Atlantic
Monthly, to which they were given.
This earlier publication, it is ex
plained, was due to the fact that two
newspapers to which they were fur
nished in advance printed them pre
maturely. Mr. Marshall’s questions,
to which Governor Smith now makes
answer, were also published in the
Atlantic Monthly.
Under the heading “Catholic and
Patriot: Governor Smith Replies,"
the Atlantic Monthly precedes Gov
ernor Smith’s answers with its own
characterization of their signifi
cance.
“This is an historic incident, his
toric for the country and for the
church,” says the monthly. Declar
ing than that the discussion in its
columns has “served its purpose,"
the Atlantic continues:
“Not in this campaign will whis
pering and innuendoes, shruggings
and hunchings, usurp the place of
reason and argument. The thoughts
rising almost unbidden in the minds
of the least bigoted of us when we
watch a Roman Catholic aspire to
the presidency of the United States
have become matters of high, seri
ous and eloquent debate.” ’
Governor Smith explains in his
letter that the answers which he has
to make to the theological questions
raised by Mr. Marshall were pre
pared by him in collaboration with
the Rev. Francis I’. Duffy, “whose
patriotism,” says the governor, ad-
dressmg his interrogator, ‘neither
you nor any other man will ques
tion.” “He (Father Duffy) wears
upon liis breast the Distinguished
Service Medal, the Ribbon of the Le
gion of Honor, and the Croix de
Guerre with Palm of the French Re
public,” Governor Smith points out.
In what lie describes as b- : s “creed
as an American Catholic,” Governor
Smith meets every challenge of Mr,
Marshall. Some points of this state
ment of his belief as a Catholic and
an American, are:
“I believe in the worship of God
according to the faith and practice
of the Roman Catholic church.
“1 recognize no power in the in
stitutions of m.v church to interfere
with the operation of the constitu
tion of the United States or the en
forcement of the law of the land.
'“I believe in absolute freedom of
conscience for all men and in equal
ity of all churches before the law
as a matter of right and not as a
matter of favor.
“I believe in the absolute separa
tion of church and state and in the
(Continued on page 4)
What Governor Smith Believes
I believe in the worship of God
according to the faith and practice
of the Roman Catholic church. I
recognize no power in the institu
tion of my church to interfere with
the operations of the Constitution
of the United States or the enforce
ment of the law of the land.
I believe in absolute freedom of
conscience for all men and in equa
lity of all churches, all sects, and
all beliefs before the law as a matter
of right and not a matter of favor.
I believe in the absolute separa
tion of church and state and in the
strict enforcement of flic provisions
of the constitution that congress
shall make no law respecting an es
tablishment of religion or prohibit
ing the free exercise thereof.
I believe that no tribunal of any
church has any power to make any
decree of any force in the law of
the land, other than to establish the
status of own communicants within
its own church.
I believe in the support of the
public school as one of the corner
stones of American liberty. I be
lieve in the right of every parent to
choose whether his child shall he
educated in the public school or in
a religious school supportecl by those
of his own faith.
I believe in the principle of non
interference by this country in the
internal affairs of other nations and
that we should stand steadfastly
against any shell interference by
whomsoever it may be urged.
And I believe in the common
brotherhood of man under the com
mon fatherhood of God.—From Gov
ernor Smith’s reply iu the Atlantis
Monthly.