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THE BULLETITq OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA FEBRUARY 15. 1930 THE BULLETIN The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen's Associa- tion of Georgia. RICHARD REID, Editor. Published semi-monthly by the Publicity Department with the Approbation of the Rt. Rev. Bishops of Ra leigh, Charleston. Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile and Natchez. 1409 Lamar Building, Augusta, Georgia. Subscription Price, $2.00 Per Tear. FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE 8. T. Mattingly, Walton Building Atlanta, Ga. ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1928-1929 P. H. RICE, K.C.S.G., Augusta President COL. P. H. CALLAHAN, K.S.G.. Louisville. Ky., ADMIRAL WM. S. BENSON, K.G.S.G.. Washington, D. C. BARTLEY J. DOYLE, Philadelphia Honorary Vice-Presidents J. J. HAVERTY, Atlanta First Vice-President J. B. McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary THOMAS S. GRAY, Augusta Treasurer RICHARD REID, Augusta Publicity Director MISS CEC1LE O. FERRY, Augusta Asst. Publicity Director Vol. XI. February 15, 1930. No. 4. 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. The Encyclical on Education The Macon Telegraph editorially asserts that it finds itself in the mortifying position of sharing Senator Heflin’s distaste for the Pope’s recent encyclical on ed ucation. "It is the Pope’s idea that education is the function I of the Church,” The Telegraph says, to which it re torts that “the theory that the Church has the respon sibility for education is absurd, particularly so in a country where there are 300 religious sects.” It also quotes the Pope as saying that “every method of edu cation founded wholly or in part on a denial of human nature is false,” and continues: “There is much more in the same Strain, hut that is quite enough to indicate the theories of a bachelor in regard to the education of children.” We doubt that Tire Telegraph’s slighting reference to “the theories of a bachelor in regard to the educa tion of children” will be relished by the teachers in Georgia or elsewhere in the United States who have a practical monopoly of the nation’s experience in the j education of children, and a great majority of whom I are unmarried. * I If The Telegraph means to convey to its readers that j "it is the Pope’s idea that education is the function of : the Church” alone, it is in error. Although the official i text of the encyclical is not available as this is being written, the text published by the New York Times is sufficient to indicate that the Church makes no such claim. It does assert that Christ commissioned His Church: “Ail power is given Me in Heaven and on earth. Going, therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.” Tire Church therefore, says the encyclical, has a Divine and inviolable right to teach, and since this right comes from God tire State has no moral right to claim precedence ever it in this field. Not only has tire Church the right to educate, but, Says the encyclical, “families have directly from God the mission and therefore the right to educate their children, which is an inalienable right because intimate ly bound up with family duties, which arc prior to any claims by civil society or by the State and therefore in violable by any earthly authority.” The encyclical Quotes Canon La\y on the point: “Parents are obliged to provide with every means in their power religious, moral, physical and civil education for their children, providing also for their temporal well-being.” The en cyclical quotes in support of this right the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Oregon case: “The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligation.” In the third place, the State as well as the Church and the family has rights and duties in education in a way iorresponding to its aims. It is the duty of the State to protect and promote, not to absorb, families and in dividuals, the encyclical asserts; it is the duty of the State to recognize and protect the educational rights of the Church and the family over Christian education. “Similarly, it is the duty of the State to protect this right in offspring if the educational action of the parents should be lacking, either physically or morally .... Rien the State must complete the work of the Church and families in those cases where it is proved insuf ficient, even by means of schools of its own, because the State more than any other body is provided with adequate means which are placed at its disposal for the benefit of all, and it is right that the State should use these means for the benefit of those who provided them." Is that an assault on the public school system of our country where it is as plain as the Middle West that, if the State did not supplement the educational facilities which these agencies are able to provide, mil lions of our children would be without educational fa cilities? The encyclical of Pope Pius XI on Education contains nothing new; it is but a restatement of the Catholic po sition. Catholics believe that man was created for the honci and glory of God, that the most important thing in existence is the saving of one s soul, and that all other things must be subjected to that. They believe that, , as the then President Coolidge asserted, “a relig ious foundation is necessary if the other attributes of education are to survive”, and that the most important of the “r’s” of education is religion. They believe, therefore, that any system of education which ignores religion is deficient, and in the United Stales they have made provisions to overcome that deficiency by provid ing at their own expense schools of their own in which religion is not excluded. If members of non-Catholic denominations are satis fied with education minus religion, that is their respon sibility. If they provide no educational facilities for their children the State has, according to the Papal En cyclical, the right and the duty “to see to it that all cit izens have necessary knowledge of their civic and na tional duties, and that to the degree of intellectual, moral and physical culture which in the present con ditions of our times is truly indispensable for the com mon good,” and again: “Neither is the State excluded from the task of educating youth by other means and ways which belong to it in virtue of the very authority whereby it is empowered to promote the welfare of its citizens in the temporal order.” Catholics and Religious Education Some of our good friends seem to be of the opinion that no ■ one, not even the Catholic laity, will pay any attention to what the Pope has said in his encyclical on Christian education. They do not know the temper of the Catholic laity. Touch a man’s pocketbook and you touch his heart. When a man’s heart is touched by a movement he will loosen the strings of his purse. In the history of the Church in the United States there have been move ments which appealed to the laity for a while, were supported and then wilted and died for want of sup port. Pleas for support for Catholic enterprises are successful in proportion to the appeal the object of a movement makes to Catholics, Catholic schools are made possible by the sacrifice of the devoted priests and religious who teach in them and the financial support of the laity. Take away the sup port of the laity and the Catholic educational system could not exist for a single month. The State can force a man to pay his school taxes by issuing execution against his property. The Church cannot compel its members to contribute as much a one five-cent piece. Yet the Catholics of the United States today support over 7,000 elementary schools alone, with an attendance of over 2,200,000 pupils, not to mention thousands of high schools and hundreds of colleges. At the same time Catholics are paying at least their share of the support of the public school system. The Catholic laymen and women not only willingly support the Catholic school system but demand religious education for their chil dren. After reading in The Bulletin of the disastrous fire which rendered nearly one hundred and fifty. Sisters, Missionary Servants of the Blessed Trinity, homeless at Holy Trinity, Ala., Mr. Jno. C. Groene, widely known music publisher of Cincinnati, sent a check to the editor to be forwarded to the Sisters. The Bulletin is ready to forward other checks, or they may be sent direct to Rev. Mother Boniface, Missionary Servants of the Blessed Trinity, Holy Trinity, Ala. The Bulletin does not make pleas for funds in its columns even for itself, but the plight of the Sisters at Holy Trinity should appeal to all. The Fruit of the Tree The story of Molokai and Catholic sacrifices for the lepers there is all bult universally familial', but similar heroism of priests, brothers and nuns in many other places sometimes escapes notice. Here, for instance, is a tribute by Rev. C. F. Andrews, a Protestant minister, to the labors of the nuns of the Leper Island Chacacha- care, reprinted from the Trinidad Guardian of the C. B. C. V.: “It would be difficult to speak words of too high praise for the lives of the devoted Sisters of the Poor of the Dominican Congregation of the Catholic Church, who give themselves night and day to. the work of nursing the sick among the lepers. One of the Sisters was with us on the steamer, returning to her ministry after all too short an absence on leave which she had very badly needed. As she walked along the road from ihe jetty, she was greeted with love by everyone she met, young and old alike. The children ran up to her with joy and her whole heart went out to them in love. There was no difference in her affection between one race and another. Each one regarded her as their very own. Her "joy at being back was evident, though her face had already begun to tell of the strain of the life she had set before herself to carry out unto the end. “The words of Christ came instinctively to mind: ’Greater Love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ The Mother Superior welcomed us at the Convent, after our journey through the Leper Settlement was finished. We saw the chapel where the centre of all the Convent life is found—that life of the spirit which has borne up day by day, the trail bodies of those devoted Sisters of the Poor, enabl ing them to carry out with fortitude a life of heroism and loneliness, away from the earthly comforts which most men and women hold dear. It was with deepest reverence that I entered that sanctuary and shared for a few silent moments this spiritual retreat.” Such are the fruits of the Catholic Church, which the anti-Catholic would wipe from the face of the earth. QUESTION BOX BY REV. B. X. O’REILLY Q. For what length of time docs our Lord remain with us alter we receive Him in Holy Communion? A. Our divine Lord, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, remains with us so long as the appearances of Bread are preserved. Under the ordinary operations of digestion these appear ances are soon materially changed. This probably takes place within a few minutes but certainly not more than a quarter of an hour. Q. May one gain the indulgences attached to the Stations more than once in a day? A. While some authorities say that the indulgences may be gained more than once in a day it is not quite cer tain. There are many blessings at tached to the Stations outside of the usual indulgence and _ hence one would' profit by following the Sta tions more than once In a day even though you wuld not gain the in dulgences. Q. It is better to go to confession to a priest who knows you or one who is a stranger? A. That is a matter 1 of personal choice. Some delicate souls do not care to have their confessor know them. Rest assured it will not dis turb the priest whether or not he knows the penitent. If people real ized how little the priest bothers about the personality of his penitent they would feel no fear in going to confession to any priest. If you de sire to go to a strange priest you have that privilege. In the matter of confession the Church gives the wides latitude. Q. If the Church had not permit ted Henry VHI to marry Catherine would it not have saved a lot of trouble? A. The Church granted the dispen sation at the urgent request of the young King. It is easy to make a second guess. Probably had the Church refused and Henry would have married Catherine with the same results. Then the enemies of the Church would have blamed her because she did not grant the dis pensation. There was nothing so un usual in the dispensation to ermit marriage of a man with his deceased brother’s wife. There was another circumstance in this case. Catherine had been married to Prince Arthur, brother’s wife. Queen Catherine declared that the marriage was never consummated. Prince Arthur was a sickly man and died young. Cathe rine was only twenty-six years of age when she married Henry on June 24, 1509. For twenty years Henry cherish ed her, and she bore him five chil dren, three boys and two girls. It was only when Henry became enamored of Anne Boleyn that trou ble began. Henry tried to obtain a divorce from Catherine, but his re" quest of course, was refused by Rome. Henry finally decided to break with Rome and thus brought on the gradual defection of England from the Church. It is absurd and illogical to blame the Church for the lust of a dissolute King. Q. Is there anything wrong in the .science of astrology? A. By astrology we mean knowl edge of the stars. There is a real science of the stars, called astronomy, which treats of their motions, sizes, distances and physical constitution. There is also a false science, called astrology, which investigates the aspects of the planets, their relative positions and their imagined in fluence upon the destinies of men. It is nothing more than divination of stars. Divination has always been condemned, and the faithful warned against diviners in the Old Law and in the New. Read the words of God’s judgment upon Babylon in Isaias. The Fathers cf the Church, from the earliest cenuries, denounced it. The progress of science in our days has completely discredited judical astrol ogy. There may be some truth in natural astrology, which claims a na tural influence upon tides, plant life, and weather conditions, by the sun and the planets. But the position taken by Whateley, the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, is untenable in the light of modern science, and in contradiction to all the teaching of the Catholic Church. Q. Is it pennissable to receive Holy Communion at midnight Mass if a person has eaten,at ten? A. The rules governing l h e Eucharistic fast are no different on Christmas than on any other day. It is advised that those who would re ceive Communion at midnight Mass should observe a fast of a couple of hours before midnight as a matter of respect and in the spirit of the Eucharistic fast. Should one eat or drink before midnight there would be no sin did they receive Holy Com munion during the midnight Mass. Q. What do you mean by the hierarachy in the Church? A. There is a twofold hierachy, that of order and that of jurisdiction. The former comprises all those who are in sacred orders, namely, bishops, priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcist?, lecters and porters. The hierarachy of jurisdiction is made up of all those who govern in the- Church. They are, the _ Pope, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, vicars apostolic, profects, apostolic, pastors and rectors. Q. Does the Catholic Church ex communicate a Catholic who applies for a divorce? Can the Sacraments Dixie Musirtgs ! This is Catholic Press Month. Pope Leo XIII said that “a Catholic news paper is a perpetual mission in the Catholic home.” Pope Pius X assert- -ed: “In vain will you found missions and build schools if you are not able to wield the offenstoe and defensive weapons of a loyal Catholic press. ’ Catholic newspapers have discontin ued publication recently in St. Louis Grand Rapids, Mich., Sacramento, Cal., and Phoenix, Ariz., where Ca tholics are more numerous than in this section. What, are you doing to help support the Catholic newspap.r of the Southeast? There is no more acceptable: time than the present. It you are not a subscriber, send in your check today. If you are, do you not know some friend, layman, priest or Sister, who would welcome a subscription to The Bulletin from you? Rev. Lucian Ducie, C. P., of the Passionist Fathers, Pittsburgh, gave a mission at St. Mary’s-On-The-Hill, Augusta, two weeks ago, and his ser mons were reported extensively by the Augusta newspapers. A reader of one newspaper who objected to Father Lucian’s belief in immortali ty, also refused in his letter to the newspaper to call him Father; to him he was Mr. Ducie for he saw no au thority in the Bible to call anyonc- Father, or Reverend, or Doctor of Divinity or Rabbi. One of our Au gusta rivals of Will Rogers comments that he has gone all through the Scriptures and finds no more author ity there for calling a man Mister. Rev. Dr. William Russell Owen, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Columbus, formerly pastor at Macon has left to become pastor of the First Baptist Church at Asheville. During his stay in Georgia The Bull etin has had occasion to comment approvingly on several of his utter ances. The Columbus _ Enquirer-Sun editorially refers to him as a “live wire.” But we do not recall that on that account he ever was shock ing. D, J. Callahan, supreme treasurer of the Knights of Columbus, who in stituted the Savannah Council nearly thirty years ago, was a recent visi tor in that city, and his visit recall ed the personnel of the first class initiated there. Bill Biffem in his column in the Savannah Press as serts that a number of members of the class, including Col. M. J. O' Leary and John J. Powers, were ini tiated under a special dispensation, owing to their youth. But you can’t put too much reli ance in what Bill Biffem says. The last time the editor of The Bulletin was in Savannah the farmers of the Savannah—"district were meeting there. Bill asserted in his column that the writer was around the lob by of the hotel trying to look like a farmer. We don’t have to try. The Echo of Buffalo asserts there are still at least 6.000.000 slaves in the world, most of them in Abyssinia, Arabia and China. "A thriving bus iness is still carried on kidnapping negroes in Central Africa and driv ing them to market.” “Uncle Jim” Williams of Jie Greensboro Herald-Journal says that dying from natural causes in this day and time means getting killed by an automobile. Editor E. H. Griffin of the Bain- bridge Post-Searchlight, known in Georgia Press Association and in Montreal as Pat. discusses the action of people of Warren County in re fusing to allow Ben Davis Negro Republican National Committeeman from Georgia to speak there on Emancipation Day. This, Editor Griffin says, was a terrible blunder, and for more reasons than one. “It was the anniversary cf his freedom, and the poorer eloss of white peo ple were freed from shackled com petition when the Negroes were freed, and they have cause for joy over the same action. Imagine If you can the condition of the poorer white folks if Negro slavery was in vogue today.’ That is ' a neglected but powerful thought. Senator Grundy of Pennsylvania has referred to the non-industrial states as backward commonwealths. The Philadelphia Record asserts it is quite possible to label some states more “backward” than others, “but the question is as to the proper standards of comparisons. Mr. Grundy's tests are wealth and prop erty.” But there are other tests, The Record says, good government, for instance, civic spirit, social idealism, the level of general happiness and well-being. And in this connection it reminds the Senator that “Penn sylvania and the Atlantic Seaboard States have the highest infant mor tality in the United States. In spite of what your newly appointed Sen ator says about ‘backward Western and Southern States,’ they have a lower infant mortality rate than you do.’ Such, The Record intimates, is the price of industrial leadership. The Senator thought he was settling the question of “backward states,” “But he was just opening it up.” he refused to snch party? A. If a Catholic have sufficient reason to get a divorce as a matter of protection it would carry no penal ty. Such action should not be taken without the advice and consent of ecclesiastical authority. It would be a grievous sin for a Catholic to seek a divorce with the intention to marry another. There are conditions under which the Church will permit a legal separation but no one should seek such action until they have con sulted their confessor.