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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
SEPTEMBER 23, 1933
THE BULLETIN
Official Organ of the Catholic
tion of Georgia
Laymen’s Associa-
RICHARD REID. Editor
Lamar Building
Subscription Price. $2.00
Augusta. Georgia
Per Year
h*
•called semi-monthly by the Publicity Department
e Approbation of the Most Rev. Bishops of Re-
Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile,
ez, and Nashville and of the RL Rev. Abbot,
ary of Belmont. .
nber of N. C. W. C. News Service, the Catholic
Association of the United States, the Georgia
Association and the National Editortn) Association
ORE1GN
Georee J
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Callahan. 240 Broadway. New York.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1931-1932
. RICE. K. C. S. G., Augusta President
HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENTS
p. H. CALI, AH AN, K. S. G Louisville, tty.
1TLEY J. DOYLE Philadelphia
HAVERTY, Atlanta First Vice-President
. McCALLUM, Atlanta ...Secretary
MAS S. GRAY. Augusta Treasurer
HARD REID. Augusta Publicity Director
S's . .ECILE FERRY. Augusta. Asst. Publicity Director
XIV.
September 23. 1933
No. 17
Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921. at the
ast Office at Augusta, Ga., under Act of March. 1873,
cepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided
in Section 1103, Act of Qctober 3. 1917, authorized
rvtorr.her 1. 1921. ^
The Clergy and Politics
Iv.PLAINTS about the Catholic clergy meddling in
politics are heard from time to time, and they are
st frequently voiced, curiously enough, by clergymen
ose own participation in politics is as evident as that
the Congressmen from their respective districts.
ere is not a priest in Congress; there has been only
e in the entire history of the Republic, and that one a
entury or more ago. Yet there are many Congressional
ricts overwhelmingly Catholic. There is not a priest
n the legislatures of any one of the forty-eight states,
lthought many legislative districts are inhabited by few
ut Catholics. The most recent example of a priest in a
egislature was in New Hampshire where he was elected
-.gainst his will and, having been so elected, refused to
-erve. But there is hardly a Congress without ministers
mong its members, and there are scores and perhaps
undreds of legislators who are ministers.
These ministers have a legal right to their posts, to
ich they were duly elected, and we shall not criticize
for thus engaging in politics, but we do submit that
evidence does not indicate that it is the Catholic
wh%are in politics.
t. Paul in his letter to Timothy (II Tim., II, 4) says:
one who is a soldier in the service of God entangles
self in secular .affairs.” That is the position of the
tholic Church—and there is its statement by the Third
uncil of Baltimore formulated into positive law and
proved by the Pope:
“Let those who are ambassadors for Christ, whose
ingdom is not of this world (II Cor. V. 20) beware lest
ey rashly address to their people arguments concerning
olitics or other matters which have not the slightest
mecticn with the exercise of their ministry.”
“We decree that the very wholesome admonitions of
e Fathers of Baltimore concerning the elimination of
he clergy from participation in political discussions
■hall be emphasized again and again. ‘Let our clergy’
hey say, ‘take prudent care lest they interfere in the
lightest degree with the judgment of their people in all
those questions which deal with a civic or social program
-hich does not transgress the bounds of Christian teach-
g and legislation, and in which the decisions of the
aithful must be left absolutely free.
‘ ‘To the people of the world must be left the problems
conflicts of political parties, the struggles for power
the resentments of disappointed ambition. See to
ihat not in the slightest degree shall you involve the
airs of our Holy Faith in the fate of any faction.’
ercfore, let priests scrupulously refrain from a public
cussicn of either political or merely worldly problems
it only outside the church but much more scrupulously
ithin the church.”
There are times and occasions when assaults on the
ghts of the Church require the clergy to make use of
gitimate political means for the Church’s protection, as
hen an organized political effort was made to outlaw
'.holic schools in Washington, Oregon and Michigan,
t those c»"“s are extremely rare, and the attitude of
Church is indicated by the situation in Mexico and
ain, where the clergy, despite the injustices to which
he Church is subjected, are refraining from politics—•
supported assertions to the contrary notwithstanding;
-v are “leaning over backwards” in order to avoid even
ippearance of “meddling in politics.” The chief re-
'cms to be that certain such meddlers in this
ntry pause long enough to accuse the clergy here
id elsewhere of following the example they deny they
■e setting.
The schools of the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., saved the
public treasury $282,300 during the past year, at a low
per capita estimate of $75; on the same basis, the 20,000
pupils in the Catholic schools of the state saved the tax
payers more than one and a half million dollars. And
Nebraska is not one of our centers of Catholic population.
Catholics and Intolerance
T HOSE who are continually disturbed by the “intol
erance of Catholics “might meditate with profit on I
the recent boast of the Minister of Labor for Northern
Ireland at a meeting of Orangemen that of the thirty men
employed by porters at the Parliament House in Belfast,
only one is a Catholic “and he is only temporary.” Yet
perhaps one-third of the population of Northern Ireland
is Catholic.
Such boasts and declarations of a continuance of this |
un-Christian policy have brought protests from Orange
men in Southern Ireland, where Catholics are almost as |
numerous proportionately as Protestants in Georgia, and
where Protestants have many times the number of pub
lic offices and public employment than they would be
entitled to on a population basis. “We Orange and
Protestants must live in and by the Free State,” writes
one Protestant minister, the Rev. W. J. Mitchell of
County Cavan. “The leaders of the North should
remember this, and help us by at least being con
siderate.” One method of consideration he urges is that
“such (anti-Catholic) instructions should be given at
Lodge meetings, not at Orange demonstrations, where
capital will be made by many in the Free State who are
opposed to everything British.”
The situation in the Catholic and the non-Catholic
parts of Ireland is more* or less typical. We pride our
selves that the spirit of intolerance is infinitely weaker
in the United States than in" .Northern Ireland, and it is.
On the other hand, there are numerous communities in
the United States where Catholics constitute a sizeable
proportion of the population and pay a substantial part
of the school taxes, and where it is impossible for a
Catholic to get a post as public school teacher. But we
can safely challenge anti-Catholics to cite an instance of
similar intolerance on the part of Catholics against
Protestants in communities where the proportions are
reversed.
Dixie Musings
The newspapers throughout the na
tion and the world announced July
2 that Hitler was to leave the Cath
olic Church and join the Protestant
communion.
When a Catholic leaves the Church,
it is a matter of more concern to
the individual than to the welfare of
the Church, even though "that in
dividual be the head of a nation.
But Hitler says that he has not
joined any Protestant denomination
or left the Catholic Church. The
correction has been made in few
newspapers, and even there it will
hardly overtake the erroneous in
formation.
This is another indication of the
value of the Catholic Press. While
it is human and liable to err, it does
not make the errors involved in sen
sational journalism which regards
reader interest as the first criterion
of a story, and truth as a subsequent
requirement.
Over in Ireland they have General
O’Duffy’s Blue Shirts. Why not
green? Blue is the color of St. Pat
rick, the Irish color, General O’Duffy
says. Green was introduced two hun
dred years ago, to quote the general
again.
Blue was introduced in -the United
States in 1929, and the nation has been
getting bluer and bluer all the time.
But now comes the Blue Eagle, to
absorb all the blueness from the eco
nomic atmosphere.
We are not prepared to discuss the
merits of the contending parties in
Cuba, but the fall of President Ger
ardo Machado of the republic occa
sioned a pang of regret among the
editors of Georgia who met him on
a visit of the Georgia Press Associa
tion to Cuba several years ago.
Criteria of Civilization
r y'HE Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal, in an editorial
entitled: “A Revolt Against Ignorance,” reflects the
impressions of a goodly number of Americans whose in
dex of civilization is the radio, free wheeling and the
non-stop flight.
“Spain has never given to the world great physical
scientists, educators of leaders of thought,” says the
Courier-Journal, and of course it blames the Church.
Spain gave us Columbus, who gave civilization the
new world, Balboa, who gave us the Pacific, De Soto,
who gave us the Mississippi,” says Benedict Elder in a
letter to The Courier-Journal. “It gave us Las Casas,
who prevented the Indians being enslaved like the
Negroes. It gave us Romanticism in literature above the
contribution of any other nation. It gave us Campanella,
the first of the Utopian writers, centuries preceding
Thomas More. It gave us Vittoria, recognized father of
international law. It gave us Murillo, one of the great
est of master painters; Cervantes, one of the greatest of
classicists; Algue, one of the most noted physicists of the
nineteenth century, who invented the instrument used
to detect the approach of cyclones.”
“The government,” says The Courier-Journal, “feels
that the standard of culture of the religious orders is
low.” In the United States, members of religious orders
spend from eight to fourteen years beyond high school in
study before ordination. The rule is the same in Spain.
Members of religious orders in the United States
frequently go to Europe for their advanced studies, to
Oxford and Cambridge, to Germany, Spain, Ireland,
France, Switzerland, Rome, and they do not find the cul
ture of the religious orders any lower in Spain than the
culture of the other countries they select for their ad
vanced studies.
Edmund Burke said that he did not know how to draft
in indictment against a whole nation. Those like the
editorial writer in The Courier-Journal do it easily, “al
most casually,” to quote Mr. Elder.
Th^ Courier-Journal and those of like mind uncon
sciously take the provincial position that a culture differ
ent from ours is no culture. Those whose knowledge of
Spain is not based merely on newspaper headlines but
on a study of Spanish history, art and literature and on
contact with the Spanish people know that the Spanish
are a people of great even if different culture. That our
brand of culture gives greater happiness than Spain’s is
a thesis which its most ardent advocates have been de
fending with ebbing assurance during the past four years.
President Machado received the
Georgia editors not only courteously
but graciously and cordially; every
possible attention was showered on
them. They were made honorary
members of the senate and went into
session with the flow of oratory ap
parently inevitable when a senate gets
into action anywhere; the flood of
oratory floated countless bouquets in
the direction of the president, of
ficial Cuba and the Cuban people.
The President was in the height of
his popularity then. A great public
works program, including a highway
through the island from Havana to
Santiago, and the great Capitol at
Havana, kept thousands of unemploy
ed busy. The bottom Tad not fallen
out of the sugar market. But with
the coming of the depression his pop
ularity declined, and he had to go,
even as did President Hoover. The
mechanics of the transitions differed
somewhat, however.
Among those renewing their sub
scriptions to The Bulletin recently
(and adding something for the work
of the Association was the Rev.
Charles D. Wood, of Middletown, N.
Y., for many years pastor of his
toric St. Mary’s Church, Charleston,
and St. Anne’s Church, Sumter. Mid
dletown is the home city of Father
Wood, and he has been living there
since his retirement as pastor of St.
Mary’s. Recently he officiated at the
dedication of the new home of
the Montgomery. N. Y„ Council of
the Knights of Columbus.
On the occasion of the recent dia
mond jubilee of the appearance of the
Blessed Virgin to Blessed Bernadette
of Lourdes, a Solemn Mass was sung
at six in the evening, this privilege
being granted by the Holy Father
because it was at that hour that the
Blessed Virgin first appeared to Ber
nadette.
ans or Baptists or anyone else, and
his objection to the coupling of a
visit to the Vatican with one to the
Methodists was based on the fact that
those who were in charge of the
Methodist work in Rome at the time
were doing everything they could to
give aid and comfort to the notorious
Nathan, Mayor of Rome, whose main
purpose in life seemed to be to try
to annoy the Holy Father. How many
persons now living remember even
the name of Nathan?
There would be a parallel situation
if the President of the United States
agreed to receive a distinguished
churchman only if that churchman
agreed during his visit to Washing
ton not to pay a similar official call
to officials of some organization giv
ing aid and comfort to a campaign
of vilification against him.
President Roosevelt called neither
on the Holy Father, because he did
not like any stipulation being attach
ed to his visit, nor on the Methodists,
because he objected to their capitaliz
ing the incident. The Methodists now
in Rome seem to have a different
attitude from that of those who pre
cipitated this difficulty. President
Roosevelt never referred to the in
cident, at least publicly. Now his son
is received by the Holy Father.
Henry Ford observed his seventi
eth birthday at about the same time
that Mussolini passed the half cen
tury mark. When Ford was fifty Mus
solini was nothing but one of Italy’s
teeming millions. Calvin Coolidge was
a new member of the Massachusetts
State Senate, President Roosevelt was
a member of the New York State
Senate, Cardinal Hayes was the rec
tor of Cathedral College, and the
Holy Father was Vatican Librarian.
Many in similar positions now will
be in the seats of the mighty in
twenty years. In ten.
The Acting Mayor of Boston, Mr.
McGrath, is quoted as urging in a ra
dio address that some schools and
churches be taxed. The Boston Pilot
directs the attention of Mr. McGrath,
who comes by his name honestly, to
the fact that there are 146 parochial
schools in the Archdiocese of Boston,
taught by 2,275 religious teachers. At
a thousand dollars a year, which is
away below the average salary of
public schools in the territory cover
ed by the Archdiocese—we suspect
that $1,500 would be nearer the cor
rect figure—these schools save the
taxpayers of Boston and its vicinity
the sum of $2,275,000 annually, to say
nothing of buildings, supplies, up
keep, books—they have free text
books in the schools of Massachusetts
—supervisors’ salaries, etc.
If churches and non-profit private
schools were to be taxed, it would be
necessary to close many of them. If
it is deemed advisable now to propose
that religious schools be taxed to meet
public expenses, including those of
the public schools, what would public
officials do if such procedure closed
Catholic schools and threw these
thousands of children—about 2,500,000
in the United States—on the public
for their education?
This will be enough to make some
good people suspect the Catholicitv of
the Pope. The Church’s suspending,
for good reason, a rule it made it
self Is always an occasion of scan
dal for some folks. Fortunately, they
are pot scandalized when legislative
or other non-religious bodies so act;
otherwise they would be so busy be
ing scandalized that they would have
no time to arrange for the meals or
mow the lawn, as the case may be.
As for the taxation of churches,
well, what have our Protestant neigh
bors to say to that?
A murder trial in Massachusetts
dominated front pages recently, The
defendant, accused of murdering her
husband, had an Irish name.
There have been hundreds of noto
rious murder trials in recent years.
The defendants in practically all ot
them had anything but Irish names.
In our own section they are practical
ly all what we like to call good old
American names-
Someone writing to Johnny Spen
cer’s column in the Macon Telegraph
asserts that the California judge did
not fine the young lady from the
coast for throwing eggs at Aimee’s,
husband, but for missing him. Had
her aim been more accurate the
yoke would have been on him.
Bishop Guilleme, a native of France, who observes the
fiftieth anniversary of his ordination and of his service |
as a missionary in Africa in September, has rescued 1,500
slaves. Pioneering is only starting in some of the mis
sion fields.
‘Bishop Starts Drive on Slot Ma
chines,” says a headline in The Bos
ton Herald. But this bishop is not
a prelate turned policeman, but a
district attorney named Bishop.
Professor Theodore Abel of Columbia University in
“Protestant Home Missions of Catholic Immigrants asserts
that Protestant denominations have spent between 50,-
000,000 and $100,000,000 for proselytizing Catholic aliens
in the United States during the past half century, yet
members of Protestant home mission churches total only
50,000 and 60,000, this number including converts from
Catholicism, their children and grandchildren, and per
sons of Protestant stock.
The visit of Col. Theodore Roose
velt, Jr., to the Holy Father recalled
to newspapers the cancelling of the
audience his father was scheduled to
have with the Pope a generation ago
because the former president would
not accept a suggestion that he re
frain from calling on the Methodists
in Rome as Vice President Fairbanks
had done.
To those who did not understand
the situation that looked like ex
treme narrowness on the part of the
Pope—suggesting to President Roose
velt that if he visit the Vatican he
forego calling on the Methodists in
Rome.
The Pope had received Methodists
and members of perhaps every other
Protestant denomination. He did not
object to receiving Mr. Roosevelt after
visiting the Anglicans or Presbyteri-
But then there was the case in Mas
sachusetts. It develops, however, that
the only thing Irish abo” the defend
ant was her name, which she received
from her husband. And she was ac
quitted. So that was not even r.i ex
ception to the rule.
Which reminds us of the story of a
Southern colonel, whose title evident
ly did not come in the usual honor
able and upright way of appointment
to the Governor’s staff. It was part of
his dowry. He married a colonel’s
widow.
Readers of The Bulletin recall the
splendid articles from the pen of Rev.
Wm. A. Tobin, pastor of St. An
thony’s Church, Florence, S. C., par
ticularly on the early Irish in South
Carolina. Father Tobin is American
correspondent of The Southern Cross,
the famed Catholic newspaper of
South Africa, published at Capetown,
and his American letter is one of the
finest features of that enlightening
and interesting publication.
Jim Chism, editor of the Pelham
Journal, reports that a friend of his
is worried because he does not under
stand the N. R. A. Code, and ‘ Uncle
Jim” Williams of the Greensboro
Herald Journal is worried because he
does.
A Washington political commenta
tor says that President Roosevelt of
ten changes his methods but never hia
purpose.