Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

SIX THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA JANUARY 13, l r 34 THE BULLETIN The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia RICHARD REID, Editor 815-816 Lamar Building Augusta, Georgia Subscription Price 52,00 Per Year Published monthly by the Publicity Department with the Approbation of the Most. Rev. Bishops of Raleigh, Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile, Natchez and Nashville and of the Rt. Rev. Abbot, Ordinary of Belmont. FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE George J. Callahan, 240 Broadway. New York ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1931-1932 ALFRED M. BATTEY, Augusta President J. J. HAVERTY, K. S. G., Atlanta ...First Vice-President J. B. McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary THOMAS S. GRAY, Augusta .Treasurer RICHARD REID, Augusta Publicity Director MISS CECILE. FERRY. Augusta. Asst Publicity Director Vol. XV.January 13, 1934,No. 1 Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, at the Post Office at Augusta, Ga., under act of March, 1879. Ac cepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act. of October 3, 1917, authorized September 1, 1921. TRADES CPU NCir> The Last Straw T HE American people are notoriously long-suffering. There is no more striking example of their patience than their attitude toward the type of motion pictures all too common in our theatres. The climax has been reached by the showing of a “nudist” picture. In the public’s attitude toward motion pictures, patience has long since ceased to be a virtue. Now it begins to be a crime. The argument of certain motion picture producers that they are giving the public what it wants is a gratuitous insult to the intelligence and the morals of the people of the United States; the box office returns of Dressier, Rogers, Coogan and pictures like “Little Women” and “The White Sister” conclusively demonstrate that these producers are forcing the fruits of their immoral and de praved tastes on the American public. The public, however, is to be blamed for its supine ness. It is impossible to believe that any considerable portion of our population approves of the vicious pro ductions which are of their very nature corroding, and which stir the basest passions of persons of weaker char acter in such a way as to constitute them physical as well as moral menaces. The refusal of President-Emeritus A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University to serve on the motion picture code authority because of his belief that he would not be able to effect the establishment of a proper moral standard for pictures has directed public attention to the “block-booking” and “blind buying” system which he condemns and to which he attributes the demoraliz ing effects of motion pictures especially on the youth and the children of the land. We are of the opinion that most of the managers and operators of local theatres would prefer respectable pic tures, but are victims of the system. There is but one way to change the situation, and that is by an expres sion of the indignation which normal people feel at the type of picture foisted on them. There is only one influence in the United States cap able of effectively taking the lead in the campaign to make the motion pictures proper entertainment for the family again, and that is the Catholic Church. It is a campaign to be conducted vigorously and reasonably. It is getting under way in other parts of the United States. The Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia urges its members and the Catholic organizations in this state and section to lend their hid and influence to the campaign, in which His Excellency, the Apostolic Dele gate, has sounded the keynote. Protest these immoral pictures, as individuals and through your organizations, whenever your local theatres show them. Let the man agers know that you are not patronizing them. That is a language the producers will understand when it is re layed to them. Russia Recognized P RESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S highmindedeness and sincerity of purpose are universally conceded, but we are fearful that when the United States recognized the Soviet Republic we sold our heritage for a mess of pottage. Nineteen centuries of experience have taught the Church that in nations as well as in individuals, future conduct may be largely gauged by the past. The Church has had extended contacts with the So viet on a dozen fronts, and her experience is not such as to warrant confidence that the Soviet is ready to meet one of the fundamental requirements of her recognition by sister nations, keeping its word. President Roosevelt delayed recognition, newspaper accounts of the negotions with Litvinof excitedly as serted, pending a promise that citizens of the United States in Russia would be accorded religious liberty. A statement by the Soviet representative, sent out by the TASS, the Soviet press agency subsequent to recogni tion, and quoted in an article by Father LaFarge in America, blandly states that when President Roosevelt insisted on the point, “I exclaimed the existing laws con cerning religion.” In an interview with press representatives after se curing recognition of Russia and before sailing for Europe, Litvinof said, according to The New York Times: “In my communication to President Roosevelt I limit ed myself to sending him an abstract of existing Russian legislation bearing on religious bodies, but I made con cessions to no one.” At a dinner given him by the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce in New York, Litvinof, said: “The President submitted me to a kind of religious propaganda, and I in my turn tried to persuade him of the soundness of certain principles expressed in the will of a famous American, Stephen Girard, who thought it best to exclude all ecclesiastical activities from the col lege which he founded in Philadelphia.” In recognizing Russia, President Roosevelt could not have been actuated primarily by trade reasons. To say that the Soviet was recognized so that it might buy goods with money secured from the United States is to impugn the President’s intelligence. Deeper reasons of state prompted the act. Hie prompt repudiation by the Soviet representative of the religious liberty guarantee for U. S. citizens in Russia, and the patent insincerity on other points as well, confirm the fears of those who were opposed to recognition of the Soviet. We hope that the Soviet will reform. But rea son and experience give us little or no basis for the hope. Dixie Musings If it is not too late, and it is never too late, we wish you a blessed, happy and prosperous New Year. Christmas in Georgia would have made a delightful Fourth of July north of the Mason-Dixon Line. The official reading of the thermometer in Augusta was 78 in the shade, with similar temperatures,elsewhere in the Southeast. Catholics among them, who believe that the Church ought to do some muzzling—of those expressing opin ions not in accord with theirs. En Route to Canossa W 1ATEVER one may think about the professors in the administration, it can hardly, be doubted that A knowledge of history on the part of those in power would be a mighty blessing to many a nation, past and present. The Roman Empire directed all its resources toward -the crushing of the Church. The Roman Empire is gone, and the Church remains. Julian the Apostate may never have uttered the much quoted: “Thou hast conquered, O Galileean,” but the fact that Christ conquered remains. Henry IV, “Holy Roman Emperor” sought to overwhelm the Papacy, and Henry went to Canossa. Bismarck boasted that in his efforts against the Church he would never go to Canossa; he did. Viviani swore that he would blot the name of God from the heavens; Viviani and his cohorts are gone, and the churches of Paris can hardly accomodate the throngs which surge into them for Mass, By defying the Church with his anti-Christian sterili zation program, Herr Hitler has taken his place with its other current antagonists. It has been said that Hitler is a Catholic. “By its fruits you shall know it.” No Catholic mind could bring forth such fruit. If Hitler knew history, he would realize the foolishness as Well as the immorality of his program, and Germany and the world would be happier. Fifty years from now Hitler will have been swallowed It Isn’t So C ATHOLICS are unceasingly reminded of the wisdom of Josh Billings’ remark that not knowing does not do as much harm as knowing so many things that are not so. At Kinston, N. C., recently, for instance, the Rev. Harold J. Dudley, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, discussed the Reformation and the Catholic Church in a sermon in which he said that “Christian grace prompts us not to harbor malice against the great Catholic Church because of past feuds and present dif ferences. Rather, we should be grateful for the con tribution that church has made toward Christianizing the world, and we should bear in mind that, however chaotic the birth, Protestantism was conceived in the Roman Catholic Church.” That at least indicates kindly spirit. A moment later Dr. Dudley referred to “Protestants, said by the Roman Catholic Church to be lost because we are not members of that church”, if he is correctly quot ed by the Kinston Press. The Kingston Press, in an edi- torial commending Dr. Dudley’s spirit of tolerance, says: Indeed, there isn’t much malice in religion any longer. The Catholic may contend that the Protestant is damned, but he doesn’t hate him as he once did.” Dr. Dudley and the Kinston Press are more tolerant than they give themselves credit for being. If they harbor no prejudice in the hearts against Catholics when they believe that Catholics think they are destined to be damned, they no doubt will be more than tolerant when they are informed that Catholics believe no such thing about sincere members of any denomination. If Dr. Dudley or the editor of the Kinston Press were to ask any little child in the Catholic schools or Sunday schools of North Carolina what the teaching of the Church is on that point, he would be told, in the words of the catechism: “All are bound to belong to the Church, and he who knows the Church to be the true Church and remains out of it cannot be saved.” Again: The textbook on religion used in most Catholic colleges states it as a proposition in this way: “All who come to a sufficient knowledge of the Church of Christ are by divine precept obliged to become members.” Whether one has a sufficient knowledge of the Church to oblige him to become a member is a matter between a man’s conscience and his God. One who sincerely at tributes to Catholics the belief that all but Catholics are ipso facto damned can hardly be said to have the re quired knowledge. Those from colder climes may be astonished to know that the coming of Christmas invariably starts a de bate on whether the sale of fireworks should be permitted. They were legalized this year in Augusta, with unfortunate results. But there will be no more fireworks of that type here until next Christmas. No, we do not have them on the Fourth of July. , The NRA does not antedate the CLA, but we believe it is as sound in principle. It has much the same objective: A better feeling among all citizens, irrespective of the in terests that divide them. “The King (Henry II of England) only said: ‘Will no one rid me of this insolvent priest?’ and immediate ly he was rid of him (Thomas A. Becket, murdered at the altar)’— Arthur Brisbane, as quoted in The Augusta Chronicle. “One message to the officials of the Armenian Church”, says The New York Times, “was from Bishop William T. Manning, who offered prayers for the soul of the Archbishop, and for the Bishops, clergy and people of the Armenian Apostolic Church at yesterday morning’s service in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.” Dr. Manning is the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York. On the Catholic teaching of the effectiveness of prayers for the dead there are three schools of thought in certain Protestant circles: (1) That it is a superstition; (2) That it i s a racket; (3) That it is a combination of both. In which category do they place Bishop Manning? An American who toured the Bal kans by motorcycle reports that he was always warned that the people in the next city were cut throats and robbers,but when he arrived in that city the inhabitants expressed sur prise that he had not been killed in the place from which he had just come. And yet they say there is no place like home. , A clipping from a recent issue of The London Daily Times, under the heading, “Today’s Anniversaries”, says: “1777. At Germantown, Penn sylvania, the Americans, under Wash ington, were repulsed by the British.” Will someone kindly send us a copy of the issue recording the anniver sary of Yorktown? “No Alimony in Two Years, Ex- Ruler’s Ex-Wife to Be Nun”, says a headline in a Georgia newspaper. The ex-ruler is the former boy em peror of China, and the wife is to become a “Buddhist nun”. Those who were thrilled with the prospect of a scandal about a nun found none. Throngs seeking to attend Mid night Mass Christmas at Notre Dame des Champs in Paris were so great that the police were called out to handle them; only a fraction was able to enter. Scandalized Americans make the mistake of judging Paris by what they see at places supported by Americans on a holiday, and which normal Parisians shun. Hon. Josephus Daniels, United States Ambassador to Mexico, who has been discussed pro and con in these columns—mostly pro, we are happy to say—again, in our opinion, merits commendation. Speaking on Thanksgiving Day in Mexico City, he said: “While we give thanks for food, money and lodging, we give thanks even more for the fact that a new revolution by pacific means is ad vancing toward a world in which each man will aid his neighbor, in which each country will respect the viewpoints of its neighbors as well as their just rights, and in which Justice and Peace, as foretold by the Frince of Peace, wiH cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” “Machine-Gun Kelly”, who is giving that illustrious Celtic name so much notoriety, is really George F. Barnes of Memphis, letters in news papers tell us. But Ireland will get credit for him v/hen crime statistics of aliens are compiled. Again, addressing the Pan-Ameri can Round Table, he said: “If I am prohibited from speaking on religion, I may still declare that the most heroic spirits since the days in which the first Christians defied the power of Imperial Rome, to this epoch, have been those who have sensed strange things and ways beyond the eartn, and who have held the belief that every Christian is in truth a citizen of a foreign country, of a celestial kingdom, and who believe that after death each one of them will enter into that mansion which was not built by human hands and which is eternal in the heavens. Ambassador Daniels had better be careful about placing the Kingdom of Heaven above the United States. The one hundred per cent Americans will get him if he doesn’t watch out. It was said of the Bourbons of France that they never forgot any thing and never learned anything. Father Frederick Siedenbrug, S. J., of the University of Detroit, thinks we have some Bourbons in the United States. “Many of our industrialists are as insensible as the aristocracy of France who, before the French Revolution, scoffed at the warning of Rousseau, but the second edition of whose book was bound in their hides.” They do not realize, Father Siendenburg says, that the president’s program for a living wage for em ployes, shorter hours and collective bargaining is to the advantage of the employer also. The most distinguished bearer of the name of Kelley in the South is the Bishop of Oklahoma City, who said recently: “I am foolish enough to believe that there is a very close relation between the problem of ‘the forgotten God’ and the newspapers’ ‘Forgotten Man’. In fact, I hold that the more God becomes ‘the forgotten’, the more surely man becomes neglected and degraded.” The Rt. Rev. Msgr John A. Ryan, D. D., of the Catholic University of American asserts that at the present rate of births, the United States will reach a maximum population in 1945, remain stationary for a decade, and then decline. And what will mass production do then, poor thing? An article on motion picture stars and their Christmas day programs said: “Mae West will rest, after at tending an early Mass.” She can at tend three a day and not qualify for a Catholic “Who’s Who.” The only way to overcome our economic ills is by raising the gen eral level of human character, For mer Governor Smith writes the United Chamber of Commerce. Only religion can raise the general level of human character, and religion can be effective only through religious education. Many good people were disturbed by Mr. Smith’s comment on the re covery program. We doubt that President Roosevelt feels that way; we believe he will endeavor to profit by it. up by time like a pebble in the ocean. And the Papacy and its divine principles will still be guiding the lives of men. “We shall not condemn A1 Smith for criticizing the administration re covery program,” nays the Sylvester, Ga., Local, quoted by the Cuthbert. Ga., Leader. “We believe much of the program has merit. Much of it we approach with misgivings. The time has come for constructive criti cism ... It is time for thoughtful men like A1 Smith to break their silence before it is too late.” The spirited exchange of comments between Governor Smith and Father Coughlin, with the other forceful opinions by members of the clergy, prelates included, and laity on both sides ought to prove to thoughtful people the ridiculousness of the im pression that Catholics are muzzled by file Church. The Catholic Information Society of Narberth, Pa., in a recent leaflet disposes of a difficulty which worries many good people. St. Patrick's Day came on Friday . In New York Ca tholics were allowed to eat meat. In Philadelphia they were not. “Yet the laws of the Catholic Church are sup posed to be unchangeable throughout the ages!” No, they are not. The ten com mandments are unchangeable. God’s laws are immutable. The laws of the Church can be changed by the same authority which made them: Bishops may dispense individuals or their en tire Diocese from certain laws where the Church which made the laws gives them the authority. Ride three in a frpnt seat in an automobile in Connecticut, and you may face the judge the next morning. You can do it with impunity in Geor gia. Yet both Georgia and Connecti cut are parts of the United States. But murder is against the law in both states. Even Catholics sometimes profess to be confused and even scandalized be cause the authorities of one Diocese, find it expedient to make regulations differing from those of other Dio ceses; yet they find no difficulty in understanding that it is a violation of the law to drive a car without a driving license in New York or Massachusetts, while in Georgia any one who is sober, sane and sixteen is allowed to drive. John Gibbons, writing in the Lon don Universe, says that in Washing ton he not only saw a nun driving an automobile, but that “my private impression was that the Holy Sister was spending”. Perhaps according to There are plenty of people, some the English idea of motion she was.