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SIX
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
-Association of Georgia
RICHARD REID. Editor
815-816 Lamar Building Augusta, Georgia
Subscription Price $2,00 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 1933-1934
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, May 19, 1934 No 5
Member of N. C. W. C. News Service the Catholic Press
Association of the United States, the Georgia Press
Association and the National Editorial Association.
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.
Discrimination on the- Air
N INE years ago, when the utility and the future of
radio were topics for debate, the Paulist Fathers
established Station WLWL in New York, expending one
hundred thousand dollars in the experiment. It was one
of the first twelve high-powered stations, and was given
a wave length and unlimited time. One of the pioneer
«
Sterilization
1 | VIE latest fad to sweep popular fancy from its
j moorings is sterilization.
The Macon Rotary Club a few weeks ago heard state
officials urge it for the insane and feeble-minded,
“properly administered.”
The president of the Georgia Medical Society has
been advocating sterilization legislature in addresses be
fore civic clubs in the state.
The Sixth District Federation of Women’s Clubs,
meeting at Tennille, “adopted a resolution endorsing
proposed laws for birth control and sterilization of the
unfit.”
The Georgia Federation of Professional and Business
Women’s Clubs in a meeting at Macon, May 5, went on
record as favoring and supporting such legislation.
Newspaper stories predict that a measure providing
for sterilization for the unfit will be before the next
legislature for consideration.
An Associated Press story from Tallahasee, Fla., a
few weeks ago indicates that a bill to be considered by
the Florida legislature outdistances the one predicted
for Georgia and other states.
The Florida measure, the A.P. story reports, will "pro
vide for sterilization of feeble-minded persons, chronic
alcoholics and chronic drug addicts.” v
The Catholic position on the question, stated by Pope
Pius XI in his encyclical on marriage, is clear and un
equivocal. The Holy Father says:
"Public magistrates have no direct power over the
bodies of their subjects. Therefore, where nd crime has
been committed and there is no cause for grave punish
ment, they can never directly harm or tamper with the
integrity of the body, either for reasons of eugenics or
any other reason.”
THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS
addresses over WLWL was on the work of the Catholic
Laymen’s Association of Georgia.
In October, 1926, the Department of Commerce arbl-
trarily assigned WLWL’s wave length to another station,
for no reason other than to favor the other station, and
substituted for WLWL another less desirable. Then the
Federal Radio Commission took charge, and in the in
tervening years WLWL has been so continually harrass-
ed by the changing and cutting down of its time that
only two hours a day are now allotted it.
The programs of WLWL are entirely cultural, educa
tional and religious. WLWL has no commercial pro
grams. At one time there were one hundred and five
non-commercial, non-profit radio stations in the United
States. Now there are but thirty.
There is no suspicion that religious prejudice is respon-
sibjp for the attitude of the Federal Radio Commission.
There is a very real conviction that a predilection to
ward commercialism on the air is, and this at a time
when the character of programs sponsored by commer
cial enterprises is occasioning widespread discontent.
Congress is being asked to devote one-fourth of the
broadcasting affiliations of the nation to educational, re.
ligious, cultural, agricultural, labor and other non-profit
organizations. We join in the protests against the discrim
ination to which WLWL has been and is being subjected,
and earnestly endorse the movement to give non-profit
stations the benefits provided in the pending bill.
The Church and Germany
P IERRE VAN PAASSEN’S “World’s Window” in The
Atlanta Constitution and other leading newspapers
is a readable feature. Recently he expressed the view
that the people of the world do not want war. An
anonymous postcard writer answered that there was one
person who did; "he is your Pope.” The writer of that
card, says Mr. Van Paassen, is "of the type who swallow
ed hook, line and sinker, that yam about the Pope
sitting on a ship just outside New York waiting for the
election of Alfred E. Smith to the presidency.”
The Constitution columnist is critical of the policy of
the Pope, however—this is another article. Catholics
have been mistreated in Germany; but the Pope has
forbidden all forms of political action by Catholics as
such, thus undermining the Catholic party, “the only
one which would have fought Hitler successfully."
“What the Vatican hopes to accomplish with its ex
tremely conciliatory attitude toward Hitler is the
Strengthening of Germany and the destruction of the
political hegemony of France in Europe,” Mr. Van
Paassen asserts. “The Catholics in Germany were sac
rificed to the Pope’s political ambitions. Yet the Pope
will in the end succeed only in destroying the faith in
Germany, as has happened in Italy.”
It seems, therefore, that the Pope owes it to himself
and to the Church to change his policy of getting in
formation about conditions in Germany from the Cardi
nals, Bishops, priests and Catholics of Germany and
from German non-Catholic sources, and get it from
American journalists, who will throw in advice for good
measure. Perhaps then His Holiness would not be
“sacrificing the Catholics of Germany.” The unfortunate
part of the whole situation is the fact that the Catholics
do not know they are being sacrificed, the Holy Father
does not know he is sacrificing them, and the Catholics
of the United States and the world are too slow-witted
to see that such publicists as Mr. Van Paassen are more
concerned about the welfare of the Church than they,
and even the Holy Father himself. Stephen Leacock has
just written a book teaching people how to come in out
of the rain. Mr. Van Paassen ought to send us all copies.
He seems to think we need them.
The Church was preaching and practicing eugenics
when immorality was crumbling the fabric of Roman
civilization. The laws of the Church, which every Cath
olic child knows, prohibit lharrying within the fourth
degree of kindred, a eugenic measure. The Church re
quires public notice of intention to marry, thus afford
ing opportunity to prevent improper marriages.
That sterilization will reduce the number of feeble
minded or insane is merely a theory with eminent au
thority against it. Constitute yourself a committee of
one to investigate. Make a list of all those you know
who are feeble-minded or insane. Are their brothers
and sisters feeble-minded or insane? How many of them
are offspring of similarly feeble-minded or insane par
ents? A survey in an English hospital for insane recently
indicated that only five per cent were the offspring of
parents similarly afflicted.
The Church does not oppose sterilization without hav
ing a remedy in reserve. A person dangerous enough
to the community to be sterilized is dangerous enough
to be segregated. Segregation will accomplish all that is
claimed for sterilization, and is no violation of the nat
ural law.
There is no greater joy under heaven than the love
of one’s children. “Liberals” would casually and per
manently deprive men and women of the hope of this
unparalleled happiness, and this for reasons ranging from
feeble-mindedness, the degree varying with the personal
opinions of the “liberals”, to alcoholic and drug indul
gence. Tobacco and coffee addicts seem to be safe for
the present
Several states already have sterilization laws. Others
probably will have them. But if they all adopt them, and
this is response to majority opinion, the “reactionary”
Catholic Church will still oppose them as a violation of
the natural rights of man and of true liberalism, and
patiently wait for the people to regain their good judg
ment and come around to her way of thinking again,
even as she did in the less serious question of making
men moral by statute.
Reason and Rules
I N the Catholic Church, “there is a reason behind every
rule”. Behind the rule on marriages of Catholics with
those who are not Catholics, for instance.
The faith is the most precious of possessions. Millions
from the days of the Roman Empire to those of the Rus
sian and Mexican Republics have sacrificed their lives
rather than deny or desert it.
While the Church does under some circumstances grant
a dispensation for the marriage of a Catholic to one not
of the faith, she does it reluctantly because her experi
ence proves to her that such marriages, despite the
promises she requires that the offspring be brought up
as Catholics, are a positive danger to the faith.
The Brooklyn Tablet publishes the results of a census
in a well-organized parish in that Diocese, one with a
splendid parish school in a Catholic neighborhood, and
with a pastor and assistants who are exemplars of priest
ly character.
There are one hundred and twenty-five “mixed mar
riages” in the parish, ninety-seven in which the hus
bands and twenty-eight in which the wives are not Cath
olics.
In seventeen of these marriages, there are twenty-two
children, all good Catholics.
In seventy-eight others, there are two hundred and
fifteen children, careless and neglectful of religion.
In the other thirty marriages, there are sixty-seven
children who are lost entirely to the faith.
Since the faith is so precious that Catholics will die
if necessary to preserve it, surely these statistics, which
may be duplicated nearly anywhere in the country, are
reason enough for the rule of the Church on marriages
of Catholics with those outside the Catholic Church,
MAY 19, 1934
Dixie Musings
Father Charles L. Kimball, S. J.,
librarian of Holy Cross College and
the oldest member of its faculty in
point of service, died May 10. Nine
teen years ago Father Kimball in
vited and encouraged us to write
for the Holy Cross Purple. We had
never been out of touch with him
since. In failing health for a num
ber of years, he was nevertheless
ever the soul of genial friendliness.
Everything of interest to The Bulle
tin and the Catholic Laymen’s Asso
ciation of Georgia he made his in
terest. May he rest in eternal peace.
Arnold Lunn, English author, who
entered the Church not long ago,
told the Catholic Truth Society that
he first bought its pamphlets to see
how intelligent men defended the
“fantastic” beliefs of Catholics. He
discovered that their beliefs were
anything but fantastic; their logic led
him into the fold.
Brother Leo, without doubt the
most eminent literary critic on the
Pacific Coast, is unequivocal in his
adverse criticism of Eugene O’Neill’s
“Days Without End” which Mid-
Western and Eastern critics like
Father Daniel A. Lord, S. J., and R.
Dana Skinner of The Commonweal
have commended. When critics as
eminent as these disagree on wheth
er a play is good or bad, it is not
unreasonable for the rest of us to
take a chance on it.
Brother Leo is not given to find
ing fault; he is not of that class which
thinks that literary and dramatic
criticism means denunciation.
Fifteen colored residents of De
troit, brought before the court on
charges of disorderly conduct after
a riot among followers of the “Cult
of Islam”, gave Mohammedan names
and said they were born in Mecca
in 1555. On closer questioning they
recalled other names and birthplaces
such as Georgia, Alabama and Mis
sissippi since the Emancipation Proc
lamation.
The colored people are naturally
religious; Catholic missionary effort
among them has borne great fruit.
Lack of means to support the work
has handicapped it severely, a handi
cap which the self-sacrificing work
of the priests and Sisters working
among them has mitigated mar
velously. None should be more in
terested in the work than the Catho
lics of the South, and the support
given the work, directly and indirect!
ly, by the Catholics of the South is,
without doubt proportionately much
larger than by those elsewhere. But
the surface has hardly been scratch
ed.
The newspapers of Hartford ex
citedly announced that a Philadel
phia priest had been named Bishop of
Hartford in succession to the late
Bishop Nilan, although the Apostolic
Delegation at Washington had ad
vised Bishop Maurice McAuliffe,
Bishop Nilan’s auxiliary and his co
adjutor-elect that he was the Holy
See’s choice. The newspapers, first
to announce that the Philadelphia
priest had been appointed, were like
wise the first to deny it publicly. The
newspapers are always ahead.
However, we should not be too
harsh on the newspapers. A little
experience in newspaper work would
make the average person more tol
erant of their errors, even if it would
not incline him to give the Hartford
newspapers absolution in this case,
without adding a rather severe pen
ance.
In a city in the South recently the
death of a prominent political leader
was generally reported. Newspaper
men called up his home, and he de
nied the report in person. The news
papermen still were dubious, on the
ground that you can't always believe
what a politician tells you.
The Catholic Travel League is ar
ranging a pilgrimage. Not to Rome,
or Lourdes, or Lisieux, or Croagh
Patrick, but to Sweden once as Ca
tholic as the England of Henry the
Seventh.
At New Castle, Del., the superin
tendent of public schools proposed
solving the patent immorality of some
of the students in the high school by
teaching birth control methods. The
Board of Education dismissed him.
Some citizens of the city then de
manded that the Governor remove
the members of the Moard of Educa
tion, who were “reactionary” and
Christian and religious-m i n d e d
enough to believe that preventing evil
is the proper aim, and not mitigating
its effects by compounding it.
"These sly little subscription digs
in ‘Dixie Musings’ really do not
bring any startling results,” we wrote
in the previous issue of The Bulletin.
One of our loyal supporters among
the clergy sent in a substantial check
as “factual proof that in this item the
editor is wrong.”
Which goes to show how poor our
aim is at times; this particular pastor
is a creditor of ours rather than a
debtor, since we owe him a debt of
gratitude we can never repay. We
magnanimously forgive him of con
vincing us of error, and hope that
many another one, particularly among
the laity, will join him in proving
our item wrong.
There has been considerable dis
cussion about the alleged threat
against the freedom of the press
under the NRA, reflecting what we
believe are baseless alarms. But we
should like to take this occasion to
step into the role of an interpreter
of the Constitution and to say that
the Constitutional provision guaran
teeing a free press does not mean
free subscriptions.
There is a St. Mary’s Railroad in
Georgia, a report of the railroad’s
business for the past year shows. A
certain anti-Catholic agitator was
accustomed to denounce Catholics for
their insidious influence as illustrated
by the manner in which they had
countries, cities, rivers, etc., named
for Catholics. And all the time his
own publication was named after
Christopher Columbus.
We do not know the circumstances
in the marriage of Emperor Bao Dia
of Annam, Indo-China, and N’Guyen
Huu, Cochin-China convent-bred
Catholic girl, but of this we may be
certain: If a dispensation was grant
ed by the Church, it was on the
promise that the children of the mar
riage would be reared Catholics.
Edith Gittings Reid has written a
very readable life of Woodrow Wil
son emphasizing Wilson’s "love of
democracy” which she illustrates
particularly by his efforts to rid
Princeton of its exclusive and snob
bish clubs.
In his "New Freeman”, Wilson rec
ognized the influence of the Church
in the development of democracy in
the Middle Ages. "There was no
peasant so humble,” he wrote, "that
he might not have become a priest,
and no priest so obscure that he
might not become Pope of Christen
dom.
Commenting on Wilson’s appoint
ment of Joseph Tumulty as his sec
retary despite the groans of disap
proval because Tumulty was a Cath
olic, the author recalls that when a
student at the University of Virginia
he upheld in a debate the position
that the Catholic Church was not a
danger to America. And lost the de
bate.
The Michigan Catholic, edited by
Anthony Beck, quotes Bishop Hafey,
of Raleigh, as saying that the exist
ence of anti-Catholic bigotry in the
South is overestimated in the nation.
Says our Michigan contemporary:
“He ought to know. In our opinion
there are as many bigots per square
mile in many Northern States as in
any Southern commonwealth.”
Mr. Beck was - president of the
Catholic Press Association when it
met in Asheville in 1929. The C. P.
A. never received a warmer welcome
anywhere than there and in Savan
nah two years ago.
Rasputin, “the Russian monk”, was
not a monk at all, the St. Joseph
Tribune reports, “but a peasant who
posed as a holy man and who, by use
of strange hypnotic powers gained an
ascendency. He was notoriously im
moral and taught the horrible here
sy that it is well to sin violently in
order that one may have an humble
conversion.”
J. J. Brown, former commissioner
of agriculture of Georgia, who was
indicted by a McIntosh County jury
for killing a bear, has had the in
dictment invalidated on the ground
that the indictment did not state in
which county'the killing took place,
and that the bear was ferocious any
way. Big black bears give the little
pigs plenty of worry in some parts
of Georgia.
Catholic Truth From
the Georgia Bench
(From >he Catholic Universe-Bulle
tin, Official Organ of the Diocese
of Cleveland)
Judge Louis L. Brown of the Geor
gia Superior Court is alarmed at the
growing tendency in America t o-
ward divorce. As well he may be. The
easy shifting of what should be life
mates in some divorce courts has
moved one conservative member of
our heirarchy to refer to the code of
morals of some people as of the barn
yard variety. What would he say if
he weren’t conservative?
The experence of the learned judge
on the tench has forced him to the
solemn judgment that divorced peo
ple should not be alowed to remarry.
He maintains that if a man or wom
an had only one chance that mar
riage would be approached with more
serious thought.
That is the crux of the whole ques
tion. As long as America runs a di
vorce and marriage bargain counter
where a slightly used partner can be
picked up very cheap or where an
entirely new one may be exchanged
the same as a dress that doesn’t fit,
just so long will divorce business
thrive.
The Georgia justice may think he
is preaching novel doctrine. He is
wrong in that opinion. It is nineteen
centuries old or just as old as the
Catholic Church. The Church taught
it in the age of catacombs and con
tinues to teach it in the age of sky
scrapers. Truth is immutable.