SIX
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC L AYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
JANUARY 29, 1938
THE BULLETIN
Hie Official Organ ot the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia
RICHARD REID. Editor
815-816 Lamar Building Augusta, Georgia
Subscription Price $2.00 Pei Year
Published monthly by the Publicity Department
with the Approbation ol the Most Rev Bishops ol
Raleigh Charleston Savannah. St Augustine and Nash-
ville and ol Rt Rev Abbot Ordinary of Belmont.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1937-1938
ALFRED M BATTEY Augusta .. President
J J HAVERTY K. S G. Atlanta ...First Vice-President
J B McCALLUM. Atlanta Secretary
THOMAS F WALSH. Savannah Treasurer
RICHARD REID. Augusta Executive Secretary
MISS CECIL.E FERRY. Augusta, Asst. Exec. Secretary
yvt. VIX JANUARY 29. 1938 No. 1
Entered as second class matter June 15. 1921. at the Post
Office at Augusta Ga. under act of March 1879 Ac
cented for mailing at special rate of postage provided
for m Section 1103. Act of October 3. 1917. authorized
Sentember L 1921
Member oi N C W C News Service the Catholic Press
Association of the United States the Georgia Press
Assomafion and the National Editorial' Association
An Illustrious Layman
I N ONE of his articles in the memorable series on the
Manila Eucharistic Congress, written by His Ex
cellency, Bishop O’Hara, His Excellency told of renew
ing his acquaintance with the great Chinese layman,
Mr. Lo Pa Hong, whom he had the pleasure of enter
taining some years before in Philadelphia.
“I consider it one of the great privileges of my life
to have known this outstanding Catholic layman, who
lives on the other side of the world in a pagan country,”
Bishop O’Hara wrote, after outlining his distinguished
charities and his exemplary and even saintly private
life.
News from Shanghai announces that Lo Pa Hong is
dead, his life cut down by an assassin’s bullet, Lo Pa
Hong w r ho contributed $200,000 annually to sixteen chari
table institutions he created in Shanghai alone, one of
them a hospital named for his patron, St. Joseph, hous
ing 2,000 inmates and caring for 500 dispensary cases
daily.
Lo Pa Hong, whose “signal piety” and "generous
bounty to the poor” recommended him to three Popes,
not only gave magnificently from his private means,
but he influenced others to do likewise, and devoted a
large part of his busy life as a business executive in
ministering to the sick, personally aiding the poor, visit
ing in the prisons.
His interests centered in Shanghai, where he was
general manager of the Chinese Electric Power Com
pany, the Chapei Electric and Water Works, the Ta-
Yung Navigation Company and a number of other cor
porations. The sacking of Shanghai by the Japanese
reduced his enterprise to ruins and sent him during the
past few months from great wealth to poverty. But
Lo Pa Hong was not disheartened; he continued his
personal service to the poor, the sick, the wounded, the
dying, baptizing many as they breathed their last, until
the day when a misguided zealot’s bullet sent him be
fore the Eternal Judgment Seat.
We may be certain that the bankrupt Lo Pa Hong,
who called himself “the coolie of St. Joseph”, appeared
before his Divine Master adorned with works infinitely
more precious than all the wealth of the Indies.
Differences in Church Law
C ATHOLICS who see no incongruity between variety
in the laws of states on the same subject but who
are disturbed by differences in regulations in the sev
eral Dioceses would be scandalized by some Catholic
calendars which have come to us during the holidays.
In one for Ireland and Scotland, for instance, Wed
nesdays in Lent are marked as days of abstinence in
Ireland, but there is a notation: “No abstinence in Scot
land.” St. Patrick’s Day is “a holy day of obligation in
Ireland” but not in Scotland; St. Joseph’s Day, March
19, is “a holy day of obligation in Scotland” but not in
Ireland. Whitsunday Eve is a day of fast in Scotland,
and of fast and abstinence in Ireland.
The calendar of The Universe in London includes the
Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, Corpus .Christi, June
16, and the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, as
holy days of obligation on which Catholics in England
are obliged to hear Mass, and the Catholics of Ireland
and Scotland as well, but not those of the United States.
And the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day
of obligation in the United States, Ireland and Scotland,
is not one in England.
The Church is tile same in all nations and at all times
in Uie matter of doctrine; the Church differs from place
to place in matters of custom and discipline. Rules in
effect in one place may not be necessary in another, or
may not be expedient. Changed conditions may re
quire new regulations. Local customs develop into law.
While state laws on certain points differ, none can
contravene tile Constitution of the United States and
the fundamental law of the land. Church laws and
customs vary, but Catholic principles remain always
and everyvfflcri: the* Safife' An understanding of this
distinction is a mark of discerning Catholic.
Catholic Press Month
F EBRUARY is Catholic Press Month. Hie local
branches of the Laymen’s Association are arrang
Dixie Musings
ing their annual campaigns for members. Readers in
other states who have not sent in their subscriptions
for the year are urged to cooperate with the Catholic
Press Month campaign by remitting now.
Scorning Catholic Consciences
T HE Editor of the Journal of the National Education
Association follows up the 1937 report of the As
sociation entitled “Implications of Social-Economic
Goals for Education” by asking: “What policy of edu
cation should the nation pursue?” He then proceeds to
answer his inquiry against the background of the first
of the ten goals the organization proposes, hereditary
strength. ~~
The editor’s answer is that “the unfit” should be pre
vented from having children by means of segregation,
sterilization and voluntary control of conception, and
he asserts that “at the same time the knowledge ‘ of
birth control should be freely available to all classes,
poor as well as rich. The federal statute preventing
the distribution of birth control information works a
hardship on the underprivileged classes. They' are ex
posed to commercial exploitation when they are forced
to seek birth control information from sources other
than a reputable, competent physician.”
Hie same issue states that the number of children en
tering public schools now is nearer two million than the
three million figure of former years. If this appalling
result of birth control and the evil results of steriliza
tion make no impression on leaders such as this editor,
we should like to remind him that at least twenty
cents out of each dollar expended to support the pub
lic schools of the United States are paid in taxes by
Catholics, that there are over 2,500,000 Catholic chil
Dr. C. J. Reilly, of Thomasville,
Ga., and Eustis, Fla., follows up our
reference to the distinction between
sanitarium and sanatorium by com
menting that in the latter variation
the accent is on the “owe”, wherein
it differs from the European war
debts, in which the "owe” is silent.
Mussolini and Italy are being told
how inexcusable their withdrawal
from the League of Nations is by cit
izens of the United States which re
fused to enter the League in the first
place.
The Associate Editor of the Millen
News writes that the basic principle
of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win
Friends and Influence People” was
promulgated nineteen hundred years
ago by Him Who voiced the Golden
Rule.
Eight persons were lynched in 1937,
the same number as in 1936, the Tus-
kegee Institute announces. There
were twenty lynch'ngs in 1935 and
fifteen in 1934. All were Negroes.
Three were lynched in Florida, two
in Mississippi, and one each in Geor
gia. Alabama and Tennessee. Of the
eight, one was accused of rape.
There were fifty-six instances in
which officers of the law prevented
lynchings, fifty-one of them in the
Southern states. In five of them, there
was armed resistance by officers of
the law. A total of seventy-seven
persons were thus saved, five white
and seventy-two Negroes, two women
and seventy-five men.
All the persons lynched were in
the hands of officers when taken
away from them and murdered. Arm
ed resistance by officers is the medi
cine mobster's need.
McPherson, Huey Long and Rudy
Valee from his own university “for
God, for country, and for Yale”.
Speaking of universities, and not
necessarily of Yale, we enter for first
honors for naivete the football
coaches who take the faculty and
alumni seriously when they say that
they want no particular emphasis on
football.
And speaking of football, some of
the sports writers in discussing the
University of Georgia’s record this
fall referred to Georgia’s defeat by
Holy Cross in Boston 7 to 6 as a mid
season upset. Now comes the Associ
ated Press estimate of the relative
merit of football teams, and it places
Holy Cross fifth in the entire nation
for the past five years, outranking
every team but Alabama, Minnesota,
Pittsburgh and Louisiana State. Holy
Cross has not lost a game in two
years; in five years, against the
strongest kind of competition, it won
39 games, lost six and tied four. Holy
Cross meets Georgia in Worcester
next year and in Athens the year fol
lowing.
Rabbi Mordecai M. Thurman, of
Wilmington, writing to the Southern
Israelite refers to the splendid assist
ance given by the people of Wilming
ton to the campaign for the relief of
Jews in Europe and the Near East,
and he makes special reference to the
participation of Father James A.
Manley, pastor of St. Mary’s Pro-
Cathedral in the North Carolina city.
The Brunswick Pilot reads that
Georgia Tech has dropped Presbyte
rian College from its football sched
ule and taken on Notre Dame, and
says that Former Senator Tom Hef
lin ought to make a good-sized Papal
plot out of that.
dren in our public schools, that hundreds of thousands
of Catholic teachers are members of the organization
for which he is supposed to be speaking, and that neith
er tax-payers who are Catholics, nor Catholic parents
with children in public schools nor Catholic teachers can
in conscience countenance his flouting of fundamental
Catholic teaching on these points.
Heartening Reaction
T HE spontaneous protest occasioned by the burlesque
and in a salacious manner of the Biblical account
of the Garden of Eden broadcast over a national net
work on the Chase and Sanborn Hour is a heartening
indication that there is still a deep and abiding moral
sense in the hearts of the American people.
This has not always been evident in the reaction of
the nation to salacious films and indecent literature.
There is this difference between the films and such
literature on the one hand and radio broadcasts on the
other: The latter invades the most sacred confines of
the home.
The sponsors of the program have apologized for the
sorry performance, and the National Broadcasting Com
pany has forbidden the use of the name of the principal
in tire skit in the scripts of programs of any station it
manages or operates. It is further explained that the
performance was preceded by continuous battles over
the -wording of the skit, and that on the night of the
broadcast the principal delivered her lines in a manner
different from what the sponsors expected.
But the rendition was hardly different from what the
sponsors and others connected with the broadcast should
have expected. A man is said not to be responsible
for what he does when he is intoxicated, but he is re
sponsible for getting intoxicated, and therefore for its
results. Those engaging the chief character for the
broadcast had no right to expect anything but the per
formance she gave.
Radio has been slipping from the moral ground it
has generally maintained. There are other offenders on
the air, although less notorious. Let us hope that they
have learned a lesson from this nationwide indignation.
The elevation to the presidency of
the Union Pacific of William Martin
Jeffers recalls that the following
Catholic laymen are railroad presi
dents: Our own Lawrence A. Downs
of the' Illinois Central: Angus Mc
Donald, of the Union Pacific: W. P.
Kenny, of the Great Northern; Pat
rick Joyce, of the Chicago Great
Western; W. T. Noonan, of the Alle
gheny and Western, and James T.
Loree, of the Delaware and Hudson.
John J. Pelley, whom Georgia also
claims as its own, ret ; red from the
oresidency of the New York, New
Haven and Hartford to head the As-
soc ; ation of American Railways. Pat
rick E. Crowley retired as president
of the New York Central lines in
1932.
In recent weeks death claimed
President William J. Harahan, of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Rai'road, whose
father Pkew’se was a railroad presi
dent. Mr. Harahan was a member of
the bo°rd of directors of the National
Council of Catholic Men, in which
capacity it was our oleasore to meet
and associate with him. The fidelity
to their Catholic faith of men like
Mr. Harahan and the others listed
he-e ought to be food for thought for
those who eons’der the Catholic
Church an organization for the igno
rant.
Commun’sts are instructed, accord
ing to Westbrook Perier, to insult po-
live, even to the extent of spitting in
their faces, and when the police start
to nlace them under arrest, to drop
on the ground and yell: “He’s killing
me! He’s killing me!” The Commu
nists are eloouent about Mavor Frank
Hague, of Jersey City, “but they
should be the last to squawk, be
cause he is nowhere near as tough
as their man Joe Stalin. ... I see
where their man Stalin just cut e’eht
more notches on his guns+ock, wh ; ch
must look like a bucksaw by now, but
Frank Hague hasn’t any notches on
his. He hasn’t even got a gun — the
sissy!”
We don’t know much about Mayor
Hague except what we read in the
newspapers. There mav be plenty of
room for complaint about h’s han
dling of the sitoat’on—we just don’t
know—but the Communists are estop
ped by all the laws of reason from
complaining.
And by the way, did you notice
that the people of Alabama again
elected Tom an Ex-Senator, instead
of making him a Senator again?
On the final day of the Old Year,
Augusta paid tribute to one- of the
founders of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Mr. Thomas
J. O’Leary, who attended the prelim
inary meetings and the first conven
tion at Macon in 1916. Mr. O’Leary
had been active since young man
hood in the St. Vincent de Paul So
ciety, being president at St. Mary’s
when he died; he also served the
Knights of Columbus, the Laymen’s
Association, the Holy Name Society
and other organizations in various
capacities. Out of the O’Leary home
went a son and a daughter to devote
themselves to religion, Father W. D.
O’Leary, SJ., superior of the scholas
tics at Spring Hill, a former physi
cian, and Sister Kathleen Marie of
Sacred Heart School in Atlanta.
Those who attended the 1936 conven
tion of the Catholic Laymen’s Asso
ciation at Augusta will recall him as
the genial host at the evening recep
tion at his and our home. XiJay he
rest in eternal peace.
Mr. O’Leary’s funeral was the sec
ond in December at which His Ex
cellency, Bishop O’Hara, presided at
the Requiem Mass for the father of a
priest. The previous occasion was at
the funeral of the venerable and be
loved Mr. Timothy I. Sheehan, of the
Cathedral Parish, Savannah, father
of the Rev. Thomas 1. Sheehan, pas
tor at Thomasville, who was cele
brant of the Mass, and of Mr. Daniel
J. Sheehan, widely known Savannah
lay leader. Those who give up their
sons and daughters to God in religion
find them returned to them a hun
dredfold even in this life. Resquiescat
in pace.
The Hartwell (Ga.) Sun, edited by
Louie Morris, appeared recently in
new and colored garb of such a hue
that at first glance we thought it was
red. But we have concluded it was
just rosy.
A newspaperman told us recently
that journalism is a terrible life, but
he continues in it because it gives
him an opportunity to read the com
ics a week in advance.
They Have Lost Their Bearings
T HE American Legion convention in New York put
ex-service men in a reminiscent mood, and. we
are reminded of the rookie gob in the Merchant Mar
ine on a ship you might call a flivver. The captain
one night assigned him as helmsman while he went
below to catch a nap, and he directed the pilot to
keep the ship pointed directly toward the moon.
The night air, the sea breezes, the rolling water, and
the gentle moonlight lulled his senses, and he fell asleep
at the wheel. The ship veered around and when the
gob woke up the moon was at the stern instead of the
prow of the craft. He lashed the wheel and roused
the skipper
“Captain,” he said, “we’ve passed the moon. What’ll
I point for now?”
Those fortunate enough to be born in religious, Chris
tian, Catholic homes are taught to direct their lives to
ward God by the light of His Church. Too often young
men are lulled into mental slumber by the morally
numbing atmosphere of the world, and when they awake
to moral questions again, they believe they have pass
ed the Church. But they have only turned their back
on it SiAd 1 they look' about in bewilderment ioA an
other lodestar.
Olsen’s Terrible Swedes came to
Atlanta to play basketball recently,
and the featured player was Tony
Wapp, a giant Indian.
The disturbers in the ranks of the
Union of Social Justice are disturbed
by Father Coughlin’s peaceful return
to the radio.
The Diocese of Louisville, now an
Archd’ocese, was created in 1803, the
year in which Boston. New York and
Philadelphia became Dioceses. It was
the first Diocese west of the Alle
ghenies; comoared to it, Chicago, Mil
waukee. St. Paul, San Francisco and
other Archdioceses are youngsters.
The Kentucky Diocese was known as
that of Bardstown until 1841, when
the See was transferred to Louisville.
Anent the recent discussion about
the Rev. John Haynes Holmes’ criti
cism of the Star-Soangled Banner,
LeGarde Doughty in The Augusta
Chronicle suggests that arrangements
be made to have Rudy Valee sing it
over the national network, and that
we then drown Rudy whether we or
not like the anthem.
Dr. William Lyon Phelps, “Augus
ta’s leading winter sport”, as the late
Dr. -Lawton B. Evarri termed Mm,
once said there were three persons
he would gladly slay, Amy Semple
A Chicago native of Ireland, 107
years in this country, discovers that
this does not make him a citizen. He
came to the United States when he
was six, and assumed this made him
a citizen. He has been voting since
1875.
Nicholas Murray- Butler says that
time marches backward, which leads
the Greensboro (Ga.) Herald-Journal
to observe that he probably never
had a ninety-day note in the bank.
Mr. Patrick J. Sheridan, of Brook
lyn, writes to The Tablet to say that
Hon. Joseph P. Kennedy is not the
first Catholic envoy from the United
States to England, for Hon. Patrick
A. Collins was appointed consul-gen
eral, the title then, by President
Cleveland. Mr. Collins was subse
quently elected mayor of Boston
three times, when the election of a
Democrat was extraordinary.
Dr. Patrick F. Scanlan in his col
umn in Hie Tablet remarks on the
number of Jews included in the re
cent purges in Russia and wonders if
Stalin has gone anti-Semitic.
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette quotes
a little boy as telling a new minis
ter that his father belonged to the
Seventh Day Absentists, which, by
the w'ajy 1 , ’ sefenSs to be the dertdmuia-
tion with the largest membership in
this country,—R. R.
