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EIGHT-
_ THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
FEBRUARY 25. 1939
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia
RICHARD REID. Editor
815-816 Lamar Building'Augusta, Georgia
Subscription Price S2.00 Per ¥ ear
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1938-1939
J. J. HA VERTY, K. S. G., Atlanta.. Honorary President
ALFRED M. BATTEY Augusta President
DR. J. REID BRODERICK, Savannah, 1st Vice President
J B McCALLUM. Atlanta Secretary
THOMAS F WALSH. K. S. G., Savannah Treasurer
RICHARD REID, K. S. G. Augusta . Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY. Augusta, Asst. Exec. Secretary
Vol. XX February 25, 1939 No. 2
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 m Section 1103. Act of October 3. 1917, authorized
September l 1921.
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.
Published monthly by the Publicity Department
with the Approbation of the Most. Rev. Bishops ol
Raleigh. Charleston. Savannah. St. Augustine and Nash
ville and of the Rt Rev Abbot. Ordinary of Belmont.
The Holy Father
t V THEN THE history of our times is written, the Holy
yy Father, Pope Pius XI, will undoubtedly be esti
mated as one of the greatest personages and grandest
personalities not only, of this generation but of the two
hundred and sixty-one Pontiffs, the most -illustrious
group history has ever known.
Pope Pius XI had passed the three score mark before
he was taken from among his beloved books and an
ointed with holy oils of episcopal consecration. He was
then sixty-two; at sixty-four he was Archbishop of Milan
and a member of the College of Cardinals, and eight
months later he was Pope. None who reads of the Holy
Father's meteoric rise and of his majestic achievements
on the Throne of Peter can fail to see the hand of God
in this sudden transition from comparative obscurity to
eminence.
From priest to Pope in twenty-eight months is indeed a
startling transition, yet all those years of priestly train
ing were but preparation for the appalling responsibil
ities of the Papacy. His parish work in Milan seared in
to his conscience an even deeper love for the great
masses of the people, of whom he was one by birth, and
a greater appreciation of their problems. His scholarly
career as librarian at Milan and Rome not only school
ed him in orderly and profound thinking, but placed
him at international cross-roads for scholars, where he
absorbed more information about international cross
currents than would be possible in nearly any other spot
in the world. As Papal representative in Poland and
in charge of Russian relief immediately after the war,
His Holiness saw the rise of Communism before his very
eyes, and his knowledge was extended by the tactics of
the Reds in Milan during his months as Archbishop there.
When history writes the life of the Holy Father, it will
probably emphasize no facet of his character more than
than which radiated his love of peace. No title attribut
ed to him is more appropriate than that of “the Pope of
Peace.” He was the Father of Christendom only 3 few
minutes when he made his first gesture of peace, to
ward the Italian government, a gesture he transformed
into action by settling the irritating and aggravating
“Italian question.” The atmosphere of Europe was tense
with international hatreds during the years of his Ponti
ficate, and the Omniscent God alone knows how many
wars have been prevented and how many hundreds of
thousands and perhaps-millions of lives have been saved
by his counsel, his influence, his prayers.
As “the Pope of Catholic Action”, the Holy Father gave
this phase of activity an impetus which it has perhaps
never before had. There is not a parish throughout the
entire world which has not felt the quickening effort of
the Holy Father's interest in and assistance to the parti
cipation of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy,
and hardly a country which has not experienced in its
national life the blessed effect of thus gearing it to the
power of the saving principles of our Lord and Saviour
No occupant of the See of Peter has ever merited the
title of “the Pope of the Catholic Press” more than Pope
Pius XI. He sponsored the great Catholic Press Congress
in Rome. He personally opened the new plant of the
Csservatore Romano. He asserted that “the Catholic
Press is my voice. I do not say that the Catholic Press
makes my voice heard, but the Catholic Press is my voice
itself.” In an audience granted the editor of The Bul
letin, then president of the Catholic Press Association,
His Holiness placed the Catholic Press first after the ad
ministration of the Sacraments as a power for good.
As “the Pope of Science”, the Holy Father strengthen
ed the traditional position of the Papacy as the patron
of scientific as well as of other learning. It was His
Holiness who founded the Vatican City radio station,
with the cooperation of the radio pioneer Marconi. On
at least fifteen occasions the Holy Father has spoken to
the world over the radio, a record for world broadcasts
unapproached by any other figure. He encouraged priests
in sparsely settled districts to use airplanes to increase
the effectiveness of their efforts. He card-indexed his
beloved Vatican Library, using the most scientific sys
tem and American librarians.
Pope of Peace, Pope of Catholic Action, Pope of the
Catholic Press. Pope of Science, Pope of Labor, Pope of
the Missions and Pope of the Family, the Holy Father's
first claim on the hearts of his people was his priestly
character and his deep concern for the spiritual and
temporal welfare for all people, whom he loved with a
fatherly tenderness. In the duties of his exalted office,
in his labors for the Church and for civilization, he was
always the priest of God, patient, kindly, charitable.
He sought to save the souls of others by first saving his
own soul; his personal piety and his simple mode of
living challenged the admiration of a worldly and self-
indulgent generation.
“Thou art Peter,” said Our Divine Lord to the Prince
of the Apostles, "and upon this rock I shall build My
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.” For over nineteen hundred years Divine Providence
has been providing rocks in succession to St. Peter. When
history gives its final verdict, it is probable that Pope
Pius XI, whose mortal remains now rest beneath the
basilica where he raised so many God’s servants to the
honors of the altar, will be known not merely as a great
Pope, but, like Leo and Gregory, as Pius the Great,
great in his confidence in Divine Providence, great in his
consuming love for his fellowman. May God grant him
eternal rest, and that rest reserved for the most devoted
of his servants.
Monsignor Kane
T HIRTY-FOUR years ago the sixteenth of last month
a young priest, the Rev. James A. Kane, newly or
dained, arrived in Savannah from New England. On the
last Sunday of last month the young priest of over a third
of a century ago closed his eyes in death, the last sur
vivor of the students for the priesthood accepted for the
Diocese by Ordinaries previous to Bishop Keiley.
It- was to Bishop Keiley that the then Father Kane
came, to demonstrate his ability as assistant at the Cath
edral in such a way that he became successively secre
tary to His Excellency, chancellor of the Diocese, pas
tor of St. Patrick's in Augusta, rector of the Cathedral
and pastor of the newly founded St. Mary’s Church in
Augusta, proof enough of his Bishop’s recognition of his
ability and character.
At St. Patrick's in Augusta and at the Cathedral, Fa
ther Kane earned a reputation as a church financier by
the manner in which he reduced parish debts, and this
reputation he enhanced as pastor of St. Mary's. His suc
cess there and his splendid priestly qualities won him the
confidence of his second Ordinary to such an extent
that Bishop Keyes recommended to the Holy Father that !
he be one of the first three priests to be raised to the
rank of domestic prelate. And Monsignor Kane's third
Spiritual Shepherd, Bishop O'Hara, further honored him
by naming him vicar-forane, dean of the Augusta dis
trict.
Although only sixty-four years of age at the time of
his death, Monsignor Kane was the oldest Diocesan priest
from the standpoint of both age and years of service, in
dicating the terrific toll in the lives and health of priests
taken by service to the altar in the Diocese; priests en
gaged in parish work who have attained great age have
always been rare in the Southeast.
Monsignor Kane was an organizer of ability as indi
cated not only by his success in liquidating parish debts
but by such achievements as his masterly handling of
the centennial observance of St. Patrick's Parish and
the golden jubilee of the parish church over a quarter
of a century ago, one of the most brilliant affairs in
the history of the Diocese up to that time.
But it was not as a church financier or as an organizer
that Monsignor Kane was so universally beloved, nor for
his length of service, but for his sincere, kindly, priestly
character which erected spiritual structures of which the
material edifices were but faint reflections. Monsignor
Kane's chief characteristics were his modesty, his self-
effacement, his self-sacrificing zeal. His dominant con
cern was his parish and his people, to whom he was
a true father. Augusta and Savannah, the scenes of his
priestly labor, will never forget him while there lives
one whose life was blessed by association with him.
May God grant him eternally the heavenly peace of
which he gave so many a foretaste by his ministrations.
Catholic Press Month •
F EBRUARY, by the designation of the Bishops of the
United States, is Catholic Press Month. Never has
the importance of the Catholic Press been demonstrat
ed more than in recent years and months, when the
Catholic Press was practically the only accurate report
er of the facts about the war in Spain.
The accuracy of the news in the Catholic Press and
the baselessness of so much that came out of the Left
ist territory through news services are abundantly dem
onstrated by recent reports from Spain even from cor
respondents who have not been able to shake themselves
free of the spell of the Leftist censorship under which
they have labored so long.
It it were not for the Catholic press, these facts would
not have been known to our people, nor to countless
others, including leaders of thought, whom our publica
tions inform. The Catholic Press was the strongest and
indeed practically the only organized force in the Uni
ted States exposing this effort of the Communists to do
minate Spain in order to gain a strategic base for ex
tended invasions of European countries and South Amer
ica.
Catholics who support secular newspapers cannot in
conscience, therefore, r-'use support to the Catholic
press, and their first obligation is to the Catholic news
paper which serves their Diocese; in the South Atlantic
States this is, by the endorsement of the Most Rev.
Bishops, The Bulletin.
Few citizens limit their reading to one newspaper. The
well-informed Catholic should not only subscribe for and
read the newspaper of his section, but one or more of
the other splendid Catholic periodicals which abound in
the United States. May we not hope that Catholics who
regard the salvation of their souls as the purpose of ex
istence will buy at least as many Catholic as secular
newspapers, magazines and books? And may we not hope
that subscribers to The Bulletin who have not remitted
this year will as their first contribution toward the
success of Catholic Press Month send in a check for their
subscription? _________
Dixie Musings
The secular press is frequently
severely criticized these days for the
character of some of the news it car
ries and for the manner in which it
handles certain news and presents
comment. A distinction must always
be made between newspapers which
strive to be sensational and which
specialize in salaciousness. But the
newspapers deserve commendation
for the thorough and reverent man
ner in which practically all of them
presented the news of the death of
the Holy Father. The services of
the radio in this direction are also
noteworthy. Some of the news
papers and radio commentators have
gone a bit’ afield in their predictions
on the identity of the new Pope, but
since they express opinions on
everything else, it would he futile to
expect them to leave this subject
alone-
The latest report from Germany
say, that they can't even forget
their troubles by going fishing. The
fish are afraid to open their mouths.
The Atlanta Constitution is dis
turbed by a forthcoming modem
version of the Bible by a mid-west
ern college professor, who trans
forms “wise virgins” into “smart
girls”, ‘laying up treasure” into
making a pile”, and “repent” into
“getting wise to yourself.” Good
Samaritan” becomes “good sport”,
terms The Constitution editorial
writer says are not only not synony
mous but remote from each other, as
any grade child knows.
tion’s attitude toward the Leftists In
Spain in the dwindling Civil War
there and the President’s friendship
for Catholic prelates in this coun*
try in this fashion: ‘To honor Cath-
olic prelates at home by firing guns
for them, and at the same time give
support to those who are firing guns
at them abroad, is a bewildering
policy, to say the least.”
A warm friend of The Bulletin was
called to his reward in recent weeks
in the death in Pittsburgh of the
Rev. Philip A. Callery, pastor of St
Lawrence’s Church there. Father
Callery's parish was nationally re
nowned for the Catholic Action «t
its parishoners; it was there that
the “Advertising the Catholic
Church” movement originated. Fath
er Callery was a frequent visitor to
Augusta and to Florida, and we re
call with pleasure a memorable din
ner we were privileged to attend irt
his rectory in Pittsburgh some years
ago. He was a devoted priest, who
is mourned far beyond the limits of
his parish and Diocese. May God
rest his priestly soul-
This latest popular version of the
Bible indicates the wisdom of the
Church in her concern that her
children shall have a correct trans
lation of the Scriptures. The Douai
Version is not the best possible ver
sion, and another Catholic version is
being prepared, but the improve
ment will be in the language, not the
doctrine, which is accurately record
ed in the version currently used by
Catholics in English-speaking coun
tries.
The Charleston News and Courier
estimates that for every illiterate ig
noramus there is in the country,
there are ten literate ignoramuses
(or ignorami, if you prefer it that
way).
But even so, it appears that the
Ku Klux Klan will not get very
far in its efforts to revive. The
Klan says it has dropped its antipa
thy towards Catholics, Jews and
Negroes, but Catholics would vlg^
erously oppose any group, even if
organized to support the Legion of
Decency, if it insisted on operating
masked and secretly-
The Echo of Buffalo, N. Y., start
ed a story from these columns on
the rounds of the press, and we reci
procate by appropriating its repoit
of a reaction to a young lady's re
mark that a friend of hers was wide
ly in love with her new car. Said
a young man: “Just another case
where a man is displaced by machin-
Some of our English friends are
distressed by the plight of the Negro
in the United States; John Gibbon,
who writes for Catholic newspapers
in our country and elsewhere fre
quently refers to conditions here. He
and others who voice their solitude
for the Negro in the United States
will be interested, we know, in the
following comment on the Negro in
the British Empire by Father Thom
as A. Meehan in the Interracial Re
view:
“In regard to the Government at
titude, the millions of Negroes un
der British rule are without repre
sentation in Parliament. If they
are not excluded from holding gov
ernment offices, at least none of
them do, not even in minor capaci
ties. In the British army, the high
est rank possible for a Negro to at
tain is sergeant-major. In the col
onies themselves some Negroes hold
positions of authority, but never
over white men. The lot of the
Negro living in England is worse
than the lot of the same people in
America. It is almost impossible
for them to obtain employment, and
when they do, it is in most cases
temporary, for as soon as an Eng
lishman wants it, the Negro is dis
missed. This is far more surpris
ing when one considers that the
English for the most part come in
contact with the highest type of
Negro, in regard to education, train
ing and financial security.”
We do not belong to the school of
thought which insists that the Eng
lish do everything backwards, but
our friend, George Barnard. London
correspondent of the N. C. W. C-
News Service, sends a story saying
that the statue of King George for
a memorial near Westminster Abbey,
of which a Catholic Sir Giles Gilbert
Scott is architect, is being designed
by Sir Reid Dick.
ery.
Westbrook Pegler devoted two of
his recent columns to disagreeing
with some of our comments on
newspapers in lectures on “The
Morality of the Newspaper” at the
University of Notre Dame. Pegler
says we are behind the times in be
lieving there is any such thing to
day as yellow journalism, or that
there are ‘sob sisters” on current
dailies.
Having this assurance from Mr.
Pagier, we could dismiss the matter
from our minds if it were not for the
sensational character of large seg
ments of our metropolitan press and
for the torrents of sentimentality
gushing through the pages of many
of our journals.
Deploring the persecution of the
Jews by the Nazi in Germany, the
Charleston News and Courier edi
torially asserts that the atrocities in
flicted on the “kulaks” or peasants
by the Russian Soviet Government
are greater. Says the News and
Courier: “As we have no kulaks
in the United States, or not enough
to be noticed, the Russian infamies
caused no intense excitement in our
country. The cruelties of the Nazis
to the Jews cannot be exceeded, but
they are limited to the number of
Jews in Germany. The kulaks
were some millions in Russia.”
A young lady home demonstration
agent lectured before a group of
students at a North Carolina secular
college on “Table Etiquette” recent
ly, according to the Raleigh News
and Observer, and learned that some
of the dictums of Miss Emily Post
are not always practicable. Knives,
she said, should never be used when
it is possible to cut with a fork; in
some places one finds steaks tender
enough to be cut with a fork. “Not
here,” heckled a student; “the steaks
we get are so tough you can't cut
the gravy.” The lecturer said
cheese should be picked up and eat
en from the fingers. A student
assked; “How about cottage cheese?”
The subject of the next address of
the lecturer was announced as:
“Good Manners for All Occasions.”
The editor of .The Tidings, official
organ of the Archdiocese of Los An
geles, in his inmitable “El Rodeo”
column comments on the administra-
Father David Mathew, recently-
consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of
Westminster, the See of. London, ot
which the Archbishop is Cardinal
Hinsley, lectured at Notre Dame
University last year, and while there
manifested great interest in the work
of the Catholic Laymen's Associa
tion of Georgia.
The Greenville, S. C„ News says
that the South is the backbone of the
Democratic Party, but the Charles
ton News and Courier corrects it
The South, says the News and Cour
ier, is the spare-ribs of the Demo
cratic Party.
The Washington Post repudiates
Communist Earl Browder's plan of
an alliance of the United States and
Soviet Russia by saying that “since
Communism is a disease which
breeds the fever of Fascism, all sug
gestions of an alliance with Com
munism in opposition to Fascism are,
in restrained language, pernicious
nonsense.” The disaster which al
ways follows such relations are dem
onstrated, says The Post, by the
plight of Soviet Russia's three most
recent allies, Czechoslovakia, China
and Loyalist Spain.
Among those now happily miss
ing from the halls of Congress is
Congressman Jerry J. O'Connell, of
Montana, who claimed to be a Cat-
olic although he had excommuni
cated himself by violation of the
marriage laws of the Church, and
who made himself conspicuous by
bis championing of the Reds in
Spain- Jerry lias been retired to
private life by his constituents.
Premier De Valera of Ireland
wants a plebiscite in Ulster, and
Johnny Spencer in the Macon Tel
egraph asks how many bombing
planes he has.
The Dawson, Ga., News says a
German Jewish refugee living in
South Georgia will talk about Ger
many but will not criticize Hitler,
and asks: “Is it possible that the fear
of Der Feuhrer reaches across the
Atlantic?” It is; a critical inter
view of Hitler from this refugee pub
lished in The News would perhaps
put his relatives in Germany in con
centration camps or subject them
to an even worse fate.—B. B-