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JANUARY 22, 1944
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOL T C LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
ONE—A
WITH OTHER EDITORS
WOODROW WILSON—
TI1E CHURCH AND
DEMOCRACY
Anti-religious “liberals” who are
the backbone of the movement to
incite hatred of the Catholic
Church by smearing it as Fascist
seek to enlist the sympathy of ad
mirers of Woodrow Wilson by pro
fessing admiration for him as one
of the greatest modern -exponents
and defenders of democracy. They
should therefore, accept him as an
authority in the field.
In The New Freedom, President
Wilson wrote: ‘‘Society from the
bottom has always interested me
profoundly. The only reason why
government did not suffer from
dry rot in the Middle Ages, under
the aristocratic system which then
prevailed, was that most of the
men who were efficient instru
ments of government were drawn
from the Church—that body which
we now distinguish from other re
ligious bodies as the Catholic
Church.
“The Church was then, as it is
now, a great democracy. There was
no peasant so humble that he
might not become a priest, and no
priest so obscure that he might not
become Pope of Christendom, and
every chancellery in Europe, every
court in Europe, was ruled by the
learned, trained and accomplished
men—the priesthood of the great
and dominant Church.
“What kept government alive in
the Middle Ages was the constant
rise of sap from the bottom, from
the rank and file of the great body,
of the people through the open
channels of the priesthood. That,
it seems to me, is one of the most
extraordinary illustrations that
could possibly be adduced of the
thing I am talking about.”
The Church is now, as it was
then, a great democracy. Two of
the last three Popes who have
borne the name of Pius, all of this
century, have been from families
in the most modest circumstances;
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Pope Pius X was the son of peas
ants, and Pope Pius XI the son of a
weaver. Pope Pius XII, the first
Roman to become Supreme Pontiff
in many generations, was selected
for advancement because of dis
tinguished selfless service in posts
of increasing responsibility.
Woodrow Wilson once referred
to the Catholic Bishops of the Uni
ted States as men of “large influ
ence”. There’s today in the nation
no body of 150 Americans of larger
influence than the members of the
Catholic hierarchy. They are all
men of the people, who have been
selected for their posts of honor
for no other reason .than character,
ability and achievement. The “lib
erals” who are depicting the
Church as the enemy of democracy
should study their careers in the
light of the liberal Wilson's
tribute.—(The Catholic News).
MINES IN THE
SEVEN HILLS
The Germans are planting mines
under the seven hills of Rome,
the Eternal City. They are sow
ing death for those who with un
wary feet shall walk through the
city after they have left. In that
sacrilegious spirit which lias ever
marked Nazism, they plan to use
the sacred places of Rome as traps
of sudden death.
News comes through Naples that
the Germans have already
evacuated large sections of Rome,
that their engineers are planting
mines and booby traps and that
early removal of all German forces
from the city is expected. The
Nazi generals realize, it is believed,
they cannot long hold Rome, faced
as they are both with the grow
ing power of the Allied armies
to the south and the spreading
fires of revolt among the Italians
in those parts of the country they
occupy.
Rome, of course, will survive.
With all the evil ingenuity of
their warped genius, the Germans
cannot destroy more than a frac
tion of the city.
However, should they succeed,
by some stroke of fate, in de
stroying every vestige of the Holy
City, in leaving it so completely
in ruins that no stone stood upon
another, if all that was left upon
the seven hills was desolation
and death, still they would not
have harmed the spirit for which
the city stands.
For Rome is, to many millions
of devout Christians, the citadel
of faith. Rome is the sacred city,
the focal point of a great religion
that has spread over all the
earth.
And religion, any religion, is
not a thing of buildings, of treas
ure, of stone. It is an edifice of
faith, of ideals, of aspiration of
the spirit of man. Destroy every
material evidence of the church,
of any church, and you have not
touched the eternal flame of truth
that burns within the hearts of
all who follow the faith. Indeed
it is true that the greater destruc
tion of the earthly habiliments of
the church, the stronger burns
the flame of its truer life, the
life of the spirit.
Rome can never be destroyed.
What destruction the Nazis in
flict will but add to the greater
glory of the evidences of faith
that shall, in the better future,
arise anew from the Seven Hills
beside the Tiber.—(Atlanta Con
stitution).
THOUGHTLESS MISTAKE
The Chronicle truly regrets its
part in disseminating an editorial
dealing with a so-called legend
about the origin of Leap Year, an
editorial captioned “The Frisky
Calendar,” which originally ap
peared in The Atlanta Journal and
which was reprinted in yesterday’s
edition of this newspaper.
While we had no part, of course,
in writing this editorial, we are
extremely sorry that we reprinted
it, thus giving needless offense to
many of our Catholic and Irish
friends.
The reflection contained in the
Journal editorial against two pa
tron saints of the Irish people—
St. Patrick and St. Brigid—has un
derstandably shocked, offended
and grieved those of the Catholic
faith who read the editorial, even
though the writer intended to be
facetious without giving offense.
The editorial was reprinted in
The Chronicle without due con
sideration being given to its con
tents or to the offense which it
might be expected to give; for this
we are sorry, since this news
paper’s reputation for tolerance
and piety is too well known for
anyone to believe that we would
deliberately give offense to mem
bers of any religious faith.—The
Augusta Chronicle.
SOLICITOR GENERAL AND THE PFC
The Solicitor General of the United States. Mr. Charles Fahy.
watches while Private First Class Rosemary Brennan, Women's
Army Corps, signs the register shortly after she was admitted to the
Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. A Catholic girl from
Camby, Ind., Private Brennan formerly practiced law in Indianapolis.
She is assistant to the Legal Assistance Officer at Walter Reed Gen
eral Hospital. Washington, D. C. Official WAC photo. (N.C.W.C.)
Solicitor General Fahy is a brother of Bernard S. Fahy, of Rome,
Georgia, president of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia.
The Solicitor General was the guest speaker at the annual convention
of the Laymen's Association, held in Macon in 1942.
TO COMBAT RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE—Dr. M. Ashby Jones. Bap
tist minister, and Miss Marjorie McLachlen, executive director of the
Atlanta area office of the National Conference of Christians and Jews,
discuss plans for the observance of Brotherhood Week, in the interest of
promoting good will and understanding among Catholics, Protestants
and Jews.—(Photo—Courtesy of The Atlanta Journal).
President Designates
February 20 tn 26 as
“Brotherhood Week”
(Special to The Bulletin)
ATLANTA, Ga.—In a message
by the President of the United
States to the National Conference
of Christians and Jews made
public on January 16, Mr. Roose
velt warned that we on the home-
front must see that history shall
not repeat itself in postwar hatred
and intolerance. “It is for us,”
the President declared, “to make
the homeland more nearly a land
of brotherhood, worthy of the vic
tory our gallant sons and daugh
ter's shall surely win.”
This declaration by President
Roosevelt, who urges all Ameri
cans to observe Brotherhood Week,
February 20 through 26, under the
slogan “Brotherhood or Chaos,"
was given to the press by Dr.
Everett R. Clinchy, adminstratiive
head of the National Conference of
Christians and Jews, from its na
tional headquarters in New York
City.
Brotherhood Week wiit be ob-
seved for the eleventh consecutive
year during the week of Washing
ton’s Birthday in 1944. More than
2,000 communities across the na
tion particinated in its observance
in 1943, and several Georgia cities
took an active part in the ob
servance.
The National Conference of
Christians and Jews, the Organiza
tion sponsoring Brotherhood Week,
was founded in 1928 on the initia
tive of Charles Evans Hughes,
Newton D. Baker, S. Parkes Cad-
man, and other distinguished Am
ericans. Its purpose is the ad
vancement of understand: " good
will, and social justice among
Protestants. Catholics and Jews.
The National Conference of
Christians and Jews»has this month
opened a Georgia headquarters in
Atlanta, with Miss Marjorie Mc
Lachlen. former public relations
officer for the national conference,
as Georgia Area Director.
Dr. Ashby Jones, Hughes Spald
ing and Walter H. Rich are co-
chairmen of the Atlanta commit
tee. Dr. Jones and Mr. Spalding
were leaders in the origin of the
movement in Atlanta. The At
lanta committee includes the Very
Rev. William J. Lonergan, S. M.,
Lewis F. Gordon, Evelyn Harris
and John M. Harrison.
The Augusta committee is head
ed by Marion Adams, Lee Blum
and Hugh Kinchley, and the Sa
vannah committee by the Risht
Rev. Msgr. T. James McNamara,
the Rev. L. G. Cleverdon and
Rabbi George Solomon.
Monsignor McNamara has au
thorized the Georgia area office
in Atlanta to release the following
statement in connection with the
observance of Brotherhood Week:
“Now is the time lo immunize our
citizens against the fears and
suspicions that may divide our
people in the period of post-war
reconstruction we must surely
face. If those of any religion or
race lose their rights, by that pre
cedent the rights of all will be
threatened. Now is the time lo
remember the American Revolu
tionary urirvinle that no one is
free unless all are free ”
MASS is being said each Sunday
in the Anglican Church of St.
Saviour. Coventry, which was loan
ed by the Vicar to the Benedictines
who were bombed out of their
church of St. Osburg.
TO THE CATHOLICS OF GEORGIA
With the approval of His Excellency the Most Reverend Gerald P. O’Hara, Bishop of Sa-
vannah-Atlanta. the annual membership campaign of the Catholic Laymen's Association of
Georgia will be inaugurated on February 6 in all of the parishes of this Diocese.
In order to maintain and expand the work of the Laymen’s Association, the support of
the Catholics of Georgia is needed and solicited.
At the annual convention of the Laymen’s Association, held in Augusta last October, those
who assembled there declared that it was unthinkable that the work which (he Association had
carried on for more than twenty-five years, anl was now continuing, should be allowed to stop
or to be curtailed because of lack of financial support.
Operation under war-time conditions have reduced the income of the Association from other
sources, and it will have to depend to a greater extent upon contributions from the Catholics
of Georgia.
Consider how much you can afford to give, if you have not already enrolled as a contributing
member, and fill out one of the pledge cards which will be distributed at services held in the
churches of the Diocese on Sunday, February 6. Your generous support will enable the Catho
lic Laymen’s Association of Georgia to go forward, and through its progress in the future, evi
dence appreciation of the labor and sacrifices of those who laid its foundations in the past.
Every Catholic in Georgia should know what has been accomplished by the Laymen’s As
sociation in combating anti-Catholic prejudice and promoting a better feeling among Georgians,
irrespective of creed. All should know that its work must go on, which gives assurance that
this appeal will be met with the whole-hearted response that will insure the continuance of that
work which has brought renown to the Catholics of Georgia.
BERNARD S. FAHY, President
Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia.