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TEN
FEBRUARY 19, 1944
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated.
HUGH KINCHLEY, Editor
21(5-217 Southern Finance Building, Augusta, Ga.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1943-1944
BERNARD S. FAHY, Rome President
MARTIN J. CALLAGHAN, Macon Vice-Pres.
J B McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary
HUGH GRADY, Savannah Treasurer
HUGH KINCHLEY. Augusta Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
A M McA ULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
Vol. XXV FEBRUARY 19, 1944 No, 2
Entered a? 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
In Section 1103 Act of October 3. 1917. authorized Sept
1 1921
Member ol N C W C News Service the Catholic Pres*
Association ol the United States the Georgia Press Asso-
cit nnii mu ihe National Editorial Association
Pal,fished moot lilt by the Puolicily Department with the
Annrnh.-luin of tiie Most Reverend Bishops of Raleigh,
('hnn mil Savannah-Atlanta, and of the Right Rev
erend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont.
Secular Press Defense of the Vatican
M ANY of the leading secular newspapers of the
United Slates commented editorially on the
vicious attack launched against the Vati
can hy Izvcstia of Moscow, the Soviet government
now-paper, and a number of nationally-known
columnists, including Walter Lippman, whose column
appears in The Atlanta Journal, The Augusta
Chronicle, and oilier leading daily newspapers of this
section, strongly scored what he termed “a highly
imnvoper action.”
The New York Times asserted in an editorial: "Of
all the incendiary literary bombs manufactured in
Moscow since (lie Teheran conference and thrown
with such light-hearted recklessness into the unity of
the Allied nations, none is likely to do greater
damage than Jzvestia’s unjust and intemperate at
tack upon the Vatican as ‘pro-Fascist’. The im
palpable insincerity of this document may be
judged by one of the accusations it presents. It
denounces the Vatican for having kept silent when
Italy launched her ‘stab-in-the-back’ attack on
France in June, 1940. And where, may we ask, was
lzvestla’s own protest on that occasion? History
records that at the moment when Mussolini stabbed
France in the hack the Soviet Government was sell
ing war supplies to Hitler.
“There is no profit in recalling matters of this
kind, or in raking over the old coals of what ought
to be bygone disagreements. Izvcstia makes it
necessary to do so. as they only available means of
measuring the good faith of its own attack. Izvestia
is the official newspaper of the Soviet Government.
It ought to be well enough informed to know that
♦he Vatican, as a temporal power, is a neutral state
with which Russia's two great allies, Britain and
♦he United States, have friendly and confident re
lations. These nations have no doubt where the
real sympathy of the Vatican lies in this struggle.
They recognize the inescapable neutrality of the
Pope’s position; but they have no difficulty in
finding his eloquent declarations clear evidence of
his detestation for those who have violated the rights
*»f little nations, who have committed bestial acts
from one end of Europe to the other and who have
attempted to elevate the dogma of Totalitarianism
to the dignity of a new religion.
“Izveslia's attack is damaging to the unity on
which victory depends. It is all the more discon
certing because it comes at the very .moment when
•n Allied army stands at the gates of Rome and
when an Allied commission, in which Russia is a
full partner, must soon accept new responsibilities
for salvaging what can be saved in Italy.”
“The Washington Times-HcraId says it become
“more and more fascinating” to try to figure out
what Russia “is up to.” Noting that the Teheran
conference, has been followed by an attack on Great
Britain, which is charged with “dickering w ith Ger
many a separate peace”; a rebuke to Wendell
Willkie, and now the vicious assault on the Vatican,
the paper says, "Stalin's government mouthpieces
haven’t got around as yet to accusing Roosevelt of
dickering for a separate peace with Japan, but who
knows what may happen next?”
The Evening Star of Washington speaks of the
Izvestia attack on (he Vatican in the light of the
Great Britain and AVillkie incidents, and says
“Stalin has chosen a most extraordinary method of
demonstrating the good will and the mutual under
standing which President Roosevelt said were
among the tangible results of the Teheran confer
ence.”
The Washington Post says “we arc constrained
to conclude that the leaders of the Soviet Union
are not above whittling down this country’s unity, if
not our hemisphere solidarity, whether or not they
are shooting at it directly.”
This Washington newspaper points out that
Izvestia "is the organ of the Kremlin" and that "in
point of fact all newspapers in Russia are equally
official, since there is no such tiling as freedom of
the press in Ihe monolithic State in history.”
“Perhaps the best way to figure out the cause of
the Izvestia attack on the Vatican for pro-Fascist
activities is to think of its effect,” the Washington
paper adds “To simplify things, let us think of
Ihe effect in this country, Russia’s ally. Clearly
our millions of Catholics will be very much offend
ed. the anli-Catholics will he correspondingly
pleased, and the extremists on both sides will be
given a lift in their efforts to promote domestic
disintegration. In sum, the article will aggravate
our domestic tensions, and breed confusions. Sure
ly ihe Kremlin, even though it is not well informed
aboul conditions abroad, must have forsecn this."
The paper links up this attack with Russia’s slap
at Wendell Willkie and its charge that England was
negotiating a separate peace with Ihe Nazis, and
says "this is the kind of diplomacy the Soviet be
lieve in.” and that there must be “some straight
talking and bargaining on out part,” or "we may
end up by forfeiting their respect.”
Walter Lippman. the noted columnist, prev
iously quoted, said, loo, that everyone, and particu-
“Father Sandy”
W HILE the staff of The Bulletin was still suffer
ing from the stiock caused by the horror of the
news of the torture and murder of the heroic
defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, our own Ameri
can soldiers, sailors and Marines, and their brave
comrades of the Philippines, at the hands of their
barbaric Japanese captors, there came to this office
from the News Service of the National Catholic Wel
fare Conference, the news of another Japanese alroc-
iyt w'hich saddens our hearts to further depths of
distress.
It is that hope has been abandoned for the safety
of Father Robert J. Cairns, Maryknoll Missionary in
China, who, according to a soldiep of the puppet
Chinese government, was taken prisoner, by the Jap
anese, beheaded, and his body thrown into the China
Sea.
On the occasions when he was on leave from his
missionary activity in China, Father Cairns spent a
great part of his time in Augusta. He was a native
of Scotland and it was natural that he would seek
recreation in that sport which had its origin in that
country. He enjoyed immensely the opportunity
which the famous golf courses in Augusta gave him
to play that game.
He was a frequent visitor to the office of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association when he W'as in Geor
gia, and until the outbreak of war prevented, kept
up a regular correspondence with the present editor
of The Bulletin, who had known him well and cher
ished his friendship. '
The last letter we had from him was dated
March 13, 1935, and it closed with the w'ords: “M'ay
God bless you in everything you do, Faithfully
yours in Jesus Christ, ‘Father Sandy,’ ”
Father Cairns labored as a missionary priest on
Sancian Island, where Saint Francis Xavier ended
his earthly life to enter Heaven and receive the in
corruptible crown that was the reward of his life of
sanctity.
In echo to Father Cairns’ invocation of the bless
ing of God upon us, we fervently pray that like Saint
Francis Xavier, in whose footsteps he trod, “Father
Sandy,’ w'ho seems worthy to be one of their blessed
company, may be received by the Martyrs into Para
dise, w'here perpetual light may shine upon his noble,
priestly soul.
larly governments, should use the word “fascist”
carefully these days, “because we arc now pledged
to treat Fascists in Italy as enemies.”
“The Vatican, as a temporal pow'er,” says Mr.
Lippman, “is a neutral State with which the United
States and Britain have friendly relations. We in
tend, of course, to maintain them, and to protect
scrupulously and cordially all the established rights
of the church wherever our military authority ex
tends, and neither to practice ourselves nor to count
enance from others, w'hile we have the responsi
bility in Italy, interference in the affairs of the
church. In so far as the Izvestia article means or
implies any intent to cause a deviation from this
policy, either by the Soviet government, or by in
citing popular agitation in Italy, we reject it firm
ly, unequivocally and entirely.”
Constantine Brown, another widely-read column
ist, sees in the Izvestia attack an indication of try
ing days ahead for the Church in Italy. He says tly:
Soviet assault against the Vatican comes at a time
when “the Allied commanders in Italy begin to see
their way to Rome,” and he foresees that “the en
tire position of the present Italian government will
be reconsidered on the day Rome is in the hands of
the Allies.”
Writing in PM, of New York, Selwyii James says
“The Soviet Union’s attack on Vatican foreign
policy, charging it witk ‘supporting fascism,’ obvious
ly was intended to discredit Vatican influence in
postwar European reconstruction.”
“Moscow’s opinion of the Vatican (and vice-versa)
never has been a mystery and Izvestia’s statement
should cause no particular surprises, the PM writer
declares. “Its significance, however, perhaps lies
in its timing as much as it does in its content.”
One of the strongest denunciations of the Soviet
attack on the Holy See came from George E. Sokol
sky, whose syndicated column appears in The News
and Courier of Charleston, and other papers.
This columnist declared that everything that ap
pears in Izvestia is not only officia’ but is intend
ed as a lormal notice .it' government policy. He
writes: “ft will be recalled that Eller pursuing a
public polity of godlessn„ss, Stalin, last year, sud
denly permitted the Greek Orthodox Church to be
reestablished. This was mistaken in England and
the United States as religious freedom. This error
I exposed in a debate with Leon Henderson on the
’Wake-up America’ program of September 26, 1943.”
Will) reference to the argument used by Izvestia.
that Ihe Vatican was silent when Italy stabbed
France in the back, Mr. Sokolsky says: “If there
has been any back-stabbing in this war, it was done
in those miserable months from September, 1939,
until June, 1941, during which time Stalin gave Hit
ler a free hand to devastate Europe and to conquer
England. It was only after Hitler attacked Rus
sia in June, 1941 that Stalin came over to our side.
“Yet it is this same Stalin, who dares to attack
the Pope, wdiose temporal power is by the very na
ture of his office nil, J’or not doing what Stalin
could have done, and in my opinion should have
done, in June, 1940, or even in September, 1939,
namely ranged his population and resources on the
side of the right. And to this day, Stalin is at peace
with Japan, even while we have provided him with
nearly $4,000,000,000 of lend-lease. His attack on
the Pope therefore loses meaning in view of the
Pope’s temporal disabilities and Stalin’s capacity to
act—a capacity which was avialable w'licn Hitler
started to conquer the world.”
Thus far, the only publication in which there
lias been noticed any acceptance of the charges of
Izvestia as truth, is The Christian Index, official
organ of the Baptists of Georgia, in which Dr.
Louie D. New'ton, after repeating the charges of the
Soviet newspaper, declares: "Will we open our eyes
to wbat is going on, or we will insist upon our
’broadmindedness’ by which we have stood idly by
in recent years and allowed our own government to
become involved in numerous ways with the Vati
can? Howls of bigotry will go up every time the
facts are reported, but facts cannot be dismissed by
howls, nor can chains that are forged be quickly
broken. The sooner the people of the United States
awake to the facts, the better for our children.”
But, let’s be sure they awake to facta.
Dixie M usings
Friends of Father P. A. Ryan,
S. J., formerly pastor of the Sacred
Heart Church in Augusta, and
well-known throughout this sec
tion through his connection with
“Jesuit Missions,” will be inter
ested to know that Father Ryan
has been engaged in a speaking
tour in California some months.
Father Ryan writes that he has
had many interesting experiences
and has spoken to large congre
gations from the pulpits of the
churches in Los Angeles, San
Diego, and other places. One
Sunday of last month, in the
Cathedral at San Diego, which
seats 1,200, there were that many
more standing, and some of the
overflow congregation were ob
liged to find standing room in the
sanctuary, which was so crowded
with WACS, WAVES, SPARS and
Women of the Marine Corps that
Father Ryan had difficulty in mak
ing his way from the altar to the
pulpit.
Many notable personages of the
motion picture world have attend
ed Masses at which he spoke,
Father Ryan writes, among those
that he mentioned were Maureen
O’Hara, the screen actress, and her
husband, John Farrow, noted m>
tion picture director, and author
of “Pageant of the Popes”, one of
the outstanding Catholic books of
the past year.
The exceptionally competent and
valuable first aid work which she
performed recently at the scene
of the disastrous railroad wreck
in North Carolina, in which nearly
a hundred persons were killed and
many more were injured, resulted
in Miss Marie Griffin, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Griffin,
of Savannah, being named “wom
an of the week” in Baltimore,
where she and her sister, Miss
Eleanor Griffin are attending
Notre Dame College. Miss Grit-
fin was awarded a War Bond,
which she in turn presented to
the school which she attends.
The chiiden at the Sacred Heart
Orphanage, Nazareth, N. C., were
recently the beneficiaries of the
generosity of the soldiers at Camp
Maskall, where the mer, in uni
form made a voluntary contribu
tion of several hundred dollars
to a fund for the orphans of ihe
Diocese of Raleigh at the Mid
night Mass celebrated at the camp
on Christmas.
Sponsored by the Atlanta Com
mittee of the National Conference
of Christians and Jews, the Rev.
Herman L. Turner, of Covenant
Presbyterian Church, is being pre
sented over Station WSB, every
Saturday afternoon at 1:45 p. m.,
in a radio feature which broad
casts news of religious events,
Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish,
and which is designed to foster
the principles of goodwill, under
standing, and social justice in a
world lorn by strife and dissen
sion.
Miss Patricia Buckley, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. John T. Buckley,
of Augusta, a student at Mount St.
Vincent-on-the-Hudson, is rapidly
gaining fame as a writer.
She lias recently contributed two
articles to the school magazine,
one on (he late Dr. William Lyon
Phelps, and the other, an amus
ing sketch, under the title, "Gills
for Males.”
Miss Buckley has now been ask
ed to contribute another article,
on “Bringing in the Yule Log,” an
old custom that was revived at
Christmas time this year on the
Buckley plantation near Augusta.
Her father, a former grand
knight of Patrick Walsh Council,
Knighls of Columbus, is the presi
dent ol the Augusta Branch of the
Catholic Laymen's Association ol
Georgia.
Daniel Thomas Fogarty. a
graduate of Benedictine Military
School in Savannah, had the happy
experience on Christmas Day of
receiving personal congratulations
from General Mark Clark, com
mander of the American Forces in
Italy.
The occasion for the felicitations
was his promotion from a second to
a first lieutenant.
Formerly connected with the
mechanical department of the Sa
vannah Morning News and Eve
ning Press, Lieutenant Fogarty is
(he son of Mrs. J. T. Farrell, of
Savanah Beach.
Another recent promotion ill
the armed forces is that of Mat
thew A. Condon, Jr., son of Mr.
and Mrs. M. A. Condon, of Char
leston, who has been promoted to
the rank of lieutenant, junior
grade, while on overseas duty in
the North African theatre of oper
ations with the United States Na
val Reserve.
Lieutenant Condon, who attended
Bishop England High School in
Charleston, and Spring Hill Col
lege, Mobile, was commissioned an
ensign in the naval reserve in
1942, after training at Columbia
University. His wife is the former
Miss Ruth Carnell Padgett, of
Charleston.
He has been overseas nine
months and serves aboard a tank
landing ship.
An Associated Press dispatch
from London, some weeks ago,
quoted Fortress Pilot Bernard
Davey, of Atlanta,*in its descrip
tion of a bombing raid over Ger
many.
The officer’s father, James Da
vey, is a past grand knight of At
lanta Council, Knights of Colum-
bus, and was formerly district
deputy of the K. of C. in Georgia.
Invasion and search of St. Paul’s
Monastery in Rome by Axis police
has created the most profound im
pression in the Vatican.
The incident happened during
one night early this month. The
police forced their way into the
Monastery, which according to
treaty enjoys extralerri torial
status. The Palatine Guards stat
ioned at the Monastery fired sever
al shots in the air and were im
mediately disarmed. All of the
Monastery, including the part re
served to the monks, was minutely
searched and a number of persons
and objects carried away.
The startling success of “The
Song of Bernadette” has prompted
.Hollywood playwriters to search
histories and biographers for new
similar themes.
Among the latest mentioned as
possibilities for forthcoming screen
plays are St. Francis of Assisi and
Mother Cabfini.
Meanwhile reproduction of “Quo
Vadis” and “The Sign of the
Cross” are being prepared and
studios are placing in production
"The Keys of the Kingdom” and
“The Hoodlum Saint”, a story of
Dempster McMurphy, Chicago
newspaper man who had particular
devotion to St. Dismas the “Good
Thief”.
The Right Rev. Monsignor T.
James McNamara, rector of the
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
in Savannah, addressed the
Brotherhood of the Congregation
Agudath Aehim in the social hall
of the synagogue during a meet
ing at which newly eleelcd offi
cers of the Brotherhood were in
stalled.
On January 29, at St. Mary's-onh
The-Hill Church in Augusta, a
Solemn High Mass of Requim
was offered in commemoration of
the fifth anniversary of death of
the Right Rev. Msgr. James A.
Kane, the first pastor of the par
ish, who served at St. Mary's lor
20 years, until liis death on Jan
29. 1939.
The Very Rev. Thomas A. Bren
nan, V. F., pastor of St. Mary’s-
on-The-Hill, was the celebrant,
with the Rev. Angel Pengson. dea
con, and (he Rev. Martin Killian,
O. P., subdeaeon.
That “old college yell” can be
used as potently on the battlefield
as it can on the football gridiron—
at least against the Japanese, ac
cording to Lieutenant Joseph
Dockery of the Marine Corps, for
merly a center on the football
squad of St. Benedict College,
Atchison. Kansas.
In a letter received in Atchison,
Lieutenant Dockery related that in
an action in New Guinea, his
platoon was being held in reserve
when sniper and machine gun tire
broke out near them. Someone in
his outfit started "the old chatter”
and in no time “my Marines Aelled
like a football cheering section”
as they advanced. The Japanese
apparently believed a major as
sault was on for they fled trenches,
leaving much equipment behind
them.
Inspired by I lie splendid letter
of our Most Reverend Bishop, read
in the churches of the Diocese of
Savananh - Atlanta, the Catholic
laity of Georgia are responding
wonderfully to the annual cam
paign of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia for contrib
uting members.
The Columbus Branch, headed
by Henry <T. Murphy, with Mrs.
George R. Connor as treasurer,
and Mrs. John B. Byrne, as secre
tary. has set the pace for the rest
of the State, already reporting
more than 100 per cent of its quota
as subscribed and paid, as the re
sult of one day's effort.—H. K.