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TWO—A
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
APRIL 22, 1944
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated.
HUGH KINCHLEY, Editor
216-217 Southern Finance Building, Augusta, Ga.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1943-1944
BERNARD S. FAIIY, 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. McAULIFFE. Augusta Auditor
Vol. XXV.
APRIL 22, 1944
No. 4
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
"‘3. Actataf-*-*---- * ' "
In Section 1103.
of October 3. 1917. authorized Sept.
Member of N. C. W. C. News Service. Religious News
Service, the Catholic Press Association of the United States,
the Georgia Press Association and the National Editorial
Association.
Published monthly by the Puolicity Department with the
Approbation of the Most Reverend Bishops of Raleigh,
Charleston, and Savannah-Atlanta, and of the Right Rev-
erend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont.
A Golden Jubilee
W IEN we recall that more than fourteen
hundred years have passed since St. Benedict
gathered his followers around him to establish
Monte Cassino Abbey, fifty years does not seem
a long tirrife in the life of a Benedictine community,
but when the half century since has passed since the
dedication of the Belmont Abbey Cathedral is
considered in the light of what has been achieved
over the years by members of the Order of St.
Benedict who found in the Abbey Cathedral the
inspiration for what they have accomplished for
God and country and the education of youth, the
fiftieth anniversary of the Abbey Cathedral’s dedi
cation is indeed a day which should be marked in
golden letters upon the pages of Belmont Abbey’s
history.
The Belmont Abbey Cathedral has been a foun
tain spring of religion, not only for Belmont and
its vicinity, not even for North Carolina alone, but
for the whole Southland.
There is not a section of the South; nor of all
the United States, for that matter, which has not
felt the beneficent influence of Belmont Abbey.
Practically every member of the Order of St. Bene
dict in the South was trained beneath the shadows
of the towering spire of Belmont Abbey Cathedral.
In every part of the South there are secular priests
who received their classical, philosophical and
theological training at Belmont.
The whole Southeast is vitally interested in Bel
mont Abbey, because it has shared in the blessings
which have come from the Masses which have been
Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima
A TTENTION was directed in a motion picture,
recently released, to the apparitions of Our
Blessed Lady at Lourdes. In this issue The
Bulletin reports the first showing of another picture,
one painted on canvas, instead of being printed on
film, which directs attention to the apparitions at
Fatima, in Portugal.
The new painting, of Our Lady of the Rosary of
Fatima, was unveiled a few weeks ago in New York
by Archbishop Spellman at a ceremony which was
intended to launch a crusade throughout the United
States to increase devotioh to the Blessed Virgin
Mother of God, through the rosary.
This should be of particular significance here in
Georgia, because at St. Francis Xavier Church in
Brunswick there is a shrine in honor of Our Lady
of Fatima, and the parish Confraternity of Our
Lady of Fatima sponsors annually a procession in
honor of their Patroness.
It is natural that special honor is shown Our
Lady of Fatima in Brunswick, for many members of
St. Francis Xavier’s congregation are Portuguese,
and the story of Our Lady of Fatima comes from
Portugal.
There were troubled days for the Church in
Portugal in 1917, but from that year conditions
have improved, and while that country may not
have been blessed with material prosperity. Faith
is triumphant over infidelity.
Like Lourdes in France, until 1858, Fatima, in
Portugal, was an unheard of village, until 1917. In
May of that year, three peasant children, who has
been tending sheep in the fields brought a startling
story home with them. They told that they had
seen a beautiful Lady who had told them that she
would meet them at the same place on the same
day of the five succeeding months. The children
said that the beautiful Lady had told them that she
came from Heaven and that in October she would
make her name known to them, and that she had
urged them to say the rosary devoutly and often.
The children declared that the Lady had asked
them if they were willing to offer their sufferings
in reparation for the sins of the world, and had
promised that she would comfort and sustain them
if they consented to her request.
It was not long before their sufferings began, for
when they returned to their homes with their
astounding story they were punished by unbelieving
parents for telling untruths and subjected to scorn
and ridicule.
Nevertheless, some sixty persons went with the
children when they returned to the scene a month
later, and though the spectators did not see the Lady
nor hear her voice, as the children said that they
had done.
The next month the crowd had increased to about
five thousand, and although they could not report
seeing or hearing anything unusual, the children
said that they had seen the Lady again and that
she had promised to perform a miracle.
The following month there were fifteen thousand
in the crowd which accompanied the children.
Dixie Musings
It was just by the width of a
farmer’s fence that Captain Mattie
Pinette, of Fort Kent, Maine, grew
up to be a WAC and’ to serve as
personal secretary for General
Dwight Eisenhower, commander of
the U- S.-British European inva
sion forces. If the fence had lean
ed the other way, the Catholic girl
might today be in a Canadia uni
form.
The story, as related by Marga
ret Ecker, staff-writer of The Ca
nadian Press, declares that wh'en
the Maine-Quebec boundary was
being settled, the farm of Captain
Pinette’s grandfather was a point
of dispute. At length the boun
dary was fixed along the fence of
the Pinette farm, placing it in the
United States. Captain Pinette’s
mother is a member of the Cana
dian Lapointe family, which gave
Canada a Minister of Justice. One
of Captain Pinette’s uncles is a
priest in New Brunswick, and one
of her aunts is a nun in Three Riv
ers, Quebec. At the Fort Kent
home of the Pinette family bgth
French and English were spoken
and it was this knowledge that
gave Captain Pinette the oppor
tunity to go to North Africa with
the WACc. The ship she was
aboard was torpedoed, and she
was adrift in a life boat for eight
hours. Since last December she
has been General Eisenhower's
personal secretary.
Monsignor James B. Rogers,
pastor of St. Peter’s Church, Mont
gomery, Alabama, is one of a
group of clergymen representing
Catholics, Protestants and Jews,
who in collaboration with the Ci
vilian Defense Council, have com
pleted plans for a widespread
church observance of Invasion Day
—the day upon which the Allied
forces launch their “Second
Front” attack on continental Eu
rope. Members of Montgomery’s
several churches will gather at
their own churches to offer pray
ers for the success of the invasion,
a quick end of the war, and last
ing peace. The program will start
with three full minutes of rever
ent cessation of all activity in
Montgomery.
Father Martin C. Murphy, pas
tor of St. Peter’s Church, Colum
bia, S. C., will commemorate the
twenty-fifth anniversary of his
ordination to the priesthood on
May 24, celebrating a Solemn Mass
at St. Peter’s Church, with the
Most Rev. Emmet M. Walsh,
Bishop of Charleston, presiding.
In an address to a group of mid-
western Jewish leaders in Chicago,
Joseph G. Hyman, exec utive vice-
chairman of the joint distribution
committee for Jewish relief over
seas, told how His Holiness Pope
Pius XII and Vatican officials
were giving sanctuary and other
assistance to Jewish refugees.
Mr. Hyman said: "Through the
personal intervention of His Holi
ness the Pope, and through the
good offices of Vatican officials,
Jewish and other refugees have
received and are receiving relief
and protection as well as other
forms of special aid.”
celebrated and the prayers which have been offered
throughout half-a-century within the hallowed walls Another month and the crowd numbered twenty-
of Belmont Abbey Cathedral.
For fifty years the stately and imposing Cathedral
church of Belmont Abbey has been fulfilling the
purpose to which it was dedicated, honoring and
glorifying God.
No public demonstration marks the fiftieth anni
versary of the dedication of the* Abbey Cathedral,
it having been deemed wiser to postpone the forihal
observance of the jubilee until happier times when
the restrictions imposed by war conditions will not
prevail.
However, the mere announcement that the
Cathedral has reached its golden anniversary will
bring those who once were students at Belmont,
recollections of happy days within its cloister and
college, and prayers that for many years to come,
Belmont Abbey Cathedral will continue to be bless
ed with the patronage of Mary, Help of Christians,
as a shrine where her Divine Son has long been
worshipped.
For The Church And The South
U NDER the auspices of His Excellency, the Most
Reverend William L. Adrian, Bishop of Nash
ville, the Fifth Annual Convention of the
Catholic Committee of the South will be held at
Memphis, beginning April 25 and closing April 27.
The Catholic Committee of the South was
established six years ago for the purpose of having
the Catholic Church, even though its members con
stitute a minority in the South, play a more import
ant part in the solution of the many .problems, re
ligious, industrial, social and educational, that our
beloved Southland has been facing these many years.
Its Southern Bishops, Priests, and’ laity constitute
the membership of this Committee, whose work
during the past five years has really brought great
prestige to the Church in the South, and has de
veloped an ever increasing interest in the Church
and what the Church has to offer by way of meet
ing the peculiar situations that prevail in this part of
the world.
A most cordial invitation is extended to the
Clergy, Religious and laity to attend the meeting in
Memphis. This invitation is addressed particularly
to those within the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta who
are actually members of the Catholic Committee of
the South. The sacrifices involved in traveling in
these difficult days will be amply rewarded, by the
inspiration that all who attend will derive from the
sessions of the Convention at Memphis.
Three Years of Service
f A PRIL 21 marked the third anniversary of the
National Catholic Community Service, the or
ganization designated by the Bishops of the Cath
olic Church in the United States to serve men and
women on leave from Army posts and Navy bases,
and workers in war-industry in overburdened areas.
As a member group, with the- Young Men’s
Christian Association, the Young Women’s Christian
Association, the Jewish Welfare Board, the Salva
tion Army and the National Travelers’ Aid Asso
ciation, in the United Service Organizations, the
National Catholic Community Service has render
ed service, without regard to creed or race, to the
members of the armed forces, and its contribution
to the spiritual and social welfare of our service
men and women is truly beyond estimate.
five thousand.
By this time, as might have been expected, what
was going on had attracted attention. Ecclesiastical
authority, and the Catholic press had assumed an at
titude of reserve, if not skepticism, toward the oc-
curances, but at least fifty thousand people gathered
with the children on October 13. None of those
who had come to witness saw the Lady, but when
one of the childrelT’ shouted, they looked at the
sun, which was like a wheel of fire, sending out
shafts of colored light in all directions. The crowd
had watched this phenomenon several times, when
suddenly the sun appeared to be dashing toward
them, and then, as suddenly, it appeared as usual.
The children declared that the Lady had fulfilled
her promise to reveal her identity, and that she
had said “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”
Practically every newspaper in Portugal had a
representative on hand, and though there were many
unbelievers in the crowd, all agreed in describing
what they had seen.
In spite of the ridicule of the anti-Catholic press,
the people who believed that the apparitions were
of the supernatural order, erected a chapel on the
site, and the modest shrine became a place of
pilgrimage.
The Church, as always, moved slowly, and it was
not until twelve years later, after a searching in
vestigation, that the Bishop of Leiria published a
pastoral letter in which he declared the visions
to be authentic, and giving approval to devotion to
the Blessed Virgin under the title of Our Lady of
F-.tima. Since then a large church was built, and
a magnificent basilica is now being erected nearby.
Our Lady of Fatima has been adopted as a
special Patroness by the people of Portugal and
among the Portuguese is the United States.
Many miracles, similar to those recorded at
Lourdes, have been testified to by physicians and
surgeons in Portugal, but an even greater miracle
than that of healing bodily ailments, has been
a reawakening of the Catholic life of the people of
Portugal.
One of the requests made of the children of the
Lady of Fatima, was that a church would be erected
there in her honor, and that request has been ful
filled. Another request of the Lady was that the
world be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart, and
that too has been answered, for in October of 1942,
in a radio address occasioned by the observance of
the silver jubilee of the apparitions at Fatima, His
Holiness Pope Pius XII solemnly consecrated the
Church and the world to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary.
The world was torn by war in 1917, when the Lady
of the Rosary appeared at Fatima, but the world
is today in the midst of a war more devastating
than any in its history, and now, more than ever
before, there is need to bind a war-torn world with
the bonds of peace, by encircling the globe with a
beaded chain of prayer.
By increasing our devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, each of us may have a share in
bringing about the end of the war, a blessing which
the Lady of Fatima said could come to mankind only
through her intercession. i
In giving the background of the picture of Our
Lady of Fatima, The Bulletin hopes that it will be
given encouragement to the practice of the recita
tion of the rosary each day by many of its readers.
Statuettes of St. Patrick and St.
Brigid, awarded to screen actor
Pat O’Brien and screen actress Una
O’Connor as having reflected cred
it on their profession and added
lustre to the Irish race, were pre
sented on Low Sunday at Mary-
mount College, Los Angeles, at
exercises arranged for by a joint
committee of the Catholic Film
and Radio Guild and the Eire Four
Province Club.
Catholics prominent in the mo
tion picture colony, including
Ireen Dunne, Geraldine Fitzger
ald, Joan Leslie,' Spencer Tracy,
William Gargan and Jimmy Glea
son, all of whom have been win
ners in former years, were guests
of honor at the exercises.
There’s a simple explanation of
the fact that when Eugene P. Mc
Nulty, an alumnus of Manhattan
College, New York City, was com
missioned an ensign in the U- S.
Naval Reserve, Dennis Day, the
popular radio singer, joined up
with him. The reason is Ensign
McNulty and Singer Day are the
same person.
Archbishop Francis J. Spellman
has announced that the Archdio
cese of New York has gratefully
accepted the gift of the unfinished
Herbert N. Straus mansion at 9
East 71st Street, in New York
City, from the heirs of Mr. Straus,
who are Lieutenant Edward K.
Straus, Lieutenant Oliver H.
Straus and Lieutenant John W.
Straus-
The property will be converted
into a convalescent hospital as an
adjunct to St. Clare’s Hospital.
Herbert N. Straus, who was vice-
president of R. H. Macy and Com
pany, and president of L. Bam
berger and Company at the time of
his death in 1933, is said to have
spent nearly $600,000 on the man
sion before work was halted in
1931. It is expected that an outlay
of $100,000 will be needed to fin
ish and equip the building.
In the Nation’s Capital, busi
ness, professional leaders and the
heads of Government bureaus co
operated with the Committee for
the Three-Hour Observance of
Good Friday and released em
ployes who requested time off be
tween noon and three o’clock in
the afternoon to attend Good Fri
day services.
Honorary chairmen of the com
mittee were the Most Rev. Michael
J. Curley, Archbishop of Balti
more and of Washington, and the
Rt. Rev. Edwin Holt Hughes,
Methodist resident Bishop of
Washington.
President Roosevelt instructed
heads of the Government depart
ments to excuse from work em
ployes who wished to attend Good
Friday services.
At a meeting of the Georgia His
torical Society, held recently in
Savannah, Robert R. Otis, Atlanta
realtor, was re-elected a curator of
the society, to serve a three-year
term.
Mr. Otis has taken a special in
terest in an era of Georgia’s his
tory that had almost been forgot
ten, the period when the Spanish
missions in Georgia flourished as
did those in California, which were
better remembered and more wide
ly known. Through Mr. Otis’ ef
forts, much information in regard
to the early history of Catholicity
in Georgia has been made avail
able.
One of the members of the Re
treat Section of the Catholic Lay
men’s Association of Georgia came
across a leaflet in the x’eading
room at St. Joseph’s Home in
Washington, Georgia, during the
Retreat last year, and the prayer or
meditation before the Blessed Sac
rament which appeared on it so im
pressed him that he has had a
number of copies of it printed-
With the approval of the Most
Reverend Bishop of Savannah-At-
lanta, these leaflets are being dis
tributed through the Laymen’s As
sociation to the pastors of the
churches of this Diocese with the
request that they be placed in the
pews.
Any readers of The Bulletin who
do not happen to find one of these
leaflets in their churches may se
cure one by writing to the office
of the Laymen’s Association for it.
Some of our Augusta friends
who were in Columbia, C. C., on
Easter Sunday, report that they
wished to attend the 10:30 Mass
at St. Peter’s Church, but the con
gregation had already filled the
church and had overflowed to the
sidewalk when they arrived. The
pastor, the Very Rev. Martin C.
Murphy, announced that another
Mass would be offered in the chap
el of the Ursuline Convent to ac
commodate the crowd that could
not get into the church, and our
friends declare they had never
seen any altar more beautifully
decorated than that in the con
vent chapel.
In New Orleans, the Catho
lie Evidence Guild presented the
Way of the Cross publicly in the
square opposite St. Louis Cathe
dral on Passion Sunday. Each of
the stations was shown, accompa
nied by a short explanation and
prayer- —
Several weeks ago, the Very Rev.
Frederick M. Gilbert, O. M. I., of
the Oblate Fathers in Douglas, was
conducting a mission at Our Lady
of Lourdes Church, at Port Went
worth, Ga. One day during the
mission, when the Rev. Thomas I.
Sheehan, pastor of the parish,
drove up to the church in the bus
in whch he transports the chil
dren of the parish to school in Sa
vannah each day, it was raining in
torrents, and rather than have the
children soaked by the downpour
going from the bus to the church,
Father Gilbert braved the rain
and went to the bus, where he
conducted the mission service.
Monsignor Edward J. Flanagan,
of “Boys’ Town,” will be one of the
outstanding guests at the annual
convention of he American Legion
of the Department of Georgia,
which will be held in Augusta on
June 14-15. Other prominent
guests will include Senator Walter
F. George end Governor Ellis Ar-
nall. —II. K.