Newspaper Page Text
Published by the
Catholic Lay
men’s Association
of Georgia
liefin
Vol. XXVI. No. 2.
“To Bring About
a Friendlier
Feeling Among
Neighbors Irre
spective of Creed”
TWENTY PAGES
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 24, 1945
★ ★★ ISSUED MONTHLY—$2.00 A YEAR
Bulletins ' ... LED RANGERS in bataan rescue
BRANDING AS “arbitrary, false
and (-aluminous'’ recent attacks
leveled against the Pope and the
Vatican by journalists and radio
speakers in Soviet Russia, “Os-
servatore Romano" says it will not
he possible to erect an efficient
and lasting peace when there are
those who persist in sacrificing
truth to sectarian passions.
VATICAN CIRCLES have em
phatically declared to be entirely
false the recent assertion over
Radio Moscow that the Holy See
has at its disposal large sums of
capital in Argentina. Vatican cir
cles also pointed out that the de
valuation of the Italian lira has
seriously affected the financial po
sition of the Holy See.
ARCHBISHOP Cesare Orsenigo,
Papal Nuncio to Germany, has
moved to Bavaria following the
bombardment of his residence in
Berlin, it has been made known in
Vatican City.
FRANCE’S Provisional Govern
ment has officially announced the
n unination of the famed Catholic
philosopher Jacques Maritain as
the first Ambassador of the Fourth
Republic to the Holy See The
new Ambassador is a convert.
PROFESSOR ISRAEL ZOL-
Ll. former Head Rabbi of the
Israelite community in Rome, took
the names Pius Eugene in Bap
tism in homage (o' the Holy Fath
er. Professor Zolli and liis wife
were baptized on February 1 by
Archbishop Luigi Tragalia. Vice
regent for Rome.
MOTHER GRACE DAMMANN.
Of the Religious of the Sacred
Heart, President of Manhattan-
ville College, and one of the na
tion’s leading women educators
died on February 16.
“Big 3” Agreement on Poland Explain:
Orthodox Attack on Vatican, Asses
Georgetown University Vice-Presides
The leader of the 400 picked men
of the Sixth U. S. Rangers and
Filipino Guerrillas who made a
commando raid 25 miles behind
the Japanese lines to empty a
Prison camp near Cabu, of 513
Allied prisoners, was Lt. Col.
Henry A. Mucci, left, a- Catholic
hero from Bridgeport, Conn.
Among the brave officers assist
ing him were, Lieut. J. Frank
Murphy, right, graduate of Ca
thedral High School, Springfield,
Mass., and Lieut. William J.
O'Connell (not pictured), of Ca
thedral parish, Boston. (NCWC.)
k.
Oklahomans Tender
Bishop McGuinness
Testimonial Dinner
(By N. C. \V. C. News Service)
OKLAHOMA CITY—The Most
Lev. Eugene J. McGuincss. new
Coadjutor Bishop of Oklahoma
city and Tulsa, was honored here
at a testimonial dinner attended
l>.v more than 700 Oklahomans,
among those present being the
Most Rev. Francis C. Kcllev.
Bishop of Oklahoma City and
I’ulsa; Governor Robert S. Kerr of
Oklahoma, and Mayor Robert A.
Hefner of Oklahoma City.
In welcoming Bishop McGuincss.
Bishop Kelley called him the best
friend lie had in all the world. “I'm
just a poor old fellow who did his
best, he told the audience, “in
troducing a new fellow who will do
better.”
Amid tremendous applause
Bishop McGuincss replied: "1 am
going to carry on the work which
Bishop Kelley has done so well.
If in 20 years I can garner the af
fection which has come to Bishop
Kelley, 1 shall be a very happy
man.”
j Slur at Vatican Insults Catholics of
Nation, Says Archbishop Spellman
Harry Hopkins and Staff
Received by Holy Father
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
NEW YORK—“It is impossible
for me to believe that 1,600 Amer
icans manifesting their allegiance
to the spirit of the Nazarene,
should act in contradiction to His
teachings unless there has been
imposition on their good faith,
(lie Most Rev. Francis J. Spellman,
Archbishop of New York, declared
here in reference to the deelara
tion, made public by Kenneth Les
lie, editor of The Protestant maga
zine, of a group of religious lead
ers alleging that "the Papacy has
thrown its weight into the scales
of the present human struggle on
the side of the enemies of de
mocracy.”
The declaration, addressed to
President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
and Premier Josef Stalin, said also
(he establishments of religion how
ever widely representative, how
ever exalted, have no place at the
council tables of State. According
to its sponsors, the statement has
1.600 signatories, more of thepi
ordained ministers.
“It is difficult for me t<) believe
•hat there are ‘1,600 ordained min
isters and religious leaders’ i - our
country who would put their names
to a document offering insult to
20,000,000 fellow Americans who
are at least doing their Share to
win the war and serve and save
our country, and whose religion
teaches them to love their neigh
bor—every neighbor—even those
"’ho make it their business to sow
cockle,” Archbishop Spellman said
in an address to 3,500 Boy Scouts
gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral
in observance of Scout Sunday
Adding that if the signers had
ever taken the Boy Scout oath they
would never have signed the docu
ment. he urged the boys always
to respect others and never lower
yourselves to attack the belief of
others.”
Archbishop Spellman said sign
ers of 1 lie declaration had done a'
disservice to national unity. He
spoke after presiding at Vespers
celebrated in observance of the
thirty-fifth anniversary of the
founding of Scouting in l His coun
try. The Very Rev. Msgr. Edward
Roberts Moore, director of the Na
tional Catholic Committee on
Scouting, officiated at Solemn
Benediction.
President Roosevelt, in Letter to Nun.
Recalls His Relationship to Mother Seton
(Radio. N. C. W. C. News Service)
V A J lc AN CITY.—The audience
which His Holiness Pope Pius XII
granted to Harry Ilopkins, Presi
dent Roosevelt’s adviser, lasted
more than a half-hour and vari
ous problems of the present mo-
k ment were discussed. Osscrvatroc
k Romano reports.
Mr. Hopkins later indicated his
pleasure with the audience the
Holy Father accorded him, and
with tlie occasion of his visit to
the Vatican. Following the Papal
audience, Mr. Hopkins had visit
ed (lie Sistine Chapel and viewed
galleries and museums in the
Vatican Palace.
Myron C. Taylor, President
Roosevelt’s personal representa
tive to the Vatican, accompanied
Mr. Hopkins to the Vatican and
was present at the audience. Fol
lowing the private audience, Mr.
Hopkins presented members of
his staff to the Holy Father..
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
GREENSBURG. Pa. — Express
ing his gratitude for an autograph
ed copy of “The Soton Ballad,”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
in a letter to the author, Sister
M. Fides Glass, of Seton Hill Col
lege, here, recalled the close re
lationship of his family to Mother
Elizabeth Seton.
“1 am deeply grateful for that
copy of The Seton Ballad," the
President's letter stated, “inscrib
ed in the names of the Mother
Seton Sisters of Charity, and
yourself as author.
“Our family was closely related
to Mother Seton. Her nephew,
Monsignor James Roosevelt Bay-
ley, Archbishop of Baltimore, was
my fathers' first cousin. Arch
bishop Bayley’s successor, the ven
erable Cardinal Gibbons, who was
my close personal friend, often
spoke to me about his predeces
sor. So you see the ballad has
struck a responsive chord.
With this assurance of my ap
preciation go my hearty greetings
to all of the Mother Seton Sis
ters.”
In her letter transmitting the
volume, which she described as
simple picture book of her (Moth
er Scion s) life with its mention of
her family, especially of her son.
William, who was a lieutenant in
the Navy," Sister Fides Glass s'at-
ed she was prompted to send the
volume because the President of
ten had "done us the honor of
openly referring to the fact that
•he family of Mother Seton and
your family are connected by mar
riage.”
The nun-author concluded her
letter with the expression: “With
all the good wishes and prayers
tor you in your difficult work of
steering our Ship of Stale.”
(By N. C. IV. C. News Service)
WASHINGTON—The news from
lalta, particularly the decision to
sacrifice so much of Catholic
Poland to the Communist -State
explains in large measure the re
cent altack by the Russian Ortho
dox Church on the Vatican, the
Rev. Dr. Edmund A. Walsh, S .1
Vice-President of the Georgetown
University, declared in a statement
issued here. It was designed and
limed to weaken in advance the
moral influence of the Holy See
lie asserted.
“ttJ 8 wholly understandable that
I he Communist organ Pravda and
Hie new mouthpiece of tlie world
revolution, War and the Working
Classes, should periodically attack
the Vatican and the Catholic
(lunch even at this period of
supreme crisis when unity of mind
and heart among all men of good
will is imperative.” Dr. Walsh said.
'.These Moscow publications ad
mittedly voice the political objec
tives of Marxism and will miss no
opportunity lor vilification even
°1 their allies, as occurred last
year Pravada accused the English
Government of secret negotiations
with the Nazi respecting an al
leged peace advantageous to Bri
tain. But that the Orthodox Church
of Russia, through the voice of
its spiritual leaders recently con-
veened at Moscow for the enthrone
ment oi a Patriarch should slander
•he Vatican and insult hundreds of
millions of Catholics throughout
the world is melancholy witness to
the price it must have paid for its
newly recovered freedom of action
in Soviet Russia.
"The recent accusation of Fas
cism. of being an advocate of a soft
Peace and seeking stealthily to
protect the criminals of tlie Nazi
regime cannot but fall with amaz
ing irony on the ears of those
whose memory has not been short
ened by the laet that Soviet Russia
is now fighting a valiant and vie
torious campaign in association
with the United Stales. We heard
not a syllable of protest from tin
shepherds of the Russian people
when the Communist State became
a partner of Nazi Germany in 193:)
and participated in the rape of
Central Europe: we heard not a
syllable of Christian indignation
when this precious cooperation on
Germany* eastern frontier per
mitted Goerings’ Luftwaffe to rain
their fire and destruction freely
on Anglican London, on Catholic
Belgium, on stricken France, Lux
embourg, or Orthodox Greece and
Jugo-Slavia. We understood the
reasons then prevailing and rejoice
•hat the oppressive restrictions on
the Russian Church have been so
relaxed as to permit the election
and formal induction into office of
their Patriarch. But that the first
international act of their new or
ganization should be slander and
insult is as ungenerous and dis
heartening as it is false and un-
historic.
’No voice in Europe was ever
more outspoken in warning against
the pagan forces of Nazi Germany
and against the domestic preten
sions of the Fascist regime in Italy
than Pius XI who warred with
Mussolini to his face over the
moral and spiritual excesses of
totalitarian dictators. The only
power in Europe that dared to send
an Encyclical into every parish
Church in Germany and have its
warning against Nazism read from
every Catholic pulpit on Palm Sun
day 1937 was the Roman Pontiff.
"No Patriarch of Russia lias so
often repudiated the abhorrent
Nazi doctrine of racism as the
present Pope Pius XII, nor so
openly refused to accept their un-
Christian and totalitarian philolio-
phy. His defense of the invaded
and outraged peoples of Europe
lias been constant and consistent;
bis warnings that those who take
the sword shall perish by it arc
now coming home with heavy por
tent. to those responsible for Nazi
tyranny and Nazi brutality.
"The tenor and language of the
denunciation, moreover, runs true
to a pattern which reveals the true
hand behind the public voice. Dur
ing the persecution of religion in
Russia it was fashionable to find
a scapegoat lo justify certain stale
policies. Thus Jaroslavsky, the
arch enemy of revealed religion
wrote in 1932: ’The Catholic
Church, with the Pope in its van,
is now an important bulwark of
all counter-revolutionary organiza
tions and forces. It is the good
and faithful servant not only of
Hie old capitalist landowning
bourgeoisie, but also of the new
bourgeoisie—the industrial and
financial barons of today.’ (Re
ligion in the U.S.S.R. 1932. p 34)
The devil’ theory is still in favor.
Change counter-revolutionary to
fascist and a new devil is available
lor the new political circum
stances.
“The Holy See did not hesitate
to defend the Orthodox clergy of
Russia when they were plunged
into the valley of the shadow of
death in their darkest period of
persecution and famine. If the
•'and ol tlie persecutor lias now
been lifted from their Orthodoxy,
it bodes no good for Hie resurrec
tion of their spiritual vitality for
patriarchs and archbishops to take
the old, wearisome road of sub
servience to the secular power and
drab obedience to its political ob
jectives. Sncli was the road 1 hat
led to crucifixion of the Russian
Church in the years following Hie
bankruptcy of the Tzarist regime
mid Hie coming of the Bolsheviks.
True friends of the Russian people
cannot but deplore this latest sur
render to opuortunism on the part
of spiritual leaders and the gratui
tous insult to the friend who stood
by the Russian hierarchy in their
Golgotha of 1922-23-24.”'
Strange Sight Impresses
V. S. Soldier in France
i
(B.v N. C. YV. C. News Service)
NEW YORK. — “Somewhere in
France” a 19-year-old private from
Wisconsin crept a hedgerow to
peep at a strange sight—a priest
offering Mass, and he saw some
thing else that made a deep im
pression on him.
His observations together with
bis praye.. written down in iiis
own untutored language, have
been transmitted by the Chaplain
win* said tlie Mass, tlie Rev. John
P. Kiniry of the Archdiocese of
Philadelphia, to the Military Or-
diiiariatc here, where annotated by
a Bishop. “May his prayer be
granted,” form part of Hie perma
nent record of this war:
"I couldn’t belli but notice today,
when a priest. Father Kiniry, ar
rived in our area somewhere in
France to offer Mass and Com
munion for Hie Catholic boys here.
When Hie Mass was being given,
why, there was not only tlie heads
of our boys bowed down in prayer
lo the Almighty! but there was al
so Hie heads of 20 of tlie Hitler-
god lads bowed down in prayer,
loo.
It made in impression on me
because just eleven years ago Hit
ler declared lie was the god and
there was no other God. This
sight I saw today proved to me
and would prove to the world that
not all called Nazis believe in Hit
ler a. their God. When the priest
offered prayer, all 20 of those
German lads bowed and accepted
Hie word of guidance of the Su
preme Being. The Nazi knows to
day that success in all things de
pends on the guidance of God.”
The post-war outlook of the sol
dier is expressed in his conchid-
i"? sentence: “May God add his
blessing to them Nazi lads. too.
who have taken Mass and Com
munion here today. And may they
and all the rest of the people of
the Nazi and Fascist world see the
light of God and receive His
peace. If 20 Nazis prayed here
today, may all the rest of the Hit
ler-god world now he converted.
We can and we must guide the
rest of tlie world to accept the
Word of God.”
Pfe. Wesley K. Cooper, of Wau
sau. Wis., who “saw 20 Nazis
pray.” had never before witnessed
a Catholic service. Officials of
tlie Military Ordinariate conjec
ture that the Germans were re
cently captured prisoners of war.