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AUGUST 25, 1945 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA NINE Officers of Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia \How Lavmetl’s Association VICE-PRESIDENT FINANCIAL SECRETARY EXECUTIVE SECRETARY r> Ii I • jfgsp^—^. MM ^ e » an Work m beorgia MARTIN J. CALLAGHAN Macon MISS CEC1LE FERRY Augusta HUGH KINCHLEY Augusta SECRETARY AUDITOR TREASURER Looking back for three decades U is interesting to recall the , stirring days when the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia was setting forth on its unchar tered course toward the accom plishment of its ordained purpose “to promote a better feeling among Georgians, irrespective of creed.” The story of the first year’s operation is well told in the re port which was rendered by James J. Farrell, the first executive sec retary of the Laymen’s Associa tion, at the second convention, held in Augusta in June, 1917. Space does not permit publish ing the entire report, but some extracts from it, such as those that follow, are particularly worthy of recollection. JOHN B. McCALLUM Atlanta Maoon Council, K. of C., Committees Appointed ALVIN M. McAUI.IFFE Augusta oavannah MACON, Ga.—At the meeting of Macon Council, No. D25, Knights of Columbus, held on Au gust 7, Grand Knight Charles C, McCarren announced the appoint ment ol the following committees: Catholic Activity - War Activity: John J. McCreary, chairman, Don C. Chestnut, Edward P. Lackay, Thomas S. Union, Robert E. Mc Crary, William II. Mitchell, Law rence M. Loll, William C. Barker, Charles LeH. Adams, II. F. Wig gins, L. E. Mock, George B. Mock and Frank N. Burch. Council Program, Blood Donor and Sports: Charles McBrearty, chairman; Thomas Shahcen, R. F. Mallard, J. V. Sheridan, Richard E. Collins, Raymond M. McDonnell and G. A. Kennington. Membership, Relief and Employment: Martin J. Cal laghan, Jr., chairman; Felix W. Woodward, John H. Hughes. W. D. Jarrett, and John E. Harrison. Insurance: John F. McBrearty, chairman; Martin J. Callaghan, Julian If. Wood, Carl G. Cain, Joseph Hadarits, Carling Schats- man and Robert W. Hurley. Reso lutions and Press: Holst C. Beall, chairman; Charles J. Kearney, Hillman B Tanner, James B. Mo dena, Dr. W. C. Joanis, Dr. J. M. Coppage, J. P. McGoldrick. Members of the council, home from service who were welcomed at the meeting were Lieut. Phil J. Sheridan, who spent fifteen months in a German prisoner-of- war camp, and Sgt. Edward P. Lackay, who saw service on Sai- Atlanta Journal Magazine Article Describes Life of Georgia’s Trappist Monks (Special to The Bulletin) ATLANTA, Ga.—Georgia’s com munity of Trappists, and their Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Ghost, near Conyers, in Rockdale County, are the basis for an excellent article, entitled “A Day at the Monastery,” written by Grover Abies, principal of the Warner-Robins High School, which was a feature of the August 19 is sue of The Atlanta Journal Maga zine. Illustrations accompanying the article show the new temporary frame monastery building, a view of the barn, which was the first home of the monks when they ar rived in Georgia last year, scenes in the chapel, the carpenter shop, the cobbler shop, and in the barn yard. There is also a picture of the Father Guestmaster at the monas tery, with District Conservationist C. R. Johnson, who is explaining how barren, idle land on the mon astery property may be returned to profitable use by planting kudzu. This illustrates a compan ion article by Gordon Webb, of the U. S. Soil Conservation Ser vice, telling the long-range plan which the Trappists are setting up for their l,52!5-acre farm, with the aid of government technicians. POSTHUMOUS CITATION FOR SAVANNAH OFFICER pan and in other areas of the Pacific theatre of war. Hagler Truck Co, Phone 2-1841 Augusta, Georgia “SHIP BY TRUCK” SAVANNAH, Ga.—The Subma rine Combat Insignia with four stars has been awarded post humously to Lieut, (j. g.) Charles E. Traynor, Jr., U. S. N. R., who was presumed dead by the Navy Department in March. The cita tion and silver submarine pin with four gold stars was sent to Lieu tenant Traynor’s mother, Mrs. Thelma M. Traynor, of Savannah, by Vice Admiral C. A. Lockwood, Jr., commander of the submarine force. U. S. Pacific Fleet. Lieutenant Traynor graduated from Benedictine Military School here and from Spring Hill College, Mobile. Ala. Before en tering tlie U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, in September, 1941, he was connected with the Union Bag and Paper Company in Sa vannah. He volunteered for sub marine duty in May, 1942. The citation reads: "The U. S. Albacore failed to return as scheduled from an of fensive in restricted waters, heav ily patrolled by enemy air and surface forces. There is no infor- 1 mation as to the number of suc cessful attacks the Albacore made on this patrol; but as she estab lished an enviable record on pre vious patrols, it can be assumed that she was delivering the same type of devastating attacks against the enemy up to the time she was reported missing. “As engineering and electrical officer of the U. S. S. Albacore, lieutenant (junior grade) Charles Traynor’s performance of duty materially contributed to the suc cess of this submarine against the enemy.. The commander subma rine force, Pacific Fleet, forwards this commendation in recognition of his performance of duty, which was in keeping with the highest traditions of the naval service.” BENEDICTINE GRADUATE HAS MERITORIOUS RECORD SAVANNAH, Ga.—Lt. Thomas J. McGinn, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. T. J. McGinn, has returned home on leave with a meritorious record of overseas service. Serving with the 34th Infantry Division in Italy, he earned the Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters and the Mediterranean theatre ribbon with three battle stars. A graduate of Benedictine Military School, Lt. McGinn reports to Camp Hood, Tex., for further assignment at the expiration of his leave. “While the publicity bureau, opened in Augusta in January, 1917, has been in operation about seven months, it should be re-| membered that the earlier weeks were devoted almost altogether to preparation. While the pur pose was to disseminate the truth about Catholicity and Catholics in Georgia, t!i» entire absence of precedent, or any program of work that might be used as a pattern, necessitated much preliminary work before any results could be expected or even sought. So that it was not until May that full swing was reached, since that time results have exceeded expect ations. i “The bureau opened in a room f of the Grogan & O’Dowd building | in Augusta with a publicity man- 1 i ager and with one combination ! stenographer and office helper, j ! There was absolutely nothing on : hand to begin with except a copy of the Constitution and By-laws, a I | list of those attending the meet-1 1 ing in Macon last September, and i a copy of the proceedings of that meeting. Everything had to be secured. Today the bureau occu- ; pies three rooms, has two step- I ographers and an auxiliary force j of from one to six as required. ! “The first thing desired was ; the building up of a proper mail ing list. It was thought 5,000 J would be enough to begin with, ) . and a call was made to all the ' members to send in names. The j response was most hearty, the co- bcing indicative of the spirit be- : mind the organization, and which ! lias obtained through the work, i With the list furnished at the first 1 call as a nucleus, it was not : long before a satisfactory catalog , was arranged, though it was next to impossible to cover all the ' counties equally, even if it should be desired, some local conditions make it imperative that ;peeial attention be paid to various lo- i calities. Those whose names were j first secured and who showed a 1 kindly feeling toward our work, ’■ in turn furnished other names, ! until about 10,000 were on hand j within sixty days. ] “Several experimental counties I i were selected, but a regular ad-! ; vertising campaign was started ' j within I he Tenth Congression al District, each paper running three-inch advertisements “About Roman Catholics” for four weeks at the expiration of which another, and adjoining tier of counties was selected, making a total of eighty counties. “Other forms of publicity used were the news letter, these being sent from time to time with brief items of Catholic interest in the Georgia press, and direct let ters to the editors who made men tion, favorable or hostile, of Cath olic matters. Through our mem bers and a press clipping bureau we kept tab on every paper in the state. Every favorable men tion we receive is followed by a letter of thanks and apprecia tion from the manager, and evety hostile or misleading mention is corrected at once, with the re quest that the correction be print ed as prominently as the state ment at fault had been. “In the counties where we were unable to get the papers to pub lish our replies, we have secured a list of the registered voters and have sent them various pamphlets, every voter receiving a circular. “As the cost of printing our various expositions in the 200 newspapers throughout the state would ■ have been prohibitive, we determined to send pamphlets throughout the state and up to July»3 had mailed 115,000. “Perhaps the greatest good has come from the direct letter. It was to produce correspondence that the advertising campaign was planned and each brochure was written partly with this in view. It is impossible to give in a report any idea of the impor tance of this branch of our labors. Questions have poured in from every section of the state, natural ly the bulk from the counties where we have advertised and een- tcred our efforts. It is exceed ingly difficult work, requiring pa tience, research, judgment and tact. It is almost impossible to use form letters even about the most common questions; as had been hoped, for there is a per sonality about each inquirer that must guide in making reply. It is seldom that a question can be answered briefly, most letters re quiring several paragraphs to each question, and in many cases, whole letters of several hundred words are required for a single ques tion. And this .letter calls forth more questions on the same sub ject until the final answer would make a volume of fair size if re duced to print. “Ours is a laymen s movement pure and simple. As laymen we were suffering and enduring such a campaign of misrepresentation as would inevitably, if not cheek ed, render Georgia impossible as a place for our children to live in. The Veazey Law, obnoxious as it is, was but a start. Other and more far-reaching legislation was just ahead. The attacks had reach ed a point where even those will ing to be fair to us were deceived and had become inclined, to put it mildly, to accept as true many ol the untruths told about us. We had reached that stage where si lence was misconstrued, we had to do something. “After 'a full comprehension of our situation we arranged a ten tative campaign of education to reach those not totally blinded by prejudice. We sought to apply modern publicity methods to put the truth before Georgians. We have wasted little time on irrecon- cilables, desiring first to build a foundation among non-Catholies upon which we might later depend to destroy prejudice. At first we knew it was not likely that we would bring over any dyed-in-the- wool anti-Catholic to accept our statements as true. We have tried that. But we know that so carefully was our first plan thought out that it has not chang ed in any essential, and only modi fied to meet unexpected happen ings favorable to us. “It is needless to say that had it not been for the help given by the Knights of Columbus through the Religious Prejudice Commission, the publicity bureau would have hardly been able to acomplish anything at all. “We have laid our plans to ben efit ourselves not so much as to help our children; to make living conditions better for them is a huge task. The falsehoods about Catholics have been told and re told in a propaganda that for bit terness has seldom been equalled anywhere. The things said about Catholics have been said without contradiction so long that they have actually become accepted as truth. We are forced to keep out side before the people of the State.” Memorial Service at Church in Waycross on Army Air Force Day WAYCROSS, Ga.—In observ ance of Army Air Forces Day, an appropriate memorial service was held at St. Joseph’s Church, with Chaplain Paul V. Golembicwski, of the Vaycross Army Air Base, delivering a sermon on the spirit ual significance 1 of the day. In the course of his sermon, Father Golembicwski stressed the doc trine o f the Communion of Saints and the duty of the Church Mili tant to pray for the souls of the faithful departed, particularly for the souls of the nation’s fighting men who had lost their lives in battle, in the air, on land, or at sea. The services included the reci tation of the Rosary, prayers for the dead, prayers for chaplains serving with the Armed Forces, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Father Golembicwski was assist ed by the Rev. John H. Hilmann, S. M., a.id the Rev. John J. Dallas, S. M. Sgt. William Dumont and Sgt. Elmer Smith served as aco lytes.