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FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLKI LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
DECEMBER 2L 1946
®ullptin
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 1946-1947
ESTES DOREMUS, Atlanta President
M. J. CALLAGHAN. Macon.
Honorary Vice-President
FRED WIGGINS, Albany Vice-President
J B McCALLUM. Atlanta Secretary
HUGH GRADY, Savannah .Treasurer
HUGH KINCHLEY Augusta Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY. Augusta Financial Secretary
A M McAULlFFE Augusta Auditor
Vol. XVII DECEMBER 21, 1946 No. 12
Entered os second class matter June 15 1921 at the
Post Office at Augusta. Georgia, under the Act of March
3. 1870. accepted for mailing at special rate of postage
provided in paragraph 4, section 538. Postal Laws and
Ti*M?niaiiring ns^moriified^by paragraph 8.
Member of N C. W. C News Service. Religious News
Service, tho Catholic Press Association of the United
States the Georgia Press Association, and the National
Editorial Association. __________ -
Published monthly by the Catholic Uymcn'i Association
.if Georgia Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Rev
erend Bishops of Charleston and Savannah-Atlanta, and
of the Itlglil Reverend Abbot-Ordinary of Belmont.
5r.>
Peace On Earth
O NCE again we approach the celebration of the
festival which commemorates the event which
was the turning point in human history, the
event, which Saint Augustine tells us, was the
pivot upon which the Old and the New Testament
swung as on an axis—the Nativity of our Lord Jesus
Christ .
The birth of the Babe of Bethlehem was herald
ed by the song of an angelic choir which acclaimed
the glory of God in the highest, and proclaimed
peace on earth among men of good will.
The ' world has not, long emerged from years
in which there was not peace on earth. Days of vic
tory in Japan and Europe have brought an end to
war, and the leaders of nations are engaged in the
task of formulating terms of peace.
It might well be said the future of the human
and the endurance of Christian civilization may de
pend upon the kind of peace that will be established
through the United Nations.
In his allocution to the members of the Sacred
College of Cardinals on last Christmas Eve, iiis
Holiness Pope Pius XII outlined three brief con
siderations which he asserted were the “funda
mental moral requisites of a true and lasting peace.”
Devoutly, it is hoped that the representatives
of the victorious nations who are to lay down the
terms of peace will include in them the principles
which the Holy Father'has set forth.
May the globe-encircling adoration of the Inf
ant Jesus in Christ’s Mass, from which the feast
of Christmas takes it name, and the prayers which
will be offered on that festival to implore the inter
cession of His Virgin Mother, bring nearer a day
when the world will give glory to God in the highest
and there will be enduring peace on earth.
The Tragic Fire in Atlanta
A FTER the years of war during which tales of
wholesale death and destruction came to us
one after the other in not infrequent succes
sion. it could have been possible for us to have be
come so accustomed to recitals of horror and disas
ter that the fire at the .Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta,
event though it claimed more than a hundred vic
tims. might not have seemed sensational news.
Such, however, was not the case. Human hearts
have "hot yet becomcd so hardened that they may
not be shocked with sorrow and appalled by the
account of the pitiable and frightful incidents that
happened when the Winecoff became a flaming
tower of death '
Our hearts swell with sympathy for those whose
relatives or friends perished in the tragedy r od are
Separation of Church and State
W HY do Catholics support separation of
Church and State in the United States but
oppose it in other countries, such as Spain?”
The answer to this argument, which “has gone-
over in a big way of late in the United States,” is
given by Father John Courtney Murray, S. J., In
an article which appeared in the Catholic weekly
review, AMERICA.
The ’question itself and the success of its pro
pagandists exploitation is owing to the popular
confusion over, and the ambiguity of the slogan,
“separation of Church and State,” Father Murray
maintains. He, * therefore, pleads to drop the
“deceptive formula,” which, he says, “is not an
American coinage” but rather of Continental origin,
where it was “the shibboleth of the bitterly anti-
religious factions in the Europe of the nineteenth
century.”
Father Murray arrives at his conclusions through
a historical and philosophical analysis of the First
Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which is
generally held to embody the principal of “separa
tion of Church and State.” The First Amendment
provides that “Congress shall make no law respect
ing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the
exercise thereof.”
The principal embodied in the First Amend
ment—even if it were correct to term it the princi
ple of separation of Church and State—“is realized
in the United States in a peculiarly American form,
in consequence of a natively American and entire
ly valid theory of religious liberty,” Father Murray
argues. That is why Catholics support it “to the
hilt,” he adds.
When Catholics opposed, and oppose, separa
tion of Church and State elsewhere, Father Murray
explains, “they opposed and oppose something
quite different in principle—a ‘lay’ state predicted
on atheistic or agnostic principles, militantly ag
gressive in its opposition to religion, and deliberate
ly contemptuous of the religious realities of an
historic situation.
On the other hand, “when Americans are called
on to support ‘in principal’ the First Amendment,
they are not called upon to support the principles
pf Deism, or absolute rationalism, or Liberal
Protestantism,” he writes. The First Amendment
itself forbids . , . its own interpretation in such
sectarian categories. It simply puts forward a
political solution to the political problem put by
the existence of many religions within one political
community.”
The First Amendment, Father Murray explains,
“is not a piece of religious mysticism, but a prac
tical political principle, ethically grounded on the
obligations of the State t*> the consciences of its
citizens and to its own end—social—harmony, pros
perity and peace.”
The adoption of the First Amendment arose
from the recognition of the fact—demonstrated by
historical experiences in Europe and the American
Colonics—“that the attempt to create or restore
religious unity by governmental coercion of dis
senters was the highest political unwisdom,” the
article explains.
In order to achieve its own proper unity, on a
political level, the national political community vyas
to remain "separate” from the religious community
with ail its inner divisions, Father Murray writes.
The religious community was to be free to be di
vided, "but to this end, it had to remain 'separate'
from the united political community, and not let
its own divisions disrupt the sphere of civic life.”
.In addition to recognizing the “religious plural
ism” existing in American society, the First Amend
ment has an essential ethical basis by recognizing
“the dualism inherent in man himself,” Father
Murray argues. Acknowledging that every indi
vidual is a “civic person and, likewise, a “religious”
person, ihe Amendment establishes "constitutional
equality for all religious beliefs and for all the
religious bodies in which they are held.”
"Where there is only one faith, the problem of
equality would simply not arise,” Father Murray
continue', but in the face of the "religious pural-
i-m” existing in the United States, “there is no
other course open to government than to regard
those who arc equally its citizens as
AGAIN it is the Pray
erful wish of the Pub
lishers and Staff of The
Bulletin, that all of its patrons
and friends may enjoy a Holy
and Happy Christmas and a
New Year filled with
blessings, spiritual
and temporal
Dixie Musings
CluMVCo U1 II U.IIUO |ji.i lotiw
-:ud because death lias conic in a manner so suuden
and terrible to so many men and women and ehil- j
jJppu i faith.-, equal in its eyes.’
‘There can be no heifer way for us to give ex- “V: ■ c it to do otherwise,” lie adds, “it would m-
pressicn to our feeling" of sympathy and sorrow j rianliy confine religion with citizenship, bring re-
han by nicking effort, in the ways that may be i ligious eon c-'c aces somehow under pressure, and
,pen to each of up, to guard against similar fearful j fbus violate the essential principle enshrined in the
Times Square in New York City
is a long way from a Trappist Ab
bey in the hills of Georgia, but
Robert K. Christenberry, presi
dent of the Broadway Association,
and the Astor Hotel, on that cele
brated thoroughfare at Times
Square, reports an interesting
connection with the luxurious
Astor and the austere frame
building which is the home of the
Trappist community in Georgia.
Mr. Christenberry was in At
lanta, recently, visiting a friend
of long standing, Carling Dinkier,
a prominent Catholic layman, who
heads the company operating
what is perhaps the leading hotel
system in the South. Mr. Dinkier,
was going out to the Trappist Ab
bey, near Conyers, to supervise
the installing of a kitchen which
he was providing for the building.
He invited Mr. Christenberry to
go along wit}i him, thus the mon
astery kitchen, in which only the
simplest of fare is prepared, for
the Trappists do not eat meat or
anything but the most frugal fare,
was set up under the authorita
tive eyes of the presidents of one
of the country’s largest hotels and
one of the country’s most extend
ed hotel chains.
It might toe mentioned that Mr.
Christenberry, a Presbyterian,
was for a number of years chair
man of the legislative committee
of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
—he lost his right forearm in
France in World War I—and in
his opposition to Communism ren
dered distinguished service. He
has a wide acquaintance among
Bishops and priests ns a result of
his experience in hotels in the
East, the South, and the Middle
West, and in New York, where he
was a pioneer in the organization
of tiie Hotel Division of Catholic
Ch iritics.
Delegateto the Canadiar
Council of Churches which repro
sents all the, Protestant denomina-l
tions of Canada, at a recent
meeting in Quebec, unanimously
adopted a resolution of regret al
the illness of His Eminence Rod!
rigue Cardinal Villcneuye,. Arch!
bishop of Quebec, and expressed
hope for his speedy recovery. Thd
delegates rose during their sesJ
sions while the Anglican Primatd
of .Canada, Archbishop Derwyrj
T. Owen, offered a prayer for thd
recovery of the Cardinal.
The statement . “Man and the
Peace,” issued by the Bishops ol
the United States, following thein
annual general meeting at thd
Catholic University in Washing^
ton, received wide publication in
the daily press of this country^
Many newspapers, in addition to
summarizing stories, published
the full text of the 2,500-word
document. An editorial entitled
“An Appeal for Human Rights,’ 1
which appeared in The New York
Times, declared that the Bishopsl
statement speaks out “for ideals
which ought to be close to the
hearts of all Americans,” and
that the Bishops “speak for many
millions of their countrymen of
all faiths.”
open
happenings in other place..
We have learned that "fire-proof” buildings arc
not havens of safety in time ot, tire, and that we
have not done all that should he done in th? field
of fire prevention and in the adoption of safety
measures H) hotels and other structures open to
public patronage.
There are signs that the warning given by the
hotel fire in Atlanta is being heeded throughout
Georgia, and it is believed that this t me something
will really be done to puaid om public buildng-%
and those who gather in them, fiom the hazards of
lire.
While on the subject of the fire in Atlanta if
should be mentioned that as soon as word ot the
fire reached the rectory of the Sacred Heart
Church, in which Atlanta parish the Winecoff Hotel
is located, priests rushed to the scene, to the first
aid stations that had been set up in th? neighbor
hood. and to the,Grady Hospital which was being
used as a central point foi the injured.
Marist Fathers who were on hand to bring
spiritual consolation to the dying and injured were
Father Edward P. McGrath, Father John McDonald.
Father Richard Kinsella. Father Gerard Hagemann
and Father Thomas Hughes.
Medical Mission Sisters, from the Catholic Col
ored Clinic volunteered for duty and worked among
the victim?, at Grady Hospital. Some of the injured
were take to St. Joseph's Infirmary, where they
were eared for by the Sisters ol Mercy.
As far as has been liarned the only Catholic
who died In Ihc fire wsff A-lilc.v John Burns, a
member of St. Augustine’s parish in Ossining, New
Y'ork. where he was a partner with his father in
the William J. Burns Detective Agency, founded
by his grandfather, the late William J. Burns.
At Saint Patrick’s Church in Augusta, nn the
Sunday morning after the fire Father Harold Barr,
the pastor, asked the prayers of the congregation
tor the repose of the souls of those who had lost
their lives in the Atlanta lire.
. *-.*■, x t *|H
principle
First Amendment.”
By virtue of the First Amendment, the article
explains, the United States is a “lay” state “in a
unique „nd American sense of the term,” retain
ing “proper authority over the lay life of its citi
zens,” but having “no authority over their religious
liver,”
Although a "lay” state, the United States “does
not profess itself to be atheist or even, agnostic,”
Father Murray continues. “It does not deny in
doubt that there is a religious authority: it simply
denies that it is itself a religious authority.
“And for this- reason it respects whatever re
ligious authority is accepted by any one of those
temporal good it serves,” he adds. Pleading for
hr accept, nee of such an explanation of the First
Amendment. Father Murray declares it would re
sult in an interpretation ihat is “devoid of all il
legitimate th"-elegizing or false mysticism about
freedom of religion.”
- Welcome Home!
T HE Christmas season is always a time of re
joicing but this year it is for the priests. Re
ligious, and laity of the Diocese of Savannah-
Atlanta, an occasion of very great joy as our be
loved Bishop. His Excellency the Most Reverend
Gerald P. O’Hara, left Vatican City some days ago
to start on his return vovage across the Atlantic,
and he is expected to he back in Savannah by
Chip mas Day.
The able, earnest, self-sacrificing,, intensive and
persevering work of Bishop O’Hara in the years
since lie came to Georgia has contributed notably to
the progress of the Church in this state, and merit
ed for him tho high regard of the Holy See.
His priests and people are proud that His Holi
ness Pope Pius XII selected Bishop O’Hara for an
important diplomatic mission.
There i- a cordial and hearty welcome awaiting
'I-H^^EktfeHv-fit-y- ‘WiAv* *ttoat‘toe*Ik'-dotoiiAg*hofttii '
Catholics interested in the cause
for beatification of Father Dami
en, “Anostlc of the lepets of Molo
kai,” were pleased with tho trib
ute uttered recently by India’s
leading non-Catholic. Mahatma
Gandhi, who has studied the con
dition of the lepers in India and
the services rendered To them by
the missionaries.
On the recent onening‘of a spe
cial institute for lepers in Tulico-
rin, India, Mr. Gandhi said:
“As their name suggests, mis
sionaries are sent for a purpose,
to be heralds of God and of His
revelation to mankind. They en
gage in social work because they
see in such work a means of bring?
ing men closer to God, because
.- ocial injustice is a great evil
which offends the just God as
much as it harms the human Vic
tims. Service of lepers is very
dear to the* missionary, and ehief-
ly the Roman Catholic missionary,
because no othep form of service
requires so great a spirit of sac
rifice 1 . A leper colony calls- for
high ideali. ni and perfect disin
terestedness. The world of poli
ties and newspapers can boast of
few heroes of the stature of Fath
er Damien of Molokai, but the
Catholic Chuieh can ?how thou
sands who, like Damien, has sign
ed away their lives as servants of
the lepers. It is well worth in
quiring what it is that sustains
their heroism.”
Several hundred letters wer
received by Monsignor T. .lame
McNamara, rector of the Cathe
dral of St. John the Baptist,
Savannah, and Superintendent,
School? for the Diocese of Savan-
nah-Allanta, after his reeentl
broadcasts on the Catholic Hour,
sponsored by the National Coun
cil of Catholic Men in cooperation
with the National Broadcasting
Company.
Among the letters was one
from James Furlong, formerly of
Savannah, now mayor of Belmont,
California.
A Catholic Information Center I
has been established in New Or
leans with headquarters in the
Knights of Columbus Hall. To in
troduce the project directional
displays were put in windows of
business houses; a house-to-house
canvas explained the center;
pamphlets about the Catholic
Church were placed in hotels,
railroad and bus stations, and oth
er public places, and a priest will
he at the center at least an hour
daily to answer questions.
The Nativity scene which ap
pears on the cover ot this Christ
mas issue*of The Bulletin is n
, photograph of Ihe crib at St.
■ Mary'S •Hurrie' ‘hi ‘Siivarmah.
A former pupil of Sacred Heart
parochial school. Washington, D
C., and St. Ignatius, New York
City, John Sawada, young Japa
nese lawyer, has sailed for Rome
via the United States tp study for
the priesthood. He was accom
panied by two other Japanese
seminarian.- •
Young Sawada attended Catholic
schools In the United States while
his father was counsellor at the
Japanese embassy in Washington
and later consul general in New
York. Subsequently, the elder Sa
wada was Japanese ambassador to
Brazil. When the family returned
to Japan, the son attended Gyosei,
Morning Star High School, con
ducted by the Brothers of Mary
from Dayton, Ohio. Later he
took his degree in luw from the
Imperial University, Tokyo. He
entered the seminary after the
war. .. H. K.