The bulletin (Augusta, Ga.) 1920-1957, February 22, 1947, Image 1

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Published by the Catholic Lay men’s Association of Georgia nlUiin “To Bring About a Friendlier Feeling Among Neighbors Irre spective of Creed” Vol. XXVllI, No. 2 TWENTY PAGES AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 22, 1947 ISSUED MONTHLY—$2.00 A YEAR At Investiture of Papal Knights in Macon Pictured at the conclusion of the ceremony wi h which they were formally invested as Knights of St. .Gregory the Great, by Monsignor Joseph E. Moylan, Vicar General of the. Diocese of Savannah-At- lanta are Augustine J. Long and Martin J. Callaghan, two of the founders of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, who were signally honored by His Holiness Pope Pius XII. Appearing in the photograph above, taken in the sanctuary of St. Joseph’s Church, Macon, appear, left to right, Louis F. Long, son of Sir Knight A. J, Long, Monsignbr Moylan, and Sir Knight Marlin J. Callaghan.—(Drinnon Photo bv Griffin). U. S. Supreme Court Renders Decision in School Bus Case Five Justices Hold New Jersey Law Providing Use of Tax Funds to Transport Parochial School Pupils Is Not in Support of Schools and Does Not Breach Wall Be tween Church and State Georgia Laymen Invested as Knights of Saint G regory Augustine J. Long and Martin J. Callaghan, of Macon, Receive Papal Decorations and Honors of Knighthood in Order of Saint Gregory the Great, Conferred on Them by His Holiness Pope Pius XII, Front Monsignor Joseph E. Moylan, Vicar General of Diocese of Savan- nah-Atlanta (N. C. W. C. News Service) WASHINGTON. — The United Styles Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision which may well prove to be a landmark in the sphere of public aid to Catholic and other private schools, affirmed the right of a New Jersey school dis trict to pay transportation costs for children attending Catholic schools. Justice Hugo Black read the majority opinion, in which Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, and Jus tices Fl ank Murphy, Stanley Reed and William O. Douglas, concur red The dissenting opinion was read by Justice Wiley Rutledge, and he was joined in it by Jus tices Felix Frankfurter, Robert H. Jackson and Harold Burton. A second dissenting opinion was made by Justices Jackson and Frankfurter. “The State contributes no mon ey to the (Catholic) schools. It does not support them. Its legis lation, as applied, does no more than provide a general program to help parents get their children, regardless of their religion, safe ly and expeditiously to and from accredited schools.” This was the gist of the majority opinion. “The First Amendment,” the Court added, “has erected a wall between church and stale. That wall must he kept high and im pregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach. New Jersey has not breached it here.” The question before the Court, as the majority opinion summa rized it. was twofold: did the payment of the bus fares to Cath olic parents by the Ewing Town ship School Board take the pri vate property of one group by taxation and bestow it upon oth ers, thus violating the “due process” clause of the 14th Amendment? and. did this pay ment constitute support of Church schools in violation of the First Amendment, which says that Congress (and by the 14th Amend ment. the States) must not make any law "respecting an establish ment of religion?” In a passage pertinent to the first question, the Court held that “the fact that a State law, passed to satisfy a public need, coincides with the personal de sires of the individuals most di rectly affected is certainly an in adequate reason for us to say that a legislature has erroneously appraised the public need.” The Court held that the power to strike down Slate laws ou the ground that they expend tax funds for so-called private pur poses must be exercised “with the most extreme caution,” and con cluded that).“otherwise, a State’s power to legislate for the public welfare might be seriously cur tailed, a power which is a primary reason for the existence of States.” . In treating the question of sup port of a religion by the State, the 16-page majority opinion went into a review of the back ground and environment against which the First Amendment was fashioned, beginning with the re ligious reasons which impelled many of the original U. S. set tlers to emigrate from Europe, and considering at some length I he “Virginia. Bill for Religious Liberty” which influenced the drafting of the Federal amend ment. The Court decided that the First Amendment meant that “neither a Slate nor the Federal Government can, openly or se cretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups or vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against the establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a'wall of separation between Church and State'.” But, on the other hand, it held, that the cutting off of such ser vices as police and fire protec tion, connections for sewage dis posal, public highways and side walks—-and in the case at hand, transportation to a parochial school where such transportation is furnished to public school children — “is obviously not the purpose of the First Amendment (which) . . requires the State to be neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and non-believers . . . (not) their adversary State power is no more to be used so as to handicap reli gions, than it is to favor them.” The dissent made by Justices Rutledge, Frankfurter, Jackson and Burton looked with alarm upon the decision as “the first, if it is indeed not the second (a ref erence to the 1930 Cockran case giving the State of Louisiana the right to provide public school textbooks to parochial schools) breach to be made by this Court's action” in the wait between Church and Stale. This opinion spoke of “two Continued on Rage Two) Bulletins THE BRONZE STAR MEDAL, which previously has been given with a temporary citation to Fa ther James Francis Cunningham, C. S. P,, Superior General of the l'aulists and a Navy chaplain dur ing the war, has now beer, confer red on him wilth a permenanct ci tation by Navy Secretary James Forres tat by order of President Truman. 'The permanent citation states that “although slightly wounded and stunned by a bomb hit near him, Lieutenant Com mander Cunningham worked in- defatigably to evacuate wounded and dead personnel. His courage and fortitude were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.” Fa ther Cunningham has also been awarded the Purple Heart Medal. OFFICERS of the Savannali-At- lanta Diocesan Council of the Na tional Council of Catho. e Wom en, under the leadership of their president, Miss Helen Roe Nugent, of Savannah, and with the coop eration of their spiritual director, Father John D. Toomey, of Mil- ledgeville, are now arranging an interesting program for the an nual convention of the Diocesan Council, which will be held in Brunswick, April 19-20, coincident with the celebration of the Dia mond Jubilee of St. Francis Xavier parish in Brunswick. CHRIST, as the Light of the world, was the general theme of Father Thomas E. O’Connell, pas tor of St. Thomas Church, Rich mond, Va„ in a discourse heard February 16 on llie Hour of Faitli program, which is produced by the National Council of Catholic Men and carried on the American Broadcasting Company network. A REVISED VERSION of the controversial David O. Selznick film, “Duel in the Sun,” has been shewn for Legion of Decency Re view at the Legion’s national headquarters in New York. It was the first opportunity the Legion had been given to sec the film. Announcement of a rating is not expected until written reports of the reviewers have been analyz ed. LEGISLATION which would have obliged parents to obtain per mission from local public school officials in Spokane, Wash., before sending their children to parochial schools, has been killed by unani mous consent of the Washington State Senate at the request of one of its co-sponsors, who asserted he had not even read the bill. (Special to The Bulletin) MACON, Gu. — With impress ive ceremony, at St. Joseph’s Church, on February 16, Mon signor Joseph E. Moylan, Vicar General of the Diocese of Savan- nah-Atlanta, formally invested two of Macon’s outstanding citi zens: Augustine Jossey Long, and Martin Joseph Callaghan, with Knighthood in the Order of Saint Gregory the Great. These two distinguished Catho lic laymen of the Diocese of Sa- vannah-Atlanta, both of whom were among the founders of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Geo rgia, and both of whom have been prominent in its activity, were knighted by Monsignor Moy lan, acting lor His Excellency the Most Rev. Gerald P. O’Hara, D.D., J, U. D., Bishop ot Savannah-At- lanta, now serving as Regent of the Apostolic Nunciature in Bu charest. Romania. His Holiness Pope Pius XII in June of last year conferred the honor of Knighthood upon Mr. Long and Mr. Callaghan. The formal investiture, was de layed because the Papal docu ments conferring the honors, on Mr. Long and Mr, Callaghan did not reach this country until De cember. when they were brought from Vatican City by Bishop O’Hara, who returned immedi ately to Rom? - to go to Rumania as tlie representative of the Holy See. Presentation of the Papal dec orations and the swords to Mr. Long and Mr. Callaghan were made at the end of a Solemn High Mass which was celebrated by Father Robert Bryant, S. J., pastor of St. Joseph’s Church, with Father Edward P. McGrath, CHARLESTON, S C. — Mrs. Henry R. (Clare Boothe) Luce, 'journalist, author, playwright and former Member of Congress, will be the guest speaker at the patri otic banquet which is being given on tlie evening ot Washington’s Birthday at the Francis Marion Hotel by the Bishop P. N. Lynch Assembly. Fourth Degree, Knights of Columbus. After serving two terms in the U. .S. House of Representatives as a member from Coneclicut, Mi's. Luce announced her retirement from political life last* year at the time that she was Received into the Catholic Church, Mrs. Luce has served as asso ciate editor of Vogue, and as as sociate editor and managing edi tor, of Vanity Fair. She has writ ten such successful plays as‘‘Kiss the Boys Goodbye,” “The Wom en.” /md ’’Margin for Error.” She has contributed a number of ar ticles to nationally circulated magazines, and the story of her conversion to Catholicity is cur rently appearing, under her own authorship, in McCall’s Magazine. At present Mrs. Luce is staying at Mepkin Plantation, near Moncks Corner, where site is do ing some writing, She and her husband, who is publisher of Time, Life, and Fortune) own the plantation. In keeping with the celebra tion of Washington’s Birthday, and the principle of the Fourth Degree of the Knights ,of Colum bus, Mrs. Luce will speak on “Pa triotism.” S. M.. pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Atlanta, as deacon, anil Father Raymond J. Mullin, S, J., assistant pastor of St. Joseph’s Church, as -subdeacon. The sermon at the Mass was de livered by Father Harold A. Gau din.'S. J., formerly pastor of St. Joseph’s Church here, and now of the faculty of St. John’s College, Shreveport, La. Present in the sanctuary, in addition to Monsi gnor Moylan and the .officers of the Mass were Father Michael McNally, S. J., assistant pastor of St. Joseph’s Church; Father James E. King, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Warner Robins, and Fa ther Godfrey Weitekamp, O. F. M., pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Americus. In his sermon, which preceded the investiture Father Gaudin declared that it was unusual for men to be praised from a pulpit which was built to be a place from which the praise of Almighty God would be sounded, but that, he did not believe that God would be jealous if His pulpit were used in paying well deserved tribute to two of His devoted servants. “Not only are the families and friends of Mr. Long and Mr. Cal laghan filled with pride at the distinction which lias been given them by the Holy Sec,” said Fa ther Gaudin, “but the entire par ish of St. Joseph, their many friends in Macon, and many friends throughout all Georgia, arc also happy and proud.” Speaking briefly, at the conclu sion of the ceremony, Monsignor Moylan extended his congratula tions to the new Knights of St. Gregory upon the signal honor CLARE BOOTH LUCE Lynch Assembly, will welcome the guests, and John I. Cosgrove, Charleston attorney, will present Mrs. Luce to her audience. W. T. McLaughlin, chairman of the committee on arrangements, wilt he the toastmaster. Following the banquet there will be a dance at the Knights ot' Columbus Hall. The committee on arrange ments for the banquet and dance includes the following officers of Bishop Lynch Assembly: Joseph J. Comar, 1 faithful comptroller; James J. McDonald, faithful pi lot: Father Joseph J. Murphy, faithful friar; George M. Tray- Monsignor James J. May, Vicar General of the Diocese of Char leston, and rector of the Cathe dral of St. John the Baptist, will speak on “The Church in South Carolina.” Arthur E. Anderson, faithful navigator of Bishop nor, William L. Schaehle, faithful sentinels; Wiliam L. MeAllan, J. B. Clarey, faithful patrons, Al bert J. Sotlile, faithful admiral. T. F. Madden heads tlie reserva tions committee. (Continued on Page 20) Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce to Speak at Fourth Degree K. of C. Patriotic Banquet in Charleston