Newspaper Page Text
FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
AUGUST 30, 1947
ffiuUftttt
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 McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
Vol. XXV1II AUGUST 30. 1947 No. 8
Entered a* second class matter June 15 1921 at the
Post Office at Augusta. Georgia, under the Act of March
3 1879. accepted for mailing at special rate of postage
provided in paragraph 4. section 538, Postal Laws and
Regulations as modified t>v nararrauh f»
Member of N C. W C News Service. Religious News
Service, the Catholic Press Association of the United
States the Cftorgia Press Association, and the National
Editorial Association.
Published monthly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association
of fieoreia Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Rev
erend Bishops of Charleston and Savannah-Atlanta, and
of the Right Reverend Abbot -Ordinary of Belmont.
Deepest Depths of Defamation
S OME three decades ago, as many of us remember,
anti-Catholicisnl was rampant in Georgia. The
Catholics of this state suffered in patience while
those who were prejudiced against them launched, in
press and pulpit, attack after attack against the
Catholic Church, its doctrines, its practices, its
Hierarchy and its priests.
At length the forces attacking Catholicity in
Georgia set a new low mark in the depth of their
defamation by assailing the noble women who had
left all things to follow Christ, and as members
of Religious Orders, had vowed to devote their
lives to the service of God and in service to
humanity.
Other attacks had been made but when the
Sisters were insulted by the passage of a convent-
inspection Act by the Legislature of live State of
Georgia, the Catholics of this state would no longer
, submit without protest, and the aroused laity of
the Diocese of Savannah formed the Catholic Lay
men’s Association of Georgia to answer malice
with charity, falsehood with truth, and ignorance
with information.
Another cycle of anti-Catholic prejudice is now
becoming increasingly evident in this country, and
it seems to have passed beyond the matter of the
presence Of a personal representative of the presi
dent of the United States at the Vatican; beyond
the question of whether or not children attending
Catholic schools may ride to those schools in public
buses, toward the operation of which Catholics pay
taxes; beyond the way in which the principle ot
separation of Church and State shall be interpreted.
Catholic Sisters and Nuns are again being assailed.
Last week, the Superior of a Religious community
in the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta, sent to the
office of The Bulletin a copy of a publication titled
“The Freethinker,” published in New York City,
which had been addressed to her through the mail.
The front page of the publication is devoted to
an editorial “To the Mendicant Nun,” which begins
in these words: “A black-robed pun begging in a
doorway, in a subway station, at my apartment
door, arouses in me a deep sense Of pity for these
poor, self-sacrificing creatures. Begging for copper
and silver coins to be wrought into golden chains
that bind into slavery.”
The writer in The Freethinker goes on to ask:
“Dear lady, why must you sacrifice the love and
companionship of your family to follow a life of
begging, of servitude?”
After other questions came the injunction: "As
sert yourselves! You have rights that are being
trampled under foot, ruthlessly. Lift your heads.
Look out beyond your convent walls and see what
a beautiful world is yours for (he taking. Cast off
your robes of sombic black and don reds and blues,
bright greens and yellow. Wear flowers in your
hair and a hat with ribbons . . . Arise and become
Free Women!”
The writer in The Freethinker could know, if he
wanted to know, or had tried to know, that any
nun who is not satisfied with her life in the convent
has only to make application to her Superiors for
a dispensation from her vows and in due course of
lime—a very brief period—she would be authori
tatively released from her obligations and could
without restraint take up again tier life in the world.
It is readily admitted that it is difficult for a
material age to comprehend how anyone could vol
untarily renounce this world’s possessions and
pleasures h.v choosing a life of poverty which would
be dedicated to the serving.of God and humanity,
after pronouncing vows of chastity and obedience.
Perhaps that is why there are people, who could
easily know better if they really wanted to, who
believe that convents are either prisons where
women are compelled lo remain against their will
or places of consolation in which some would seek
refuge after being disappointed in love.
A visit to. any convent, or a moment’s conver
sation with any Sister whom they might meet on
the street, would enlighten such people to the fact
that there is no freer place on earth than a convent,
and that it is not always easy for a womeji lo gain
admission into a Religious Order, it is never diffi
cult for her lo exercise her freedom to leave the
convent.
So pertinent to this discussion is an editorial
which appeared in The Catholic Standard and Times,
of Philadelphia, last week, that we cannot refrain
from quoting a portion of it:
“One of the glories of the Catholic Church in
America is* its immense galaxv of Religious Sisters
by whose sacrifices the Faith is being preserved.
The number of these devoted women reaches the
incredible total of almost 150 000. Those who have
a close knowledge of their way of living can testify
to their happy normal existence. Deprived of every
thing that tile world reckons essential for content
ment, they spend their time in continual prayer and
work, completely forgetful of themselves, and yet
Catholic Doctrine Commended
I N a recent issue of TIME, the weekly news review,
is the report of the remarks made by Stanley
High, of the editorial staff of the Reader’s Digest,
before an interdenominational'audience at the 63rd
Northfield General Conference of the Congregation
al Church, held in Northfield, Massachusetts.
Mr. High, though he was never ordained as a
minister, graduated from Boston University’s School
of Theology, and served as a pastor for three years,
then later became editor of Christian Herald.
Speaking at Northfield. Mr. High declared that
he could speak about how he had failed the church,
or could talk about how laymen, generally, fail the
church, because that was a popular subject—and an
easy one, but that he would talk, instead, about Uie
way the church had failed him, saying: "The way it
is failing me is, I think, a key to the way it is failing
and due to continue failing society.”
,As TIME reports his remarks, Mr. High had this to
say about the Catholic Church:
“There is, unmistakably, a great uneasiness abroad
in American Protestantism—-a widespread concern
about the Protestant future in this country. Much of
that concern seems to be focused on the Catholic
Church.
“AS a Protestant ... I do not think our chief
concern about Catholicism should be in terms of
schpol buses or political influence or the separation
of church and state . . . The really vital matter . . .
is that for the modern man—and for the likes of
me, if you please—the Roman Catholic Church hqs
something to offer which Protestantism too general
ly isn’t offering . . .
“The ground the Catholic Church stands on is—
for Catholics—high and lifted up. It preaches the
love of God, but it also preaches the fear of the
Devil . . , The Catholic docti'ine of Heaven has
meaning because there is meaning and reality in the
Catholic doctrine of Hell ... As Protestants I wish
we’d stop worrying and clamoring against the secu
lar competition with Roman Catholicism ami begin
to worry a little bit about the spiritual competition.
“I, personally, need the church as I never needed
it before. I happen to know that my fellow laymen
need it as never before and are ready, at the slight
est suggestion, to acknowledge that need. But the
church we need will have more of Dante and Dos
toevsky in its message and less of Alfred Lord
Tennyson and Eddie Guest: more of the Last Judg
ment and less of the Golden Rule. It will not only
have a Living God, but a Live Devil. Its Heaven will
have a Hell lor its alternative. Its objective—so far
as I’m concerned—will not be my cultivation, but
my rebirth. 1 might fail that kind of a church.
But that kind of Church could not fail me.”
A Commendable Custom
I T has long been a pious and exemplary practice of
many Catholics to have the Holy, Sacrifice of
the Mass offered for the repose of the souls
of deceased friends or relatives.
Without wishing, in any way, to discourage the
continuance of this truly Catholic practice, it seems
well that mention be made of another commendable
custom, which has been v adopted in recent years
by some of our Jewish and Protestant friends—that
of making a contribution to an orphanage or other
charitable institution, as a memorial tribute to a
deceased person and as an expression of sympathy
to a bereaved family.
It was reported at the annual meeting of the
Female Orphan Benevolent Society, under whose
auspices the Sisters of Mercy cortduct St. Mary’s
Home in Savannah, thatr during the last year the
orphanage had received a number of donations giv
en in memory of some departed friend.
These gifts were promptly acknowledged by the
Sisters at St. Mary’s Home, and a letter was ad
dressed to the family of the deceased, advising that
prayers would be offered by the Sisters and children
at the home for the repose of the soul of the
departed and that God would grant blessed consola
tion to those who mourned the loss of a loved one.
It is a custom that is commended to the Catholic
and non-Calholic friends of St. Mary’s Home.
Dixie Musings
their calm and cheerful faces reflect the peace of
God which passes understanding.
“Catholics should defend their honor and repu
tation, especially since they have no means of
defending themselves. History shows that only the
most debased elements of society, such as the
rabble gangs! ers which composed the so-called
international Brigades in Spain and elsewhere, have
failed to show them respect. They have passed un
scathed through danger that would have brought
destruction to others. Their consecrated womanhood
has brought honor to their sisters in the world and
raised their sex to a pre-eminence which is un
known in pagan and secular society.
"Literature and other arts have been kindly if
not always completely just to the Religious Sisters.
Even tlie Protestant poets, who had strong prejudices
against our Faith, have felt the charm and
mystery of their vocation, and treated them as
angels of mercy and flowers of chastity. When
dangers have threatened them help has often come
from those who might have been supposed to be
their enemies. Oppressive laws that have been made
against them have failed to find the means of en
forcing them. Violence has been disarmed by in
nocence, and lying tongues nave been silenced by
a sense or shame. The Sisters have won the hearts
of the worldly by arousing what is good in the
worse of human nature.”
Instead of clamoring for tjjose who, are Religious
Sisters to leave their convents and return to a
disturbed and troubled world, the publishers of
The Freethinker might better be praying and hop
ing that there will be more and more young women
entering the convent.
More and more women who for the love of God
will devote their lives to the instruction of youth;
to the building of character in the minds and hearts
of our citizens of the future; to the tender care of
the aged, the orphan, the unfortunate, the sick and
the dying.
Women, like those from Georgia, who are serv
ing in a leper colony in Trinidad; women like those
at the home for incurable cancer patients, in At
lanta, -and women like the Maryknoll Sisters from
St. Paul’s Hospital, in Manila, who shared danger*
and death lo nurse the wounded soldiers of out
country and ihe Philippines who fought on Bataan
and Corregidor.
An average of twenty-eight non-
Catholic clergymen a year are be
ing received into the Catholic
Church in Britain, John Pearmain,
warden of Top Meadow, G. K.
Chesterton's old home at Beacons-
field, Buckinghamshire, England,
stated recently. Before the war
the average was twelve.
Main problem for the convert
clergymen, usually a middle-aged
man with no other profession, is
his family, and for these the Con
verts’ Aid Society, which now
owns Top Meadow, maintains it
as a temeporary hostel for con
vert clergy and gives all the help
it can. The fact that a man is an
"ex-parson” is also a handicap
for a man looking for a job.
July 30 was the 25th anniver
sary of Chesterton’s own conver
sion, and old clerical friends gath
ered at Beaconsfield for a special
anniversary Mass.
The Macon Telegraph has given
its editorial favor to the proposal
of Hubert B. Owens, head of the
University of Georgia department
of landscape architecture, that
the Gordonia Altamaha, a flow
ering shrub, be substituted for the
Cherokee Rose as the botannical
symbol of the State of Georgia.
One of the reasons advanced
for making the Gordonia Altama
ha the state flower is that the
rare shrub is a native of the Al
tamaha River Valley, and is to be
found in no other spot in the
world, while the Cherokee rose is
not a native Georgia product, its
original home having been
China, and it was introduced into
this couatry by the Spanish mis
sionaries:
This is just one more item in
the long list of things that Geor
gians owe the intrepid Spanish
’missionaries who brought Chris
tianity to this part of America not
long after the discovery of the
New World by Columbus.
It was made public at the White
House that a radio dispatch from
Vatican City, conveying sympathy
from His Holiness Pope Pius XII
to President Truman on the death
of the President’s mother, was re
ceived at the Executive Mansion’.
The message from the Holy
Father read: “We have learned
with profound sorrow of the death
of your beloved mother and in
your sad bereavement we extend
to you our heartfelt sympathy. It
is our earnest prayer that God
may grant you a measure of
strength and consolation in the
great loss you haVe suffered.”
Catholic priests in Japan are
finding themselves addressed more
and more by non-Christians as
"Father”, rather thqn by the Jap
anese title for priest which they
have shared reluctantly with Shin
to clerics. Credit for this they
give to Monsignor Edward J. Flan
agan of Boys’ Town tame, whose
ecent visit to Japan put “Wel
come to Father Flanagan” on sig*',
billboards and the tongues of
thousands of Japanese every
where.
The public appearance of the
American labor relations expert.
Monsignor John P. Boland, and
"the glacier priest,” Father Ber
nard Hubbard, S. J., also helped
the cause, as did the showing of
Bing Crosby’s “Going My Way”,
but it is felt that Father Flana
gan’s tremendously popular tour
crystallized what is hoped to be a
permanent custom.
Edward J. Hefjron, of Washing
ton, D. C., former executive sec
retary of the National Council of
Catholic Men, has been appoint
ed director of media relations for
the National Conference of Chris
tians and Jews. He will be in
charge of activities in the fields of
press, radio, motion pictures and
advertising.
Mr. Hel'fron is an alumnus of
Loras College, Dubuque, and
Georgetown University.,. Long ac
tive in the religious radio field,
he managed “The Catholic Hour”
program for eleven years and “The
Hour of Faith,” program for three
years.
An alphabetical listing of Cath
olic universities, colleges and ju
nior colleges, divided according to
42 fields of concentration, has been
published in brochure form by P.
J. Kenedy & Sons, of New York.
Author of the project is Eugenia
A. Leonard, dean of women at the
Catholic University of America.
Readers of The Bulletin who re
member reading the editorial ti
tled "Fight Intolerance,” which
appeared in the “With Other Ed
itors” department of The Bulletin
for April, will be interested in
knowing that at the recent annual
convention of the Georgia Press
Association, held in Savannah, a
$50 prize, from the National Con
ference of Christians and Jews
for the best editorial on Protest-
ant-Catholic-Jew cooperation, was
awarded to The Bartow Herald,
from which The Bulletin quoted
it.
The Bartow Herald, one of
Georgia’s outstanding weekly
newspayers, is edited by W. R.
Frier, and the editorial "Fight In
tolerance,” was written by George
H. Boswell.
While attending the convention
of the Georgia Press Association,
it was the pleasure of the editor
of The Bulletin to join in extend
ing congratulations to Albert S.
Hardy, Sr., who this month pub
lished the fiftieth anniversary edi
tion of The Gainesville News, of
which he has been the publisher
and editor for half a century.
No Georgia editor ,is held in
higher esteem, or is more worthy
of highest esteem than Mr. Hardy,
whose genial personality, ability
and integrity is recognized not
only in Georgia but throughout
the United States, as was evidenc
ed some few years ago when he
was elected president of the Na
tional Editorial Association.
Educational facilities and meth
ods at the University of Notre
Dame were studied by a leading
Moslem ruler, Prince Said Al-
Islam Abdullah of Yemen, ancient
Arabian kingdom on the Red Sea,
during a visit to Notre Dame last
month.
Prince Abdullah was received by
Father John J. Cavanaugh, C. S.
C., president of Notre Dame, and
university officials subsequently
escorted the Prince on a tour of
the university during which he
showed particular interest in No
tre Dame’s research in atomic en
ergy, chemistry, metallurgy, mi-
curgy, germ-free techniques, and
other subjects.
The Prince was accompanied by
Dr. Adman Tarcici, director of ed
ucation for Yemen, Sayid Hassan
Ibn-Ibraham, son of the general
of the army; Quadi Mohammed A1
Amri, son of the prime minister;
and Mohammed Khatab Bey, tech
nical adviser to the Prince.
The Prince and his retinue, who
are in this country on business,
were received by President Tru
man and high United States Gov
ernment officials and other promi
nent Americans. Notre Dame was
the first American university to
be visited by the Prince.
Father John D. Toomey, pastor
of the Sacred Heart Church, Mil-
ledgeville, has been elected presi
dent of the Milledgeville Com
munity Concert Association for the
fourth consecutive year.
An Ursuline Nun and two Sif
ters of Charity will figure in tha
mural, “The History of Medicine
in New Orleans.” which will adorn
the new building of a medical
supply house in that city. Frank
lin Boggs, of Beloit College, Beloit.
Wis., will execute the mural,
which will begin with Choctaw
medicine min and carry through
the pictorial history to scientists
engaged in atomic medicine.
The Ursulines’ connection with
New Orleans medicine concerns
their service at Kings Hospital
from 1727 to 1770. The Sisters of
Charity, who came from Emmits-
burg, Md, in 1832. to serve in
the public Charity Hospital, will
bt shown in scenes of the yellow
fever and cholera epidemics of
New Orleans’ early days.
The National Catholic Rural
Life Conference has just printed
the message of Pope Pius to farm
ers and other rural people. His
talk was given lo delegates at the
convention ol the National Con
federation of Farm Owner-Opera
tors last November. The Pope tells
rural people of their duties as cus
todians of a Christian family way
of life. He exhorts them to meet
their responsibilities as laborers;
he bids them to care for the land
and restore its fertility. Basic
principles of rural life are stated
clearly and effectively. Tech
niques and methods are suggested
to the farmers and their pastors,
The Pope's message has been
translated into readable and un
derstandable English. The pam
phlet, entitled “The Pope Speaks
on Rural life” has been published
with a careful list of references
for further study and is well suit
ed to study groups and schools. It
can be obtained from the National
Catholic Rural Life Conference,
3801 Grand Avenue, Des Moines,
Iowa, lor 10 cents. , k