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FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
JUNE 25, 1949
ffiullptttt
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated,
' / HUGH KINCHLEY. Editor
216-217 Southern Finance building, Augusta, Ga.
' ASSOCIATION OFFICER FOR 1948-1949
FRED WIGGINS, Albany President
M. J. CALLAHAN, Macon
Honorary Vice-President
HUGH GRADY, Savannah Vice-President
J. B. McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary
MARSHALL WELLBORN, Rome Treasurer
HUGH KINCHLEY, Augusta ..Executive Secretary
MISS CECILS FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
A. M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
VOL, XXX,JUNE 25, 1949 No. 6
Entered a? second class mutter June 15 1021 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 Law* and
Romilntiong n r « modified nv n.-»rncranh fi
iVlemoer of N C W C News Service. Religious News
Service the Catholic Press Association of the United
States the Georgia Press Association. and the National
Editorial Association^
Published monthly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association
of Georgia Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Rev
erend nisliops of Charleston and Savannah-Atlanta. and
of the Right Reverend Abbot-Ordinary of Belmont.
A Date of Significance
is a calendar for this month hanging
Federal Aid to Education Bills
T here
on the wall o£ the office of The Bulletin.
Although the figures 20, which apply to Monday
of this week arc not printed in red, the date shown
reminds that the twentieth day of June in 1927
should have been a red-ietter day on the cal
endar because that day was a date of great sig
nificance to Catholics in Georgia and South Caro
lina.
It was on June twentieth, 1927, that His Holi
ness Pope Pius XII, of blessed memory, advised
His Excellency the Most Reverend Pietro Fumasoni-
Biondi, Archbishop of Dioclea, and at that time
Apostolic Delegate to the United States, that the
Holy See had designated Father Emmet M. Walsh
then pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church
in Atlanta, to be Bishop of Charleston, as the
successor of the Most Reverend William T. Rus
sell, who had occupied the See of Charleston from
March 15, 1917, until his death on March 18, 1927.
The news that Father Emmet Walsh, who had
served as a priest of the Diocese of Savannah
since his ordination to the priesthood on January
15, 1916, was received by the Catholics of Georgia
with the feelings which mingled joy and sor
row.
They rejoiced at the great honor which had
come to a priest who was beloved and esteem
throughout the Diocese of Savannah. The tinge
of sorrow was occasioned by the realization that
his elevation to the Episcopacy would take him
from Georgia, but there was consolation in the
fact that Bishop Walsh was going to a neighbor
ing State and Diocese., a Diocese which was link
ed to Georgia by closest ties, not the least of
which was that fpr the first thirty years of the
history of the Diocese of Charleston, Georgia was
included in its Diocesan territory.
Because Bishop Walsh was a native son of the
Diocese of Charleston, and because he had grown
from boyhood to manhood as a resident of the
Diocese of Savannah, it was believed that as
Bishop of Charleston he would unite the two Dio
ceses closer than ever. The promise which that
belief held has become a reality, most apparent
in the months since Bishop Gerald P. O’Hara has
been away from his Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta
to serve as Regent of the Apostolic Nunciature
in Bucharest, Romania.
Since Bishop O’Hara has been abroad, Bishop
Walsh has been most gracious and generous in
his service to the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta.
Though the demands which are made upon his
time by the affairs of his own extensive Diocese
have been ever increasing, Bishop Walsh has
gladly stretched his days so that the Diocese of
Savannah-Atlanta might have a share of them.
Bishop Walsh has officiated at many religious
functions in Georgia within the last few years,
on occasions such as the consecration of two Ab
bots of the Trappist Abbey at Conyers, ordaina-
tions of priests, various dedications, and in the
administration of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Within recent weeks, Bishop Walsh made
thirty engagements to administer Confirmation in
parishes of the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta, from
one end of the State of Georgia to the other,
and also found time to honor with his presence the
Silver Jubilee celebrations of several priests in
Georgia.
In the course of the twenty-two years dur
ing which Bishop Walsh has headed the historic
Diocese of Charleston, he has truly proven him
self to be a worthy successor of the eminent Pre
lates who preceded him in that See: the great
Bishop John England, who was not merely a na
tional bi)t a world figure in the pioneer days of
Catholicity in the United States; the zealous Bishop
Ignatius Reynolds, who guided the Diocese of
Charleston in ante-bellum years: the distinguished
Bishop Patrick N. Lynch, who was 1 chosen to
’ represent 1 the Confederacy in the courts of Eurbpe
in the stirrihg years ’of the War Between the States;
the beloved Bishop Henry* Pinckney Northrop, and
the scholarly Bishop William T. Russell.
The spiritual progress of the Diocese 'of Char
leston, 1 though known in its fullness only to God
has been apparent along with the material ad
vancement •' of the Diocese throughout the last
' twenty-two years. New Churches, in number too
many to cite; have heen erected; new schools have
been established, there are 1 six Catholic hospitals
in South Carolina today, where there was but one
in 1927, additions have been made to three, of
these hospitals in recent years, and a magnificent
nurses’ home is now approaching completion at
St. Francis Xavier Infirmary in Charleston
Within recent 1 months a new church has been
dedicated at Lancaster, and another at Joanna. A
chapel is now being built at Folly Beach, near Char
leston, a school and a convent are under construc
tion at North Charleston, where the rectory of St.
John’s Church is being enlarged.
Plans arc being made for the dedication , in
September of the new St. Joseph's Chufch in
The approval by a sub-committee of the House
of Representatives of a Federal Aid to Educa
tion bill introduced by Representative Graham
Barden of North Carolina, which bars, even more
effectively than the Thomas Bill, already adopted
by the Senate, any aid whatever to pupils attend
ing non-public schools, should be a matter of vital
concern to every Catholic parent exercising the right,
sustained by a decision of the Supreme Court,
to send his child to an accredited non-public
school.
If the purpose of Federal Aid to education
is, as it is claimed, to equalize opportunity for
education throughout the country, then that aid
should be available to every child that needs
it, whether the child attends publicly supported or
privately supported school.
Some thoughts on this subject are presented
in the “With Other Editors” department of this
edition of The Bulletin, and it is recommended
that they be read, intently and carefully, by every
reader of The Bulletin.
The Catholic schools of the nation are con
tributing to the nation’s welfare by educating the
children who will become its future citizens and
since the non-public schools are thus rendering
a service to the nation, these schools certainly could
be, and their pupils certainly should be, alloted
a reasonable and fair share in the benefits of any
Federal aid education program.
In a letter addressed to The New York Herald
Tribune, which was published within the last few
weeks, Father Thomas F. Coakley, D. D., V. F., P. P.,
pastor of the Sacred Heart Church, Pittsburgh,
and distinguished writer, set forth the role of the
Catholic schools in the United States, to show
that the Church-supported system of education was
more a partner than a rival of the state-supported
schools.
For the benefit of the readers of The Bulletin
who may not have read Father Coakley’s letter
when it appeared in the New York newspaper, it
is reprinted here:
“There are far too many angry words about
Federal aid to education. May I ask your indul
gence while I attempt to turn on some light minus
heat.
"Catholic schools and public schools are part
ners, not competitors in education; they are as
sociates, not rivals. In the United States there
are approximately 2,000,000 pupils in Catholic
schools. Perhaps 2,500,000 more Catholic pupils
are in public schools. Consequently Catholics have
a very vital intellectual and financial interest and
sympathy in the welfare and success of public
schools, and their cooperation between them.
“In local, state and national tests, Catholic
school pupils rank equal to and sometimes rank
superior to pupils in public schools. The buildings
and equipment in trie new Catholic schools are
among the finest in the land, rivaling and at times
surpassing public schools. One of the most notable
of these is the Sacred Heart School, Pittsburgh.
“It costs approximately $150 per year to edu
cate a pupil in the public schools. In many cities
the cost is much more. Thus the 2,200,000 pupils
in Catholic schools in this country save the na
tion’s taxpayers $330,000,000 every year. The fig
ure is astronomical, but it is abmit as near as any
one can get to the actual amount.
“If all the Catholic pupils in the United States
were suddenly sent to public schools, there would
be no room for them. So what would happen?
"The public school authorities of the nation
immediately would be required to erect 2,200
new schools with a capacity of 1,000 pupils each
to care for them. At today’s building prices, to
erect even one new school for 1,000 pupils would
cost at least $850,000, and 2,200 of them would
cost the staggering sum of $1,870,000,000. One
billion eight hundred seventy millions of dollars!
However, it is not the first cost but the upkeep
that brings the most headache to school adminis
trators.
“It would take nearly two years to buy land
and erect all the 2,200 new public schools that
would be necessary to care for the immense in
crease from Catholic enrollment. Many thousands
of trained and certified teachers must be procured
The billions of dollars borrowed by school boards
to erect, staff and maintain these new schools would
enormously increase school taxes, even though our
backs are now just about broken with the tax bur
den.”
To bring some of Father Coakley’s figures
closer home to us in Georgia, the report of Father
Cornelius E. Maloney, Superintendent of Schools
for the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta shows that as
of the beginning of the second semester of the
school year just ended, there was a total of 1,344
students enrolled in Catholic high schools in Geor
gia. with a total of 5,608 pupils attending Catholic
elementary schools in this state.
To provide funds to support the public school
system of the state is perhaps the most difficult
problem confronting the State of Georgia today
The 7,000 children attending Catholic schools in
the state are relieving the taxpayers of Georgia of
a substantial amount of school taxes, yet there is
opposition from some quarters in Georgia against
any. Federal aid to education program which would
grant—not to Catholic schools, but to children at
tending Catholic schohls—even the very necessary
benefits such as bus transportation, non-religious
text-books and health welfare services.
As true as it is that more light on the sub
ject of Federal aid to education is needed, it is
even more true that there is imminent and urgent
necessity to turn on heat as well as the light to
prevent the enactment by Congress of legisla
tion which would inflict grave injustice on Catho
lic and non-Catholic Children attending private or
parochial schools.
Dixie Musings
From lieutenant colonel in the
Air Force with sixteen citations
from four governments to driver
of a school bus, is the saga of Vic
tor Kadane, who arrived in
Waynesville, N. C., last month with
a party of a hundred displaced per
sons sponsored by the Resettle
ment Division of War Relief Ser
vices - National Catholic Welfare
Conference.
The thirty-four-year-old veteran
of many air battles did not come as
a displaced person, but entered the
country as a mechanic on an im
migration visa. He was sponsored
by Father Ambrose Rohrbacher.
pastor of St. John’s Church, in
Waynesville, who also gave tiim the
job of driver of St. John’s school
bus.
Kadane was a lieutenant in the
Czech Air Force when the Nazi 'en
tered Czechoslovakia in 1939, when
he fled the country and joined the
French Foreign Legion as a ser
geant. Five months later he was
sent to France to help organize a
new Czech army in exile, saw ac
tion in the battle of France, tnen
five years as major in the Royal
Air Force and finally as major in
the Allied Intelligence and U. S.
Army of Occupation in Germany.
He met his wife, a Czech sculp
tress, during the war and they were
married in 1946. They hsve a six-
months-old daughter,
Kentucky, is second on the list.
"Peace of Soul,” by Monsignor Ful
ton J. Sheen, ranks third, and “The
Greatest Story Ever Told,” by Ful
ton Oursler, fourth.
Father Henry F. Wolfe, pastor
of the Sacred Heart Church in
Charleston, South. Carolina, who
celebrated the twenty-fifth anni
versary of his ordination a few
weeks ago, is making his Silver
Jubilee year all the more a me
morable one by taking a trip to
Europe, leaving last week by plane
for Rome.
Twentieth Century Fox Film
Corporation has announced that it
is releasing, nationally, in the late
summer, what has been described
as “a truly charming motion pic
ture.”
Titled “Come To The Stable,”
and based on an original story by
Clare Booth Luce, Loretta Young
and Celeste Holm, the co-stars, are
cast in the roles of two Sisters who
arrived in this country from France
in the hope of establishing a hos
pital for children in Connecticut.
The story of “Come To The
Stable,” in the main, is the whim
sical, -humorous, sometimes touch
ing and at all times sympathetic
relation of the various ways in
which a group of Sisters struggle
to raise money to build a much-
needed hospital, aided principally
through their own efforts but some
times helped in the most unexpect
ed manner by a strange assortment
of personalities from all walks of
life.
Partially based on fact, the action
takes place “somewhere in Con
necticut” and in the side streets
as well as on Fifth Avenue in New
York City.
Reductions in wholesale food
prices have enabled CARE to offer
a new $5.50 "Thrift” food package
for delivery in 11 European coun
tries, Paul Comly French, Execu
tive Director of the non-profit
agency, has announced.
CARE will continue to carry its
big 2216-pound $10 food parcel,
which was recently increased in
content value, Mr. French stressed.
The $5.50 package, he explained,
was devised for Americans who
want to continue the help still
needed by the people overseas but
do not feel they can afford $10, as
well as to provide an additional
variety for regular CARE donors.
Orders for the new food pack
age can be placed immediately
through CARE headquarters, 20
Broad Street, New York 5, or any
CARE outlet throughout the coun
try. Delivery is guaranteed in Aus
tria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Fin
land, France, Great Britain,
Greece, the Western zones of Ger
many and all Berlin, Italy, the
Netherlands and Norway.
The $5.50 assortment features a
two-pound, pre-cooked ham, skin
less and boneless so that there is
no waste, and seven ounces of as
sorted spices, a rarity in Europe
since the war. Complete contents
are: Two-pound ham; one pound
each of rice, cheese, peanut butter
and coffee (a half-pound tea will be
substituted for the British Isles);
14 ounces of condensed milk; a
half-pound of chocolate; one ounce
each of pepper and nutmeg; one
and a quarter ounces each of cin
namon, ginger, mustard, and pap
rika; two cakes (six ounces) soap.
St. James’s Church, on Spanish
place in London’s West End, only
Catholic church in Britain wnere
a reigning British monarch has at
tended Mass since the Retorma-
tion, has been consecrated with six
Bishops assisting in the ceremon
ies.
King Edward VII attended Re
quiem Mass in the church in 1908
for the assassinated King of Portu
gal. The original church, built in
1791, was the private chapel of the
Spanish Embassy. The court of
Spain supported it until 1827,
when upkeep was taken over by
the congregation. The present
church was opened in 1890.
As the Spanish Embassy chapel,
it was one of the few places where
Londoners could hear Mass dur
ing anti-Catholic penal times.
Father Hussey, who later became
Bishop of Waterford and first
President of Maynooth, helped to
develop the parish in its early
days. His portrait by the great
eighteenth century portrait painter
Gainsborough still hangs in the
rectory today.
The present church is one of the
finest in London.
Since the Catholic Women's Page
became a feature of The Bulletin,
in September, 1947, it has been
ably edited by Mrs. Owen J.
Schweers, of Augusta.
With the appointment of Mrs.
Schweers as corresponding secre
tary of the Savannah-Atlanta Dio
cesan Council of Women by Mrs.
D. J. O’Connor, of Augusta, new
ly elected president of the Dioces
an Council, Mrs. James L. Grogan,
of Augusta, becomes editor of our
Catholic Women’s Page
We, of The Bulletin staff, know
that it will be a pleasure to work
with Mrs. Grogan, just as it was a
pleasure to work with Mrs.
Schweers.
Columbia, a structure which will be one of the
most imposing religious edifices in the South.
In countless other ways, Bishop Walsh has
been responsible for the advancement of Cathol
icity -n South Carolina, and coming years hold
promise of even greater achievement.
Because ot what Bishop Walsh lias accomplish
ed as Bishop of Charleston, and because he was
raised in Georgia and served as a priest of the
Diocese of Savannah, the clergy and laity of the
Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta share with the priests
and people Of the Diocese of Charleston their pride
in their Bishop, and are grateful that the Diocese
Of Charleston is presently sharing Bishop Walsh
with '‘the Diocese of SdVtmhiih-Atlanta'.
In the current issue of The Sign,
national Catholic magazine, there
appears a story titled “Quality
Folks,” which tells of the adven
tures of a small Colored boy living
in the neighborhood of the Trap
pist Abbey near Conyers, Georgia.
Grover Abies, author of the de
lightful bit of fiction, taught for
some years in Georgia secondary
schools. He is a convert to the
Catholic Church and his writings
on the Faith have appeared in a
number of publications. At pres
ent, Mr. Abies is connected with
the news department of The Sa
vannah Morning News.
Mr. and Mrs. William L. Sch
midt, formerly of Atlanta, are now
located in Bertram, Texas, where
they are active members of Our
Lady of Lourdes parish, a mission
of St. Mary’s Church in Lampasas.
Mr. Schmidt, who will be re
membered as a former book re
view editor of The Bulletin, is
president of the parish study club,
while Mrs. Schmidt, organized the
altar society of the parish and act
ed as instructor for the Mexican
children of the mission who were
preparing for Confirmation.
At the request of Father Eugene
L. Dore, C. S. C.. pastor, and
Father Frederick Schmidt, assist
ant pastor of Sc. Mary's Church in
Lampasas and its missions, His
Holiness Pope Pius XII has con
ferred a special Apostolic Blessing
upon Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt in
recognition for the splendid ser
vice they arc rendering in the
field of Catholic Action.
Convincing evidence that people
in this country are ready and will
ing to read the works of Catholic
authors, is found in the latest sur
vey published in the book section
of The New York Herald-Tribune.
Though a volume titled “Cheap
er by the Dozen” is the current
best seller throughout the nation
in the non-fiction 'ield, “The Sev
en Storey Mountain, ,r by Thomas
Merton, recently ordained as a
priest at the i'rappis*' Abbey in
General Mark Clark was re
ceived in private audience by His
Holiness Pope Pius XII on June
6, fifth anniversary of the libera
tion of Rome by the Allied armies,
which were led into the Eternal
City by General Clark.
The American general, who was
accompanied by Mrs. Clark, spent
some time with the Holy Father in
what was described as "affable con
versation.'’
Later, the Holy Father received
other U. S- Army and Navy of
ficers; Lieutenant General John
K. Ganriori, Major , General Robert
W. Douglas and His wife, Major
General Maxwell D. Taylor, who
was accompanied hj his wife and
son. Major General William E.
Hall and Captain Michael Musman-
no, U. S. N.
Lieutenant General Geoffrey
Keyes; Amreican toilitary com
mander in Austria, and his wife,
and Major General M. Hoge, U. S.
commander at Trieste, and his
wife, were also received in audi
ence by the Holy Father. 1 1