Newspaper Page Text
Published by the
Catholic Lay
men's Association
of Georgia
"To Bring About
a Friendlier
Feeling Among
Neighbors Irre
spective of Creed"
Vol. XXXIII. No. 4 TWENTY-EIGHT PAGES AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, APRIL 26, 1952
ISSUED MONTHLY—$3.00 A YEAR
NUNCIO GREETED BY PRESIDENT
Archbishop Gerald Patrick O’Hara, Bishop of Savarmah-Atlanta and
new Papal Nuncio to Ireland is warmly greeted by President Sean
O’Kelly when hei calls to prestent his credentials at the president's
home in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The Archbishop was ousted from his
diplomatic post in Communist Roumania, where he represented the
Holy See. (NC Photos)
Archbishop O'Hara Welcomed as
Papal Nuncio by Irish Hierarchy
Easter Vivil Rifes
On Holy Saturday
At Abbey in Conyers
CONYERS, Ga. — (NC) — The
Risen Christ came to the hills of
northern Georgia at the Trappist
Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy
Ghost here with the Easter Vigil
kept by more than ninety mem
bers of the Cistercian community.
To the chapel came also visitors
from as far away as Chicago,
Miami. New York, and Philadel
phia, who vied for kneeling space
with non-Cathoiic neighbors from
the nearby Georgia tovfns.
Catholics and non-Catholics alike
were lifted out of the level of a
busy world for several hours dur
ing the ceremonies. Many for the
first time were edified by the beau
tiful intonations of Gregorian chant
as the choir monks intoned their
office, the famed Salve Regina,
and the Pontifical High Mass
solemnized by the Most Rev. Dom
Robert McGann, Abbot at Congers.
While living the ritual with the
Trappists, the visitors witnessed
the flaming of the new fire, the
burning of the palms, and the light
ing of the new pascal candle, which
again, in the tradition of the Trap
pists, was made by one of the
monks from scraps-of wax candles
accumulated over the past several
weeks.
Holy Communion at a Trappist
Abbey is purely a personal experi
ence. The actual reception of the
Sacrament is at the hands of the
Abbot himself, which for the monks
concludes a chain of embraces—
the “kiss of Peace”—passed from
the leader through to the last lay-
brother. The measured procession
of monks returning to their stalls
is in keeping with the solemnity,
the tone and the ritual rarely be
held in city parishes. The gesture is
carried over to the lay male guests
who are permitted within the clois
ter for this phase of the Mass.
And at the conclusion of the
rites, all present receive the Ponti
fical blessing at the hands of the
Abbot. It was two o’clock in the
morning when the four-hour cere
mony—an episode unmatched in
the life and experience of many of
those present—came to an end.
Bulletins
AN ALL-UNITED STATES Na
tion Congress of Religious, both
men and women, will be held, un
der the auspices of the Sacred Con
gregation of Religious, at the Uni
versity of Notre Dame, August 9-
13. The congress will be the first
of its kind in the history of the
Church in the United States. Fath
er Arcadius Laraona. C. M. F., sec
retary and acting prefect of the
Sacred Congregation, will come
from Vatican City to preside at the
congress.
USE OF CATHOLIC institu
tions and organizations by emerg
ency committees to ease the suf
ferings of victims of the flood of
the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers
in the Sioux City areas was offer
ed by Bishop Joseph M. Mueller
of Sioux City. One Catholic school
was transformed into an emerg
ency shelter for victims forced
from their homes and other insti
tutions were put into use im
mediately after the flood struck.
PRESIDENT TRUMAN has sign
ed into law a joint Congressional
resolution calling for an annual
National Day of Prayer. The resolu
tion requires the President to set
aside and proclaim a “suitable day
other than a Sunday” as an oc
casion when the people of the
United States may “turn to God in
prayer and meditation in churches,
in groups, and as individuals.”
YALE UNIVERSITY now pos
sesses, on microfilm, the most ex
tensive collection in the United
States of the writings of His Emin
ence John Henry Cardinal New
man, famous 19th century English
convert.
DUBLIN— (NCWC) —While ef
forts of the ablest and most sin
cere statesmen seem unable to
stem the advance of communism,
“we must not succumb to pessim
ism,” Archbishop Gerald P.
O’Hara, Bishop of Savannah^At-
lanta and Papal Nuncio to Ireland,
said here.
“So far as the Church is con
cerned,” he added, “we cannot for-
! get that ‘the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.”
The Nuncio spoke at a dinner
after a liturgical reception at St.
Patrick’s college, Maynooth, dur
ing which he was welcomed on be
half of the Irish Hierarchy by
Archbishop John D’Alton ol Ar
magh, Primate of All Ireland.
Both the Primate’s address and
the . Nuncio's response were domi
nated by the thought of the perse
cution suffered by Bishops, priests
ai.d people in communist-ruled
countries—a persecution which
Archbishop O’Hara himself had
witnessed and experience while
serving as Papal representative in
Rumania.
"The history of Ireland’s penal
times enables us to understand
something of the sufferings to
which the Catholics of Eastern Eu
rope are now being subjected,” the
Irish Primate said.
“Our penal laws were once de
scribed as the most savage system
ever devised . . . for the degrada
tion of a people,” he continued.
“Yet even they at times seem lo
pale into insignificance when com
pared with the diabolical campaign
now being waged in many coun
tries to root out the Faith from
the hearts of the people, to de
prive them of the guidance of
their pastors, and break the links
that bind them to the center of
Catholic unity.
“The modern persecutors have
found means not only of torturing
the body but of invading the sanc
tuary of the mind, and of breaking
down resistance:”
Referring to Archbishop O’Hara’s
“melancholy privilege” of witness
ing the slow martyrdom of the
Church in Rumania, the Irish Pri
mate added: “Whatever the future
has in store for the Catholics of
Rumania, they should hold in
grateful remembrance your in
spiring leadership and the help
and encouragement you gave
them.”
Welcoming the Nuncio as “one
of ouir own race,” Archbishop
D’Alton concluded: “While we
have often deplored the drain of
emigration, we can rejoice when
our exiles make a more than gen
erous return by giving us a son
of such eminence to fill the
exalted position of Apostolic Nun
cio. You are especially welcome as
coming from that great Republic
of the West to which we are so
deeply indebted. We can never
forget that when our people were
forced to leave their country
through the terrible catastrophe
of the famine, or later through eco
nomic stress, the United States
gave many of them more than a
home and enabled them to breathe
once more the air of freedom.”
In his response, Archbishop
O'Hara spoke of the joy and “su
preme honor” to serve as the
Pontiff’s representative in Catho
lic Ireland. It has fallen to the
lot of Pope Pius XII, he added, to
defend not only the Catholic world
but all the world against all those
savage forces which would banish
God from His universe and the
special object of whose cruelty is
the destruction of the Catholic
Church.
Speaking of the Pope's “melan
choly experience” of seeking
Bishops exiled and imprisoned and
priests and laity tortured and
killed for their refusal to re
nounce allegiance to the Holy
See, the Nuncio added: “Truly
Pope Pius XII has been called
upon to be a ‘man of sorrows’ like
his Divine Master.
“Again and again from the
Pope himself I received messages
of comfort that it was my privilege
to communicate to the Bishops,
clergy, religious and faithful to
Rumania. As blow after blow was-
struck at the liberty of the Church
in Rumania, and at the very per
sons of the members of the hier
archy and clergy in both cases,
our Holy Father said again and
again: ‘Tell the Bishops, priests,
religious and laity that I suffer
with them; that I am at their side
in these dreadful hours, that I pray
for them every day, begging God
to shorten the period of their suf
fering.’
“In Rumania we could sense the
heart of the Holy Father pulsating
with tender love and compassion
for his suffering children in that
To Observe Fifth Centenary of
Gutenberg's First Printed Bible
Throughout the United States
(N. C. W. C. News Service)
WASHINGTON—The 500th an
niversary of the printing of the
first Bible, by Johann Gutenberg,
acknowledged as the inventor of
typography, will be commemorat
ed throughout the United States
from September 28 to October 4,
it has been announced here.
The observance will be sponsor
ed by the National Center of the
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
here, which will call on universi
ties, colleges and schools, parishes,
libraries, fraternal organizations,
parish groups and other Catholic
organizations to take part in the
commemoration.
The CCD said the observance will
be the second Catholic Bible Week
of 1952 and added that it plans a
wider commemoration of the week
than the first observance, staged
from February 10 to 16. The CCD
also pointed out that non-Catholics
plan an observance of a Bible
Week at about the same time to ac
quaint Protestants with the new
revised standard (Protestant) ver
sion of tile Bible.
In conjunction with the celebra
tion, it has been announced by
Postmaster General Jesse Donald
son that a commemorative stamp,
honoring the Gutenberg work, will
he issued on September 30, the
Feast of St. Jerome, the Doctor of
the Sacred Scriptures.
Johann Gutenberg was born
about 1400 at Mainz, Germany, the
third child in a well-to-do Catholic
family. His parents were Frederick
and Else Gensfleisch. The name
Gutenberg was derived from the
ancestral home of the family.
Johann Gutenberg was a gold
smith, the profession of his anc s-
tors, and became highly skillful
in working with metal. The art of
printing and engraving had been
known for several centuries before
Gutenberg’s time, but it was prac
ticed tediously. Each letter, a
block of letters or a whole page
was carved out of wood or metal
and then discarded after one use.
Johann Gutenberg derived his
fame from manufacturing metal
types of the same sizes, which
could be used over repeatedly.
After cutting a letter, he impress
ed it with a mold of soft metal
from which many identical letters
were cast. His invention was a
forerunner of the old hand-c.t
type, and he also reproduced artis
tically the original handwriting of
books he copied.
Johann Gutenberg devoted his
life and fortune to perfecting his
invention. Although’ the exact date
of printing of his Bible is not
known, it generally is considered to
have been accomplished in 1452.
The Bible he published was the
Catholic Latin version, the Vulgate.
He published his work in folio,
with two columns and 42 lines per
folio.
The Gutenberg art of printing
spread rapidly through Europe and
virtually every press devoted itself
to printing Sacred Scriptures. By
1500, the Scriptures had gone
through nearly 100 editions.
National Catholic Educational
Association Meets in Kansas City
(N. C. W. C. News Service)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Arch
bishop Joseph E. Ritter of St. Louis
was elected the new President
General of the National Catholic
Educational Association at the as
sociation’s 49th convention here.
Msgr. Frederick G. Hochwalt was
re-elected to another three-year
term as the association’s Secretary
General, a post he has held since
1944. The former assistant super
intendent of schools in the Cincin
nati Archdiocese is also director of
the Education Department, Nat
ional Catholic Welfare Conference.
Three new NCEA department
heads were elected during the con
vention. They are the Rev. Cyril
F. Meyer, C. M., vice president of
St. John’s University, to head the
college and university department;
Msgr. James O’Connell, rector of
St. John’s Seminary in Little Rock,
Ark., major seminary department;
and Msgr. Charles Lynch, rector of
the Seminary of Our Lady of Pro
vidence, Rhode Island, minor semi
nary department.
Brother Alexis Klee of Spring-
hill, Ala., was re-elected asTiead of
the secondary school department,
and the Rev. Leo J. McCormick,
Baltimore archdiocesan superin
tendent of schools, continues as
elementary school department
head.
Re-elected Vice Presidents Gen
erals of the NCEA were the Very
Rev. John J. Clifford, S. J., of St.
Mary of the Lake Seminary,
Mundelein, 111.; Msgr. Richard B.
country, and we knew that this
same love and compassion were ex
tended to all his children in every
country that was suffering under
Soviet domination.
“The Catholic world is proud of
the Pontiff who in the designs of
God’s providence, has been called
upon to govern the Church in
these tragic days. We should not
cease to pray for the Holy Father
that God may strengthen him in
the discharge of the tremendous
responsibilties that are his.”
The Nuncio concluded with a
tribute to the Bishops and clergy
of Ireland and voiced a prayer to
“God, God’s Holy Mother and St.
Patrick to continue to blefes them
and the souls entrusted to their’
pastoral care,”
McHugh, Brooklyn; the Rev. Wil
liam F. Cunningham, professor of
education at the University of
Notre Dame; Msgr. Joseph V. S.
McClancy, Brooklyn diocesan su
perintendent of schools; the Rsv.
Paul E. Campbell of Pittsburgh,
editor of The Catholic Educator;
and Brother William Mang of New
York.
Continuing as Treasurer Gen
eral is Msgr. Richard J. Quinlan of
Winthrop, Mass.
In adopting their resolutions the
NCEA delegates noted that “re
cent events have sharpened the
community’s awareness that all its
activities, social, economic, and
political, 'should be guided by
moral principles, the knowledge
and practice of which must be de
veloped in its youth.”
They also said that “a com
munity which understands its
democratic heritage must recognize
in its traditions an educational
diversity that has fostered in our
culture a living unity and not a
dead uniformity.”
The delegates resolved “that
Catholic schools strengthen their
desire to know and to meet the
concrete needs of the community
and fully to prepare themselves for
the rapidly expanding school popu
lation.”
FATHER KELLER TO
SPEAK IN ATLANTA
ATLANTA, Ga.—Father James
J. Keller, M. M„ founder of The
Christophers, will speak on “The
Christopher Movement’’ at the au
ditorium of the Sacred Heart
School here on Sunday, April 27,
at 8 p. m. Father Keller’s lecture
will be open to the public.
HERBERT H. KENNEDY, .for
mer head of General Motors' Fri-
gidaire Corporation, in Cleveland,
and a member of the Methodist
Church, has been named vice-presi
dent in charge of development at
John Carroll University, conduct
ed by the Jesuit Fathers in Cleve
land. Commenting on his new post,
Mr. Kennedy said: “My examina
tion of the Jesuit system of educa
tion convinced me that it teaches
by reason the very fundamentals
upon which our country was found
ed ”