Newspaper Page Text
Four.
JUNE 21, 1952
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
©Ijf HullpfttT
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
" HUGH KINCHLEY, Editor
216-17 Southern Finance Building. Augusta, Ga.
‘ ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOB 1951-52
MARSHALL WELLBORN, Rome President
MARTIN j. CALLAGHAN, K. S. G., Macon
... Honorary Vice-President
HARVEY HILL, Atlanta Vice-President
CHARLES C. CHESSER, Augusta Secretary
J P. MEYER, Columbus . .. .. Treasurer
HUGH KINCHLEY, K. S G., Augusta
Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta, Financial Secretary
ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
VOL, XXXIII. JUNE 21, 1952 No. 6
Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, at the
Post Office at Augusta, Georgia, under the Act of March
1879. accepted for mailing at special rate of postage
provided in paragraph 4, section 538, Postal Laws and
Regulations as modified by paragraph 6.
Member of N. G. 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 Archbishop-Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta, and of the
Right Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont.
“Not Even God Can Win a Case”
Umm ARE a religious people, whose institutions
W presuppose a Supreme Being.”
With these words the Supreme Court of the
United States upheld last month, in a 6 to 3 de
cision, New York State’s released time program
for giving religious instruction to public school
students.
Commenting on that decision, II. I. Phillips,
in -The New York World-Telegram and Sun said:
"It seems to look as if not even God can win
a case in the United States Supreme Court with
out a dissenting opinion by three or four of its
members.”
More recently, the United States Supreme
Court ruled that under the First and Fourteenth
Amendments to the Constiution, the State
of New York does not have authority to ban the
showing of the motion picture, “The Miracle,” on
the grounds that it is sacrilegious.
In this decision, by a 9 to 0 vote, the U. S.
Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the New
York State Supreme Court, and discarded its own
ruling, made in 1915, that the showing of motion
pictures was “a business pure and simply,” and
therefore not entitled to Constitutional protection
as an organ of public opinion, by ruling in “The
Miracle” case: "We conclude that expression by
means of motion pictures is included within the
free speech and free press guaranty of the First and
Fourteenth Amendments.”
Justice Clark, who wrote the majority opinion,
and Justice Frankfurter, who wrote a concurring
opinion, agreed that “sacrilegious” was too vague
a charge on which to base censorship of motion
pictures, and that the Board of Regents of the
State of New York had acted unconstitutionally
when it banned “The Miracle” as sacrilegious, in
February of last year.
Commenting, editorially, on “The Miracle ’
decision, The Tablet, of Brooklyn, declared: “The
United States Supreme Court now decides, unani
mously, that it was unconstitutional to bar the
picture, because, while sacrilegious might be a
meaningful term to some religious-minded people,
it actually had no meaning in law. This court’s
opinions categorized ‘sacrilege’ as a subjective term.
This fallacy may be excused in those who have
no basically sound philosophical background, if
the latter are to be at all consistent, they must
also classify morality, right and wrong, loyalty to
country, subversion and other terms as incapable
of objective definition.”
The Tablet said that the Court’s ruling seems
to express the opinion that only Catholics know
what a sacrilege is and that it is of little import
ance to other Americans.
The Catholic Standard and Times, of Phila
delphia, in an editorial stated: "Much ado was
made by the Court over the charge of ‘sacrilegious’
which was leveled against ‘The Miracle.’ In fact,
that was the key to the rest of the decision. The
gentlemen of the Court practically arrived at the
unique conclusion—with which we cannot agree—
that it is impossible to determine what is sacri-
ligious and what is not.
“The Supreme Court would not accept the
definition of the New York Court of Appeals
which included the provision requiring ‘That no
religion, as that word is understood by the ordin
ary reasonable person, shall be treated with Con
tempt, mockery, scorn and ridicule.’ To us this
seems like a common sense and altogether reason
able interpretation of sacrilege, at least by indirec
tion. The Supreme Court, however, ruled: ‘Under
such a standard the most careful and tolerant censor
would find it virtually impossible to avoid favor
ing one religion over another, and he would be
subject to an inevitable tendency to ban the ex
pression of unpopular sentiments sacred to a re
ligious minority.’ If this be the case, we wonder
how the Supreme Court—in this same decision this
week—thinks that censors can continue to bar
what is ‘obscene.’ If censors cannot decide what
is sacrilegious, how can they arrive at an objec
tive stand on what is obscene? Opinions in this
regard are bound to be just as confusing and as
varied . . . The Supreme Court to the contrary
notwithstanding, we still think that films such
as ‘The Miracle’ do not deserve the protection of
constitutional guarantees. They are an insult to
religion and decency, and a gross violation of
the rights of others.”
Father Robert C. Hartnett, S. J., in an article
in America, the National Catholic Weekly, wrote
that “The Miracle” was labeled “a sacrilegious and
blasphemous mockery of Christian religious truth”
by the Legion of Decency.
Father Hartnett’s comment was that Justice
Frankfurter took “sacrilegious’ to be synonymous
with what “implied offense to the deep convictions
of members of different sects,” hut that hundreds
of movies have offended the “deep convictions” of
Twenty-Five Years in the Priesthood
H IS Excellency the Most Reverend Francis E.
Hyland, D. D., J. C. D., Auxiliary Bishop
and Vicar General of the Diocese of Savannah-
Atlanta, was ordained to the priesthood on June
11, 1627, at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and
Paul, in Philadelphia; by the late Most Reverend
Michael J. Crane, D. D., then Auxiliary Bishop
of Philadelphia.
On Wednesday of last week, Bishop Hyland
observed, quietly, the twenty-fifth anniversary of
his ordination. It was Bishop Hyland’s wish that
there would be no celebration of his Silver
Sacerdotal Jubilee.
Even though there was no public observance
of Bishop Hyland’s jubilee day, in extending con
gratulations to His Excellency on the completion
of a quarter of a century of priestly service, it is
due and fitting that his friends recall the day in
June, twenty-five years ago, when a young man,
imbued with Apostolic zeal, received the Sacra
ment of Holy Orders and became a priest of God,
and turn in retrospection to the years Horn 1927
to 1952, years of distinguished priestly and Epis
copal service which hold a promise of even more
resplendent service in the years which are to
come.
There is no vocation under heaven as exalted
as that of the priesthood. The priest welcomes
the blessed infant into the Church as the bap
tismal font. He cleanses penitent souls of their
sins. He brings the Bread of Angels to the chil
dren of the Church in the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist. He blesses the union of those whom
God joins together. He escorts the dying to the
very threshold of eternity, brings consolation to the
poor, the sick, the distressed, and counsel to all in
days of prosperity and adversity. Above all, he
has the mighty power of renewing daily
on God’s alter the Sacrifice of the Cross for the
benefit of the living and the dead.
To this, with the plentitude of the priesthood
in the Episcopacy, there came to Bishop Hyland
with the duty of serving as shepherd of souls, the
power of ordaining other priests and the power of
consecrating other Bishops, so that the Apostolic
Succession may continue.
On December 21, 1949, Bishop Hyland was
consecrated by the late Cardinal Dougherty, in the
Cathedral at Philadelphia. A few weeks later, he
came to Georgia, where he received a glad and
enthusiastic welcome, a welcome that included a
Resolution of Cordial Greeting adopted by the
General Assembly of the State of Georgia.
The priests, the Religious and the laity of
Georgia appreciate their gpod fortune in the Holy
Father’s appointment of Bishop Hyland to share
with Archbishop O'Hara the task of administering
the spiritual and temporal affairs of the Diocese
of Savannah-Atlanta.
Bishop Hyland is a self-effacing Prelate, doing
his work quietly and without ostentation, but al
ways effectively. He is a man of clear vision,
with the ability to see matters clearly and to
analyze them with precision. He is a man of tre
mendous efficiency, in the best sense of that abused
term, and through all his efficiency there is his
spirit of kindness, calmness and consideration.
In extending felicitations to our beloved Aux
iliary Bishop on the occasion of his Silver Jubilee
in the priesthood, we wish for him in the future
the same distinguished success which has charac
terized his previous, efforts.
May God preserve Bishop Hyland for many
long and blessed years, as fruitful in well-doing
as those which have made his quarter-century
in the priesthood so notably exemplary.
It is our prayer that God may spare Bishop
Hyland for many decades of even mightier achieve
ments for the Church in Georgia.
Catholics, without their contending that such movies
were “sacrilegious.”
“Justice Frankfurter somehow assembled an
unquestionably impressive array of definitions of
‘sacrilege’ from sources as varied as the Tbeodosian
Code, St. Thomas’ Siimma. Rev. Thomas Slater, S.
J.’s Manual of Moral Theology and thirty-four dic
tionaries,” said Father Hartnett, who added that
Mr. Frankfurter called “sacrilegious” a ‘Chameleon
phrase.”
“One gets the feeling, nevertheless, continued
the article in America,” that the same colorful ex
pression might equally well be applied to dozens of
terms the Supreme Court habitually interprets and
enforces: ‘liberty,’ ‘unfair,’ ‘reasonable,’ ‘clear and
present danger,’ ‘interstate commerce,’ ‘political’
and so on endlessly.”
Not all of the Catholic newspapers concur
with the opinions of the editors of those from
which the above quotations were taken. The In
diana Catholic and Record, official newspaper of
the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, although it con
sidered the film “utterly blasphemous and offen
sive to all Christians,” said that it nevertheless
found it “hard to dispute” the Supreme Court’s
position.
Prior censorship by the state of all motion
pictures, The Indiana Catholic and Record said,
could become a dangerous weapon. “Religious
minorities, which mean every individual denomina
tion in our country, could conceivable find ‘prior
restraint’ of motion pictures developing into a more
serious danger to their welfare than the possibility
of insult and offense to their religious sentiments
inherent in a free motion picture industry. “For
instance, a Protestant official who felt that a por
trayal of convent life and Catholic practices of
worship would be intolerably offensive to a large
segment of the population might fee] called upon to
ban such a Catholic slanted movie as ‘Come to the
Stable'.”
Whether or not the Supreme Court will allow
any state to ban a picture because it may be sacri
legious, and might later hesitate to allow any ban
to be placed on a motion picture because it is ob
scene, Catholics who have taken the pledge of
the Legion of Deeenfty will continue to avoid mo
tion pictures which are sacrilegious or obscene,
and will remain away from theatres which exhibit
such films as a matter of policy.
While state and city officials may not ban the
showing of motion pictures which give offense to
many theatre patrons, as far as is known the Su
preme Court will still permit inspection of pop
corn to see that the pure food laws are not being
violated. Jt is not unconstitutional. to protect the
body, just uncohstitutional to. protect the souls
and minds of our people
Dixie Musings
Efforts by certain persons to
have a status of St. Franis Xavier
Cabrini removed from a plot of
city owned land in New Orleans
were rebuffed by a decision of the
Supreme Court of Louisiana, but
the complaints who allege that the
erection of the statue of the Amer
ican Citizen Saint on public prop
erty is a violation of “the prin
ciple of sepaartion of Church and
State” have announced that they
will seek a ruling in the case from
the U. S. Supreme Court.
They will probably be dismayed
to learn that Congress has adopted
a resolution accepting from the
State of Oregon a status of the
Rev. Jason Lee, a pioneer Meth
odist missionary in the old Ore
gon Territory, for a place in the
United States Capitol.
Mr. Lee will be the sixth clergy
man to be recognized by a statue
in the United States Capitol.
Rhode Island has honored Roger
Williams, pioneer Baptist leader;
Wisconsin, Father Jacques Mar
quette; Pennsylvania, J. P. C.
Mublenbery, Lutheran pastor and
congressman, California, Father
Junipero Serra, and Thomas Starr
King, a Unitarian minister.
Public school commencement ex
ercises may be held in churches
when no other buildings large
enough are available, the New
Mexico Supreme Court has ruled.
Aj; the same time the court en
joined the principal and a teacher
at the Lindrith public school from
teaching religion. This was on the
basis of a complaint that they were
responsible for dissemination of
religious pamphlets in the school.
This case was an outgrowth of
the so-called Dixon case in which
the New Mexico State Supreme
Court barred the wearing of reli
gious garb by members of religious
orders teaching in the State’s pub
lic schools. But while the Dixon
case affected Catholic Sisters and
Brothers then teaching in the
schools (none are now), the Lind
rith case affected non-Catholics.
The Lindrith complaint was
filed against the distribution of
denominational literature in class
rooms, and hold of baccalaureate
services in the town Baptist church
and commencement exercises in
the Presbyterian church.
It seems that a U. S. Supreme
Court Justice can be wrong.
Arthur Clinton, director of the
New York public school attend
ance, said Associate Justice Robert
H. Jackson was wrong in a phase
of his dissenting opinion in the
New York release-time ease. The
court’s majority opinion validated
the program of releasing public
school children for religious in
structions.
The Jackson opinion stated that
the “greater effectiveness of this
(released-time) system over volun
tary attendance after school hours
is due to the truant officers who,
if the youngster fails to go to
church schools, dogs him back to
the public schoolroom.”
Mr. Clinton said “this is not a
fact.” He said the Board of Edu
cation requires all personnel to
“adopt a hands-off policy on the
religious instruction issue.” He
added that public schools are “ab
solutely neutral” about the pro
gram and that “our attendance
officers make no check whatsoever
on the absentees from the church
training centers.” He added that
the church schools report weekly
to the public schools on pupils
who were absent from religious
classes, but the public schools
merely file the reports.
Elective Bible courses in public
schools were urged in a petition
presented to the Charleston Board
of School Commissioners on be
half of the United Council of
Church Women, representing mem
bers of thirty-three Protestant
churches in the Carolina city’s
area.
The Rev. John Q. Beckwith,
Episcopal minister who made the
presentation for the council, said
that religion would decline unless
it was brought more into the edu
cational system, which, he said, “is
taking more and more of the chil
dren’s time.”
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Haverty,
of Atlanta, are returning home
from a trip abroad. Sailing on the
S. S. Caronia late in April, they
cruised the Mediterranean, after
stopping at Lisbon, and then visit
ed England and Scandinavia. While
touring Ireland, they enjoyed a
motor trip with Archbishop Gerald
P. O’Hara, Papal Nuncio to, Ire
land.
Some kind of a precedent was
set when the State Board of
Equalization in California receiv
ed a request from a South San
Francisco congregation for permis
sion to establish a church within a
hundred yards of a bar.
The unusual request was made to
insure that establishment of the
church would not interfere with
the operation of a bar in a nearby
bowling alley owned by the same
landlord who ,apparently, didn’t
want to lease to the church if it
planned to protest the proximity of
the bar. Usually, the equalization
board gets protests from religious
groups against bars seeking to es
tablish themselves too close to
churches.
The South San Francisco con
gregation was told that the board
had no jurisdiction over the loca
tion of churches and that it already
had enough trouble over the lo
cation of bars.
John M. Martin, who formerly
was associated with the Massa
chusetts Department of Correction
and the United States Naval Pri
son, Portsmonuth, N. H., has been
appointed Director of the Gradu
ate Curriculum in Correctional
Administration at the University
of Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame Graduate Cur
riculum in Correctional Adminis
tration in the University’s Depart
ment of Sociology was established
in 1929. The Notre Dame Curri
culum was the first such program
in the United States to train col
lege students for professional
careers in penal institutions, pro
bation and parole.
A chaplain who gave up his fox
hole to a wouned Marine, and
braved withering enemy fire in a
remarkable saga of bravery, has
won two awards for his heroism.
Lieutenant Commander Joseph
D. McDonald, of the Navy Chap
lain Corps, was awarded the
Bronze Star Medal for heroic
achievement while serving as regi
mental chaplain with a Marine in
fantry battalion in Korea in April
of last year, and has received a
gold star in lieu of a second Bronze
Star Medal for his service with
Marine infantrymen last year. Or
dained in 1939, Father McDonald,
of Waukesha, W'is., is a priest of
the Archdioeese of Milwaukee.
Few first novels have been ac
corded the press notices and re
views which have been given to
“Wise Blood,” written by Miss
Mary Flannery O’Connor, of Mil-
ledgeville. Newsweek devoted an
entire page to its review, carrying
both the picture of the author and
the picture of her home, the state
ly Cline residence in Milledgeville.
The novel has a sociological theme
and Augusta is it locale.
Miss O’Connor is the daughter
of Mrs. Regina Cline O’Connor, of
Milledgeville, and the late Edward
F. O’Connor, one-time Georgia
State Commander of the Ameri
can Legion.
In 1945, when she was attending
the Georgia State College for
Women, in Milledgeville, Miss
O’Connor was awarded a scholar
ship in journalism at the Univer
sity of Iowa. She was outstanding
in her scholarship and in her
student days had already gained
considerable renown as an artist
and cartoonist as well as a writer.
United States Attorney General
James P. McGranery received
the annual merit award of the Tri-
State Region of the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations of
America at its recent conference
held in Allentown, Pa., in recog
nition of “the practical wisdom,
moral integrity and religious sensi
bility which have enriched his serv
ices to the country.”
A young man of Chippewa In
dian ancestry made hi$ final pro
fession as a Benedictine monk at
St. Meinrad’s Abbey in Indiana.
He was Brother Jerome Croteau,
who lived at St. Ann’s Indian Mis
sion in North Dakota before en
tering the monastery in 1947.
According to Frank Rossiter,
columnist for The Savannah Morn
ing News, the public schools in
Savannah, now making up their
schedule for the 1952-53 school
year, will probably substitute SL
Patrick’s Day as a holiday instead
of Easter Monday.
The Catholic Press Association
of the United States is holding its
annual convention this week at the
University of Notre Dame, which
recalls that twenty-five years ago
this month, the Press Association
held its annual convention in Sa
vannah II- B