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FOUR THE BULLETIN Or THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA NOVEMBER 27, 1954. (Ebr lullrtui The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, Incorporated JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor 416 Eighth Street, Augusta, Ga. / Times Have Changed THIS WORLD OF OURS ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1953-1954 J. P. MEYER, Columbus President MARTIN J. CALLAGHAN, K. S. G., Macon — — E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honorary Vice-Presidents MRS. L. E, MOCK, Albany Vice-President DAMON J. SWANN, Atlanta I- V. P., Publicity GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus V. P„ Activities RAWSON HAVERTY, Atlanta V. P., Membership JOHN M. BRENNAN, Savannah Secretary JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta 1— Treasurer JOHN MARKW ALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary MISS CECIBE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor Vol. XXXV NOVEMBER 27, 1954. No. 14 Entered as second class matter at the Post Office, Monroe, Georgia, and accepted for« mailing at special rate of postage provided by para graph (e) of section 34.40, Postal Laws and Regulations. Member 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 fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Geor gia, Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Reverend Archbishop- Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta, and of the Right Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont. The Queen Mother As the Marian Year draws to a close and preparations are made for liturgical celebrations in the Savannah Ca thedral and in Atlanta’s historic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, we hail the recent encyclical of Pope Pius XU, “Ad Caeli Reginam,” as most appropriate tribue to the im mortal and beloved Queen Mother of Heaven and earth. This pronouncement was a realistic application of the age-old belief of the Church in the greatness of Mary to the problems of the modern world. In it the Holy Father called upon “all those who today have the responsibility of ensuring the right and proper conducting of public affairs” to be in spired by the Virgin’s “courageous and even audacious will.” To imitate her courage, men must sometimes make urn hesitatingly “necessary decisions and put them into effect with unfailing energy.” Such a spirit, he continued, “will sweep along in its wake the tired, the weak, the doubtful and those who no longer believe in justice and nobility because •they must be defended.” Men cannot fail to appreciate the inspiration of the Moth er of God when they look back in prayerful meditation on ■her decision to accept the mandate of the Almighty, her jobs and sorrows, her unfailing fidelity to the designs of Divine Providence. And so this year especially dedicated to her closes, but 'not without a lasting and deeper appreciation of the virtue and greatness of this humble handmaid of the Lord and now the Queen of Heaven and earth, the Queen of all mankind. In Thanksgiving The cranberries and pumpkin pie are probably all gone by now, but Friday being where it is, we venture to surmise that the old gobbler will find a few more knives poking in his ribs over the week end. For this reason, we believe the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday should still be with us. In fact, it is a poor spirit indeed if it does not last until another renewal of the Pilgrims’ festival rolls around. And this brings us right to the point, namely, that grati tude should be an enduring thing, a virtue, a habit, which transcends the reversals and disappointments of life. In the preface of the Mass, we pray: “It is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, that we should always and in all places give thanks unto Thee, Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting God.” Because of the national character of the day, the Prayer for Civil Authorities was recited after Mass on Thanksgiving Day. In this petition for divine guidance, we find a deep and sincere note of gratitude for the blessings which Almighty God has showered on America. The reasons for such grati tude are so obvious that they cannot escape the notice of anyone. But blessings carry with them duties and responsibilities, which go far beyond the few words of thanks spoken at meal time. True gratitude prompts a man to make proper use of the gifts of nature hnd grace. And here the role of responsible citizenship is demanded of every thankful American. Let us give thanks for this, our country, and at the same time meas ure up to our duties as loyal and true citizens. (By Richard Paltee) I have just been reading some of the Madrid papers, particularly the air-mail edition of ABC which reaches one here in America with in two or three days of publica tion, and Ya, the M ad rid daily that re- fleets the thought of the Falange. The item of the day, so to speak, is the recent visit of Harold Stassen to Spain and the statement issued by the Unit ed States official charged with responsibility for the distribution of aid abroad. Mr. Stassen was received .with all the honors in Madrid and, at a banquet given for him, was saluted by the functionaries of the Spanish government whose concern is economic reconstruc tion. In his response the Ameri can official expressed the com plete harmony of views between Spain and the USA, and the con viction that the American gov ernment was fully cognizant of the necessity of developing and extending the agreements reach ed in September 1953 which estab lish, for all practical purposes, art alliance between the two coun tries. Islands Of Hostile Opinion I remember writing, in 1946— and this is no claim to prescience —that sooner or later the absolute absurdity of the American posi tion at that time toward Spain would become evident, and for two basic reasons: first, because our government was wrong, sec- course in diplomacy but to culti vate as assiduously as possible the closest ties with Spain. Both situ ations have been demonstrated true. To be sure, there are islands of hostile opinion still very much alive, and from time to time, we get evidence that the enemies Of this combination are still very much on the scene. I had this experience only a few weeks ago. I wrote a piece for this column on a new magazine published in New York, Iberica, the purpose of which is to keep alive the hatreds and prejudices of the civil war period. As with many of these columns, the com ment produced a spate of corres pondence and for two or three weeks I was bombarded with let ters regarding the motives of the people who run the magazine and my own attitude toward it. Final ly I got into an exchange of let ters with Iberica itself and, among other things, was assured that the publication was very far from anti-Catholic and, on the contrary, desirous of contributing to the best understanding possible. Specious Reasoning In one of the numbers sent to me was an article by the Spanish literary man, Ramon Sender. His thesis is somewhat the following: The western world will be doom ed in the conflict with Sovietism if we do not repudiate Franco, and especially will we suffer in our arrangements with Tito if we cultivate the Spanish chief of state. In other words, in order to save Tito’s feelings and sensi tivities, we must denounce and berate Franco as we did in the old days. astonishing and in complete con tradiction with everything we know to be true. Yet, we find this kind of specious reasoning advanced seriously as a basis for the foreign policy of this country. Outmoded Anachronisms I started out this piece by pointing out how the climate has changed in the past few years and how Mr. Harold Stassen was able to assure his Spanish listen ers that the Madrid-Washington axis is absolutely fundamental to the peace of the world. In spite of the outmoded and outdated an achronisms which still pass for history—such as the one I ..have just quoted—the realities of in ternational life are gradually mak ing themselves felt. One of them is that there is nothing more nat ural than the closest collabora tion between Madrid and Wash ington, because nothing funda mental separates the two coun tries and both are engaged in fighting exactly the same evil force in the world today. I am still amazed, however, that 15 years after the civil war we are still the victims of an im mense amount of anti-Spanish sentiment. We fought the Ger mans for four long years, yet 10 years after the end of the war we welcome Chancellor Adenaeur— and rightfully so—with open arms. We fought the most vicious war in history with Japan, but Prime Minister Yoshida was re ceived with every distinction ev erywhere in this country. Will the dav arrive when General Franco, whose anti-communism is even purer than that of Senator Mc Carthy, will receive the honors of Blair House? SurAum. Chorda WHATS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD? By REV. JAMES M. GILLIS, C. S., P. (Contributing Editor, The Catholic World) THE PRIEST NO SECOND GRADE CITIZEN From time to time in this col umn I find it advisable to vindi cate the right of the priest (or for , that matter any clergyman) to have his say about the con duct of public affairs. Those who deny that right play a trick on their listeners or their readers with the slogan “Let the priest stay out of politics.” The trick of course is in that ambiguous word “politics.” As commonly used it means “partisan poli tics.” But politics is not in itself and of itself something bad. The dic tionary defines it as “that branch of ethics which deals with the relations between nation and na tion or of states within the na tion.” Now, “ethics” is the sci ence of morals. So when say “morals” you open the door to the moralist and therefore to the priest. But I have said all this be fore. So today I propose to sur render this space to a guest con ductor, no less a dignitary than the late Cardinal Suhard of Paris. In his splendid pastoral letter “Priests Among Men” he says: “Many Christians think they are honoring and doing a favor to their priests by confining them to what they think is the ‘sacred’ area, that is to a secon dary and contingent function. They surround the priest and im prison him in a network of pre judices or Pharisaical deference, and then a little later they blame him for not taking an active part in community life. ... “Christ makes of his ministers a burning fire in order to spread fire on the earth. Like Christ, the priest brings mankind a priceless good, that of worrying it. He must be the ‘minister of restlessness’. “Like the hero and the saint, the priest in human society is not a passive docile citizen. His own way of being a good citi zen is to be, in most sincere obedience to legitimate authori ty, eternally unsatisfied, not so as to upset social peace but so as to foster continually a higher goal for mankind . . . . As pro phet of the living God he re jects the calm which means death. He has to be the artisan of the future, of the new order that is developing within the souls of individual men, as well as in the stream of history. So it can be said without contra diction that his way of bring ing about order is to start a ferment. . . . “The priest is a challenge to other men. He is a sign of con tradiction. As soon as he appears, passions crystallize, coalitions are formed. His presence sud denly releases pent-up feelings of aversion or of love “The priest in relation to so ciety must always be somehow or other its adversary. He will never be forgiven for recalling and perpetuating, from genera tion to generation, Him Whom they thought they had suppress ed forever .... Far from being tured citizen,’ a priest is, like fighting man. . . . Like Saint Michael,-he challenges the Dra gon, dragging him out of am bush. . . so as to crush one by one his ever-resurgent heads. That is not a mere figure of speech. Although it is too frequently overlooked, a priest is an exor cist by virtue of one of the Or ders he has received; he has the power and the duty of expelling the Devil. . . . “Men even hold it against the priest for telling them the truth. ‘Truth begets hatred,’ says Saint Augustine. ‘If the world hates you, be sure that it hated me before it learned to hate you.’ A priest must not, therefore, be astonished by lying accusations. He will even see In them proof that he is following in Christ’s footsteps.” Those are stirring words. If they need further emphasis, it was provided by the Holy Fath er at a recent special audience. He said “The power of the Church is not bound by limits of 'matters strictly religious but by the whole matter of natural law. Its foundation, its interpretation, so far as their moral aspects are concerned, are within the Church’s power. For keeping of the natural law, by God’s ap pointment, has reference to the road by which man has to ap proach his supernatural end. But on this road the Church is man’s guide and guardian in (Continued on Page Five)