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m
S ASSOCIATION OF"GEORGIA
DECEMBER 'll, 1954.
©V bulletin
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
416 Eighth Street, Augusta, Ga.
Further Remarks On Yugoslavia
THIS WORLD OF OURS
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1953-1954
J p - MEYER, Columbus President
MARTIN J. CALLAGHAN, K. S, G„ Mac-on
-E- M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honora
MRS. L. E. MOCK, Albany
DAMON J. SWANN, Atlanta
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus
RAWSON HAVERTY. Atlanta
JOHN M. BRENNAN. Savannah _
JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta
JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta
MISS CECILE FERRY. Augusta
ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta
ry Vice-Presidents
Vice-President
V. P„ Publicity
- V. P., Activities
- V. P., Membership
Secretary
- — — Treasurer
Executive Secretary
Financial Secretary
._J._ Auditor
Vol. XXXV
DECEMBER 11, 1954
No. 15
Entered as second class matter at the Post Office, Monroe, Georgia,
and accepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided by para-
^ 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.
Wnina and Communism
Some p e °p le have just found out that a Red is a Red
lf y ell ow. There has been some grumbling in the United
.•?oates about our refusal to recognize Communist China and
give her a seat in the United Nations. The fact of a defacto
government, even if Communistic, was a cogent argument.
And not even the greatest optimist believes that Chiang-Kai-
: nek will return to the mainland victorious and restored to
Power with the acclaim of the Chinese.
. Bu M h , ls diplomatic sterness of our government was
/,wen additional strength last week in the latest of many
provocations on,the part of the Chinese Communists. This
was their imprisonment of eleven Americans and their charge
f ^P 10na ge against them. The ruthlessness and the tyranny
01 Communism was demonstrated unerringly by this new
puppet of the Soviets. gy y s new
This adds another item to the long list of reasons why
oar government should not recognize Red China These
reasons were recited impressively by Henry Cabot Lodge,
ifL fn a m a 1° r t0 the United Nations ’ in a recent address
doie a Catholic convention. And chief among them is the
a ct that it has been proved conclusively that Red China was
- ‘ aggressor in the Korean war.
The missionaries returning from China—those who were
; '' lUna te enough to escape—wall add another paragraph to
P rotest against a ruthless and ungodly regime. Formerly
j '. mg m a land where the rate of conversion to Christianity
was extremely high, welcomed by the peace-loving people of
' loosely organized nation, bringing with them medical skills
md great material assistance, these mission workers now
nave been the victims of oppression, torture, and expulsion.
Let the Red Chinese government be recognized, not as a
egitimate government, but only for what she is, a ruthless
mneistie force bent on destroying the freedom and dignity
ot man. J
(By Richard Pattee)
Some weeks ago I wrote a piece
concerning the increasing cordi
ality of the relations between
Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union,
and the signs that seemed to point
to a rapproche
ment between
the two com
munist states.
The secular
press has con
firmed this im
pression in nu
merous dis
patches regard
ing the normali
zation of diplomatic and com
mercial ties between the USSR
and Tito’s Yugoslavia.
In view of the recent visit of
Mr. Harold Stassen to Belgrade
and that of a leading Yugoslav
communist, Svetozar Vukmano-
vic, to Washington to discuss fur
ther aid and assistance by the
United States, it may not be en
tirely inopportune to refhr once
more to the problem. For this is,
fundamentally, one of the great
contradictions of American for
eign policy. It is also a source of
perplexity to those who are con
cerned about the prodigality with
which US aid is dispensed even to
those who are, at best, an ex
tremely fragile reed on which to
depend.
Closer Than Ever
Since last writing on this sub
ject, the indications are clear for
those who .read. Soviet-Yugoslav
relations are improving so rapidly
that there would appear to be but
one logical step remaining: the re
establishment of Yugoslavia as a
cooperating member of the Soviet
bloc.
Tito has praised as a “positive
step” the so-called “new Soviet
policy” under Malenkov. Comin-
form propaganda against Yugo
slav has virtually ceased, and
there can be no doubt that a good
deal of the heat has been taken
off the Belgrade government. Ev
en more important is the degree
of resumption of trade between
Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and
the satellite states. Today, as the
Croatia Press—published in the
United States—tells us, “Belgrade
and Moscow are ideologically
closer than ever before.”
Anii-Slalin Only?
Undoubtedly the death of Stalin
has changed the situation percept
ibly. It is no longer possible to
accuse Yugoslavia of anti-Stalin
ism” when Malenkov himself is
unquestionably “anti-Stalinist” in
a certain sense of the word. The
important thing now is to deter
mine with precision just how
“anti-Soviet” Tito is. It would be
sheer folly to continue talk of
unlimited economic and military
aid, when everything points to a
very probable reintegration of
Yugoslavia within the Soviet
scheme of things.
If the United States has lost in
estimable quantities of arms and
materials of war in the Viet Nam
debacle, the prospect of rearming
a strong Yugoslav force and un
derwriting the economy of the
country on the eve of its readmis
sion to the Soviet family of na
tions is not. to say the least, an
inviting prospect.
Dollars Don't Help The People
The curious thing is that there
seems to be no decrease of the
intention of aiding Yugoslavia by
every means possible. Secretary
Dulles, following the announce
ment of the settlement of the
Trieste dispute, stated that “it
opens the way to concrete and
forward-looking steps in the solu
tion of economic and military
problems in which your country
and mine have a common con
cern.”
The tragedy is that there is no
indication that the economic aid
granted to date has either retard
ed the communization of the
country or even bettered the eco
nomic outlook for the mass of the
Yugoslav people. The program of
forced collective farms has been
resumed according to reports out
of Yugoslavia. State confiscation
of rural properties has led to a
diminution in farm production,
with the resultant famine condi
tion in many parts of the nation.
Although information is often
meager, it is equally clear that in
housing, transportation and gen
eral living conditions there is
precious little indication that
American dollar’s have contribut
ed anything to the only ones who
really count—the people of Yugo
slavia, not their illegitimate and
usurpatory government.
Time For Distinction
The liberal element in the Un
ited States is always critical of
aid to any country under dictator
ship—that is, under what is con
sidered a right-wing dictatorship
—lest such aid be used to main
tain said dictatorship in power. It
would seem to be high time to
make the distinction clear be
tween Tito and his people.
A few years more of this sort
of thing and we shall probably
find that Tito has returned to the
orthodox communist fold of sub
servience to Moscow, and that the
Yugoslav people, disillusioned and
frustrated, have become convinc
ed that it was the USA that fin
anced and condoned the commun
ist experiment during the period
from 1948 on. It will be inordi
nately difficult to persuade them
that we are interested in their
ultimate liberation.
SurAum Chorda.
WHAT'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD?
By REV. JAMES M. GILLIS, C. S. P.
(Contributing Editor, The Catholic World)
APROPOS OF ANDREI Y. VISHINSKY
.....L&apJ' JtgsA
Christmas Shopping
There really isn’t any getting away from it; the grand
L-sh is on. And from now until Dec. 24, all signs point to the
nearest store with Christmas gifts for sale.
For some reason, we wish that it wasn’t quite that way.
A t that we deplore the giving of gifts to loved ones in
n Ration of the Magi who brought gifts to the newborn
.rang We believe m Christmas and the spirit of generosity
and love that pervades the Feast.
But somehow, we feel that the'whole thing has been
pushed around too much and that many people are going
overboard without even seeing the real thing. The hurry and
contusion of it even destroys the realism of the Church’s
V® 1 ?* ht “ r gy and the cr y of John the Baptist for penance.
We d like to see John the Baptist standing on a street corner
GO- lay instead of one of the bell-ringing Santas. What a mes-
,e he would have for us who think of Christmas only as a
pit-buying ordeal! He would probably tell us all to cut out
most of this foolishness and start preparing for' the One
w r ose birthday alone makes this feast possible.
Be that as it may, we believe that the expression of the
uLe spirit of Christmas should be continued, but always
proper bounds. For instance, a man should provide
pits tor his family, but he should certainly not go so heavily
re. debt doing so that this debt will be a burden on family
nances for another year. We believe that friends have every
right to exchange gifts, but we believe also that no gift
should ever be given out of a false human respect Let us
give out of love and charity, or not at all. Finally, we believe
coat Gods poor should be recipients of Christmas charity,
lie who forgets the poor and the orphans has likelv forgotten
also Him who had no place to lav His head.
On the day after Andrei Vishin-
sky dropped dead, I was speaking
to a member of the U. N., a de
vout Catholic, indeed a daily com
municant. He seemed to feel sad
that the head of the Russian dele
gation had passed on. “I saw him
so often,” he said, “and spoke with
him so frequently, that I feel
strange about his being here no
more. I prayed for him at. Mass
this morning.”
I was on the point of asking my
U. N. friend a few questions, but
I refrained. It is bad manners to
embarrass a man when he is in
grief. But I should like to put
some of those questions here by
way of pointing up the anomaly
and what seems to me the absurd
ity—I might almost say the crimi
nal absurdity—of good men’s hob
nobbing with the wicked in the
interests of the political and moral
betterment of the world.
■> But first let us recall the fact
that Vishinsky was guiltv of more
murders than Genghis Khan, his
Mongolian forebear. That media
eval Oriental savage make King
Herod and the Roman Emperors
from Nero to Diocletain seem like
amateurs at blood-spilling. But
the modern Russians have in turn
surpassed the ancients and the
mediaevals.
The devil’s trinity—Stalin, Vi-
shinksky, Molotov—in the earlv
1930’s deliberately starved to
death between six million and ten
million people in the Ukraine.
Add to that number the 10,000
Polish officers shot to death in
cold blood in the Katyn forest;
add the additional thousands of
innocents who were starved, shot,
stabbed, hanged, poisoned, assas
sinated by ones and twos or doz
ens, or slaughtered by hundreds
in all the iron curtain countries,
and you have such a stupendous
mass of crime as never occurred
elsewhere in any comparable
number of years in the history of
the human race. Now, in accord
ance with a principle of Christian
ethics, the men who planned, or
dered, supervised those millions
of murders are as guilty as the
men who actually performed the
executions. Indeed more guilty.
So when the good pious daily
communicant spoke of meeting
and talking with Vishinsky, I felt
like asking: “Did you shake hands
with him? How does it feel to
press the hand of a master mur
derer? Did you also eat and drink
with him? Did you touch glasses
with him and toast the other head
criminals in Moscow? In the pa
pers Vishinsky was often pictured
as laughing. What was he laugh
ing at? Did you laugh with him?
If you were to meet the devil and
he was laughing, would you laugh
with him? And what would the
devil be laughing about?
“When you met Vishinsky, what
form of greeting did you use?
When you left him did you by
chance make a % slip of the tongue I
and say ‘Good-bye,’ that is ‘God
be with you’? What do you think
of St. John’s warning in the Sa
cred Scripture, 'If any man come
to you and bring not this doc-,
trine’ (he had in mind the doc
trine that Christ is God, but let
us say the doctrine that there is
a God) ‘receive him not into the
house, nor say to him God speed
you, for he that sayeth God speed
you communicates with his wick
ed works.’ Didn’t you feel that
by shaking hands with a murder
er, a multiple murderer, laughing
and joking with him, eating and
drinking with him, you made
yourself partaker of his wicked
works?
“Now that Alger Hiss is out of
jail will you invite him to dinner
in your own home? Introduce him
to your wife and children? Will
you sign a petition to have his
citizenship restored and urge him-
to run for Congress or the Sen
ate? If you couldn’t bear to sit
in either chamber of Congress
with Hiss, how could you sit not
only with but under Vishinsky
when he was president of the As
sembly of the U. N.? Do you feel
that George Washington, John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson should
have invited Benedict Arnold to
come back from his exile in Eng
land and sit in the First Federal
Congress? Who do you think did
more harm to the civilized world,
(Continued on Page Five)