Newspaper Page Text
FOUR
THE BULLETIN CF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA,
JULY 9, 1955.
©Jjp BwUrtftt
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
418 Eighth Street, Augusta, Ga.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1954-1955
P, MEYER, Columbus President
JE. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honorary Vice-President
MRS. L. E. MOCK, Albany Vice-President
DAMON J. SWANN. Atlanta V. P., Publicity
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus V. P., Activities
RAWS ON HAVERTY, Atlanta V. P., Membership
JOHN M. BRENNAN, Savannah Secretary
JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta Treasurer
JOHN MARKW ALTER. Augusta Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
Vol. XXXVI Saturday, July 9, 1955 No. 3
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, the Catholic Press As
sociation 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.
A Cradle Of Catholicity
An interesting and valuable book has come to our at-
tdntion recently. We picked it up casually to thumb through
it and found ourselves fascinated with its contents.
The History of The Diocesan Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception turns out not only to be a history of the Shrine,
but of Catholicity of that era when Atlanta’s Mother Church
served the entire area. It tells the history of the City’s growth
from a small town to the great, metropolis it is today; of the
Catholics who were the parishioners of the famous Father
O’Reilly; of their efforts and sacrifices in erecting the im
posing church; of Father O’Reilly’s valiant effort which saved
.Atlanta’s Churches from destruction during The W T ar Be
tween the States.
Compiled under the supervision of the late Monsignor
Grady, this history, along with the renovation of The Shrine,
are monuments to his pastorate.
To Van Buren Colley who compiled this book, to Father
frier nan. to all who made this book possible we owe a sin
cere thanks for publishing this history.
Copies may be obtained by contacting The Shrine in At
lanta. The book sells for $5.00, which covers only the actual
..printing expenses. This book tells of our Catholic heritage,
ft should be a welcome addition to ail our libraries.
The UN Ten Years After
THIS WORLD OF OURS
U„ S. Founders and Religion
(CATHOLIC NEWS)
The Fourth of July, marking the birthday of the Repub
lic, is a day of national rejoicing. Without the Declaration
of Independence, the adoption of which the Fourth of July
celebrates, there would be no United States of America, no
great Republic of the West, and the world would have been
■'incomparably poorer.
There are people in the United States who, however
happy they may be over our free and independent nation,
must have their happiness tinged with sadness when they
read the Declaration of Independence. They are the “wall of
separation between Church and State” theorists, who main
tain that any recognition of the spiritual by the civil authori
ties is a violation of fundamental American principle, and
unconstitutional. Viewed through their eyes, the Declaration
of Independence must be unconstitutional.
The Declaration in its first paragraph refers to “the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and
of Nature’s God” entitle a people. That is decidedly recogni
tion of the spiritual by the civil authority, the Continental
Congress.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” said the Found
ers of the Republic, “that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happi
ness.” The Declaration further appeals “to the Supreme Judge
of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,” and con
cludes: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred.
Honor.”
The religious tone of the Declaration of Independence is
alone sufficient to demonstrate how incompatible with the
principles of the Founding Fathers are the theories of the
“wall "of separation between Church and State” and other
(secularists so vocal today.
(By Richard Pallee)
This is the summer of pious
commemoration for the 10th an
niversary of the establishment of
the United Nations and it may
not be amiss to devote a few lines
to some thoughts on the subject.
Having spent a
[couple of months
at San Francisco
jin 1945 for the N.
[C. W. C. News
Service, I feel
[that I was pres-
lent when the ac-
ouchement took
|p 1 a c e, so to
ipeak. Thus I
have a very special interest in
what has happened in the ten
years that have transpired since,
in travail and confusion, the in
stitution was born.
ATTITUDES AMONG
CATHOLICS
I realize that in Catholic circles
there is a fairly strong sector in
which it is felt that the UN and
all its works are nefarious and
should very properly be liquidat
ed. Many do not go so far, per
haps, as to think the United
States should withdraw, should
condemn the institution to cer
tain extinction, and in this man
ner solve the problem of the veto,
the presence of the Soviet Union
and everything else.
It must be confessed that I am
no wild enthusiast about the
United Nations. On the other
hand, we have to be realistic
enough to recognize certain
things. The first of them is that
from the point of view of Catholic
thought and principles of political
action, international organization
is indispensable and in conformi
ty with right reason.
INTRINSIC IN OUR
CONVICTIONS
There cannot be, I am confi
dent, any serious doubt on this
point. It may seem very general
and very fuzzy, as most broad
principles are; but the fact re
mains that, as Catholics, we are
the last to combat the idea of an
international society or an or
ganization of states competent to
bring about an advancement in
the international order. It is true
to say that this is intrinsic in our
convictions. If we accept the ne
cessity for international organiza
tion as just, natural and desirable,
then the only problem becomes
what form this organization
should take, and whether the
form now assumed is the best or
not.
This is not the place to pick
the UN apart piece by piece, or
to show that it has not done a lot
of things which it was never pre
pared to do anyway.
The. second main point I want
to make is that ever since 1945
the Holy See has manifested a
keen and abiding interest in the
United Nations and very especial
ly in the numerous specialized
agencies attached thereto. In
UNESCO, in the agencies handl
ing. immigration and the refugee
problem, and in innumerable
other fields, the Holy See has not
only been interested but has oft
en collaborated and sent observ
ers to meetings as they have been
called.
VITALLY, ACTIVELY
INTERESTED
From some slight experience in
Paris as a member of the Vatican
Commission on UNESCO, I can
attest to the fact that Rome has
been vitally and actively interest
ed and at no time has done any
thing but to encourage Catholic
participation in the programs and
efforts of these agencies.
This fact weighs very heavily
in my own thoughts on the sub
ject. The UN and its agencies may
be very far from what we would,
like them to be, and undoubtedly
are, but our refusal to have any
thing to do with the institution
will certainly not produce any
betterment. In other words, in
condemning it as “Godless,” how
do we propose EVER to intro
duce the idea of God if men of
good will who believe in God re
fuse to have anything to do with
its operations? We simply leave
the field wide open to those
whose action we deplore.
BOUND TO BE PRESENT
Moreover—and this is a final
idea—the UN is not an abstraction
but a composition of the nations
and the individuals who make
it up. To talk about the United
Nations as though it were some
force that had nothing to do with
men and their emotions is absurd.
Better to have something that has
lasted 10 years than nothing at
all.
The UN will evolve as every
thing human does. It may evolve
for the worse or, conceivably, it
may evolve for the better. My
own conviction is that as Cath
olics we are bound to be present
through whatever vicissitudes it
may pass, and to exert every
ounce of influence of which we
are capable.
THE BACKDROP
Bv CHARLES LUCEY
ATOMIC ENERGY —A GOD-GIVEN MEANS
I
It could be that when the
scholars of some far future time
dip back in research to find the
wise men of the early post-
atomic era, they will call Thomas
E. Murray wisest.
Mr. Murray is a member of
the United States Atomic Energy
Commission, a man who distin
guished himself in private life
before devoting his real talents
to government service, a Cath
olic who works at it. He was at
Eniwetok in the Pacific for the
first hydrogen bomb test, has fol
lowed thermonuclear develop
ment as have few men and, bet
ter than most, has some under
standing of its almost unimagin
able meaning to all the world.
For quite a while now Mr.
Murray has gone about the land
fostering a Christian concept of
acceptance of the atomic age,
urging that the universal moral
law must control atomic v, T eapons
as it must control human actions,
pleading for a day when atomic
energy will serve peace exclu
sively.
CONVENIENT FALLACY’
No one has spoken more often
of the bright hope in terms of
human living that can spring
from the unlocking of the secret
of the atom. Mr. Murrary has no
notion we can relax our interest
in atomic and thermonuclear
weapons until we live in a safer
world — “under present world
conditions we as a nation have
no immediate alternative but to
maintain our military strength
unimpaired.”
But, he warns, a daily increase
in nuclear strength never can re
solve the dilemma in which we
find ourselves. He asserts milita
ry might must be subordinated
to the God-given laws of spiri
tual and moral conduct ori which
true peace and justice depend.
But this right order will not be
realized as long as men “persist
in the convenient fallacy they
can compartmentalize military
might and moral principle.”
MEN MORE ONE
THAN EVER
Commissioner Murray told an
audience last year that scientific
achievement in atomic energy
forces man into the predicament
of having to choose between un
precedented material progress
and death and devastation. He
wasn’t carving out any new
thought there.
But his follow-through was
different. He said then that
atomic weapons bring man to a
realization that the basic human
predicament lies.deeper than the
issues of life and death—that it
is to be found rather in man’s
eternal situation between good
and evil. No man stands outside
today’s crisis, no man has im
munity from it. Hence men are
more one, than ever before. Ev
ery man is responsible to all
men and for all men. The rela
tionship between the need for
spiritual and moral recovery and
the common good is inescapable.
Personal responsibility is basic
to all this.
NEW SEARCHING NEEDED
The atom was not easily found
out, Mr. Murray points out;
nature does not surrender her
secrets to the indolent. Nor will
victory in the spiritual and moral
crisis of our age belong to the
indolent—“those who will not
submit themselves to the
lengthy and exacting discipline
of the truth are of no help to us
today.”
But it is not only in the masses,
but in their leadership, that
there is need for a new searching
today. Only a handful can under
stand the mathematical physics
of atomics. The power of deci
sion rests on only a few—ulti-
mately on a single man. the
President. Today there is great
need to concentrate on leaders—
“we particularly need spiritual
leaders, a handful of men and
women who live at the height
of the Christian gospel in all its
concrete fullness.”
As an AEC member, says Mr.
Murray, he has no doubts about
our growing preparedness. But
he is not at all sure about the
adequacy of our strength “on the
higher intellectual and spiritual
planes where the crisis is even
sharper and more urgent.”
HUMAN PRUDENCE
NOT ENOUGH
In a speech this year to the
American Irish Historical Socie
ty in New York, Mr. Murray said,
the times demand “the same
faith in God and belief in, the
power of prayer which our Irish
forebears had in such abundant
measure.” In this address he
measured the atomic bomb not
in tonnages of conventional ex
plosives but in “the thousands
of souls dispatched in a matter
(Continued on Page Five)