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THE BULLETIN CF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
SEPTEMBER 3, 1955.
©hi? lulletin
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
416 Eighth Street, Augusta, Ga,
ASSOCIATION -OFFICERS FOR 1954-1955
S, P. MEYER, Columbus - President
E, M. HEAGARTY, Waycross — Honorary Vice-President
MRS. L. E. MOCK, Albany Vice-President
DAMON J. SWANN, Atlanta V. P., Publicity
GEOR&E GINGELL, Columbus : —- V. P., Activities
EAWSON HAVERTY, Atlanta - V. P„ Membership
JOHN M. BRENNAN, Savannah- Secretary
JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta — —^ Treasurer
JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
V'ol. XXXVI Saturday, Sept. 3, 1955 No. 7.
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.
,1:£ —
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.
i
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.
Co-Existence In Truth
We note that the Vatican newspaper has hailed the
Geneva Conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy as
a step towards the “co-existence in truth” urged by Pope
Pius XII in his last Christmas message.
At that time the Pope said that true peace will be achiev
ed. when statesmen “before weighing the advantages and risks
of their decisions, recognize that they are personally subject
to eternal moral laws and will treat the problem of war as a
question of conscience before God.”
The Holy See had a delegate to the Conference in the
person of Prof. Henri Medi, director of the* Italian National
Geophysical Institute.
The Geneva conference was an outgrowth of the Big
Four Summit conference. Perhaps it did not create the public
interest which the four statesmen generated, but it dealt with
scientific fact and sought a peaceful diffusion of nuclear en
ergy knowledge. The toasts and pleasantries and expressions
of good will enunciated by the statesmen may find themselves
dwarfed in comparison to the practical conclusions of the
atomic scientists. A true knowledge of nuclear power should
lead one to a realization of the Almighty Power behind the
universe and the moral obligation to use this force for the
good of the world.
The generous offer of the atomic scientists to share their
.knowledge with the entire world should dispel those fears
among other nations that we, who alone have used atomic
power for wholesale destruction of human life, have any in
tentions other than those of peace. A common endeavor by
the men of science unobstructed by national boundaries and
political rivalries will be of benefit for all mankind.—(Rev.
John D. Toomey.)
The Turkish Scene
THIS WORLD OF OURS
THE BACKDROP 1
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By CHARLES LUCEY
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A WORLD AT PRAYER
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Back To School
One last holiday remains, and then the annual trek be
gins. For the first time in three months, the entire family
will arise and eat breakfast together. And then the house will
be quiet for mother and her household chores.
The average Catholic child will enter a school building
topped by a cross. His first duty of the morning will be a
prayer; his first lesson an instruction in religion. He will learn
truth as revealed through Our Lord Jesus Christ. He,will be
inspired to obey the Commandments of God. The real values
of life and eternity will be placed before him. The whole
man, body and soul, will be educated.
The Catholic school system is tyi integral part of the
Church. It is likewise an integral part of the national educa
tional picture. It is'not a second-class system. And it-does not
violate the democratic traditions of America. Catholic schools
were in existence in the United States long before any public
schools were built. And the citizens which they produce are
first-class in their love for God and country.
Catholic educational institutions have developed remark
ably in the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta during the past ten
years. There is hardly a parish now’ without its school, except
in a few rural areas, and in many instances new and larger
buildings have had to be erected to accommodate the expand-
uig population. The laity have been called on for great sacri
fices to make this possible. But they have realized that Cath
olic education is worth every sacrifice they have made—and
much more than that. And when can they even begin to match
the sacrifice of the religious in the classroom who gave up so
much in order to bring this child to the knowledge and love
pf God?—(Rev. John D. Toomey).
(By Richard Pailee)
If one is interested in some
thing beyond bazaars, night life
and street vendors, the major
problem that faces the observer
in Turkey is the status of Islam
and what is,
h a p p e n-j
ing, religiously;
in this republic
which, for 301
years, has been]
assiduously try
ing to become!
as much a!
s e c u 1 a r i z-!
ed society as is]
humanly possible.
I have endeavored during the
days spent in Instanbul and An
kara to ascertain, as accurately
as possible and from Moslems
and non-Moslems, the state of
affairs. Certain conclusions seem
feasible even after so brief a
sojourn.
Turkey is one of the major
non-Arab Moslem states, com-
parable in this respect to Pakis
tan or Indonesia. Of the 23 mil
lion Turks, the overwhelming
majority are of the Islamic faith.
Even in Istanbul where Greeks,
Armenians, Jews and countless
others give the city a distinctly
cosmopolitan atmosphere, the
number of Moslems is estimated
at 85 per cent. The city itself
contains something like 450
mosques—a fair index that Islam
is by no means dead. On the con
trary, it gives every sign of a
considerable revival after the
long experience of Ataturk’s
regime and the occidentalized
republicanism in vogue since
his time.
RECOGNIZABLE
FACSIMILE
Historically the Turks have
been Moslems of the Sunni per
suasion and in their religious
practice and policies somewhat
independent of the traditionally
Islamic countries. This independ
ence explains in part Ataturk’s
success in abolishing the sulta
nate and the Ottoman caliphate,
and in the introduction of secu
lar education in the early twen
ties.
Towards 1925 the Turkish
government placed the more
fanatical sects within Islam out
of bounds, abolished the fez, and
in general converted the Turkish
people into a fairly recognizable
facsimile of Europe. In 1928 Is
lam was no longer the state re
ligion and this status has not
changed down to the present
time. Arabic and Persian were
abolished as compulsory subjects*
in the schools and, finally, in
the amended constitution • of
1937 a laicized, revolutionary
state was set up as the perman
ent pattern of Turkish life.
But the signs have changed
considerably since the firm hand
of Ataturk was removed. In
1945, for the first time questions
of religion were raised in the
national parliament. Translations
of Islamic classics became a
more common thing and evfen an
Islamic encyclopedia has been
issued. More and more mosques
have been built, most of them
through private initiative, and
some 15 schools for the train
ing of preachers for these mos
ques have been instituted. Vol
untary religious instruction in
the schools has come back and
although limited to children
whose parents demand it for
mally,, there is no doubt that the
mass of Turks are eager to have
such instruction provided. It is
plain that the government does
not wish to run counter to what
is the evident will of the mass
of people, who are profoundly
wedded to their Islamic tradi
tions.
ATUNE WITH THE TIMES
In intellectual circles, especial
ly the universities, the striking
feature seems, to, be an indif
ference to Islam—a certain dis
dain for it as an archaic institu
tion, and an eager desire to be as
atune as possible with what is
conceived as the temper of the
20th century.
Under the Republic non-Mos
lems have a higher status than
before—in theory. In fact, their
role is actually subservient. TJie
new Turkish Republic is a com
pact, almost all-Turkish enter
prise in contrast with the cos
mopolitan Ottoman empire,
which for its existence wasf orc-
ed to accommodate millions of
subjects of all races and faiths.
As of 1950, for example, the call
to prayers in Arabic. was per-
mited once again after the ef- ,
fort to make Turkish the sole
language of worship.
It seems to me that the major
crisis in Turkish religious life
is the attempt to satisfy the Is
lamic tradition of a people and,
at the ■ same . time, appear in the
eyes of the world as a vigorous,
occidental, secularized state in
which what pass for “supersti
tions” have been relegated to the
past. Turkey is not out of the
woods by any means on* this
score.
TWIN FEARS
Communism obviously has no
roots in this land. First, because
it is illegal; secondly, because
of centuries of hostility to Rus
sia which makes anything com
ing from that land obnoxious to
the Turks. There are criticisms
however, from official and pri
vate sources, that the twin dan
ger in the future is “clericalism
and communism”—that is to say,
a revived Islamic fanaticism and
Marxism.
At a time when almost every
manner of human endeavor is
clocked statistically, it still may
be possible there are no com
plete figures anywhere- on how
many peopel are visiting
churches today. But based on ob
servation here in the U.S.A. and
dozens of countries in Europe and
Latin America in this last year,
my guess is the number must
be greater than ever before.
I do not mean atendance at
Mass, Benediction or other for
mal services alone, but the fact
of people making their own pri
vate visit for two minutes or ten
minutes or a half-ho'ur for a few
Hail Marys, a Rosary, a Nove
na. A brief respite and surcease
from the urgencies of making a
living, and from the problems
rising out of a mechanized age
whose whole compulsive drive is
to make things easier but which
often seems only to make them
more difficult.
ALMOST PHENOMENAL
Whether this great daily de
votion has any relationship to
frequently printed accounts of
religious “revival”, and more
people turning to God in a com
plex time may be only specula
tion. But the number to be seen
making their own private de
votional visit to God, voluntari
ly and no doubt often at person
al inconvenience or sacrifice,
seems almost phenomenal.
You see it always at St. Pat
rick’s in New York—and if any
one believes all those who kneel
are merely gawking tourists
viewing a magnificent cathedral
as you do a museum, he has on
ly to see the earnestness and
supplication written in the faces
of those who speak with God.
You see it in St. Patrick’s in
Washington, in the Paulist
church on Wabash Avenue in
Chicago, in the downtown Jesuit
church and the old cathedral in
New Orleans, in Denver, Santa
Fe and on to the west coast.
NO LONGER THE
UNUSED AIR
You see it also, in 1955, not
alone in the great churches of
Paris and Rome or in such fam
ed shrines as Our Lady of Gua
dalupe in Mexico City, where
you expect to see it, but in
hidden - away little sidestreet
churches where tourist wander
ings alone could not be the an
swer.
Tens of thousands of flicker
ing votive candles, the bowing
of uncounted thousands of heads
before the Stations of the Cross
hardly suggest religion headed
for receivership. There is a boy
hood memory of a Catholic
church which was used for daily
and Sunday Mass but had an al
most mausoleum unused-ness
about it at most other times. That
memory hardly fits the picture
today.
NEW PICTURES ON
MEMORY'S WAL*L
There was one bitter cold
afternoon last March in Lucerne,
Switzerland, where in an un
heated church men and women
huddled in a little seminar to
hear the preaching of the pastor
—the heat of whose argument
nonetheless did not suggest to
him that he remove his heavy
overcoat.
There was a holy day in
Dublin where hour after hour
of multiple Masses went on in
the old Pro-Cathedral, with men
and women who have carried
the faith since St. Patrick ad
vancing to the communion rail al
most in waves.
There was an evening proces
sion of the Blessed Sacrament
in the handsome old Cathedral in
Guatemala City, where richly
dressed Spanish men and wom
en walked the time-worn flag
stones beside barefoot Indians,
all carrying lighted candles and
chanting, softly together in an
almost indescribable beauty.
There were Lenten , days in
London where, as in the United
(Continued on Page Five)