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POUR 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 jpii» By CHARLES LUCEY . mi A WORLD AT PRAYER ¥ , m 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)