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FOUR
THE BULLETIN CF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
SEPTEMBER 17, 1955,
HulUtitt
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
J. 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
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus V. P., Activities
RAWSON 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
Vol. XXXVI Saturday, September 17, 1955 No. 8
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.
24,178 Inquiries; 2,418 Instructions
Is the Catholic Church a Menace to Democracy! But Why
Don’t YOU Pray to the Saints? It is easy for Catholics to
recognize these lines as titles to the familiar Knights of
Columbus advertisements which appear in our leading maga
zines and newspapers.
Perhaps you have wondered if these advertisements are
bringing results. Through July 1st of this year, 1,767,890 in
quiries have been received by the Religious Information Bu
reau located at St. Louis. 167,639 have enrolled in Religious
Instruction.
Here are some figures which will perhaps bring the pic
ture of the splendid job the Knights are doing into sharper
focus. Let’s see what’s been done- in Georgia. Let’s see the
influence of the ad which has appeared in the Atlanta paper,
the Columbus paper, in almost every daily in the state.
Figures released by the Supreme Council Knights of
Columbus reveal that as of July 1st, 1955, 24.178 inquiries
have come through its St. Louis office postmarked from the
cities and towns of Georgia. 2,505 inquiries have been re
ceived during the first six months of 1955. 2,418 of these in
quiries have enrolled for instruction through the Knights.
Who knows how many have found their way to the Parish
Priest through their contacts with the K. of C.? 348 Georgians
have enrolled for instruction this year.
When you see the K. of C. advertisement don’t think of
it as not affecting you. 24,178 inquries, 2,418 instructions
prove it does.
Problem Of The Arab Refugees
THIS WORLD OF OURS
(By Richard Paitee)
BEIRUT —On the way back
from a day spent with the new
ly designate Patriarch of the
Lebenese Maronites, about 20
miles from Beirut, I visited two
of the camps,
established f o r|
Arabs who|
were forced to]
leave Palestine
when the state
of Israel came]
into being, after]
the termination 1
of the British!
mandate.
Father Francis Kennedy from
the United States, in charge of
the Pontifical Mission in this
country, took me there to see
firsthand what is being done in
Lebanon to care for the home
less and displaced under the
responsibility of the United Na
tions. It is a moving and depres
sing sight.
PERMANENT STAGNATION
Lebanon has not received a
very' large number of these un
fortunates in view of its own
smallness and the impossibility
for it to absorb a hundred thou
sand refugees into its economy.
The result is a sort of permanent
stagnation, in which families by
the dozens are doomed to look
forward to an endless future in
which there is little hope and not
much more than existence on the
basis of an international dole.
In the beginning, Father Ken
nedy indicated, it was especially
urgent to separate Christians
from Moslems since some ten
per cent of the refugees were of
the Christian faith—almost all
Catholic. Once this had been ac
complished, the next job was to
set up something in the way of
living quarters.
One of the two camps I saw
was an assortment of shacks in
which families live under con
ditions of the greatest misery.
The other was a new and per
manent construction in which
concrete homes, with a chapel
and school, are being erected.
Land was ceded by a commu
nity of Maronite religious and,
with international aid, a village
is being built to care for the
refugees. From the physical
point of view their situation will
have improved vastly in the new
quarters, although the moral im
plications still remain—namely,
that the more permanent and
decent the homes are the more
certain it is that they will re
main here indefinitely.
HOME IS PALESTINE
It is a hard fact, about which
far too little has been said in
our country, that these refugees
are here and in Syria and Jor
dan, as well as in the Gaza Strip,
because they were cast out of
their homes in Palestine at the
time Israel was created. The ar
gument is sometimes advanced
that this is all very well, but that
the best thing would be for the
Palestinians to make the best
of the mess and settle in any one
of the Arab countries where
there is space and a chance for
the future.
There are various difficulties
confronting such a solution. The
first is that many left their
homes assuming that they would
return; and since they have liv
ed in Palestine for centuries, no
other place is home. It is as
though a resident of Baltimore
were tossed out of his home and
after spending years in a camp
in, let us say. Scotland, was told
that he could go to some other
English-speaking country such
as British Honduras and live
there.
Such a step might be theore
tically possible, but the Pales
tinian — especially the Pales
tinian Christian—has not even
a remote desire to try to settle
in Yeme nor Saudi Arabia where
the atmosphere and outlook are
totally different from anything
he has ever known. The most
forceful argument is that these
Palestinians want to go home.
And home is Palestine, and no
other place.
EXIST ON CHARITY
The Lebanese government has
received many of these refugees.
Some can work in jobs that do .
not require an official labor per
mit. But the Lebanon is made up
of a delicately balanced assort
ment of religious groups. The
influx of thousands of Palesti-
anians, either Christians or Mos
lems, can very easily upset this
equilibrium which is the basis
of the political divisions of the
nation.
Moreover, the existence of the
refugee problem is a standing
argument for the Arabs with re
spect to the injustice they allege
was committed against them in
turning Palestine over to Israel.
If the problem disappeared, it
would be tacit acceptance of the
existence of Israel—an attitude
which the Arabs are not at all
disposed to take.
If one looks to the future there
seems little in the way of hope
for these forlorn thousands —
wards now of' the U.N. and des
tined to live and die under con
ditions not of their own choos
ing. One cannot but feel a pro
found sense- of pity and compas
sion for these unfortunates who
run the risk of becoming the
forgotten of this world. It is to
be hoped that, even in a world
made callous, by misery and
calamity, there is still a place-in
the hearts of men from which
a ray of hope can come to these
thousands, who have been eject
ed from their ancestral land, and
doomed to exist on the charity
of the United Nations.-
The First Amendment
(CATHOLIC NEWS)
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.” A Senate subcommittee headed by Senator Thomas
C. Hennings, Jr., of Missouri is preparing to make a study of
the Amendment to find out if it has been properly interpreted
and if it is being faithfully obeyed. The subcommittee is
sending out a questionnaire in eight parts “to all persons
interested in the subject and to persons who desire to testify
at public meetings” tentatively set for October 3.
The second query, after routine questions, reads: “Do
you regard the phrase ‘make no law respecting an establish
ment of religion’ as a prohibition against any direct or in
direct aid to churches of religious sects?” And: “Do you re
gard the language as banning preferential treatment of any
particular church or religious sect while permitting govern
ment aid to religion generally or to the various churches and
sects on a non-discriminatory basis?”
If these questions were addressed to the Founding Fathers
who drew up the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they
would no doubt have been puzzled by the reason for them
For it is a matter of record that the Founding Fathers and
their successors authorized direct aid to religion without any
question of its constitutionality. Exempting religious property
from taxes and providing chaplains, paid from tax funds, for
the Armed Forces of the nation are but two of numerous
examples. —
That those opposed to religion also interpreted the First
Amendment in this way is demonstrated by the fact that
they repeatedly tried to have the Constitution amended to
forbid what they now say was forbidden from the beginning.
Every such effort was rejected. But the Supreme Court in
the McCollum case, ignoring the history behind the First
Amendment and the laws and tradition since its adoption,
topk a step toward accomplishing by indirection what the
anti-religionists have never been able to accomplish directly.
Congressional hearings are intended to provide our law
making bodies with information helpful to them in the enact
ing of legislation. It is ardently to be hoped that the investi
gation and scheduled hearings will be effective in defeating
the efforts of those who would make the First Amendment a
weapon against religion and an ally of atheism.
THE BACKDROP
By CHARLES LUCEY
SEASON OPENS FOR HATE, RECRIMINATION
, The* intense bigotry of Know-
nothingism, which debased the
mid-nineteenth century, and the
disfiguring Ku Kluxism of the
1920’s are far behind. Yet, as a
political reporter criss-crossing
America in national elections
every two years, I am convinced
of the continuing force of racial
and religious prejudice in this
country’s voting.
It is almost surely true that
there is greater tolerance in
many sections of the U.S. than
i there was 30 years ago; but
i votes still are cast against candi-
| dates because they are Catholic,
I or Jewish, or have been a little
; too friendly to Negroes, or for
me other twisted concept of
at is “American.”
This is brought to mind by
signs of a heating-up, a year in
advance, of the 1956 Presidenti
al election' campaign. The Re
publicans have held a “school”
to instruct party workers, na
tionally, how to campaign more
effectively. Ex- President Truman
ha. opened a vigorous attack on
the Republicans, and the Demo-
e s have other big meetings
coming up to rally their forces
for 1956.
LIES AND SCURRILITY
The patern is only the normal
one in these matters. But seeing
it begin again turns attention to
the fact that nothing whatever
has been done by law since 1952
to control the printing and Cir
culation of lies and scurrility in
U.S. politics, or to make such
offenses more severely punish
able.
In 1946 this reporter covered
the last campaign of the late
Senator Theodore G. (The Man).
Bilbo in Mississippi. There may
have been dirtier campaigns in
recent American political history
but it seems doubtful.
One sticky June night that
year, I sat in a little country
courthouse in Starkville, Miss.,
and heard Senator Bilbo tell an
audience how to put the fear
of God in Negroes’ hearts by
visiting them a night or two be
fore election and warning them
not to go to the polls to vote.
COARSELY FUNNY—MAYBE
In that same campaign Bilbo
was denounced by his opponents
in about as earthy terms as can
be used iri a political campaign.
One circular described him as
“stinking and sweating, sweat
ing and stinking lik t e a goat
caught in a gourd vine.” Coarse
ly funny, maybe, at the time,
but not quite the ground on
which to be deciding a seat for
the United States Senate.
A couple of years later I cov
ered a bitter U.S. Senate cam
paign in North Carolina. Senator
Frank P. Graham was being
stigmatized be.cause of his
friendly attitude toward the
Negro — the fact that he had
named a qualified young Negro
as an alternate to the U.S. Mili
tary Academy at West Point be
came a statewide issue.
Such a feeling is by no means
confined to tne South. Some
times in the North a surreptiti
ous campaign is waged against
a man because he is a Catholic
or Jew.
THE ‘BALANCED’ TICKET
Politicians recognize the im
portance of racial lines to a
point where in some states it is
merely the normal thing to try
to “balance” a party ticket >by
getting, say, a Protestant for
governor, a Jew for lieutenant-
governor, a Catholic for secre
tary of state, etc. Sometimes the
play is to get an Italian for at
torney general, a Pole for state
auditor, and so on. It cuts right
across the American idea but
it goes on all the time. It wars
with the American idea, to talk
of a Protestant or Catholic or
Jewish vote.
In 1952 President Eisenhower
was attacked viciously in litera
ture circulated in many states
in the pre-convention primary
election campaigns. Some sought
to portray him as a tool of Jew
ish interests. Some attacked the
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