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FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
£
October 15. 1955.
©h? Hullptut
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
3 l, P. MEYER, Columbus
E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross
: 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
President
Honorary Vice-President
Vice-President
V. P., Publicity
V. P., Activities
V. P., Membership
Secretary
— Treasurer
Executive Secretary
Financial Secretary
Auditor
Vol. XXXVI Saturday, October 15, 1955
No. 10
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.
Visit To The Gaza Strip
THIS WORLD OF OURS
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.
[This Is Your Convention
(REV. JOHN D. TOOMEY)
Next weekend, October 21-23, will mark one of the great
est opportunities ever offered to the Catholic laity of Georgia
to demonstrate their interest in. furthering • the work of the
Church in this state. The Southeastern Regional Congress of
the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and the annual con
vention of the Catholic Laymen’s Association will be held
■jointly at the General Oglethorpe Hotel on Wilmington Island
pear Savannah.
This joint meeting is primarily and foremost a gathering
of the lai-ty. The role of the layman in the C. L. A. needs no
amplification. It is his organization, conceived to meet the
challenge of intolerance, carried forward to create goodwill
and interest, promoted to bring the printed word of Catholic
news and truth to thousands in and out of the fold. The Cath
olic Laymen’s convention brings together men and women
from every parish of the diocese, representative of every walk
of life, intent on their principal goal: to represent Christ’s
Church well before all men.
The Confraternity Congress is an added feature of this
•year’s convention. And yet it is a practical and welcome one.
The teaching of the catechism, the spread of the Faith, and
the mechanics of conversion are too often relegated entirely
to the clergy and religious both in the mind and in the prac
tice of the layman. The Congress will show you otherwise.
It will be a practical demonstration of how your parish con
fraternity should work. It will present new opportunities for
religious instruction. It should indicate means of solving such
problems as the increasing number of Catholic students in
public high schools throughout the state.
The very fact that a number of bishops from surrounding
jdioceses are planning to attend the Congress shows how im
portant this meeting is in the eyes of the hierarchy. We trust
that our own people will respond in large numbers.
We are hopeful that this convention will bring, forth a
Snore practical plan of Catholic Action in the Catholic Lay
men’s Association. There are, we know, isolated units of the
.Association doing excellent work. But this zeal does not show
itself in every local unit. Several reasons may be ascribed.
Sometimes a iocal unit is not even represented at the annual
Convention. Therefore, no one can go back to it and give the
concrete plan of the Association for the coming year nor the
Inspiration engendered at the convention.
There are times when even a concrete plan is missing.
The general purpose and spirit of the Association cannot be
equalled. But what about the particular details? What is the
program? What is the local unit encouraged to do? What are
the tools suggested? What particular goal does the Association
set up for the year?
It is true that every Catholic in the diocese is considered
j member of the Catholic Laymen’s Association. But such a
generality cannot be considered to be practical. Organizations
do not work that way. They move through local groups and
■ dedicated individuals who are willing to take the bit in their
hand and do something worthwhile. We recommend that
serious consideration be given to the voluntary federation of
all parochial men’s groups (such as Holy Name) into the
C. L. A. If this were done, the program set "up by the Catholic
Laymen’s Association would find ready workers in local
organizations already dedicated to serve Christ and His
Church. It' is hoped that these points will be discussed at the
forthcoming convention. And it is hoped that every Catholic
in the diocese will make an effort to be present at this annual
meeting.
(By Richard Paiiee)
Jerusalem — The area around
the Gaza strip, where Israel and
Egypt meet, pops in and out of
the news so frequently that a
visit to that troubled spot seem
ed to me one of the absolute re
quirements of a sojourn in the
Middle East.
I made the
journey in the
company of a
former New
Zealander, Jos
eph Davis, who
has been in Is
rael for the past
eight years or'
so and proved
to be an invalu
able companion and guide in
matters of local history and to
pography. We went first from
Jerusalem to Beersheba, taking
in a number of the kibbutzim
(collective farms) en route and
reaching the principal city of
the Negev around noon. After
lunch there, we went on direct
ly across country to as near the
Gaza line as one can get.
NO DEFINITE BORDER
The strip sticks up along the
Mediterranean coast straight in
to Israeli territory. It is separat
ed from the rest of Egypt by the
Sinai desert, with the result that
communication is by no means
easy. In this narrow tongue of
land some 250,000 Palestinian
Arab refugees are concentrated,
along with the military force
which the Egyptians maintain in
the zone. From hillocks on the
Israeli side, it is easy to see the
city of Gaza in the distance; also,
the fields of Egyptian fellah in
who till the soil close to the di
viding line. At one spot where
we stopped, both the city and
the hut used by General Burns of
the United Nations team were
visible.
There is notning to distinguish
where Israeli territory ends and
Egyptian territory begins. The
controversy over fixing a per
manent border with barbed
wire or some form of separation
has met with considerable op
position.
The Israelis have constructed
along the whole frontier a series
of kibbutzim both for defense
purposes and as a means of set
tling this barren area. Gaza has
absolutely no meaning from the
rational point of view.
NO GEOGRAPHICAL LOGIC
The present frontiers of Israel
are the result of the armistice be
tween that country and the Arab
states and bear no relation to
anything like geographical logic.
The consequence is the instabili
ty and constant marauding that
goes on, resulting in the numer
ous incidents with which we are
regaled periodically in the press.
One of the most, advanced of
the kibbutzim visited lies as near
the boundary as one can reason
ably get without sliping over in
to Egyptian territory. It contain
ed about thirty “pioneers,” most
of them from Tanger and other
parts of North Africa, both men
and women. I spent an afternoon
with a couple of the young Tan
gerines who manned this out
post. They spoke fluent Spanish
and French, so we were able
to carry,on quite comfortably.
KIND OF FRONTIER POST
The settlement was a combina
tion military post, with observa
tion tower, and a bit of farming
land, with some cattle and other
live-stock to maintain the in
habitants. This was by no means
one of the more advanced or de
veloped of the kibbutzim. Its
roughness and high degree of
readiness gave the impression of
the kind of frontier post one as
sociates with American history
in the early 19 th century, with
Indians hovering on the horizon
ready to pounce on the local
gentry at any moment.
These lads seemed to take the
thing in their stride and were
totally unconcerned about either
the proximity of the Egyptians—.
the “Arabs” as they call all of
them—or the prospect of an at
tack. Israeli life today has a
great deal of this flavor of
pioneering and the far outposts
of human endeavor. The com
bination of soldier and farmer
has become a way of life, with
the well-known recruits—called
Nahal —- carrying" a rifle and
pushing a plow simultaneously.
NEITHER PEACE NOR
COMPROMISE
I see no very promising out
look either at Gaza or elsewhere
for much in the way of perman
ent peace. The disposition on
both sides is to hang on to what
was decreed under the armistice,
and to populate the area as a
means of defending it.
Since Egypt is interested in
Gaza as a spearhead toward the
Negev, and since the Negev des
ert itself is part of the overland
route between Egypt and the
rest of the Arab world, there is
not much likelihood that Cairo
will relinquish it short of war.
To Israel, every inch of the Neg
ev—no matter how barren and
unpromising—is part of the area
to which new settlers can be di
rected. For these reasons, there ■
is even less probability that an
agreement concerning the trans
fer of territory along more ra
tional lines can be arrived at.
THE BACKDROP
By CHARLES LUCEY
■ : ' ’■
UNEASY DAY FOR TYRANTS
It may be months before we
have a clear picture of all the
forces behind these last brutal,
bloody months in Argentina, but
we know enough to be sure it is
an uneasy day for tyrants.
Juan Domingo Peron tried to
wipe out freedom of religion,
speech and press with police
state methods. He crushed the
free trade unions, made his con
gress a mere rubber stamp, pro
moted violent nationalism, play
ed army factions against one
another, wiped out every vestige
of democracy.
SPARK THAT BURNS
It is plain now the handwriting
was on the wall when Pei’on be
gan his vicious attack on the Cath
olic Church in June. The people
of Ireland could have spoken out
of the centuries to tell this man
of the difficulties of crushing the
Catholic Church. Poland’s Com
munist rulers of today could tell
him that after a decade of Red
domination the Polish people
still hold stoutly to Catholicism.
Even in Russia, after 40 years
of Communism, the spark of re
ligion still burns. There was
word of it only the other day,
when German Chancellor Kon
rad Adenauer, in Moscow to
negotiate with Soviet leaders,
attended Mass in the Church of
St. Louis.
Kneeling beside the old chan
cellor were peasant women in
shawls and stooped old men,
some of them carrying tattered
missals treasured and cared for
through decades. Here, in Mos
cow’s only Catholic church, were
at least a few with the bravery
and persistence and devotion, af
ter so many years-of oppression,
to kneel at the altar rail and
receive the Holy Eucharist.
DISBELIEF OFFICIAL ONLY
Martin S. Hayden, the able
Washington correspondent of
The Detroit News, has described
recently the devotion with which
the Polish people have held to
their Catholic faith despite the
official disbelief in God of the
Warsaw government.
Poland, Mr. Hayden said,,
probably is as Catholic as it was
before the war. He told of see
ing soldiers in uniform in pack
ed city churches; of a Sunday
tour in the country where the
pilgrimage to Mass was led by
ancient peasant women, trudging
barefoot and carrying the shin
ed black shoes to be put on only
when they reached the church
yard.
In small towns crowds knelt
on church lawns hearing Mass
when churches were so crowded
they could not enter. Catholic
children still may get—though
often with difficulty—religious
instruction from priests.
FAITH AND HERITAGE
Not that the Communist gov
ernment has not tried to crush
religion. The Polish primate,
Cardinal Wyszynski, has “disap
peared.” The Red bosses have
sponsored as so-called “progres
sive” Catholicism—recently ex
posed for the trickery it was—■
and have tried to divide Cath
olics. But with all this the police
state has not been able to force
its will on a people who have
known and thrown off oppres
sion more than once.
The swaggering, flamboyant
Peron fo Argentina did not read
history—or read it only poorly.
Probably nine out of ten of some
eighteen million Argentines are
Catholics. And if all are not mi
litant or even actively practicing
Catholics, the faith and heritage
of the millions is still so deep
that no Peron could dare to
crush it.
No longer is it easy, in a day
of tanks and machine guns, for
an oppressed but unarmed citi
zenry to revolt against a despot
ism. Yet the East Berlin riots of
a couple of years ago, crushed
though they were by the Com
munist police and military,
showed again how high rises
the courage Of men who live un
der the hobnailed heel of the
police state.
QUIET, STEADY RESISTANCE
In Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yug
oslavia there are men still keep
ing alive a spark of freedorh
that one day may light again.
(Continued on Page Five)