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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
MARCH 33, 1957.
Stye IttUrtttt
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
416 Eighth Street, Augusta, Ga.
Vol. 37 Saturday, March 30, 1957 No. 22
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1955-1956
JOHN M. BRENNAN, Savannah President
E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honorary Vice-President
MRS. L. E. MOCK, Albany Vice-President
TOM GRIFFIN, Atlanta Vice-President
DAMON J. SWANN, Atlanta V. P., Publicity
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus V. P., Activities
NICK CAMERIO, Macon Secretary
JOHN T. BUCKLEY. Augusta Treasurer
JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
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 Association
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, the Most Reverend Bishop of Atlanta, and the
Right Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont.
Loaves-And-Fishes, 1957
For the forty days of Lent pennies of self-denial (and
nickels and dimes, too) that the four million parochial school
youngsters of America would normally spend for candy and
cones and chewing gum are flowing in a steady million-
dollar stream into the coffers of the 1957 Catholic Bishops’
Relief Fund Appeal.
Together with their elders, they will, by this Sunday,
March 31, have contributed five million dollars to aid the
needy, the hungry and the homeless in forty free countries
and to extend relief programs still farther into areas where
none exists.
This work of Catholic Relief Services-National Catholic
Welfare Conference, has been compared by Francis Cardinal
Spellman, Archbishop of New York and Military Vicar for
the Armed Forces, of the U. S., with the miracle of the loaves
and the fishes. In 1956, for instance, every dollar contributed
was translated into forty times its value in relief goods and
services. Conducting the largest private program of person-
to-person overseas relief aid in history, Catholic Relief Serv
ices distributed 855,000,138 pounds of food, clothing and medi-
•cinals valued at $128,254,921.87 among an estimated 43,600,000
desperately needy men, women and children.
In its eleventh year the Bishops’ Fund must underwrite
an increasing refugee problem to care for those whose emi-
gration has been stopped by expiration of the Refugee Relief
Act of 1953 as well as meeting the problems of the Hunga
rians given asylum here through the President’s Emergency
Committee. And as ever, “the lava-like approach of this
monster which now overshadows and oppresses such a great
poition of the world, ’ as Cardinal Spellman describes the
Communist menace, drives these dedicated workers on to do
more and more in restoring tortured minds and dying spirits
as well as emaciated bodies.
Archbishop Francis P. Keough, of Baltimore, chairman
of the 1957 Appeal credits the amazing efficiency of this
world-wide relief operation “to the priests, nuns, lay and vol
untary workers upon whose shoulders this great undertaking
rests.' But, year in and year out, it is the Catholics-at-large,
in t he l 6 200 parishes that dig down for that five million
■dollar Bishops’ Relief Fund. And, this year, as in the past, a
lit He child, resolutely by-passing the candy store, shall lead
them.
SECRETARY DULLES' STATEMENT
SEEN STEMMING NEW MOVE FOR
RECOGNITION OF RED CHINA
(By J. J. Gilbert)
WASHINGTON — A statement
made by U.S. Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles in far off Can
berra, Australia, had important
repercussions here.
The Secretary may have spoken
primarily to reassure our friends
of SEATO (South East Asia Trea
ty Organization), but he also
Handed a setback to a movement
which was once more manifesting
itself here.
The movement is the agitation
for recognition of Red China by
the United States and its admit-
ance to the United Nations. There
are people who have urged this
before, and who were beginning
to urge it again. It is believed that
Secretary Dulles’ statement only
postponed a little their newest
attempt in this direction.
Secretary Dulles said in Can
berra that the United States
“adheres steadfastly” to its recog
nition of Nationalist China; that it
is strongly opposed to giving Chi
na’s seat in the UN to the Peip
ing regime, and that recognition of
the Chinese communist regime
would not serve the interests of
the United States but would
strengthen influence hostile to
this country.
(Continued on Page 7)
The Church Of Silence
THIS WORLD OF OURS
(By Richard Paftee)
There has been no dearth of
books in this country and abroad
on the state of the Church behind
the Iron Curtain. We can be
grateful that so much work has
been done to make available in
c o mprehensive
form the full
story of the per
secution in the
S o v iet Union
and the Satel
lite n a t i ons.
There is always
room, however,
for amplifica
tion of what, to
Catholics, must
become a familiar reality.
I have just completed the read
ing of what seems to me the most
remarkably complete and docu
mented study of this subject I
have seen to date. It is published
in Paris by Albert Gaiter and the
title is Le Communisme et T-
Eglise Catholique — Communism
and the Catholic Church.
Since every time mention is
made in this column of a book
published abroad, I get quite a
number of letters asking for par
ticulars as to publisher and ad
dress, it may be prudent to in
clude these details now: Editions
Fleurus, 31-33 Rue de Fleurus,
Paris, VI, France. The price is
the equivilent of a couple of dol
lars.
MASS OF INFORMATION
The book is published under
the auspices of the commission
on the persecuted Church of the
Catholic International Organiza
tions and bears the subtitle of j
“Red Book of the Persecution.”
I rather imagine that an English
version will appear, or may pos
sibly even now be in the works.
It is to be hoped that this is done,
for the detailed account of how
the persecution has operated
brings together an enormous mass
of information of the highest
utility.
I was particularly struck by the
fact that for each section, be it
on Albania, Rumania or Korea,
original sources are used. It is
obvious that a corps of extremely
diligent people, equipped linguis
tically to handle Albanian and
Lithuanian and such tongues,
have culled the Communist pa
pers and other sources to extract
the facts that condemn these re
gimes out of their own mouths.
The order of presentation is
strictly chronological — starting
with 1939 in the case of the Soviet
Union — and tracing each situ
ation in accordance with the
historical moment when Com
munism came into power.
PLANNED PERSECUTION
The compilers note that in all
of the Communist world there is
sort of “planned persecution” that
evidences itself regardless of the
special features or particular dif
ferences of each country involv
ed.
Certain factors, however, do in
fluence the character of the per
secution:
1) The number of Catholics in
the population;
2) The particular rite professed
by the majority of Catholics;
3) The existence of a religious
majority which can be used as an
instrument against a Catholic
minority, as in the case of the
Orthodox;
4) The internal situation of the
Communist Party itself;
5) The repercussion that the
persecution might have abroad.
This last point is of some in
terest since it is clear, as the
author of this book notes, that
China and the Soviet Union have
proceeded with a severity and
harshness that is infinitely great
er than that, for instance, of East
Germany, where contacts with
the West are more lively and
where news penetrates to the
other side far more easily.
PATTERN DIFFERS LITTLE
Of striking interest is the pat
tern of persecution which while
varying in intensity, differs very
little in substance. The steps by
which the action of the Church
is limited follow a sort oaf inex
orable logic: suppression of the
press, of Catholic associations and
organizations, seizure of the
schools, nationalization of Church
properties and efforts to prevent
normal contact’ of the Hierarchy
with the faithful and with Rome.
The panorama includes every
thing from East Germany to
Vietnam, and from Bulgaria to
China — a story that must be
kept alive.
It is always encouraging when
publications appear which carry
such full documentation that
there can be no doubt, in the
mind of any reasonable citizen,
that what our own press and
journals have been saying is
tragically true.
have long since
Free Transportation, Textbooks issue Still By No Means Settled
THE BACKDROP
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
Although the United States Su
preme Court has ruled that states
may permit the use of tax money
to provide bus transportation and
textbooks for children attending
parochial schools, the issue is by
no means set
tled.
At the mo
ment, only a
few communi
ties are provid
ing bus trans-
p o r t ation to
church schools
in only 20 of the
48 states, and free textbooks
in only half a dozen states.
Currently e f f orts are being
made in various states to break
down the barriers to the use of
tax money to provide these serv
ices to parochial pupils. But such
efforts are meeting determined
opposition from those who con
tend that such a use of public
funds is a violation of what they
call the “time-honored American
principle of separation of Church
and State.”
POAU IN FOREFRONT
In the forefront of the effort to
block the provision of free trans
portation and textbooks to paro
chial schools is the organization
known as Protestants and Other.
Americans United for Separation
of Church and State. It argues
that once the barrier to free
transportation and textbooks is
broken down, the Church will
seek public support for the op
eration and maintenance of its
school system.
At the moment two attempts
to provide bus transportation for
non-public schools have attracted
nation-wide attention.
One is a bill pending in the
General Assembly of Connecti
cut — a state in which more than
half the population are Catholics.
This bill would authorize com
munities of that state to provide
transportation, health and safety
services for children in private
schools.
TEST CASE
The other is a token effort of
Augusta, Me., to provide a simi
lar service for the parochial
school pupils of that city. This ef
fort is undertaken for the express
purpose of creating a test case
for the courts to fule upon.
Although Connecticut has no
enabling statute concerning bus
transportation for non - public
school children, last year, when
the Town of Ridgefield was con
sidering such a service, the state’s
legal authorities ruled that no
legal impedirutent , stood in the
way. NevejrtSelfess, the Board of
Education “by & vote of 6 to 3,
taken in secrecy, turned down a
request for bits, transportation for
a parochial school.
In Augusta, where there are
about 9 0 0 pupils in parochial
schools, a referendum held last
December authorized bus trans
portation for •these pupils by a
vote of 3,915 to 2,470. The city of
ficials, ftov.i|v'er, took no action
until Cathofi’c parents threatened
to withdraw their children from
the parochial schools and send
them to . the public schools.
COST LESS
This confronted the city of
ficials with the prospect of hav
ing to build a new school and hire
additional teachers to accommo
date the pupils attending the
parochial schools. While it would
cost but a few thousand dollars
to provide bus transportation, the
city officials estimated that to
care for the parochial school pu
pils would add about $200,000 a
year to the school budget, - : to say
nothing of the capital outlay for
a new school.
Opponents of the request of
Catholic parents for transporta
tion for their children, however,
warned that authorization of such
a service would be contested in
the courts. Whereupon, the city
officials, to get around the di
lemma, authorized a token ap
propriation of $100 to transport
parochial children so that a test
case could be brought in the
courts.
RELY ON U. S. SUPREME
COURT
Pres umably, opponents of
transportation for paroc hial
schools in Maine, where a few
communities already have au
thorized it, will carry the case
to the Maine Supreme Court.
If the matter rested there, the
effect of the outcome would have
no bearing upon the actions of
the authorities of other states.
But if the decision of the Maine
Supreme Court is favorable to
the Catholics of Augusta, the op
ponents may seek to carry the
case to the United States Supreme
Court.
The powerful groups seeking
to prevent the use of public funds
to provide services for pai'ochial
school pupils have never given
up the hope that the United
States Supreme Court may re
consider its previous rulings.
They base this hope upon the
fact that the division of the court
was extremely close in the Ever
son case — in which the consti
tutionality of laws permitting
(Continued on Page Five)