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FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
APRIL 27, 1957,
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The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
416 Eighth Street, Augusta, Ga.
Vol, 37 Saturday, April 27, 1957 No. 24
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1955-1956
JOHN M. BRENNAN, Savannah President
E. M. HEAGARTY, Way cross 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,
Mid 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.
Strange Invitation
Last week-end a meeting of the Imperial Council of the
Ku Klux Klan was held at Greenville, S. C. The gathering
is reported to have attracted 64 Klansmen from 21 states.
Reports of the meeting quote an Imperial officer as stating
that Klan membership has been opened to Catholics.
From Macon comes a statement that Catholics are not
wanted in the Bibb County Klan. The U. S. Klans, Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., which province covers the South
ern half of the state from Macon down states in the press
that: “Membership in the U. S. Klans, Knights of the Ku
Klux Klans, Inc., is open only to American-born, white gen
tile Americans. They went on to state this does not include
Catholics.
Catholics in the Southern half of Georgia are honored
that the Klan docs not want them. We wonder at the action
taken by the Klan meeting at Greenville. Surely they realize
that Catholics want no part of their organization, which is
professedly anti-Catholic and has done and is doing so much
to foster hatred in our beloved America.
%^Jasliinglon oCetter....
Easter Season Prompts Look
At Prospects For World Peace
(By J. J. Gilbert)
WASHINGTON,—As the world
observes the holy season of Easter,
this is the outlook for peace in the
“capital of the world.”
Competent authorities do not
expect World War III “in the
foreseeable future.” At the same
time they expect the “cold war”
to continue at least for the life
time of present day adults.
This is not leal peace, but it is
better than real war. In fact, be
cause modern warfare has become
so terrible, and is becoming more
horrible day by day, experts be
lieve that it soon may become
“too costly” for any nation to in
dulge in.
There is an enormous ferment
going on in the world. This is
due to many things, including the
decline of old empires, the emerg
ence of a large number of new
independent nations, and the
struggles of “have not” peoples
for a greater share of the world’s
goods. This unrest could be good
in itself, and lead to real world
progress. However, manipulated
by powers desirous of sustaining
the “cold war,” it can be produc
tive of much harm, and never ap
proach solution.
The world picture is one of
great complexity. Here are only
some questions as to how involv
ed it realty is:
Protests made in recent days
by Russia against what it called
“discrimination” against Soviet
ships in the Panama Canal have
opened up a sort of sub-front in
the “cold war.” It was through
here, once the Suez Canal crisis
developed, that Russia would try
to make trouble for us in connec
tion with the Panama Canal. The
protests may be one way that
they intend to use to embarrass
us.
But this is in the nature of a
sub-front, because communists in
trigue has long been spread
throughout Latin America.
At the same time, Soviet in
volvement helps to make a tin-
derbox of the Middle East, and
undoubtedly will help to postpone
a solution of that problem. Else
where, Red China’s demands for
trade and admittance to the Unit
ed Nations helps to disturb the at
mosphere. Here, the matter is
somewhat involved by the de
termination of Great Britain and
Japan to trade with the Peking
regime.
Great Britain’s decision,
prompted by economic pressure,
to reduce its armed forces has its
repercussions in NATO, and all
the nations belonging to that
organization.
Moscow’s truculent talk to some
European nations, warning them
against the establishment of guid
ed missile bases within their bor
ders might have been more fear-
inspiring under other circum
stances. It is believed, however,
that this country’s near approach
to the production of a 1500-mile
range guided ballistic missile
(which might be made available
(Continued on Page 7)
The U- S. As A Middle East Power
THIS WORLD OF OURS
(By Richard Pattee)
I wonder if we have realized
the extraordinary rapidity with
which this country, in the brief
space of four months, has been
catapulted into the position of the
major power in the Middle East.
Here tofore—
at least until
Novem her 2,
1956—the Unit
ed States was
interested but
not active in
that area. Noth
ing a b s o r bed
the attention of
the United
States government in that part of
the world comparable to the con
centrated interest devoted to For
mosa or the Far East. Events of
early last autumn changed all
that. Today we find ourselves the
heirs of France and the United
Kingdom in an area that starts in
Morocco and ends in Pakistan.
PART OF A POLICY?
The facts that the U. S. govern
ment has made haste to assure
Morocco and Tunis of economic
aid, that Vice President Nixon
managed to learn enough Arabic
to hail Bourguiba in Tunis, to the
delight of the Tunisians, and that
the American presence in general
in Africa and the Middle East is
becoming more visible every day,
all confirm a deep suspicion in the
minds of many French and Brit
ish. Is this, they wonder, part of a
definite policy of displacement
and penetration on the part of the
United States in that part of the
globe?
The reasoning runs something
like this: The events of last No
vember were made to order to
liquidate, once and for all, British
and French influence in the Mid
dle East. The stand taken against
these two powers by Mr. Dulles
and the president, ended once
and for all their prestige and
power in the region. The void,
about which so much has been
said, was the direct consequence
of this loss of face and abandon
ment of position. It was an ideal
set-up for the introduction of
American influence on a large
scale. The alacrity with which
Tunis and Morocco were recogniz
ed and offered aid is part of the
same picture.
FRENCH SUSPICIONS
The French mind in particular
is a complicated one and rarely
sees things in a simple light. In
a recent number of the excellent
review, France Outremer, there
is a running comment on the
manner in which the Washington
government is pushing its claims,
both directly and indirectly. Spain
enters the picture. Many French
journals are criticizing most se
verely their governments, past
and present, for the long boycott
of Spain which has resulted, quite
simply, in pushing Spain directly
into the arms of the United
States under the form of a close
alliance and mutual aid pact.
Spain undoubtedly is interested
in picking up as many of the
pieces as possible of the shattered
French African empire—if not
the actual physical pieces, at least
the prestige and influence that
France no longer exerts in North
Africa, Spain is acting and can
act only with American economic
and military aid; therefore, as
the one European nation still able
to speak for the Arabs, it be
comes an invaluable asset for the
furtherance of American interests.
It has been widely suspected in
Paris that the visit of Ibn Saud
was designed not merely to win
a friend and influence a few Sau
di Arabians, but to work through
his personality and prestige on
Morocco and the North African
lands.
BOGGED-DOWN IN INTRIGUE
The outlook holds precious lit
tle promise for anything remotely
resembling “open diplomacy op
enly arrived at.” We shall un
doubtedly find that we are now
going to 1 be bogged down in the
most fantastic world of intrigues
and plotting to which any nation
has ever been exposed, and all of
this within the short space of a
few months.
While I am convinced that the
position of our government last
November was the sound one, I
am equally convinced that we are
going to regret the day that
France and Britain left the area
and shoved its problems, respon
sibilities and hopes off on the
United States.
BEARING THE BRUNT
The eagerness to liquidate the
last vestiges of “colonialism” can
demand a very heavy price. I am
afraid we have been a little too
prone to see wicked and diaboli
cal colonialism in everything
France and Britain did in the
Middle East and North Africa.
Their exit demonstrates that as
they leave, someone else enters.
If that someone is the United
States, then we shall have to bear
the. brunt of the charges of im
perialism, colonialism, spheres of
influence and all the rest.
A Slicker Type Of Mendacity
THE BACKDROP
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
The current attack upon the
Catholic Church in this country
by the spokesmen for Protestants
and Other Americans United for
Separation o f
Church and
State is far
more subtile
than that waged
by the Ku Klux
Klan in the ear
ly 1920’s.
Where the
hooded orators
of the Klan specialized in charges
so fantastic that only the most
gullible could believe them, the
present day critics rely mainly on
gross distortion of fact.
thor, was the nearly $1,000,000
voted by the Eighty-fourth Con
gress to “refurbish” the Pope’s
summer palace.
“This subsity to the Pope,” says
the writer of this article, “went
through as a high-level, non-parti
san item. No one would have
thought of voting against it. To
do so might have offended the
Catholic vote.”
This overlooks conveniently the
fact that a majority of the mem
bers of both Houses of Congress
need have no fear of the “Catho
lic vote” whatever, since in their
states and constituencies it hard
ly exists.
'ALLEGEDLY' KEY WORD
No intelligent American ever
put the slightest credence in the
Klan’s charge that guns were
being hoarded in the basements of
Catholic Churches and schools
against the day when Catholics
would rise up and take over the
country for the Pope by force of
arms. But many Americans of
more than average intelligence
seem to be impressed by the
charge of the POAU that the
American Hierarchy is working
boldly to destroy the principle of
separation of Church and State.
THE HALF TRUTH
For the bold-faced lie of the de-
morogic kleagles of the Klan,
the leaders of the current attack
—many of whom are graduates
of our colleges and universities—
have substituted a slicker type of
mendacity: the half truth.
A recent article by one of the
officials of the POAU pictures
the Church as engaged in a gigan
tic raid upon the public treasury.
A good example, cited by the au-
The author admits that the pay
ment was for damages “allegedly”
inflicted by American bombs upon
a neutral power in World War II.
The word “allegedly” is thrown in
to create a doubt—either that
American bombs were responsible
for the attacks, or that the palace
actually was damaged at all. Yet,
we all know that reparations
were paid only after an official
commission had examined the
premises and determined the
amount of damage inflicted.
The POAU critic also challeng
es the right of the Pope, as a
neutral, to indemnity for damage
to the summer palace by pointing
out that it lies outside Vatican
City. As if the palace lost its neu
tral status by reason of being lo
cated a short distance outside the
borders of the Pope’s domain!
As we all know reparations
were paid by the United States
under the general program of re
habilitation of the Philippines,
after the war for damage suffered
by Church properties in the is
lands. But how many of us realize
without reading this article, that
the bill authorizing the payments
was “smuggled through the Sen
ate in the confusion before ad
journment of the Eighty-fourth
Congress.” How, one may ask, is
a bill “smuggled” through a legis
lative body that conducts all its
votes in public sessions?
LOBBYISTS' ALERT CHURCH
OFFICIALS
It is news too to most of us
that after the war “American lob
byists” (unidentified by the au
thor) “visited the Philippines and
alerted Roman Catholic officials
(also unidentified) to the rich po
tential in war services and war
damages.”
The bill, the writer of the arti
cle tells us, provided some $8,000,
000 for Roman Catholic “activi
ties” in the Philippines, but he
suggests that much more may
have been paid out.
“How many more millions were
paid is difficult for an outsider to
determine,” he writes. Difficult
certainty for one who prefers in
nuendo to fact and does not take
the trouble to learn the fact. The
government keeps records of all
its disbursements and these are
available to any citizen who wish
es to examine them.
EVEN AUTHOR SHOULD
KNOW WHY
In the hope of convincing Amer
ican taxpayers that favoritism was
hown the Roman Catholic Church
in the Philippines, the POAU of
ficial notes that, while the Church
received $8,000,000, Protestants
(Continued on Page 5)