Newspaper Page Text
FOUR
'"-"^EWWprTHE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
AUGUST 31, 1957.
'BnlUtxn
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen's
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
416 Eighth Street, Augusta, Ga.
V i 18 Saturday, August 31, 1957 No. 7
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS~FOR 1955-1956
JOHN JX BRENNAN, Savannah President
S. M. HEAGARTY, Wa-ycross Honorary Vice-President
MRS. L. E. MOCK, Albany Vice-President
i.’OM GRIFFIN, Atlanta Vice-President
DAMON J. SWANN, Atlanta V. P., Publicity
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus V. P., Activities
i TICK CAMERiO, Macon Secretary
JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta Treasurer
JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta I Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
Sntered as second class matter at the Post Office, Monroe, Georgia,
®d 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
>f the United States, the Georgia Press Association, and the National
Editorial Association.
Published fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Geor-
jia, Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Reverend Archbishop-
Sishop of Savannah, the Most Reverend Bishop of Atlanta, and the
Right Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont.
riTO AGAIN CALLS THE TUNE
ANi US HEE9S HIS WARNING
(By J. J. Gilbert)
WASHINGTON — Another epi
sode is being chronicled in the
almost unbelievable story of the
(relations between the United
States Government and commu
nist Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia.
The Red dictator in Belgrade
has taken more than a billion
dollars in U. S. aid, more or less
am his own terms. He has not
promised to help us, or to side
with us. He has openly proclaim
ed that he is a communist and in
tends to remain one. Americans
have been told not to be critical
of this unusual situation, because
it might make Tito angry.
Now the U. S. Government is
showing disappointing restraint in
handling a particularly fine prop
aganda opportunity, and here
again because we might offend
Marshal Tito.
The latest development in
volves the new book, “The New
Class,” written by Milovan Djilas.
D.jilas was once Tito’s righthand
man, but now he is in jail for
having written against the Yugo
slav regime. The manuscript for
his book, published in this coun
try, was smuggled out of Yugo
slavia. It is regarded as an effec-
(Continued on Page 5)
U. S. Becoming Nation Of "Refined Pagans"
ST. LOUIS— 1 The United States
fis fast becoming a nation of “re-
ffined pagans,” Archbishop Jos
eph E. Ritter of St. Louis declared
here.
Speaking on the necessity of a
Catholic education at all levels,
she prelate said there is little
wonder that Catholics are be
coming “infected with the virus
of worldliness and materialism.”
“For this very reason all of us,
whether we be lettered or un
fettered, poor or rich, should see
she necessity of giving absolute
and unconditional obedience to
she Church in everything that it
commands,” he said.
“We are living in an age of al
most total indifference to spirit
ual things and to things pertain
ing to faith and morals. The vast
majority of people do not bother
shemselves about God. about sin
or about eternity. They are only
concerned about their material
and physical well-being, with
(pleasure and enjoyments, licit or
illicit, of the things of this life.”
In such an age, a religious edu
cation becomes even more im-
yportant as a needed part of a
growing youth’s development, the
Archbishop said. In secular edu
cation there is a great deal of con
fusion about aims and purposes,
he pointed out. Catholic educa
tion, on the other hand, has a
definite and true philosophy of
ife to guide it.
The Archbishop contrasted the
od vantages a child could receive
f a a Catholic school, where he
gets a “complete” picture of re
ality, with the view he gets in a
secular school where the view is
distorted.
“The underlying principle of
Catholic education,” he said, “is
that there exists an inviolable
bond between education of the
mind and religious education. Re
ligion is not a mere adjunct of the
curriculum, it is the very center
and inspiration of the .whole sys
tem.
“But the study of nature with
out reference to God, the study
of human ideals without mention
of Jesus Christ, the study of hu
man legislation without divine
law is, to say the least, a distorted
and incomplete education.”
Bereft of religion, the teaching
of morals becomes an appeal to
expediency or the inculcation of
a form of morality which might
be called “social responsibility,”
so prevalent today, he said.
Because of the fact that outside
the church school there is no
complete education for youth to
day. the Church “very properly
places upon parents an obligation
binding under pain of serious sin
to send their children to Catholic
schools where they are available:
grammar school, high school and
college,” Archbishop Ritter said.
Canons of the church that allow
bishops to permit children, in ex
ceptional circumstances to attend
non-Catholic schools, make note
of the fact that such attendance is
only “tolerated,” not encouraged,
the Archbishop stated.
French West Africa
THIS WORLD OF OURS
(By Richard Pailee)
After a few days in Dakar and
region, I have come on to Ziguin-
chor in the south of the Senegal,
over the line of Gambia, the tiny
British colony that thrusts itself
tongue-like into French domains.
From here I
will be picked
up by a car
from the Portu
guese province
of Guinea and
drive to Bissau
in that area.
In the first
report from
Senegal I made
mention of the extraordinary
work that the Catholic press is
doing here. I have spent a good
bit of time with Father Benoist
of the White Fathers, one of four
of the community who are sta
tioned here for the purpose of
taking care of Catholic press in
terests. This strikes me as an
amazingly forward looking poli
cy, for in French Africa the press
is obviously of great importance.
The political and social effer-
vescense is intense all over this
area and nothing is quite as im
portant as to get Catholic ideas
over in a non-polemical but clear
manner. Father Benoist tells me
that his periodical, Afrique Nou-
velle circulates from 30 to 40 per
cent among non-Catholics. It has
opened the way for a greater re
ception of Catholic ideas because
it devotes so much attention to
general political and economic
trends as well as religion.
MOSLEMS NOT ORTHODOX
The immediate area of Dakar
is about 80 to 90 per cent Mos
lem. This has very specific impli
cations for the situation of the
Church here. But I have discover
ed very quickly that Islam in this
part of Africa is not at all what
it is in the Middle East. In the
first place the distance from the
great Moslem centers of Cairo
and Damascus means that it is
an Islam that is largely non-Ara
bic. Perhaps five per cent of the
Moslems in the Senegal know any
Arabic at all. This in spite of the
number of Koranic schools and
the efforts of certain young in
tellectuals who have been to Cai
ro to instill a greater orthodoxy
in the belief.
This is the area of the “mara
bous,” that is, the personal spirit
ual leaders who exert a very
great influence but who do not
conform strictly to the Islamic
tradition. On the streets in Dakar
and the Senegalese towns one
sees the tarbush everywhere,
plus the amulets and other adorn
ments of those who have not
completely abandoned fetishism.
There is a curious combination of
Islam, the survival of African
superstitions and practices and a
veneer of French civilization that
makes the scene very difficult to
assess.
Priests tell me that Islam is not
militant and not particularly anti-
Christian. It is obviously a force,
but hardly one that makes for
progress or for the advancement
of the individual. There is an
element of stagnancy and passi
vity about Islam that probably
facilitates the work of the Church
considerably.
The Bishops have undertaken
to spread Catholic thought, es
pecially the social teachings of
the Church, through meetings to
which Moslem leaders are invit
ed. In many cases they have re
sponded with enthusiasm. Con
version is not the immediate task
but the creation of a climate fav- ^
orable to the Church — and one
that will make the transition
from general outlook to specific
dogma more easy.
NATIVE BISHOPS
I plan to visit Bishop Prospera
Dodds of Ziguinchor while in this
part of the world as I am particu
larly keen to have contact with
native Bishops. Their number is
growing and their place is of su
preme importance in the proper
“Africanization” of the Church.
On leaving the Senegal it may
be pertinent to suggest a few
broad impressions of one of the
most important and significant of
the French territories.
In the first place, since 1946J
French thinking has evolved tre
mendously. The idea of dealing
with French Africa as though it
were France has been abandoned;
Today the basic idea is that the
African shall become responsible,
under the French Union, for the
management and administration
of his own territories. He will
now be responsible for measures
taken in social, economic and
other matters. Delegated respon
sibility about sums it up. It iS
strikingly different from what
the Belgian and Portuguese do. I
shall try in succeeding pieces to
call attention to some of these
basic variations.
The Twelve-Month School Year
THE BACKDROP
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
As we all know, overcrowding
in the schools—parochial as well
as public—has become a critical
problem. Already taxpayers are
groaning under the staggering
costs of education — Catholics
in particular,
since they sup
port two school
systems. P r o-
posals for fur
ther heavy out
lays for n e w
school b u il d
ings are meet
ing stiffening®
opposition.
Reluctant to go again to the
overburdened taxpayer for hun
dreds of additional millions for
new schools, public officials and a
few diocesan school administrat
ors are looking for an alternative
solution to the overcrowding
problem.
A few weeks ago the question
was raised at the annual con
ference of the nation’s governors
at Williamsburg, Va., during a
panel discussion of the school
room shortage.
IDLE THREE MONTHS
“Before we lay out more mil
lions of dollars for new buildings,
let us consider whether we are
getting the most out of the build
ings 'we have,” suggested the
Governor of South Carolina.
“As every one knows, for the
most part, our school buildings
stand idle three months out of
the year, undergoing rapid de
terioration from vandalism and,
in my state, from our humid
climate. W hat would we say
about the management of a busi
ness corporation who used its
plant only nine months of the
year?”
The South Carolina Governor
proposed a shift from the tradi
tional nine-month school year to
a year-round, four quarters, reg
ular school year, with attendance
staggered so that each student
would attend three of the four
quarters.
With such a system, it can rea
dily be seen, the total capacity
of the school building would be
increased by substantially one-
fourth.
Another advantage, claimed
for the plan by the South Caro
lina governor, was that it would
tend to offset the need for new
teachers, who are in short supply.
Assuming that a teacher would
be willing to work throughout
the year with a vacation corn-
payable to that of most business
and professional people, he could
teach about one-fourth more stu
dents that in a nine-month year.
BENEFITS TO PUPILS
Aside from the economy of
the full-year . plan (it would not
materially increase the per pupil
cost) the Governor suggested ad
vantages that would accrue to
the pupils.
For example, a student who
had failed a subject would be
able to make it up in the fourth
quarter, thus sparing himself
the humiliation of being held
back a full year.
The idea of year-round opera
tion of school plants did not
originate in South Carolina, as its
governor admitted. From time to
time it has been tried out in other
communities with some success.
A number of communities have
considered adoption of the year-
round plan, notably Los Angeles,
where a committee appointed by
the superintendent of schools
weighed the pros and cons. Its ob
servations w e r e mixed. The
scheme, it reported, had highly
attractive features but involved
important problems.
DISADVANTAGES CITED
One of the objections cited by
professional educators is that the
students who had to attend the
quarter falling in the summer
months would have to study in
the discomfort of high tempera.’
tures.
Another objection, voiced
mainly by parents, is that the
four-quarters plan would inter™
fere with vacation plans and ar
rangements to which millions ot
Americans have become accus
tomed. One quarter of the child
ren would have their vacation in
the summer, one fourth in the
fall, one fourth in the winter and
one fourth in the spring. Unless
all the children in one family
were assigned the same threa
quartex-s of attendance, this
would mean bi'others and sisters
would be on vacation at different
times of the year.
In a few school systems where
the four-quarters plan . has been
tried, school superintendent
have complained that they had
difficulty cax-rying on necessary
repairs, painting and mainten
ance. Others have reported that
the full-year attendance mini
mized maintenance, problems,
since the greatest deterioration
takes place in the vacation period
when the buildings are not occu
pied.
NO 'CURE ALL'
Advocates of the full time usa
of school buildings readily admit
that it is no “cure all” for the
school crisis. They realize that
community attachment to the
present nine-month term is so
strong that a widespread adoj*.
(Continued on Page 5)