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FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
NOVEMBER 23, 1957,
©It? lulklttt
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
416 Eighth Street. Augusta, Ga.
Vol. 38 Saturday, November 23, 1957 No. 13
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 MARKW ALTER, 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,
md 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
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.
ter
%^Ua3hington l/^jeivsiette
More Than Half Of Prelates
Attending Bishops’ Annual
Meeting Helped Prepare For It
Lourenco Marques
THIS WORLD OF OURS
WASHINGTON, — Nearly half
of all those who attended the
annual general meeting of the
Archbishops and Bishops of the
United States just held here had
an active part in preparing for it.
There are in the United States
a total of 213 members of the
Hierarchy, including four Car
dinals, 31 Archbishops and 178
Bishops. Of these 179 attended
the meeting just held at the Cath
olic University of America, and
some 80 of them had a hand in
the preparations.
The 80 Cardinals, Archbishops
and Bishops included the mem
bers of the Administrative Board
of the National Catholic Welfare
Conference, those who helped to
prepare the statements which the
meeting adopted, and those who
were members of a score of com
mittees and conferences that re
ported during the session.
Appointments to these various
groups seek not only to utilize to
the highest degree particular
talents and experiences, but also
to give widespread representation
to the work of the Bishops.
The membership of the NCWC
Administrative Board is a case in
point. Ten Archbishops and
Bishops are elected at the general
meeting to constitute the mem
bership of this board. The four
American Cardinals are members
ex officio. The elected members
meet later at the NCWC head-
WASHINGTON, (NC) — The
National Office for Decent Litera
ture said in its annual report
that during the past year it has
been encouraged by a growing
public awareness of the offensive
ness of many publications.
The Bishops’ Committee on the
NODL, of which Bishop John F.
Dearden of Pittsburgh is chair
man, presented the report to the
annual gathering of the hierarchy
at the Catholic University of
America.
The NODL, said the report, has
observed during the past year
numerous events that “reaffirm
its conviction that an aroused
quarters and organize, choosing
a chairman, vice chairman, secre
tary and treasurer, and naming
individual members at the epis
copal chairman of the various
NCWC departments.
But the election is for one year.
When the ten members of the
board present their reports at
the next annual meeting, the
term of each member is up.
According to established pro
cedure, and to provide for rota
tion on the Administrative Board,
no member serves for more than
five consecutive terms (except in
extraordinary circumstance), but
he may again be eligible for elec
tion after one year out of office.
To assure continuity, it sometimes
happens that a member serves six
one-year terms. This occurs when
under certain circumstances more
than two members are due to re
tire at an annual meeting—in
which case only the two who are
senior in continuous service are
designated as ineligible. Elections
are by secret ballot.
When the ten Archbishops and
Bishops elected members of the
Administrative Board meet at the
NCWC headquarters building and
organize, they appoint a number
of other bishops to serve as assis
tant chairmen of the several de
partments. Still other bishops are
named advisors for various phases
of the work within the NCWC
Department of Social Action.
public opinion is the one and only
weapon that will ultimately re
move objectionable publications
from retail outlets.”
One of the most significant of
these happenings, continued the
report, is the formation by 35
Protestant denominations recent
ly of a “Churchmen’s Commission
for Decent Publications.”,
“The new constitution calls for
coordination of church organ
izational and individual efforts
to eliminate the publication and
distribution of indecent and ob
scene materials, and the en
couragement of necessary Federal,
(Continued on Page 5)
(By Richard Pattee)
Portuguese East Africa, or
Mozambique as it is more gen
erally known, is profoundly dif
ferent from Angola on the other
side of the continent. Here on the
coast of the Indian Ocean the
South ^fricans. 'The city o^
Lourenco Marques with one of
the most extraordinarily modern
cathedrals I have seen anywhere
is thronged with tourists and
visitors from the various parts of
the Union of South Africa. They
come from the Transvaal, Orange
Free State, Natal and the Cape,
plus hundreds from Rhodesia,
both North and South. So tourist-
ridden is the capital of Mozam
bique that it is reminiscent of
Washington in June.
South Africans have long since
discovered the beaches of Portu
guese East Africa and during the
winter months when snow and
chills characterize the highlands
they occupy every available hotel
room in Mozambique. At the Pol-
ana Hotel where I stayed in Lour
enco Marques, I was almost the
only non-South African and one
hears more English and Afrikaans
than Portuguese spoken. The
hotel personnel is largely Goan
from India.
GOOD RACE RELATIONS
Race relations in Portuguese
Africa are not tense and contrast
completely with the rigid Apart
heid on the other side of the fron
tier. I have often wondered if
South Africans do not come here
The Fund for the Republic is
about to embark upon an inquiry
into the role of religion in Ameri
can life. The project, we are in
formed, will deal with the re
lationship between Church and
State, the role
of religion in
public life and
religions d i s -
sent.
This is wel
come news. For
a serious study
of the subject,
particularly of
the relationship
and State, has long been sorely
needed. The dicussions we have
had up till now have been for
the most part surcharged with
emotion, bias and. even distortion.
Indeed, the more vocal spokes
men for one side of the contro
versy appear to be animated by a
violent prejudice against the
Catholic Church.
If, however, we may judge
from the caliber of those named
to conduct it and to serve as con
sultants to the directors, the
Fund’s projected study should pro
duce more light, than heat, even
though it fails to find a solution
for the frictions among religious
groups or a way of reconciling
conflicting points of view.
CHURCH LEADERS
COOPERATE
The project will be administered
by John Cogley, a former editor
of The Commonweal, who con
ducted the Fund’s study of
\r.; •
to get away from their own social
ly embroiled territory to live a
more relaxed life "in Which even
the Dutch Reformed sip wine and
seem to be unbothered by the
proximity of darker skin. The
Portuguese have a genius for mix
ing races and living in oblivion
of the juxtaposition of those of
different hues and colors. More
over they have done an astonish
ing job of integrating peoples
of the most diverse origins into a
single, uniform pattern.
I noticed in visiting the famous
Gorongosa Animal Reserve that
the day I was there a group of
about 20 young Chinese, men and
women were there, all speaking
Portuguese.
Aside from their appearance
they seemed as Portuguese as
anyone straight out of Lisbon or
Porto.
Lourenco Marques is the port
for a goodly part of interior Afri
ca and especially Rhodesia, thus
giving it an air of prosperity that
is remarkable. There are far less
European settlers than in Angola
and in general the tendency of
Portuguese continentals is to go
to the West coast rather than
come here. The land partakes in
many ways of Asia even down to
the growing and exportation of
tea. With a total population of
over five million there is still a
long way to go toward raising
living standards and producing
the lusotropical society of which
Portugal is justly proud.
One of the major problems here
has always been the exportation
of native labor, to the South Afri
can mines. I spent a day at a
place called Manhica where a
system of cooperatives have been
developed on a considerable scale.
In talking with some of the Afri
cans in the community I was told
alleged blackballing of actors and
entertainers hailed before Con
gressional committees for ques
tioning about alleged communist
connections.
Furthur assurance that the in
quiry will give full consideration
to all points of view is to be found
in the appointment of two dis
tinguished clergymen as co
ordinators. These are Father John
Courtney Murray, S. J., editor of
Theological Studies, and Dr.
Reinbold Niebuhr, distinguished
Protestant theologian.
Other consultants who will
work with the coordinators are
William Clancey, education direc
tor of the Church Peace Union;
Arthur Cohen, publisher of Meri
dian Books; Rabbi Robert Gordis,
of the Jewish Theological Semin
ary; William Gorman, -former
associate director of the Institute
for Theological Research; Mark
de Wolfe Howe; of. Harvard Law
Schools; Dr.. Ernest Johnson, of the
National Council of Churches of
Christ; Robert Lekachman, of
Barnard College, and Dr. William
Lee Miller, of'the-Yale Divinity
School. -
Three; members: of the Fund’s
board .qf directors—Dr. Henry P.
Van Dusen, president of Union
Theological Seminary; Msgr. Fran
cis J. Lally, editor of The Boston
Pilot, and Mrs. Eleanor Stevenson,
of Oberlin, Ohio—will maintain
liaison between the project and
the fund.
According to the Fund’s
announcement, the inquiry will
that in the last ten years the
local economic situation has im
proved so much that they no lon
ger feel obliged to seek work
abroad.
I learned that for a long time
the African girls were unwilling
to marry a young man unless he
had been in South Africa in the
mines under contract. This form
of social prestige reminded me
of what occurs in Ghana where
the aspiring young damsel insists
that her swain shall have spent
a bit of time in London and be
able to demonstrate that he is
capable of keeping a frigidaire
full of eatables before considering
him as a proper suitor.
NEED FOR MISSIONERS
I called on Cardinal Gouveia
while here and spent a delightful
couple of hours with this Prince
of the Church, who is the only
Cardinal in all Africa. Portu
guese born, he is completely
identified with this area and
spoke in glowing terms of the
vast improvements in religion
over the last 25 years. New dio
ceses have been created: the last
at Porto Amelia within the last
few months. Gradually the num
ber of missioners is increasing.
The first native priests have been
ordained and by and large the
outlook is good. The only really
difficult problem is the pre
valence of Islam in the north for
the Arabs have historically ex
tended their influence far south
into Tanganyika and part of Mo
zambique. In the south of this
territory every African speaks
Portuguese; as one’moves north
to Inhambane, Beira and Queli-
mane the number decreases. A
crying need is for more mission
aries. The conditions are ideal
with the Salazar government
giving full support to their efforts.
cover a variety of issues which
are now the subject of much
heated controversy among the
American people. These will in
clude the rights, duties and effect
upon freedom of religious pres
sure groups; the use of public
funds to assist church-supported
education, released-time and
“moral guidance” programs in the
public schools, bloc voting and
the like.
Special studies and research
will be commissioned from quali
fied individuals and institutions.
And from time to time leading
spokesmen for the various faiths,
as well as representatives of the
non-religious point of view, will
be called in for consultation.
Scarcely a controversial subject
could be mentioned concerning
which so much- bigoted nonsense
has been written or spoken as on
the question of. Church and’ State
relationships. While:it is not to be
expected that the Fund’s inquiry
will be able to find common
ground in all areasjof ■the study,
it is reasonable to Rope that, as
the Fund’s d irectors suggested,
“fresh definitions of fundamental
problems and a- clarification of
arguments will emerge.”
Moreover, an abler expounder
of the Catholic point -of view on
the Church and State relation
ship than Father Murray would
be hard to find. He will bring to
the inquiry the fruits of years of
reflection on this thorny question.
In the past few months he has
(Continued on Page 5)
ENCOURAGED BY AWARENESS
OF OFFENSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Study Of Role Of Religion in American Life
THE BACKDROP
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
between Church