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FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
DECEMBER 21, 1957.
Site Bulletin
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated ;
JOHN MARKWALTER, Editor
416 Eighth Street. Augusta, Ga.
Vol. 38 Saturday, December 21, 1957 No. 15
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1955-1956
GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus President
E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross. Honorary Vice-President
MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon . : Vice-President
TOM GRIFFIN, Atlahta Vice-President
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,
»nd 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
it 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
Bight Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont.
C^ome Jo Jhe
O full grown men and men grown old,
have you let your hearts grow cold?
Would you warm them at this time
as they were in your youth and prime?
Come to the crib of the sweet Christ child
Who came with his mother, meek and mild,
to warm all hearts grown hard as stone,
pressed so lovingly to His own!
More loving His heart than seraphim—
He give you His heart: give your to Him!
—Constance Greystan.
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NATO MEETING EXPECTED TO
FOCUS WORLD ATTENTION ON
POPE’S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
The Church In Africa: Political Unrest
THIS WORLD OF OURS
(By Richard Paltee)
In the last of this long series
of articles on Africa, I propose
to examine some of the more
acute problems that face the
Church in that continent. They
are characteristic of the type of
anxiety that
faces the Bish
ops and faithful
in an Africa
that is fast ex
panding into
the twentieth
century. On the
whole there is
hope and opti
mism for the. future but the dark
spots are by no means lacking.
It would be irresponsible to pre
tend that the emergence of a
politically conscious Africa does
not bring with it the gravest
problems of readjustment both
material and spiritual, for the
Church.
I have referred in previous ar
ticles to the general challenge of
nationalism and to the vast in
roads of Islam. I think it may be
useful now to take a few specific
examples of some of the diffi
culties that have come to pass.
Suppose we begin with what, by
all odds, would seem to be the
most favorable situation of all,
the Belgian Congo.
During the past year the Congo
has been beset by political un
rest such as it has never known
before. Two African publications
were suppressed, not for politi
cal, but for moral reasons and
this led to a certain criticism of
the authorities. During 1956 the
various political groups in Bel
gium felt called upon to manifest
their interest in and intentions
toward the Congo. The Christian
Social Party, the Socialists and
the Christian Trade Unions all
joined in this. An African group
called “Conscience Africaine”
joined in this chorus and finally
professor Van Bilsen of the In
stitute for Overseas Territories
publicized a statement regarding
a “plan for the emancipation of
Belgian Africa in 30 years.”
BISHOPS UPHOLD UNIONS
It would seem that the Bel
gians have, been somewhat aston
ished at the vhemence and elo
quence with which the African
Congolese have stated their po
sition and evidenced their inten
tion of laboring for the creation
of a real Belgo-Congolese com
munity. Paternalism ■— and ev*en
the best — ends with difficulty
and the coming of age of the Con
golese is perhaps the hardest
thing of all to grasp,'
The trade union movement in
its second congress in Leopold
ville insisted that the time has
come to lift the ban on the forma
tion of such unions-by Africans.
In June of 1956 the Hierarchy of
the Congo expressed its convic
tion quite clearly that “the free
association of workers can only
contribute to social peace and
understanding” and this obvious
ly referred to Africans as well as
Europeans.
Everywhere in Africa the trend
of population toward the cities
has been evident for some time,
particularly since the end of the
last war. The return to the village
or even - the- countryside in its
traditional form and according to
its traditional tribal life becomes
impossible. A number of young
Catholics in the Camerouns and
the Congo have been giving at
tention to the possibility of estab
lishing model villages along lines
that would attract the evolved
African. This was the result of
the survey made by the JOC in
1955 of the problem of the young
rural African under urban con
ditions.
Ever since 1954 the former re
lations of cordiality between
Church and State have declined
in the Congo. Every effort is
being made to increase the num
ber of state schools and even a
university to Offset the Lovanium
at Leopoldville. The grants to
Catholic schools have been cut
and every effort is made to cut
them down still more.
MISSIONS SUFFER
Even the missions have Suf
fered from the only slightly
yeiled hostility of the .State. Fre
quently when a mission ’ under
takes a project -— and to secure a
State subsidy it must have gov
ernment recognition — the State
undertakes at the same time a
similar enterprise largely to off
set the purely religious one. In
a certain sense this may produce
advantages for it distinguishes
the Church completely from the
civil authority and in the mind
of the African sets the two juris
dictions apart. This can have
certain benefits in the future if
the political nationalism of the
Congo masses should become hos
tile to the Belgian regime and
direct its ire against it.
The close association heretofore
of Church and State in the area
might well be a hindrance to the
continuation of effective evange
lization under an Africanized
system. The tragedy ;is that to
date the politics of Belgium have
not been tranplanted to the col
ony in Africa. Today- there is a
rising tendency to think of the
Congo as a branch of Belgium
and therefore subject to the Cath
olic-Socialist war over schools,
bilingualism and all the rest of
the divisive factors that have
been at work in European Bel
gium and of which the Congo
mercifully has bene entirely free
to date.
Urgent Need For A-Bomb Protection
(By J. J. Gilbert)
WASHINGTON, — Circum
stances are combining to give a
special interest to this year’s
Christmas message of His Holi-
riess Pope Pius XII.
It is thought that the Holy
Father will speak on “Peace,”
and some reports from Rome have
predicted that it will be a dis
course of great importance.
Papal talks of this sort are al
ways noted in the foreign offices
of nations round the world. Com
ing hard upon the close of the
NATO meeting in Paris, this
year’s message can be expected
to receive careful reading.
The NATO meeting could be
historic. This is so whether the
Sessions are a brilliant success or a
dismal failure. What happens in
Paris could go a long way toward
determining the policies of Soviet
Russia and the United States in
the future. The nations not yet
Etligned with the East or the West
will be watching carefully to see
the amount of harmony' and unity
the talks produce.
1 The Holy Father has worked
ceaselessly for peace, and no one
appreciates better than he does
the world situation today. It could
very well be that, following the
NATO meeting, the world may
be more anxious' than usual to
learn what the Pontiff has to say.
The fact that the Pope is speak
ing on Sunday, December 22, three
days ahead of Christmas, is ex
pected to contribute to a wider
dissemination of his words. For
many years His Holiness has
given his message on Christmas
eve. The Sunday-before-Christ-
mas.date is thought to Ije a better
time to attract the world’s ear.
The belief here is that Marshal
Tito was wringing all possible
propaganda value out of the sit
uation when he asked that U. S.
military aid to Yogoslavia be disr
continued. His claim to be humili
ated by frequent reappraisals of
the aid by the U. S. Government
grabbed headlines in many places.
Actually, Marshal Tito only
asked that the military aid be
terminated, and this was near an
end anyway. Everyone was con
vinced that it would be extremely
difficult, if not impossible, to get
the next session of Congress to go
along with further military help
for the communist dictator of
Yugoslavia.
Assistance already given was
justified here on the ground that
it kept a breach between Yugo
slavia and Soviet Russia and held
out hope of drawing Tito toward
the West. However, Tito em-
brassed his. supporters here by
seeming to draw closer and closer
to Moscow, following the death of
Stalin.
But, by playing one side against
the other, Tito has not done badly
for himself. He has already re
ceived well over a billion dollars
from the United States, and the
economic aid is likely to continue:
This amounted to over $100 mil
lion last year.
“St. Agatha was martyred at
Catania in 251. Not much is
known of her activities but she
is the patron of bell founders. For
that reason you ought to dedi
cate your alarm clock to her, and
ask her to remind you to set it
for Mass each morning.”—Christ
ian Life Calendar, .1958.
THE BACKDROP
By JOHN C. O’BRIEN
The development of long-range
missiles is not the only era of
national defense in which we, as
a nation, have been dragging our
feet. Although it was pretty def
initely established that the Sovi
et Union has
the capacity to
drop vastly de
structive nu
clear bombs |
upon our cities,
there has been |
no move by the 1
government to
provide shel- &
ters in w h i c h urban populations
could be shielded from deadly
radioactive fall-out.
Not only has the government
taken no steps to assure the coun
try’s survival in the event of a
indication that any big steps are
nuclear attack, but there is no
in the offing. Congressional lead
ers who attended a recent White
House conference on the 1958
legislative program said civil de
fense measures were not even
mentioned.
Yet the government has had re
peated warnings by nuclear ex
perts that we may face virtual
extinction as a nation if we fail
to construct a system of bomb
shelters; adjacent to our main
centers of population.
Dr. Edward J. Teller, the “fa
ther” of the A-bomb, for example,
as recently as last month urged
not only construction of shelters
against blast, fire and radioactiv
ity, but the stockpiling of . emer:
gency food supplies in strategic
locations. And within the last few
week the Federal Civil Defense
Agency laid before- the National
Security Council a nationwide
shelter plan.
BORED INDIFFERENCE
Unfortunately, however, there
is no sense of urgency about a
civil defense plan, not . only in the
government but among the peo
ple. For years the Civil Defense
Agency has been trying to arouse
Americans to the perils of nuclear
warfare, but its efforts have en
countered only bored indiffer
ences on the part of the public.
For this lack of concern two
main misconceptions, are respon
sible, One is that, until recently,
our leaders have been assuring
us that . there will never be a
nuclear war because any nation
which started one would itself
suffer vast destruction. The other
is that the risk we run of being
attacked does not justify the stag
gering expenditure a shelter sys
tem would entail.
Even a modest shelter plan, one
designed to protect against radio
active fall-out but not bomb blast
itself, • would cost about $20,000,-
000,000. The plan proposed by the
Civil Defense Agency; carried a
price tag of $32,000,000,000.
We are, of course, spending an
nually more than the cost of the
bomb shelter program on wea
pons to be used against an enemy
in the event of attack, but. Con
gress has been notably niggardly
about .appropriating, even m few
millions for the protection of the
American people Should war
come.
In the eight years since the
Civil Defense Agency was creat
ed, its budget has been slashed
an average of 80 percent a year.
In that time, Congress has ap
propriated a total of only $410,-
600,000 of a requested $2,100,000,-
000. Items that it disallowed in
cluded $750,000,000 for a shelter
program and $70,000,000 for ad
ding to the FCDA stockpile.
'FRIGHTENING THINGS'
Typical of the attitude of Con
gress toward civil defense is the
remark made by an Indiana Con
gressman to the chief of the Civil
Defense Agency last March. “‘The
way public sentiment is now,’*
said the Congressman,” I thin!?
any grandiose, expensive plan, no
matter how sensible it is and how
important it is, is going to get a
very cold reception. You couldn’t
any more sell the American peo
ple on a $30,000,000,000 govern
ment plan for air-raid shelters toi-
day than you could sell them a(
flight to the moon.”
That remark may have been ah
accurate summation: of . public
opinion last March. But since then
frightening things have been
happening. The Russians have
put up two man-made satellites,
an achievement that lends credi
bility to their claim that they
have long-range ballistic missiles,
capable of reaching American cit
ies. Today neither shelter pro-
,, ; (Continued, pn .Rage ,9)