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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. li/ash ing^lon 1/lewSletter... 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)