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\ \ i V PAGE 8-B—The Southern Cross, January 5, 1963 HERE AND THERE MARY MARGARET BYRNE has been made Ladies’ Editor of the COLUMBUS (GA.) LED GER ENQUIRER ... In com petition with 5 other drill teams . in Augusta, BENEDICTINE MILITARY SCHOOL (Savannah) captured the 1st place trophy. Cadet Capt. EDWARDG. BURNS is the commanding officer of the winning drill team . . . Christmas Midnight Mass was celebrated in the Cathedral’s lower Church, the Chapel of Our Lady. Completion of the main church is planned for early this year ... A 50 yr. career in banking was concluded on Dec. 29,1962, when WALTER B. MURPHY, vice pres, of the Savannah Bank & Trust Com pany, retired. Having started as a messenger boy with the now defunct Chatham Bank in 1912, Walter was, in 1954, Grand Marshall of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Savannah. For 9 years he serv ed as treasurer of the Savannah Branch of the Catholic Lay man’s Association of Georgia . . . FRATER CLEMENT (LOUIS) PORZIO, O.S.B., na tive Savannahian and monk of Belmont Abbey, N. C., has been elevated to the rank of Deacon and will be ordained to the priesthood sometime this year. He is the son of Mrs. Frances Porpio and the late Louis Por- zio. . . State Representative- elect BART SHEA has been assigned to the Committee on Highways, Industry and Ports . . . JOSEPH E. KELLY III has been promoted to the post of controller of the Savannah Morning News and Evening Press. Joe, a native Savan nahian, attended Benedictine Military School, and is a gra duate of St. Bernard High School and Junior College, Cullman, Ala. . . Students at ST. VIN CENT’S ACADEMY, Sav’h., will hold their annual retreat Jan. 22-24. FR. KILLIAN Mc- GOWAN, C.P., Superior of the Monastery of North Palm Beach, Florida, will be the retreat master. Lectures, Praise Baptists For Stand Against Play COLUMBUS - St. Anne’s Holy Name Society sent a letter of commendation to the President of Baylor University and to the Waco Baptist Association, for the forthright action taken in closing the Eugene O’Neill pro duction, “Long Days Journey Into Night.’’ The protests which caused the cancellation of the play which involved the use of vul gar and profane language was initiated by the Baptist Minis ters Association of Waco. In a reply from President Abner V. McCall, Baylor Uni versity, it was pointed out that some desagreed with his ac tion. However, the majority of letters he received, "and they came from all faiths”, strongly supported him in closing the play. meditations, devotiona and pri vate consultations will com prise the daily schedule. . . MISS MARY LOU RYAN, a sen ior student nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Sav’h., was crowned “Miss St. Joseph” on Dec. 20, 1962. She was chosen by her fellow students on the basis of personality, school spi rit, scholastic standing, pro fessional appearance, and ability to get along with fellow students . . .Savannah Attor ney eugene McCracken is scheduled to become an assist ant solicitor general of the Eastern Judicial Circuit. Mc Cracken, a graduate of Benedic tine Military School, Armstrong College (Sav’h.), Mercer Uni versity (Macon) and Lumpkin Law School of the University of Georgia. He received his law degree from the latter school in 1957 . . . ANDREW J. RYAN, JR., Chatham County solicitor general, has been named Georgia Chairman for National Brotherhood Week, Feb. 17-24. The observance is sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, of which Ryan is a board member . . . BENEDICTINE’S BAND has been invited to par ticipate in Maudi Gras festivities in New Orleans. Fr. Lawrence A. Lucree P. O. Box 180 Savannah, Ga. ORTHODOX MONK SEES REUNION - Although the ma jority of monks on Mt. Athos, Orthodox monastic strong hold in Greece, are opposed to reunion between the Catho lic and Orthodox churches, a few have favored it. Archi mandrite Ilian (above), the Higoumen of the Russian monas tery of Panteleimon, predicted that reunion will occur within 60 years. He added that: Without reunion we will wither away before communism. (NC Photo) U. S. S. R. Still Persecutes Orthodox Church NEW YORK, (NC) - About 2,000 churches, largely Russian Orthodox, have been closed by government officials in the Sov iet Union in the past two years, a private research group has reported. The Institute for the Study of the USSR estimates that no more than 10,000 churches are open in the Soviet Union at present. This compares, it said, with 78,000 Orthodox churches alone which dotted the Russian coun tryside in 1916. The institute, whose main headquarters are in Munich, Germany, said the persecution of believers and their clergy is dramatically illustrated in a letter of protest sent to Pre mier Nikita Khrushchev by wor shippers of the famous Pochayev Monastery in the Western Ukrine. A copy of the letter of protest was obtained by the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Out side Russia, New York, and re leased to the public. The protest claims that So viet secret police are persecu ting the monastery’s monks, physically assaulting pilgrims and denying needed supplies to the monastery. The number of monks has been reduced from 140 in 1961 to 36 at present. Monks, it said, are dragged from the monastery, carried away in automobiles, beaten up and dropped hundreds of miles away with a warning not to re turn to Pochayev, the protest says. The help of the World Council or of a United National agency is requested to restore normal cy to the life of the monks. Institute sources here noted that the 22nd Communist Party Congress stressed “the neces sity of re-education for those who find themselves in the cap tivity of anti-scientific re ligious ideology.” The Congress declared that “the .religious point of view must receive in our socialist conditions the most decisive rebuff. Attacks against it cannot be weakened.” SAVANNAH RT. REV. MSGR. THOS. A. BRENNAN, Pastor REV. EDWARD FRANK, Assistant REV. GEORGE C. JAMES, Assistant Congratulations TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS From % Blessed Sacrament Parish f Tax-Paid Books School Pupils V BISHOP LAUDS; Support Of For Private PROVIDENCE, R. I., (NC) - Bishop Russell J. McVinney of Providence has lauded a study commission's recommendation that the state furnish science, mathematics and foreign lan guage textbooks to pupils in parochial and other private schools. * ‘The decision of the Gover nor's commission on the issue of state aid for the purchase of certain textbooks for child ren attending other than govern ment-sponsored schools seems most fair and sensible,” the Bishop said in a statement. “It has been our plan from the beginning,” he continued, “not to initiate an ex parte dispute but simply to present the case for unbiased appraisal by the citizenry of the state, confident that our fellow citizens with their sense of propriety and fairness would see the validity of the request.” The Bishop added that the commission’s findings seemed to bear out this conviction. “We are not looking for spe cial treatment for our children, but we feel that in this area children in private and paroch ial schools have every right to this state aid,” the Bishop said The commission's plan calls for books to be furnished by the state through local public school committees which would have' authority to approve the volumes. Msgr. Arthur T. Geoghegan, superintendent of diocesan schools, announced (Dec. 28) that a special meeting of the Catholic School Board would be held to discuss the recommen dations of the Governor’s Com mission and what action should be taken on them. Other developments resulting from the commission’s recent recommendations are that Rhode Island’s eight cities would pay nearly three-fourths of the cost of textbook aid re quested for parochial and other private school pupils. Of the $115,291 figured by Dr. William P. Robinson, act ing state commissioner of edu cation, as the price of provid ing mathematics, science and language texts to 46,113 non public school pupils, $85,628 apparently would be charged to the cities. Twenty-eight of the 31 Rhode Island towns would provide the balance of $29,663. Three towns have no nonpublic school en rollment for the year 1962-63. Since the state pays an average of 30 per cent of local educa tion costs, this means it would pick up that average portion of the total costs for non public school texts -provided by cities and towns. However, the state aid percentage varies from community to community ac cording to a state equalization law. Meanwhile, the possibility was raised that the children of Rhode Island parents attending nonpublic schools outside thei district or even outside the stat could apply for textbook aid i the prescribed fields. Sen. Irving J. Bilgor, secre tary of the commission, sai< •the commission felt that thf parents of such children shoul be entitled to apply for sucl aid. I ’ Although the Catholic Schbo Board’s brief suggested legis lation to accomplish the aid sought, the study commissior did not incorporate any pro j posed legislation in its report. “We preferred not to give any credence to the proposed legislation” of the Catholii; School board “because we were not certain that it would meel the constitutional test which was referred to in the language o: the commission's report,” sai$ Sen. Bilgor. He added that the commis sion’s members “are quite pleased with the reception the commission received from the public at large during the hear ings.” This reception, he said, “proves that the religious tol erance and temperament of th^ citizens of this state deserves commendation.” BEST WISHES SAVANNAH Best Wishes To Our NEW DIOCESAN WEEKLY from ST. FRANCIS XAVIER Brunswick ST. WILLIAM’S CHAPEL St. Simons Island, Ga. NATIVITY OF OUR LADY ip s f 23C Darien MARIST FATHERS s