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1 PAGE 2-B—The Southern Cross, January 5, 1963 SALUTE TO MEN IN BLACK A DEDICATION BY MOST REVEREND THOMAS J. McDONOUGH More than forty years ago the Catholic Laymen’s Asso ciation of Georgia published the first edition of THE BULLETIN. A quarterly journal at first, it soon became a monthly publication circulated not only in Georgia, but also in North and South Carolina as a tre mendously effective instru ment for translating into reality the motto of the Lay men’s Association - “To Bring About a Friendlier Feeling Among Georgians Ir- respecive of Creed.” Steadily - for more than four decades - the zeal and dedi cation of the Association’s founders has borne rich fruit, largely through the influence of their official publication, THE BULLETIN. Those years have witnessed not only increased under standing between Catholic Georgians and their non-Ca- tholic neighbors, but a stronger, more vigorous, and ever-growing Catholic Church throughout the State, and the expansion of THE BULLETIN into a bi-weekly newspaper. Six years ago the late Pope Pius XII, recognizing the growth of the Church in Geor gia, established a new Dio cese, with its seat in Atlanta. THE BULLETIN continued to be the Catholic newspaper of both Savannah and Atlanta, with separate editions reflect ing the distinct atmosphere and character of each Dio cese, and today the work of the founders of THE BULLE TIN brings forth yet more fruit. For, as we enter on a New Year, the sister Dioceses of Savannah and Atlanta begin publication of weekly news papers. We feel that the new name of our paper is a most appro priate one. Webster’s International Dic tionary describes the Southern Cross as - “Four bright stars in the Southern Hemisphere, situated as if at the extremi ties of a Latin cross.” We believe that this is also a fitting and apt description of the four decades during which THE BULLETIN has held high the Cross of Christ in South Georgia. Consequently, this first edi tion of THE SOUTHERN CROSS is published as a tri bute to the men of the Catho lic Laymen’s Association, whose devotion to Christ has played an indispensable role in bringing His Church in our Diocese to the beginning of a new era. Their spirit will live on in the work of THE SOUTHERN CROSS, and it is our hope and prayer that all of us - Bishop, Priests, Religious, and Laity - heirs of The Bulle tin and its founders - will continue to hold high the Cross of Christ in the Diocese of Savannah. Need Seen For Catholics To Know Schools And (By J. J. Gilbert) WASHINGTON -- On the threshold of the New Year, the proposal to extend Federal aid to education is developing a new facet. Although a national question by its nature, authorities here see the controversy engender ed by the Federal aid sugges tion reaching down to state and municipal discussions touch ing upon any kind of aid to church schools. The Legal Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference has drawn atten tion to this trend, saying it calls for a laity thoroughly in formed on the Federal aid questions, and, as a conse quence, for a stepped up in formational program among laymen. “Unless the laity is thor oughly informed on the is sues, we cannot expect lay leaders to develop and unless such leaders develop we can not expect effective support of the rights of the Church and of Catholic parents,” the depart ment asserted. There has long been a need for Catholic parents to inform themselves about their Catho lic schools. This has been use ful in connection with lo cal matters such as zoning law controversies, school bus cases and auxiliary aids to schools. Now apparently, there is equal need for Ca tholic parents to know the is sues involved in the Federal aid proposal, a matter many may have considered to have only national implications. In this connection, attention has been drawn here to a pro gram which a parish in Willi- ston Park, Long Island, N.Y., is launching to inform Catholic parents and their non-Catholic neighbors concerning the parish elementary school. “Operation Understanding” is conducted by the laity of St. Aidan’s parish in Willis- ton Park. It is a block-by block program of neighborly discussions. In more than 100 Aid Issues horqes neighbors will gather in groups of 20 or so to hear two speakers -- one a man, the other a woman-- explain the function of the Catholic school in their town. By means of pictures and charts, those present are taken on an infor mal tour of the school. The speakers divide 40 minutes of time, after which questions are answered over coffee. Speakers are provided by a bureau from 26 lay people, 13 men and 13 women. They work in teams, and approach the subject with the assump tion that St. Aidan’s is in a very real sense everybody’s school because it is educat ing citizens for the commun ity, and the whole community should be interested in how that education is carried out. Lawyers, housewives, stu dents and public schoolteach ers are among the speakers available. Controversial questions are avoided, since the purpose is only to inform. The approach is positive. The curriculum is explained, the school’s physi cal plant is explored, extra curricular and parish activi ties are outlined and attempt is made to have neighbors know better the Brothers and Sisters who teach. Msgr. Charles E. Bermingham is pastor of St. Aidan’s. So far, the reaction has been encouraging. A Jewish woman* explained the program to her rabbi, and he promised to pray for the success of the neigh borly project. At the sugges tion of a Protestant neighbor, local ministers have been ask ed to announce “Operation Un derstanding” from their pul pits and to ask their congre gations to cooperate. “Operation Understanding” will be watched from many points around the country. Its success could provide a test ed means for taking care of one phase of that informational program Catholic parents are being called to undertake. Epiphany AN END TO STRIKES It Seems to Me JOSEPH BREIG I trust that before this column is published , there will have been settlements of strikes which halted pub lication of daily nev/spapers in Cleveland (where I live) and New York same, I think be recognized (which is a nice place to visit but, etc.) The dailies, I will grant are not as in- dispensa- ble as police men, fire men, food and water. All the they ought to as essential public services. I am not going to be content, therefore, until procedures are devised to insure that news paper-information blackouts do not occur. Our civilization, it seems to me, ought to be capa ble of solving that problem. INDEED, it is high time we put our brains to the task of finding ways of avoiding strikes altogether. Our society is so complex that stoppages of en terprises are becoming ana chronisms. Where, then, do we begin? We begin, I think, by recog nizing that collective bargain ing, standing more or less alone, has been only a stopgap measure, and that good citizen ship now calls for further pro gress. We must turn, then, to something in the nature of the Industry Council Plan proposed several decades ago by the bishop of the U. S. This, I believe, is the only suggestion in the carefully thought out program of the bishops which not only has not been adopted, but has never re ceived any very serious wide spread consideration. YET IT STRIKES ME as so obviously necessary in our tech nological world that sooner or later something like Industry Councils (call them what you will) must be brought into op eration. First, though, we must all manage somehow to see the fal lacy in attitudes which we have inherited. A basic change must take place in our thinking. We all tend automatically to assume that capitalizing is one thing; managing another thing, and working a third thing, and that never the trio shall meet. WE HAVE NEVER learned to look at the world as one household, and the human race as one family. We have never even clearly seen the nation or the community in that light. But that is the correct light. For illustration, let’s invent something that we shall call the Whatnot Corporation, which does a billion dollars of business yearly. Whatnot Corp. - no doubt about it - was originally some body’s brainchild. Somebody thought it up, recognized the need for it. Somebody financed it, too. And certain persons with spe cial skills in organization de veloped it. THAT’S ALL TRUE but Whatnot Corp. has grown so big, so important, so useful to everybody, that now it affects greatly the common good of vast numbers of people. Competitors have been created, too. Other similar ser vices have sprung into being. Our philosophy thus far is largely one of letting competi tion reign supreme - competi tion among enterprises, and competition between capital and management and workers within companies. We just haven’t seen the vi sion of what could be achieved, and what harmony could prevail, if consultation and cooperation were given their proper For New Year's Day, A Prayer of Faith: l asked God for strength, that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey . . . 1 asked for health, that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity, that I might da better things . . . I asked for riches, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that 1 might be wise . . . I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God . . . / asked for all things, that 1 might enjoy life; / was given life, that I might enjoy all things . . . / got nothing that l asked for - but everything / had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unsjwken prayers were answered. 1 am, among all men, most richly blessed. —art unknown Confederate soldier Unborn Child Has Right To Life SAN DIEGO, (NC) - A priest reiterated the Catholic Church’s teaching against kill ing the unborn at a legislative hearing on a bill to relax Cali fornia's abortion law. Father William J. Kenneally, C.M., rector of St. John’sSem- inary, Camarillo, appeared be fore a State Assembly com mittee convened here. The Vin centian heads the major semin ary of the Los Angeles arch diocese. Father Kenneally called the phrase, “therapeutic abor tion,'' a euphemism. “The word ‘therapeutic’ means ‘serving to cure or to heal'; and abortion does not heal - it kills,’’ he said. The bill before the committee would relax California’s law which permits abortion to save a mother’s life. It would legal ize abortions for ‘therapeutic reasons’ and for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest. After two days of hearing here, Assemblyman John A. O’Connell of San Francisco, committee chairman, said that witnesses favored the bill two to one. He said the committee's recommendations would be pre sented before the 1963 session of the legislature. In his testimony, Father Ken neally stressed the unborn child's right to live. “Whence stems the right of the state to hear, judge and condemn a hu man being to death who has com mitted no crime and who cannot defend himself?’’ he asked. He contrasted the killing of an unborn child, with its lack of justice, with the care taken by courts before passing the death sentence on a convicted murderer -- noting that many top state officials have proposed legislation to abolish such sen tences. “The unjustly aborted child is sentenced by such an unjust law to capital punishment, with out a hearing, without represen tation, without a proxy, with out a judge and without a jury. Our plea for the unborn is for the very same legal fairness accorded all our citizens,’’ Fa ther Kenneally said. Jottings By BARBARA C. JENCKS “The fullness of manhood seems to me to be the priesthood. By this character man is complete. Yes, the priest remains in ordinary ways, but he goes to the limits of the destiny that is properly human.’’ Maurice Blondel place along with competition. WE HAVE NOT established a system which would do for our economy - our enterprises and services - what our working-to gether has accomplished in other fields. To put it shortly, there are no parliaments in industry. There are town councils, but no Industry Councils. There are state legislatures, but no Indus try Legislatures. There are na tional congresses, but no real Economic Congresses repre senting all segments of the economy. There ought to be such things. Eventually there will be such things. And when there are, we will work out our economic bal ances without stopping indus tries from producing, services from servicing, and newspapers from informing. What is it that sets a man apart from the crowd? What is the ideal of manhood? What is it that women look to in men? What is it that other men strive to be and look up to in other men? Courage, strength, discipline, honor, heroism? All these are part of it. It is there in the long lines of West Point cadets; in the heroism and courage of the police and firemen; in the skilled . surgeon’s hands. As for me, I look to this ideal in the men in black serge, the men in Roman collars and cassocks ‘ ‘whose office it is to baptize and to preach, to bless and to govern”. . .but most of all to be an “alter Christus” and offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the greatest power on earth! The priest possesses powers that no king nor president holds. Asa human being, he alone holds eternal powers. The priest has been popularized for the masses in a dozen novels within the past few years. Yet how many even approxi mate the power and glory of the priesthood in their psychological probings and dramatic plots? The Pulitzer prize novel of the year concerns a parish priest, who is interestingly drawn but not entirely representative. Few of the priests of fiction are recognizable as those who pass within our lifetime. Few but those who bear the mark of ordination know the terrible burden or the glorious wonder of it! Yet many outside have attempted to capture the life which will forever be a wonder and mystery of the layman. Perhaps George Bernanos in his “Diary of a Country Priest” comes closest to a sympathetic and sensitive insight into the mind and soul of a priest. If laymen would like an authentic view let them read “A Priest Confesses” by Jose Luis Martin Descaizo, a Spanish priest. It is his Seminary and ordination journal which tells dramatically (and embarrassingly in its frankness) the wonder of wonders, the miracle which turns a man into another Christ! It is full of the glory and pain which is each priest’s portion as he walks the earth with heaven in his hands. I comtemplate the many priests who have marked my life. All mirrored the variety and wonderful difference of human natures and personalities but all were alike in that indelible mark of ordination. The men in black who walked pathways in my life come at different times and for different needs. Some with the enthusiasm and eagerness of the young cardinal; others in their last years, their causes forgotten, their fiery zeal warmed instead of burned. The priest of the middle years, more thoughtful, some carrying the pain of disillusion, disap pointment, exhaustion. They have been there at every need in joy, sickness, death, troubles of soul and body. I have been blessed by those who have been strategically placed along the way: pastor, curates, the editor-priests, the order priests, chaplains, confessors, retreat-masters, teachers, mission aries, authors — but all priests first and last. The novelist continues to write about the priest and probes his mind and soul. We will continue to pray for them and thank them for being what they are as they pass among us preaching, teaching, pardoning, blessing, counseling. The man in black looks like any other man but who has gone to the “limits of the of the destiny that is properly human.” It is the miracle of our times that men will ever be called from among men to ascend the altar of God. His is the power greater than the nuclear bombs and missiles: the Mass. Young men will ever continue to find their human and divine destiny in this dedica tion. A few days ago a young seminarian wrote to me of his hope: “In a year from this date, these hands that are typing these lines to you will hold in them the Son of God!” BUSINESS Needs More Than Natural Law As Guide PITTSBURGH, Pa., (NC) - The natural law as a moral guide for businessmen is often too remote from the complex challenges of day-to-day cor porate administration, Arthur J. Noetzel of John Carroll University, Cleveland, declared here. In his presidential address to the 21st annual meeting of the Catholic Economic Associa tion, Noetzel commented (Dec. 27) that “middle principles are needed--moral guides which are closer to the situation at hand.” “Some of these middle prin ciples of ethical behavior can come from corporate policies,” he continued, “if top manage ment will make a determined practical, yet philosophical, ex amination of the root concepts of corporate policies.” Noetzel urged that the pro blems of business ethics be studied “at a position more centrally located between the poles of personal integrity and social responsibility. “Since corporate policies are guides to managerial behavior, they have an ethical dimension. But this aspect is generally not a surface characteristic of poli cies. The ethical character of corporate policies may be found in the underlying precon ceptions of profits, markets, work and authority.” In another address, Father Richard L. Porter, S. J., of Marquette University called for “a larger horizon of social understanding and responsi bility” on the part of all “pow er blocs” in the economy. He pointed out that “the charge of cost-push inflation has been laid against Big La bor,” then asked: “could it likewise be laid against Big Business as exemplified by the corporation?” Father Porter commented that on occasion “the large corporation in basic industry can be pursuing truly justified 'normal' profits in the same way that Big Labor can be pursuing their concept of a ‘living wage.’ But in the me chanics of the business cycle and secular growth, both can do harm to the overall economy.” FOR RESTRICTIONS Polish Cardinal Critical Of Red Regime BERLIN, (NC) - Stefan Card inal Wyszynski has criticized Poland's communist govern ment for not allowing more Po lish bishops to attend the first session of the ecumenical coun cil, according to reports reach ing here. The Primate of Poland spoke (Dec. 16) at a Mass in War saw's St. John’s cathedral. Close to 5,000 persons, reports said, packed the church and overflowed into the snowfilled street outside. The crowd in side was so dense that some persons fainted and had to be revived by snow passed in from outside, reports added. Cardinal Wyszynski also took the government to task for allowing the bishops who went to the council only a limited amount of money. “Each Polish bishop, 1 said, "was allowed to take five dollars. . .with him that would not suffice ever could live on seeds.” Hetl ed Polish-Americans and American churchmen v contributions provided Polish prelates with fooc lodging. Of the close to 70 bishc in the country, the Cardii said, “Only 25 Polish bishc participated” in the counc Many had to remain at horr he stated, because of illne: “because they could not lea their flocks or because th could not get passports.”