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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, March 16, 1963 An Irish Blessing May the blessing of Light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat Fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a Friend. And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in two win dows of a house, bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm. And may the blessing of the Rain be on you —the soft sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up, and shed their sweetness on the air. And may the blessing of the Great Rains be on you, may they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heav en shines, and sometimes a star. And may the blessing of the Earth be on you—the great round earth; may you ever have a kindly greeting for them you pass as you’re going along the roads. May the earth be soft under you when you rest out upon it, tired at the end of a day, and may it rest easy over you when, at the last, you lay out under it; may it rest so lightly over you, that your soul may be off from under it quickly and up, and off, and on its way to God. And now, may the Lord bless you all* And bless you kindly. Meeting Points To Cuba’s Threat As Red Base (By J. J. Gilbert) WASHINGTON, — President Kennedy’s meeting in Costa Rica with Central Ameri can leaders dramatically highlights the se riousness of communist subversion in this hemisphere. It is the hope of the government that the sessions will produce some agreement to control more effectively the flow in and out of Cuba of communist guerrillas and agitators. President Kennedy said that, while this is something each country must do indi vidually as an element of sovereignty, the United States is bringing it “to the atten tion of Latin America countries as perhaps one of the most important things we can do this winter.” At nearly the same time, a Senate com mittee has made public the report of the Special Consultative Committee on Security of the Organization of lAmericanI States. It is a chilling document which calls for better control on travel to and from Cuba. Communism, the report says, pursues its goal of world domination through various techniques, including: recruitment and train ing of communist activists of all kinds; infiltration of previously chosen organiza tions and institutions with a view to gain ing control of them; “psychological impreg nation,” or converting "indifferent people” through the exploitation of “contradictions present in every organized society and the justified longings to resolve them;” “dis location,” or the weakening of the social structure to create disorder, and guerrilla warfare, followed by the control of the people through a trained militia. “There can be no doubt that the creation and maintenance of a communist govern ment in Cuba facilitates to an extraordi nary degree the subversive action of inter national communism in America,” the re port asserts. “This is true not only with respect to the spread of communist ideo logy, but also what is more dangerous be cause it constitutes a center quite nearby for training agents of every kind whose function it is to develop subversion in the countries of the hemisphere.” There are “many” Communist training centers in Cuba for guerrillas and agita tors, the report says, naming a half-score offhand. It is noted that countries maintaining nor mal and friendly relations have progressively facilitated travel by their nationals across their borders. But communist abuse of this simplification of travel has compelled some countries, for their own protection, to impose restrictions on travel by their nationals to countries with which they do not have dip lomatic relations. The majority of communist agents who enter a non-communist country now use false passports and documents, and nationals of another country wanting to go to Cuba have their travel documents sent to a third coun try, where they contact Cuban agents, the reports say. The committee urges that each country tighten its own restrictions on travel to Cuba, and that nations cooperated to help each other to better enforce its tightened restrictions. BISHOP CAUTIONS AGAINST CONFUSING LEGAL-MORAL ISSUES WITH CHURCH-STATE PITTSBURGH, PA., (NC)— Bishop John J. Wright of Pitts burgh has cautioned against complicating moral-legal ques tions by confusing them with Church-State conflicts. “It is frequently a gross over simplification to set up cries over the Catholic hierarchy or the National Council of Church es as the causes of the over lapping area of morality and le gality, especially on points where legal and moral con siderations have been long and inevitably interrelated,” the Bishop said in a lenten lecture. Bishop Wright said history shows that “moral feeling and moral conviction have neces sarily colored whole chapters of legislation of a strictly civ il kind.” He declared this coloring lin gers in numerous fields, includ ing legislation on kidnapping, bestiality, seduction and sod omy. The Bishop’s lecture, deliv ered to an audience of physi cians and lawyers, dwelled par ticularly on the problem of the relationship between morality and legality on the birth con trol issue. Bishop Wright said the issue “does not boil down to Massa chusetts and Connecticut against the enlightened pack.” He declared that 17 states prohibit traffic in contra ceptives except through doc tors’ offices and pharmacies, while 16 states regulate the con traceptive trade by requiring that information on contracep tion conform to accurately de fined standards. “In fact,” said the Bishop, “there are only eight states which have no law on contra ception. But in all eight of these states there is control on the advertising of contra ceptives. That is, advertising must be limited to medical jour nals and like media.” “And,” Bishop Wright added, “the letter of the Federal law is even more strict than the states’ laws, including those in Connecticut and Massachu setts—though, to be sure, these Federal laws have been modi fied by judicial interpretation.” The origin of these laws, and others where morality and le gality are related, is more the result of the * 'relationship of the general moral consensus to the Western tradition of law than of ecclesiastical pres sures, Catholic or Protestant,” the Bishop argued. He continued: '' Law in the Western tradition is essentially limited and concerned with the public good. Morality goes bey ond this to consider the indi vidual good. Though these are clearly distinct, the distinctions are never absolute because of the close connection between legality and morality in terms of philosophical concepts and common social motives.” Bishop Wright emphasized this latter point as explan ation of the frequent relation ship between what the state must require and enforce and what the moralists must teach. Private Schools “Must Be In First Aid Bill” fie uji.tR me, Christ uiitkin me, Cfvrist fSetund me, Christ oefore me, CRrist Reside me, Cfuistto turn me, Cfuistto comfort ana restore me, CHrist feneatk. vne, Cfvrist QDove me, er. CRrist ivi quiet, Cfirist in Cfvrist in Rearts of alltnat love me, CRrist in moutR of friend and stranger ^J FROM SAINT PATRICKS BREASTPLATE Dependence On God Help Cured Lepers ST. LOUIS, (NC)—People throughout the world are begin ning to realize more their de- pendance upon God, Joseph Car dinal Ritter said here. “I think in spite of all the cloudiness and discouragement that we hear about, that people and nations are coming closer all the time to recognizing their dependence upon Almighty God,” he told the annual meet ing of the St. Louis Catholic Charities’ board of governors. This is particularly true when it comes to recognizing social problems, the Cardinal said. HONG KONG, (NC)—Govern ment officials joined the Catho lic Church in a campaign here to end segregation of cured lepers. Both Bishop Lawrence Bian- chi, P.I.M.E., of Hong Kong and Dr. D.H.N. MacKenzie, director of Hong Kong’s public health department, issued messages on the 10th annual World Lepro sy Day (March 3). They urged Hong Kong society to take lep rosy patients certified as cured back into its homes and offices. The Catholic Church was the sole sponsor of a similar cam paign last year. Council Project VATICAN CITY, (Radio, NC) —The mixed council commis sion comprising the Theology Comission and the Secretariat Sunday Selling DES MOINES. Iowa, (NC)—A bill to prohibit Sunday selling of general merchandise has been filed in the Iowa Legislature by Sen. Joseph Flatt f of Winterset and three other senators. Back Talk To JFK It Seems to Me The bill is sponsored by the Iowa Retail Federation and is aimed principally at large su permarkets, appliance stores, and discount houses operating in cities. Sen. Flatt is a men’s clothier. for Promoting Christian Unity finished (March 4) its revision of the council project on the “Sources of Revelation” save for a few details. The project in its original form failed to receive the votes of the majori ty of the council Fathers on November 21. The following day His Holiness Pope John XXIII ordered the project to be rewritten. Pluralistic Society JOSEPH BREIG As a “bad back” old pro, I have three words for Presi dent John F. Kennedy. Don’t try it. Don’t try it if it has anything to do with lifting, twist ing, bending, pushing or pull ing. Don’t try it if it’s bowl ing. Don’t try it if it’s gar dening. Don’t try it, Mr. President even if it’s only sitting in a chair and bending to tie your shoe laces. Stand and put your foot on the chair, and reach the laces that way. What you've got to do is learn to live the “trick back” way of life. At first it’s a nuisance, but you’ll get used to it, and it has its compensations. You must acquire the habits pf helplessness, sir. You must be brave enough to be a cow ard; strong enough to be weak; manly enough to be unmanly. IF YOU DROP something on the floor, let it lie until some body hands it to you. If you want a window opened, let a friend do it. When a desk draw er sticks, have the humility to leave it to the victory. When your wife wants a chair moved, just say, “I’m sorry dear,” and send for somebody. All these things are going to go against the grain of your male nature, Mr. President. You will find it frustrating to refrain from making things obey your muscles, and insded to use feminine wiles. But comfort yourself with the philosophy a comedian once uttered, “After all, at least half my ancestors were women.” I shuddered the other day upon reading that one of your sisters-in-law had remarked of you, “His back is a problem. He can barely pick up his own son.” GREAT GODFREY, sir. Your son is two years old and weighs 35 pounds. No doubt he is full of vitamins, and has been feed ing on meat and vegetables and minerals from the age of a few weeks. Pick him up? I abjure you sir, don’t try it. He is just the right bulk and height to pull you off balance, and off balance is precisely what you must for ever avoid being. The child-picking-up habit is one you must at all costs break. You can do it. I did it, and I am thinking of organiz ing Bad Backs Anonymous to rush day or night to the aid of anyone who feels an attack of son-lifting coming on. Being father of five and grandfather of seven, I well know, Mr. President, what temptation assails a male at the sight of his very own small flesh-and-blood running to ward him, crying joyfully and trustingly, “Up Daddy” (or Up Grandpa!”) THE TEMPTATION is fierce, but resist it . Resist it like a saint. Out of long experience pain fully acquired, I assure you that young John will survive the traumatic shock of finding out that his father is not the strong est man on earth. Oh, I’ll admit that for a few days he will look at you oddly out of the corners of his eyes, but he’ll adjust. He is a bright lad, and before long, he’ll turn the Tom Sawyer fence- white-washing gambit. He’ll start boasting to other kids that his Dad can stand more pain than anybody else in the whole world. Unlike the boy who says, “My Pop can lick your Pop,” John will not be exaggerating. He won’t even be approaching a hundredth of the truth. You and I, Mr. Kennedy, with the kind of backs we have, know what I mean. I REMEMBER a time when I had been fool enough to lift something, and was sitting with heat applied to my back, trying to persuade the muscle spasms to let go. Just then, our Jim, who was about the age of your John, pell- melled into the living room on his new trike. He took the turn to fast, and if I hadn’t caught him by reflex action, he’d have gone headlong against a coffee table. I saved his neck, but the roar of agony I uttered sent h'im scurrying in fright. Weeks passed before he could be con vinced that his father hadn’t turned into a child-terrorizing old ogre. PICK UP your son? No sir, I beg of you. Don’t try it. Let those three words become your motto in such matters. I re spect your desire for physical fitness among the people. But physical fitness for you and for me consists in avoiding exertion. Let us bravely face reality. Aside from tapping a type writer (with a woman’s touch) I have only one regular exer cise, Mr. President. Upon aris ing in the morning, I swing one leg in a certain way which I have discovered, puts my back in gear like a stick-shift auto. You ought to see that per formance, sir. My wife says it is better than Charlie Chap lin. WASHINGTON, (NC)—“Sun day in a Pluralistic Society” will be the title of a seminar at the convention of the Nation al Council of Catholic Men in Atlantic City from April 24 to 28. Topics to be discussed in clude the following: “The Mean ing of Sunday to Catho lics,” “How the non-Catholic Community Reacts to Catholic Convictions on Sunday Clos ing” and “Constitutional Prob lems of Sunday Closing in a Pluralistic Society.” Father Charles E. Curran of St. Bernard's Seminary, Ro chester, N. Y., will present a paper at the seminar. Uganda Schools KAMPALA, Uganda, (NC)-h Uganda's Young Christian Student movement, a Catholic organization, has asked the na tional government to continue the system of denominational education. The YCS sent a memorandum to this effect to the special commission now investigating Uganda’s educational needs and prospects. “We, the Catholic students, will stand firm to de fend our rights to be educated in the schools of our denomina tion, which we feel will provide us with complete education, the memorandum said. It added: “The Church’s function in the, process of our education is con-' tinuous. . .We must be taught our religion and this teaching must be incorporated in the whole process of educational organization.” f QUESTION BOX Scriptural 3\osar? OMAHA, (NC)- If a general aid to education bill is passed by Congress, church-related schools must “get in the first time, because if we don’t, we may never get it,” participants in a Citizens for Educational Freedom informational pro gram were told here. William Crozier, history in structor at Duchesne College, a Catholic women’s college here, and CEF program chair man, also told the group that “if a Federal aid bill is pass ed and private schools are left out, private schools will be in trouble. We will face the pros pect of having second-rate schools.” Asserting that the problem is national in scope, Crozier cited recent interest in a shared- time program by officials of the Chicago archdiocesan schools. “Calling for shared-time now is certainly calling for help,” he said. Crozier also pointed to the moratorium on school building in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He added “here in Omaha, we find ourselves unable to com pete with the public schools for teachers.” “Beginning teachers graduates just out of college-- get a salary in our private schools that is $1,700 lower than the public schools offer,” he said. Crozier also said Omaha Ca tholic schools are unable to ac cept almost 5,000 children for lack of space. Crozier reiterated CEF’s neutrality on the question of whether Federal aid should be appropriated in the first place, but its insistence that if aid is voted it should benefit all children--those in independent as well as tax supported schools. The Omaha CEF elected J.P. Regan, an Air Force master sergeant stationed at nearby Offutt Air Force Base, presi dent; Dr. Harle Barrett, di rector of the Creighton Uni versity medical dispensary, vice president; and Mrs. Ruth Miller, a housewife, secretary- treasurer. Third Sorrowful Mystery THE CROWNING WITH THORNS Our Father Part 8 'Why, what evil has he done?’/ But they kept crying out the more, 'Crucify him!’ Mark 15:14 Hail^Mary Now the soldiers led him away “into the courtyard,/ and they stripped him and put on him a purple cloak. Mark 15:16; Matt. 27:28 Hail ^ Mary And plaiting a crown of thorns they put it upon his head,/ and a reed into his right hand. Matt. 27:29 Hail Mary And bending the knee before him they mocked him,/ saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!’ ... Matt. 27:29 Hail Mary 'Shall I crucify your king?’/ And the chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.’ Hailjlx Mary John 19:15 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified./ And so they took Jesus and led him away. By David Q. Liptak Q. Where is heaven? Could it be here on this earth some where? Must I believe that I and other human beings will spend heaven standing in one place with folded hands? A. Heaven—the word deriv es from the Anglo-Saxon heo- fon—is both a state and a place. As a state it comprises the ul timate end of man’s yearnings. As a place, it constitutes man’s only true and final homeland— in heaven everyone “belongs” in the most perfect sense. SO MUCH is known from the few facts God has revealed about heaven or paradise. Known with like certainty is that the prin cipal source of man’s happi ness in heaven will be his abil ity to see God directly, face to face as it were, and not mere ly meditately as in this life, through faith in God and the manner in which he mir rors himself in creatures. SUBJECTIVELY, the happi ness each person will enjoy in heaven can be epitomized—in a term readily understandable to the modern world—as “full- fillment.” Indent, “fullfilment” could be taken as a descriptive synonym for paradise. BY THE same declension, the means of experiencing heaven’s fulfilment will necessarily be commensurate with man’s ca pacity to enjoy himself as a human being. The immage of heaven as an ethereal gard en peopled with winged choirs floating atop clouds—a common artistic accommodation — is therefore no more than sym bolic. Equally as unfounded is the image of robed individuals standing around with folded hands. WHERE HEAVEN IS has not been revealed. It has been made known, though, that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, at the end of time. This, St. John tells us in the Apo calypse, wherein he also men tions some details about the after-life: "AND IS SAW a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more . . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold the dwelling place of god with men, and he shall dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be nor more; neither shall their be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. . . ” (XXI: 1-4) AS FOR the duration of heav en—eternity is incomprehensi ble to time creatures such as ourselves—another mystery arises. One key to a shallow understanding of this phen omenon is the difference which exists in this life between mo ments of pain and moments of joy. Thus, a day of pain pas ses here as so many years, whereas a year of unmitigated happiness is as but an hour. Hail Mary John 19:16 And they spat on him,/ and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. Matt. 27:30 Hail Mary Pilate again went outside and said, 'I bring him out to you,/ - that you may know I find no guilt in him.’ John 19:4 Hail sKMary Jesus therefore came forth,/ wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. John 19:5 Hail Mary And Pilate said to them, 'Behold the man!’/ But they cried out, 'Away with him! Crucify him! ’ John 19:5, 15 Hail JJK Mary Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit./ As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. The Southern Cross P. O. BOX 180, SAVANNAH. GA. Vol. 43 Saturday, March 16, 1963 No. 26 Editor’s Note: This is one of the 15 decades of the Scriptural Rosary, a modern version of the way the Rosary was once prayed in the Middle Ages. We are presenting the complete Scriptural Rosary in 15 install ments as a service to our readers. You are invited to save these meditations for future use. Or you may obtain the complete set in illustrated prayer-book form by sending $1 to the nonprofit Scriptural Rosary Center, 6 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 2, Illinois. Published weekly except the last week in July and the last week in December by The Southern Cross, Inc. Subscription price $3.00 per year. Second class mail privileges authorized at Monroe, Ga. Send notice of change of address to P. O. Box 180, Savannah, Ga. Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough, D.D.J.C.D., President Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor John Markwalter, Managing Editor Rev. Lawrence Lucree, Rev. John Fitzpatrick, Associate Editors