Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6—The Southern Cross, April 6, 1963
A four-part history of the
Catholic Church and its Ecu
menical Councils will be pre
sented by “The Catholic Hour"
on the NBC-TV Network in
May. WSAV-TV (Sav’h.) will
carry the shows on the 5th,
12th, 19th and 26th of May.
Check your “TV Guide” for
the exact time. According to
an announcement made by Mar
tin H. Work, Executive Direc
tor of the National Council of
Catholic Men, the four produc
tions will be dedicated to Pope
John XXIII. . . Annual COR
PORATE COMMUNION of
Council #631, Knights of Col
umbus (Sav’h), this Sunday at
the Cathedral, 8 o’clock Mass.
Breakfast will follow at the
Hotel DeSoto. BISHOP McDON-
OUGH will be the speaker . . .
Also this Sunday, 9 o’clock
Mass, Cathedral, Ladies’ SE
NIOR SODALITY MONTHLY
COMMUNION, Continental
breakfast to follow . . . Pa-
celli Seniors, (Columbus) have
already received their diplo
mas. Activities, currently un
dergoing extensive planning are
a hayride, a bowling party, a
swimming party, and last but
not least, a graduation dance
. . . Clergy, students, and lay
men present at the Solemn High
Mass in honor of S. A. Bene
dict (March 21st, SACRED
HEART CHURCH, SAV’H.) were
greatly impressed by the Cadet
additions to the choir. Under the
direction of FR. DAMIAN,
O.S.B., the Cadet Choir mem
bers distinctive richness to the
already outstanding choir . . .
The Joint Commission on Ac
creditation of Hospitals hasan-
announced ST. JOSEPH’S HOS
PITAL (SAV’H) as one of four
approved institutions. “Accre-
dation of a hospital means,”
said DR. KENNETH B. BAB
COCK, director of the accre
diting commission, “that it (St.
Joseph’s) has voluntarily sub
mitted to a survey of its fa
cilities and its patient care.
It is a badge of recognition
which the hospital can display
... to prove that it conforms
to high standards of patient
care.” . . . City (Sav’h) COUN-
cilman TOMMY COLEMAN
a star Ga. Tech lineman in
the late '40’s, served as MC
at the recently held Benedic
tine All-Sports Banquet. MIKE
FINOCCHIARO is president of
the Benedictine Athletic Asso
ciation . . . JOHN COOLEY,
who will graduate from Pacel-
li (Columbus) in June, has just
returned to the school after his
special preparation for en
trance into West Point next Fall.
John recently participated in a
program held at Fort Benning
for prospective military offi
cers . . . SISTERS OF MERCY
at St. Joseph’s Convent, Col
umbus, paid special thanks to
their patron on March 19th, the
convent was placed under the
special care of St. Joseph
more than 100 years ago . . .
Two of three Savannah Eagle
Scouts who have been selec
ted as the first Georgia Boy
Scouts to receive American Le
gion Citizenship Medals are
EDWARD BURNS III and JOHN
OETGEN. Their section follow
ed approval of the Coastal
Empire and National Boy
Scout Councils. George K. Gan-
nam Post 184 of the American
Legion is the local sponsor
. . . JOHN M. BRENNAN, Sa
vannah attorney and local pres
ident of the Ancient Order of Hi
bernians, has been elected ex-
halted ruler of Sav’h. Lodge
No. 183, B.P.O. Elks. He will
succeed ALEX BARBEE . . .
Other prominent Catholic Sa-
vannahians elected to positions
in the Elks were: FRANK C.
MATHEWS, JR., Chaplain;
DANNY KRANE, inner guard;
and CLAUDE DOMINGUE, or
ganist.
Bill Seeks
Protection For
Postal Patrons
WASHINGTON, (NC)—Rep.
John Dowdy of Texas has in
troduced a bill designed to
“protect postal patrons from
obnixious and offensive mail
matter.”
The measure would authorize
the Post Office, at the request of
an individual receiving objec
tionable mail, to instruct the
sender to remove the name of
the objecting party from his
mailing list.
The bill was referred to the
House Post Office and Civil
Service Committee.
Bilingual Schools Necessary
Dramatic Education
Challenge In Peru
(By Father Vincent T.
Mallon, M. M.)
(N. C. W. C. NEWS SERVICE)
LIMA, Peru—Twenty bilin
gual schools run by U. S. mis-
sioners in Peru are teaching
10,000 young Peruvians to speak
fluent English in an effort to
meet a dramatic challenge in the
field of education.
The schools, which started a
new school year April 1, were
set up to match the growing
influence of similar Protestant-
run schools.
The demand for English-
language training is strong in
Peru. Most of Peru’s leaders
now speak English, and both
parents and the Church want
their children to learn the lanr-
guage of influence.
The demand for English-
speaking workers is already
great.
A graduate of a Catholic bilin
gual school recently applied for
a job with the U. S. Peace Corps.
She asked for a monthly salary
of $55—about 25 per cent higher
than the usual salary in Peru.
“You can’t possibly work
here for less than $110,” the
employment officer said. “You
are too well prepared.”
The same day, a Peruvian
firm hired another graduate of
the same school for $115 a
month and gave her a secretary.
Most of the schools run in
Peru by U. S. priests, Brothers
and Sisters teach half in English
and half in Spanish.
The 1,000 students at Santa
Rosa de Lima school run here
by the Maryknoll Fathers
study English two hours a day
for 11 years. By the time they
finish high school, they speak
the language fluently.
Until recent years, students
usually had to go to Protestant
schools to learn English. U. S.
Protestant missioners started
setting up bilingual schools
after World War I. A concerted
effort by Catholics did not start
until after World War II.'
(The country’s needs for edu
cation are not limited t o
language schools—40 per cent
of Peru’s 2.5 million school-
age children have no school to
go.)
The Sisters, Servants of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary of
West Chester, Pa., were the
first U. S. Catholic teaching
community to come to Peru.
They opened a school for girls
40 years ago to counteract the
attraction of a school set up by
U. S. Protestants to teach Eng
lish to girls of wealthy fami
lies. The Sisters now have four
schools here.
The schools run by U. S.
Catholic missioners have to
turn away thousands of appli
cants every year.
U. S. Sisters here say that
they were poorly prepared when
they first came because they had
no special training in bilingual
education. Years of practice
have brought proficiency. But
better training in the U. S.,they
say, would make them better
teachers in Peru.
This past summer (December
to March), 128 Peruvian Sis
ters took the second part of a
five-part course in spoken Eng
lish to prepare to teach English
in their schools.
English teachers complain
that there are no suitable text
books. U. S. textbooks are too
advanced and Peruvian text
books are too elementary.
One Sister uses an English-
language geography textbook as
a reader. Its language is about
the right level and it gives in
formation not found in Peruvian
geographies which cover only
Peru.
Schools Receive Albums
Four Savannah Catholic Schools have been presented
with albums entitled “This is America” by Unit 36,
American Legion Auxiliary. Mrs. Chris Vatsios, chair
man of the unit’s Americanism Committee, is shown
presenting albums to Sr. Mary Christine, R.S.M., prin
cipal and Tommy Tinder, president of Nativity School’s
History Class (top left); Sr. Mary Jude, R. S. M., Prin
cipal of Blessed Sacrament School (top right); Mother
Marie Elizabeth, I.H.M., principal of St. James School,
and Mrs. Jas. L. Miller, Mrs. R. L. Powers, and Mrs.
Ogden Doremus (lower left)’ Sr. Mary Claudine, R.S.M.,
IN CHARGE OF History Department at St. Vincent’s /
demy (lower right).
Theology Professor
Denies Lay State
Inferior To Religious
CLEVELAND, (NC) — A
Jesuit theology professor has
challenged the theory that the
lay state is inferior to the
religious life.
Father John Gerken, S. J.,
of }ohn Carroll University here
author of the book “Toward
a Theology of the Layman,”
said laymen are not ungenerous
when they embrace the lay state
in obedience to God’s will.
The signs of a layman’s cal
ling, he said—like the signs
of a religious calling—are
spiritual serenity, peace, and
joy caused by the decision to
serve God and fellow man in
that state.
Father Gerken holds that the
lay and religious states of life
do not represent different de
grees (superior and inferior)
of the same attitude toward
the world. They are “exclu
sively different attitudes toward
the world” and cannot be set
alongside one another and com
pared. He added:
“As attitudes toward the
world, they have nothing in com
mon, and as attitudes toward
God, they are exactly the same
because total love of God in
forms each attitude.”
“It is simply false to say the
lay state is adequately explain
ed as the state of those who
are not as generous as Reli
gious,” Father Gerken said.
“It is not the state of those
who are willing to dally on the
road to perfection and who do
not take the more effi
cient means to holiness. Nor is
it the state of those who want
to divide their hearts between
God and the world.’’
The laity, he said, are those
whose honest answer is that
God calls them to the lay state—
not because they are less gen
erous or in any way inferior,
but because the lay state is
their vocation, and there is
divine work to be done which
will go undone unless they do
it. He added:
“If lay people think they are
ungenerous second-rate
Christians, they are less likely
to be holy Christians.”
The laity’s holiness, he says,
lies in showing forth love of
God and fellow men in the
family, economic, civic, and
political areas of life, and this
is not an “inferior” or
"second-class Christian
state.” It is simply a different
vocation.
Theological thinking which
relegated the laity to an in
ferior role, he believes, has
wreaked great harm by causing
the laity to suppose that they
were not called to complete
dedication to the service of God;
that they need only to be
“Sunday Christians”. On the
contrary, he said, the laity
should be every bit as dedi
cated as the priest, Sister, or
Brother.
Father Gerken said he wrote
his book partly to refute the
idea that the lay state is spi
ritually inferior, and to offer
at least a tentative po
sitive theology for lay life.
In the introduction he wrote
that his book “seeks to be only
a step toward what will one
day be a complete theology of
the layman.”
He maintained that such
thinking will not tend to les
sen interest in religious vo
cations among youth and added:
“You are more likely to have
religious vocations in families
concerned with God’s will—in
an atmosphere of listening for
the voice of God and answer
ing it—than in familie s where
the Christian calling to the lay
state is not realized.”
Father Gerken’s book also
deals with Pope Pius XIII’s
encyclical on holy virginity,
“Sacra Virginitas.” He says
the Pope was refuting an er
ror—the idea that marriage,
because it is a sacrament, is
better and holier than conse
crated virginity.
As for the statement of the
Council of Trent that virginity
for God’s sake is better and
more blessed than marriage,
he points out that Trent did not
define in what way this is so—
or what precisely is meant by
“better and more blessed.”
He believes there has been
a deal of jumping-to-con-
clusions which do not necessar
ily follow from Trent's brief
formulation. Theologians, he
says, must seek the reality
behind the formula; as of now,
the reality is far from evident.
Lutheran Educator
Backs Private
Education Rights
MINNEAPOLIS, (NC)—The
president of a Lutheran college
said here he supports “the
right of every citizen to send
his child to a private school
because the Federal Constitu
tion in the First Amendment
guarantees the freedom of reli
gion.”
Rev. William Poehler, head
of Concordia College in St. Paul,
said at a meeting of this city’s
Citizens for Educational Free
dom that he stands as strongly
in defense of public education.
The Lutheran minister, who
spoke in favor of bus transpor
tation for both public and private
school students at a recent Sen
ate Education Committee hear
ing, said: “It is good that there
be a spirit of competition
between private and public edu
cation so that there be no na
tionalization of education.’’
It would be equally “detri
mental to the public interest”
if either the State of the Church
“would take over all educa
tion,” he told the CEF meeting
(March 25). CEF seeks to pro
mote the just treatment of all
U. S. citizens in the distribu
tion of governmental tax monies
for education, with a view to
assuring freedom of choice.
“My observation of educa
tional systems outside the Uni
ted States,” said Rev. Poehler,
“leads me to believe that in
calculable harm would result,”
if either system (public or pri
vate) “were pressed to the wall
and priced out of the market.”
He said the Lutheran Church
“maintains the largest Protes
tant elementary school system
in the United States,” with more
than 150,000 children enrolled
in Missouri Synod elementary
schools in the country, and “no
less than 80,000 children en
rolled in private elementary
Lutheran schools in Minne
sota.”
Civil Liberties Group
Charges Attempt To Destroy
Nation’s Private Education
LAWNDALE, Calif., (NC)—
The director of a national Ca
tholic civil liberties group
charged here that a publi c
school organization is out to
reduce the nation’s education
to a single system.
Thomas Francis Ritt, nation
al director of the Catholic Coun
cil on Civil Liberties, was com
mending on a report that the
Horace Mann League intends to
support a legal challenge
against government help for
education in private schools.
The legal action contemplat
ed by the league, a group of
about 500 public school offi
cials, was disclosed in Wash
ington by Edgar Fuller, a for
mer league president who is
executive director of the Coun
cil of Chief State School Of
ficers.
Fuller is a leading voice
among professional educators
who oppose tax assistance for
education in parochial and other
private schools or in church-
related colleges. He has tes
tified in congress frequently in
opposition to proposals for any
Federal aid to private educa
tion.
Fuller, chairman of the
league’s special committee on
constitutional law, said the 41-
year-old organization in “un
alterably opposed to proposals
to devote public funds either
to the direct or to the indirect
support” of private schools.
Ritt said in a statement here
that "this action of the Hor
ace Mann League is the lat
est attempt to enthrone secu
larism as the state religion
of the United States.”
"The CCCL exists to encour
age any group, secular or sec
tarian, to avoid infringment up
on the rights of any individual
or other group,” Ritt said.
“I believe that this contem
plated action of the Horace
Mann League is attempting to
get the stage for infringement
upon the rights of those Amer
icans—Protestants, Catholics
and Jews—who wish to continue
the American tradition of main
taining private and church-
related schools as a distinct
part of U.S. pluralism.
“The Catholic Council on
Civil Liberties will resist any
attempt to reduce our plural
istic structure to that of a mon
olith in education regardless of
where the challenge comes
from. We do not believe that
secularism can be the state re
ligion of America—either in
education or anywhere else.”
The primary purpose of the
CYO program needs to be re
peated at frequent intervals. A
phrase used by the CYO of sev
eral other dioceses sums it up
very well: "to fashion the image
of Christ in our youth” Hence
the spiritual must always be
foremost in consideration and
motivation. All activities, re
gardless of what they may be,
must always keep in mind this
prime objective.
Even a dance can be a means
of spiritual training. Leaders
as well as members must never
forget this. For example, the
dance ought to be able to train
CYO members in the virtues
of self-respect and respect for
others, courtesy to each and
every fellow-member, even
those we consider odd or un
popular. It ought to provide op
portunities to learn respect for
authority, respect for property,
responsibility in contributing
our part to the success of an
endeavor.
Leaders must seek to im
part a sense of moral values for
life and good living in the com
munity, a sense of social res
ponsibility, working for the
common good. The lesson of
Holy Week is summed up in the
words “no greater love has
any man than that he lay down
his life for his friends.’’ Self-
sacrifice for the welfare of all
others is a basic teaching of
Christianity, the home, the
school, and the CYO all have a
part in teaching that lesson and
training youth to absorb that
point.
The question was asked
recently in a class on marriage
preparation, "The church dis
courages mixed marriages. But
how do we meet Catholic boys?”
Really now, in the bigger cit
ies this should pose no prob
lem. If there is a difficulty it
is because of the teen-age code
never to bust into a couple
going steadily.” Most good
mothers have trained their
daughters not to be so impolite
as to spurn or reject an invi
tation. Therefore, the major
blame must rest on the boys
who lack the fortitude to buck
the present system. It’s up to
them to courageously smash
that false honor that prevents
them from asking their buddies
steadies to dance. The whole
idea of CYO dances is to meet
new friends and acquaintances,
not just associate with the same
old clique.
Another examples of unsel
fishness is to willingly cleanup
the hall instead of ducking out
and letting the mess for the
priest or adult advisor.
All in all, then, CYO is an
opportune training ground in
Christian virtue.
Revelation Draft Renamed
Key To Council Studies
VATICAN CITY, (NC)—A
study of the care of souls is
the key to solving other mat
ters which the Vatican council's
Coordinating Commission is
now studying a council press
bulletin said.
The commission studied
(March 26) projects on the
“specially important” lay
apostolate and on bishops and
the ruling of dioceses at the
second in its current series of
meetings.
At the commission’s first
series of meetings, January
21 to 28, the group instructed
individual council commissions
on their work of revising, com
paring and paring down pro
jects presented to the Fathers
at the council’s first session
which ended December 8.
The problem of the lay apos
tolate, the bulletin said, is
“specially important because
an ecumenical council is study
ing it for the first time.” This
is “in addition to the impor
tance it has from its very na
ture.”
The lay apostolate project
has two parts, the bulletin said.
The first part studies general
principles of the lay apostolate,
such as its purpose, its rela
tion to bishops, cooperation am
ong its various forms, and the
training of lay apostles. The
second examines three basic
aspects: Catholic action, char
itable action and social action.
Two projects submitted by
the council’s Commission for
Bishops and the Ruling of Dio
ceses cover the relations be
tween bishops and the Roman
curia—the Vatican administra
tive staff, the status of coad
jutor and auxiliary bishops, ep
iscopal conferences, the boun
daries of dioceses and parishes,
and the care of souls.
The care of souls is the ’ 'cen
tral” subject on which the “sol
ving of the other announced mat
ters hinges, because it is the
main task of the pastoral minis
try of the successors of the
Apostles,” the bulletin said.
The central commission said
that it was pleased with the work
done by other commissions
since the beginning of the year.
This work “promises a speedy
completion of the council’s
great work,” the commission
said.
Cantor Sings In
Catholic Church
REV. JOHN CUDDY, Superintendent of Savannah Diocesan Schools conducts afternoon
of recollection for married couples at St. Mary’s Home, Sunday, March 31st.
WASHINGTON, (NC)—A Pro
testant, who is a cantor at a
Jewish synagogue, and a 60-
voice Catholic choir sang “The
Passion,” medieval compo
sition of unknown authorship,
at the Shrine of the Blessed
Sacrament here.
John Yard of the Washing
ton Hebrew Congregation and
the shrine choir will repeat
the performance on April 10.
Yard, who sang the role of
Christ, performed seven pre
vious times at the church.