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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.