Southern cross. (Savannah, Ga.) 1963-2021, April 20, 1963, Image 2

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Southern cross., April 20, 1963, Image 2

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Newspaper Page Textr r t i PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, April 20, 1963 Vatican Radio Asserts Red Press Distorts Encyclical, Ignores Plea For Freedom Catholic School Heads Si< Back High School Anti-Communism But Warn Against Extremist Groups J VATICAN CITY, (NC)—'Tak- . ing note of communist interpre tations of the papal encyclical, Vatican Radio has issued a re minder that the core of the doc ument is its insistence on human ? freedom and dignity rather than its plea for negotiations, j “The communist press un- i derlined with particular in- I sistence the call for the settle ment of controversy through . meetings and negotiations, the exhortations to overcome ra cial and ideological barriers, the proposals for general dis armament,” observed the Vati can's broadcast. -“Doubtlessly, these subjects constitute an important part of the encyclical, but they do not exhaust its contents,” the com mentator continued. “The central nucleus of the encyclical--from which derive WASHINGTON, (NC)—Mem bers of both houses of Con gress have hailed His Holiness Pope John XXIII’s encyclical on peace as a major contri bution to reducing international tensions. Two congressmen cited the encyclical as an argument in favor of a nuclear test ban during a House discussion (April 10) of efforts to work out a test ban treaty. Rep. Henry S. Reuss of Wis consin and Rep. Edith Green of Oregon both placed in the Congressional Record portions of the encyclical calling for a reduction of nuclear stock piles and a ban on nuclear wea pons. Reuss said the encyclical “rightly says that disarmament depends upon mutual trust. This a test ban can help to generate.” Mrs. Green, a Protestant, praised the encyclical as “a magnificent document that I am certain will win wide accep tance throughout this strife- torn world among peoples no matter what their religious faith.” Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island said Pope John, among international leaders, is “the all its directives about the na ture and significance of public power, about the relations be tween political communities and about the national commun ity—is constituted by the dignity of the human being, his rights his duties,” the broadcast stressed. Meanwhile a flood of messag es is being received at the Vati can in response to the en cyclical, including many from the United States. The Secretariat of State said the U.S. responses came not only from Catholic leaders but from “the man in the street” and from non-Catholic groups. The secretariat referred to congratulatory messages from Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, and Archbishop John P. Cody of New Orleans. Cardinal Spellman cit- one who has spoken out most often, most forcefully and most cogently for the cause of world peace.” Pell addressed the encycli cal particularly for being addressed “to all men of good will.” He said that “all men will certainly be affected by it.” Charging that at the present time “jingoism and war talk (are) all to rampant,” he said Pope John had given the cause of peace “a public dignity and a worthiness that it would not otherwise enjoy.” Rep. Abner W. Sibal of Con necticut described the encycli cal as an “optimistic” docu ment “filled with faith in the future of mankind.” “It should cheer us as we, who are also charged with pub lic responsibilities, seek the road to lasting peace,” he said. Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota called the encyclical “one of the most liberal, one of the most universal and one of the most human documents of our time.” Humphrey said Pope John had “put the Church at the van guard of the world movement for peace.” ed the universal acclaim for the document and Archbishop Cody thinked the Pope for his state ment on human dignity and ra cial equality “in the name of an archdiocese where peace and harmony are not happily effec tive.” A Washington organization called the Women’s Strike for Peace wired it was “deeply grateful that in this holy seas on” a person of the Pope’s stature had “spoken directly and clearly to Mankind on peace.” The Vatican City daily, :’- Osservatore Romano, com mented that the theme of peace in the encyclical was charac teristic of the entire reign of Pope John XXIII. Its editorial stated that the Pontiff speaks of a true peace “in truth, jus tice, charity and liberty”, not of “an ephmeral propagandis ts verbal unilateral peace . . . The Pope does not offer il lusions but the principles of his teachings are well founded.” Vatican Radio said the ency clical is typical of the Pope and “evidence of the conscious dar ing of a person who, strengthen ed by his faith, by virtue of un failing Divine Providence, be lieves and trusts in the good will of men even though it may be frail.” UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (NC) —His Holiness Pope John XXIII’s encyclical on peace dominated a press conference held here by UN Secretary U Thant, Besides being the subject of a laudatory statement by Thant, the encyclical also was the theme of the majority of questions directed to the Sec retary General by newsmen. This took on significance from the fact that Thant holds press conferences sparingly, usually only three or four a year. Thant opened the press con ference (April 11) by reading his statement, in which he hailed the encyclical Pacem in Terris as a “document of far-reaching significance.” The UN Secretary General praised Pope John’s “great wisdom, vision and courage” and said that “in addressing his thoughts to the peace of the would in this nuclear age, he was indeed appealing for man’s survival.” Noting that the encyclical “calls for a strengthening of the United Nations,” he said its contents “are certainly in harmony with its purposes and objectives of” the UN. “They come as a timely re minder that the state of mankind still hinges precariously in the deadly balance of nuclear devastation and will contribute very successfully to intensify the efforts of all those who are confident that the human race has enough reason to preserve its own species,” he said. Asked whether the Pope’s appeal for a supranational or- The broadcast called the en cyclical “an act of faith capa ble of releasing enthusiasm, dissipating uncertanties and fears, and stimulating a vast and fruitful solidarity striving toward mutual positive and no ble objectives. Vatican Radio said that “no compromise with error is ad missible, but loyalty to the prin ciples of natural law, respect for the social teaching of the Church and acceptance of di rectives of the hierarchy leave many roads open to the collab oration of Catholics with all people who have a sincere intention of removing the possi bilities of conflicts, of building peace and promoting the progress of humanity. It stated that the kind of peace called for by Pope John’s en cyclical does not “allow for equivocations.” The peacepro- posed by the Pontiff, it said, “is not the peace of the unfair dom ination of usurped power, of threats of terror. It is a peace in freedom, a peace which hu miliates no one and leaves to eace nation . . . the respon sibility for its destiny. It is a peace which eliminates every obstacle and every limitation to the growth of men for whom God Himself consideres it an honor to die. ganization of all men was being achieved by the United Nations, Thant replied that unfortunately this is not the case. He added, however, that the UN will not be the effective organization it should be and is intended by its charter to be until it achieves this goal. Another questioner asked Thant whether he understood the Pope to be suggesting that the UN should be a sort of super state. Without replying direct ly, he said he believes that “the effectiveness of the United, Nations is definitely tied up with the idea that it should become a sovereign state.” He declared there could be no more timely or effective impetus than the Pope’s words in support of the UN in en couraging its member-nations and the people of the world to implement its purposes. Thant was asked whether he sees a contradiction between the encuclical and the effort to build up a NATO nuclear force. Replying that he did not wish to bring NATO and the encycli cal into conflict, he emphasized that he agrees entirely with the Pope that stockpiles of nuclear weapons must be reduced and ultimately nuclear weapons must be banned entirely. Another question raised the issue of whether Thant’s recent decision to reduce some acti vities of the UN Economic and Social Council was not in con flict with the Pope’s wishes for the UN. Thant replied that some cutback in expenses was necessary if the United Nations was to continue to op~ perate effectively at all. ST LOUIS (NC)—The nation’s Catholic school superintendents have said that formal instruc tion about communism should be offered in Catholic high schools. They said it should be given to all students as a four-week course in social studies in one of the later years of secondary education. It should not only expose communism’s evils and its threat to free man, but more importantly, develop an appre ciation for Christian democracy as set forth in the papal social encyclicals, they said. The call for instruction, along with a series of guidelines, was issued by the Department of School Superintendents of the National Educational Associa tion during the NCEA’s 60th annual convention here. The department includes in its membership the heads of all Catholic diocesan school systems in the country and a number of supervisors of major religious communities of men. The general presentation dis tributed here will be followed in October by a detailed course of study, the department said. Both statements are the work of the department’s six- member committee on moral problems, headed by Father Herman H. Kenning, assistant superintendent of schools, Cin cinnati. Calling an understanding of communist goals and methods essential today for young and old alike, the superintendents said formal instruction in com munism would result in: 1. “Stimulation of greater respect and love for those principles of theistic religion,- both Christian and non-Chris tian, which undergird all free dom, individual and social.” 2. “The deepening of student loyalty and patriotism.” 3. “The strengthening of civil defense (because) in the present world crisis, ignorance about the totalitarian and aggressive nature of communism is a lia bility to the nation.” The superintendents argued against instruction in com munism in elementary schools because of “a danger of creat ing an unhealthy anxiety about communism among pupils.” They also said that any at tempt to involve students in domestic politics where com munism is an issue must be fought. “A teacher has no right to impose his views on pupils; on the other hand, he has no ob ligation to reveal his own po litical preferences to them,” they said. “Above all,” they added, “the teacher and his superiors must resist the pres sure of extremist organizations which will try to untilize the communism study unit to promote their own short sighted interests.” The superintendents said it is best that communism not be studied without preparation. Students first need to study theology, Christian social doc trine and international life, and American history and govern ment, they said. In regard to instructors, the superintendents said: “No teacher can lead high school students through the maze of communist dialectic who has not himself first mastered and refuted the central propositions of Marx-Leninism.” Teachers must be prepared, the school heads said, to dis cuss with students “the fact that not all groups claiming to be Anti-Communist are that in fact or are that in an effective or wholesome manner.” “Students must be taught to discriminate in a mature and politically sophisticated man ner between anticommunist groups, lest, while supposedly working against communism, they unwittingly become trap ped into actually doing a dis service to Christian demo cracy,” they said. A warning about student read ing of Red material was sound ed by the superintendents. “Indiscrimiante reading of communist literature, es pecially without teacher super vision and criticism, must be discouraged; nor should com munist literature be made too readily availabe,” they said. The complete text of the su perintendents’ statement, enti tled “Study About Communism in a Catholic School? Why? How?,” will be printed in the May issue of the educational association's National Catho lic Education Bulletin. In addition to Father Ken ning, members of the com mittee which drew up the state ment are: Msgr. Justin LONDON, (NC)—A Catholic jail chaplain was a central fi gure in a dramatic murder appeal case which resulted in a convicted gunman’s escaping the death penalty. Father John Keogh interven ed in the appeal of George That cher, 33, sentenced to be hang ed for murder in a hold-up. He testified to the Court of Criminal Appeal that another man at the prison had told him that he and not Thatcher had done the actual shooting. The 29-year-old Irish priest, speaking with a pronounced bro gue and holding his breviary in his hand, told the three appeals court judges: “I would like to make it clear that I at no time heard the sacramental confes sion so there is no question here of confession from the Catholic point of view.” Father Keogh said that ano ther convict, Philip Kelly, 23, a Catholic and one of four men involved in the hold-up, had told him before the sentencing that it was he and not Thatcher who had shot and killed milk- truck driver Dennis Hurden. The priest said he had obtained Kelly’s written permission to intervene—he produced the let ter in court—and had also re ceived the advice of his own superior. The appelate court in hand ing down its decision (April 6) quashed the death sentence against Thatcher. It ruled that the trila had not properly di rected the jury on the way to establish the identity of the ac tual killer. The judges said, therefore, that it was not neces- Driscoll, Dubuque, Iowa; Fa ther Richard Kleiber, Green Bay, Wis.; Father James G. Kramer, Madison, Wis.; Fa ther James D. Habiger, Winona, Minn., and Brother John J. Jansen of Dayton, Ohio. sary to consider Father Keogh’s evidence. Thatcher’s sentence was therefore commuted to life im prisonment—the same sen tence given Kelly and the two other defendents by the trail judge. Catholic Peace Group Pledges Support To Pope WASHINGTON, (NC) — A pledge by the Catholic Asso ciation for International Peace to work for the strengthening of the United Nations has been is sued here as a response to the peace encyclical of His Holinesi Pope John XXIII. Association president Har ry W. Flannery said: “The cor nerstone of the new world or der envisaged in the new en cyclical would be the United Na tions—an organization which, as presently constituted, has a number of serious limitations, but which the Holy Father ear nestly hopes may, “inits struc ture and in its means . . . be come ever more equal to the magnitude and nobility of its tasks.’ ” He continued: “We of the Ca tholic Association for Interna tional Peace pledge ourselves to work untiringly for this ob- I jective—the strengthening of the United Nations—and for all of the other noble objectives outlined so clearly in ‘Pacem in Terris .1” ECHOLS TRANSFER INC. w Hauling &. Moving / Truck & Driver $3.50 Per Hour '\Yf Tractor Trailor S; Driver $4.50 Per Hour "\J' 7) Serving Customers Throughout Georgia” \\ 370 Lee St., S.W. PL 3-2153 Atlanta Best Wishes Lunsford - Wilson Co. 714 Stewart Ave, S. W. Atlanta, Ga. Camp Villa Marie SAVANNAH. 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