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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, May 4, 1963
Who Closed The Fist?
When the Archdiocese of New Orleans
announced last summer that Catholic schools
there would be desegregated in the fall,
many objections were raised. The people of
the archdiocese were being asked by their
Archbishop, in the name of the Christ who
said, "Whatsoever you do to one of these, even
the least of my brethren, you do unto Me,"
to receive into their schools, on an equal
basis, all those of whom the Same Christ
said, “Suffer the little children to come unto
M
me. . .
They were being asked to put aside a
centuries-old tradition of racial segregation,
and initial opposition was not unexpected by
either the Archbishop or school authorities.
But they knew that once their people had a
chance to think calmly and prayerfully about
the change in their school system most of
them would obey their Archbishop humbly,
as they would Christ, Himself.
The confidence of the Church authorities
was not misplaced and when the schools
opened the predicted wholesale opposition
to desegregation did not materialize.
But in Plaquemines Parish, political leader
Leander Perez called for a boycott of Catho
lic schools by white parents. Opposition was
also announced from other quarters in the
most defiant of terms and several laymen and
women were excommunicated. But their oppo
sition continued and brought in its wake ugly
threats of violence against clergy and white
parents who complied with church directives
concerning the desegregation of the schools.
And though there was no wholesale disobe
dience of eccleastical authority, when the
schools opened there were disorders at a
few of them and to this day Our Lady of Good
Harbor elementary school in Plaquemines
Parish (county) has not one child enrolled,
though its doors remain open.
It was at Belle Chasse, in Plaquemines
parish that Father Frank Ecimovich, S.V.D.
was assaulted a week ago last Saturday by
the father of one of the children he had
been preparing for First Holy Communion.
He became the victim of a physical attack
by a man who probably considered himself
to be a good Catholic. Why?
For the past two years the church of which
Father Ecimovich is pastor has conducted
its First Holy Communion in exactly the same
manner. That is, the white and colored child
ren of the parish have made the retreat
together. In the past, no serious objections
had been raised.
Yet, this year the heart of one member of
the parish was so filled with hatred that he
inflicted bodily injury upon a priest preparing
children to receive the Lord of Love. Why?
Could it not be that the fist which struck
Father Ecimovich was closed by the defiant
statements and the bigoted utterances
of those so-called Catholics who rejected
their Bishops’s call to Christ-like brotherly
love and gathered to hurl epithets at little
children entering the newly integrated
schools? We think it could.
We Still Are Important To God
God’s World
(By Leo J. Trese)
There is one source of temp
tations against faith which we
encounter today which our an
cestors did not have to face,
This is the ever widening fron
tier of scientific knowledge.
When our
earth was
thought to be
the center of
the universe,
with sun,
moon and
stars circl
ing around
us and minis
tering" to us.
it was easy to believe in God's
intense interest in us. We were
very important creatures.
Now, however, we know that
our earth is just one tiny, insig
nificant planet in the galaxy of
suns and planets known as the
Milky Way. The Milky Way is
millions of light-years across;
astronomers still are not sure
how many millions. A light-
year, remember, is the dis
tance that a beam of light will
cover in a year, travelin g at
the rate of 186,000 miles a
second. A light-year is appro-
ximately 6,000,000,000,000
miles. And the Milky Way is
just one of the countless other
galaxies of suns and planets
which stretch billions of light-
years through the unchartered
reaches of space.
There may be life on other
planets, too. There may be
creatures far superior to our
selves, somewhere between
ourselves and the angels. We
begin to wonder, "Is it possible
that the infinite Power Who
created all this can be interest
ed in us, little microbes that
we are, crawling about on this
pinhead earth of ours? Could
God possibly have taken a hu
man form and become one of
us?"
This is what we might call an
inverted pride, a specious form
of humility. We, who judge im
portance by numbers and size,
attribute our own way of think
ing to God. We question God’s
revelation because we cannot
conceive that God could so stoop
to.us,, a peewee race on a tiny,
cooled--off fragment of an ex
ploded star.
We forget that this is pre
cisely what God’s infinity
means. He is not limited by
time or space, by size or num
bers. It would be no strain upon
God’s infinite power to create
this unmeasured universe just
so that it might produce the one
little speck of earth which is
ours—a space-platform for
souls on their way to eternity.
A whole universe to produce one
puny world? An entire ocean to
produce one little pearl? This
would not daunt God at all.
It is quite possible, of course,
that God has other plans under
way throughout the universe.
There may be souls in heaven
from other worlds which ended
eons ago. There may be planets
now inhabited by intelligent
creatures who never sinned and
who have no need for redemp
tion. There may be other plan
ets, still in the making, destined
Masons Divided On Measure
Oregon Senate Unit Votes
Proposal To Extend Text
Rental To All Sc hools
PIRATE OF DIGNITY
It Won’t Go Away
for occupancy a billion years
hence. There is no limit to what
God may have done or may
choose to do. Undoubtedly we
have some surprises in store
for us when, seeing God face to
face, we see all things in Him.
By all means let us be hum
ble, but in our humility let us
not try to cut God down to our
own size. He may have created
other beings to love Him and to
sing His praises. Nevertheless,
a hundred billion others will not
distract His love and His atten
tion one single instant from you
or from me. God is infinite.
He is not hampered by
quantity, He is not confused by
numbers.
Astronomers may continue to
probe the universe. Physicists
may continue to split the atom.
Paleontologists and anthropolo
gists may continue to trace
man’s history back through mil
lions of years; even may estab
lish that man’s body (but not
his soul) was evolved from that
of an ape. It still remains true
that God so loved this human
race as to become one of us
and to die for us.
Knowing our own imperfec
tion and pettiness, you and I
cannot understand God’s predi
lection for us. It is not neces
sary that we understand it. It
is enough that we know it is so
because God has said that it is
so. It is enough that we concede
to God His right to do what He
pleases, and to do it in His
own way. Boldly, then, and
gratefully,-* we say our Credo.
(Father Trese welcomes let
ters from his readers. The in
creasing volume of letters pro
hibits personal answers but
problems and ideas contained
in such correspondence can be
the basis of future columns. Ad
dress all letters to Father Leo
J. Trese, care of this news
paper.)
It Seems to Me
A problem that keeps bobbing
up in nation after nation is that
of the rights of parents in the
education of their children.
Some folks wish that the pro
blem would go away, but it won’t
It never will,
because
there are al
ways fathers
and mothers
refusing to
abdicate
their respon
sibility.
Among
those who,
sooner or later, must face this
fact instead of evading it are
President Kennedy and his sec- :
retary of health, education and'
welfare, Anthony J. Celebrezze.
Mr. Celebrezze spoke the
other day at a conference in
Washington sponsored by the
National Committee for the Sup
port of Public Schools, of which
Mrs. Agnes Meyer of Washing
ton is chairman and moving
spirit.
NOTICE THAT the commit
tee is concerned only about sup
port of public schools, although
there are other schools in the
U. S. educating seven million
of the nation’s boys and girls.
Mr. Celebrezze, as usual,
gave forth with vague generali
zations. Efforts to strengthen
American education, he said,
"have been launched repeatedly
and failed repeatedly."
He could hardly have meant
exactly that. The fact is that
since memory runneth not to
the contrary, education has been
strengthened year after year.
Education has been strength-
JOSEPH BREIG
ened both by local communities
and by parish and private edu
cators bettering the schools at
tended by the seven million.
WHAT CELEBREZZE really
meant, I think, was that efforts
have been repeatedly made to
put through Congress a huge
aid-to-public-schools program,
and have repeatedly failed.
One of the reasons they have
failed is that they were not
aid-to-education proposals;
they were proposals for aid to
some education, but not to all.
They were discriminatory.
They would have penalized par
ents even more than parents
already are penalized for exer
cising their conscientious right
to select the schools they pre
fer for their youngsters.
Mr. Celebrezze cannot possi
bly be unaware of this problem,
and of the existence of the inde
pendent schools. Yet he never
includes these scools in his ut
terances about strengthening
education.
HE SAID NOTHING about
them at the Washington meeting.
He did not say to the other
conferees—“Wait a minute; I'm
all for support of public schools.
But what about the other
schools? Don’t we care about
them?’’
Mr. Celebrezze not only could
have said something like that;
I think he should have said it,
because as an official of the
federal government, his re
sponsibility is for the good of
all the people and all the
schools, not just some of the
people and some schools,
I suggest to Mr. Celebrezze
therefore—and to government
SALEM, Ore., (NC)—The.
State Senate Education Com
mittee has approved an amend
ment to bring all Oregon secon
dary school pupils under a
House-passed bill that would
provide for renting textbooks to
high school students.
The amendment would reopen
for Oregon Catholic high school
students an old controversy
over textbooks. That dispute
culminated in a U. S. Supreme
Court refusal to review a state
Supreme Court ruling that a
1957 law extending free texts
to parochial elementary school
pupils was in violation, of the
state Constitution.
Textbooks in public high
schools are now bought out of
student fees. The original House
bill sought to provide free texts
for the secondary public
schools. It was amended to pro
vide for renting of texts to
public school children and for
their loan without charge to
Most Catholic
Country
LIMA, Peru—Peru is well
on its way to becoming the
most Catholic country in Latin
America, according to Father
Albert J. Nevins, M.M.
indigent school pupils.
The proposed Senate amend
ment would delete the words
“public school’’ from the bill.
At a Senat e hearing on the
proposed amendment, Leo
Smith, a Portland attorney re
presenting the Portland arch
diocese, said the amendment
has one important difference
from the law that was declared
unconstitutional: it provides for
rental so the taxpayer does not
have to bear the cost.
His view, was contested by
Judah Bierman, an American
Civil Liberties Union spokes
man, and Lewis Starr, who re
presented the Scottish Rite Ma
sons.
Starr and his organization
would not be against the amend
ment if it spelled out rental
fees that would provide for the
costs of buying and distributing
the textbooks but was “unal
terably opposed to spending any
taxpayers’ money for parochial
or private schools."
He was countered sharply by
committee chairman Sen. A1
Flegel who proposed the amend
ment. Flegel identified himself
as a Scottish Rite Mason and
challenged Starr’s claim to
speak for all Masons.
Fifth Glorious Mystery
THE CORONATION
Our ^ Father
Who is this that comes forth like the
dawn,/
as beautiful as the moon, as resplen
dent as the sun?
Cant. 6:10
Hail ^ Mary
Like the rainbow appearing in the
cloudy sky;/
like the blossoms on the branches in
springtime.
Sirach 50:8, 9
HailMary
I am the mother of fair love, and of
fear,/
and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
Ecclus. 24:24
Hail Mary
In me is all grace of the way and of
truth,/
in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
Ecclus. 24:25
Hail Mary
Come to me, all you that yearn for me,/
and be filled with my fruits.
Sirach 24:18
Hail Mary
Scriptural 3\osarp
Part 15
You will remember me as sweeter than
honey,/
better to have than the honeycomb.
Sirach 24:19
Hail-5^ Mary
So now, O children, listen to me;/
instruction and wisdom do not
reject!
Prov. 8:32, 33
Hail^Mary
Happy are those who keep my ways,/
watching daily at my gates.
Prov. 8:33, 34
Hail Mary
For he who finds me finds life,/
and wins favor from the Lord.
Prov. 8:35
Hail Mary
Hail, O Queen of Mercy, protect us
from the enemy,/
and receive us at the hour of death.
Quccnship of the B.V.M., Gradual
Hail 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.
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.
87% Believers
WESTMINSTER, Md., (NC)—
A major survey of religious be
liefs among adult Americans
discloses that 87 per cent are
"absolutely certain" that God
exists.
Only one out of 20 of those
officials in other nations--that
it is high time they stopped
ignoring the rights or parents
in education.
AS THE ORATORS used to
tell us, I can say without fear of
successful contradiction that as
long as there are children, there
are going to be parents, and
pretending that the parents
aren’t there just won't work,
Mr. Celebrezze said that the
federal government, “with its
broader base of taxable resour
ces,” can afford, better than
the states, to increase "support
to education."
Why is this so? It is so be
cause the federal government
keeps on pre-empting the most
lucrative sources of taxation;
keeps on draining money away
from states and local communi
ties.
IT IS NOT the law and the
prophets that this should be so.
The federal government could
stop creating bigger and bigger
bureaucracies with their hands
in all our pockets.
The federal government, said
Mr. Celebrezze, must find an
additional $20 billion a year for
education. And this at a time
when government economists
are saying that the tax burden
is keeping the econonl^ on dead
center—and that unless the bur
den is eased, the economy will
begin going backward.
Whether the economists are
right or wrong, I don't know. I
do know that government offi
cials everywhere have got to
get around to recognizing the
right of parents to select
schools for their children with
out gross financial penalty.
surveyed said that religion is
"not very important" in their
lives, Father John L. Thomas,
S. J., reports in a new book
published here (May 3).
However, he concludes from
his study that the religious be
liefs of many Americans are
“immature" and "superfi
cial."
Serra Stamp
LOS ANGELES, (NC)—The
Joe Scott Club of California
has requested the Citizens
Stamps Advisory Committee
and the Postmaster General to
reconsider the decision not to
issue a special stamp commem
orating the birth of Junipero
Serra.
The club, formed in honor of
the late attorney Joseph Scott,
noted Catholic lawyer in South
ern California, made its re
quest in the form of a reso
lution at its annual meeting here
last week.
Named Honorary
President
MIAMI BEACH, Fla., (NC)—
Archbishop Joseph T. McGuck-
en of San Francisco, episcopal
chairman of the Press Depart
ment, National Catholic Wel
fare Conference, was unani
mously elected honorary presi
dent of the Catholic Press As
sociation by its board of direc
tors of a meeting opening the
association’s 53rd annual na
tional convention.
He succeeds Bishop Albert
R. Zuroweste of Belleville, Ill.
Archbishop McGucken will be
on the CPA’s board of direc
tors and will cast a vote with
the 12 directors elected by the
CPA’s membership.
Moon Flights
WASHINGTON, (NC) — A
symposium on space tech
nology, for engineers and scien
tists interested in manned flight
to the moon, will be held June 11
through 14 at the Caholic Uni
versity of America here under
sponsorship of the university
and the Goddard Space Flight
Center, National Aeronautics
and Space Administration. The
symposium will be part of a
two-week seminar at the uni
versity, beginning June 3, on
plasma physics applied to space
science.
Church Unity
KAMPALA, Uganda, (NC)—
Christian unity was a major
theme of the meeting here at
which about 350 Protestant and
Orthodox leaders from 42 Afri
can countries voted unanimous
ly to establish an All-Africa
Conference of Churches.
Three Catholic priests at
tended the meeting (April 20 to
30) as observers.
Exaggerated
Opt
imism
SYDNEY, Australia, (NC)—
A warning against exaggerated
optimism on Christian unity
was given by Auxiliary Bishop
Thomas Muldoon of Sydney of
an interfaith meeting organized
by the New South Wales Com
mittee of the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity.
But the Bishop told the
meeting that while unity is “not
just around the corner", he
road toward it is now being
opened up.
Controver sy
Rekindled
BERLIN, (NC)—The presen*-
tation by the West Berlin gov^
ernment of a special award for
a play implicating Pope Pius
XII in nazi Germany’s murder
of the Jews has rekindled the
controversy surrounding the
play.
The Berlin Senate, executive
branch of the West Berlin gov
ernment, bestowed its "Award
of the Young Generation" on
32-year-old Rolf Hochhuth for
his play called * ‘Der Stellver-
treter" (The Vicar). The pre
sentation was made at a cere
mony in the Academy of Arts
before a large invited audience.
Interfaith
Cooperation
MADRID, (NC)—A three-
year-old U. S. military parish
here is giving Spaniards an ex
ample in Protestant-Catholic -
cooperation.
San Cristobal’s, which has
become one of this city’s most
active parishes, serves U. S.
servicemen in the Madrid area,
including the nearby joing Apan-
ish-U. S. Torrejon air base.
The parish was written up in
the Spanish Catholic magazine
Senda y Alba.
The magazine’s reporter,
Enrique Cubiles, found the co
operation between Protestants
and Catholics who share a 500-
seat chapel noteworthy.
"To us Spaniards," Cubiles
wrote, "this togetherness is un
known and surprising."
QUESTION BOX
By David Q. Liptak
Q. In the wake of some con
fusion to the Church’s posi
tion regarding theMRA move
ment, could you please state the
facts? Or is it difficult to give
a clear-cut answer?
A. Moral Rearmament (MSR)
is a religious movement, found
ed upon a religious ideology
different from that which must
be professed by Catholics (and,
for that matter, from that pro
fessed by most traditional
Christians.) Hence it should be
approached in accordance with
the same principles which gov
ern participation in non-
Catholic religious activities.
Bishop Thomas L. Noa, in
whose diocese of Marquette the
American headquarters of MR A
is located, has explicitly warn
ed against participation in MRA.
Similar cautions have been voi
ced by other bishops in places
where MRA has become an is
sue; by the hierarchy of Eng
land and Wales in 1946, for
instance; by the archbishop of
Cologne in 1950 and the arch
bishop of Milan in 1952; and
by the bishops of the Phili—
pines and Ceylon in 1958.
Certainly this is not to im
pugn the sincerity of practising
MRA members, or to imply in
the slightest degree there is not
a measure of good in the move
ment . Rather it is to empha
size that MRA is a religion,
and that Catholics are already
committed to a religion. To
quote from The Holy Office
statement of 1957:
“Let Catholics who feel in J
spired in this manner by zeal'
and charity . . . devote them
selves with enthusiasm and per
severance to some of the va
rious forms of the apostolate
indicated (by the Holy See)."
In this way, they will be en
gaged fruitfully in the work
which is proper to a lay Catho
lic, called by the Holy Father
a ‘consecratio mundi’ (conse-
(Continued on Page 5)
^ The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH, GA.
Vol. 43
Saturday, May 4, 1963
No. 33
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
