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I
PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, May 25, 1963
First Holy Communion
For many Catholic children some day in
May will be First Holy Communion Day.
It is a time of great happiness and joy for
both children and parents. The days and
weeks preceding are filled with activity and
preparation. Lessons must be learned,
clothing must be prepared, arrangements
must be made. For the most part, however,
these tasks are enjoyable because the re
ward is so wonderful.
During the instruction period, many im
portant lessons were given to the young
communicants. They were taught that the
Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist
were instituted by Christ as a means of giv
ing His grace to those who receive these
Sacraments worthily. Penance is the Sac
rament in which the sins committed after
Baptism are forgiven.
The Holy Eucharist contains the Body and
Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord. To
receive these Sacraments worthily, the per
son in question must be free from mortal sin
and must observe the rules regarding the
Eucharistic fast. On First Communion day
these youngsters are nourished by the
"Heavenly Food" for the first time in thier
young life. Little wonder then why this day
is so happy for all.
At times, however, the joy has a short
life. The desire on the part of the young
ster to receive Our Lord frequently cannot
be fulfilled. This frustration arises from
an unusual set of circumstances. Remember
the school vacation is a short distance away.
This means the call of the great outdoors
will be heard by many and answered by
most.
Vacations, picnics, and long motor trips
will be the order of the day for many Am
erican families and, at times, religious
obligations interfere with these pleasures.
Sad to say, many times the former suffer.
The children are victims of a family plan
which goes contrary to the things learned
during instructions.
The fervent young communicant was
taught that the Sunday Mass obligation is
serious and failure to hear Mass for a light
reason is a mortal sin. He was also en
couraged to receive the Sacraments
frequently. Now, however, Mother and Dad
have made plans which will interfere
and perhaps prevent his presence at Mass
and eliminate his chance of receiving Holy
Communion. The child is naturally confused
because one source of authority, his teach
er, has given a directive which another
source of authority, his parents, have vio
lated.
Parents are responsible for the religious
welfare of their children. Part of this re
sponsibility centers around the need for con
venience in the practice of religion.—(Ca
tholic Light)
We Are Agents Of Love
God’s World
(By Leo J. Trese)
The whole spiritual life, as
we know, can be summed up in
the single phrase, "LoveGod!"
It is for this that God made us—
that we might love Him. There
is no other reason for our ex
istence. It is
love for God,
too, which
equips us for
the ecstasy of
face - to - face
union with God
in heaven,
Without love, a
soul could be in
the midst of
heaven and still be in hell. Such
a soul could be surrounded by
GcxWby,. angel-s and saints, and
be totally unaware of their
presence. A soul without char
ity is a soul without spiritual
vision—a soul totally blind.
It is fortunate that God, in
baptism, has infused the virtue
of charity into our souls, has
given us a talent for loving
Him. It is not easy to love
someone whom we never have
seen. It is especially difficult
when our love for the unseen
God conflicts with our de
sire for some lesser but visi
ble good. The truth is that, with
out God’s help, we really could
not love Him at all.
On the face of it, it seems a
great mystery why our love
should mean so much to God.
In our honest moments we have
to admit that our love, at best,
is very imperfect. There is a
good bit of self-interest inter
mixed even with our most disin
terested loves: our love for
spouse, for parent, for child,
for brother or sister. It may
illumine the mystery a bit if
we examine what we might call
the "anatomy" of our love for
God.
In the baptism, the greatest
thing which happened to us is
that we were made one with
Christ; incorporated with
Christ is the theological
expression. We were united with
Christ in a way which our human
mind cannot quite fathom.
Christ shared with us His Spir
it, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of divine love. There is no
example adequate to illus
trate the nature of our union
with Jesus, Thedosest that we
can come by way of parallel
is to imagine the intimacy of
union that would exist between
two humans who shared one and
the same soul between them. In
a sense, each would be the other.
Similarly, after baptism there
is a sense in which you are
Christ and Christ is you.
Our spiritual merger with Je-
sus does not destroy our per
sonal freedom. With our
cooperation, however, it does
make it possible for Jesus
to act in and through us. Our
own act of love consists simply
in identifying our will with
God’s. What God wants is what
we want. Our love is expressed
in our obedience to God’s law,
an obedience which involves the
sacrifice of self.
Our obedience, our act of
self - renunciation, creates a
clear channel through which
Christ’s own love can go,
through us to the Father. Our
personal love, at its best is ri
diculously weak. But our own
love is transformed by being
made the vehicle of Christ’s
love. It is not we who love
God. It is Christ Who, through
us, loves God. The millions of
baptized souls, in the state of
sanctifying grace, are like so
many prisms. Through them,
the infinite love of Jesus is
refracted to the Father in lim
itless variety. The Holy Spir
it, the Spirit of Love, flows
from Son to Father in a hun
dred million ways. And, since
divine lOve 13 "an interchange/
the Father’s love returns to
His Son with just- as-many var
iations. In loving each of us, God
can and does love His Son.
We are then, God’s created
instruments of love. We are
God’s agents in this commerce
of infinite love which forever
occupies Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. It is plain that, the
more we purify ourselves of
self, the more effective an agent
each of us is. The more we
detach ourselves, not only from
mortal sin but also from venial
sin, the more perfectly do we
fulfill our vocation to love.
(Father Trese welcomes
letters from his readers. The
increasing volume of letters
prohibits 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.)
Cut From Vietnamese Jungle
History Made As 1st Plane
Lands On New Airfield
By Father Patrick O’Connor
Society of St. Columban
RANG RANG, Vietnam, (NC)
—"It’s good to see history being
made,’’ said Capt. Robert Raf
ferty with a pleased grin.
He was watching the first air
plane landing dustily on the new
airstrip here in the middle of the
jungle. It is also in the middle
of "Zone D," an area compris
ing parts of three provinces,
where the Viet Cong (com
munist) guerrillas have roamed
almost at will for about 16
years.
Capt. Rafferty, who grew up
in St. Martin of Tours parish,
Brooklyn, N. Y., and makes his
home now in San Antonio, Texas,
was right. This may be only a
sentence in the history of the de
fense of south Vietnam against
communism but it is an
important one.
It has taken weeks of dogged,
dangerous work by Vietnamese
army engineers to write it.
Vietnamese army Rangers, pa
trolling the jungle, made the
work possible. American Army
advisers, assisting the Viet
namese officers, and American
equipment helped to put Rang
Rang airfield on th,e map.
During the first week bullets
from communist snipers, lurk
ing in the jungle, cut through
the dust that rose cloudily
around the bulldozers. Commu
nist mines were placed in the
soft earth. Two men were killed,
four were wounded. Since then
there have been no more casual
ties, thanks to the Ranger units
and the clearing of the jungle on
both sides.
The angry opposition of the
Viet Cong communists was ex
pected. Zone D was their pre
serve even when the French
Army was here. When they
launched their large scale guer
rilla warfare against the Repub
lic of Vietnam in 1959, they
made this zone a staging area
and a haven. Thinly populated,
largely jungle, it gave them an
extensive hideout some 30 miles
from Saigon. To make pursuit
difficult for government troops,
they cut trenches across the
few dirt roads that thread the
jungle and they dismantled
bridges.
Now Capt. Rafferty and his
comrades, Vietnamese and Am
erican, have not only pushed
through the jungle, rebuilding
nearly 20 miles of raod and re
pairing a steel bridge. They
have built a landingfield in less
than three weeks, the first air
field in Zone D. And on May 1
the first plane ever to land in
side Zone D taxied smoothly to
a halt on this field. It was a
U. S. Army Caribou, twin-en
• - - :
' -v
gined, piloted by Capt. Ted
Phillips of Walhalla, S. C., and
CWO Jody Moeller of Dallas,
Texas.
The construction was done by
the oldest engineering battalion
in the young Vietnamese Army,
the 301st. Youthful-looking
Capt. Le van Tu, now eight
years with the battalion, has
helped to build 10 airfields.
His American counterpart,
Capt. James Ellis, Ranger and
engineer from St. Louis, has
high praise for him and his men.
He described the arduous work
of reopening the road before
they could even reach Rang-
Rang.
"We decided to build the air
field here because we found two
hills of laterite," he explained.
"That’s what the bed of the air
strip is composed of. We had
to bulldoze the two hills and
lift the laterite on to the air
strip site by truck."
Helicopter* could land before
a plane could. One of the Cari
bou pilots flew in on the same
’copter as this correspondent,
to size up the new field. One
quick look was enough. In a few
minutes he whirled away again
in the helicopter, to return
shortly as copilot of the two-
engined Caribou, bearing a
group of Vietnamese and
Americans.
Must Make Choice pj. Y. World’s Fair
WASHINGTON, (NC) — Rep.
Hugh L. Carey of New York has
predicted that Congress must
eventually either aid the edu
cation of “nonreligionists’’ only
or treat all schools alike.
Carey, in a statement in the
Congressional Record (May 14),
said a congressional showdown
on the Federal aid to education
issue is inevitable and added:
"We will have the choice of
assisting only the nonreligion
ists—thereby advancing their
specific religiosity—or aiding
all approved and accredited
schools, regardless of their
sectarian, nonsectarian or
sectless public nature.
‘VINTAGE YEAR ?... NOT IF I CAN HELP IT !’
An Ode To Two In One
It Seems to Me
Marriage, simply as such,
makes people good when they
give it a decent chance. There
is a very old tradition that
Adam and Eve, although they
fell, lived to rise into holi
ness. And why
not? Yes, they
sinned, but
they bore the
purifying con
sequences; and
they obeyed
with courage
and patience
the first com
mandment God
ever gave to mankind: "In
crease and multiply, and fill the
earth, and subdue it.”
Something that I think most
theologians do not keenly real
ize—because most theologians
are unmarried—is the depth of
the humility, the trust in God,
and the cooperation with God,
that husbands and wives must
have.
They can enter lightheartedly
and youthfully into marriage,
but with the conception of the
first child they can hardly fail
to see that they have surrend
ered their lives and their love
to the divine will.
THEY SPEAK lightly to oth
ers, but deep in them is the
realization—which comes now
and then to the forefront of their
minds—that they have accepted
the certainty of some pain, and
the possibility of worse, to
partner God in creating. There
will be long months of waiting;
there will be anxiety mixed
with anticipation; there will be
optimism about the outcome,
but there will be uncertainty
too.
What I mean is that even in
’receiving each other, a husband
and wife sooner or later, with
more or less poignancy, know
that they are sacrificing them-
JOSEPH BREIG
selves and each other to God’s
purposes. All may go well;they
hope it will, but maybe it won’t.
Maybe they will have to lay
their child on the altar of the
mystery of mortality that came
upon humanity when our first
parents were estranged from
their Creator.
A MAN AND WOMAN marry
because they love and need each
bfher. They become two in one
flesh, and the result is not only
that their capacity for joy is
doubled; so is their capacity
for fear and sorrow. Where be
fore, each had one heart that
could be wounded, now each
has two; and with the arrival
of children, more hearts are
added to them. The unity of
marriage is as deep as that.
A husband and wife must
live with the realization that
either may die; and so each
lives in an unspoken willingness
to give up to God, if so it should
be, the most treasured of pos
sessions—so treasured that to
lose it is like being nearly des
troyed. Greater love no man has
than to lay down his life for his
friend—unless it be the love of a
husband or wife, giving the be
loved back to the beloved’s
Creator.
ONLY THE MARRIED know
how often, in mind and in will,
and in silent thoughtful mo
ments, they sacrifice each other
and their little ones to Him who
sent them. Only fathers and
mothers know the feel of the
hand of apprehension gripping
their hearts when their children
are ill or hurt. Living thus in
the presence of God, trusting
and loving Him so humbly and
sacrificially, how can they do
other than grow in goodness?
How do other than become,
from day to day, more like
God who gave His only-begot
ten Son, and more like the Son’s
Mother, who gave Him in union
with God?
To see this, we do not really
need the tradition about the
sanctity to which Adam and Eve
rose. We can look about us and
see countless husbands and
wifes whose goodness is inspir
ing to anyone who will open eyes
to it. Even in pagan lands this
great goodness is found—and
why not? God’s blessing upon
husbands and wives, given to
° hnd through the first pair ha's
never been withdrawn, and nev
er will be.
MARRIAGE simply as such,
lived under God, makes for
goodness, but it is noble in its
love of God and fellowmen. That
is why "home" is the most
touching of all words: that is
why a happy home is a kind of
Heaven on earth and why, when
we think of Heaven, we can do
no better than to see it as a
going home never to leave.
That is why "Father" is a word'
fit even for God: the word He
taught us to call Him by, because
it would convey to us an under
standing of His goodness.
And now we come to some
thing even greater than mar
riage—to Christian marriage, a
sacrament. As truly a sacra
ment as Baptism or Communion
or Holy Orders. A sacra
ment conferred not by a priest
but by husband upon wife and
wife upon husband—the dual
sacrament, the mutual sacra
ment, the sacrament of two in
one . . . and more. It is the
sacrament of the loving
together of God and husband
and wife to bring forth new im
mortal beings.
It is the sacrament of that
loving together, and also of a
loving together that makes
saints.
Cuban Refugees
MIAMI, Fla., (NC)—Catholic
Relief Services—National Ca
tholic Welfare Conference has
resettled well over half of all
Cuban refugees resettled in the
U. S. since January, 1961.
Since that date, 58, 540 Cu
bans have been resettled, with
CRS — NCWC accounting for
33,636—almost 57 per cent of
the total.
These figures were made
public here by the Cuban Ref
ugee Center conducted by the
U. S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
236th Serra Club
Chartered
FLINT, Mich., (NC)—Serra
Club of Flint has become the
236th chartered member of the
international organization dedi
cated to fostering vocations to
the pristhood. The charter was
presented at a dinner here by
Fred J. Wagner, Tiffin, Ohio,
president of Serra Interna
tional.
Parish Schools
ROME, (Radio, NC)—The
president and vice president of
the 1964 New York World’s
Fair assured a press confer
ence here that Michelangelo’s
Pieta will go to New York,
contrary to reports carried in
the Italian press.
Robert Moses and Charles
Poletti, fair president and vice
president, held a press con
ference after an audience with
His Holiness Pope John XXIII.
The Pontiff turned down the
officials’ invitation to visit the
fair because it would be too long
a trip.
Pope’s Niece Marries
SOTTO IL MONTE, Italy,
(Radio, NC)—His Holiness Pope
John XXIII sent a special bless
ing for his niece’s wedding here
in his home town.
Maria Roncalli, 23, daughter
Important
WASHINGTON—A congress-
man said here that the trans
fer of a sizable number of pu
pils from parochial to public
schools in Missouri points up
the tremendous contributions
the parochial school makes to
education in America.
Rep. Cornelius Gallagher of
Bayonne, N. J., said the enroll
ment protest movement demon
strates the problems and the
immense burdens other citizens
would have to carry if the pri
vate school system did not exist.
of the Pope’s brother, Giuseppe
Roncalli, married Luigi Gotti,
27, a tile factory worker, in a
ceremony at which a nephew of
the Pope, Msgr. Battista Ron
calli, officiated.
Reds Fail
VIENNA, (NC)—A Slovak
communist newspaper has com
plained about the "frightfully
high" number of churchgoers
in Slovakia.
Pravda of Bratislava, Czech
oslovakia, reported that inten
sified efforts to "enlighten" the
overwhelmingly Catholic popu
lation of Slovakia have had no
success. Churchgoers include
Communist party members the
paper said, and in many places
they go to party meetings after
Mass on Sunday with hymnbooks
in their hands. The percentage
of Baptisms and church wed
dings has not made any signifi
cant drop, the paper added.
Students Fined
JERUSALEM, Israel, (NC)—
Ten young zealots who stoned a
Finnish Protestant mission
school here last January were
fined a total of $550 in the Je
rusalem Magistrate’s Court
(May 9) . The 10, students at
a Talmudic school here, all
pleaded guilty.
Arye Golovonchitz, 18, held
to be the organizer of the (Jan.
3) disturbance, was fined $100.
The other nine were fined $50
each.
QUESTION BOX
Go-Broke-Rage Thoughts
Jottings
"Spend all you have for love
liness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of
peace
Count many a year of strife
well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been or could
be."
-Sara Teasdale
* # *
IN THIS WORLD rounded out
by getting and spending, it
seems we spend too much, mon
etarily and otherwise, and ^get
too little in return. Perhaps it
is not our wallets alone which
By BARBARA C. JENCKS
suffer bankruptcy, and corrup
tion by the moth but our
values as well. For me, the
best things in life cannot be
bought at any store, nor charg
ed either. If that were literally
the case, I should have no wor
ries at all. The bills facing me
would not worry me nor would
the fact that I have just now at
tempted to right a check for $30
against a bank balance of $15.10.
It has always seemed to me that
the wrong people were weal
thy. I think I would have handled
wealth not wisely perhaps but
well. Do most people think that
the best things are for sale?
Do they look upon fur coats,
sports cars, real estates,
stocks and bonds, tailor-made
clothes as the pearls of
great price? Possessions,
things have always strangled
me and when I have ever been
ahead of the bills, I have spent,
or as some would say squan
dered, my little funds on the in
tangibles. I’ve never owned a
car, or fur coat and never had
much desires. Expensive
clothes, furniture has never
appealed. Walking barefooted
along a beach in an old wind-
breaker and bermuda shorts is
a favorite widen expensive mode
of pleasure and dress. Although
it would be grand to be born a
millionnaire, money cannot buy
the best things in life. What
small comfort alas!
* * *
AH, IF I BECAME heir to
either $1,000 or $1,000,000.
(both fortune in my eyes) to-
(Continued on Page 5)
(By David Q. Liptak)
Q. I read the article recently
about the French bishops al
lowing priests to wear ordinary
suits instead of cassocks for
street clothes. How is clerical
attire regulated, and why is it
that customs seem to differ
from country to country? In
some places don’t priests even
wear ties instead of Roman
collars?
A. Clerical attire is regulat
ed in general by the universal
Church Law. But the law makes
no attempt to detail precisely
what form clerical garb must
take. Instead it leaves specifi
cation to approved local cus
toms and norms.
THE BASIS for local custom
and norms here in the United
States is the Third Council of
Baltimore (1884) which opened
the door, as it were, for the
black suit and Roman collar
now worn by American priests.
Chaplains in the armed forces
of course wear the prescribed
uniforms of officers of their
rank.
FOR THE FIRST few centu
ries of the Christian era, no
special clerical garb was gen
erally insisted upon by Church
authorities. The first signifi
cant synodal rulings in the mat
ter were issued from the sixth
century on. Most of them order
ed the use of the vestis talaris
(the forerunner of the cassock),
especially during church serv
ices.
SEVERAL ECUMENICAL
councils took up the subject of
clerical dress. For instance,
Canon XVI of the Second Council
of Nicaea (787) reads: "Clerics
shall wear modest and unosten
tatious clothing, and not array
themselves in gay and showy
apparel embroidered with
silk.” And, for another exam
ple, the Fourth Lateran Council
reminded clerics of their obli
gation to dress in accordance
with the dignity of their office,
and forbade them the use of red
or green cloth, embroidery on
gloves, and gilt spurs (all
apparently in vogue then).
The Countil of Trent reiterat
ed earlier conciliar warnings
regarding clerical garb, but left
specific determination to local
ly approved customs.
yj The Southern Cross
Vol. 43
P. O. BOX 180, SAVANNAH. GA.
Saturday, May 25, 1963
No. 36
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