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About Southern cross. (Savannah, Ga.) 1963-2021 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1963)
f f PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, June 1, 1963 Sacred Heart Month Anti-Smut Drive Grows One of the most heartening signs of grow ing public awareness of the menace posed by obscene and indecent literature has been the readiness with which Chatham Countians have been willing to cross denominational lines in the interest of mutual cooperation in a concerted drive to remove offensive printed matter from the news stands. Their efforts have been noted and en couraged by all segments of the press, including the Catholic press. On March 9th, THE SOUTHERN CROSS commenting editorially on the recently passed Georgia statute designed to eliminate obscenity and printed filth from the State, observed that “Both the distribution of ob scene and morally objectionable books and magazines and their easy accessibility to youth, particularly in our larger cities, will be evident to anyone who cares to take the time to browse about for a few minutes in almost any news stand.’’ We also warned that in view of recent court decisions, striking down, as unconsti tutional, the anti-obscenity statutes of several States, Georgia parents cannot repose all their hopes for a news stand cleanup on a law as yet untried in the courts, but should undertake a positive program designed to foster good reading habits on the part of their children, such as the one proposed by the National Office for Decent Literature. Now seems an opportune time to cite that program again. 1. Parents should set a good example by reading good books themselves and discussing them in the family circle. 2. They should know the type of literature their child reads, both inside and outside the home. They should try to develop in the child a love of good literature, coupled with an enthusiasm to read. 3. They should know the books listed on their child’s required program at school and make sure the child reads them intelligently. 4. They should encourage the child to take every advantage of the local public library, and urge the child to buy books with money from his weekly allowance, if he has one. 5. Both parents and community groups should compliment publishers, wholesalers, and retailers who stock good literature. Local community groups can also under take activities to promote a taste for good literature on the part of the young. They can help the local libraries by promotional campaigns and financial aid, when it is needed; sponsor book fairs; book review contests; and, where it is not pro hibited by law, make inexpensive books easily accessible by sponsoring paperback book stores in the school, which may be manned by the students themselves, with the profits set aside for school activities. Court actions which make government at tempts to safeguard the mental and moral health of its youngest citizens more and more difficult may indeed be frustrating, but they need not and must not mean the abandon ment of our young people to the cynical greed of the corruptors. Love Thy Neighbor God’s World We know that if we love God, we must love all whom He loves. We must love our neigh bor. God has made this the proof and the measure of our love for Himself. “If anyone says, ‘I love G o d,’ and hates his n e i ghbor,’’ St. John warns us, “he is a liar.’ ’ M o reover, love for our neighbor must be patterned upon the love which we have for ourselves. “TTfdu ’‘*?ha:lt l'6ve thy neighbor as thyself,’’ is God’s command ment. There is a specious kind of self-love which is repre hensible. This isthenarcissism of the self-centered and self- worshiping person. There also is a true and wholesome self- love which God expects all of us to have for ourselves. Genuine self-love manifests itself, on the natural level, in the intelligent care which we have for our physical and men tal well-being. We avoid un necessary dangers to our health and integrity. We seek to pro vide ourselves with whatever is necessary for the welfare of body and mind—food, cloth ing, shelter, medicine, know ledge, affection. We avoid un necessary corporal and mental pain and search for such happi ness as this world may afford. We try to extend our natural life to its alloted span. On the supernatural level, the strivings of self-love are similar but with a higher objec tive. We seek eternal life for ourselves. We avoid all that would endanger our eternal hap piness. We try, by means of prayer and the sacraments, to provide our soul with all that is necessary for its growth and health, for its preservation in grace. Self-love on the natural level comes fairly easy to us. .It largely is motivated by the in born instinct of self-preserva tion. The practice of self-love on the supernatural level comes harder. It is not an innate in stinct. It springs from the vir tue of faith fortified by the vir- tuebf hope. Ajjd, since the soul is so superior to the body, and eternal life so_superior tojphy- sical life, it is our spiritual welfare which always must have primacy. There may be times when it is necessary to suffer corporal pain and deprivation for the sake of spiritual health. It even may be necessary to sacrifice natural life in order to preserve supernatural life, as the martyrs have testified. It should be plain, now, what God means when He says, ‘ ‘ Love thy neighbor as thyself.” We must want for our neighbor what we want for ourselves: the ne cessary means to achieve natural health and happiness in sofar as possible and, above all, to achieve eternal life. Love for neighbor manifests itself, on the first level, in the concern we have for his tempo ral welfare. That is why we give the name of charity, or love, to our efforts to better the lot of our less fortunate brothers. Either personally or through our bishops and charitable or ganizations we feed the hungry, we clothe the naked, provide shelter for the homeless and education for the ignorant, com bat racial prejudice, nurse the sick, and seek equal justice and opportunity for all. On the higher and more vital level we seek the spiritual wel fare of our neighbor. We share our prayers with all mankind as we pray for the conversion of sinners and unbelievers. We cooperate with convert work in our own parish and support the work of missionaries at home and abroad. We are willing, if called upon, tc> help with reli gious instruction classes. We are ready, if opportunity offers, to explain the truths of faith to others. By^worcTwlieri posslBFe, and always by example, we try to encourage the laxto become better and to win the sinner back from his sin. Our love for neighbor does not have to be an emotional love, no more than does our love for God. It is not how we feel towards our neighbor (he may be a very unlikable person) but what we are willing to do for him, that proves and expresses our love. Considering the supreme im portance of love for neighbor, it is well to examine ourselves periodically on our fidelity to this duty. Each Sunday morning after Holy Communion, as we tell our Lord of our love for Him, we well might ask our selves, “Just what did I do, this past week, to show my love for my neighbor?” (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. Address all letters to Father Leo J. Trese, care of this newspaper.) Composer-Arranger Declares: Plenty Of Good Music But Never Heard In Churches NEW YORK, (NC)—There’s a lot of beautiful church music but it’s never heard in church es, an erstwhile piano player in a Rome nightspot asserted here. Ralph Burns, 40, who com posed, arranged and conducted the musical score for the “Ca tholic Hour” TV series “I Am With You,” (which concluded May 26 on NBC network) said: “A lot of beautiful church mu sic has been written, but the only place you can hear it is on the concert stage. Music direc tors in the churches like to keep the traditional, so you never hear anything else.’’ Burns is a musical arranger for the Broadway theater and in the “pop” record field. He recalled that in 1954 he atten ded the canonization of St. Pius X and was impressed deeply by the sounding of trumpets her alding the arrival of Pope Pius XII for the ceremony. He said: “It was a thrilling musical ex perience,” and he used it in his arrangement for the TV series produced by the National Council of Catholic Men. “Studying early church mu sic is almost the same as study ing the history of music itself,” Burns said in recalling the re search he did for the TV series. Reproduction of the early mu sic for the series, was particu larly difficult, Burns said. “The score would have been dull if I used the actual music of the time,” he explained, “they didn’t have sharps and flats— and just seven notes. I had to take the music and make it sound good.” Burns, a parishioner of St. Malachy’s, the “actors’ Church” near Broadway’s thea ter district, currently is or chestrating a new Richard Ro gers musical scheduled for the fall. He did the orchestrations for the Broadway musicals “No Strings,” “Little Me,” and “Hot Spot,” and also arrange ments for a number of Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Vic Damone and Lena Horne recordings. Burns, a bachelor who shares a Manhattan apartment with a nightclub singer, worked in Pa- I W ^ . .,,- Paratroops Jump, Attend Field Mass FORT BRAGG, N.C. (NC) — More than 1,000 Catholic para troopers took part in a group jump exercise here and attend ed Mass upon landing. The men, members of the St. Michael’s Society for Ca tholic paratroopers, were par ticipating in the fourth annual mass jump sponsored by the society (May 25). On landing, the men attended a field mass offered by Msgr. (Brig. Gen.) William J. Moran, deputy chief of chaplains. Presbyterian Prayers For Pope DES MOINES, Iowa, May 24, (NC) — The general assembly of the United Presbyterian Church has urged members of the denomination to pray for His Holiness Pope John XXIII. In a resolution in the closing moments of its meeting, the as sembly noted reports of the Pontiff’s illness and voiced deep concern over his health. Church Not “Clearly Wrong” GENEVA, Switzerland, (NC) —A proposal stating that Catho lic teachings are not “clearly wrong” has been placed on the agenda of this summer’s meet ing of the World Lutheran Fed eration. Part of a proposal submitted to the meeting by the Lutheran federation’s theological com mittee states: “We can no longer consider it obvious that the (Lutheran) Reformers were right and their opponents entirely in the wrong, and we may no longer hapha zardly dismiss the theological teachings of the Roman Church as clearly wrong, unbiblical and unevangelical.” Returns To Poland BERLIN, (NC)--Stefan Car dinal Wyszynski has received another tumultuous reception in Warsaw on his return from a What Is A Child? It Seems to Me There is a lot of wisdom for parents—as for everybody else—in Pope John’s Peace on Earth encyclical. Behind every instance of a father or mother complaining, “I can’t do a thing with that y o ungster any more,” there lie years ofmis- takes in family .life. And I think that in every case, the er rors can be traced to failure to treat child ren as what children are. A child is a human being, and the greatness of Pope John’s Peace on Earth lies fundamen tally in the clarity and force with which it restates very old, but oft-forgotten and oft-dis regarded, truths about what a human being is, and about what belongs to each human being by right, precisely because a hu man being is what he is. By his (or her) very nature, says Pope John, a human being is a person. That is, he is en dowed with intelligence and free will. He has both a right and a duty to seek the object of those faculties, and the objects are truth, knowledge, goodness, beauty. He must be free to ex ercise this right and to do this duty; indeed, he must be assist ed in these pursuits. THE WISE PARENT, there fore, will begin as early as possible in a child’s life to deal with the child as a unique per son, endowed with intellect and freedom of choice. The wise pa rent will act to develop in the youngster an awareness of him self as a responsible being with JOSEPH BREIG great potential powers. He will not overburden the little one beyond his years, but neither will he retard him. The wise parent will always prefer reasoning to external discipline. He will realize that his central task is to lead the child to acceptance of what is right and what is true, because it is true and right. He will treat the youngster with the 1 dignity and reverence and love that belong to him as an image of God. He will then be re warded by a return of love and reverence from the son or daughter. THIS KIND of attitude toward young people ought to run through all our associations with them, whether as father or mother, as teacher, as lecturer or writer, or whatever. I do not believe, for instance, in “writing down” to youth, or in scolding or nagging them in speech or in print. I have seri ous doubts even about the wis dom of adopting their own slang in writing for them, although on this point 1 know there is room for argument. It is my judgment that the best approach to young people —even when they are very young —is one of respect for their dignity and intelligence. From the moment they begin to use reason (which is quite early) they are capable of responding seriously to seriousness. I sus pect that much of their flip pancy is due to the fact that they were not maturely dealt with. IT HAS BEEN my own ex perience, not only with my own children but with the children of others, that they are deeply interested in the serious things, Student Riots Measure Bloeked SACRAMENTO, Calif., (NC) —The state Legislature has virtually defeated for this ses sion a proposal to legalize abor tions in California. The Assembly’s Criminal Procedures Committee voted to submit the bill to interim study , which is tantamount to blocking the legislation until the 1965 general assembly. both in nature and in the super natural, if only somebody will bother to talk about such things with them. It is for this reason that I regret that so many youngsters nowadays must grow up apart from more than the occasional influence of grand parents. A word like “teen-ager” makes me cringe. It is muchtoo Collective, too impersonal and unindividualistic. I don’t like lumping folks—especially young folks, who have enough of the herd instinct as it is—in categories. I know young men and women of 16 or 17 who are more mature, emotionally and intellectually, than half the adults around them. And I don’t think they ought to betalked-at, or written-at, as if they were some strange animals from some weird jungle. WHAT EACH of us needs, es pecially in youth, is to be ap proached as the unique person each of us is. I would be pro foundly annoyed if somebody addressed me as a fifty-plus- ager as if everybody of that many years were alike. And young people have a perfect right to be annoyed at being approached as units in a collec tivity called “teens.” I think the impact of Pope John's Peace on Earth is basi cally due to the fact that he address his fellow human beings as persons of intelligence and good will, and did so in plain language, without any latinisms or scholastic philosophy termi nology or anything of the sort. And I feel confident that we can all make a similar impression upon our children if we will take the trouble to remember what they are, and approach them accordingly. Methodists Pray For Pope PHILADELPHIA, (NC) — Methodist Bishop Fred Pierce Corson has urged Methodists to offer special prayers for His Holiness Pope John XXIII. Bi shop Corson,- president of the World Methodist Council, said Pope John had asked him to ask all Methodists to pray for hime when the Bishop attended the first session of the ecu menical council as an observer. Smut Fighters Wire President NUTLEY, N. J., (NC)—More than 125 persons here signed a telegram addressed to Presi dent Kennedy asking him to in tervene to halt the flow of obscene material across state lines. The telegram was sent on behalf of the Nutley Decent Literature Committee after a meeting here. journey to Rome, according to reports received here. A crowd of thousands waited at the Warsaw railway station for the Polish Primate’s arri val on the Rome-Vienna-War saw Chopin Express. The trair was an hour and 20 minute' late. When the Cardinal left- the train he was greeted with waves and shouts, and some persons in the throng showered him with roses. Braille Edition LONDON, (NC)—The Royal National Institute for the Blind, whose patron is Queen Eliza beth II, is to publish a Braille edition of His Holiness Pope John XXIII’s peace encyclical, Pacem in Terris. Earlier this year, the institute also made arrangements to publish a Braille edition of the Pope’s social encyclical, Mater et Magistra, following requests from the Association of Blind Catholics in London. Korea Birth Control Program Fails SEOUL, Korea, (NC)—Ko rea’s Ministry of Health and So cial Affairs has dropped its plan for free distribution of 221,000 contraceptive devices to poor families in rural areas. The ministry has admitted that its birth control program for this nation’s rural popula tion has failed. Causes of the failure are the rural people’s age-old traditions, which op pose contraception, and the ministry’s lack of money to pay for the contraceptive devices. QUESTION BOX ris as an arranger before he took the piano playing job in the Rome nightclub. His hobby is collecting Byzantine icons, which he started in Paris. He has some opinions about the entertainment field, some of which go like this: —“I don’t think television is that mediocre compared to the theater. Television is at least aware of What’s going on, There is very mediocre talent in the Broadway theater and the mu sicals especially are far be hind the times. Theater people just don’t listen to what’s going on around them. They live in the past and go by what’s been done in the theater before. They’re very corny people.” --An orchestra should be be hind the scenery instead of in the pit in' front of the stage. “Having an orchestra in front is bad for the singers. They hear the orchestra late, on the rebound, you might say. But theater people are just used to having it that way and they won’t change.” Jottings “Youth is not a time for pleasure but for heroism.” Paul Claudel * * * COLLEGES are America’s best friends, so says the ad vertisement. America is in vesting millions in education and enormous Federal Aid funds are being sought. Tests are giv en which will insure the very best students be brought to the campus. Only the quality stu dent should take up precious classroom space during the col lege boom we are told. We hear the words and then we see the headlines. Springtime riots at Princeton, Yale, Brownl Pro perty damage, shennanigans of a grade school ingenuity—hurl ing firecrackers, etc! This from the supposed fairest of Ameri can youth! Catholic colleges are not immune either—Notre By BARBARA C. JENCKS Dame has had its share this year of youthful exuberancy.Is there no test for maturity or character stability that can be given an incoming freshman along with the sacrosanct I.Q. and adjustment tests? These riot headlines have often been placed side-by-side in the press with the Birmingham marches. Some contrast! While young men suffer in their fight for voting rights in Alabama and others have faced firing squads in Cuba and in Hungary for fights for their dignity and rights as individuals, an overprivileged bunch of college boys fiddle— like Nero—on a Spring night. # # * THE MOST CRYPTIC com ment on Student riots I’ve read came from Bob Considine in his column entitled “Cum Laude Hoodlums.” He comments on the remarks made by a police chief on the Princeton riot: “Boys will be boys . . . and besides you know there was a full moon.” Considine com ments: “Full moon, my eye! Those bums should have been locked up and booted out of school. If 1500 Puerto Ricans had run similarly beserk in New York (or 1500 Cuban refu gees in Miami) the full weight of the law would have clobbered them . . . but for the fact that their parents are well heeled enough to have produced the'se heels and sent them to Prince ton, they’d all be nursing their bruises in the hoosegow today . . .” Strong Stuff? While not exactly as delicate language as an English sonnet, it is worth a thought before a doting smile or shrug. Negroes praying in (Continued on Page 5) (By David Q. Liptak) Q. As Catholics, must we ac tually hold that the Bible was written by God rather than by men? If so, why do we use such expressions as “the Gospel of St. Matthew.” or “the Epistles of St. Paul?” Are there any passages in the Bible itself in dicating that it was written by God? A. Catholics must hold that the Sacred Scriptures were written under a special divine influence, specifically attri buted to the Holy Spirit, and known as inspiration. By virtue of the human authors of the books of the Bible (i.e., St. Matthew, Moses, etc.) were moved and impelled to write in such, 4 a manner that 1) they correctly understood, then 2) willed faithfully to put down in writing, and finally 3) express ed in apt words and with in fallible truth all the things— and those things only—which the Holy Spirit ordered. IN THIS SENSE, the Holy Spirit was the principal Author of the Scriptures, while the hu man writers functioned as sec ondary or instrumental authors. Since human beings are free agents and vary in personality and mode of expression, the precise how, of divine inspira tion remains a profound mys tery. THE BIBLE ITSELF does at test to the fact of its own in spiration. In the New Testa ment, tRere are two comple mentary texts which demon strate that the Old Testament was written by God. In the first of these (II Timothy III: 16), St. Paul says: “All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instructing and in justice. . .” In the second (II St. Peter 1:20), the first Supreme Pontiff recalls that the prophetic utterances of the Old Law were of divine, not human 5HJ The Southern Cross P. O. BOX 180, SAVANNAH, GA. Vol. 43 Saturday, June 1, 1963 No. 37 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
