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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