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PAGE 2—The-Southern Cross, July 4, 1963
Statesboro Y. C. S.
Holds Study Week
STATESBORO—St. Mat
thew’ s YCS organization, start
ed only a few months ago, re
cently held a Study Week for
all the parish teenagers and
their friends. About 50 differ
ent people attended in the course
of the week, with an average of
25 or 30 a meeting.
The Study Week consisted of
5 different workshops held from
8 till 9 Monday through Friday.
All five were given every night
to groups of five or six of ap
proximately the same age, and
every night the groups rotated
so that at the end of the five
nights everyone had beento each
workshop.
The groups were kept small
so that each person’s opinions
could be freely stated and ques
tions could be easily asked.
Every workshop was divided
into three sections: a thirty
minute instruction by the group
leader, a fifteen minute talk on
the essential parts of the YCS
Social Inquiry—“Observe,”
"Judge,” and "Act”—and
finally a fifteen minute airing
of the major questions that
arose during the preceeding in
struction periods. After the
brainwork was over there was
a social hour, with soft drinks
served all around.
The primary purpose of the
Study Week was to help the
participants realize what it
means to be a Christian, ano
ther Christ, in their own sur
roundings, and thereby to aid
them in finding the solutions
to the problems caused by those
surroundings. (The secondary
purpose of the week was to pre
pare the parish YCSers for the
regional Study Week to be held
August 12-16 in Cullman, Ala
bama.)
FOR THE SHRINE CARILLON—The Blessed Virgin Mary
bell, (above) is one of nine large bells of the 56-bell
carillon to be installed soon in the bell tower of the
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Wash
ington, gifts of the Knights of Columbus. The Mary bell,
the largest, weighs 7,200 pounds and has the following
inscription: "Mary is my name. Mary is my sound. Be
loved mother. Queen of Heaven and earth. Queen of this
dear land. For Knights to God and country bound. And
all who hear my voice. I sing the praises of God.” —
(NC Photos)
Carillon Enroute To National
Shrine In Nation’s Capital
WASHINGTON, (NC)—A 56-
bell carillon weighing more
than 37,000 pounds in en route
here for installation in the bell
tower of the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception.
The carillon, whose bells
were cast by foundries in
France and Holland, left Mar
seille by ship June 15, and is
scheduled for arrival in Balti
more July 6.
The carillon was purchased
with a $150,000 gift from the
Knights of Columbus, who also
paid for the national shrine’s
bell tower.
Following ancient tradition,
each of the nine largest bells
has its own name and inscrip
tion. The largest, weighing
7,200 pounds, is the Blessed
Virgin Mary bell. The next in
size at 5,100 pounds is the St.
Christopher bell.
The inscription on the Bless
ed Virgin Mary bell reads:
"Mary is my name. Mary is
my sound. Beloved mother.
Queen of Heaven and earth.
Queen of this dear land. For
Knights to God and country
bound. And all who hear my
voice. I sing the praises of
God.”
The Christopher bell inscrip
tion, which recalls Christopher
Columbus, reads:“Christopher
is my name. Christ I bear.
For Christopher I ring, who
placed his hope in Santa Maria
and crossed the sea to find this
new land.”
An opening is now being made
in the shrine tower’s wall, 50
feet above the west terrace.
The bells will be lifted by crane
Received
20,000 Messages
VATICAN CITY, (NC)—The
Papal Secretariat of State has
received more than 20,000 let
ters, cables and other messages
of congratulation of the election
of His Holiness Pope Paul VI.
Vatican Radio said they came
from all parts of the world and
from people in every walk of
life.
to a platform outside this open
ing, then raised within the tower
on pulleys. A special ceremony
of blessing will be held before
they are installed.
FIRST TIME—Sister Mary Ephrem, OSF and Sr. Helen Jordan, OSF, both of St. Francis
Convent in Savannah found that this little boy in their summer vacation classes at St.
Martin de Pomes Chapel in Americus had never seen sisters before in his life.
Brazilian Catholics Take
Lead In Campaign To
End Blight Of Rural Poverty
Latin America is a vast re
gion of tremendous potential
growth, but also a region of
great tension and revolutionary
unrest. Will it fall prey to com
munism or advance along the
road toward Christian demo
cracy? The editor of Noticias
Catholics, Spanish-language
edition of the N.C.W.C. News
Service, who recently finished
a tour of Latin America, reports
in the following article on ef
forts to alleviate rural poverty
in its largest country, Brazil.
M
By Jaime Fonseca
(N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE)
Brazilian Catholics are
spearheading a nationwide drive
to solve the pressing problems
of the rural poor in Latin
America’s largest country.
These problems are literally
matters of life and death. Land
less farm workers need their
own land to avoid starvation.
They need a living wage. They,
as well as the small landown
ers, need better health and edu
cational facilities and protec
tion from Red propaganda and
violence.
To better their plight, Bra
zil’s Catholics are fostering a
number of rural organizations
which are already bringing a
new sense of solidarity and
personal dignity to the poor
farmers—the camponeses—in
the most critical areas, parti
cularly in the poverty-stricken
northeastern region of the na
tion.
Before the leftist leader
Francisco Juliao started his
Peasant Leagues there, the
Catholic-sponsored Confedera
tion of Workers’ Centers was
helping the few farmers among
its half a million members.
But the threat of Red violence
on Brazil’s large estates—the
fazendas—and in the villages
led to the broader efforts now
being made by the new Agrarian
Front, which is made up of
Catholic farm workers' unions.
The communist offensive has
been stalled by the combined
attempts of the front and the
confederation, working in co
operation with the long-estab
lished Young Christian Farm
ers’ organization and the grow
ing number of teams of priests
and laymen engaged in pastoral
work in rural areas.
This grass-roots movement
is finding new strength in such
cooperation. One of its leaders
stated: "Banded together, we
can improve our lot with the
resources now at hand.”
Despite the stalling of the
Red drive, sporadic violence
still marks the efforts of the
landless to acquire land. On
June 22, Brazilian troops had to
be called in to aid police when
about 800 armed camponeses
and city slum dweller s took over
an estate in Duque de Caxias
after raiding a gun store and
seizing hostages. The squatters
were led by Anibal Mendes, a
priest of the schismatic Bra
zilian Catholic Church which
was set up in 1951 and now
claims 50,000 members.
The Catholic farm workers’
unions which make up the Agra
rian Front were begun in 1960
in the northeastern state of Rio
Grande do Norte by Bishop
Eugenio de Araujo Sales, Apos
tolic Administrator of the Natal
On Rural Front
Service Corps Volunteers
Would Be Tremendous Aid
WASHINGTON, (NC)—The
National Catholic Rural Life
Conference has stated that vol
unteers for the proposed Na
tional Service Corps would be
a tremendous help on Ameri
ca’ s rural front.
The NCRLC executive com
mittee urged support at its
meeting here for legislation for
the corps, currently being call
ed the Domestic Peace Corps.
At the same time, the com
mittee recommended the smo
thering of any efforts to revive
the program (Public Law 78)
under which Mexican nationals
are imported to work on U. S.
farms.
Coadjutor Bishop John J.
Morkovsky of Galveston-Hous-
ton, NCRLC president and epis
copal adviser, presided at the
executive committee meeting,
attended by some 30 members.
It its 13-page state
ment, the committee also:
—Said "there is an urgent
need for assistance to young
people who wish to enter agri
culture.”
—Recommended that ’ 'all
farmers and their various or
ganizations. . .band together in
commodity-wide marketing as
sociations to achieve the goal
of a fair and stabilized price
for their produce.
—Endorsed the conclusions
of the recently held World Food
Congress here calling for an
all-out war on hunger and mal
nutrition.
—Commended the efforts of
Catholic Relief Services-Na-
tional Catholic Welfare Confer
ence and other voluntary agen
cies in assisting developing na
tions.
—Urged remedial legislation
to render the U. S. Food for
Peace program more effective.
In recommending support for
the National Service Corps, the
NCRLC committee said the
tasks to which corps volun
teers "could be assigned in
helping migrants are almost
endless, and all of them ur
gent.”
‘ 'The corpsmen, for example,
could help expand educational
services and opportunities for
the children of migrant fami
lies,” the policy statement con
tinued. "Corpsmen would help
by tutoring, by seeking out the
children and getting them to the
proper classes, and by keeping
records on the children as they
move.”
The statement said the corps-
men could help improve housing
conditions in the camps, build
recreational facilities for
children and organize adult re
creation programs.
The committee made one spe
cific recommendation “on the
use of certain National Service
Corps volunteers for work in
the chronically distressed rural
areas.”
It said such volunteers could
learn about the programs and
funds available to meet the
needs of the people in these
areas, the techniques for de
veloping projects receiving
support from these programs,
and the methods of developing
local leadership in such pro
jects.
The committee said that after
briefing in these three areas,
the volunteers Would "be sent
into the communities and among
the peoples, where they can in
form, interpret and serve as
catalysts and coordinators for
both individual and community
improvement under legislative
programs already in exis
tence.”
The committee lauded as a
* ‘victory for the forces of re
form” the recent voting down
by the House of Representatives
of a proposed extension of the
Mexican farm labor program
(Public Law 78).
* ‘After years of waging what
most people considered a hope
less battle against the continua
tion of the bracero program,
the conference and its allies
can rightly take pride in this
victory,” the policy statement
said.
It warned, however, that * ‘ef
forts are even now under way
in both the House and Senate to
revive the program.”
"We most emphatically urge
Congress to reject these ef
forts,” the statement continued,
“and urged that all citizens
communicate with their sena
tors and representatives their
insistence that Public Law 78
not be reinstated.”
The committee members ex
pressed concern over the pov
erty "of many of our Mexican
neighbors,” but insisted "that
assistance to them should not
be at the cost of the poorest
of our own citizens.”
"We urge rather that through
our foreign aid program, and
particularly through the Alli
ance for Progress, a more di
rect and effective attack be
made on the cause of poverty
in Mexico,” they said.
archdiocese. By early 1963
there were about 350 unions in a
dozen states with more than
500,000 members.
* ‘Catholics are way ahead in
farm workers’ unions,” the
journalist Ruy Azambuja told
me in reviewing the organiza
tion's progress in the southern
state of Rio Grande do Sul. In
his state alone, he said, 100
unions were founded in 1962
with a total membership of
150,000. At a recent meeting
in the state capital of Porto
Alegre there were 180 union
presidents and 650 delegates, he
added.
In the Northeast, Father An
tonio Melo Costa and his aides
have organized more than
25,000 farm workers, most of
them at the expense of Juliao’s
Peasant Leagues. "Juliao once
dominated four unions. Now he
has none,” one of the helpers
told me.
Father Costa expressed the
wish: "If Bishop Sales’ move
ment could only spread to the
rest of Brazil, we could soon
achieve a land reform that is
really Christian and human.”
Anti-Communist Expert
Father Cronin Warns Of
Red “Hand Of Friendship”
WASHINGTON, (NC)--A pro
minent analyst of communist
tactics has warned that the U.S.
Reds are offering the hand of
friendship to the Catholic
Church. He said they should
get "a negative response.”
Father John F. Cronin, S.S.,
assistant director of the Social
Action Department of the Na
tional Catholic Welfare Confer
ence, made his comment in an
interview.
The Sulpician priest’s obser
vations were sought after recent
disclosure that communists
have bid for invitations to debate
on U. S. Catholic college cam
puses.
Father Cronin has written
and spoken widely on commun
ism, exposing its goals and tac
tics in textbooks, pamphlets and
major speeches before Catholic
and other groups.
He shares the knowledge of
the nation’s top anti-communist
watchdogs and is widely credit
ed with having convinced then-
Congressman Richard Nixon of
communist infiltration in the
government, knowledge which
Nixon used in the sensational
Red exposes of the late 1940's.
Father Cronin said the Com
munist Party, U.S.A., made a
“major reversal of policy” af
ter issuance of the late Pope
John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem
in Terris (Peace on Earth) ear
lier this year.
There were earlier indica
tions of a change in the party’s
attitude toward the Church, he
said, but communists think Pa
cem in Terris opens the door to
“united-front relations.”
“The earlier indications,”
he said, “were the forward-
looking attitude of the Church,
as shown in the ecumenical
coulcil; the willingness of the
Holy See to have contacts with
communist spokesmen; and the
increasing social influence of
the Catholic Church here, as
shown in the National Con
ference on Religion and Race.’
Under the direction of Gus
Hall, chairman of the party, he
said, the communists resolved
to send a letter to Catholic
leaders in various cities.
"This letter would refer to
the encyclical, suggesting
speakers and debates around
the document, around the com
munist position and around the
suggestions where the Pope
calls for positive contribu
tions,” he said. Discussion in
Catholic colleges was especial
ly encouraged.
He disclosed the Reds al
ready have offered united-front
suggestions to top Catholic
leaders, offering to work with
them in areas such as race re
lations, peace aqd civil rights.
"These offers have been re
fused,” Father Cronin said.
He called for "utmost cau
tion” in any contacts with party
members. Three factors make
this necessary, he said. They
are:
“1) The U. S. Communist
party is not independent, but is
totally controlled by the Com
munist party, Soviet Union. To
the extent that high Church au
thorities find it prudent to dis
cuss certain issues with com
munist powers, these discus
sions should be held with the
real centers of authority in the
communist world.
4 *2) The Communist party is
actively engaged in seeking to
infiltrate power centers here in
the United States. Although it is
weak at the moment, it could do
great damage, for example, if
it could influence the trend of
the movement for racial justice
in our nation. If violence were
to be substituted for non-vio
lent protest, we could have con
ditions approximating civil war.
"3) There are two areas of
potential social tension here at
the moment. The race pro
blem is already in a high state
of tension. The unemployment
situation could be a serious so
cial problem if it worsens be
yond present levels. Commun
ism thrives in tension situa
tions, and these conditions offer
a possibility of reviving the
weak Communist party here.
"Communists will seek to
misinterpret passages in Pa
cem in Terris, holding that the
Church has removed its objec
tions to united-front action. In
fact, the encyclical holds that
any contacts with communists
should be held only by competent
persons, with the utmost pru
dence, and subject to ecclesias
tical authority. A11 these rea
sons dictate a negative response
to communist offers here in the
United States.”
Pope Paul VI and Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of
New York, are shown after the pontiff had received the
Cardinal and 16 of his seminarians in a 35-minute audience.
Speaking in English he reminisced about his two visits to
the United States and asked them to pray for him. (NC
Photos)
Camp Villa Marie
SAVANNAH, CEORCIA
The Ideal Catholic Camp
BOYS AND GIRLS — SIX TO SEVENTEEN
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All Inclusive Fee $30 per Week
One, two or three week registrations accepted.
THREE EXCITING WEEKS
July 21-27 (Visit of the King of Siam)
July 28-Aug. 3 (Water Pageant Week)
Aug. 4-10 (Kangaroo Court)
FOR INFORMATION WRITE:
FATHER COLEMAN, P. O. BOX 2227, SAVANNAH, GA.
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