Southern cross. (Savannah, Ga.) 1963-2021, July 18, 1963, Image 4

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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, July 18, 1963 In Search The rioting and violence which has erup ted in the city of Savannah can in no way be justified or excused. Injury to life and property can not possibly contribute to the cause of racial justice. But the most deplorable effect of the dis orders has been a widening and deepening gulf between white and Negro members of the community, stemming from a rising tide of recriminations on the one hand, and threats on the other. To all who genuinely seek peace with justice for all men, we address the follow ing counsel of the Apostle, St. James. “Every best gift, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Fa ther of lights ... “Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man works not the justice of God. Where fore, casting away all uncleanness, and abun dance of naughtiness, with meekness receive the ingrafted word . . . “Bift be doers of the word, and not hear ers only, deceiving your own selves . . . And if any man think himself to be relig ious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiv ing his own heart, this man’s religion is vain . . . “What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he has faith, but has not works? . . . And if a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food, and one of you say to them, ‘Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled, yet give them not those things that Of Peace are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? ' . .The tongue is indeed a little mem ber, and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire kindles a great wood. And the tongue is a fire. . . “But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father; and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed bless ing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. "... Detract not one another, my bre thren. He that detracts his brother, or he that judges his brother, detracts the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law, but a judge ...” What is needed if racial peace is to be attained is not increased acrimony and hat red, but a careful and prayerful considera tion, by both Whites and Negroes, of the above counsels and the realization that all of us will one day face a Judge Who has said, “Whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgement. And whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca’ (a word expressing contempt), shall be in danger of the council. And whoever shall say, ‘Thou fool’ shall be in danger of hell fire”, and Who will say to each one of us, “As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.” The Thinking Man’s Virtue ’IT'S GETTING SO I CAN HARDLY HEAR YOU' God’s World (By Leo J. Trese) Weep For The Pope It Seems to Me The word “prudence” has fallen into some degree of dis repute in our day. The old ad monition, “Let your conscience be your guide,” has given way to the modern shibboleth, “Fol low that im pulse.’ ” If you feel that some thing is right for you to do, go ahead and do it. Don’t let yourself be hamstrung by the dictates of reason. So runs the personal philosophy, if it can be called that, of a great number of our contemporaries. One evidence of this fact is the increasing casualness with which marriages are made and broken. Ignoring all responsi bility to God or to children, men and women move on, via the divorce court, from one infat uation to the next. For them reason has been dethroned in favor of emotion. The prudent person is not a slave to emotion, but neither is he a timid or excessively cau tious individual. The virtue of prudence is simply the habit of acting according to the princi ples of right reason. Prudent behavior is rational behavior as distinguished from impulsive behavior. A prudent person weighs the consequences of his actions before making a de cision; the consequences to himself and to others. He acts, not on the basis of what he feels like doing but in the light of what, all things considered, he ought to do. Prudence is the hallmark of genuine maturity. Invariably the person who “nev er grew up” is lacking in pru dence. Prudence may be either a na tural or a supernatural virtue. Natural prudence is principally concerned with matters tem poral. You practice natural pru dence when you lock your doors at night to keep out thieves. You are similarly prudent when you. keep your credit good by paying your bills promptly. Natural prudence is an ac quired virtue. It is acquired through experience—our own experience and that of others. We learn especially through our mistakes. Having done some thing foolish, with regrettable results, we are careful (if we are intelligent) not to repeat that same foolish action. Supernatural prudence, how ever, cannot be acquired. With the other cardinal virtues of justice, fortitude and tem perance, supernatural prudence was infused into our souls with the grace of baptism. These four virtues receive the desig nation of “cardinal” from the Latin word cardo, which means hinge. All other moral virtues hinge upon prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. With out these four, no other moral virtue could be practiced with any degree of perfection. Supernatural prudence is a God-given facility for dis tinguishing between what is right and what is wrong in a moral sense, and for dis tinguishing between what is good and what is better. If you pay your bills in order to preserve your credit, you are practicing natural prudence. If you pay your bills because you consider this an obligation in conscience, you are practicing supernatural prudence. If a married man says to himself, “I must stop flirting with that girl or I may hurt my reputation,” he is naturally prudent. If he says,' ‘I must stop flirting with that girl of I’ll be risking the sin of adultery,” he is supernaturally prudent. It seems obvious that pru dence, natural as well as super natural, is a virtue highly to be prized. Sometimes it will be hard for us to determine, in a particular case, whether our prudence has been natural or supernatural — hard to know whether our motives have been this-worldly or other-worldly. We need not worry. If we have a natural prudence upon which to build, it will be much easier for supernatural prudence to operate. It is an axiom of theo logy that grace works most ef fectively when underpinned by natural goodness. Probably not many people think to ask God, in their pray ers, for an increase in pru dence. Yet, it is only from God that an increase in supernatur al prudence can come. With our happiness, here and hereafter, hinging so heavily upon pru dence, it would seem grossly imprudent to omit this petition from our daily prayers. (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.) I wept in my heart for Pope Paul VI while I watched his coronation ceremonies on tele vision. Never before had I rea lized so keenly how heavy and painful is the cross of pomp that the centuries have laid up on those who are made heads of the Church. They have borne it u n c omplain- ingly, but now there is rea son to believe that for the successors of Paul, it will be lightened, be cause it is an anachronism. Jeweled vestments and mi tres, ostrich plume fans, and the papal tiara doubtless were means by which the people ex pressed their love and rever ence for the papacy, and their deep feeling that they would honor Christ by honoring Christ’s vicar. And one cannot but admire the explosion of enthusiasm which brought a quarter of a million persons through the heat of Rome to stand for hours for the corona tion in St. Peter Square. ALL THE SAME, the cere monialism seems to me to have expanded beyond all reason. I marvelled that the fragile new pope was able to get through the three hours without fainting; and yet he is young by comparison with many of the cardinals and JOSEPH BREIG other dignitaries who took part in the coronation. In the tele vision closeups, it seemed to me, his face betrayed not only that he was suffering physically from the heat, the heavy vest ments and the uproar, but also that he was in spiritual pain of humility because of the adula tion. After all, the popes of our time did not grow up in the Ro man Empire, or under feu dalism or medievalism. They Were'reared in the 19th and 20th centuries, amid fast spreading concepts of demo cracy, equality and simplicity. In their seminary years, and in their priestly assignments af terward, they lived humbly, even austerely. The pomp of a papal coronation is as foreign to their natures as to ours. POPE JOHN the Good, I think, prepared the way for a simpli fying of much of the ceremon ial in the papacy and in the Church. His matter-of-fact, old-shoe comfortableness and chumminess made the office of pope more loved than ever before without ceasing to be revered. In all these matters, there is a central governing principle— the good of souls. And I do not think it can be demonstrated that mankind today is drawn to Christ by Byzantine display; whereas Pope John proved that mankind is drawn by simplicity. JOHN ONCE voiced publicly his distaste for being carried in the sedia gestatoria—the ceremonial chair—and said that he submitted to it only for the practical reason that it enabled the people, crowded into St. Peter Square or Basilica, to see the pope. After all, they often stood there patiently for hours, waiting for that. I suppose the sedia will have to stay if no other means can be devised for bringing the popes and the people into contact. But I hope somebody will invent something to make it unneces sary. ONE CEREMONY is specially touching and inspirational—the burning of the bit of flax, three times, before the pope in the coronation procession, and the voice crying out, ' ‘Holy Father, so passes the glory of the world.” But I think that those who cannot approve of any lan guage but Latin in the Church must have felt themselves un dermined on this occasion. The Vatican dignitary who called out the triple warning to Pope Paul VI spoke Latin with an Italian accent. He did not say “Sic transit gloria mundi,” but “Seek-a transeet-a gloria mundi.” And if folks attached to the Vatican have that much trouble with Latin, perhaps the time has come to admit, as Cardinal Cushing has, that we need native tonges in the work and worship of the Church. Reject Pro-Red Pleas By J- J- Gilbert What Makes A Man Great? “That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often, loved much. . .who has filled his niche and accomplished his task. . .who leaves the world better than he has found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul. . .who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had; his memory is a benedic tion.” Robert Louis Stevenson * * * WHAT MAKES A MAN great? Not too long ago, “Time” maga zine attempted to probe the common denominator of indi vidual greatness in and out of time. They selected Abraham Lincoln as an ideal example of greatness, leadership, indivi duality. The magazine listed artists, saints, visionaries, in ventors, explorers, generals, statesmen. In one category, “Time” listed their choice to great visionaries as “Buddha, Pascal, St. Joan, Mary Baker Eddy.” Recently two books ap- By BARBARA C. JENCKS propriate to this subject have been published. Bruce recently published a paperback edition of “Makers of the Modern Mind” by Dr. Thomas P. Neill, pro fessor of history, St. Louis Uni versity. Makers of the modern mind included were: Luther, Calvin, Descartes, Locke, New ton, Rousseau, Kant, Bentham, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Dewey. “Thirteen for Christ” is the title of a recent Harcourt pub lication. The introduction reads: “This book presents thirteen modern figures who left their impress on the modern world. If these thirteen wit nesses had not lived—and lived precisely as witnesses—the world we live in would be a significantly different place.” The book includes Pius XII, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, John LaFarge, Dorothy Day, Albert Schweitzer, Boris Pasternak and T. S. Eliot. * * * FOR MOST OF us greatness has a lot to do with goodness, with noble motives, accom plishments. For me, it is not enough that someone is a re bel, a genius as a philosopher, scientist, or adventurer. Al though his name and feats her alded across the world’s head lines. This alone would not mean greatness to me. The mo tive is important. The reason for the act or declaration is necessary. Gahndi and Ann Frank are heroes because their lives of suffering and their eventual deaths were offered for peace, love of fellow man. A recent article in “America” said that the man of today is bent on keeping himself in the forefront. . .the idea of sub merging his personal preferen ces in wholehearted dedication to a common cause leaves him cool. His must be a personal contribution and one that re dounds to him personally. He is reluctant to function anony mously as a mere cog in the organizational machine needed (Continued on Page 6) WASHINGTON, (NC)—Some of the leading arguments put forward for recognizing and trading with Red China are negated in a pamphlet which has arrived here from Australia. Published by a group which frankly calls itself the Austra lia-Free China Association,the little booklet has a special in terest. It comes to hand at the time of the Sino-Soviet talks in Moscow, and it draws attention to the fact that Australia is in a different position from a lot of other countries, as far as Red China is concerned. Austra lians, it says, “are a small group of 10 million people of European stock, living amongst 1,500 million people of Asia.” It questions whether Australia ' ‘will be allowed the luxury of neutrality,” should “a titanic conflict” develop in the area. Nonetheless, the group has no hesitancy in throwing in with Free China, against the Red regime in Peking. The pamphlet deals with some “misconceptions” in this way: . . .It denies that the Nation alist government in China was a “reactionary, corrupt and inef ficient” group that was over thrown by ‘ 'a spontaneous up rising,” as some would have it. It says the Nationalists, ex hausted by their struggle against the Japanese, were forced to retreat to Taiwan by Red armies financed and trained by the Russians and armed with the entire military equipment of the Japanese Manchurian ar my, which had surrendered in 1945. . . .Those who say the Peking Red regime must have the sup port of the overwhelming ma jority of the people or it couldn’t survive, “ignore the great resources of propaganda and force available to a modern government.” The “tragic stream of refugees into Hong Kong and Macao” argues against the Red regime being popular, the booklet says. . . .Actions speak louder than words and demonstrate that the objective of the Peking regime is not ‘ 'to elevate, edu cate and enlighten” the mass es, as is claimed, but “the destruction (by force if neces sary) of the‘imperialist world,’ that is, the Western world.” . . .Recognition of the Peking regime by Australia “would be interpreted by all the people of Asia as an abandonment of Asia to communist power.” . . .To the argument that to withhold recognition from Red China is to “ignore the exis tence of 600 million Chinese,” the pamphlet replies that * ‘the mischief lies not with the Chi nese people, but with their tem porary masters, and it is their plans and ambitions that we oppose by nonrecognition.” . . .To those who say Austra lia could increase its trade prospects by recognizing Red China, the authors respond: “it would be a deplorable thing, of course, if the trading interests of any group of Australians were placed before national in terests.” . . .The proposal of a ‘ ‘two China policy,” that is that both the Reds and Nationalists be recognized and admitted to the UN, * ‘is absolutely unacceptable to both Chinas,” the pamphlet asserts. . . .The fact that we recog nize Soviet Russia is no argu ment for recognizing Red China, the authors say. ' ‘The free na tions recognized Soviet Russia at a time when her post-revo lutionary aggression had cea sed, and it appeared that she was genuinely prepared to take her place in the family of na tions,” they observe. They add that, as of now, no change can be made in Soviet Russia’s pos ition in the UN without ‘ ‘com pletely wrecking” that organi zation. Layman Editor MARQUETTE, Mich., (NC)— Charles Gabel, 36, has been appointed editor of the Northern Michigan edition of Our Sunday Visitor, Marquette diocesan Catechism in Braille ADELAIDE, Australia, (NC) —Prisoners at nearby Yatala prison have transcribed the New Australian Catechism into Braille. The prisoners’ group works with the Braille Writing Association of South Australia. Greek Rite Mass newspaper. He is a graduate of Michigan State University jour nalism school and recently served on the staff of the Mining Journal here and in Ishpeming. Bishop Thomas L. Noa said he succeeds Msgr. David P. Spel- gatti, the founding editor who will remain as managing edi tor. “Providential Opportunity” NAGYKANISZA, Hunga ry, (NC)—Hungary’s only By zantine Rite Bishop has offered the Liturgy in his rite here before a congregation of Latin Rite Catholics. At the Liturgy in this southwest Hungary town, Bishop Miklos Dudas of Haj- dudorog said he was celebrat ing it in the spirit of Christian unity engendered by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. JACKSON, Miss., (NC)—A Catholic pastor said here that current racial tensions create a “providential opportunity” for progress. Msgr. Josiah G. Chatham, pastor of St. Richard church, predicted in a sermon that “when the good people of our southland” grasp the moral issues involved in the racial justice question, “harsh, lega lized, enforced segregation will be no more.” “Under God’s grace a climate of freedom shall be developed in which free men move freely and live with becoming dignity as children of God and free Americans,” he said. Anti-Communism ONAMIA, Minn., (NC)—The spiritual and moral guidance of a God-centered home is one of the best safeguards against communism, according to J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI director says in an article in the July issue of To day’s Family magazine, pub lished here by the Crosier Fa thers, the “good home—the one which meets moral and spiritual as well as physical needs ade quately—is a basic weapon in the massive struggle in which we are engaged.” Declaring that the U. S. must “build solid bulwarks against communist expansion,” he adds that “one such bulwark unques tionably is a God-fearing, in formed family in a stable American home.” Americans Ordained ROME, (Radio, NC)—Six U. S. seminarians attending the North American College here were ordained to the priesthood and 54 other Americans were ordained deacons. The six new priests were or dained by Archbishop Ettore Cunial, Vicegerent of Rome, assisted by Msgr. Francis Gal- les of the Winona, Minn., dio cese, spiritual director of the North American College, and Father J. Warren Holleran of the San Francisco archdiocese. Vietnam Trial SAIGON, (Radio, NC)—Sev eral well known Vietnamese Ca tholics are among civilians be latedly tried by military courts here this week for alleged com plicity in an attempted coup of November, 1960. Le Kien, also known as Bui Luong, sentenced to six years in solitary confinement, was formerly Secretary General of the Vietnamese Confederation of Christian Labor. Catholics among the 33 acquitted num bered at least four. They in cluded Tran Van Ly, former governor of central Vietnam, and Le Quang Luat, the last government delegate for North Vietnam with whom the late Dr. Thomas Dooley was asso ciated during the refugees exo dus from Haiphong in 1954- 1955. Le Quang Luat was later Minister of Information under President Ngo dinh Diem. Some of those acquitted had been in prison for many months. QUESTION BOX (By David Q. Liptak) Q. Some months ago, you ex plained the origin of the first Fridays. Did I misread the arti cle which, I thought, stated the number nine was never speci fically mentioned in our Lord’s request to St. Margaret Mary? I have enclosed our church bulletin, which does indicate that our Lord requested making nine first Fridays in order to receive the traditional promi ses. What is correct? A. We’re certain we never gave the impression that making nine first Fridays in succession is not required for meeting the terms of the promises made by our Lord to the seventeenth century nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. On the contrary, we have said (October 12, 1961) that if one elects to practice this devotion, he ' ‘can do noth ing else than observe the letter of the law, taking care to re ceive on nine consecutive first Fridays.” ONE POINT we have tried to make regarding first Friday de votions, however, is that so- called “nine first Fridays” should be sharply distinguished from the practice of receiving Communion on the first Fridays of the month. RECEIVING the Eucharist on any first Friday—no number is involved here—has been highly indulgenced by the Church. Ac cording to the Raccolta, a plen ary indulgence may be gained by those who go to Communion on any first Friday, provided that they devoutly assist at public exercises in honor of the Sacred Heart and fulfill the usual conditions (i.e., confes sion and prayer for the inten tions of the Holy Father). Those who for legitimate reason can not attend such public exer cises are permitted to recite some prayers in pri vate in reparation for insults to the Sacred Heart, but they must make a visit to a church or public oratory. Special con cessions are also made for in valids. THERE ARE, therefore, two distinct first Friday devotions. Whereas both are to be encou raged, only one is specially in dulgenced—that of receiving Communion on the initial Friday of the month and fulfilling the requisites mentioned in the (Continued on Page 6) The Southern Cross P. O. BOX 180, SAVANNAH. GA. Vol. 44 Thursday, July 18, 1963 No. 3 Published weekly except the last week in July and the last week in December by The Southern Cross, Ipc. 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