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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, August 15, 1963
Orientation
YOU'LL NEED THIS'
The Reasons Are Valid
Much has been said and written lately,
concerning the coming civil rights march on
the Nation’s capitol. Every American, of
course, has the right to go to the seat of our
National Government to seek redress of
grievances, and if he wants to go in com
pany with one or two hundred thousand other
Americans, he has that right, too.
But we doubt, seriously, that the march
will prove either useful or prudent, and, in
our view, the dangers accompanying a mas
sive demonstration concerning such an em
otionally charged issue as that of civil rights,
in an already overcrowded and racially tense
city, far outweigh any probability of induc
ing a change in the present thinking of the law
makers who will be debating President Ken
nedy’s proposals at the time.
This having been said, it is necessary to
point out that the reasons which have im
pelled leaders of Negro and white civil rights
organizations to support the ‘ 'March on Wash
ington" are both valid and right.
With notably few exceptions, Negroes
throughout the United States are the victims
of discrimination which stigmatizes them as
socially, mentally, and morally inferior to
whites, and which denies to them simply
and solely because they are Negroes—the
opportunities in education and employment
which would enable them to use the abilities
and talents with which God has endowed them
to build useful and rewarding lives for them
selves and their children, and the personal
and social rights without which no man can
live with the dignity of a human being, cre
ated in the image and likeness of God.
So patent is this discrimination that it is
impossible to credit honesty and integrity
to government officials and individual citizens
who continue to deny that it exists, or who
seek to justify their own failure to make
any attempt to rectify manifest injustices
by claiming, against demonstrable proof to
the contrary, that whites and Negroes have
made more progress in the 100 years since
the end of slavery "than two races living
together have ever made living anywhere else
on the face of the earth."
Racial discrimination is an affront to
God and completely at variance with the
American concept of the God-given right of
every man to ' ‘life, liberty, and the pur
suit of happiness." It deserves the support
of no man who calls himself either Chris
tian or American, and merits the meaning
ful condemnation of all.
We do not know if Federal legislation is
the best answer to racial injustice, but it is
our contention that the rights which the
presently proposed legislation seeks to safe
guard have God for their author and are
inherent in the very nature of man. And
unless individuals, communities and States
are willing, without delay, to accord the free
and untrammeled exercise of human rights
by every individual, regardless of race, un
til he, by his own actions, forfeits those
rights, then we do not see how the Federal
government can refrain from intervening
without betraying its obligations to secure
the rights of EVERY citizen.
Martyrdom Comes In Many Sizes
God’s World
Fortitude, as we learned in
our catechism many years ago,
is the virtue which enables us
to suffer all things, even death,
for the sake of Christ. It is one
of the four cardinal virtues be
stowed upon
us at the time
of our bap
tism.
If ever we
give thought
to this vir
tue, we pro
bably ex
press to our
selves the
hope that, faced with the choice
of denying Christ or suffering
death, we would be brave enough
to choose death. In all likeli
hood we do not dwell long on
this possibility since martyr
dom seems, for most of us, a
remote contingency. Conse
quently we may not esteem for
titude as a very important vir
tue, as one having practical,
here-and-now significance for
ourselves.
Such downgrading of the vir
tue of fortitude would be a grave
error. The truth is that forti
tude is vital to the everyday
practice of our faith. We need
moral strength to resist temp
tation. We need spiritual cou
rage to accept God'swill cheer
fully and to do His will brave
ly.
temptations may be innocent,
but he becomes virtuous only
when he has been tested and
has proven his fidelity.
Perhaps it is a disregard for
the virtue of fortitude which
accounts for the sophistries
with which sinners sometimes
try to excuse themselves. Here,
for example, is a woman who
has divorced her no-good hus
band. She has several small
children. She lets herself be
come interested in another man
and, by a civil marriage, em
barks upon an adulterous union.
"I know it’s wrong," she says,
"but the children do need a
father. Surely God won't hold it
against me."
Again, here is a mother whose
health simply will not stand
another pregnancy. Her cycle
is too irregular to use Rhythm
safely and her husband finds
abstinence too difficult. Contra
ceptives are the easy answer.
' ‘God will understand our pre
dicament," the couple assure
themselves. "There just isn't
anything else we can do."
Then there is the business
man who indulges in sharp prac
tices with the excuse, "I've got
to do it to meet the compe
tition," and the holder of the
public office who defends his
shady deals with, * ‘It’s a part of
the game."
Eternal merit is the reward
of effort and struggle. A vir
tuous person, in the ordinary
sense of the term, is not a
person without temptations. He
is a person who has faced
strong temptations and has con
quered them. A person without.
We have, too, the long pro
cession of people who lie to
escape a moment’s embar
rassment, who cheat to get out
of a financial jam, who pet to
attract the boys or who gossip
to court popularity.
You will have noticed that in
all the examples we have men-
“I Must Go Down To The Sea Again”
Jottings
By BARBARA C. JENCKS
"He shall rule from sea to
sea, and from the river unto the
ends of the earth."
has a more definite Christian
imprimature than that of fishing
and sailing.
ALL THESE long summer
days I have longed to be off and
out of the city, the stone jungle
of buildings, factories, and
smokestacks belching into the
sky and car exhausts and the
sounds of the press running and
linotypes clicking. I long these
days to be off and down to the
sea again where the gulls swoop
low over the incoming fishing
boats in late afternoon and the
air is filled with clean smells
of salt and fish and sand and the
wind sails and all is uncluttered.
It has been too long since I
have felt the sea swell under
my feet on the deck of a ship
or a wharf creak under my
sneakered step. This great
longing for the sea became
intensified as 1 settled myself
in a city apartment one day last
week to begin the paperback
book, "Christ and the Sailor."
This is a book for the sea-lover
for there is no activity which
MY FAVORITE BIBLICAL
passages have always been
those which referred to the sea,
seaports, fishing expeditions,
lowering the nets, the walking on
the waters and the feeding of
the multitudes and the Apostles
with loaves and fishes. Peter
Anson, the old salt, who writes
"Christ and the Sailor" in
poetic style as befits his sub
ject, tells how he spent a week
by the Sea of Galilee and was
able to visualize almost every
incident connected with those
first fishermen apostles, re
corded in the Gospels. He
writes: "I watched them (fish
ermen) returning to land in the
early morning, bringing their
catch ashore, sorting it, and
putting it up for sale. I stood
over the fishermen while they
were cleaning and washing their
nets. At nightfall, I would see
them putting out to sea. , .The
heavy sultry heat, not to men
tion the smells, was an ever
The Test Ban Treaty
tioned, the persons involved
assume that God expects us to
be good only when it is easy to
be good. When the practice of
virtue becomes difficult, then
we are absolved from the ne
cessity of keeping God's com
mandments. No one puts this
fallacy into words, of course;
the absurdity would be too evi
dent. Often this dilemma is es
caped by pretending to distin
guish between God and His
Church; by talking about what
the Church forbids or com
mands, rather than about what
God expects of us. This leads
only to Another fallacy: that
Christ and His mystical Body
are divisible.
The fact is that in all these
examples the individuals con
cerned are lacking in the virtue
of fortitude. Or, more accu
rately, they are not exercising
that virtue which is theirs by
reason of their baptism.
It is not true that martyrdom
is a rare privilege enjoyed only
by some persons who live in
Communist countries. There is
a little bit of martyrdom in the
life of every person who under
takes to follow Christ; who
tries, day by day, to live his
faith with fidelity. Indeed, it has
been observed with some truth
that often it is easier to die for
Christ than to live for Him.
(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.)
It Seems to Me
JOSEPH BREIG
We've got to keep our guard
up where communists are con
cerned. But the fact that com
munists must be watched does
not mean that the Senate should
not ratify the nuclear test ban
treaty initi
aled by Eng-
1 a n d, the
USSR, and
the U. S. Nei
ther should it
keep us from
hoping and
working for
further
agree ments
with the Russians.
President Kennedy express
ed the situation accurately when
he said that the treaty is "a
step toward peace, a step toward
reason, a step away from war."
And I think he was entirely
right in saying that we must take
that step. As he said:
"History and our own con
science will judge us harsher if
we do not make every effort to
test our hopes by action, and
this is the place to begin. . .
Let us take that first step. Let
us, if we can, get back from
the shadows of war and seek
out the way of peace."
Nobody is more alive to the
crimes of communism than the
popes, because no institution
has suffered as much from
communism as the Church has.
But Pope John XXIII did not
hestiate—nor will Pope Paul VI
hesitate—to talk with the com
munists when the communists
show a real desire to talk.
We must look at the whole
picture, not just at one or an
other facet of it.
The nuclear test treaty is one
piece in a mosaic which includes
such events as Russia’s bitter
dispute with Red China over
communist dogma and tactics;
Khrushchev’s withdrawal of
rockets from Cuba rather than
risk a big nuclear war; Khrush
chev’s sending of his son-in-
law and daughter to meet with
Pope John; the release from
imprisonment of Archbishop
Joseph Slipyi of the Ukraine and
various other bishops, plus
many priests, in various iron
curtain countries, and the Vati
can’s sending of official ob
servers to the celebration of
the 50th consecration anni
versary of Patriarch Alexei of
the Moscow Patriarchate of the
Russian Orthodox Church.
PRECISELY what these and
other developments mean for
the future, we do not know. They
may be the beginning of great
things, or they may come to
nothing. But we must resolve
that if they come to nothing, it
will not be our doing; it will not
be because we did not do every
thing in our power to end or at
least modify the cold war.
We have a duty to do every
thing in our power, and I don’t
think we’d be doing it if the Sen
ate refused to ratify the nuclear
test treaty.
It is not a matter of ' ‘trust
ing the Reds." The treaty will
end nuclear test explosions
above ground and under water.
If any such tests are made,
we’ll know it. There’s no chance
of cheating. If the Soviets go
back to testing, our devices will
tell us so, and we can resume
testing if we wish. Meanwhile,
In Vietnam
present reminder of the atmos
phere in which Christ and his
disciples had been so accus
tomed." He reminds that those
three years of the active minis
try of Christ were bound up with
fishermen, fishing and fishing
boats. . ."Jesus chose to make
his home on the road to the
sea. . .Among the fishermen he
found the type of men he most
needed for his inner circle, . .
it was in the midst of this world
of fishermen and fish workers,
and all the many subsidiary in
dustries connected with catch
ing, selling, curing and export
ing fish that Christianity arose,
and Christ himself carried on
his apostolate." These words
should bring a surge of pride
to those men who go down to the
sea in ships.
Crisis Rests Partially
On Diem’s Shoulders
The author of the following
article on the conflict between
Buddhists and the Vietnamese
government of President Ngo
dinh Diem has spent almost
two decades covering the news
in the Far East. For the past
two years he has maintained
headquarters in Saigon, Viet
nam' s capital, and kept a close
eye on the complex political
currents active in that com
munist-embattled republic.
By Father Patrick O'Connor
Society of St. Columban
(N. C. W. C. NEWS SERVICE)
OTHERS may choose to spend
leisure time in the mountains
or by a lake or on a farm but
for me. . ."I must go down to
the sea again." There is some
thing there for me that no other
element of nature could possi-
(Continued on Page 6)
SAIGON,—Many of Vietnam’s
best Catholics feel that while
the Buddhist agitators are
wrong, President Ngo dinh Diem
is not entirely right.
Since he and his family are
Catholic, any mistakes they
make are likely to be used as
ammunition against the Catho
lic religion. This is particularly
unfair when the mistakes arise
not from the application of
Catholic principles but from
failure to apply them.
Buddhist leaders are wrong
in alleging that they have been
suffering religious persecution.
They have been wrong in lead
ing their followers into public
demonstrations in defiance of
the law. They have been wrong
in threatening a campaign of
contemptuous "civil disobed
ience," which means disobed
ience to lawful authority to a
degree just short of rebellion.
They have been doing all this
while their country is under
attack from communist aggres
sors. They have been doing it
ostensibly to obtain redress of
alleged grievances that, even if
they were real, would not justi
fy such extreme measures.
Catholics, like other Viet
namese citizens, recognize that
the President has a duty to de
fend the state and preserve pub
lic order. Many of them feel,
however, that he and his govern
ment should have done it with
more tact and less severity.
Kennedy Honored
INDIANAPOLIS, (NC)—Pre
sident and Mrs. John F. Kennedy
were named to receive the high
est honors of the Knights of St.
Peter Claver during the
Catholic fraternal order's 48th
national convention here.
The Caritas Die Award was
accepted by Indiana Gov. Mat
thew E. Welsh in the name of
the President in recognition of
‘ ‘outstanding leadership in hu
man relations and heroic effort
for achievement of social jus
tice for all men everywhere."
Mrs. Welsh received the Jeanne
d’Arc Award for Mrs. Kennedy.
Vernacular In Mass
WOLLONGONG, Australia,
(NC)—Use of the language of
the people instead of Latin in
the first part of the Mass in the
communist countries could
to some extent make up for the
Reds’ suppression of religious
instruction, according to Bishop
Thomas McCabe of Wollongong.
Addressing the annual alumni
meeting at the Christian Bro
thers’ college here, the Bishop
said the ecumenical council will
resume its discussion of the
vernacular question when it re
convenes September 29.
Cardinal Tours
U. S. Cruiser
we can continue whatever un
derground testing we judge ne
cessary.
AS POPE PAUL said, the
treaty makes it possible to see
signs of greater hope and se
renity in the world, And surely
it is hardly necessary to remind
Catholics that nothing is so
unchristian as despair. We ne
ver stop trusting in the power of
prayer to transform men and
events. We do not forget that
the providence of God over
reaches all. If a man asks us
to go one step with him in the
right direction, we will go a
mile.
The treaty, said U, S. Secre
tary of State Dean Rusk, ‘ ‘does
not do a great deal. All that it
does is to eliminate testing in
the atmosphere, in outer space
and under water. It does not
reduce nuclear stockpiles. It
does not eliminate nuclear war
or the threat of nuclear war.
It does not prevent an arms
race. But, nevertheless, it helps
to impose some limitations and
some ceiling upon the arms
race. . .And it may be the
turning point. , .in which other
questions could be taken up for
further exploration."
The arms race has long since
reached the point of global lun
acy. As President Kennedy said,
a nuclear war could wipe out, in
60 minutes, 300 million Rus
sians, Europeans and Ameri
cans and "untold numbers else
where," and would leave sur
vivors, as Khrushchev said,
envying the dead. How can any
one oppose a first step toward
correcting so insane a situa
tion?
Catholic War Vets
GENOA, Italy, (Radio, NC)—
Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, Arch
bishop of Genoa, toured an
American cruiser, the USS Lit-
WASHINGTON, (NC)—A Sen
ate judiciary subcommittee has
favorably reported a bill to
grant status as a congressional-
ly chartered organization to the
Catholic War Veterans. Sponsor
of the measure (S. 1914) is Sen.
Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois.
Negro
Dissillusionment
BOSTON, (NC)—The present
Negro summer of discontent
may turn into a "winter of dis
illusion” if whites do not acton
their conscientious beliefs
about racial justice, Father Ro
bert L. Drinan, S. J.,saidhere.
"And who would dare to pre
dict what violence and revolu
tion might follow in the spring
following such a winter?" asked
Father Drinan, dean ofthe Bos
ton College law school.
The Jesuit educator, ad
dressing the Cambridge Ki-
wanis Club (Aug. 7), called for
a racial justice program com
parable in scope to the Mar
shall Plan to equalize Negro
opportunities.
tie Rock, and gave his blessing
to the crew.
The 57-year-old churchman
was the guest of Adm. William
gentner (Aug. 9). He was re
ceived by Gentner and his en
tire staff at nearby Calata Zin-
gari, where the Little Rock is
anchored, and then escorted
aboard ship. Among the party
accompanying him were offi
cials of the U. S. consulate in
Genoa.
A Muslim
Called Marie
Laymen’s Ideas
On Council
WASHINGTON, (NC)—Arch
bishop Patrick A. O’Boyle of
Washington has invited laymen
of this archdiocese to submit
recommendations on matters
to be considered at the second
session of the ecumenical coun
cil, which opens in Rome Sep
tember 29.
Archbishop O’Boyle asked
that suggestions be stated * ‘very
concisely” and deal with mat
ters that the council has not yet
discussed. He said recommen
dations should be sent to Auxi
liary Bishop Philip M. Hannan,
Vicar General of the archdio
cese.
PARIS, (NC)— King Hassan
II of Morocco named his daugh
ter Marie because the name is
cherished by both Christians
and Muslims, it was reported
here.
L’Homme Nouveau, Catholic
fortnightly paper, quoted King
Hassan himself as saying ofthe
child bom to his Queen a year?*
ago:
"She will be called Marie, for
this name is blessed in the
Koran as in the Gospel: it is
the name of the Mother of Je-*
sus. It is as dear to Christians
as to Muslims.
"I cherish the hope that ttjis
will be a token of the striving
toward brotherhood among all
who believe in God and in the
dignity of man."
Six-Fold Increase
TAICHUNG, Formosa, (NC)
—The Catholic population in the
Taichung diocese in central
Formosa has had a six-fold
increase over the past ten
years.
The number of Catholics went
from 5,654 on June 30, 1953,
to 35,919 on June 30, 1963.
The total population of the dio
cese is over two million.
QUESTION BOX
Not only would less severe
methods have been more effec
tive; they would have been more
appropriate in a Catholic
statesman.
If any man should lean over
backwards to avoid giving even
an appearance of harshness to
wards non-Christians, even
law-violating non-Christians, it
is a Catholic president in a
country like Vietnam.
President Ngo dinh Diem has
not been guilty of persecuting
Buddhists for their religion.
They have no grounds, nor has
any foreign journalist, for ac
cusing him on that score. But
he and his government have hit
the Buddhists excessively hard
for their politically ' aimed
demonstrations.
The hitting was done by sub
ordinates, probably without the
President’s knowledge. But
after he came to know of it,
he was slow indeed to do any
thing to salve the hurt. No
(By David Q. Liptak)
Q. What are the "Dead Sea
Scrolls?" Is it possible to as
sess their significance? And do
they—as some articles al
lege—throw suspicion on the
uniqueness of Christ and the
gospel?
A. The Dead Sea Scrolls or
the Qumran Scrolls represent
the most sensational archeolo
gical discovery of this century,
and probably one of the most
significant finds of all time.
NOW TOTALING approxi
mately 500 manuscripts (a few
remarkably well preserved)
plus tens of thousands of frag
ments, they have been unearth
ed in eleven separate caves near
Wady Qumran, a gorge about
seven miles from Jericho, near
the Dead Sea.
THE FIRST scroll find was
chanced upon in 1947 by a Be
douin shepherd, Muhammad
adh-Dhib. The fact that he was
offered 150 dollars for it soon
became known to the local in
habitants who converged upon
the area in search of similar
discoveries. Before long it be
came evident that a veritable
archeological treasure had
been opened.
THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC ex
cavation of Cave I in 1949 yield
ed 600 fragments of biblical and
nonbiblical works evidently dat
ing from pre-Christian times.
(The full significance of the
scrolls had just begun to be
realized the year before, when
their discovery was publicized
throughout the world.)
IN 1951 the importance ofthe
scrolls was dramatically con
firmed by excavations at Khir-
bet Qumran, conducted under
the supervision of PeredeVaux
of the Ecole Bibleque and Lank-
ester Harding of Jordan’s De
partment of Antiquities. Ruins
uncovered at Qumran were
identified as a kind of monas
tery used by the Essenes, a
Judaic religious sect whose his
torical existence is known from
non-biblical sources. Among
the relics found were utensils
and coins indicating that the
monastery was occupied short
ly before 100 B.C. and aband
oned around 70 B.C., the tradi
tional date assigned to the First
(Continued on Page 6)
The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH. GA.
Vol. 44
Thursday, August 15, 1963
No. 6
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 ctf change of address to P. O. Box 180, Savannah, Ga.
member of his entourage was
(Continued on Page 5)
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