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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, August 29, 1963
Is Religion
Free In America?
In a few days, the schools of this nation will
open. In the public schools, the tax-supported
schools, formal prayer and Bible reading will
no longer form part of the student’s day.
By decision of the United States Supreme
Court, formal recognition of God in our public
schools is, for all practical purposes, either
forbidden or stringently limited.
Prescinding from the merits of the legal
reasoning in the Supreme Court’s school
prayer and Bible reading decisions, one
might examine some of the sociological
implications of these rulings.
First, the unavoidable result of the deci
sions regarding religious practices in the
schools will be the tacit establishment in the
public schools of the secularism of a voci
ferous minority. Gradual adaptation to the
least common denominator of religious prac
tice in the public schools has led to the com
plete abolition of religious practice in our
nation’s schools.
Second, if the ethical training of children
in our public schools is to be reduced to the
norms of a secularistic minority, and if the
desire of the majority of our people for
basic religious practices and training in the
schools is judged to be not in conformity
with the Constitution, then there will no doubt
be those who will suggest an entirely new
approach to our concept of publicly financed
universal education.
If the constitutional provision that there
shall be no law regarding an establishment
of religion is meant to provide freedom for
religion rather than freedom from religion,
then there would seem to be a national re
sponsibility to refrain from imposing econo
mic penalties on those who seek to follow
their consciences—specifically on those who
seek to provide for the religious education
of their children.
Because judicially imposed secularism is
now required in our single system of publicly
supported schools, there would appear to be
justification for the allocation of public funds
to a plurality of school systems. Whereas the
rights of the minority are respected at the
expense of the desires of the majority under
the present system, the rights and desires of
all could well be respected in an entirely
different system of publicly supported educa
tion.
In such a pluralistic system, per child
government grants could be credited to par
ents for use at an accredited school of their
choice.
At the present time, all citizens are obliged
to support a single system of publicly finan
ced education. However, many of these citi
zens are in basic philosophical disagreement
with the secularistic principles and practices
of this single system.
While the early Founding Fathers looked
upon fostering religion as a function of
government, current practice renders reli
gious education unavailable in state supported
schools and increasingly expensive outside
the single state system. As a result, reli
gion in this nation is no longer free—it is
prohibitively expensive.
As a nation, we pride ourselves on our
peaceful religious and cultural pluralism.
But, as a nation, we have now implicitly
committed ourselves to an educational policy
of monolithic secularism, imposed through
a single system of public instruction.
These remarks are not intended as an in
dictment or criticism of any rulings of the
United States Supreme Court. Rather, they
are an invitation to every American to re
evaluate this nation’s traditional policy re
garding publicly financed education—an invi
tation to embrace a new concept of public
educational financing—a concept which will
guarantee the rights of this nation’s reli
gious, God-revering majority.—Standard and
Times—Phila.
Visit To The Old Parish
It Seems to Me
Only God Knows For Sure
God’s World
When is a sin mortal? That
seems an easy question to an
swer. We still can remember
the catechism lesson in which
we learned that a sin is mor
tal if, in a grave matter, we
disobey God
with a full
knowledge of
what we are
doing and
with full con
sent of our
will. The
d efinitio n
seems simple
enough. Yet,
in applying it, we do meet with
difficulties.
The "grave matter" element
is the least of our difficulties.
The theologians of the Church,
reasoning from the principles
of natural and divine law, iden
tify for us those acts or neg
ligences which unquestionably
are grave from God’s point of
view. Thus, it is a grave mat
ter to take unjustly the life
of another or to do him serious
physical harm. It is a grave
matter to deny another his
rights as a human being. It is
a grave matter to ruin ano
ther's reputation. It is a grave
matter to indulge the sexual
urge outside the limits of law
ful marriage. These and
dozens of other moral failures
have been plainly tagged
as grave.
No, it is not the "grave
matter" which poses the real
difficulty in interpreting mor
tal sin. Neither is it the ele
ment of "full knowledge." It
is plain enough that we cannot
commit a sin through ignorance
(unless the ignorance is self-
willed) or through forgetfulness
or in a semi-conscious state.
We cannot offend God without
knowing that we are offending
Him. Even though we may feel
vaguely guilty if we inadver
tently eat meat on Friday, good
sense assures us that there has
been no sin.
It is when we come to the
"full consent of the will" re
quisite for mortal sin, that we
find ourselves dealing with im
ponderables. There are so many
factors which can interfere with
our freedom of choice and which
can diminish our responsibility.
Fear, worry, tension, passion,
fatigue—these are but a few of
the variables which can and do
influence the will. For example,
a person who is tired and tense
is not as responsible for an
outburst of anger as is the
person who is rested and re
laxed.
In addition to the "normal”
hazards to full freedom of
choice, there also are the ab
normal condition of mind and
emotions which modern psycho
logy has uncovered. Compul
sions, phobias, complexes, and
subconscious feelings of many
kinds can make difficult (and
at times impossible) the free
exercise of the will. Obvious
examples are the gluttony of
the compulsive eater or
drinker; the thieving of the klep
tomaniac; the Mass-missing
of the person with a fear of
crowds; the promiscuity of the
girl who was deprived of
love as a child.
These are some of the more
extreme examples of the stres
ses to which the will may be
subjected. But even we who
rate ourselves as mentally and
emotionally sound, may be af
fected to a lesser extent by
biases of which we may be un
aware. Our- will does not
operate in a vacuum. It is a
faculty of the soul, but it must
work in and through the com
plete human organism, which is
man. Whatever hidden flaws
there may be in our personality,
our will has to do the best
it can within the sometimes un
favorable conditions in which
it finds itself.
What is the point of all this?
The point is that God, and
only God, can know all the
pressures—and their strength
—which are involved in any
particular act of the will. This
fact has two corollaires. One
is that the person of good
will, who is honestly trying
his best to do what God asks,
never should grow discouraged
if his progress is slow or if
at times he seems to fail.
God, Who searches our hearts,
knows how hard we are trying.
He knows, even if we ourselves
do not, every psychological and
emotional handicap which our
will has to surmount.
As long as we keep trying,
we never need doubt our ul
timate victory.
The second corollary is that
we dare not judge the moral
status of our neighbor. He
may have perpetrated some act
which is, viewed objectively,
mortally sinful. Perhaps we
may say, "It is a sinful deed
which he did,” but never can
we say, "He comitted a mor
tal sin." For that judgment
only God is competent.
(Father Trese welcomes let
ters from his readers. The
increasing volume of letters
prohibits 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.)
The Church And Animals
Jottings
"It’s a dog’s life." We’ve
heard the expression often.
Summer’s hot days are called
"dog days" because they are
so difficult to endure.
The question is often asked
"Is there a Church tradition
toward animals?" There is.
The Bible speaks often of ani
mals and of God’s concern for
"the sparrows fall." Many of
the saints have been associated
with animals. Animals have a
place in both the Old and New
Testament.
St. Francis of Assisi is easily
the most popular patron of ani
mals—dogs, birds, etc.Itwould
be impossible to estimate the
number of bird baths in the
homes of Jews, Protestants, as
By BARBARA C. JENCKS
well as Catholics, which have
a statue of St. Francis hovering
over them. There are even me
dals of the little saint available
for leashes and collars of cats
and dogs we are told.
Pope Pius XII in an address,
De Moribus Divinis. "De Cura
Dei de Creaturis” spoke of
man’s responsibility for his
dominion over the animal king
dom. He wrote: "Any reckless
desire to kill off animals, all
necessary harshness and cal
lous cruelty towards them are
to be condemned.”
Those who often ask the
Church’s stand on animals have
only to look at the scriptures
to find God’s attitude. At the
time of the great flood, animals
as well as man were saved.
Two species of each entered
the ark to insure survival. And
then again the Biblical passage;
"Look at the birds of the air:
they do not sow or reap, . .yet
your heavenly Father feeds
them."
In "Laws of the Spiritual
Life" Rev. Basil Maturin
writes:
"Cruelty, unkindness, indif
ference to the sufferings of one
of God’s creatures, be it man or
beast, destroys the virtue of
mercy, or rather discloses the
fact that it does not exist. Where
the mercy of the Beatitude ex
ists, as an essential element of
character, it is called forth by
(Continued on Page 5)
In the parish in which I grew
up, the liturgy was often in the
nature of an exercise in endur
ance. The congregation was in
its immigrant years, and on
some Sundays we had at one
Mass, three
readings of
the Gospel
and three
sermons in
different
languages.
None of the
sermons was
short; in
those days
the words "short sermon” were
a violent contradiction in terms.
In addition to all that, some
times the pastor labored
through the interminable reci
tation of the names—however
unpronounceable—of every last
one of the contributors to the
monthly collection, along with
the amount, which in many cases
was a hard-sacrificed quarter
or dime.
THE CHURCH was always
crowded; the people pushed to
gether in the pews by in
dustrious ushers. The singing
was at the opposite pole from
the Sistine Choir, and when
your ears weren’t being
assaulted from the choir loft,
likely you were listening to a
cluster of earnest women recit-
JOSEPH BREIG
mg the Rosary aloud in the Po
lish or Slovak or German ton
gue.
Going to Communion was
something of an event. The pious
went every month, or every
couple of months, with the Holy
Name Society, having done pen-
nance by attending the unutter
ably dull meeting the evening
previous. If you received be-
tween-times, you did so sheep
ishly, feeling that the people
were annoyed with you for slow
ing the progress of the Mass
toward its longed-for ending.
THINGS ARE almost incredi
bly different now. A few weeks
ago, for a high school reunion
(and don’t ask how long ago
graduation was!) I visited my old
home town of Vandergrift in
western Pennsylvania north
east of Pittsburgh.
Sunday morning, I went to the
parish church, St. Gertrude’s,
and I am happy to report that
Catholic life in that corner of
the world is no longer one long
slow martyrdom. The Mass did
not drag, but marched purpose
fully with Christian energy; the
sermon was brief and to the
point; and what especially made
me glow with pleasure was the
participation of the people in
the liturgy—in English.
YES, WE ALL understood
ourselves and one another as
we recited, in unision and with
family feeling, the Glory to God,
the Creed and so on, and as we
sang hymns. When we came to
the "Lord, I am not worthy,"
two-thirds of us went to the
Communion railing.
I have heard it argued that
the dialog Mass must be kept in
Latin because if native tongues
are introduced, it will all be a
dreadful jumble, with everybody
going his own way at his own
pace. Emphatically it is not so.
THE SAME St. Gertrude
Church, it is, but the contrast
with the days of my youth and
young manhood is electrifying.
Being a Catholic is coming to be
a downright joy instead of a
ditch-digging chore.
For these changes we have to
thank the long, persistent pa
tience of those who have labored
for a liturgical revival. You will
not wonder at me, therefore,
when I say that I am completely
in sympathy with the Southwest
Liturgical Conference (repre
senting eight U. S. dioceses)
which has recommended that the
Mass in English-speaking areas
be entirely in English. Let the
priest and the people, these
liturgists say, speak to God and
to each other wholly in words
they understand. Andmyimme-
date reaction is, why not?
Head-On Collision
In South Vietnam
By Father Patrick O’Conner
Society of St. Columban
SAIGON, Vietnam — The
head-on collison between the
Vietnamese government and the
militant Buddhists, toward
which both sides have been
moving for weeks, came soon
after midnight on August 21.
President Ngo dinh Diem’s
government sent troops to take
the pagodas of the antigovern
ment groups by assault and ar
rest the bonzes. Explosions
were heard and screams. There
must have been some casual
ties among the bonzes but the
government has released no fig
ures.
Apparently only key pagodas
serving as centers of recent
agitation by groups affiliated
with the Intersect Committee
were targets for the government
action, which was countrywide.
Preparations for this swoop
must have been made, at least
conditionally, days and maybe
10 days ahead.
Two events may have helped
to precipitate it.
One was a gathering held
throughout the day. (Aug. .18)
outside the XaLoi pagoda here,
headquarters of the Buddhist
Intersect Committee’s cam
paign. The gathering was ob
viously well organized. Held
without a police permit, it
blocked the street completely
for the entire day.
Most of the crowd were stu
dents, boys and girls. They were
harangued by a saffron robed
bonze whose speeches, punc
tuated by clapping, laughter and
cheers, were obviously not
purely religious. Led by a bonze
speaking through a microphone
from the porch roof just inside
the pagoda wall, the crowd
shouted antigovernment slogans
with special mention of the
President’s sister - in- law,
Mrs. Ngo dinh Nhu.
This, like the smaller, quiet
er meeting in the same place
a week earlier, looked like a
"dry run," a test and perhaps
a preliminary for larger more
militant demonstrations.
The second event was the
release by Buddhists (Aug. 20)
of a letter dated August 16 and
addressed to President Ngo
dinh Diem by the elderly bonze
who is at least the titular head
of the Intersect Committee and
the General Buddhist Associa
tion. This letter was exaggera
ted and offensive beyond any
thing yet written to the gov
ernment and published by Budd
hist leaders.
The government’s action may
have been motivated also by
it’s anxiety to silence and im
mobilize disident Buddhists-
before the new American Am
bassador, Henry Cabot Lodge,
arrived.
The midnight assaults on the
pagodas was the culmination of
three and a half months of
wrongs on both sides. It is
not any religious persecution
but the harsh mishandling of
situations during the past 15
weeks of admittedly provocative
Buddhist agitation that has help
ed put the government in a bad
light.
During the past month Ngo
dinh Diem has certainly
shown patience and restraint,
and made approach after ap
proach for reconciliation. The
Buddhists responded with non-
cooperative and even hostile
tactics. The government ap
proach might have hpd better
results if Mrs. Ngo dinh Nhu,
speaking from the presidential
palace where her husband is the
President’s closest advisor,
had not made bitter statements
that exasperated many Chris
tians as well as Buddhists.
Buddhist leaders were ex
pecting a police raid some night
recently. Hence it is most like
ly they have made preparations
either to insure the escape
of their key men or to have
substitutes ready to take over.
It is unlikely that the govern
ment has disposed of its pro
blems with these dissident
Buddhist groups by its military
action Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, the President has
declared a state of siege
throughout the country. Saigon
is calm, though soldiers with
fixed bayonets are on duty at
some points.
The Vietnamese army is in
control and there is a curfew
from 9 p.m.
Belmont Cuba Accuses Priest
Abbey Delay
BELMONT, N. C., (NC)~
Belmont Abbey College will de
lay the opening of its 87th
year by one week, until Sep
tember 9, because of unex
pected delays in construction
of a dining hall and dormi
tory.
Bishop’s
Personal Appeal
OAKLAND, Calif., (NC) ~
A personal appeal by Bishop
Floyd L. Begin of Oakland was
directed to Catholics of his
diocese as an accompaniment
to the joint pastoral letter of
the American Bishops on inter
racial justice.
Bishop Begin’s letter de
clared: "The opportunity to
practive justice and charity has
never been available to us on
such a scale. Our Catholic in
heritance tells us that the ban
ishment of such evil is long
overdue. Our American con
science shows us that juridi
cally we are a century too late."
Drive-In Raided
SCRANTON, (NC) — A drive-
in theater near here which the
Catholic Light, newspaper of
the Diocese of Scranton, had
placed on its "dis-honor" roll
for presenting condemned films
13 times so far in 1963, was
raided by the police and the
owner and the projectionist
charged on two counts of show
ing a movie classified as ob
scene.
Pastor On Rights
Commission
LANSING, Mich., (NC) —
Father Theodore E. La Marre,
pastor of St. Joseph’s parish,
Saginaw, has been appointed to
the eight-member State Civil
Rights Commission by Gov.
George Romney. Former U. S.
District Judge John Feikens
and Damon Keith, a Negro at
torney, both of Detroit, are
commission cochairmen. Fa
ther La Marre has worked
closely with Negroes and Mexi
cans in his parish.
Labor Day
Mass
NEWARK, N. J., (NC) —
Archbishop Thomas A. Boland
of Newark will offer the annual
Labor Day Mass (Sept. 2) at
Sacred Heart Cathedral here.
The Mass and Communion
breakfast to follow are being
sponsored by the Guild of St.
Joseph the Worker, a labor-
management group.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, (NC)—
A priest has been accused of
giving false information in reg
istering for a new ration book
in Cuba, according to a Radio
Havana broadcast heard here.
The broadcast did not say
whether or not the priest, Fa-i
ther Joaquin Reden Arsube of
Guana jay in western Pinar del
Rio province, had been arrest
ed. He and six other persons
were charged by Internal Trade
Ministry authorities with in
cluding in their card applica
tions persons not living in their
community.
More On Sudan
KAMPALA, Uganda, (NC)—
One hundred and eighty Catho
lic boys in the southern Sudan
have been moved by the Mus
lim-dominated Sudanese gov
ernment to a school in a total
ly Muslim area, according to
refugees reaching here from
South Sudan.
They said the boys had been
attending school in Lul, near
the southern provincial capital
of Malakal, which is all Catho
lic. The government peremp
torily moved them to a Muslim
school in an all-Muslim area.
Alliance
LIMA, Peru, (NC)— A latin
American Christian Democra
tic leader urged here that the
U. S. - sponsored Alliance for
Progress be made a people-to-
people rather than a government
-to-government projects.
Rafael Caldera, head of Vene
zuela’s Christian Democratic
party (COPEI) here on a visit,
told the daily El Comercio of
Lima that the alliance has had
"modest success but not to the
extent a program of its nature
should have."
"Latin Americans," he add^j
ed, "do not view as their own’
a project in which they have
not been called on to partici
pate in a more direct form.”
Birth Control
Curbs Converts
KWANG JU, Korea, (NC)—
Minneapolis - born Archbishop
Harold Henry, S.S.C., of Kwang
Ju said that the practice of
birth control is cutting down the
number of adult Baptisms in his
see.
The Korean government has-
said that its birth control pro
gram is progressing in cities
but failing in rural areas.
Archbishop Henry said that
the number of Catholics in his
archdiocese is now 63,722,
an increase of 1,761, over last
year. Taking instructions for
Baptist are 3,939 catechumens.
The Kwang Ju archdiocese has
a total population of more than
3.8 million.
QUESTION BOX
By David Q. Liptak
Q. The missal, I know, con
tains all the prayers for Mass,
but what book does a priest use
for ceremonies outside of Mass
—when he is assisting at a
marriage for instance?Or must
several books be used for the
various Church ceremonies?
A. The missal (the Roman
missal) contains the prayers
and instructions both for the
celebration of Mass and for
certain ceremonies that can di
rectly precede or follow Mass,
such as the blessing of palms
on Palm Sunday or the blessing
of ashes on Ash Wednesday.
Also included in the missal are
prayers in preparation for, and
thanksgiving after, Mass.
THE CEREMONIES and in
structions for the administra
tion of the sacraments in gen
eral are found in what is known
as the ritual. Rituals used in the
Latin Church can vary accident
ally from country to country.
But they are all based on the
Roman Ritual. When a priest
baptizes, he uses the ritual;
so too, when he assists at a mar
riage, anoints a person in dan
ger of death and brings Com
munion to the sick.
THE RITUAL is also a the
saurus of the Church’s blessing
the blessing of a rosary, the
blessing of a scapular, the bles
sing of an automobile, the
blessing of a new mother, the
blessing of throats in honor or
Saint Blaise, the blessing of
livestock, etc. And it contains
a large section on prayers for a
(Continued on Page 6)
The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH. GA.
Vol. 44 Thursday, August 29, 1963 No. 8
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 Mark waiter, Managing Editor
Rev. Lawrence Lucree, Rev. John Fitzpatrick,
Associate Editors