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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