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An Opening To Be Closed
Justice J. Erwin Shapiro, of New York’s
State Supreme Court, last week made a ruling
on the sale of indecent books which may have
farreaching consequences. The ruling di
rectly affects only a small area of the coun
try. Yet the history of the development of
law concerning indecent books shows that
from just such local findings there eventually
emerges a national standard as determined
by the United States Supreme Court. It is
well for the people to understand in advance
what may soon be the law of the land where
the sale of absolutely rotten paperback books
is concerned.
The books on which Justice Shapiro was
pronouncing are, by his own admission, utter
trash. They have no literary merit whatso
ever. Moreover, again to quote the justice,
“fully 90 per cent of each book is filled with
lurid descriptions of sexual activities.” Their
appeal, then, is merely to prurient interest.
They certainly are obscene by the United
States Supreme Court’s test: that is, “to the
average person, applying contemporary com
munity standards, the dominant theme of
the material taken as a whole appeals to the
prurient interest.” They also are patently
offensive to the community standard of de
cency. Justice Shapiro’s own memorandum,
then, establishes a case for restraining the
sales of these books. But he proceeds to a
finding at variance with his assessment of
the books in terms of the criteria of ob
scenity endorsed by the highest of our courts.
' How does he justify his departure from the
established norm of judgment? He attempts
to do so in a most amazingpassage. There is
a place in society for such writings, he de
clares. They do serve, according to him,
a good purpose. What could it possibly be?
He writes, “There are those who, because
of lack of education, the meanness of their
social existence, or mental insufficiency
cannot cope with anything better.” Books
of the sort before the court provide such
people, says his honor, with “an escape
from reality.”
The mentally deficient, the uneducated,
the down-and-out must be allowed the opium
of obscenity to ‘make their existence toler
able—there is the gist of it. Their one
means of escape from their wretched condi
tion is, it seems, through trash which ap
peals exclusively to prurient interest. The
law, therefore, must see to it that they have
ready access to the printed equivalent of
marijuana. This, to us, is not only a per
version of logic, not only a mockery of sane
law, not only an incredible abdication of
public responsibility, but a shockingly con
temptuous estimate and dismissal of many
thousands of American citizens as human
trash requiring and entitled to printed trash
to keep it diverted and quiet and untrouble-
some.
One of the most alarming features of the
judicial trend where matters of obscenity are
concerned is the failure to distinguish
between the mature and the young. It is
unreasonable to insist that what is calculated
to be harmful to youth must also be put
beyond the reach of adults. Hence the across-
the-board banning of books is very properly
objected to and is prohibited by the courts.
But our judges ought to be able to dis
criminate. They ought to be able to see that
what may be of no harm to the average
adult will be of inestimable harm to the
average young person, and, consequently,
that restraint on the sale of such material
to the young is necessary. There is a paral
lel between society’s obligation to protect the
young, on the one hand, and on the other,
society’s duty in respect of the very type of
people instanced by Justice Shapiro.
The idea of obscenity as a pacifier of
the deficient or the unfortunate is a novel
enormity; but much more novel and much
more of an enormity is the idea of society’s
giving official endorsement to such a notion
through its courts.
The courts do not operate in a vacuum or
autonomously. They are instruments of the
community. The community’s standards as to
what is obscene and what is not, they must
take into consideration. They must also
consider the community’s responsibility to
its members of various conditions. Justice
Shapiro is certainly at odds, in this case,
with the community’s consensus. The course
which his finding may open up should be
stopped decisively and soon. (Catholic Trans
cript—Hartford, Conn.)
A Member Of Christ’s Body
Jottings
The sick person is a member
of Christ’s Body. Like every
one, he has been redeemed and
more than many others he bene
fits from the Cross. To bene
fit from ’ the Cross does
not mean that it is better to
be sick than to be in good health;
it means that the sick person
is invited to be, more than
others, the witness of Christ
Cricufied.
Very Rev. Mother Marie Des
Douleurs, foundress of the Sis
ters of Jesus Crucified.
On Friday, the 13th, at 8:00
a.m., I was wheeled down to the
cardiac research department
and witnessed and was the cen
ter of an operation which was
like a page out of TIME maga
zine’s medical section, which is
my nearest brush with medical
terminology and experimenta
tion. The time spent at this
hospital was even made
pleasurable by the evidence of
many readers of this column.
From the moment of admittance
to dismissal I was happily meet
ing people who read this col
umn, I was as at home as I
could be and somehow the need
les, injections, incisions were
less painful in such an atmos
phere. It would take a consider
ably larger amount of space
than is allotted to me to de
tail the procedure in which I
was involved. Cardiac surgery
and research is the spoiled
child of medicine today. Where
By Barbara C, Jencks
once the announcement of an ap
pendectomy could bring inter
est, today the ailment of fas
cination is to be found in the
cardiac region. Therefore, it
Was almost as if the entire
three-hour process on Friday
morning were happening to
someone else. I was as interes
ted as the cardiac team or a
reader of science-fiction. I
could witness the procedure by
watching a television set over
the operating table—in color
yet! And heard the surgeon,
doctors, nurses, and techni
cians talking, giving facts and
figures and watching the IBM-
type equipment registering in
sounds and colors and figures.
It was one of those experiences
of a lifetime once survived
which prove to be memorable.
I’ve threatened to go on a lec
ture circuit telling about it and
paying tribute to the entire hos
pital force from office person
nel, maintenance, dietary, tele
phone operators through to the
medical—nurses, doctors, sur
geons.
Only recently, cardiac sur
gery and research was a pio
neer venture much like space
and rocket ships. It took the
doctor a long time for me to
agree to this somewhat minor
exploratory expedition in the
cardiac region but I am here to
day to give hearty testimony
to it.
ALTHOUGH THE HOSPITAL
is a city of the sick where em
phasis is on the body, the soul
was not overlooked. Each morn
ing, I received Holy Commun
ion from the priest-Chaplain.
While in the hospital, “Friends
of the Sick,” the publication of
the Sisters of Jesus Crucified,
an order of handicapped nuns,
was forwarded to me. My room
overlooked the city and as the
lights went on one by one at
twilight I could look out and
meditate read from my pray
er book or ‘‘say the beads.”
Physical suffering, of course,
is not the greatest suffering man
endures. I was able again to
meditate upon the magnificence
of the vocation of surgeon, doc
tor, nurse. I happily was wit
ness to many who were exem
plary in these all-important
works of mercy. I could not
begin to include all in my tri
butes. The list would be long and
there were many who were only
smiles, or words of encourage
ment or voices saying "I’ll
say a prayer for you . . ” or “I
read you every week.” There
were the prayers and Masses
which were said in convents
and classroom (Catholic class
rooms) in spiritual bouquets,
cards, etc. I will hope that when
the major part of the operation
comes up perhaps early next
year, that the same prayers
will be offered again.
175th Anniversary
WASHINGTON, — George
town University here began Sep
tember 26 the formal obser
vance of the 175th anniversary
of its founding.
The program, international in
scope, will conclude on Decem
ber 3, 1964, the 149th anni
versary of the death of its
founder, Archbishop John Car-
roll of Baltimore, the first bi
shop of the hierarchy of the Uni
ted States of America.
Among the distinctions
claimed by Georgetown are
these:
It is the first and oldest
institution of higher learning
in the U. S. under Catholic
auspices.
It operates under the first
university charter ever granted
by the Federal Government, in
virtue of an enabling Act of
Congress, signed by President
James Madfson on March 1,
1815.
It dates its beginning from
the beginning of the Nation.
Georgetown dates from 1789,
the year that saw the ratifi-
By J. J. Gilbert
cation of the U. S. Constitu
tion and the inauguration of
George Washington as the first
President. The year also
marked the appointment of John
Carroll as the first U. S. bi
shop.
The first building erected at
Georgetown was begun in 1788
and survived until 1904, when it
was torn down to make room for
another structure. The second
building, called Old North, be
gun in 1791, survives today and
recalls the visits of such not
ables as George Washington in
1796, of Lafayette in 1824, and
of Marshal Foch of France, a
graduate of a Jesuit institution,
following World War I, in which
he was the Supreme Allied Com
mander.
The Civil War had a great
impact on Georgetown. Although
the total number enrolled in
all classes from 1820 to 1865
numbered less than 2,000, it
has been established that well
over 1,000 sons of Georgetown
fought in that conflict. Some
fought on the side of the Con
federacy, some in the Union
Army. It is recounted that,
because of this division, the
school colors, originally some
thing else, were changed to blue
and gray after the Civil War.
A number of Georgetown men
became generals, some won
the Congressional Medal of
Honor.
Before 1860, a number of
young men who entered West
Point had spent some years at
Georgetown. One of these, later
Maj. Gen. William H. C. Whi
ting , of the Confederate Army,
stood first in his class at
Georgetown in 1840, and first
in his class at West Point in
1845. It was said that he ach
ieved what up to that time were
the highest grades given at the
Military Academy.
For the anniversary now
being observed, the colors of
black, red and gold have been
adopted, from the coat of arms
of the Carroll family.
‘‘Wisdom and Discovery for a
Dynamic World” is the theme
of the celebration.
'FORGIVE ME FATHER FOR I HAVE SINNED*
Client Vs. Commercialism
It Seems to Me
I am tempted to start up a
public relations outfit which,
for enormous fees — and worth
every cent of them—will re
teach elementary consideration
for customers to enterprises
which have
become so
bemused with
a c c o u n t-
ing efficiency
that they
seem bent
upon driving
clients away.
MORE RE
CENTLY, I
visited an optical firm with
which my family and I have
done business for nearly 20
years. The man who served
me—admirably—was forced to
explain, with obvious embar-
rasement, that the prescription
for my lenses had been thrown
away because I hadn’t had my
glasses changed for about 12
years.
Whoever had gone through the
files to “bring them up to date”
had simply assumed that either
I was patronizing somebody else
(although right in front of him
were live accounts for my wife
and several children) or that I
was dead.
JOSEPH BREIG
THE FACT WAS that I had
had my eyes examined by a spe
cialist within the year, and (to
my surprise)he had found no
change in them. Now I was in
the optician’s office because I
needed new frames. While I
waited for the lenses to be fitted
into them, I sat wondering why
on earth somebody couldn’t have
written to me, or phoned my
home before consigning my rec
ords to the wastebasket.
My next experience was in a
bank. I got in line at a teller’s
window. The young woman look
ed at the form I had filled
in, returned it to me, and said:
“Sir, you’ll have to go to the
girl at the other end of the lob
by and get her to put the com
puter symbols for your account
on the deposit slip.”
The lobby is a block long. I
did not have at my disposal 20
or 30 minutes to go to the girl
at the other end, wait in line,
return, stand in line again, and
finally have the transaction put
through.
“I don’t have to do anything
of the kind,” I told the young
woman.
She stared at me as if I had
suddenly gone violently mad.
“I refuse,” I went on, “to go
to a girl at the other end of
the lobby, and then come back
here, every time I want to make
a deposit or withdrawal. If that’s
going to be the rule, I’ll change
banks.”
HELPLESSLY, she pointed to
a sign on the counter, which
hadn’t been there a week
earlier, and which I hadn’t read.
“But it says there,” she began.
“I don’t care what it says.
Nobody has said anything to me
about this. I’m not going to the
other end of the lobby.”
She gave up and put my slips
through. No doubt the bank’s
records, as a consequence, are
in a frightful mess, and there
will be frantic meetings of the
board of directors.
That evening, 1 told my wife
about it. She pondered for a
minute, and then told me that in
the back of my checkbook there
were now deposit slips bearing
computer symbols. She hadn’t
thought to tell me about them—
and nobody had written to me
to inform me of the change.
It appears that the more com
puterized our commercial peo
ple become, the more they lose
their manners.
We Are Made For Greatness
God’s World
(By Leo J. Trese)
The self-important person is
a pitiable figure. He is the
man (or woman) who talks big,
brags of his exploits (real or
fancied). Studs his conversa
tion with the
names of
p rominent
people whom
he professes
to know, and
has the ans
wer to every
problem.
Some what
akin to the
braggart is the show-off, the
person who is ever trying to
attract attention to himself. An
other familiar type is the chro
nic objector, who sees no merit
in any plan or idea unless he
himself has been the first to
propose it.
These are pitiable people be
cause they are unhappy people.
Their sometimes ridiculous and
sometimes annoying speech and
behavior are the mechanisms
by which they try to defend
themselves against an ever
present pain. The truth is that
deep within themselves they
suffer from acute feelings of
inferiority and inadequacy,
feelings too painful to be tol
erated or faced. Consequently,
all their lives long they carry
on an unremitting campaign to
prove to themselves that it isn’t
so and that really they are im
portant persons.
Their futile efforts should
move us to sympathy rather than
annoyance. We should be tol
erant of their constant questing
for praise, for attention, for
recognition. We should be toler
ant if for no other reason than
that these types are but an ex
aggerated, widescreen projec
tion of ourselves. We all have
a deeply rooted desire to feel
important, to know that we excel
in some area and that we really
do amount to something. Psy
chologists classify this hunger
for some measure of recogni
tion as one of man’s basic
needs. If we do not have a feel
ing of self-worth, our person
ality inevitable will be warped.
There are few of us who do not
suffer, at times in some
small degree, from feelings
of inferiority and inade
quacy. Occasionally these
feelings may be more acute;
when, for example, we actually
have experienced a humiliating
failure of some kind, or when
someone else has outstripped
us by a remarkable success.
I think that retirees and aged
persons frequently suffer from
a feeling of unimportance and
from lack of recognition as their
unwilling idleness shunts them
to the sidelines of a busy, busy
world.
Even for the vigorous among
us, no previous age has been as
humbling as our own. We read
of other people who discover
new wonder drugs, design inter
planetary space ships, achieve
world-wide fame in art, science
or adventure. Meanwhile here
we are, going along in our same
old rut.
When we feel these twinges of
inferiority our faith is a won
derful antidote. We know that
our one over-all purpose in life
is that we give honor to our
Father in heaven by a whole-
souled dedication to the doing
of His will.
When we have begun our day
by offering it without reserve to
God—all our thoughts, words,
actions and sufferings—and live
that day in the state of grace,
then we have achieved a pin
nacle of greatness. Even our
least actions have a tremendous
meaning and an eternal value.
Even the act of tying our shoe
laces reverberates in heaven.
Our day may be ever so hum
drum and unproductive from the
viewpoint of a society which
judges only by visible results.
Yet, if it has been lived in union
with God, it is a million times
more important than the day of
a man who, indifferent to God,
lands a rocket on the moon.
Inferior? Unimportant? In
adequate? Not while there is
breath within us to say, “For
You, my God; all for You!”
Council Rites LBJ Georgetown
Simplified Speaker
VATICAN CITY, (Radio, NC)
—The second session of the
Second Vatican Council opens
on Sunday, September 29, with
somewhat simpler ceremonies
than those surrounding the
opening of the first session
last October.
His Holiness Pope Paul VI,
accompanied by the cardinals,
is to enter the council cham
ber in the great nave of St.
Peter’s basilica in proces
sion. But the archbishops, bi
shops, abbots and heads of reli
gious orders will simply enter
St. Peter’s and take their plac
es. Last fall all the council
Fathers preceded Pope John
XXIII in a solemn procession
through St. Peter’s square.
Catholic-Anglican
Barriers “Lowered”
SYDNEY, Australia, (NC)—A
noticeable lowering of the “bar
riers of suspicion” between Ca
tholics and Anglicans due to the
influence of the late Pope John
XXIII was reported here by an
Anglican prelate returning from
a world congress of his church.
Archbishop Philip N. Strong
of Brisbane declared that the
question of Anglican-Catholic
unity was fully explored at the
recent Anglican meeting at To
ronto,'Canada. It was his im
pression that the two church
es are moving closer together.
Interfaith Movement
WASHINGTON, (NC)—Vice
President Lyndon Johnson and
Chief Justice Earl Warren will
be among distinguished guests
at Georgetown University’s an
niversary observances in the
next 16 months.
The Jesuit university, found- 1
ed in 1789 by Archbishop John
Carroll, is marking its 175th
anniversary. It is the oldest
Catholic institution of higher
education in the United States.
Anniversary observan
ces will run from September
26 until December 3, 1964, un
der the theme: “Wisdom and
Discovery for a C>ynamic
World.”
Christmas
Scene O.K.
WHITE PLAINS, N. Y., (NC) r
—New York Supreme Court
Justice Hugh S. Coyle has held
a Nativity scene on a public
school lawn does not violate the
U. S. Constitution.
He said it is “a passive ac
commodation of religion” and
no one is forced to look at it.
Display of the creche is not
“active involvement by the gov
ernment in a religious exer
cise,” he said.
Coyle acted on a suit brought
by 16 residents of Hartsdale,
N. Y. They protested the man
ger scene erected on the lawn
of the Central Avenue Ele
mentary School there last
Christmas.
MEDELLIN, Colombia, (NC)
—A Jewish professor and two
Catholic priests have started
the Movement for Religious Co
existence here which seeks to
“draw members of different re
ligions closer together.”
Nahum Megged, a graduate of
the Hebrew University in Jeru
salem, and Fathers Humberto
Jimenez and Eugenio Lakatos,
both professors of Scripture,
issued an appeal to the people
of this South American nation
to support “the movement, its
work and its ideals as a means
of solidarity and of peace on
behalf of a humanity weary of
dissension and longing for bet
ter horizons.”
“Tropic” Ban
Upheld
MIAMI, (NC)—The Third
District Court of Appeals has
upheld Dade County’s ban
against the sale of Henry Mil
ler’s novel, “Tropic of Can-
cer.” ^ ,
A six-man Dade Circuit Court j
jury declared the novel “ob
scene” on May 1, 1962, and its
sale has been forbidden here
since. The District Court of Ap
peals decision said the book’s
defenders failed to show the
obscenity decision was contrary
to “the manifest weight and
preponderance of the evi
dence.”
QUESTION BOX
(By David Q. Liptak)
Q. Is there anything immoral
in an athlete’s taking drugs to
better his performance?
A. The taking of drugs such
as amphetamine (sold as “Pep-
up” pills under several brand
names) merely to better one’s
athletic performance over nor
mal competitive capacity—to
turn one into a “superathelete”
—cannot be justified from the
moral viewpoint.
SUCH DRUGS can be habit
forming even when used in small
doses. Moreover, they canpro-
duce dangerous side-effects;
temporary personality changes,
for example. And because they
unnaturally raise endurance
levels, they can severely dam
age the system.
HENCE, THERE is no rea
sonable proportion between the
good desired and the hazards
inherent in the means. (The
habit-forming character of pre
parations like amphetamine was
specifically cited by an Ameri
can Medical Association com
mittee which condemned the use
of the drugs by athletes a few
years ago.)
THERE IS ANOTHER moral
aspect to this question: namely,
that reliance on these artifi
cial helps runs counter to the
concept of athletic competition.
Thus, the International Amateur
Athletic Federation, the Ama-
teur Athletic Union and theU.S.
Olympic Association have made
the use of these drugs grounds
for disqualification because
they violate the ideals of fair
sportsmanship. Therefore, an
argument can be formulated to
the effect that resorting to these
preparations in an athletic con
test can constitute a violation
of justice. Thus, one theologian
has written that using the drugs
can be classified as an “illi
cit means to gain advantage over
other contestants” and conse
quently deprives the others “of
a fair chance” for the prize or
trophy.
WHETHER OR NOT this lat
ter argument can be urged, the
first one nonetheless stands; j
i.e., the seriously harmful phy
sical effects such stimulants
can cause or occasion can hard
ly be compensated for if they are
employed simply to better ath
letic performance. To quote
from an A.M.A pamphlet:
“USE OF DRUGS to stimulate
athletes to greater ability, par
ticularly in amateur sports, is
ethically indefensible , . . The
drugs . . . may have serious •
toxic effects. Use of drugs pur
ported to ‘neutralize’ the natur
al ‘safety valves’ of fatigue and
exhaustion is unquestionably
hazardous.”
l
The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH, GA.
Vol. 44 Thursday, September 26, 1963 No. 12
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 Markwalter, Managing Editor
Rev. Lawrence Lucree, Rev. John Fitzpatrick,
Associate Editors