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t * 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