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EDITED BY LEO J. ZUBEB
2332 North Decatur Rd Docaxur. Georgia
A MAN NAMED JOHN: THE
LIFE OF POPE JOHN XXIII,
by Alden Hatch, Hawthorne
Books, 1963, 288 pp., illus.,
'* $4.95.
Reviewed by Leo J. Zuber.
This interesting and infor
mative volume tells the story
of another man, “one sent from
God, whose name was John.”
When Cardinal Roncalli entered
the 1958 conclave, who knew
him? Who had ever heard of
* him? When, five years later,
as John XXIII, he died, who in
the world did not know him?
Who had not heard of him? On
his election, much of the world
wondered; on his death, the
whole world mourned a friend.
This biography, obviously
hurried to completion, traces
this remarkable personality
from humble birth (25 Novem
ber 1881) to death (3 June 1963);
his career of service to the
church and to mankind might
have remained essentially un
known to much of the Western
world had he not been papabili.
Roncalli’s years before 1958
were spent in Bulgaria, Turkey,
Greece, and in sad, beset
France (1944-1953), and in Ve
nice, from few of which places,
even including France because
of the times, would his name
and reputation go very far
afield. So in 1958, we were
quizzical.
y* The volume is anecdotal and
in human proportions always.
When Roncalli arrived as arch
bishop and nuncio to liberated
France, the quarters he was to
occupy showed the lack of care
of the war years. He arranged
for their cleaning and refur
nishing. One workman, busy
in an adjoining room, dropped
a heavy plank on his foot; his
cursing brought the archbishop
on the double with a message
then and even now in the book
iin French suggesting that the
man might say something ap
propriate without being blas
phemous. Roncalli worked well
/ at the human level. How to ad-
' dress Mrs. Kennedy when she
came to visit him? He tried
* 'Mrs. Kennedy—Madam Ken-
Mann
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nedy—Madame.” But when she
arrived, protocol left;he opened
his arms wide and said in
greeting “Jacqueline!” He had
the knack of seeing and of re
cognizing the person, not the
personage.
The book makes no pretense
of being biography in the
studied, ponderous, definitive
sense. Quite the opposite; it will
fit your hand, your head, and
your heart just as John did/
IMAGE OF AMERICA, by
Norman Foerster, University of
Notre Dame Press, 1962, 152
pp. $1.95, and THE MODERN
GOD, by Gustave Weigle, S. J.,
Macmillan, 1963,168 pp., $3.95.
Reviewed by Flannery O’
Connor.
These two books can be read
together with considerable pro
fit. Prof. Foerster’s is a brief
social and literary history of
America from the Puritan Age
through the deistic and romantic
periods to the rise of realism
and on to the present times of
disillusion and search for
something new worth believing
in. Behind each of these changes
in outlook is a different view of
God and man’s relation to him.
The essays ends in a brief con
sideration of the historical im
agination as found in Southern
literature, particularly Faulk
ner.
Prof. Foerster sees Ameri
cans as “an idealistic people,
responsive to humanitarian im
pulses, believing in the dignity
of man and the primacy of hu
man rights, but confused, inse
cure, and anxious amid the for
ces of a world in turbulent
revolution.” Fr. Weigle begins
at this point and analyzes the
instability of the modern relig
ious condition. He sees that our
roots are in religious faith
which we have not been able to
throw off like the Russians but
that in practical philosophy, we
are as materialistic as they.
Fr. Weigle discusses the place
given God in the civic order,
in the moral values of Ameri
can culture, and by intellec
tuals. He ends by discussing the
witness of the Church and its
impression, or lack of impres
sion, on the public conscience.
He finds that our delimma is
too many weak secular faiths
and suggests that what is need
ed is a “great faith resting on
a big theology.”
Both Prof. Foerster’s and Fr.
Weigle’s are valuable essays
which should add greatly to the
Catholic’s understanding of his
country and his times.
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MACON GROUND BREAKING—After breaking ground
recently for the new McAuley Hall, addition to Mt de Sales,
Macon, His Excellency Bishop Thomas J. McDonough hands
spade to Sister Mary Aurelia, R.S.M., as Sister Mary Fe-
licitas, R.S.M., Principal, and Reinee Johnson and Fred
Howe, senior class representatives smile their approval.
Canadian Prelate Warns Against
Proposed Law For Child Adoption
TORONTO, Ont., (NC) — An
archbishop here issued awarn-
ing protest against efforts to
change the Ontario province's
child welfare act so as to per
mit placing a child for adop
tion without consideration of re
ligious affiliation.
"Those who would urge the
state to believe it has the right
to make a law that in effect
permits it to decide the reli
gious affiliation of a child
seem unaware that they are dis
cussing and debating the philo
sophy of human life itself,”
Coadjutor Archbishop Philip
F. Pocock of Toronto said.
"They also seem unaware
that they are accepting a philo
sophy that goes against the nat
ural law, that opposes the whole
Judaeo-Christian tradition, that
agrees with a materialistic,
totalitarian philosophy of human
life,” he continued in a state
ment published in the Canadian
Register, newspaper of the To
ronto archdiocese.
“It is time that those who
think thus be told exactly what
they are proposing as a philo
sophy of human life, as a phi
losophy of the state as a fu
ture for citizens of democracy,
when they even imply that
the state could make a law that
would deprive a child of one
religious affiliation and give it
another,” the prelate said.
"Let us begin by showing
that fuzzy thinking on the power
of the state over human life,
and foolish relegation to the
state of inalienable human
rights is not new. . .The phil
osopher Plato maintained that
children were to be bred for
the utility of the state. He
frankly declared that to imple
ment this crude form of stat-
ism ‘our rulers will find a con
siderable dose of falsehood and
deceit necessary for the good of
their subjects.’
"Many other pre-Christian
philosophers shared the atti
tudes of Plato on the complete
preeminence of the state in de
termining the destiny of child
ren born within its jurisdiction.
It was the development of the
Judaeo-Christian ideal of man
—his dignity as an individual,
his natural rights, his family
rights, his freedom amongst his
fellows—which preserved man
from the fate implied in the
totalitarian philosophy of Plato
and other pagan theorists.
* 'Despite the light brought
by the Judaeo-Christian re
velation to help dispel the dark
ness surrounding man’s rights,
and to prevent men from blindly
surrendering their lives to the
state, many theorists of later
generations have uttered philo
sophies and made decisions
which are a reaffirmation of the
old pagan concepts.
The Archbishop then quoted
from principals and courts in
U. S. cases involving the ques
tion of jurisdiction which the
state has over a child. He con
tinued:
"It would be surprising if
the despotic power of the state
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over human life, the material
istic view of what real rights
any individual may have,
embodied in the (U. S. ) quo
tations, do not shock even those
who would so glibly and casu
ally concede to the Government
of Ontario the right to ignore
the religion of a child in plac
ing it for adoption. But if those
who propose this philosophy
don’t know what they are ad
vocating as part of the power
of the state over human life,
surely those of us who adhere
to the Judaeo-Christian tradi
tion should know and should re
ject it as a throw back to pa
ganism.
“Let us make no mistake
about what we are doing when
any of us believe we are es
pousing the true welfare of
children by suggesting that the
government can create a child
welfare act or amend such an
act in order to give itself or
its agencies the power to change
the religious affiliation of a
child. We are selling out our
children to statism, to a ‘pa
rens patriae.' We are agree
ing that a child belongs to the
nation before it belongs to it
self or to its parents, that it is
first a national child and then
somebody’s son or daughter.”
The Canadian Register, com
menting editorially on Arch
bishop Pocock’s statement,
said:
"Catholics are not asking
the government of Ontario to
prevent anyone from freely
changing his religious faith.
Far from it: the true Catholic
must respect and encourage the
free exercise of conscience.
"What we do demand is that
the wishes of the parents in all
cases be accepted, and that the
parent be given the sole right
of decision.
"To this end, for example,
the amended act must make pro
vision for a declaration by the
mother to the effect that ‘I
want my child brought up as a
Catholic’, or ‘I want my child
brought up as a Protestant’, or
even ‘I don’t care what reli
gion my child professes’. Then
let the government agency con
cerned carry out the wishes of
the mother.”
Peace Group Told
Catholics ‘Obliged In
Conscience’ To Work
For Success Of ‘Allianza’
WASHINGTON, (NC)—Catho
lics are "obliged in con
science” to work for the ac
ceptance and success of the Al
liance for Progress, a priest
experienced in foreign aid work
said here.
"The Alliance embodies our
principles of international so
cial justice to such a degree
that unless we give it active
support, our high-pitched ac
clamation of Pope John’s new
social horizons sounds like so
much vacuous horn-blowing,”
declared Msgr. Joseph B. Gre-
million.
Msgr. Gremillion, director of
socio-economic development
for Catholic Relief Services—
National Catholic Welfare Con
ference, endorsed the Alliance
for Progress, the cooperative
program of U. S.- assisted so
cial and economic development
in Latin America, in an address
to the 36th annual conference of
the Catholic Association for
International Peace (Sept. 27).
The conference theme was
“The Christian Challenge in
Latin America.”
The CAIP’s annual peace
award, presented during the
conference, went this year to
Theodoro Moscoso, U. S.
Administrator of the Alliance
for Progress.
Msgr. Gremillion in his ad
dress described the Alliance for
Progress as a concrete embodi
ment of Catholic social doc
trine, particularly the teaching
of the late Pope John XXIII
in his encyclicals Mater et
Magistra and Pacem in Terris.
He said the Alliance "not
only deserves but even de
mands” the support of Christian
leaders and organizations.
He urged Catholic leaders to
work for citizen support of the
Alliance, noting that its appro
priations are "now being
hacked away in Congress.”
He said it is "under
standable” that the Pope and
other top churchmen should
state their social teaching in
general terms. “But we do not
really adhere to this teaching
if we keep it general all the
way down the line and on all
occasions,” he commented.
Msgr. Gremillion said the
Allaince is essential to the suc
cess of the "peaceful revolu
tion” in Latin America that
"offers the basic counterforce
for dealing with Cuba and the
other violent revolutions which
threaten most of our neigh
bors.”
He linked the Alliance with
what he called "astonishing”
changes now taking place with
in the Church and among Chris
tian-oriented leaders in Latin
America.
He said this "hopeful drama
tic change” among Catholics
manifests itself in three ways:
1) The Church’s social teach
ing is now reaching the people
through pastorals and state
ments by the bishops and, on a
grassroots level, through many
teaching and training programs.
2) Social action programs of
many kinds are "spreading rap
idly,” including credit unions
and cooperatives, savings and
loan associations and housing
projects, technical and leader
ship training and community
self-help unions.
3) "Most hopeful of all,”
Christian lay leaders are ac
quiring influence within poli
tical parties and labor move
ments.
"We see then that the re
forms jointly promoted by the
20 partmen nations of the Al
liance for Progress receive of
a sudden vigorous and unexpec
ted support from the Church of
Latin America, until now dis
missed as conservative and sta
tus quo,” Msgr. Gremillion
said.
The Southern Cross, September 26, 1963—PAGE 5
P.C.C.W.
Meets At
Tybee
SAVANNAH BEACH—St. Mi
chael’s Parish Council of Ca
tholic Women held their first
meeting of the new school year,
Miss Kathryn Flowers, presid
ing.
Attendance at the deanery
meeting was urged, committees
were reappointed, and coopera
tion with national projects was
emphasized.
The new pastor played host
to the group with refreshments
in the rectory.
Saint James
Home & School
Meeting
SAVANNAH—At the Septem
ber meeting of the Saint James
Home and School Association
Mon signor John D. Toomey
spoke of the school's potential
for the coming year, and con
gratulated the members on their
cooperation in the tithing pro
gram.
The new officers, committee
chairmen, members of the fa
culty and school bus drivers
were introduced by the Presi
dent, Mrs. W. J. Bremer, Jr.
The budget for the school year
was presented by Mrs. Dan
Willoughby for approval.
Mrs. O. A. Anderson, Presi
dent of the Savannah Deanery,
D.C.C.W. reminded the mem
bers of the luncheon meeting to
be held at Hunter Air Force
Base on September 26.
Mrs. Cluese McElveen, re
presenting the Parish Council
urged all new members to at
tend the meetings of the Council
and to participate in its activi
ties and Mr. Eugene Powers
spoke of the Annual Barbecue
to be sponsored by the Men’s
Club on October 5.
The Program Chairman,
Mrs. O. B. Carr announced that
Representative Bart Shea would
be the speaker at the October
meeting.
MARRIAGES
SALTER-McBRIDE
BRUNSWICK—A military
wedding, September 14th, united
in marriage, Miss Deborah
Dean McBride, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. John Patrick McGuire,
and Ensign Thomas Stafford
Salter, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Stanley L. Salter of Sault St.
Marie, Mich. The marriage at
St. Francis Xavier Church was
solomnized by the Rev. Andrew
Walls, S.M. in a double-ring
ceremony.
JACOBS-VAUGHN
AUGUSTA—Miss Beverly
Elaine Vaughn and Mr. Milton
Daniel Jacobs were married
September 21st at St. Mary’s-
on-the-Hill Church by the Rt.
Rev. Monsignor Daniel J.
Bourke, V.F. The bride is the
daughter of Mrs. Charles Reid
Vaughn and the late Mr. Vaughn
and the bridegroom is the son
of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Jacobs.
CRAMER-BUSHA
SAVANNAH—Miss Mary Lee
Busha, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
H. J. Busha of Toccoa and Wal
ter Eugene Cramer III, son of
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Eugene
Cramer Jr. of Savannah, were
married September 7th at Toc
coa. The Rt. Rev. Msgr. P. J.
O’Connor performed the cere
mony.
For Wedding Invitations
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INDIA: SISTER JOHN WRITES
SISTER JOHN OF THE SACRED HEART writes from MELO-
REM in CHANGANACHERRY Archdiocese in Southern India
. . .‘‘About fifteen years ago, we
» > if). started a convent here. A pious
charitable man donated a site with
a building on it . . . This was
enough for the Sisters then but now
3 we are 17, finding it difficult to
i ^ have enough space in the dormitory,
refectory and small chapel. The
good man has gone to his eternal
reward . . . The Catholics are mostly
poor, so poor indeed that we have
to give them small helps at times.”
. . . Sister John asks if we can assist
her band of Sisters in building , a
bigger convent—cost $3,000—and the Archbishop there warmly
backs her request . . . Can you help with any amount, big or
small? It will be deeply appreciated.
The Holy Father’s Mission Aid
for the Oriental Churcfo
Historic Cathedral
Given Designation
Of Minor Basilica
ST. LOUIS, (NC)—The Mis
sissippi riverfront Church of
St. Louis IX, King of France,
the "Old Cathedral” of this
archdiocese, has been designat
ed a minor basilica, the 15th
in the nation.
The 129-year-old structure
was once the mother church of
a diocese that embraced more
than half of the continental Unit
ed States and is the site of the
founding in 1845 of the St. Vin
cent de Paul Society.
The special dignity of a minor
basilica was decreed formally
in 1961 by Pope John XXIII,
but announcement of the honor
was delayed until architectural
restoration of the historic
shrine was virtually completed.
The basilica will be one of the
central attractions of the multi
million dollar Jefferson Nation
al Memorial to open next year
in connection with the bicen
tennial of St. Louis. It is ex
pected to attract an estimated
3,000,000 visitors annually.
The memorial will have as
its central feature a curve of
stainless steel that will soar
630 feet above the riverfront
project. Visitors to the top of
this monument will look direct
ly down on the Old Cathedral.
The honor of minor basilica
is assigned to certain churches
because of their antiquity, dig
nity, historical importance or
significance as centers of wor
ship. They enjoy certain cere
monial privileges and are giv
en ornamentation.
COUNCIL RECONVENES
At the FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL, the Bishops in attend
ance were often amused by the imaginative stories about the
Council in the London papers. Now as the second session of
VATICAN II opens, reporters will probably have developed a.
keener ability and more efficient machinery for getting the
facts straight . . . Certainly the problems of the missions will
be on the minds of the Bishops. Our Association looks after
the missionary needs of 18 Near East and Middle East coun
tries. You can help this work along by:
□ —Taking out a membership. Single person: $1 a year;
family: $5 a year. Perpetual single membership: $20 a
year; family: $100. You participate in the graces of the
•Holy Father’s Masses and ^hose of 15,000 priests in the
countries entrusted to us.
□
□
-Helping build a chapel or school. Cost $2,000 to $6,000..
-■Educating a seminarian like AUGUSTINE or MATHEW.
Cost: $100 a year for six years.
□ —Training a Sister like SISTER STELLA MARIA or SIS
TER ANNIE XAVIER. Cost: $150 a year for two years.
□
□
-Sending a FOOD PACKAGE to a PALESTINE REFU
GEE FAMILY. Cost: $10. Or a BLANKET: $2. Perhaps
you would prefer to help with a REFUGEE CHILD’S
SCHOOL EXPENSES: $25 per term.
-Purchasing something to furnish a chapel, from vest
ments to a sanctuary bell. Cost: $50 down to $5.
POPULATION EXPLOSION. A knowledgeable friend tells
us that 50% of all the people who ever lived are living today!
This comes from the tremendous increase in births and ad
vances of medicine in the last century. Certainly a multitude
of persons to be reached with prayers! Remember our priests
with your MASS STIPENDS.
LONELY CROWD. A scientific magazine states that by the
year 2026, people will be standing shoulder to shoulder due
to population growth. But just think of the immense missionary
wort to be done! Your STRINGLESS GIFTS help us to do what
is needed, wherever the Holy Father thinks needs are greatest!
f£i*Rear'£ast OlissionsjMi
FRANCIS CARDINAL SPILLMAN, President
Msgr. Joseph T. tyoa. Mot‘1 Sec’y
Seed all communication tot
CATHOLIC NEAR EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION
480 Lexington Avo. at 46th St. Now York 17, N. Y«