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* I PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, October 17, 1963 His Bias Is Showing The acid comments of Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, South Vietnam’s First Lady and sister- in-law of President Ngo Dinh Diem, with respect to the activities of American military personnel, diplomatic officials, and news men in her strife-torn nation are certainly doing nothing to advance the image of South- Vietnam as a model of democracy in south east Asia. Nor can they justify the brutal, police-state methods of her brother-in-law’s administration against members of Buddhist organizations who dare to demonstrate their displeasure with his regime. There are responsible people, both in South Vietnam and here in the United States who maintain that the Government-Buddhist conflict has been engineered in whole or in part by the Communists, who realize that military victory over the Diem regime is impossible without outside military help, and hope to promote a civil war in order to achieve their ends. Some maintain that what appears to be a religious controversy stems from the fact that since all opposition parties are ban ned, dissident political forces are utilizing religious organizations to bring pressure on Diem to force reforms promised in 1961, and which opponents claim have never been enacted. On the other hand, there are responsible people both in South Vietnam and in the United States who see the struggle as an attempt by powerful Buddhist organizations to es tablish an officially Buddhist government and nation. But, although American newspapers, radio and television, at first described South Viet nam’s most important internal crisis as a struggle between the “CatholicGovernment” of Ngo Dinh Diem and the Buddhist majority, for the past four months no charge of “Ca tholic” persecution of Buddhists has come from any responsible quarter. It is puzzling, then, to read of charges by no less a personnage than Mr. William O. Douglas, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court that the violence in South Vietnam stems from a “Catholic strug gle for supremacy over Buddhism.” What is even more puzzling is the fact that Mr. Douglas’ charges were delivered at a meeting of the New Jersey Education Association which apparently accepted them without criticism or comment, in spite of the fact that South Vietnam’s Bishops and Pope Paul, himself, have issued statements calling for a cessation of violence and urg ing respect for conscience and religious freedom — and in spite of the fact that not even the Buddhists have accused the Catholic Church or any of its representatives of re sponsibility in the Government-Buddhist dis pute. Alleged “facts” adduced by Mr. Douglas to bolster his irresponsible charges have been challenged by both newsmen and U. S. Government officials. Yet, Mr. Douglas declares that Catholic schools receive government subsidies, while Buddhist schools do not, when, in point of fact, Buddhist schools do receive Government aid, three of them being institutions specializ ing in Buddhist studies. He insinuates that Catholics are in the majority in Diem’s Cabinet, and therefore constitute a “Catholic” government, by stating that “In a country 80 per cent Budd hist only 2 of the 16 members are Catholic. The fact is that only five of the Cabinet members are Catholic. Mr. Douglas sees a South Vietnam decree prohibiting the display of religious flags out side the confines of religious institutions as discrimination against the country’s Budd hists, apparently ignorant of the fact that the decree applies to the flags of all religions, including the Catholic religion. To some, it might seem the part of Charity to excuse the distinguished jurist’s careless ness with the truth in this regard on the grounds that he is simply mistaken. But his charges have been publicly disputed so often during the past several months by competent, on-the-scene observers that we find it im possible to place a charitable interpretation upon his motives in attacking the Church in South Vietnam. We think his bias is showing. As for the members of the New Jersey Education Association, we trust that, in re lating controverted “facts” to their students, they will exercise the mature and critical judgement which Mr. Douglas seems to lack. Let Us Do As We Say God’s World (By Leo J. Trese) We have a grave duty, as loyal citizens of our Nation, to com bat racial prejudice and every form of racial segregation. Ra cial prejudice makes hypocrites of us as we profess our belief in the demo cratic prin ciple of equal rights for all men, and then proceed to deny some of the most ba sic rights to our Negro fellow citi zens. Racial prejudice makes liars of us every time we salute our flag and pledge allegiance to “One Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” while at the same time we limit the liberty of Negroes and with hold from them the fullness of justice. Racial prejudice weak ens our standing before other nations and hampers tremen dously the moral leadership which we could give to the world. All this is true. However, for us who are Christians, the most urgent consideration is the fact that racial injustice is a sin. It is a sin against the fifth, the seventh and the eighth Commandments. It is a sin against the fifth and seventh which command us to render full justice to our neighbors in his person and in his pro perty. It is a sin against the eighth which commands us to render full justice to our neigh bor in his reputation and in our personal relations with him. Above all, discrimination against any man because of his color is a sin against the great Law of Love which, Christ tells us, “contains the whole law and the prophets.” Jesus makes no exception by reason of race when He says, “Thou shaltlove the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. . .and thy neighbor as thyself.” When we say that racial dis crimination is a sin, we mean a real sin. It is the kind of sin which, if deliberate, must be told in confession, the kind of sin that would make a bad con fession if we concealed it, the kind of sin that cannot be for given if we are not sorry for it. We may be tempted, of course, without sinning. We may have a tendency to prejudice as some people may have a ten dency to dishonesty, to unchas tity or to any other weakness. So long as we resist the ten dency we commit no sin. But, the moment that we consciously surrender to our prejudice and do or say or encourage any thing hurtful to an individual or a group because of their race, we have wounded Christ. We have sinned. Indeed, it is not enough for us as Christians merely to ab stain from positive acts of dis crimination. We also must la bor in love to counter preju dice and to eliminate injustice whenever opportunity offers. As members of Christ’s Mystical Body we Catholics should be in the forefront of the desegre gation movement. We must ad mit, sadly, that it has not been so. We have need to remember our Lord’s description of the Last Judgment. There He does not speak of barring souls from heaven because of what they did do, but for what they did not do. “Then they (the rejected ones) also will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stran ger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee? ’ Then He (Christ) will answer them saying, ‘Amen, I say to you, as long as you did not do it. for one of these least ones, you did not do it for Me.’ ” Our Negro brother hungers and thirsts for recognition of his dignity as a human person. He walks as a stranger among us, a stranger in his own land. He is nakedly exposed to cold ness and harsh rejection on every side. He is morally sick and often physically sick be cause of the poverty and igno- ance which we have forced upon him. Through housing restric tions and “neighborhood im provement associations” he is effectively imprisoned in his ghetto. As long as we continue, whether through prejudice or through simple indifference, to allow these conditions to exist —just so long are we coming under Christ’s terrible curse. Redemptorist Says The Ultimate Weapon REMEMBER, ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY The Council And People It Seems to Me JOSEPH BREIG In an article written for the Catholic press, the dean of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, William E. Moran, Jr., has voiced hope that the ecumenical council will be able to give some guidance on the popula tion problem. If so, I do not see what the F at hers can do except perhaps t o make moreex- p 1 i c i t and pointed (now that we are really listening) what the popes have said. Dean Moran says that the population “explosion” has been caused by the sudden great advances in control of diseases which formerly took the lives of most people in infancy or youth. That is true, but it is not the whole truth. We ought ra ther to say that the popula tion problem is caused by con trol of diseases PLUS the fact that these medical break throughs have not been accom panied, or preceded, by edu cational, economic, spiritual and moral breakthroughs. TWO FACTS, it seems to me, are not given sufficient attention in population discussions. One is that birth rates go down as economic status improves. The other is that some of the hap piest and most prosperous areas on earth—Holland for ex ample—have the highest popu lation density. About 80 years ago, Leo XIII, in the encyclical Rerum Nova- rum (The New Things) called upon the nations for worldwide social-justice reform, and warned of the disasters lurking in the future if they did not take heed. Now I think we ought to ask ourselves what would have been the course of history if they had heeded; if Europe (including Russia) and America, England and Canada had flung themsel ves into a vastcooperativepro- gram of correcting what was wrong in capitalism, and of de veloping the underdeveloped countries. FOR ONE THING, there would have been no World War I or World War II; no wars in Ko rea and Indochina; no cold war. The titanic energies and the enormous wealth that went into destruction and killing would have been invested in trans forming the world into the pros perous home of the family of mankind that it is meant to be. I do not think it is too much to say that if that had been done, there today would be no population problem. For one thing, birth rates would have been much lower because they are almost always lower where the economic and educational level is higher. For another, there would be more than enough for everybody because the de velopment program would have A Pilgrimage To Loreto On Judgment Day the thief or the harlot or the drunkard will have more hope for mercy than he who has been unable to see Christ in his brother be cause of the darkness of the brother’s skin. Jottings By Barbara C. Jencks Bishop Neumann’s Beatification Is Providential “I decided to go to Loreto because it represents all the sanctuaries of the world. At Loreto, where my ancestors went in great numbers, the thoughts and feelings of all the faithful of the world are gather ed together.” -Pope John XXIII October, 1962 ROME (NC)—The beatifica tion of Bishop John Neumann of Philadelphia comes “at a pro vidential time, coinciding with the Second Vatican Council, said Father William Gaudreau, C.SS.R., rector major of the Redemptorists in Rome. At a press conference prior to the Redemptorist Bishop’s beatification (Oct. 13), Father Gaudreau said Bishop Neumann typified the type of bishop need ed by the modern world, “an American type of hard working bishop who is greatly needed to bring God to those who sit in darkness.” The vice postulator of Bishop Neumann’s cause, Father Fran cis Litz, C.SS.R., of Philadel phia, said Bishop Neumann “was to Catholic schools what Horace Mann was to Ameri ca’s public scoools. Both set up unified school systems which became patterns for the na tion.” Bishop Neumann’s appeal is very broad, Father Litz said. Besides his obvious place among American Catholics—he is the first American man to be beatified—he had special con nections with Italians, Negros, Irish and Sudeten Germans. He opened the first church for Italian immigrants in Philadel phia; he opened a special school for the city’s Negro children in pre-Civil War Philadelphia; he learned Gaelic so he could con fess Irish immigrant and he was of Sudeten German extraction, having been born in Prachatitz in southwest Bohemia. Father Litz said pilgrimages of more than 2000 Americans were scheduled to attend beat ification ceremonies in St. Pet- continued On Page 6) LORETO IS the most cele brated shrine of Our Lady in Italy. Before the apparitions at Lourdes, it was the most fa mous in the world. The Holy House of Loreto, tradition tells us, is the very Nazareth home in which Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived. It was transported to Italy by the angels. Our Lady of Lor eto has been designated patron of astronauts. In these centur ies of unbelievable space feats, perhaps the Loret o story will become better known and more credible. Loreto was chosen as a site on my tour because Pope John visited here before the Vatican Council opened in October, 1962. Here is another pilgrim’s report: “The town of Loreto itself is a typical Italian hilltown, which like all of them seems to grow miraculously out of the mountain top and appears to have but one or two narrow main streets. In the case of Lo reto the one with shops and carts of curios and souvenirs leads straight up to the great basilica which is surrounded on three sides by heavy bas- tioned walls like an old for tress. At night from far down in the valley one can see the lighted cooper Virgin which tops the imposing dome of the fa mous architect Sangallo, and the tall bell tower with its Sa- racence cupola. “The basilica which to fit tingly houses Our Lady’s home is grand and sumptuous. Inside John Neumann Enters Church Swiss Jesuit Bars HICKSVILLE, N. Y. (NC)-- On the day Bishop John N. Neumann, C.SS.R., of Philadel phia was beatified in Rome, another John Neumann entered the Church at a Baptism here. The new Catholic is John Neumann Zirkel, the seventh child of Don Zirkel, news edi tor of the Tablet, Brooklyn diocesan newspaper. The infant is the 102nd des cended of the late John Neu mann of Brooklyn, an immi grant from Bavaria who claimed to be related to Bishop Neu mann of Philadelphia. Officiat ing at the Baptism (Oct. 13) in St. Ignatius Loyola church here was Father August Neu mann, son of John Neumann of Brooklyn. BASEL, Switzerland (NC)— Switzerland’s Foreign Minis ter has appealed to the nation’s Protestant community to sup port repeal of the constitution al provisions which bar Jesuits from Switzerland and forbid the founding of new religious or- * ders. Friedrich T. Wahlen, the member of the Federal Council in charge of foreign affiars, ad dressed the convention of the Swiss Evangelical Church here (in the first week in October). In the course of his talk he indicated that the federal gov ernment would soon open de bate in Parliament on repeal of Articles 41 and 52 of the fed eral constitution of 1874. Interfaith Collaboration multiplied humanity’s produc tiveness many times above what it is now. Therefore, in my view, the answers to the population pro blem—and to much else—will be found when we apply the guid ance already plentifully given to us by the Church in Rerum Novarum and in the additional social teachings of Pius XI and Pius XII, and of John XXIII in Mater et Magistra (Chris tianity and Social Progress). I KNOW THAT my opponents in this debate consider me a re actionary on this point. But in truth who is reactionary— those who see universal birth prevention as the only solution, or I who say that mankind is perfectly capable of reor ganizing the world in such fa shion that it will support many billions of human beings in happy prosperity? Statisticians, some of them sit around and calculate that in thus-and-so many years, at the present rate, there will not even be standing room on earth. But I look at the endless empty expanses of North and South America, Africa, Australia and so on, and see the people leav ing the country and crowding into the cities, and I decline to worry about standing room. What I worry about is whether we have come enough to our senses, after the catastrophes we brought to ourselves in this century, to listen now to the wise guidance which has been offered for so long. Bishop Recovered SAGINAW, Mich. (NC)~BH shop Stephen S. Woznicki has resumed full duties as head of the Saginaw diocese. He was hospitalized for a month and spent another month at home after being stricken with a heart attack in August. ROME (NC) — Archbishop Maurice Baudoux of Saint Boni face, Man., has called for col laboration between Catholic and non - Catholic groups to speed reconciliation among Christian churches. At a press conference at the council documentation center Serra Building LOS ANGELES (NC)—A new state office building in down town Los Angeles has been de dicated as the Junipero Serra Building. The dedicatory address was given by Father Noel F. Moholy, O.F.M., vice postulator for the cause of Father Junipero Ser ra. A plaque on the building reads: “Junipero Serra Build ing dedicated to the memory of California’s beloved apostle, the founder of the Franciscan mission chain-pioneer-admin- istrator—zealous missionary —1713-1784. Presented by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West.” the Canadian Archbishop said his speech on the council floor had two main points. The first, he said, stressed-j the need to regard Christians || separated from the Catholic Church as authentic Christian groups. The second emphasiz ed that in face of the drama of the division of Christendom there is a need for action to bring about reconciliation. Pope Sends Aid VATICAN CITY (NC)—Pope Paul VI has sent messages of sympathy (Oct. 10) to the gov ernments of Haiti and Cuba for,, the damage the two countries have suffered from Hurricane Flora and has also sent relief, funds. QUESTION BOX and outside of it is of Italian Baroque style with an original aspe end of many spacious cha pels, thirteen I counted! The three sets of bronze doors on the front facade show a wealth of Old Testament history in strong relief. A hugh bronze statue of Sixtus V who ordered the doors stands in front of the basilica on the top step of the high podium. “The statues of Our Lady and the Child have black faces. The wood has turned black from years of exposure to candle light, though today only a few electric tapers are near them and one strong light in the top of the niche. She is regally clothed in white satin decorat ed with large patterns of black and red velvet completely be decked with precious stones. Both Mary and Her Son wear elaborate gold crowns. "Mass is offered continuous- (Continued on Page 6) (By David Q. Didn’t you say once in your column that it’s all right to say the Rosary without using Rosary beads? A. We said this because in our judgment it’s a principle that should be stressed. IT’S NOT ONLY all right to recite the Rosary without using beads, but it’s even possible to gain the “general” Rosary indulgences (those listed in the Raccolta, including the plenary indulgence for saying the Ros ary before the Blessed Sacra ment) without actually pray ing on Rosary beads. HOWEVER, the use of bles sed beads entitles one to many “special additional indulgences —those commonly known as the A B C D indulgences, i.e., the Apostolic, Brigittine, Cros ier and Dominican indulgences. Hence, from the viewpoint of richness of indulgences, it is better to use blessed beads than not to use them. THE DISTINCTION between, on the one hand, the Rosary as a devotion; and, on the other hand, the Rosary as a chaplet of beads, is an important one. THE ROSARY devotion, as described by Pope Pius V, is “the Psalter of Mary, in which the Blessed Mother of God is greeted one hundred and fifty (or fifty) times with the Angel ic Salutation, corresponding to the psalms of the Psalter of David, together with the Our Father for every ten Hail Mary’s; and also certain medi tations that represent the entire life of Jesus Christ.” NOTE THAT this discription says nothing at all about beads. Beads pertain to the Rosary as a chaplet (i.e., a wreath or garland). Although there are several prayer chaplets ap- Q. Liptak) proved by the Church, (i.e., the Franciscan Chaplet), the only one officially recognized as “the Rosary” is the one made up of five, ten or fifteen dec ades of Ava beads, each decade preceded by a Pater bead. WE THINK the distinction brought out here is important because it means that the Rosary can be said (and the,, “general” indulgencies gain-*, ed) at times when the use of beads in difficult or impossi ble. IF ONE CANNOT finger Ros ary beads while waiting at a bus terminal, for example, one can nonetheless say the Ros ary. The same for when one is riding a bus or a train. Nor need one be anxious about not having one’s beads on hand when the Rosary is being said at some religious exercise in church, for instance, or at a sodality meeting, or at a wake. SINCE THIS month of Octo ber is dedicated to the Rosary, we repeat the basic principles: 1) Several Rosary indulgen ces are annexed to the Rosary i as a devotion, plain and simple. These indulgencies, explained in the Church’s official hand book of indulgenced prayers and practices and Raccolta (a book which should be in every Catho lic home), can be gained simply by praying (and meeting the pre scribed conditions, of course) the required Paters and Aves of the rosary, and by medi tating all the while on the mys teries. No beads are neces sary, although any counting de vice can be utilized. 2) Extremely rich “special” indulgences can be gained if blessed Rosary beads are used. Hence the use of beads is pre ferable. The Southern Cross P. O. BOX 180, SAVANNAH. GA. Vol. 44 Thursday, October 17, 1963 No. 15 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