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f 1PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, November 21, 1963 “Spare The Rod An employee of Benedictine Military School in Savannah arrived at the campus early on Monday morning of last week, to be faced with crudely painted signs, one of which is pictured to the right of this editorial. Entrances to other buildings, concrete and cinderblock columns, and the concrete quad rangle were defaced in a similar, if less forceful manner. Initial estimates of the cost of repairing the damage ran from $1,500 to $2,000. However, the columns and the quadrangle are so new that workmen were able to sand-blast the painted areas without leaving the tell tale signs which would have marred older construction. So the actual costs involved in removing the paint without notice able traces of repair was considerably less than originally predicted. But, if this contingency had not originally entered into the calculations of professional claims adjustors or the faculty of Benedic tine, then it surely was far from the thoughts of the handful of vandals who, caring neither for the reputation of the Senior Class of Savannah High nor the physical integrity of a beautiful new school—not yet completed— signed the name of the entire “SHS Class of ’64” in blue paint to an act of inexcusable irresponsibility. To depreciate the seriousness of what they did by saying, as one school authority did, "I’m sure they did not realize what they were doing” is to do no service either to the vandals or to the schools which have been victimized in a similar way in the past, and which will suffer like damage in the future unless needed and meaningful dis ciplinary action is taken when the culprits are found. It should be a matter of no small concern to ALL parents of this city’s high school students, and to educators in ALL our schools, private as well as public, that those invol-. ved in painting Benedictine DIDN’T CARE what they were doing. It is axiomatic that he who does not fear the consequences of an act will not fear to place the act. And so long as similar in cidents involving other schools are kept from the public, and the culprits, when caught, dealt little more than private re primands, it can be expected that such in cidents will occur again. New Light Shed On President Diem’s Death By Fater Patrick O’Connor Society of St. Columban SAIGON, Vietnam (NC)--The late President Ngo dinh Diem, with whose government Catho lics as well as others found fault while recognizing his great services to his country, went to his death from a prayerful visit to a church. With him was his brother Ngo dinh Nhu. Information gleaned from eyewitnesses earlier reluctant to talk for publication is now helping to correct errors in earlier reports and to estab lish some facts concerning the deaths of Diem and Nhu. The two left the presidential palace hours before the cease fire. They were wearing ordin ary lay attire. A story in a U.S. secular periodical alleging that they “donned Catholic priests’ robes” conflicts with testimony available here. They went by car from the rear of the palace apparently. It seems Diem was still unsure how many of the army leaders were willingly supporting the coup, and has hopes of making contact with some units who might have remained loyal to him and of relieving the besie ged palace garrison. He and his brother finally ar rived at a private Chinese club in the Cholon section of the city where they rested briefly. When they realized that no effective resistance was any longer pos sible, they decided to send word to the army chiefs saying where they could be found. They chose St. Francis Xavier church which serves Chinese Catholics in Cholon and went there about 8:45. Ngo dinh Diem had stayed in this parish for some time in seclusion in the days of the French colonial regime, when French authorities regarded him with suspicion as a nation alist leader seeking indepen- dance. Hence he knew the church and district well. He and his brother entered the church, apparently hoping to assist at Mass. But the last Mass had just ended. Chinese parishioners were still in the church and yard, some making their All Souls day visit for in dulgences. Some recognized the late president who made no attempt to hide himself. He and his brother remained about 45 minutes in the church. Some say an hour. One woman noti ced Diem, who had entered the Church on the side of the Sa cred Heart statue, with his eyes fixed on the tabernacle. Around 9:30 they were seen coming out of the church. Diem stood in the yard under a large tree near a small shrub that encircled the Lourdes grotto. A young man who had accompa nied them apparently went to telephone to find out why the military had not yet sent a vehicle for them. Shortly after that a convoy including armored personnel carriers, the American-made M-113 type, and trucks filled with soldiers arrived outside the church. Parishoners watch ing from the one-story primary school building in the yard saw an officer enter through the gate and speak to Diem. Three or four other officers followed. There was a short and seem ingly polite conversation, and Diem and Nhu were seen walking to the gate. One of the armored personnel carriers had turned with its back to the gate. The two were seen entering by the rear ramp, which was thenrasi- ed, and the convoy left. According to a military spokesman, the two were kill ed in the vehicle. Their bodies were seen being lifted from it inside the general headquarters near the airfield. Vietnam Catholics Reported Under Attack By Father Patrick O’Connor Society of St. Columban SAIGON (NC)—Catholics in some country districts of cen tral Vietnam have been attack ed by non-Christian crowds during recent weeks. Assailants have been des cribed as “Buddhists with other elements” in one region. In another most of them were sec ondary school students appar ently following plans. Catholics have been beaten, some of them seriously. Homes of Catholic families have been .burned. In some villages at tackers have tried to make Ca tholics renounce their religion. Recent converts and catechum ens (persons taking instructions for Baptism) were special tar gets. Some Catholic families were forced to destroy their religious emblems. Hostile groups tried to force Catholics to sign statements ac cusing parish priests of storing arms in churches. This maneu ver is regarded as suggesting communist influence. In some places non-Chris tians in the Dan Ve, self-defense corps, have forcibly taken away arms of their Catholic com rades. In one district the non-Chris tians ordered Catholics not to go to Mass last Sunday. The priest rallied his people and they came. Some catechumens have shown notable fortitude in refusing to give up their Chris tian religion in spite of threats. The more isolated the village or the Catholic households the worse were the attacks. In cit ies and towns except for a few threatening actions that were not carried through, Catholics and Catholic institutions have not been assailed. The situation in the rural vil lages where the attacks occur red has improved in the last week. Authorities have declar ed their intention to give all possible protection to all class es and religions. But Catholics, especially in remote villages, still are ap prehensive, fearing Buddhist hostility in addition to commun ist Vietcong night raids. God’s World Psychologists have charac terized our present era as an age of anxiety. More people worry about more things than at any other time in man’s long history. Psychosomatic illness has been on on the in crease. Men tal break downs have been more widespread. Even the rise in juvenile d e 1 i n quency has been de scribed, at last in past, to the tension of our times, as young people, rebel against the uncer tainties of the future. The cold war and the threat of an atomic war of anihilation get much of the blame for this state of affairs. We live in sub conscious but constant fear of the awful havoc that the hydro gen bombs may wreak upon us at any moment. We try to whistle away our fears in a hundred (By Leo J. Trese) ways, but the undercurrent of anxiety always is with us. So runs the reasoning of the social scientists. They may be quite correct in their diagnosis. Yet, it hardly would be possible for anxiety to so possess us unless we first had surrendered our first-line defense against anxiety: our faith in God and in His providence. This, it seems to me, is the real source of our nagging fears. When I say “we” I really do mean we; we Catholics as well as other less favored fellow citizens. It is not that we have formally renounced our faith. Intellectually we still believe in God and in all that He teaches us through His Church. Yet, even as our minds give assent to divine truths, emotionally we are on the verge of atheism. Our faith is not an active, op erative faith. Our religious be lief does not penetrate and per vade our attitudes and feelings; and it is attitudes and feelings, rather than lofty concepts iso lated in the mind, which moti vate our actions. We say that we believe that God is infinitely powerful, that He has created and that He controls the entire universe. We also profess to believe that God is infinitely wise and that He knows always what is best for the accomplishing of His ends. Further, we assert our firm belief in the fact that God loves each one of us with an individual, personal love which seeks always what is best for us; best calculated, that is, to bring us to eternal union with Himself. God can do all things. God knows all things. God loves me.* How can I believe these truths and still be a victim to worry? The explanation can be only that I live my life on two levels. On the level of prayer and reli gious observance I live by faith. On the level of day-to-day ac tivity I am a practicing atheist. Thap is, I feel the whole weight (Continued on Page 6) Cafeteria Entrance At Benedictine Women At The Council It Seems to Me There was surely a whimsi cal twinkle in the eye of Bel gium’s Leo Cardinal Suenens (who is not given to belaboring the obvious) when the assured the ecumenical council that half the world’s Catholics are women. And yet there is a deep sense in which this fact fits into his profound ly serious pro posal that re- presenta- tive laywomen, in addition to laymen, be invited to sit in as auditors and as advisors to the Fathers. The human race is male-fe male not only numerically, but psychologically, spiritually and intellectually. Cardinal Suenens based his revolutionary sugges tion chiefly on the fact that the Holy Spirit breathes where He will; that He bestows His spe cial divine gifts (charisms) not only on priests and bishops, but also on the laity, including women, and that these insights and wisdoms and inspirations are not mere extras in the Church, but belong to its very nature. "IT IS A FACT of history,” said Cardinal Suenens, “that some members of the laity have at times awakened a sleeping Church, lest the teachings of the Gospel be lost sight of.” There was no need for him to name names—to mention, for instance, St. Francis of Assi si, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ca therine of Sienna, St. Joan of JOSEPH BREIG Arc. The Fathers understood his meaning, and showed their sympathetic approval by ap plauding. “Any government of the Church which would ignore charisms,” said Cardinal Suen ens, “would be poor and ster ile.” Cardinal Suenens might well have gone further. He could truthfully- Lave- said-- that the growth of wisdom and grace among men is not unrelated to their willingness to benefit humbly from the intuitions and the realistic common sense of women. It may be a cliche to say that the influence of some woman is a large part of the explanation of every success ful man; but if so, it is a cliche because it is so true and so important that it bears a lot of repeating. PERHAPS it is right here that we might begin to look for the deepest psychological rea son for the Church’s devotion to the Virgin Mary. It is sob ering to try to imagine for a moment what might have happened to Christianity, with its exclusively male and pre dominately celibate priesthood, without her maternal and mo derating influence. It is no ac cident that the poets and com posers are generally men; the male drifts easily off into dreams that can become aber rations if there is no one (his mother or sister or wife) to call him back to earth. In a very profound sense, the human race is sane because there are both men and women in it. “It is not good.” said God in creating Eve, "for man The Return Of The Hero Jottings “For lack of anything better we have practiced the hero wor ship of match kings, gangsters,, sportsmen and artists, film stars and dictators. Some fi gures we must set up on pedes tals in order to admire some thing of ourselves in them. But only with the saints can we find an outlet for our craving for hero worship where self wor ship does not creep in.” Sigrid Undset * * * Are there edifying heroes on today’s scene to stir youth to ward greatness? It has been said that today’s youth have no wholesome heroes held before them as in the days of Lindbergh and Babe Ruth and Tom Mix. Have these type he roes been completely replaced by the cool western heroes like Maverick or the fich or famous, racketeers and politicians? It is also said that a novel with By Barbara C. Jencks an edifying hero has not been written for some time, that the beatniks, the neurotics and the psychotics have become the “heroes” of modern fiction. Let us look at the record. Today youths are deluged with copy on the astronauts. The courageous patriotism of a Glenn, Sheppard or Grissom is not likely to be forgotten. President Kennedy is young enough to appeal to to day’s youth with his Navy hero ism, his interest in sports and the young leaders he has selec ted to surround him are also exemplary. Perhaps the tide has turned and the American hero has returned. The argument is that while American young people may have astronauts and political idealists held before them very few would sacrifice to obtain such ends. The argument is that today’s youth prefer fame and riches. Youth may admire Dr Tom Dooley and Colonel John Glenn but it is not likely they would be inspired to do as they have done. Will they risk for tune and security to go off to Laos or to the moon? Most critics of youth say “no.” Yet perhaps the biggest argument against the critics is the astouhdingly large number of college students who volunteered for the Peace Corps. Here was no luxurious life, no chance for fame and fortune yet once American youth was challenged, it responded magnificently. A young student once told me that when Dooley died a lot of people wept but not many wanted to go out there in the jungle and do what he did. Yet there are those who did volunteer for the same com mendable and selfless goals. As for historic and legendary heroes, as well as literary (Continued on Page 6) Prayer Out Meditation In HARTFORD, Conn. (NC) -- Connecticut Atty. Gen. Harold Mulvey has ruled that formal prayer is not permitted in Con necticut public schools but silent meditation and other acti vities with a religious content are. Mulvey, replying to questions from State Education Commis sioner William J. Sanders, rul ed (Nov. 14) that “it is clear that neither the reading of the Bible nor the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, as part of a for mal religious exercise, is per mitted.” He based his stand on the U. S. Supreme Court’s rul ings on these issues. Youth Leader Warns Against 3 “Isms” NEW YORK (NC) -- Catho lic youths in covention here were urged by one of their lead ers to marshal their forces against “three notorious*isms’ — materialism, communism and I-don’t-care-ism.” Francis J. Darigan, Jr., president of the National Ca tholic Youth Organization Fed eration, teenage section, said that * 'America today is slipping rapidly into a state of moral degradation and indolence spearheaded “by these three *isms.’ ” Business Generosity LIMA, Peru (NC) — A. U. S. corporation gave 800 loaves of bread a day through Peru’s Catholic charities organization to Lima’s poor during the Third Fair of the Pacific. The American Machine and Foundry Corporation baked the bread in demonstrating a rapid- bake rotating oven to visitors to the U. S. exhibit at the fair here which closed November 10. Issues Denial VATICAN CITY (NC) — Al fredo Cardinal Ottaviani, Sec retary of the Sacred Congre gation of the Holy Office, has denied a report in a Paris news paper that he sought the support of Pope Paul VI in the dispute he had in the ecumenical coun cil hall (Nov. 8) with Joseph Cardinal Frings of Cologne, Germany. Le Monde of Paris reported November 14 that Cardinal Ot taviani was received by the Pope the evening of November 8 and that he “sought the Pope’s support in vain.” The French dialy added that the Cardinal was so disturbed by his failure that he considered resigning. Cardinal Ottaviani told the N.C.W.C. News Service that the report is * ‘completely false.” He stated: Aids Crash Victims ^°P e U.S. to be alone.” Every married man who is not proud and ar rogant, but rather humble enough to face truth, under stands something of the depth and breadth of that statement. Every married man sooner or later sees that he would have avoided a lot of silly mis takes if he had been wise en ough from the very beginning to seek, and follow, his wife’s counsel. THE PRIEST, at least in the Latin Rite, does not have awife: but you will find that almost invaribly he is deeply devoted to his mother, his sisters, and the Blessed Virgin. He needs in some measure the equival ent of a wife in the sense of somebody who, without getting his back up, can tell him off when he is wrong, or overbear ing, or cantankerous, and can guide him in tactfulness, con sideration and understanding of the needs and troubles of oth ers. Just as all of us who are male need the wisdom and in sight and realism of the wom an so the Church needs these things too. It is a measure of the obtuseness of men that 19 centuries have passed before anybody could propose anything so obviously good as that the Fathers seek the counsel of the sisters of the Mother of God. Pope John the Good who called the council and who never mis sed an opportunity to pay tri bute to his mother and sis ters, would have been among the most vigorous of those ap plauding. MONROE, Mich. (NC) — An injured priest crawled from his own damaged car to give abso lution to three persons killed in an auto smashup near here. Father Bartholomew Paytas, S.A., of St. Michael’s parish, Toledo, Ohio, suffered cracked ribs and a knee injury when the car he was driving struck an overturned auto that had plow ed into an underpass guardrail on the Detroit-Toledo Express way. VATICAN CITY (NC)—A deep spirituality lies beneath the ap parent slickness of contem porary American life, Pope Paul VI has told the U. S. Bi shops in Rome for the Vatican Council. The Pope said that from a distance America may seem to be all materialism, luxury, speed and gimmickry, but from his own experience he has seen in America a great depth of spirituality. QUESTION BOX (By David Q. Liptak) Q. With all the trouble in South Vietnam, the question occurred to me: Just what is a Buddhist? What does Buddhism teach? A. Buddhism is a religion which originated with an Indian prince six centuries before Christ. It’s key tenet is the theory that evil, misery and suffering can be conquered by means Of a kind of enlightenment—the word buddha means “the en lightened one.” THE PATHWAY toward en lightenment is said to be three fold: by the application of sound morals, mental concentration and wisdom. THE SOUND MORALS are de fined in terms of ten prohibi tions, most of which are Natural Law precepts (i.e., not to lie, not to cheat, not to liveunchas- tely, not to slander). CONCENTRATION IS pre sumably achieved by medita tion. According to an eight eenth-century Jesuit who stu died the religion in depth. Bud dhists “say that all passions can be traced to lust and wrath, which originate solely in the natural tendency of man to look on some things as pleasing and on others as painful and un pleasant.” TO EXPLAIN THIS alleged phenomenon, they declare that it emanates from “the illusion that all beings and things are endowed with a self.” Thus, in order to overcome lust and wrath, it is necessary to banish from the imagination the very “consciousness of self and of all other things.” Once this has been accomplished, Buddhist doctrine reads, one cannot pos sibly be disturbed by any mis ery or evil, for he will have attained an “impassibility and immortality”—which means that one has achieved nudda- hood. THE WISDOM of Buddhism implies that the practitioner is totally apathetic to self, others and the world. The highest de gree is called nirvana, which to us connotes an intense commit ment to indifference about any thing or everything—a studied indifference, however, one with a definite motive. CHRISTIANITY ITSELF, of course, urges man to separate himself from the world and creature comforts. But the dif ference is obvious. The Bud dhist strives to keep his higher faculties in a state of suspended animation—he is a neutral cha racter, to say the least. THE CHRISTIAN, on the other hand, is urged—to return to the Jesuit cited above—to place his will “in God’s hands, to trust him and to be, in a manner, incorporated with him so that all other love and other objects fade away, as a man in mid ocean loses sight of land.” BUDDHISM can be said to admit the existence of God, though it actually goes out of its way to avoid direct refer ence to the Divinity. Certainly the notion of the Personal God of Christianity is entirely alien to the system. ONE OF the most exasperat ing Buddhist theological tenets is that of the transmigration of souls; i.e., that souls can pass from one existence into an other. Yet this completely ir rational and thoroughly imprac tical tenet is at the very heart of the religion. BUDDHISM TODAY is for the most part identified with China, Japan and the neighboring Ori ental countries, but it is also strong in Ceylon and Burma. It was introduced into this coun try by the Japanese. The Southern Cross P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH. GA. Vol. 44 Thursday, November 21, 1963 No. 20' 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