Southern cross. (Savannah, Ga.) 1963-2021, December 05, 1963, Image 4

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Southern cross., December 05, 1963, Image 4

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Newspaper Page Textf PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, December 5, 1963 Advent The Thanksgiving weekend ushered in, for many people, a pre-Christmas season full of frantic activity. Voices strident or dulcet-toned will, for the next four weeks, besiege the radio-list ener and the TV-viewer with recitations of the unparalleled merits of various products and timely reminders that “they make excel lent gifts for every member of the family.” Then, on December 25th, millions of people with empty pocketbooks and writers’ cramp, and countless letter-carriers with sore backs and aching feet will drop wearily into the nearest and most comfortable chair with the sigh, “Thank goodness that’s over for another year.” On December 26th merchants will begin to disassemble their window displays “nowthat the Christmas Season is past” and industry will begin releasing figures indicating whe ther or not this year’s “HolidaySeason” was as successful as last year’s. But it is our hope and prayer that for most Americans the festive board of last Thursday was the beginning of a month full of deeper and more fruitful meaning. For, it was but the last great national holiday before the beginning of the Holy Sea son of Advent - a time, not for celebration, but for preparation. The greetings and gifts of Christmas are, or ought to be, the outward expression of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in the hearts of all who acknowledge Him as Lord. But the Spirit of Christ - the Spirit of Christmas - is more than mere emotionalism expressed in a hearty “Merry Christmas.” It is more than the warmth of self-satisfac tion occasioned by cries of delight as children and other loved ones open our gifts. It is the Spirit of Love, exemplified by Je sus Christ Who came into this world as a helpless babe, to change the hearts of man, and through them, the world - to bring “Peace on earth to men of good will.” It is the Spirit exemplified by this same Jesus Christ, grown to manhood, Who said, “Greater love than this no man hath, than that he lay down his life for his friends,” and Who willingly gave His own life for our eternal happiness. But Christ and His Love came into this world only after it had been prepared by an ages-long Advent of prayer, penance, and Holy expectation. A similar preparation is necessary if the Spirit of Christ is to be born again in our hearts at Christmas time and if our hearts, like His, are to be consumed with the Love of God for all men — if we, like Him are to change the hearts of men, and through them, the world — if we are to make reality out of the song that accompanied His birth, “Peace on earth to men of good will.” Now is the time to examine our conscien ces. Now is the time to root out of our lives all that is foreign to the Spirit of Christ, and with Holy expectation - through prayer and penance - to beg a Good and Merciful God that this Christmas may truly mean “The Birth of Christ” in our hearts, our nation, and the world. Ancient Scroll Found JERUSALEM, Israel (NC) — A scroll containing Chapters 81 to 85 of the Book of Psalms has been unearthed atMassada, the last stronghold of the Jews during their revolt against the Romans in 73 A.D. The professor who is direct ing the archaeological work at Massada, Yigael Yadin, is a son fo the Hebrew University pro fessor who found the first of the valuable Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. Two scrolls and a fragment are in the Massada find. The Psalm text, written in a fine script, is apparently the Mas- soretic version. The second scroll bears a resemblance to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The frag ment may be a part of the se cond scroll or a separate docu ment. The delicate discoveries have not yet been unrolled. The dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been disputed, but Professor Yadin stated that there can be no doubt about the date of the present finds, since they must have predated the fall of Massada in 73 A.D. They were discovered among bas kets, cloth and sandals in a room generally believed to have been a synagogue—the earliest yet found. The Massada fortress is being excavated along with the Palace of Herod and a nearby Roman camp. It will become an Israeli national monument Other items unearthed in the same room with the scrolls are four Latin documents, 17 silver “Shekels of Israel” dated with the Year 5, the last coins to be struck during the revolt, and 20 oil lamps. Pastoral Letter Guides Vietnam Laymen By Father Patrick O’Connor Society of St. Columban, (NCWC News Service) SAIGON, Vietnam — The Pastoral Letter issued by the three bishops now in south Vietnam is intended to give a •'guiding line of conduct suit ed to present circumstances.” Is is signed by Archbishop Paul Nguyen van Binh of Sai gon, Bishop Paul Seitz, M.E.P., of Kontum and Bishop Michael Nguyen khac Ngu of Long Xuy- en, all of whom returned from Rome earlier this month. They explain that they have writ ten this joint letter "in union of spirit and heart with their absent brothers,” the other bi shops of south Vietnam still in Rome. THE LETTER stresses first the nature of the priest’s voca tion, The priest has been set apart "for the service of God, to guide men toward God. . . Experience and history are there to convince us that every time a priest goes counter to his special vocation unfailingly he causes embarrassment, not to say grave harm, to the Church." PRIESTS HAVE THE DUTY the letter says, "to help the laity to fulfill their vocation as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.” This includes pre paring them to take part in the lay apostolate. "Now more than ever the faithful should be giv en a very sound formation in Christian doctrine so as to know the Catholic position correctly in every circumstance.” "THE FAITHFUL ARE ALSO Christian Faith And Personal Unity God’s World (By Leo J. Trese) Is yours an integrated life? That is a somewhat ambiguous question to ask in the context of today’s battle for racial equality. Some people, if asked to define the verb "to inte grate,” prob ably would an swer, "Why, it means to end discrim- ination against the Negro.” Such a definition would be in correct. The word "integration” has a much wider meaning than as a syno nym for equal rights. To inte grate means to unify, to form all parts into a complete and perfect whole. Then used in con nection with the struggle for racial justice, integration means the unification of all men, regardless of color, into one undifferentiated body of ci tizenry. The question, then, "Is yours an integrated life?” has no re ference .(except indirectly) to your attitude towards Negro es. Yours is an integrated life if it is a unified life — a life built around a principle or a philosophy which influences and binds together all that you do. A dedicated Communist lives an integrated life. The princi ples of Marxist socialism per meate his every activity; his work, education, recreation, art and literature. An egoist’s life also is an integrated exis tence. With him, everything re volves around self. Nothing has value unless it in someway con tributes to his personal better ment. If there is any class of per sons whose lives should exhib it a unity of thought and action it should be we who have been made members, by baptism, of the Mystical Body of Christ. We should be able to say, with St. Paul, "It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.” Unfortunately there are some Catholics who do not manifest in their lives that consistency, that wholeness which we call integration. On the contrary, their lives are fragmented, un organized. Religious activities are tightly confined to one com partment of life while other ac- tivites, in their own compart ment are quite devoid of su pernatural direction or moti- ' -v 'HALT!' Cogley And The Bishops In other rooms inside the fortress jugs with family names have been found. These were apparently part of the rations of the Jewish zealots who held out against the Romans. In Herod’s palace more than 400 suits of armor have been unearthed, along with narrow heads, a woman’s plait of brown hair in good condition, two skel etons, cloth and a pair of san dals. It Seems to Me JOSEPH BREIG Sometimes the tipped scales are rebalanced here on earth. When that happens, the event is likely to be filled with quiet ly powerful drama. It was so a few weeks ago when John Cog- ley address- CITIZENS OF VIETNAM, an earthly fatherland; the Bishops write. "In this respect, accord ing to the mind of the Church, they have the duty of engaging in temporal action, taking an active part in the affairs of the nation in all domains, educa tional, cultureal, economic, la bor unions, political. . . "In the present situation of our country, complex problems may present themselves to the faithful. We shall not go back over the general principles al ready set forth in the clear sighted and timely statement of the National Committee of Ca tholic Action on Nov. 5. Here we wish to recall only some points of Catholic teaching. . . “1. THE CHURCH AND PO LITICAL REGIMES: Because (Continued on Page 5) ed—at their i nvitation— the bishops of South Africa attending the ecu menical council i n Rome. Cogley was in Rome doing revisions of articles on Catholic topics for Encyclope dia Britannica. He is an occa sional columnist for, and for mer editor of, Commonweal magazine, which no educated Catholic who wants to be thoughtful about the Faith should be without. Until recently, he was with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Cal., a pro ject of the Fund for the Repub lic. COGLEY SPOKE, as is his way, with wisdom, charity and good humor—but not dramati cally. The drama lay in the fact that this man whose very ortho doxy has at times been doubted by some Catholics became, as far as I know, the first layman in the English-speaking world to be asked to speak to an assembly of council Fathers. Cogley referred, without ran cor and merely as an illustra tion of how times have changed, to the suspicions he and his associates endured in the past. "Less than a decade ago,” he recalled, “America’s ‘lib eral Catholics’—or “Common weal Catholics’ as they were sometimes called with disdain —were frequently anathema tized in powerful sections of the diocesan press, and were more or less excluded from respec table Catholic company.” THAT WAS SO, said Cogley, despite the fact that what the ‘ ‘Commonweal Catholics” were -saying “was mild in compari son with what we have heard from some highly eminent spokesmen since the (ecumeni cal) council began.” The “Commonweal Catho lics,” Cogley said, felt like mavericks and were * ‘more or less resigned to being cast for ever in the role of ‘irregu lars.’ ” Some grew discouraged and went into secular work. Others “hung on (to specifi cally Catholic pursuits) more or less by the skin of their teeth." Said Cogley, probably on a note of happy amazement. “Few, if any, as short a time as five years ago, would have been willing to entertain the idea that the concerns which pos sessed them would be treated seriously and prayerfully by the highest authorities of the Church Universal gathered in council in 1962 and 1963.” The fact was, Cogley went on that the “liberal” Catho lics ‘ ‘did not count on a pope like John XXIII.” (Here I think Cogley’s sense of humor failed him for a moment. Who on earth could have counted on a pope like John XXIII?) “Nor did we,” said Cogley, ‘ ‘put as much trust as we should have in the perennial youthful ness of the Church.” , vation. Thus we have for ex ample, the man who is at Mass and Holy Communion on Sunday, yet on Monday is just as heath en in his talk and attitudes as the most pagan of his associa tes. We have the woman who is the model of piety in Church, yet in her social life is as selfish and scheming as an ath eist. If our life as a Christian is to be integrated life, it must have God as its center. God made us to love Him — which means that He made us to do His will, since his is the only adequate expression of our love. God must be the magnet ic pole which keeps us always on course. His will must be the final measure of all that we do. Any portion of our life which is lived apart from God—whe ther by positive sin or merely by ignoring God — is a wasted portion. This does not mean, obvious ly, that God must be always and specifically in our conscious thoughts. That is not humanly possible. We have to give atten tion to the matter at hand, and the mind is not capable of divi ded concentration. However, if (Continued on Page 5) God’s Greatest Natural Gift Jottings By Barbara C. Jencks As all nature’s thousand changes But one changeless God pro claim So in art’s wide kingdom ranges One sole meaning still the same: This is Truth, eternal Rea son, Which from Beauty takes its dress And serene through time and season Stands for aye in loveliness. Goethe * * * WHAT IS GOD’S GREATEST natural gift to man* This ques tion was posed by a colleague, Donald McDonald, in a recent column. Friends? Family? Nature? Beauty in literature, art or music? McDonald spoke of flippant answers which met this question. We are all quick to cover our deeper feelings and meet such seriousness with nervousness. The columnist told of a professor who had been quiet during the joking and who finally spoke: "Next to my family, the greatest natural gift I have received is the ability to understand and appreciate art and to relish intellectual work and the intellectual life.” The professor spoke of listening to a Mozart quintet or a Beethoven piano sonata and the experience of intense pleasure. . ."almost spiritual joy.” The discussion continued with an analysis of the professor’s statement. Are all capable of such joy? Is the cultivated person any happier? Must such interests be delib erately cultivated to bring com mensurate joy? I do think that the ability to truly enjoy (if not fully understand). . .music and art is one of the great joys which come to us in this earthly joy. CRITICS ARE optimistic about the cultured American. We as a nation and people are becoming more culture-con scious, we are told. For exam ple, more Americans went to concerts last year than to ball games. Record crowds braved icy winds last winter to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa on her brief visit to the United States. What more convincing proof than the fact that Sears Roebuck is venturing into the sale of original paintings and is meeting with enormous suc cess? This is proof of the American essence: The muse um presents a goldmine in our (Continued on Page 6) Thanksgiving “Fast’ PLYMOUTH, Mass. (NC)— Catholics, Protestants and Jews took part in a Thanksgiving fast instead of a feast to aid the hungry overseas. Scores of persons of the three faiths participated in the Youths Got Light Sentence "silent fast” in historic First Church, founded by the Pil grims, and donated to the United Nations world food program an amount equal to what a Thanks giving dinner would have cost them. "We do not feel that the usual practice of holiday gluttony is in keeping with the desperate plight of half of the population of the world," a spokesman said. HAIFA, Israel (NC) — The District Attorney of Haifa has protested that the sentences imposed on eight of nine Or thodox Jewish youths for forcib ly entering a Protestant school were too lenient. Eight youths were ordered 1 this past September to pay a fine of $165 each or to spend 60 days in jail. A ninth was given an additional fine of $83 for spit ting on a policeman. The defense counsel had stat ed that the penalties were too severe, but the prosecution said they were too light for such a grave offense. Reds Block Christmas Cards Youth Fund To Honor Kennedy DETROIT (NC)—A John F. Kennedy Youth Fund has been established here as a "living memorial” to the late Presi dent to provide educational and cultural enrichment for disad vantaged children. Among those serving on a committee to ad- minister the fund, which will come from citizens’ donations, is Father Laurence V. Britt, S. J., president of the University of Detroit. LONDON (NC)—Thousands of Christmas cards sent from Bri tain last year to the imprison ed Archbishop Josef Beran of Praque, Czechoslovakia, got only as far as a desk in a Czech oslovak government office. This is apparent from a let ter sent by the prelate, now Candle For President free in Czechoslovakia, to an organization here that sought to help him. The organization, called Amnesty International, sponsored a visit to Prague by former Irish Foreign Min ister Sean MacBride, who made an unsuccessful effort to see, Archbishop Beran. The question now arises: why was there suspicion of the orth odoxy of "Commonwealth Ca tholics?” I think the answer is that most of us had been de fensive catholics from child hood; we had felt ourselves and our ancestors, and the Church, to be under siege; and we had reacted by widening our “Catholic loyalties” to include all kinds of things which were- not necessarily Catholic at all, but were merely habits and at- tiduces handed down from gen eration to generation, or insti tutions which had outlived their usefulness. WE WERE closed-ranks Ca tholics, and we felt that any body who suggested changes might be giving aid and com fort to the enemy. It requir ed the miracle which bore the name John XXIII to make us realize that the “enemy” was simply waiting for us to live our halberds so that we could be friends. HOUSTON, Tex. (NC)—A La tin American group to whom President Kennedy spoke the night before he was assassinat ed lighted a "perpetual candle” in his memory at Our Lady of Guadalupe church here. The candle was lighted by Alexander Arroyos, vice presi dent of the local branch of the League of United Latin Ameri can Citizens. The late President, and his wife, spoke at a reception held by the league in the Rice Hotel, Houston, the night before he traveled to Dallas where he was slain. Kennedy- John XXIII Memorial SYDNEY, Australia (NC)—A church at Perisher Valley, highest point in Australia, plan ned as a memorial to Pope John XXIII, will have an altar dedi cated to the late President John F. Kennedy. The parish found er, Father A. J. Conway, said, that the twin memorial is aplw propriate at the site because both endeavored to reach the pinnacle of understanding." And so we have come to the drama of an address to a group of council Fathers by John Cog ley, whose forgiveness we need not ask because it has been giv en all along. Cogley talked chiefly about the role of the laity. He sees it under a twofold aspect. The laity is to bear witness, within the church, to “the natural goodness to be found in the world” so that there may be a fruitful dialogue between the Church and the world. The lai ty also is to carry Christ into the world to encourage, expand and consecrate the world’s goodness. By David Q. Liptak Q. In the Mass, why is it that the priest breaks the Con secrated Host and then puts one of the fragments into the chal- lace? Is this an ancient rite? What is its symbolism? A. The ceremonies of the fraction and of the comming ling of the Host are among the most ancient in the Mass lit urgy. As such they are among the principal acts prepara tory to the Communion. ACCORDING TO each of the four New Testament accounts of the Last Supper, Christ him self instituted the ceremony of the fraction. In St. Matthew’s words; "Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke ...” (XXVI: 26). Because of this rite, the Eu charistic Sacrifice as a whole was known among the early Christians as The Breaking of the Bread. IN THE BEGINNING the fraction was performed for the same practical reason that Christ performed it; namely, to provide fragments for the Com munion of the faithful. IT’S QUITE conceivable that the Host could have been divid ed by a process of cutting; but, once again, Christ’s example of breaking was the rite which was imitated. Thus, Father Joseph Jungmann notes in his definite work: "THE EXAMPLE of the breaking of the bread in the supper room and in the primi tive Church must surely have been the factor which deter mined that the rite would con - tinue not as a cutting of the bread, as might easily have been . . .’’ (The Mass of the Roman Rite, Benziger Bro thers, 1959). ANOTHER PRACTICAL rea son for the fraction of the Host is the ceremony of comming ling. One of the three parti cles of the broken Host Is placed by the celebrant into the chalice. THE COMMINGLING is also of very ancient origin. Accord ing to Father Jungmann, again, whose research into this very complex matter is about the best available, the dropping of the separated particle into the Precious Blood was already part of the Roman Mass in the eighth century. At that time, he says, bishops who celebrated Mass would send (through aco lytes) portions of the Conse crated Host to other celebrants, for the purpose of manifesting their "communion." Evidently the priests of Rome and its environs would then perform the rite of commingling with these portions. THE SYMBOLISM of the com mingling, which was known as early as the fifth century, is the Resurrection. Just as Christ is mystically sacrificed at the Consecration of Mass, the union of the Consecrated Bread with the Precious Blood represents the Body of Christ resurrected from the tomb. THE FRACTION, on the other hand, characterizes the Host as a sacrificial gift, for it reminds us that the Body of Christ, "broken” on the Cross, is given to us in Holy Communion. The Southern Cross P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH, GA. Vol. 44 Thursday, December 5, 1963 No. 22 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