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“Catholic President”
Fears Said Ended
PHILADELPHIA (NC) — One
of the country’s top Protestant
leaders said here the late
President Kennedy showed that
those who feared election of a
Catholic as President “misun
derstood both the man and his
Church.”
The Rev. Eugene Carson
Blake, Stated Clerk (chief ex
ecutive officer ) of the United
Presbyterian Church in the
U.S.A., said President Kennedy
had laid to rest fears about a
Catholic chief executive.
“John Kennedy by his actions
as President demonstrated
that he was indeed a good Cath
olic, but more—that his kind of
Christianity was a strength ra
ther than a handicap to his ser
ving the whole people of the
whole nation under the consti
tution and under God,” he said.
Dr. Blake spoke (Dec. 3) at
a memorial service for the late
President held during the sixth
triennial general assembly of
the National Council of churches
The sessions, held in Philadel
phia’s Convention Hall, was
originally to have been address
es by Mr. Kennedy.
The National Council of
Churches meeting brought
together some 5,000delegates
representing 31 Protestant,
Anglican and Orthodox denom
inations in the U. S.
In addition, official Catholic
and Jewish observers attended
the convention.
The Catholic observers, pre
sent with the approval of Arch
bishop John J. Krol of Phila
delphia, were Father Dennis
J. Comey, S. J., director, St.
Joseph’s College Institute of
Industrial Relations here;
Msgr. John P. Connery, for
mer chancellor of the Phila
delphia archdiocese and now
Walker Motor Co.
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SAMUEL SILVERSTEIN
PRESIDENT
BERNARD SILVERSTEIN
SECRETARY a TREASURER
rector of St. Charles Seminary
here; Msgr. Daniel Cantwell of
Chicago, chaplain of the Catho
lic Interracial Council there;
Msgr. Joseph N. Moody, chair
man, social science depart
ment, Ladycliff College, High
land Falls, N. Y.; and Father
Benjamin Masse, S. J., an as
sociate editor of American ma
gazine.
Official Jewish observers
were a half dozen rabbis named
by the Synagogue Council of Am
erica.
Before Dr. Blake’s address to
the memorial service, the gen
eral assembly adopted resolu
tions expressing sorrow at the
death of President Kennedy, of
fering condolences to Mrs. Ken
nedy and commending her “dig
nity and poise,” and pledging
support and prayers for Presi
dent Johnson.
The resolution on Mr. Ken
nedy’ s death voiced 4 'contribu
tion on behalf of all our people
that hatred, prejudice and bit
terness have been allowed to ac
celerate within the country . . .
As a nation we cannot allow such
a scourge to continue un
checked.”
Dr. Blake linked Mr. Ken
nedy’s presidency, in terms of
its contribution to better in
terreligious relations, to the
Second Vatican Council, say
ing:
“Furthermore, by the lead
ership of Pope John XXIII, in
a period of less than three
years, the Roman Catholic
Church in Vatican Council II
has begun an internal revival
and a reassessment of its re
lationship with other Christians
so profound, so surprising, and
so welcome to all other Chris
tians of good will that the ecu
menical movement has come to
have a new shape and a new pro
mise since we met in San Fran
cisco three years ago.”
He said President Kennedy’s
scheduled visit to the Nation
al Council of Churches meeting
“would have clearly symboliz
ed the beginning of a new era
of hope for Christian coopera
tion in the United States, of
America.”
Dr. Bl$ke recalled President
Kennedy's commitment to
the civil rights cause.
He said the late President
"was one who first saw that the
slow advance toward justice,
the excuses we had given for
delay, and the shape of the new
world in which we found our
selves in 1963, demanded an
effort to change our racial at
titudes and to amend our racial
practices hardly short of a vol
untary revolution.”
The racial crisis and the role
May peace be
your gift during
this Holy Season.
MULHERIN
LUMBER
COMPANY
625 Thirteenth Street
Augusta, Ga.
DEANERY CCW
(District or County)
AUGUSTA MEETING—Organization Institute material is reviewed by Mrs. Jack Johan-
nsen, Sister Mary Dorothea, R. S. M., Miss Pauline Peuffier. — (Breault Newsphoto
Courtesy Augusta Chronicle—Herald)
Organization Institute Told
“Womans Role In World
Significant On Every Level
99
AUGUSTA—“Woman cannot
be ignored,” said Sister Mary
Dorothea, R. S. M., at the
Organization Institute sponsor
ed by the Augusta Deanery
Council at St. Mary’s parish
hall.
* 'Woman’s role in the world
today is significant on every
level — international, national,
political, social and intellec
tual she said.
“To permeate every segment
of life with the Christian spirit,
woman must be enraptured with
the Christian message,” she
added.
In emphasizing the role of
the laity today, Sister Mary
Dorothea said it should “bring
about a personal encounter with
the Lord through a Biblical and
a Sacramental experience.”
* ‘The world needs its Chris
tian women to proclaim once
again the beauty of the Christian
message through the Scrip
tures,” she concluded.
Mrs. Norman I. Boatwright
Sr., national director from the
Province of Atlanta, gave a
to be played by the churches in
working for racial justice was
the theme of many others at the
convention.
After the memorial service,
Gov. William Scranton of Pen
nsylvania told the delegates that
“while politicians and lawyers
discuss the legalistic fine points
of civil rights legislation, the
tyranny of prejudice is doomed
because the American people
in their deep common sense
realize it is wrong.”
The Rev. W. A. Visser ’t
Hooft of Geneva, Switzerland,
general secretary of the World
Council of Churches, said the
response of American churches
to the race question influences
Christianity all over the world.
Referring to the “courageous
Christians” who oppose the pol
icy of apartheid—strict racial
segregation—in South Africa,
he said: “You in American
churches can help them more-
effectively by solving your own
race problem than in any other
way.”
The Rev. R. H. Edwin Espy,
newly elected general secretary
of the National Council, said
the effort to obtain racial jus
tice calls for “the united attack
of Protestant, Orthodox, Jew
and Catholic.”
J. Irwin Miller, a layman
retiring as president of the Na
tional Council, said: ' 'If the
churches today don’t make a
convincing and effective stand
on race . . . nothing else will
count very much.”
To all good friends whose friendship
means so much, we send you season’s greet
ings. May your Christmas be a happy one.
NORTH AUGUSTA
BANKING COMPANY
Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
NORTH AUGUSTA, S. C.
brief outline of the functions of
the organization on the national
level and told the importance of
committees on the local level to
communicate their needs and
sentiments to the national offi
cers.
Mrs. Jack Johannsen, past
deanery president, told of the
need for effective organization,
calling it the objective of the in
stitute. She said women must be
well informed and trained in the
work they are to do.
Mrs. L. J. Ward, past dean
ery president, explained how a
woman’s interests and talents
can best be utilized in the spiri
tual and corporal works of mer
cy in her own home and com
munity.
The workshop began with
Mass with Monsignor Daniel
J. Bourke as celebrant. The
Very Rev. Felix Donnely, pas
tor of Sacred Heart Church,
gave the opening address on the
Mystical Body of the Church.
Miss Pauline Peuffier was
chairman of the workshop, and
Mrs. Joseph J. O’Connell is
president of the Augusta Dean
ery Council of Catholic Women.
Christians Charge
The Sudan. .
“Police State”
NAIROBI, Kenya (NC)—A vi
gorous protest against seeking
a religious solution for apoliti
cal problem has been made by
the Southern Sudan Christian
Association.
“The Sudan is a full scale
police state,” the SSCA says in a
letter sent to all heads of Chris
tian churches, to all heads of
African states and to United
Nations Secretary General U
Thant, to denounce the religious
persecution which the Sudan
government is carrying on in
Southern Sudan.
"We know that missionaries
are only the scapegoats of an
ill-conceived policy aiming at
giving a religious solution (im
posing Islam) to a political and
cultural problem (the differen
ces between South and North),”
the letter says. “If Christianity
and the Christian churches are
involved in the Southern Sudan
problem it is because the Arabs
seek a religious solution to the
Afro-Arab conflict. This means
to bring religion into politics.”
The letter states that the
conflict between North and South
Sudan is fundamentally politi
cal. The southerners (four mil
lion in number) are Africans,
with African culture, speak Af
rican languages and worship ac-
Jottings . ..
(Continued from Page 4)
turned to this poem by the
lat Father O’Donnell, president
of Notre Dame, entitled “Ques
tionnaire” ... to the Blessed
Mother. This portion is espec
ially appropriate.
“Oh, and when at the last
He was slain by the crowd?
Never of my dear Son
Was I so fond, so proud
Then when His cheek to yours
Lay lifeless and cold?
I thought how never now
Would my son grow old.”
There are so many quota
tions from Joyce Kilmer, Tom
Dooley, Padraic Pearse, Ru
pert Brooke, heroes all—and
poets, too, which begin to hold
some of the sentiments of this
time.
Space permits but one more
quotation and this is from the
eulogy of Cardinal Cushing, the
source is St. Paul.
' ‘As for me, my blood already
flows in sacrifice. . .
I have fought the good fight;
I have finished the race; I have
redeemed the pledge: I look
forward to the prize that awaits
me, the prize I have earned.
The Lord, that judge, whose
award never goes amiss, will
grant it to me when the day
comes; to me, yes, and all
those who have leaned to wel
come His coming.”
May his noble soul rest in
peace:
cording to pagan or Christian
beliefs. The northerners (eight
million) are of Arab origin,
speak the Arabic language, have
an Arabic culture and customs,
and are Moslems.
The government is in the
hands of the Northern Arabs,
who have refused any form of
autonomy to the South. In an
effort to cement the two sections
of the country, the Arabs decid
ed to eliminate all differences
between the two parts, and re
sorted to the Islamization of the
South as a cure for the division.
As a result, Christian missions
and missionaries and anything
that is related to Christianity
is supposed to stand as an ob
stacle to Islamization, and the
abolition of differences.
The Sudan government has
accused the Christian missions
of disrupting national unity and
of "interfering in politics,” but
this is seen only as a pretext
for expelling missionaries from
the South. The government has
taken all mission schools in
the South and to date has ex
pelled 163 missionaries, in
cluding 113 Catholics. It has
also passed aMissionary Socie
ties Act which, while claiming
to recognize religious freedom,
is preventing virtually all mis
sion activity.
The SSCA letter complains
of “racial and religious dis
crimination and persecution,
political slavery and economic
exploitation,” It also says that
“in spite of rigorous press and
correspondence censorship, af-
their determination to fight for
justice, their culture, dignity
and freedom is beginning to be
heard and known in the world
press.”
God’s World—
(Continued from Page 4)
you up?” may mean another
soul for Jesus.
Finally, Christmas is a time
for checking on the Christlike-
ness of the image which we
present to our associates. By
our charity, our unselfishness,
our personal integrity, are we
edging others gently towards
Bethlehem — towards Christ?
There is no excuse for any
of us to come empty-handed
to the Holy Infant on His
birthday.
The Southern Cross, December 12, 1963—PAGE 5
Senate Praises Fr. LaFarge
DESBOUILLONS
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AD 2-1145
126 E. Broughton St.
Savannah, Georgia
WASHINGTON (NC) — Sen.
Hubert H. Humphrey of Min
nesota praised the late Father
John LaFarge, S. J., in a Sen
ate talk as one who “symbo
lized the highest traditions of
his faith, his country and of the
creed of humanity.”
Humphrey said (Dec. 3) the
nation is “indebted” to Father
LaFarge, longtime advocate of
interracial justice and better
intergroup relations, who died
Nov. 24 at the age of 83.
Father LaFarge, a founder
of the Catholic interracial
movement and of the National
Catholic Rural Life Conference,
had been on the editorial staff
of America magazine since
1926. He was its editor in chief
from 1944 to 1948 and an asso
ciate editor at the time of his
death.
Humphrey, noting that Father
LaFarge’s death occurred on
the same weekend as President
Kennedy’s, said it was “ano
ther great loss” for the na
tion.
He said of Father LaFarge:
* ‘Gentle but courageous, pro
foundly American in his roots
yet amazingly fluent in many
foreign tongues and familiar
with many foreign ways, a man
of culture and a man of ac
tion, an eloquent voice for both
priesthood and laymen, he lea
ves behind an unforgettable le
gacy.
“Bravely he led causes of
brotherhood long before it be
came ‘fashionable’ to do so.
Profoundly he symbolized the
tradition of service which I
brought a Father Marquette to
explore the American wilder
ness.
“This nation is indebted to
John LaFarge, S. J. — ex
plorer of new and noble paths
for his country—who has gone
to his eternal repose. God rest
his magnificent soul.”
Glory to the Holy night
when the angels sang;
glory to this Holy day.
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Augusta, Georgia
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AUGUSTA. GA.