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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, December 19, 1963 . . .And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and keeping the night watches over their flock. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone round about them; and they feared with a great fear. And the Angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people; For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in cMTianger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will. . .(St. Luke 2:6-14) Sees Need For Nation To Encourage All Education By J. J. Gilbert WASHINGTON — Rather than argue what aid should be given to what institutions, the country would be well advised to encour age all legitimate schools and urge pupils to stay in them as long as possible. This is an implication of a lit tle known government study to which attention was recently di rected. Attention comes at a time when powerful groups in scattered actions round the country have returned to vig orous attacks upon any aid to church-related institu tions. The study is a Department of Commerce projection of the nation’s economy to the end of this decade. It was made for a Senate sub-committee studying unemployment in depth. Broadly it showed farm-workers, labor ers and the like will suffer de clines in demands for their ser vices and that clerical, techni cal and professional personnel will find an increasing demand. But Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges has said “the striking features about these changes in labor require ments is the need to upgrade the educational level of the la bor force.” It was found that: . . . We must have more high ly trained professional man power with 16 years or more of education. In less than a decade jobs in this category grew from 4.5 to 7.5 million. . . . We must have more tech nical and semi-professional workers with 1 to 3 years of education beyond high school. Jobs in this category have in creased 40% in the last decade. . . . Today, in the greater part of the country, even fac tory jobs are closed to per sons without high school edu cation. This trend will contin ue. It used to be said that dem ocracy requires education; we need an enlightened citizenry to maintain the eternal vigilance which is the price of freedom. Now it is being said that we need a better educated popula tion just to maintain our place in the world. Secretary Hodges said “au tomation is the challenge to change,” but where readjust ments used to be made through generations, today develop ments come so rapidly that an individual may have to adapt and readapt” more than once in a lifetime. He also said automation and technological progress “are es sential to the general welfare, the economic strength, and the defense of the nation,” and that we must use our capabilities * ‘to raise our standard of living and retain our position as a strong force in the community of free nations.” The study had to do with jobs, but it provided a strong argument for education, and as much of it as the nation can have. College Bill Does Not End Church-State Issue By John J. Daly, Jr. (N.C.W.C. News Service) WASHINGTON—Approval of Federal aid for classroom con struction at all U. S. Colleges is a major congressional move in the controversy over govern ment help for private education. But both sponsors and critics of the measure agree more dis cussion will be heard on the Church-State issue raised by its equal treatment of public, private and church-related col leges. Adopted by the House on Nov. 6 by a 258 to 93 vote and by the Senate on Dec. 10 by a 54 to 27 ballot, the bill establishes a five - year, $1.2 billion pro gram. Colleges can seek Federal assistance to help finance con struction of non-religious faci lities. They can ask for either outright grants for one-third of a project’s cost or repayable loans for up to 75% of cost. The money can be applied only to libraries and buildings to be used for instruction or re search in the natural and physi cal sciences, mathematics, mo dern foreign languages and en gineering. The bill specifically bars use of Federal funds for any facility to be used for “sectarian in struction,” for religious wor ship or primarily for any part of the program of a school or department of divinity. After Senate passage, Presi dent Johnson immediately spoke high praise of the bill. * 'The Congress,” he said, “is well on its way to doing more for educa tion than any Congress since the Land' Grant College Act passed 100 years ago,” he said. The measure was strongly backed by the late President Kennedy. His successor has been described by congression al sources as playing a major role in getting it adopted before Congress adjourns. Even though the bill includes church-related colleges on an equal footing with all others, this fact does not end Senate controversy over alleged Church-State issues, the matter which dominated Senate debate. The bill passed the Senate under a truce in the controver sy. A few days before final Senate action on the measure, its sponsor, Sen. Wayne Morse of Oregon, introduced a sepa rate bill which would give tax payers the legal power to block in Federal courts any assis tance for church-related col leges. A bloc of southerners, led by Sen. Sam J. Ervin of North Ca rolina, wanted such a provision in the bill itself. The Senate earlier had approved this ap proach. But such a “judicial review” provision was scrapped in House-Senate conferences on a compromise version of the bill. Morse’s separate bill took the steam out of efforts to keep it in the measure. Morse told the Senate his sub committee on education will take up the review issue next year. He argued successfully that extensive hearings, with testimony from ranking consti tutional experts, was necessary before the Senate makes up its mind on whether to permit in dividual taxpayers the unusual power to block Federal expen ditures. Denial of Federal benefits to church-related and other pri vate colleges would have a seri ous impact on U. S. higher edu cation. Most American colleges are privately operated and a majority of these private insti tutions are related to churches. The U. S. Office of Education has reported that in 1962, there were 2,100 colleges and uni versities. Of these 1,357 were privately operated. The U. S* office said the na tion has 842 church-related in stitutions of higher education: 482 Protestant, 335 Catholic, 9 interdenominational, 8 Jewish, 6 Latter-day Saints, 2 Russian Orthodox, 1 Greek Orthodox and 1 Unitarian. The American Council on Education, a federation of indi vidual institutions and of or ganizations representing higher education, vigorously supported the college aid bill, as did U. S. Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel. However, three public school groups fought it. They charged that its inclusion of private schools would undermine public education and “open the door to Federal tax support of private education at all levels.” Represented in the protest were the American Association of School Administrators, the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Division of County and Intermediate Unit Superintendents of the National Education Association. English Mass In ’64 EDINBURGH, Scotland, (NC) —The Catholic Church in Scot land will begin experimenting with the use of English in the Mass early in 1964, according to Archbishop Gordon Gray of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Scotland’s top - ranking Catholic prelate said that Eng lish will be used in the begin ning of the Mass through the Gospel or the Creed. T is the prayerful wish of the staff of The Sou thern Cross that all of its patrons and friends may enjoy a Happy Christmas and a New Year P| filled with blessings, spiritual and temporal. So that our staff, and that of our printers, might enjoy the Holiday, there will be no paper next week. Our next issue will be Jan uary 2, 1964. Christmas The Council On The Press It Seems to Me JOSEPH BREIG In the eyes of many Fathers of the council, the document on TV, radio, movies and the press ( “Instruments of So cial Communication”) was a harmless collection of pious platitudes. I t boiled comes new inventions in \ L u s e in spreading the Gospel, and ex horts editors, publishers, re porters, writers, actors, di rectors and producers to do good, avoid evil, and remem ber that some people are chil dren. Jesuit Father Edward Duff of America magazine, writing from Rome as special corres pondent for Religious News Ser vice, remarked that the Fa thers must have voted “in a moment of fatigue or a fit of inattention.” EITHER THAT, or the Fa thers, seeing no likelihood that anybody was going to come forward with anything very meaningful on the subject, ap proved the text to get it out of the way and go on to something important. In view of the incalculable importance of communications in our day, when the thinking of billions is influenced in great part, and sometimes in fright ening part, by what the “In struments of Social Communi cation” convey to minds, it is a great pity that things turned out as they did. It is a shame that the council did not have before it a statement filled with new light and inspiration for communications people— for novelists, reporters, play wrights, editorialists, news casters, advertisers—and for those with whom they com municate. FATHER DUFF’S dissatis faction with the document cen tered on the point that it did not sufficiently define freedom of the press and protect it from undue government interference, and therefore was a turning back from the teaching of John XXIII, who said in Pacem in Terris that every human being has the right to be informed truthfully about public events. Father Duff rightly took alarm on that score, but my objection was broader. I felt that the council was being asked to bring forth a mouse. And the grave inadequacy on the topic of communications seem ed to stem from three causes. First, there is failure to re alize what tremendous moral problems, aside from sex mo rality, are involved. Second, the council Fathers are not communications ex perts, nor are they phil osophers about communica tions; and in the document I could find no evidence of any effort to consult the experts. Third, the “theology” of communications is in its in fancy. Some deep and basic thinking is being done, and we may look forward to works which will give real insights; but those who prepared the council document were ob viously not in touch with these thinkers. Communications, like Topsy, have “jest growed.” Tremen dous wisdom about them has been accumulated in minds all around the world, because men and women have learned by ex perience. You need only read about the meetings of bodies like the American Newspaper Publishers Association to see that some brilliant minds are thinking seriously about com munications day in and day out. But this “experience wisdom” has never been distilled by a philosopher or theologian; it is handed down only because older men train younger men. The treatise on ‘ ‘Instruments of Social Communications” clearly indicated that those who prepared it had not tapped this wisdom. Neither, I think, had they consulted the schools of journalism and communica tions arts, not even the Catho lic ones. FOR A TRULY important council statement on communi cations, we must wait for de velopment of a theology and philosophy of communications. And, these will come from a combination of experience and trained thought. The theologian • and philosopher must peer into the nature of communications; must discover, theoretically, what are the right root pur poses of communications. Then they must subject their theo ries to the test of experience. Christmas Wishes Tonight I wish I were many things other than a writer with a Christmas column to produce. Every year it is the same pro blem. But this year it is greater than ever. I yearn to write the stars out of the sky and to bring readers to their knees before the wonder of the season. I never can. It is especially dif ficult this year. I wish that I were a little girl again so that I might recap ture the innocent wonder of Christmas—never to have known evil, suffering, death. There was then nothing to mar the innocence of this holy day. It would be worth a kingdom to view the world as a five-year- old again at Christmas. The in nocence of childhood fails to see the world of the grownup with its tragedies, frustrations and pains. Perhaps that is why all men love Christmas, it takes them back to the innocence and safety of childhood. The beauty of Christmas is unbearable in retrospect yet it could be even now for the Kingdom of God is within us. I would like to be the mother of a little boy like John Kenne dy, Jr. at Christmas, too. I would like to take him on my lap and read the story of an other little Boy’s Christmas many hundreds of years ago in the city of Bethlehem and let him know that his father is now in the land where it is eternal Christmas. At Christmas, I wish, too, that I were a cloistered nun far from the distractions of the holiday world. I yearn to escape from the frenzied crowds which at tempt to take all the magic and music from the season. I could contemplate then away from all distractions the meaning and promise of Christmas. And if I were a cloistered nun this night, I would never for a moment forget those out in the world imprisoned by the demands of their states in life, the state God destined for each one. Nuns, no matter how old they are, hold some of the starry-eyed Christmas wonder of children. They appear to have preserved this innocence. Alas, I am a writer. I am not a little girl again or a clois tered nun or the mother of a little boy. I have only words at my disposal to translate my thoughts and asperation. Some poets and writers have the spe cial gift for setting lights ablaze in hearts. But for me, words never appear as inadequate as they do at Christmas. Christmas is something sac red. It is silence and reverence (Continued On Page 6) Vernacular In Low Mass Only OKLAHOMA CITY (NC)--One of the five bishops doing the spadework for the vernacular Mass in this country said here the change from Latin will be applied initially only to low Masses. Bishop Victor J. Reed of Ok lahoma City and Tulsa said the High Mass will remain in Latin because of complex problems involving adequate music. Bishop Reed and four other U. S. prelates have been named by the Hierarchy to submit to their fellow Bishops in January proposed translations. All the bishops will meet in the spring of 1964 to draw up formal de crees and send them to Rome for confirmation. Pope To Go To Working Class VATICAN CITY (NC) — Pope Paul VI is expected to offer one of his three Christmas Masses in the parish church of St. Mi chael the Archangel in Rome’s working-class Pietralata dis trict. The official schedule of the Pope’s Christmas Masses has not been officially released, but it has been learned that the Pope will offer his three Mas ses in the presence of differ ent groups. Christians Oppose Indian Bill BANGALORE, India, (NC) — Christian leaders here have asked the Mysore state govern ment to drop a bill to control and tax religious institutions. One provision of the govern ment-sponsored Religious and South Pole Christmas NEW YORK (NC)—Francis Cardinal Spellman left here for his 21st consecutive Christmas with Americans abroad, this time personnel at the Navy’s South Pole installations. The Cardinal, who has de scribed his annual trip as "my pilgrimage to the men and wo men who protect our country and preserve peace,” flew from here directly to Christchurch, New Zealand, by way of Los Angeles, Honolulu, the Fiju Is lands and Auckland, New Zea land. Arriving in Christchurch on Dec. 19, he was scheduled to leave for the Antarctic as soon as possible. Interracial Award CHICAGO (NC)—The Catho lic Interracial Council of Chica go will present its award for interracial justice leadership to Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, stated clerk and national leader of the United Presbyterian Church, at a dinner here Jan. 16. Charitable Institutions and Trusts Bill requires charitable institutions and trusts to turn over 5% of their gross income to a government administration fund for charitable institutions and trusts. The bill would also set up a department to control religious and charitable insti tutions. U. N. Inquiry Shelved UNITED NATIONS, N. Y„ (NC) — The General Assembly shelved the U. N. inquiry into alleged persecution of Buddhists under the government of the late ; President Ngo dinh Diem of South Vietnam. The action was taken (Dec. 13) without either discussion or a vote after the representa tives of the 16 nations which had originally sponsored the in vestigation decided against pur suing it further “at this time.” QUESTION BOX (By David Q. Liptak) Q. Relative to the Legion of Decency’s system of classifying motion pictures: Instead of list ing some movies as A, and others as B or C films, why couldn’t it merely point out that some are all right for general patronage, while others are "for adults only?” A. "For adults only” is not per se a moral assessment. Rather, its primary purpose is to indicate that a particular film would in all probability be psychologically harmfulfor im mature viewers.Naturally, mo ral harm would also follow, though indirectly, as it were. AT LEAST the "adults only” listing is not a moral evaluation in the sense that films so clas sified are less "moral” than those approved for general pa tronage. On the contrary, an “adults only” film can be per fectly moral, yet because of the theme or its treatment would proximately (though, once again, indirectly) endanger a child’s moral welfare. This is why the Legion is careful to distinguish morally acceptable pictures into three categories: those which are generally unob jectionable (A—1); those which are unobjectionable for adults and adolescents (A—11); and those which are "for adults only” (A-III). IN EXPLANATION of the last category, the Legion notes: “Films in this classification require normal emotional sta bility and a knowledge and un derstanding of basic Christian truths and moral values.” Q. I fully understand that C pictures are so classified be cause they are thoroughly im moral, either in the plot or thematic treatment. Hence I can’t see how any practicing Catholic would even consider viewing such films. But hasn’t there been some discussion as to whether attendance at B films (i.e., those which are objec tionable in part) is always wrong? Is it true that the Legion of Decency today is not so strict in this area as it once was? A. This question was ade quately answered, in our opin ion, by the Legion of Decency itself in 1957, when the "A” classifications were modified: "HENCEFORTH there will be no doubt that a B film is one adjudged to contain mater ial which in itself or in its offensive treatment is contrary to traditional morality and con stitutes a threat not only to the personal spiritual life of even an adult viewer, but also to the moral behaviour-patterns which condition public morality. Catholic people are urged to refrain from attendance at all B pictures, not only for the sake of their own consciences, but also in the interest of pro moting the common good.” * * * Q. Why doesn't the Legion of Decency ridicule immoral films from an artistic view point, provided there is suffi cient justirication—as re viewers do? Wouldn’t such an approach combat objectionable pictures more effectively than condemning them outright on moral grounds? A. The artistic quality of mo tion pictures is not the primary concern of the Legion of Decen cy; nor does it pertain imme diately to the Legion’s compe tence. The Legion’s first inter est is to ask whether a parti cular film is or is not conso nant with the norms of Chris tian moral principles. The Southern Cross P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH, GA. Vol. 44 Thursday, December 19, 1963 No. 24 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