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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, January 30, 1964
Catholic Press Month
Catholic Press Month
The universal recognition of the dignity
of the human being, and the rights and
duties that flow from it is basic to any
realistic concept of a world order of peace,
Justice and freedom.
These rights and duties, like human dig
nity, itself, have God for their author and are,
therefore, inviolable and inalienable.
They are not, however, absolute. They
must be exercised in relation to the rights
and duties of other human beings if society
is to fulfill its purpose of promoting the
common good of all.
Among these rights is one mentioned by
the late Pope John XXIII in his encyclical
“Pacem in Terris”—the right of “every
human being” to information. Like all other
human rights, it, too, is * ‘universal, inviolable
and inalienable,” and extends to information
concerning both Church and State. And in
•order for the common good to be advanced
it must be used in conformity with the na
ture of the society—Church or State—in
which he exercises it. •
The free exercise of human rights and
duties—which regulate the relationship of
men to one another and with the State, and
the relationship of States to each other—is
basic to a peaceful world order based upon
freedom and justice. And information which
enables men to know what their rights and
duties are is basic to their free exercise.
The Catholic, then, should inform himself,
first, as a Catholic—concerning the Church;
secondly, as a citizen—concerning the State;
and thirdly, as a member of the world com
munity—concerning the world.
He ought to use his “right to information”
to acquire facts and knowledge of the con
temporary scene in order to appraise it in
the light of the Faith.
The Catholic Press cannot, of course, re
place the general press—but neither can the
general press furnish the Catholic with all
the facts and interpretation he needs, as a
Catholic, to be adequately informed, par
ticularly with respect to information about
the Church itself, and about other events
that must be judged in the light of Catholic
principles.
Today’s Catholic Press, however, pro
vides information on all sectors of life, con
cerning which the Catholic SHOULD BE
KNOWLEDGEABLE—Church, State, World.
A readily accessible organ of the Catholic
Press for all Catholics in the Diocese of
Savannah is THE SOUTHERN CROSS.
Because of the express declaration of the
right to information in “Pacem in Terris,”
the obligation of the Catholic to read reg
ularly his Catholic Press has been empha
sized as never before.
Peace in an orderly world can only be
achieved by the objective dissemination of
information concerning Church, State and
world, but no matter how objective, or
diffuse, the dissemination becomes, it will
avail nothing unless “every human being”
recognizes his duty to read, to know and
judge its meaning.
Since the Catholic cannot be adequately
informed except by supplementing the in
formation he receives through the secular
media by reading the Catholic Press, his
obligation to do so is clear and paramount.
INFORMED Catholics have a stake in and
a contribution to make to the peaceful world
order so ardently hoped for by all men..
Flagship Adopts Orphanage
By Father Patrick O’Conner
Society of St. Columban
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
SAIGON—"They’ve got big
hearts.” Father (Lt. Cmdr.)
William J. Biffar, C.SS.R.,
chaplain of the U.S.S. Pro
vidence, flagship of the U.S.
7th Fleet, said here of his
1,300 men. "They’ve adopted
an orphanage in Japan. They
help wherever they go.”
The light cruiser U.S.S. Pro
vidence, flying the flag of Vice
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer,
Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet,
arrived here Jan. 18 for a three-
day visit to the capital of free,
communist - threatened Viet
nam. It welcomed innumerable
visitors, ranging from leaders
of the government to wide-eyed
boys of the Salesians’ DonBos-
co school.
Father Biffar, Redemptorist
from Whitestone, L.I., N.Y.,
formerly a missionary in Bra
zil, is one of the two Catholic
chaplains on the cruiser of the
7th Fleet.
Largest naval force in the
world, the 7th Fleet has 64,000
men operating 125 ships and 650
aircraft.
"All our men are young,”
Admiral Morrer said here.
"About half of them are aged
21 or under.”
Motto of the U.S. 7th Fleet
is "Ready Power for Peace.”
The seas on which it sails wash
the shores of lands that hold
more than half the world’s pop
ulation. It’s ships pass and re
pass a long Asian coastline on
part of which communism
stands, militant and threaten
ing. The maritime provinces of
Soviet Russia’s Siberia, com
munist-ruled North Korea, Chi
na and North Vietnam form a
communist front before which
the 7th Fleet keeps watch.
Our objective is the main
tenance of peace in the area,”
Admiral Moorer said. In seek-
How Christ Lives In Us
God’s World
(By Leo J. Trese)
We are familiar with the fact
that Jesus gave us Himself
in the Holy Eucharist to be the
food of our soul. Just as the
grace of baptism, which is a
spiritual cleansing, is received
at the moment
the water is
poured upon
the head; so
also the grace
of Holy Com
munion, which
is a spiritual
nourishment ,
is received at
the moment the Sacred Host is
swallowed.
There is one great difference
between the physical food of our
body and the spiritual food of
our soul. When we consume
food for our body, our diges
tive organs change the food
into our own substance; the
food becomes a part of us,
a part of our own blood and
tissue. When we receive the
Holy Eucharist, however, we
do not change Jesus into our
selves. The process is rever
sed. We are transformed into
Jesus.
With each Holy Communion
we become progressively more
Christlike. That is, we become
more thoroughly and intimately
united to Jesus. Our soul more
clearly reflects His image,
We become more responsive to
the movements of His grace.
We become more and more
“possessed” by Jesus, so that
He can act more easily through
us for the doing of His work.
If you are one who receives
Holy Communion frequently you
may find this hard to believe.
You may be inclined to say,
“Holy Communion doesn't af
fect me that way. I don’t feel
one bit more holy than I did
a week ago, a month or a
year ago. I can’t see that
I have imporved very no-
ticably in my behavior and my
habits. If frequent Holy Com
munion is supposed to make
such a change in a person, why
hasn’t it made the change in
me? ”
In answering that question,
we must assume first of all
that ypur Holy Communions
have b$en fruitful as well as
worthy. To receive Holy Com
munion worthily we need only
to be in the state of grace. To
receive fruitfully, however,
we must receive with a cons
cious faith in the presence of our
Lord, with a genuine desire for
the graces which He will bring
to us and, above all, with love
for Him. It is expressions of
love, especially, which should
be uppermost in our mind as
we swallow the Sacred Host.
This love will not be a mere
ly sentimental love. Indeed, it
may not reflect itself in our
emotions at all. It will be rather
Catholic Hour
Repeats Series
On Teen Agers
NEW YORK (NC)—The Cath
olic Hour Radio program will
repeat on the Sundays in Feb
ruary the four-part series,
"Strangers in the House.”
The National Council of Ca
tholic Men, which produced the
program with the National
Broadcasting Company, said the
series, based on Father Gree
ley’s book of the same title, is
being repeated by popular de
mand. One of the series, "Why
They Do What They Do,” won
the 1962 Thomas Alva Edison
Foundation Award for the ra
dio program "Best portraying
America.”
The Catholic Hour is carried
from 2;30 to 3 p.m., EST, on the
NBC network.
ing that objective, his ships ful
fill others, too.
"One of our major activities
is rescue work at sea,” he
said. "We do this almost daily.
We take stricken seamen off
merchant ships for urgent sur
gical operations. We rescue
small ships in distress. We
hurry to the scene of catas
trophes to give help.”
The Providence brought 38
long tons of Operation Hand
clasp goods for Vietnam. They
included wheelbarrows and
plows, donated by Rotary Club
members, school supplies and a
shipment of 250 pounds for Sa
cred Heart orphanage, Danang.
"The young men in our fleet
do a considerable amount of
work in our people-to-people
program,” Admiral Moorer
said.
Men of the 7th Fleet refute
any idea that sailors in port
paint the town red. "But they’ll
go to work and paint an orphan
age,” Father Biffar said.
Pope Paul VI Buries The Past
It Seems to Me
JOSEPH BREIG
Tremendous events in the
Church are crowding one upon
another bewilderingly. We need
time, for example, to realize
what great changes are implied
in Pope Paul’s talk to the Roman
n o b 1 e s, in
a surrendering love. In Holy
Communion our state of mind,
ideally, is this: "Take me, be
loved Lord, and do what You
want with me. I am weak and
selfish. I really haven't very
much to offer You. Help me
to love You as I should. Make
me to do your will. Whether
I know that I am doing Your
will or not is unimportant, just
so that Your will is done in
me. Take possession of me. Use
me in any way You wish.”
If, with complete sincerity,
we can speak in this fashion
to our Lord, then we can be
very sure that Holy Commun
ion will work its change in us.
More and more we shall be ab
sorbed into Christ.
We may not "feel” the change
at all. The soul is a spirit,
and what happens in the soul
does not necessarily penetrate
to the emotions, which are
so largely physical. The ef
fects of the change also may be
outwardly imperceptible. Spiri
tual growth, like physical
growth, is a gradual process
which cannot be measured from
day to day. Nevertheless the
change and growth will be there.
Jesus will be using us, too,
for His purposes. We may see
no change in our daily routine.
We may continue to go about
our duties much as always. Yet,
faith assures us that Jesus has
taken possession of us. In and
through us He is doing His work,
however unconscious we may be
of whither He is directing us
and of what He is accomplish
ing. If our Holy Communions
are frequent and fruitful, these
results are inevitable.
It is a grand thing to re
member, in the midst of our
humdrum day, that Jesus has
united us to Himeslf; to know
that we can say, with St. Paul,
"It is now no longer I that
live, but Christ lives in me.”
which he told
them that
they must be
prepared to
give up their
titles andde-
c o r ations
because the
Church must
now forget
the past, with its Papal States,
its papal court and its pomp
and circumstance.
To us who live far from
Rome and Italy, not only in
distance, but in history and
cast of mind, there is, of
course, an element of anti
climax. We have always regard
ed the trappings of royalty and
aristocracy at the Vatican
(when we thought about them at
all) as quaint relics of an era
long dead, but somehow never
formerly buried.
WE HARDLY REMEMBER
that troops of the kingdom of
Italy, a century ago, conquer
ed the states ruled by the popes,
who then made themselves vol
untary "prisoners of the Vati
can” refusing — as Pope Paul
remarked—to accept the situa
tion. We could understand the
popes for taking that position,
but in truth we saw no reason
why a pope shoudl have an earth
ly kingdom, and all kinds of
reasons he shouldn’t, except in
the very limited sense of the
Vatican City.
Vatican City is right and it
is necessary. It is indispen
sable. As Americans or Cana
dians, or Australians, or Mexi
cans or hatever , we do not
want the pope to be subject of
any king or premier, or a
citizen of any country except the
miniature Vatican State which
belongs to all of us. With Pope
Paul, we want the pope to have
no power save the spiritual
power "of the keys,” and we
want him to be completely free
to serve mankind spiritually,
without interference from any
head of state.
VATICAN CITY is tiny, but
just the right size. It is not
large enough for anybody to
imagine that it could threaten
him, or to tempt anybody to
conquest. It can accommodate,
however, the persons and
offices needed for Church ad
ministration, and in Paul’s
words, it is a "shield and sign”
of the Holy Father’s indepen
dence from domination by any
political authority.
We like Vatican City exactly
the way it is. Indeed, we have
long seen divine Providence
working in the events which
reduced the temporal power of
the popes to the merely titular.
We have not forgetten that
Christ’s chief attraction for
mankind lies in His helpless
ness.
WE SING and frolic and ex
change gifts each year on His
birthday because He is the Al
mighty coming to us in utter
dependence. We weep on each
anniversary of His death be
cause He could not so much as
move hand or foot.
It seems to us profoundly
right, therefore, that Christ’s
vicar should similarly be ma
terially defenseless; that he
should relinquish the last pre
tense of earthly power, as Paul
VI has now done.
We remember Christ in the
garden, where He was betray
ed, telling Peter to put his
sword in its scabbard, and say
ing "Do you not know that I
could ask My Father and He
would send twelve legions of
angels?” Nor have we forgotten
Pius XII’s gentle reply to Sta
lin’s taunt about the pope hav
ing no divisions: "Tell my son
Josef that he will meet my di
visions in eternity.”
CERTAINLY our understand
ing goes out, as does Pope
Paul’s, to those in Rome who
feel a sense of shock at fac
ing squarely the fact to which
Paul pointed: that the titles and
preferences which have been
theirs for generations have
no reason-for-being. But the
time has come when they have
great reason for not-being;
when they are hampering, ra
ther than serving, the Church
in her mission to mankind
because they are outdated.
As Pope Paul said of him
self, ‘We are no longer the
temporal sovereign around
whom there gathered, in past
centuries, the social ranks to
which you belong. Before you,
the heirs and representatives of
the ancient families and lead
ing ranks of papal Rome and of
the Papal States, we now stand
empty-handed.”
The transformation of the Va
tican may be gradual or it may
be swift, but it will be sure.
Paul VI is determined upon
John XXIII’s updating of the
Church. Outmoded things must
go because, as Paul said, the
Church must enter into a "col
loquy with the modern world, ”
Out of that colloquy will come
magnificent new things, hidden
now in the counsels of God.
English Mass On TV
NEW YORK (NC)—A demon
stration of how English will
sound in the major parts of the
Mass will be broadcast on Feb.
2 over the ABC-TV network,
2 to 2:30 p.m., EST.
The program will be entitled
“The Council and the Mass” and
will examine the liturgical
changes called for by the Sec
ond Vatican Council.
John B. Mannion, executive
secretary of the National Litur
gical Conference, will be host
on the program, one of the ABC-
TV’s series called "Directions
’64.”
Play Brings Riot
VIENNA (NC)—The premier
performance here of the contro
versial play about Pope Pius
XII and nazi persecution of the
Jews, "The Deputy,” was in
terrupted by a demonstration in
the audience that brought police
to the theater.
It was another in a series of ^
incidents that ha\e accompanied
the presentation of the drama
by the German author Rolf
Hochhuth in various European
countries. The protest here took
place from the seats. The thea
ter director came onstage to
argue for the right to produce
plays on controversial subjects.
Pop<
•e John
Cited By Jews
Hart Sees Aid
For Schools
FLINT, Mich. (NC)—Sen.
Philip A. Hart told a press
conference here he thinks leg
islation eventually will be de
vised to give Federal assis
tance to nonpublic as well as
public schools.
"This is going to happen, but
I am not sure when,” the Michi
gan legislator said..
Noting the constitutional pro
blem seen in aiding church-
related schools, Hart said that
this could be resolved if the
proper formula is found.
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (NC)
—Pope John XXIII’s last ency
clical, "Pacem in Terris,” has
been more effective in creating
the climate to fight religious in- 1(
tollerance than existing legisla- *
Respect For
Non-Catholics
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.(NC)—
"A Catholic who does not have
respect for a non-Catholic is
himself not very respectable,”
Auxiliary Bishop Leonard P.
Cowley of St. Paul said here.
The prelate spoke to some
2,200 members of the Confra
ternity of Christian Doctrine
at the St. Paul archdiocesan
CCD’s 15th annual convention.
The Church today, he said,
is throwing off an " old feeling
that was close to being un
charitable against those who
were not Catholic.”
tion, a World Jewish Congress
representative declared to the
U.N. Subcommission on the
Prevention of Discrimination.
In urging the subcommission
to complete a declaration
against religious intolerance
at its present session, despite
its crowded agenda, Rabbi Perl-
zweig, the Jewish spokesman,
cited Pope John's encyclical to
illustrate the moral force that
can be exerted by a declaration. I
Unity Prayers
BLUFF POINT, Australia
(NC)—Every noon during Lent a
group of "Prayer Partners,”
including Catholics, Anglicans,
. Greek Orthodox, Methodists and
Presbyterians, will recite pri
vately a prayer for Christian
unity in response to the ringing
of the bell of St. George’s An
glican church here. The pro
gram was initiated for Lent
last year by the Rev. E. W.
Doncaster, St. George’s rec
tor.
QUESTION BOX
Role Of The Catholic Journalist
Jottings
By Barbara C. Jencks
(By David Q. Liptak)
Q. At the time of Pope Paul’s|
visit to the Holy Land earlier
this month, the word "Pa
triarch’ ’ kept occurring in the
news. What does the word mean,
and how did it originate?
A. "Patriarch” derives from
the Latin patriarcha, which
means "Head of a family” or
"ruler.” In the early Church it
was reserved for bishops of
the principal ecclesiastical
centers. Now it is used as a
title of honor and precedence,
rather than of jurisdiction.
ROME, ALEXANDRIA AND
Antioch were the original pa
triarchates. During the Council
of Chalcedon in 451, Jerusalem
and Constantinople (Byzantium)
were added to these three.
BY THE SEVENTH CENTU
RY the word patriarchate refer
red primarily to one of the four
main centers after Rome; i.e.,
Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem
and Constantinople. The pope
was acknowledged as the Pa
triarch of Rome and of the West,
of course, but these two titles
were included in his higher
rank, that of Supreme Ruler,
Teacher, and Pastor of the en
tire Church.
Though Alexandria and An
tioch antedated Constantinople,
the priority of Constantinople
became an acknowledged fact
after Rome fell from power and
the capital of the empire was
transferred to the Byzantine
Court.
SEVERAL SECONDARY pa
triarchates came into being
during early medieval times.
Among these are the Patriar
chate of Armenia (the present
patriarch is Gregory Peter XV
Cardinal Agagianian) and Ve
nice (which Pope John XXIII
held before his election to the
papacy. The Patriarchate of the
East Indies, a title now given to
the archbishop of Goa, was es
tablished by Pope Leo XIII in
1886.
SOME OF THE historic pa
triarchal dioceses are now se
parated from the Apostolic See.
Such is the case of the Eastern
Rite dissident church of Con
stantinople, whose leader con
ferred with Pope Paul VI in the
Holy Land earlier this month.
Q. Is it true that Eastern Rite
priests—I’m referring of
course to those who are in union
with the pope—can marry?
A. No. Eastern Rite priests
are not allowed to marry—but
married men can be ordained. p
Canon 70 of the Code of Orien
tal Canon Law needs: "Subdea
cons and all clerics ordained to
major orders are forbidden to
marry to the extent that accord
ing to law they become incapa
ble of contracting marriage.”
MARRIED CANDIDATES for
ordination, then, must enter into
the sacrament of matrimony be
fore reception of the subdia-
conate (which in Oriental law
is a minor order.) Widowed
priests, deacons or subdeacons
are not allowed to remarry.
IN THE UNITED STATES and
Canada today the situation is
such that only celibate or
widowed candidates are accept
ed for ordination. Nonetheless
many married Oriental priests a
came to this country after World
War II. (The majority of the
Ukrainian clergy here is mar
ried.)
WRITES Father Victor J.
Pospishil in his new commen
tary or Oriental Rite law:
"TOTAL OR absolute celi
bacy exists among the Malabar-
ians in India. . .Among the By
zantine Rite Catholics in Italy,
Greece and Turkey recently
celibate candidates only were
ordained. . .Among Romanians,
Croats, Ruthenes in the Subcar-
pathic region, Magyars (Hun
gary), Bulgarians, Armenians,
Chaldeans, the majority of the
clergy are married men.”
“It is not necessary for a
Catholic newspaper to limit it
self to publishing religious news
and comments; nor must it ar
tificially stress its confessional
and apologetic character to the
detriment of its primary func
tion of information.”
Pope Paul VI
EACH YEAR ATthis time, we
somehow feel compelled to run
up the flag for the Catholic
Press. The Catholic Press in
the minds of many is sadly
misunderstood as is the tale of
the Catholic journalist. Queries
often come from people met in
streetcars and auto races as to
what I do. I answer “write for
a newspaper”-the looks become
admiring and enthusiastic. But
this later fades in a flash when
it is discovered that I work for
a Catholic newspaper. Right
away, you read sympathy, dis
interest, dullness on the once
animated face. In other words,
the Catholic Press is a kind of
Sunday - School - type of job,
writing about dull people—none
of the four-alarm excitement
and celebrities associated with
the daily press. Yet for me,
there has been excitement,
color, glamour—all the ingre
dients of the trench-coated set.
I cannot say I have missed much
that my secular journalistic
contemporaries have enjoyed.
In fact, I think I have exper
ienced a lot more. The ex
citement and color and the four-
alarm existence has been very
much a part of my life, but
there has been a more impor
tant dimension, too. Fifteen
years ago I began my first job
with this newspaper and here I
am still. There has been a
depth and breadth. In the in
terim, I taught journalism for
years at a Catholic college.
Thus I never strayed too far
from the Catholic press arena.
Although I have little materially
to show for the fifteen years
which constitute my entire
working life, the memories are
priceless, without number and
are anything but dull, colorless,
celebrity-less ingredients the
public deems most important.
The “name” people whom I
interviewed and met have not
(Continued on Page 5)
The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH. GA.
Vol. 44
Thursday, January 30, 1964
No. 29
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