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Vol. 44, No. 3V 10c Per Copy — $5 A Year WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH The Day The Lord Has Made By ST. JOSEPH’S DAY AT LITTLE SISTERS—Mrs. Patricia Cullum (r.) and Father Law rence Lucree (center) act as waiters, while Bishop McDonough fills plates for guests at Home of Little Sisters of the Poor, Savannah, on St. Joseph’s Day. Other priests from Savannah and surrounding area also assisted in serving annual banquet. Sudan’s Christians Fear Mass Slaughter KAMPALA, (NC)—Uganda— The half million Christians in the southern Sudan fear that /massacres are not far off for them, now that all their mis sionaries from abroad have been forced out by the Moslem government. This widespread apprehen sion is reported by refugees ar riving in this neighboring capital. They brought another report that may indicate a new pattern in Sudan’s drive against Christians. It is that mission- ers will soon be expelled from northern Sudan, where the tiny Christian body has not yet been touched by government repres sion. (In Verona, Italy, two expel led mission prelates told news men they expected a campaign of genocide, or mass killings, now that the southern Sudan has been cleared of outside witness es. Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi, Apostolic Vicar of Juba, and Msgr. Domenico Ferrara, Apostolic Prefect of Mopoi, said: (“We Catholic missioners BISHOP S OFFICE 225 Abercorn Street Savannah, Georgia Dearly Beloved in Christ: Our Church is intimately connected with sacrifices be cause Christ, the Savior of Mankind, has told us "If you will be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me." The cross is a sign of spiritual victory fabricated with generous but demanding sacrifices. During this holy season of Lent, we have afforded, almost innumerable, occasions of evaluating the priceless treas ury of Our Holy Faith. The lessons depicted in the words of sacred scripture intimately touch our lives. We know that the life of Christ upon earth was replete with acts of sacrifice interspersed with love and benediction for all mankind. We cannot therefore, be insensible to the neces sity of praying, of fasting and of performing good works. Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights as a pre paration for bringing you and me the ultimate of all spiritual joys, the holy sacrifice of the Mass. We are ever indebted to Christ, Our Eucharistic King, for refreshing our spiritual thirst with this divine deposit of our Holy Faith. As we prepare to welcome the Risen Christ on Easter Day, we must believe in this glorious miracle with the faith of a child. The first resurrection is again repeated so that all men will be enabled to rise up with Christ to a new life born in sacrifice and love. Surely, too, we can say with a holy heart and a dedicated purpose, the victory over the cross has not been in vain. In keeping with the true notion of Easter, we approach you to help us carry out Christ’s work upon earth. Is there a more cherished duty than that of giving love to those who stand so close to God through the work of Catholic Charity. Our children at St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s Homes look to you for help. The poor and the needy ask you to extend a cup of water in His Divine Name. Catholic Charities give all of us an excellent opportunity of sharing in all the mira cles of Christ. On Easter Sunday, please be generous to the Charity Collection just as Our Christ has been to you. Envelopes will be distributed to you for this special collection. A gift of ten dollars from every wage earner will enable us to continue to bring the charity of our Church to all those who look to you and to me for help. If I can estimate your charity on Easter Sunday according to the measure of your generosity in the past, I am confident that our work of charity will be sustained and richly supported. Begging the Risen Christ to bless you and your loved ones and promising you a special intention in my masses and prayers, I am, Devotedly yours in Christ, Bishop of Savannah. deported from the Sudan follow ing a decision taken by the Coun cil of Ministers at Khartoum on February 26, 1964, affirm that the reason the Sudanese govern ment has made us leave the country and the reason it has placed severe restrictions on the movements of foreign mer chants who are still there is that it does not want any witnesses to the measures of violent re pression and reprisal which the Arab police and soldiers have already started to adopt against the innocent populations of the closed districts’ and which are in the technical form of geno cide.’’ (The “closed districts’’ leftover from the former Anglo-Egyptian administration include the entire southern Su dan. No foreigners may enter them without express govern ment permission.) Those here who expect vio lence on a wide scale point to the systematic way in which the Sudanese government is sealing the southern provinces from "foreign eyes," a term used by officials. The expulsion of mis sionaries from outside, both Catholic and Protestant, was accompanied by an order to foreign traders forbidding them to travel except within three towns. The government’s intent to use terror and death has already been revealed in individual in stances. One expelled bishop said that 15 Catholics had died from tortures after imprison ment in recent weeks. A report ed method of torture is to apply pepper to the faces and wounds of those already seriously injured by lashings. Requiem For Archbishop Gercke, 89 TUCSON, Ariz. (NC)—Death severed a link with Arizona’ pioneer statehood days when it claimed 89-year-old Arch bishop Daniel J. Gercke here Solemn Requirm Mass for the prelate who served 37 years as the third Bishop of Tucson be fore his retirement in 1960 was offered (March 24) in St Augustine’s cathedral here. James Francis Cardinal Me Intyre, Archbishop of Los An geies, presided as the final homage was paid the prelate who gave 63 years to the priest hood. Tucson’s Bishop Francis J. Green, who succeeded Arch bishop Gercke in 1960, offered the Mass and Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Manning of Los An geies gave the sermon. Archbishop Gercke died (March 19) at the cathedral rectory here where he had re sided in his retirement. Abbot Alban Boultwood, O.S.B. Acknowledgment is made to Helicon Press, Baltimore, Maryland, for permission to ex cerpt the following chapter from the recently published ALIVE TO GOD. 4c # * The great theme, constantly recurring in the Church’spray er in these days of Paschaltide, 'This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Ps., 117:24). Easter Day is in a special way the "Lord’s Day," and will al ways be the center of the Church’s life on earth. Every year will turn around it; even every week will have its Dies Dominica, its feast of the Re surrection each Sunday, from which all our life will flow. The great homilies in the breviary try to express some thing of the unique character of Easter, this feast of feasts, solemnity of solemnities. They point out its all-embracing uni versality. Other feasts are feasts of the living, but this is a feast both of the living and of the dead, of all those holy souls who had passed through the portals of death, but await ed the coming of Christ to open for them the gates of heaven. is the feast both of angels and men, who will fill by their redemption the sad spaces in the heavenly choirs. On our earth itself, it is the feast both of saint and of sinner, the vo cation to glory and to redemp tion. But above all, Easter is the feast of our Lord Jesus Christ himself; his supreme manifes tation and victory. It is his hour." And even if we our selves, in our dull and sinful clay, yet know something of Easter joy, what must have been the joy of the risen Christ himself? His humanity now wholly transfused and trans formed by the beatific vision, his mission of divine mercy and love now perfectly fulfilled, his victory over sin won, his holy kingdom established on earth, his Godhead proclaimed for ever in his miracle of the Re surrection. No failure or sins of ours can ever destroy this vic tory of Christ, and the supreme sign of his victory is the Re surrection, perogative of God alone. In the other miracles of Christ, although they were all of course effected by his divine power, he chose to make use in some way his humanity: his healing touch, his word of po wer, the sacramental symbo lism of human senses and signs for our instruction and to fore shadow the sacraments of faith. But in the Resurrection, the human body of Christ lay life less in the grave; its sacrifi cial oblation was completed, "it is consummated.” Now, for all other men, death puts an end to their doing and being; we even speak of them in the past—"he was," no longer "he is.’’-^iLat with Christ, when his human mortality has rendered its sacrifice to the full, when all human life and power is expended, then it is that he says Resurgam, "1 will arise,” in his own divine power. Lord of life and death, eternal God and son of the living God, he mani fests himself most clearly, most essentially, through his death and resurrection. The sealed tomb, the special guards, the crowds summoned by the Sanhedrin to witnes s his death his end, must instead bear witness to his eternal life, his unceasing beginning. It is to this that we pledge our faith as we mark the paschal candle with his cross and say those triumphant words: "Christyes terday and today, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, his are the seasons and the ages, to him to glory and dominion through all the ages of eternity” (Easter vigil li turgy). The lumen Christi, the light of Christ that shines forth at his resurrection, is first of all the radiance of his Godhead, to which we give our faith for ever. But it is also the light of the divine truth that Christ came into the world to teach us. For the light of Easter tells us first, that God loves us with an ^,r>|inite love, and that because ' of this love he sent his only be gotten Son to save us. And that this Son most faithfully and per fectly fulfilled this mission by his passion, death and resur rection; that he redeemed us, and called us to his perfect light. This is the great call of Easter, our great vocation to the risen life. “If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col. 3:1). Can we do this? Can we live this new life truly with him? There are probably many ways in which we ought to con sider humbly and carefully this question, with sorrow for the past and amendment for the future. But, at Easter time, isn’t the real answer: "Of course we can." All our Easter joy arises because this newness of life is precisely Christ’s own Easter gift to us, a victory that he has won in us and for us. It is for this that he has enlight ened us with the light of faith, cleansed and created us anew with the water of baptism, sealed us with his holy oils, nourished us with his own liv ing Body and Blood, the very pledge and substance of eternal life. During the Easter vigil, the deacon, after he has carried the pa'schal candle into the church, sings the Exultet, in which he refers to this Easter night as a kind of sacrament: "this is the night which deliv ers all who believe in Christ from the darkness of sin and worldly vice, and restores them to grace and holiness.” Our true Easter joy, therefore, is not a matter of some spiritual thrill, or even, mainly of good resolutions. Many people never do feel much religious emotion, especially at the great festivals. But the essential fact of Easter is beyond the senses, since it is sacramental, and has its ef fects deep in the soul, where Christ enters with his saving grace, to consecrate and sanc tify. By this gift of the risen Sav ior in our soul, we are called to live eternal life, risen life, here and now upon earth; to be heavenly minded, not earth- continued on Page 3) Savannah April 10, 11, 12 DCCW Convention Speakers Named Right Reverend Monsignor John C. Knott and Mrs. Joseph A. McCarthy will speak at the Twenty-fifth Annual convention of the Savannah Diocesan Coun cil of Catholic Women. The three day meeting will be held at the DeSoto Hotel, Savannah, April 10, 11 and 12. Monsignor Knott will be the guest speaker at the Civic Night Reception. A native of Connecticut, Mon signor Knott was ordained in 1939. He has been engaged in parish work as an assistant and administrator and also has ser ved as a chaplain in the United States Navy. He has done graduate work at the Catholic University of Am erica in the field of marriage and the family and has worked extensively in the promotion of the Cana Conference Move ment in Connecticut. Monsignor Knott was full time director of the Marriage and Family Apostolate of the Arch diocese of Hartford for eleven years. He is the author of nu merous articles, among them the weekly syndicated column, "Everyman’s Family." Monsignor Knott has been the director of the Family Life Bu reau N.C.W.C. since 1961. He was elevated to the rank of Domestic Prelate with the title of Right Reverend Monsignor, December, 1962. Mrs. McCarthy, president of the National Council of Catholic Women will be the guest speak er at the banquet, Saturday, April 11. Mrs. McCarthy received the title of President of the Nation al Council of Catholic Women following her election at the NCCW national convention, No vember, 1962. This title came U. S. Government Official to her after many years of ac tive participation in a wide variety of offices in organiza tions, ranging from her parish (Continued on Page 2) Disputes Stand In WASHINGTON (NC) — The theory that Federal aid to church-related schools would violate the principle of Church- State separation was assaulted here by a top U. S. Government official. In the current controversy over U. S. aid to education, Un der Secretary of Labor John F. Henning said opponents of such assistance to parochial and other private schools con tend that the first amendment of the Constitution is the chief ob stacle. * ‘The first amendment was designed by the foundling fath ers to prevent establishment of a kept church in this country and it has worked effectively,’’ Henning said. Some forms of Federal aid to church-related schools would be valid, he said, if the amendment’s constitu tional principle of separation of Church and State was the only hurdle in the path. Henning, speaking (March 22) at the annual Communion Breakfast of the Men of St. John's, an organization of fa thers of students, and the alum ni association of St. John’s Col lege High School, characterized the Catholic school system as "the jewel of Catholicism in the United States." Church-State School Issue He denounced proposals ran ging from cutting grades to do ing away entirely with Ca tholic elementary schools. The Labor Department official ack nowledged that in certain localities some economie s must be practiced in Catholic schools, but he insisted that curtailing the system is not the answer. He declared that the Catholic Church in this country will begin to decline if the Ca tholic school system is aban doned. From the earliest days, Hen ning said, education in this country has been rooted in church-related schools. He said it is unfortunate that Protes tantism to a great extent aban doned the field of higher edu cation, clearing the path for widespread secularism. It has cost Catholics billions mrs. McCarthy Dedicates Hospital Chapel His Excellency Bishop Tho mas J. McDonough dedicated the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Milledgeville State Hospital, on Thursday, March 19th. The Chapel is the Catholic portion of the "Chapel of All Faiths” which was recently constructed at the Hospital. More than thirty priests from throughout the State of Georgia attended the rites. The official representative of the Archdiocese of Atlanta was Monsignor Joseph G. Cas sidy, Vicar General. of dollars and many years of sacrifice to build the present school system, Henning said, while additional millions are needed yearly to maintain it. But the system as it exists to day is well worth the cost, since more men trained in Ca tholic schools are in the main stream of American life than ever before in history, he de clared. Henning said that since the end of World War II enrollment in Catholic schools has increas ed 129%, compared to an en rollment increase of 69% in the nation’s public schools. Henning, the father of seven children and an alumnus of St. Mary’s (Calif.) College, classified himself as an ardent opponent of the idea that paro chial schools create Catholic ghettos. Bishop To Present Altar Boy Awards For the fourth consecutive year Bishop Thomas J. McDon ough will honor the outstanding altar boys of the Diocese. On April 19th he will present the Vianney Award at Saint John’s Seminary, Savannah, to approximately two hundred boys chosen by their pastors as the outstanding altar boys of their parishes. The Vianney award program began four years ago in an effort to show recognition to the young men of the diocese who serve God at the altar. Bishop McDonough had long been concerned in seeing awards given to the children of the diocese for scholarship, athletics and leadership while this most important part of a boy's life went unrecognized. In 1961 che awards were given at Saint John’s Seminary to one hundred and forty boys. The following two years saw the awards given in various cities of the diocese because of the building program then in progress at the seminary. When the building program was completed, last year, the program returned to its original home. Last year a new facet was added to the program, the parent’s entertainment program. For the first time the par ents of the boys receiving the awards were invited to spend the afternoon and evening prior to the granting of the awards at the seminary. An interesting program of activities was arranged for them while their boys ran the length and breath of the grounds or played in various athletic contests con ducted by the seminarians. This dual program will again by held this year with invi tations being sent to proud parents sometime during the coming week.