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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, March 26, 1964
The Power Of Easter
More than four decades of official atheism
and government-sponsored harassment and
persecution of religion in the Soviet Union
have undoubtedly had a highly detrimental
effect upon the religious life of millions upon
millions of Russians. But the Grace of God,
is, after all, infinitely more powerful than
the most concerted and determined efforts
of all the forces of evil to thwart its work
ings in the souls of men.
Thus, the latest reports from the U.S.S.R.
indicate that Russian officialdom is becoming
increasingly alarmed over what appears to be
not only the failure of Marxism-Leninism to
supplant religious belief, but a growing in
fluence of religion in the lives of a signi
ficant number of Russians, and that a highly
intensified program of atheistic propaganda
has been launched throughout the country.
The universal observance of the glorious
Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ can
only mean more frustration to Communist
theoreticians. For, the Doctrine that Christ
rose from the dead by His own Almighty
power, proving Himself to be the eternal
Son of God and stamping with the seal of
immutable truth everything He has revealed
—a doctrine proclaimed by hundreds of mil
lions of voices every Easter Sunday—ad
dresses itself to inquiring and thoughtful
minds everywhere, even in the heartland of
atheistic Communism.
For this doctrine—the Divinity of Christ—
countless thousands of men and women for
almost two thousand years have laid down
their lives, not by constraint, but in witness
to this belief.
Do men die for a fable or even for a
mere probability? Are they ready to stake
their earthly happiness, their fortune, their
character and reputation, and even life itself
and all that life holds most dear, for the
sake of a mere dream? Will they submit
to persecution, torture and death in testi
mony of a lie?
How is it that even though, from the very
beginning, wealth, learning, position, and
power were all ranged against them, the poor
despised followers of a Gallilean preacher
who was executed as a seditionist in the
company of two theives have conquered all
along the line?
Which is more powerful—the Love and
Compassion of Christ which conquers the
hearts and souls of men wherever it is
preached and practiced, inspiring a loyalty
and devotion impervious to all the efforts
of men, movements and powerful nations to
destroy it — or the loveless fulminations of
men whose eyes and aspirations are fixed
upon a world ruled only by the demands of
utilitarianism and the struggle for existence,
in which survival of the fittest is the su
preme achievement of men, and which are so
incapable of inspiring either loyalty or devo
tion in the hearts of most men and women
that only the threat of death can stay them
in their flight from a world for which the
human heart knows, instinctively, it was not
created?
Surely, it is these questions and their
honest answers which account for the ina
bility of Communism to destroy religion
in the nations it has swallowed, and which
herald the day when even the fierce strains
of the * ‘Internationale” will give way to the
joyful “Alleluias” of Easter.
Americans May Forget
Seriousness Of Red Threat”
By J. J. Gilbert
WASHINGTON —Today’s de
luge of news from so many
places leads Americans to for
get “the seriousness of the
communist danger,” anewpub-
lication of Congress says.
The jolting reminder follows
hard on the heels of another
Congressional document, a sup
plemental report of Soviet Rus
sian violations of treaties en
tered into since 1917. It comes
not long after the 30th anniver
sary of United States recogni
tion of the Union of Soviet So
cialist Republics.
“We must face the fact that
many more people dream of
world conquest today than did
in the days of Caesar, Genghis
Khan, Napoleon—or even Sta
lin,” the new document says.
“These people are organized
in the World Communist Move
ment with affiliated communist
parties in over 90 nations.
Khrushchev claims a formal
membership of 40 million per
sons in the international con
spiratorial organization. Many,
many more millions are fellow
travelers, sympathizers, and
collaborators with the move
ment.”
The document is volume III
of “World Communist Move
ment,” which eventually will
trace chronologically “signi
ficant events in the develop
ment of world communism from
1818 to 1957.” The stepped up
pace of this activity is reflected
in the periods covered by the
various volumes. Volume I em
braces 1818-1945; Volume II,
1946-1950 and Volume III, 1951-
1953. It is stated that “addi
tional volumes” will cover the
years 1953-57.
The chronology is being pre
pared in the Library of
Congress for use of the House
of Representatives Committee
on Un-American Activities.
Rep. Edwin E. Willis of Louis
iana, chairman of the commit
tee, says “what the communists
have been saying and doing for
the past 100 years—must be
readily available to our leaders
and policymakers, both in and
out of government.”
“Today, people are deluged
with so much news about so
many developments in so many
parts of the world that vital
facts, even of the recent past,
are easily forgotten. Today’s
headlines dim the memory not
only of those of last year, but
even of those of last week and
last month,” the congressman
points out. He adds that the
chronological study seeks to
“drive home. . .the seriousness
of the communist danger.”
The Senate Committee on the
Judiciary recently had brought
up to date a study of "Soviet
Political Agreements and Re
sults.” The study was first
made in 1955, and was updated
in 1959. Now a supplement has
been issued. The supplement
says the study has developed
that Soviet Russia has also vio
lated treaties with the Chinese
communists, “demonstrating
thereby the extent to which
political expediency determines
the durability of the pledged
Soviet word.”
In connection with the 30th
anniversary of the U. S. —
USSR treaty of recognition,
marked last November, atten
tion was drawn to three basic
things this country hoped to
gain thereby. These were that
the Soviet government would
settle $628 million in Czarist
debts to the U. S.; that Moscow
would put an end to communist
agitation in this country for the
overthrow of the U. S. govern
ment; and that Americans work
ing in the Soviet Union would be
protected from unreasonable
charges of spying and that they
would be allowed religious free
dom. None of these aims has
been realized.
Holy Communion Not A Private Act
God’s World
(By Leo J. Trese)
There is a nagging thought
which sometimes troubles the
mind of a good Catholic. Per
haps it has troubled you. “Why
is it,” you may ask yourself,
“that I receive Holy Communion
so frequently,
and yet seem
to improve so
little? Should
not this close,
intimate con
tact with our
Lord have
more effect
upon me than
it does?”
There are several possible
answers to that question. One
possibility is that you are re
ceiving Holy Communion in too
routine a fashion, without mak
ing a sufficient effort to arouse
in yourself acts of lively faith,
ardent love and humble grati
tude. Another possibility (and a
very likely one) is that you sim
ply are mistaken. You are mak
ing more spiritual progress
than you think. A third possi
bility, not so obvious, is that
you are too self-centered in
your religious life. You may be
too inclined to think in terms of
“Jesus and I” rather than in
terms of "Jesus and we.”
Our Lord did not institute the
Holy Eucharist merely for the
embellishment of individual
souls. The Holy Eucharist is
above all the sacrament of unity.
The purpose of Holy Communion
is to unite us with our Lord and,
in Him, with all whom He loves;
in other words, with our neigh
bor.
This is of the very essence
of Holy Communion, as it is of
Christianity itself; that we rea
lize our interdependence upon
one another; that we have a con
cern for one another; that we
minister to one another; in
short, that we love one another.
Holy Communion is not and
must not be an experience that
begins and ends in church. We
do not merely carry our Lord
back with us to the pew. He ex
pects us to carry Him out of the
church and into our daily lives.
He expects us to carry Him to
the people who live on our
street, to the people with whom
we work, to the people with
whom we do business and to the
friends with whom we recreate.
If you feel that your Holy Com
munions are having little effect
upon your personal life, you
might ask yourself, "How effec
tively do I bear Christ to
others?”
For example, have you lately
visited someone who is sick?
Not a friend or relative to whom
you are obligated, but a neigh
bor or acquaintance who has
no claim at all upon you (except
the claim of Christ)? Have you
lately visited someone who is
lonely, perhaps an aged person
who has been pretty much for
gotten by the world? Have you
lately offered to take some
housebound person shopping, or
to church, or to visit friends?
Have you lately offered to ba
bysit for the mother of a large
Dirge For The Reds
It Seems to Me
JOSEPH BREIG
There is a note of despera
tion in the propaganda of the
communists of late. In a way,
you feel a bit sorry for them,
because after all they are fel
low human beings, capable of
feeling dis
family so that she might enjoy
a rare evening out with her
husband? Have you lately writ
ten a letter which you did not
“owe” to someone whose day
was brightened because you took
the trouble to think of him or
her? Did you lately invite into
your home for an after-school
snack the neglected children of
that working mother down the
street? Did you lately give your
shoulder, willingly and unhur-
redly, for someone to cry on?
This last, incidentally, is an
apostolate from which many
of us shrink—the apostolate of
listening. It is such a simple
act of charity. Yet, as the hap
less one pours out his troubles
in great detail, we fret and fid
get and think of all the things
we could be doing. We listen
with but half an ear and end the
conversation as quickly as we
can. We do not advert to the
fact that, by attention and sym
pathy, we afford the unfortunate
person a brief respite from his
(or her) burdens and give him,
perhaps, the courage to carry on
for a little longer. We do not
advert to the fact that, chronic
complainer though this person
may be, it really is Christ to
whom we are listening.
This has not been intended
as an exhaustive list of the
Christ-bearing paths that are
open to us. The examples pre
sented are only a hint of the
really effective way in which we
make our thanksgiving for our
last Holy Communion — and our
preparation for the next.
appointment ,
loneliness
and the pain
of failure.
Fifteen
years ago,
they were
sublime-
ly, arrogantly
confident that
they were riding the wave of
the future. Their evil idol Sta
lin struck terror into the heart
of the world. At times, reli
gion and democracy and free
dom seemed done for.
EUROPE WAS DOOMED, so
it appeared. Stalin and his se
cret police and his dungeons
would take possession of the
energy and genius and produc
tive power of the Germans, the
French, the Italians, the Bel
gians, the Dutch, the Spanish,
the Portuguese.
From Spain it would be but a
step into Africa and exploita
tion of the enormous natural
resources of the African conti
nent. South America then would
fall, and North America would
have the choice of capitulation
or extermination.
IT IS DIFFICULT to put one
self in imagination back into
that period. But at least we
can remember how black were
the skies, how menacing the to
morrows.
Millions of us were prepared
to go into the catacombs—ex
cept that in today’s world, there
aren’t any catacombs; there is
no place to hide. The pursuers
can find you no matter where
you go.
It looked like the end of the
line for those who believed in
God and human decency.
THEN STRANGE and won
derful things began to happen.
The war, it turned out, had not
taken the heart out of the wes
tern world.
Yes, Italy had more commu
nists than any other nation save
the Soviet Union; but when the
showdown came, the Italian peo
ple chose Christian Democracy,
and most of the Italian commu
nists proved to be “commu
nists” in quotation marks. They
didn’t believe in communism;
they were using the Communist
Party as a means of register
ing protest votes.
Yes, Greece was prostrate—
but not spiritually. As Ameri
can aid flowed in, Greece re
turned to brave and vibrant
life.
AND SO IT WAS with Turkey,
France, Germany. Before our
eyes we can see the economic
and political miracle of a Eu
rope booming as never before;
a Europe strong and self-reli
ant, a Europe in which the com
munists are nearly ignored, as
something that can be left for
the dead past to bury.
No longer, furthermore, are
nations like Poland, Czecho
slovakia and Hungary mere
slaves of Moscow. More and
more, independence stirs
among them. Stalin used to
stomp on them; Khrushchev as
siduously woos them.
EVERY DAY in almost every
part of Europe, there is a
growth of freedom and a weak
ening of doctrinaire marxism.
Even in the Soviet Union itself,
this is so.
Back in the 18th and 19th
centuries, an atheist could get
a shocked audience almost any
old time. Bob Ingersoll used to
stand on the platform, watch
in hand, giving God one minute
to strike him dead.
WHEN GOD didn’t do it, In
gersoll imagined that he had
proved that God doesn’t exist.
Apparently it didn’t occur to
him that maybe God loved Bob
Ingersoll the way you love your
small son even when he is ob
streperous. After all, he’ll grow
up; he’ll learn.
u
Misere
Jottings
By Barbara C. Jencks
It was one of those restless,
tasteless, listless days in mid-
Lent. I needed something to read
which would bring starch and
meaning to it all. I paged dis
interestedly among the Lenten
books which came to my desk.
I needed something out of the
routine, something which would
take me by the heart strings
and catapult me into the reality
that the Passion was now and
here. Some words to remind
once more that all the suffering,
griefs, sorrows around me were
part of that one Passion. Some
how this Lent hadn’t been the
usual kind with self-inflicted
penance and fervor was at a low
ebb. I had become lost in the
pains of others—one dying of
cancer long and painfully; the
domestic crisis of a friend who
had lost her home; the inability
to somehow say encouraging
words to another in personal
crisis and then there is the per
sonal pain, physical and mental
inescapable. Finally, the right
book came along and it was more
meaningful than any other
Lenten book had been for me
since Caryll Houselander’s
“Way of theCross,” “Misere,”
a series of meditations on etch
ings of Georges Rouault by
Frank and Dorothy Getlein is
one of the finest series of medi
tations I have come upon in
many a day. It was what I needed
to jolt me from a listless and a
tasteless attitude toward life
and Lent and people and the
Passion. It is the ageless story
but it hit the main artery to the
heart.
* * *
ROUAULT has always been
one of my favored artists and
his works again underlined my
beliefs in the power of the vis
ual artist. The writer painfully
reaches into his mind for words
whereas a painter with one
stroke of a brush accomplishes
what hundreds of words care
fully selected and painfully re
arranged cannot do. The Get-
leins are to be congratulated,
however, for their artistic arti
culateness in the meditations
series without which the etch
ings would not have been half
so meaningful to the dry and
thirsty of heart. Rouault’s mes
sage was one immediately re
cognized. It was what Caryll
Houselander had said in her
stations that we all meet our
selves on the Way of theCross.
Every human being alive is on
the road to death, that we all
participate today in the Pas
sion that it was not for one time
and one place and one day and
to One Man alone. It happens
hourly, daily to each of us, that
Christ suffers in our human
nature still and will until the
end of time. Thus, there is rea
son for my suffering nun friend;
my friend who lost her home;
the co-workers and their pri
vate worlds of crisis; my own
pain. All fill up the Passion
again. I need to be reminded
of this—to be hit over the head
with this reality each Lent es
pecially and to have it said
(Continued on Page 5)
Chaplain, Medal
Winner, Dead
WORCESTER, Mass (NC)—
Requiem Mass for Father Jo
seph T. O’Callahan, S. J., the
only chaplain ever to win the
Congressional Medal of Honor,
was offered (March 21) in St.
Joseph’s chapel on the campus
of Holy Cross College here.
Father O’Callahan, a faculty
member at Holy Cross, died of
There is a plaintive note in
the repeated appeals of the So
viet Communist Party for more
oomph in the campaign against
religion because religious be
lief keeps increasing, even
among party members. But
anti - religious tub-thump
ing simply bores people nowa
days.
The communists, of course,
can and probably will go on
causing trouble wherever
possible—in Vietnam, in Afri
ca, in Latin America, at the
Berlin wall. But they are ana-
cronisms now; the world has
passed them by. When they
awake to that fact, they’ll have
to run like anything to catch up
with the bandwagon of mankind.
Mass For Missioners
complications from hyperten
sion and arteriosclerosis. He
was 58.
The priest’s death came
(March 18) on the eve of the
19th anniversary of the incident
aboard the crippled aircraft
carrier Franklin which won him
the Congressional Medal and
caused his skipper to call him
“the bravest man I ever knew.”
VERONA, Italy (NC)--The bi
shop and the Catholics of Vero
na offered their sympathy and
solidarity with the missioners
expelled from southern Sudan
at a Mass in Verona’s cathe
dral. The vast majority of the
expelled missioners are mem
bers of the Twin congregations 1
known as Verona Fathers and
Verona Sisters.
Bishop Giuseppe Carraro of
Verona celebrated the Mass
before a crowded congregation
in whch there were 130 mem
bers of the two missionary so
cieties.
Conventions Planned
Church-State
Challenge
WASHINGTON (NC) — The
chief sponsor in the House of
President Johnson’s proposals
to fight poverty has indicated
he will offer amendments to
spell out limitations on parti
cipation of church groups.
The statement was made by
Rep. Phil M. Landrum of Geor
gia during hearings (March 19)
before the House Education and
Labor Committee.
The issue arose in question
ing by Rep. Charles E. Goodell
of New York of Anthony J. Cele-
brezze, Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare, and Wil
lard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor.
FRIBOURG, Switzerland (NC)
—The International Catholic
Movement for Intellectual and
Cultural Affairs—a branch of
Pax Romana—will consider the
human problems of economic
development when it holds its
assembly this year in Bombay,
India, December 8 to 15.
The assembly will follow the
38th International Eucharistic
Congress scheduled for that
city.
Pax Romana also announced,
that the fifth International Con
gress of Catholic Jurists will
be conducted in Salmanca,
Spain, in September or October
1965. The jurists will discuss
freedom of religion.
Diocese To Add
5,000 Pupils
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (NC)
—The St. Augustine diocese will
open nine new grade schools, a
new high school and add rooms
to ten other schools to acco
mmodate 5,000 new pupils next
year.
Father Mortimer Danaher,
school board chairman, in mak
ing the announcement, criti
cized moves in other parts of
the country to cut back Catho
lic schooling.
“Our forefathers built our
Catholic schools out of sacri
fices much greater proportion
ately than those asked of us
today,” said Father Danaher.
The diocese’s elementary and
secondary schools enroll about
28,000 pupils.
“The Catholic people of today
have continued to build grade
and high schools and will so
continue if they have courage
ous and farseeing leadership,”
he said.
Still Persecuted
MADRID (NC)—Despite the
impressions tourists may car
ry home with them, the Catholic
Church in Yugoslavis is still
harried by government restric
tions and persecutions, it is
reported here by Alianza del
Credo, which describes itself
as an information agency of
the persecuted Church.
In the Adriatic resort cen
ter of Dubrovnik, for example,
a visitor may find churches V|
opened, holy days celebrated,
and the Church apparently func
tioning normally.
But this, said the news agen
cy, is a show intended to im
press visitors to Yugoslavia,
the only Iron Curtain country
open to foreign tourists. In
reality, the Church has neith
er the funds nor the freedom
necessary to carry out its min
istry.
Fatima Anniversary
College Loan
WASHINGTON (NC) — The
Federal Housing and Homes
Finance Agency has approved a
$1,168,000 loan for Marymount
College, Boca Raton, Fla., to
help finance a dormitory for 206
students.
FATIMA, Portugal (NC)—
Augustin Cardinal Bea, S. J.,-
will preside May 12 at the 47th
anniversary of the first appari
tion at Fatima. He will dedicate
a chapel to St. Stephen built by
Hungarian Catholics in honor o
Josef Cardinal Mindszenty,
Primate of Hungary.
QUESTION BOX
(By David Q. Liptak)
Q. In a nationally syndicated
column on March 4th — I read
it in a New York newspaper —
this statement was made: “I
believe. . .that a war on poverty
is a fake. Christ said: ‘The
poor ye will always have with
you.’ I will take his word for
it.” Could Catholic theology
condone such a statement?
< A. To quote Christ in order
to substantiate an argument de
risive of war on poverty is ir
rational. The allegation that the
war against poverty is “a fake”
because Christ said ‘ 'The poor
ye will always have with you”
is a gross distortion of the
Biblical text.
THE PASSAGE cited appears
in St. Matthew (26:11), St. Mark
(14:7) and St. John (12:8). In
St. John it reads: “For the poor
you have always with you, but
you do not always have me.”
The words were spoken by
Christ at Bethany. Mary, the
sister of Martha, had just an-
nointed the Saviour’s feet with
precious oils. Some who had
witnessed the anointing — Judas
was one of them — took to
grumbling, complaining that the
money spent for the oils could
better have been given to the
poor.
TAKEN IN their context, the
words don’t even remotely per
tain to the doctrine of almsgiv
ing. Christ’s intention is simply
to emphasize that opportunities
to aid the poor will never be
wanting, whereas the privilege
of anointing his incarnate flesh
would soon be no longer.
AS FOR HELPING the poor
Christ’s doctrine is explicit
from such texts as St. Matthew
5:42: “To him who asks of thee,
give; and from him who would
borrow of thee, do not turn
away.”
TO SAY THAT the Christian
should not engage in a war
against poverty because the
poor will always be with us, is
somewhat like saying that the
cancer crusade is a “fake”
because the Bible states that
illness is a consequence of sin.
VJ The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH. GA.
Vol. 44
Thursday, March 26, 1964
No. 37
Published weekly except the last week in July and the
last week in December by The Southern Cross, Inc.
Subscription price $5.00 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