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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, April 23, 1964
The Altar Boy Awards
Last Sunday 172 boys from parishes
throughout the Diocese received from His Ex
cellency, Bishop McDonough, the St. John
Vianney Medal and certificates citing them
as “Altar Boys of Distinction.’’ The South
ern Cross congratulates them and their par
ents.
The Award is not lightly conferred, nor
the boys chosen haphazardly. The Saint
John Vianney Award is given for excellence
in the service of God’s altar.
To rise faithfully at 5:30 in the morning
in order to serve the 6:15 Mass requires
not only self-sacrifice on the part of an
altar boy and his parents, but devotion to
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Only a spirit of dedication and determi
nation moves a boy to attend altar boy prac
tice every week when he could perhaps be
playing shortstop for the neighborhood base
ball team, or to doggedly pursue the mem
orization of the latin responses of the Mass,
while the rest of the family relaxes before
the television set.
And the reverence with which he carries
out his duties before the altar is almost al
ways simply the reflection of his reverence
for the God he knows he is serving.
An altar boy’s neatness of appearance,
and the crispness of his freshly laundered
and pressed cassock and surplice, attest to
the sacrifices so many mothers make in order
that their sons occupy the honored place of
acolyte at Mass. And his prompt arrival for
an early morning Mass is very often the
result of his father’s willingness to get out of
bed on the one day he might sleep late, in
order to drive his boy to church.
The Saint John Vianney Award is con
ferred to honor these qualities of self-
sacrifice, dedication, fidelity, and rever
ence on the part of the altar boys and their
parents.
It is, or should be, a cherished honor and
one that is indicative of the much greater
reward that God has in store for those who
love and serve Him.
Sudan
Issues “Black Book”
On Missionaries
KAMPALA, Uganda (NC) —
The government of the neigh
boring Sudan has issued a Black
Book detailing 40 alleged
crimes committed by Christian
missionaries in an attempt to
justify the expulsion of all mis
sionaries from its southern
provinces in early March.
ernment to justify its action to
the outside world.
Three hundred foreign mis
sionaries, most of them Catho
lic, were expelled from the sou
thern Sudan on a variety of
charges. The main allegation
brought by the Moslem-domin
ated government was that the
Christians fomented revolt am
ong the southern Negroes
against the Arab north.
However, five priests tried
last month in Wau, a provin
cial capital in southern Sudan,
on these charges were found
not guilty. The Black Book is
seen by observers here as a
new attempt by the Sudan gov-
In mid-April a Vatican
Radio broadcast criticized the
attempts of the Sudanese gov
ernment to justify its action.
'‘These declarations,” said
the broadcast, "are intended to
justify a measure which has
deeply shaken public opinion and
to give an appearance of legi
timacy to a measure which in
stead is a violation of inter
national law and fundamental
human rights.”
Among the “crimes” enum
erated in the Black Book were
such actions as teaching cate
chism, preaching against the
government decision to change
the sabbath from Sunday to Fri
day (the Moslem holiday), bap
tizing and distributing alms.
One missionary was accused of
“trading without a license” (he
sold a pair of shorts), two others
of “trading drugs without a li
cense” (they gave pills to a
sick person).
The Black Bookdoes not men
tion that 30 of the 40 alleged
crimes were never brought to
court and that most of those
tried in court led to acquittals.
The only priests left in the
southern Sudan are 25 native
priests and one native bishop.
There are about 30 native Pro
testant missionaries and two
bishops. Reports reaching here
say many of these may not leave
their homes. There are about
400,000 Catholics in the region
and more than 100,000 Protes
tants, out of a total population
of 4 million.
The real reason for the anti-
Christian campaign conducted
by the Sudanese government
appears to be contained in its
slogan: “One language (Arabic),
One religion (Islam), and one
country.”
Saigon Holds 267
As “Collaborators”
By Father Patrick O'Connor
Society of St. Columban
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
SAIGON, Vietnam—Two hun
dred and sixty-seven “colla
borators” with the late Presi
dent Ngo dinh Diem’s govern
ment are under arrest in Viet
nam, according to Prime Min
ister Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh’s
office here.
A breakdown of this total
which was compiled April 14,
shows 56 persons about to be
brought before the revolution
ary court created by decree
last Feb. 28. One of these is
ailing Ngo dinh Can, youngest
brother of the late President
whose trial began April 16.
Thirty-one others have like
wise been definitely commit
ted for trial by the same court.
These include military offi
cers. Thirty-nine more Army
men are held, some still under
investigation, by the security
section of the Army. One hun-
dren twenty-four persons now
under arrest are to be inves
tigated on charges of illegally
acquired assets. Seventeen per
sons are to be freed because
their innocence has been es
tablished.
I asked the Prime Minister
at his press conference April
12 how many had been arrest
ed since the Nov. 1 coup d’etat
and how many still are detained.
Figures were not immediately
available but foregoing statis
tics were given on April 15.
Different government agencies
hold prisoners at different
times apparently. The Ministry
of the Interior, which informed
this correspondent it had 164
under detention on charges con
nected with the former govern
ment April 3, apparently had
193 eleven days later.
The Prime Minister said:
“We have set up a revolution
ary court which will try all
Joy In Religion
God’s World
(By Leo J. Trese)
How would you classify your
attitude towards religion — as
legalistic or as Christocentric?
A person who has a legalistic
attitude towards religion sees
religion as a complex of regu
lations, a se
ries of com
mands and
prohibitions.
Believe these
truths — or
else! Assist
at Mass, pray
and receive
the sacra
ments — or
else! Do not lie, steal, hate or
fornicate—or else! The crucial
question always is, ' 'Is it a sin
or isn’t it?”
A legalistic orientation to
wards religion makes for a
plodding and a joyless sort of
spiritual life. It is a spiritual
life which is largely sterile, too,
because the practice of charity
is so narrowly limited. The
legalistic Catholic does what he
has to do. He avoids what he has
to avoid. Having done that, he
has done everything.
The Christocentric Catholic
builds his religious life on the
one overwhelming truth that
God, loving us with an everlast
ing love, has sent His own Son
into the world to make that love
known to us and to unite us to
Himself. Made one with Christ
in baptism, we live joyfully and
confidently as God’s beloved
children. Laws and regulations
become almost incidental. They
are important, yes; but impor
tant as opportunities to express
our love for God by fulfilling
our nature as His children.
Conscious of God’s unwav
ering love for us and of our inti
mate union with Christ, our zeal
and charity know no bounds. We
feel a concern for others. We
have eyes which are sensitive in
detecting the needs of others and
a spirit which is generous in
ministering to those needs.
We do not quake at the thought
of hell nor become discouraged
by our occasional failures. The
memory that “God loves me”
beats like a life-giving pulse
in the depth of our being. Know
ing that God has gone to such
extreme lengths to bring us to
Himself, we are confident that
God will not let us easily escape
Him. If we but do our best,
however poor that best may be
by man’s reckoning, God’s
never-slackening grace will
draw us on to that final ecstatic
embrace with Himself.
If our own attitude towards
religion has been a legalistic
one, the fault may lie to some
extent with our early religious
training. In times past, re
ligious teaching did tend to cast
itself too narrowly in a “do and
don’t” mold. Bible history and
catechism were two distinct
subjects. The catechism itself
was presented as a series of
dry truths to be memorized like
theorems in geometry, rather
than as a grand unfolding of the
wonder and beauty of God and
of His loving commerce with
men. The Creed, the command
ments and the sacraments were
taught as separate divisions of
(Continued on Page 5)
"IS THIS RELIGIOUS PROBLEM REALLY OUR CONCERN ?'
What One Death Means
It Seems to Me
JOSEPH BREIG
There is deep, deep meaning
in the death of a young white
Presbyterian minister who was
accidentally killed in a demon
stration for Negro rights in
Cleveland.
flowing from his nature; and the
rights are “universal, in
violable and inalienable.”
my
the
can
un
in
these people.” The court is to
complete trials within three
months, he stated. He declared
that every accused person is
entitled to be “judged by due
process of law.”
He added: “We stand
against the assassinations and
acts of revenge that took place
after the Nov. 1 revolution.”
As far as this correspondent
knows, the only assassinations
that immediately followed the
Nov. 1 coup were those of
President Diem and his bro
ther Ngo dinh Nhu. According
to his press officer, the Prime
Minister has declined to say
that he had these specifically
in mind.
(His statement about “assas
sinations and acts of revenge
did not appear in the official
Vietnam news agency report of
the press conference, nor in the
two English language Saigon
dailies, nor in U. S. wire ser
vice reports.)
T o
mind,
meaning
best be
derstood
the context of
Pope J ohn
XXIII’s last
encyclical,
P a c e m
in Terris
(Peace on Earth).
Pope John began by saying,
with the force of his wonderful
simplicity, that peace can be
firmly established ' ‘only if the
order laid down by God is duti
fully observed.”
HE PROCEEDED then to note
that even if we go no further
than to look at the nature of hu
man beings, we can discover the
central principles of the divine
order necessary for peace.
No good human society is pos
sible, said the Holy Father,
unless it is founded on the fact
that every human being “is a
person, endowed with intelli
gence and free will.”
Peace therefore is unstable
— in family, neighborhood,
community, nation or world —
unless people are treated as
what their nature shows that
they are: persons, each one
unique.
BECAUSE A HUMAN is a per
son, said Pope John, each has
“rights and duties of his own,”
Pope John then enumerated
some of the rights which belong
by God’s will to each human
being.
EVERY EFFORT should be
made, said Pope John, to see
that persons have opportunity
to go on to higher studies and
to rise to whatever positions
their gifts and skills suit them
for.
All over the world, John XXIII
went on, the ‘ ‘inferiority com
plex which endured for thou
sands of years is disap
pearing.” People are coming to
see that * ‘all men are equal by
reason of their natural dignity.”
Therefore, racial discrimi
nation cannot be justified.
At this point, Pope John
wrote:
“He who possesses certain
rights has likewise the duty to
claim those rights as marks
of his dignity, while all others
have the obligation to acknow
ledge those rights and respect
them.”
In the background of the
Cleveland tragedy was the fact
that the public school board
had selected certain sites for
new school buildings.
Negro citizens, with the help
of many whites, had been
searching for methods of miti
gating, and in the long run eli
minating, school racial segre
gation which resulted not from
law, but from the geographical
circumstance of Negro and
white residence areas.
A Visit To New York City
Jottings
By Barbara C. Jencks
Ah some love Paris
And some Purdue
But love is an archer
with a low /. Q.
A bold bad bowman
and innocent of pity
So Pm in love with
New York City.”
Phyllis McGinley
wonderful thing about the fair
is, of course, its location.”
Here is a city which is a per
petual world’s fair—it is Par
is with its flowers and London
with its business-like air. You
feel a little bit taller amid the
skyscrappers and walk a little
sprightlier along Fifth Avenue.
THE VERY NICEST THING
about the World’s Fair is that
it is located in New York City!
The World’s Fair is the best
excuse I know of going to New
York and New York in the Spring
is hard to beat. I have been smit
ten with NewYorkCityfor some
years. Even veteran pilgrim,
Father McNaspy, in last week’s
‘America’ wrote that “the most
LAST WEEK-END, I went
down to New York City. The
moment the train approaches
there is an extra beat to the
heart and you put your should
ers back and brush off your coat
for you are a posh New York
er for a few days. There’s the
city before you! It looms sud
denly out before you like an ab
stract painting with jutting sym
bolic blocks. It is best to come
upon New York City at twilight
when the lights bewitch. The
bridge as you approach looks
Baptist Publishes
Catholic Newspaper
Attacks On
WASHINGTON (NC) — The
Catholic parish newspaper La
Vox in Puno, Peru, didn’t miss
one issue last year—thanks to
an American Baptist Peace
Corps member.
Robert F. Clark, 26, of Be-
thesda, Md., who just returned
Churches
TIRUVALLA, India (NC)--
The Malankara Rite bishop
of this southern India diocese,
Bishop Zacharia Mar Athana-
sois, has asked the Indian gov
ernment to help put an end to
a series of descertations of
Catholic Churches in Kerala
state.
here from a 32-month tour
with the Papal Volunteers in
Puno, told how he was unable
to put out the weekly paper for
the Maryknoll Fathers during a
month-long journey to Lima.
He found a volunteer in a
young Peace Corps member
whose mother, back home in
the United States, wrote hymns
for the Baptist Church. The
paper, he said, was as good as
ever with its Baptist editor.
Pope To Brazilians
SAO PAULO, Brazil (NC)—
Pope Paul VI has expressed the
hope that Brazil may continue to
be the Land of the True Cross,
as it was called at the begin
ning of its history.
In a message to the Brazil
ian people coinciding with the
arrival of a cross brought
Christian
Renewal On TV
NEW YORK (NC)—A series
on Christian life and worship
will be presented on the Catho
lic Hour over the NBC tele
vision network the first four
Sundays of May.
John B. Mannion, executive
secreatry, National Catholic
Liturgical Conference, will be
host. The series is described
as an effort to offer a basic un
derstanding of Christianity in
the light of modern emphasis
on Biblical theology, liturgy,
and the role of the layman.
from the Holy Land to Sao
Paulo, the Pope said it was a
matter of personal satisfaction
''t o express a sincere wish for
the beloved Brazilian nation that
it always be, in the reality of
its active life, the Land of the
True Cross. May the cross
of Christ be the mark of re
demption, of love and of peace
among all the beloved children
of Brazil.”
Social Education
Of Women
These citizens were opposed
to construction of new schools
in the sites selected because
there they would help to per
petuate “de facto” segregation
of Negro from white pupils.
THE BOARD was asked to
delay construction, and to enter
into discussion with citizen
groups seeking solutions to se
gregation.
One of those requests came
from representatives of the Ca
tholic, Protestant and Jewish
faiths.
The board refused. The
president took the position that
there was nothing anybody could
say that the board was not weary
of hearing.
WHAT THE BOARD did not
realize was that it was fore
closing the future; it was shut
ting the door on hope that pro
gress could be made toward
ending racial segregation in
the school system.
Rev. Bruce W. Klunder, of the
Church of the Convenant, lay
down in the mud behind a bull
dozer on a school construction
site to help his Negro brothers
in demonstrating for the equal
human rights which Pope John
wrote about.
The bulldozer operator, see
ing only those in front and not
Rev. Klunder behind, unfortu
nately backed the machine and
killed the young minister.
I hope that a city and a nation
will learn what ought to be
learned from a man’s devotion,
unto the last full measure, to
the rights which Pope John call
ed universal, inviolable and in
alienable.
No Reason
For Panic
NEW YORK (NC)—Archbish
op Lawrence J. Shehan has said
he sees no reason for panic
about the future of parochial
schools, despite the vigor
ous criticism they face today
in some quarters.
The Archbishop of Baltimore
said that a major study upholds
the competence of academic in
structions in parochial schools,
that the shortage of Sister-
teachers is not a decline, but a
temporary interruption in the
flow of nuns to classrooms and
that the financial burden does
not warrant pessimism.
VATICAN CITY (NC)—The
need for the social education of
women is greater today than ev
er before because of the prob
lems of modern life, Pope Paul
VI said here.
The Pope spoke at an audience
granted to members of the cen
tral council of the Italian Wo
men’ s Center, which is devoted
to protecting and uplifting the
position of women in Italy.
Social education for women,
the Pontiff said, was once
thought to be only a passing
need. But, he added, “social
changes, community life, the
new obligations to which women
are called—equal to those of
men—and their role in the na- fc
tional life make the problem a '
lasting one.”
QUESTION BOX
Q. With the new drive on to
read the Bible, isn’t there dan
ger of private interpretation
bringing down on our heads all
the ills associated with the
Reformation? Many people be
lieve that the Bible is the chief
cause of all the disunity in and
out of the Catholic Church, and
that as long as the Bible ex
ists, disunity will exist, be
cause no one will ever really
understand it completely. True
or false?
like a giant Motorcycleman’s
belt. In an instant you are swal
lowed up by the buildings.Then
indeed you are a New Yorker
for a day or a week. You try not
to oggle at the buildings or
strain too hard at theshowwin-
dows’ fashions which suddenly
make you feel shabby and ten
years behind. There is some
thing for everybody in New York
City and it doesn’t cost too much
at that. “The best things in life
are free in New York City” —
except when you are hungry,
thirsty or tired—all those ac
commodations cost. But the art
museums, the plaza, the parks
and churches and historic points
are free as air. Who wants
to see the fair? I suppose some
do, I had my own fair down there
the weekend before the big show
opened. I had New York City
(Continued on Page 6)
A. The Bible is a “cause of
disunity” in the same sense
that the Crucified Christ is a
“stumbling-stone” (to borrow
the Pauline phrase) to faith in
Christ.
Didn’t many Jews of Aposto
lic times erroneously anticipate
a glorious Messiah who would
restore Israel to the summit of
temporal prestige and power?
Instead of accepting Jesus as the
foundation-stone which God had
planned from all eternity, didn’t
they repudiate him, even after
he rose from the tomb of death
exactly as he said he would, in
proof of his divinity? As the Old
Testament prophet Isaiah fore
told, they actually stumbled
over God’s foundation-stone,
treating Jesus as if he were an
obstacle to their own ideas and
ambitions.
IN THIS SAME SENSE, the
Bible is a “sign of contra
diction”—the expression Sim
eon used of Christ (St. Luke
II, 34). But, Scripture is God’s
own word, God’s own revelation
to man. Hence its message
can only be altered by God
himself—something that cannot
happen since there will be no
further revelation. All that man
must know for his salvation has
been already revealed.
LIKE IT OR not then, every-
The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH. GA.
Vol. 44
Thursday, April 23, 1964
No. 41
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
one will just have to get used
to the practice of basing re
ligious belief and morality on
the Bible, both the Old and New
Testaments. And since all
Scripture pertains to salvation
history as perfected in Jesus:
“To the Christians who believe
in Christ the cornerstone, he
becomes a source of honor, but
to those who reject him, he is
an occasion of shame and scan- ^
dal. These latter stumble over
the stone of Christ to their eter
nal ruin.” (I St. Peter II: 8-12).
AS REGARDS understanding
the Bible completely, it is true
that our penetration gains depth,
and our probing dimension and
perspective, the longer we read,
study, meditate and pray over
the sacred pages. Which is one
reason why it is quite orthodox
to believe that we have the ad
vantage over earlier Chris
tians, even those of the Apos
tolic age.
BUT THE ESSENTIAL
TRUTHS and moral doctrines
were as known as they are now.
The basics of faith and morals
cannot have evolved over the
centuries; were we to know I
more specifics in this area than
did the faithful of the tenth cen
tury, say, or even of the third,
then we would in effect be claim
ing that Christ came to teach
us all things necessary for
salvation—except this or that
doctrine, which only came into
existence during the third or
tenth (or whatever) century.
This would imply that Christ
failed in his mission—an oc
currence which isn’t even pos
sible.
As for the chance of private
interpretation creeping in, this
is one of those problems that
will always be with us so long
as the nature of the Bible is mis
understood.