Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 45, No. 2
10c Per Copy — $5 A Year
Every Citizen Is Hindu
Nepal Government
Forbids Christian
ST. JOAN OF ARC PRAYED HERE — This early 15th
century French chapel, which now stands on an estate in
Long Island, N. Y., will be disassembled for shipment to>
Marquette University, Milwaukee, where it will be recon
structed stone by stone on the campus. Believed to be
the chapel where Joan of Arc prayed before leading her
countrymen into battle against the English in 1429, it was
brought to America in 1927 by Gertrude Hill Gavin for her
estate at Jericho, N. Y. The present owners of the estate,
Mr. and Mrs. Marc B. Rojtman have given it to Marquette
University. — (NC Photos)
Missionary Work
KATHMANDU, Nepal —
Prime Minister Tulsi Giri has
reaffirmed this nation’s resolve
to remain Hindu in its orienta
tion and education, thus dooming
any hopes that Christian mis
sionary work might be permit
ted in the future.
In a public statement one year
after Nepal’s social code out
lawed conversions to Chris
tianity and Islam, Giri declared
his country would officially sup
port the Hindu religion as set
down in the constitution.
' 'We will have to rebuild this
country on great Hindu ideals,”
said Giri, adding that the San
skrit language, the “storehouse
of Hindu wisdom and thought,”
was bound to play an increasing
ly important part in the nation’s
development.
Nepal’s social code, called
the “Muiki Ain,” last year
abolished such social evils as
the untouchable class, polygamy
and child marriage, but it rein
forced the nation’s determina
tion to protect the Hindu reli
gion. The code, in effect, does
not recognize conversions to
other religions by declaring that
even after a citizen completes
the rite of conversion he re
mains officially a Hindu.
Those who attempt conver
sion to another faith can be
Pope Confirms Sept. 14th
As Council Convening Date
VATICAN CITY (NC) — Pope
Paul VI has established Sept.
14 as the opening date for the
third session of the ecumenical
council.
The announcement by Papal
Secretary of State Amleto Card
inal Cicognani said: “The Su
preme Pontiff Paul VI, in an
audience granted to the under
signed today, deigned to es
tablish that the third session of
the Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council will begin next Sep
tember Fourteenth, the feast
of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross.” The announcement was
dated July 3 and. published July
4.
At the next to last meeting
of the council’s second session,
on Nov. 29, 1963, the council’s
secretary general announced
Succession
Rumor
Denied
ROME (NC) — Father Vince
Tomek, S. P. superior general
of the Piarist Fathers, labeled
“completely without founda
tion” rumors that he is to be
appointed successor to Joz-
sef Cardinal Mindszenty as
Archbishop of Esztergom and
Primate of Hungary.
Father Tomek told the
N.C.W.C. News Service that
he has been hearing the rum
ors about two years. He said
they stem solely from the fact
that no other Hungarian priest
in Rome holds such a high post.
Cardinal Mindszenty, now 72,
has been living in sanctuary in
the U. S. legation in Budapest
since November, 1956, when he
fled before the Soviet forces
sent in to suppress the short
lived fight for freedom. Con
demned to a life prison term
by the Reds in 1949, the Car
dinal had been released from
jail by freedom fighters only
four days earlier.
Rumors reaching here from
Germany and central Europe
have held that plans for a mo
dus vivendi between the Hun
garian communist-government
and the Holy See envision the
Cardinal’s resignation from
his See and his departure for
Rome.
PRAY FOR OUR
DECEASED
PRIESTS
REV. JAMES H. GRADY
(U.S.A.)
July 12, 1953
VERY REV.
JAMES F. O’NEILL
July 12, 1870
REV. GODFREY X.
SCHADEWELL
July 16, 1922
MOST REV. GERALD P.
O’HARA, D.D. J.U.D. >
NINTH BISHOP OF SAVANNAH
July 16, 1963
Oh God, Who didst give to
thy servants by their sacerdotal
office, a share in the priest
hood of the Apostles, grant, we
implore, that they may also
be one of their company for
ever in heaven. Through Christ
Our Lord, Amen.
that the council would probably
begin its third session on
Sept. 14, 1964. But the sec
retary, Archbishop Pericle
Felici, told the council Fathers
(Continued on Page 6)
Russian
New Ecumenical Era
Seen For Orthodox
By Antoine Negroponte
ISTANBUL, Trukey (NC) —
The Orthodox Church of Rus
sia, which for two generations
was almost completely isolated
from the rest of the Christian
world, appears now to be in
tent on a new ecumenical era.
Just one aspect of this new
“presence” was the recent an
nouncement in Athens of the
forthcoming revitalization of
the Russian monastery of St.
Panteleimon on Mt. Athos —
the monastic "republic” which
occupies a mountainous penin
sula on the southeastern coast
of Greece.
Before World War I there
were over 2,000 Russian Ortho
dox monks at St. Panteleimon.
Normal recruitment of voca
tions to the monastery came
to an end with the Russian Rev
olution. Until World War II the
Greek government was unsym
pathetic on grounds that St.
Panteleimon was a potentially
dangerous Russian enclave on
Greek territory.
As a result, the Russian mon
astic community dwiddled to two
score monks — the youngest
about 70, and the oldest in his
90’s.
Archimandrite Juvenaly, a
spokesman for the patriarchate
of Moscow, announced in Athens
that 18 novices would be coming
to Greece shortly to join the
community at St. Panteleimon.
The Russian priest, who had
been a member of the delegation
of Russian churchmen who visi
ted the United States in the
spring of 1963, made the an
nouncement in the course of a
pilgrimage to Christian centers
in the Near East, the Holy Land
in particular.
The announcement came less
than two months after the So
viet ambassador to Greece, ac
companied by his cultrual at
tache and several other mem
bers of the embassy staff, went
to St. Panteleimon (May 10) for
a five-day visit. Before leaving
the “holy mountain” the am
bassador promised to work for
the renewal of the community.
Archimandrite Juvenaly be
fore making the announcement
in Athens told a press con
ference here in Istanbul that
“the Patriarch of Moscow has
requested authorization from
the Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople to establish a
Russian Episcopal See on Mt.
Athos, headed by a prelate with
the rank of metropolitan (arch
bishop).”
This promised renewal of
Russian Orthodoxy on Mt.
Athos — for 1,001 years a lead
ing font of Orthodox spirituality
— has not come alone. The Mos
cow patriarchate’s new out
ward-looking policy has become
increasingly apparent at inter
national Christian meetings in
the past few years.
This started at the time of
the meeting of the First Pan-
Orthodox Conference at Rhodes
in September and October, 1961.
Since then, the Moscow patri
archate was represented at the
second conference at Rhodes,
last year at the celebration of
the millennium of Mt. Athos
on June 18, 1963; at the first
and second sessions of the Va
tican council at Rome, and at
the World Council of Churches
congress in New Delhi in 1961.
In answer to a question asked
at the press conference here
about persecution of the Church
in Russia, Professor Siskin,
who teaches theology at Lenin
grad, said: “For Russian theo
logians, the phrase’church per
secution' is incomprehensible.
The weakening of the faith is a
physiological phenomenon
which has occurred since Orth
odoxy in Russia lost the pri
vileges given it by the Tsars.
“This can be explained in
the following manner: In Russia,
Orthodoxy no longer has the at
traction that it had in olden
times. Formerly, one had only
to show a certificate of mem
bership in the Orthodox Church
and all doors opened. Today, re
ligion does not offer advantage
(Continued on Page 3)
punished by three years’ im
prisonment, and foreigners who
attempt to convert Nepalese
citizens can be imprisoned for
year and expelled from the
country.
Nepal’s constitution states
that ‘ ‘every citizen, subject to
the current traditions, shall
practice and profess his reli
gion as handed down from an
cient times.”
As a result of the constitu
tion and the social code, the
Catholic population here is
limited to about 200 foreigners
— mostly Indians, Americans
and Europeans. Since Nepal was
not open to foreigners prior to
1950, there is no chance that
Christianity could be ‘ ‘handed
down from ancient times.”
The two Catholic schools al
lowed to operate here have been
left in an ambiguous position
by the government policy. The
first of these was founded in
1951 by Father Marshall M.
Moran, S. J., an American-
continued on Page 6)
MARRIED, ORDAINED TO PRIESTHOOD—At a seminary
chapel in Mainz, Germany, an American, married man,
Ernest Adam Beck was ordained a Catholic priest on June
26. Bishop Hermann Volk of Mainz conferred the sacrament.
A former Lutheran minister from Detroit, he is the first
American in the history of the Latin Rite Church granted
the privilege of the priesthood and yet remain in the married
state. Father Beck will bring his wife and young son and
daughter to the Mainz diocese, where he will be assigned.
— (NC Photos)
At College
Catholic Publishing
Center Established
ST. PAUL, Minn. (NC)—The
recent gift of the Catholic Di
gest magazine to the College of
St. Thomas here has led to es
tablishment of a Catholic Pub
lishing Center at the St. Paul
Archdiocesan liberal arts col
lege.
The center includes the Cath
olic Digest, the nation’s largest
paid-circulation Catholic publi
cation with 650,000 United Stat
es subscribers and a circula
tion of 150,000 in four foreign
editions, and the following auxi
liary enterprises:
—The Catholic Digest Book
Club, in its seventh year, which
has distributed more than two
million books and has a mem
bership of between 60,000 and
100,000.
—The Decency in Reading
Program, associated with 70
other Catholic magazines and
98 magazines of general inter
est. In its 19th year, it has
placed over 100 million cop
ies of Catholic publications in
homes.
—The Junior Catholic Book
Shelf, in its second year, which
has a membership of about 10,-
000.
—Catholic Living, in its first
year as a monthly supplement
for 813,000 diocesan newspap
ers of the Register chain.
—The Catholic Market, a bi
monthly management journal
for 30,000 Catholic administra
tors, which recently purchased
Catholic Property Administra
tion, a similar business publi
cation of Ojibway Press, Inc.,
Duluth. A combined publication
will be off the presses this
month.
The new center is believed to
be the largest Catholic publish
ing center in the world, accord
ing to Father Paul Bussard,
publisher of the Catholic Di
gest and director of the center
The Catholic Digest and its
auxiliary enterprises were giv
en to St. Thomas last month by
Father Bussard and Father
Louis A. Gales, president of the
Cathechtical Guild, who owned
it as a private corporation
A VISIT WITH POLISH CARDINAL—U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, his
wife Ethel and three of their children are shown with Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, Prim
ate of Poland. The children, (from left) Kathleen, Bobby and Joseph are shown with their
parents and the cardinal in the Jasna Gora Monastery library. The famed “Black Madon
na” painting is in the background.—(NC Photo)
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1964
Dictatorship Again
Facing Dominicans
SANTO DOMINGO, Domini
can Republic (NC) — Forces of
the extreme right and the ex
treme left are now contending
to put this country once more
under dictatorship, a priest de
clared here in denouncing mili
tary torture of 31 young farm
ers.
At a memorial Mass for those
who died in the June, 1949, up
rising against dictator Rafael
Trujillo, Father Jesus Checo
Pena condemned what he said
were violent repressive mea
sures taken by the army in San
tiago Rodriguez, a town near
the Haitian border.
Ever since a military muni
tions dump near here exploded
on June 11 the Dominican Re
public has been gripped by a
political crisis. The incident
mentioned by Father Checo
Pena occurred in his home town.
“I saw with my own eyes
the savage outrage perpetrated
against these youths,” he said
in his sermon. “It was pitiful
to see the bruises that covered
the body of one of them, the one
that suffered the least.”
The priest continued: “Two
dictatorships, both bad, are
struggling to take power. On the
one hand, the rightists, domi
nated by political theories of the
19th century, are unceasing in
their efforts to make our coun
try a patrimony for the privi
leged caste that owns money,
land and arms. On the other
hand, men of communist ideo
logy do not cease to undermine
the foundations of peace, sowing
hatred among our people.”
What is needed, Father Che
co Pena declared, is a change
of political structure that will
allow progress based on man’s
destiny as a spiritual being with
unlimited dignity.
The explosion that triggered
the latest Dominican crisis oc
curred at a fortress on the
banks of the Ozama River. Thir
teen persons died and many
more were injured. Military
(Continued on Page 5)
NEW PAVLA HEAD — Fa
ther Raymond Kevane, (above)
of Sioux City, la., has been
named national director of the
Papal Volunteers for Latin
America (PAVLA). He will
direct the Papal Volunteer
program from its headquar
ters in Chicago. He succeeds
Father Victor Fernandez,
S. J., who becomes Caribbean
Area representative. — (NC
Photos)
Vietnam Buddhists Preempt
Ambassador’s Leave Taking
(By Father Patrick O’Connor)
Society of St. Columban
SAIGON (NC) — Buddhists
with Vietnamese government
approval, took over much of the
send-off program for outgoing
U. S. Ambassador Henry Cabot
Lodge at Tan Son Nhut airport
here (June 28)
One result, especially from a
speech made, will probably be
rekindling of criticism of Am
bassador Lodge and the U. S.
among Vietnamese Catholics.
Most of the crowd lined up
before the speakers’ stand near
the airport were organized
Buddhist students, marshalled
by members of Buddhist Youth,
a Boy Scout-type body. A troop
of the regular Vietnamese
Boy Scouts was shunted to one
side, away from and behind the
speakers’ stand. In the center
of the main throng a banner
bearing in large letters the
name of a “Bo-De,” or Bud
dhist school, was uplifted, fac
ing the speakers’ platform.
Later, while the majority of
well-wishers, including diplo
mats, stood just outside the VIP
reception hall, four Buddhist
bonzes (monks) were among
the few allowed to walk out to
the plane for a final farewell.
All this was recorded, of
course, on Vietnamese news
reels and by foreign TV cam
eramen.
A Cao Daist lay delegation
was also present, with the sects
flag, and a group of Cao Daist
clerics. They were almost lost
among the Buddhists.
The Buddhist organizers
made use of the occasion to
represent Ambassador Lodge
as their champion and to remind
his successor that they hoped
he would “also understand”
Buddhist aspirations.
Their meaning was made
clear in a speech delivered by
a Buddhist student, described as
“the people's representative.”
The English text was read by
a Vietnamese officer. It was,
in fact, official and was made
available to this correspondent
next day by the ministry of ed
ucation.
This government-sponsored
speech rehashed the themes of
last year’s Buddhist agitation
which brought about the over
throw of the late President Ngo
dinh Diem’s regime.
“You first set foot on our
territory admist a most tra
gic situation, wherein the en
tire Vietnamese people in gen
eral and Vietnamese Buddhists
in particular were being abus
ed, oppressed and repressed by
the Ngo dinh Diem regime,” the
speaker told Lodge, who arrived
here last Aug. 22.
“Your timely arrival . . .
brought us the immense confi
dence that was needed for the
struggle against the Ngo tyran
ny . . . Our appreciation and our
gratitude towards you were
warmly demonstrated during
your visit to the Xa Loi pagoda,
right after the Nov. 1 revolu
tion of last year.”
Xa Loi pagoda, in a residen
tial part of Saigon, was head
quarters of the militant Budd
hist leaders who directed the
campaign against the Ngo dinh
Diem government.
“We hope that your succes
sor .. . like you, will clearly
understand the deepest aspir
ations of the majority of the
Vietnamese people,” the speak
er said. Among those listening
was newly arrived U. S. Deputy
Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson.
The new ambassador, Gen.
Maxwell D. Taylor, was ex
pected a week or so later.
The Buddhists claim that they
make up 80% of Vietnam’s pop
ulation. (Well-informed Viet
namese dispute this figure, put
ting the practising Buddhists at
about 25%.) Ambitious bonzes
are busily building up a nation
al organization, with political
potentialities of still doubtful
direction.
Two leading Buddhist bonz
es, of whom one was Thich
Tri Quang who enjoyed asylum
in the American embassy here
last year were also among
the guests.
Widow Has Reunion
With Some Of Her
184 ‘Adopted Sons’
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (NC) --
A Texas widow, who solved the
problem of loneliness after her
husband’s death by “adopting”
184 servicemen, held a reunion
here with part of her king-
sized family.
Mrs. Maude Cozart, a mem
ber of Holy Name of Jesus
parish, Ft. Worth, came here
on her vacation and visited 15
World War II and Korean War
veterans whom she befriended
when she was hostess at the
USO-National Catholic Com
munity Service club in San An
tonio, Tex.
Mrs. Cozart was no ordinary
hostess. She owned a chicken
hatchery, and often invited
groups of soldiers to her home
for a chicken dinner. She took
them on picnics, showed them
the sights of San Antonio, baked
them birthday cakes and held a
continual open house.
* ‘I never looked on it as
charity,” she explained, “be
cause I got so much enjoyment
from their friendship. I did it
because people look down on
servicemen, and they were just
kids — 19 and 20 years old —
far away from their own
homes.”
When her “sons,” one by one,
left San Antonio for overseas,
she gave each a steel-jacketed
Bible to carry in a breast poc
ket.
While here, Mrs. Cozart was
the guest of Mr. and Mrs.
Frank DePerro and their
family, of St. Charles parish.
DePerro returned some of the
hospitality Mrs. Cozart extend
ed to him when he was station
ed at Kelly Field in 1942. He
arranged a reunion for her with
former servicemen from New
Jersey, Missouri, Michigan and
Ohio.
Wives and children of the 15
ex-GIs brought the party up to
50. They assisted at Mass to
gether in St. Charles church.
Mrs. Cozart, a clerical worker
at Fort Worth Army Depot,
brought each of the youngsters
a gift.
The reunion included a tour of
a steel mill, a swimming party,
banquet, cookout and plenty of
scuttlebut about life in Texas,
Army style.
Mrs. Cozart said her “boys”
haven’t changed much, except
for the addition of “several
pounds and a few gray hairs.”
She keeps in touch with her
adopted family through Christ
mas cards and a newsletter
she sends to each one every
January. She signs the letters
with a “God Bless You” from
“Mom.”
The newsletters contain the
names and addresses of the ex-
servicemen, and chit-chat about
their families and jobs. She had
a reunion seven years ago with
10 “sons” from Pennsylvania,
New York and New Jersey and
plans another reunion in
Chicago in 1970.
Mrs. Cozart never will have
difficulty locating two of her
“adopted sons” -- Clifford
Meldrum of St. Louis and
George Rutkowski of Detroit.
They married her two daugh
ters. The Meldrum s have given
her nine grandchildren, the Rut-
kowskis, six.