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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, December 10, 1964
8
FACT and COMMENT
The Movies Are Not
‘Better Than Ever’
The Bishops of the United States
have warned against a “deplorable
trend” in motion pictures, terming last
year’s substantial decrease in family-
type films and a corresponding in
crease in morally objectionable movies
“moral brinkmanship”.
*r
Also cited by the Bishops was the
growing tendency to double-bill fami
ly films with those considered by the
Legion of Decency as adult or objec
tionable.
This is not the first time the Ameri-i
can Hierarchy has spoken out against
the motion picture industry’s “avid de
sire for m'ass audiences and high prof
its, and . . . disregard for the spiritual
and moral requirements of the specta-
tprs.”
Nor is it the first time they have ap
pealed for vigorous reaction on the
part of all citizens interested in pre
serving the traditional stnadards of
decency and morality which Ameri
cans usually claim as a vital part of
our national heritage.
When such an appeal was made in
the early thirties 'and people began to
desert the theaters, the industry was
quick to establish a Production Code
Authority, in an attempt to restore an
aura of respectability to the business
of movie making.
And it must be admitted that for
the next fifteen years, so long as peo
ple continued to find one of their chief
sources of entertainment in motion
pictures and box-office receipts con
tinued to climb, the industry was gen
erally scrupulous in avoiding the ex
cesses of the past.
But with the advent of television
and a consequent drastic decline in
profits, the industry’s commitment to
standards of decency and morality be
gan to weaken noticeably, so that the
intervening years have seen a steady
rise n in the number of domestically
produced films classified by the Le
gion of Decency as for “adultsi—with
reservations” or “morally objection
able part for all” and a comparable
decline in family-type motion picture
entertainment.
According to the Legion’s report for
1964, Hollywood has released this
year, 43 “B” classification films (mor
ally objectionable in part for all), rep
resenting an increase of 17, or almost
seven percent over 1963. At least half
of these 43 were major films, with
most of the important companies con
tributing a share to the total objec
tionable productions.
At the same time, only 42 Holly
wood productions reviewed by the Le
gion, or slightly more than twenty
percent of those reviewed, merited a
family (A-I) rating. This is the small
est number of family films ever pro
duced by the nation’s film capital in
the Legion’s history.
Thirty years ago the movie mag
nates apparently feared for their
pocketbooks if they did not reverse an
ugly trend in their industry.
More recent wiarnings concerning
attempts to circumvent and change
the provisions of their own Production
Code in their quest for profits at any
cost, have gone unheeded, and there
is no reason to suppose they will pay
any attention, whatever, to the Bish
ops’ appeal this year, except, perhaps,
to cry “censorship”.
But the appeal of the Bishops is
also ,and especially, to parents, whom
they urge “not to allow their children
to witness in theaters things which
they could never witness at home” and
not to risk the future of their children
“by allowing them to become pawns
or victims of the dangerous game of
moral brinkmanship” being played by
one of the nation’s major industries in
subjecting children to the corruptive
influence of morally objectionable
movies.
No parent who places the moral
welfare of his children above the cyni
cal sophisms of an entertainment
medium as influential as the motion
picture business can escape the grave
moral responsibility of scrupulously
supervising their film entertainment.
Perhaps they can do nothing to re
verse Hollywood’s trend toward im
morality and indecency as a cash com
modity, but by frequent reference to
the Legion of Decency’s listings, pub
lished at regular intervals in this pa
per, they can help to insure that Holly
wood’s values will never become those
of their children.
THE CLEAN OF HEART
God’s World
It is only my own opinion,
but I feel that we pedagogues
make a mistake when, in our
preaching and teaching, we e-
quate chastity with purity or
cleanliness. The usage seems
an unsound one
from a psycho
logical stand-
point. The con
stant emphasis
upon “impuri
ty” in connec
tion with sex,
especially in the
instru c t i o n of
children, can
lead to a dis
torted and unwholesome attitude
toward the beautiful and sa
cred act of procreation.
'For ted centuries or so the
Christian Church was froubled
by heretical sects collectively
known as Cathari, from the
Greek word which means “puri
tan.” The Cathari maintained
that all things material, includ
ing human bodies, are the cre
ation of the devil. Only spiritual
substances, such as the human
soul, are the work of God. The
Rev. Leo J. Trese
devil enslaves souls by imprison
ing them in physical bodies.
Logically the Cathari con
demned marriage, since to con
ceive new bodies was to do the
devil’s work for him. The Cath
ari initiate was “pure” only if
he abjured sexual intercourse.
It may be that the linking of
cleanliness with chastity is a
practice which “leaked in” from
the Cathari vocabulary to our
own.
These thoughts are by way of
introduction to the sixth beati
tude in which Jesus says,
“Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they shall see God.” Jesus
definitely is not limiting H i s
praise to a heart which is free
from lust. To Him, a clean
heart is a heart in which there
is no guile, a heart simnle and
sincere, a heart free from pre
tense and self-deception.
An undivided love for God is
the basis, the only basis, for the
cleanness of heart to which Je
sus refers. If God’s will is for
American-Made Movie
Condemned By Legion
NEW YORK (NO—The Na
tional Legion of Decency an
nounced (Dec. 7) that a Con
demned rating has been issued
to; the film, “Kiss Me Stupid,”
starring Kim Novak and Dean
Martin.
The reason for the C rating of
the film, which was produced
and directed by Billy Wilder,
whs stated by the Legion as
follows:
V Satire on the foibles of its
people has always been a sign
of the healthiness of a society.
Through humor the weaknesses
of men can be exposed to a
salutary recognition by all, and,
many times, much more effec*
tively than by serious preach
ment. Mr. Wilder’s earlier film,
“The Apartment”, was an ex
ample of such effective comic
satire.
“In the case of “Kiss Me
Stupid”, however, not only has
Mr. Wilder failed to create a
genuine satire out of a situation
comedy about an amateur com
poser who attempts to sell his
songs to a big-name singer in
exchange for the adulterous at
tentions of his alleged ‘wife’,
but he has regrettably produc
ed a thoroughly sordid piece of
realism which is esthetically as
well as morally repulsive. Crude
and suggestive dialogue, a leer
ing treatment of marital and
extra - marital sex, a prurient
preoccupation with lechery com
pound the film’s bald condona
tion of immorality.”
In releasing this rating the
Legion at the same time ex
pressed its astonishment that
“a film which is so patently in
decent and immoral” should
have received a seal of approv
al from the Production Code
Authority of the Motion Picture
Association of America. “It is
difficult to understand how such
an approval is not the final be
trayal of the trust which has
been placed by so many in the
organized industry’s self-regula
tion,” commented the Legion.
“Moreover, the release of this
film of Lopert Pictures, a whol
ly owned subsidiary of United
Artists, at any time but parti
cularly during the holiday sea
son of Chanukah and Christmas
is a commercial decision,” ob
served the Legion, “bereft of
respect for the Judaeo-Christian
sensibilities of the majority of
our American people.”
* sS Landmark Ruling
OF CABBAGES AND KINGS
ESStRai
NEWS AND THE BISHOPS
It Seems to Me
us the ultimate measure of all
things, then we necessarily shall
possess the singleness of pur
pose which makes for sincerity.
What are some of the danger
signals which indicate that we
may be lacking in cleanness of
heart? One such indicator is an
excessive preoccupation with
the opinions of others and an
overanxiety to make a good im
pression. God’s opinion of us is
the only one which really mat
ters.
Another symptom of a taint
ed heart is an attitude of self
ish calculation, best expressed!
in the question, “What’s in it
for me?”
These are a few of the basic
insincerities which exclude us
from our Lord’s commendation,
“Blessed are the clean of
heart.” Probably there is none
of us completely without blem
ish. With God’s grace and our
own determined striving, we can
and we must repair the rup-
t u r e s in our schizophrenic
hearts.
Newsweek magazine, in m
article about the new, lay-own-
ed-and-edited National Catholic
Reporter of Kansas City, said:
“In Cleveland it’s called The
Catholic Universe - Bulletin, in
Omaha The True Voice. But re-
gardless of
name or loca
tion, most of
the 121 Roman
Catholic dioce
san newspapers
(in the U. S.)
play the same
game — that of
house organs
subservi e n t to
the aims of ec
clesiastical authority . . . cleri
cal news management is so per
vasive that honest reporting of
the Church and its institutions
is often neither welcome nor
possible.”
For nearly 20 years, I have
been assistant managing editor
of the Catholic Universe Bulle
tin, which like the National
Catholic Reporter is wholly lay-
edited, although owned by the
diocese.
Through 20 preceding years, I
served variously as reporter,
writer and editor for high school
and college publications, a se
cular weekly, and secular dai
lies.
I remark mildly to Newsweek
that there is no such thing as a
publication completely free of
JOSEPH BREIG
tensions between the journalists
who produce it, and other peo
ple.
WHEN I WAS with the Hearst
newspapers, there were some
tensions between the redoubt
able William Randolph Hearst
Sr. and his writers and editors
—including me.
When I was with a smaller
daily, and with the weekly,
there were some tensions be
tween me and the owner-editor-
publishers.
When I was with the school
papers, there were occasional
tensions between me and the
faculty.
USUALLY the tensions do not
rise to the proportions of in
tolerable interference. At root,
they almost always come from
lack of understanding of what
journalism is for, and what are
a journalist’s responsibilities.
One of the troubles about
being a journalist is that practi
cally everybody wants to be ed
itor — not in the sense of doing
the work (the journalist is wel
come to THAT) but in the sense
of setting policy, running the
show.
I have always recognized the
right of the owner and/or pub
lisher to make decisions about
his publication. Newsweek, I
feel sure, does likewise.
AT THE SAME TIME, I in
sist—and I hope the Newsweek
On Shopping
Rev. William V. Coleman
merchants.
A few years ago, a new de
funct magazine wrote a deves-
tating satire on Christmas com
mercialism. It concerned three
Golden, Franklins-
tein and Mur
ray. Their ap
parent greed
and crass ma
terialism were
su p p o s e d to
portray the
“pagan spirit
of Christmas.’’
Now, perhaps
I am all wrong,
but. I see amidst the commer
cial trappings of the Christmas
season, a real spirit of love. As
I meander through the stores,
in search of the right tie with
appropriate Christmas colors or
some other equally useless gift,
I can’t help but be struck by
the care and the enthusiasm of
the shoppers. They are trying
to find just the right gift for
someone they love. If this act
of sacrifice isn’t itself an act
of love, I can’t imagine what
it is.
It is so easy and so very pop
ular to write and speak of the
drab and dreary spirit of Christ
mas shopping. I think that
many of these slightly cynical
observers fail to see beneath
the surface to the hearts which
move the buying fingers and
the tired eyes.
To give of one’s goods is
nothing, for they can always be
replaced. To give of one’s time
and one’s own vital energy is
really a gift of love. This is
precisely the thing that is be
ing done at counters up and
down our land. The bright-eyed
mother who has found the right
toy for her tot, the beaming fa
ther who has discovered a gift
for his tired wife, the
children with shiny coins cl^^B
ed in their grimy little hand^m
search of something for mom
my, these and other generous
loving hearts fill our Christmas
stores. ,
Yet, if we really want to get
the most from our Christmas
shopping here are two simple
rules we can follow.
Make each purchase an act of
supernatural love. In a silent
moment, while waiting for the
clerk or standing in the check
out line, say to Our Lord some
thing like this shopper’s pray
er. “Jesus, I have a present
for Fred and for the baby. I’m
buying them because I love
them with the love You gave
me. Help me to remember that
whatever I do for any child of
Yours is done for You.”
Treat each clerk with the
kindness due to Christ. It is sad
indeed to see people who set
out on an errand of love, fail-
in love as they perform their
errand. Clerks can be cranky
and out of sorts, but our kind
ness should be so great that , it
helps them to overcome their
tired bodies and us to see
through their curt manners to
the immortal soul which lives
inside.
st
So much for Christmas si
ping, a little stepping stone to
sanctity and heaven.
Rev. David Q. Liptak
staff does too—upon respect for
my journalistic competence and
integrity.
Nobody can order or persu
ade me to write or publish what
I know to be false or crooked,
or to be untrue to my obligation
to inform readers adequately
and accurately.
When there is undue interfer
ence, I reason with the inter
fere^ be he my superior or a
reader.
Not once in the 20 years ha®
the bishop, or any priest or
other cleric, seen anything I
have written before it was pub
lished; and I write tons.
The Newsweek writer, in call
ing the UB. a house organ, be
trayed to anybody who knows
the UB even cursorily that he
has never so much as thumbed
through one issue.
In talking about clerical
news management, he showed
that he hadn’t bothered to find
out that the UB is produced by
professional lay journalists who
are as dedicated as any others
to the duty they owe to truth
and to readers.
It is a pity that the News
week article was a piece of
slapdash bad journalism. Com
petently and intelligently done
in depth, it could have beeci
mighty useful.
Q. When is the Act of Contri
tion supposed to be said, since
priests are using the English
words of absolution? In, my par
ish, we are told to say the Act
of Contrition in the confession
al, at the usual time. But my
sister, who lives in another part
of the state, says that she was
told in her church to say it be
fore entering the confessional.
Which is the right rule to fol
low?
A. There is variance of
thought with respect to when
the Act of Contrition should now
be said in the Sacrament of
Penance. In some dioceses, the
norm allows for its recitation
at the traditional time: i.e., in
the confessional, after the re
quired self-accusation of s i n.
But in other dioceses, Catholics
have been instructed to recite
the formula before they enter
the confessional. Where this lat
ter rule is followed, a brief, in
formal acknowledgment of sor
row and resolve is exacted of
the penitent before absolution
is imparted. (In some English
dioceses, we recently read, the
divergence of custom is further
complicated in that both the a-
foresaid practices are observed,
the decision in each case de
pending on whether there is a
“queue” or not).
PENITENTS NEED NOT be
disturbed about these varia
tions, however, so long as they
form the habit of always mak-
EFFIE AND THE GENERAL
View From The Rectory
Rev. Robert Wharton **
There was the timid old lady
who breathed her last in Devon
shire, and whose body was sent
back for burial — according to
her last wish — in the church
yard of her home town.
When her nephew there open
ed the casket, however, he be
ll e 1 d not the
placid features
of his Aunt Ef-
fie, but an Eng
lish general in
full regimen
tals who had
died the same
day. Frantical
ly, he cabled
it h e general’s
heirs to ask for
suggestions.
Back came this cable: “Bury
the general quietly. Aunt Effie
interred at Westminster Abbey
this morning with six brass
bands and full military hon
ors.”
No harm done, after all.
Comes the resurrection, both
Aunt Effie and the general will
be transferred to a new home.
It really makes little difference
where they sleep in the mean
time.
rise to an eternal reward or
punishment, but we usually for
get that our bodies too will rise.
The doctrine of the resurrection
of the body, of which we are
reminded by the resurrection of
our Savior ,is an ancient belief.
The patriarchs of the Old Tes
tament believed it. Job, for in
stance, said: “I know that my
redeemer lives, and in the last
day I shall rise out of the earth.
Christ and His Apostles also
preached this doctrine. The sis
ter of Lazarus once said to the
Savior, “I know that he shall
rise again in the resurrection of
the body.”
Christ Himself was quite ex
plicit on this point. One time He
announced: “For the hour is
coming in which all who are in
the tombs shall hear the voice
of the Son of God. And they
who have done good shall come
forth unto resurrection of life,
but they who have done evil un
to resurrection of judgment.”
The resurrection of C h ri s t
was a pledge of our own rising
on the last day. And his bodily
ascension into heaven is a pre
view of what will some day be
our happy privilege.
We all know that our souls Although this belief is an ar
ticle of our Faith (that is, re
vealed to us by God Himself),
our reason backs it up. We are
men, not angels. We’re suppos
ed to have bodies. We can get
along for a while with only our
souls, but we’re just not com
plete unless we have both body
and soul. Adam needed Eve,
Punch needed Judy, pickled
herring needs sour cream, cake
needs frosting — and our soul
needs our body.
Each person’s body shares in
the good or evil he does. It is
fitting that the body also share
in the reward or punishment to
come. More than fitting, in
fact. Most sins are committed
with bodies. If we had only
souls, it would be hard to get
into so much trouble.
But back to Aunt Effie, sleep
ing so peacefully in Westmin
ster Abbey. On that last day,
she will rise again to glory. It
will not be a new creation; ra
ther, God will re-unite the mat
ter of her body unto a new life.
As St. Paul puts it, “Christ will
re-form the body of our lowli
ness, made like to the body of
his glory.”
Aunt Effie’s body, then, will
be something like our Lord’s
glorified body after His resur
rection. No defects, no weak
nesses, no infirmities. Effie
won’t need her bifocals because
her eyes will be in perfect
shape. It will be as if she had
drunk deep from the fountain
of youth.
Speaking of youth, how old
will Effie be? She might be 39,
since that is the age she and
many other girls claimed for so
many years during their lives.
Some think that we all will be
33 because this was the Savior’s
age at the time of His death.
Whether this pious belief is true
or not, it’s certain that we will
ing an Act of Contrition before
entering the confessional. Thus,
if one is visiting in another dio
cese, and consequently is una
ware of the local customs, one
will be ready to receive the
Sacrament no matter what rule
is followed.
Q. A dogma of the Church, I
realize, cannot contain any new
truth, i.e., some idea not ac
tually included in revelation.
But could you explain exactly
what a dogma technically im
plies?
A. Dogmas should be con
strued as concise statements of
revealed truths. They do not in
dicate the fullness of truth in a
specific area, but rather are
meant as precise guideines for
orthodox preaching and! belief.
In addition, however, dogmas
have doxological dimensions. As
the German theologian, Father
Thomas Sartory, has put it,
dogmas represent “t h e human
effort, doxologically, that is as
adoration, to answer revela
tion.”
be in a perfect state of man
hood or womanhood.
The teaching that our bi^^l
will rise again is the basis of
the respect that the Church
shows toward the bodies of the
dead. We bless graves, we
sprinkle caskets with holy wa
ter and incense them, we sur
round the deceased with flow
ers. All these things are done
because we honor the body "that
will rise to glory some day.
This doctrine, then, is a strong
incentive for showing respect
for our bodies and for avoiding
any misuse of them by sin. It’s
a consoling belief, too, because
we know that our loved ones
who have died will one day rise
to join us in happiness.
Aunt Effie, therefore, could
be in Vermont or Westminster
Abbey or at the bottom of the
sea. It makes no difference, be
cause the Lord will reunite the
parts of the body at the resur
rection.
This thought should be con
soling as well to the relatives
of the general, who was buried
quietly in Vermont without six
brass bands and wdthout full
military honors.
The Southern Cross
P. 0. BOX 180, SAVANNAH, GA.
Vol. 45
Thursday, December 10, 1964
No. 23
Published weekly except the second 1 and last weeks
in June, July and August and the last week in December.
Subscription price $5.00 per year.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Waynesboro, Ga. Send
notice of change of address to P. O. Box 180, Savannah, Georgia.
Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough, D.D.J.C.D., President
Rev, Francis J. Donohue, Editor
John Markwalter, Managing Editor