Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, December 17, 1964
CT and COMMENT
C onvert-Making
Anticipation
OF CABBAGES AND KINGS
The study by Notre Dame Universi
ty’s Father John A. O’Brien, which
revealed that the Diocese of Savannah
leads the nation in the rate of con
versions to the Catholic Church alsd
discloses that, on a nation-wide basis,
conversions are on the decline.
Father O’Brien suggests some pos
sible reasons for the decrease, citing
both the Vatican Council and the spir
it of ecumenism abroad in the world.
Catholics, seeing a definite thaw in
what, for centuries, has amounted to
a “cold war” between Protestantism
and Catholicism, have apparently be
gun to feel that convert work, directed
toward their non-Catholic neighbors is
no longer as important as it once was.
A similar decline in t h e convert
rate in Great Britain has also been
attributed to an ecumenical s p i r i t
which directs its hopes and efforts
more to corporate reunion of Chris
tian Churches than to the need of the
individual to seek, find and embrace
God’s revealed and unchanging Truth.
But an increasing awareness of
Christ’s expressly stated desire “that
they all may be one, as Thou, Father
in Me and I in Thee, that they also
may be one in Us”, and a consequent
and unprecedented willingness of the
various churches to^try to better un
derstand those beliefs which they hold,
in common as well as those which di
vide them, need not lead to a weak
ened commitment to the unity of Di
vinely revealed Truth and to the duty
of both seeking it and spreading it.
The high number of converts in
many parishes of this Diocese is a
clear indication that the invitation to
others to examine the claims of the
Catholic Church is still welcomed by
many; and that the ecumenical spirit
can be and ought to be a warm and
glowing fire fighting the way for those
countless souls who still seek the
Truth which will make them free, as
well as a Divine impetus for all who
truly love God and His Christ to in
tensify their prayers and dedicated
efforts to hasten the day when, ac
cording to the Divine Will, there shall
be but “one flock and one shepherd”.
BELIEF IN WHAT OR WHOM?
God’s World
Almost certainly you have
met him. He is the ex-Catholie
who says, “Sure, I was a Cath
olic once. But I got a raw deal
from the priest and I’ve never
gone to church since.” Or he
may say, “I
got sick of all
the hypocrisy;
people so pious
in c h u r ch on
Sunday and
louses the rest
of the week.”
The reasons
given for aban
doning their faith will vary
from person to person, but all
such “exes” have one thing in
commto: they measure God by
His human agents. The truth is
that these fallen - aways never
did have genuine faith to begin
with. Whatever faith they may
have had was human faith. It
was a confidence (which they
eventually judged to have been
betrayed) in other human be
ings.
True faith, which we com
monly call supernatural faith,
is the act of believing God. It
is the assent which we give to
God’s revelation of Himself.
God’s revelation of Himself
may be viewed externally as a
Rev. Leo J. Trese
body of truths made known to
us through His written Word,
the Bible, and through His liv
ing Word, Jesus Christ in His
Church. However, there is an
internal revelation of Himself
which God makes to each of
us individually.
By an operation of His grace,
God confronts each of us in our
innermost soul. No words are
spoken, but the essence of
God’s communication is this: “I
love you. Out of love I created
you and out of love I redeemed
you. I want you to love me so
that we may possess each other
forever. I shall help you to love
Me. DO YOU BELIEVE ME?”
Even as He asks the ques
tion, God’s grace is fortifying
the soul to enable us to make
the response He awaits: “Yes,
God, I do believe You!” Our
response is qt r qijce a reply and
a commitment. Believing, we
shall live in accordance with
that belief.
Very few of us ever have
caught ourselves in the act of
this dialogue with God. It is, as
we have said, an operation of
grace, almost too supra-rational
for us to be aware of it. But,
if our faith is genuine faith, di
vine faith, this dialogue has oc-
THOUGHTS FOR
CHRISTIAN LIVING
Compiled By Poor Clare Nuns
“When the chief priests, therefore, land the serv-f
ante'had seen Him they cried out, saying, “Crucify
Him, crucify Him.” Alas, my Jesus, I too once said,
“Crucify Him, crucify Him,” when I offended You by
my sins.” (St. Alphonsus)
“Happy are you who fear the Lord, who walk in
His ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handi
work; happy shall you be, and favored.” (Psalm 127),
“True charity consists in three things: in giving,;
and in interceding.”
(St. Albert the Great)
“God has said so little, that yet means so much
for our living. To have said more would mean less of
.reverence by God for the splendor of His image in the
Our Maker will be the last to smpdge that image in the;
.name of security, or by way of easing the hazards of
the nobility of man.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)
“Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell — these
:are the four last things toward which we are moving
each hour of the day or night. They will not frighten.
,us if our conscience is clear.” (Anthony J. Paine, S.J.),
“And may the gracious /care of the Lord our God
be ours; prosper the work of our hands for us! Prosper
the work of iour hands!” (Psalm 89)
“No man is happier than the Christian, for to him
is promised the kingdom of heaven.” ....(St. Jerome)
“People are oftefr the carpenters of their own
crpsses.” (St. Phillip Neri)
“There is a double yardstick for measuring humili
ty or the lack of it. One is the way we react to praise,
the other is the way we respond to criticism. If we
cannot take either without becoming upset we are not
humble.” (Unknown)
“You shall pray to me, and I will hear you. You
shall seek me, and shall find me, when you shall seek;
me with all your heart.” (Ecclus. 21:1)
“Love thy neighor and all he possesses will be
thine. Thou takest it for thyself without depriving thy
friend of it.” , (St. Bernard)
curred at some point in our
spiritual pilgrimage. We have
accepted God at His word; we
have committed ourselves to
Him.
In fact, the dialogue never
ends. Each time that we en
counter God anew in prayer, in
the Mass and sacraments, in
acts of charity, the question is
asked again and the answer is
given again: “Do you believe
Me?” “Yes, I do believe.”
It is immensely important to
our religious life that we un
derstand this — understand that
we do not believe doctrines,
however sublime those doctrin
es may be. We believe a living
Being; we believe God. Because
we believe God, we believe in
various truths which He has
made known to us, such as
‘ those we catalogue in the Apos-
j tle^s Creed. But our primary
faith is not in those truths; it
is in God Himself.
Once we have made this act
of faith, this commitment of
mind and will to God, we can
not “lose” our faith because of
the scandalous behavior of some
other person, even if that per
son be a priest or bishop. Scan
dals will disturb us, yes. They
even may move us to tears that
Christ’s cause has been hurt,
and certainly will move us to
grayer for the scandalgiver.
But, shake us? How could scan
dals shake us? Our faith is in
God, not in men.
We are not in any real dan
ger of abandoning our faith be
cause of the human failures of
those around us. It can be, how
ever, that we sometimes allow
external circumstances to occa
sion us unnecessary anxiety.
For example, these times of re
ligious discussion, experiment
and change may put a strain
upon us. “Whatever is the
Church coming to,” we may be
tempted to worry, “with all this
talk about birth control pills,
attending Protestant s e r v i c es
and maybe no sin to eat meat
on Friday? Was everything
wrong before?”
Then God’s voice comes
through to us anew. “Do you
believe Me? Believe that I love
you, died to have you with Me
forever? Believe that I am at
work in the world and that no
human mistake can defeat My
purposes? Relax, My child. I
still am in charge of it all.”
Oil Christmas
Rev. William V. Coleman
There is a great temptation
in writing- about Christmas to
become intolerably sentimental
and fill your sentences with
smiling children, electric rein
deers, and the other symbols of
modern Christmas. But, to me,
Christmas is peace. This was
the heavenly message sent with
the angels, “On earth peace to
men of good will.”
If peace is the sign of Christ
mas, love is the
foundat ion on
which it is
built. Our Lord
told us that we
should love one
another, if we
were to be His
disciples. Who,
then, can real
ly enter into
the spirit of
Christmas? The man or woman
who loves. The man or woman
who is filled with that peace
which surpasses all understand
ing. This is Christmas — love
and peace.
Love begins at home. The real
spirit of Christmas must begin
between a husband and wife.
All the hustle and bustle, so
characteristic of Christmas cel
ebration, is wrong, if it de
tracts from the kindness and
love which exist between these
two. If all the parties and ex
changes of good wishes bring
a husband and wife to the fren
zied pitch of tension which
makes them irritable with one
another, then Christmas has
failed to enter their house.
Little children should begin to
feel that spirit of deep affec
tion and love as an outflow
the love of their parents
one another — not as a love
separate and apart. The real 1 ,
peace and blessing of Christ
mas in a home is the beating of
two hearts as one.
This love of one another will
include not only the children
but all who in one way or other *
have a call upon our love..
First, there are our relatives,
those creatures of God, whom
He has seen fit to join to us
by blood or marriage. These we ,
must love, even though they
seem to be unlovable, for they
are lovable enough for the
Christ child to come on earth to
save.
Then, we must love the poor, .
for they are Christ’s in a spe
cial way. Perhaps, part of our
Christmas giving should over
flow in their direction.
Last, our love must include
the God who gave Himself for
us, and, in loving Him, we shall
love all His children, be they
black or white, short or tall,
handsome or plain, good or
bad.
When you have done all this,
have a very happy and a very
Merry Christmas for you are,
indeed, a man of good will
whom peace was promised.
HAS GOD BEEN EXILED?
It Seems to Me
Rev. David Q. Liptak
Now that the U.S. Supreme
Court has refused even to hear
a case challenging the constitu
tionality of the words “one na
tion, under God” in the Pledge
of Allegiance to the Flag, per
haps Americans
can hope to be
spared further
repetit ions of
the accusation
that “God has
been e x; i 1 e d
from the pub
lic schools.”
That kind of
talk offends a-
gainst truth, fairness, intelli
gence and reasonableness. The
court, in the Champaign (Ill.)
decision on released - time reli
gious instruction of school chil
dren, fell into some unfortunate
language—(“a high and impreg
nable wall of separation be
tween church and state.’’) But
the court later corrected that
mistake, realizing that what is
right and needful and constitu
tional is cooperation between re
ligion and government, each In
its own sphere, for the common
good of the nation and the
world.
NEVER HAS the court (as its
detractors tirelessly and tire-
somely allege) “outlawed” God
and religion and morality from
classrooms. What the court
really has done is to guard con
sciences from government pres
sure; to uphold the right of
parents and children to make
JOSEPH BREIG
their own decisions about reli
gion and religious practice.
The justices spelled out their
purpose in the majority opinion
in the case in which they ruled
that it was unconstitutional for
school authorities ■ in New York
State to compose a prayer and
direct children to recite it each
morning in school. Anticipating
accusations, the court said:
“It is neither sacriligous nor
anti-religious to say that each
separate government (in the
U.S.) should stay out of the
business of writing or sanction
ing official prayers, and leave
that purely religious function to
the people themselves and to
those :the people choose to look
to for religious guidance.”
The court then appended a
foot note upholding classroom
recitations and patriotic an
thems in which belief in God is
expressed, and the many other
“manifestations in our public
life of belief in God.”
The facts about the court’s
position were stated later be
fore the House Judiciary Com
mittee by Charles H. Tuttle, a
New York attorney and Epis
copalian lay leader, who spoke
for the National Council of
Churches. He said:
“A mature and unemotional
reading of the opinions of the
Supreme Court . . . shows that
the court was deciding nothing
more than that it is not the /
business of government to com
pose and impose religious exer
cises to be conducted in public,
tax-supported schools and insti
tutions where the audience is
assembled by compulsion of
law.”
Another who commented on
the matter was Dr. Robert Wi.
Spike, director of the race. comr.
mission of the National Council
of Churches. He said that
church - state separation had
been falsely interpreted by
some as meaning “neutrality on
moral issues or a kind of ban
ishment of religion to a cere
monial function.” Then he add
ed:
“It is ironic that often those
most devoted to naming God on
our coins and in our pledges of
allegiance are most reluctant
to see religious groups identify
ing moral issues and fighting
for human justice in the name
of God.”
Finally, I would like to make
my own the statement of Har
vard University law Prof. Paul
A. Freund, who told the House
Judiciary Committee:
“The real challenge of the
(Supreme Court) decisions is to
strengthen moral education in
the public schools without
meaningless or divisive ritual.
It is this problem, and not a
constitutional prayer amend
ment, that demands our atten
tion.”
Q. Don’t the new liturgical
changes — congregational par
ticipation, Mass facing the peo
ple, hymn-singing and all the
rest — constitute a return to
the primitive Christian liturgy,
a restoration of the original
Mass and accompanying cere
monies?
A. To epitomize the present
liturgical renewal as a return to
antiquity is to misunderstand it
completely. The truth is that
excessive preoccupation with
the past was explicitly repudi
ated by Pope Pius XII in Me
diator Dei, regarded as the
Magna Carta of the present li
turgical revival. (Historically,
however, the attitude to pre
serve ancient monuments for
the sake of preservation as
such d i d characterize certain
early phases of the revival. But
this attitude was soon checked.)
THIS IS NOT to say that the
sciences of history and archeol
ogy are not proximately related
to current innovations in the
Mass and the Sacraments. But
these sciences are properly u-
tilized indirectly, rather than
directly. It is not just a ques
tion of borrowing from the past,
but of understanding the rea
sons underlying primitive litur
gical formulas and ceremonies
so that comparably adequate
forms can be developed in ac
cordance with the pastoral ex
igencies of our own day. As Fa
ther Josef Jungmann observed
in a paper read at the 1956 As
sisi Congress:
“IT CAN BE SAID that it
was pastoral needs which
brought the liturgical forms in-
THE GIFT BUSINESS
View From The Rectory
Rev. Robert Wharton
Cathedral
Christmas
Schedule
His Excellency, The Most
Rev. . Thomas J. McDonough
will be celebrant at the mid
night Mass, December 25, at
the Cathedral of St. John the
Baptist.
Other Mass on Christmas day
will be at 7:30, 8:30, 10:00 and
11:15 in the morning and 12:15
and 5:30 in the afternoon.
Officers of the midnight Mass
in addition to the Bishop will
be the Rev. John Cuddy and
the Rev. Joseph Stranc, dea
cons of honor; Rev. John Fitz
patrick, deacon; Rev. Sean O’
Rourke, sub-deacon; Rev. Kev
in Boland, master of ceremo
nies and Rev. Lawrence Lu-
cree, assistant master of cere
monies.
Looking for an inexpensive
gift for a friend, a tightwad en
tered a gift shop, but found ev
erything too expensive.
Pricing a glass vase that had
been broken, he found that he
could buy it
for almost noth
ing. He asked
the store to
send it, hoping
his friend would
think it had
been broken in
transit.
In due time
he received an
acknowledgement: “Thanks for
the vase,” it read, “and it was
so thoughtful of you to wrap
each piece separately.”
This type of gift is what the
psychologists would call a duty
gift, the one you give someone
just because you have to.
Some time ago three Rutgers
University psychologists studied
this business of gift - giving at
Christmas time and decided
that really sincere, pure-heart
ed gifts are few. Their conclu- {
sions don’t say much for the
human race, but most of us will
have to agree that the Christ
mas race forces us to have al
most as many motives for giv
ing as there are gifts.
Take the duty gift mentioned
above. It’s usually a necktie or
handkerchief tendered to some
one you don’t really care about
but toward whom you feel you
have a duty. Not that you’re al
ways marked if you give some
one a necktie or handkerchief.
Neckties are nice gifts — but
thanks, anyway, if you want to
send me one. I don't even know
how to tie one. As for handker
chiefs, they often are given in
desperation to the man who has
everything and, presumably, he
has to blow his nose some time.
Nevertherless, we are too often
forced to make an offering of
something merely out of duty.
Nearly everyone has been the
recipient of a squelch gift. This
is the delight of those who like
to catch people off guard. It is
given at the last minute to
someone not expecting it so he
cannot reciprocate. Or, it’s giv
en to someone who cannot af
ford to return the compliment.
All the recipient can do, as the
giver stands before him on
Christmas night, is mutter
something about not having his
wrapped yet, get rid of the
visitor, and make a mad dash
to the drug store.
There’s the placating gift,
once given to kings to win their
favor and now presented to mo
thers-in-law to quiet them. And
the extorted gift, paid for wPh
office collections and the sub
ject of considerable resentment.
And the creative gift, the elab
orately packaged one which
takes longer to wrap than to
buy.
Finally, we have the guilt
gifts. These are given by par
ents who are not able to bestow
emotional love but instead lav
ish their children with costly
items at Christmas to make uo
for it. I don’t know who would
fit in this category, but I can
readily imagine two busy work
ing parents going wild with
guilt gifts during this season.
The point of all this is that
we’re like Pavlov’s dogs when
we allow the buying of gifts
and the giving of gifts to be
come conditioned reflexes. We
buy because we’ve been brain
washed and we give for a va
riety
love.
of motives other than
In the good old days—around
the time of Adam and Eve, I
suppose — a gift was an ex
pression of love. And because
the motive was love, the gift
said, in effect, “I am giving
myself to you.” It didn’t make
any difference if there was no
return. It was not offered out
of compulsion.
If We would re-learn the true
to being in the primitive Church:
and so it is this which enables
us to discover the reason for
the liturgical forms of the past
and which can devise forms a-
dlapted to the present needs of
the faithful.”
THUS, IT IS essential to re
view the past only as historians
and archeologists can. In some
instances, such a review may
even uncover practices which
can be translated into the mod
ern idiom — not because they
happen to be from the past,
however, but because they can
be fitted' into the contemporary
picture.
TO IDEALIZE the liturgy of
pre-medieval and medieval
times can result in what Pius
Xn aptly described as “sense
less antiquarianism”. In one of
the most pertinent paragraphs
of Mediator Dei he wrote:
“THE LITURGY of the early
age is most certainly worthy of
all veneration. But ancient us
age must not be esteemed more
suitable and proper ... on the
simple ground that it carries
the savor ... of antiquity. The
more recent liturgical rites like
wise deserve reverence and re
spect. They, too, owe their in
spiration to the Holy Spirit.
They are equally the resources
used by the majestic Spouse of
Jesus Christ to promote
procure the sanctity of ma^^F
THE LAST TWO sentences of
this passage take on special,
meaning when read against the
Second Vatican Council’s Con
stitution on the Liturgy.
meaning of a gift, perhaps our ,
offerings to God would be more;
sincere. Our obedience, our sac
rifices, our prayers and church-
going are pretty close to worth
less unless they are inspired by •
love, unless they are gifts ex-v
pressive of a freely-given ap
preciation of the Creator’s good
ness and perfection.
It’s not so bad for children
to be selfish; they must learn
as they grow. One little tyke
gave his sweetheart a gift with
a note saying, “To Helen—with
all my allowance.” We adults
should know better. It’s selfish,
really, to tag our offerings to
God with: “To God — because
I’m afraid of hell.” Or to tag
your gift to Uncle Bill with:
“To Uncle Bill — because I
hope you’ll remember me in
your will.”
The Southern Cross
P. O. BOX 180, SAVANNAH, GA.
Vol. 45 Thursday, Decemoer 17, 19:64 No. 24
Published weekly except the second' 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