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FAMILY CLINIC Obscenity Issue
Raises C omplex
Court Problems
by JOHN J. KANE, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
University of Notre Dame
Mixed marriages, like noses,
run in our family. Grandpar
ents on both sides, my hus
band’s brothers and sisters as
well as mine and ourselves
haya. all been involved in mix-
(ligious marriages. I have
to others who have had
the same experience. Is there
any way to help our children
break this pattern?
have, a
dr
Theresa, your letter points up
what research in mixed reli
gious marriage long ago con
firmed: such marriages do run
in families. Years ago Father
Coakley, in a survey of mixed
marriages in Pittsburgh, found
that once such a marriage has
occurred within a family, it is
quite likely to be the start of
others. Bro. Gerald Schnepp,
S.M., working in Washington,
also discovered that out of 200
persons whose parents had con
tracted a mixed marriage, only
44% entered a Catholic marri
age.
The discussion of mixed mar
riage seems to have become a
very sensitive matter. Perhaps
the spirit of ecumenism is part
of the reason, perhaps the suc
cess of some, and high rate of
conversions in others contribute
to this. At any rate, any dis
cussion of mixed marriage is
bound to awaken considerable
controversy and I shall be in
undated with letters on it.
after survey reveals
alamuig consequences of mix
ed religious marriages. Fre
quently the Catholic partner
loses his faith, more likely
when the husband is the Catho
lic party. Very often the pre
nuptial promises are disregard
ed and children are not reared
as Catholics. Sometimes, in
deed, they are reared in anoth
er religion.
With the utmost respect for
persons of different religions
and their churches, a Catholic
should want his children to en
joy the tremendous benefits of
the Faith. This is not merely
an emotional matter, it is a log
ical stand. Therefore, on this
basis alone, it seems mixed
marriages ought to be discour
aged. It should also be noted
that a dispensation is required
for such unions, a point fre
quently forgotten or overlooked
by many young Catholics.
Since marriage is such a
close and intimate union of the
spouses, its chances for success
are increased when husband
and wife share common values.
But no values are so important
as religious values within fam
ily 1 ife. Disagreements and
quarrels are inevitable in any
marriage. But think of the fer
tile soil provided for their
growth in mixed marriages.
There is only one logical
In Savahnah
OGLETHORPE
MARBLE & GRANITE CO.
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' *.J*vt£ki*Ax<0
A BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR CHRIST?
CHRISTMAS IS CHRIST’S BIRTHDAY. TO SHOW HIM
THAT YOU LOVE HIM, give something to the poor . . . Refugee
parents in the Holy Land need milk
and eggs to feed their children. $10
will feed a family for a month! . . .
Infants in makeshift Bedouin tents
shiver at night on the desert sand.
a) $6 will buy three blankets . . . Hope-
; ' ful little girls at our orphanage in
Bethlehem look for a dress, new
shoes, a doll, in their Christmas
stocking. You can “adopt” an
orphan for only $10 a month . . .
... Christ’s Birthday is next Friday.
The Holy Fathers Master, Aid what you give the hunffry> the
for the Oriental Church shivering, the abandoned, He said,
you give to Him. This week especially, your gift to the missions
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are people, not place-names. They are lepers, cancer sufferers,
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• ee out of four people alive right now are hungry . . . Won’t
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. Your Christmas will be happier!
GIFT SUGGESTIONS
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went overseas to see the missions for himself. Your gift “no
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A HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
Dear Monsignor Ryan:
Enclosed please find.
Name
..for.
!•••••»•«
Street
City .
State.
Zip Code #
rittiUgat fist OlissionsjMi
FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN, President
Msgr. Joseph T. Ryan, Not’l Sec'y
Send all communications to:
CATHOLIC NEAR EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION
330 Madison Ave. at 42nd St. New York, N. Y. 10017
method of preventing mixed re
ligious unions. It is a coldly re
alistic one, undoubtedly some
what harsh, and frankly not en
tirely practical in the kind of
society in which we live. Ex
pressed simply: Don’t date a
person of another faith.
But when you make such a
statement to the average young
person, you are immediately
labeled: a bigot. After a lecture
on this topic at a Newman club,
a Catholic young man, ap
proached me and said, “You
sound like my father. I am
engaged to a Protestant girl. I
love her and I intend to marry
her-so what?”
It seems to me this clinches
the truth of what I wrote. Dat
ing led to courtship and love.
When love enters the picture,
particularly the “compulsive ro
mantic’’ type, all other consid
erations are demolished.
The- Parish is important to
the solution of this problem.
Some pastors have experiment
ed with frequent social affairs
for young persons and have ac
tually decreased the rate of
-mixed marriages.
Yet, in the final analysis, par
ents hold the key to the reme
dy. Again surveys have reveal
ed that Catholic mothers are
actually LESS opposed to mix
ed religious marriages than
Jewish and Protestant mothers.
It must, indeed, be quite diffi
cult for the Catholic mother in
a mixed marriage, especially a
happy one, to attempt to persu
ade her sons and daughters not
to enter such a marriage. Ex
ample is a powerful influence.
It is not easy, but parents
should try to teach children to
seek partners of their own faith
without being derogatory to
ward other religions. They
should encourage their children
to join and participate in par
ish affairs and the many or
ganizations specifically set up
for young Catholics. They should
tactfully inquire whether the
boy or girl being dated is a
Catholic or not. This, at least,
makes the young person aware
of difference in religion if it
exists.
None of this will eliminate
mixed religious marriages. All
of it may help decrease the
rate. In our kind of society this
is just about the best that can
be expected at this point, and
I fear some Catholics neither
want nor expect this.
* * *
Doctor Kane will be unable to
answer personally. However, he
welcomes your suggestions of
topics that would particularly
interest you. Address Dr. Kane
in care of this newspaper.
(This is the first of a two part
article.)
by Russell Shaw
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
WASHINGTON — Where does
the U.S. Supreme Court stand
on obscenity? Is it preparing to
—or has it already—let down
the gates to a flood of porno
graphy that threatens to engulf
the nation? Or is it on the con
trary bravely defending free
speech, the keystone of a dem
ocratic society, against hordes
t' of would-be censors who seek
to stifle the exchange of ideas?
Never have these questions
been asked more often or more
heatedly than in the past few
months. Indeed in some circles
the Supreme Court’s latest ac
tions in the area of censorship
and obscenity seem to have
provoked a virtual crisis of con
fidence in its ability to repre
sent the needs and aspirations
of the public. Yet elsewhere the
court has been hailed for put
ting the constitutional right of
Americans to free expression of
ideas on a firmer footing than
ever before.
Columbus
^Michael
Of. X Jleis
Qdesixjner
and
^Producer
Cleqanl
3iomes
Who are right, the court’s
critics or its defenders?
At this moment—in the heat
of battle •— definitive answers
are hard to come by. But one
approach to deciding where the
court stands and where it is
headed lies in seeing where it
has already been — in review
ing, that is, the decisions that
have carried the court to its
present position.
A convenient starting point is
1957. In that year the justices
delivered what still remains,
with significant modifications,
their landmark ruling in its
field, the Roth-Alberts decision.
Roth and Alberts had been con
victed of violating anti-obsceni
ty laws. In appealing to the Su
preme Court, they argued that
restraints on the distribution of
any kind of literature — includ
ing obscenity—violate the First
Amendment (“Congress shall
make no law . . . abridging the
freedom of speech or of the
press”). . i
The Supreme Court firmly re
buffed this argument in a ma
jority opinion written by Justice
William J. Brennan. “Implicit
in the history of the First A-
mendment,” he said, “is the re
jection of obscenity as utterly
without redeeming social im
portance. This rejection for that
reason is mirrored in the uni
versal judgment that obscenity
should be restrained.”
The court thus established the
principle that obscene materials
can be proscribed by law. Next
it turned to setting a test for
deciding what is obscene.
Justice Brennan put the test
in these 23 words: “Whether to
the average person applying
contemporary community stan
dards, the dominant theme of
the material taken as a whole
appeals to prurient interest.”
At the same time the court
underlined its belief that the
mere presence of sex in litera
ture or films is not itself ob
scene. Rather, it explained, ob
scenity is that which “goes sub
stantially beyond customary
limits of candor in the descrip
tion or representation of nudity,
sex or shameful acts.’’ It was
further noted that the “domi
nant: theme” test means that
isolated passages of a prurient
nature are not sufficent by
themselves to render a work
liable to banning.
In this ruling the court e-
quipped itself with a doctrine—
that obscenity can be banned—
and with an interpretation of
that doctrine explaining what,
in legal terms, obscenity is. In
a happier world, that should
have been the end of the mat
ter; as it turned out, it was
just the beginning. Cases de
manding elaboration of the
court’s position have multiplied,
and over a period of time the
court has obliged.
In 1958, in the case of Sun
shine Book Company v. Sum-
merfield, the court held that
the Postmaster General could
not bar nudist magazines from
the mails. In 1959, in Kingsley
International Pictures Corpora
tion v. Regents of the State of
New York, it held that the
state could not ban a movie
merely for advocating an unor
thodox idea — in this case, the
idea that adultery may some
times be acceptable behavior.
(The case involved a film, ver
sion of D. H. Lawrence’s novel,
“Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”)
Also in 1959, in the case of
Smith v. California, the court
held that to be constitutional,
laws making it a crime to sell
or distribute obscene material
must require proof that the dis
tributor had “knowledge” of
the contents of the material.
(Cont’d next week)
PRIME MINISTER Giorgio
Borg Olivier of Malta, who
heads his country's delega
tion to the United Nations
general assembly, where Mal
ta was this month admitted
to the U.N. (NC Photos)
Pope Eulogizes
Beauty Of Mary
VATICAN CITY (NO—Pope
Paul VI eulogized the beauty of
Our Lady on the Feast of the
Immaculate Conception, remark
ing that the world has “almost
lost the concept of a beauty of
such sublimity.”
Because of this, he told the
crowd in St. Peter’s Square,
and because “we have such de
sire for beauty, we go around
looking for it in exterior hu
man and visible appearances.
“But the Madonna provides
for us the image of an essential
beauty, the interior harmony of
the total perfection of her be
ing. It is beauty which we find
in children — the beauty of in
nocence.
“This is the beauty we must
hail in Mary, and we ought to
be glad that it reflects in us,
reminding us where to look for
it . . .
“If the world were indeed
capable of appreciating this
beauty of the Madonna, what
torrents of goodness, spiritual
energy and joy it would find
rising in itself? Let us beg the
Madonna, ‘totally beautiful,’ that
she assist us and smile upon
us, revealing to us the secret
of her life full of virtue.”
FIRST COMMUNION — Sister Mary Ephrem, S.S.F.,
Principal, and Sister Mary Faustina, S.S.F., First Com
munion Class Teacher, with recent First Holy Commu
nicants of Most Pure Heart of Miry Church, Savannah.
The Southern Cross, December 17, 1964—PAGE 5
McAuley Hall — Mt. de Sales, Macon
MT. de SALES, MACON
Homecoming December 26th
Christmas holidays will bring
another “first” to Mount de
Sales! Alumni will be invited
back to school for a REAL
homecoming basketball game
in McAuley Hall December 26
beginning at 7:00 p.m.
We say REAL homecoming
because former graduates will
not only be spectators; but
some of them will play in the
two games that will highlight
the evening activities.
This will be the first chance
that many graduates will have
to enjoy the splendid facilities
of our new gym. And although
we wish, just as they do, that
they could have had the use of
such a fine building when they
were in high school, we hope
that by including them in our
activities from time to time
they will know that the prog
ress of Mount de Sales is their’s
Columbus
Children’s
K. C. Party
The Bishop Gross Council
1019, Columbus, will sponsor
a Christmas Party for the
children of Brother Knights
on Sunday afternoon, from
3:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.,
December 20th, at the coun
cil hall, 802 Broadway.
A 1 ! children through the
Third Grade are cordially in
vited.
to share and claim as their
own.
First on schedule will be a
game for girls in which the
alumna team will do its best to
win over the schools’ “Blue and
Gold” team. Practices for the
alumna team will be slated as
soon as a team is formed. Any
person wishing to play should
contact Polly Searle, SH 2-0297,
or the c,o hool office.
Minter Garvin will coach the
alumni team that will meet the
Cavalier Varsity team in the
second game. He is presently
working to form a team and
prospective players are asked
to call him at SH 2-8267.
A sock-hop in the cafeteria
will follow the games. Senior
girls and boys will be hosts for
the dance and will’take charge
of decorations and refresh
ments.
McAuley Hall will also be the
scene of the annual Christmas
Dance to be held December 21
from 8 to 12 p.m. All alumni
were invited to attend.
Music will be furnished by
“The Hornets”, the popular
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