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LENT - TIME OF PRAYER AND PENANCE
NEWSPAPER DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH
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Vol. 45, No. 36
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SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1965
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WILLIAM McALPIN, Grand Marshall of Savannah’s (annual St. Patrick’s Day pa
rade rides at head of 75 marching units honoring Ireland’s patron Saint. McAlpin
is shown standing in car, flanked by two aides, Dan Keane (1) and Robert F.
Ryan. (Staff Photo by Bob Ward)
BY POPE PA UL
Peace In Vietnam War,
Race Conflict Sought
VATICAN CITY (NC)—Pope
Paul VI urged a noon crowd in
St. Peter’s square to pray to
Our Lady for peace in an ob
vious reference to fighting in
Vietnam and racial strife in the
U. S.
Appearing at his window above
the square (March 14), the Pope
again appealed for an end to ar
med conflicts in all parts of the
world.
He particularly urged Catho
lics to pray to the Blessed Vir
gin for “countries where war
and guerrilla warfare are still
tearing human lives to pieces
where discord because of
and color creates hatred,
US DENMARK
COPENHAGEN (NC)—History
has indicated that the road most
taken by religous minority groups
in a nation with an established
church has been one of discreet
and respectful silence on pub
lic issues. In Denmark, however,
Catholic youth organizations do
not ascribe to that theory.
Lutheranism is the established
religion in Denmark, and there
are only 26,000 Catholics in a
total population of 4.5 million.
While there is no great antagon
ism toward the Catholic Church,
neither is there widespread
knowledge of the Church’s posi
tion on public issues.
^^tree youth organizations
here—the Danish Catholic Youth,
the Young Catholic Students and
the Young Christian Workers—
have set about to correct that
situation. The statements they
have issued and the meetings
they have sponsored have been
given wide publicity by Danish
newspapers.
In recent months, the Danish
press took note of a YCW state
ment regarding the church-state
situation in Spain. Several youth
victims and disorders.”
The same day the Vatican City
daily, L’Osservatore Romano,
denounced the “bestial violence”
in Alabama and deplored the mur
der of the Rev. James L. Reeb,
Unitarian minister of Boston who
was killed in Selma where he had
gone to take part in protest
demonstrations against violence
used by police against Negroes
seeking to register to vote.
An editorial entitled “Racist
Infamy,” signed by the daily
editor-in-chief, Raimondo Man-
zini, declared:
‘ ‘In an age such as ours which
aims at the highest affirmation
groups started this year to lend
assistance to students in under
developed nations of Asia and
Africa. Others are planning an
information office which would
supply the secular press with
news of Catholic activities around
the world.
A spokesman for the Danish
Catholic Youth, aMr. Tiedemann,
said at the conference that dis
armament cannot be achieved
until nationalism disappears, and
that nationalism will not dis
appear until security is provided
by some international organi
zation. During his talk, Tiede
mann called attention to the
appeal by Pope Paul VI in Bom
bay, India, last December when
the Pope urged nations to place
their expenditures for arma
ments at the service of the
world’s poor and sick.
Official recognition of the work
of Catholic youth groups was
given here (March 7) by Arch
bishop Bruno Heim, apostolic
delegate to Scandinavia, who
celebrated Mass in St. Augustin
church marking International Pax
Romana Day. Many Danish
youths, both catholic and non-
Catholic, attended the Mass.
of the dignity of man—of every
man—and at affirming... the
moral equality and the moral
and material development of each
one, it is difficult to believe that
some states of the American
nation persist in denying the ex
ercise of civil rights to members
of their own communities be
cause of the color of their skin
and for other physical reasons.”
It said that ‘ ‘the wave of grief
over the death of the Rev. (James)
Reeb is finding a deep echo in
the entire world and in every
man.” j
The editorial also spoke of the
ecumenical aspects of the Selma,
Ala., struggle, saying: “It is
significant that Catholic priests
and religious persons of every
confession stand side by side in...
the defense of human values.”
On the sameday Pope Paul VI
denounced “unbridled secu-
larsim” in a sermon at Rome’s
St. Joseph’s church where he
celebrated Mass in Italian on the
second Sunday of Lent.
The Pope was given a warm
welcome to the church. Banners
were hung and candles displayed
outside the apartment windows
overlooking the square in front
of St. Joseph’s.
RAIMONDO MANZINI, edi
tor of L’Osservatore Ro
mano, Vatican City daily,
and president of the Interna
tional Union of the Catholic
Press, who will preside at
the 8th World Congress of
the Catholic Press in New
York, May 18 to 21. (NC
Photos)
Catholic Youth
Yery Outspoken
THROUGH BISHOPS ’ RELIEF FUND
U.S. Catholics Have
Opportunity To Aid
Needy Of The World
NEW YORK (NC)—Pope Paul
VI appealed to U. S. Catholics
to assist him in caring for more
than a billion persons throughout
the world who “are hungry and
homeless, cold and sick, lacking
those basic needs which min
ister to human dignity and spirit
ual growth.”
The Pope re minded Americans
they can aid the gigantic mission
of mercy by generous contri
butions to the Laetare Sunday
collection for the U. S. Bi
shops’ Relief Fund which will
be taken up, generally, in parish
churches through out the country
on March 28.
The papal plea was made in
a letter to the U, S. archbi
shops and bishops, released here
at headquarters of Catholic Re
lief Services— National Catholic
Welfare Conference, worldwide
relief agency maintained by
American Catholics. The agency,
which gets its principal support
from the Bishops Relief Fund,
operated a program last year
which assisted 40 million needy
persons in 73 countries of the
world.
Roads
“Laetare Sunday will find you
again asking your generous
people, themselves also now
more deeply conscious of the
plight of their needy brother sand
sisters of God’s great family,
to contribute to the Bishops’
Relief Fund,” Pope Paul said
in his letter. “We would have
you convey to them our warm
appreciation for shouldering with
us the burden, increasingly
heavy, of feeding and caring for
the flock of Christ, His people
everywhere.”
On his historical visit to India
last December, the Pope told the
U. S. bishops, he saw firsthand
“some of the fruits of your pract
ical love of neighbor.”
“We are moved by the
effectiveness of this brotherly
assistance, and we cannot but
encourage you, venerable bro
thers, to continue and to increase
this program on behalf of the
poor and undernourished peoples
of the world. Such proof of fra
ternal affection and sympathetic
understanding cannot but contri
bute to bring about peace based
on justice, charity and mutual
FLEE VIET CONG
respect,” Pope Paul wrote.
In its globe-girdling work of
mercy, CRS-NCWC dispenses
food, clothing, medicines and
other relief materials solely on
the basis on need—without re
gard to religion or race.
“We all realize more vividly
that these hungry and sick, these
who are without home and with
out hope, wherever they live,
are the fatherly concern of all
of us who have the pastoral
care of souls, and the fraternal
concern of mankind in general,”
Pope Paul wrote to the U. S.
bishops.
“The poor, and those in what
ever need, are not mere ab
stractions, not mere numbers,
not only staggering statistics.
Like us and our flocks, they
are flesh and bone, heart and
soul. They have eyes and ears,
they walk and talk and hope
and yearn. Like us they suffer
when in need, and their needs
are greater and more elemental
than we can really appreciate.
In a word, these poor are our
brothers,” Pope Paul continued.
Of Vietnam Are
Crowded With Refugees
By Father Patrick O’Connor
SAIGON (NC)—Lines of bur
dened refugees are moving wear
ily again over the roads of Viet
nam.
Thousands of families, many
of them Catholics, are fleeing
from rural villages attacked,
controlled or occupied by the
communist Viet Cong. They are
crowding into towns of the coastal
provinces of central Vietnam.
The total number of these re
fugees of recent months is esti
mated now at about 115,000, ac
cording to Col. Sam Wilson of
USOM ( U. S. Operations Mis
sion, that is, U. S. foreign
aid) here. He thinks that Catholics
probably anount to 40% of the-
total. Others wouldput the Catho
lic percentage higher.
The first of these refugees
were driven from their homes
at the end of last August and
early in September. That was
when a Catholic village was
ravaged and most of it burned,
on the outskirts of Danang, and
the “Committees of National Sal
vation” founded by Dr. Le Khac
Quyen of Hue staged their pro
grams. Already in September
there were several thousand Ca
tholic refugees huddled around
the cathedral in Qui Nhon.
Then the floods came in No
vember, driving people from
their homes and farms. Most
of these have now returned to
their villages.
A large-scale flight of refugees
from inland districts began when
the communist Viet Cong re
newed their military campaigns
after the lunar new year, early
in February. The great majority
of these people fled simply be
cause there was no longer any
effective defense against the ever
more numerous and aggressive
Viet Cong.
“Sizable bodies of Catholics
came in choesive groups with
their parish priests,” Col. Wil
son said.
“Buddhists also wish to leave
but they are slowed down by not
having an organization adaptable
for their situation,” a Catholic
priest in a central Vietnam dio
cese commented.
In Qui Nhon and the area around
it, there are now about 28,000
refugees, of whom some 14,000
are crowded in four “centers”
within the town.
“The majority of the refugees
here are Catholics,” Sister
Karen Gossman of the Medical
Mission Sisters in Qui Nhon said.
Father Joseph Nguyen So is
struggling to take care of the
refugees. Catholic Relief Ser
vices--National Catholic Wel
fare Conference and USOM have
been helping him.
The story of Go Thi, a large
village about 15 miles from Qui
Nhon, is typical.
Go Thi had a population of
6,000 of whom some 3,500 were
Catholics. For the past six
months they have been harrassed
by the communists. They had
their village self-defense unit,
but the province and district
chiefs feared that the communists
would attack in overwhelming
numbers. Last month the autho
rities said that the village could
not be defended.
Nearly all the 6,000 villagers,
men, women and children, left
their homes one morning at 7
a.m. and started on foot towards
Qui Nhon. An American Officer/
a captain, walked with them. By
4 p.m. some 3,400 of them halted
at the junior seminary 2 1/2
miles outside Qui Nhon. There
at latest report, they were still
camped, in miserable conditions.
Among those who walked into
the town were the Vietnamese
Sisters and novices from the
orphanage in Go Thi, with the
older children. Each Sister car
ried an orphan baby in her arms.
Catholics who have fled from
villages now controlled by the
communists say that life was im
possible under the Viet Cong.
Specifying what they found in
tolerable, they say that the Viet
Cong force them to join in poli
tical demonstrations, to march
ahead of attacking communist
forces, to go out at night and
cut trenches across roads. They
complain of the taxes extorted
by- the communists. From some
persons the communists have re
portedly demanded payment of
taxes from 10 years ago, from
the date when, after the Geneva-
made truce, the communists had
to evacuate these provinces.
American and Vietnamese of
ficials think that a small per
centage of the refugees may have
been driven out of their villages
by the Viet Cong in order to
overtax the government’s re
sources in the towns. Officials
also think that there are pro
bably some Viet Cong agents
with the refugees, charged with
the mission of inciting discontent.
“We do not have a serious sit
uation yet,” Col. Wilson said
here. “If the numbers of re
fugees increases sharply, we
shall have a problem.”
“We haven’t yet reached a point
where the relocation en masse
of these refugees has to be con
sidered.”
IIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIItlllllllHIIIIIIHIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIf HlltMIHIIIHIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIItltlllllMIIIIMMIIIIIHIIIMItMIIMIHMIlilMMtMMt 1
$5 Per Year
IIIIIIIHMIlHIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIHIHIHmiHHIIIIMIIIItlllMIIIIIHHIMHIIIIIIIIIMtHHiaillllMHtMMIMtaMtllMMHMIMHIMlMMMMMMI
YOUR CONTRIBUTION to the Laetare Sunday collection
for Catholic Relief Services-N.C.W.C. will help thousands
cf valiant souls around the world like this long-suffering
elder in the tiny African country of Sierra Leone. Despitf
having lest his fingers to leprosy and his teeth to inadequatr
diet, he listens in dignity as Father Rocco Serra, CRS-
NCWC representative explains how to prepare the canned
food. The Laetare Sunday collection, March 28, is your
chance to make a gift to those most needy. (NC Photos)
FOR EXCELLENCE
College Honors
John Kennedy
ARLINGTON, Va. (NC)—The
Christian Excellence Medal of
Marymount College of Virginia
has been awarded posthumously
to President John F. Kennedy.
It was received by the late Pre
sident’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Ro
bert F. Kennedy, the first re
cipient of the medal in 1961.
Speaking at the award cere
mony, Msgr. Francis T. Hur
ley, Assistant General Secretary
of the National Catholic Welfare
Conference, emphasized the im
portance of making personal de
cisions in Christian life today.
He urged that they make up
their own minds, assume their
personal responsibility in the
great issues now being debated,
and not shun them “because you
are not ‘directly’ involved.”
“Perhaps the involvement of
religious groups in the cause of
civil rights is one of the greatest
evidences of respect for human
dignity,” he said “Catholic
schools have risked their clien
tele in desegregating; pastors of
many religions have risked their
pulpits in speaking for open hous
ing; men and women of all re
ligions are risking safety and
their very lives to demonstrate
to the world that voting is a
basic right. Why? They respect
the dignity of human beings who
have for years been the victims
of discrimination. These demon
strators have high personal
spiritual motives, but the object
of their action is the human
being.”
Msgr. Hurley spoke of women’s
rights as a special responsibility
for women’s groups, and called
attention to a training project
in the anti -pove rty program being
assisted jointly by the national
councils of Catholic, Jewish,
Protestant and Negro women.
Sister M. Majella Berg, Mary
mount president, said that Pre
sident Kennedy typified Christian
Excellence Medal qualities be
cause his life displayed “for all
to see, the giving of self for
the common good.”
Accepting the medal, Mrs. Ro
bert Kennedy urged the students
to imitate the “spirit of com
mitment, care and action” that
the late President represented.
headune /-f*
HOPSCOTCH \ t
NATION
Nun Astronaut?
NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- A Benedictine Sister has declined an
invitation to apply for astronaut training. Sister M. Margaret Beal-
mar, O.S.B., who is studying for a doctorate in physiology at the
University of Notre Dame, received the letter from ANSA’s Manned
Spacecraft Center at Houston, Texas. Sister Margaret said her only
regret about turning it down was; “I’m not exactly a small per
son, and going into orbit would be a wonderful way to become weight
less without going on a diet.” The letter was apparently sent in
error.
FAR EAST
Sumurai Priest Dies
TOKYO —Father Paul Yachita Tsuchihashi, S.J., former mem
ber of a warrior Samurai family of feudal Japan, died here at
Sophia University at the age of 98. He assisted in founding Sophia
Catholic University, opened here by the Jesuits in 1913, and served
as president of the university during World War II.
VATICAN
Vatican Profits Denied
ROME —Italian government sources have ridiculed charges
that the State of Vatican City owes the state of Italy more than;
$60 million in taxes for 1964 profits in trading in the Italian stock
market. The charges had been made by the leftist Weekly, Es- ;
presso.