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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, April 1, 1965
The Southern Cross
P. O,. Box 180, Savannah, Ga.
Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough, D.D.J.C.D., President
Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor j 0 hn E. Markwalter, Managing Editor
Phone 234-4574
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga.
Send Change of Address to P. O. Box 180, Savannah, Ga.
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.
Best Of The Finest
THE SOUTHERN CROSS is happy to con
gratulate both the altar boys who, last Sun
day, received the St. John Vianney Award
and their parents.
These are the Diocese of Savannah’s “Al
tar Boys of Distinction” and, as such, are
the very best of some of the finest boys to
be found in any parish - those who serve
God at His altar during the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass and Parish Devotions.
Their nomination for the St. John Vianney
Award is a sign of the high regard in which
their pastors hold them and of the esteem
in which the Church in our Diocese holds
the place occupied by the altar boy in the
Sanctuary of the Lord.
To rise faithfully very early in the morn
ing to serve the first Mass of the day re
quires, not only self-sacrifice on the part
of an altar boy and his parents, but devo
tion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Only a spirit of dedicated determination
moves a boy to attend practice every week when
he could, perhaps, be playing shortstop for
the local little leaguers. Only devotion to the
service of God at His altar could move him
to doggedly pursue the memorization of the
latin responses of the Mass - there still are
some - while the rest of his family relaxes
before the television set.
Most importantly of all, the attention with
which he carries out his duties before the altar
is almost always simply the reflection of his
reverence for the God he knows he is serving.
His neatness of appearance and the crispness
of his freshly laundered and pressed cassock
and surplice, attest to the sacrifice so many
good mothers make in order that their sons
occupy the honored place of acolyte at Mass.
His prompt arrival for an early morning Mass
is often the result of his father’s willingness
to get out of bed on the one day he might
sleep late, in order to drive his boy to church.
The Saint John Vianney Award honors these
qualities of self-sacrifice, dedication, fidelity
and reverence on the part of so very many
of our altar boys and their parents.
And this sign of the gratitude of their priests
and their Bishop is only a slight indication of
the much greater reward God has in store
for those who love and serve Him.
Youth And Vocations
“Listen for Christ,” This was one of the
most recent admonitions of Pope Paul VI to
young people. “Christ speaks to youth,” he
said, “because they are not afraid of big things.
It is a voice which is both an exhortation and
a command, a voice as simple as a sign and
as profound as a drama. It is the voice of
Christ which today, more than ever before
says ‘Come, follow Me. I am the Light of the
world. He who follows Me does not walk in
darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The Pope loves Catholic youth and challenges
them to become involved in the work of the
Church so that they can help wherever needed.
“To be young,” he points out, “is to have a
clear eye and a big heart.”
A “clear eye and a big heart” are needed
today by each one of us. The Church is enjoying
a second spring—it is a time of refreshment
and renewal. Christian Unity has been given its
greater boost, a plan for world peace and a
better society.
And it is up to us make the most of all these
changes and challenges. Pope Paul asks
everyone, but especially young people, to see
that the work of the Council is accomplished and
that its spirit transforms our lives.
“We should always like to be surrounded by
youth,” the Pope says. “It is to youth that the
spirit of religion is directed. For no matter
what one may think of an institution like the
Church, whose age and history are measured
in centuries, and whose fidelity to tradition and
to the inheritance of human civilization is known
to all, the Church loves youth, as an old tree
loves spring; more still, the Church is itself
young and feels that it is young because the
principles from which it lives are eternal.”
“Christianizing the world is not a conquest
but a service.” To be a modern apostle is to
continue the redeeming work of Christ among
men, to bring “salvation and peace to the whole
of mankind.” But, how best to continue the re
deeming work of Christ than to accept, in the
most perfect manner possible, the invitation,
“Come, follow Me,”—as a priest, as a brother,
as a sister. (CATHOLIC LIGHT-SCRANTON)
PERSONAL pra yer OUTMODED?
God’s World
If ever you have made a closed retreat, al
most certainly you have heard quoted the lament
of the prophet Jeremiah: “With desolation is all
the land made desolate; because there is none that
considereth in the heart.” Newer translations of
the Bible somewhat weaken the impact of this
verse from the old Douay ver-
§ sion, but it still expresses a basic
truth of the spiritual life. If men
and women cannot find time for
frequent periods of contempla
tive thought, the world is in a
bad way.
This truth is especially in need
of re-emphasis in our present
generation. We have become such busy people.
The tempo of life has greatly increased during
these past thirty years or so. Anyone old enough
to remember back that far, can recall how much
more leisurely life moved in the 1930’s, not to
mention the 1920’s and before. Then there was
time to think long and serious thoughts.
“Hurry it up” has become a national slogan,
not only on the highways and at work, but even
in our homes. We look askance at the person
who chooses to “just sit and think awhile.”
Why isn’t he up and about and doing Something
useful?
Even the present renewal within the Church
carries with it an unintended danger. We are
witnessing a needed reaction against the highly
individualized piety of recent centuries—the
“God and I” mentality as distinguished from the
more truly Christian “God and we.” As a result,
current sermons and religious literature place a
decided stress on corporate worship and social
responsibility.
No preacher or writer has said so, and it
is not a valid inference, but at times it almost
seems that private prayer and personal piety
have fallen into disrepute. Certainly it was not
good for us to be a Church of isolated and
w*,u“uuu±iy self-centered individuals. But neither
will it be good for us to swing to the opposite
extreme and become a Church of complete
activists.
The truth is that if we and the world are
to be spiritually healthy, we simply have got to
find—and frequently—some quiet moments to
spend exculsively with God. We have got to enter
into communion with God and to take stock of
ourselves from His point of view.
Ideally such moments will be spent in church,
where the atmosphere is conducive to reflective
thinking and where God’s presence is most
palpable. To many of us, perhaps most, it never
occurs to make a trip to the church, perhaps
five minutes away, except for Mass or for some
other public devotion.
There is no set technique that we need
follow, except to advert to the fact that we are
in God’s presence, that His attention is focused
upon us and that we are in communication with
Him. We may choose to begin our tete-a-tete
with God with some such words as these:
“Well, God, here I am. Please help me to
size myself up honestly. Sharpen my vision
so that I may see where I am falling short
of Your expectations of me, and may see what
steps I ought to be taking. Give me the cou
rage to begin doing what needs doing.”
If we are in any doubt as to what does need
doing, it will be helpful to read an extract from
the Sermon on the Mount, as we find it in chap
ters 5 to 7 of St. Matthew’s Gospel.
We should not become discouraged if nothing
much seems to issue from our first efforts. If
we persevere with regularity in our “quiet
time with God,” we shall be rewarded with some
surprising insights concerning ourselves and the
false front which, perhaps, we have built up for
ourselves. We also maybe rewarded, from time
to time, with those ecstatic, spine-tingling
moments when we suddenly feel the reality of
God’s intimate, personal Presence--“righthere
with me!”
Aggiomamento Pains
WORSE THAN ATOM WAR?
It Seems To Me
JOSEPH BREIG
There are deeply concerned
persons who ask how worldpeace
can be possible when some people
don’t believe in God and religion.
These persons, deeply sincere,
go so far as to say:
“There is something more
dangerous than
a nuclear war—
the loss of all
This sounds
brave and con
vincing, but in
fact it is an un-
c o nscious
throwing up of hands in the face
of the difficult and wearying
task of dealing with life’s com
plexities in the second half of
the 20th century.
In a moment of rhetorical
splendor at the Virginia Con
vention in 1775, Patrick Henry
cried out, “Give me liberty or
give me death;” but Henry
hadn’t the faintest intention of
choosing death. What he meant
was that he was ready to fight
for liberty and that all men
ought to be prepared to do so.
War, however, is always a
last and desperate recourse; and
there can be times when even
as a last recourse it won’t do.
When that is the case, the in
telligence of man seeks some
other solution.
SUCH SLOGANS as “better
dead than red” are wrong be
cause they imply a giving up;
a surrender; a confession that
the problem is insoluble. But
for the man or woman of faith,
who believes in the providence
of God, there is no such thing
as despair.
Mahatma Ghandi found him
self in a situation in which war
wouldn’t do. He saw that force
would get him and his people
nothing except more suffering
and oppression. And so he hit
upon the tactic of passive re
sistance.
It is profoundly instructive to
study the question: why did pas
sive resistance succeed where
force would have dismally fail
ed?
NON-VIOLENCE succeeded
because the English were hu
man beings—and Ghandi knew^
it. Victory came because he man
aged to touch the conscience of
England and the conscience of
the world. He could not have
done so had he had not had faith
that those consciences existed.
Led by men like the indomini-
tably patient Martin Luther King
--who believes in God and be
lieves in man as God’s image
—Negroes in America are attain
ing their rights by similar meth
ods. And was it not in much the
same way that the early Chris
tians won acceptance and free-
com?
MANY CHRISTIANS died as
martyrs when there was no other
way out without denying their
convictions. But many more went
hiddenly about the business of
living as Christians in the hos
tile Roman Empire until at last
one of them could write to the
authorities and challenge them
with the fact that Christians were
everywhere—in government, in
the armed forces, in commerce
and education and law . .. every
where.
And so the Roman Empire
was overcome, and Christianity
came out from underground and
before long the Emperor Con
stantine himself embraced it.
OUR CHOICE today is not be
tween nuclear war and freedom.
A nuclear war would leave A-
merican and Russian--and much
of the rest of mankind—either
dead or free only to die slowly
while envying the dead.
Human beings in their senses
cannot accept such madness. As
Pius XII said--and as John XXIII
and Paul VI have reiterated—
we must learn to live and let
live on this planet, atheists and
Christians and all, meanwhile
negotiating with endless patience
for workable world peace machi
nery.
Neither Russian nor American
leaders are such fools as to allow
themselves to be maneuvered
into mutual destruction by a few
thousand guerrillas manipulated
by conspirators in China.
VOTER RIGHTS BILL
Capital Report
WASHINGTON (NC) —Some 500
representatives of militant civil
rights groups were told at a ral
ly in Judiciary Square here that
quick passage of President John
son’s voter registration bill will
not end civil rights demon
strations.
James Farmer, national direc
tor of the Congress on Racial
Equality, told the assembly that
“to relax pressure now would be
to relax progress.” He told his
hearers they are on the crest
of a wave, and that they must
not let up if they are to attain
eating, meeting and “walking-
in-the-streets-in-peace rights”
for Negroes.
These remarks, delivered in
an area adjacent to the district
Federal courts, tended to focus
attention upon a legal question
that was beginning to emerge,
and be talked about, on Capitol
Hill a mile or less away.
The President’s voting bill is
being rushed through Congress
with bi-partisan support with the
hope and expectation that early
passage will put an end to pic
keting, mass marches, sit-ins
and other practices which could
grow and get out of hand. But in
some quarters it is being sug
gested that the very speed and
bi-partisan support with which
the measure is being endowed is
cutting off debate which could eli
minate some flaws in the bill,
which has been represented as
foolproof.
Actually, some competent law
yers and observers fear that the
bill as offered to Congress might
be unconstitutional on several
counts. It is suggested that going
back to the 1964 elections to
establish states where less than
50% of the eligible voters voted,
and thus qualifying these states
for action by the Attorney Gene
ral, is arbitrary and ex post
facto legislation. It is said the
bill conflicts with the constitu
tional right of all states to fix
their own voting qualifications;
that it would permit a state
with barely a 50% eligible voter
turnout to retain voting restric
tions, while a nearby state with
barely less than 50% turnout
could not. And there are other
objections.
Now, with Farmer’s declara
tion that passage of the bill won’t
stop the demonstrations, there
are those who feel that, if this
advice is repeated much around
the country, Congress may decide
there is no point at all in acting
quickly.
CABBAGES Am KINGS
Rev. William V. Coleman
On
Newspapers
Recently, one of the local papers advertised
itself as, “a molder of public opinion,” This was
most significant, for it could herald an awake
ning consciousness, on the part of the press, of
its awesome responsibility toward the com
munity. \
For a long time now, too many newspaper
men have lounged in their ivory towers contem
plating freedom of the press in the United States,
sallying forth, now and again, to
S defend their freedom to speak.
Like so many immature profes
sions and professionals, these
newspapermen have gloried in
their freedom but failed to mea
sure up to their responsibilities.
For too long a time, some have
fed their sacred cow of jour
nalistic freedom on the pastures
of others’ rights. Perhaps, at long last, the pen
will be filled not only with liberty, but with
responsibility.
It seems to me that the home town newspaper
has a moral responsibility toward its readers, a
responsibility, not only to report news, but, to
verify and clarify it, lest the rights of indivi
duals suffer in the bargain. If we, as individuals,
have an obligation to avoid gossip and unproved
accusation, lest we injure the good name of an
other, how much more the editor whose choice
of news can destroy the individual in a moment.
It seems to me that the home town newspaper
has an obligation to select its news and adver
tising with all its readers in mind. Recently, we
were fortunate enough to see a legal decision
which banned a book from public sale, because it
seemed to be detrimental to the public morals of
the community. Yet, in the same paper which re
ported the story, there are moving picture ads
which pander to the lowest instincts of the
readership. Is this liberty or is it hypocricy?
It seems to me, that it is the duty of a
newspaper to help a community see itself as
others see it, to keep it from becoming ingrown
and self-complacent. This takes courage. It
takes real community spirit to lay the ax to the
root of the tree and call a spade a spade. It
takes raw heroism to deal with the essential
problems of a city or town instead of seeking
the bizzare or sensational in the lives of indivi
duals. In a word, it takes intelligence, depth and
insight to treat of issues and not individuals in
the press. This is the intellectual maturity we,
the thinking public, look for in our press.
There has never been freedom for any
length of time without the exercise of indivi
dual responsibility. We wonder how long un
restrained freedom of the press will survive
when it is fed on sensationalism, lack of judg
ment and a failure to offer reasoned solutions to
the issues which plague our society.
We hope that in the ad we read a few days
ago there is a harbinger of better days in the
small town press. One way or another things
will be different. Let’s hope freedom makes the
grade.
QUESTIONS
Our Faith
Q. A priest called the law on 2 boys who
stole money from the poor box. I don’t think
this priest works with our Lord. In the eyes
of God the poor box really belonged to the boys.
They were penniless and too proud to beg.
The boys’ sin was pride, not stealing. Am I
right?
Catholics lead in style. I know the summer
is coming. Short shorts are coming too. Catho
lics send their children to Catholic schools, go
to Communion, and come back home, put on
their shorts, and all over town they go. In
stead of encouraging Communion tjie leaders of
the Catholic Church are out to discourage im
modesty. Am I right?
A. If I understand you right
ly, you would encourage your
sons to rob the poor box, but
forbid your daughters to wear
shorts. You remind me of some
“leaders” I know who condone
injustice in social and racial
matters, but rant about the styles
of women’s dress. Immodesty
should not be encouraged, but
our morality shouldbe intergral; and evils should
be opposed in proportion to their gravity.
Q Could you please tell me where I can find
in the Bible the text, “Subdue the heavens and the
earth,” Astronauts are claiming this text to
prove their points.
A. Sorry, I can’t help you. The nearest I
can come to your text is Genesis 1,28: “Be
fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and sub
due it.”
I doubt that the sacred writer of Genesis
ever dreamed of getting off the ground. For him
the heavens were a giant blue bowl inverted over
the earth, equipped with floodgates to let the
rain come through, and with sun, moon and stars
attached to its inner surface. If he had thought of
orbiting the earth he would have had visions of
crashing through this bowl and then drowning in
the waters under the earth.