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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, October 1, 1965
The Southern Cross
P. Q. Box 180, Savannah, Ga.
Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough, D.D.J.C.D., President
Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor John 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
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Subscription price $5.00 per year.
Message To U.N.
Though Pope Paul’s day in New York took
on the appearance of a festive visit to the United
States, the Pontiff has made it quite clear that
he made his journey to the United Nations as a
missionary, a man with a message, an Apostle
of Peace.
It has been said that history may well record
the Holy Father’s appearance before the repre
sentatives of 116 nations and his eloquent and
stirring appeal for a world order based upon
universal peace and justice as “just what we
needed” to get us back to thinking clearly a-
bout the true bases of peace and justice.
Everyone realizes - and we hope no one is
so foolish as to suppose that the Pope does not
realize it - that the great rock which has so
impeded the United Nations from translating
the principles of its charter into reality is the
idealogical war which has fragmented an or
ganization intended to be universal in charac
ter into opposing blocs - Communist and non-
Communist, East and West, Colored and White-
vying with one another for position and status
at the expense of Peace and Justice.
No one expects that because Mr. Gromyke
shook hands with the Pope and spoke with him
at length, the Communist dedication to world
conquest will now go a - glimmering.
On the other hand, we don’t know of any law
which says the other nations of the world must
necessarily remain powerless to thwart that
dedication by means other than war.
And Pope Paul’s message was a call to the
reaffirmation of those means - the establish
ment of a social order based upon a univer
sal recognition of the true dignity and worth
of mankind, which can only be the fruit of
humility and brotherhood.
It was a call to those nations sincerely look
ing for honorable peace and a better life for
their people to close ranks and not be deterr
ed from their own dedication to work together
just because things have not gone along swim-
ingly over the years.
The Communist nations and other countries
which refuse to renounce violence and war as
an instrument of national policy could hardly
be expected to heed the words of the Pope when
he said, “We feel we are making our own the
voice of the dead and of the living; of the dead
who fell in the terrible wars of the past; of
the living who survived those vars, bearing
in their hearts a condemnation of those who
would try to renew wars; and also of those
living who rise up fresh and confident, the youth
of the present generation, who legitimately
dream of a better human race.
“And we also make our own the voice of the
poor, the disinherited, the suffering, of those
who hunger and thirst for justice, for the dig
nity of life, for freedom, for well-being and
progress.”
But, shame on those who claim to be Chris
tians and yet fail to heed them.
Gromyko may, indeed, have laughed up his
sleeve as the Holy Father continued, “Man
kind must put an end to war, or war will put
and end to mankind. Many words are not need
ed to proclaim this loftiest aim of your insti
tution. It sufices to remember that the blood
of millions of men, that numberless and un
heard of sufferings, useless slaughter and
frightful ruin, are the sanction of the pact
which unites you, with an oath which must
change the future history of the world; No
more war, war never again! Peace, it is peace
which must guide the destinies of peoples and
of all mankind.”
But, shame on the man who calls himself
Christian, and find in the words only ‘dreamy
idealism’.
Pope Paul addressed a question to the United
Nations and to all of us: “Will the world ever
succeed in changing that selfish and beUicose
mentality which, up to now, has been interwo
ven through so much of its history?”
Admitting that is is hard to foresee, he ne
vertheless declared, “It is easy to affirm that
it is towards that new history, a peaceful, truly
human history as promised by God to men of I
good will, that we must resolutely march.”
Let others deny it, if they will. We concur.
And we wait for those who minimize Pope Paul’s
plea and deride the forum in which he made it
to present a reasonable and realistic alterna
tive to either.
CONFESSION... EMPTY GESTURK?
God’s World
Leo J. Trese
Going to confession was a pretty rugged
experience in the early Christian Church. The
Christian communities were close-knit fellow
ships living often under the threat of perse
cution and martyrdom. Members of these com
munities found it hard to understand how any
one, once having committed himself to Christ
in baptism, could relapse into sin.Consequently
a repentent sinner had to per
form severe and extended public
penance before he could be ab
solved from his sins. For par
ticularly grave crimes such as
murder, apostasy or adultery,
the sinner might have to do life
long penance, with absolution
granted only on his deathbed.
With the passing of centuries this rigorous
discipline was progressively relaxed. Now the
forgiveness of sin (assuming the sinner to be
properly penitent) is a matter of popping in
and out of the confessional box. Such public
penances as the wearing of sackcloth and
ashes, self-scourging, long fasts and exclusion
from Mass, have given way to a few extra
prayers to be said in private.
We are grateful that God has inspired His
Church to make the administration of His
mercy so easy for us. Still, this very ease
of confession carries with it an ever-pre
sent danger. The danger is that our confessions
may become a routinized performance, with
scarcely any advertence to the awesomeness
of this encounter with God.
This is particularly true for those of us
who, free from grave sin, go to confession
as an act of piety and in order to receive
the increase in grace which the sacrament
gives. We may forget that the richness of
grace is dependent upon the intensity of our
sorrow. Indeed, our confessions can become
so formalized, so perfunctory as to be almost
devoid of grace--an empty gesture just short
of sacrilege.
Our defense against this danger is to try
to bring to each confession a renewed sense
of wonder at the inconceivable thing that is hap
pening to us. We are effecting an intimate
meeting between ourselves and God. God’s
whole attention is fixed upon us. He is reaching
out to touch us with His mercy as we reach
out to touch Him with our sorrow.
Every sacrament is an encounter with God,
a moment when humanity and divinity meet in
an explosion of love. But there is a sense in
which we may say that not even in Holy Com
munion are we closer to God than in the sacra
ment of penance. In this instant the whole of
Salvation History is pinpointed upon us. This is
why God chose Abraham and Moses and Jacob
and David; this is why God came into the world
as Man, and suffered and died and ascended
into heaven--precisely so that at this moment
in time He could bathe me with His meriful
love.
We enter the confessional on a personal mis
sion, yes; but not wholly on a private mission.
Each of us must share in Christ’s passion.
Each of us must be a channel through whom
Christ can offer reparation to His Father.
Each of us must sorrow for his neighbor’s
sins as well as for his own.
If we axe going to bring to our confession
such dispositions as these, we shall need more
time for our preparation than many of us have
been giving to the task. We cannot hurriedly
enter the confessional, give the priest a
hackneyed patter of peccadilloes which has not
changed in twenty years, listen with distracted
mind while the priest speaks the words of
forgiveness, and expect to reap from this per
formance a harvest of grace.
This actual time that I spend in the confes
sional may be very brief, but not so the time I
spend in preparation. The priest’s words of
absolution should be the climax, the moment
of electric fusion between God and myself—
and, through me, between God and His Church.
It will be a climax fallen flat if I have done
little or nothing to build up to it.
Come Bach Often!
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CABBAGES AND KINGS
Rev. William V. Coleman
On Tourism
The City of Savannah has announced plans
to invest five million dollars to attract tou
rists to the area. I cannot help but applaud
any decision which will help to awaken Sa
vannah. Justice demands that every city govern
ment take prudent steps to provide economic
opportunity for its citizens.
I am forced, however, to won
der what type of employment
will be created by this coming
tourist boom? More maids?
More window washers and yard
men?
The little devil of skepticism
plays at the corners of my
mind and prompts me wonder whether the
emphasis on the tourist trade is not a clever
compromise between those who would suffer
from a general boost in wages and those who
are concerned with the economic decline which
wiU accompany the loss of Hunter Air Force
Base.
The basic greatness of our national economy
is not tourism but manufacturing. Industry pays
wages more in keeping with the dignity of man.
It better provides the opportunity of raising
a family in an atmosphere of self-respect and
minimal luxury. The hotel and entertainment
field, while paying well at the top, provides
less well for those not in managerial positions.
Is our emphasis on tourism unwittingly con
tributing to the great gulf between the “haves”
and the have-nots”?
CLOAK AND DAGGER JOURNALISTS
It Seems To Me
For a couple of years now,
a good number of journalists
writing about the Second Vati
can Council have been indus
triously turning out cloak and
dagger stories (which I sup
pose they themselves believe)
to the effect that the nasty,
reactionary, conspiratorial
chaps in the Roman Curia
were undermining everything
the council Fa
thers were
trying to do,
and were hold
ing Pope Paul
in durance vile
by letting him
hear only what
they wanted
him to near.
For these commentators
and their panting readers,
every day of the council has
been one of cliff-hanging cris
is; and the theme of about half
the reports from Vatican City
has been a repetitious and de
spairing “All is lost.” The
Curia and the other “con
servatives” were always
about to win the day, and the
“liberals*’ ( sometimes also
known as “progressives”)
were forever being outwitted
and outmaneuvered. Every
time a vote approached, these
journalists wrung their voca
bularies--and the nerves of
their audiences—in mortal
terror.
Meanwhile, the council Fa
thers were calmly proceed
ing to roll up huge majori
ties, on every ballot, for the
renewal, reform and updating
of the Church initiated by
Pope John XXIII. And Pope
Paul, who had publicly ded-
Joseph Breig
icated himself to putting
John’s insights into effect,
was doing everything possible
in that direction—flying to
the Holy Land and to India,
and engaging in dialog with
religions, governments, peo
ples, sciences, and even with
atheists, not excluding com
munists.
This was what he had pro
mised in his first encyclical.
Ecclesiam Suam. He had
pledged a going-forth by the
Church to the world on a scale
never before seen or even
imagined in Christian history.
He had said plainly and em
phatically that the Curia would
be reformed and would do its
part in eliminating all that
was unattractive on the hu
man side of the Church.
More; Pope Paul had com
mitted himself to the concept
that all the bishops share with
the pope the task of guiding the
Church; and had said that in
due time (as he has now done)
he would form an episcopal
synod, a senate of bishops,
to collaborate with him in this
responsibility.
Never since the second ses
sion of the council, when the
bishops emerged from their
preliminary groping, has
there been the slightest rea
sonable doubt about the course
the council Fathers—in
cluding Paul VI—were taking.
They were walking the way
pointed by John the Good. But
the alarmists among the jour
nalists cried doom because
Paul was fair to the conser
vatives when they appealed
for their right, under council
rules, for time to study the
revised treaties on religious
liberty—a document over
whelmingly approved (with
Pope Paul’s direct help) at
the present, the final, ses
sion.
The fact is that Vatican
Council H and the events ac
companying it constitute the
most revolutionary develop
ment in the Church since the
first infusion oftheHolySpirit
on the first Pentecost Sunday,
There is only one explanation
for the fact that some re
porters seem incapable of
seeing this; they have no sense
of history and no concept of
the greatness of the changes
that have been taking place.
The overwhelming reality is
that Pope John, the council
and Pope Paul already have
transformed the Church in
a hundred ways, without of
course altering anything re
vealed by God, and therefore
unalterable. The effects ex
tend far beyond the visible
boundaries of the Catholic
Church; to the other Chris
tians, to the Jews, to the
Moslems and Buddhists and
Hindus, to all mankind.
The intellectual and emo
tional climate of the world has
been changed so astoundingly
that one turns for explanation
to the thought of a special
divine intervention in history.
The unembroidered truth is
immensely more exciting than
the cloak-and-daggering of
journalists who have no feel
for the vast scope of this
greatest news story of the
20th century.
SEES UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
Capital Report
WASHINGTON (NC)—The
president of the National
Council of Catholic Men be
lieves that the War on Po
verty presents Catholic bus
inessmen with a unique op
portunity for service.
“It’s a practical way for
businessmen to put the Chris
tian principles they profess
into practice,” said John F.
Donnelly of Holland Mich.
Donnelly, a glass and mir
ror manufacturer, was one of
a number of business leaders
from all over the Uni ted States
who met here (Sept. 29) at
the invitation of the National
Conference for Equal Busi
ness Opportunity.
NCEBO is a division of the
Small Business Administra
tion engaged in the war on
poverty.
“I particularly want to chal
lenge my fellow Catholics to
take the initiative in this laud
able endeavor,” Donnelly
stated in an interview. “We
hear about ‘SundayCatholics.’
Here is one down-to-earth
way to demonstrate that the
Faith is to be praoticed on
week-days too.”
Donnelly said that an im
portant item on the agenda
of the NCEBO meeting was
drawing up a plan to recruit
businessmen to serve on lo
cal anti-poverty groups.
These local groups will in turn
encourage the formation of
small businesses by people
in depressed or neglected
groups, he explained.
A “showcase” local group,
known as the Small Business
Development Center, is suc
cessfully operating in Wash
ington under the chairman
ship of Walter McArdle, a
printer and former president
of the Washington Arch
diocesan Council of Catholic
Men.
A great city, like New York or Atlanta, has
a diversified economy. Savannah must have the
same, if she is to provide for all her citizens.
Putting all the community eggs in one basket
is as dangerous as it is short-sighted. If the
City can invest five million for tourists, why not
even more for industrial development?
A second difficulty in the promotion of tour
ism in Savannah is the lack of effective union
organization to assist those in the menial
positions. In a large metropolitan area, aggres
sive unions help keep the wages of service
workers in touch with those in industry. Sa
vannah is not likely to accept such unionism
in its tourist trade for some time to come.
All the more reason, it seems, for putting
our money where it will do the common man
the greatest good.
I have heard it said that some in Savannah
do not want industrial development on a large
scale. Even if this were so, the poor who exist
on forty or fifty dollars a week or less want
to see their wages over the hundred dollar a
week mark. They would like to have a share
in our affluent society, without a strong in
dustrial economy this will remain impossible.
We, the citizens, must carefully evaluate this
situation with an eye not for “what is in it for
me”, but with an eye on our brothers in Christ,
the poor. What is in it for them? What is best
for them is best for me. That is what Christ
taught, isn’t it?
QUESTIONS
Our Faith
Msgr. Conway
Q. In using the leaflet missals furnished in
our church with the new liturgy, I am quite
concerned by the omission of capitals in the
pronouns referring to Our Lord and God. What
possible gain is obtained in using small letters
in referrence to God? A word beginning with
a capital letter indicates that the word is special
in some way. Is God not special?
ing. The names of God, Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Spirit
should always be capitalized, as
a sign of respect and because
they are proper names. But
there are no set rules about
capitalizing the pronouns which
refer to God, or to one of the
persons of the Trinity. Rather, we might say
that each publisher has his own rules, and
sticks to them carefully. Some never capitalize
a pronoun; others capitalize the personal pro
nouns, he, him and his; a few extend cstfcii-
talization to the relative pronouns, who, whom,
whose. If you capitalize all these pronouns in
a prayer, or in reading from the Scripture
you may end up with very uneven copy.
Take a look at the Confraternity Edition of
the New Testament which we have been using
for the past 25 years. You will find that no
pronoun referring to a divine person is capi
talized in the biblical text. Indeed, I have just
consulted more than a dozen editions of the
Bible, Protestant and Catholic, and I do not
find one which capitalizes pronouns. The only
copy of Sacred Scriptures in which I find pro
nouns capitalized is that of the Jewish Publi
cation Society of America, and it uses no
lower case for any pronoun referring to the
Divinity—not even forms of the first and second
person like Me, My, You and Your.
Of course the Latin Vulgate does not capi
talize pronouns; neither does the Greek text.