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PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, December 16, 1965
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.
BISHOP’S OFFICE
225 Abercorn Street
Savannah, Georgia
December 15, 1965
My dear People:
A few days ago, I returned from
Rome after witnessing the conclu
sion of the Second Vatican Council.
The deliberations and the conclusions
of the august assemblage of the
Catholic Bishops from all over the
world will, please God, have a most
salutary and lasting effect upon the
whole world.
Our Holy Father, Pope Paul VI.
h-as called upon all of us for a greater
dedicaton to prayer and an absorb
ing devotion to the Eucharistic life
of the Church. In a very special
w!ay, too, the Vicar of Christ Was
urged the people of God to bear a
Christ-like love for the poor, the neg
lected and the dispossessed. We, as
Catholics, must pledge our fidelity
to Christ’s vicegerent and rejoice in
the role of spending ourselves freely
and generously for others.
Each year, during this holy sea
son of Christmas, I beseech your
help in behalf of St, Mary’s Home
for girls and St. Joseph’s Home for
boys. These two institutions provide
you land me with an unusual oppor
tunity of helping many cnildren who
are literally homeless. And yet what
we do for them is so little in com
parison to the blessings which Christ
has promised to those who help lit
tle children. These two institutions,
which touch so intimately the Christ-
Child of Bethlehem, connote the
genuine meaning of Christmas and
draw us realistically to the Holy
Manger.
Kindly use the envelopes which
have been distributed to you and
please be ^generous even to the point
of sacrifice. We are requesting at
least ten dollars from every wage
earner. Your response to the collec
tion will, I know, surpass even our
greatest expectations.
On Christmas day, I will remem
ber you and your loved ones at the
three Masses which I shall be privi
leged to offer.
May the Christ Child bring you
every peace and blessing as He again
enters the world as a pledge of peace
and love to “men of good will”.
Imparting to you my blessings, I
am,
BISHOP OF SAVANNAH.
EVERY CHRISTIAN A MARTYR
God’s World
Leo J. Trese
The image of John the Baptist which emerges
from the pages of the Gospels is a somewhat
grim one. Living in the wilderness along the
Jordan river, subsisting on a diet of locusts
and wild honey, clothed in a coarse garment of
camel’s hair, he is the very epitome of aus
terity as he thunders out his call to repentance
and charges onward to his martyr’s death in
Herod’s dungeon.
S John must have possessed an
attractive personality beneath
his wild exterior because he
drew to himself a band of loyal
disciples. But he is the com
plete ascetic, totally detached
from the world’s attractions.
As such, he is an everlasting
rebuke to those of us who may
be tempted to place too high a
value on the good things of life.
We would hesitate to say so, but many of us
do tend to feel that we have a positive right to
a pain-free and a happy life. In theory we ad
mix that, as a consequence of original sin and ;
our own personal sins, we have sacrificed any
claim to special treatment on God’s part. Yet,
Dispensation
Dec. 24 & 31
His Excellency, Bishop McDonough, has
granted a dispensation from the law of
abstinence on Friday, December 24th
and on Friday, December 31st.
Because Christmas comes on Satur
day, we are bound to abstinence for two
reasons on Friday December 24th; the
general law to abstain on Friday; se
condly, the law to abstain because of the
vigil. If we use the system of choosing
either of the two days before Christmas
to abstain , we would be beund to ab
stain anyway on Friday.
To avoid all confusion this year, the
Bishop dispenses from fast and abstinence
on Friday, December 24th, and from ab
stinence, Friday, December 31st, Selec
tion of either of the two days before
Christmas this year is omitted. Therefore,
no one is bound to fast and abstain on
Thursday or Friday.
when sorrow, sickness or financial stringency
comes to us, we are inclined to feel cheated.
“Why did it have to happen to me?” we ask.
It is one of the paradoxes of life that very
often the more of God’s natural gifts we pos
sess, the farther we drift away from God. We
might expect that having perfect health, plenty
of money and success in our undertakings would
give us a deep sense of gratitude and would
expand our love for God to the bursting point.
Nevertheless, it would be difficult to find
instances of persons who have advanced in
sanctity as they have grown in wealth. It
would be equaUy difficult to establish any
correlation between freedom from sickness
and growth in holiness; in fact, the lives of
the saints indicate quite the opposite. And,
to express it conservatively, persons who have
achieved a high degree of success or fame
are not necessarily the most prayerful, the
most dedicated to the doing of God’s will.
There are very few of us who cannot look
back to occasions in our lives when we met
with some seeming disaster which, from the
vantage point of todav. we now can see was to
our ultimate advantage. At the time we were
full of resentment against the workings of
Providence; ye t now we can see that we are a
better person because of the blow which be
fell us. St. Paul was not the first or the last
person who had to be knocked to the ground in
order to head him toward heaven.
To the great majority of us, misfortune comes
only occasionally. But there are other persons
for whom suffering seems to be a life-long vo
cation. Some are afflicted with chronic ill
ness, others are the victims of circumstances
which result in continuing frustration or grief.
Such sharers in the cross of Christ enjoy a
privileged position. Their suffering constitu
tes a permanent sight draft upon God for li
mitless grace, whenever it is needed.
Whether we are among this favored minor
ity, or whether our own share of adversity
is just average, it is important for us to
preserve our sense of proportion. The dis
tance in happiness between the person who
knows nothing but misery and the person who
has everything — health, wealth, success and
love — is infinitesimal when compared to the
distance between this world’s highest happi
ness and the bliss of heaven.
From the viewpoint of the angels and saints,
who look upon the face of God and know what
real happiness means, we mortals must all
look pretty wretched, even at our most pros
perous and most hilarious.
Spirit of Christmas
CHRIST’S DEATH AND RESURRECTION
It Seems To Me
Dr. Michael J. Harner, an
anthropologist at the Univer
sity of California, has sug
gested that Jesus did not die,
but was fed a drug made from
the mandrake plant, which put
him into a death-like coma
which fooled the Roman
soldiers into taking him down
from the cross.
Later, so
Harner specu
lates, Jesus
revived in the
tomb, and when
he reappeared
among his fol
lowers, they
thought he had
risen from the
dead.
This is old hat.EssentiaUy,
it is the same old “swoon”
notion that has been bobbing
up at intervals for centuries.
The only thing new is the man
drake plant.
The death and resurrection
of Jesus are the two most
thoroughly investigated events
in history. Every conceivable
objection to the factualness of
the Gospel accounts has been
raised and refuted. If Dr.
Harner wants to go into the
matter, shelves of books are
at hand for his research, and
he has years of fascinating
reading before him.
A shorter course can be
Joseph Breig
had simply by openingtheNew
Testament. Jesus was mer
cilessly scourged. A crown of
thorns was driven down on his
head. He was so weak from
torture, hunger, thirst and
loss of blood that the soldiers
forced Simon of Cyrene to
carry his cross for him; they
didn’t want him dead before
they could nail him to it.
After about three hours
hanging there in hideous tor
ment, “Jesus cried out with
a loud voice, and gave up his
spirit.” So testifies Matthew.
Mark puts it in almost the
same words: “But Jesus cried
out with a loud voice, and ex
pired”.
Luke also mentions the loud
voice. “And Jesus cried out
with a loud voice and said,
‘Father , into thy hands I
commend my spirit,’ And
having said this, he expired.”
Doesn’t sound much like a
man in a death-like coma from
a drug, does it? In fact, Jesus
was conscious and completely
rational all through his agony,
speaking to his mother and St.
John, and praying for his per
secutors.
When the legs of crucified
men were broken, they died
quickly of suffocation because
they were no longer able to
lift their bodies to breathe.
Pilate gave the order, and
the soldiers broke the legs
of the thieves. They did not
break Christ’s because they
saw that he was already dead.
But to make sure, “one of
the soldiers opened his side
with a lance, and immediately
there came out blood and
water.”
That was the final unmis
takable proof of death; and the
officer in charge, the Cen
turion, so reported to Pilate,
who then allowed Joseph of
Arimathea to take down the
body, prepare it for burial,
and place it in the tomb.
After telling about the
piercing of the heart of Jesus,
and the flowing of blood and
water, St. John — who was
right there at the cross the
whole time with the mother
of Jesus — reminds us that
he is testifying to something
he saw with his own eyes.
He writes:
“And he who saw it has
borne witness, and his wit
ness is true; and he knows
that he tells the truth, that
you also may believe. For
these things came to pass that
the Scripture (prophecy) might
be fulfilled, ‘Not a bone of him
shaH you break.’ And again
another Scripture says, ‘They
shaH look upon him whom they
have pierced.’ ”
PROTESTANTS ON COUNCIL
Capital Report
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NC)—
Protestant leaders around the
country praised the Second
Vatican Council as a tremen
dous leap forward in the ecu
menical movement.
* Dr. Franklin Clark Fry,
president of the Lutheran
Church in America, said he
expects a “new, true under
standing of the whole Chris
tian family” from the De
claration on Religious Free
dom, which he termed the
council’s “most welcome ac
complishment.”
“The outstanding virtue,”
he said, “is recognition that
not only Christian individuals
bu t Christian communities
exist outside the Roman
Catholic Church.”
Dr. Edwin TuUer, secretary
of the American Baptist Con
vention, said the council has
BY J. J. GILBERT
‘ ‘opened opportunities for
communication between the
Roman Church and the Pro
testant Church that were never
there before.”
Dr. Nelson Glueck, presi
dent of Hebrew Union College
in Cincinnati, called the coun
cil “a tremendous forward-
going development in religious
history.”
The “very great religious
re-evaluation” of the council,
he said, “will undoubtedly
mark in the annals of history
a development of profound and
beneficient import.”
Dr. Robert Doods, associate
secretary for Christian unity
of the National Council of
Churches and an observer for
six weeks of the council’s last
session, said he was most im
pressed by “the new openness
of the Catholic Church.”
“Together with other ob
servers on the scene I was
most impressed by the evi
dence of spiritual vitality in
the Roman catholic Chtirch
and by the promise of a new
era of brotherhood and
working collaboration among
all churches.”
Dr. Eugene Carson Blake,
clerk of the General Assembly
of the United Presbyterian
Church in the U.S.A., said
the council “greatly streng
thened” the ecumenical move
ment, “and we look forward
to ever increasing unity and
cooperation.”
Dr. Porter Routh, executive
secretary of the Southern Bap
tist Convention’s executive
committee, praised the coun
cil’s accomplishments “in
granting religious liberties”
and added, “we hope they
will follow through with this.”
CABBAGES AND KINGS
Rev. William V. Coleman
On Stables
There are few memories of childhood as
vivid to me as the day I discovered that Jesus
didn’t have a home in which to be born. It
seemed a terrible thing that Jesus, who was
so good, should have to spend the first days
of His life amid beasts, squalor and filth.
It wan’t until much later in life that I learn
ed the opening verses of Saint John’s gospel,
“He came unto His own and His own received
Him not.” The gentle rhythm of the passage
did little to obscure the harsh
reality that there was no room
for Christ among His own peo
ple.
Scarcely a Christmas comes
and goes, that this idea doesn’t
strike me. This Christmas is
no exception. Now, with the per
ception that comes with the
years, I see more deeply into
the words of Saint John. I better realize that
Christ is stiU coming and is still being kept
on the outer fringes of the society He would
like to call His own.
He comes now, as then, clothed in the rags
of poverty. He is hard to see-even for those
with the vision of Faith. Sometimes His face
is blackened. Again, He is white and poor.
Always, He seeks, through these the least of
His brethern, the right to have a place among
us.
Our hypocrisy is just as real as that of the
ancient peoples who would not have Him.Per-
haps, it is more real, for we have even great
er reason to recognize Him in His little broth
ers.
Take a walk through the slums of Savannah,
Augusta, Macon or any city or town of our
diocese and see Christ rejected all over a-
gain. Look at the hovels into which He has
been thrust. SmeU the poverty which He must
endure. Feel the helplessness of His little
brothers as the rent-collector comes to take
his inevitable toll of His tiny budget. Listen
to the abject misery as it speaks. This is
the voice of Christ rejected. This is the cry
of the Infant of Bethlehem. This is the cry
of the Forsaken upon the cross. This wretch
ed misery is the voice of God. Don’t you hear
it?
No man can call Christ His brother who
will reject the poor or be indifferent to them.
How, then, can we look at the stable from
the warmtn of our nomes, convents and rec
tories and not see the need to quickly destroy
the barriers which keep us from Him and His
brothers?
QUESTIONS
Our F aith
Msgr. Conway
y. WiU you please tell me the meaning of the
amethyst ring people kiss? I know it is a gift
to a new cardinal, but the meaning please!
What does it stand for?
A. It is my understanding that the Pope
gives each new cardinal a modest ring set with
a sapphire. However, the amethyst has long
been a popular gem for a bishop’s ring; so
maybe the cardinals trade in their cheap sap
phires for big amethysts.
It seems that bishops have
worn rings since early cen
turies - certainly since the
sixth or seventh century. Some
early rings may have been used
as seals for authenticating do
cuments (like the Pope’s offi
cial ring: the Seal of the Fish
erman). However, ceremonials
of the eighth and ninth centuries
show that the bishop’s ring had become a sym
bol of his marriage to his Church: “Receive
the ring, that is to say the seal of faith, where
by you, being yourself adorned with spotless
faith, may keep unsullied the troth which you
have pledged to the spouse of God, His holy
Church.”
In early centuries the transfer of a bishop
from one diocese to another was strictly for-
bidien. The bishop was married to the Church
(diocese) for which he was consecrated, and if
he deserted that Church to take another he was
guilty of “conjugal infidelity.” One decree read
like this: “A bishop deserting the Church to
which he was consecrated and transfer ring him
self to another is to be held guilty of adultery
and is to be visited with the same penalties as
a man who, forsaking his own wife, goes to live
with another woman.”
In medieval and Renaissance times some bish
ops who were vain or wealthy wore many rings.
Custom seems to prescribe that when a lay
man or a cleric of inferior rank meets a bishop
he should kiss his ring - and if it is your own
bishop, or the bishop of a diocesp you are vi
siting, you should genuflect while kissing the
ring. However, many bishODS now lift you up
if you try to genuflect and twist their ring-hand
away from you if you try to kiss it. Possibly
you noticed Pope Paul doing this when he re
ceived diplomats and dignitaries at the United
Nsttions.