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VIETNAM WAR The Southern Cross, August 24, 1967 PAGE 6 FAMILY CLINIC By JOHN J. KANE, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology University of Notre Dame Is suicide an act of insani ty? Is a person planning suicide sick mentally? These questions are very important to me because someone in my family has threatened to com mit suicide. Another relative actually attempted but was rescued in time. But this person is still depressed. I would appreciate anything you can say on this matter. By insanity I take it that you are referring to someone who is suffering from what is tech nically termed a psychosis. This is what is popularly known as crazy or insane. The term insanity is not really a psychiatric but a legal term. Unfortunately, there is no simple yes or no answer to this question. One reason we cannot answer such a question is that we have no idea of the num ber of suicides occuring each year. True enough, we es timate them to be in the neigh borhood of twenty thousand a year. But no doubt some au tomobile accidents, drownings and other so-called accidental deaths may really be suici- cal. But of the known sui cides, psychiatric opinion holds that only about twenty per cent or one out of every five can be considered truly psychotic, that is, insane. I do not mean to give this figure as an absolute one. It is an estimate, it is a cal culation made by psychia trists on the basis of their rather wide experience in this field. Sometimes it is im possible to be entirely cer tain and the Catholic church is usually willing to give the benefit of the doubt to a sui- Johnnie Ganem Steak Ranch 1 CHARCOAL BROILED STEAKS { PRIME STEAKS { DINNERS-LUNCHEON COCKTAILS DINNER MUSIC Gaston and Habersham < AD 3-3032 4 - J cide and permit Catholic bur ial. But even though all sui cides may not be psychotic, probably most of them are seriously emotionally dis turbed. I think the term emotion ally disturbed would cover what you mean by sick men tally. There are various kinds of suicide and in some so cieties under certain circum stances suicide is expected of the individual. This is, or at least was, particularly true in certain parts of Asia. It is not the case in the United States and anything I say about suicide will be confined to the United States or at least the Western World. The kind of suicide we en counter most in the United States is known as anomic. This means that the indivi dual has lost all or almost all of his bonds with other persons in society. He is a rootless individual, he lacks norms of behavior. None of this happens suddenly but de velops over a period of time. Sometimes, as during the de pression, the suicide may be rather sudden when the indi vidual is overwhelmed by what is or at least what he believes to be a severe catastrophe. Some of the persons who jum ped from skyscrapers in the early days of the depression when they learned they had been wiped out would come un der this category. You mention a relative who attempted suicide but was res cued in time. Ironically enough, twice as many women as men attempt suicide but more men actually carry it off than women. Women tend to use methods which permit the passage of time during which they may be rescued. They tend to avoid the kind of weapon that would mar their face or bodies. But once a per son has attempted suicide, he MASON INC. AD 2-4192 18-20 W. BRYAN ST. •Printing •Office Supplies •Office Furniture •Ditto Duplicating Machines and Supplies SAVANNAH BANK CHECKS HELP YOU THREE WAYS: easier bill paying safer than cash best receipt for all you buyI Savannah Bank *ss£ & Trust Company your Hometown ttank- MAIN OFFICE Bull & Bryan Sts • Bull & Duffy Sts. • West Broad & Harris Sts. Crossroads Shopping Center • Medical Arts Shopping Center • Traffic Circle Abercorn Expressway at Stephenson .i.sht .......ct or she should be watched closely for at least ninety days. You mention that this rela tive who attempted suicide is still in a state of depres sion. If this is the case, he or she should be under psy chiatric care. If not, the probability that another at tempt will be made, and per haps successfully, must be frankly realized. There are certain other in teresting aspects about sui cide. By and large, the num ber of persons committing suicide tends to increase with age. Most suicides occur af - ter 45 years of age, but re cently there has been an up swing in those between 15 and 20. This is a rather alarm ing thing to note, even though the number involved is not great, but it would seem to in dicate that there is a certain amount of anomie occuring between young people and our society. A further indication of the fact that anomie is probably an important factor in most suicides is that married per sons are less suicide prone than the divorced or the wi dows or widowers. As a mat ter of fact the divorced have a relatively high rate com pared to other persons. Ano mie undoubtedly plays its part in the suicide of the aged who feel cut off from all other persons, suffer extreme lon- liness and apparently use sui cide as a way out of their pro blems. So far as statistics go, Ca tholics have a lower rate of suicide than Protestants and Jews but some authorities claim that many Catholic sui cides are covered up because of the Church’s attitude to ward self-destruction. The suicide rate in Ireland, for example, is very low. On the other hand in some northwes tern European countries there is a relatively high rate of suicide. Again, a word of caution is indicated, because some of the Scandinavian Countries which do have a high rate of suicide also have a much superior method of col lecting statistics. To be more specific in an swer to your question about the person in your family who threatened suicide, I urge you to see that this individual receives psychiatric care im mediately. It may be an idle threat but it is well known that about three out of four persons who actually did com mit suicide had previously threatened or attempted to do so. No suicide threat should ever be lightly treated. That is why I feel it is so es sential to obtain psychiatric help for your relative. While there is a great deal that we do not know about sui cide, we do not seem to util ize the knowledge that we do have adequately. A great deal can and should be done to pre vent suicide. There are cer tain organizations at work which have been fairly suc cessful and among them I would mention the work of Father Kenneth B. Murphy of the Boston Archdiocese who founded “Rescue, Inc”. Sui cide is a tragedy and the per son who commits it may, of course, have escaped his dif ficulties in this world but he invariably leaves a host of them for his relatives and friends. 4 Catholic Bishops Back Negotiation Now Drive New York (RNS)—Four Ro man Catholic bishops have given their support to Negotia tion Now!, a national citizens’ campaign for new initiatives to end the war in Vietnam. At press conferences in four cities, the four prelates issued a joint statement which was al so released by the Negotia tion Now! national headquar ters here. The four prelates are Arch bishop Paul J. Hallinan of At lanta, Bishop Victor J. Reed of Oklahoma City-Tulsa, Aux iliary Bishop James p Shan non of St. Paul, Minn., and Auxiliary Bishop John J. Dougherty of Newark, N. J., who is also president of Seton Hall University. In the joint statement, the bishops repeated Pope Paul’s peace plea at the United Na tions: “Peace , peace --war no more!” They claimed that the escalation of the war in Viet nam was “another step. . . down the path which could lead to confrontation with Com munist China and World War III.” “The growing magnitude of this tragic conflict,” the state ment declared was the reason the four Catholic prelates de cided to support the Negotia tion Now! campaign. The organization’s pro gram, which the bishops said “offers a chance to bring an end to the killing in Vietnam,” includes the following steps: “We support the call by U Thant for new initiatives to bring about negotiations among all parties to the conflict, lead ing to a political settlement of the Vietnam war. “We call upon the United States, the most powerful na tion in the world, to take the first step and end the bomb ing of North Vietnam now and without conditions. We ask our government to take further in itiatives leading to a standstill truce. “We ask the North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front to respond affirmatively to any new United States initia tives and to join with the U. S. in a standstill cease-fire. “We ask South Vietnam to respect and join in these steps. “This course of action pre sents to the United States a moral alternative to our stated policy of bringing about nego tiations by force, or to the de vastation of an all-out war, and a more realistic alternative than unilateral withdrawal. “We believe that such ini tiatives now can break the im passe and lead to negotiations and a political settlement pro viding for the removal of all foreign troops and for genuinely democratic elec tions in which all South Viet namese can participate free ly.” Negotiation Now! was laun ched in May and its objective is a petition containing the a- bove steps with 1 million signa tures. The drive is scheduled to culminate at a national as sembly in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 6 and 7 when the signa tures will be presented to Senators, Representatives and administration officials. Calling for “bold and dra matic” governmental action which would indicate a will ingness to negotiate, the C atholic bishops concluded their joint statement: “While there have been bombing pauses in the past, never before haVe we tried simultaneously the actions which we call for today. We earnestly call upon our fellow clergymen, Catholics, and all Americans for their prayers in this hour of peril and for their help in showing Presi dent Johnson that they support U. S. initiatives to end this war.” In announcing their support of the Negotiation Now! plan, the four Catholic prelates join religious leaders of other faiths who are sponsors of the petition. Besides the religious leaders, the sponsors are also members of the education business, political, and enter tainment fields, Some of the other religious leaders are: Episcopal Bishop George W. Barrett of Rochester, N. Y.; Robert S. Bileimer, director of the International Affairs Program of theNationalCoun- cil of Churches; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,; Dr. Rein hold Niebuhr, noted Protestant theologian; and Episcopal Bishop Leland Stark of Ne wark, N. J. Among the members of the Negotiation Now! guiding com mittee are Dr. John Bennett, president of Union Theological Seminary here; Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; Robert A. Fan- gmeier, director of Christian Citizenship of the Disciples of Christ; Dr. Dana McLean Greeley, president of the Uni tarian Universalist Asso ciation; Rabbi Arthur Lely- veld, president of the Ameri can Jewish Congress; and the Rev. Herman Will, associate secretary general of the Meth odist Board ofChristianSocial Concern. STREET SHRINE to St. Rose of Lima, at t/ie place where she spent her life in Lima, Peru. The feast of St. Rose, the first native-born saint of the New World, is Aug-. 30. (NC Photos) BY JEWISH SPEAKERS Statement Scored SNCC NEW YORK (NC)--Jew ish spokesmen and Negro civil rights leaders reacted angrily to the attack on Israel made by the Student Nonviolent coordi nating Committee. These leaders, in protesting the attack, used the term'fcn- ti-Semitism.” They also call ed SNCC an extremist group that did not speak for the Am erican Negro. The protests were directed at the student group’s bimonth ly newsletter which accused Israelis of committing atroci ties against the Arabs, and also charged that there was bias in Israel against dark-skinned Jews. Spokesmen for leading Jewish and Zionist organiza tions pointed to the sacrifices made by Jews in working for civil rights causes. Some mentioned the slaying in 1964 of Michael Schwerner, a 23- year-old Brooklyn Social worker, and Andrew Good man, a 20-year-old New York college student. Both were Jews doing field work in Mis sissippi on programs sup ported by the SNCC. Whitney M. Young, Jr., exe cutive director of the National Urban League, said the views in the newsletter resembled those of the American Nazi party on Arab-Israel rela tions. “Negro citizens are well aware of the contributions made to the drive for equal rights by Jewish citizens. Ne groes have been the victims of racism for too long to in dulge in group stereotypes and racial hate themselves,” Young said. Young also said that studies in big city ghettos had shown the Negro to be less anti- Semitic than other Americans. In a joint statement, A. Phi lip Randolph, president of the Brother hood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Bayard Rustin, director of the A. Philip Ran dolph Institute, said thay were “appalled and distressed by the anti-Semitic article.” The two rights leaders said the statement reflected a “complete divorce from the opinions and aspirations of the mass of American Negroes.” The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was in Atlanta, de clined comment onSNCC’s po sition on the Arab-Israelidis pute, saying he had not read the newsletter. He said he was strongly opposed to anti-Sem itism and “anything that does not signify my concern for humanity for the Jewish peo ple.” A number of Jewish organi zations, including labor and veterans’ groups, joined in the attack on the newsletter. The Jewish Labor Committee charged that the student group, led by H. Rap B rown, has * * now irrevocably joined the anti- Semitic American Nazi party and the Ku Klux Klan as an apostle of racism in the Uni ted States.” Will Maslow, executive di rector of the American Jew ish Congress, said SNCC had “disqualified itself from any claim to be taken seriously in the struggle for human de cency.” AMONG THE NEW STUDENTS to enter St. Pius X High School next week is David Scott, Jr. seen here receiving the 1967 Home and School Associa tion Scholarship Award from St. Mary’s School. Sister Mary Aqui-n, S.S.F., Principal, announced the award being received from Fr. John V. Mulvey, S.M.A., Pastor. David, high point scorer in Basket ball and Track events, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. David Scott of South Harden Street, Savannah. STALL IN RENEWAL May Endanger F aith fulness TORONTO (NC) —Those who refuse to accept renewal because they believe themsel ves to be faithful to the Church could endanger the Church’s own faithfulness to the Gospel, said Paul Emile Cardinal Le- ger of Montreal. “Nothing is more foreign to the true vocation of the Church than stale custom and the debility of age,” he said. Notwithstanding its divine origin, the Church can never be satisfied with its attempt to become more like Christ and to follow His Gospel more closely, the cardinal stated. “To be truly faithful, the Church must continually re new itself.” Cardinal Leger addressed the opening session of“Theo- logy,” the theological con gress on Church renewal plan ned by the Canadian bishops as their part in the nation’s centennial celebration. Some 1,750 delegates heard the car dinal speak in Convocation Hall at St. Michael’s College of the University of Toronto, while several hundred more watched on closed-circuit television. Cardinal Leger told the delegates that renewal is not a return to the forms and customs of antiquity, nor a change in the revealed word of God. He said renewal was “resourcement,” a re turn to the sources in the sense that the life which gave birth to the Church should spring 141 even more vigorously without altering its essential and everlasting nature. “The renewal tries to un derstand better God’s revela tion given once and for all to the Church, in order to put into terms which are mean ingful for the past and the present,” the cardinal stated, “it is a more faithful listen ing to the Word in order that it may be proclaimed more effectively.” Cardinal Leger said the Church’s magisterium(teach ing authority) and its theolo gians both seek “inadifferent >RTRAITS - ADULT - CHILDREN FAMILY CROUPS • PASSPORTS IDENTIFICATION VAAAIIV Birnpn PLAN AIK CONDITIONED 322-5779 1140Vi BROADWAY COLUMBUS manner” the synthesis be tween what is permanent in the Church and that which changes. To perform their task properly, the theolo gians require freedom of re search, but this freedom must be loyal to the leadership of the Church, he cautioned. It must also respect Scrip ture and tradition. Other wise their work could not be termed renewal, “and far from revitalizing the Church, would cut it off from what is vital to its life.” Cardinal Leger said the Church’s self-renewal has been a constant of its history, a law of its life, and “a con dition of its faithfulness to the Gospel.” But at the present time the Church seems torn between those who are impatient with the pace of renewal and those who believe the least change in detail is a danger for the Faith, he said. True renewal will be found in a sincere seeking for the truth, the car dinal said. “We do not have to destroy the Church to construct it anew in each century, but it would be wrong to believe that each one of the stones which have been put in place throughout the ages forms an integral part of its struc ture. “We must have courage to knock down the now super fluous wall and useless tower,” Cardinal Leger said. “But we must take care to see we do not disturb the founda tions or obliterate the out lines.” T. J. HOPKINS, INC. ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR WIRING - FIXTURES - REPAIRS •APPLIANCES AO 4-6606 IM MONTGOMERY ST. SAVANNAH . GLASSES ARTIFICAL EYES CONTACT LENS Hodge Optical Co. 151 Bull Street Phone AD 4-6696 MURPHY’S RADIO & TV SERVICE FAST SERVICE - FAIR CHARGES Ml Mm R or 4 IIM4IIII K I* 1 OMMTKl r I'i'L l |t \ikI l)ili»ir> 1710 BULL AD 3-0985 Beytagh Construction Co RESIDENTIAL REMODELING LIGHT COMMERCIAL EL 4-3556 — Savannah, Ga. 1537 Montgomery Crossroads