Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4-The Southern Cross, April 11, 1968
P. O. Box 180, Savannah, Ga.
Most Rev. Gerard L. Frey, D.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 85.00 per year.
A Dismal Picture
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not killed
because his name was King, or because he was a
Minister, or even because he was a Negro.
He was killed because he was a public figure
whose name had become all but synonymous
with the Civil Rights movement. The assassin’s
bullet which snuffed out his life was aimed at
nothing less than the entire movement.
The quest for an ideal - an America in which
no man, woman or child is deprived of equal
rights and opportunities before God and the
Law - cannot be stopped by bullets or by any
kind of brute force.
But the events of the last week have shown,
starkly and tragically, that a bullet is capable of
influencing the direction of that quest. Until
now, for the most part, the direction has been
toward peaceful but voluble and vigorous
protest.
Negro leaders now find themselves
hard-pressed to convince their followers that
the death of the one man most closely
identified with non-violence as a form of social
protest does nof mean the death of
non-violence, itself.
Black militants have taken advantage of Dr.
King’s murder to stir up deeper and more
widespread hatred of “Whitey.” Arsonists,
looters, killers have used his death as an excuse
to rob, pillage, burn and destroy.
And though the vast majority of American
Negroes blame only one white man for killing
Dr. King and condemn and deplore the excesses
of Extremists — Perhaps more than whites do
they have now become the victims of the same
bullet which killed Dr. King.
What was needed to calm predictable Negro
reaction to the assassination was understanding
and the application of the simple balm of
Christian Charity toward a people who felt the
loss of Dr. King as no white man probably
could. What was needed was an expression from
the white community of genuine sympathy
toward a people who felt that a murderer’s
bullet had been aimed at them and at their
hopes for a better future for themselves and
their children.
There were some who tried to rise to the
need of the occasion. But they were not
allowed to do so. A Savannah group which has
been working quietly, but effectively, for the
past four and one-half years to promote better
relations between whites and blacks and to
break down the barriers of racial discrimination
the Committee of One Hundred-tried to issue
the public statement which we have published
on page one of this paper in the Savannah
newspapers.
But papers which could find space and ink
enough to publish editorials rubbing salt into
Negro wounds and fanning the flames of white
resentment toward the Civil Rights movement -
papers which could lend their columns for the
dissemination of the racist views of George
Wallace, Roy V. Harris and Lester G. Maddox,
could find neither space nor ink to publish
a call for understanding and harmony from an
organization dedicated to domestic peace and
tranquility.
Bishop Gerard L. Frey, spiritual leader of
more than 10,000 Savannahians, also found the
normal channels for the public dissemination of
news and views closed to him when he issued
what was intended to be a public statement on
the death of Dr. King. A few sentences of it
were buried deep on the inside pages of the
evening paper. One sentence appeared in the
morning paper. Public statements released by
other religious and civic leaders were similarly
stifled.
With respect to Bishop Frey’s statement, it
was completely and totally suppressed by the
radio and television broadcast media, with the
exception of station WSOK. The other stations,
including Savannah’s NBC and CBS affiliates
elected to suppress even a mention that such a
statement had been issued.
These statements might have had a
mollifying effect on at least some Negroes
unreasonably angry at all white men on account
of the deed of one, and on some whites
unreasonably angry at all Negroes because of
the death and destruction caused by a
comparative few. But they were never given a
chance. The spiritual leaders of a large segment
of the area’s population and an organization
representing dozens of its most responsible
business and industrial leaders were muzzled by
the city’s news media.
Nor were the elected officials of the area’s
municipalities any more willing to minister to
the hurt and grief felt by their Negro citizens.
There were no expressions of sympathy for
their people - only words of regret that a man
had been killed, words which reflected little
more than mere embarrassment that he had
been killed by a white man.
The President of the United States had asked
that all U.S. Flags be flown at half-mast until
after Dr. King’s funeral as a sign of the nation’s
respect for a man dedicated to non-violence
who had become the victim of savage violence.
The city of Savannah complied and the Stars
and Stripes were lowered to half-mast over the
City Hall.
But the City Halls of Port Wentworth,
Garden City, Thunderbolt and Savannah Beach
bore mute witness to an attitude which bodes
no good for the future of racial harmony in
Chatham County.
On Monday, flags at the City Halls of Port
Wentworth and Thunderbolt flew high, crying
out “we don’t care.” Garden City and Savannah
Beach had struck the Colors altogether, rather
than fly them at half-mast. A school student’s
complaint put them back on Tuesday at
Savannah Beach. The only reasons we know of
for striking the Colors are surrender or
cowardice.
The only bright spot in an otherwise dismal
picture and, apparently, the only cause for
hope that rancor and hatred between the races
may one day be finally laid to rest was the
schools of the area. All of them, even those in
Port Wentworth, Garden City, Thunderbolt and
Savannah Beach flew the flags at half-mast.
Maybe it is still true that “a little child shall
lead them” and that one day there will flourish,
here, an authentic Christianity, displacing its
counterfeit, which has spawned the attitudes
and customs of so many people who honor God
with their lips, but whose hearts are so very,
very far from him.
WILL USSR CLAMP DOWN?
The Backdrop...
By John J. Daly, Jr.
The defiance of communist discipline this
spring in Poland and Czechoslovakia is both
breathtaking and frightening. Yet it seems to be
getting only a yawn from most Americans.
The Polish student demonstrations and the
demands for freedom from most quarters of
Czechoslovakia society, including the churches,
are astonishing for their courage in view of the
renewal of ruthlessness against liberals in the
dominating Soviet
Union-a fact one
would guess was
known to agitators
in the satellites.
Many experts
see this new
episode as
frightening both
because of the anti-Semitism being encouraged
by the Polish communist press which is looking
for a scapegoat for the turmoil there, and
because of the possibility that a strongly
negative reaction may burst from the
communist leadership and plunge Eastern
Europe back deeply into police repression of its
own citizens and a stiffening of the communist
international policy line.
As readers of the religious press are aware,
the Soviet union in the past two or three years
has reopened its campaign against organized
religion, concentrating on Baptist sects. Only a
few weeks ago an appeal in behalf of these
bodies was sent to U Thant, secretary general of
the United Nations.
The National Council of Churches in New
York has released documents alleging that these
fundamentalist Baptist sects, which have been
fiercely fighting Soviet interference in their
affairs, have been subjected to extensive
harassment. For example, more man 200
members have been arrested and sentenced to
as much as five years in prison. Religious
services have been disrupted. Believers have
been kidnapped. Persons singing hymns have
been fined. Children of members have been
publicly humiliated.
It is not necessarily true that the cruel
experience in the Soviet Union will be
translated into Poland and Czechoslovakia. But
it could be-and therein lies the danger.
Developments need to be watched closely by all
concerned free men.
GUEST EDITORIAL
T o Stem
The Tide
The American public has been given a new
opportunity to stem the inundating tide of
pornographic pollution. At the direction of
Congress, President Johnson has named an
18-member Commission on Obscenity and
Pornography which has until Jan. 31, 1970, to
bring definitive recommendations to the
President and Congress on how to control the
nation’s deluge of smut.
The commission was entrusted these tasks:
-To study the effect of pornography on the
public, particularly on youth, and to examine
its relationship to crime and other antisocial
behavior;
-To study the methods used to distribute
pornographic literature and the nature and
volume of this traffic;
-To analyze and evaluate present laws and
statutes designed to control obscenity and
pornography and particularly to describe and
define the evil;
-To recommend to Congress legislative,
administrative and other appropriate action
which could cope effectively with the problem
without violating constitutional rights.
Named head of the commission is William B.
Lockhart, dean of the University of Minnesota
Law School, Minneapolis, and prominent
Disciples of Christ layman who says he hopes
particularly to define the role of pornography
in criminal acts and other antisocial behavior.
The commission includes three clergymen:
CATHOLIC DRAFT BOARD MEMBERS
It Seems To Me
I am informed by a reader
that American Catholics who
are conscientious objectors to
military service often find
themselves in an upsi dedown
sort of situation when
questioned by their draft
boards. They are
discriminated against
(innocently) by Catholic
board mem-
8 The reason,
according to
Mrs. Paul
K e elan of
Elizabeth,
many Catho
lics are not aware of “the
c enturies-long peace
traditions of the Early
Church.”
Non-Catholic draft board
members, Mrs. Keelan says,
“do not presume to judge”
what is Catholic teaching
concerning military service.
But Catholic members,
“almost to a man or woman,
become indignant and say the
‘never heard of such a thing’
” (as conscientious objection
by Catholics).
Mrs. Keelan calls attention
to Section 79 of Vatican II’s
Joseph Breig
Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World, which
says:
“It seems right that laws
make humane provisions for
those who for reasons of
conscience refuse to bear
arms, provided, however, that,
they agree to serve the human
community in some other
way.”
I am somewhat surprised
to be told that many
Catholics are not aware of
this Catholic principle.
Perhaps we have not
sufficiently emphasized the
ancient Catholic (and
common-sense) point that
conscience, for every
individual, is “the court of
last resort.”
Catholic moral theology
has always rested upon the
balanced basis that
conscience is the “internal
forum” which each of us
must obey—provided that we
do our best to form
conscience rightly.
This means forming
conscience to make correct
judgments, not according to
mere subjective preferences,
but in conformity with
objective moral principles and
with he objective realities of
any given situation.
“Draft boards,” writes
Mrs. Keelan, “expect the
young man to ‘prove’ his
convictions, but proof of
inner states of mind is not
easy to produce.
U Ud ^
“The plight of Catholics is
especially hard. Mennonites,
Quakers and others pass the
(conscientious objector)
tests . . . easily. Catholics are
met at their boards by
Catholics who never heard of
the centuries-long peace
traditions of the Early
Church.”
To my mind, draft boards
ought to be quite liberal in
judgments about c.o.’s. In
any military service there are
numberless non-military posts
to be filled-some of them (as
in the medics) as dangerous as
any military function. And in
any case, the armed forces are
not going to come unraveled.
“Five years in jail or
self-imposed lifetime exile,”
writes Mrs. Keelan, “is
unworthy of America where
no one should be jailed for
conscience sake.”
Charities Appeal
My dear People:
One of the most striking characteristics of Our Divine Savior was his compassion for
others, particularly the poor, the sick, the needy and the materially and spiritually
disadvantaged. During this Sacred Season of Passion-tide when we commemorate the
events in which His compassion for men reached its ultimate expression in His suffering
and in death, if we are to be true followers of Christ, it is important that we imitate Him
in our daily living, especially in those areas which relate to our own spiritual growth and
relationship with our fellow man.
I would like to invite all persons of the Diocese to join in a program of personal
assistance and the material help that will enable us to demonstrate our dedication to a
Christ-like attitude of compassion for those in need.
Toward this end, you are asked to be especially generous this Easter in the annual
Diocesan charities collection. This collection will make possible:
(1) ,The continuation and further development of our program for less fortunate
children at St. Mary’s Home in Savannah.
(2) The opening of a Diocesan Department of Catholic Charities and the development
of a program of professional assistance which will be geared to meet our Diocesan welfare
needs.
(3) The inauguration of a Social Apostolate Program in the various cities of the
Diocese where there is need of an organized program of volunteer help to assist the
impoverished and underprivileged.
On Easter Sunday as we rejoice with Our Risen Savior in His victory over death, let us
be generous in remembering the poor and the needy who are so close to His heart.
With a sincere prayer that all the families of our Diocese may reap a rich harvest of
blessings at this Easter Season, I remain,
Sincerely in Our Divine Savior,
+GERARD L. FREY
BISHOP OF SAVANNAH
»
Father Morton A. Hill, S.J., executive
secretary of Operation Yorkville, Inc., New
York, an interfaith organization which long has
been active in the’anti-obscenity field;
Rabbi Irving Lehrman of Temple Emanuel,
Miami Beach Fla.; and
The Rev. Winfrey C. Link, executive director
of Four-Fold Challenge Campaign, Nashville,
Tenn.
A local member of the commission is Marvin
E. Wolfgang, director of the Center of
Criminological Research at the University of
Pennsylvania.
These men and women are experts in their
field. Presumably they will do a competent job.
But if the fruit of their work is to escape the
fate of becoming just another drop of advice
lost in a vast sea of presidential and
congressional fact-finding reports this
commission direly needs the support and
interest of the American public. Only a
widespread and genuine concern about the
problem of pornography and a groundswell of
support for effective action can give the
committee’s eventual report the urgency which
will convince legislatures, enforcement
agencies, and the nation’s courts that a crisis
has befallen us which demands a prompt and
effective remedy.
Smut is not only a dirty business, it also is a
big business. Total annual sales of obscene
Literature, movies, records and photos in the
United States are estimated to hover around the
$3 billion mark. Profits are fabulous. The bulk
of this pornographic production ends up in the
hands of young people between 18 and 21,
with a substantial part being fed to youngsters
between 12 and 17.
One of the most challenging tasks of the
presidential commission will be to establish
definitive links between pornography and
antisocial behavior. Some sociologists insist that
explicit, scientific and clinical proof of a
definite link - such as a particular germ
producing a specific disease - is practically
impossible to establish. But considerable
circumstantial evidence is available to indicate a
relationship between a smut-ridden mind and
anti social behavior. The American public can
perform a great service to the presidential
commission by supplying it with every evidence
establishing this relationship. The commission
members come from all parts of the United
States. One or another easily can be contacted
in person or through writing. All need your
interest, your help, your support.
If the commission fails to elicit the
encouragement and backing of the great
majority of American citizens its final
recommendations run serious risk of being
diluted or even shelved. For those concerned
about the deluging waves of smut this may be
the last chance to stem the tide. — COLUMBIA
Saaten
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