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PAGE 4 - The Southern Cross. December 5,1968
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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.
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Published weekly except the second and last weeks
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Welfare In Georgia
Disagreeable as it may have seemed to
some people, the action of welfare
protesters in handing out leaflets at the
annual Macy’s Department Store
Thanksgiving Day parade in New York
and in trying to stretch a banner across
the parade route served to emphasize the
problem of poverty in the midst of
unparalleled affluence, and the crying
need for more effective solutions to the
problem than are presently being
applied.
Government and industry-sponsored
programs have undoubtedly helped
many poverty stricken men and women
to a better life. But there are still
millions of Americans who go to bed
hungry every day in a country preparing
to spend billions in a missile race with
the Soviet Union.
Many of them are ‘unemployables’
and children - people who cannot be
helped by training programs and job
opportunities, people who CANNOT
earn their own living. It is the children
who suffer most, because they don’t
know why they are suffering and
deprived, and the efforts being made to
help them are so pitifully poor and
inadequate - at least in the State of
Georgia.
According to Mr. J. I. Nicholson,
Director of the Chatham County
Department of Family and Children’s
Services, the maximum payment to
families with dependent children
(AFDC) is based on a family consisting
of a mother and four children and
amounts to $154 per month. If a family
has more than four children, it still
receive no more than $154 - a little
more than $35 per week.
We don’t know of any family of five
who could provide even barely adequate
food, clothing, housing and utlities on
such a meager income. Yet, the laws of
the State of Georgia say that is the
maximum assistance which can be
offered to families with dependent
children.
It seemed more than passing strange
that with such poverty in our midst, not
one - repeat, not one -- of the recently
elected members of the State’s General
Assembly from Chatham county so
much as mentioned local poverty in his
campaign speeches and promises. We
thought, however, that they were
ducking a thorny problem simply
because it would not have been politic to
mention it, since so many people
hereabouts don’t like to be reminded of
it. But the voters can’t touch them for
another two years, now. We intend, from
time to time, to remind them of their
duty to the neediest of their
constituents. We hope others will join us.
They might start by introducing
legislation which will remove the
niggardly ceiling of $154 per month
which the State has placed on assistance
for families with dependent children.
Then, they might take a realistic look
at what it costs a family to live in
decency and frame legislation to make it
possible for mothers and children forced
onto the welfare rolls to do so.
It ought to be noted that the federal
contribution to AFDC programs,
amounting to more than 80% of the
total, is conditioned upon the amount
which the local and state governments
are willing to appropriate.
We don’t know just how much the
State is contributing to the program
throughout Georgia. But since it
contributes only 15% of AFDC funds, it
is spending a MAXIMUM of only $23
per month per family. Bearing in mind
that this amount involves at least five
persons, the state government is
providing for each of them the princely
sum of fifteen cents a day.
County governments contribute 4% of
AFDC funds. This means that local
government is caring for its mothers and
children on welfare to the tune of a
magnificent five cent MAXIMUM per
day.
The standard excuse offered by both
state and local officials for not increasing
welfare benefits is “we can’t afford it.”
Well, we don’t believe them. On the
contrary, we believe that Aid to Families
with Dependent Children, as it is
administered in the State of Georgia is a
shame and a disgrace, and that its reform
should be at the top of the priority list
for legislation in January.
COLD WAR INTENSIFICATION?
T he B ackdrop...
By John J. Daly, Jr.
In the remarkable second half of their
collective pastoral letter of the past month, the
American bishops spoke hopefully of
worldwide arms control and of the need for a
“positive, sane pattern for the future” in regard
to reductions in nuclear weapons.
They strongly urged Senate ratification of
the Non-Proliferation Treaty which is
designated to curb the spread of nuclear
weapons and to
begin talks on
lowering the
number each
possessor of such
weapons holds in
his arsenal.
The bishops also
‘‘seriously
questioned” the deployment in this country of
the controversial “thin” anti-ballistic missile
system designed to defend against nuclear
attack. The bishops reasoned that the starting
of such a defensive system would upset the
“present strategic balance” between the US and
the USSR and incite the Soviet Union to
increase its offensive nuclear forces “with the
seeming excuse of a need to restore the
balance.”
This move, the hierarchy held, presented
“the danger of triggering an expanded
escalation of the arms race.” The bishops
recalled that Vatican Council II has warned
against the arms race, saying it might spawn
“lethal ruin” on the world.
Such forceful involvement by America’s
Catholic spiritual leaders in matters of
international relations and military defense
undoubtedly will be greeted happily by millions
of persons. This will be not only because of the
show of courage in taking specific stands on
controverted matters (for example, President
Nixon is doubtful about the merits of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty), but chiefly because a
Church marshaled behind these views and
others in the pastoral would enable the bishops
to meet their pledge of “forming a climate of
public opinion for peace.”
There should be no underestimating of the
problems ahead, however. They may be greater
in the immediate months ahead than they have
been for several years. There is a growing sense
that the cold war once again is deepening. If
this is confirmed, the bishops’ appeal may find
itself very much in the minority. Indeed, their
blunt statements have yet to get official
acknowledgement from U. S. government
spokesmen, except for Gen. Hershey who
didn’t like the mild criticism of the Selective
Service system.
There are not a few commentators who think
they see signs in the Soviet Union of the
beginning of a new kind of Stalinism, a pressure
designed to bring back into line dissenting
communist parties outside the USSR and to
accomplish this by stressing the menace of the
“policy of aggression” of the United States.
Since the Warsaw Pact invasion of
Czechoslovakia, and the slow strangulation of
the liberal communist regime there, the Soviet
leaders have faced opposition within the ranks,
especially from the Italian communist party
and others in the West.
To rally communists dragging their feet,
Leonid I. Brezhnev, the Soviet party leader, has
been pushing for a summit meeting of
communist leaders in Moscow. He has been
having serious difficulties getting planning
under way, even picking a date, but has stepped
up his warning that unity is essential to
confront the United States.
Also, as part of this stiffening of attitude,
Russia has proclaimed that it will intervene,
militarily if necessary, in “any Socialist
country” which goes beyond Moscow
guidelines for economic and political
development. This has sent shivers throughout
East European countries and their neighbors.
It is largely on the basis of these signal flags
from the other side of the Iron Curtain that
there is room for belief that the months ahead
may find the Catholic bishops’ words held at
arm’s length in government circles.
Advent
ARAB-ISRAEL PROBLEM
It Seems To Me
Joseph Breig
It is not within my
province to make judgments
about such complex and
tangled matters as the
Arab-Israel problem, or the
tens of thousands of Arabs
who became refugees after
the arrival of the desperate
refugees from the nazi horror.
In the UN,
in various
capitals, and in
1 religious
bodies such as
E O / the Catholic
Near East
Welfare Assoc-
^ iation, com
petent and
dedicated men have been
wrestling heroically with
these unhappy situations.
I do not pretend to know
the solutions. But I do feel
that the main burden of
blame must be borne, not by
Jews or Arabs, but by the
Western world and by
Christians; by the former for
not stopping Hitler’s mad
aggressions in the beginning,
and by the latter for the
centuries-old anti-Semitism
which created the conditions
in which it was possible for
the nazis to make the Jews
their scapegoats, murdering
them by the millions.
I cannot forget the sorrow
in the voice of an Israeli Arab
with whom I talked in the
airport at Tel Aviv before
boarding a British Overseas
Airways plane for home.
“Bad news again today,”
he said, “More young men
killed in border skirmishes.”
Then, bitterly: “Arabs and
Jews are helpless pawns of
the big powers, which could
establish peace in the Middle
East if they would.”
I understood his feelings. I
thought of the sad relics of
the 1967 Six Day War which
I had seen in the Negev
Desert and on the Golan
Heights far above the Sea of
Galilee.
I thought, too, of the
sorrows and the sense of
sacrilege that came over me at
sight of scars left by bullets
and shells here and there in
the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Another memory was of
two soldiers who hitched a
ride with my guide and me on
our way to the Dead Sea and
to the excavations at Qumran
Village, near the desolate,
cave-spotted hills where the
Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
For 10 minutes the two,
carrying their automatic
weapons, listened to a
conversation between my
guide and me. Then one of
them, with a big grin, asked,
in American English, what
part of the U.S. I was from.
He had been born and
reared in Chicago and was a
graduate of the University of
Illinois. After earning his
degree in pharmacy, he had
migrated to Israel, married
there, and was now the father
of two.
For all I knew, as I talked
with my Arab acquaintance
at the Tel Aviv airport, that
young man might have been
one of those killed in the
previous night’s fighting.
I think I should mention
that nowhere in Israel did I
see or hear a word of
anti-Arabism. The mood
everywhere seemed to be one
of sadness over the failures of
peacemakers in the UN and
elsewhere.
What I would wish to say
about the Middle East is
simply this: a lasting peace
there should be the object of
our most fervent prayers and
our unremitting efforts, not
only for the sake of the
people of that area, but for
our own sake.
Until peace is established
in that part of the world,
America and the Soviet
Union-and therefore all
mankind-are in deadly peril
of being plunged into a
catastrophic military
confrontation--into
Armageddon.
"Hg'S TAUKIN0 A30UT PAPPY. 11
GUEST EDITORIALS
Old T estament
Evangelist
Quite frankly, the origins of the Advent
season are practically unknown. In several
European countries in the fourth century a
custom had developed to set aside the week
before Christmas as a special time of prayer and
penance to prepare for the coming of Christ.
The Masses of the Advent season are so ancient
in the Church that their development is lost in
the mists of antiquity.
In the history of salvation, God used the
great prophets of the Old Testament in much
the same way that a large corporation today
uses advertising experts. Much of the Old
Testament is devoted to this divine publicity
campaign. So thoroughly did men like Jeremias,
Isaias, Daniel and Ezechiel perform their task of
promoting the coming of Christ, that it is
difficult to understand how men failed to
recognize Him.
The greatest of all the men who took part in
this campaign was the prophet Isaias. He is one
of the most striking personalities in the Old
Testament. He was a cautious statesman, a
gifted writer and a fearless spokesman of God’s
message.
Isaias spoke in such fine detail of Christ’s
coming, more than 700 years before His birth
at Bethlehem, that today he is known as the
“Advent prophet” or “the evangelist of the Old
Testament.” In announcing the coming of
Christ to the Jewish people, Isaias likes to
describe Christ in terms of “rain.”
“Drop down dew, ye heavens from above
and let the clouds rain the righteous one. Let
the earth be opened and bud forth a savior.”
The Church uses these very words frequently in
the Advent liturgy.
A second Advent is about to take place. This
lesson of Isaias to the Jewish people still applies
to us. Are our souls like that earth which first
received our Lord? Are they dry, powdery,
parched and burned out? We have the four
weeks of Advent to prepare our hearts and
souls for a meaningful Christmas morning.
Robert H. Stafford
In the Catholic Observer
Chastity
On this occasion, we wish to draw
the attention of educators, and of all who
perform duties of responsibility in regard
to the common good of human society,
to the need of creating an atmosphere
favorable to education in chastity, that is,
to the triumph of healthy liberty over
license by means of respect for the moral
order.
Everything in the modern media of
social communications which leads to
sense excitation and unbridled customs,
as well as every form of pornography and
licentious performances, must arouse the
frank and unanimous reaction of all those
who are solicitous for the progress of
civilization and the defense of the
common good of the human spirit.
Vainly would one seek to justify such
depravation with the pretext of artistic or
scientific exigencies, or to deduce an
argument from the freedom allowed in
this sector by the public authorities.
To Rulers, who are those principally
responsible for the common good, and
who can do so much to safeguard moral
customs, we say: Do not allow the
morality of your peoples to be degraded;
do not permit that, by legal means,
practices contrary to the natural and
divine law be introduced into that
fundamental cell, the family. Quite other
is the way in which public authorities can
and must contribute to the solution of
the demographic problem; namely, the
way of provident policy for the family, of
a wise education of peoples in respect of
moral law and the liberty of citizens.
We are well aware of the serious
difficulties experienced by public
authorities in this regard, especially in the
developing countries. To their legitimate
preoccupations we devoted our encyclical
letter Populorum Progressio. But with our
predeccessor Pope John XXIII, we
repeat: no solution to these difficulties is
acceptable “which does violence to man’s
essential dignity” and is based only on an
utterly materialistic conception of man
himself and of his life. The only possible
solution to this question is one which
envisages the social and economic
progress both of individuals and of the
whole of human society, and which
respects and promotes true human values.
Neither can one, without grave injustice,
consider divine providence to be
responsible for what depends, instead, on
a lack of wisdom in government, on an
insufficient sense of social justice, on
selfish monopolization or, again, on
blame-worthy indolence in confronting
the efforts and the sacrifices necessary to
ensure the raising of living standards of a
people and of all its sons.
May all responsible public authorities -
as some are already doing so laudably -
generously revive their efforts. And may
mutual aid between all the members of
the great human family never cease to
grow. This is an almost limitless field
which thus opens up to the activity of the
great international organizations.
(Pope Paul VI: Encyclical, Humanae Vitae)