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DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 53 No. 34
Thursday, October 5,1972
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
NON-PUBLIC SCHOOI, BILL
House Panel Votes for
Tax Credits Measure
There would be no tax credits paid to
parents whose children attend private
schools that are racially segregated.
Both President Nixon and Democratic
presidential candidate Sen. George
McGovern have said that they favor tax
credits. McGovern did not endorse any
specific bill, while Nixon administration
officials asked for changes in the bill
passed by the committee.
VATICAN II OPENS » The hall was filled with an historic
assembly as Vatican Council II opened ten years ago on Oct. 11,
1972. In this photo, the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica is specially
adapted to accommodate the meeting. Archbishops and bishops
are assembled in tiers of seats extending from the center of the
church nearly to its great front doors. Cardinals are filing into
their seats (right foreground), wile behind them, Pope John
XXIII is carried in on a ceremonial chair. (NC Photo)
WASHINGTON (NC) — The House Ways and Means Committee has
voted 18-6 for a bill granting tax credits to parents of nonpublic school
children.
The legislation, which would affect parents of about 5 million students
in Catholic and other private elementary and secondary schools, grants a
tax credit of up to $200 per pupil for tuition paid to private schools.
The bill has been strongly supported
by Catholic educators as well as by
leaders of several Jewish and Protestant
school groups. It has been considered the
aid method most likely to survive
constitutional challenges.
unconstitutional would have given a total
of $25 million in direct aid to families
with incomes below $5,000 a year.
Another section ruled unconstitutional
would have provided $4 million for
school maintenance and repair.
majority opinion, written by Judge
Gurfein, on the tax credits section.
In their opinion, Judges Gurfein and
Cannella invited lawyers for the opposing
parties in the case “to move for summary
judgment or for an expedited trial” in the
future on the constitutionality of the
law’s third section.
Challenge Promised
The Committee for Public Education
and Religious Freedom - PEARL - had
opposed the three-section law and sued
state officials authorized to implement
the law’s provisions. The committee, a
coalition of 33 civic, labor, educational
and religious organizations, indicated it
would challenge the court’s 2-1 vote on
tax credits.
The State Senate Majority Leader, Earl
W. Brydges, said in Albany that * e would
meet with the state attorney general,
Louis J. Lefkowitz, in order to decide if
the state should appeal the court’s
decisions on the law’s maintenance and
direct assistance sections.
The bill’s supporters said they would
seek congressional action on the
legislation before the adjournment of the
Congress. However, there are no
indications action will be taken by
Congress this year.
The bill would cost the federal
government $400 million annually.
The measure, which would take effect
Aug. 1, 1973, would permit taxpayers
filing federal income tax returns in 1974
to deduct from their final tax bill 50
percent of the costs of tuition up to a
ceiling of $200 per year for each child.
The tax credit section provides up to
$15 million in aid.
District court judges Murray I. Gurfein
and John M. Cannella were joined by
Appeals Court Judge Paul R. Hays in
deciding the direct tuition assistance and
maintenance sections of the
four-month-old law were violations of the
First Amendment dictum on church-state
relations.
Judge Hays, however, voted against the
The Man of La Mancha
And Our Lady of Victory
NEW YORK (CPF) ~ The “Man of La
Mancha” and Our Lady of Victory - one
of many titles for the Blessed Mother -
both owe their origins, it seems, to the
same event in Christian history.
“Man of La Mancha,” a forthcoming
film based on the successful stage
musical, is an adaptation of “Don
Quixote,” the famed novel by the
Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes.
Much of the inspiration for the novel
came, it appears, from a major sea battle,
in which he participated, between the
Christian forces and the Moslem forces at
Lepanto near Greece in 1571.
That same battle, won by the
Christians, resulted in a new devotion of
Thanksgiving to the Blessed Mother and
led to her title as “Our Lady of Victory,”
after which many Catholic parishes are
now named.
The battle was fought on October 7,
1571, and it is that date that is
INSIDE STORY
Pastoral Council
Pg. 2
Faith First Need
Pg. 3
"Know Your Faith”
Pg. 5
Cook’s Nook
Pg. 8
commemorated in celebrating the Feast
of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7
each year.
“Horizon,” a hardbacked “magazine of
the arts” published by the American
Heritage Publishing Company devoted an
extensive article to the Battle of Lepanto,
about which it commented:
“What Lepanto proved was that
Turkish power could be contained, and
that the Crescent (symbol of the Moslem
religion) was not invincible.
“It was as profound in its effects as,
for instance, were the battles of
Stalingard and Midway in the last great
war. It was the beginning of a long and
lasting revival.
“Christendom had found the will and
strength to push back the invaders;
memories of the Crusades came flooding
back; and as Cervantes grew older, more
mature and more experienced, he wrote
that affectionate momument to Christian
chivalry, ‘Don Quixote.’
The Battle of Lepanto, fought off the
Gulf of Patras and not far from the Gulf
of Corinth, was described by “Horizon”
as a “milestone in the grim and
protracted struggle between the Cross and
the Crescent,” thus the strong devotion
to “Our Lady of Victory” that grew out
of it.
Many paintings and other pieces of art
resulted from the battle, one of the most
famous done in 1649 and showing the
Blessed Mother, in clouds, directing the
Christian forces against the Turks, while
in the foreground are shown King Philip
II of Spain, Pope Pius V and the Doge of
Venice, although they were not present at
the Battle of LePanto.
The battle, which according to
“Horizon” “led to a wave of renewed
hope and vigor among the Christian
nations,” was fought between the
Christian “Holy League” - made up of
Spain, the Papal States and the Republic
of Venice - and the Turkish empire.
The importance of the battle to the
future of Christendom stemmed from the
fact that the Turks, checked at first by
the Crusaders, were making new and
steady advances upon the territories of
Christendom. In 1453, Constantinople
fell to Mohammed II. Later, under
Suleiman the Magnificent, the Turks had
control almost to the gates of
Vienna. Commented “Horizon”:
“The Turks were united. They were
bred to arms. They upheld the great cause
of Islam. Only by following their example
of unity and devotion, only by reviving a
spiritual fire that seemed to have been
dampened since the Crusades, could the
Christian hopes stem the tide.”
During the Battle of Lepanto,
described as “one of the most picturesque
in all sea history,” the Turks lost more
than 24,000 men, while the Christian
forces lost about 8,000.
Cervantes was to survive and write
about a man of honor and his “quest”,
and millions of Catholics were to pray to
Our Lady of Victory for victory not over
the Moslems but over sin, temptation,
suffering and death.
N. Y. Court Test
In the first federal court test of the
principle, a court has issued an opinion
favorable to advocates of tax credits for
nonpublic school students in New York
state.
The court ruled two direct nonpublic
school aid measures unconstitutional, but
refused to grant an injunction against a
tax credit measure.
The three-judge court here declared
unconstitutional sections of a recently
enacted state law providing direct tuition
grants to parents and dispensing state
funds for maintenance of nonpublic
schools.
However, the court voted 2-1 to permit
further argument on the third section of
the law granting state income tax benefits
to families earning less than $25,000
annually and paying at least $50 tuition
for each child attending a private school.
Mixed Reaction
Alan Davitt, executive director of the
New York State Council of Catholic
School Superintendents, told NC News
Service that his group was “elated that
the federal district court has found the
tax credit approach acceptable” while it
was “disappointed” the court found
against the section which would have
helped poor parents.
He indicated the court’s ruling has “a
national impact” in that it dealt with an
issue - tax credits to parents of nonpublic
school children - that “has not yet been
adjudicated” in the federal court system.
One of the sections ruled
Installation on T.V.
Station WSAV-TV, Channel 22 in Savannah will air a one-half hour program,
in color, of highlights of the Most Rev. Andrew J. McDonald’s installation as
Bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas, on Sunday, October 7 at 1:30 p.m. Be sure to
see this colorful program, filmed at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Little Rock.
POPE GREETS HIS SUCCESSOR. Pope John greets Cardinal Giovanni Battista
Montini as fathers of the Vatican Council, offer their obedience to the pope on the
first day of the Second Vatican Council. October 11 is the 10th anniversary of the
Council. After Pope John died in June, 1963, Cardinal Montini was elected Pope and
carried on with the Council . (NC Photo)
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HEADLINE
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HOPSCOTCH
Attack on Shroud
TURIN, Italy (NC) -- An unknown person failed in an attempt to burn the holy
shroud of Turin, believed by some to be the sheet in which the body of the dead
Christ was placed in the tomb. Although the Church has never pronounced on its
authenticity, the shroud has been venerated for centuries and is under the cystody of
the royal Italian House of Savoy. An unknown person, whom police think was
probably mentally deranged, broke into the cathedral here Oct. 1 after climbing over
the roof of the adjoining royal palace and set fire to the front of the reliquary in which
the sroud is preserved. The attempt failed because the shrine is covered with asbestos.
Only two altar clothes were burned.
Bishops, Priests Divided
NEW YORK (NC) - Lithuanian priests have accused their bishops of bowing to
Soviet government pressure, according to an anti-communist Lithuanian group here.
The priests were protesting the bishops’ pastoral letter aimed at calming unrest among
Catholics who hSve objected against government religious policies according to the
Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (ELTA). The group also
maintained that Lithuanian authorities had pressured the bishops into issuing the
letter. Lithuania, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, has seven bishops, all either
apostolic administrators or auxiliaries. Three other bishops are prevented from
carrying out their functions, either by house arrest or exile.