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PAGE 4 — The Southern Cross, November zd, lyiz
The Southern Cross
Business Office 225 Abercorn St. Savannah, Ga. 31401
Most Rev. Gerard L. Frey, D.D. President
Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor • John E. Markwalter, Managing Editor
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
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Published weekly except the second and last weeks
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Social Awareness
BY SR. M. CATHERINE MOORE, O.S.F.
Sav. Social Apostolate
“God saw all he made — and found it
good” (Gen. 1-31)
Two children worked feverishly in the
sand digging, piling walls, boring tunnels
and when the project had taken on a
measure of completion, they called the
attention of their parents and whooped
their pleasure: “It is good.” The parents
nodded approvingly, picked up their
beach paraphanalia and proceeded to
leave. The children reluctantly tagged
behind knowing from past experience
that on their return no trace of the
masterpiece would remain.
“God saw all he made — and found it
good —,” the vast expanse of creation he
made according to his plan; to enjoy this
creation and to rule over it, God made
man to his image and likeness.
weakened and listless as a result of
inadequate diet, fail to serve the other
members. So we, poor in the order of
grace, are listless and heedless of man’s
needs and hence impede the growth of
the whole body. God has intended that
man work. “With sweat on your brow
shall you eat your bread” (Genesis 3-19.)
Work is one of the Christian mysteries.
In his work, man becomes complete; he
supports himself and his dependents. He
fulfills his essential vocation through the
dignity of work.
A great many people have no work.
Many too, work, but are so poorly paid
that they can hardly support themselves
and their families. Herein begins “the
vicious circle of poverty” which encases
the poor in frustrations resulting in
disease, alcoholism, malnutrition, low
I.Q’s, which in turn are the bedrock of
the “hard core” poor.
The vast edifices of man will be
engulfed in the seas of tinje. The labors
of man, when he toils only for his own
delight and pleasure, will be erased as the
play fabrications of the children. But
man is the apex of the created order and
according to the doctrine taught us by
St. Paul: “We are heirs as well, heirs of
God, heirs with Christ” - (Romans
8-17.)
The Christian is not an isolated
individual but a member of Christ’s
Mystical Body; he must think and live
like Christ. This body is an organism of
delicately inter-related parts and the
unity and peaceful working of the body
depends on the harmonious working of
all its members.
If a Christian is satisfied with himself,
with his little personal devotions, his
little domestic world; if he does not lend
his hand to man’s efforts to rise
according to his circumstances and gifts,
then that Christian has rejected the work
of Christ who is even now in the process
of creating a TOTAL HUMANITY from
which to forge his Mystical Body.
The members of the physical body,
The responsibility for building up the
world is given by God to all men,
collectively. Just as the hand needs the
eye, and the eye needs the foot, so to
live and grow and build the body, man
has need of everyone as everyone has
need of him.
St. Francis of Assissi was blessed with
a rare vision of the gifts bestowed on
man in creation. Here he saw the
Father’s endowment to all mankind for
his use, and benefit. Francis sang his
Canticles of praise to Brother Sun and
Sister Moon to Brother Wind and Sister
Cloud because he rejoiced that these
creatures fulfilled the law of their Maker
and served all without distinction.
The children’s sand castles will
disappear with the incoming tide. Man is
not a sand castle to be swept aside by
another more powerful creature. When
the Sons of God can use their
inheritance and so serve mankind; when
these gifts gratuitously bestowed on all
can be shared in peace and joy then can
each face the God of Creation and say
with Him “It is good.”
Thanksgiving
Memories
Mary Carson
I was raised in a suburban town and my
husband was a city kid. We were reminiscing
about Thanksgivings past and I told him how as
kids we used to go from house-to-house dressed
as ragamuffins begging, “Anything for
Thanksgiving?” He said the city version was to
dress as ragamuffins and go around in the
alleyways between the apartment houses
singing.
Some of the more talented kids would bring
instruments and play them. People would toss
pennies out the windows to the kids below.
One of our sons overheard the conversation and
said it sounded like “a pre-historic version of
trick-or-treat.”
The object of begging for Thanksgiving, as
far as the kids were concerned, was to collect a
few pennies and apples. (I believe, the object, as
far as the mothers were concerned, was to get
the kids out of the kitchen for a few hours, in
order to prepare the fifteen tons of food for
Thanksgiving dinnner.)
Part of the ritual of Thanksgiving was fixing
food for three days straight. Of course, there
weren’t “convenience” foods in those days, and
all that stuff took time.
Pumpkin had to be peeled, cooked and
sieved; then the pie-making began. Cranberry
sauce started with the cranberries .. .not with a
can. Tiny white onions had to be peeled. (That,
I remember, was a terrible job - more tedious
than the brussels sprouts — and they made you
cry besides.)
It seems to me that there were so many kinds
of vegetables prepared, that when the meal was
finally ready, if you put a little of each kind on
your plate, there was no room left for turkey.
And the turkeyy .. .When I was a kid, there
was nothing grander than a turkey; without a
doubt, it was the most magnificent piece of art
ever to come out of a kitchen.
In the last eighteen years, I have cooked
many, old-time Thanksgiving dinners.
Comments prove they have been delicious, and
on a par with the ones I remember from my
childhood. But they never seem as good!
Yet when I really evaluate honestly: there
were some shortcomings with the dinners in the
“olden days”; some things are better today.
***
There seems to be a parallel between
Thanksgiving memories, and our religion
“memories.”
Too often, we only remember how perfect
things were in our religious practices years ago.
We are convinced that no matter what we do
today, it will never be as good as it was when
we were children.
And maybe it’s time for a bit more honesty.
Yes, there ard faults in our religion
today . . .but there were faults years ago, too.
But there are good things about our religion
today. Just as we are capable of cooking a
Thanksgiving dinner every bit as good as
Grandma’s, we are capable of living and sharing
a religion every bit as good as Grandma’s.
But we won’t get it done if we simply sit in a
rocker, wring our hands, and bemoan the
impossibility of the task.
This Thanksgiving, let’s look at our religion
with optimism and joy . . .and share these with
our children.
In a generation to come, our children will be
telling our grandchildren, “I remember back
when I was a child, Thanksgiving was the most
wonderful day. My father used to say grace
before the meal. Instead of just the regular
blessing, he’d ask each one of us to mention
something we were personally thankful for.
“And the food .. . .1 can still taste that
turkey. You know, these modern Thanksgivings
aren’t the same, somehow, as they were back in
the good-old-seventies.”
OUR PARISH
Northern Europeans
Could Learn from U.S.
Rev. Andrew M. Greeley
There was an interesting article in the NEW
YORK TIMES recently by Flora Lewis on the
relationship between the Dutch and the
Spanish, Turkish and North African immigrants
who have become “guest workers” in Holland.
The article should have been read by all those
intellectual ideologues who hold up the
European countries as models of social quality
to be imitated by the United States.
For “guest worker” in countries such as
Holland, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland, is
simply a nice word for “slave”; as one Dutch
observer who had watched a recruiting session in
Turkey pointed out, such sessions are for all
practical purposes slave markets. Countries like
Holland and Switzerland have become so
completely middle class that they have had to
import a proletariat from outside the country.
While this proletariat is paid for its work, it
has none of the rights of citizens, not even the
right to bring its families along. Its members are
not eligible for citizenship, and they are not
particularly welcomed Jby the natives - as was
made clear in a recent Mot when a Turk bought
a home in a non-Turkish neighborhood (a riot,
by the way, not a bit different from those on
the South Side of Chicago).
Ms. Lewis gave a very sympathetic account
of the problems of contact between strange
cultures and the difficulties of assimilation
versus cultural pluralism. Unquestionably all
her observations were true. But in fact, the
guest workers in Holland and other countries
are in about the same social position as were
blacks in Mississippi fifteen or twenty years ago
and the NEW YORK TIMES was hardly trying
to understand sympathetically the Mississippi
viewpoint. The reason for that of course is easy.
In the world view of official liberalism the
Dutch are “good guys,” enlightened progressive
socialists, and Mississippians are “bad guys”
with red necks and uncouth accents.
Oppression of minorities is bad both in
Holland and in Mississippi, whether it is done
by sophisticated Dutch or poor white trash. But
I wish that the official wise men of our land
would stop pointing to the European countries
as practicing social equality after which we
should model ourselves. Even the United
Kingdom is as racist as the worst part of the
Deep South. Its refusal to accept Asians who
hold British passports (and hence are citizens)
would have made this clear if the treatment of
West Indians and Asians in Great Britain had
not already proved it.
On the contrary, if the European nations are
interested in solving their guest worker
problem, they might just possibly want to
consult with us. We had large numbers of guest
workers once too; they were called “Krauts”
and “Shanty Irish” and “Dagos” and
“Honkies” and “Pollacks.” Within five years
they could call themselves Americans. All they
had to do was pledge adherence to certain basic
principles of political democracy and they were
given the same civic rights as Americans whose
families had been here for generations. They
did not have to give up their own cultures;
indeed, until 1907 they didn’t even have to
speak English.
It was one of the great accomplishments of
human history - though not one which should
blind us to our failures with regard to non
whites.
But it is not to be expected that the
Europeans should look to us for guidance in
coping with cultural pluralism. They surely hear
nothing from our intellectuals or journalists
about the accomplishment. The relative success
of American pluralism is not worth studying or
understanding. It is as if any American
accomplishment is put down with a “How
could it possibly be worth anything?”
Monsigtior John F.
QUESTION: Many people do not attend Church on Sunday. They say it is possible to
worship God any where, any time. If this is true, why do we worship God especially on
ANSWER: Rooted in the mystery of the Resurrection, Sunday acquires at the same
time an eschatological significance. It orientates us towards the consummation of glory,
when the glorious Lord will return. At this moment Christ’s triumph over sin, Satan and
death itself will be definitive and total. While participating in the holy Sacrifice of the
Mass, the disciples of Christ proclaim that they are awaiting for His return. And in taking
and future glory. Sunday announces and, in a certain way, anticipates the glorious return
of the Resurrected Christ, when He will come to celebrate the eternal Pasch with the
Sunday is the day consecrated to the Lord. It is reserved for God and for His
worship. It is a day set aside for religious life as the other days of the week are
consecrated to profane tasks. This aspect of the Sunday mystery is essential.
The Christian ought to make Sunday holy and make it a day consecrated to religion, to
God, to Christ. We are speaking especially of the Christian who is habitually immersed in
secular and profane activities. The proper balance of his Christian vocation demands this
ordering of his week and this organization of his time. At the present time, because of the
increasing number and importance of holidays, the obligation to consecrate a proper
portion of ones time to God becomes more grave. It is fitting that workers who am often
almost exhausted should make use of several hours for relaxation and rest and to assure
their body a minimum of leisure. But often this is not the case and civilization seems to
be evolving towards more and more leisure time. The obligation to consecrate a dav to
the Lord, constantly, becomes increasingly more grave.
This day is consecrated to God by the worshiping community which constitutes the
Church, the assembly of the faithful. The celebration of the Sunday mysteris has been
confided to the new Israel. Sunday is, in this sense, a day of the Church. The assembly
that gathers to worship is made up of all Christians, baptized and ordained. Each one
occupies his place and fulfills his role. The Christian community comes to present itself to
the Father and, through the hands of the Priest, to offer the sacrifice of Christ itself. It
comes, through Eucharistic Communion, to renew sacramentally the unity which ought
to fluorish in a community of brothers. It comes to draw from its worship the strength
needed to radiate the apostolic charity of Christ. Numerous recent studies have marked
the intimate bond which existed in ancient times between the liturgy and fraternal
charity. True worship reaches its climax in the apostolate. The Christian community even
comes to draw from the common life of worship the sense of leisure and relaxation which
occupies a part of the Lord’s day.
“No Opinion”
Can Be
Opinion
Joseph A. Breig
“A great battle,” wrote an editor recently,
“has been going on within the newspaper
business in recent years.”
He referred to the controversy between
journalists “who believe news stories should be
told as objectively as possible” - with no
injection of the journalist’s opinion - and those
who think the journalist should “go beyond
mere recital of the facts,” making himself “an
advocate and a critic.”
The editor recalled that at one point the
discussion became so intense that a publication
for journalists devoted an entire issue to the
views of various journalists.
For myself, I wonder whether the term
“objectivity” doesn’t tend to get in the way of
clear thinking in this matter. There are cases in
which “objectivity” can itself be a journalistic
evil. There were years in which newspapers
observing strict objectivity were manipulated
by nazi and communist propagandists who
blandly uttered impudent lies and staged
outrageous caricatures of democratic elections
and court trials - all of which were dutifully
reported “objectively” and deadpan, as if the
Western journalists had no way of knowing the
difference between truth and falsehood of the
most cynical sort.
I think we must begin with the rather
obvious point that a journalist must be an
honest person, deeply dedicated to the service
of truth. Then it is necessary that his readers
understand what mode of communication he is
using.
To the extent that the journalist presents his
opinions or judgments under the guise of only
reporting the facts, he is deceiving or trying to
deceive readers. But there can be cases in which
he deceives UNLESS he voices a judgment by
informing the reader that the “facts” are being
manufactured. In such situations, he should let
the reader know that he is presenting a
judgment -- and why.
For an example, we might recall that a great
deal of misleading of readers took place some
decades ago because the editors of the New
York Times, after much discussion, decided
against the request of their correspondent in
Moscow that his dispatches be labelled
“censored” - which of course they were.
In recent years, we have seen much
manipulation of publications - particularly
Catholic publications - by activists such as the
Fathers Berrigan. By adroit use of
sensationalism, such people have frequently
maneuvered journalists into giving them
publicity far beyond their real importance.
How much attention, one might ask, would
the Berrigans and their like have received in
Catholic publications if none of them had been
priests or Sisters or Brothers - or if none had
even been Catholics? And again: Does the
burgling of government offices give their views
some sort of validity which the views otherwise
would not have?
It is no bed of roses, friend, to try to be an
honest journalist.
The Precious
Blood
Rev. Joseph Dean
By our first birth we are all natural brothers,
the descendents of Adam.
While men vary widely in looks,
temperament, statue, color of skin and hair,
language, habits, and diets, there is one factor
which unites all groups - the blood! This vital
substance is the same in all people.
It is a well-known fact that blood from one
nationality can be transfused into another
(providing that the type is compatible) without
producing any ill effect upon the physical
condition of the one receiving it, or creating
any emotional changes or mental differences.
Receiving a transfusion from an Irishman will
not make an Oriental become part Irish; nor
will the blood from a Negro make a white man
partly black.
It will not affect his color or disposition, or
bring about any other physical or psychical
reactions. The blood is the same in form,
appearance, and chemical among all racial
groups.
In the spiritual realm this is also true.
Believers all over the world are ONE IN
CHRIST because of the blood. They may differ
in nationality, modes of worship, methods of
procedure, and liturgy. They may vary in name
and in form of church organization and
government, but all “born-again” individuals,
are bound together by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
By our natural birth we are “brothers” in the
limited sense of being united to a fallen race by
Adam’s blood, but only by the “new birth” do
we become true spiritual brothers (Gal. 3:26).
Having just received the Lord Jesus, an
enthusiastic lad blurted out, “Now what do I
do? What’s next?” He had the right idea!
Although nothing further had to be done to
receive salvation, there was much to do in the
realm of sanctification and service because he
had now become a true child of the Heavenly
Father.
He hath made of one blood all nations of
men to dwell on all the face of the earth. Acts
17:26.