Newspaper Page Text
IWGh 4
GLORGIA BULLL.TIN,
JANUARY 4, 1963
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SIRVINO GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
Published Lvery Week at the Decatur DeKalb News
PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Klernan
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
2699 Peachtree N.
P.U. Box 11667
Northside Station
Atlanta 5, Ga.
Telephone 237-7296
S-cond Class Re-entry Permit Pending at Decatur, Georgia
U.S.A. $5.00
Canada $5.50
Foreign $6.50
What We Are About
(Part 1)
We have always been taught and
believe that the function of the
Catholic Newspaper is to enligh
ten, nourish and elevate the minds
and the hearts of the people. To
do this, of course, requires that
the Catholic press must become
a part of the life of the commu
nity in every locality.
It must be as important to the
life of the community as secular
newspapers and magazines. It
must strive to have at least as
much influence. It must be the
representative mouthpiece of all
Catholic thinking and informa
tion. It must protect the vital
interests of Catholics in a com
munity, both in their work and lei
sure, in their education, and in
their growth. It must fight for
the reform of any conditions
which are a denial of the dignity
of man or an obstacle to his pro
gress.
But that is not all, the Catho
lic newspaper in striving for the
good of the Church within the
community, must also fight and
work for the common good; this
includes Protestants, Jews; it in
cludes Negroes, Mexicans, Chi
nese, Japanese and any other
color or creed within the com
munity. We have a strict obli
gation to work for the protec
tion and assistance of everyone
so that they may enjoy a right
and reasonable life.
To do this requires that a
Catholic newspaper become more
than a gossip sheet; more than
pictorial pre sentations of the gla
mor girls of the socialties and
the charmers of the Knights of
Columbus and Holy Name So
ciety, the leaders of women’s
groups, men's societies, it must
express a Christian conscience
both in its news and editorial
columns.
It must express a social con
science - we assume it has a
spiritual one-the Catholic news
paper must take a lively interest
in local, state and national pro
blems. The legislature must be
recognized for what it is and
can do for the good or evil of
citizens. The legislators, too,
must be known, watched, prais
ed, chastised, as the case may
be. The same goes for those
AN ALTAR BOY NAMED "SPECK"
who rule or govern on a local
level.
Through the columns of the
Catholic newspaper a civic sense
has to be fostered, that is, the
awareness of rights and duties
in civic society Catholics must-
be encouraged to be good citi
zens as well as good football
players, good carnival organiz
ers or bingo winners.
The Catholic newspaper has an
obligation to assist its readers
to conquer life itself, to change
their own lives and the lives of
their neighbors, so that nothing
in their lives escapes the Chris
tian influence. And when we talk
of the conquest of life, we mean
the whole of life, the physical,
intellectual, religious, moral,
sentimental, cultural, social.
It is also a conquest of envi
ronment, of that whole complex
of habits, customs, conventions,
values and social institutions
which are the framework in which
the individual’s life is lived and
which i s a most potent influence
on him. There are the things
which, when presented in the Ca
tholic newspaper, make it a
necessity in the spiritual and
material struggle going on in
every community in the country.
A Catholic newspaper’s in
fluence is not gauged by the way
it presents the current news, for
it has not the news nor the tech
nical facilities which give the
press its power. The Catholic
press has influence through its
policies, its editorial opinions
and its comment on the affairs
of the day which are its inspi
ration, and brings everything un
der the penetrating beam of the
Faith. We do not always have to
speak about religion, but we will
speak religiously about every
thing and everyone.
It is obvious that to be a real
community paper the Catholic
weekly newspaper must recog
nize that there is hierarchy of
values, that the news must be
placed in proper focus. Of
course, it is basically a prob
lem for us editors. A problem
which cries out for serious study
of current affairs in the light of
Catholic principles. It requires
that we see in our neighbors,
our readers, all the human long
ings for peace and happiness.
•RELAX DEAR ...TITHING IS JUST 10 PERCENT'
GEORGIA PINES
Return to‘Good Old Days’
BY FR. R. DONALD KIERNAN
Never have I understood why
people wanted to return to the
“good old days”. Thes convic
tion became all the stronger over
the holidays in North Georgia.
From childhood I have heard
stories of how my grandparents
walked through deep snow to at
tend Mass on Christmas Day.
Of course, this snow became
deeper each time the story was
repeated. After a generation
these same grandparents were
tunnelling holes through the snow,
much in the same manner, I
imagine, as the escapees from
behind the iron curtain.
THE DAY before Christmas
started with the hustle and bustle
of any other year. Early in the
afternoon Gainesville radio an
nouncers began warning of a cold
spell. The cold did come and with
it a driving rain.
The men of Gainesville’s Saint
Michael’s Parish had worked long
and hard in decorating the sanc
tuary. Many said that it looked
better than ever before. The
choir had been preparing for the
midnight high Mass. No one had
given thought to the fact that
Gainesville was about set to get
hit with it’s worst disaster since
the tornado of 1936.
About the time of midnight
brave altar boys made fifty yard
dashes from automobiles to the
sacistry only to find themselves
soaked by the rain. Some brave
souls who ventured out found that
electric light wires and tree
limbs had already began to fall
in the streets.
LITURGICAL WEEK
IT WAS a night to be long re
membered. In the morning, it was
next to impossible to get out of
the house. The whole city was
a scene which would resemble
a city laid waste. Trees were
across the highway, telephone
service was interrupted and fi
nally electric power failed.
Mass on Christmas morning
was said without lights or heat.
The wonderful work done by the
men of the parish in decorating
the church could not even be
seen, but it was a church full of
good souls - the kind that my
grandparents must have had re
ference to when they talked about
the “good old days”.
As the day progressed it be
came all the more apparent that
a night would be spent without heat
or lights. The power company
called in crews from Macon, Au
gusta and Atlanta. These men
worked selfleslly, hampered by
falling branches and the continu
ing rain.
BUT THERE was a bright spot
in the whole day. It brought out
the real Christmas spirit of
Christian charity in the whole
town. People who has fireplaces
in their homes invited neighbors
and began to share their food with
them. A whole spirit of brother*
hood prevailed that evening in
homes lighted up with candles,
fireplaces and kerosene lamps.
Non catholics stopped by the
rectory asking for vigil-lights
and this act provoked many in
teresting conversations.
TRAFFIC SAFETY
Car Statue
Heresies
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
Traffic fatalities this year have
kept pace with last year’s figure -
indeed, there are signs that we
might even go over them. It’s
nothing to be proud of.
Epiphany - Celebration of God’s Coming
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
“Stotor, ut I
*
"ZJ/Ae'W art.u
to Ml natural or mptrnatural?”
BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA
(Priest of the PittsburghOratory)
SUNDAY, JAN. 6. THE EPIP
HANY OF OUR LORD. The cele
bration of the mystery of God’s
coming in the flesh and nature of
man is only begun in the birthday
feast of Christmas. It reaches its
climax today in a feast so impor
tant that it has a full-fledged
season following it.
For He comes to be made
known, He comes for a mani
festation (“epiphany”). Because
men can recognize and know Him,
they can know the Father. Be
cause we humans can approach
this Fellow-human with human
love, we find ourselves able to
love God. And His epiphany is
one of kingship, of universal
dominion.
Other liturgical
tributes to Christ
as king are mere
ly echoes of this
day. The story of
the wise men from
the east (Gospel)
is the liturgy’s
way of teaching
that His mission is for all man
kind—for Israle, the Jews, first,
and after them for all nations
(the Gentile Magi).
The First Reading is an Old
Testament prophesy of this ca
tholicity: “And the Gentiles shall
walk in your light.” Israle is
chosen, not to indulge in narcis
sism but for a ministry to all
peoples. Christians today, with
His universal dominion still only
partially realized, ask for re
newed faith and apostolic fervor.
(Continued on Page 8)
The problem of
reckless and care
less driving is both
a social and a moral
one. The late Holy
Father, Pope Pius
XII, constantly em
phasized, in regard to traffic
safety, that it was necessary to
“inculcate in everyone a sense
of his grave duty to respect the
lives of others.”
I WAS reminded of this the
other day when I was driving into
town toward the Expressway. For
about two miles the winding road
has a speed limit of 35 miles
per hour and is mostly a “no
overtaking” zone. Some fellow
obviously in a hurry to get to
work, kept honking his horn, de
manding that I speed up from
the regulation of 35 miles to
something more to his liking.
He was so impatient that af
ter about half a mile of this he
suddenly accelerated and over
took me on a single lane bend.
It was bad enough to witness this
act from an alleged mature adult,
but it became sickening when I
observed that his dashboard car
ried not one, but two religious
statues. This crackpot driver
must have been operating under
the heresy that automobile sta
tues cancel out human folly.
It’s like those people who have
St. Christopher emblems in their
cars, and are convinced that the
good saint will protect them
come-what-may. However, I like
to think that when these people,
with their automobile statues of
Christopher medals, get reck
less, the patron saint of travel
lers leaves it up to God.
THERE is an awful lot of hy
pocrisy involved. I think we
should stop using religious em
blems as a safeguard for reck
lessness. Many of these so-
called Christian drivers use
these religious emblems as pa
gan charms rather than spiritual
inspiration to safety and respon
sibility. It’s about time we all
grew up and discarded the idola
try of the automobile statue. In
most case8 the purpose is not
spiritual protection, but a secu
larist excuse to act with abandon.
There is another problem in
volved. Many traffic safety ex
perts have come to the conclus
ion that automobile statues on
dashboards are safety hazards.
They block the complete view
of drivers and have been known
to cause some serious accidents.
It is for this reason that we don’t
encourage their use. While there
can be a difference of opinion on
this question, we are going to
play safe and abide by the views
of the experts.
If one feels the need for spi
ritual protection on the road
while driving or otherwise, of
fering a prayer for a safe jour
ney is always a good idea. But
let’s not pray only for the other
driver; let's pray also for a keen
sense of understanding and re
sponsibility on our part. If each
person using a car realizes his
responsibilities, both individual
ly and to the community, then
traffic accidents can be reduced
considerably.
THIS IS not meant as some
sanctimonious claptrap. Your
Reaper will have to be more
careful, too. There are times
when the open road is also in
viting to us. The temptation to
“step on the gas is ever-pre
sent; and we too acknowledge the
need for prayerful guidance in
observing the rules of the road.