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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1963)
1 GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1963 PAGE 4 the Archdiocese of Atlanta rvAnriA hyty y ythtyiv Y*YjYFYiYMlrm 11 U 1 111 SERVING GEORGIAS 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry. CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernar. ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence Member of the Catholic Press Association- and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service 2699 Peachtree N. E. P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Ga. Telephone 231-1281 Second Class Re-entry Permit Pending at Decatur, Georgia U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 Is It Official? -s BEING WHOLLY INFORMED LITURGY AND LIFE Throughout the United States the month of February is recog nized as Catholic Press Month, a time when the objectives and difficulties of the press are restated for Catholic readers, so that the task of the press may be accomplished more perfectly. Most Catholics realize, of course, that the press, like every thing else in the Church, has only one basic function, and that is to further the missionof Christ iBut there remains much con fusion as to how the press carries out its mission. Part of the con fusion arises from a misunder standing of the term “official” as it is applied to the press, par ticularly to Catholic weekly newspape r s. Strictly speaking, a thing is of ficial when it is done or said by a member of the hierarchy, act ing or speaking with the power of the office that he holds. Thus, when the Holy Father speaks as pope, his words are official. When the bishop of a diocese speaks or acts, as bishopj"fusT words or action are official. In most of the dioceses of our country the diocesan news papers were established by the local bishop, acting in his ca pacity of bishop. Because their establishment was an official act most of these newspapers are rightly identified as “official or gans of the diocese.” It does not follow from this that every word printed by an official newspaper is therefore official. For any statement in a diocesan newspaper to be of ficial it must originate with the bishop of the diocese speaking in his capacity as ordinary. Secular newspapers that pre face a quotation from a staff- written editorial of a Catholic paper with such words as “In yesterday's editorial, the official organ of the diocese, said ...” do everyone a serious injus- tice. While what they print is true, the phrasing of the state ment seems to imply that some thing which is not and cannot be official does really represent official thought. Perhaps no more than five per cent of what is p rinted in a Catho lic newspaper throughout a given AN ALTAR BOY NAMED "SPECK" “I’ll b* right back-will you keep an eye on my eboeabte cake, please?" year can properly be labeled as official. And statements which are official can readily be iden tified. On the other hand, the bulk of what is printed by Catholic newspapers can be properly termed authoritative. And it is precisely in the presentation of authoritative news and authori tative comments that Catholic newspapers render to the faith ful a unique and necessary, week- by-week service. If we might improvise on Web ster, we might say that an au thority is one who is widely re cognized as knowing what he is talking about. He may know what he is talking about because of some special training which he has received. He may know what he is talking about because of the experience he has acquired in doing a specialized work. He may know what he is talking a- bout because he has access to exclusive channels of informa tion. The important thing is that he does know what he is talking a- bout, and his statements us ually merit serious attention, of course, the authority may not al ways be right, because it is hu man to err. But he is credi ted with making every effort to be right. When an authority formulates opinions in his own field those opinions will claim the serious study of eve ry right thinking man. In the end they may be perhaps, rejected, just as a competent challenger in sports may be beat en, but it will be only after a strenuous contest. The Catholic press is never expected to deal in hearsay. It prints news that is authorita tive. And the majority of edi tors and columnists working for the Catholic press today are re cognized authorities in a variety of fields. This, of course, is i as it should be. The mission of Christ is to the world. It is a mission of the young and old, to the married and single, to learned and unlearned, to the governed and the governing, to the laborer, to the professional man, to all of those who breathe the breath of life. Power BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA (Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory ) FEBRUARY 3, FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. The last week of the Epiphany sea son this year begins with a Mass which centers on the power of Jesus’ words over the water- symbol of destructiveness (Gospel). The manifes tation of His power and glory continues and is again associated with water, Baptism, the destruc tion of the kingdom of darkness. It is the power of the Word of God, a power which Christians meet particularly and especially in the public worship, the liturgy, of the Church. Sometimes ’’Word of God” and “sacraments” are discussed as if they could be separated, or even as if they were opposed. The contrary is true. It is the Word which makes the waters of Baptism regenerative, it is the Word which feeds us with the life-giving Body and Blood of the Lord. In the liturgy the Word continues to transform and elevate the stuff of this world. America And BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW G. K. Chesterton wrote that if it ever happened that only Catholics accepted that two plus two equals four, that still wmild not make arithmetics a “Catholic truth” or a part of Catholic doc trine. It would remain a truth of mathematics, based on logical definitions and completely re asonable principles. There is a parallel to this somewhat far-fetched example, that is of con siderably more practical concern. In America we do our sinning in the same way that we do most other things - in a big way and in public, if possible. It does not demand much more than good eyesight to qualify as a critic of our social and moral ills. Since the advent of tele vision even the illiterate citizen must be aware of the myriad moral dilemmas that face us in our private and public lives. As a country that seems to enjoy a “most favored nation” treaty with heaven, the “puzzlements” of our moral responsibilities to the rest of the world are ever present to vex our conscience. EVERY day we live with the multiple scandals of racial injustice, abuses of power, rampant dishonesty the vulgarisation of sex, the frag mentation of family life, mounting divorce rates, mediocrity in education - the litany goes on like the devil’s checklist. Even more appalling than the enormity of our moral disorders is the aimlessness and sense of futility, the confus ion of standards and apathy which bedevil the present generation and the youth who are growing up in our affluent society. Comment and concern are commonplace. Po liticians and teachers, preachers and clubwomen loudly voice their misgivings about the general situation or some particular problem. Too much of the criticism is vague and unspecific and has little effect. Often it is superficial and does not reach the root of the problem or else it is entirely negative. The intellectually respectable critics occasionally achieve enough popular success to make their names and the titles of their latest books widely known. The substance of their thought and the solutions they propose LITURGICAL WEEK of The Word MONDAY, FEB. 4, ST. AN DREW CORSINI, BISHOP, CON FESSOR, So, while it is perfect ly legitimate to speak of the first part of the Mass, the part of the service containing Bible readings and sermon, as “The Liturgy of the Word", it is al so true that every act of Chris tian public worship is a liturgy of the Word. It is the Word of God which makes a saint of the bishop-confessor we commemorate today. It is the Word of God which makes an instrument of sanctification out of the creatures and the human things of the liturgy. TUESDAY, FEB. 5, ST. AGATHA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. Virginity and martyrdom, two voca tions to which the Church has always paid at tention and reverenced because they reveal im portant aspects of her life, are hymned today as gifts of God. “...lest any flesh should pride itself before him” (First Reading). Natural Law seem only to penetrate the minds of the already convinced. TO RETURN to two plus two equals four and Catholic faith - we need to do some hard thinking and clear speaking about the ,fiatual law as the foundation of morality. Fidelity) to the doctrine of natural law is an essential teaching of Catholicism. Natural law is not, however, to be identified with Catholic dogma. Philosophy based on the concept of natural morality was clearly conceived long before the time of Christ. There are contemporary proponents of this Phi losophy who disagree with some of the Church’s practical conclusions from natural law theory. The first misconception which must be removed is the identification of natural law with exclusively Catholic ethics. Another misunderstanding of natural law, en couraged by the unskilled presentation of Catholic marital morality, contends that such a moral philosophy implies an obligation never to inter fere with the physical processes and “laws’* of nature. Sometimes, natural law is wrongly identified with an effortless intuition of right and wrong, an automatic reaction which dictates in stantly the solution to any moral problem. All of these notions of natural law are caricatures. THE NOTION of the natural law is based on the conviction that there exists a moral order which every normal human being can discover. The discovery of this order is not the work of emotion o.i^intuition but of reason and it demands consid°able effort. Our nature as men, rather than beasts or angels, is made what it is by our rationality. Because we are rational, we can discover the general purposes and needs of human life and happiness. By further-and con stant - thought and effort we are able to relate our moral decisions to these ends. This process is the basis of ethical standards that are fully human because they are reasonable. At the same time it produces an absolute foundation for a pur poseful and clearly defined personal and social conscience. A belief in natural law implies that before we come to revealed religion or any other source of moral principles, we each have the ability to learn the general requirements of good conduct and to discover, at least in a general way, what our ethical obligations are. It is of this that we need to convince the society in which we live. of God In the Gospel, Jesus matter-of-factly tells us that some of His followers will illustrate the other-worldly aim of the life of discipleship in virgin vocations, implying that this, as well as marriage, is grace. “Let him accept it who can”. (Gospel) WEDNESDAY, FEB. 6, ST. TITUS, BISHOP, CONFESSOR. “The kingdom of God is at hand for you” (Gospel) is the familiar and awe-in spiring announcement Jesus recommended to His preachers.The Word both announces and ef fects the kingdom. Where the Word is active, the kingdom is present. And since the Word is ac tive for us above all in the liturgy, it is in public worship, as a worshiping community, that we realize the kingdom as fully as we can until His final coming. THURSDAY, FEB. 7 ST. ROMUALD, ABBOT. Communion, sharing, in His glory as well as in Con’td on Page 5 BOTH SIDES One Day And Two Knights A CHANGE OF PACE TALE One day there were two knights in the quaint old country of Quixotica. It was as during the age of knight-errantry; during those gallant times when every day had its noble chance, and every noble chance had its noble knight, and every noble knight had a foul temper. Two such knights of Quixotica had brought their bad tempers with them, as they vaunted forth on ventures valiant. They were in liv eried armor of might: heavy breastplates, top- heavy helmets, unwieldy swords. FROM opposite directions they rode towards each other along a dusty road. It was an aw fully hot afternoon. They met in the middle of the road and drew rein to shoot a line and boast of the dragons and giants they had slain. Knights are alw ays sensitive on hot af ternoons - - this be cause they are being slowly sauteed in their metal suits. Our two knights were very tender by the time they met each other - about medium rare. Just beside the road where they had drawn rein, between them, stood a statue of Amadeus of GauL Amadeus of Gaul had never lost a quarrel and had a temper most volatile. He was in the eyes of all the greatest knight who ever lived. TO CONFIRM one of his boasts, one of our knights pointed to the statue and said, “By yon statue of Amadeus of Gaul, and by the golden shield he wears upon his arm, I swear that what I say is true.” The second knight was past the medium rare stage. By now he was well done on the out- side-sizzling. His temper was sizzling, too. He spake thus, “Nay, thou art a craven and sightless poltroon. Your shield is silver and thine oath is false.'* And so it went. The first knight said, “Tis gold.” The second knight said, “Tis silver.” “Tis gold ... 'tis silver ... ’ tis silver ... tis gold.’* THEIR tempers, and the temperature, got the better of them. They fell to smiting each other t across the jolly old cranium, right merrily and lustily. Long and hard they fought until, eftsoons and prithee peace, they fell to the earth, bruis ed and scant of breath. Their shouting, and the clash of their swords, brought the King of Quixotica to the scene. He sought the reason for their jousting. Said the first, “I swore by yon golden shield.” SAID THE second, “I swore by yon silver shield.'* The king rode around the statue and looked at it from both sides. A scornful laugh laughed he. “By my helidoon, you have raised much dust for naught this midsummer's day. Behold, yon shield on yonder statue is gold on one side and silver on the other. Methinks you have learned that there are two sides to every shield and two sides to every quarrel. He who fights for half a truth has fought but half a fight. I do now decree that all my knights, before they begin to fight, shall look on both sides of this shield.” “I do also decree that all the married people in my realm, before they begin to quarrel, must also look at the shield with its golden side and its silver side. There are two sides to every shield, and two sides to every quarrel. He who fights for half a truth has fought but half a fight.*’ OUR TWO brave knights got up with many grunts and groans. They lifted their weary bodies onto their steeds and with bowed heads and aching shoulders rode away, dreaming of the glories of knighthood. So it was that the married people of Quixotica never quarreled any more from that day on. They obeyed the king's edict. Before they began to quarrel they looked at the statue of Amadeus of Gaul and his shield, which is gold on one side and silver on the other. They were not able to quarrel any more, because they could see that there are two sides to every shield and two sides to every question. They could see that he who fights for half a truth has fought but half a fight. And so it was also that the motto of the kingdom of Quixotica came to be engraved on the coat of arms: “Tis better to jaw than to war." REAPINGS AT RANDOM
