Newspaper Page Text
GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1963
PAGE 5
GEORGIA PINES
Pity Poor Proof
BY FATHER R. DONALD KIERNAN
The late Dick Reid, an early pioneer in the field
of Catholic Journalism, is probably remembered
for his apologetics of our faith. However, Mr.
Reid on many occasions would write in a humo
rous vein and his defense of the “poor proof
reader’* published years ago was undoubtedly his
most humorous story.
Newspapers are born, live and die today. There
is nothing as old as yesterday’s paper. Speed is as
necessary to keep a newspaper going as to keep
a plane in the air. There are thirty six letters to
a line, ten lines to an inch,
and 168 inches to a solid page
of type. There are in such a
page 60,4 80 chances for error.
Multiply this by the number of
pages in the average issue of
your favorite paper, making
allowances for headlines, ad
vertisements, cartoons and
pictures, and you will find that
the opportunities for error af
forded the newspaper staff from galley boy to
chief editorial writer quickly mount into the mil
lions.
NOT ERROR but the lack of them should excite
the wonder of those of us who cannot write or type
a letter without starting it with the wrong date
and then proceeding to prove that “well begun
is half done*’.
Since newspapers do not completely ignore the
opportunities of error, those connected with them
see the silver lining in the humor that frequently
creeps Into these mistakes. In his article Editor
Reid pointed out that there are numerous illus
trations of the difference one letter may make
such as the man by the name of Frank Clark who
was astonished to read in the local bugle that he
was Krank Clark; and the member of an "old
local family” who was elected to office suddenly
realized that his ancestory dated from an “odd
local family”.
THE MOST humorous though was the chairman
of the judges at a flower show who decided to wear
Reader
one of the prize winning goregous red roses in his
lapel. The following morning he casually glanced
through the paper to see what it might say about
his participation in the program. This is what he
read; “As Mr. Smith mounted the stage, all eyes
were fixed on the large red nose he displayed.
Only years of patient cultivation could have pro
duced an object of such brilliance.”
If a single letter can work such haovc, a dropped
or added letter can do much worse. One paper
announcing the coming of Lent and it’s fasting
and praying stated that: “Catholics feast and prav
during Lent”.
Then there was the editor who found out that his
lead story which dealt with the local clergymen
who united to protest lawlessness came of the
press with the headline reading: “Local Clergy
men Unite to Protect Lawlessness”.
IN HIS article Mr. Reid pointed out the many
snares which lie in wait to embarrass the newspa
permen. Often when writing captions under pic
tures presents a difficulty too, such as the man
who drove his car off a bridge into a river. The
same edition carried a story of the account of a
funeral of a prominent and wealthy man in the
community. The captions were misplaced and our
sedate funeral rites were described by a picture
of the last hilarious experience of our inebrieat-
ed friend.
If there are readers under the impression that
newspapers never make mistakes, they should
know better now. Trifling and patent errors in
the newspapers are best ignored: when newspaper
men are the victims they “grin and bear it”.
The public is not always so indulgent. Mr. Reid
concluded with an illustration of the account of
a marriage in which the flowers described relat
ed that “the roses were punk”. An apology and
correction demanded; the apology came, followed
by the attempted correction: “We should have said
the noses were pink”. It woiild have been better
to leave well enough alone.
So friends, read this page with the knowledge
that there is a possibility of 60,480 errors on
this page alone.
QUESTION BOX
Newspapers And News
BY MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY
Q. HOW CAN NEWSPAPERS BE JUSTIFIED IN
PRINTING THEIR “NEWS”? 1 MEAN, AREN’T
THEY GUILTY OF DETRACTION BY REVEAL
ING HIDDEN FAULTS OF OTHERS? IF THEY
ARENT GUILTY THEN WHY ARE WE WHEN WE
TALK ABOUT PEOPLE DOING THINGS, ETC?
OR, ARE WE GUILTY?
IN OTHER WORDS, ARE EDITORS AND JOUR
NALISTS SINNING AGAINST THE 8th COMMAND
MENT WHEN THEY PRINT THAT SO-AND-SO
STOLE THIS, AND SOMEONE ELSE IS GETTING
A DIVORCE, ETC.? WHERE IS THE LINE DRAWN
BETWEEN “NEWS” AND DETRACTION?
A. The newspaper also has grave obligations to
ward its advertisers, as well as to those to whom
the ads are presented. Adver
tising as a profession is given
to superlatives, which readers
from custom know how to dis
count. So they may be allowed
a bit of license as to style, but
not to the point of dishonest
representation.
The newspaper has great
obligations to the community it
serves. It must serve the public interest and
respect private rights. It must use honest methods
in its search for news, respect rights to privacy
and secrecy, and be careful never to defame anyone
unjustily.
Those are some basic general principles of
newspaper morality. The complete development of
them would require long, competent study; and
would result in a book. In summary, none of the
rules of justice, honesty, or charity are relaxed
for the benefit of the newspaper reporter or
editor.
Certainly "scandal sheets,” sensation - mon-
gering tabloids, and muck-raking gazettes smash
the 8th Commandment to bits: they bear false
witness, ruin reputations, slant facts, show no re
gard for personal rights, and often little concern
for public interest. They seek only circulation,
which means advertising and income. And they
are experts at avoiding libel.
For the good honest newspaper the question
usually proposed by the 8th Commandment is:
Are facts in the public domain, at least in prin
ciple? Anything in the public records, like an ac
tion for divorce, or a marriage license, can be
publicized without injustice. The same is true of
crimes which are by nature public. Often it is
better that the ulcers of society be truthfully re
ported than that the news of them spread by un
reliable gossip, which makes them grow into
cancers.
About public matters of this kind you and I are
permitted to talk, without violence to the 8th
Commandment, if we are sure that we are saying
the truth; and if we tell it without malice. Most
gossips enjoy their juicy stories so much that
they tend to exaggerate, distort, and add their
own condemning comments. If newspapers do the
same they are as guilty as we - and on a much
larger scale.
LITURGICAL WEEK
Picture Cycle Of Worship
Continued From Page 4
Founders with praise for dedicated and self-sac
rificing men.
American Catholics find its texts also singu
larly appropriate for the national celebration of
Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. “Let us now praise
men of renown...” begins the moving First Read
ing from Ecclesiasticus.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 13, MASS AS ON SUNDAY.
Christian realism, as we saw on Sunday, takes
into account other things besides our joy and our
gratitude to God.
Christ is our salvation, yet our need and our
distress remain. Forgiveness, victory over death,
eternal life—this is God’s free gift. Yet sin and
fear and mortality remain. And it is in the con
text of the whole human situation, comprising
these latter things as well as faith, that we must
w ork (First Reading and Gospel) to make Christ's
victory our own.
THURSDAY, FEB. 14, MASS AS ON SUNDAY.
Is the Church teaching, then, that our effort earns
the prize, as a modern m ight conclude from today’ s
First Reading? No, the lesson tells us only that
discipleship embraces the whole person, that no
one inserts himself into the Mystery of Jesus
Christ so as to share His death and resurrection
by a merely mental exercise and acceptance.
Our response to the gift, the Liturgy teaches,
must be total.
FRIDAY, FEB. 15, MASS AS ON SUNDAY.
The realization that we are called by God, called
to grace, to health and life, is like the Gospel’s
invitation to work. It doesn’t matter when the
realization comes. What does matter is that we
respond to it with heart and strength as well as
with mind and soul. Our “work” is not a barter
with God, a trading with him of so many good
deeds in exchange for so much grace. It is ra
ther a free and total following of the given Sa
viour.
SATURDAY, FEB. 16, ST. MARY ON SAT
L'RDAY. Mary as the sign of the Church is
again the dominant note of today’s Mass. Israel
is a figure of her in the First Reading. And the
Gospel teaches her as prototype of the faithful,
of those "who hear the Word of God and keep
it.” Peerless mother she is (Entrance, Gradual,
Offertory and Communion hymns) as the Church is
mother, visibly human as the Church is visibly
human, instrument of the Almighty as the Church
is.
Saints in Black and White
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
TOWARDS TUITION
ACROSS
1. Circle of Light
5. Forcci into Place
9. Array
14. Cruising
15. Passage Out
16. Earthly; Abbrv.
18. Units of Weight
19. A Glazier
21. Tide
22. Country S. W.
Europe
24. Watery Fluid
25. Female Name
26. Do Wrong
28. Aged, Lat; Abbrv.
29. Tuft of Feathers
30. Mother; Colloq.
33. South American
Dance
35. Summits
36. Hezokiah's Mother;
possessive
38. Digit
39. Sharp Point
40. Court of Appeal
41. Size of Shot
42. Biddy
43. Over
47. Decorous
49. Eleanora ... ,
Italian Actress
50. Foreshadow
51. Exist
52. The Knee
53. Entertains
54. Goddess of Marriage;
Roman Myth
57. Obtained from Milk
59. Trial
60. River, Paraguay
61. Discharge
62. Shaver; colloq.
64. Square End Boat
66. Charity
68. Drinking Utensil
73. Glacial Ridge
74. Raging
76. Sensible
77. A Desert in Israel
79. St. Philip . . .
80 A Fabric
81. Dare
82. To Endure; Archaic
83. Chemical Compound
DOWN
1. Homburgs
2. Wet
3. .. . Horne
4. Fertile Spot
5. Soak
6. Central Lino
7. Expense Allowance
8. Combining Form
Meaning Solid
9. Old Testament;
Abbrv.
10. "In Medias ....
11. Plod
12. Boners
13. Repent
17. Chairs
20. Habit
23. Young Insect
27. Trim
79. Unit of Work;
Physics
30. God of War,
Roman
31. Reed
32. Atom
34. Negative
35. Stick
37. Little Black ....
39. He founded ....
Order
42. Leigh . ..., English
Poet
43. Encourage
44. Haul
45. Canticles, Scripture
46. Plague
48. Article, French
49. His Feast Day is in
52. Wreath
54. He is the Apostle
of ....
55. Unaccustomed
56. Period of
Immaturity
57. Mendacious Person
58. Sleeping Place
63. Banter
65. Unclean; Jewish Law
67. Male Progenitor
69. Intimidates
70. Dray
71. Goad
72. Equal
75. Gaming Cube
78. With
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7
Government Can’t Give
Tax Credits To Parents
WASHINGTON -<NC)— Xhe
secretary of the Department
of Health, Education and Wel
fare said here that a system
of income tax credits for par
ents of children in private
schools would not be feasible.
Anthony J. Celebrezze told
the House Committee on Edu
cation and Labor that “our
basic analysis is that it ( a
program of tax credits) doesn’t
help the lower economic
groups.”
CELEBREZZE made this re
ply in a question-and-answer
period that followed prepared
testimony to the committee
(Feb. 4). The testimony out
lined President Kennedy's Fed
eral aid to education bill.
The HEW secretary made no
explicit reference in his pre
pared statement to the fact that
the administration bill rules
out aid to parochial and other
private schools for construct
ion purposes and teachers’ sal
aries.
THREE representatives ex
pressed disappointment at this
in questioning Celebrezze.
Rep. William Ayres of Ohio
asked the question about in
come tax credits for parents
of private school children.
Celebrezze said that such a
plan would be like giving tax
credits to a person who uses
a toll road instead of a free
highway or one who uses his
private swimming pool instead
of a public one.
ON THE over-all question of
aid for private schools, Cele
brezze asked Rep. Ayres;
“Where do you draw the line?”
Reps. Roman Pucinski of Illi
nois and Hugh Carey of New
York also deplored the lack of
aid for private school pupils.
ARNOLD VIEWING
Two Movies-Same Angles
Rep. Carey said: “You can’t
ignore this problem. It sits
athwart the road we must tra
vel. What this does is arrange
Newman Meeting
The Southeastern Province of
the National Newmann Federat
ion will hold its 1963 Convention
in Tallahassee, Florida, this
week-end. Hosts are Florida
State University and Florida
A & M. Convention Chairman
is Chuch Cutajar.
Delegates from the Atlanta
Archdiocese will be attending
the Convention with their chap
lains. The theme of the Con
vention will be “The Council
and the Campus. It is based
on the importance and influence
of the Ecumenical Council on
the student, especially those
attending secular colleges.
for the dissolution of one sect
or of education” (private and
parochial schools).
Carey also disputed the HEW
contention that aid to private,
church related schools is for
bidden by the Federal constitu
tion. He stated that such u
limitation is written into some
state constitutions but not into
the Federal constitution.
QiCantoit
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• ICE A BEVERAGE STATIONS
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LUCKIE AT CONE ST.
A Good Address in Atlanta
God Love You
MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
I have seen poverty, holiness and martyrdom at the
Council—such were our previous articles. This one is en
titled: “I Saw a New World at the Council.”
Consider three very important Councils of the Church,
and you will see how theworldhas shifted. At the Council
of Nicea in 325, there were 318 bishops present; only
six were from Europe. In other words, the Near East,
the Eastern world or the Orientals dominated. At the
Council of Trent (1545-1563) there were only 15 Orien
tals; the Council was predominantly Latin or European.
By this time the Church had also lost the major portion
of the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic worlds. The Council of
the Vatican in 1870 was practically all European—there
was not a single bishop from Africa or Asia.
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
"Phaedra” and "Divorce Italian Style” are non-
Hollywood films with several things in common:
Legion of Decency frowns, a place on most criti
cal “ten best” lists, and a concern with sexual
love. But in style and point of view they are as
similar as Winnepeg and Miami Beach.
In “Phaedra”, the direc
tor-actress team of Jules
Das sin and Melina Mercouri
(“Never on Sunday”) attempt
a modern version of the clas
sic tragedy (Euripides, Senca,
Racine) about the queen whose
passion for her stepson de
stroys everyone within fallout
range. Pro, con, or neutral,
these seem the most vital
points about it:
(1) There is a weakening of the traditional
characters and conflicts. The classic Phaedra is
a noble, spirited woman struggling against an un
natural lust, at least partially forced on her by
vengeful deities; at times she also believes her
husband dead. Both men react with horror; worse,
they fail to see how hard she is fighting and how
desperately she wants purity. Abuse and jealousy
drive her to ruin; the father is misinformed about
the guilt of his son, and they, too, move inevitably
to unhappy fates.
Writer-producer-director Dassin boils all this
complexity down to a familiar, if offbeat, domes
tic triangle. Attractive wife meets stepson and the
soundtrack churns withpseudo-Tschaikowsky; the
only problem is what-do-we-do-now. When she
won’t leave her husband, the boy cools off,
sulks, seeks other amusements. To prevent his
arranged marriage with a young girl, Phaedra
confesses; the husband beats and banishes the
boy, and all ends in gloom and death.
Wrecked in the process is the beauty and
stature of both wife and son: she flawed only by
her desire, he by perhaps something worse, a cold
purity that shuts out human pity and understand
ing. The traditional Phaedra is overcome with
shame for an unfulfilled desire; in the movie,
having carried the desire into act, she is unre
pentant: “Only one thing could be more terrible
than we have done - to leave each other.” Love
of wife-for-husband and son-for-father varies ac
cording to geography: the tragic disagreement
seems to be over whether the loving should be
carried on in Paris or Greece.
(2) While there is much sympathy for the lov
ers, there is little for the sin: as always, it
brings tragedy to the principals, their family
and nearly all of Greece. The love scenes are so
indirect as to be almost ludicrous: the major se
duction is a gushy blur of fire, water and pound
ing guitars.
(3) As the stepson only Van Johnson could be
more wrong than coy, Ivy Leaguish Tony Perkins,
who alternately tenses his face muscles or half
smiles like Johnny Carson; he underplays while
everyone else is screaming and writhing in deep
tragedy. Raf Vallone as the husband swallows
everything but the camera. Miss Mercouri’s two
expressions are satisfactory, at least for this
Phaedra.
(4) As usual, Dassin contributes endlessly excit
ing black-and-white visuals, as well as the feeling
and some ingenious parallels to the forms and de
vices of Greek drama. Bu t fidelity to the Greek
mood often conflicts with the skimpiness of the
modem characters. Sample: Perkins driving his
sports car to oblivion, singing wild-eyed as the
car radio (doubtless FM) throbs with Bach organ
music. It often seems as if Leonard Bernstein
were working the philharmonic into a frenzy in
support of Peter, Paul and Mary.
Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style” is a gay,
nihilistic hoot at what Dassin’s “Phaedra” takes
so seriously: the passions and discomforts of un
lawful love. More exactly, “Divorce” mocks
anything anybody takes seriously, starting with
Italian laws against divorce and moving on in
discriminately to marriage itself, communism,
Italian emotionalism and sexual pride, the courts,
the clergy, young love, funerals, murder, and even
"La Dolce Vita.”
The film’s only premise is that the world is a
foolish place inhabited by genial lunatics. One
dare not laugh too loudly, for something he values
may be next. Yet little about the human condi
tion is immune to comic insight, and one need
not subscribe to all Germi’s wit to enjoy this ex
tended, imaginative, delightfully visual example of
sick humor.
"Divorce” tells the preposterous story of a
Sicilian nobleman, living with his decaying rela
tives in the decaying family palace, grown weary
of his affectionate but silly wife. Since divorce is
illegal, he plans murder, daydreaming methods
from drowning her in the wash to shooting her
into orbit in a space capsule. Meanwhile, he falls
apishly for a convent-bred teenager; their ro
mance is an uproarious satire of everything D. H.
Lawrence stands for. He decides to .provide his
wife a lover, kill them in outraged honor, and
throw himself on the sentimental mercies of the
Latin courts. Unfortunately, his wife has a lover,
who is tired of his wife, who is also outraged.
The murder scene is as confused as a rush-hour
bus stop. When the hero gets out of prison after
three years - there is always an amnesty every
three years - he claims his reward and gets it,
Germi-style.
Chief among “Divorce’s” charms is the Os car-
caliber acting of Marcello Mastroianni: slick and
mustached, sleepily serene, cheek twitching arro
gantly, viewing the world slightly off-tilt like the
Tower of Pisa, he is the perfect madman to lead
this farce of upside-down values.
Germi’s bright little epic dares spoof the un
spoof able: the sacrosanct drama of I-can’t-stand-
it-any-longer love. “What’s the purpose of life?
To love,” the hero's wife says at one point,
parroting the heroine of every story of the last
50 years. If love means what it usually does in
films, Germi seems to insist, the film will end
as “Divorce” does: with several characters dead
or disgraced, and the surviving lovers about to
move on to the next challenge.
Now consider this Second Vatican
Council. There are 977 represen
tatives from North, South and Cen
tral America. Asia has 360 Conciliar
Fathers; Africa, 296. Europe, which
had dominated since Trent, now has
only about 112 more than the Ame
ricas, or 38 per cent of the total
representation.
The shift is to the mission world.
Of the new representatives (Asia, Africa and the Ameri
cas), only one country is rich—the United States. We are
like a palace in a vast slum, a well-stocked refrigerator
in a city devastated by hunger. It is enough to make us
tremble 1
When the average American Catholic spends $36 a year
on cigarettes and gives the Holy Father, who asked that
he be aided “first and principally”, an average per capita
contribution of only 27 cents a year to help all of the
poor missions of the world, there is cause for examina
tion of our national conscience. We must give thought to
whether we have a right to build great churches, schools,
convents and libraries w ithout giving at least one-tenth
of one per cent of that sum to the missionary bishops of
Africa and Asia, some of whom slept three in a room at
the Council because they could not pay for their own
quarters. We must give thought...and we must actl
Priests: educate native seminarians; send Mass sti
pends to poor clergy through The Society for the Propa
gation of the Faith; cut out the brass knobs on doors in
new gymnasiums and send the $100 to lepers in Korea.
Widows and widowers: remember the Holy Father and
his own Society in your wills. Write us for details. Youths:
deny yourselves five cents worth of pleasure a day and,
at the end of the month, send the $1.50 to the Pontiff’s
Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Secretaries:
take up collections in your offices. Catholics: your duty
is first to the poor in the Church, and then to the rich.
We beg God that you will share our worries and burdens
and help us do something about them I
GOD LOVE YOU to A Missionary for $10 “The So
ciety for the Propagation of the Faith has done so much
for us here in Brazil that I want to show my gratitude.
This offering was my Christmas present. Please use it
for all those who received no Christmas presents.”
...to Mr. X for $500 “Use it as the Holy Father sees fit.”
...to Miss A.G.L. for $20 “In thanksgiving for finding a
good place in a private home when I was ready to leave
the hospital.”
Send us your old gold and jewelry—the valuables you
no longer use but which are too good to throw away.
We will resell the earrings, gold eyeglass frames, flat-
ware, etc., and use the money to relieve the suffering
in mission lands. Our address: The Society for the Pro
pagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York 1,
New York.
Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to it and
mail it to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Di
rector of the Society for the Propagation of the
Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York lx, N. Y. or your
Archdiocesan Director, Very Rev. Harold J. Rainey
P. O. Box 12047 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.