The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, February 14, 1963, Image 4

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The Georgia bulletin, February 14, 1963, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextKAGL 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1963 ^ Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA BULLETIN SERVING GEORGIAS 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan’ 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 23M281 Second Class Permit at Decatur, Georgia U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 Impeaching Whom? u. 5. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren arrived in Atlanta Monday for an anniver sary lecture at Georgia Tech. Alas, the circumstances sur rounding his arrival were more reminiscent of an arrival of Ni kita Krushchev. The City Fathers invoked strict security regulations, with even the press barred from normal coverage. The official reasoning behind the cloak and dagger pro ceedings was to avoid any em barrassment to the Chief Justice. Officials feared anti-Warren demonstrations by those who are opposed to some of the rulings of the Supreme Court. The whole thing sounds silly. Is this America 9 A group calling itself the At lanta Committee for the Impeach ment of Earl Warren has oppos ed his visit. It has produced a number of bill-boards in various parts of town urging his impeach ment, So what 9 They never threatened violence or public dis order. They were simply stress ing the Democratic right to pro test the Chief Justice’s visit -- they disagree with his stand on several matters. We do not agree with the aims Anti-Smut 1962 was a year which saw great advances both in the pro duction of pornography and in legal measures designed to curb its distribution. Yet, one of the great lessons to be learned in the fight against smut literature is that merely condemning it is not enough. Some quite sincere Catholics and others have been moved to join various groups aimed at combating the threat which por nography holds against society. The national organization of Ci tizens for Decent Literature has been one of the most fruitful efforts in the fight in recent years. Alas, even with this or ganization the tactics differ from state to state, city to city. While the aims and purposes of the Committee stress the positive elements of education and law enforcement, in some cases its work is being hindered by the purely negative approach of con demnation. or purposes of the anti-Warren forces, but we believe that they have every right to make peace ful protests. This is what is at stake. Frankly, we feel such protests are childish and imma ture, but there is no city ordi nance that stops people acting this way as long as they do not threaten the peace of the com munity. The action of city officials has probably given the Anti-Warren forces much more publicity than they deserve. It has also led \ many people to believe that pres sure groups have no monopoly on immaturity. Atlanta is a big city with big ideas and a big future. Its citi zens have grown in stature along with the urban growth. It should not be necessary to apply the heavy hand of police security for Mr. Warren’s visit. The Chief Justice of these United States is a big enough man to face dissen ters. Long before he was elevat ed to his present position, he spent many a month on the poli tical campaign trail. In the past he has endured a lot more heck ling and picketing than he could ever expect from the Atlanta im- peachers. It is time we all grew up. Or For... for our part we believe the battle against smut literature be- gins in the home, not in attacks on retail or wholesale outlets. We believe that the positive ap proach of our encouragement of good reading is, in the long run, the only genuine way to elevate the literature tastes of society. Thousands of dollars in public funds are spent for the erection of central and local libraries. Yet, a recent survey in some li braries comes up with the unin spiring disclosure that few people use the library for serious read ing. Books of e scapism and school texts are the biggest benefits that many of our youngsters get out of libraries. , Here is indeed a job for pa rents in contributing to a posi tive approach to the problem. A little more television discipline is also needed. Too many parents- blame television for the dull minds of their offspring. How ever, television is controllable. "IF YOU ASK ME WE GOTTA CONVERT 'EM" LITURGY AND LIFE Corporate Contrition Act BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW Last Sunday, Septuagesima, the Church init iated a dramatic corporate act of contrition. To capture our attention the Liturgy took on a complete change of tone from the Epiphany season. The Intro it opens on a penetrating note of horror awakened by our consciousness of sin and of the hopelessness of relying on our own resources. "The groans of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encom passed me: and in my afflict ion I called upon the Lord." For "death" read "sin", the death of grace. This intro ductory act of contrition finishes on a note of humil ity and prayer and resolut ion: "He heard my voice. . . 1 will love Thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament and my refuge and my deliverer." THE Liturgy focuses its emphasis in the Epist le, in what is surely one of the most obscure Pauline passages read on any Sunday of the year. Having urged us to "run the race" of the Christ ian life energetically enough to win the imperish able crown of salvation, St. Paul gives us a warn ing against complacency. He draws a parallel bet ween the Jewish people under Moses and our selves, the new Israel. "Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea and all were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea." The lum inous cloud that preceded the Jews through the desert was a pledge of God's presence and pro tection. Paul takes the cloud and the miraculous passage through the Red Sea as symbols of Christ ian baptism. "And all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink." The manna and fresh water that God provided for Israel in the desert were foreshadowings of the divine nourishment of the Holy Eucharist. "Yet with most of them God was not well pleased." Spiritual privileges are no sure guarantee of salvation. They were not for Israel - and they will not be for us. PRIVILEGE is a curiously complex idea. We seldom use the word any more without a pre fix. We speak of over-privileged children, usually meaning pampered and irresponsible delinquents. We discuss under-privileged nations and mean those which are overwhelmed by starvation and disease. We preen ourselves on our communal prosperity or our personal comforts and claim to be appreciative of our privileges. PRIVILEGE denotes a special advantage enjoyed by an individual or a group toward the attainment of some end. It bestows a headstart toward a particular goal. Or, it removes some of the normal difficulties involved in reaching that goal. The purposefulness, the direction of the privilege to ward a definite end and goal, is an essential ele ment of the idea. As a result, privilege always bears in its train added responsibility. In former times, at least ideally, the concept of honor al ways included a sense of extra obligation and duty. When this ceased to be recognized even ab stractly, the entire notion faded away. "Noblesse oblige" - nobility and privilege bind a person to duties beyond the ordinary - is a motto as true for us who are spiritually privileged as it was in the days of knightly chivalry. The particular abuse of privilege that Saint Paul blames in the Septuagesima Epistle is abuse by sins of omission. The Israelites enjoyed their privileges, they were proud of them, they pretend ed at least in words to be grateful for them. But they did not put them to use. They failed to recog nize and pursue the purpose for which they had been bestowed. We may all to easily make the same mistake. A CERTAIN Latin American diocese where the people were lax about the practices of religion re ceived a group of American priests. These worked tirelessly and with some success to lead the faithful back to the Sacraments. The bishop of the diocese frequently pointed out to his priests and people: "This is most important. But it is only the beginning. The Sacraments are means, means to an end. Their end and goal is love and justice and fully Christian lives." Privileges are bestowed for a purpose. Our supernatural privileges so far outweigh those of Israel as to stagger our imaginations. Each ignorance, prejudice and injustice; every slowness to accept Christians standards in every area of life is an abdication of responsibility and nullifies the effect of our spiritual privileges. "Yet with most of them God was not well pleased." AN ALTAR BOY NAMED "SPECK" The Seed BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA (Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory) FEB. 17, SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. "The seed is the word of God" (Gospel). As the seed is sown, buried, as it dies for the sake of new life, so the Word of God as we known Him in the flesh in Christ Jesus will die, will be buried, will rise again. And this is to be in order that all of us who will accept Him as our prototype, our ultimate human form, our life, will have deliverance through Him from the "troubles" of which we complain in the Entrance Hymn. So the second Sunday of this time before Lent continues the Easter-orientation begun last week. The Word came among us not merely to display His glory. He came to enter fully into our world, our "troubles", the paradoxes of our existence. LITURGICAL WEEK Is The Word He came to show us clearly that what a limited and defective vision may see as senseless, futile, is really full of purpose and of hope. The sin and evil of which this new season in the Church’s year makes us especially conscious — these sad realities have their answer in the victory of the Word-made- flesh over the death we will know and the mo ral failure we have already known. MONDAY, FEB. 18, MASS AS ON SUNDAY. The First Reading in this week’s Mass is many things: encouragement, warning, a very personal message from Paul the Apostle. But in the liturgy Of God it is the Church teaching us, it is God teaching us with the words of that inspired Scripture which the Church must communicate to men. And the les son is that we are sinners, saved by the Word, that we do not place our trust in our own strength (see the Collect which preceds the Reading). TUESDAY, FEB. 19, MASS AS ON SUNDAY. The greatness of the Revelation God has given to all of us (whether or not we have known such private visions as the Reading speaks of) does not change the fact that we are still sinners. So the Christian’s direction is always fundamen tally Godward, not manward. Salvation is His gift, not our achievement. And we find ourselves most perfectly, even our relation of love with one another, in the worship of God. Continued On Page 5 SICK PEOPLE Some Letters Anonymous BY GERARD E. SHERRY Have you ever received an anonymous letter? We have, quite frequently. And sometimes we wonder what type of people go in for this sort of thing. It’s not that we’re too perturbed about them; after all, only some are actually malicious in their content. But one wonders why these people are so afraid to sign their own names. Of course, there is a simple answer, even to that question — anonymous letter writers don’t really believe what they write. They know its wrong to perpetuate the poison pen but they have to get their pet peeves out of their systems. Many of these peeves are imaginary. Most of the real ones concern differences with the editors on this or that matter. Such writers haven’t got the nerve to stand up for their own convictions so they hide under all kinds of pseudonyms. One of the favorite signatures of these anony mous writers is "A Subscriber". True to my pro fession, and being full of charity, I al ways look in the street directory and the telephone listings to see if there is such a person. It is possi ble that there is an Arthur Subscriber or an Albert or even Au gustus Subscriber. Sad to relate, we’ve Hence, we presume that he or she wishes anony mity. A. Subscriber was one of those who wrote us this week. He (or she) was mad about something we wrote last week and suggested we read a cer- tain publication for our education and enlightment. It seems this periodical stood for the things he (or she) stood for, and he (or she) couldn’t figure out how we were so foolish (or ignorant) to be unaware of the pearls of wisdom available in it. A copy of the recommended reading was attached to the letter, and we read it with interest. Alas, we weren't moved a bit. Indeed, we get the publication in our office and it is old stuff to us. Furthermore, the recommended reading happened to be a political diatribe about all kinds of people who had opposite views to the publica tion in question. We’re not interested in attacking people — we want to love them. Another favorite pseudonym is "Indignant Read er". This type of writer normally blows off steam and threatens to cancel a subscription if we don’t stop offending him (or her) over some matter not to his (or her) liking. We think it good that readers get indignant over things. There’s nothing worse than a pas sive readership. If readers aren’t aroused either for or against something then we’ve failed to inte rest them. And that’s bad. However, cancelling a subscription over a disagreement with an editor is a poor way to fight for one’s point of view. Any editor worth his salt will not bow to such pres sure, just as he won’t bow to the pressure of ad vertisers. Yet, there are readers who think that their point of view is the only one; and they let us know in no uncertain terms. "Indignant Read er is normally an "either or else" person who winds up being frustrated because he (or she) can’t get his (or her) own way. Naturally, we couldn't leave these comments without mentioning an old friend, "Disgusted", He (or she) writes regularly to us about the problems of the day. His (or her) demand is that we correct our ways and write only what he (or she) wants published. Anything else is disgusting to this particular anonymous writer. Obviously, we can’t oblige, and often wish we had an address so we might write in order to tell him (or her) our side of the story. Unfortunately the Post Office can’t find a "Disgusted" anywhere in its direc tories. We mentioned malicious letters. They come in under all kinds of queer signatures. These let ters are usually from sick nonnl# — sirk in rh* l head (and the heart) that is. They are rnad at editors as a matter of principle. They’re probably mad at everyone else too — their families, their REAPINGS AT RANDOM never found a Subscriber. neighbors, their grocer, their butcher, their post- mas and their garbage man. There’s very little one can do about them - except maybe to pray that they regain their sense of personal dignity. Yes, we’re awfully sorry about such writers, and we seek refuge in a smile in order that we don't become equally hateful of them as they appear to us. Editors, supris ingly enough, also are human. They have a great respect for readers — espe cially those who have the courage of their convic tions. It doesn’t matter whether the reader dis agree with the editor or not. The reader’s opinion is often as sound as this scribe’s. And we must always respect another’s opinion, even if it doesn’t always meet with our approval.