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FAG1-4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1963
the
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 EDI I OR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence
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Northside Station
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‘Holy Liberty 5
The recent controversy over
the banning of tour priest theo
logians from Catholic University
of America brings into sharp
focus the fact that there are still
some men within the Church
who are fascinated with the past
because they are scared to death
of the present and dare not think
of the future.
1 here are men who must cow
er, locked in an imaginary cloi
ster, muttering and making a
rctish of slogans of the past,
endlessly building straw men
which are so easily destroyed.
I here are men who look out at
the advances made by unruly hu
man reason and refuse to re
cognize that new questions have
been asked. They answer the old
questions with the old answers,
instead of accepting the new ques
tions, incorporating them as St.
fhomas did in the Summa, and
bringing out of the old new things.
We are reminded of a recent
summary on the Council by the
Vatican newspaper, L’Osserva-
tore Romano, which said: “The
Council has the task of welding
together, ecumenically, differing
mentalities, civilizations, na
tionalities... I his will come about
only by laborious enquiry, by
examination of conscience, by
mutual comprehension, by a
deeper study of essential pro
blems. “ K
Furthermore, at the closing
rites of the Vatican Council Ses
sion, Pope John XXIII admitted
there were “disagreements” on
topics discussed at the two month
deliberations. “They are all part
design of Providence he
said, that truth should be put in
the true light and that there
should be manifest to the whole
world that Holy Liberty of the
sons of God which reigns in the
Church.”
Alas, the “Holy Liberty” so
much emphasized by Pope John
becomes a mockery when some
theologians are prepared to label
their companions in the priest
hood “in error” simply because
they hold a differing view. There
will be little liberty surviving if
the recent action of the admin
istration of Catholic University
is allowed to succeed.
there is one last and perti
nent thought -- Catholic Univer
sity belongs to all American Ca
tholics -- it is their financial
generosity which keeps it go
ing. These Americans include
those who hold both liberal and
conservative points of view. The
genuine conservatives must be
appalled at the blatant attempts
to silence the so-called liberals,
simply because they are sensi
tive to the great opportunities to
further the renewal so dear to
the Council Fathers.
Census-Community Task
1 he Census takes place on
Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. We
would urge all our readers to
assist in making it a great suc
cess. There will be many who
have already answered the call
of their pastors to help in a
tangible way by becoming vol
unteers who call on their neigh
bors. There will be some who
have hesitated, thinking that there
are enough volunteers. Let them
understand that there are never
enough laborers in the vineyards.
We need their help.
vSome of our readers can do
nothing except perhaps pray. Yet,
few realize how important pray
er really is. We need the light
of the Holy Spirit to shine forth
on our eftorts, especially this
Sunday afternoon. Let those who
can only pray pour for-th their
supplications to Almighty God
that we will serve him well
through a thorough job of cen
sus-taking in the Archdiocese of
Atlanta.
rhis is not merely a Catholic
undertaking. While we will bene-
nt : rom an accurate accounting
of the strength of Catholics in
Northern Georgia, the community
will also benefit. Although we
will still be a minority, we have
nothing to be ashamed of. We
will have an active role to piay
in the community in which we
live. Our contribution as Catho
lics will be to be what we are
and in a very real way.
the census will give an ac
curate picture of our present
strength irom the statistical
viewpoint. But we must never
forget that numbers are often
deceptive. The range of influence
in the community is beyond mea
sure. It requires only that we see
in our neighbor those same long
ings for peace and happiness
which are ours. In prayerful co-
peration with our neighbors,
whatever their race, color or
creed, we achieve that tran
quility of spirit for which we
all yearn.
SPRING CLEANING
LITURGY AND LIFE
This Is A Real Shocker!
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
/
There is a kind of shock that is pleasurable.
People seek it out for entertainment. As odd as
this may seem, it is a fact that is capitalized
upon constantly a id with success by story writ
ers, movie makers and television producers.
There is another kind of shock that is definitely
not pleasurable. Anyone who has touched a '‘hot'’
electrical wire know s the difference. The electri
cal shock causes pain and
numbness, a sense of outrage
and fury.
It is a shock of this kind -
but mental, emotional and mo
ral - that 1 would like to pass
on to everyone I know, to
everyone I see on the streets,
to everyone kneeling in our
churches. It came to me in a
book recently published by Michael Harrington
called The Other America: Poverty in the United
States. It is a real shocker. I almost hate to write
that It is a brilliant example of reporting and in
terpretation, although it very definitely Is. Nothing
ought to distract from the realization that it is a
document of moral outrage and that the story it
tells is profoundly shocking.
It has become smart to speak of ourselve3
as the Affluent Society, based on Kenneth Gal
braith’s book of a few years ago. From the tone
in which the term is usually spoken and written
and the discussions to which it gives rise, it
seems likely that many who use it have never
read beyond the title of Mr. Galbraith's book.
Nevertheless, the point remains that Americans,
or at least the majority of us, enjoy a standard
of material prosperity that has never even
been approached by any other people In the
history of mankind.
From the dark days of the depression, when al
most everybody was poor, to the present, when
two-thirds to three-fourths of the nation enjoys
a decent standard of living at least, America has
passed through what seems, even to us, a literal
miracle. There is a prosperous America, whose
praises are sung in speeches, whose comforts are
romanticized in movies and advertisements.
There is also the other America - between
40,000,000 and 50,000,000 human beings, citizens
of this nation, who are poor in the midst of plenty.
These people lead lives deprived of decent housing,
of proper nourishment, of standard health care
and education. This is a fact. The only truly human
and Christian reaction to it is outrage.
liturgical week
"The millions who are poor in the United States
tend to become increasingly invisible,” Mr. Har-
rington writes. “Here is a great mass of people,
yet it takes an effort of the intellect and will ever
to see them.” The poverty in America is off th<
beaten track, sealed off from the sight of thi
prosperous middle class who are the only hofx
of the poor. Who takes a vacation trip to the ruin
ed mining towns of Pennsylvania or West Vir
ginia? And if we did drive through, what would w<
know of the unemployed, demoralized men whe
live there?
In our large cities, the failures, the unskilled
the disabled, the aged and the minorities stJJ
hold the same areas they have always had. Bu
the rest of us have moved away to the suburb
or cooperative apartments. America's poor ar
the best dressed ever. They do not look poor an
we do not see their poverty. It is far easier t
obtain decent looking clothes than to buy adequat
housing, food or medical care.
Who are the poor in .America in the 1960’s
There are, first of all, those whom Mr. Harring
ton calls "the rejects”: the unskilled and semi
skilled laborers, the workers whose skills hav<
been made unnecessary by automation, very man
of the 16,000,000 Americans denied coverage b
the Minimum Wage Law. There are the "property-
owning poor”, the small fanners who do not shari
in the much-discussed Federal subsidies.
There are the still less fortunate migrantfam
workers who were estimated in the late 50’s t<
earn about $600 a year. There is the most co
hesive group of all, the Negroes, with the poores
farms, the most wretched housing, last hiret
and first fired in practically every industry anc
business. The Bureau of the Census figures foi
1958 show almost 60% of the population ovei
sixty-five with incomes under $1,000 a year,
The 1960 census reported that 27% of the
58,000,000 occupied dwellings in the United State;
were substandard - and this takes no account ol
"standard’' housing that is dangerously over
crowded. These are scattered and partial ex
amples. In a nation that could provide every citlzer
with a decent life, that literally could abolish po
verty, it is an outrage and a scandal that there
should be such misery. We need the vision to see
the poor - and the will, above all the will, to
root out this evil from our society, to destroy the
“other America.”
Lent Is For Renewal Of Vows
BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA
(Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory)
MARCH 3, FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT. "He who
confides himself to the care of the Most High,”
we sing in the Entrance Hymn and Tract, "will
rest secure under the protection of the God of
Heaven.” We confided ourselves to his care
in Baptism. The Lent we have begun is a renewal
of our baptismal dedication and a preparation for
the baptismal celebration of the Easter Vigil. He
who confides is confident, so the Offertory and
Communion Hymns, too, sing of our safety "be
neath his wings.”
And the Gospel strengthens us with the assur
ance that our Saviour is the eternal victor over
temptation...and that our "forty days” strugglefor
renewal can share in His victory. As usual, the
First Reading stresses the moral response which
this time of grace invites, amoral response which
must derive from the Word of God and which is
not to be identified vvith the world of human con
ventions and propriety.
MARCH 4, MONDAY, F1RST WEEK IN LENT.
The notion of judgement, also, is prominent in
the liturgy of Lent, Today’s First Readingwarms
our hearts with the assurance that God has already
rendered a judgement in mak
ing us members of His Holy
people, the Church, and has
promised us that He cares and
will lead us into "fair pas
tures." The Gospel cautions
us not to be careless, not to
live as if His Word were not
present, but to be led by His
Word, the Word of Love.
MARCH 5, TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK IN LEN1
Judgement is real only to the man who has ah
Continued On Page 5
NO SLOGANS PLFASF!
Medicare On
Block Again
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
With the resurrection of proposals for some
form of Medicare program in the current session
of Congress, all the stops are being pulled out in
an effort to defeat the legislation.
The American Medical Association is one of the
chief opponents of Medicare, and its lobbying and
pressures have been successful up to now. How
ever, some of their tactics and propaganda should
be questioned, especially that concerning the use of
the term "Socialized
Medicine." They
have used this bogey
successfully ever
since the introduc
tion of the National
Health Service in
Britain.
Anyone who knows the facts is aware that this is
a propaganda label used to blind the American
people and defeat any Government supervision of
medicine, or any substantial federal aid to the
sick and aged.
Last November a non-Governmental committee
in Britain published a report of a four year study
they had made of the health services. The com
mittee was representative of all branches of
British medicine. Its report said that the concept
of a comprehensive national service was "sound”
and popular with the public. It concluded that some
of its operations could be improved, but made
the important point that the British doctor "had
retained his clinical freedom”.
The A.M.A. and its supporters keep talking
about the service as being devised by socialists
and keep suggesting it’s almost Communistic.
The facts are the British Health Services came
out of the now famous Beverage Report in 1944.
Beverage was a Liberal, but his principles were
accepted by the Government of Sir Winston
Churchill. The National Health Service Act of 1946
was based on the Churchill Government's white
paper on the subject. After the war, the Labor
Government implemented the White Paper’s pro
posals. Both the Right and the Left in British
politics wholeheartedly support the service as it
now stands.
Another piece of propaganda put out by oppo
nents of Medicare is that British family doctors
are frustrated by a Bureaucracy and swamped by
forms. The truth is, they have less accounting to
do than before the service started. Another lie is
that the patient has no freedom of choice or doc
tor. Yet, the truth is that the patient chooses his
doctor, and can change him if he wishes. Pa
tients can also use doctors outside the service
and still use the national scheme.
Contrary to A.M.A. propaganda, no one is forced
to make use of the British Health Service. Sig
nificantly, some 97% of the population have vol-
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
untarily chosen a doctor within the Service. Fur
thermore, only six hundred general practitioners
out of a total of over 22,000 have declined to enter
the Service.
Another half-truth is in relation to a so-called
"vast army of Civil servants” running the British
Health Plan. In reality, members of regional hos
pital boards, boards of Governors, executive coun
cils, ami hospital management committees, all
serve in voluntary capacities.
The Service is primarily paid for by the taxes
of the British people. Hence, although it is basi
cally free, the people pay for it anyhow. In addi
tion, there are small charges made for prescrip
tions, some dental treatment, and the like. For
those who are worried about federal encroach
ment and State’s Rights, it is interesting to note
that about half of the costs of the local health
services in Britain are met by local taxation.
These facts and many others are known to
the A.M.A. Yet, they continue to bamboozle,
not only their own members, but the general
public with exaggerated talk of Socalism and Com
munism, in relation to proposed U.S. Govern
ment services to the needy and the sick.
The A.M.A. has every right to oppose what
they fear is possible Government Intervention in
medicine; but they should base it on its merits,
not bringing up the bogey of "Socialized Medi
cine," where it does not exist. Maybe some will
argue that any Government supervision of any
Service is Socialism. If that is the case, then
there can be no fruithful discussion,
I am reminded of the fact that a doctor recent
ly told me that the A.M.A. has more control over
doctors than any Government can possibly have.
He suggested that many doctors go along with some
form of Medicare under Government supervision
and with Government money. Alas, he told me he,
for one, was not going to stick his neck out. He
said the A.M.A. was too powerful to buck, and
that doctors in various parts of the country have
found this out.
He is probably right. When I wrote on the sub
ject a couple ofyears ago, a group of Catholic doc
tors, and ardent A.M.a. supporters, tried to pres
sure my Bishop (then) to do something "about
this Left Wing editor”. Thank God, Bishops are
autonomous and don't have a counterpart to the
A.M.A. Who knows - I might have had to seek
unemployment compensation from a "Socialistic”
Government.