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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 2699 Peachtree N. E. P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Ga. Member of the Catholic Press Association and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 Second Class Permit at Decatur, Georgia U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 ‘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.