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GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1963 PAGE 5 GEORGIA PINES Demise Of Big Spender BY FATHER R. DONALD KIERNAN upholding a diminishing class by the cunning way in which he acts. Like the cigar store Indian, the Big Spender is rapidly disappearing from the American scene. A series of events are probably responsible for his disappearance, but if any one single thing can be blamed it probably is the revised struct ure of our tax laws. Time was when a man w as judged by the number of credit cards he earned in his wallet. A credit card was a sort of status symbol. There were never any arguments over who i would pick up the tab, it just I naturally fell to the man w ith the largest expense account. Yachts, summer homes and ski lodges were all pro moted under the label of public relations, sales gimmicks and I looked upon as fringe bene fits. In those gone-by-days it was not too difficult for the business man to become a big time spender. It was not his own money and the company he worked for looked upon all this w ith approval. After all, they too w ere charging it to their taxes and so everyone was happy. Then the crackdown came and our big time spender still had thoughts of grandeur, but not the necessary means to carry out his thoughts. Then emerged on the scene the synthetic "big time spender". His presence is more and more noted in the night life of our metropolitan cities. Some would probably label him simply as a moo- cher but you must, at least, give him credit for But his is a dying day and just as that cigar store Indian has been placed in wraps and stored away for special events; so too is the fate of the last of the "big time spenders" just slowly fading away. USUALLY he is found late at night with a crowd making their way into a late hour restaurant for a snack before going home. The waitress has high hopes of a big tip when she sees the crowd coming in. She should know better. They give the impress ion to everyone in the restaurant that they are supposedly persons of means. Such things as the opera, authors, the lastest actions of our foreign poliev are discussed with certainty, familiarity, and decisiveness for the benefit of all. The whole air is one of refineness and respectability. In the meantime our w aitress is kept hiking from table to kitchen in a fashion which would rival any 50 miler of the Kennedy administration. About the time for the presentation of the tab, our "big time spender" suddenly realizes that he is out of cigarettes and simply must have some be fore morning, so he exits himself just in time to miss the bill. And for all this work our waitress gets words, words and more words of compliments...but only a thin dime for her troubles. Now all this might seem quite simple but it takes years of practice for our "big time spender" to protect his wallet and at the same time protect his reputation. QUESTION BOX Sacrament Of Penance? BY MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY Q. WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU WOULD WRITE AN ARTICLE ON CONFESSION. DE FINE SINS THAT SHOULD BE CONFESSED ALSO MORTAL AND VENIAL. A. Since you ask only about Confession, I will take the Sacrament of Penance for granted: its institution by Jesus, the power of the priest, honest contrition, and firm purpose of reform. We will not even discuss why Confession is necessary to the Sacrament. Confession is the telling of your sins to the priest for the purpose of obtaining forgiveness. It must be honest and com plete. However, the only sins we are obliged to confess are mortal sins which have not been previously confessed and forgiven. You may tell venial sins if you wish. Of course, if you have committed no mor tal sins, you must confess at least one venial sin and be sorry for it, otherwise there is nothing to be forgiven. The difference between mortal and venial sins is important, and usually quite clear. However, scrupulous people often get confused and wor ried; and there are some types of sins which shade gradually from minor to grave. Three factors concur to determine the gravity of a sin: !. The seriousness of the act. 2. Our understanding of its nature and gravity. 3. The freedom with which we act. The first factor is objective-measurable. The basic principle under this heading is this: No sin is mortal unless the thing done is grave, serious, grievous, important. The second factor is intellectual. No sin is mortal unless we understand that it is gravely wrong, and are aware of what we are doing. Be cause of error of understanding - error of con science - we may consider a grave sin unimport ant, or think a minor sin to be grave. Our personal guilt before God depends on our conscience: we do wrong in the measure we understand it to be wrong. The third factor is voluntary. We commit sin only in the measure that we act freely - of our own choice. Anything which detracts from our freedom lessens our guilt. A mortal sin then is a serious act (or thought, word or omission), which we know to be serious and do freely. Of course it is possible for us to commit mortal sin through false conscience too. The thing isn’t really serious, but we believe it to be so; and we go right ahead and do it anyway. Now when you go to Confession you are obliged to tell all the mortal sins you have committed since your last good Confession. You must tell them by name and number. If the sin has various names choose the least vulgar. Give no descript ions, no details unless they are important enough to change the nature of your sin. If you can’t re member the exact number, estimate it as accurat ely as possible. If the number is large you might say that you committed this sin so many times in a week or a month. An essential preparation for Confession is a careful, honest examination of conscience. Hold a mirror before your conscience and look square ly with both eyes, and no flinching. No excuses 1 My next column on this subject - if someone asks for it - will deal with the examination of conscience, and will provide you with a check list of possible sins, both mortal and venial. Since you are not obliged to confess venial sins there is no need to be greatly concerned about the number or frequency of these sins - except as a check on yourself. You should find out whether you are improving, getting worse, or staying in the same old rut. And I believe it is more profitable to confess these sins in a comparative manner: "Father, I am inclined to uncharitable gossip, and I have been worse about it this week than usual" - or "I have been watching myself this week and have done much better." LITURGICAL WEEK Lent Is sorbed the liturgy’s awareness of the holy, the in finite majesty and perfection of God. "Not mine to think as you think, deal as you deal" (First Read ing). And the awesomeness of the "temple of God" (Gospel). Both Entrance and Offertory Hymns cry, "You are God", "You are my God”. MARCH 6, EMBER WEDNESDAY IN LENT. In the first two Scripture lessons of this Ember Day Mass, tw o great prophets, Moses and Elias, sanc tify a 40-day period as a kind of sign of man’s quest for God. Lent is living on a holy moun tain, Lent is a journey to the Lord. The Gospel points to the Resurrection as the goal of our journey and makes it clear that in the end it is not blood or tribe that counts, but faithfulness to the Father's will. MARCH 7, THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK IN LENT. That renewal "in mind" for which the Collect prays requires a Lenten examination of our re lation to the externals of religion. Are they helps to inner faith and love, as they should be, or are they camouflage by which we mask emptiness or even ill will? Today’s Bible readings are clear in their warning. The foreigner (the Chanaanite woman) in terms of externals may be the one jus- Renewal tified in God’s sight. MARCH 8, EMBER FRIDAY IN LENT. Pentience and healing (First Reading and Gospel) are com mon themes in Lent. And the pool reminds us that Baptism is the beginning of that healing process. That it is not the end of the process is clear from our inconstancy (Entrance Hymn, Tract, Prayer after Communion) andfrom the re newal of Baptism Jesus gave His Church in Penance and the Eucharist. We pray at the be ginning of Mass that our fervor might be revived. To be rightly conscious of our sins and truly penitent, more than a merely intellectual assent is needed. MARCH 9, EMBER SATURDAY IN LENT(sim- plified to the first and the last two Scripture les sons). The vision of Jesus’ transfiguration, of His glory (Gospel), sees Moses and Elias with him. Moses and Elias, who, as we saw on Wednesday, were men whose relationship to God w as the chief concern of their lives. The First Reading points out that this rela tionship is a covenanted one—a covenant freely offered by God to His people and freely accepted by them. The "freedom of spirit" for which we pray (second prayer) is not freedom from obe dience but freedom to make obedience possible. Saints in Black and White ST. DOMINIC FLATLY OPPOSES’ Council Of Churches Hits Parochial Schools Aid & 3 r*' 7JT 7f ACROSS 1 Buoy 5 Hasten 8 Tenor 13 Deem 14 Government agency 15 To disguise 16 A wine 17 A communist 18 Author of "Two years before the mast" 19 Capital of Scotland, abbr. 20 Augment 22 Spurner 25 Cave 26 7th letter of Greek alphabet 28 Sheep, P. 29 Hesitation syllable 31 He was a preaching 32 Bank abbr. for lack of funds 33 Compare, abbr. 35 Stillness •8 Spica 40 Outdoor conflagration 42 Entire 44 Actors' union 45 Gone by 46 Companion 47 He belonged to a order 49 Indecent 51 Biased 52 Football position abbr 53 And, Latin 55 Weird 57 Musical abbr. 21 59 Male name 23 61 State nicknamed Heart of Dixie 24 62 Son-in-law of 27 Mohammed 63 Ill-fated 30 67 Beer 31 69 Croat 33 70 Burden 34 71 Cereal grain 73 He was "Master of the 35 Sacred " 36 75 Old-fashioned person 77 World War II Agency 37 Government 39 78 .... I saw, I conquered 40 79 Vigilant 41 80 Chaney 42 81 A perennial bulb plant 43 47 DOWN 48 1 He was born in 50 2 Bobbin of weaver's 51 shuttle 54 3 One (Dial.) 57 4 Network of blood 58 vessels 5 Nonconformists 60 6 Gelid water 62 7 Inventor of the diving 63 bell 64 8 Disease of the lungs 65 9 Reparation 66 10 Vigor 68 11 The Muses 69 12 Costly 72 13 Old (comp.) 74 16 Give up 76 A grain Chemical symbol, cerium Possess American Assoc, of Engineering Morocco hill country Untamed City in Northern Fronce German name for Prague White stuff Mouthpiece of wind instrument Smooth-surface rock Rear end Globe Molding High wire Landing craft, infantry Muslin Rank of a Cardinal Deceiver Size of coal Three Locale He was ordained at age of twenty- Bone A Franciscan mission Grass, N. Africa Ice Pen Hammer Episcopal, Abbr Dross Prefix, away Top Card Yukon Territory ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS PUZZLE PAGE 7 WASHINGTON — The Nation al Council of Churches has flatly opposed Federal aid to church-related schools or their pupils except for tax deductions on which it is neutral. The House Education Com mittee was told that the coun cil believes that aid to schools or pupils would be "patently unconstitutional," "unwise" and "not in the public inte rest." GERALD E. Knoff spoke for the federation of Protestant and Orthodox churches. He is exe cutive secretary of the coun cil’s Division of Christian Edu cation. He testified on President Kennedy’s proposal for Fede ral aid. The bill (H.R. 3000) offers aid proposals for all levels of education. On the grade and high school level, it would confine assistance to public schools. Knoff supported the restric tion to public schools and ap pealed for immediate Federal aid for them. He noted that the council's general board was held that public schools are "the only possible system for the full development of the talents and abilities of all our citizens." THE COUNCIL, he said, recognizes the right of parents to establish non-public schools, but it also hopes there will be no general development of such schools among its Protestant and Orthodox membership. Knoff said the council op poses: —Federal aid for "special purpose" or "across - the- board” grants for private schools; ARNOLD VIEWING Three Million $ Turkey BY JAMES W. ARNOLD Expert cinematographers Guy Green and Sam Leavitt must have suspected all along they had a $3 million turkey in "Diamond Head," because they invested what seems like most of their film footage in the Hawaiian scenery and actress Yvette Mimieux. This exotically named American girl is only occasionally vis ible through her windswept blonde hair, but the hair is just about omnipresent. Hawaii and the Mimieux tre sses are worth seeing: the movie, regrettably is not. But it merits some discussion if only as another embarrassing Hollywood attempt to handle the subject of race prejudice. The presiding geniuses here are as confused about love as they are about hate. IT IS hard to recognize tense, powerful Charl ton Heston unsurrounded by spear carriers and Miklos Rosza background music, but here he is as King Howland, a feudal pineapple lord faced with a familiar racist question: "But would you want your sister to marry one?" The sister ( Miss Mimieux is determined that Charlton answer the question. The original "one" is handsome, musclebound James Darren (posing as a full-blooded Hawaiian). Actor Heston mana ges to dispose of him, more or less accidentally, in a knife fight. A few minutes later, actress Mimieux falls for George Chakiris (Darren's half- blooded brother) just to keep the story going. Charlton, understandably, rides off in a huff to the hills. The Mimieux character seems custom-made to prove the opposite of interracial charity. To begin with, she is an unpleasant stock charact er: the beautiful, head-strong rich girl given to snapping back at her elders and whipping around in a red Jaguar. Just back from college, she knows all the answers and is anxious to prove her broadmindedness as quickly as possible. Why Darren? She says he sets her on fire. OFFHAND, the film seems to play right into the hands of the segregationists. They’ve been worrying about that blonde sister of theirs for years. They’ve known all along that mixing the races, for some odd reason, would lead to ro mance before the teacher could get the chalk off the blackboard. Here she is, gaily proving their point, all the while convinced she is strik ing a blow for tolerance. "Diamond Head" is a flop because neither of the main characters (Heston or Mimieux) can work up enough audience sympathy to warm up a leftover hot dog. The girl’s apparent open-heart ed love is a thin disguise for sexual attraction and the urge to rebel and perhaps shock. Even the brother s prejudice, it is not too subtly suggested, is less a matter of principle than a surface rat ionalization for monopolizing his sister’s affect ions. Getting even more swimmingly Freudian (this is, after all, an adult movie), the illicit attraction often appears mutual, and may ex plain the whole silly business. ADAPTED from the best-seller by Peter Gil man, a journalist long based on the Islands, the movie restates his thesis of racial turbulence in the "outward paradise of acceptance." The bias cuts both ways. The pure-blooded Hawaiian mother ( Aline MacMahon looking woefully uncomfortable in brown contact lenses) values her Hawaiian son over the half-breed: "There are only 12,000 of us left." There may be benefit in noting that non whites can also be prejudiced, but sweetly intell igent Miss MacMahon lends undue dignity to the theory that race takes precedence over people. The book also included much about Hawaiian history and customs, which the movie generally ignores, except for a routine luau (shot on a Hollywood sound stage) and a few confused in sights into statehood politics. Like the book’s, the movie’s view of sex is strictly high school. The personal conflicts are resolved in the man ner of ladies’ magazine fiction. Miss Mimieux runs off with Chakiris (who thus gets even for being rubbed out by the Jets in "West Side Story") and hard-hearted Heston completely reverses form and decides to raise' the child borne by his native mistress (long-suffering France Nuyen). Dialog sample: Heston tells her she is "pound for pound more female than any I ever met.” ONE OF the pities of "Diamond Head" is the waste of director Green ("The Mark"), the Brit ish ex-cameraman who might be doing great work were he not doomed to immortalize the Mimieux locks (last time: "Light in the Piazza"). With the aid of photographer Leavitt ("Advise and Con sent"), he emphasizes Mimieux’s photogenic qualities (there are interminable shots of her walking, driving, riding, swimming, dancing), downplays her emotional outbursts (Julie Harris, whose hair is also pretty, has nothing to fear). With or without Mimieux, the best views are those of Kauai and the lush green acres and sprawling white mansions of the real Hawaiian landlords. These are a pleasure to eye and soul; it is the eternal wonder of the films that the camera, even in mediocre movies, sometimes catches what the w riters and actors have missed- RECOMMENDED FILMS: (currently and recently reviewed) Not to be missed: The Miracle Worker, Gigot. Well worth seeing: Requiem for a Heavyweight, Divorce Italian Style, The Lon gest Day, Mutiny on the Bounty. —"Scholarships" from pub lic funds for those in non-pub lic schools —"Tax credits" or"taxfor- giveness" for parents of non public school pupils; —Loans for construction of non-public schools. He said that the council is "neutral" about proposals to "count tuition for parochial schools as a deductible reli gious contribution. His statement concerned only elementary and secondary schools. In response to com mittee questioning, he said there is no council stand on the Kennedy bill’s proposal for di rect grants to all colleges pub lic and private, for libraries and graduate centers. Knoff said the council be lieves that the "practical re sults" of claims for Federal aid for church-related elementary and secondary schools would be "chaos, divisiveness and loss of control for public authority." IN AN apparent reference to recent testimony before the committee by Msgr. Frederick G. Hochwalt, director of the De partment of Education, Nation al Catholic Welfare Conference, Knoff said he "regrets’* that the council’s opinions "seem to oppose the conscientious con victions of a representative of another body of fellow Chris tian believers." "Still,” he said, "wemust be faithful to our own cherished principles and we must take a position which we believe is for the good of the whole nation." "It is plain," he said, "that the National Council of Chur ches aligns itself with the con stitutional views of lawyers consulted many months ago by Abraham Ribicoff, then Secre tary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, clearly asserting that such aid as has been championed in tes timony before this committee would be patently unconstitu tional." INCLUSION of church-relat ed schools in Federal aid pro posals also was condemned by a spokesmen for the National Congress of Parents and Teach ers. God Love You MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN The United States has done more to help the destitute than any other country in the history of the world—since the last War, we have given some 76 billion dollars in foreign aid. But this aid is principally technical and monetary, a fact stem ming partly from our Puritan background, which made hard work the national virtue. Today ma terial success has been substituted for hard work and money has become our national virtue. Thus, our aid tends to express itself materially, technically and financially. As one Asiatic put it: "We live in the hope that you might give us love, but you gave us machinery and money." It is, hard for a government to love. But that is where we, who believe in Our Lord and His Mystical Body, come in. We have to put a soul into the cadaver of foreign aid; we have to be come more loving of the poor of the world. We live Catholic lives only if we have "a heart hf fire for God, a heart of [flesh for others, a heart of j steel for ourselves." When we say Africa and Asia, we have names before us—not faces or hands or stomachs. Our Faith must re mind us that these countries are filled with per sons; that God summons us right now, as we read this column, to help these peoples. How many of us think beyond our parish, our college, our commu nity? How much room is there in our mind for others? Not those who love us, but those who are unloved? The government may be doing its duty to under developed nations as it sees it; it wishes to make them our friends and our first trenches in defense of democracy. But are we loving those whom Christ has committed to our care? You may say that continents and countries are too big to love, that we cannot love Oceania or Vietnam. Granted! But you can love a person. You can love the Vicar of Christ on earth. It is he who asks that he be "first and principally aided." He has the millions of China and Russia pulling on his cope; the perse cuted in the Sudan and Hungary make his fingers bleed at Mass; the moans of the hungry of the world keep him awake at night. Love the poor of the world in the Holy Father. Make daily sacrifices for him. How can you send your sacrifices to him? He has founded a Society for that very purpose—The Society for the Pro pagation of the Faith. All offerings sent to the So ciety go directly to him. He then makes the distri bution equally, so that the rich do not get every thing and the poor receive nothing. We look for ward to receiving proof of your love I GOD LOVE YOU to P.G. for $10 "I just re ceived an unexpected bonus of $20, half of which I want the Missions to have." ...to A. H. for $5 "Just a small offering for a large need." ...to M.B. for $23 "I sprained an ankle last week and won’t be able to ski the next two weekends, so I want the Missions to have the money I was going to spend on "lift" tickets. Perhaps it will help lift a few souls to God." ...to P.B. for $10 "This is an advance offering for all the cigarettes I won’t smoke during Lent. Now I can’t afford to I" Find out how an annuity with The Society for the Propagation of the Faith helps both you and the millions of poor, aged and sick throughout the world. Send your requests for our pamphlet on annuities, including the date of your birth, to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, 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 1 N. Y. or your Archdiocesan Director, Very Rev. Harold J. Rainey P. O. Box 12047 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.