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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN
THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1963
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
M niTl V FTTfTiJ
nU JLJLli M MJ^I
S CRVIN G GEORGIA'S 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 Kieman
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
Telephone 231-1281 U.S.A. $5.00
Canada $5.50
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Second Class Permit at Decatur, Georgia
2699 Peachtree N.E.
P.O. Box 11667
Northside Station
Atlanta 5, Ga.
Wall Is Down
Atlanta’s Wall of Shame has
been torn down. The barricades,
so blatantly erected to separate
citizens of Atlanta, have been
declared illegal and unconsti
tutional. Atlanta again has the
opportunity to show the rest of
the country that it is way ahead
in establishing harmonious race
relations.
It is regretablethat it took a
court order to achieve the eli
mination of "The Wall**. Such a
physical barrier between white
and Negro neighbors could only
cause trouble, no matter how pure
were the motives of those who
ordered its erection. The Court
confirmed what everyone already
knew -- the barricades were built
on Peyton and Harlan Roads "To
establish a racial buffer barrier
or zone with the view of stabi
lizing or effecting stability for
white race ownership and occu
pancy ... and preventing or at
tempting to prevent property
ownership and occupancy of said
area or areas by members of
the Negro race.**
All can agree with Mayor Ivan
Allan, Jr., that steps must be
taken to prevent unscrupulous
real estate operators from
“block busting.” However, we
trust that he will be the first to
caution against using any sug
gested code "of fair practices 0
to prevent Negroes from obtain
ing decent housing in decent
neighborhoods. Negro housing
needs are not the cause of so-
called block busting. The cause
is solely the greed of some real
estatemen of both races, who ex
ploit human misery for personal
profit.
At the same time, our Negro
fellow citizens should not expect
integrated neighborhoods to blos
som overnight. A call for patience
in this regard must not be con
strued as promotion of the heresy
of gradualism. Constructive ac
tion must come from our Negro
as well as our white citizens.
Carping negativism will achieve
nothing except perhaps the back
ward step to further tensions.
Vocations Month
March is the month dedicated
to vocations. While we would
prefer that every month be a
vocation month, we shall settle
for a greater stress at this time.
What is a vocation? How does
one know if one has one7 A vo
cation is an invitation from God
to follow some particular line
of life to gain salvation.
A man must have a vocation
to become a doctor or a lawyer
or a teacher; to be married and
the father of a family, or to
remain single. And strangely
enough those chosen by God to
follow some particular fields in
life seem to have little difficulty
in recognizing where they belong.
But when it comes to a vo
cation to the religious life, it
becomes a problem of gigantic
proportions.
Sincere boys and girls, young
men and young women, are often
AN ALTAR BOY NAMED
"SPECK"
faced with the question: "How
do I know if I have a vocation?”
They will never know unless
they are willing to give it a
chance. We must not think that
the invitation to follow God will
come like a bolt of lightning.
Admittedly, such a thing did hap
pen to St. Paul, but then God
does not always use such ex
treme methods. Neither will the
amswer to the question come
through airmail special delivery.
It is a consoling thought that
many of the saints, and certainly
most of the active priests, we
know, took quite some time to
discover their vocation was the
real thing.
We hope that parents will be
the first to encourage the genuine
religious vocation. We know the
rewards for such encouragement.
We see it in the happy fami
lies that have provided the
Church with priests, Brothers
and Sisters. It has meant some
sacrifice of loved ones for a
greater Love. But needs of the
archdiocese are such that we
must all work and pray for a
harvest of religious vocations
in order that the Church will
grow and prosper, keeping pace
with the demands of modern so
ciety.
RAVAGING INNOCENT AND GUILTY ALIKE
LITURGY AND LIFE
Capital Punishment Study
BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW
The tide of public interest in the morality of
capital punishment ebbs and flows at almost pre
dictable intervals. The Chessman execution in
California attracted international attention. At
the present moment here in Georgia the case of
seventeen year old Preston Cobb has knotted to
gether the problems of juvenile crime, racial
discrimination, inconsistent criminal law as well
as the right of the state to snuff out the life of
a human being with the flick of a switch. Another
recent, although comparatively minor, tide of in
terest followed the carefully conceived and close-
a ly reasoned study published by
the Episcopal Church in the
United States. Lacking the
newsworthy drama that ap
peals to the general public,
this excellent document did
not stimulate a general dis
cussion of the issues. It must
be counted an opportunity lost.
Much of the discussion that
advocates or condemns the death penalty for
serious crime sadly misses the point or grants
it only scant acknowledgement. Too many defend
ers of capital punishment speak like self-righte
ous vigilantes calling down indiscriminate de
struction upon all evil doers and seem unwilling to
face the vexing complexities of the problem.
The repetition of slogans and the lurid details of
criminal history generate intense heat but no light
around the decisive issue. On the other hand,
sentimental attacks on the death penalty that are
totally innocent of objective reasoning are often
devoid of concern for society and seem to reduce
the area of moral responsibility to nought.
THE effort to prevent crime is a matter of
the gravest concern to society. The taking of hu
man life is a terrifying deed. The proper func
tioning of law and the limits to the power of
state authority are momentous matters. To weigh
all these in the balance in order to decide the
issue of capital punishment there is needed ob
jective and morally and factually informed rea
soning. The degree of our willingness to engage
the issue on this level will mark the measure
of our civilization.
The authority to inflict punishment is insepa
rable from the authority to legislate. Legisla
tive authority does not merely counsel; it obliges
and, if need be, coerces compliance with its
LITURGICAL WEEK
just mandates. The state may punish criminals,
not blindly but for the accomplishment of de
finite ends. The punishment it inflicts may not
be for the sake of vengeance. For the Christian,
vengeance is always immoral. On a purely natural
level, the notion of revenge is degrading even
when dressed in the customary cliche of “pay
ing one's debt to society." The primary aim of
the punishment of crime is the protection of so
ciety. Society is protected by the .removal of the
criminal and, above all, by the deterrent effect
the knowledge of the penalty should have upon
the potential criminal. A further hope of penal
law in any enlightened community is to rehabi
litate the criminal and to restore him to a sane
and productive position in the community.
Does capital punishment serve these purposes?
It certainly protects society from the possible
further attacks of this particular criminal by re
moving him definitely. However, as in the self-
defense of an individual or a defensive war on
the part of a nation, the least violent and still
effective method is mandatory. It is possible to
remove criminals from society even permanent
ly by other means which are less violent and do
not involve the horrifying possibility of irrevo
cable justice to a falsely condemned innocent
person.
Clearly, concern for the criminal's rehabili
tation is completely ignored when the death penal
ty is invoked.
The argument is reduced to one question not
easy to answer; does capital punishment deter
the commission of heinous crime? The answer
can only come from a knowledge of the facts.
The facts indicate that it is extremely doubtful
that fear of the death penalty deters would be
murderers, traitors, or kidnappers. European
nations and states in our own country that do
not employ the death penalty do not have a high
er ratio of serious crime than those which do.
The twisted psychology of the desperate criminal
apparently does not equip him to consider se
riously the consequences of detection.
The euphemisms and secrecy with which we sur
round our executions seem to indicate, not the
kind of moral self-assurance we ought to have
in such a grave matter, but perhaps a lurking
doubt, a guilty conscience that we may after all
be practicing a left-over savagery. We need to
think this out - honestly and objectively.
Transfiguration Is A 6 Preview*
“Doesn’t anything stop you?”
BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA
(Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory)
MARCH 10, SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT. To
day’s Gospel continues the lesson of last week’s
ember days: Jesus as fulfillment of all that Moses
and Elias stood for in the Old Covenant. The
Transfiguration is the kind of “preview” that
heightens faith, expectancy, eagerness...and that
gives incentive for moral discipline (First Read
ing).
Perhaps it can teach us something, too, about
the relation between liturgy and the rest of life,
between our moments of public worship and our
moments of work, rest, recreation, family and
civic duties. Liturgy, public worship, should be
a ’’preview’’ of sorts, a preview of heaven, of
ultimate beauty and love and harmony, something
to lift up men’s hearts and renew their spirits.
The Ecumenical Council showed its concern
over the fact that Catholic public worship, espe
cially Sunday Mass, is in most places still far
from this. Ugliness (in art, architecture, ves
ture) rather than beauty; isolation and individua
lism (I don’t want to be both
ered during my prayers) in
stead of love and unity. Si
lence and mental cacophony
(priest muttering, congrega
tion not responding, every
one going about “his own busi
ness**) instead of vocal har
mony. As the “little Easter,”
Sunday Mass should be trans
figuration experience for
every parish.
MARCH 11, MONDAY, SECOND WEEK IN
LENT. Lent is a retreat preparing for the feast
(Easter Vigil) of our Baptism in the Lord Jesus.
In the Gospel He says; “It is myself you look
for.” And the Collect, or opening prayer, asks
“that your servants in punishing their bodies
by fasting from food may abstain from sin by
striving to be holy.” We do not abstain from sin
by cataloging faults and avoiding them, but only
“by striving to be holy.” And when we look for
holiness, “it is myself you look for.”
MARCH 12, TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK IN
LENT. Those who do not believe in applying our
modern knowledge of ancient languages and liter
ary forms to the Bible will still see in today’s.
Gospel a condemnation of Jewish and Christian
etiquette.
But the whole thrust of the Mass and the Gosp
reading is toward trust in God, toward the wors^
Continued On Page 5
PENANCE
Lenten
Spacemen
Lent is always a difficult time of the year —
and for many reasons. And of all things, Astro
naut John Glenn brought this home in a recent
television interview.
When Colonel Glenn, whirling around in his
giant centrifuge, was strugglingfor consciousness
against the simulated gravitational strains of take
off and landing,when he was pulling himself out
of bed in the early
morning for a daily
two-mile run before
breakfast, when his
work was such that
he could spend only
week-ends with the
family he loved so
well, he was not feel
ing sorry for him
self and complain
ing about the penance he had to do. He did not
even use the word “penance.” He saw it as the
necessary, even thrilling - though, of course,
still unpleasant - preparation for the outer space.
His “space penance” was something he full
wanted to do. What about our religious penance
How much do we really want to do penance duri:
Lent?
HOW often are we heard grumbling about me
less lunches and about the other almost-to
sacrifices that canon law requires? And how m
do we try to get by without any other penanc 1
our lives - as if Glenn were always lookin’ 1 '
an excuse to run only half a mile, rather tha‘ e
full two miles every morning?
The difference between ourselves and t lS “
tronaut, It seems, is that he realized hov 10 * 1
his physical system needed two full miles on “
ditionlng if it was going to be able to 1 ^
REAPINGS
AT
K4NDOM.
demands of space travel, so he actY wanted
it. But the minimizers among us, a^ ose who
complain, simply do not realize wha int * s ^ or *
No, it is not preparation for oute^ ace * ^ * s
preparation for an altogether new nension
reality. For that other space w*** heaven.
THE MINIMIZERS’ basic defe^Y wel1 be
more a matter of fuzzy thinking * of bad wlE
They have lost much of the posit/* 3 ionof what
our Faith is all about. They t c hi terms °*
“Thou shalt not. . .”, “Thou • •”» ‘ ,This
is allowed but that is forbidden, ^h* 3 * 3 a mor ‘*
tal sin but that is a venial s* and so forth.
They do not ask WHY.
Why Lent? Why penance? we ^ ast J ust be
cause It is commanded: Or we see tha* * c ^
essential spiritual training 1 " *bat ultimate,
vital step towards the eterna * er3 P ace ^ onv hich
our poor, earthbound, time* ind hearts are ever
longing?
Nothing new about this, ^uinquagesima Sun
day’s gospel Our Lord to* 1 ® Twelve, “We are
going up to Jerusalem, ••• the So° Man...
will be mocked and scour* and spit upon... and
on the third day He w'* 36 a 8 a * n ‘” And Saint
Luke comments: “They der3tood none these
things.” (Luke 18-31-3
BECAUSE the Aposr did noc understand they
were not willing to ac* the cross of Our Lord's
life. They did : see how t^ 333 ^ « was for
His -ising ag on ^ and ascending
into heaven. ran away » leavln & only J ohn
to stand by ^ beneath the Cross on Calvary
which she al- rean V understood.
We too m away from the Cross ln our lives
be cause! vf Jo not understand it, because we do
not see it P 31 ^ of the essential training of heart
and will r alone will purify the soul and prepare
it for th> ulness *** e in tb * s world and * n
world to ,me *
“Wlv' t h ere 13 love * th ere 13 n0 labor,”
wrote mt Augustine. “And if there is labor, the
labor ie ^ * s l° ved **And our astronauts’ witness
t0 natural truth of this insight. Now, during
Lent is time for Catholics to give their witness
t0 ir 3uperaaturai truth as well.
yR OUR part, we resolve: no more long faces
as /e sit down to a no-solids-between-meals tea
^ak, no more temper tantrums as we reach for
t deliberately empty cigarette pack. . .no more
this because we are going to be thinking less
x>ut our stomachs and more about that high pur-
ose for which we are in training, that other space
.ha; lies above and beyond outer space—those
realities we call Heaven, Grace, God, and Love.
Come to think of it, we'd better set aside a
definite time every day for briefing as the as
tronauts were briefed day by day for the aj>-
proaching flight. Regular spiritual reading should
enable us to evaluate our spiritual stamina and
examine honestly our reserves of love and super
natural energy. And it should help us devise every
new way of moving towards our ultimate goal with
practical determination, with a full heart if on an
empty stomach, and always with a clear under-
standing of exactly what we are doing and why.