Newspaper Page Text
GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY APRIL 11, 1963
PAGE 5
GEORGIA PINES
Easter Time Of Charity
Saints in Black and White
ST. FRANCIS de SALES
MARTIN. WORK
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
One dictionary defines the word “Tradition”
as the delivery of facts to posterity, or an oral
account transmitted from age to age. Every
club, organization, school or nation has certain
traditions which are handed down over the ages.
Sometimes these traditions such as charity and
the like are praiseworthy and laudable; other
times, such as often occurs in fraternity initi
ations, the traditions are somewhat questionable.
Canon Law, the rules and regulations of the
church, even provides for respect to traditions.
After a number of years a tradition, provided that
it is not contrary to the written law, actually
becomes a law.
HERE in Georgia we have
many wonderful traditions. I
think, however, the best among
them is the tradition of charity
which our people have for the
poor at Christmas and Easter.
In many dioceses of our
country it is a tradition that
the collection taken up on thes e
holidays is given to the pastor
of the parish. Many years ago,
Georgia priests forsook this tradition and initiated
a new tradition. The priests decided that the
collections taken up on these two days would go
to the orphans and those less fortunate among us.
Georgia can well be proud of its institutions
for the needy. Though few in number, the Catho
lics of Georgia for many years supported a home
for girls in Savannah, a home for boys at Wash
ington, and an Vocational School located at Sava
nnah. With the division of the state into two
dioceses, St. Joseph's Home in Washington, be
came the institution located in our area and while
only boys are boarded at the Home, girls and
needy cases are cared for through Catholic
Social Services, an agency of the Archdiocese
which handled over 3,000 inquiries last year
resulting in aid to 383 families and 124 children.
THE MAIN support of St. Joseph's Home in
Washington and the works of charity performed
by the archdiocese comes from the generousity
of the people at Easter and Christmas. Even with
these two collections, the archdiocese ran a de
ficit of over twenty-thousand dollars last year.
At Eastertime when we think in terms of new
clothes, vacations, flowers etc. it is also good
to gear out thoughts along the lines of helping
those who are less fortunate. The other day I
read a form letter in which the sender asked the
question: what would happen to your children if
you and your husband were killed in an automo
bile accident. The question was answered by
saying that probably the children might be lodged
in a common institution possibly with hardened
criminals until some disposition might be made
of the case. The thought struck me of how
fortunate catholic parents living in the archdiocese
are. That should a simular tragedy strike they
have the comforting knowledge that their children
would be under the tender care of the good Sisters
who operate the Home.
THE FACT that these Homes could be built by
the Catholics of Georgia at a time when they were
so few in number is certainly a credit to their
sacrificing spirit and sincere desire for charity.
In short, they initiated a tradition of charity. Now
down through the years this tradition of charity
has been perpetuated.
The church in Georgia has grown, especially
in the last ten years. With this growth has
also come a growth in problems, a growth in
responsibilities, and a growth in obligations. It
is no longer possible to support the works of
charity on what was available ten years ago. No
man could possible live on the same salary that
he made ten years ago even though he may be
doing the same amount of work. So too, it is not
possible to operate the Home and care for the
needy on what was donated ten years ago.
This year in making your donation to the Home
make it generously, remembering full well the
tradition of charity among Georgia's catholics
and the sacrifices of the past which made possible
an institution such as St. Joseph's Home.
QUESTION BOX
Did Christ Ever Smile?
BY MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY
Q, IS IT TRUE THAT OUR LORD NEVER
WAS KNOWN TO SMILE OR LAUGH WHILE
ON EARTH?
A. The Gospels do not mention any smiles
or laughs, but they make little note of any
other emotional reactions of Jesus. Presumably
He was angry when He drove the money changers
from the temple, but while the four Evangelists
narrate the facts, only St. John makes any re
ference to Jesus' personal reaction, and he does
this by quoting from Psalm 68, “The zeal for
thy house has eaten me up.”
Presumably Jesus suffered agonies of pain,
loneliness and misery during His Passion; but
no Evangelist mentions it. They merely tell the
facta. Even His words, “I
thirst” are narrated casually.
Our only explicit hint of pain
is that He "cried out with
a loud voice” as He was
dying. Of course His own des
perate words tell us much:
"My God, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me?”
The only exception is in the
story of the agony in Geth-
semane. Here the Evangelists note that Jesus
was “saddeded and exceedingly troubled” (Mat
thew), “began to feel dread and to be exceedingly
troubled” (Mark). But St. Luke draws no con
clusions; he simply narrates the fact that “His
sweat became as drops of blood running down
upon the ground."
On one occasion prior to the Passion, St.
John mentions that Jesus “groaned in spirit
and was troubled." It was when Mary and her
friends came to Him weeping about the death
of Lazarus; “And Jesus wept.” (John 11, 33-35).
Since the Evangelists are so calmly factual,
we can only surmise His sense of humor, His
smiles and His laughter. The human nature of
Jesus was complete and perfect; and surely a
sense of humor is indispensable to human per
fection.
Jesus would hardly have been a normal baby
if He had not smiled and laughed, for His mother
and St. Joseph, often; when old Simeon took Him
in his arms in the temple, and when the Magi
brought Him their gifts.
EDITORIAL
On Easter 1963
Continued From Page 4
--that it is absurd. The cult
of power, the worship of the
dollar, the search for success--
are nonsense. Peace of mind,
proper adjustment, positive
thinking--are opiates. Segre
gation, the search for peace by
an arms race, production merely
for profits, are perversions of
God’s order. This must be said
--but this is some job.
Who would dare to stand up
and say this? Who would have
the courage to challenge a mon
ster of such size? No philosophy
could steel a men to this task.
No emotional fever could lead
a man to complete it--even if
he started. But men who have
seen Death conquered can ch
allenge the world. Men who have
recognized their Lord in the
Breaking of the Bread will dare
all in His Name. Men whose
joy is exceedingly great can do
nothing less.
Role Of Universalism
Cited On Unity Levels
ACROSS
68. Trig. Terms
?7. Urge Onward
70. Lease
29. Punishable
1. Stripling
71. Thrust
31. Lady Scholar
6. Unguent
73. Item of Data
32. The First Man
10. Wind direction;
73. Auto, old make
34. Lasting, Poetic
Abbrv.
76. Drinkable
36. Part of a Motor
13. Phytology
79. Royal Palm
39. Wrap Up
14. Wild Plum
81. Vice President;
41. Auriculated
13. Royal University of
Abbrv.
44. Volumes
Ireland; Abbrv.
82. Chem. Suffix
46. Permanent Pen
16. A Measure
83. Verse Meter
Resident
17. Wide Open
83. Japanese Sword
48. Object of Worship
19. Quarters
87. Sticky black liquid
49. Feminine Name
21. Young Man
88. God
31. Swift
23. Magnesium Sulphate
89. Upright
53. Region of Euphrates
23. Bridge
Valley
26. Fastened
DOWN
35. Gangster
28. Flower
57. Denial
30. Large Intestines
1. Ergo
59. He became Bishop
33. Celeste
2. Adult Group
of ...
33. Distance Runner
3. Vogue (SI.)
60. Prevent
37. Stepped
4. Awkward
62. Catholic High
38. Relate
3. Plaster Base
Tribunal
40. Light Boat
6. Bill of Sale; Abbrv.
64. Recapture
42. Watery Body
7. Whole
67. Fanatical
43. Occurrence
8. Noose
69. Sweet Carbon
43. From Birth
9. A Wine, Fr.
Compound
47. Decimeter
10. He is Patron Saint
72. livid; Sc.
48. Illinium
of ...
74. Voiceless
30. Blunder
11. Hello
76. An Abyss
32. Asiatic Lemur
12. Peruke
77. Turkish chamber
34. Indistinct
13. Cooked Meat
78. Australian Bird
36. Wanderer
16. Raised Platform
80. Antarctic Circle,
38. Harbor
18. Greek Dialect
Abbrv.
61. Scent
20. Insect
84. Bachelor of Science
63. Lazar
22. A Playing Card
Abbrv.
63. Communes (Gr.)
24. City In Northern
86. New Testament;
66. Toll
Italy
Abbrv.
ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS PUZZLE PAGE 7
NEW YORK (NC) — A Cat
holic lay leader said here that
Catholic universalism should
act as a liaison between Ch
ristian unity and human unifi
cation on the material level.
Martin Work, executive
director of the National Coun
cil of Catholic Men, warned that
if Catholics do not help effect
such a linkage, secular univer
salism will bring about the
triumph of materialism.
Work spoke (March 29) at the
1963 Conference of Mission
Specialists, held at Fordham
University (March 29-30). The
me of the conference, sponsored
by the university's Institute of
Mission Studies, was “Univer
salism; Catholic and Secular."
“SECULAR universalism,
whether it is seen as technical,
cultural, or political," said
Work, “is moving rapidly into
such a dominant position in the
evolving and emerging world
that unless there is a dramatic
change in Catholic attitude and
action, we will find that the
world of tomorrow is not
more Christian, but less."
It is the “special function”
of Catholic universalism, he
asserted “to serve as liaison
between the unity of the Chr
istian faith and the human uni
fication that is going on in the
world today.”
Such universalism, he conti
nued, “cannot be kept in focus
or discussed intelligently with
out reference to the Second
Vatican Council,” because at
its heart there “must lie a true
understanding of the meaning of
unity."
IT MUST be recognized, he
said, that “Christian unity is
primarily a religious unity
while secular universalism
means a movement towards
world unification on a purely
material and natural plane."
“To have any significant
effect on the world movement
towards unification, Catholics
must take all the risks involved
in a direct confrontation...We
must commit ourselves to liv
ing out in this evolving world
the principles that will give it
the Christian dimension that is
lacking and still so needed."
DECLARING that “Catholic
universalism today is the hope
of the world, as well as of the
Church,” Work added that a
person with a deep grasp of
150TH ANNIVERSARY
I would suspect a certain inward smile when
He saw the devil working so hard at the frust
rating task of tempting Him.
He must have had a smile of pleasure for the
centurion who expressed great faith, and for Pet
er’s mother-in-law when she got up from her
bed of sickness and began to wait on Kim.
I can readily imagine a smile of amusement at
the terror of His disciples during the storm on
the lake; and He could hardly have kept from
lauding when Peter started sinking while walking
on the water.
Can you imagine His failure to smile at the little
girl — daughter of a ruler of the synagogue —
whom He took by the hand and brought back to life?
In the desert, when He multiplied the loaves and
fished that all might eat and be satisfied, He must
have had a smile of friendliness for them.
Surely He was not frowning when He praised
the Chanaanite woman for her great faith, and
healed her daughter.
What sort of expression do you suppose He
turned on all those dumb, blind, lame and maimed
He cured when they were placed at His feet?
He must have given some sign of pleasure
when Peter expressed his great faith at Cae
sarea Philippi.
There was surely no glumness at the moment
of Transfiguration.
He must have been amused when He sent Simon
off to the sea to catch a fish and extract the coin
of tribute from its mouth.
Did He have no smile for the little children
who came to Him that He might lay hands on
them and pray for them?
I suspect a smile of tolerance for that mother
of the sons of Zebedee who asked favored places
for her sons in the kingdom.
Surely He would have smiled at the crowds
which greeted Him with palms on His triumphal
entry into Jerusalem.
Do you think He frowned at ths sinful woman
who anointed His feet in the home of Simon the
Pharisee.
ARNOLD VIEWING
Long Day’s Journey Into
BY JAMES W, ARNOLD
Ingmar Bergman has said that his movies are
concerned with only two things; man's relation
ship to woman and to God. The late Eugene
O’Neill, America’s only Nobel Prize dramatist,
insisted his Interest was only in man and God.
IT IS this obsessive concern with ultimate
questions - particularly man’s panic in a world
that seems Godless - that makes “Long Day's
Journey into Night,” generally regarded as O’
Neill's masterpiece, so relentlessly fascinating.
The play's qualities, of
course, are not all intellec
tual: it is an actor's para
dise of clashing emotions and
devastating character rev
elation through conflict. For
the audience, it is an exhaust
ing emotional binge. T. S. El
iot , whose Christian enthu
siasm knows some bounds,
described it as “one of the
most moving plays 1 have
ever seen."
IF THE questions are good ones, O’Neill’s
answers are not the sort a Catholic might agree
with. The play's ending is a chilling dramatiz
ation of despair. But the author is not smug: he
seems to cling to the hope that he is wrong,
that man may succeed, where his characters
have failed, in finding what has been lost.
The nearly four-hour play has been made
into a movie with no words but O'Neill’s. Be
fore its mid-October opening in New York, direc
tor Sidney Lumet boasted that only 11 pages of
the original text had been jettisoned; by shrewd
pacing he had cut playing time to a managable
170 minutes. But the cross-country version has
been reduced still another half hour, a cut that
must be harmful considering Lumet’s own view
that the play's point is “impossible to achieve
without the weight of time and revelation behind
it.”
“Journey” is, as Doris Falk suggests, a tragedy
with four heroes, members of O’Neill's own
family. Mother, father and adult sons, as we
find them, are in varying stages of disintegra
tion, partly because of fate (its modem expression:
heredity and unconscious psychological drives),
partly because of their own mistakes. O’Neill
comes closer to truth than either melodrama,
which assumes man’s total responsibility and in
sists on simple eye-for -an eye justice, or
naturalistic drama, which makes man the help
less victim of society or his glands.
THE ONLY plot in “Journey” is that each
character, in the single day that begins with
casual post-breakfast joking, comestcx understand
not only himself but each of the others, slowly,
terrifyingly. The only action occurs inside their
tormented minds as they come, individually and
as a family, face to face with their real selves
O’Neill wrote the play as a kind of therapy
to express what is finally the family’s only so
lace: “deepplty and understanding and forgiveness
for all the four haunted Tyrones,” as they sit
silently about the table, surrounded by the fog
and encroaching night.
Christian unity recognizes it
“is not only a gift to the Cat
holic, but a mission to be ful
filled."
He urged that “religious un
ity approach the unity of the
material world in terms of
the latter's primary interest
in the human good of mankind
and give to it not only the best
of their professional and tech
nical knowledge and skill, but
also their Christian ethic and
faith.”
"I would suggest," he said,
that Catholic universalism to
day become known more as an
apostolate than an apologetic,
transforming by charity from
within rather than by criticism
from without."
Paris Rites Honor
Ozanam, Lay Leader
PARIS (NC) — Ceremonies
have started here marking
the 150th anniversary of the
birth of Fredric Ozanam, an
outstanding 19th century lay
leader.
The ceremonies began with
a students' prayer vigil and
Mass near the tomb of St. Vin
cent de Paul at the Vincentian
Fathers' Paris mother house.
The Vincentian Fathers, offici
ally known as the Congregation
of the Missions, were founded
in 1625 by St. Vincent de Paul.
Ozanam, a professor at the
University at Paris, was a foun
der of the Society of St. Vin
cent de Paul, an association
of Catholic laymen devoted to
personal service of the poor.
MAURICE Cardinal Feltin,
Archbishop of Paris, attended
a meeting after the Mass where
Pierre Chouard, president of
the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s
Council General, and two his
tory professors from the Uni
versity of Paris described the
importance of Ozanam*s initia
tive and the growth of the
society.
The St. Vincent de Paul So
ciety, which had 237 members
in 1837, now has some 300,000
members throughout the world.
The commemoration will fea
ture several weeks of religous
observances and study sessions
on the society's work.
If it were only autobiographical, a morbid
confession of pain and neurosis, “Journey” would
ba interesting but limited drama. The wonder is
that it touches, with such explosive theatrical
force, the uniting and disuniting elements in all
families (as Henry Hewes notes): the past
grievances, half-forgiven, unburied in time of
crisis; the faults that must be overlooked; the
rivalry between children; the career disappoint
ments of the father; the loneliness and boredom
of the wife.
TO REVEAL inner conflict, unfortunately, O'
Neill leans too heavily on dialog. The play often
seems “ a long series of speeches and counter
speeches; self-analysis - reaction of the listener-
then his self-analysis, and so on ad taedium."
The film - via closeup, cutting, camera angle
and motion, and even background music (a melan
choly piano score by Andre Previn) - softens
this domination of language. The play is subtler
and better for it.
In one scene, Mary (Katherine Hepburn) has
just resumed, as is subtly apparent in her be
havior, the use of narcotics. We are made to
feel its significance through a long closeup on
the reaction of the father (Sir Ralph Richardson);
then the rest of the scene, in which everyone
avoids mentioning what is most on their minds,
is shot, as a perfect frame for the mood, over
the slumped foreground figure of Richardson.
MISS HEPBURN plays a pious, convent-bred
woman ill-prepared for the terrors of the world;
she finds one escape in drugs, another in a fan
cied return to the security of her lost faith.
But for her religion would be a protective wall,
the “forgiveness of die Blessed Virgin” only
as meaningful as a mother’s kiss on a child's
injured hand. Actress Hepburn is required to
display every emotion with her vast, lovely talent;
only now and then is the illsuion marred by her
fussy and famous Hepburn mannerisms.
While Katie got the Oscar nomination, the male
performances are equally impressive. Richardson
wins enormous sympathy for the one time matinee
idol whose childhood poverty (inherited from his
father) is the ultimate cause of everyone's misery.
His love for those he unwittingly destroys is
heartbreaking. The speech in which he describes
how his hunger for money ruined his talent
(“What the hell was it I wanted to buy, I wonder,
that was worth (it)?" is one of a series of power
ful monents where he and his sons (Jason Rob-
ards, Jr. and Dean Stockwell) confront their con
fused feelings of love and hate with violence
and often rollicking humor.
“JOURNEY” superbly typifies O’Neill’s
concern for what he felt was the key problem
of 20th century man: “the death of the Old
God and the failure of science and materialism
to give any satisfying new One for the surviving
religious instinct...” Even though he left the
Church at 13, O'Neill's work is always grappl
ing with a Catholicism he never quite regained.
As Sinclair Lewis noted in his Nobel speech,
life for O'Neill was “terrifying, magnificent, and
often quite horrible a thing akin to a tornado,
an earthquake or a devastating fire." This fine
film may find a new audience for an author to
whom, at leasi, the suffering of man was no
small thing.
God Love You
MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
One wonders if we are not too hard on St. Thomas, the Apostle
who said he would not believe until he could see the marks of
nails in the Hands and Feet of Our Lord and the scar in His
Side, Was he not asking for a sign that Our Lord was different
from the rest of men? Everyone else was willing to accept a
teacher, a master, a wonder-worker and a giver of bread.
Not so Thomas. He wanted nothing less than a Savior. And how
else would the Conqueror of Sin be known except by wounds suf
fered on the battlefield in the war against evil? The evil?
The only kind of love that Tho
mas would accept was a
Heavenly Cupid who carried in
the quiver of His salvation ar
rows that wounded Self for the
sake of His love of humanity.
Thomas was indeed a doubter,
for he did not accept the testi
mony of the other Apostles
who witnessed the Resurrect
ion.
But Thomas should live not just as a doubter, but as the spokes
man of broken hearts and anxious minds, for he would accept
no other God but Him Who stumbled to a throne. And if it was
only the Wounded Christ Who appealed to Thomas, so also it
is only the Wounded Church that will appeal to the world. A
Christ without scars would never have conquered the Roman
Empire, and a Church without scars will never conquer Asia
and Africa.
Now that Lent is over, let there not be a return to old days
of life, for even the Risen Christ on Easter wore not wounds
but scars. We beg you, then, to be scarred Christians—scarred
in hands from sacrifice; scarred in feet from wandering in
thought put of your prosperous America to the hungry Asiatics;
scarred in side, as your heart is wounded not in getting but in
giving. The reason missionaries make more converts than we
do in the United Stated is because they have more scars of poverty,
suffering and need. If we have not made any converts here at
home, may we scar ourselves to make them in Asia and Africa,
where wounds are more open, hearts more broken and bodies
more crucified 1
GOD LOVE YOU to A. O. C, for $10 “When the newspapers
went on strike, I started to put away a dime a day for the Missions.
Now please accept my donation.” ...to Mrs. K. B. for $15
“I decided to do without an Easter handbag to help the poor of
the world." ... to M. E. S. for $8 “Being a convert of three
years, it is my joy to know that I can help bring the Faith to
someone else." ...to N. H. for $2 “So many times I get dep
ressed when my small world doesn't seem to be going my way.
But after reading your columns I get down on my knees to thank
God for having so much when others have so little."
You carry the Blessed Mother's image in your heart, but why
not show it by wearing her GOD LOVE YOU medal? The ten
letters of GOD LOVE YOU form a decade of die rosary as they
encircle this medal originated by Bishop Sheen to honor the
Modonna of the World. With your request and a corresponding
offering you may order a GOD LOVE YOU medal in any one
of tee following styles: $2 small sterling silver $3 small 10k
gold filled $5 large sterling silver $ 10 large 10k Gold Filled
SHEENCOLUMN: Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to
it and mail it to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director
of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue,
New York Lx, N.Y. or your Diocesan Director. Rev. Harold
J. Rainey, P.Q, Box 12047, Northside Station, Atlanta S, Ga