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GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, JULY 18,1963
NAACP SPLIT
The Arrests
In Baltimore
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SERVING GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
Published Every Week at the Decatur Dekalb News
Published by Archbishop Paul j. Hallinan Printed at Decatur, Ga.
MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kieman
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The Patriot
\;V •;
IT'S GETTING SO I CAN HARDLY HEAR YOU'
Negative vs True
In these times of crisis one of
the most urgent requirements is
the development of a true sense
of patriotism. To some this in
volves rabble-rousing and flag-
waving. To others it means the
heresy of “my country, right or
wrong.” It must never be for
gotten that the Church has always
emphasized practical partiotism.
Catholic doctrine considers it
a virtue and the foundation of good
citizenship. Furthermore, true
patriotism is not founded on emo
tion, prejudice, or sentiment.
There is the ever-present danger
of excessive patriotism which is
a repudiation of our cardinal vir
tue of Prudence. And we find St.
Thomas aptly describing patrio
tism as a part of the natural
virtue of justice.
True patriotism, then, is more
than a love of one’s country.
It becomes also love of one’s
neighbor and a fostering of an
innate desire to be of service to
the civic community. It involves
respect for law and authority; It*
stresses loyalty, and brings to the
fore those moral virtues which
are the natural law of God.
The true patriot is a good citi
zen. He is concerned about the
world and his neighbors. He en
ters the civic community seeing
in all, the image and likeness
A U.S. Envoy
of God. He becomes a politician,
a businessman, a union leader,
an educator, or an ordinary wor
ker, not so much for what he
can get out of life, but for what
he can put into it. To the Cat
holic, this is an essential expres
sion of our universality.
There will be some who will
scoff at the suggestion that pat
riotism can be expressed in a
quiet manner; by ordinary people
doing a good job in their daily
lives. Alas, the wrong type of
patriotism is being sold in many
quarters. Some people’s con
cerns are less with the image of
the country than they are with the
glorification of a group or an
individual.
These people are against al
most everything; they are against
the Church, the U. N., the gover
nment, social welfare, etc. They
claim to be fo r their country,
but they offer no solutions to our
pressing problems. They are
very vocal, but are hardly ever
understandable . They live on a
diet of slogans and cliches, and
fool an awful lot of people. But
their offerings do not promote
patriotism because they de-
emphasize the role of the good
citizen.
GES
To Holy See?
Desire For
BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW
Merchandising, one of the most prosperous and
powerful American industries, exerts a heavy con
centration on advertising, commercials, promo
tion campaigns, polls, audience reactions and what
have you. One particular result is that every indi
vidual or institution of real or aspiring promi
nence is vitally interested in questions of public
relations and what has come to be called''image*’.
Everyone, from politicians to manufacturers of
baby foods, wants to know what everyone else
things about him.
h ^projecting a very at-
all, to the remarkable personal
magnetism of John XXIII, the Church and its do
ings have become matters of welcome interest to
a great many people to a degree never before
even approached. The new spirit of renovation in
the internal life of the Church and in its relevance
to world problems, initiated by John and promised
vigorous continuance in the dynamic figure of Paul
VI, have caught the imagination of much of the
world. Never before in the history of the world
have so many people known so much about the
Church as now.
The sale of books on Catholic subjects is at an
all-time high. The volume of press, television and
radio coverage of the death of John and the elec
tion of Paul would have left nothing to be desired
by the most ardent public relations official. The
press has made a sustained effort to report and
evaluate the doings of the Vatican Council all
through the first session and particularly at the
death of Pope John. The world has developed a
serious interest in the Catholic Church and those
BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA
Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory)
JULY 21 SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTE
COST. Both lessons today communicate the im
portance of wholeness, integrity, total commit
ment. The First Reading asks the Christian
community to bestir itself and to make sure
that the new principle of life we have in Christ
Jesus is indeed the principle, the source and
orientation, for our lives and for the whole
life.
Jesus gives us the same message in the Gospel
parable. This is one of the graces of our public
worship, especially Sunday Mass—it makes us
whole again. Our lives, our energies, our de
sires tend to scatter, to fan
out in a multitude of direct-
dB We gather around the altar
to be again made whole, made
^Pfj; integral (as a community, yes,
WX J»f but as individuals too), not only
J by our acknowledgement of sin
anc * our acceptance of for-
giveness but also by our total
human participation in the sar-
ificial meal—body and soul, word and deed, we
are collected and oriented to God through the
holy community. Everything that cannot be pre
sented here for blessing must be excluded from
the Christian life.
MONDAY, JULY 22, ST. MARY MAGDALENE,
PENITENT. Repentance in the liturgy becomes
True Image
in charge of the mechanics of communication are
doing their part to develop and satisfy that inte
rest.
This novel receptiveness of the general public
to the "image” of Catholicism presents a very
useful opportunity. Our idea ought to be to avoid
letting the public interest dissipate itself in con
centration on superficials and to exert every ef
fort to present as true and authentic a picture of
Catholic thought as possible. Distortions of the Ca
tholic mentality, particularly those which origi
nate from the actions of Catholics, are going to
reach the same augmented audience as the best
words and deeds we can produce.
Two examples have struck me in the past few
days. An automobile, sporting on the dashboard
one of the plastic religious figurines Catholic
car-owners use to identify themselves, carried
on its rear bumper a sticker denouncing United
States membership in the United Nations. I will
leave it to professional statisticians to calculate
how many such examples would be needed to dis
sipate Pope John's detailed and enthusiastic en
dorsement of the U. N. in Pacem In Terris, re
peated most emphatically a few days ago by Paul
VI in an audience with U Thant.
One of the most presistent negative images of
the Church is of a narrow and essentially self-
interested pressure group with small scruple
about limiting the freedom of others. Last week
these pages reported a New York Catholic group
making thinly veiled threats against a Broadway
producer considering a play detrimental to the
reputation of Pius XII. The same news item de
tailed the reasoned and informed defense of the
Pope by former Cardinal Montini. The New York
group illustrates an approach which ignores re
sponsibility for the Church’s image in a free
society, while Cardinal Montini represented Ca
tholic thinking faithfully - reasonable, free, un
afraid to face its detractors in fair and open
argument.
an instrument of Christ for the sake of this
wholeness. The very sins by which we have
forfeited our integrity and scattered our aim
become, through their confession in worship,
an occasion of grace and of strengthened direct
ion. "He to whom little is forgiven, loves little”
(Gospel). We dare not sin in order to love more.
But we can become more conscious of our sin,
our helplessness, our need of God's forgiveness.
TUESDAY, JULY 23, ST. A POL LINAR IS,
BISHOP, MARTYR. The Church's ministry is an
instrument of God for this healing and whole-
making work of the liturgy. To be a bishop,
priest or deacon in the Church is to be a ser
vant (Gospel). Humility in these offices is the
message of the First Reading also. And the hymns
of Gradual , offertory, Communion, emphasize
God's action and grace behind the action and gifts
of the human minister.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, MASS AS ON SUNDAY.
Psalm 46, the Entrance Hymn, acclaims God
as "sovereign ruler over all the earth." From
its first words, then, this Mass calls for the
making over of our lives in one piece, for the
will to harmonize even thought, every word,
every act with God’s covenant of love. "Make
us do what is right,” we ask in the prayer af
ter Communion. Make us whole (holy).
THURSDAY, JULY 25, ST. JAMES, APOSTLE.
It is this very integrity and wholeness constantly
elicited (and created) in the public worship of
the Church which draws upon the follower of
CONTINUED TO PAGE 5
As my vacation starts, the NAACP Convention
in Chicago is concluded and racial demonstra
tions with white clergy' participants have erupted
in Baltimore. There is a direct relationship
between the two events and the many others in
all parts of the country.
The National Association for the Advancement
of Colored Peoples is split down the middle as
to the best methods to achieve racial equality.
Some advocate a stepped up drive of silent
protest; others are calling for more violent and
dramatic ways of speedy total integration in our
American society. The lack of cohesion within
the NAACP command can only give aid and com
fort to white extremists who want to keep the
Negro as a second class citizen.
The large demonstrations at Baltimore's Gwynn
Oak Amusement Park were not unexpected. For
several years attempts have been made to have
Negroes admitted. Catholic schools use to send
students there on
special "picnic ”
days. But the racial
policies of the mana
gement resulted in
this arrangement be
ing cancelled. How
ever, the manage
ment has stuck to
its guns and refuses
to desegregate.
The recent demonstrations resulted in some
four hundred arrests, including prominent Ca
tholic, Protestant and Jewish clergymen. Eight
Catholic priests were among the demonstrators;
two were arrested.
Most interesting was the statement issued by the
three co-chairman of the Baltimore Interfaith
Committee on Human Rights. Father Joseph
Connolly, Presbyterian Dr. John T. Middaugh,
and Rabbi Morris Lieberman gave a firm reply
to critics of the demonstrations and the clergy’s
part in them. They said:
"Central to our religious committments is the
common teachings of our faiths that human rights,
given of God, are inalienable, take precedence
over property and must be guaranteed by civil
society.
"So motivated, we reluctantly agreed to break
the letter of the law in order to direct the attention
of the faithful to the tragic gap between the
ideal and practice in our democracy a century
after the emancipation proclamation.”
This is a rather good answer to those who
claim that property rights are paramount over
individuals rights. Most of those who object to
"Sit-in” movements point to the fact that
businessmen are being deprived of property rights
and the right to select their own customers.
An awful lot of crocodile tears are being spilled
by those who protest alleged trespass on private
property; but the same people see nothing wrong
in trampling on human rights so long as the
humans invloved are Negro.
It is good to see the clergy becoming actively
involved in the fight for racial justice. This is
not to suggest that some haven't been before now.
The difference is that the public witness has the
support of some members of the hierachy. Arch
bishop Lawrence J. Shehanof Baltimore, through a
spokesman, announced that the priests taking part
in the Gwynn Oak Park demonstrations had done
it with his "knowledge” and support.”
Alas, demonstrations are not going to solve
the problem. While they might focus public atten
tion on the denial of Negro rights they do not
necessarily obtain them. Much more is needed,
especially the changing of men's hearts. This
was brought home to me very forcefully in a
series of conversations this week in Englewood,
New Jersey, where the town school policies are
being opposed by Negroes, and in Philadelphia and
New York. Here is a sample of frank quotes
by whites opponents of more rights for the Negro.
"I've been a segregationist all my life and I
intend to remain one. I've been a Catholic all my
life and I intend to remain one.”
"The Negro is in too much of a hurry. Let him
learn the virtue of patience. You can't change
things overnight. Let him read some history.”
"These colored people are stirring up the coun
try. Who gave them the right to think they’re
as good as us? Let them go back to Africa if
they want rights.”
"If any of these nonstrators come into my
restaurant I’ll sho< a load of busckshots into
them. That’ll teach mem all they need to know
about theirs rights.”
"I don’t know what all the fuss is about. The
American Indian has more right to this country
than anyone else. Yet he’s satisfied with the
Reservations the government gave him to live on.
Why should the colored think they’re any better.”
"I hope there is bloodshed. I’ll go in there,
swinging and I’ll put them in their place. I'm
not afraid of their threats. They’re a bunch of
savages.”
"How can the Negro talk about his constitu
tional rights when he doesn’t know anything about
it? Let him get some education and some manners,
then we’ll think about his rights.”
"Start letting them come into a neighbor hood
and the next thing they’ll be wanting to marry
your kids. How stupid do you think we are?”
"I want no colored folk in my neighborhood.
The price of my house will g0 down and 1 will
have to sell at a loss. What’s his rights against
my mortgage 1 ”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
In some sectors of the country
there is agitation fo r President
Kennedy to appoint an American
envoy to the Vatican. The idea
almost as old as the republic,
cropped up again when Mr. Ken
nedy visited Pope Paul in the Vat
ican last week.
One Catholic paper urged “new
considerations” on the question
of establishing diplomatic relat
ions with the Holy See. The paper
called the lack of relations “His
torically and constitutionally un
necessary” and “outmoded in the
nuclear age when the fate of the
world hangs in the balance.”
We do not believe the time is
ripe now to establish diplomatic
relations between the United St
ates and Vatican State. It would
be dangerous politically for a
Catholic president to do so and
Mr. Kennedy made a campaign
promise not to do so. We can
be reasonably sure this is one
campaign promise he is not
about to break.
There were no protests when
Mr. Kennedy announced his de
cision to visit Pope Paul. He
had earlier anticipated meeting
Pope John but was prevented from
doing so because of the death of
the Pope.
When President Truman de
cided to send General Maxwell
in view of your sermon. Father, I shut off the
air conditioning."’
Taylor as Ambassador to the
Vatican in 1951 there was such
a public uproar he was forced
to withdraw the nomination. How
much of that antipathy endure^s
today is not certain, especially
in view of the new ecumenical
climate generated by Pope John
XXIII.
The Vatican has never agit
ated for an American represen
tative at the Holy See. That the
presence of one there would have
its advantages is beyond quest
ion.
American Catholics have not
conducted a clamorous campaign
for a diplomatic representative at
the Vatican. Even the American
Catholic press generally has not
campaigned loudly for such a re
presentative. There never have
been petitions sent to the Con
gress or the White House call
ing for such action.
Actually the Catholic Church in
America would stand to gain very
little, if anything, from an Am
bassador to the Holy See.
It would not increase our num
bers, nor give aid to our schools,
nor get free bus rides or other
auxiliary services our pupils
are entitled to.
If a decision were to be made
in the future by another president
who was not a Catholic, it would
be well received by the Ameri
can Catholic community.
It would be judged by its effe
ctiveness in furthering a wise
international policy of opposing
brutal, materialistic tyranny and
promoting the interests of a free
dom-loving civilization in the
best interests of our Christian
traditions.
DUBUQUE WITNESS
LITURGICAL WEEK
Altar Makes Us Whole
REAPINGS
AT
R4NDOM
