Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PAGE 4 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 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence Member of the Catholic Press Association and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 i U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 2699 Peachtree N.E. P.O. Box 11667 Norths ide Station Atlanta 5, Ga. Application to mail at Second Class Postage Rates is pending at Atlanta, Ga 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