The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, July 25, 1963, Image 5
THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1963 GEORGIA BULLETIN
PAGE 5
GEORGIA PINES
‘Well Done
Saints in Black and White
ST. PETER of ALCANTARA
• ••
by REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
One night many years ago when I was serv
ing as assistant pastor of Savannah’s Cathedral
of St. John the Baptist, I received a sick call
to the Candler Hospital. After I had administer
ed the Last Rites to a sick person, I made a
visit to a friend who was also a patient in the
same hospital.
Much to my surprise I found my friend un
conscious. The room was filled with visitors
and tears filled the eyes of all those in die room.
HIS WIFE asked me to baptize him for he had
only moments to live. It was a spiritual act
which he had deferred for years - after all, he
thought, this trip to the hospital was merely
for observation. Death was the last thing he had
on his mind that day when he
| registered with the hospital re-
[ ceptionist.
The event might have been any
spiritual ministration repeated
by any priest in a busy city
parish except for the events
which took place some months
later.
Archbishop O’Hara had been expelled from
Rumania by the Communists and he had returned
to his See city of Savannah. Following break
fast one morning, the Archbishop, the Cathedral
Rector, Monsignor McNamara, and myself were
talking at the table.
i
MONSIGNOR McNamara recalled a tragedy
which had taken place some years before. It
seemed that one morning the Savannah news
paper carried a story in which it related that
two little girls had been burned to death the night
before. Archbishop O’Hara glanced at the paper
as he came out of the Cathedral following his
Mass, and was so moved that he immediately
went over and visited the parents of these two
little girls. Neither were of our faith, but the
Archbishop had such a warm feeling for the
people of Savannah that their tragedy was also
his.
After recalling the incident, Monsignor Mc
Namara told the Archbishop that the father of one
of these little girls had joined the church just
before he died.
THE MAN who I baptized that night at Cand
ler Hospital was the father of the other little
girL
Archbishop O’Hara had a genuine love for the
people of Georgia. His love for them too was
not without return. Soon after his arrival in
Georgia in 1936, it was not unusual to hear people
of all faiths talk about **Our Bishop O’Hara.”
His person was defended in many a pulpit of
other churches when Paul Blanchard objected
that his serving as Nuncio to Ireland was in
violation of theMcCarran-Walter act; (events pro
ved Blanchard wrong) and when he was expelled
by the Rumanian Communists he returned to ”his
Georgia” a hero and was given an invitation to
address the combined houses of the Georgia
Legislature.
KNOWN throughout Georgia as a distinguished
clergyman and capable administrator, he always
found time to care for those less fortunate. On
one flying trip home he was only in Savannah
for 45 minutes before he got into his car and
drove to visit the orphanage at Washington.
Yes, it is a happy reflection of the years in
which he served the Church he loved so well
and the prayers of all Georgians will always be
for His good and faithful servant.
QUESTION BOX
Cardinal’s Title
BY MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY
Q. PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY A CARDINAL’S
FIRST NAME IS USED AHEAD OF THE TITLE
OF CARDINAL, AS IN FRANCIS CARDINAL
SPELLMAN, INSTEAD OF CARDINAL FRANCIS
SPELLMAN.
A. It is simply an old custom, apparently de
rived from the official Latin title which is some
thing like this: Eminentissimus ac Reverendis-
simus Dominus Franciscus, Sanctae Romanae
Eclesiae Cardinalis, Spellman - the Most Eminent
and Most Reverend Lord Francis, the Holy Roman
Church’s Cardinal, Spellman.
In most modem languages this inverted order is
going out of use. Even the official directory of the
Holy See, the Annuario Pontificio, names the Arch
bishop of New York as Emo e Rmo Sig. Card.
Francis Spellman - that is: The Most Eminent
and Most Reverend Sir Cardinal Francis Spell
man.
***
Q. IS IT TRUE THAT A BOY OF 12 WAS
ONCE MADE POPE.
A. No; it has often been
claimed that Benedict IX be
came Pope at the age of 12,
but it seems that he was ac
tually 20. He was one of the
worst Popes the Church has
had. He was driven out of the
| city in 1044, faced an anti-
Pope in 1045, resigned the same
'year, and then tried to depose
himself, but seized Rome by force, only to be
driven out again. In the list of Popes his name
appears three times: first from 1032 to 1044,
again in the year 1045, and a third time in 1048,
when he resigned for good and retired to a mo
nastery to do penance. (At least that seems the
more probable story; some say he kept trying to
become Pope again.)
In 1046 Henry III, King of Germany, came to
Italy to have the Pope crown him as Holy Roman
Emperor. He found three Popes claiming the
Tiara - and the strange thing is that all three of
them: Benedict IX, Sylvester III, and Gregory IV
are still listed as real Popes. Henry took charge
of the situation, and for the next 10 years the
Emperor practically named the Pope, and he
continued to exercise great influence even after
Pope Nicholas II, in 1059, reserved to the Cardi
nals the right of electing the Pope.
The great eleventh century reform of the
Papacy got under way shortly after Benedict IX
had been Pope for the third time. It began with
St. Leo IX in 1048, and is usually called the Gre
gorian reform because of its great central figure,
St. Gregory VII (Hildebrand). But I suppose young
Benedict IX should get some credit: he was such
a discredit to the papacy that he made reform
urgent.
***
Q. I AM EXPECTING MY SECOND CHILD ANE>
I WOULD LIKE MY ONLY SISTER TO BE ITS
GODMOTHER; BUT SHE IS NOW EXPECTING
HER THIRD ONE, AND FRIENDS HAVE TOLD ME
THAT I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO ASK AN EX
PECTANT MOTHER TO BE SPONSOR.
A. Friends can tell you the craziest things.
Of course she may be sponsor, if hhe is able to
get to the church.
***
Q. COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHY THE
SACRAMENT OF EXTREME UNCTION WAS AD
MINISTERED TO POPE JOHN SO LATE IN HIS
ILLNESS? IT WAS REPORTED THAT BISHOP C.
VAN LIERDE, O.S.A., WAS WAITING A FEW DAYS
IN THE OUTER ROOM FOR THE WORD.
I WAS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMPRESSION A
VERY SICK PERSON SHOULD RECEIVE THE
ANOINTING OF THE SICK WHEN HE IS IN
DANGER OF DYING. WHY WERE THEY WAIT
ING?
/
j-
3
>3
•7
A. I think I know why, but the reason is not
very edifying: old habits are hard to shake, even
when they fail to make sense.
No good was accomplished by the waiting, and at
least two evil effects resulted from it: first,
good Pope John was deprived of graces during
those days of anxious waiting, and secondly, the
Pope whose great aim was to be a good pastor,
was forced into the position of giving bad pastoral
example.
Certainly he was not to blame, and I am sure he
was so holy he hardly needed graces. But your im
pression is the correct one: the sick should be
anointed as soon as there is reasonable fear that
they may die. And well-instructed Catholics should
know that its purpose is to help restore them to
health and to give them the graces they need dur
ing their illness. It does not condemn them to
death.
In my own ministry I have sometimes waited
to anoint people until their approach to death be
came quite certain, but that was because they had
been trained in the old fashioned ideas that the
last anointing meant death; and their doctor jud
ged that they would be practically scared to death.
Modern Catholics have your impression; andvery
rarely is a sick person frightened by the holy
oils. Usually they are greatly calmed and com
forted.
Q. ARE THERE ANY ORIENTAL OR UNIAT
RITE CATHOLIC CHURCHES THAT ACCEPT
MARRIED CANDIDATES FOR THE PRIESTHOOD
OR RELIGIOUS LIFE? IF SO, WOULD THEY AC
CEPT THESE CANDIDATES FROM CATHOLIC
RITES OTHER THAN THEIR OWN?
A. Most Oriental Rite churches accept married
candidates for the priesthood, but not for monastic
life._There are still problems about using married
priests in the-pastoral ministry in the United
States.
An Oriental Rite church could not accept a Ca
tholic of Latin Rite as a candidate for the priest
hood. However, a transfer of rites is sometimes
possible when reasons are good enough. Per
mission for such transfer must be obtained from
Rome.
***
Q. A FRIEND BELONGING TO THE LUTHERAN
CHURCH ENDED OUR LAST HEATED CONVER
SATION ABOUT RELIGION BY SAYING THAT
THE REFORMATION FOUND WE WERE WRONG
AND PROVED IT.
A. Your friend has not acquired the spirit
of the dialogue. He should say: Back in the 16th
cenjoury we had an unfortunate and rowdy quarrel
about religion. There were many abuses in the
Church which needed to be remedied, and Martin
Luther, an Augustinian priest and theologian,
set out to remedy them with more zeal than
prudence. He came into violent clash with Ca
tholic authorities, and the result was a sad split
in the unity of Christ’s Church.. As we look
back we see sins and faults on both sides, and
we judge that if true Christian charity, patience
and cooperation had prevailed the whole mess
could have been avoided.
It ill behooves us now to try to' prove either
party wrong. We should rather face up to the
fact that unity is the desire of Christ, and that
our divisions displease Him. Our problems today
are much greater than those of 1520. It is hard
to ur 4 o the harm of four centuries of fighting
or to heal the fissures of ages. But we should
try t« use the virtues which brotherhood and
unity demand; love, patience, tolerance, justice,
truth and humility. Ami we should combine them
with prayer, faith and honest study, trusting
die final solution to God. (Thus spake die ecumenist
Lutheran, and you as a Catholic applauded ms
words.)
19.
20.
22.
23.
24.
25.
27.
28.
29
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36
37.
38.
40.
41.
44.
45.
46.
47.
ACROSS 49.
Reremouse 50
Blow 51.
Pen 52.
“I”; German 53.
Myth 54.
Exposure for Drying 55.
We Learned Of This 56.
Saint From Autobiography57.
of St.
Algae-like
Road
Gather
An image
Blue Grass Genus
Charger
Forder
Innuendo
Stuff
Fought
Peas: pi. (arch.)
Groove
Eater
His Father Was A ...
Denoting Unfit Ships In
Lloyd’s Registry
Capital of Delaware
Storage Place
Trimmed
To Tame
World Food
Administration
Asks
log
Ashy
Tiny; Spanish
Watery Part of Milk
Chemical Strength
Existence
George Bernard ...
Brother's Daughters
Relating to; Suffix
Seethe
Female of The Dog
From: Latin
Below: Nautical
Or A System
He Was Born In ...
Received Through The
Ear
European Theatre of
Operation
Past Tense of Did
Female Name
Gain
DOWN
Scrap
Alas! (German)
There
Avail
Winged Insect
Armpit
Thee (French)
Paced
Asperity
Formerly Persia
Sesame
Printer’s Measure
Game Birds
Biblical Wild Ox
Assister
21. Defier
23. Anxious
24. Drama
25. Fight
26 More Accurate
27 Faded
28. Mended
30. Mamed Women
31. Portion
33. Italian Lady
34. Final
36. Two
37. Float
39 improve Morally
40. Ale
41. He is The Patron Of
42. Vanish
43 Chalice Veils
45 Melt
46. Patch
4/. Garbed
48. Employs
49. Exclamation!
50. Small Particle
52. Genr
53. 7th Month of Jewish
Year
Slipped
Co'*’ House
Autoists' Society
Bevond-. comb, form
Follower
Sleeping Place
63. Symbol For Lead
64. South American Sloth
CATHEDRAL PARISH’S
TROOP 165 B.S.A. was honored
to have its visiting Deacon, the
Rev. Mr. James Scherer, ac
company some of its members
to Camp Bert Adams. The boys
were at the camp from July
14th through July 20th. Cathe
dral Rector, Monsignor Cassidy
visited the boys on the 16th.
and 18th. celebrating Mass on
the camp grounds.
A Shrine was erected on the
camp site last year under the
direction of the Archdiocesan
Director of Boy Scouts, the
Rev. Richard Morrow.
Pictured above, left to right,
in the first row: Danny Holmes,
David Bleakman, Chris Nunez,
Phil Duffy, Richard Farns
worth, Billy Milkey.
Second row: Jim McKenzie,
Stuart Garner, Jim Fredericks,
Mike Horn, John Kurtz, Char
les Nunez.
Third row: John Wyant, Pe
ter Fisher, Norvin Hagan, "Fa
ther” Scherer, Jim Bresnahan,
Donald McQueen, Larry Fisher,
Bill Kilgore.
Ask End Of Death Penalty
55.
56.
58
59
60
61.
ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS PUZZLE ON PAGE 7
LAWNDALE, Cal. (NC)--The
Catholic Council on Civil Li
berties has advocated the abo
lition of the death penalty as
a punishment for crimes in time
of peace.
The council pledged itself to
"work for the abolition of the
death penalty, in the interest
of justice and human rights, for
the spread of Christian charity,
and for the moral welfare of
our nation.”
THE PRINCIPLE tradition
ally invoked in support of
capital punishment is its ne
cessity or great utility for the
ARNOLD VIEWING
Kidding The Unkiddable
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
"Bye Bye Birdie” tries to satirize the cult of
rock-'n-roll, the one thing that defies ironic ex
aggeration. How can any satiric Elvis Presley be
funnier than the real Elvis Presley? How can any
set of comically screaming and collapsing teenage
girls be more ridiculous than the genuine scream
ers and collapsers?
To be honest, "Birdie,” the wide-screen color
version of the late Broadway musical, occasionally
achieves the impossible. The young songwriter
(lean, confused Dick Van Dyke) complains that
teenage idol Birdie has been drafted just as he has
sold Birdie the title song for his next picture,
'Mumby Jumbo Gooey Gumbo.”
WHEN Birdie (cleverly acted by swivel-hipped
Jesse Pearson) arrives in an Ohio town, he comes
screaming on set on a motorcycle in a gold lame
spacesuit, swaggers to city hall
under an arch of solemnly cros
sed guitars. After he gurgles a
song, we find that not only the
girls but all the citizens have
fainted, as the camera pans over
the demolished square and the
soundtrack plays "Battle Hymn
of the Republic.”
Presley is not the only insti
tution victimized. Musical comedyplots: the hero-
songwriter wants to be a chemist, but his mother
prefers him to make something of himself. Pos
sessive Mothers: brilliant Maureen Stapleton par
lays a baggy mink, squeaky oxfords and a perse
cution complex into some funny moments. She
tries suicide by putting her head in an electric
oven, moaning to her son: "I spent three days
with you in the maternity ward-did I desert you?”
OTHER satiric targets are sexy musical num
bers (Ann-Margret sings "How Lovely to be a Wo
man” while dressing in a teenage uniform of jeans,
sloppy sweater, long wool sox and baseball cap),
and the American Father, who emerges as a Jo
nathan Winters-type farm goods salesman capable
of boasting, "I’ve been in fertilizer for 20 years.”
Best spoof is the solemn chorale in academic
garb honoring Ed Sullivan (wisely, the film uses
the real Sullivan; no comic substitute was needed).
The fun is mostly wholesome, except Vor a bit
when black-wigged Janet Leigh inexplicably stops
being a helpful secretary and crashes a Shriners
meeting to do the Dance of the Seven Veils. To
aid the box office, Bobby Rydell, a Dead End
looking kid with likeable but modest talents, teams
with Ann-Margret, a very pretty girl who always
seems to be auditioning for the musical version
of Lucrezia Borgia. The results do not jar any
seismographs.
"BIRDIE” credits belong to the satiric barbs of
scenarist Irvin Brecher, to choreographer Oona
White ("The Music Man”) who has concocted the
liveliest teenage leaping and neck-twisting since
"West Side Story,” and to director George Sid
ney, who injects rhlfeical joie de vivre with color
filters, cartoon images imposed over the action,
camera angles and movement.
But the basic joke in "Birdie” (adoration of
the absurd) quickly deflates into routine musical
protection of society, the coun
cil’s statement said. But nine
states and about 35 nations have
abolished the death penalty and
their capital crime rate has not
increased, it added.
The statement pointed out that
the death penalty is more com
mon among less civilized peo
ples and in totalitarian regimes
pies and in totalitarian regimes,
and "least used where human
dignity is respected and human
rights held sacred.”
It said that in practice the
wealthy or influential are rare
ly sentenced to death. "You
must be poor, friendless, men
tally retarded, or a member of
a racial minority to qualify
for hanging,”
Miss Mattews
A funeral Mass was said this
morning at St. Thomas More for
Miss Elizabeth Mattews, of 222
Adair Court, Decatur. Father
Mathew Kemp said the Mass.
Miss Mattews died Monday
in an Atlanta hospital after a
long illness. A native of Madi
son, Wisconsin, she had lived
in the Atlanta area most of
her life. She attended St. Pius
X High School, She is survived
by her parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Robert P. Mattews, a sister,
Miss Mary Mattews and her
grandmother, Mrs. Monica No
votny.
farce with undistinguished songs (except for "Put
On a Happy Face”). The plot leads up to a gim
mick finale involving speed-up pills and the har-
rassed Moscow Ballet; all of it is just a cut
above the Three Stooges.
POST-MORTEM notes on "Cleopatra”:
The $40 million conversation piece has enough
good reviews (some of the critics ought to get
saliva tests) and curiosity customers to pull it
ultimately out of the red. This is good news for
stockholders, who little to do with the fiasco
in Rome.
A reading of producer Walter Wanger’s dread
fully honest diary of the production ("My Life
With Cleopatra,” Bantam, 60 cents) forces some
painful conclusions about the world andtheindus-
dustry:
_ Over-valued by the public, film performers
must be coddled beyond mere human endurance.
If a producer loses his star, he loses his audience
and his money, and thousands are broke and out of
work. Thus Miss Taylor is paid a $1 million fee;
provided a $3000-a-month villa for herself, Mr.
Fisher, assorted children and animals; given
$3000-a-week expense money; and allowed to bring
her personal physician for six weeks at a fee of
$25,000 plus expenses. This sort of thing might
have dented the character of Abraham Lincoln.
THE scandal did not become world-wide
breakfast-table conversation because of satanic
press agents at Fox. The studio was scared bleach-
white. Editors plainly thought people wanted to
read about it. Swamped, the Associated Press de
scribed it as "the biggest story ever handled
from Rome, of only slightly less world-wide in
terest than the death of a Pope.”
Much of the ludicrous expense and artis
tic failure was due to selfish bickering by man
agement and labor. British hairdressers struck
because Miss Taylor brought her own stylist from
Hollywood. Stuido men were so busy slitting each
other’s throats they never could agree on script,
location or budget. Profit was so dominant a fac
tor that the casting department toyed with Cary
Grant and Burt Lancaster as Caesar and Antony.
WHEN eventually Mankiewicz was hiredtosave
everyone's skin, he had to work on a crash basis,
shooting days and writing nights and weekends.
Ultimately he completed a potential classic, six
hours long, to be released in three-hour seg
ments. The company mercilessly chopped it to less
than four hours to recoup losses immediately. That
the released version makes any sense at all (in
spots it seems like a collection of coming attrac
tions) is a tribute to Mankiewicz’ commercially
abused artistry.
- Finally, "Cleopatra” raises serious questions
about the industry's system of self-censorship.
Reasonably, there should be some limit on what is
shown to a mass audience other than simply what
is photographable. In this film we take solace in the
taste of Mankiewicz and costume designer Irene
Sharaff. But as the history’of "Cleopatra” demon
strates, the victory of art over commerce in mo
vies can hardly be depended upon when the big blue
chips are down.
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
A survey by Montana State College has just revealed the follow
ing facts about the average woman in the United States:
. . .She spends the equivalent of a year of her life on the tele
phone.
. . .She eats 160 pounds of meat, 353 eggs and 5 miles of spaghetti
a year.
. . .She smokes 146 packages of cigarettes annually.
. . .She dumps 400 pounds of edible food into the garbage every
year.
. . .She spends 1 1/2 times as much for clothing as does her
husband but returns 13 per cent of her purchases.
If these facts fell upon the eyes of the hundreds of thousands
who live in the dumps in the cities of Latin America or the starving
in India, would they not ask: "What do you share with us?
We cannot gather up your garbage. We
cannot pick up your discarded clothing.
We know that you and your family
average 4.66 pounds of food a day while
we average 1.23 pounds, and most of
that is rice. We know that what you
throw in the garbage pail in the United
States would be a banquet for us for
many days. We would like to be the
way you are, wear your robes, smoke
your cigarettes, but we cannot and we
never will. In 17 years there will be 14 billion people in the world,
and three-fourths of them will be as we are now—hungry, im
poverished, malnourished, ignorant. You will get richer; we will
get poorer.
"But are you not Catholic? Does not your Faith tell you that
as Christ offered His Life for your sins, so you should offer
a drink or a morsel of food to us who resemble Christ in
His poverty? We are not Communists. We will not tear clothes
off your back out of envy, but we are asking this much—that
you share a small fraction of your purchases with us. If you pay
$10 for a dress, will you not give a dime to the Holy Father
and his Society for the Propagation of the Faith for us? Out of
the average 2,920 cigarettes you smoke a year, could you not
give us the price of just one package?”
"Do not be mathematical about it. Just learn to sharel If
you saw a Woman who had had too much to drink and was dis
gracing womanhood, would you not feel ashamed because you,
too, were a woman? Then why not feel sorry for us women?
We, too, are daughters of Eve; we, too, love our Queen Mary.
All we ask is love—not a tithing, but just a small sharing of
your blessings. We cannot gather up the crumbs you share,
but the Holy Father can. He has a Society in the United States
which does this for him. Send it to him through The Society for
the Propagation of the Faith. Remember, it was founded by a
woman. Let us women stick together under Mary ami her Son.
Thank you/**
GOD LOVE YOU to A. C. S. for $5 "In thanksgiving to our
Blessed Mother of Perpetual Help for graces.” . . .to M. S.
for $6 "We saved this by not having coffee breaks.” . . .to
C. H. for $3 "I am 14 years old and I Ifve on a farm. 1 see
food growing every day and am never hungry. So I send this to
you in hopes other children will not be hungry.”
MISSION combines the best features of all other magazines:
stories, pictures, statistics, human interest. Take an interest
in the suffering humanity of the mission world and send your
sacrifices along with a request to be put on the mailing list of
this bi-monthly publication.
Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to It and mail it to^Moat
Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of The Society for the Pro
pagation of the Faith 366 Fifth Avenue, New York V N. Y. or
yuur Diocesan Director.. Rev. Walter W. Herbert, 811 Ca^houna
Place, Tvichmond 20, Virginia.