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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, AUGUST I, 1963 the Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA BULLETIN SE*vinG OfORG'A 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 Kiernar ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence Member of the Catholic Press Association nd Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 2699 Peachtree N.E. P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Ga m Application to mail at Second Class Postage Rates is pending at Atlanta, Ga. U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 Moral Problem At a time when the whole nation is seriously concerned with the mounting number of traffic deaths, it seems to us that a more concentrated drive could be made in driver edu cation. True, many of our schools have driver education courses, but an “on-the-spot” education could be an appropriate remedy to the dan ger of riding on our express ways and highways. The growing number of boat owners and the weekend traffic to our lake resorts poses a pro blem in itself. Automobiles tra veling too fast for boat trailers they drag behind have caused traffic hazards. Disabled automobiles, parked to one side, often wait for hours for assistance because there are no regular patrols of wrecker services as there are on many highways in other sections of the country. Slow automobiles which con sistently travel in the left, high speed lane, force a violation of a cardinal rule of traffic safety when one is obliged to pass on the right. Neglect of the use of directional lights; automobiles approaching highways from side roads with out first coming to a full stop; and automobiles stopping dead on major highways before making a left turn are but a few of the major causes of serious traffic accidents. We think traffic education car s on regular patrol with a view to education, rather than enforce ment, might prove to be a worth while experiment in reducing the growing number of deaths on our highways. What we tend to forget is that traffic safety has a moral base. Carelessness and negligence on the road can be sinful. Too often it is merely a question of avoid ing traffic tickets and obeying the law only when the police are ar ound . Mature citizens, however, must see that they have moral obligations as well as legal ones. We have the duty to protect not only our own lives, but those of fellow citizens who may be en dangered by our flouting of the rules of the road. Parents have a great respon sibility in setting a moral tone for young drivers. If they do not have an intense dedication to safe driving how can they respect young people to behave other than as potential dangers to others. Driver education, plus a high sense of morality, are the essen tial ingredients to any campaign to reduce the annual slaughter on our nation’s highways. Whittling The World SUPPOSE THAT IN YOUR ima gination we could compress the total population of the world, more than 2,500,000,000 people, into one town of 1,000 people. In this imaginary town - the world reduced to a community of 1,000 - there would be 60 Americans. The remainder of the world would be represented by 940 persons. The 60 Americans would re ceive half the income of the entire town, with 940 dividing i the other half. the other hand, more than half would be hearing about Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Khrush chev. The American families would be spending at least $850 a year for military defense, but less than $4 a year to share their Christian faith with the other people in the community. WORLD CAMPUS VANTAGE POINT TWICE CATHOLIC The Catholic BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW The role of the Catholic press is a subject that keeps popping up for discussion with pre dictable regularity. At least once a year, dur ing Catholic Press Week, we can be sure of a new crop of estimates of the successes and failures of the many periodicals and newspapers regularly published under the auspices of the Church. In recent years, these estimates amount more and more to a massive and healthy exer cise in self-criticism. It should not require much argument to convince anyone that this is a mat ter of concern to the Church. It is important in order that the faithful will demand the kind of Catholic press they need to have and will sup port those who attempt to create it. The least complex function of the diocesan newsweekly is to serve as a vehicle for the official pronouncements of the bishop. It certainly would not be necessary, however, to as sume the burden of a weekly newspaper merely for that pur pose, since a bishop is able to communicate with his diocese in many other, less expensive, ways. It is worth noting that in many instances (including our own archdiocese) the carrying of official notices is the absolute extent of the "of ficial” character of the newsweekly. The Catholic newspaper exists to serve as a tool of the Church's work, and a very specializ ed tool at that. Clearly, its place fits in some where in the apparatus by which the Church teaches. Yet it is not expected to be a sermon, nor even an extended editorial. A newspaper is not precisely a journal of opinion, although on the editorial page the two forms certainly over lap. The diocesan newsweekly teaches on a pecu liar and delicately balanced plane, by exposing LITURGICAL WEEK Newspaper to view, with intelligence and proportion, the day to day life of the Church as it takes place. The reality of the Church as it strives, and some times struggles, to lead mankind to salvation is the prime source of "Catholic" news. The rela tionships between the Church and the world - or, more precisely, the almost innumerable worlds- in which it lives are another part of the in struction of the Catholic press. The Catholic pa per, then, has a responsibility to portray the au thentic posture of the Church in the face of concrete problems - racial justice, war and peace, industrial conflict, poverty, freedom - and then to report as news the actual record of achievement and failure when practice is com pared with principle. There is a tired adage that a dog fight on Main Street is more newsworthy than a war a thou sand miles away. The application of this notion to the Catholic press is that people would rather read about themselves at their parish society meetings than about papal statements on nuclear disarmament. The people pay for the paper, it will be said, and should be given what they want. But the readers also pay for the New York Times and the Atlanta Constitution. The Catholic press will betray its name and its mission if it is not both Catholic with a capital C and catholic with a small c, that is, ready to embrace as honestly as possible the whole spectrum of reality in the light of the Church’s life and mission. If it is narrow ami parochial, then it is not catholic. The readers will not be given what they pay for, unless they come away from it somehow in structed and informed, better equipped to mir ror the Church in their words, actions and view points. It is unavoidable that an editor, who bears this responsibility', will have a particular view point on many questions. But, if he chooses his news items with professional integrity' and cre ates editorial and feature pages that are a serious attempt at interpretation, then he will be ser ving his diocese, his readers and the Church well indeed. About 330 in the town would be classified as Christians, and some 230 would be Catholics. AT LEAST 80 townspeople would be practicing Communists and 370 would be under com munist domination. White people would total 303, with 697 non white. Tne 60 Americans would have an average life expectancy of 70 years, the 940 less than 40 years average. The 60 Ameri cans would have 15 times as many possessions per person as all the rest of the people. The Americans would produce 16 per cent of the town’s total food supply. Although they eat 72 per cent above the maximum food requirements, they would either eat most of what they grew, or store it for their own future use, at enormous cost. HALF OF the 1,000 people would never have heard of Jesus Christ, or what He taught. On The Christian Is A Peacemaker BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory) AUGUST 4, NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTE COST. "Lord, may our sharing in your sacra ment both cleanse us from sin and keep us united one with another.” This is the prayer which the celebrant, the president of the assem bly, offers in the name of the community after Holy Communion today, and to which we all assent with our "Amen.” The Christian, we have been reminded forcibly by the late Pope John and by Pope Paul, is essen tially peace-maker. And it is Sunday Mass, it is the eucharistic assembly, which is not only prayer for peace but also sign of peace and source of peace. Because it makes us one— and peace and unity are in a sense one thing. Because it cleanses us of sin—and sin is pre cisely that which separates, divides, breaks up harmony. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem (Gospel), for Jerusalem as figure of the Church already pos sesses peace but does not know it, can not see it. When we gather for Mass we are at the source and center of peace: the effective sign of human dignity and brotherhood. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF THE SNOW. If we could not speak of human dignity, then we could not speak of the venerable dignity of Mary. And for the Christian that would be intolerable. "From the beginning of time, he had made me . . .my God has granted me a share in his own domain” (First Reading). "No woman so blessed as you" (Offertory Hymn), but every woman blessed. We can recognize her great grace and favor with God only by recogn izing a staggering human poten tial in all of us. TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. When God became man in that cen tral event of salvation-history, He assured toman a glory which was to be fully revealed only in His Resurrection and Ascension. It is a blind ing glory', too much for present vision. But in this brief glimpse and in the paschal mysteries we have good grounds for believing that "dust" is not all there is to be said of the body and of matter in general. We will not have to be dis sected in order to enjoy eternal happiness. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, ST. CAJETAN, CON FESSOR. Anxiety covers the world of modern man like a blanket. Today Jesus speaks words of cool (not cold) comfort to His members (Gos pel). "Do not be anxious,” He repeats, be cause there are some things you can do noth ing about. And concerning those things about which you can do something, "do not be anxious." Do not try to serve two masters. The work is too hard and unrewarding. It might make you nervous. THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, ST. JOHN MARY VLAN- NEY, CONFESSOR. The "just man” is anxious, in the sense of being watchful (Gospel), about one thing: his openness and accessibility to the Word of God. Is he listening when the Lord calls? Is he present when the Lord comes? If the answer is "yes," then it will be no great chore to do the deeds we hymn and praise in this Mass. The chore ts already done—in his attentiveness to God. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, VIGIL OF ST. LAW RENCE, MARTYR. We prepare for this tradit ionally important feast of a martyr by listening to Jesus' invitation to self-denial and a cross (Gospel). It is not a total self-denial He asks, for He expects and even insists that we wish to "save our lives.” "He who would save his life will lose it." And he speaks of reward. It is not our "selves" at all we must deny, then, but that sin and preoccupation with lesser things which rend our inner unity. SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, ST. LAWRENCE, MARTYR. "Where I am there also shall my servant be" (Gospel). This is the glory of Chris tian death in general and of martyrdom in par ticular. A bountiful sowing (First Reading) of that which man prizes most highly—life itself— brings a bountiful harvest. So the liturgy teaches us to offer our life in death, to make death a free gift rather than to suffer it with violence. BRITAIN Empty Cathedrals BY GERARD E. SHERRY Religion in Great Britain is hard to evaluate. It is a land where Christianity' dates back to the Fifth century; where Catholicism flourished until the 16th centum , when the Reformers broke away from the Papal See and confiscated churches, cathedrals and abbeys all across the land. Many of these religious edifices still stand as monuments to skilled craftsmen who built not for tourism but for God. The great cathe drals of England are no longer centers of culture and worship—they stand majestic but empty of all but the thousands of tourists who daily visit them and wonder at how they have stood the ravages of time. We said empty' of worshipers— this, alas, is a fact. A prime example is Salisbury' Cathedral which dates back to the 12th century. It is a most beautiful church and I made a visit there several Sundays ago. It hap pened that the main morning service was taking place. I was shocked to find that there were more clergy and choir in the sanctuary than ther were worshipers in the pews. I counted 9 pe- sons in an area which can hold almost 1,0<L This same scene can be observed in iost Church of England Cathedrals and cha-l s * Although it is claimed that the Anglicans lave 26 million communicants in Britain, I wa told that less than 300,000 attended services o Sun days. In all fairness to them it must 2 sold that those who do not claim membershi 1° the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist Congrgotion- alist groups, nearly always refer to th<nsleves as Church of England. This despite th<f act that many of them have no religion. None of the Protestant groups hav an abun dance of worshipers, although their nrinberships are quite impressive. There is al? a growing number of Seventh Day Adventists d d Mormons, whose converts are mainly the wor' of American proselytizers . It is not a pleasa^ thing to re port, nor can Catholics crow very ruch about their own performance. The official Catholic direct-ry lists almost four million Catholics in Britan. However, it is recognised that in reality thre are about five million. They represent abou ten per cent of the population. On the surface, tft Church looks pros perous and progressive, bit it faces the same problems as the Protestans. Not enough Catho lics attend Mass regularly One Bishop told me that about 50 per cent a tended Sunday Mass on a regular basis. Another said 30 per cent would be more accurate. Whatever the percentage it’s not good enough. However, ejperts agree that Mass attendance in the U. S. Is not much better. REAPINGS AT K4NDOM One thing is true, though; the Church has much more influence in public lfe than its numbers would indicate. But this iifluence is provided more by the Hierarchy dun by the laity. It is the Catholic Hierachy that s listened to, rather than Catholic educators, liwyers, politicians. This is surprising considering the fact that specialized Catholic Action is far more advanced in Britain than it is in the U. S. Movements abound in all parts of the country', and they seem to be working within the community as a whole. The reasons for the apparent failure of the laity to come forward in greater numbers is hard to diagnose. There are conflicting answers, ac cording to with whom you speak. One leading Catholic layman gave the perennial answer, used all over the world. "We don't have enough freedom to express ourselve s. Every time we open our mouths, we are sat upon as arrogant and illi terate." Another suggested that the laity were considered mere fund-raisers and that rnos bishops were afraid to delegate real respor sibility. He added that there was plenty of e’ couragement to think but none at all to a* On the other side of the coin, several bis!V s complained that there were not enough educ 2d laymen. "They think all they have to do is f™ committees, plan actions, and apply forappr'al- As if that, in itself, was all there was t i£ * ’ one bishop remarked. He complained that ven among the better educated Catholics the? was not enough study of the Church, of its tpl°gy and philosophy. He added that the Cathc 2 Ly- men in Britain have much more freedc than in most countries. "Alas, they don’t alv/ s take advantage of it, some prefering to gri ra ther than work.” While I was there, I came acrosthe first public criticism of an English bishop/ Catholic laity that I can recall. The bishop ad written an article in which he called for be 21. Catholic teachers, insisting that some did c H ve tip to their high calling. The Catholic te-hers struck back in The Universe, largest Cat’ll- weekly in Britain. Their spokesmen assail- the Bishop’s viewpoint and complained that tl/ were always ignored, except when the HieraY needed their help. I read the Bishop's art ie and found it quite constructive, even though contained strong criticism. There is obviousl a lack of real communication, and this seem- 0 he at the heart of the matter. The point is, such a re/ would have been unheard of, even ten years-? 0, Hence there is obviously more freedom tP some laymen are willing to admit. The pro* m I® how to use it, collaborating with the hie rch Y. and always in the interest of the Churd-Die difficulties of the laity seem to be the sa e the world over. The , more we all grow up in P Church, the more we come to solve them in t spirit of charity and understanding.