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PAGE 4 GEOR' il \ BL LLETIN THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1963 the Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA BULLETIN atMB&K 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 Kiernan ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence Member of the Catholic Press Association nd Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231^1281 \ U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 ivieii 2699 Peachtree N.E. P.a Box 11667 Norths ide Station Atlanta 5, Ga. , Application to mail at Second Class Postage Rates is pending at Atlanta, Ga. Pint Size Photo It is not often that we wish to quarrel with or criticize an other Catholic newspaper. All the more so when it involves an editor who is a friend. But we must take issue with the appearance of a photo in the August 22 Catholic News of New York. The photo shows Mrs. Made line Murray of Baltimore sitting in a bar with her mother and, to quote the Catholic News capt ion, having “a mid-day beer”. Mrs. Murray is the lady atheist whose suit against the Baltimore school system resulted in the Supreme Court banning Bible re ading in our public schools. We reported last week that this same woman was establishing a center for atheists in Central Kansas, and was also trying to ban nuns from teaching inaKansas school. We hold no brief for Mrs. Mur ray’s ideas or actions, which fur ther atheism. We question, how ever, the ethics involved in this type of picture. It is unbecoming to a Catholic newspaper. We see no purpose in the photograph, except perhaps to show that this atheist woman goes into a bar for a drink. There is also the imputation that her atheism and her visit to a bar have a con nection. To us it is a silly business which makes no sense. After all, we should be able to disagree with Mrs. Murray without invad ing her privacy. She is entitled to this, and should be fought on the issue, not on her personality. It gives us serious concern, for this type of “fighting back” at an opponent might well catch on. I’m afraid that many of us Catholics would be caught “Having a pint” in between get ting public notice as crusaders and the like. Let Mrs. Murray visit her favorite bar if she wants to. The Catholic press has too noble a function to waste time or space investigating that aspect of he life. We can use our resources to counteract her atheistic acti vities in a much more digified and logical way. It appears to us that the Catholic News has succumbed to the petty journa lism of its secular counterparts. We hope it was a genuine mis take; otherwise Mrs. Murray has scored a point. On Traffic Safety Next week some 150,000 youn gsters will be retuning to our parochial and public schools in the metropolitan area of Atlanta and in many other communities throughout the state. The Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta and others have initiated a safety program to protect our children from the hazards of careless driving through school zones. Most com munities post special speed limit signs in these areas, and all drivers are requested to observe them. have it as a topic of convers ation in order that both young and old may be made aware of theneed for responsibility. Pers onal discipline and family dis cipline is involved. Parents, the refore, have both a moral and a civic duty to inculcate into the minds and hearts of their famil ies the respect due to traffic saf ety officials and the programs they have mapped out to make G eorgia a safer place to live in. SOMETHING FOR YOUR COUNTRY BETWEEN FAITHS Ecumenical Understanding BY FR. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW The Faith and Order Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Montreal for two weeks last month. Public prayer was offered throughout the archdiocese of Atlanta for the success of the conference. Along with other favor able statements from Catholic sources and the active participation of official Catholic observers this event marked a continuing progress in Catho lic understanding of the ecumenical movement among non-Catholics. Perhaps the most important fundamental de velopment has been a growing realization that the Holy Spirit, whose work Christian unity is, may operate with freedom and effect within any individual or group and is not limited to the external boundaries of the Catholic Church. The improved atmosphere in inter-Church relations that we have witnessed in the past few years can only be ascribed to the working s of grace. Led by the late Pope John and Cardinal Augus tin Bea, Catholic thinkers are beginning to take cognizance that there already exists a certain community among all Christians based on their common baptism. This community is very far from perfect and does not in any sense derogate from the full connatural unity of the visible Church. But it is a fact, nontheless. And, it provides a basis fo, mutual understanding, common prayer, responsible cooperation in certain areas and a fruitful exchange of views - all of which ought to be conducive to our ulti mate oneness. FAITH and Order is one division of the World Council of Churches, which includes about two hundred Protestant and Orthodox churches. From the viewpoint of Catholic ecumenical activity, it is probably the most important element of the World Council. Its concern is with the place of the sacraments, order (in the sense of the ministry and also the structure of the church), and doctrine within the Christian Church. For this reason it has always been the place where Christians interested in theology and liturgy have been most involved. It is so urgent that Catholics be aware of the currents of the ecumenical movement, that it may be permissible to quote at some length the state ment of purpose of the Faith and Order from a report published before the recent assembly. “The Commission on Faith and Order understands that the unity which is both God’s will and His gift to His Church is one which brings all in each place who confess Christ Jesus as Lord into a fully comm itteed fellowship with one another through one baptism into Him, holding the one apostolic faith, preaching the one Gospel and breaking the one bread, and having a corporate life reaching out in witness and service to all; and which at the same time unites them with die whole Christian fellowship in all places and all ages in such wise that ministry and member ship are acknowledged by all, and that all can act and speak together as occasion requires for the tasks to which God calls the Church.” IF THIS definition of Christian unity will sound somewhat vague and abstract to Catholics, it can at least be acknowledged that it contains nothing positively objectionable from the view point of Catholic faith. Taken against the back ground of the extreme divergence of doctrines concerning the nature of the Church actually held by many Protestants, it certainly repre sents a basis for discussion and progressive understanding. It would be naive to pretend that in the area of doctrine there are not the most serious obstacles to unity. At die same time we must rejoice to see these difficult areas exa mined in a spirit of charity and dedication to the truth. LITURGICAL WEEK COVERAGE IN DEPTH TV Network Job Well Done BY GERARD E. SHERRY The other night I watched a repeat of the EfcaPont Show of the Week, “Two Faces of Tre ason,” on the NBC network. It was an expose of Communist spy operations in this country, and was extremely well done. There is nothing very significant about this, except for the fact that about an hour before I had just finished reading the August issue of The Priest, a magazine published by Our Sunday Visitor. My attention was drawn to an article in' the correspondence columns which was signed by The Mindszenty Foundation of St. Louis. This group of Catholics (it has no official standing- in the Church) has as its main preoccupation, anti-Communism. THE MINDSZENTY ask me why it was put in the letter col umns) charged that on our TV networks Communist proga- ganda is sodisguis - ed that “much of it is subliminally ac cepted by innocent viewers.” It also charged that “all the high drama of the life-and - death struggle between Com munist tyranny and freedom - the Red take over of a dozen countries, the escapes from behind the Iron Curtain, the missionaries w ho saw Communism face to face, the courage of the Hun garian Freedom Fighters and of Bang-Jensen — is usually passed over by the TV scriptwriters in favor of resurrecting Hitler and downgrading America.” Foundation article (don’t REAPINGS AT RANDOM IT COMPLAINED that movies on TV seldom make the Communist a villain and suggested that the “late show” convinces many people that the Germans, not the Reds, are the chief threat to western civilization. Alas, while we must not forget the ruthless oppression by International Communism, neither can we forget the lessons of recent history. The gas chambers of Belsen and Dachau were not invented by Communist propaganda. They were the handiwork of Hitlerite Germany. It cannot be erased from history. There is very little difference between Com munism and Fascism. The Church is persecu ted by both isms — and we have martyrs to prove it. But this is beside the point. Thereal issue is whether* the Mindszenty Foundation's charges are true. The documentation they offer is the same old rehash of alleged network per secution of the late Senator Joe McCarthy, the favoring of Alger Hiss, and the like, with the same old “Villains” such as Edward R. Murrow and the Ford Foundation. I did some research on the subject, and didn’t have to go back to the 1950’s to prove that the Mindszenty Foundation’s charges are nothing more than half-truths and innuendo, which do little justice to the cause of anticommunism. FOR EXAMPLE, the NBC correspondent in Moscow, Frank Bourgholtzer, was expelled from the Soviet Union early this year because the network produced four special programs exam ining Communist ideology in practice. The Russ ians took umbrage at two of the programs. “The Death of Stalin” (telecast January 27, 1963) and “The Rise of Kruschev”, (telecast February 3, 196: ). The aims of the four specials as announced by NBC, were “To Study What Oppor tunities Exist for the Free World to Slow or Re verse the Communist World of World Dominat ion." Faith Is Our ‘Yes 9 To His Promise And Love We heartily endorse sucha saf ety program and urge our rea ders to exercise extreme care and caution when driving thro ugh a school zone. The streets must be made safe for all, in cluding our children. Recent stat istics show that we in Gerogia have nothing to be proud of in relation to traffic safety. Week after week, the death toll mounts, apart from the hundreds maimed and injured; and all this is caus ed, for the most part, by a lack of consideration for others. While we are on the subject we make a special plea for ex tra care this Labor Day Week end. With thousands of additional drivers on the road, state offic ials estimate that some 16 per sons will lose their lives intraf fic accidents. What a sorry re flection on our public sense of responsibility, when it can be estimated what we, the citizens of Georgia, will be responsible for such a loss of life. The question of traffic safety is a moral one. A callous dis regard for traffic laws is sin ful, It is not a subject which we can “sweep under the rug” for someone else to think about. Every home in the state should By REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. “Covenant” and "faith” are the themes of to day’s Mass. The God in whom we believe is a God who has affirmed our value to such an extent that He has sought us out, even in our sin and disobedience, and promised us the world and more. And to make these promises a covenant, to make us capable of accepting them, He has poured into our hearts a divine gift we call faith. Faith is our “yes” to His promise and to His love. If a person loves us, we find ourselves per forming loving deeds. It is natural for us to love, and to act our love, in return. But these deeds are not the reason the other person loves us. They are a response. So our deeds, our “works,” are not the reason God loves us (First Reading). We must give thanks by our deeds, as did the Samaritan (Gospel), but our thanks do not win us health and life. Only faith, His gift, does that. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 ST. STEPHEN, KING CONFES SOR. Man is by nature a doer, an actor. The villain of the Gospel story thought he was refrain because he feared the Lord, he feared responsibility. But for man there is no neu- tralarea between doing good and doing evil. tf we do not good, we thereby do evil. If we do not do evil, we there by do good (First Re ading). The business of public worship is an ex ample. Refusal to take part in the Sunday assembly of God’s people is not a neutral act. Insofar as it is deliberate, it is already idolatry and sin. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 ST. PIUS X, POPE, CONFESSOR. The Gospel is not a message de vised by men or subject to men’s approval. But to preach it, to exercise leadership and authority in the Church, one must love the whole race of men to whom the Gospel is addressed (First Reading). And one must love Jesus Christ, so that one is content and proud to be His vicar and His instrument (Gospel). Authority in the Ch urch is a work of love. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 MASS AS ON SUNDAY. Prescriptions, regulations, for mulae—these things by themselves mean bondage. They mean slavery to the human elemenr in the Church. But faith in Jesus Christ breathes holy liberty into the Christian's life, without injuring his respect for laws and dogmas. The latter convince us of our limitatons, our weakness and infirmity. Faith convinced us of God’s certain and everlasting love. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 ST. LAWRENCE JUSTINIAN, BISHOP, CONFESSOR. To “enter into the joy of thy master” (Gospel) is a re ward beyond any legitimate aspiration of a cre ature. But we are more than creatures, a con viction we celebrate at every gathering around the altar. We are sons and heirs. Jesus here gives us the right to rejoice in confident hope. The Christian has a right to be happy. FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 6 MASS AS ON SUN DAY. “Remember, Lord, the covenant you made,” we repeat in the Entrance and Gradual Hymns. We sing these words, not in doubt of God's constancy, but to remind ourselves that our eucharistic assembly is a covenant-assembly— created by God’s Word, called together by God’s Word. It is a sure thing, a firm foundation, in a temporal sphere where hesitancy, insecur ity and vacillation are common. SEPTEMBER 7 ST. MARY ON SATURDAY. Mary, as the first of the redeemed, is the figure who stands before us all in her full human glory, “blessed,” “full of grace,” as we re peat in today's liturgy. For in Jesus Christ it is neither cynical nor naive to speak of human glory, of divinized man. Such is His mission. Such is the effect of His power as Saviour. We see the result of His mission and the effect of His power in Mary, and we rejoice in her in tercession. CBS network has had even worse luck with their Moscow correspondents. Both Paul Niven and David Schonbraun were thrown out of the Soviet capital for their hard hitting reporting. In addition for the past eighteen months CBS has produced quite a number of “anti-Communist specials” including one in January of this year entitled, "War on the Top of the World.” In June, the “Look Up and Live” program had a fine presentation of thetrialand imprisonment of the late Cardinal Stepinac of Yugoslavia. Last year CBS also showed specials on “EastGermany- the Land Beyond the Wall.” “The Communist Squeeze in Cuba,” and “Gemany - Red Spy Tar- II get. THERE W ERE, in addition, dramas appearing on all the networks which gave exposes on Com munist tactics and infiltration in national and international life. The Mindszenty Foundation is quite unrealistic. The television industry has a function of diversity in information and enter tainment. It can’t be showing anti-Communist programs every night, or indeed every week. But it does enough in this field to more than answer the petty accusations of subtle Communist infil tration of its networks. The war against Communism is a deadly ser ious business. We will not make any real head way against it until our anti-Communism is shorn of political propaganda; until we are prepared to heed the voice of the Chuch, especially that of the Popes. I think the Mindszenty Foundationwould be doing its members and the country a much more con structive service if it initiated courses of study in anti-Communism as so clearly defined in the late Pope John’s two encyclicals, Mater Et Magistra, and Pacem In Terris. After all, the group's named for one ot the greatest heroes in the fight against Communism. What better tri bute to Cardinal Mindszenty could there be than to heed the positive anti-Communism of our Popes ?