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Page 4 Georgia bulletin Thursday, September 12, 1963 the Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA BULLETIN ss SERVING GEORGIA S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published Every Week at the Decatur Dekalb News J > 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 j U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 men jes^' m 2699 Peachtree N.E. P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Ga. Application to mail at Second Class Postage Rates is pending at Atlanta, Ga. No Daydreams! BECOMING MAN EDUCATION THOUGHTS Less Harried Mothers Pope Paul’s appeal of last week for help from the laity in the works of the Church stressed the necessity for both spiritual and technical competence. We must therefore raise our sights to those properly human goals which pertain to the realm of spirit, and by this fact are at tained only with great effort and the passage of much time. We must rouse ourselves from day dreams and fancy and face the cold hard facts of the real world. The unreal world of the immature is a simple black and white world in which each problem has its neat solution, each item has its labelled pigeon hole. By an act of the will, con sciously, coldly, calculatingly, we must decide to face up to complexity, to large areas of greys, to problems that have no solution, to matters that stub bornly refuse to be pigeonholed. We must turn away from the adolescent quest for immediate victory, or even of jobs that can be completed. We must turn to- A few months ago we printed an editorial on the sad state of teenage unemployment. Since then, a report of the President’s Committee on Youth Employment has been issued. The report em phasizes more than ever the intensity of the teenage unem ployment problem. We urge all teenagers who are considering dropping out of high school - and the parents of such teenagers - to think over these findings of the President’s Commission before tney make a final decision. First of all, 26 million boys and girls will leave school and seek jobs in the 1 960’s. If the cur rent rate of youth population in creases, by 1970 the number of unemployed youths will reach one and a half million. How does this concern the high school “dropout” 7 In the 1960’s, while the labor force is growing so rapidly, the need for unskilled workers will remain about the same. This means that the “dropout” who ordinarily is numbered among the unskilled, becomes part of an increasing labor force which has a decreas ing demand for its services. Second, the jobs that are avail able today and that will be avail able tomorrow, demand more skill and training than jobs de manded in the past. This means that youths will need more and not less schooling if they wishtofind long-range and rewarding em ployment. Third, at the present time about one in six of all unemployed who are out of school are 16 to 21 years old, although this age group wards that adult world in which we have the obligation to attempt, the impossible, while haunted by the certainty of failure. Finally, we must encourage a sense of dedication. We must constantly radiate that spirit of service and self sacrifice which is the es sence of the true Christian. Let us not be bogged down or diverted from our purpose by po litical slogans or supermarket patriotism. While we join our anti-communist or patriotic or ganizations, let us always re member that the only way to eradicate communism, secula rism or any other evil ism is to live the Christian life to the full. Too many of us spend our time shouting from the housetops about this and that, but very seldom doing anything about it. Let us not pin an ignoble label on every social innovation. Let us avoid the negative whenever possible. Evil is a fact of life but so is good. And the good we can do in life, in our community, can be measured only in the terms of the spirit of service, and sacri fice we offer to our neighbors. BY FR. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW September is the month for going back to school, the delight of harried mothers and the despair of their offspring. Seldom has any nation been so ob sessed as we are with some of the aspects, at any rate, of the educative process. The sums an nually expended for public, parochial and private schools are astronomical. We have almost com pletely achieved our national ambition of univer sal schooling on the elementary level and we are rapidly approaching it even on the higher levels. At the same time, ever since the day the Rus sians floated their first Sputnik into space (which must be considered a “moment of truth” for American educa tion), we have been plagued with a seemingly endless series of apparently insoluble educa tional crises of conscience. We have been told that our educa tional standards donotmeasure up to the Russians’. The various ramifications of Federal help for education have piled one on top of the other to the confusion of almost every body. Teachers’ salaries receive their periodic sympathetic nod. The unemployment situation in the nation has focused attention on the problem of the school drop-out. THE CATHOLIC educational system in America has been variously and justly described as the pride and the backbone of the American Church. It is huge but not big enough to meet the demands made upon it; diffuse although it leaves whole areas of the country with little or no facilities; very good butfar from perfect; deserving of praise, and yet much in need of constructive criticism (which it is receiving in large doses from various quarters). September is a good time to reflect, from viewpoint of Catholic principles, on the pur pose of the education being provided at consider able sacrifice for our youth from kindergarten to college. The Abbot of a prominent English Benedictine pray for. This divinized life, this christened life, into which our eucharistic worship immerses us, hoping that some of itwill stick. But it is a choice, we see in both Scripture readings today, between two priorities; God and His saving deeds and the will those deeds reveal, on the one hand, and a narrow and animal "common sense” on the other. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, MASS AS ON SUNDAY. As we share the holy Bread today we sing: "The bread I will give you is my own flesh, given for the life of the world.” Given for life, and for all the freedom and expansiveness which the vision of the risen Christ offers. The moral demands of the First Reading are as much "be yond us” as the glory of life-through-death, but the latter has been given and invites the former. If we accept the latter we must at least engage ourselves with grace-ful effort with the former. SEPTEMBER 18, EMBER WEDNESDAY. Again the seasonal days of prayer, fasting, ordaining, which we call Ember days. The Gospel convinces us of our need of new life, a life in which prayer and fasting fit. The Second Reading tells us about listening to the Book of life, the Bible. The First describes the full flowering of life in the kingdom of heaven in terms of a perfect harvest festival, in terms of an unclouded enjoyment of the fruits of work well done. boys’ school attended an educators'meeting some years ago. One of the committees was appointed to explore the "ultimate aims” of the work of education. In making their report to the final session of the convention, they cloaked their lack of conclusions in the pompous language all too typical of such occasions; "It is not immediately evident in what direction the ultimate goal of our efforts may lie but it rather appears that we are striving toward a great unknown....” The Abbot rose to his feet. "I know why I am educating my boys,” he said. "I am educating them for their death.” The effect on the assembly, the Abbot commented later, was as if he had uttered some dire obscenity. THE FACT of the matter is that for all of us Catholics who are concerned with education (and that includes all of us - teachers, students, pa rents, clergy and laity in general), the point of education, like the point of life in toto, is in pre paration for death. Which is a roundabout way of saying that the aim of education in the broadest sense is the preparation of the whole person - mind, will, conscience and manners - to meet the demands of a fully human and fully Chris tian life. Obviously, only a part of this "educa tion” is the responsibility of the school. The home, the Church, the community, all have an important role to play. If we turn our attention only to education in the strict sense, the same principles remain true. Here it is a question, at least primarily, of train ing the intellect and reason to meet the demands of life. This means that the level of the educa tion we offer our youth or demand for them (even in public schools) should be as challenging as it can be made. We should be in the forefront of that particular battle. Their education ought to be universal: founded on a philosophy that recognizes man's nature, with its needs and rights, as it truly is and that sees knowledge as a value and perfection in itself. Their education needs final ly to be responsible: not merely a conglomeration of abstract information but the foundation of a conscientious acceptance of their responsibility to God, their Church and their fellow man. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, ST. JANUARIUS & COMPANIONS, MARTYRS. "Whoever perse veres to the end, he sahll be saved” (Gospel). The Christian who perseveres in the eucharistic assembly, returning again and again from his sins, his failures, his detours, to Christ as He acts at the altar in the sacramental deed to save him, to give him life—this man or woman is per severing and is winning the blessing. SEPTEMBER 20, EMBER FRIDAY. Sin, repen- tence, forgiveness—rhese are the dominant notes of the covenant-theme of today’s Mass. The divine love which is God’s covenanted promise to us is not put off by our perversity. He loves and keeps on loving till He strikes a spark of contrition from our flinty hearts, a spark He needs—to do the work that He would do with us, since He made us free. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, ST. MATTHEW, APOSTLE, EVANGELIST. Today’s Mass of the Apostle takes precedence over the Ember Day liturgy. The strange vision of the First Reading is a vision of the life that Jesus brought, the life that He ministers and actualizes in His Church to this day and to the end of time through ministers who are not born but called. The Apostle is not a self-made man, nor is the Christian whom the Eu charist sends out to minister the same burning, living, mobile Word. FUNERAL PRACTICES 6 Remains To Be Seen’ BY GERARD E. SHERRY Once before I commented on the high cost of dying, and I ended up losing almost all the funeral home advertising in the Catholic paper I then edited. I never have worried about such pressures on an editor’s right to comment on the issues of the day, so here goes with a further homily which could be entitled "Remains To Be Seen.” Undertakers have been dealt a rather severe body blow in a recent book entit led, "The American Way of Death” by Jessica Mitford (Si mon fcSchuster, $4.95). It is a volume to be heartily recom mended for those in danger of dying (aren’t we all) and for those who will have to worry about the burial cost. Miss Mitford makes a rather telling case against the materialistic, pagan, and highly commercial ized practices carried on in many funeral homes throughout the nation. This is not a blanket in dictment of the whole profession of undertakers, for the author praises the growth of cooperative memorial societies which provide inexpensive funerals without frills. Indeed, she suggests these cooperatives may save the good name of the funeral business. IT HAS recently been estimated that it costs the average family almost a thousand dollars to bury each of their dead. At least, that is what they pay — even though funeral director's catalogues can offer cheaper burials. Cooperatives are said to be able to provide unostentatious funerals for about half that price. Miss Mitford attacks what many consider to be sordid practices of some morticians and funeral homes, e.g., the employing of beauticians who are expert in preparing a ’life-like” corpse; "Kozee slippers”, "hostess gowns”, "brunch coats”, "soft foam beds”, and the like. Miss Mitford’s book has come under strong attack from all the leading professional orga nizations of undertakers. Indeed, one such offi cial, Wilber M. Krieger, managing director of the National Selected Morticians, charged that Miss Mitford was trying to substitute the atheis tic type of funeral ritual carried on in Communist countries for American funeral practices. THE AUTHOR of' The American Way of Death”, however, has some powerful support for her the sis. Churchmen all over the country have long questioned what is termed "The Neo-pagan Wor ship of the Modern Funeral”. I recall a couple of years ago Jubilee Magazine, one of our better Catholic monthlies, published the results of a poll showing that 41% of Catholic clergymen and 51% of Protestant ministers felt that bereaved fami lies were sometimes exploited by undertakers. The Jubilee article deplored the expensive prac tice of fancy caskets with "semi-tailored interiors of gold tones and savory crepe, electronic systems that pipe cheerful music through funeral parlors, smoking lounges, air conditioning, and limou sines at $35.00 a trip.” Most of the opposition to expensive and expan sive funerals seems to come from Protestant and Jewish leaders. Catholic churches, while de crying the expense, have not been so vocal in their opposition to the unnecessary frills. Indeed, some Catholic officials feel that the open coffin and the wake, either in the home or funeral home, have a beneficial function in the solace and charity of expression engendered by visitors as well as the relatives. One would be inclined to agree with this if it were not for the maudlin deception brought on by modern funeral techni ques. Y'arious professional leaders in the funeral business have charged that the Cooperative Memo rial Society does not believe in religious cere monies, and advocate the "quick disposal of the dead”. The U. S. A. Cooperative League, how ever, contradicts this view and claims that its members, not only plan funerals, but urge a choice of a religious or other memorial service, that will satisfy the deepest needs of the survivors. Miss Mitford s book is a witty expose of modern funeral home practices. There is probably some exaggeration in her presentation, but she includes a lot of irrefutable facts. It will have been a use ful presentation if it encourages funeral direc tors to less commercialization and a greater em phasis on the spiritual aspects of death. The theatrical atmosphere of some modern fu neral homes is certainly not conducive to reli gious practices. Right next door to the so-called chapels are smoking lounges, and hi-fi music is piped through with anything from a hymn to "Beau tiful Dreamer” being offered. The lavish display and perfumed air may well produce "the proper sentiment” but sentiment is never religious con viction. For the true Christian, death is not the end. Although we cease to be men, our soul lives on in heaven, hell, or purgatory. Modern funeral practices tend to create, for the bereaved, a sense of hopelessness, rather than Christian op timism. The loss of a loved one is part of the redemp tive suffering that we must all undergo if we wish to reap the fruits of Calvary. Perhaps we should have the following inscription over the doorway of every funeral home, "here we have no permanent city, but we seek for the city that is to come.” (Heb. 13, 14). Teenagers Need School makes up only one in fourteen of the labor force. These are just a few of a great many facts which add up to the dark situation surrounding the teenage unemployment problem. But the facts show one thing - school is necessary. And school does not mean occupying space in a classroom. It means work ing to train mind and body. In the long run, the school is the only answer for a youth who wants to earn a living. If you think we are kidding, ask one of the hundreds of thousands of youths who have dropped out of school and are now unemployed. THE CATHOLIC STANDARD WASHINGTON, D. C. Transform LITURGICAL WEEK Man In Most Radical Way BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA SEPTEMBER 15, FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. It is hardly surprising that somany of the images the public worship of the Church proposes to our minds are connected with elemen tal things like birth and death, time and history, human acts. Today's Mass again is Christ operating in mystery to put life where there was death, to trans form man in the most radical way possible. This is, after all, basically why we come to Mass. We come to be transformed. It come so that Christ again will identify us with Himself, will feed us with His Mystical Body and make us His Mystical Body. We come because we are only partly living and we want to live fully. So we ask in the Opening Prayer that the Church may "always be ruled by your grace,” meaning your life, divine life, life divinized. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, SS. CORNELIUS & CYPRIAN, MARTYRS. One may wonder, look ing at the martyrs and the countless kinds of pain and suffering which human ingenuity has con trived for the correction of one’s brothers, just what kind of "life” this is—to want and seek and REAPINGS AT RANDOM