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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1963
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SIIVINO OlOCOlA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
Published Every Week at the Decatur Dekalb News . _ „
PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan **** * sS
MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kleraan
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.
<|P
Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga.
U.S.A. $5.00
Canada $5.50
Foreign $6.50
Ci viJ Rights
Our archdiocesan St. Martin’s
Council on Human Relations is
touring parishes, bringing to the
people information and discuss
ion on various aspects of the
fight for racial justice. One of
the most frequently brought-up
questions by audiences relates
to Civil Rights legislation pre
sently before Congress.
There seems to be an awful
lot of misinformation concerning
this proposed legislation, and we
think the St. Martin’s Council
is performing a useful service in
explaining it -- devoid of politi
cal emotion. The one section that
seems to create most fears is
Title Two which bans discrimina
tion in public accommodation.
What does this Title provide
for? Simply the right of all cit
izens to full and equal access
to the services and facilities of
public establishments if such
business is to a substantial de
gree to serve interstate travel
ers or affect the movement of
goods in interstate commerce.
Private clubs are not affected.
Although we are not expressing
an official Catholic viewpoint on
this matter, we do feel that the
public accommodation section of
the Civil Rights legislative pro
posals is not demanding anything
against individual or state rights.
A lot is made of the fact that
it is an attack on property rights.
But property rights are not ab
solute when the common good is
affected. This can be found in
any study of the Papal so
cial encyclicals. Furthermore,
the section is not an invasion of
a man’s privacy or of a bus
iness establishment’s property
rights. It concerns only public
accommodation.
We feel that if our people re
ally study the proposed Civil
Rights legislation -- free from
prejudice and political pres
sure -- they will discover that
all that it is demanding is equ
al treatment in public accomo
dations for all our citizens. There
is no compulsion anticipated in
respect to prvate clubs or or
ganizations. It is not too much to
ask that those who make profit
from all our citizens refrain
from discriminating against
some, merely because they are
colored.
The discriminatory tradit
ions of the past (and in some
cases, of the present) is no ex
cuse for blind opposition to the
legislation. After all, if men had
moved to end such practices in
a voluntary manner, legal reme
dies would not have been nec
essary.
The Protestant Press
October is being celebrated as
Protestant Press Month. It gives
us an opportunity for a double
acknowledgment: we greet and
congratulate fellow editors inthe
growing Protestant press, and
welcome one of the newest edi
tions, the monthly newspaper of
the Episcopal Diocese of Atlan
ta, whose masthead has a very
simple title, “The Diocese’’. We
wish it a long and fruitful apos-
tolate.
The vast circulation of the Ca
tholic press in this country some
times leads us to forget that our
separated brethren are becoming
"SPECK"
#./f.
“Did we hint fun at ramp. Sinter!*
more and more aware of the pow
er of the printed word. We share
the religious press field with all
men of good will; our own Ca
tholic Press is affiliated with a
national organization of religious
press associations. In these
times of a renewed ecumenical
spirit, this is as it should be. The
stakes are too high for press po
lemics against each other. It is a
time for service in order that the
community may have a vital spi
ritual as well as temporal, func
tion.
We have been taught that the
duty and honor of the press,par
ticularly the religious press, is
to enlighten, nourish, and elevate
minds and hearts. The religious
press, therefore, must be as im
portant to the life of the commu
nity as the secular press. It
must strive to have at least as
much influence. It must be the
representative mouthpiece of all
Christian thinking and informa
tion. It must protect the vital
interests of Christians in a com
munity, both in their work and
leisure -- in their education, in
their growth. It must fight for
the reform of many conditions
which are a denial of the dignity
of men or an obstacle to his
progress.
But that is not all - the reli
gious newspaper in striving for
the good of the Church within the
community, must also fight and
work for the common good - this
includes Catholics, Protestants,
Jews; it includes Negroe s, Puerto
Ricans, Chinese, Japanese, and
any other race, color, or creed
within the community. We have a
strict obligation to work for the
protection and assistance of
every one, so that they may en
joy a right and reasonable life.
BREAKING THROUGH THE SPAGHETTI CURTAIN
MEDITATIVE PRAYER
Month Of The Rosary
BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEVV
October, the month dedicated to the devotion of
the Rosary, has just begun. The Rosary is appa
rently a very simple matter. It ought to be natural
to speak of it with the utmost simplicity. And yet,
as is so often the case, the more simple a subject
appears, the more difficult and complicated it is
to discuss it with clarity and depth. The problem
seems more acute in our time which does not
value simplicity and which has lost the art of
leisure and contemplation.
The first element of the Rosary prayer that will
strike anyone's attention is that it is accomplished
with the aid of an external, the beads. What is
their purpose? It is, quite simply, to free the
mind from mechanical details
in order to attend to the essen
tial. Each bead follows the other
and their number maintains the
repeated prayers in the meas
ured pace sanctioned by long ex
perience. The pattern proceeds
of itself, as it were, and the
mind is free to turn to the con
templation that is the heart of
the Rosary.
The second most noticeable characteristic of the
Rosary prayer is its use of formulated prayers and
particularly the manner in which they are repeated
It is not very useful to introduce in this regard
the distinction between vocal and mental prayer.
The Rosary represents a determined form of re
ligious activity with a unity all its own. Un
necessary distinctions of the various kinds of
prayer contained in it run the risk of weakening
this unity and denaturing this unique devotion. The
Rosary is essentially a meditative and contemp-
plative prayer. The formulated prayers - Creed,
Our Father, Hail Mary, Gloria - serve to focus
and anchor the meditation.
The formulated prayers of the Rosary are the
most fundamental of the Catholic religion. There
are no frills in the Rosary, properly understood
and properly prayed. The Apostles’ Creed, which
serves as the introduction, presents the whole
panorama of the faith in a form made venerable
by centuries of usage. Originally a declaration
of allegiance pronounced by converts at their bap
tismal initiation into the Christian faith, it re
calls the foundations of our religion. It forms the
setting, the atmosphere, for the contemplation of
the mysteries of redemption which follow. The Our
Father which opens each decade is a gift of Our
Lord to be a model of every Christian prayer.
It guides our thought the most sublime contemp
lation fo God's loving fatherhood, his will and his
kingdom and our own pressing needs which only
He can fulfill.
It is Mary and her special prayer, the Angelic
Salutation, that are the central focus of the Rosary ,
The first part of the Hail Mary is taken from the
New Testament, the first chapter of St. Luke’s
Gospel, and repeats the words addressed to
Mary by the angel Gabriel and by Elizabeth, the
mother of John the Baptist. The second part of
the prayer is an ancient Invocation asking for the
continuous intercession of Mary before her Son.
The Rosary is Mary’s; in large part it is ad
dressed to her and is said in her spirit. And yet,
the Rosary is a Christ-centered prayer and con
templation. This is the paradox which most Ca
tholics realize instinctively but which very often
» puzzles Protestants. The solution is contained in
the person of Mary herself. Mary is she whose
life as a woman has been completely filled with
Christ. What she is and everything about her is de
termined by her unique relationship to Him, her
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier and Son. This is
what makes her more than a saint among saints.
And this is what makes the Rosary not an acces
sory devotion but a fully Christ-centered prayer
of contemplation.
The object of our contemplation in the Rosary-is
Christ engaged in the work of redeeming mankind.
In the Joyful Mysteries, we see his infancy and
youth during which he prepares for his work. Al
ready the foretaste of his sufferings are felt.
The Sorrowful Mysteries follow the ordeal of
Christ from the Garden of Olives to his death.
The final cycle of mysteries, the Glorious, por
trays^ his triumph and the accomplishment, in
Mary’s Assumption and glorification, of an exemp
lar of the salvation he has won for all.
LITURGICAL WEEK
6 In Him We Become Rich 9
BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA
OCTOBER 6 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST. As we gather for the Eucharist
today, we who are, some of us, sick, some poor,
some jobless, some burdened with unspoken con
flicts are told that we are rich. “You have become
rich, through him, in every way’’ (First Reading)
And the Gospel confirms this verdict with Jesus’
deed of absolution, forgiveness, healing. For our
assembly at Sunday Mass, if it tells us nothing
else, speaks every time an opportune word about
our destiny—as it does about our unity.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7 OUR LADY OF THE
ROSARY. Time is fleeting and life is short,
but the Christian's dignity and sense of destiny
is sung today in the words of Proverbs (First
Reading) applied to the Blessed Virgin. “Already
I lay in the womb, when the depths were not
yet in being.*’ Our roots are in timelessness,
as our source is in God’s thought and will. So
the type of private prayer, the Rosary, which
this Mass honors, is (unlike the sacramental
worship of the church) a kind of gentle rhythm
in timelessness, without beginning or end.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8 ST. BRIDGET, WIDOW,
The Church’s lavishness in its praise of holy
men and women is not comouflaged idolatry.
It is precisely praised of what God has done in us,
of His works. “Blessed are they who are un
defiled in the way’* (Entrance Hymn). “God has
blessed you forever’* (Gradual and Offertory
Hymns).
WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 9 ST. JOHN LEON
ARD!, CONFESSOR, When we speak of the Ch
urch's missionary task we no longer think of only
foreign lands nor of clergy and Religious exclu
sively. The whole Church must be a witnessing
as a worshiping community. Today's Mass com
municates a sense of the urgency of our witness
for Christ (Gospel) and cautions us to commend
our witness b virtue and not to preach oursel
ves , but Jesus Christ.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10 ST. FRANCIS BOR-
CONTLNLED ON PAGE 5
Our crises, however real and
frightening they may be, cannot
rob us of our destiny—as long
as we can turn to Jesus'absolute
power for forgiveness. For this
power can turn any evil to good
and any sinner to God. We can
not celebrate this sacrificial
meal without becoming deeply
conscious that we are people
liberated from the despair
which so often seems the human
POLITICAL INTEREST
— 3
Wheat And
Hypocricy
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
The huge wheat deal recently consummated
between Canada and the Soviet Union has revi
ved talk in this country of a resumption of
large scale, non-strategic material trade with
Communist countries. It also points up a terrible
fraud in relation to political anti-Communism.
One of the reasons
why we have not en
couraged trade with
Red nations is be
cause we have always
had the feeling that
it would help Com
munism to consoli
date its position be
hind the Iron and
Bamboo Curtains.
Many people have thought the policy wrong,
but have been afraid to express their views
publicity, fearing the wrath and pressures of
the political anti-Communists.
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
READERS WILL recall that suggestions were
made a couple of years ago that our govern
ment should offer wheat to the starving people
of China. There the Communists have made
such a mess of their agricultural and industrial
set-up that millions are deprived of subsistence.
These suggestions were made on humanitarian
grounds, but they got nowhere, because no res
ponsible congressman or senator could risk his
political future. There are always elections and
the self-appointed patriots who oppose every
thing, could be expected to charge a legislator
with being “ultra-Liberal”, “Leftist”, or” soft
on Communism.” This fear of Right Wing Ex
tremist denunciation has led to stagnation in
many areas of international trade in which most
of the benefits would be accrued by this coun
try.
I am reminded of all this on reading about
Republican as well as Democrat legislators from
our wheat-growing states perking up and showing
interest in current suggestions that we get
rid of our wheat surplus through trade with Russia
and other Red countries. Even some of our farm
groups, whose record in the past has been most
noticeable, for its stress on ultra-Conservatism
and anti-Communism, have not come out with a
flat “no" to the idea. In other words, their
antipathy towards Communism and trade with
Communism* is tempered by self-interest. I feel
there is a little bit ofhypocrisyin all when some
express the attitude that it is all right to trade
with the Reds as long as they are benefiting
from it. There is a lot of selfishness in the
political anti-Communism of many groups within
this country. “A fast buck is a fast buck, even
if I am an anti-Communist,’’so the thought goes.
THIS IS ONE of the reasons why I keep stress
ing that to be successful, anti-Communism must
have a spiritual base. It certainly needs to be
promoted in political ways, but politics must
never be the sole guide for our anti-Communist
activities. This is all the more so at present,
when the initial skirmishes looking toward the
1964 Presidential elections take place. There will
be lots of charges and innuendo leveled against
honorable men on both sides of the political
fence. At both ends of the political spectrum
there are extremists ready to pillory good names
with photostatic half-truths and distortions. A
sincere expression of sympathy for starving Ch
inese children will be decried as un-American;
an appeal to jaw instead of war with the Soviet
Union will be labled appeasement; an expressed
fear of radioactive fall-out will be labeled cow
ardice; Fervent exhortation for the granting of
equal rights to Negroes will be construed as
a Communist attack on States Rights; an appeal
for government aid to the aged and needy will
be labeled Socialism. All the stops will be pulled
out in order that the vocal minority, who promote
this extremist propaganda, can sabotage any steps
to ease international tensions and further steps (
being taken to achieve civic peace at home.
ONE HAS ONLY to glance through the cyni
cal, negative, comments to be found in some of ^
our extremists publications to understand they are W
making an all-out effort to halt the positive steps
being taken to find accommodation with the Rus
sians and bring some semblance of peace to
this troubled world.
One would not mind the negative wailing of the
extreme Right, if it were not for the fact that
it offers no alternatives other than the big stick
and continued belligerancy. One would wish that
at least the Catholics among them would sit
down and make a serious attempt at studying
the late Pope John's two famous encyclicals,
Mater Et Magistra and Pacem In Terris. The
mandate to work for peace is surely in those
documents; so is the mandate for assistance to
the under-developed new nations, the aged and
the poor wherever they are, disarmament, the
abolishing of nuclear warfare, strengthening the
United Nations, and fighting for racial justice.
THE TROUBLE is, the extremists listen only
to men. They adhere to the principle that relig
ion is for church, and has no bearing on every
day life. One of these people told me recently
that Pope John was a very sick man when Pacem
hi Terns was published. Hence, 1 should not
really attribute to him some of the Socialistic
doctrine contained in it. “If he had been a
well man, he would not have allowed them to
publish it und.r his name.” Unfortunately, the
gentlemen in question was a practicing Catholic
who thinks that most Catholic editors and colu
mnists in the Catholic press have been subtely
brain-washed by Communist infiltrators who are
in every sphere of Catholic life. There is no
doubt that we all need seriously to examine our
consciences and strive to make our antl-Com-
mur.nm devoid of political quackery, heeding the
Church, which was in this field long before our
modern self-appointed patriots.