Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

» t PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1963 the Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA BULLETIN SERVING GEORGIA S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published Every Week at the Decatur Dekalb News PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kieman 2699 Peachtree N.E. P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Ga Member of the Catholic Press Association nd Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga. i U.S.A. $5.0C Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 Bingoitis Georgia's Attorney General, Eugene Cook, recently assured a Cedartown Baptist minister that bingo is illegal in the state -- even if the proceeds go to charity. The attorney general’s ruling came after the minister had re ported that he and other clergy men in Cedartown and Polk Cou nty were concerned about two lar ge bingo operations (unidentified) which had not been closed down by the local sheriff. We presume that the bingo operations referred to are for charitable causes, beca use it was on this latter point that the minister's inquiry was made. Everyone knows that bingo is used in some Catholic parishes, not only in Gerogia, but through out the country to assist in the financing of churches, schools, and welfare causes. There is not hing underhanded about the oper ations, and they are conducted in orderly manner. There is no per sonal profit involved, and the money raised, especially for sc hools and social welfare, is a direct saving to the taxpayer. O f course, the Catholic Church is not the only religious group involved. Furthermore, many fraternal organizations, in cluding the American Legion, Kn ights of Columbus, Elks, and Sh rine groups in various parts of the country use bingo operations to help the needy and the aged to have a better life. Let it be said right away that gambling in itself is not sinful any more than is drinking or in dustrial sweepstakes by Lever Brothers or Proctor and Gamble. Excessive gambling, however, just as excessive drinking, is sinful, and we condemn this as much as any other evil. We are discussing here, not excessive gambling but a social game played for charitable caus es, which far from harming the community, often serves its best interests. Certainly the charit able activities of the Church, American Legion, and many Shriner groups, need no defense. There are monuments to these efforts in every community throughout the land. There is, too, another angle to all this, which seems to have been forgotten in the discussion. The bingo operations by most organi zations are on private property. We hear a lot these days about church, as well as a business' privacy and the right to admit only whites on their property. The same right of privacy and of property are surely applicable in relation to bingo for charity on the property of the organization or church involved. In saying all this, however, we are not unmindful of the need for the respect to the laws of this state. Hence, if they are applied by local enforcement agencies in relation to bingo for charity, then we must accept it as good citi zens. However, we suggest a pra ctical approach: In many states bingo for char ity is licensed and supervised by cities and towns involved. We think the present Georgia law in relation to bingo operations for charity should either be repealed or amended, so that properly sup ervised and regulated operations can be allowed to continue un hindered, as long as it is clear ly stated that all proceeds go to works of charity and service within the community. GERARD E. SHERRY UNICEF Trick Or Treat Next Thursday is Hallowe'en. It is a time when the children of this country join forces with the witches and goblins, and all the other imaginary “little peo ple” in a candy feast through door to door visitation. Mil lions of dollars are spent throughout the country to make this last day of October a gas- tronomical success. In recent years, Hallowe’en has become a reminder of the fact that, while most of our kids have plenty, many children throughout the world are deprived of even the baisc necessities. To focus on the plight of the world's un derprivileged children, the Unit ed Nations Association of the United States sponsors a “tpick or treat” collection, urging that some of the surplus candy money be donated to the United Nations Children’s Fund. The “fright-peddlers” and the Right Wing extremists have op posed UNICEF and the Hallow’en collection because some of the money goes to children in Com munist countries. In other words, the humanitarian aspects of UNI CEF are drowned in a sea of po litical hate. To us, the crass, un- Christian, attitude of those who oppose UNICEF on political grounds is unworthy of the at tention of any genuinely patrio tic citizen. We cannot hold a star ving child responsible for the po litics of his father; nor can we blame him for the political means test, when we should get out of the business of giving especially to “little ones’ , and admit our hy pocrisy. We urge readers to give to the UNICEF “Trickortreat” collec tion on this Hallowe’en. We re mind Catholics who have been in fluenced by Extremist propagan da that ever since the inception of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Vatican has made an annual contribution of several thousand collars. As we have said many times before, we pre fer to accept the judgment of the Holy See over that of the “fright peddlers.” “GOOD HEAVENS, I FEEL JUST LIKE A KID AGAIN' CATHOLIC SCHOOLS ‘Problems Of Success’ BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW The recent article in a national magazine ent itled "Trouble Ahead For Catholic Schools'* and the attractive brochure on "The Mind of the Ar chdiocese" sent out by Archbishop Hallinan make provocative and complementary reading. Both are examples of the relatively new and eminently healthful trend to open discussion of Church con cerns and problems. (In how many ways, ultim ately, will we have to be grateful to Pope John's notion of "letting some fresh air into the Ch- urchfn The Catholic school system in this country, in which severalgenerationshave invested an over flowing measure of dedication and sacrifice, is and should be a source of tremendous pride. If t±rt should be a source of tremendous- pride. If this complex network of schools, which serves almost five and a half million children in elementary and high schools alone, must to day face some urgent problems, it is also true that these are "the problems of success," as Monsignor Frederick G. Hoch- walt, N. C. W. C. education director, has called them. They are problems created basically by the continually growing de mand on the part of American Catholics for Catholic education and first-rate Catholic education at that. "When a boy or girl is old enough to treat reading and writing with academic respect, Catholic parents believe it is time for the same respect to be paid to the truths of religion." Precisely because this conviction, stated in "The Mind of the Archdio cese", has become practically universal, the Cat holic school system is beset by many serious present and future problems. SINCE 1940 THE number of pupils in Catholic elementary and secondary schools has increased by 129%, almost two and half times the rate of growth of the public schools 1 This classroom population explosion is one of the bases of the dilemma that faces Catholic school systems throughout the nation, particularly in the burgeo ning metropolitan centers where most of our popu lation is concentrated. The cost of providing the requisite physical facilities has become stagger ing. To operate the schools at all, principals must employ an increasing proportion of lay teachers, to whom there is an obligation (lar gely unmet) to offer salaries and fringe bene fits that compete with those offered by the ta>- supported schools. Overcrowded classrooms aid the inability to hire enough adequately trained lay teachers are immediate and far-reaching ef fects of the startling and continuing growth of the Catholic school population. Added to the frustration inherent in the growth- cost squeeze is that born of the apparent un willingness, the country to see the education of children in Catholic schools as a national responsibility. The Catholic argument proposing the government's obligation to offer equal aid to all educational institutions serving the public has never had a fair hearing. It is some small consolation that recently the point has apparent ly been brought home to several liberal and reli gious publications outside the Catholic Church. A realistic attitude, however, cannot place much hope at the present time on governmental assis tance to meet the problems of Catholic education. The only resource available is the heroic, re peatedly proven, spirit of sacrifice of the Catholic laity. This indicates another concern. AS ILLOGICAL AS it may be on the face of it, in discussions of education the cliche for these years is the "Post-sputnik era." The tec hnical superiority of the Soviet Union to the United States in the field of orbital flight trig gered, or at least provided an excuse for, a critical re-appraisal of our educational standards. A great deal of room for improvement in con tent, methods and organization has been indicated by leading educators. Catholic educators and, naturally enough, Catholic parents have taken part in this sometimes painful but necessary critical evaluation of our schools. The point is growing clearer that, if we are to expect continued sac rifice to support Catholic schools, these schools must be as well equipped and managed, as am bitious in their programs, as generous in the op portunities they offer as the public schools. As Father Theodore Hesburgh, Notre Dame Univer sity president, said: "We Catholics should not take on any education that we can't do well. There is no excuse for doing things second- i’•are." LITURGICAL WEEK Kingship Over All BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA OCTOBER 27 FEAST OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING. "My kingdom does not take its origin here" (Gospel). Today's feast, though we find it hard to fit it into the traditional pattern of the Church’s feasts and season turns our minds to an aspect of our Lord that we are just begin ning to comprehend: the fact that in Jesus Ch rist we have not only the key to our salvation but also the key to the whole evolution of man and the world he lives • in toward a consummation. His "kingship" is over "all things" (First Reading) and is a much more mysterious and in timate thing than a mere external rule. "It was God's good pleasure to let all completeness dwell in him." Or, as the Preface states it: ". . .that, all creation being subdued to his rule, he might hand over a universal and eve rlasting kingdom. . . His rule (i.e., He himself) is the ultimate form of creat ion and particularly of man. Before His coming in history, everything is meant to grow in Him and toward Him . Since we end this week with emphasis on the community, family, fraternal nature of the Church, it is helpful to begin it with this pro fession of faith in the source of our commune and our fraternity. MONDAY. OCTOBER 28 SS. SIMON AND JUDE, APOSTLES. The Apostles, as the first, prime bishops of the Church, remind us, too, how deeply social and cosmic salvation is. For we belong to a community for bread and book and bishop. The holy bread of the Eucharist and the holy oook of revelation require a minister and a pre acher. And the men and women who taste the bread and hear the book are persons whose unity in bread and book requires an organization with a person at its head, the bishop, the successor of the apostles we celebrate today. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29 MASS AS ON 21ST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. ^'All things, Lord, are subject to your power. . .'* begins the re frain of the Entrance Psalm. And the Scriputre lessons have basically but two things to declare. The First tells the Church that since "all complet eness" is in Christ and all the world belongs to Him, we have not to look for the enemy of our salvation in the world. It does not exUt there. It is "in an order higher than ours/' WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30 MASS AS OF YES- CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 F.B.I. REPORTS Enforcement Leads €rime BY GERARDE. SHERRY The bleak picture o community- moral stand ards as reflected in current crime statistics leads many citizens o wonder whether there is any effective law enforcement in this country. It is, therefore,» pity that the Federal Bureau of Investigation hasn't got sufficient funds to send their annual leport for 1963 to every house hold. I got one h my office the other day, and it was quite coisoling in many respects. The report admits ne tremendous increase in all types of crime choughout the nation. But it also shows that ou- nation’s leading enforcement agency has do»e more than merely bemoan cri minal activiv* The report is most reassuring, even if one r^rets the necessity for it. J. Edgar Hoover, Director o' the F. B. L, makes the rat her pertiient note that whil< the law less surpassed pre vious re ords, so did the F. 3. L He re ported that the big gest ircrease in vio lation' of F ed- eral laws under the F. I. L's jurisdiction was the big jump in the nunher of bank robberies, burglaries, and lar- ceiies. These offenses reached a new high of 1,571 during the year; an increase of 297 over tie prior 12 months. There also was a continu ing increase in the interestate movement of stolen notor vehicles being recovered after they had been transported interstate. Significantly, over 96% of the persons brought to trial in cases investigated by the F. B. L cases were 12,816, some 181 more than last year. Another interesting figure reveals that the F. B. L located 11,887 fugitives from justice in 1963, as compared to a little over 9,(XX) four years ago. We hear a lot these days in both the news papers and on television about Joe Valachi, ami La Cosa Nostra, the well-organized secret society of criminals. But the F. B. L has known about it for quite some time, and has paid spec ial attention to it. The underworld is never safe from penetration by F. B. L activities, and the bosses are marked men long before they are actually arrested and tried. One often thinks of the F. B. L as an agency mainly concerned with criminals and general crime. But it is also, active in anti-racketeer ing and labor-management infractions. Business is also affected through F. B. L investigations of anti-trust charges and the like. One other field in which the F. B. L is well- known is that in relation to internal security and subversion against the state. Mr. Hoover's report gives a very reassuring account of his agency's efforts to protect this democracy from subversion from abroad. He says that despite all the laws and steps taken against the Commun ist Party in the United States, the Reds still continue their untiringefforts to advance the cause of world Communism. Furthermore, the U. S. Communist Party constantly displays its alleg iance to the Soviet Union. Mr. Hoover makes the following important point in this regard: "A new trend is evolving within the Party. A number of Party leaders believe they now are safe from arrests for some time. They contend there will be no more charges brought against them under the Internal Security Act of 1951 until the cases against (Gus) Hall and (Ben jamin J. ) Davis are settled finally by the Supreme Court. This, they conjecture, may take as long as five years and may result in the law being declared unconstitutional. Based on this reason ing, they are convinced the Party can and should function more openly. "Thus, while the Party's lawyers fight the various charges in the courts and before hear ing officials, attempting to delay and frustrate legal action wherever possible, Communist lea ders arts expanding their drive for public suppor Speaking engagements, press interviews, rad and television appearances are openly soug’ Party leaders are ready, willing, and they clo to be aOl« to speak with authority on any tor They profess to have a solution to all ills d portrav & Communist .world as Utopia. "During the 1963 fiscai year, Comm st> spokesman have stressed such domestic ies as the civil rights struggle, the abolition internal security programs and Corr Ss “ ional committees investigating CommuniJ and the reduction of military spending with t) unds diverted to social welfare projects. Th' leVer fail to lay claim to being the staunchest most effective defenders of the Bill of Rights. ‘•Their major aim is to convey th^P^ 3 " sion that Communists are loyal citi/ dl ® United States who merely hold poll 11 vdews which differ from those currently prev n S* They deny any directioni from abroad, an« le 8 e they seek change only through legal mean REAPINGS AT RANDOM Anti-Communism, as expressedt r * Hoover * is much easier to understand anc* p P° rt th an that expressed by self-appointed > tr | ot 11 w4, ° mostly talk and write letters. Uwr“ ^ urne, ‘* tation or facts about Communist y an * Mr * Hoover's are far more reliable * e phostat - ic half-truths which often com^° ss ' desk from the 'fright peddlers" of th xtreme Right. The F. B. L designates a 1 a ^tm^unist only after a ithorough investif' n * a Nvhen a ^ the evidence is in; it labels* ups as subver sive only when the evidenc(° v ^ *• and justice Department has ma he v, - ssa ry an nouncement. The F. B. L '? r with half-truths or innue? J b str ictly to the facts.