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GEORGIA PINES
Georgia Generals
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
On my recent trip to Savannah, one of the more
pleasant experiences I had was dining at Johnny
Ganem’s restaurant. A member of the Cathedral
parish, Savannah’s own "Mr. 5 by 5" has open
ed an interesting emporium on Habersham Street
just south of Saint Joseph’s Hospital. Now what
might seem to be just another endorsement of
another eating establishment is not intended as
such. Yes, the cuisine is wonderful, but I was
fascinated by a particular dining room which Mr.
Ganem calls the "Rebel Room."
I was first introduced to Mr. Ganem by Father
Francis Donahue, the editor of THE SOUTHERN
CROSS, our sister newspaper for the Diocese of
Savannah. Then I was taken to the "Rebel Room.”
which 1 fi found most interesting. Johnny Ganem is
of Lebonese extraction but a na
tive Savannahian who has a deep
love for the traditions which
surround Savannah life.
THE REBEL ROOM is really
Confederate Gallery and in an
: where traditions seem to
a thing of the past, Mr.Gan-
has done an excellent job at
preserving antiquity. Possibly
others have not found this as
interesting, but I must confess that 1 have a
yearning for history and this is why the Rebel
Room intrigued me.
Around the walls are portraits of famous Con
federate Generals and a little brochure prepared
by the restaurant serves as a memento of
one’s visit. Seven of the Generals who served
the Confederate Army were native Savannahians
and twelve in all were in some way or other
closely related to the defense of the Savannah
area. (Many of our counties of the State today
are named after these men who distinguished
themselves in the War Between The States.)
EIGHTEEN MEN ARE pictured on the broc
hure and along with their pictures there is a
short resume of their connection with the port
city. While the story of Fort Pulaski, near Sav
annah, is not described on the folder it is so much
a part of Savannah’s history that it needs no
reminder to the natives.
Fort Pulaski was intended to be a major de
fense for the city of Savannah. It was expec
ted that the invasion of Savannah would take place
by the sea. Instead General Sherman came down
from Atlanta by way of land and took Savannah
from the rear. The Confederate forces were un
der the command of General William J, Hardee
who successfully guided the evacuation of Savan
nah In December of 1864. Later these events
were recorded in a book written by a member
of General Hardee’s staff, General Charles C.
Jones.
ROBERT E. LEE who is probably the most
famous of a 11 Confederate Generals lived for
a while in Savannah. As a young second Lieu
tenant he was assigned to the forces const
ructing Fort Pulaski. A graduate of the United
States Military Academy at West Point, Ny. Y„
he was second in his class. His first assign
ment was to the Corps of Engineers at Cocks-
pur Island in the Savannah River. He was actu
ally in Savannah when he received orders to re
port to Pressident Jefferson Davis in Richmond,
Virginia, and assume command of the Army of
North Virginia.
Another native Savannahian, Francis S. Bartow,
was responsible for the selection of gray as
the official color for the Confederate Army.
Yes, the "Rebel Room” is another must on
your visit to Savannah. A city rich in history
and traditions, Johnny Ganem has done his share
to make a visit enjoyable, entertaining, and in
formative.
QUESTION BOX
What About Limbo?
BY MONSIGNOR J. O. CONWAY
Q. I CAN NOT HELP THINKING THAT THE
LORD DOES NOT WANT INTEGRATION, E. G.
GENESIS 21, 9-12.
THE LORD TOLD ABRAHAM TO ABIDE BY
THE WISHES OF SARA BECAUSE HE DID NOT
WANT THE MINGLING OF THE RACES. HE AL
SO DISCRIMINATED^ AGAINST THE d MIXED
BREED SON, THE FIRST., BORN OF ABRAHAM
BY TAKING AWAY HIS HERITAGE, BECAUSE
THE LORD DID NOT WANT HIS ONLY BEGOT
TEN SON TO BE A MIXED-BREED JESUS CH
RIST BEING A DIRECT DESCENDENT OF ABR
AHAM.
A. I hope my readers are not bored by the freq
uency of questions of this kind. There must be
thousands of poor prejudiced Catholics who are
trying to salve their consciences by distorting
Sacred Scripture.
Genesis 21, 9-12 , tells of
Sara's demand that Abraham
throw his older son out of the
house, along with Agar, his
mother, an Egyptian slave. It
is evident that Sara was simply
jealous. She had just weaned
her son Isaac — whom Goo had
given her in her old age— and
she didn’t want Agar’s son, Is-
hmael, to share the inheritance
of her own little darling. She kn
ew that Abraham loved Ishmael and was per
fectly capable of making him equal heir with
Isaac.
Abraham was deeply hurt by Sara's demand.
It was then that the Lord spoke to console him:
Give the woman her way, and don’t worry about
Ishmael; I will take good care of him, and make
him head of a nation.
St. Paul points out in Galatians 4, 30, that Agar
and Sara were symbols of the old and new conven-
ants respectively. Agar and her son had to go be
cause they were symbols of the old covenant of
Sinai which gave way to the new. The immediate
meaning of the Lord’s words to Abraham was
that Isaac was the chosen one to be the father
of His chosen people. There is no question of
race in the whole matter.
If you will read Matthew 1, 1-17, you will
find that if the Lord showed any concern about
the racial purity of His Son’s human ancestry,
it was rather a concern that non-Jewish "races”
be represented in that ancestry. There are four
women named in Matthew’s geneology, and the four
have only one trait in common: they are all Gen
tiles. Thamar was apparently a Canaanite (see
Genesis 38), Bethsabee was probably a Hittite—
at least her husband Uriah was (See II Kingsll)
Ruth was a Moabite (See Ruth 1-4). And Rahab
was a Canaanite (See Josue 2).
If you will read I Paralipomenon 2, 34-36,
you will see that in the ancestry of David
many generations after Abraham — there was an
Egyptain slave, named Jarha. And Jesus descend
ed from the house and family of David.
Q. DOES rr SAY ANYTHING IN THE BIBLE
ABOUT LIMBO? IF SO WHERE?
A. Our word Limbo comes from the Latin lim
bus, a border region, or a fringe, but this Latin
word seems to have Germanic origin. As far as
I know there is no Greek word in the Bible which
is used in the sense we now give to Limbo. In
Old Testament times there were frequent refer
ences to Sheol, the nether regions, where all the
dead gathered. In the New Testament we have re
finements on this term.. In Luke 16,22, we are
told that the beggar died and was carried away
by the angels to rest in Abraham's bosom, or
on his lap. When the rich man died he went to
Hades, which may have been Sheol or some worse
place.
On the cross Jesus promised the repentant
thief: "You will be with me in Paradise today***
And we believe that Jesus went to the Limbo
the Fathers on that day, to announce to them tfct
glad tidings of their redemption, So it would seal
that "Paradise" might be the Limbo of die Po
thers.
Was it heaven or Limbo to which Jesus ref erroi
when he told the wrongdoers that they would
and gnash their teeth when they saw AbrahoB
and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God, whilo
they were excluded? (Luke 14, 15, there is refer
ence to a man who was guest at the banquet in
the Kingdom of God. Possibly this referred to
heaven itself.
In Eph. 4, 9, there is reference to the fact
that Jesus descended to the under parts of the
earth which we designate as the Limbo of the
Fathers.
St. Peter, in his First Letter. 3, 19, refers
to the preaching to those who were in prison—
apparently our Limbo of the Fathers.
However, in the entire Bible there is no ref
erence to a Limbo of the Infants, which is an
invention of theologians in an effort to solve
their difficulties about the necessity of baptism for
salvation.
Q. COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT
BECOMES OF THE SOUL OF A MURDERED PER
SON?
A. Judgement, followed by heaven, hell or pur •
gatory; precisely the same as if his death had
been less violently induced.
Q. CAN A MASS FOR THE DEAD BE OFF
ERED ON SPECIAL DAYS, SUCH AS MIDNIGHT
MASS ON XMAS, EASTER, ETC.?
A. Unless a priest is obliged to offer his
Mass for some other intention he may offer any
Mass any day for a deceased person. Of course
he cannot offer a "Requiem Mass” on big feast
days. Even if he offers two or more Masses
on such days he may accept no stipend, tho
ugh he may offer the second—or third—Mass
for any lawful intention he wishes.
LITURGICAL WEEK
Thanksgiving Day
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4)
dom of his beloved Son’’ (First Reading). This
kingdom will be manifested definitively and glo
riously at the end of time when Christ will ap
pear clearly as Lord of all. But the kingdom is al
ready here in the Church, however obscurely. The
Church is a reality whose very being always re
minds us of the last things and that consumma
tion towards which all of creation labors.
SATURDAY, NOV. 30, ST. ANDREW, APOSTLE.
Not only the Apostle, but every Christian is a man
with a mission, is a man who is "sent”. "And
how are men to preach unless they be sent?”
(First Reading). Apostle and bishop and their
clergy aids have a special ministry. But we all
share a ministry of witness arising from Baptism
and Confirmation and, indeed, from every Eucha
rist. And to be fully Christian our witness must
never exclude that well-founded pope of future
glory which gives the Christian life here and now
its cogency and reason.
Saints in Black and White
ST. LAMBERT 67
ACROSS
ll He was noted tor his
... .in suppressing
disorders
S. Resound
9. Goad
13. Germs
14. Moldy
15. Stain
16. Wire rope
17. South Eastern
Treaty Organisation
IK. Intermittent fever
19. Jupiter’s Wife
20. European Theatre of
Operation
21. Corrupt
2.4. Fiddler era}) genus
25. Nigerian Tribe
27. Espy
28. Type of boat
29. ' Unconcealed
3V, bestow
32, Indian Mulberry
33. Capital of
"The Garden State"
36. Evict
40.’ Toward the wind
43. Make edging
45. Tibetan gazelle
46. Upit
47. The earth
48. He was from
his See
50. Network
52. A badge ot honor
53; Football position: abbr.
55 Thomas
56. Spat
60. Equally
62. Corrode
64. Blackbird
65. River when in Spain
66. To massage
69. Superlative ending
70. Nimbus
71. Painful
72. Chariot used to carry
image of a God
74. Sword with a
curved blade
75. Ireland
76. Sheet of glass
77. Compact
78. Install
79. Sleigh
80. Special: abbr.
DOWN
1. They resemble the
horse
2. Female name
3. Flip
4. Locus sigilli; abbr.
5. St educated him
6. Out; (Scot.)
7. Indi-chinese region
8. Lloyd's Register
9. He retired to
Monastery
10. Leaf
11. Seizure of power
12. "Gone with the Wind”
character
13. Caecum; pi.
16. Fish, carp family
17 Administrative official
22. Ourselves
23- Cardinal who was
recent visitor to LLS:
26. Whale
30. Finish
31. Mete
34. Lamb's Mother
35. Arenose
37. Exclamation of disgust
38. Wooden pail
39. Youngster
tO. Conflict
41. Sleet
42. Gain
43. Mar
44. Uncle < Spanish)
48. Capped
49. Swarm
51. Constituent part
52. Civil Aeronautics
Authority: abbr.
5). Pat
5". Arabian language
58. Vexed
59. Portal
60. Donkeys
61. Coast
63. Forward
67. Melody
68. Not written
70. Drag
73. Donkey when in Paris
"4. Conciliatory gift
“6. After thought in
letter writing
77. Baseball position;
abbr.
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, i90d oiiOttOiA fruiui, t nv paql o
NEW REGIME
Catholics And Buddhists
Seek Peace In Vietnam
SAIGON, South Vietnam (RNS)
Both Buddhist and Roman Ca
tholic leaders seemed deter
mined, in the aftermath of the
military coup that unseated the
regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, to
eliminate traces of religious
controversy in embattled South
Vietnam,
As the ruling junta pledged
religious freedom and demo
cracy, a spokesman for the
National Catholic Action Com
mittee issued a communique as
suring support for the new gov
ernment.
Father Joseph Nguyen Viet
Cu, director of Catholic Action
groups said in the communi
que that the "duty of Catho
lics is to work for the common
good and bring a positive con
tribution to rebuilding the na
tion.”
He disclaimed predominant
Catholic support for the regime
of President Diem, who with ot
her members of the ruling fam
ily was a devout Catholic.
Father Joseph said the mour
ning of Diem's death by Ca
tholics was not an indication
of favor for the regime, but
was a sign of disbelief in the
initial official report that
Diem’s death was suicide.
The priest told newsmen th
ough Catholics were aware the
Diem regime had committed
excesses, it was felt that he
was loved by the people.
Buddhists were gaining in
power in the government and
seemed destined to increase
their influence, a Western
newsman reported. But there
was resistance to the desire of
some to have Buddhism pro
claimed the official religion.
Thich Due Nghiep, a spok
esman for the Buddhist Inter
sect Committee, said that "if
Buddhism becomes the official
religion there will be a break
with other religions.”
• "We do not want this,” he
added.
Nuns Still Work
In Soviet Union
MOSCOW (RNS) — A story of
religious faith carried on by
“illegal" nuns inside the athe
istic Soviet Union became known
here with the publication of a
two-page article in Ogonek,
Russian version of Life maga
zine.
Underground Catholic reli
gious communities came to
light, the magazine said, when a
Soviet citizen, Leontina Doman-
asevich, was detained at a bor
der crossing and interrogated.
According to Ogonek, the wo
man had aroused suspicion be
cause she appeared unnaturally
stout. Upon examination, it said,
she was found to be carrying
3,000 small crosses and med
als. Religious leaflets in her
bag, the magazine reported,
disclosed the addresses of clan
destine nunneries in Lwow.
The Buddhist leader also de
nied that members of the re
ligion are neutralists. This
would lead to a Communist take
over of Asia,” he said, and
though Buddhists "want the war
to end as soon as possible,"
they do not want this to occur
at the cost of a loss to com
munism.
Religious controversy con
tinued in some areas, Father
Joseph reported, noting that
there have been instances of
priests being insulted and "cal
led traitors and supporters of
Diem.”
The priest expressed concern
too, about the influence of Com
munism among Buddhists.
"I cannot prove it, ” he told
a reporter, "but I suspect that
• the Buddhist have been infil
trated by Communists. It is so
easy to become a monk. All
you have to do is shave your
head and put on a robe. There
is little religious formation or
inquiry into a person's back
ground.
"Communists infiltrate ev
erywhere. Last year Redemp-
torist missionaries in Dalat
discovered one of their relig
ious who had taken his first
vows was a Communist.”
Father Joseph also question
ed the statistical strength of
Buddhism in the country, say
ing it is estimated there are
"only 800,000 devout Buddhists
while there are 1,300,000 Ca
tholics.
ARNOLD VIEWING
Seminary Fund
The Reluctant Saint
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
The line between being funny and being ridi
culous is so thin there may well not be any line at
all. What happens, then, in movies when you have
a comic saint? Doesn’t his absurdity make holiness
in general seem absurd?
The question was neatly raised in "Heavens
Above,” In which Peter Sellers’ gentle minister
!■ • a*Bt at least by modern secular standards.
Ha has no observable spiritual
I life, but loves his neighbor with
bR a vengeance that is reasonably
comparable with St. Martin's
Mnljy splitting his cloak to share it with
a beggar or St. Francis' chasing
r / • poor man down the streets of
Assisi to give him the coat off his
The answer is in the context.
With St. Martin or St. Francis, the comic incident
is an absurd but logical outgrowth of an intellec
tual and spiritual commitment to Christ. The
saints may do ridiculous things, but they are not
ridiculous fellows. The Sellers character, how
ever, is such a gullible dreamer, so consistently
disconnected from reality, so frankly mad, that one
is encouraged to associate his indiscriminate,
unmotivated charity with simple-mindedness. It’s
not so much what the saint does, as why, and
what kind of man he is.
The problem is well handled in "The Reluctant
Saint,” the biography of St. Joseph Cupertino,
which is just now being released in many sections
of the country although it was seen in some major
cities as long as last winter.
In this picture St. Joseph appears literally
simple-minded, oafish, the constant butt of hu
morous situations. But the man’s acts are so
admirably tied to his humility, purity and pro
found love of God that sanctity emerges, not as
laughable, but as a source of joy and wonder.
The impression is not that men, or saints, are
foolish, but that somewhere behind the mys
tery of life there is an awesome kindness and
good will, an infinite benevolence.
The film, shot on impressive locations in
areas of Italy that seem little changed in 400
years, is not, unfortunately, a great one; produc
er-director Edward Dmytryk has had only indif
ferent success with religious movies ("The End
of the Affair,” "The Left Hand of God"). His
toughest problem is the one he handles best. How
can you show, to a modern audience, an ecstatic
saint being lifted into the air without inviting ri
dicule?
Dmytryk breaks in the audience slowly, first by
showing us not the flying saint, but ever so slowly,
the saint’s changing viewpoint of a battered statue
that is the center of his contemplation. After
this preparation, the saint is glimpsed briefly
in the air. Later, when Joseph is levitated during
Mass, we see him first from above, thus reducing
the apparent incongruity of his rise from the floor.
The cameras concentrate on the faces and reac
tions of others, rather than on the phenomenon
itself.
The movie takes dramatic liberties with Jo
seph’s life, but remains true to its spirit. The
real saint had an even harder time than the film
suggests, being shunted from monastery to monas
tery and subject to Inquisitorial harrassment. His
virtues were more frighteningly heroic (e.g.,
seven 40-day fasts a year) and his ecstasies so
frequent he was allowed to say Mass only in pir-
vate.
In making Joseph’s story palatable and "dra
matic," Dmytryk slips into the mediocrity of
"saint movie” plot devices. Especially oppres
sive is the trite figure of the proud, conserva
tive master-of-novices who is forced to symbo
lize all the forces of opposition. This fellow mis
judges and badgers good-natured Joseph andfinal-
ly subjects both hero and audience to an exhausting
exorcism rite in Latin. Ironically, Dmytryk has
the perspiring actor (Ricardo Montalban) in this
scene look like Satan himself.
There is also a pat contract between Joseph
and a scheming, ambitious fellow monk who leaves
bars of soap about to help Joseph knock over
valuable chunks of statuary. This monk, a symbo
lic cripple, eventually becomes convinced of Jo
seph’s holiness and leads an assault on the monas
tery by the sick and lame that is both clumsily
staged and grotesquely melodramatic.
Oscar-winner Maximilian Schell, as the saint,
is moving and shabby and sensitive, a true son of
St. Francis, though in some scenes his mental
fog seems a touch too thick. Lea Padovani is
marvelously earthy as scenarist John Fante’s
contrived conception of the saint's unspiritual
peasant mother, who at one point shrieks her way
into Vespers to get her son back into the monas
tery.
Most delightful, though, is die return after too
many years’ absence of veteran Akim Tamiroff
in the role of a Pope John-like prelate who con
tinually probes at the meaning of such concepts
as wisdom, humility, faith and the priesthood.
The shot of Tamiroff and Schell discussing theo
logy while sitting on their haunches in the dark,
roasting chestnuts over anopenfire, is beautifully
conceived.
Why tell the story of St. Josephnow?He has the
eternal appeal of the "little poor man,” the St
Francis type; doubtless also, the locale and the
peculiar manifestations attributed to the saint
challenged Dmytryk.
But it may also help, at a time when just im
portance is given to the place of the intellect,
to recall that IQ, currently the key to the Good
Life and the executive washroom, is not neces
sarily the key to heaven. As the Tamiroff charac
ter observes "Reading and writing? Any fool
can do that. But the sacred call comes from God.”
CURRENT RECOMMENDED FILMS:
For everyone: Lawrence of Arabia, Lilies of the
Field, The Great Escape.
For connoisseurs: Winter Light, 8 1/2, This
Sporting Life.
Better Than most: The Longest Day, The Haunt
ing, The V.I.P.’s, The Reluctant
Saint.
Remember the SEMINARY FUND of the
Archdiocese of Atlanta in your Will. Be
quests should be made to the “Most Rev
erend Paul J. Hallinan, Archbishop of the
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and his suc
cessors in office”. Participate in the daily
prayers of our seminarians, and in the
Masses offered annually for the benefactors
of our SEMINARY FUND.
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
ROME. . .Looking over St. Peter's while the Council is in
session, one cannot help but notice the make-up of this Vatican
Council as compared to Vatican I in 1870. Then there was not
a single bishop from Asia or Africa. In Vatican II over 30 per
cent of the Conciliar Fathers are from Africa and Asia. What a
long way from the beginning of the Church, when St. Paul wrote
to the Church of Rome, saying: "Salute Eqeanetus, my beloved,
who is the first fruits of Asia unto Christ.” Who the first one
from Africa was we do not know—possibly Simon of Cyrene, who
helped Our Lord carry His Cross.
Diverse as the modern representatives of Epaenetus and Simon
are, all of them have one thing in
common: they are poor. They pass notes
to me through the messengers of the
Council or else visit personally beg
ging a little for their poor priests.
Yet, when they arise in Council, they
never speak of their needs I They speak
of the Church, not of their nation.
They remind us of a leper woman in
Uganda, whose arms and legs
were eaten off at the elbows and die I
knees. She dragged herself four miles on the stumps to a bush J
church one morning to receive Communion. The missionary told
her that he would bring her Communion in her hut the next
morning, after his Mass. But she was there at Mass - the following
day. "Did I not tell you I would bring you Our Lord in Holy Com- !
munion?” he asked. "Yes , Father,” she replied, "but 1 did not
want to be a trouble to you."
How much we grieve, and rightly so, at contempt for chastity
in the modern world, but how few of us grieve at avarice or the
refusal to share even a little with the afflicted. Here in Rome i
we have hands reached out to us from all directions. May you
help fill them for the hundreds and hundreds of poor, suffer
ing bishops and the flocks they shepherd. Send ybur sacrifice to
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
GOD LOVE YOU to T. D. for $10 "I decided not to buy a much-
wanted sweater so that some little one could have warm clothing
this winter." to Mr. and Mrs. A. J. H. for $10 "We are not
going to exchange Christmas gifts this year, so perhaps this will
make it possible for another to know what Christmas really
means." . . .to Mrs. J. C. T. for $13 "This is a year’s saving
of 25£ a week. I did not join the office Birthday Club in order
to send it to you".
Wondering what to give for Christmas? Why not select our
smart cuff-links sets (oval or square), tie clasp or ladies’
charm. Made of gold-colored Hamilton finish with the raised
insignia of The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, these
items make ideal presents. Specify the items you desire, en
close a minimum offering of $3 for each piece and iend your
name and address to The Society for the Propagation of the Faith,
366 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. - 10001.
Cut outthis column, pin your sacrifice to it and
mail it to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of The
Society for the Propagation of die Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New
York, N. Y. 10001, or your Diocesan Director, Rev. Harold J.
Rainey, P. O. Box 12047, Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.