Archdiocese of Atlanta
A HOLY
JOYOUS
CHRISTMAS
SERVING GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
VOL. 1 NO.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1963
$5.00 PER YEAR
CHRISTMAS, HANNUKAH
Three Faiths Hit
Commercializing
Of Holy Feasts
NEW YORK (RNS)—A return
to the deeper spiritual signifi
cance of Christmas and Hanuk-
kah was urged by a minister,
a priest and a rabbi here who
condemned the commercializa
tion of these religious holi
days.
The plea was made by the
clergymen on "Trialogue,” a
weekly radio discussion series
produced by station WINS in
cooperation with Protestant,
Roman Catholic and Jewish
agencies,
PANELISTS WERE Dr. Dan
Potter, executive director,
Protestant Council of the City
of New York; Father Norman
J. O’Connor, director of ra-
dio-TV-films for the Paulist
Fathers here; and Rabbi Marc
Tanenbaum, director of the
American Jewish Committee’s
Interreligious Affairs Depart
ment.
Stressing that America's af
fluent society has many pres
sures for the commercializa
tion of religious seasons, Dr,
Potter said that as a result
families place themselves in
"hopeless indebtedness.”
"WHAT IS MOST disturb
ing,” he said, ‘Is not so much
the accumulating of gifts to
give, but gifts to receive. There
is no question but that there is
an increased preoccupation in
terms of what *1 am going to
get,’ and this is almost a com
plete repudiation of what
Christmas stands for.”
Father O'Connor, asking for
a return to "that orbit” where
a gift is a symbol of love and
unity, declared:
"WHAT ANNOYS ME is that
the gift-giving starts out in a
very wonderful religious back
ground because it is natural, in
terms of love, to give a gift
as a symbol of unity. Why can’t
we still come back into that or
bit?”
Rabbi Tanenbaum observed
that under the impact of an af
fluent society, Americans have
allowed Christmas and Hanuk-
kah "to lose the religious sig
nificance that they have.”
THE OBSERVANCE of
Christmas "on 12 easy pay
ments,” he said, "has taken on
a significance oat of all propor
tion to its history owing to the
pressures of our society.”
OFFICIAL
My dear friends in Christ;
My Christmas gift to you all this year is a
brief message, and a wider blessing. Christ
mas messages tend not to be brief, because
there are so many things to say about this
Feast.
All of them can be summed up in the won
derful words, “and the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us." This is the theme of
the Christmas liturgy. It should be the moti
vation of our whole life.
In this great ecumenical year, we could ask
ourselves the meaning of the last three words
- “dwelt among us* . Among whom? His
people - the Jews. And beyond, the Gentiles
who were to hear His word. The Catholics
who make up His Church, and those separat
ed from it for various reasons, the Ortho
dox and the Protestants, Beyond them, other
religious peoples, the Moslems, the Buddhists
and scores of others.
He dwells among us all, God in our human
nature. And Christmas reminds us that He
came for all men. We cannot be narrow about
Christ, nor about those who are our brothers
in Christ.
Upon you and yours, and indeed upon all
men, I ask His Blessing, adding a personal
note - that your Christmas be joyous and your
New Year blessed.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
-h
V
Paul J. Hallinan
Archbishop of Atlanta
IN CATHEDRAL
Archbishop Will
Be Celebrant At
Midnight Mass
Archbishop Paul
J. Hallinan will
officiate at Solemn
Pontifical Mid
night mass, Christ
mas, in the Cath
edral of Christ the
King.
Msgr. Joseph G.
Cassidy, V. G., P.
A. will be Arch
priest of the Mass
with Rev. Conald
Foust, Deacon and
Rev. Noel Bur-
tenshaw, Sub- Dea
con.
The Very Rev.
Harold J. Rainey,
Chancellor, will be
Master of Cere
monies with Rev.
Eusebius Beltran,
Vice Officialis, as
the Assistant Ma
ster of Ceremon
ies.
Music for the
Mass will be
by the Cathe--
dral Choir un
der the direction
of Mrs. Lawrence
J. McAvoy. Cath
edral organist is
Mr. Keith Lang
worthy. Before the
Mass-at ll;30p,m,
the choir will
lead in the singing
of sacred Christ
mas carols.
Archbishop Hal
linan will also cel
ebrate a Pontifical
Low Mass at two
Atlanta Churches
on Christmas Day;
At St. Anthony’s
Church at 10 a.m.
and Sacred Heart
Church at Noon. He
will give a brief
sermon at both of
these Masses.
The faithful are
reminded that the
Vigil of Christmas
is a day of complete
Abstinence, when
m e a t or soups
made from meat
may not be taken.
Under existing re-
gulations, the
faithful may choose
e i t h e r Decem
ber 23 or 24 as the
day of the Vigil Ab
stinence. While
they do not need to
abstain both days
they must choose
one for the obser
vance of complete
abstinence.
The second col
lection to be taken
up in all the chur
ches and chapels on
Christmas Day will
go to the needy
children of the
archdiocese. The
faithful are urged
to be generous to
this worthy cause.
The Staff of The
Georgia Bulletin
Wish All Their
Readers a Holy
and Joyoufe Christ
mas,
AT AUDITORIUM RECEPTION
Archbishop Reports On Council Session
The following Is an extract from the talk
given by Archbishop Paul J, Hallinan last Sun
day at a public reception honoring him on his
return from the Vatican Council. The reception,
held in the auditorium of the Cathedral of Ch
rist the King, was presided over by Msgr. Jo
seph G. Cassidy, V. G., P. A., pastor.
An American magazine used to carry a little
feature called, "Which newspaper do you read?”
It delighted in putting side by side totally con
tradictory stories on the same event, taken from
different newspapers. A like confusion would face
an American today if he asked the question,
What was accomplished in the Second Session of
the Vatican Council? If he read TIME, he learned
that the Council has become "a parliament of
stalemate, compromise and delay.” Ia the Chris
tian Index published by the Georgia Baptist Con
vention, he was assured that "little if anything
was done." On the other hand, the New York
Times called the final meeting "historic” and
quoted Dr. Douglas Horton, one of the Protest
ant observers, that there has been "a steady
advance in better relations between Protestants
and Catholics," The Daily American, published
in Paris and Rome for Americans abroad head
lined their story; "Pope Decrees Vast Reforms
as Council Recesses," Our own Atlanta Consti
tution in an editorial yesterday gave perhaps
the best brief summary:
The Vatican II session is merely recessed,
not adjourned, Much more concrete action is
expected at the next session. But the Ecume
nical Session has excited imagination and up
lifted spirit throughout the world. Its liturgi
cal reforms are secondary. Its appeal for new
bonds among all religious men, and its re-
congition that the Church must address itself
to the social issues of the day are the real
accomplishments of the Council, These are
things of the spirit, not. of ritual,
Home for the Catholic today has a wide mea
ning. Never has it been a normal Catholic stance
to stick our hands in our pockets, or to pound
our chest, or to hug out tight little world. The
normal posture of a Catholic is with arms out
stretched to the world, reaching for the horiz
ons, This familiarity with the world-view comes
naturally to us; that is what the word "catholic”
means, "worldwide, universal”. Our Lord said:
"Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations.”
This challenge lies with grave responsibility up
on every last one of us.
A bishop, therefore, goes to the Vatican Coun
cil, not as a delegate of the folks back home, but
as a successor of the Apostles, a part of the world
body of bishops, in union with die chief bishop,
the Pope. So my report to you tonight should
be world-wide, not parochial or provincial; br
oad not narrow in tone. When you give your
contribution on Mission Sunday, you do not care
where your gift is spent, as long as it is spent
for Christ, His kingdom on earth has the same
boundaries as the earth itself.
This talk began by balancing certain newspaper
and magazine accounts against each other. And it
reminded me once more how fortunate our people
are to have regular access to the Council thr
ough the pages of our own GEORGIA BULLETIN.
1 received it in Rome, week after week; my
only problem was keeping other bishops from
borrowing itl Most of you have followed the Coun
cil in its weekly pages, -- the voting on the litur
gy schema, the debate on the structure of the
Church, the sharing of papal authority with the
bishops, the question of married deacons, the
place of the Virgin Mary in Catholic life and theo
logy. Then came the great discussion to clear the
roadblocks to unity, the Catholic’s approach to
Protestants and Orthodox, to the Jews In their
special relation to Christianity, climaxed by the
fundamental question of religious liberty. You re
ad it all, and because of the excellent coverage
by the BULLETIN you are up-to-date. Your chil
dren are learning of changes being made now
that will have become common-places in their ad
ult life. Your Protestant neighbors with whom
you are sharing your knowledge of the Coun
cil, are seeing, perhaps for the first time,
the Catholic Church in action. We are privil-
edged to live in times marked by great history.
Our pride in being Catholics has never had such
incentives. But pride must not give way tocom-
placency; it must be sobered by responsibility.
It is a time of transition. Within this year,
the spiritual leadership of our Church has pas
sed from one great Pope to another. We felt that
in a very short time, we knew and loved Pope
John, his stout heart, humble spirit, and his
simple way of dramatizing goodness. Pope Paulis
more reserved, yet more eloquent; less impul
sive, but equally courageous. He is combining
the splendid scholarship of Pius XII and the wel
come "open" program of John XX11I, but he is
setting his own style, just as he chose his own
papal name, that of Paul, the great Apostle of
the Gentiles.
To such personal transitions, the Catholic Ch
urch has long grown accustomed. But it is the
unique point of our times that this personal ch
ange has occured in the midst of a much more
profound transition. We are witnesses today of a
great historic shift from what might be termed
the "post-Reformation” centuries to a new per
iod in Church history. It is marked, on the
Catholic side, by a series of remarkable popes
from Leo XIII to Paul VI: by a resurgence of
Biblical and patristic studies, new pastoral me
thods, reform of the liturgy, and a much gre
ater ecumenical concern and effort. Dramatically
it is symbolized by a momentous single event,
the Second Vatican Council,
This spirit of renewal and renovation is in
no sense a turning our back upon the past.
For more than 19 centuries, the Catholic Church
has witnessed Christ to the world. Indeed in terms
of the doctrine of the Mystical Body, these cen
turies have actually experienced Christ in His
Church, the Head united to the members join
ed by baptism. The Catholic Church cannot turn
her back upon the past, because the past is
her inheritance. Under Leo, Pius, John, Paul,
The Catholic Church (in John’s words) "trans
mits the doctrine, pure and integral without
any attenuation or distortion.”
Yet a new Catholic spirit is clear today, en
kindled, under God, by our popes and bishops,
preached and encouraged by our priests and te
achers, put into practice by our people, some
times eagerly, sometimes hesitantly but loyally.
It is not a spirit of disruption or rejection. Much
less is it one of compromise with other beli
efs, or of easy accommodation to the pressures
of the world. Certainly it is not a program of
change for the sake of change, Esseentially it is
a change in spirit ana in manner. 'The subs
tance of the ancient doctrine is one thing," said
Pope John, "the way it is expressed is another.”
(Continued on page 8)
