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RACfi 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1964 FAMILY LIFE SHVtNO 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 Kiernan 2699 Peachtree N.E. - 'P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Gp Member of the Catholic Pres§ Association and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.00 Foreign $6.50 Second Class Permit at Atlanta. Ga. Pilgrim’s Progress Pope Paul Vi’s triumphant visit to the Holy Land is des tined to have an impact on the world-wide quest for religious unity and peace among nations. His very role as a penitential pilgrim to the Land of Christ has of itself set the example for us all. The separation of the various Christian communities can never be accepted as permanent. Yet. neither can we expect complete unity in our time. Still, Pope Paul chose the time of this mo mentous pilgrimage to extend the hand of love and friendship in the interest “that all may be 9 9 one . His meeting in Jerusalem with Ecumenical patriarch Athena- goras, is but one step along the unity road. Pope Paul himself set the style and manner for all of us in our contact with fellow Christians. He said, “Diver gence of a doctrinal, liturgical and disclipinary nature will have to be examined, at the proper time and place, in a spirit of fidelity to truth and of under standing in charity.” But, he said, “What can and must now commence to develop is that fra ternal charity, which is ingenious in finding out new ways of show ing itself, which, taking its les sons from the past, is ready to pardon, more ready to believe good than evil, careful above all to conform itself to the Divine Master and to allow itself to be drawn and transformed by Him.” Pope Paul, however, empha sized that w hile the Church is willing to make reasonable com promises in the cause of Christ ian unity, it could never be at the expense of truth. Fraternal charity in current dealings bet ween Christians is obviously the need of the hour. No better show of gratitude and thanks to God for the successful pilgrimage of Pope Paul could be expressed than if in each of our actions in our community life we follow his example. Let us get to know our fellow Christians better; let us extend the hand of love and friendship in our deal ings with them; let the sincerity in mutual sympathy and under standing. Then we will all be as pilgrims in the quest for unity. No better time than now to be gin. Within the next ten days we will be observing the Chair of Unity Octave (January 18 -25) which is a prayerful crusade for religious unity. It is also a call for our own spiritual renewal without which we cannot be ef fective in our daily apostolate. Indispensable Function In a rightly ordered democra tic society, political censorship of information and opinion is con sidered to be unrightful, unwise, imprudent. The reason is that free public information and free dom of opinion are considered, rightly, to be social necessities. Within the Church, the press is not to be forwned on or a nui sance to be simply tolerated. The qest of information by the press about what goes on within the Church is not an exercise in idle curiosity. The dissemination of information by the press is not a AN ALTAR BOV NAMED "SPECK" -** H Do you have any holy mackerel? form of indiscretion. Inasmuch as the Church is a society com posed of men, the function of in formation is indispensable. The function of information in a well ordered society cannot be responsibly discharged unless this function is free in the man ner of its discharge, not subject to arbitrary limitation. The Catholic press may not be simply the organ of a particular class, as it were, within the Church, whether hierarchical or lay. The press does not exist simply to further the interest of the Church, especially if these interests be conceived in some narrow, quasi-sectarian sense. The press does not exist simply to glorify the Church, in Some Madison Avenue sense; that is, in the current jargon, to project a “public image' of the Church that would be unreal or untrue to the actual reality of the pil grim Church. The freedom of the press is the indispensable condition of its performance of its function, its social function, which is the information of the people. The freedom of the press to inform is simply the other side of the right of the people to be infor med. Therefore, the freedom of the press knows at bottom only one limitation; that is, the limits of the people’s need to know. And of that need, and its limits, the people themselves are the re sponsible judge. JOHN COURTNEY MURRAY, S. J. Challenge to Mankind LITURGICAL WEEK Holy Human Family BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA SUNDAY JAN. 12, THE HOLY FAMILY. Since God's Definitive Word in Christ calling humanity to glory, the “holy family" is the human family. But to draw our full attention to the humanness of Jesus, to His acceptances of us and of our hu man condition, the Church celebrates in modern times this feast of His family and of His childhood and adolescence and youth. The joy to which the Entrance Hymn invites His parents must be the joy of all who claim a human nature, of all those who see in Him the sign of that calm and dignity which God has laid on humankind. The temple references, in Entrance, Gradual and Offertory Hymns, as well as in the Gospel, hymn the Christ in His very being as our Head, our mediator, our High Priest in the worship of the Father. MONDAY, JAN. 13, THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD. Man is not in this world as a kind of accident. He belongs here, even though his ulti mate destiny lies beyond. TTie „ Genesis mandate to master the earth and make it serve the hu man community still stands. Sin crippled that mastery as it crippled our relation to the Fat-' her and to one another. Today Jesus reclaims the waters, makes them again a means of life and symbol of purity, asserts His divine authority over lesser creatures as well as man. "He it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit," says the Gospel, seeing in the material world a sacramental world. TUESDAY, JAN. 14, ST. HILARY, BISHOP, CONFESSOR, DOCTOR. It is this same Holy Spi rit, with His gifts of wisdom and understanding, who makes the great teachers of Christ’s Church. "You are the salt," "you are thelight," Jesus says to those born out of the water He has sanctified. Commitment and te life of the Spirit, rather than human flashes of genius (though the two are not necessarily incompatible), are what constitute a teaching ministry of "sound doctrine" (First Reading) such as we honor today. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15, ST. PAUL, HERMIT. Christ is our Head and our High Priest. All of our worship is "through him and with him and in him." Hie First Reading today hymns the excell ence of the knowledge of Christ, going so far as to contrast the knowledge of anything else on earth as "refuse" incomparison with the knowled ge of Him. The exaggeration should not blind us to the truth which it contains. For the Gospel also affirms that coming to know Christ is the means of knowing the Father and the Father's love. It is incomparable. THURSDAY, JAN. 16, ST. MARCELLUS, POPE, MARTYR. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," rings out the familiar Gospel of the Mass in honor of pope. It is this declaration of faith which the hierarchical structure of the Ch- urchexists to serve and which the Church’s litur gical services make vital and life-giving for the concrete Christian community here and now. The sacraments are all signs of faith, especially the central sacrament of the Mass, recalling us constantly to these familiar, simple words, to Peter's declaration. FRIDAY, JAN. 17 ST. ANTHONY, ABBOT, "Blessed are those servants whom the master shall find watching" (Gospel). Knowing Christ is not like knowing a thing—once we know it we can turn our attention elsewhere. It is rather entering into a personal relationship and aper- sonal commitment. Watchfulness, then, is a theme wich the New Testament and the Church’s public worship use again and again in impressing upon us the com mitted personal character of the relationship of faith. SATURDAY, JAN. 18, MASS OF ST. MARY ON SATURDAY. "Justified by his grace," (First Reading) we see in Mary the symbol of us all, of the whole community of salvation which is the Church. Her freedom from sin and her assumption into glory are signals of God’s mercy and His grace toward mankind. Every Mass celebrated in her honor is thus an especially vivid thanksgiving for redempt ion in Jesus Christ, expressed in terms of lavish praise for what God has done in her. SOUR SOCIAL FRUIT Prejudice: A Dirty Word BY FATHER LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW "He had but one eye," Mr. Squeers explains in Nicholas Nickleby, "and the popular prejudice runs in favor of two." Anyone who would doubt the correct use of "prejudice" in such a con text must argue’with Charles Dickens. And anyone who doubts that prejudice may actually ex- 1 tend so broadly is either naive or dishonest. Mankind is pre sently much concerned with the. sour social fruit of prejudice many other lands. Simultane ously, we see greater effort being expended to defeat prejudice and to create unity than ever before. This loathsome and all too human fault, which spawns disunity, discrimination and perse cution, deserves some examination. Prejudice means literally prior judgment, judgment which precedes the evidence and is formed on some other basis, Since it is not hampered by factual evidence, prejudice begets unjustified generalization. For example; John is a Jew; John is dishonest; all Jews are dishonest. The essential element of prejudice is that it is irrational, not reasponed and, frequently, rea son-less. Where legitimate judgment, the primary action of intelligence, is motivated by a reason ed assessment of reality, prejudice is moti vated by one or more considerations in ferior to reason. It may be an instinctual emotional reaction, pre-conditioned by fear or social custom. Almost always, ignorance of one kind or another, plays its role in some weird counterfeit of a positive force. The attitude or deed which arises from such a source can hard ly fail to be wide of its mark, morally. It is important to note that prejudice does (CONTINUED ON PAGE 5) Status Symbol In Reverse BY GERARD E. SHERRY A great deal is being said and written these days about family limitations and birth control. Fur thermore, it is not confined to the secular periodi cals. Just recently, several Catholic magazines have had articles and letters on the subject with the size of Catholic families being one of the bones of contention. Here are some views on die subject which I have been looking for an opportunity to express. One of the greatest difficulties in this area of discussion has been the inability of many priests and laity to face the fact that while the principle end of marriage is the propagation of life, there are two other essential ends to it, that of mutual help between the spouses and the quieting of con cupiscence (Civardi — Christianity and Social Justice). THE PULPIT STRESS on the "principle end" has led many lay people to the false impres sion that the only good Catholic families are those which contain a large number of children. It further implies that those who have small families are somehow not quite Catholic enough. Very little is heard from the pulpit of the many other considerations that must come into the re gulation of Christian families. Continence, for in stance, can Be a virtue in marriage, yet is is seldom suggested, except for those with medical or economic difficulties. Furthermore, the rhythm method is often treated as if it was just above the level of sin, and inexcusable for most healthy couples. The usual advice to couples worried over their inability to care for or to face the prospects of a large family is to leave it to God and His plans for them. Father John A. O'Brien of Notre Dame, a recognized expert in the theology of this subject, recently com mented on this line of reasoning. He said: "How does a couple know God’s plan? By using the intelligence with which God has endowed them. In the ordinary course of the divine economy, Providence does not suspend the laws of nature nor work in other miraculous ways. When a fertile couple continues the conjugal relationship into the fertile period, they must assume the responsibility for the resulting pregnancy and not thrust it upon God. "THIS IS ELEMENTARY Catholic theology and it is high time our religions in schools and priests in pulpits should make this unmistakably clear. When a couple regulates the number of offspring with true Christian prudence, largeness or small ness is totally irrelevant." Father O’Brien’s comments bring into focus a problem which is daily being faced by Catholic couples. There does not appear to be enough con sideration of it among the groups to which Catho lics must look for help and guidance. The Family Life Bureau of the National Catholic Welfare Con ference seems to emphasize Its position on the problem. Its annual Family Life award always goes to one of the nation’s large Catholic families. Maybe the Bureau’s interpretation of "familylife excludes small families; but I think they make a big mistake. There must be a better standard of judgment than that. While many couples do regulate their families — and in conformity with the Church’s teaching — they are not necessarily less deserving or virtuous than those of large fami lies. There are even childless couples, unable to have children for a variety of valid reasons, who must still be considered among good Christian families. ANOTHER GROUP WHICH has always bothered me is the Christian Family Movement. We were once associated with one of its units, but after awhile decided to quit — not that we disagreed with many of its aims. Alas, the main symbol of membership in this unit appeared to be that one’s wife was constantly pregnant. I am not trying to be funny here, but that is the way It was. I know that officials of the CFM will deny that the move ment is so narrow in its alms; but here again I can only go by experiences I have had. Certainly, the broad aims of the CFM cover all aspects of family life* There should be an end to the propa gation of the false idea that there is an official Catholic position on the size of families.The sanc tity of marriage is too important to establish a numbers norm. T o quote a recent letter in Ame rican by Richard A. McCormick, S. J.: ‘The Church has too much respectfor the sanc tity of marriage, the happiness and sanctification of the individual couple, the individual conscience, the operation of the Holy Spirit and the well-be ing of the children to propose an absolute, quan titative norm of largeness or smallness as some thing to which all or most couples should aspire. This absolute mentality would compromise the very values she regards as essential to both marriage and conjugal love. “RATHER THAN PROPOSE a quantitative ideal, the Catholic Church explains all aspects and values of Christian married life and love, and proposes these as the essential structure within which the individual couple should make its own decisions. The Church does not and cannot make the decis ion for the couple. But from an enormous ex perience sh e realizes that the characteristic threat to such a decision is an inversion of values, and her emphasis often reflects this awareness." CONTINUED ON PAGE * REAPINGS AT RANDOM ( *