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u PAGE 2 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1964 EUGENE CARSON BLAKE 4 New Cooperation’ Of Churches In Race Crisis Urged The following is the text of an address delivered in Chicago last Thursday by Dr. Eugene Carson Blake upon receipt of the John F. Kennedy Award of the Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago. and spiritual renewal. Tonight I want to talk to you about each of these. I There are a number of rea sons why I am deeply grateful for the high honor you have paid me by giving me this year the John F. Kennedy award. Some of these reasons are quite per sonal. I am proud to be listed with the distinguished Ameri cans who have received your award before me. I prize the friendship shown me by distin guished national leaders of your Church as we have worked to gether this year for freedom and justice for all Americans: Mathew Ahlman, Father John J. Cronin, and Archbishop O'Boyle, to name but three. Certainly a part of the rea son I am here tonight rises out of the initiative taken by the late Pope John XXIII in calling Vati can Council I! ana the amazing accomplishments of the first two sessions of that council. I am conscious of the fact that some critics, both within your Church and outside it, are wor ried at what they Judge to be ex cessive slowness of concrete accomplishments of the council, especially at its second session. I am glad to have received this honor in Chicago in the suburbs of which 1 live with my parents for several years and attended the New Trier High School for a part of my education. Of the public hon ors which have come my way, I assure you that this one means and will continue to mean a great deal to me personally. I thank you all mo3t warmly. I DO NOT pretend here to set myself up as an authority on the council, thus to try to answer such critics substantively. But I do wish here to testify that the results already evident from the initiative taken by the late and universally beloved Pope John toward "the separated brethren” are very great and most promising in ecumenical relationships even if the coun cil were to find itself unable to agree upon one more schema—a result in my judgment highly un likely. One of the Roman Catholic representatives was a distin guished professor of theology from the faculty of Fordham University. In the course of the discussion, he recounted to us his early school experiences in Los Angeles half a century and more ago. In his delight ful Irish brogue, which in this company surely I shall not at tempt to imitate, he told us that in the elementary public school which he attended, he was the only Roman Catholic whom any of his schoolmates had ever known or seen. He concluded his reminiscences with this re vealing sentence: "Even after all these years, I find it ex cessively difficult to get over my minority point of view,” S TRANGE BUT TRU Little-Known By M. |. MURRAY Facts for Catholics E centers equally in the great cities of the North and in the old Confederacy. Copyright. IMS. N.C.W.C. N«w» Service THERE ARE, however, two reasons for my gratitude of a less personal and of a more symbolic and general signifi cance about which 1 would like to speak to you tonight. Here in the heartland of the United States, in this Midwest where I was born and raised, this occa sion symbolizes and makes con crete the new ecumenical re lationships between the Roman Catholic Church and the other Christian churches, which rela tionships I believe are of cen tral importance in the history and the future of the Church of Jesus Christ in all the world. And in the second place, this occasion marks and symbolizes a new cooperation of churches and synagogues in the public life of our beloved nation which can, under God, make a signifi cant contribution to its moral MONTHLY . PEST CONTROL! 4 SERVICE Every Protestant Christian, member, minister, theologian and administrator has been al ready forced to examine him self, his attitude toward the Ro man Catholic Church and toward his own church as he prepares himself to respond to the new opportunities for dialogue that Roman Catholic initiative in the past few months and years has opened before him. Let me not be misunderstood as romanticizing our new situa tion as some tend to do. There are theological differences so important and fundamental that no one, Protestant or Catholic; should suppose some quick or easy unity can be established. Furthermore, there are cul tural traditions and patterns of thought among both American Protestants and Catholics that will be almost as stubborn and hard to handle as true theolo gical differences. All of us can, however, begin to change our attitudes and cultural patterns of thought even though theolo gically we wish to be most wary and conservative. I mention this not to exhort you to get over yours, if you have one, but rather to remind you that we Protestants have as hard a job transcending the at titudes we picked up in our early years. For whether I like it or not, I speak to you as a WASP. We are thus described in the slang of our Negro friends. Do you all know what a WASP is? A WASP is a white, Anglo- Saxon Protestant. Forgive me if 1 reminisce about my early years in order to give you a little insight into my problem. j sP ftlN |N THE HIGHLIGHT Of THE CHRISTMAS CELE&RATIONS COMES ON JANUARY 6? -the day of the kings, when age-old CEREMONIES nonoring magi are •Held throughout the country . $T.PUDENT/ANAi. ONE OF ROME'S FIRST CHURCHES) was founded BY Pius l in 14-5 ad. and enlarged 200 YEARS LATER. A CONSIDERABLE PART OF TUE EARLY BUILDING IS STILL. INTACT. PERFECT EXAMPLE OF MEDIEVAL ENGLISH EMBROIDERY- THE SCENE DEPICTED ON IT IS THE Martyrdom or ST thomas or CantirBury I WAS born in the West end of the City of St. Louis. My father and mother were both Presby terians, my father a layman, but early chosen to be an or dained elder and a pillar of our Presbyterian church, A half century ago St. Louis was the fourth largest city of the na tion and, despite a few street names which revealed its French origins, was a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant city with some Negroes, and with a large German minority, similar to Cincinnati or Milwaukee, &sgs (0*° \ a ' Filled 38qUARTO VOLUMES, INCLUDING TREATISES ON LOGIC. MATHEMATICS, ETHICS AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE as well as Biblical AND THEOLOGICAL WORKS. THAT WAS MY complete per sonal dialogue (one-sided at that) with the Roman Catholic Church, except for the fact that for a short time we had an Irish girl in our house as a cook, who told my mother in my hearing that she liked to go to Mass early because at the 11 o’clock Mass the priest used the ser mon time to scold all present for not having come earlier. Pelasgians, Wesleyans, as well. All this was preliminary to pre senting the Calvinist truth on the doctrine being expounded. Most of the German popula tion lived on the South side and as- I grew up I was completely unconscious of the presence of Germans in St. Louis, at least until World War I began. I know now that such a large German population made it certain that there were a great many Roman Catholics and Lutherans about. But what I want you to realize is that, for me growing up, these Churches were nonexis tent. That is not quite true. My parents were pot bigoted people, 1 remember to this day my mother teaching me how fine and generous were the Jew ish people and that she never wanted to hear from my lips any anti-Jewish word. With this as my background, do you wonder that I find it sometimes difficult in fairly assessing a Roman Catholic position on any moral or spi ritual concern? The interest ing thing for us all to remem ber is that each in his own way had the same kind of sectarian background, however universal or catholic his church claimed to be. m,< *'X2r£h roochas LAST SPRING I attended a small meeting in New York where a dozen Catholic and Pro testant churchmen were met to discuss a problem of mutual interest-^pne of the multitude of such meetings that are spring ing up across the land like crocuses in March of early April. IGNATIUS HOUSE RETREATS BY JESUIT PRIESTS Weekends For Men And Weekends For Women 6700 Riverside Drive N. W. 255-0503 Atlanta, Georgia 30328 m « 4Vv;~ 4A- ,4V NO#©#©®©# 4V f/ m Jill « § © © V ® « There was a large gray stone church at the corner of Maple and Goodfellow Avenues that I knew to be Catholic. Next to it was a gray stone house, grim and mysterious to a small boy, in which some priests lived. I would probably never have seen them to notice them, except that their yard was a most conven ient short cut from my house to the public school. A friend and I each day faced the temp tation as to whether we would walk one half block south, and one block east, and one quarter block north to the Dozier School, or whether we would run one half block due east and arrive breathless, having trespassed across the Roman Catholic pro perty, where the housekeeper seemed never to fail to see us and to scare us by shouting out that we should keep off the pro perty. But Catholics, we of the ma jority then did not think about them. Again the only thing I can remember my mother say ing was with regard to Catho lic Sunday habits. In our strait laced Puritan tradition, she said "Catholics go early to Mass on Sunday, and then they do what ever they want the rest of the day." It wasn’t until some years later, after reading the essays of G. K. Chesterton, that I even knew there was ano ther side to that argument. It was against this early back ground that I studied theology. The chief textbook for syste matic theology in my seminary was that of Charles Hodge. It was a learned book—but it is its form of presentation of truth to which I wish to refer. The ecumenical movement (in its modern form) now scarcely 50 years old, has begun to change all that. And the recent climax of this movement re vealed Itself after the first ses sion of Vatican Council II, when Father Sheerin, editor of Cath olic World, was able to come home from Rome and say: "Counter-Reformation theolo gy is finished.” By which he did not mean that Roman Cath olics had fundamentally changed a single dogma, but rather that the day is ended for any Chris tian to state the truth in nega tive terms against other Chris tians’ positions. ON EACH dogmatic topic, whether Revelation or Atone ment, or whatnot, first came a series of descriptions of all the heresies of 1900years of Chris tian history: Marcon, the Gnos tics, the eastern Orthodox, etc, St. Thomas and the Roman Cath olics were generally included in this list of wrong positions. Usually also the Lutherans, What we must all now learn to do is to state Christian truth positively. For the world will not listen to a gospel nor be converted by it, which consists so much as it has in our im mediate past of exhortations about the errors of other Chris tians. And in a world where atheism and agnostic human ism is increasingly the intellec tual fashion. PAPER CLAIMS « Visiting Every Shrine in the World From *625 All-Inclusive 55 m « Priests Banned In Dublin Talk judgment. THE ISSUE has been drawn sharply by the American Negro community, 20 million strong, which is making it clear that American Negroes do not intend to accept any longer second class citizenship, second class educational opportunity, second class economic position, second class housing, nor finally sec ond class treatment in public accommodations. THOSE WHO believe in God and honor his Son, Jesus Christ, need to make that positive af firmation plain and to welcome it from other Christians how ever strangely they preach and practice their religion. © Year-Round Departures © i © INCLUDING: Belgium, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Hawaii, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Ire land, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Luxem bourg, Macao, Monaco, Pakistan, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand. tiJ» ! 55 m « LONDON (NC)--Two priest- consultors to the Second Vati can Council were banned from lecturing in Dublin, according to a story in the Catholic Her ald. Every Pilgrimage Accompanied by A Spiritual Director 55 The paper says in its Jan. 17 issue: "It was suggested that the (Dublin) archdiocese itself was responsible for the prohibition on the two priests, Father Gregory Baum, O.S.A., and Father John Courtney Mur ray, S. J.” to address was planned origi nally for University College, Dublin. "The allegation that Father Baum had been 'pre vented* from addressing this meeting was made by the audi tor of the college's literary and historical society', Mr. Anthony Clare, in an article in the peri odical Hibernia," the Herald states. It is true that white Chris tians and Jews have as yet done little to persuade other Ameri cans of their sincerity in this matter, but I remind you that the civil rights movement has been cradled in Christian churches, mostly in segregated Negro Christian churches, also—but in Christian churches. Still too much is the effort a clerical effort of ministers and priests and rabbis. Still too many ordinary white lay members of churches and synagogues have failed to take the decisive first step to fol low their ministers and priests, their bishops and rabbis. Their position is clear and as months go on with sufficient change in the segregated racial pattern of life in the United States, it will become more clear. American Negroes are no longer satisfied to be kept out of the main stream of Ame rican life because of the color of their skin, the form of their features, or the texture of their hair. The national crisis is a sim ple one. With this determination on the part of a minority of 20 million Americans, the pattern of relations between Negroes and whites is going to change. It is going to change relatively quickly. The Attorney General and the late President perform ed an important service for the nation last year when, after the riots in Birmingham, they be gan to make it clear that the issue before the nation is not whether there will be a new pattern of race relations. There will be a new pattern. The is sue is not when there will be a new pattern. There will be a new pattern relatively soon. The issue is rather how the new pattern will be established: violently and with coercion, or voluntarily and with public or der. ALL AMERICANS ought to be thankful that the leaders of the Negro people have caught their vision from their Christian Faith. Philip Randolph is not merely a union leader; he Is the son of a Baptist preacher and his values and morals were es tablished and fashioned long ago in a manse where prayer and Scripture were the home atmos phere. Martin Luther King is a minister of the Gospel. We can thank God his eloquence is es sentially Biblical and is direct ed toward love and not toward hate. This is the chief significance of this gathering here tonight. A Catholic lay movement dedi cated to the Christian and American ideal of equal justice for all menl Can you not feel how much I am honored to be here with you? AND WE are met here in Chicago where you cannot do it alone ; and where Protestants cannot do it alone; where Jews cannot do it alone; and where humanists of good will cannot do it alone; ■„ and where minist- ters, priests and rabbis—even bishops and archbishops can not do it alone. Rcy Wilkins, James Lewis, Whitney Young, James Farmer- -these are Christian men who were produced out of a Chris tian culture. All of us gathered here may take hope as well as pride in this. do it alone; and where minis- THE NATIONAL choice is be tween a new pattern of race re lations in harmony with the Constitution-of the United States on the one hand, and the per manent alienation of 20 million Americans from the Ameri can dream on the other. If the nation is unwilling to re spond voluntarily to Negroes’ rightful demands, I see no hope for this nation. Finally, on the positive side, note that at last the movement of civil rights itself has begun to be desegregated. On Aug. 28, 1963, the high point of the volun tary movement for freedom and justice was reached as over 200,000 Americans gathered between the Lincoln and Wash ington memorial monuments in the capitol city of the nation. Sixty thousand white Americans marched with 150,000 Negro Americans, peaceably assem bled to petition for the redress of their grievances, — their common grievances. From that day the civil rights movement was no longer a segregated Negro movement. This is good. The crucial front of the battle for racial justice in America is in the great industrial cities of this nation. Our politicians cannot and will not solve this problem without the rising of a lay movement of men of faith who are willing to risk place and position, influence and pop ularity for righteousness’, sake. We are not promised success by our Lord when we follow Him into the city’s streets. But we are promised His presence, and His blessing, whether it be cross or crown, awaiting us as we follow Him. May then the Grace of God come to us as with our Negro brethren, and all men of good will, we dedi cate ourselves to tills great task. BUT NOT enough white Americans have yet committed themselves to act and march in harmony with their highest faith and patriotism. Still much Negro effort. is the effort a Furthermore, it appears to be true that the nation will not voluntarily accept this new fair and equal pattern for all races, unless the Christian churches and the Jewish synagogues of the nation take the lead In persuading their members that we face a moral and spiritual issue which no religious man dares evade. This leads us to the religious crisis in the nation that is parallel and related to the gen eral social crisis which I have been describing. Our common religious crisis is this: Will the influence of faith in God, and the practice of that faith, be in fact toward the solution of the racial crisis, or against it? Will the churches and synagogues lead in achieving a right and moral solution to race, or will they reluctantly adjust too little and too late to moral forces theydo not recognize as such and so lose their opportunity to be the moral, leadership of the United States and of the free world for that matter? John F. Kennedy Official U. S. Post Office MEMORIAL STAMP ON FIRST DAY COVER Orders accepted in order of receipt. Mailed 1st day of issue; date still to be select ed by Post Office. Magnifi cent steel-engraved catcher envelope. Send list of names & addresses with 25f each(10 for $2) to MORVAY SPECIA LITY CO., Dept; C, 45 Clin ton St., Newark 2, N. J. The all-new, all-transistorized Dictating/Transcribing Machine featuring lifetime magnetic tape with automatic loading ...only $249.50* HYNES COMPANY 172 WHITEHALL STREET. S W. ATLANTA GEORGIA RHONE - 313-4417 And this ecumenical move ment has come just in time for our American scene. As we move from a dominant Protes tant culture in America to a pluralistic society, all churches will become irrelevant to the important decisions of that so ciety and that culture unless they become more interested in what they believe and in whom they believe, then what and whom they are against. For the line of belief and unbelief stret ches around the world and everywhere the Church of Jesus Christ, however strong in num bers and organization, is yet fighting for its life. I am Calvinist and Chris tian enough to believe that God has not lost control of His world, but I read nothing in Scripture or Tradition that as sures the continuance of our civilization under the provi dence of God if we fail in faith to rise to the moral demands of our God who is just. fs The world's fastest growing airline 0 © § © CATHOLIC TRAVEL OFFICE Dupont Circle Building, Washington, D. C. 20036 AG © Please send me your free illustrated booklet describing in detail the “world-covering” pilgrimages. © Name Address. © © City/Zone/State ss © #1 © i§ © m Slmi V* V* © i FATHER MURRAY, a theolo gian at Woodstock (Md.) Col lege is one of four theologians who were excluded by the Cath olic University of America, Washington, D. C., from taking part in a campus lecture ser ies during Lent last year, ies during Lent last year. Father Baum is a theologian at St. Michael’s College, Toronto. But Clare "reiterated," ac cording to the Herald, the fol lowing: "Both Father Murray and Father Baum were pre vented from speaking w ithin the Archdiocese of Dublin.” Olympic Priests The best illustration of this for Americans today is the sharp issue of race which has brought us here tonight. Let us look squarely at the race issue in which your Church and mine are similarly involved and which demands from us a new kind of cooperation with each other, with the synagogues, and with all Americans of goodwill. WHAT I AM saying is that the religious crisis in this nation is a true crisis. Two possibi lities open up before us, and it is not yet clear where the weight of religious influence will be ex erted, Let us look at what is encouraging and what is dis couraging, as we examine this sharp issue. First note that the religious leadership of the nation is unit ed on this issue. The state ments of theologians, of bis hops, of synods, of church as semblies, all agree that no man, or group of men, should face discrimination because of race. © The Catholic Herald says the meeting that Father Baum was INNSBRUCK, Germany (NC) — Fifteen priests will be on duty as chaplains at contest sites for the Olympic winter games to be held in this area Jan. 29-Feb. 10, They will wear as Identification a pectoral cross over their sports garb. 11. 1 begin with a truism, but one which needs repeating. The United States faces at the be ginning of 1964 an issue, es sentially a moral and spiritual Issue, national in scope which Second, note that the leader ship of the movement to right the wrongs of the Negro people is Christian leadership. Some critics of the churches have made a good deal of the slow ness with which the churches hAve come forward in this ef fort. But that is a segregated • For any occasion: Weddings, organizational meetings, any social events • Formal or informal • Special menus custom* prepared to your requirements • Piping hot foods— meat and fish • Sandwich platters • Hors d'oeuvres • Gourmet canapes • Beverages of all kinds • Bar service arranged • China • Flatware • Napery • Decorations • Waiters and waitresses • Butlers • Personal attention of catering consultant • Instant service. We’re ready, willing, and able •to do the catering right away. • Budget terms. Affairs tailored to ycur budget. Nothing too b'g... nothing too small. When Dinkier does except inviting the catering,forget the guests! about everything DIN KLEK-HjAZ A In Th« Hoart of Atlanta* SB Pcrs/th Str**t, N.W., Atlanta for Iroo consultation. °‘?* f tm«nt at JA 4-2461. Stnd for fra* bookltt, hstifU a 11 Omkitr nottis and motait across tha country. «C'U '.iVa—t-W, *• r ' mm **“ ' * ** ' —* i I Mit */ |f T>»»V‘.n' •t**4