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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1964
tfe Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SltVING 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, Ga.
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
Telephone 231-1281
Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga.
U.S.A. $5.00
Canada$5.00
Foreign $6.50
Press Renewal
This is Catholic Press Month,
and we feel that we could editor
ialize no better on our own paper
than did Archbishop Hallinan in
part 3 of his excellent profile of
the archdiocese entitled “The
Voice". He said:
“The Archdiocese raises its
voice each week in the pages of
The Georgia Bulletin. Under lay
editorship with several of our
priests assisting, it goes to each
home on Thursday with a cross-
section of news and views of spe
cial interest to Catholics, and
more and more often, of interest
to the whole community. It is of
ficially a Catholic paper only
when it teaches Catholic doctrine,
but it is authentically Catholic
when it freely takes a proper
stand on current issues.
“In routine times, a communi
ty may be well served by a rou
tine press. But these are excit
ing times, - with remarkable
Popes, laymen and events, - and
only a newspaper alive and un
afraid can report them. The
Georgia Bulletin is not a single
voice, but the editor, staff, and
readers have joined in its pages
to provide a paper witha persona
lity."
While it is consoling to find
that more and more Catholic
families are reading The Georgia
Bulletin (and more closely) we
would also hope that more and
more will renew their subscrip
tions. In the past 12 months,
our circulation has gone up al
most 30 percent, and continues to
grow. We hope the support we
have received in our first year
will be continued over into 1964.
In a couple of weeks, we will be
sending out the first of the annual
subscription renewals. We earn
estly ask our readers to help us
by renewing promptly.
We should always remember
Catholic newspaper's influence
is not gauged by the way it pre
sents the current news, for it has
not the news nor the technical
facilities which give the press its
power. The Catholic press has
influence through its policies, its
editorial opinions and its com
ment on the affairs of the day
which are its inspiration, and
brings everything under the
penetrating beam of the Faith
We do not always have to speak
about religion, but we will speak
religiously about everything and
everyone.
GERARD E. SHERRY
Calm Is Restored
Citizens of Atlanta can be
thankful that calm appears to
have been restored after the re
cent (and unnecessary) racial
disorders. We say unnecessary,
because while there is natural
anxiety about resistance to inte-
gregation, the injured man of
color should avoid violence or
hate propaganda. Violence is con
tagious, besides proving nothing.
Mayor Allen and Atlanta's po
lice officials are to be congratu
lated on their firmness in a very
trying situation. The extremists
of both sides, in attempting to
defame the image of Atlanta,
have finished up defaming them
selves.
There is nothing wrong with
peaceful demonstrations in the
"SPECK"
”He gets thirsty too, you know!”
cause of civil rights. Such dem
onstrations have proved very
fruitful in the Negro struggle for
equality with his fellow Ameri
cans. We would now hope that
the Student Nonviolent Coordin
ating Committee will reflect
on the mistaken tactics of seve ral
week-ends ago. Enthusiasm fora
cause is not always reason for its
justification; immaturity also can
blind us to the perceptible and
may damage the cause. The lead
ers of SNCC should knowthatone
of the basic weaknesses and in-
curable defects of the segrega
tionist argument is that it offers
nothing positive, nothing con
structive, at a time when people
are tired of hearing mere de
nunciation, and are eager to learn
what to do. The student group
should avoid copying racist tac
tics.
We hope, too, that the restau
rant group will now reconsider
opposition to integregrated eat
ing facilities--and in the light of
the community good. In asking pa
tience of Negro demonstrators,
we might also ask courage, and
faith in the American way from
restaurateurs. , They must sure
ly realize that the few, fearful
little people who agitate within
their ranks for continued segre
gation do not represent the City
of Atlanta or the majority of
its people.
Segregation was believed by
many sincere people to be an
answer to the very real prob
lems of the coexistence of peo
ple of many races and cultures,
and degrees of progress or re
tardation. Desegregation rids
us of this false, totally outmoded,
and impracticable attempt; to
solve the problem. It must be
understood and analyzed in this
light, in frankness, in courage,
and in love.
GERARD E. SHERRY
Her Son, Our Unity
POWERFUL INFLUENCE
TV Credits - And Debits
BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEVV
I am not a television addict. In fact, more and
more frequently, I find myself in the disjointed
position of unwonted silence and uncomprehension
as a conversation on the relative merits of var
ious shows swirls around me. Experience has
warned me off from inquiring whether a particu
lar program is new, or onwhatdateit was shown.
Too often, I have had to face the mixture of pity
and disdain that accompanied an
explanation that the particular
show under analysis is a week
ly series that has been in full
swing, during prime time, fora
couple of years. There are, I
find, a number of other poses
which, while they do not add to
my status as well-informed, at
least (I tell myself) do not mark
me as an ignoramus.
It isn't true that I'm not interested in television.
1 am - intensely, at least theoretically. The phen
omenon of television -1 am always tempted to say,
the miracle of television - is not only a fact; it
is a fact of enormous magnitude and implica
tions. The very thought of the air we breathe
busily disseminating thousands of images and
sounds, from singing nuns to Jack Paar’s perio
dic exposure of his emotional insecurities, is
enough to impress anybody. Aleast.it impresses
me.
What impresses me even more is thepersuasive
and powerful influence of the television medium,
especially upon the generation (of which I am not a
member) that has grown up with constant, uninter
rupted exposure to it. The effect of the magic pic
ture tube has been discussed continuously, and of
ten with some vehemence, since the beginning. It
has been blamed for the atomization of family life,
the death of conversation and pinochle-playing, and
for Johnny's not being able to read very well. I re
call, in the early days of widespread ownership
of television receivers, that the editors of a
wildly intense periodical, called Integrity, con
tended that television was intrinsically evil. The
argument seemed easy to counter - in those days,
boring , innocuous, tasteless - yes: evil,probably
not.
Television does have some major entries on the
credit side of the ledger. Given some imagina
tion, an enormous expenditure of money, time and
energy, plus something of importance or interest
going on in public, the electronic tube can commu
nicate the experience more immediately and pow
erfully than newspapers, magazines, radio and
motion-picture newsreels all together.That there
is something a good deal more to communicating
the meaning of events than merely to show them
happening i s perhaps a little beside the point; or,
over and above the point, depending upon how you
look at it. There is not much room for complaint
about the television coverage of, Pope John’s death
and the subsequent election, the death of President
Kennedy, or the pilgrimage of Pope Paul to the
Holy Land. Nor, for that matter, can we cavil at
the handling of political conventions, elections, the
World Series or the Miss America contest.There
are hours on television that are unsurpassable and
beyond the powers of any other medium. Disney’s
educational programs for the young, Leonard
Bernstein’s conducting and explanation of impor
tant music, discussions of important questions by
experts otherwise inaccessible to most of us -
these are some. I watched a documentary in
color on the Nile River, the beauty of which 1
shall not soon forget.
But, if we can boast, let us come, like St. Paul,
to our weakness. The amount of boring, demoraliz
ing, stereotyped, childish and insane programming
that is repetitively foisted upon the public eye
and ear is overwhelming. It has become easy to
predict which programs will be canceled each
season: the ones that show some imagination,
that admit the existence of social problems,
theatrical series of any serious or original in
tent. And, it is important. And, it does make a
difference. Taste in entertainment is an index of
moral standards. The Romans enjoyed seeing peo
ple mauled by lions and look what happened to
them.
Marya Mannes asked some years ago in a lec
ture: “Who owns the airwaves?" Good question.
Is it the makers of soups and cigarettes? Or, is
it the society over which these air waves flow?
If the latter, then it is for their common benefit -
moral, cultural, educational and ‘entertainmental’
- that these air waves ought to be used.
LITURGICAL WEEK
Quinquagesima Sunday
BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA
FEB. 9, QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. “Protect
us from all that assails us,” we pray in the Col
lect of today’s Mass. These three Sundays of pre-
Lent renew a consciousness dimmed in the joy
and celebration of the incarnation and epiphany of
the Lord—our consciousness that, even though we
are in Christ, as long as we are on this earth we
are assailed.
Sin and evil are realities even
after the Christ-event and even
in the Church. We have been
“freed from the power of sin”
(Collect), but not from its subt
ly coercing attraction. We may
“speak with tongues,” we may
believe deeply, we may share
our wealth with the poor, we may
suffer martyrdom, but perfec
tion is not ours in this life (First Reading).
To grow in Christ is to grow in love, always in
time an unfinished process. This is the purpose of
the baptismal retreat and penance we begin again
on Wednesday.
MONDAY, FEB. 10, ST. SCHOLASTICA, VIR
GIN. Love again is the theme of this Mass of a
virgin. Christ is the bridegroom (both readings)
and one is permitted to renounce the normal ex
pression of human love in marriage only in order
to serve the Church by being a living sign of her
emphasis today on the last things, on the “crown”
on meeting the Lord in His glorious coming.
celebrated with this feast of the Blessed Vi
As first among the redeemed, she shows us ii
liberation from sin and in her assumption t
iruits ot redemption toward which our hope i
last coming of the Lord is directed.
“flesh which we shall experience. “Our people
boast, the familiar Tract declares her—symb
of us all. J
FEB. 12, ASH WEDNESDAY. Today we look to-
ware. Easter, toward the glorious triumph of Jesus
over death and toward the baptismal vows we w ill
pronounce again in that great Vigil. And w e admit
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
THIS MONTH
Pressing
Musings
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
This is the first week of Catholic Press Month.
I suppose the right thing to do is to comment on the
Catholic press. The trouble is, everybody else will
be doing the same thing. We would all be patting
each other on the back, hoping we can get through
another year without too much thinking or contro
versy to disturb die peace of mind which we be
lieve is our lot. At
bit of thinking, how
ever, I would like to
plug a line I have held
for quite some time.
There might even be
some repetition in it,
but I think it is worth
it.
THE EDITOR in
the Catholic Press
must oe ever aware that his paper is a religious
newspaper. That is, a newspaper which is com
mitted to God. We must be absolutely certain
that we are always living our commitment. At the
same time we must also understand that we are
Catholics — that is, we are members of a world
wide family of Brothers united in Christ. A family
which is centered on God and yet concerned for
men, a family which is in this world and is inte
rested in this world, but seeks a better world in
the hereafter. The trunk of our family tree is
2,000 years old, but its roots go back to the Jew
ish experience in the most remote ages of man,
and its boughs reach out in the more remote fu
ture. Our job as Catholic editors is to so present
this family that all others will see itfor what It is.
We have said that the Catholic newspaper is in
terested in the world. The Catholic Press must be
more than interested — it must be concerned. We
must bring to the people the story of contemporary
life. We must be the chroniclers of our time.
Moreover, being of the religious press, we must
have special concern with those aspects of life
which have vital moral and spiritual implications.
That is, of course, one area in which the Catholic
Press appears to have strayed from the ideal.
Let s face it. On the question of comment on
temporal issues the Catholic Press is hopelessly
divided in relation to the application of Catho
lic principles to life. Indeed, in some respects we
are reminded of Tertullian in Apologeticus: “See
how these Christians love one another.” It ap-
the risk of creating a little
RKAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
plies so well to many of us editors in the Catho
lic Press. There is little peace and harmony.
Rather there is dissension and acrimony. There is
so much talk about peace in the world, yet on our
own very doorstep of the Catholic Press there is
little peace. ’
* ‘ '-**'“* AAIVC LU UII U
out a simple request for two things: First let u
delimit and state fairly these problems, social
political, and economic, on which different stand
are taken by different parts of the Catholic Pres
Jen let each of the differing parts of the Catholl
Press show with their confreres the articulate
principles which have led them to take the!
particular position with which they have becom
associated.
No debate is possible unless there is a clear
statement of the question which is before the
house. Definition of terms, limitation of areas
of discourse, and clarfication of roots and con
sequences are minimal demands for any good
discussion.
Many times an issue will arise which is real-
ativelyinnocuous in itself, but the emotional ex
plosion which it occasions leads a careful obser
ver to the conclusion that something more fun
damental is really involved. If the discussion
of the particular issue can be led back to the fun
damental problem, then we can go beyond the
topical issue and get down to the fundamental
Point which divides.
IN ORDER to really get to fundamentals we will
have to examine those principles which in fact
have led us to our present position. This effort
should be illuminative first of all for each of us
who have a position with vigor. Many times even
men of the press have a chasm which separates
the voiced and written principles from the real
sources of their thought.
Many times we claim a reil g i ous and moral
principle, but in fact we are motivated by politi
cal and emotional factors. There is nothing wrong
with political and emotion* motives, but weShould
be clear in our own minds that we are being poli
tical and not particularly rUirioua. Above all. we
will spare our readers from carrying as moral
obligations things which -re in re-lity merely
political. ' 3
. , . , —“ i^uiate, investigate
and debate the issues which at present cause
acrimonious name calling withl „ Ca(hoUc
Press think how each of us will be enllshtened.
Certainly all of us wdl become belter equipped
and our readers will beglvenafaselnailngyeur of
intelligent discussion. “ 1