Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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