Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1964
GEORGIA BULLETIN
PAGE 5
QUESTION BOX
Her Firstborn Son?
Saints in Black and White
ST. HUGH—ABBOTT
7~~& ff
BY MONSIGNOR J. O. CONWAY
Q. IF MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS, WAS
A VIRGIN THROUGHOUT HER LIFE, HOW DO
YOU EXPLAIN MATHEW 1:25: “AND HE KNOW
HER NOT TILL SHE HAD BROUGHT FORTH
HER FIRSTBORN SON: AND HE CALLED HIS
NAME JESUS.“?
A. Before this statement St. Matthew has told
us of the vision of Joseph in a dream: an angel
of the Lord appeared to him and told him not
to be afraid to take Mary to his home, because
it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that
she was to become a mother. So Joseph complied
and took her into his home, but had no relations
with her before her son was born.
St. Matthew is interested in telling us that
Jesus was born through the influence of the
Holy Spirit; he is not concerned with what happen
ed later. He makes no reference, one way or
another, to Mary’s virginity af
ter the birth. His statement that
; she had no relations with her
husband before the birth does
not imply that she had them
afterwards. Nothing is said
about that.
The term “firstborn” is pro-
jbably not authentic here in
'Matthew, who simply says that
Mary bore a son, and that
Joseph called him Jesus, as the angel had told
him to do. Some Greek texts have inserted a
phrase that this was Mary’s “firstborn,” a term
used by St. Luke in 2;7. Firstborn was a sort of
legal title acquired by a son at the moment of
his birth; he bore that title even if no other sons
were ever born.
Q. A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE WHO IS OF
METHODIST FAITH, SAID SHE WOULD LIKE
VERY MUCH TO BELIEVE THERE IS A PUR
GATORY, BUT HAS NEVER SEEN ANYTHING IN
THE BIBLE THAT COULD CONVINCE HER. I
TOLD HER I BELIEVED THE SOUL WAS JUDGED
IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH, BUT IF IT WAS
FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO ENTER PURGATORY,
THAT THE PRAYERS AND GOOD WORKS OF ITS
LOVED ONES ON EARTH COULD SHORTEN ITS
TIME THERE: AND ON THE DAY OF GENERAL
JUDGMENT THE SOUL WOULD ENTER
HEAVEN. SHE BELIEVES THE SOUL REMAINS
IN THE GRAVE TILL THE DAY OF GENERAL
JUDGMENT, AND THAT WE HERE ON EARTH
CANNOT HELP THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. IT IS
EITHER SAVED OR LOST. WHAT CAN YOU DO
TO HELP HER BELIEVE?
A. While the name purgatory does not appear
in the Scriptures there are a number of texts
in the New. Testment which seem to take it for
granted:
Matthew 12, 31-32 tells us that abusive speech
will be forgiven, even that against the Son of
Man, but “whoever speaks against the Holy
Spirit will not be forgiven for it, either in this
world or in the world to come.” Does this not
imply that some sins will be forgiven in the
world to come?
Matthew 5, 25-26 may seem at first glance to
deal with the judgments of eartly courts, but if
taken in its context surely refers to the judg
ment of God, and seems to admit the possibility
of repaying the last penny after that judgment.
St. Luke has a similar text: 12, 58-59.
St. Paul in 1 Cor. 3, 11-15 speaks of a person
who will be saved, “as one who has passed
through the fire.”
There are a number of other texts which have
been frequently accepted as referring to Purga
tory, but they require special study and inter
pretation to discern such reference. Your
Methodist friend may not be greatly impressed
by a quotation from the Second Book of Mac
cabees, since she does not accept it as Sacred
Scripture. However, it does show that a great
change had taken place in traditional Jewish
thought. Sheol, the place of the dead, had always
seemed a rather dreary, hopeless place for the
just as well as for sinners. But in II Macc. 12,
38-45, we read about the prayers of Judas Mac
cabeus and his soldiers for those who had been
killed in battle, and he also took up a collec
tion of 2000 silver drachmas, which he sent to
Jerusalem that a sacrifice might be offered for
them. It was a holy and pious thought to pray for
the dead that they might be freed from their sins.
The thought and practice of the early Chris
tians followed this example of Judas, and in
the writings of the Fathers of the Church we
find from very early times testimony of the belief
in Purgatory and of the need to pray for the dead
that they be freed from their sins.
The idea that the soul rests in the grave until
resurrection day is hardly more cheerful than the
ancient Jewish idea of Sheol. It hardly fits in with
the traditional Christian idea of the immorta-
ity of the soul. Where does the soul rest when the
body is cremated? or With the ashes or with the
smoke?
Q. PLEASE DISCUSS IN YOUR COLUMN THE
TYPES OF DEGREES GIVEN TO CLERGY UPON
COMPLETION OF SEMINARY TRAINING. IF DE
GREES ARE PRESENTED, ARE THEY AVAIL
ABLE TO LAYMEN? WHERE? CAN A LAYMAN
ATTEND A MAJOR SEMINARY (ASSUMING
QUALIFIED ACADEMIC COURSES) WITHOUT
VOWS AND WITHOUT PLACING HIMSELF UN
DERJURISDICTION OF A PARTICULAR BISHOP,
AND IN HOPE THAT HE MAY SUBSEQUENTLY
EMBRACE THE PRIESTHOOD?
IN OTHER WORDS CAN A QUALIFIED LAY
MAN PAY HIS BOARD AND TUITION, FOLLOW
THE COURSE AND DISCIPLINE OF SEMINARY
TRAINING, BE FREE OF OBLIGATIONS TO ANY
PARTICULAR BISHOP, AND THEN SUBSE
QUENTLY APPLY FOR HOLY ORDERS?
A. The majority of seminarians receive no theo
logical degree at the end of their regular course.
There are a few universities which have theolo
gical courses available to laymen—courses which
lead to degrees.
However, a young man planning to receive Holy
Orders must spend at least four years in a re
gular seminary, unless his bishop dispenses him
from part of it for very special reasons.
A young man may be admitted to a seminary
only on a bishop’s authority. The proper bishop
to admit him is the bishop in whose, diocese he
has permanent residence. Special arrangements
might be made for a seminarian to pay his own
room and board, though it is rarely done. He
could not be kept in the seminary unless he showed
an attitude, behavior and ability which indicated
that he would make a good priest, and when it
came time for him to be ordained, his call to
orders would still depend on his own bishop,
unless special arrangements were made for him
to be accepted into another diocese.
Q. A SHORT TIME AGO (IN A LUTHERAN
PAPER, I BELIEVE) I READ THAT THE
CATHOLIC VERSION OF THE BIBLE WAS GETT
ING CLOSER TO THE PROTESTANT VERSION.
AT THE TIME I THOUGHT OF THE LITTLE
GIRL, RIDING TOWARDS THE MOUNTAINS, WHO
REMARKED THAT THE MOUNTAINS WERE
GETTING CLOSER TO HER. NOW YOU SAY,
“THROW AWAY THE OLD DOUAY VERSION,”
WHILE WAITING FOR THE NEW CONFRA
TERNITY EDITION MAYBE WE SHOULD BUY
THE REVISED STANDARD PROTESTANT EDI
TION I
A. If you are studying the Bible you might do a
lot worse than buy the RSV. It is an excellent
translation which combines much of the dignity
of the King James with the accuracy of modern
expression and scholarship. Right now in England
and Scotland a Catholic edition of it is being
prepared. It will include the deutero-canonical
books (the Apocrypha) in their proper places,
rather than grouped in an appendix; and will
incorporate in the text a few verses which the
Protestant edition has consigned to foot-notes.
It is not a question of our coming closer to the
Protestant editions. (That was done long ago by
Bishop Challoner in his revisions of the Douay).
It is rather that we are all profiting by the same
scholarship to come nearer to the original He
brew and Greek.
The fourth and final volume of the Confra
ternity Old Testament is expected very soon.
While awaiting the revised New Testament you
might try the Kleist-Lilly edition, published by
Bruce (Milwaukee). Then there is always Mon-
signor Knox, of course. I have it in three volumes
as published by Sheed & Ward. Somebody must
have stolen my old Douay. I can’t find it.
SCHOOL DEBATE
Mrs. Ryan Has Rights
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
in his parochial school system. This step was
far more startling than the views expressed
in Mrs. Ryan's book, yet few educators were
heard to criticize it on the Broadwalk of Atlantic
City.
In the face of this type of double-standard
thinking, it takes a particular brand of courage
to continue clergy-laity dialogue about problems
which are properly the concern of both. Yet
according to a priest-panel at the convention,
“All this does not mean that we are not aware
that problems do exist and something needs to
be done.”
In Christian Charity then, we must not draw
up sides but rather let us allow whoever will
to speak his mind without fear or favor and at
tempt peacefully to solve our problems. There
is no room for vanity, pride, or intolerance.
Catholic education is a partnership, not a mono
poly — let’s keep it that way.
ORDINARY. EXTRAORDINARY
A New Kind Of Criminal
CARDINAL ON COUNCIL
Warns Against Optimism
ACROSS
1. Tolerate
6. Choice
10. Mineral spring
13. Beggar
14. Storage place
15. Weight
16. Conjunction
17. European black-
headed gull
19. He received the
habit at age —
21. Insect egg
23. Sept
25. Quay
26. White flakes
28. Lazar
30. Its opening words
are Te lgltur
33. Brilliant success
35. Exists
37. Cotton fabric
38. Narrator
40. Hesitate
42. Flushed
43. Snow runners
45. Harshness
47. Concerning
48. That Is . (Ger.)
abbr.
50. Ophidian
52. Subdues
54. Man’s name
56. Wood nymph
58. One who gathers
61. Skid
63. Medical fluid
65. He succeeded St.-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
AN EIGHTEENTH century English jurist, Sir
John Powell, once pleaded with a court and left
behind a fine quotation; “Let us consider the
reason of the case. For nothing is law that is
not reason.” It is only reason which fences us
off from the apes, which opens to us the
all but limitless realm of our potentiality, which
governs our morals and mores. And yet this
sublime gift maintains a precarious stance. How
else account for the fact that the noble Mrs.
as head of his
order.
66. Arrives
68. City of Northern
China
70. Lamb
71. Elvers
73. Dally
75. Doctor of Sacred
Theology
76. He gained the —
of many monks
79. Loose robe for
women
81. Comb form; Early
82. Biblical lion
83. Stares
85. Containing cerium
87. Indeed
88. Fleshy fruit
89. Ridge of gravel
DOWN
1. Continent: abbr.
2. Pile drive ram
3. Simians
4. Post
5. Babble
6. A degree
7. Ice: (Ger.)
8. Elapee
9. Poisonous
10. More forbidding
11. “Raven” author
12. Female name
13. He was one
16. Attack
18. Mild
- 20. Greenish blue
22. Charges
24. Not even
27. Callings
29. Forgive
31. Heavy blow
32. Joint
34. To pay tithes
(Scot.)
36. Fructose
39. Erects
41. Shakesperlan
character
44. Skylike
46. Available
48. Circular plate
49. He earned one
51. Having ears
53. Scouts
55. Goddess of
Vengeance:
Gr. Myth
57. Mounds of sand
59. Enlivens
60. A composition;
music
62. Abysmal
64. Spite
67. Drowse
69. Nomens
72. Armhole of a
garment
74. Cricket bowl
76. Radiation
77. Before
78. Beverage
80. Eggs
84. Elder: abbr.
86. Ancient City of
the Sumerians
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7
BOSTON (RNS) — Franz
Cardinal Koenig, Archbishop of
Vienna, warned an inter-
religious audience of some
1,800 persons here that “to
expect too much” from the
Second Vatican Council would
lead to "certain disillus
ionment” and “even utter dis
appointment.”
He gave the Paulist Fathers’
Christian Culture Series Lec
ture here before the largest
audience of its kind ever as
sembled in the city.
RICHARD CARDINAL Cush
ing, Archbishop of Boston, hail
ed Cardinal Koenig as "one of
the most brilliant lights” of
the Second Vatican Council.
The 58 - year - old Austrian
prelate, who has carried out
Vatican diplomatic missions in
Iron Curtain countries, is a
member of the Council’s Theo
logical Commission.
HE STRESSED that the "dis
cussions, deliberations and de
clarations” of the Council
should be afforded "realistie
appraisal” in light of thcr ecu
menical body’s extensive goals
and historic jjerspectives.
However, he warned that
those who expect an immediate
solution to all of the world’s
problems from the Council
would be "gravely disap
pointed.”
CARDINAL KOENIG ob
served, however, that mankind
has * ‘moved forward through the
Council” to such an extent that
"we might look with optimism
to the Council as a sign of
hope in a rapidly unifying
world.”
"A worldwide ecumenical
movement is in progress, draw
ing all races and continents,”
he said. “Bridges will be built
which will join Rome to the
Protestant world. . .contacts
are already established which
would hardly have been pos
sible before.”
CITING “EXTENSIVE brid-
ARNOLD VIEWING
More-Or-Less Biography
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
Peabody, a gentle lady in every sense, should
be simultaneously heroine and criminal by our
new standards? How else account for the fact
that the Catholics I mentioned should cheer, with
enthusiasm unexpected even by himself, a man
who preaches the direct antithesis of the sim
plest definition of their Faith?
These are thoughts to daunt the mind-of rea
son and heroes, new criminals and law, and the
tightrope we are so blithely walking.
In the ecumenical spirit, one can easily bleed
for famed Methodist preacher Norman Vincent
Peale, who undergoes the ordeal of a more-or-.
less biography in the new movie "One Man’s
Way.”
Biographical films of living personalities tend
to reflect reality with all the stunning accuracy
of TV commercials, and when the subject is popu
lar religious leader of any denomination, the re
sult resembles an election year speech on flag,
brotherhood and decent literature.
“One Man’s Way,” in short,
does not pretend to be object
ive truth. Nor is it entirely
fresh as drama, beginning with
early scenes of the regular boy
who resents being typed as a
“minister's son” to the fade-
out when the embattled clergy
man smooches his loyal wife
and goes out to face the world
with the vintage line: "It’s not
going to be any picnic.”
LIKE MOST of us, Dr. Peale (now 66, pastor
of New York’s hoary Marble Collegiate Church)
has led an eminently unphotographable life. The
conflict is largely verbal and intellectual, wheth
er it deals with the preacher’s attempts to work
out his vocation, to woo a young lady who thinks
ministers are square, or to battle critics of
his theological approach.
About all the movie can do better than any
book (it is based on Arthur Gordon’s "Minis
ter to Millions”) is show the impact of Peale’s
highly theatrical oratory, This object is convin
cingly achieved, thanks to the honest power of
actor Don Murray, who blasts his way through
three or four epic Peale sermons with the camera
at point-blank rage, The viewer may or may not
care for this kind of rhetoric, but he begins to
comprehend the man’s influence and intensity.
LIKE THE book, the movie is a friendly brief
for the Peale message and method. But it avoids
impugning the motives or intelligence of his de
tractors within the Protestant community. The de
fense seems to be that Peale is not really ex
pounding a Chamber-of-Commerce-approved -
Christianity, that “success” for him is not limited
to materialistic gain, and that he believes himself
to be in the spirit of the Christ of the Gospels.
The final judgment, doubtless perplexing to
Catholics who like to settle such disputes on
doctrinal grounds: nobody is wrong. The film
argues the sincerity and effectiveness of Peale’s
"way,” It works for many people, so why not
move over and make room for it?
BUT AS a fringe benefit the movie shows
enough of Murray-as-Peale to allow perceptive
spectators to decide for themselves. It is not so
much what Peale says as what he stresses. Re-
ges" linking Rome and Eastern
Orthodox Churches,” Cardinal
Koenig noted that "on both sides
there has been a desire to tear
down the barricades.”
He told the interreligious
audience that the impact of the
Council has been felt beyond the
Protestant and Orthodox com
munities and into areas where
’ a progressive secularization
of the intellectual world has
not made man better or
happier.”
THE COUNCIL’S wide-rang
ing effects has touched in
habitants of Communist coun
tries, he stressed. * Even this
Iron Curtain may one day show
even larger openings so that
the hope for a better future
can pass through.”
Emphasizing that because
"the world has not become bet-
5,000 Ushers
BOMBAY, India (NC) — Five
thousand ushers are being tra
ined to direct and guide the
50,000 visitors expected at the
38th International Eucharistic
Congress here Nov. 28 to
Dec. 6.
ter through materialists” and
“because many people believe
that religion is essential' to
make people better,” he said,
"We can hope that one day a
bridge will reach across the
Iron Curtain to unite the people
with God and bring them to a
lasting peace.”
HE SAID the impressive im
pact of the Council "is all the
more surprising because at the
beginning, both within and with
out the Catholic Church, there
was a suspicion that the Coun
cil might become merely a
’splendid showplace of Ca
tholicism,’ ”
But, he added, Pope John
XXIII "created a- favorable
cjimate — the most significant
factor contributing to the Coun
cil’s success.”
CARDINAL KOENIG credited
the U. S. press — "with few
exceptions” — with reporting
Council activities "more and
better than some in the so-
called Catholic countries of
Europe.” He said this helped
the Council— especially in its
second session — to present
to the world an "insight to the
spiritual inspiration of our
times.”
ligion as a strictly personal contract with God
guaranteeing success(”. . .and that man sold not
12,000, but 19,000 Christmas cards 1”), the con
fusion of spiritual and mental health, the bene
volence of a universe without a use for suffer
ing and hell, the emphasis on the glory of man
and happiness on earth and you-can-do-it-if-
you-try.
It is not surprising that this doctrine fits the
Reader’s Digest image of God, or that it can
be used to justify the pernicious Puritan doctrine
that the poor and desolate are somehow victims
of their own moral weakness. Peale has clearly
found a response among Americans who want to
be told that independence and selfconviction are
superior to following objective moral impera
tives, and that it is not only possible, but God’s
will, to have the best of both worlds. It would be
hard to find an approach more directly opposed
to the Catholic spirit and tradition.
THE ONLY downright objectionable scene oc
curs at the climax, when Dr. Peale’s all-night
prayers apparently snatch an incurably ill girl
from the brink of death. Perhaps it really happen
ed, perhaps the authors simply needed a drama
tic episode to conv.nce the hero to ignore the
critics and stick to his post. But in the film the
event is pure Hollywood flummery. The audience
is plainly left with the impression, undetailed and
unverified, that God has approved Dr. Peale’s
work with a miracle. This outrageous use of the
Almighty, for dramatic and even propaganda pur
poses, is the sort of device truly religious films
neither need nor want.
Otherwise the production by Frank Ross (“The
Robe”) has simple dignity and other good acting
performances by Diana Hyland (as the blonde
college flapper who wants her skirts to be as
short as anybody’s) and William Windom (as
Peale’s minister-father). There are some touch
ing moments, especially in the love story, but
unless one is wrapped up in Peale’s mission,
the film is generally flat.
THE DIRECTION by young (34) Denis Sanders
is pedestrian. Both Sanders (who won an Oscar
for a short subject 10 years ago as a prodigy
out of U. C. L, A.) and cameraman Ernest Lasz-
lo (“Mad, Mad World”) were apparently persuad
ed to think negatively.
CURRENT RECOMMENDED FILMS:
For everyone: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Lord of the Flies, Lilies of the
field.
For connoisseurs: Winter Light, Tom Jones, 8 1/2
The Leopard.
Better than most: America America, Dr. Strange-
love, Love With the Proper.
Seminary Fund
Remember the SEMINARY FUND of the
Archdiocese of Atlanta in your WjLll. Be
quests should be rtiade to the “MoAt Rev
erend Paul J, Hallinan, Archbishop of the
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and his sue*
cessors in office”. Participate in the daily
prayers of our seminarians and in the
Masses offered annually for the benefactors
of our SEMINARY FUN
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEhT
In the beautiful parable of the Good Samaritan in the New Testa
ment, there are several characters:
1. The victims of the world’s injustice, symbolized by the man
who was robbed and beaten.
2. The respectable, such as the priest and the levite who ful
filled all duties of their state in life, but in the face of poverty
and suffering merely “looked the other way” and hustled off.
3. The innkeeper, who dies a work of kindness, provided he is
paid for it.
4. The Good Samaritan, who
had compassion which, in the
original Greek, means his heart
went out to one. Another man’s
pain was real; there was some
thing passionate about his com
passion.
So in the world today, there
are those who read of the
world’s poverty and mumble in a melancholy way; "What a pity.”
Others in holy rage shout; “What a shame.” But they look and
pass by. Thus to the robbers, the traveler was a victim to be ex
ploited; to the priest and the levite, a nuisance to be evaded; to
the innkeeper, a business proposition; to the Samaritan, a neigh
bor to be helped.
Many of us will lose our souls not because of the evil that we
have done, but because of the good which we have left undone, The
Master’s condemnation fell upon those in the parable who did
nothing. No oppressive wrongs are mentioned in the story of the
rich man who feasted sumptuously while Lazarus, the leper, lay at
his gate. The indictment was only in what the rich man left un
done. No destructive vices are reported to those who are con
demned on the Last Day. The indictment will be charged of use
lessness: "I was hungry and you gave Me not to eat. I was thirsty
and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger and you took Me not
in; naked and you clothed Me not; sick and in prison and you visited
Me not.”
It could be just reading the “God Love You” column in which we
appeal for The Society for the Propagation of the Faith which
could be your greatest sin. To neglect all of this is to neglect the
work of the Church itself. Not just one area of the earth, not just
one missionary society, not one order, not one area, not one dio
cese, but the Church. Do not neglect itl Send an offering today to
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10001.
GOD LOVE YOU to L. A. B. and her aunt for 55 "My niece
was saving this for a two-wheeler, but decided to give it to the
Missions instead. She made me realize how tardy I have been in
sharing.” ...to J. D. C. for 520 "Someone made out my income
papers but refused to accept payment. I hope he will benefit by
this donation more than if he had accepted the money.”
...to J. R. W. for 5100 "I rendered to Caesar today by paying
my income tax. The enclosed is a like amount to render to God.
Find out how an annuity with The Society for the Propagation
of the Faith helps both you and the poor of the world. Send your
requests for our pamphlet on annuities, including the date of
your birth, to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, 366 Fifth Avenue, New
York, New York 10001.
Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to it and mail it to Most
Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Society for the Pro
pagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York lx, N. Y. or
your Archdiocesan Director, Very Rev. Harold-J. Rainey P, O.
Box 12047 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.