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GEORGIA BULLETIN
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1964
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SERVING. 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. Sherrv
CONSULTING EDFTOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan
2699 Peachtrfee N.E.
P.O. Box 1166*7
Northside Station
Atlanta 5, Ga.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F.X. Mayhew
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
Church And State
- And Poverty
In this issue we publish a re
port from Washington in which
agencies of the National Catholic
Welfare Conference give whole
hearted endorsement to the Pre s-
ident s proposed war on poverty
-- officially known as the Econo
mic Opportunity Act of 1964. Any
attempt to eliminate poverty in
this land of abundance must be
given urgent support by all men of
good will.
We are surprised, therefore,
to find that passage of the anti
poverty legislation is threatened
by unfounded fears of serious
Church-State problems. It is sug
gested by some that aid being
channelled through private agen
cies might possibly be used to
help a Church school or other or
ganization.
It should not be necessary to
have to emphasize that we, ad
hering to the traditional views of
the Catholic Church in America,
are at one with the majority of
American citizens in firm belief
in the First Amendment. We re
ject any control of the State over
a church or by a church over the
State. We do not believe, how
ever, that the First Amendment
(which emphasizes the principle
of the Separation of Church and
State) should be used to eliminate
religious influences from legis
lative or public activity.
Wittingly or unwittingly, those
who bring the Church-State bogey
into the discussion on the war
against poverty are doing them
selves a disservice. In their at
tempts to exclude church groups
from assisting the Federal pro
gram of aid to the poor and the
needy, they are contributing to the
secularization of charity and so
cial justice; they are furthering
the cause of secular humanism;
they are undermining much need
ed religious influences in public
life.
The Church has been waging
AN ALTAR BOY NAMED
"SPECK"
*•/ • • an<i 80 by constant practice on the
piano my fingers developed the strength
and skill necessary to become a major
league pitcher.”
war on poverty since the time of
the first Christians; its works
of charity were in full swing long
before the Federal, State, or
local governments thought fit to
intervene on the side of the poor.
The Church never asks whether
the recipient of charity goes to a
private or public school; aid to
the poor offered by religious
groups in our cities is open to all,
believers and un-believers, of all
races and colors.
We make these comments be
cause the proposed anti-poverty
legislation provides, on an edu
cational level,- that “Any ele
mentary or secondary school
education program assisted un
der this section shall be admin
istered by the public educational
agency or agencies principally
responsible for providing ele
mentary and secondary educa
tion in the area involved."
Catholic spokesmen have right
ly expressed concern because
parochial schools enroll hun
dreds of thousands of children
from poor homes and who need
special educational assistance.
These children are already being
helped by some parochial schools,
where special programs are pro
vided. Much more could be done
if more parochial schools were
afforded the opportunity.
It is true that the proposed
legislation also says, “No child
shall be denied the benefit of
such a program because he is not
enrolled in the public school."
We do not see this provision be
ing effective, because of the bill's
emphasis on the agencies of pub
lic education. If the basic cri
terion is the needs of the child,
then it should apply to all child
ren, including those in parochial
schools.
The First Amendment does not
mean the exclusion of religious
influences in government or pub
lic life. Alas, we believe that
many of the self-appointed guar
dians of the Separation Clause
are contributing to this very ex
clusion by their uncompromising
and questionable interpretation
of the Amendment. What is es
pecially disturbing is that some
of these “guardians" advocate
the elimination of religious or
ganizations from participation in
the government war on poverty.
We suggest that our readers
write to the President and their
elected representatives, urging
that greater consideration than is
presently apparent be given needy
children attending parochial and
private schools. The fact that the
parents of these children are ex
ercising their constitutional right
in sending them to a school of
their choice should not be an
excuse for discriminating against
them. Needy parochial school
children are no less deserving
of economic and educational as
sistance than are similarly plac
ed youngsters in public schools.
The war against poverty should
not be used to further deprive
parochial school children of full
citizenship rights.
GERARD E. SHERRY
The Way to Peace
GEORGIA PINES
Voting The Headstones
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
Every day as I pick up the morning paper I
read about someone, somewhere, who has just
announced his candidacy for public office or else
has just been elected to office.
On the radio the other day I heard about an in
vestigation being conducted in one of the major
cities up north into, irregularities with election
procedures. The incident, while tragic, did pro
duce a chuckle or two at the
ingenuity of some unscrupulous
soul. The radio announcer went
on to say that it had been dis
covered that the curtain cord at
the entrance of the voting booth
had been rigged to the voting
machine in such a way that when
the cord was pulled the machine
automatically tabulated another
vote for the candidate who ob
viously was a friend of the electrician.
THIS SAME announcer related the plight of a
woman who, because of a “faulty” voting machine,
discovered that she had voted for a candidate not
of her choice. She complained to the election
referee and he nonchalantly dismissed the com
plaint by saying that he would get the next voter to
vote the opposite way and the total votes would
come out the same.
But pity the chagrin of the person who could not
write-in a candidate because the ballot was so
waxed that a ball point pen merely slipped across
the ballot.
I THOUGHT that the listing of deceased voters
and multiple voting left with the era described in
Edwin O’Connor’s book, THE LAST HURRAH.
However, I read recently that the practice has
been uncovered in some rural communities.
If the stories relating to voting practices are
interesting, often the candidates behind these
practices are just as interesting themselves.
THE OTHER day an “old timer” told me that
one Governor had a secretary who was so devoted
that he worked upuntil midnight on December31st.
for his boss. When the midnight bell tolled the
hour, fearing that he would not get out of his of
fice without a few ruffles from the “new crowd”
waiting to take over, he made his exit via a win
dow with a thirty foot drop down the capitol
lawn.
One Chief Executive who had no time for the
University System appointed a man to the Board
of Regents who was reputed to have only finished
the fourth grade of grade school.
ANOTHER LEGISLATOR, who was homesick for
a good “square dance,” hired a band and used the
corridors of the capitol building for his grand
ballroom. Of course, things were being done in a
big way at the time. The state enjoyed the unique
distinction of having three governors, and no one
was about to incur the wrath of the mountain leg
islator by putting a stop to his festivities.
Then there is the story abroad about two candi
dates for the same office who were long standing
friends. One of these men operated a liquor store
for a living. The other candidate approached him
on the street one day and said, "Tom, in this
campaign we might have to say a lot of harsh
things about each other. Don’t let it ruin our
friendship. Would you mind if in my campaign
speeches that I refer to you as 'that old liquor
dealer on Main Street”! “Not at all”, came the
reply. Then he added, “Bill, then you won’t be
mad if I refer to you as my best customer”.
RENEWED INTEREST
Mystical Body Of Christ
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
It’s a great relief to be a Catholic today. U:
til very recently it was necessary to belab
complicated arguments to answer so many o
jections and attacks on the Church. Often, \
knew that the questioner had missed the who
point about Catholicism and was attacking
straw man. We knew it, but we were hard put
prove it. Now, in more and more instances, i
we really need to do is smile charitably and poi
to the existing Church. Many questions and o
jections will deflate and vani
! Uitomatically. This is espec
\ illy true in the face of a me
jtality which assumes t
| Church to be mentally stagna
find blind to the need for in
\ provement.
The renewed interest in t
|Church as the Mystical Body
Christ is of fairly recent vin
age. St. Paul used the metaphor of a body
explain the church in apostolic times. It was
common ingredient of the theology of the Fathe
and the great medieval teachers. Unfortunatel
the Church as the Body of Christ did not enti
seriously into the Catholic theology which follow
ed the Protestant Reformation. In reaction again
the excessive individualism of Protestant the<
logy, emphasis was focused principally on unit
authority and the jurdical structure of the Churc
In the past generation or two, this rich eleme
of traditional Catholic thinking has not only been
revived but searched for its innumerable im
plications and every area of the Church's life.
THE LITURGICAL RENEWAL and the conse
quent emphasis upon the priestly office of the
entire Christian people is one clear instance.
Another, equally important, is the current inter
est in the variety of functions and roles exer
cised by the members of the Mystical Body.
Attention at Vatican Council II is centered on
clarification of the role of the bishops in the con
tinuing debate over the principle of collegiality.
In capsule form, the question is whether the
bishops share with the Pope responsibility for the
entire Church or only for their particular dio
ceses, as some kind of papal delegates.
Hopefully, the Council will publish a Consti
tution, like that on liturgy, which will set forth
authoritatively the basic elements of a theology'
of the laity. Impetus in this direction has been
building up for a number of years. Even now, a
change of accent from the recent past can be
discerned. In the early days of “Catholic Ac
tion,” the main emphasis was on the authority
of the hierarchy. Catholic action was defined as
“the participation of the laity in the apostolate
of the hierarchy.” The apostolate was the pro
perty of the hierarchy, seemingly. The laity were,
a.. best, their helpers and assistants. This ver
sion 6f the idea never set many big fires. Part
of the reason may have been that those lay-
CONT1NUED ON PAGE 5
CURRENT CRISIS
Principles Of
Responsibility
GERARD E. SHERRY
In many areas of the struggle for racial justice
there is retrogression rather than advancement.
Only recently we heard of cases in Mississippi
where Negroes were warned by local racists
against attending the local Catholic church, which
was integrated. In the same area, Catholic whites
were warned against attending any parish church
which had integrated. Racist politicos had suffic
ient influence in the community to scare the people
into submission. One hardly believes that this is
the United States of
America in 1964.
Yet, in some parts
of our troubled na
tion local politicians
rule their communi
ties as ruthlessly as
any dictator, with
all the local law en
forcement agencies
under their power.
Much could be said about these disgraceful
happenings, but I prefer to point out that they
emphasize the skirting of a fundamental prin
ciple — responsibility. It appears that no one
wants it, but all desire it for someone else.
THUS, WHITE people condemn Negroes for
lowering standards of education, for ruining
neighborhoods and for committing crimes out of
proportion to their numbers, but little is done by
white people in the way of expressing interest
in and in doing something to help colored people.
Negroes, likewise, while justifiably indignant at
being deprived of equal rights in many social
and civic areas, nonetheless have not accepted
their share of the burden. The educated and skill
ed Negroes, especially, don’t do enough to uplift
the ideals of their people; and the great masses
of these people just seem to go along in undis
turbed domestic activities.
There is sufficient material in the preceding
paragraph to light a fiery conversation. If that
is so, perhaps a greater number of persons
will realize that each has a responsibility be
fore God in the administration of His gifts, an
obligation that is persoanl and which cannot be
transferred or be set aside unused. All this,
therefore, constitutes a particular challenge to
the Catholic, to whom much has been given by
God and of whom much will be required. Many,
many Catholics have shunned their responsibility
before Almighty God, largely because the bless
ings received in the Faith have not been under
stood.
DIFFICULTIES between white and colored
people are not of recent origin, nor have white
Catholics only lately begun to exhibit irresponsi
ble attitudes in dealing with Catholic or non-
Catholic Negroes. One hundred years ago, an
English priest visited our country. He was Father
Herbert Vaughan, soon to found an international
missionary community and later to be named
Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster. Father
Vaughan saw the plight of a still-enslaved Negro
population in the United States but his stomach
turned especially at the indifference of Catho
lics who “smiled at the colored as though the
latter had no souls.”
God’s wisdom and His ever varied creative
act were overlooked and still are. Even today many
Catholics resent Negro people. Many Catholics,
all sharing in the divine life of God Himself,
gives less of God’s love to Negroes than do many
of the other religous groups. Even Catholics
among the Negroes still are slighted or denied
care in some Catholic hospitals; they are rarely
seen in some Catholic high schools, and white
Catholic people still literally run from them
when Negro families appear in a new neigh
borhood.
This avoidance of responsibility — what it
means to be a Catholic— is at the core of our
local and national difficulties. There are enough
Christians in the United States to leaven the entire
population and to make its laws and its customs
Christian. But this will never be until the Catho
lic alerts himself to the obligations of his Bap
tism in the life of God.—
WHEN CATHOLICS join in with the spirit of
racism, they join also in attacks upon the very
roots of the Faith. The heart of Catholicism is
love springing from the very being of God and
expressed in human terms in the mystical body of
Christ. The late lamented Pope Pius XII de
scribed the loss of understanding of love as the
worst error of our time, for it rejects Jesus
Christ and the purpose of His coming.
We are commanded indeed by God Himself to
love Him with all our heart, with all our soul,
with all our strength, and with all our mind.
Further, that we love our neighbor as we love
ourself. There is no room in God, nor can there
be in the Catholic, for an area wherein pride of
race may flourish. As so fittingly described by
St. Paul, referring to the baptized, “Here there
is no more Gentile and Jew, no more circumciz-
ed and uncircumcized; no one is barbarian, or
Scythian, no one is slave or free man; there is
nothing but Christ in any of us.”
THE LAW of Christ governs the Catholic Church
and all of its members. The law has been re
duced to two simple terms: love God and love your
neighbor. The Catholic, therefore, must strive for
the betterment of his neighbor, Negroes included,
with the same energy that divine blessings are
sought for self. Fortified by a true knowledge of
his Faith, the Catholic will find that there is only
one answer to questions of his day.
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM