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PAGE 4 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