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PACE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY. APRIL 30. 1964 the Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA / 1, / SftVING GiORGlA'S 71 NOITHHN COUNTIfS 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 **ts» * sS 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 Retracting Denials We have often spoken about the hazards of editing a newspaper. We do our best at all times to avoid misinformation and gen eral inaccuracy. And if there is misinformation we try to cor rect it. Still, some people are not past suggesting we do it deliberately. These thoughts come to mind with our publication of two items in the past two issues. The first had the headline, “Attorney Sees No Persecution in Cuba” and the second said, “Cardinal Flays John Birchers for Extremism.” Both stories were received from our own Catholic NC News Ser vice, which this week sends us denials, and retraction of re tractions. If readers claim to be confus ed, let them take solace from the fact that we editors are in the same boat. Not that the NC News Service was in the wrong, for it reported what it had received in good faith. And we, in turn, because we always wish to give both sides, this week publish the amended stories. Attorney James B. Donovan now denies that he ever said that the Catholic Church was not being persecuted in Cuba. Yet, the re marks attributed to him in a question and answer period after a talk at the National Press Club could be certainly be taken that way. Whenever comments are found to be embarrassing, the accuracy of a reporter is nearly always challenged and the wire services and the newspapers get the blame. The so-called easing of Cardi nal Cushing's recent condemna tion of the John Birch Society is a different situation altogeth er. The Cardinal did condemn the Birchers, but claims he was hoaxed into it. It is a pity he ever got himself involved in such a sit uation and we are sorry that he was embarrassed by it. We need men of Cardinal Cushing's cour age and conviction to be effec tive witnesses in our society. Anything which impairs this is a loss to the Church and the coun try. Yes, reporters and editors are not the only ones involved in the hazards about which we speak. Many sincere men become in volved and we should be the first to express charitable concern at all such situations. In the meanwhile, the old game of “You did! - I didn't!” looks likely to go on, with all of us - press services, editors and read ers - trying to get a clear pic ture of what was really said - if it was said, GERARD E. SHERRY First Communion Class To questionthe First Commun ion class assures automatic op position if not resentment. Many are wedded to old customs - simply because they are old. That a custom has a long tradition is not a guarantee that it is applica ble today, nor even religiously significant; granted, because a custom is old does not mean that it must be changed. One pastor considers the First Communion class unnecessary, outmoded and religiously “sub versive” (St. Louis Review, page five). To him parents are the pri mary and ideal-teachers. He con tends that the school has usurped the rights of parents. This is an explosive proposal. Many priests and sisters are firmly convinced that children can be prepared for their First Communion only as a class. They consider parents incapable of “Cheer up! if you do have to stay another year in the fourth grade—you’ll be able to lick anyone in the room!” teaching their own children. Many parents too do not look upon themselves as teachers, They feel that they do not have the necessary qualifications. Many dismiss discussion of this matter summarily; we be lieve that it must be faced square ly. In rdcent years a minority of pastors have modified the tradi tional First Communion class. Parents and their child receive the Eucharist as a family group on a specified day. Although some consider this a step in the right direction, it merely reflects a dissatisfaction with the tradition al class - a realization which still needs evaluation and refine ment. It would seem that the class First Communion has outlived its meaningfulness - just as organ ized Communion Sundays have outgrown their usefulness. Cus toms arising from an immigrant or romantic society need not en dure in an ecumenical and enlight ened atmosphere. The fears of parents as to their ability to teach their children could be allayed easily. Classes or discussion groups could update their knowledge of the faith and enable them to communicate it to their children. Progress must be made. Pro gress in customs where the par ents are ready;'progress in par ents where customs are en trenched. Schools are to supple ment - not to supplant, ST. LOUIS REVIEW GEORGIA PINES Taking Up A Lost Art BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN In the third grade of grammar school I had a teacher by the name of Sister Agnes Cecelia. She belonged to a congregation of nuns known as the Holy Union of the Sacred Heart. Her brother was the Archbishop of Baltimore, the Most Reverend Michael J. Curley. Naturally the little tots who would raise their hand whenever the pastor would visit the class room would re- fceive a special goal to aspire | to from the good Sister. Sister Agnes had countless : stories about her brother. One j which I remember best was the I fact that the Archbishop never gowned an automobile. She said | that everytime her brother set foot outside his residence some one would stop and offer a ride. The Archbishop never saw the need of owning an auto. GROWING UP I recall that none of the priests in my home parish owned automobiles. Vivid is my recollection of the saintly Father Griffin trodding through snow, bringing Holy Com munion to some sick soul. Of course everyone in a ten block radius of the church was a Catholic. But it was a familiar sight to see the parish priests walking through the parish. One pastor al ways took his Irish setter with him. Owning a dog like that, naturally his name was O'Reilly. Walking, of course, has long become a forgot ten art to most Americans. We are a nation on wheels. Long gone are the “old timers** who would walk through any kind of weather rather than miss Mass. Today the leather on our shoes wears out from contact with the brake pedal rather than contact with the sidewalk. I was edified though, right before Easter, when a whole family in my parish walked to Church through one of the worst rain storms before they would miss Holy Thursday’s Mass. ALL OF THIS is a preface to the fact that I have taken up the lost art. After Mass the other morning I thought it good to start walking up to the Post Office rather than drive. Sister Agnes was right. As soon as I started out someone of fered me a ride. As a matter of fact between the rectory and the Post Office some eleven people stopped and offered me a lift. Some of the expressions were funny though. Ranging from, “is your car broke down, Father?**, to “aren’t you feeling well?**. Well I made the Post Office in twelve minutes and it was sure a relief not to have to look for a parking place. Time-wise I guess I saved about ten minutes. INTERESTING, THOUGH, is the different people 1 met. Of those eleven rides offered to me only one was a parishioner of mine. Eight of those thoughtful souls I have never seen before. Its amazing how one could live on the same street for nearly five years and not even know your neighbors. Of course over the time I have waved to some as I drove to and from the rectory. But last week was the first time that I had ever en gaged some of them in conversation. I NOTED, TOO, the different kinds of sidewalks. One portion of the sidewalk is paved with octag onal slabs. An art long since abandoned. Another section of the sidewalk was big concrete slabs. In conversation with one of my neighbors I re marked about these different styles and he told me that at one time the sidewalks up-town were actually made of wood. I guess somewhat after the Atlantic City boardwalk. Then, too, I saw an official marker designating the elevation of that particular spot above sea level. With all the rain we have been having here I think it doesn't have much of a purpose though. Water covers, manhole covers, and gas meter covers, having the towns in which they were made inscribed on each. They provided a moment of reflection, thinking of the employment and the economy of the towns they represented. Now most of these towns are long since on their way out. Well, today it rained and I am back in the auto mobile. My neighbors were not on their front porches and the sidewalks are covered with water. I look forward to Monday morning and once again taking up my practice of walking and meeting with my “new found” neighbors. ‘STATE OF MIND’ The Nature Of The South BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW The South, pronounced with a smile or a sneer, has never been only a point of the compass in this country. It has always had an identity that marked it off distinctly from any other section and from the nation as a whole. The source of this distinctive ness has much in common with The Late George Appley’s definition of Boston as a "state of mind.” States of mind, however, do not originate and certainly do not persist as long as this one with out cause. The quest for the real nature of southern identity is a very common motif of southern literature. The certain sense of its reality, combined with the strongly felt need to discover its meaning, probably accounts in part for the volume and variety of creative writing produced by sou therners and concerned with specifically sou thern themes. A new book, published this past Tuesday to commemorate the semi-centennial anniversary of Rice University, resolutely seeks to discover the essential element of southern identify. In THE IDEA OF THE SOUTH: Pursuit of a Central Theme (University of Chicago Press, 1964), seven prominent southerners publish the papers they submitted to a symposium on this subject. Six of the seven are academic figures, students of his tory or literature; the seventh is th e publisher of the Arkansas Gazette. Their findings, while not completely satisfactory and certainly not startling, ought to be of interest to southerners, those who live in the South (a somewhat distinct group themselves) and, Indeed, to anyone inte rested in the continuing history of our nation. SEVERAL OF the contributors repeatedly re vert to the “myth** of the South or, more cor rectly, the several and various myths of the South. In this sense, a myth is not something which does not exist but rather a pattern of ideas, values or aspirations which form in popular culture and thinking. In simple terms, the social myths of the South are, as George B. Tindall says, “mental pictures that portray the pattern of what a people think they are (or ought to be) or of what somebody else thinks they are.” Southern myths derive from its - true or storied - past: plantation culture, hardy yeoman aristocrats in the Jeffersonian mold, white su premacy. The authors of THE IDEA OF THE SOUTH are CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 SOUTH’S TRAVAIL Commonweal Off Base BY GERARD E. SHERRY There’s an awful lot happened this week on the racial front. The most wonderful news comes out of the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham, Alabama, where it was announced Sunday that all Catholic high and elementary schools would be integrated come September. I was listening to this announcement over the radio, while at the same time reading the May 1 issue of Commonweal. I don’t often disagree ) t with my friends who edit this excellent weekly review of public affairs, but this is one time when I am saddened at the editorial comment concern ing racial justice and the South. Commonweal published an article by Dennis Clark on what he terms are the difficulties over the Church and Race in Philadelphia. It makes impressive reading, | although I would have much preferred toj have seen an offi cial viewpoint on the situation also pub lished in the same issue. In referring to the Clark article, Com- _ monweal reminded “how Catholic indifference— both popular and official—to the plight of the Negro exists side by side with strong and stir ring episcopal statements endorsing equality and civil rights. It has always been possible to say that the Catholic position on racism has al ways been clear, but in practice it has not been ^ * clear at all. . The editorial also said: “. . .then too, there is the strong pattern of discrimination in the Knights of Columbus, the silence of so many Catholic newspapers in the South, and the persistent evi dence that very few priests, North or South, feel they are in a position to write frank letters to the editors or articles on the subject under their own name. . .*’ What bothers me about the Commonweal com ment is that it is an oft-claimed generalization which is now far from true. For instance, The Knights of Columbus could do much more in re gard to racial justice. However, when the first integrated K of C Council was formed in Geor gia, I never noticed any comment on this in Com monweal. Yet this took far more courage on the part of the Georgia Knights than it did for Dennis Clark to write his Philadelphia story; it took far more courage than it takes to write an editorial under the tolerant mantle of New York City. REAPINGS AT RANDOM And Commonweal is way off base in its com ments on Southern Catholic papers. I know of only two out of almost 15 Southern Catholic weeklies that come into my office, which can be said to be silent. The others are quite vocal on the subject of racial justice, and quite often. What is more, our own Georgia Bulletin need apoligize to no one for its stand on race. Commonweal has no strong er stand. Furthermore, one wonders whether its editors saw the Catholic Week, during the racial crisis in Birmingham last summer and fall. Our fel low-editor who runs the Mobile-Birmingham official weekly, Msgr. Frank Wade, showed great courage in his editorial stands. He pleaded for justice for the Negro at a time when it would have been much easier to have remained silent. It « takes guts even today to publish in Alabama some of the items and comments that Msgr. Wade has in the Catholic Week. It could mean a bomb in the editorial offices. Dear Commonweal editors, There’s a great difference between publishing on Madison Ave. and publishing in Birmingham, Ala. Commonweal is dead wrong when it chides the Catholic Press of the South for alleged dere liction of duty. Maybe it could be Justified five years ago, but certainly not now. Indeed, there are Catholic weeklies in the Middle and Far West which could fit the Commonweal critique—and they have no excuse for their silence. Just recently, a writer for another Catholic magazine came from New York and visited the South. He too, was badly informed or didn't /, bother to find out the true situation in relation to the Church’s contribution to Negro aspirations. All that this writer did was to report the nega- , tive aspects of the problem—the failures of some Catholics to accept the Church’s teachings on ) * racial Justice. The many positive points went un-reported. He idolized certain Protestant fight ers for racial justice—and they deserve it; but he never mentioned any of the bishops, priests and laymen in the South who have laboured all their lives to help the Negro attain justice. Surely, some of our Church leaders of the past failed in this regard; but who will cast the first stone? Espe cially these days, when the fraudulent claims that the Negro can get Justice only in the North have been exposed in dramatic fashion. What is needed here is less criticism of past failures and more prayerful action for the future. Also, there is need for greater understanding of the travail yet to be witnessed in the South as the Church and its leaders apply in practical fas- hian the eloquence of Catholic teaching. One has only to read the pastoral letter of Archbishop Toolen when he announced to Catholics of Alabama that their schools would be integrated: “1 know this will not meet with the approval of many of our people, but in justice and charity, this must be done.*’ Need anything more be said?