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- r J i r question box Burial Of Suicides Saints in Black and White ST. FRANCIS OF PAULA 97 rBY MONSIGNOR J.D. CONWAY Q. Often people suffer from mental disturban ces that are not apparent to others. At times such people may be suicidal, greatly desiring their own death. Some may even succeed in taking their own life. Does the Church always exclude suicide vic tims from burial in the Church? If so, why? How can a priest possibly know the mental difficulties tormenting such a person, and decide that he is not “worthy** of a church funeral? If a disturbed person desires his own death is he considered in a state of mortal sin? If so, then isn't this the same as condemning a physically handicapped person for his own handicap? A. The Church law which excludes suicides from Christian hurial exists for the purpose of teaching the living that suicide is a grave sin, for which there is seldom opportunity for ^ | ^repentance. Not everyone be lieves this. The law excludes only those who take their own life “with well weighed deci sion.’’ If there is reason to sus pect that mental or emotional jdisturbances made the act less I than the suicide will be buried Tn the Church. So much is the benefit of doubt given to sui cides that seldom is one excluded from Christian burial. No one can be guilty of mortal sin unless he does wrong freely and deliberately. We are not responsible for things we cannot avoid. Q. 1. What is the Mystical Body? 2. Who are its members? 3. What are the requirements to become a member? 4. Are its members only those whoare living? 5. Are its restrictions only for those of the Catholic faith? A. The Mystical Body can be understood only in terms of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God. He became man to redeem and sanctify men. He accomplished this, essentially, by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. But He must still bring the effects of it to each person on earth. The Mystical Body is an extension of Himself, a con tinuation of His redeeming and isanctifying; acti vities, and it embraces all those who come to Him in faith and baptism. It is a union of the people of God, joined each and all to a common head, Jesus Christ, Who seeks to share His divine life with them. The most intimate members of the Mystical Body are those who are joined to Jesus Christ by baptism, faith and love. They share His life in full measure. However, those who have lost love are also members, united to the rest of the Body, and to Christ its Head, by baptism and faith. Those who have rejected faith cut themselves off frim effective membership in the Body. For an infant the only requirement for member ship is baptism. For an adult this baptism must be joined to honest faith. Only the living are counted as members of the Mystical Body. Those in heaven and purgatory are intimately joined with the same head Jesus Christ, and thus are united to all members of the Mystical Body, but call this wider union the Communion of Saints. AN ALTAR BOY NAMED "SPECK" “Have you been handing out traffic tickets again?” If we restrict membership to those of theCath-. olic faith we must be careful in defining this faith. All those who are baptized into Christ become members of Christ - members of His Mystical Body - and they cut off their membership only when they deliberately reject Christ by denying faith in him. Many there are who make a partial denial of faith without any personal guilt. They do not sever themselves from Christ by simple er ror; the bonds of their baptism remain effective. Then there are others who have never been bap tized, but yet have faith - and often love. Only an encounter with Christ could have produced these sanctifying effects in them. And by such encoun ter they join themselves in some way to the Mysti cal Body. We might say that they have a baptism of desire. Jesus came on earth to be the sacrament - the effective sign - of our vivifying union with God. In His Mystical Body He continues to live as a sac rament - a sign which produces results-on earth. All those who make personal, compliant encounter with Him He joins to Himself in His Mystical Body. *** Q. In the Book of Proverbs, 26:4, is stated:- “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be made like him.’’ Verse 5 states: “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he imagine himself to be wise.’* Is this a contradiction or a poor translation. Of these two quotes, which one is a person supposed to follow, or can we take our pick? A. This is a paradox. Its meaning is something like this: don’t descend to the level of a fool or you will argue like a fool yourself; and yet you must argue with him to show him how foolish he is. The first 12 verses of this chapter have a dozen wise observations about fools, and the concluding one is: “You see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him”. *** Q. In our area there are quite a few priests who call the Gospels “Gospel Stories.’’ Now it seems a lot of people believe that stories are something that you do not need to believe as the truth. It seems to me that some people who hear the priest say “Gospel Stories’’ feel that it is not necessary to believe them; so I think it is wrong to call them stories. Would it not be better to call them “Gospel Truths?*’ A. You may have a good point there. However, there are many things in the Gospels which are simply stories; the parables. The householder who hired men to work in his vineyard and paid them each a penny ... the wise and foolish virgins ... the sower who went out to sow his seed ... the man who had two sons and gave the younger his inheritance ... the king who prepared a mar riage feast; these stories might well begin, “once upon a time.” They are told to illustrate a point of truth. *** Q. I hope you do not mind if I challenge your answer to a question about eating meat on Friday out of charity to a Protestant hostess. I was al ways taught we were not to compromise when mortal sin was involved. It takes courage and self- discipline at a time like that to show God we love Him first and will serve Him no matter the cost. Charity is good, but I am sure our Protestant friend would admire us for doing what is right if we were noticed in passing up the meat. To me there is security and peace in knowing what is right and wrong. The saints had to step out of line to do what was right many a time. A. This question comes from a good Sister, and I have quoted only part of it. She is not the only one who has disagreed with my suggestion that ob ligations of charity might sometimes excuse us from obeying a law of the Church. Surely I agree with her that we may not com promise when mortal sin is involved. We cer tainly could never commit a mortal sin to ac complish a work of charity. My problem was in deciding between two obligations: (1) of charity, to avoid grave offense which might redound to the harm of religion, and (2) a positive law of the Church, which we all know is not intended to oblige always, everywhere, and in all circum stances. My judgment was that there may be cases in which the law of charity prevails over the law of the Church, thereby excusing me from the law of the Church. I do not commit sin by eating meat on Friday when I am excused from the law. A dispensation might excuse me. A good, sound, sufficient reason may excuse me. There is security in knowing right from wrong, certainly, and there can be no compromise be tween them. But we may sometimes do a lot of wrong with the bull-headed and unreasoning con-- viction. that we are doing right. We may commit no formal s'in, but do a lot of harm. That is why “holy” people are sometimes “impossible” people. ‘STATE OF MIND The Nature Of The South CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 more successful i n tracing the roots of the South and its myths than they are in evaluating their present status or projecting their future. There is a New South, product not only of economic ad vances but of liberated minds. Hodding Carter, Ralph McGill and Martin Luther King, Jr. do not belong to any, real or fictional, Old South. Inte restingly enough, however, they may have in herited a portion of their virtues from that source, The New South probably had its actual bi rt b in the Great Depression, during which a presidential report labeled the region “the na tion’s number one economic problem.” Even the phrasing is significant. The Old South was separa tist and engendered loyalty to the state and region before the nation. The New South is gradually be coming integrated into the mainstream of Ameri can history and experience. Southern poverty brought assistance and, eventually, industrializa tion. Commerce and industry have contributed, obliquely but substantially, to the revolution for civil equality, which marks the present South. The future should be full of hope - we hope. THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5 TOR ALL FAITHS’ Historic Carrollton Chapel Being Moved ACROSS 62. Clamor 30. 1. He fasted from— 64. Gullet 31. 5. Network 65. Personality 34. 9. Ancient Briton 66. Prospect 35. 13. Fairy 69. Youngster 14. Ballad 70. Stomach 15. Molding 71. Three 16. Panama 72. W. Indian shrub 37. 17. Vigor plant 38. 18. Bark cloth 74. Collides 39. 19. Biblical name 75. Employs 40. 20. Stake 76. Medley 41. 21. One who withdraws 77. Prove false 24. Jewel 78. Rational 42. 25. Managed 79. Piercing 43. 27. Conjunction 80. Disappear 44. 28. PI of 18th letter of DOWN.... 48. Alphabet 1. Name of order he 49. 29. If not founded 51. 31. Heat resistant 2. Test 52. glass 3. Bother 54. 32. Nickel; abbr. 4. —Deum 33. Tram 5. Head covering 57. 36. English College 6. Date 40. He was bom here 7. Tastes 58. 43. Old make of car 8. Exclamation 59. 45. Comb, form; 9. Circle 60. boundary 10. Knight’s oath — 46. Roman room 11. Outcast 61. 47. Labor Union 12. Lacerates 63. 48. At regular Intervals 13. Board of Judges 67. 50. Scruff 16. Confine 68. 52. More obtuse 17. Set of seats for 70. 53. Negative clergy 73. 55. Air force student 22. 1/2 an em 74. 56. Pronoun 23. Swindle 76. 60. A degree 26. Pasha 77. Jap outcast Sifts Baseball term The name of the order he founded means—of monastic order 20 cwt Mouths Nothing Able “Heart of Dixie”; abbr. Flange Restoration Simple sugar Tranquilizer Scrap MU? pond Tahitian national god He became one at age 15 Open Drags Flowering water plant Joint cavity — Yo Sky; Chinese Broccoli To Select Never; (Ger.) Apis Stamp of approval A degree ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7 BY MARGE LaFOV When the Catholic Church of Our Lady in Carrollton moved into its new church, it was fac ed with a decision to be made about its former struc ture. This edifice had been standing in the heart of the city since 1893, and to dismantle it would be to destroy still ano ther of the few remaining land- marks : of Carrbllton’s earlier days; to sell it> meant to risk, again, its destruction. The. historic building had been used, first, for Episcopal services, and, since 1953, for Catholic services, and it was felt that a way must be found to have the chapel continue to serve the community in some capacity. Archbishop Hallinan, offer ed to donate the building to West Georgia College to be used on campus as a Chapel of All Faiths. With the approval of the Board of Regents, the President of the College, Dr. James E. Boyd, accepted this offer and, in the midst of a huge expans ion program, allotted space for it in a prominent spot on the main college road. There it will be preserved as a link with the past and will become a part of the tradition of the College. ’THIS IS a source of much satisfaction”, said the pastor, Father Richard B. Morrow, "both to the pioneer Catholics of the West Georgia area, and to the Marist Fathers who came from Atlanta to offer services ARNOLD VIEWING ‘The Silence’ Not Golden BY JAMES W. ARNOLD Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Silence,” the last in his trilogy on human love and the existence of God, raises perplexing questions for Catholics who revere the motion picture. The usual critical questions are rather easily answered, Story - oriented moviegoers want to know if a film, as comedy or tragedy, will intelligently and humanly feed some kind of delight into their hungry souls. The answer here must be narrowly qualified. ‘THE SILENCE” is a close relative of the intellectual novel. Its surface story is slight and sordid, and so excessive is the overlay of gloom and evil that Bergman almost seems to be spoofing Bergman. The characters are static, with fuzzy, half-developed motives and little pow er to reach into the audience for compassion. The film succeeds mainly on the philosophical level, as allegory. Unlike most Bergman films, this one offers little satisfaction on the level of story or character. Enthusiasts of film as film are less concerned with what a fnovie is about. They want to know how well the director used his medium: camera, light ing, movement, editing, sound. Although he pre fers ideas to technique, Bergman rarely disap points this type of viewer. The Swede achieves his effects not so much by arty editing as by having his camera track characters in perpetual motion, with tight microscopic closeups filling the screen with maps of the human face from forehead to chin. New angles are always crucial, fraught with meaning; Shots are intensely selective, revealing and attending to only what must be seen. The soundtrack is dead unless Bergman wants us to hear something: a clock ticking, a watch being wound. This remorseless camera work, probing, lin gering, straining until the slightest gesture re veals something vital, can be tedious for custo mers used to the pace of Hollywood films. But the method takes humans apart and exposes them as mercilessly as a novel. IF BERGMAN can be faulted as a user of film, it is chiefly in his literary bent: more and more his climactic moments seem to come in soft, understated, hard-to-catch dialog than in action. And poetry, so memorable in his great films, seems lacking. As for philosophical questions, nothing short of an essay could uncover the richness of Bergman's meanings, especially in the context of the trilogy. But it is suggestive that the story is of two women and a child alone in a huge, near-empty hotel in a strange country. For Bergman this world without father-figures (one sister despises men, the other apparently has an indifferent husband) is a Godless world, grotesque, full of death and despair. The characters cry out, but God is silent. It is all rather dreary, but not without Bergman's obscure intimations of hope. In the trilogy, God, hope and love are inextricably tied together. In 'Through a Glass Darkly,” a girl goes insane be cause her father, whom she more and more con fuses with God, seems not to return her love. In ‘ Winter Light,” a minister finds that having lost the power to love. In ‘The Silence,” the sister who suffocates is the intellectual who has rejected the creative love God has put into the world. THE KEY? Near the end of “Glass,” the father tells his son: “Love - even the poorest - is God’s pledge.” Even the renunciation and misuse of love, even jealousy, even self-love, the worst love as well as the best - for Bergman, God’s shadow on earth is the love that exists among men. No love is in vain: it is the sign that shatters ‘‘the silence.” For Bergman fans, the really troubling issue is the condemnation of ‘The Silence” by the Legion of Decency. Legion reviewers concluded that Bergman’s moral intentions were nullified by his choice of details. He does show and suggest more than we would like, and he stretches good taste to the screaming point. But the crucial questions are: (1) do these scenes appeal to the prurient in terest? (2) do they go so far that the matter can not be redeemed by the attitude of the director? BOTH QUESTIONS, it seems to me, could be resolved in favor of Bergman. First, the integrity of the man, who could be a millionaire in Holly wood any time he wants to, is indisputable. Sec ond, he has designed each shot to produce, not at traction, but virtual Puritanical revulsion. Cot ton Mather might well have endorsed the film as revealing sex in all its animalism and ugliness. Clearly, Bergman cannot be held responsible for screwballs who may get a charge out of such material. Nor for the immature, who would find the film boring to the point of stupor. But they are much more likely to see (and enjoy) movies like ‘McLintock” (L of D A-I) which implicitly en dorses boozing and sexual adventuring, or ‘The Prize” (A-3) which promotes promiscuity as a way of life. What is more damaging? A moral film which shows sin for what it is? Or a filrri which pro motes and prettifies evil but stops short of show ing it? Who is the better father? The one who gives good advice about the world as it really is? Or the one who gives bad advice and describes the world as lollipops and moonbeams? YET THE Legion’s view is also persuasive. The problem is complicated by Bergman’s use of images and suggestions he might have avoided. But how is he to show the wickedness of the abuse of love? Or is this a subject that films, because of their undeniably graphic nature, must avoid? The posture of the Church in regard to the maturing film art - perhaps the only art in the world today that is truly alive and universal - remains awkward/ Immoral junk is sometimes ap proved, moral art sometimes condemned. Yet who envies the Legion’s task? It must judge occasions of sin for a phantom average audience. It must con sider not only the Bergmans, and what they may push to next, but lesser imitators, for whom nudity plus sex equals cash. We still seem to need a better standard for the moral evaluation of films, perhaps a new system altogether. It would be useful if the problems of the Legion received, in the next few years, the same re-examination scheduled for the Index of Forbid den Books. here. To them, it is a symbol of the struggle to keep alive the Catholic Faith that had first taken root in this section in 1893, when about 200 families of Hungarians settled outside of Bremen and named their com munity ‘Budapest’. “Although through the years many of these early families migrated to other parts, those who stayed remained loyal to their Catholicity and attended Mass whenever a priest was available. By 1936, one of the Marist Fathers was coming from Atlanta regularly to off er Mass on Sundays? in an abandoned one-room school house, where a pot-bel lied stove furnished the heat, the mark of the blackboard still plainly showed on the wall, and the old school bell rang out the call to Mass. This tiny group took on new vigor as the city of Carrollton grew and Catholic families drove the thirty miles to Buda pest to hear Mass. It became apparent, however, that a more centrally located church was needed and the problem was solved when, in 1952, the local Episocpal Church was offered for sale. Though few in number, these Catholics worked dili gently to raise the required amount, $8,500., and by August 1953 the chapel was theirs and was dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. THEY HAD received a subst antial donation from the Catho lic Extension Society and from understanding friends in the area, in Atlanta, and elsewhere. Public spirited citizens of Carrollton, realizing that a Catholic Church was a ‘‘must” if they were to attract new in dustry to their city, gave their enthusiastic support. By 1961, the chapel was bursting at the seams as the number of par ishioners had tripled, and a new church plant was begun on Cen ter Point Road and was dedi cated in March 1962. Shortly thereafter, the small white frame chapel was offered to the West Georgia College. This Chapel-with-a-tradition is about to be moved to the cam pus, there to add another chap ter to its long record of ser vice. It will provide a quiet spot for meditation and a central lo cation for religious organiza tions on the campus. The need for such a facility has been apparent for some time. No services will be conducted in the chapel on Sundays, so there will be no conflict with other religious services in the com munity. The necessary funds to move the building and make the rene- vations to convert it to a chapel for all faiths are being raised through a committee of laymen from each major denomination in the West Georgia area, un der the chairmanship of Frank Searcy. The monetary goal has almost been reached and before too long this Chapel of All Faiths will be nestling in a wooded grove in the midst of modern brick buildings on the West Georgia campus in Carrollton. God Love You BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN The other night, an athletic director said to me: “Please re member my grave need in Mass tomorrow.” Suppose I had an swered him: “Give me a dollar and I will give you this,” then handed him an embossed printed card reading, “You will be re membered in my Mass.” Or suppose I took advantage of the grief of a neighbor and passed out cards at a funeral home, promising to remember the deceased in a Mass for a dollar or more. Would not this be converting the Via Dolorsa into the “Via Dollarosa” and making prayers a “racket”? CALLING ALL CATHOLIC PEOPLE 4 Put this I |note into your prayer book: 1. You are already remembered in every Mass jby every priest in every part of the world. This is true of the dead as well as the living. 2. You have a pastor*, and he is obligated to read jMass for you—not just to remember you—al most one hundred times a year. 3. Never pay anyone a cent for a mere “remem brance in Mass,” even though you get an em bossed card with your name in Gothic print. 4. There is a difference in having a Mass offered in justice for your own special intention and making an offering" tor a remem brance, which you already have in justice. S. faie next time you are asked to buy a card promising a “re membrance in Mass,” tell the seller: “I will give you something if you promise to FAST for me instead of pray.” See how many will do thatl They will take your money for praying, which is very vague, but not for fasting, which is very hard. Go to your parish priest or diocesan director of The Society for the Propagation of the Faith and ask not for a memento, but that the renewed sacrifice of Christ be offered for you and you alone. The latter will send your stipend to the Missions, where some priests exist on $5 a month. A priest in Africa cannot send you an elabo rate card in thanksgiving, but he can lift up black hands holding a white Host—which is worth more than a thousand cards I .GOD LOVE YOU to A.K.B, for $10 “In thanksgiving for a favor received from St. Jude and Our Lady of Perpetual Help, I had planned to send flowers to Church. Instead, I feel the money might bring a flower of Faith to someone who seeks the true Church.” ...to W. and M.H. for $500 “Since God has given us a bit more than the necessities of life, we want to give this money to the Missions. We are saving this for our retirement, but think the poor can use it more than we.” ..to A.W. for $5 “In thanks giving to the Sacred Heart for a favor received.” Send us your old gold and jewelry—the valuables you no longer use but which are too good to throw away. We will resell the ear- rings, gold eyeglass frames, flatware, etc., and use the money to relieve the suffering in mission lands. Our address: The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 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 Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New on n N ion;<? r J° U u D10Cesan Director * Rev - Harold J. Rainey, ^Q»^Qx^Q4j^Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Georgia.