Newspaper Page Text
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Gfc.ORGLA BULLETIN
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1964
the
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
^ V
PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan ♦»» *
MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernai
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 U.S.A. $5,00
Canada $5.00
Foreign $6.50
Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga.
Liturgy Conferences
A dynamic step forward in the
rejuvenation of Catholic life was
taken at the conference of dioce
san liturgy commissions held in
Kansas City last week. Represen
tatives of one hundred and one
dioceses made evident the fer
ment that is vigorously at work
in American Catholicism. Atten
tion naturally centered on the
Liturgy Constitution of Vatican
Council Il f called by Father
Godfrey Diekmann “the most im
portant document ever published
by the Catholic Church.’* In the
Constitution, under the direct
inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
the Council Fathers delivered
a mandate to the Church to rec
ognize the full meaning of its ex
istence. That meaning is contain
ed most perfectly in the sacred
liturgy, “the summit toward
which the activity of the Church
is directed; (and) the fount from
which all her power flows”, as
the Council declares.
A direct result of the Liturgy
Constitution was the sense of ur
gency which pervaded the Kansas
City conference. Apart from the
imminence of introduction of En
glish into the Mass rite and lat
er, more radical reforms, there
is now a pressing need for con
tinuous growth in liturgical un
derstanding and practice. Even
within the framework of the lit
urgy as it now exists, the people
of God, which we are, have a
right to increased nourishment
on the riches contained in the
sacred rites.
Under the leadership of Arch
bishop Hallinan, the Atlanta arch
diocese has already made consid
erable progress in liturgical life.
In the coming months, further
intense work, interest and whole
hearted cooperation between our
archbishop and his priests and
people will be required to achieve
the noble goal of a full liturgical-
Sacramental life.
Housing Disgrace
Atlanta prides itself on being a
city of beautiful homes and resi
dential areas. It boasts some of
the loveliest streets and houses
in the entire nation, as well as an
increasing number of attractive
high-rise apartment buildings.
At the same time, reliable sta
tistics indicate that fifty thou
sand people in Atlanta live in
sub-standard housing. These
people are not mere statistics -
they are human beings: men, wo
men and children. To them, sub
standard housing is not an ab
straction. It is an everyday fact
of life which means insufficient
plum sing, unsanitary toilet faci
lities, inadequate heating and the
inevitable filth of decrepit build
ings.
A citizens'advisory committee
has drawn attention to the dread
ful housing conditions existing in
Atlanta. Citizens of other com
munities ought to take a look
around and see what their own sit
uation is. The committee in At
lanta has attacked the problem
with great seriousness and has
made three concrete suggestions;
1) the slums now existing which
cannot be recovered ought to be
destroyed and their people of
fered decent, inexpensive hous
ing; 2) the provisions of the
housing codes must be strictly
enforced by city authorities; 3)
new slums must be prevented
by self-help projects in marginal
areas.
Catholic social teaching is
merely a dead letter - and our
social conscience is as dead - if
we do not apply our efforts in a
practical manner to meet the dis
grace of squalid housing. Catho
lics are morally bound to ener
getically support action to com
bat this evil. THE GEORGIA
BULLETIN strongly endorses the
proposals of the Citizens* Ad
visory Committee.
Welcome Criticism
Through Whom He Came
GEORGIA PINES
Number, Please!
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
Over the radio the other day I heard that one
city up north had a terrible tie-up of its telephone
circuits. It seems that a local disk jockey an
nounced over the air-waves that the telephone
company was going to perform its annual task of
blowing soot out of its wires. He instructed his
listeners to remove their telephones from the hook
and place a pillow over the receiver. The purpose
of the pillow, of course, was to prevent the soot
from blowing all over the house.
Legend are the jokes perpetrated in the early
days of Alexander Graham Bell’s discovery.
People would actually go and look to see if the
wires were sagging when they had a bad connec
tion.
phone calls, threats and demands were the subject
of many an interesting movie in yeoldedays. The
complicated and involved mechanism of the tele
phone company today makes the old movie thriller
of “trace that call” a thing of the past.
1 do like the Direct Dialing though. With my Yan
kee voice it isn't necessary anymore for me to
pronounce time and time again and finally spell
out my home town of Taunton. There is something
nostalgic, however, to the friendly and courteous
voice of the old operator with “Number please”.
Somehow or other I like to think of my good mother
as m o t h e r instead of 584-3364, Area code
404. The numerals sort of remind me of the days
when I said Mass at the Federal Penitentary and
knew the men as numbers instead of "Joe”, “Bill”
or ’Torn”.
One call that I made, however, turned out to be a
real tongue twister to the operator. Some time back
I placed a call to my good friend Monsignor Mc
Namara down in Savannah. It was a person-to-
person call. Unfortunately the connection was not
too good and the operator experienced a difficulty
in trying to understand me. (Static interference
and Yankee accent do make for a trying situation!).
Anyhow, I told the operator that I would like to
speak to Monsignor McNamara. She didn’t quite
fathom, nor understand, this Monsignor bit. Final
ly in desperation after I had explained that it was
not a Spanish name 1 said, "Father McNamara”.
From this she thought that 1 wanted to speak to
my own father.
Suddenly, a terrific jam of the
telephone circuits occured until
it was discovered that the disk-
jockey was pulling off his April
Fool's joke.
Telephones, like the auto,
have become a necessary part
of our lives. Time was when the
gadget was such an honored
piece of furniture that it was accorded the most
conspicuous place in the home. Only one to a
family and a real status symbol of the gone-by
era were the lucky one who had a telephone down
stairs and another on the second floor.
A long distance phone call was such a rare event
that it became the subject of neighborhood conver
sation. The longer the distance the louder a man
thought he would be expected to shout. Even if a
neighbor were not "listening-in” on the party line
the whole conversation could be heard a block
away.
Abuses have crept into the use of the conversa
tion gadget. Such things as gossip, anonymous
The name McNamara proved equally to be a
tongue twister to her. Thinking that 1 might make
the situation a little more clear I said, "You know,
like McNamara's Band”.
The call finally went through to Savannah, and af
ter the maid answered the phone and said, "Cathe
dral of Saint John the Baptist”, the telephone
operator said, ”1 have a call for Mr. Father
Band”.
CONSTITUTION ON LITURGY
Parade Of Insights
A proverband a trite saying are
sometimes hard to distinguish. In
any case, there is a kind of pro
verb that anyone who does any
thing or takes a stand on any is
sue can expect to be criticized.
The only man who is never criti
cized is the one who does nothing,
THE GEORGIA BULLETIN has
tried to say things that need
saying. The editors have taken a
stand on important issues, when
ever they appeared and whomever
they affected, according to the
dictates of their consciences. The
least surprise of all is that the
GEORGIA BULLETIN has re
ceived criticism in some quar
ters
Disagreement with teachings of
the Catholic Church, which would
like to masquerade as a differ
ence of opinion with the editorial
policy of this paper, cannot be af
forded any serious consideration.
The Catholic Church, for in
stance, teaches the equality of
all men regardless of race, and
defends vigorously the rights all
men possess. Catholics, if they
are to remain such, must accept
the equal rights of Negroes as a
matter of divine law. Criticism
levelled against this newspaper
for the defense of efforts to ob
tain these rights is actually di
rected against the law of God, as
propounded by his infallible
Church, We cannot welcome, or
even take seriously, such criti
cism.
The editors of this paper not
only claim liberty to form their
consciences on the basis of Cath
olic principles; we also intend to
live with this liberty and to re
spect it in others. There are
areas in which we may legiti
mately differ. And, there are
areas in which we may not. The
underlying “agreement to dis
agree* must be our common
commitment to the Christian con
ception of man and society, ac
cording to Catholic teaching.
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
The complexities of the Constitution on the Lit
urgy are not the result of any obscurity but of an
almost bewildering embarrassment of riches. So
perfectly attuned Is this marvelous document to the
evident inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as well as to
the spirit of Vatican Council II, that it appears a
veritable parade of the most profound insights. It
engenders an appreciative understanding of free
dom, for Instance, in its absorbing analysis of
truly Christian worship. The demands of the free
dom it propounds and presumes are far more im-
peraUve than the prescriptions of any narrowly
conceived legal approach could
have been. A law can specify,
direct and lead, even very well,
without ever involving the total
energies of its subjects. This is
precisely what the Liturgy Con
stitution sets out to accomplish.
The Liturgy Constitution de
mands of the members of the
Body of Christ, which is the
Church, a complete commitment to worship. Wor
ship is not only the first duty of man; it is the
primary objective of his freedom. Worship re
quires the whole man to return himself to the
Source of his being. Worship, as conceived by the
Fathers of Vatican II, requires that the whole of
every man - intelligence, free will, body, heart and
voice - be galvanized in the most intense activi
ty conceivable. It is a symphony of totalities:
the total man, knowingly and deliberately, engages
the totality of his energy and resources in per
sonal encounter with God, his Father.
AUTHENTIC WORSHIP is only possible through
Christ. The most sublime and the most normal
act of the Christian is to deliver himself to God
with Christ. In Christ also, there takes place
that continuing enrichment of the child of God
which is the "life” Christ came to impart with
abundance. This is Christian worship, the meaning
of liturgy. Because it takes place only in Christ
and therefore necessarily involves the entire
family and people of God, our freedom is once
again taxed imperiously. We have to choose
Christ - with all that implies.
The Liturgy Constitution conceives Christian
worship as a communal task, a family affair.
"Christ always associates the Church with him
self in this great work wherein God is glorified and
men are sanctified." The entire thrust of the re
form and renewal of the liturgy is to make this
sense of community a tangible experience. If wor
ship is to be a work of total freedom, this will
mean a deliberate and totally free acceptance of all
men as members of ourselves in Christ, associat
ed with him in his priestly task. The Christian is
not merely to freely accept God and himself; he
has to accept with total willingness all men as his
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
WEST COAST TRAVAIL
Militant
Catholics
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
A trip to the West Coast is always an experience
for the Easterner or other stranger to that area of
this vast country. There are so many contradictions
in contour, topography and people, in California that
one can never claim to be an expert on any of them.
To the Catholic, the contradictions become even
more puzzling. This because in Southern California
especially, many of his co-religionists are asso
ciated with the political extremism so rampant
at this time. And
along with this ex
tremism goes a lib
eralism of sorts
which appears to be
gaining ground —de
spite both official and
un - official road
blocks. Thus it was I
took a trip down
through the Cali
fornia Desert with a militant Catholic who assured
me that he was all for Negroes having rights, "but
they have to earn them.” He was also for them
having sit-ins and protests, ' but not when they are
directed by communists and leftists.”
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
Our Militant Catholic assured me that there was
no doubt that this country was slowly being taken
over by "the commies.” He suggested that even the
Church was full of Communist cadres operating un
der the label of ’ liberal Catholics.” And if this
wasn't bad enough, he pointed out that even at the
Vatican Council the "work of the Holy Spirit was
being thwarted by the "pinkos", especially those
young European theologians who have attacked the
Curia." He pointed with pride to the fact that in
Los Angeles such people weren’t permitted to con
taminate their fellow Catholics with false doctrine;
neither were they allowed to unsurp legitimate
authority. And my Militant Catholic friend was
careful to also assure me that there was no sup
pression of valid Catholic views in the City of the
Angels. ’That's a lot of liberal propaganda, he
said, "which has no basis in fact. You can say any
thing you like here as long as it is first cleared
with the Chancery Office. That's one reason why all
institutions and parishes within the archdiocese find
it prudent to invite only those speakers who are in
good standing.”
Our Militant Catholic friend was quite indignant
that I should choose the subject of "Freedom of
Speech within the Church.” He said it was a lot of
mularkey, and anyhow had no application in Sou
thern California. "After all, "he wisely pointed out,
"if the people do as they are told, there’ll be no
trouble. If there's no trouble there’s no need to
worry about one’s freedom. It's assured by the
teachings of the Church. So why do you fellows go
round stirring up trouble?”
He further pointed out that there was too much
pressure for change going on in the Church. "What
was good enough for Christ should surely be good
enough for us." I heartily agreed and suggested that
we stop at some big ranch in the Imperial Valley
near the Mexican border and inspect the housing of
migrant workers. I also urged him to come and
visit with some poor people I knew near El Centro.
'There you go again, trying to be a do-gooder.
Why don’t you leave them to the local people to
look after. After all, it's none of your business and
they’re already getting relief through the taxes
we pay locally and nationally. More important, many
of them are Reds — come across the border, you
know, and take over the leadership of the others
who, up till then, were very happy as they were. I
tell you, we have to do something about these Com
mies, they're sneaking in everywhere. I know a fel
low in the FBI who told me that the farm unions were
led by Commies or their henchmen. You’d wonder
what those fellows in Washington were up to. I think
Welch is right. There is a vast conspiracy to take
over our government. What’s more I can tell you off
the record that we know who the Commies are in
government. You can always tell one — anyway I
can.”
The poor of Holtsville and El Centro were idling
their time away, rocking on their porches, as we
sped by, heading back to Los Angeles. "Look," said
my Militant Catholic friend, ’They’re not so bad
looking those shacks. Much better than they’d have
in Mexico or Arizona. We treat our farm workers
all right. It’s those meddling outsiders who come in
here and stir these fellows up. These fellows look
very happy and contented. They don’t want what we
have because they wouldn’t know what to do with it.
Their needs are very few. They are tough and har
dy. They’re not used to our standards. I don’t know
why people would be so criminal as to come in here
and get them striking for things they've never had
before."
We duly arrived near Palm Springs and I sug
gested stopping there for dinner. My Militant Cath
olic friend warned me that the place was "full of
Jews" and "Eisenhower.”
"Mind you,” he assured, "I’ve got nothing against
the Jews. Indeed, some of my best friends are Jews.
But they've taken over the place--Just like Eisen
hower. He never did anything but play golf. He's a
liberal, too. They’re all the same. I can tell them
anywhere. I’m telling you, feller, we’ve got to watch
the Commies. They’re all over the place.”