Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PAGE 4 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.”