Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN
PAG£5
PARISH EXISTENCE
Worship Objective
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
The primary objective of the existence of a
parish is worship. Stated baldly, this may seem
a truism or an excessive simplification. For the
purpose of refreshing our grasp of such a
familiar reality as parish life, however, it helps
to clear away complications and reduce analysis
to its simpliest terms. Worship is the main rea
son for the establishment of a parish, with all
the consequences which that
step implies. It is the deter
mining factor for every aspect
of parish life and activity, as
the soul is within the human be
ing. Constant reference to this
central concern is essential for
the health of a parish.
Many factors enter into the
full achievement by a parish of
its objective of worship. There are resultant
demands on the level of the physical facilities
which are needed. Even more serious are the
spiritual demands upon each individual member
of the parish. And by far the most important
consequences of recognizing the prime place of
worship in parish life have to do with the multiple
relationships between the pastor and lay people
as well as among all the members of the parish
family.
PUBLIC worship requires first of all a loca
tion and an environment. Hence the maximum im
portance of the parish church building, with its
sanctuary and furnishings. Materials, style, deco
ration, and indeed everything to do with the church
building, must look to the function to be served
by the building: the communal celebration of the
liturgy. The beauty of a church is distinct from
the beauty proper to any other place. It can never
interfere with the ultimate objective for which
the church is built. All the standards of the lit
urgy as described in the Vatican Council’s Con
stitution should animate the design, form and exe
cution of the parish church: the banquet charac
ter of the Eucharist; the dignity of the Scrip
tural word of God; the central significance of
Baptism; the active role of the laity and the pre
siding role of the celebrant. The entire church
should be, in other words, a unified sacramental
sign of the worshipful relationship of the people of
God to their Father.
A PARISH can exist without buildings but, of
course, it cannot exist without people. Just as the
Church is the Body of Christ, which we are, so the
parish is the society’ of persons who live within its
boundaries, a “miniature” Mystical Body. It is
upon their spiritual and mental powers that the
duty of worship will make its most urgent de
mands. The parish must engender in its mem
bers an understanding of liturgical worship and es
pecially of the implications of the Eucharistic
sacrifice and banquet. The moral preparation of
the Christian people in constantly renewed faith,
hope and love must be a prime concern of the par
ish, since it is an indispensable condition for ef
fective worship. A full liturgical life is only pos
sible when accompanied by a genuinely felt sense
of community. It requires a great energy of love
to unify the sometimes diffuse and often complex
parish family. All of the operations of the modem
parish, from societies to school, must contribute
to the spiritual preparation of the people for their
responsibility of worship.
THE PROPER execution of a role demands first
understanding, then acceptance, and finally dedi
cation. The renewed vigor of the Church, which
is beginning with the re-vitalization of the lit
urgy, will find its true home in parishes aware
of their primary objective worship. From this
will immediately come the vitally correct rela
tionship between the pastor and the lay members
of the parish. It will never be possible for the
members of a parish to be satisfied with a role
of merely passive docility, when repeatedly their
experience of the liturgical heart of parish life
has emphasized their active party. The pastor is,
above all else, the one who leads his flock in
common worship of their Father. It is clear in the
liturgy that his authority and position are designed
for the service of his people. This pattern will
extend in genuine love to all aspects of his rela
tionship to the arish, if it has truly been deter
mined in the context of worship.
QUESTION BOX
Symbol Of IHS?
BY MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY
Q. The sumbol “IHS” is used in many Protes
tant churches as well as ours. Canyoutell me its
meaning?
A. The three Greek letters: iota, et, sigma
correspond to our English letters I (or J) E and
S. So our equivalent of IHS is JES - the first
three letters of the name Jesus.
In the early days of the Church
they were frequently used as
an abbreviation of the name of
our Savior, and are today a sac
red decorative symbol.
♦ **
Q. I lost my mother a couple
of months ago. It was sudden;
though she was 84 years of age
she was quite active. I am past
60, and I became very ill from the shock and can't
seem to get well again. I keep thinking about the
mother being burned in purgatory, as Iwas taught
that we all have to go there. Thank God she re
ceived the last sacraments.
A. You should rather try thinking of your mother
enjoying the immeasurable happiness of heaven. It
is by no means certain that we must all go to
purgatory before we get to heaven. One of the pur
poses of the last sacraments is to prepare us for
immediate entrance into heaven. And I am confi
dent that a good old lady of 84 has had ample op
portunity, with God's many graces, to expiate here
on earth all the sins of her life.
Besides, I am not convinced that purgatory is
as horrible as you picture it. We know very little
about it, except that It is a place of purification
on the way to heaven. The best feature of it is that
there is only one way out: the door to paradise.
The certainty of salvation must well compensate
for the inconveniences of delay, and any sufferings
which may be attached to it.
We have no idea of the time any soul may spend
In purgatory. For many it may well be a fleeting
instant. For none is time measured there as it is
here on earth.
We should have great confidence in the love and
forgiveness of our Savior, who gave His own life
on the Cross to expiate our sins, and who rose
from the dead that He might greet us in heaven.
While He was on earth He forgave great sinners
with a single word. He promised the thief on the
cross that he would be with Him that same day in
paradise. I am sure He promised your mother no
less when He came to her in her final Communion.
Q. I am enclosing an article from your column
for true clarrification. Why do you falsely con
tinue to preach an untruth even to an adult age
85, let alone to small school children, concern
ing communion of non-Catholics, by saying that
they deny the true presence of Christ in the Eu
charist and do in fact serve only bread and wine?
I am a Protestant of the American Lutheran
Church and since my first communion, at age 14,
till the present day have always heard the Pastor
tell us that this Is the true body of Christ when
he gives us the Host, and this is the true blood
of Christ when he gives us the wine.
You shouldn’t be mis-informed yourself when
you instruct others on such an important issue.
Catholics don’t even get the true blood; they
only get the Host.
Facts only please.
A. Sorry for the offense. I did not have Lu
therans in mind when I wrote of the difficulties
of inviting to share our Communion those who do
not believe in the true presence of Jesus in the
Sacrament. I know that Lutherans do believe in
the reality of this mystery; but there are many
Protestants who do not.
Just a week or two ago I wrote about our rea
sons for receiving only the Host. Possibly you
saw it. We believe that Jesus Christ is living,
complete, and sanctifying under the one form of
bread, or wine, or both. It is an ancient point
of disagreement, which should be discussed fully
or not at all.
INDEPENDENT UGANDA
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
THAT THE welcome accorded the refugees by
the Uganda government should be less than enthu
siastic is in these circumstances hardly surpris
ing. In addition, this government seems to be gen
uinely frightened of the military dictatorship which
controls the Sudan, a tough powerful regime which
could with impunity conduct border raids and stir
up internal discord. The recent mutiny, which was
quelled only with the help of British troops, has
dramatized the inherent weakness of the Uganda
regime. And though Moslems are not numerous in
Uganda, they are influential r to the point that
Moslems hold two Cabinet posts In addition, the
new Black African states are today convinced that
their progress requires a firm alliance with the
Arab world. They consequently seek to avoid any
issue calculated to reduce a rift in this alliance.
Above all. Uganda fears to make a move that
would encourage more refugees from the Sudan. It
is convinced that the flood would become an
avalanche if It became known that there was op
portunity for a human Uf e across the border.
AND SO THE unfortunate refugees are treated
with hostility* visiteq a camp at Bom bo some
miles north of Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
Here several hundred students live in barefoot
destitution on two meals of black beans daily,
with meat once a week. Some American teachers
who had come to work in Uganda had last Fall or
ganized classes for them in their own spare
time, but the Uganda government stopped them.
The Anglican Church in Uganda attempted to ar
range education for some of them out of a fund of
$14,(XX) obtained for this specific purpose from the
World Council of Churches, but it was also forced
to 8top.
ONE CANNOT but sympathize with the Ugandi
government, which through no fault of Its owi
finds itself in the middle. International statesman
ship, should, nevertheless, be able to find some
way to permit a group of young men to enjoy thi
education for which they have risked their lives
and abandoned their homes. As human beings, the]
are entitled at least to that. In addition, if theii
purpose is frustrated, it will mean that the foui
million tribesmen in south Sudan, of whom the;
are the leaders, will be left in a condition of com-
plete helplessness. Such is obviously thestrateg
of the Sudan dictatorship. It will facilitate its ob
jective of destroying the independent existence o
this minority as a separate cultural, linguistic
and religious entity.
Saints in Black and White
FOR NON-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS
ST. BARBARA 77
ACROSS
1. Piece
4. Her feast day is
Dec
8. A kind of fruit
11. Road sign
14. 7th Letter of
Greek alphabet
15. Within
16. Goddess of
Mischief (Gr. Myth)
17. Fold
18. American College
of Physicians
19. Tidy
20. Article
21. Hail!
22. Vessel
24. Bungle
26. Equal
27. Her father was a
30. Postpone
33. Domain
36. Follow again
40. Plaintive
43. Awe
45. Provide with means
46. Mangle
48. Unspoken
50. Near (Poetic)
51. She was kept secluded
in a ....
53. Nut
55. Japanese Court
56. A medicine
58. Set again
60. India Tree
61. Salt sellers
63. Form of trapshooting
65. Follow
67. Famine
71. God
74. Extinct
77. Father when in Paris
78. Chop
79. Whim
81. God had much for her
84. Chalice veil
85. Teachers’ Assoc; abbr.
86. Tiff
87. Sign; Old English
88. Cape
89. Purpose
90. Male nickname
91. Metals
92. She is one
DOWN
1. Animal
2. Irritated
3. American tropical
animal
4. Kind of keel
5. Ace
6. Mormon State
7. Church court
8. She was beheaded
her
9. Legendary Celt
10. Exclamation!
11. Russian race
12. Wash
13. Frank
23. Average
25. Sunshine State; abbr.
26. Mission
28. Man’s nickname
29. Pie (Eng.)
31. Payment due
32. Volcano
34. To spring
35. Scottish Law Official
37. Right angle to
38. Female name
39. Uncanny
40. Localities
41. Flavor
42. Pintle
*4. Cubes (verb)
47. Trapped
49. Chore
52. Nothing (Fr)
54. Necessitate
57. Credits (abbr)
59. Exact point
62. Her father met with
a .. .. death
64. Spigot
66. Engineering degree
68. Backs
69. Negotiate
70. Skindrying frame
71. Path
72. Steers
73. Peruse
75. Withal
76. Agent
79. Tarradiddle
80. Land measure
82. Strive
83. Half an em (pi)
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7
New Secretariat Seeks
Frankness, Rejects Bias
VATICAN CITY (NC)--The
Catholic Church’s new Secre
tariat for non-Christian Rela
tions will be charged with pur
suing its work for mutual un
derstanding through frankness
and rejection of any kind of
prejudice.
This was the word given by
an article in the Vatican City
daily L’Osservatore Romano,
which while unsigned was de
scribed as “authoritative’’ by
the Vatican press office,
THE ARTICLE was publish
ed in L’Osservatore’s May 21
edition which carried the offi
cial announcement of Pope
Paul Vi’s creation of the sec
retariat, The Pope revealed his
decision to establish the body
on Pentecost (May 17), during
an address in St. Peter’s, He
named as its head Paolo Cardi
nal Marella, former papal dip
lomat who has served in Japan,
Australia, France and the Unit
ed States.
The new secretariat was de
scribed as having the same kind
of structure as the existing Sec
retariat for Promoting Chris
tian Unity, despite the fact that
its functions will be different.
THE “authoritative” article
said that Pope Paul’s decision
to set up the new secretariat
stemmed from “the true con
cept of one’s neighbor, with
out distinction of his religion
or convictions, without refer
ence to sympathy with or aver
sion to our beliefs.”
Recalling that the Church’s
approach to the non-Christian
neighbor in the past normally
took the form of missionary ac
tivity, “it is evident neverthe
less that today’s world imposes
the need for new contact with
non-Christians: that of sympa
thy, of mutual understanding—
based certainly on study, but
first of all on frankness, on
.rejection of any kind of pre
judice.”
THIS IS the way, the article
continued, to “open the road to
mutual esteem, to a sincere
drawing closer together and to
a cordial collaboration in all
possible fields.”
L’Osservatore’s article cit
ed these examples of possible
cooperation: “The defense of
religious ideas, today the target
of atheistic communism; the
protection of .the entire prec
ious inheritance of the natural
law which is found existing
everywhere, and its develop
ment, purification and enrich
ment—all steps leading toward
Him who is the Author of nature
and its law.”
IN THE past, the article held,
ignorance, inveterate preju
dice, and even more or less
conscious bad faith served to
distort the vision of Christians
and non-Christians, with the re
sult that it was difficult for
Christians to observe the na
tural virtue of non-Christian
religions.
OUTLINING how the new sec
retariat is to operate, the arti
cle indicated that it will main
tain a small staff in Rome. It
will reach out to all parts of
the world through the bishops
and apostolic nuncios and dele
gates. “Contact must come
about principally on the spot,
adapting itself to particular
conditions,” it said.
With reports and suggestions
coming from the individual
areas, the secretariat will be
furnished with information to
guide it in the issuance of di
rectives.
THE ARTICLE noted that the
idea for such a secretariat is
not an entirely new one, and that
individual undertakings have
been going on for some time.
The task of the secretariat will
be to generalize these efforts
and to coordinate them.
The article concluded by stat
ing: “Even if parts of the tan
gible results to be sought are
not achieved everywhere, the
efforts will be compensated in
large measure if a greater
understanding and reciprocal
esteem is achieved.”
Seminary Fund
ARNOLD VIEWING
6 Best Man 9 Without God
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
The spirits of generations of Hollywood rebels
may at last be put to rest. Ben Hecht, for one,
thought it would never happen. The hero of an
American movie (“The Best Man”) doesn’t be
lieve in God and has said so out loud, and the
picture has ended without his destruction or con
version.
Actually, the event has little effect on God or
on the world's orbit. Movie heroes have been
behaving like unbelievers for so long that we have
•toped paying attention to what
the y say. What is disturbing is
that the author,*"a certified in
tellectual named Gore Vidal,
thinks that his hero’s viewpoint
("I belive in us, in man”) is
somehow intelligent. So soon
after Dachau and Hiroshima,
the wonder is that an actor can
deliver that line with a straight
face.
MOST OF the film, closely adapted by Vidal
from his 1960 play, is about a much less vital
subject: politics. If one reads him correctly,
Vidal is a blue-stocking liberal who argues that
democracy is not a system of beliefs but a method
of acting. Means are not only superior to ends,
they are the only reality. Style is supreme in life
as well as politics. In fact, while preaching clas
sic democratic theory, Vidal shows upper-class
contempt for the common man as well as the
common virtues.
and then realizing the clods around him will not
dig the full profundity of his wit. Once, after
Fonda has airily quoted Bertrand Russell, some
body stupidly asks if this wasn’t the same man who
was fired from CCNY for advocating free love.
He replies testily, with something less than keen
insight: “Yes, he was fired. But only for moral
turpitude, not for incompetence as a philoso
pher.”
THE FONDA character has several other status
symbols: a psychiatric past, a reputation for
promiscuity, no apparent children, and an es
tranged wife, a cooly attractive Olympian lady
(who can be more top drawer than Margaret Leigh
ton?). Fonda and Leighton exchanged urbane dia
log and patrician smiles, and get no closer to
each other than the width of the Manhattan phone
directory.
In contrast, the Robertson character worked his
way up from poverty and still bears the stigma of
the non-elect. He is loud and unsubtle, inclined
to speak in cliches and to gurgle baby talk to. his
wife (Edie Adams). She is an earthy blond, who
drinks too much, says too much, wears the wrong
things, and worries that she is getting fat. The
unscrupulous Robertson, naturally, "says he be
lieves in God ("I'm very religious, in a funny sort
of way”) and doubtless cheated his way through
the wrong college.
Robertson is too nasty for the good of the drama,
with so many flaws of intelligence, taste and
character that it is hard to accept him as a credi-
His story is about a struggle for the presiden
tial nomination between an aristocrat who is ethi
cal but non-religious (Henry Fonda) and a prole
tarian who is religious but non-ethical (Cliff Rob
ertson). A third force is a crusty ex-president
(shrewdly acted by Lee Tracy) who is both non
religious and non-ethical and, of course, highly
popular. A pragmatist, he asks only that a man
have enough brains to win. Since he Is the only
fellow who doesn’t get told off, he seems to be
Vidal’s ideal political animal.
THE WHOLE idea teeters on the edge of credi
bility, but director Franklin Schaffner recreates
the hysteria of a live convention with remarkable
fidelity. The film medium gets the script out of
the hotel rooms that strait-jacketed the play, and
the cutting and several montage sequences juice
up the excitement.
Actor Tracy gets two big scenes (deathbed,
banquet speech) that weren’t in the play, and civil
rights pickets and southern governors linger on the
fringes of the action. Vidal leaves out a tortured
women’s press conference and a plug for birth con
trol. The only really clumsy scenes involve come
dian Shelley Berman, who is encouraged at the
wrong time to do his imitation of the average-
citizen-as-nitwlt.
Oddly, Vidal’s portrait of the witty, highbrow
liberal (Fonda) sepms drawn to the specifica
tions of the Republican National Committee. He is
insufferably patronizing, fond of dropping names
that the average voter is a meathead. This is ai
arguable proposition, but if you support it, you’re
certainly not a democrat.
THE FILM condemns bad politics (mud-sling-
ing, threats, lies) on grounds that they are (L
unintelligent and (2) bad manners. Traditional
morality is irrelevant. Ultimately, Fonda re
fuses a gutter fight not because it is “wrong”, bui
because it’s beneath his dignity. The ex-president,
in fact, pleads for the unrestricted use of power,
provided only it is used cleverly and with a feel
for the “Sensitivity” of the victim.
The tragedy is that religion has been so mis
used by fanatics and phonies (who “pour God ovei
everything, like ketchup”) that the Robertsor
character can be presented as a type of the re
ligious man in politics. The charge irritates, bui
it sticks, and we need not go back very far ir
history to demonstrate it. Every time a moral
issue is made of a political end, and outrageous
methods are clothed in righteousness, the respeci
for morality is reduced everywhere.
But basically, Vidal's thesis is a superficial
and juvenile approach to the relation between re
ligion and politics. The reaction to it is less anger
than sadness, four years after the election of a
man whose career was an eloquent statement or
the matter. Besides, doesn’t anyone read Minneso
ta’s Sen. Eugene McCarthy except the editors oi
Commonweal?
'CURRENT RECOMMENDED FILMS:
For everyone: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World;
Lilies of the Field.
For connoisseurs: Tom Jones, 8 1/2
Better than most: America America, Dr. Strange-
love, Love With the Proper
Stranger, Billy Liar, Charade,
Parris When It Sizzles.
Remember the SEMINARY FUND
of the Archidocese of Atlanta in
your Will. Bequests should be made
to the “Most Reverend Paul J,
Hallinan, Archbishop of the Catho
lic Archdiocese of Atlanta and his
successors in office**. Participate
in the daily prayers of our sefni-
narians and in the Masses offer
ed annually for the benefactors of
our SEMINARY FUND.
God Love You
UY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
Have you ever seen a person cross a muddy road by stepping on
little rocks placed on convenient spots? Is this the way our par
ishes are in cities, and our dioceses in the world? Are they little
ghettos and spiritual fortresses in which we take refuge to avoid
getting involved in the muck and mud of the city's crime and the
dirty puddle of the world’s hunger and poverty? What concern is
there for the “sheep not of the fold,” for the “sheep without a
shepherd,” for those non-parochial, non-diocesan areas which
made Jesus weep as He looked over such a city and such a world?
A parish is not juridically responsible for a
city; a diocese is not canonically responsible for
the world. But both are morally responsible. Our
Lord often spoke about the world: “God so loved
the world”; “I am the Light of the world”; “I
have come to save the world.” And He delegated
the same responsibility to His Apostles: “I send
you into the world.” If the parish lives for itself,
the city perishes; if the diocese lives for itself,
the Prince of the World takes possession of itl
May the Holy Spirit inspire us bishops, priests and laity to
realize that the exit from the altar is not the sacristy but the
broken world, that the Communion rail is the prelude to loving
in the worldl The flesh the Lord took on was not easy-fitting;
it groaned at deafness, sighed at blindness, wept at death, bled
at the sight of sin. You who are rich, give not only to those who
are already rich, lest like Ephraim they become fat and unspiri-
tual and identif' the Kingdom of God with the addition of barn to
bam! Give to the poor, wherever they are—in your slums, in the
hovels of Latin America, in the leper colonies of Africa 1 Yes,
the poor! Pray not only for your own needs, but make your lips
one with the lonely hearts who cry out in their despair: “My Godl
Why hast Thou forsaken Mel”
Begin rethinking your spiritual life! We all belong to juridical
entities where boundaries are strict! But as members of the Mysti
cal Body we are sent as a leaven to the masses in the slums and
as salt of the earth. Look for Christ everywhere, in the worried
faces of the spiritually homeless, in the Magdalens, in those for
whom the Vicar of Christ must trouble his soul. Rewrite your wiHe-
Give principally to those who give to the poor and make no Wall
Street investments. Better still, give it to the Vicar of Christ
through his Society for the Propagation of the Faith and allow the
Holy Father to make the distribution.
GOD LOVE YOU to Anonymous for $2,000 “For God’s Poor.”
....to M.M.T. for $25 “Since last summer my Friday night ‘din
ner’ has been one slice of dry bread, eaten in fellowship with
Christ in His hungry poor, in reparation and expiation for my own
and others’ sins, and as a small sacrifice for the Missions.”
....to R.J.N. for $2 "In thanksgiving for a favor granted me
through St. Jude”.
MISSION combines the best features of all other magazines:
stories, pictures, statistics and details, human interest. Take an
interest in 4s the suffering humanity of the mission world and
send your sacrifice along with a request to be put on the mailing
list of this bi-monthly magazine.
Cut out this column* pin youi* sacrifice to ft and mail it to Most
Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Society for the Pro
pagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avtenue, New York lx, N, Y. or'
your Archdioces'art Director, Very Rev. Harold J* Rainey P. O.
Box 12047 Northside Statioif, Atlanta 5, Ga.
.