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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1964
Archdiocese of Atlanta
•GEORGIA BULLETIN
SERVINO GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHMm COUNTIES
Official Organ of the Archidocese 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
2699 Peachtree N. E.
P. O. Box 11667
Norths ide Station
Atlanta 5, Ga.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N. C. W. C. News Service
Telephone 231-1281
Second Class Permit at Altanta, Ga.
U. S. A. $5.00
Canada $5.00
Foriegn $6.50
Welfare Costs
There are attempts in various
parts of the country to elimi
nate much of the welfare costs
to communities by cutting relief
payments to the needy, including
unwed mothers who continue to
produce illegitimate offspring.
Aid to Dependent Children is
aimed at the preservation and
maintenance of family life, threa
tened by the death, desertion or
absence of the father. This ob
jective is philosophically, mor
ally, socially, and economically
sound.
Clergymen, doctors, psychiat
rists and sociologists all agree
that children develop most health
fully in their own home. This is
also God’s plan for children.
Social agencies and their ad
ministrators across the country,
public and private, have been
greatly concerned with the in
crease in illegitimacy in the com
munity, and especially with its
impact on the Aid To Dependent
Children program.
They have been saying that
any amelioration of this grave
social problem is a total com
munity concern and responsibi
lity. Welfare programs do not
cause, promote or condone ille
gitimacy, nor can welfare pro
grams, unaided by all the other
social forces in the community,
e. g., education, police, courts,
probation departments, the law,
even help stem this problem.
Nearly 50% of the American
people are unaffiliated with any
religion. Therefore, almost half
of our population never receives
any moral or religious instruc
tion or education. Illegitimacy is
essentially a moral problem, and
it will inevitably increase, unless
all America, as some sections
already have, finally finds a way
to teach coming generations
moral, religious and ethical val
ues.
Our laws reflect America’s
lack of concern for sexual mor
ality, which is the basis of mar
riage and family life.
Fornication and adultery are
against the law in most states.
The average fine is $10.00. The
penalty for parking in a prohi
bited zone of a downtown area
in some of our big cities is
$15.00, Yet we say the family
is the most important social unit
of a democratic society.
Easy and repeated divorce un
dermine the stability of marriage
and family life. The extramari
tal and premarital “romances’*
of glamorous personalities are
glorified and are given public ad
ulation. Sex, apart from its signi
ficance and relationship with
marriage and family life, is pub
licized, promoted and encouraged
by movies, magazines and tele
vision.
The only time people seem
to be concerned about immora
lities and illegitimacy is in terms
of what it costs the taxpayers.
The only logical conclusion is
that illegitimacy is a crime only
for the poor.
Patterns of marriage and
family life were not established
during slavery, and only moral
and religious training can make
any real progress in the estab
lishment of the pattern.
America must decide whether
it still believes in marriage and
the family as it has been known
in Judeo-Christian Western cul
ture, or whether it wants to
“Modernize the family’* as in ef
fect its lack of concern for sexual
morality, permanent monagam-
ous marriage and stable family
life is actually accomplishing.
Liturgical Prayer
Liturgical prayer is like the
central artery to which other
streams of private and popular
prayer lead and from which
others flow for a personal, spiri
tual life.
And it is the one which must
constitute the principal current of
Catholic religious life in the in
creasing secuiarity of modern
society.
Liturgical prayer must give the
Church deeper and more genuine
knowledge of herself. It must
make the Church more lovable
and make it easier for her to at
tract souls to a new life in un
ion with God.
The liturgy stands today as a
central problem of pastroal life.
By this time, there is no lack
of documentation for the fact.
Today, thoughtful persons, be
they shepherds of the people of
God or students of Catholic cul
ture, recognize the undeniable
importance of the liturgy.
They recognize the liturgy as
important for a more compre
hensive and effective approachto
the children of our age, an age
extremely refined in the use of
human faculties and, at the same
time, fright fully obtuse in par
taking of the things of God.
“The liturgy/* writes a
contemporary scholar, “con
tains all the doctrine of the
Church. It is dogma in the form
of prayer.
“For although it is life and
interior warmth, it is not do
minated by capricious sentiment,
but characterized by the pri
macy of the Son of God.
“Although the aim of the liturgy
is not that of educating, but of
putting souls into communication
with God, still it puts us into
the right relation with the whole
of reality which centers around
Him and subsists through
Him.
“The liturgy, with the great
ness and the virile seriousness
of its concepts, does not run the
risk of being rejected by the ma
ture man as the product of chil
dish emotion, because, on the
contrary, in the liturgy, religion
is truly adequate to the needs
of life.” (Josef Jungmann),
POPE PAUL VI
TwtWJb/ess every
jo/ace where a
jo/eture of My
ffeerrf Sho// he
set tf/o and honored
Sacred Heart month
GEORGIA PINES
Shower Of VIP’s
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
Last April’s showers sure brought a big group
of VIP showers during May.
In the fifteen years I have lived in Georgia,
I don't ever remember as many civic leaders
visiting the state in such a short period of time.
The early part of May brought the President of
the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson and three
Cabinet Members here. Before a week had passed
the First Lady of the Land, Lady Bird Johnson
visited a new hospital facility in DeKalb County.
Days later the youngest brother of the late Pre
sident, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts
visited the General Assembly and addressed Law
Day exercises at the University of Georgia in
Athens.
PEACE CORPS Director, R.
Sargent Shriver, was the next
visitor to Georgia. His Athens
trip was punctuated with a cour
tesy call to the Chief Execu
tive at the State Capitol.
An airplane trip to West
Georgia College in Carrollton
for the groundbreaking cere
mony of the John F. Kennedy
Interfaith Chapel brought the Attorney General
of the United States, Robert Kennedy. This
Chapel, which was built by the Episcopalians,
was purchased by the Diocese of Savannah-
Atlanta and now has been donated by the Arch
diocese of Atlanta to West Georgia College.
ILLNESS FORCED a cancellation of a visit by
former President Harry S. Truman. Mr. Truman
was scheduled to speak at the Jefferson-Jackson
Day banquet sponsored by the Georgia Democratic
party.
While Georgia is no strange land to political
and civic figures, the same can be said of Church
figures too.
I ESPECIALLY remember a visit in 1950
by the Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals,
Eugene Cardinal Tisserant. The occasion was
the marking of the Centenary of the establish
ment of the Diocese of Savannah.
The late Archbiship Gerald P. O’Hara had just
been expelled from IRumaniai by the Communists.
Archbishop O’Hara invited this Prince of the
Church to the Centenary celebration. Cardinal
Tisserant was at that time the head of the
Oriental Congregation. Savannah turned out en
masse to welcome the Cardinal and a Ponti
fical Mass held at the Cathedral of Saint John
the Baptist drew a record crowd.
ONE SATURDAY in October of 1954 while I
was serving as a curate at the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Atlanta we had a visit
by Cardinal Agaganian. Eastern Airlines phoned
the rectory to say that a plane having a Cardinal
aboard would have a two hour lay-over in Atlanta.
Hurriedly a luncheon was arranged at the At
lanta Athletic Club with some of the leading lay
men of Atlanta’s Armenian community. Georgia
Tech was playing a home game that day and it
posed a terrific traffic problem getting the
Cardinal back to the plane on time. Generously,
the Atlanta Police provided an escort and after
the Cardinal had seen the newly decorated Im
maculate Conception Church, the motorcade
arrived at the airport on time.
CARDINAL SPELLMAN, the Archbiship ofNew
York, visited Atlanta in 1960. As Military Vicar
he had been invited by General Ruffner to speak
at the Fort Me Pherson. The following day the
Cardinal offered Mass at the Cathedral of Christ
the King,
On the way back to the airport one of the motor
cycle escorts had a slight accident. When the
Cardinal’s car stopped, he jumped out to per
sonally assist the motorcycle policeman. Today,
the policeman proudly shows a letter he receiv
ed from Cardinal Spellman.
AMONG OTHER things Atlanta is fast becom
ing a travel center for the great southeast. This
state is taking on new prominence as a leader.
Doubtlessly the city will be seeing more and
more visitors of the religious, political, civic,
cultural and financial world.
AFRICAN MISSIONS
Taking A Hard Look
BY GARY Mac EOIN
Independence has obliged the Catholic missions
to take a hard look at the activities on which
they have traditionally concentrated their efforts
in Africa. Frequently, the attitude of the new
government or the prevailing public opinion in
a society in which Africans are for the first
time revealing their thoughts is very different
from that of the former colonial regime. This is
true not only of governments
hostile to Christianity, like that
of the Sudan, but also of those
which recognize the contri
bution of the missions and val
ue their cooperation.
Formerly, for example, edu
cation was in large part con
trolled and operated by the
Christian mission bodies, with
the state paying a substanital
part of the cost. Now, however, strong pres
sures have developed to bring the schools un
der direct State control on the ground that the
mission authorities must inevitably give prefer
ence to the children of their own communicants.
In a society in which only a minority of school
age children can be accomodated in all schools,
this tends to concentrate education in certain
religious groups and keep the others in perma
nent inferiority. Uganda and Nyasaland have al
ready taken over control of administration and
syllabus in mission schools, and other states
are being urged to follow them.
Apart from such intrinsic merits as the argu
ment for greater state control of education may
have, the position of the mission schools has
been weakened by their practice in some terri
tories under the colonial administrations. In
return for the financial aid received from govern
ment funds, they provided a higher level of ser
vice for the European and Asian than for the
African members of the community.
Today the Africans by virtue of their numbers
make policy, and they have not forgotten. A
friendly critic, Tom Mlxjya, minister of Justice
of Kenya, recently said what many are thinking.
Having described what he himself owes to the
mission schools, he says that Africans have doubts
about the work of missionaries when they see
how the missionaries in the past complied so
easily with the type of colonial regime in which
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
THREE ITEMS
Hierarchy
Of Values
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
One is often talking about a hierarchy of
values and the Importance of first things first;
the right thing at the right time, and the right
word in the right place. Several incidents of late
have brought all these things to mind;
(1) Just recently a group of teachers from the
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine were dis
cussing plans for a summer session. They
were all lay people
and were enthusias
tic about something
different than the
standardized class.
They therefore de
cided on seminars on
particular subjects.
One doesn’t have to
guess the first two
subjects agreed up
on. Yes they were Communism and Sex. What is
more, speakers were readily suggested and thought
available for these topics.
Another subject readily accepted was Catholic
Action. Yes, it was CFMerwho was recommended
as an instructor. One always equates Catholic
Action with CFM and vice versa. Everything was
going fine until one of the instructors suggest
ed Race as a topic for discussion by the teen
age students. It wasn’t so much a question of an
uneasy silence that followed, rather it was an
unspoken horror that such an issue has to be
thought of as essential in the process of Chris
tian education. The CCD teachers had no difficul
ty with the matter when it was suggested. They
simply made no decision. They also discussed
the Lay Apostolate as a subject, but could only
come up with a priest as a possible speaker.
As we said at the beginning, a hierarchy of
values.
This item concerns Senator Barry Gold-
water and I use him only as an example. I
can’t help him or hurt him in relation to success
or failure in his attempts to win the California
primary. It will all be over by the time these
Reapings see the light of public day. Barry Gold-
water, like most politicians, tries to enlist in his
corner as many respectable people as possible.
If they are also well-known Americans; if they
are truly patriotic; if they are oft- proclaimed
anti-Communists, and, finally, churchmen, so
much the better. Judge for yourself the follow
ing;
The California Goldwater for President Com
mittee inserted a full-page advertisement in many
of the state’s newspapers last week. The one in
the Central California Register, newspaper of the
Monterrey- Fresno diocese, contained ex
cerpts from leading Republicans, plus an ex
cerpt from a letter addressed to Goldwater by
Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York. The
general heading of the advertisement was “Lead
ing Americans pay tribute to Barry Goldwater.”
We can dispense with the tributes paid by Re
publican leaders to Barry Goldwater. They were
genuine and natural and nobody could quarrel
with their publication in such an ad. However,
the alleged tribute from Cardinal Spellman is
another kettle of fish altogether. This is what
they quote from Cardinal Sepellman; “Your elo
quent plea for fair treatment, in the event of
Federal aid, for students in private and church-
related schools expressed a viewpoint with which,
as you know, I am in complete agreement. I
am very pleased to know that you have taken
such a strong stand on this vitally important is
sue.”
I have no doubt that Cardinal Spellman has sent
similar letters to other proponents of fair treat
ment for private and parochial school^in Fede
ral education. I am equally convinced that recipi
ents include Democrats as well. Maybe even
Rockefeller has one which he will produce in the
final hours of the campaign. Or maybe Gold-
water's opponent will produce a medal struck
in honor of Pope Paul and say to the voters,
“See, Pope Paul likes me. He gave me this medal
when I visited him last year.” The point I make
is that the quote from Cardinal Spellman is not an
endorsement of Barry Goldwater, yet this ad gives
such an impression to the uninitiated. Politic
ians have a habit of doing this type of thing and
we only mention Barry Goldwater because his
is the latest example of what I believe is dis
honesty by his supporters.
Item three is something that was brought up
at the Catholic Press Convention last week at
Pittsburgh. 1 was having a discussion with several
Jewish leaders, including Rabbi Marc H. Tanen-
baum of New York, national director of the Inter
religious Affairs Department of the American
Jewish Committee. I mentioned the fact of the
remarkable and speedy support given the Ameri
can Jewish Community by Christians of all faiths
in protesting Soviet persecution of their Jewish
citizens. I said this made me very happy and
proud, especially the Catholic participation in this
protest. But I brought up a point of discomfiture
over a problem which many people would like
to sweep under the rug. That is the lack of Jewish
protest or apparent concern for persecution of
Christians in such places as the Sudan and the
further limiting of freedom of Christians in places
like Ceylon. I also observed that there were
Jewish signators to several protests over the
now proven to be phoney persecution of Viet
Nam Buddhists by the Dhlem regime. I sa ^ this
apparent double standard impeded the work
of those Christians who genuinely wanted to
work side by side with their Jewish fellow citi
zens in the cause of community peace and
tranquility. It's an emotion-packed subject and one
which should be handled very carefully. But
we would be fools if we ignored the questions
asked by many responsible citizens as to why
, the Jewish community seldom is seen in our
corner when the shoe is on the other foot.
fact that in relation to “The Deputy'* controv
ersy some leading Jewish officials support
ed the stand of the late Pope Pius XII does not
alter the situation one iota. We started this pi ece
talking on * hierarchy of vain® 8 * That it
what is involved in this latter observation.
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM