Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8
GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1964
COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA
Council Decree
Debate Still On
PITTSBURGH (NC) — The
Second Vatican Council decree
on communications media came
under fire at a session of the
Catholic press convention here,
but at least one prominent edi
tor blamed its alleged deficien
cies on Catholic journalists
more than on the council Fath
ers.
^Speaking (May 27) on “Vati
can Council Press Coverage
and the Communications De
cree" at the annual meeting of
the Catholic Press Association,
Msgr. Francis J. Lally, editor
of the Pilot, in Boston, Mass.,
suggested that Catholic journ
alists have not sufficiently de
veloped a theology and philoso
phy of Catholic journalism to
warrant a solid decree or give
it substance.
“WHERE, indeed, among the
clergy and laity working in the
mass media fields do we find
any equivalent to the theolo
gians and llturgists and the
Bible scholars? Have we our
selves, even for ourselves, ana
lyzed in terms of the aggioma-
mento (“bringing up to date"
called for by Pope John XXIII
in announcing the council) just
what is the dynamic role com
munications must play in the
present life of the Church?"
he asked.
"Perhaps if we want to un
derstand why it was possible in
the last months of 1963 to
have a communications decree
pass the Vatican council in a
manner which looked to earlier
rather than modern times, we
should examine ourselves."
MSGR. LALLY called onedi-
SARGENT SHRIVER
tors and directors to consider
seriously "an attempt at self-
analysis and solid scholarship
that would provide a strong
scientific foundation for our
apostolate" and said that if such
work had been done in the last
few decades, perhaps the de
cree would have reflected it.
Robert Hoyt, editor of the
Kansas City (Mo.) Catholic Re
porter, countered that at least
some foundations have been laid
by theologians, but their advan
ces in thinking are not repre
sented in the decree. He cited
Father Emile Gable, A.A., of
France, secretary of the In
ternational Union of the Cath
olic Press, and Father John
Courtnay Murray, S. J„ of
Woodstock (Md.) College as ex
amples.
MANY FROM other coun
tries, he said, "thought it was
very strong, because it said
plenty about the communist
countries and their satellites."
BISHOP WRIGHT
FATHER MICHAEL MANNING, pastor of the church of SS,
Peter and Paul, Decatur, places crown on head of new statue
of Our Lady on church grounds as part of the May Procession.
Truth Is Ultimate Goal
Catholic Editors Told
PITTSBURGH—Catholic Jour
nalists, as Christian intellect
uals, were challenged here to
keep “the facts" from obscur
ing "the truth,"
"It is a part of your business
to find out 'the facts* and to
Anti-Poverty War
Urged On Press
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
thered through the efforts of
the Catholic press, and he cal
led on editors to give it major
consideration.
RELATING poverty to family
life, he said: 'There is no
crueler fact of postwar Ameri
can life than the way the nation
has allowed the family structure
of the poor to be battered and
nearly broken by blind economic
forces. There is no more bit
ter situation than the steady
weakening oi the Negro family
structure under the impact of
unemployment and sinking
morale."
“The rate of absent hus
bands," he said, "always trails
the unemployment statistics by
about a year—just about the
time it takes to break a man's
heart and bring on desertion—
the poor man's divorce."
INTRODUCING him at the
banquet, Auxiliary Bishop
Philip M. Hannan of Washing
ton, D. C., announced that
Shrlver had just a few hours
before been named "Father of
the Year" by the National
Fathers Club in New York City.
Also at the head table were
Bishop John J. Wright of Pitts
burgh, Bishop Nicholas Elko of
the Byzantine Rite and officials
of the association.
K SS8KBS
REXALL
CATHOLIC
DIRECTORY
ARCHDIOCESE OF
ATLANTA
1964
PRICE
si.oo
Your Namo
Address
City State'..
give us these* but it is the
very heart of your vocation to
be the servant of the truth,"
Bishop John J. Wright of Pitts
burgh told delegates to the 54th
annual national convention of
the Catholic Press Association,
THERE IS a sharp distinct
ion between “the facts" and
"the truth," the Bishop de
clared in a keynote address
(May 27) to Catholic journal
ists gathered from allparts
of the United States and Canada.
“So, though we are grateful
to you for the facts you turn
up and transmit," Bishop
Wright told the Catholic editors
and publishers, “nonetheless in
a civilization that is 'fact -
happy* and indifferent to truth,
we depend on you to defend the
human character of society by
serving the truth that is a ce
ment to all its values, indeed
its soul, as against the mere
'facts* that can so fragment
it as to turn the human society
into an insect world—in Mar-
rou*s vivid phrase—and ant-
heap civilization, , .a city of
termites."
BISHOP WRIGHT held up
for the delegates “the kind of
Christian intellectual that is
typified by Frederic Ozanam
and his apostolic friends, lay
professors, writers and jour
nalists"—having such "quali
ties of understanding and
humility, of truth, of humor,
of moral stature, of strength
and resourcefulness of mind,
of pregnant ideas, of universal
sympathy, of capacity for
friendship and love that he will
be admired and respected even
by those who might otherwise
have every reason to hate him."
(Antoine - Frederic Ozanam,
19th century French layman who
founded the St. Vincent de Paul
Society, was a prolific author
who wrote many works in de
fense of the Faith. He died in
Marseilles in 1853 at the age
of 40.)
THE BISHOP expressed the
hope that Ozanam might be
“the inspiration, the 'un
canonized patron,* of the grow
ing number of apostolic layman
who are so fortunately echoing
Chlst and the truth in contem
porary publishing."
“It is why I urge you to in
terest yourselves and your
readers in the cause of Frederic
Ozanam; his beatification would
Scholarship Aid
CANBERRA, Australia (NC)
— The government has announ
ced details of a program to
provide 10,000 scholarships to
secondary school students, in
cluding provisions for both pri
vate and public schools.
To be awarded competitively
in each state regardless of the
financial condition of the stu
dent, the scholarships will in
clude $234 a year to the parent
or guardian for the child's
maintenance and $234 toward
the cost of school fees and
books.
give your episcopal patron, St.
Francis de Sales, an exemplary
and effective lay collaborator
in setting that mood of openness
to truth, genial charity, in
tellectual integrity and capacity
for friendship with all men of
good will which, together with
uncompromising commitment
to the* Faith, should at all times,'
but above all today, charac
terize the Catholic press."
REMINDING Catholic jour
nalists of their vocation "to
proclaim Christ," Bishop
Wright warned that “we could
easily underestimate the dan
ger to the human spirit that
threatens our civilization."
“It involves a kind of bar
barism," he said, "but a bar
barism we may be slow to re
cognize as such because we
are ourselves enamoured of its
conveniences and efficiencies."
"T IS A barbarism with
fascinatingly complex toys,
machinery and weapons so
elaborate technically that one
might falsely suppose them to
demonstrate a high level of
culture among those who pro
duce them. We easily fail to
appreciate the extent to which
our civilization tends to deper
sonalize and therefore de
humanize, thus reducing to
barbarism those who become
dependent upon it to the point
of enslavement by it, with a
steady weakening of the
faculties of intellect and will
upon the robustness of which
depends any culture illumined
by the truth that feeds the mind
and the love that inflames the
heart.
“Here is where our civili
zation calls out, however mute
ly, to your vocation as Chris
tian intellectuals: 'resonare
Christus,* to proclaim Christ,
to trumpet the truth," the Bi
shop pointed out.
"BUT HERE, too, we en
counter a current of oonfusion
in the concept of your specific
vocation as Christian journal
ists. It is a confusion that
shows up in other intellectual
vocations, too; but many things
written at the moment and some
things said suggest that it may
especially diminish if not
destroy the needed contribution
of religious journalism to the
ransoming of the times and the
accomplishment of its own uni
que and highest purpose.
"I refer to the confusion
between 'the facts’ and 'the
truth,' between our dependence
on you for the facts and our
much greater dependenc on you
for the truth.
"IT IS A part of your busi
ness to find out 'the facts*
and to give us these; but it
is the very heart of your vo
cation to be the servant of the
truth. We Christians believe
that Truth is one of the re
vealed names of God. In this
we are not alone; to the
Mohammedan Truth is also
one of the names of Allah. But
we Christians go further; we
have a cult of the Truth In-
NEW YORK RABBI
Urges Vatican II
Jewish Statement
PITTSBURGH (RNS), — A J ews » t0 ^ degree are many
stirring call to editors of Catho- J ews ea S er *b® Jewish
lie publications to let their decree not be mutilated and be
“editorial voices be heard" in allowed to emerge as the clear
vigorous protest “against re
ported efforts to abandon the
Jewish decree at the third ses
sion of the Ecumenical Coun
cil, or to empty it of mean
ing by removing the explicit
condemnation of the false de
condemnation of the false
deicide charge*' was made here
by a noted Jewish leader.
Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum of
New York, national director of
the Interreligious Affairs De
partment of the American
Jewish Committee, addressed
an editorial session of the 54th
annual nationa convention of the
Catholic Press Association.
Theme of the session was
“Catholic-Jewish Relations in
the Light pf the Council."
"FAILURE on the part of the
highest Council of the Catho
lic Church to adopt a strong
decree that once and for always
lays to rest one of the demonic
bases of anti-Semitism," Rabbi
Tanenbaum said, “would be
tantamount to the United States
Congress declining to adopt the
civil rights legislation. The
long, hot summer of militant,
if not violent, protest that would
inevitably follow in race relat
ions would be paralleled by a
long, hot debate, if not more,
of embittered and resentment
laden Catholic - Jewish re
lations."
Observing that "most Jews
want the Jewish decree passed,
but they do not need it," Rabbi
Tanenbaum said;
“THE JEWS have lived and
endured in the Christian West
for 1900 years under the shadow
of the deicide charge and its
derivative, anti-Jewish ex
cesses. Under God's pro
vidence, Jews will continue to
survive as a creative people,
loyal witnesses to the
Covenant, regardless of what
happens in Rome.
'To the degree that the pass
age of the decree would help
purify the atmosphere in con
temporary life by helping to
overcome the historical ambi
valences of Christians toward
c a mate in the Eternal Word
of God, made Man."
Bishop Wright said “not all
men of our times share this
faith in the Infinite majesty
and absolute worth of Truth."
HE SAID "people who covet
power hold truth in low
esteem," and noted that “the
'power people*, wherever you
find them, greatly relish facts,"
The speaker asked the Catho
lic journalists to reflect upon
the fact that “in addition to
the obvious distinction between
truth and untruth, or between
truth and error, there is also
a less obvious but nonetheless
sharp distinction between *the
facts' and 'the truth,’ certain
ly between the fragmentary
facts that may suffice for
random reporting and the
integral truth that is and must
be the great concern of re
sponsible journalism."
'THERE CAN be a great
accumulation of facts —
undeniable facts, brutal facts,
intriguing facts—and still the
truth may be lacking," the
Bishop added, "A reporter—
or, for that matter, a
protonotary apostolic — can
ferret out an impressive, a
bewildering mass or mess of
mere facts and lose the truth
in the midst of them, much as
a clever cross-examiner can
bury the truth in a court case
under a bombardment of blast
ing facts.*’
"If our journalists are to
serve the truth as Christian
intellectuals are called to do,
they must protect us against
the effects of various fal
lacies of fact," Bishop Wright
declared. 'They must sift for
us the incomplete facts, the
unassimilated facts or the facts
that are Just plain irrelevant
to the truth at issue in a given
question. Above all, they must
be quick to expose the fallacy
of equivocation that confuses
fact and truth; then those who
are called to explore, discover,
proclaim and serve, the truth
will not settle for sniffing out
and peddling a fact or two.*’
conscience of the Church and
the Catholic community."
RABBI Tanenbaum called the
decree on the Jews “necessary
for the Catholic Church and for
Christians generally as much,
if not more, than it is for the
Jews."
'There will be no realizat
ion," he said, "of Pope John’s
injunction that the Church must
be 'sine macula et ruga' —
without spot or blemish — un
less and until it rids itself
decisively of the seeds of anti-
Semitism.
"UNLESS and until the
Church, and Christians gen
erally, overcome the scandal
of racial pride that feeds pre
judice against the Negro and
religious arrognace that breeds
the anti-human attitudes and
practices toward the Jews, the
history of the Church will re
main in flagrant contradiction
to its theology.
"Church teaching, mainly
that formulated in that first
four centuries, created the myth
of the Jews as 'eternal Judas’,
fated to be banished and suffer
punishment under the mark of
Cain across the centuries; and
Church teaching must rectify
that mythic perception of the
Jews that has fatally impregnat
ed Western civilization."
"THE CATHOLIC Church,
and Christians generally,"
Rabbi Tanenbaum added, “need
the Jewish decree and especial
ly the clarification of the dei
cide issue, in order to restore
unambiguously the Biblical and
prophetic mode of Christian life
and though.
Vocational Aid
VANCOUVER, B. C. (NC)—
Expert advice is being provided
here for any high school senior
who has an inclination toward
a vocation in the priesthood.
Archbishop Martin M. Johnson
is stationing himself in his of
fice here from 10 a.m, until
noon June 6 to talk things
over with the youngsters. He
said: "If a boy has any dif
ficulties or worries about his
vocation, I want to help him."
WHILE THE "distinction be
tween the mere facts and the
total truth is everywhere valid
and always worth noting," the
Bishop said, “it is particularly
pertinent at the moment in dis
cussions of the Church."
The speaker noted that Henri-
Irenee Marrou, in an essay on
the responsibilities of the in
tellectual, told of a friend who
came to him long-faced and
heavy of heart "over some un
happy 'fact,* indeed scandalous
fact that he had stumbled on
in connection with the Church."
“MARROU pointed out,*’ the
Bishop said, "that, whatever
the facts and however many,
they did not constitute the
truth about the Church, nor
was the crisis that confronted
the Church because of the em
barrassing fact a crisis for the
truth."
"Note well,*’ Bishop Wright
continued, "that the author of
the Acts of the Apostles prints
the facts; he prints the em
barrassing facts about Ananias
and Sapphire, just as he prints
the happy facts about the moral
courage of Peter and the other
Apostles when hailed before the
council and the high priest. He
prints the bold words of the Pope
(when Peter and the other
Apostles answered and said,
we ought to obey God rather
than man) and the historical
decision in favor of the hier*
archy handed down by the
Supreme Council, with good
quotes from Gamaliel, speak
ing for the majority. He re
ports the facts, but he does so
in a balanced fashion, so that
he, the intellectual document
ing and commenting upon
the Acts of the Apostles, also
'ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus Christ.* ’*
“INDEED, this fifth chapter
of the Acts of the Apostles,
with its unpleasant facts, in
spiring facts and transcendent
truth served by both, is a com
pact model of the balanced
writing (»s well as clarity and
exact detail) that one should
expect of the Christian Jour
nalist," Bishop Wright advised.
Ed Curtin
Presents
Phone 522-6500
ESTES
SURGICAL SUPPLY CO.
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LOCATED NEXT TO GIFT SHOP ON MAIN FLOOR
IN NEW BUILDING
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THE PROBLEMS OF FATHER JOSEPH
FATHER JOSEPH KUXDUKULAM is our parish priest in
OLARIKKARA, southern INDIA. He is a priest to be pitied . . .
Last year the cocoa-leaf roof on his
little church blew away in a storm.
The altar and statues still need pro
tection from the weather . . . Now.
in addition. Father Joseph doesn’t
P i have a safe place to sleep or do his
I work. The hut which serves as his
rectory, unhealthy and decrepid, wiH
not outlast many more weeks of rain
. . . Father Joseph insists that he
must first put a roof on his church
($850) before he builds a rectory.
“God’s house comes before my
house,” he says . . . The present hut
rectory is three miles from the parish church, which means that
Father Joseph wastes precious hours each day trudging back and
forth. With 2,400 parishioners to care for, he is slowly wearing
out ... A rectory near the church (with some rooms in which to
teach the catechism) can 1 be built for $3,200. Like the church
roof ($850), the rectory makes a practical memorial for parents
or a loved one. Will you help? . . . Father Joseph will be grate
ful for any gift, even $1. Please help him.
Tbt Holy Ftihtr’i Minion Aid
for tbt Oritnul Church
“NOT BY BREAD ALONE . .
POPE PAUL said recently that economic aid to the poor and
needy overseas is not enough. We must also provide spiritual
assistance, the Holy Father said . • . Members of this Association
give this spiritual assistance, of course, when they help build
chapels and schools, and train native priests and Sisters . . .
Like to be a member? For an individual like you the dues arc
only $1 per year, $20 for life. -For your family, $5 per year, $100
for life.
SINGLE WOMAN
WHAT CAN A SINGLE WOMAN DO to help the missions?—
In five years the “MISS” (Mary Immaculate’s Sponsors of Semi
narians) group In Buffalo, N.Y., has sponsored 17 seminarians
and built mission churches in INDIA and SYRIA . . . For more
information, write: Misses Patricia and Nan Halligan, 1070
Parkside Ave., Buffalo, N.Y.
“MICKLE” MAKES A “MUCKLE”
MANY A ’’MICKLE” makes a “muckle,” the Scotch say.
meaning small amounts add up. Your $1 a month (when you
:an give) and a prayer-a-day do wonders for a missionary. Why
not join one (or more) of these MISSION CLUBS?
DAMIEN LEPER CLUB
ORPHAN’S BREAD
PALACE OF GOLD
THE BASILIANS
MONICA GUILD
CHRYSOSTOMS
MARY’S BANK
• • looks after lepers
• cares for orphans
helps the aged
• • supports mission schools
furnishes chapels
• • • educates native priests
• • • trains native Sisters
AFTER YOU’RE GONE YOU CAN CONTINUE TO HELP
THE MISSIONS. JUST MENTION THE CATHOLIC NEAR
EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION IN YOUR WILL.
Dear Monsignor Ryan:
Enclose please find for.
Name
Street
City..
Zone..... .State.
FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN, Prasidant
Mu«r. JaMpk T. Ry««, Mat’l S**f
S««d «U c*mma*lc«t|oai
CATHOLIC NEAR EAST WELFARE ASSOCIATION
tit Uodhm Av*. «t 4W St. N«w Y*rk. N. Y. 16917