Newspaper Page Text
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GEORGIA BULLETIN
THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1964
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SfRVINO GEORGIA'S 71 NORTMMw COUNTIES
HUM 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 Kieraan
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew
Member of the Catholic Press Association
2699 Peachtree N. E.
P. 0. Box 11667
Norths ide Station
Atlanta 5, Ga.
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
Housing Code
Rededication 1964
GEORGIA PINES
Solo Pilgrimage
It is gratifying to see that
Atlanta is cracking down on those
who abuse the Housing Code. In
adequate sanitation and over
crowding has been allowed for too
long in many areas where land
lords can do much better.
Technically, these overcrow
ded houses may not be slums.
They are to be found in relati
vely good neighborhoods and in
many instances they are in good
condition. They are increasing in
number as avaricious owners
become more aware of their
possibilities of. profit.
These possibilities lie in the
needs of strange and desperate
people who are usually illiterate,
either absolutely or in the Eng
lish language,and can easily be
taken advantage of because they
have no resources.
When three or four families
are crowded into an ordinary
dwelling, with limited cooking
and sanitary facilities, how can
the normal decencies of life be
maintained? How is it possible
for men, women andchildren to
avoid descending to the low level
of the conditions under which they
live?
Every well-administered city
has a code to govern the oc
cupancy of houses. While design
ed primarily to safeguard health,
its enforcement is also concern
ed indirectly with morals. The
source of this conscienceless hu
man exploitation is the sin of
greed, a sin which in turn pro
duces conditions and an atmos
phere 'conducive^ to other sins.
How adequate is this code in the
cities in which we live and how
rigidly is it enforced? These
are questions which as a matter
of social justice and moral wel
fare should be put to the govern
ing body of every city, and a
clear answer demanded.
These abominable and dange
rous living conditions are not the
products of a period of depres
sion. They exist in times of un
precedented prosperity. And they
exist because avaricious people
are permitted, through public in
difference or official neglect, to
prey upon their fellow human be
ings.
In time even the best of these
crowded dwellings will be slums
and the whole idea of slum
clearance will become even more
of a grim jest than it is at
present.
BY REV. R. D. KIERNAN
It was a hot Sunday afternoon as I prepared to
take off for Cleveland, Ohio, to attend the twenty-
second annual convention of Serra International.
The temperature had already reached 93degrees,
and when I answered the phone and learned that
my two traveling companions were cancelling out,
believe me, the thoughts of a seven hundred mile
trip alone were anything but appealing.
As the trip developed it proved most interesting.
The Sunday afternoon drive up
through Cleveland, Georgia and
into Blue Ridge proved a maxi
mum of beautiful scenery.
Crossing into Tennessee, via
Copperhill proved most inte
resting. Acres upon acres of
hills with not a scrap of vege
tation shows the terrible effect
of uncontrolled air pollution.
But I stopped overnight in a motel just inside
the Kentucky border. The next morning I drove to
a Church in the adjoining town. There 1 found vol
unteers of the Christian Family Movement who
were assisting the rural pastor in taking up a
census. These volunteers (and their families)had
donated their two weeks of vacation time to come
south and engage in this apostolic work.
Mountain driving can become tedious especially
when you realize that you average about 35 miles-
per-your. It was no wonder then that I welcomed
the interstate highway between Columbus and
Cleveland, As I drove off the interstate highway
Just outside Cleveland and pulled into a gasoline
station, another Gainesvillian drove in behind me.
Golfing great Tommy Aaron was on his way to
Cleveland too, to play in the Cleveland Open,
The Serra convention drew two thousand dele
gates, plus the fact that many brought their fami
lies with them. One Cardinal, twenty four Arch
bishops and Bishops and some one hundred and
eighty-five priests made for packed ‘'housing"
conditions in this port city.
Highlights of the convention, to me, were an
inspiring address given at the Governor’s dinner,
by Bishop Wright of Pittsburg, Pa., and a panel
Calabar on the fsteaming west coast of Africa
is as thriving a Catholic mission as any I visited
during a three month Journey that brought me to
fifteen countries of that vast continent. Schools
under Catholic management play a major part in
the region’s education system. Catholic hospi
tals are outstanding. As in all of Nigeria, the
proportion of catechumens to Catholics is high,
promising a continuation of the Church’s rapid
progress.
Bishop Moynagh of Calabar has long been
particularly concerned with preparing Catho-'
lies to play their part in the development of
the newly independent state, the most populous
in all of Africa. He has put a lot of money into
a printing plant in which he
produces a magazine of
information and opinion, one of
the country’s two Catholic
publications for general read
ership, He also does everything
in his power to help outstand
ing students to pursue higher
atudies in European and Ameri
can universities.
discussion by merrbers of the Oklahoma City Serra
Club.
Bishop Wright scored the juvenile mentality of
many of today’s parents as a result of the Ameri
can emphasis on teen-ages. * We need to begin
much earlier to recognize our young people as
adult men and women. Instead we delay maturity
... and we are ending up with a sort of ’hardy-
perennial* teen ager...”
A panel discussion by the members of the Okla
homa City Serra Club entitled, "Christ in the
market place" was a most interesting presenta
tion of the historic evils generated by a century of
segregation. A Catholic’s conscience and obliga
tion were sensibly and clearly stated by four busi
ness and professional men and drew a standing
ovation by the assembled delegates. This was not
an emotional appeal, but a rational discussion by
four men who take their love of God as a part of
their daily life.
Down U.S. 23, once again through the mountains
and heading for home, I found that there really is
a place called Appalachia, and the Church is
staffed by Glenmary missionersl
I notice that our own (Georgia) Glenmary Fath
ers in Dahlonega have volunteers too. Painting
the Church I found some college students who are
donating a month of their summer vacation to apos
tolic work.Talking to and watching these dedicated
senior boys convinces me that we still have young
men who don’t wear the badge of "teen-ager."
When Atlanta was charted as a Serra Club ten
years ago, it was number 120. Today Serra has
nearly 300 clubs. South America, England, the
Phillipines and Italy give the organization a truly
international aspect.
The 30 year old organization is named for Fath
er Juniper Serra, the famed Spanish Franciscan
who created the California missions. The club’s
purpose is devoted to an aim voiced by a Bishop -
advisor who said that the clubs ' should be Cath
olic Action universities for selected groups of
Catholic laymen."
Serra is devoted to fostering priestly vocations
and developing enduring friendships among Catho
lic men.
Just for a few days before I
met him, he had received an extremely distress
ing letter. It was a report from a group of stu
dents whom he had recently placed in the United
States. They had to travel a considerable distance
to Sunday Mass, they said. And when they
reached the church, the reception from the white
congregation was chilling. When one of them
entered a seat, the occupants moved to another.
They were shunned as they lef the church, neither
people nor priest exchanging a single word with
them. It was, they wrote, quite clear to them
that they simply were not wanted.
"Can nothing be done," the bishop asked me,
"to get American Catholics to understand the ef
fect of such thoughtless bad manners. These are
cultured young men. On their return home, they
will be catapulted into top positions in education,
business, are! government. They went to Ameri
ca with a sense of gratitutde both to the Catholic
Church and your country for helping them get up
in the world. They will come back full of bit
terness and disillusionment, convinced by their
own experience that all our professions of op
position to racism are hypocritical."
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
FOR JULY 4
A Sense Of
Dedication
by GERARD E. SHERRY
July the Fourth is a good time to meditate on
where we are going and what we are about in this
critical period of history. The celebration of In
dependence Day means so little to so many of our
citizens. It is merely an excuse for more recrea
tion in our already over-leisured life.
And while some of
meaning of our inde-,
pendence, some oth
ers go to the other
extreme, suggesting (
that only by flag-
waving are we pa
triotic. Certainly,;
the American flag
should have more
meaning than it does
in many communi- 1
ties. But I think its true purpose and symbolism
have been pushed into the background by those
who wave it as they kick the Negro or the Jew; by
those who callously desecrate the flag, using it to
waft the flames of prejudice and bigotry.
Some who read this column no doubt will ask,
’’Why should flag wavers be attacked?’* and I will
answer, "They should not be if the flag is used as
an instrument of love and unity of the people." All
that I am against are those who try to sell the idea
that the mere waving or saluting of the American
flag guarantees liberty and justice for all.
Alas, this is not so. The sense of dedication
needed by our people goes beyond the mere term
of * ’Americanism"; it goes beyond the clever
cliches of the writers and orators; it goes beyond
the double talk of the politicians. Indeed, it reach
es out to permeate every level of society and every
activity within that society.
We face a well-disciplined foe; one who is very
sure of himself; who has a zeal thatfew of us have;
wHb believes dearly that his cause is right.
Many of our people are not zealous. They are
geared to the pursuit of happiness only in its ma
terial sense. They view everything in black and
white terms of Communist and anti-Communist.
They see citizens of other countries as people,
not persons endowed with a divine dignity and
eternal destiny. They view hardship and suffering
as punishments meted out by an angry God. They
never view them as avenues towards liberation and
salvation.
The image of America is certainly one of tre
mendous, bustling industries. Our huge farms.
and our towering skyscrapers are symbols of our
vast activity. But beneath it all we have waxed
fat. We have come to believe that we are the cho
sen people. However, if we are the chosen ones, we
do not act like it. We have come to look upon the
Bountiful God as our partner instead of our Mas
ter. We thank Him occasionally (perhaps) for the
many benefits He has bestowed upon us, but we ap
proach it all as if it were our right instead of our
privilege.
We have waxed fat. Despite ourselves, we have
lived up to many of our responsibilities through
out the world. We have assumed a position of
leadership not by desire — only by accident. That
leadership is yet to be tested.
In the coming years we may have to swallow
our pride as a member of the world community.
We will have to face the fact that we will suffer
reverses which cannot all be attributed to the
Communist menace. We will find new nations
viewing us with distrust; on some world issues we
will find them aligning themselves with the Com
munist world; and we will have to accept the fact
that they are not necessarily anti-American in do
ing so.
Many of us seem to have the idea that anyone
who disapproves of the actions of the United States
or its allies is Immediately pro-Communist and
anti-West.
What is all this leading up to? Obviously, if we
wish to continue to be a leader in the world, then
a sense of dedication in our way of life, in our
spiritual heritage, has to be awakened in the
minds and hearts of individuals. This sense of
dedication cannot be merely at the top level of
government. It has to seep below to families and
individuals.
All this will require effort and sacrifice. After
all, dedication to an ideal implies sacrifice and
service. Last but not least comes the spiritual
dedication in which we view communism and secu
larism as menaces to our way of life; in which
we improve ourselves spiritually to the extent
that we will be wise in the ways of God and all this
for one purpose — of being prepared.
When the time of testing comes — as it surely
will — we and our children must not sell out to
the enemy merely to conserve our material abun
dance. This is the real issue —and let the critics
rave.
Are we dedicated to our country enough spiri
tually to sacrifice our comforts in its interests?
This is the question which plagues us now and will
continue to plague us until we look beyond cre
ature comforts to the better life in which all men
are free; in which we see Christ in every color,
every person, and every nation.
This July Fourth is but another opportunity for
us to come face to face with the essence of true
patriotism — love. Are we big enough to see this;
are we loyal enough to embrace it; are we dedi
cated enough to care about it? If we are, then
let us by all means wave the flag.
Economic Responsibility
Pope Paul's talk last week to
the Christian Union of Business
men and Executives was a strong
restatement of Christian social
principles. It reflects again the
Holy Father's concern for the
relationship of the Church to the
modern world.
These are two aspects of the
Pope's remarks which seemtous
worthy of particular mention. The
first of these is his insistence on
the primacy of man. Said the Holy
Father; “You have understood
that which the pontifical encycli-
AN ALTAR BOY
NAMED "SPECK"
"Would you believe it?
Father jumped the farthest
of all!”
cals have continually affirmed;
namely, that there must be a re
ligious coefficient to give the best
solution to the human relation
ships deriving from industrial
organization. This religious co
efficient is not to be employed as
a simple paternalistic and useful
corrective to temper the passio
nate and easily subversive ex
plosion of the working class
against businessmen. It is to dis
cover rather in the light of re
ligion the fundamental deficiency
of a system which pretends to
consider as purely economic and
self-regulatory the relationships
born of the industrial phenom
enon. It suggests those other re
lationships which must be inte
grated, even regenerated, ac
cording to the vision emanating
from the light of Christianity;
first man, then other things. It
is good to note how our religion,
as it proclaims the primacy of
God over all things, at the same
time stresses the primacy of man
over temporal realities,"
The Holy Father pointed out
also that production is a work of
collaboration between owner s and
workers, a service, “even an
exercise of love which confers
upon the businessman the digni
ty of a social benefactor and the
intimate satisfaction of having
dedicated his prodigious energy
to something that is worthwhile
and which will endure; humani-
. » #
ty.
Paul VI has thus placed him
self squarely behind that concep
tion of economic life developed
in the encyclicals of Leo XIII,
Pius XI, and John XXIII. It is a
high concept, one which under
scores the element of human re
sponsibility in economic life.
DAVENPORT MESSENGER
STUDENTS ALIENATED
Your World And Mine
BY GARY MACEOIN
us are apathetic about the
RE4P1NGS
AT
RANDOM