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CATHOLIC CANDIDATES Cynicism And Bigotry Saints in Black and White BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW Until four years ago it was considered. a serious political disability in certain circum stances for a candidate to be a Catholic. In fact, it had become a political axiom in this country that a Catholic could not be elected president and that a Catholic vice-presidential candidate would be a hindrance to the ticket. John F. Kennedy's election to the presidency not only disproved this particular myth; it ap parently created a new and more insidious one in its place. At least there was a certain sense of dignity in being - or feeling - persecuted.- The Republican party has nominated a Catholic vice - presidential candidate. The talk has long been that President Johnson’s running mate will have to be a Catholic. This is remarkable. We have perhaps seen within the space of a very few years the rise of an en tirely new folk-myth. This sort of thing usual ly takes a much longer time to coalesce and be come a significant cultural force. On the other hand, it may only be the common-sense con clusion of the professional politicians to keep their “smart money” on a winning combina tion. OR, IT MAY BE a cynical attempt to captitalize on the bias and presumed political naivete of the American people - in this case, particularly Catholics. Newsweek magazine last week quoted the Republican vice-presidential candidate to this effect: “Barry is a Jew and an Episcopalian and 1 am a Catholic. Anybody who votes against that ticket is a damn bigot.” This is cynicism an3 bigotry. This is a cheap insult against religion and against the intelli gence of every religious citizen in the country. It is no excuse that he may have been half- joking. This a sensitive and serious matter. It would not even have made too much difference, if he had not actually made the statement. The intent and mentality is too obvious - and too bipartisan - to be ignored or tolerated. As Catholics - and here we are at one with our brethren of all faiths - we have been taught the sacred duty of devotion to our country. This has been spelled out for us as part of the Fourth Commandment. The duty of obedience to law; the duty to pay our just taxes; the duty to de fend our country when it is attacked - none of these has been more seriously impressed on us than the duty of contributing of ourselves by responsible participation in the political process. This means casting an intelligent and unpre judiced vote with a view to the good of the entire community. Whether we have practiced what we have been preached is a separate - sometimes very separate - question. THE PATTERNS of politics, especially local politics, have all too frequently pandered to what is least mature and least intelligent. The racially and religiously “balanced” city machine is a fixture in many localities. Even the national tickets have had to be geographically sym metrical - an easterner balanced with a farm state candidate, a westerner with a southerner, etc. And, of course, still no Jews or Negroes. One can only conclude that either the professional politicians do not know their trade or that Ameri can voting patterns have been motivated in large part by prejudice. From what one could read, it was apparently never satisfactorily determined whether more non-Catholics voted against John Kennedy on re ligious grounds or more Catholics voted for him because he was a Catholic. It was perhaps under standable that a number of Catholics, tired of being told none of their number could be pre sident, were moved to support a Catholic candi date. The issue should now be dead. Catholics should exhibit unmistakably their revulsion with the entire idea of religiously motivated voting. It offends not only our good taste and our sensi bilities; it opposes the clear moral prinicples involved in exercising the franchise as responsi ble citizens. THE BASIC principle of Catholic social philosophy is the individual's responsibility to the common good - the good of the entire community, which includes state, nation and world. The candidate and politcal philosophy which we see as most conducive to the common good deserves our support - given and asked for on no other basis than that. QUESTION BOX How About My Answers? BY MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY Q. (The following question was received by a Sister teaching summer classes in grade school. She forwarded it to me). “Where does Father Conway get all the answers to the questions that are sent in? Does he ever get the answers from the Pope.?” A. Yes, very often I get answers from the Pope. He has never written me personally. But many Popes have written encyclical letters, given in structions and decrees, and made important ad dresses to various groups. There can be no more reliable source for answers. On the other hand, some of the answers I think up myself might not be quite the same as the Pope would give. At least that is what some of my read ers tell me. Q. Is it compulsory to have a couple (man and woman) to act as sponsors at Baptism, or is it permissible to have two men or two women instead? A. According to canon law there is really supposed to be only one sponsor at baptism, but two are permitted if they be man and woman. Two people of the same sex are not permitted, and it would be a serious error to have two wo men as sponsors for a boy, or two men as spon sors for a girl. If the sponsors were of the same sex as the person baptized, it would still be wrong, as contrary to law, but not a very ser ious matter. In my own personal opinion it might even be permitted for sufficient reason. Days this year in February and May instead of at the time the seasons change. To my knowledge I can’t remember that this ever occurred. I see the next ones are in September. A. The Ember Days of spring and summer depend on the date of Easter, which was unusually early this year. The Ember days of spring al ways come in the week following the first Sunday of Lent; those of summer during Pente cost week. Some confusion is caused this year by the September Ember Days. They used to come on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14). Now they come after the third Sunday of September. Some calendars are wrong this year in designating these Ember Days. The reason for this change: In former times the Sunday nearest the first day of the month was counted (liturglcally) as the first Sunday of the month. Under this system quite often the “first Sunday of September” actually came in August. So the old rule (after Sept. 14) always put the Ember Days in the third liturgical week of September. Now the first Sunday of each month cannot come earlier than the first day of the month. So the rule had to be changed to keep the Ember Days in the third week of September. Is that confusing? Just remember: After the third Sunday of September. The winter Ember Days come after the third Sunday of Advent. Possibly the new liturgical reforms will eli minate these Ember Days entirely. They don’t seem to serve much purpose in modern times. Q. Please explain to me why we have Ember CHURCH EDUCATIQML role Your World And Mine CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 from Europe, with the Catholics generally play ing a preponderant part. Gradually a system of subsidization by the colonial governments was developed to encourage the expansion of education. The schools continued to be built, owned, staffed and ad ministered by the mission authorities, but the major part of their revenue came from govern ment grants. For a variety of reasons the new independent governments are reluctant to continue this sys tem. Some of them feel that the mentality of the missionaries reflected too closely that of the colonial powers, tending to exalt European cul tural values and attitudes to the neglect of those of Africa. Such an allegation is far from uni versally founded, but it contains enough truth in certain cases to make it embarrassing. Besides, many point out that in practice the mission schools have served primarily the children of Christians and catechumens. In an area in which only a small percentage of the children can get education, this constitutes a discriminatory application of state funds, THE CATHOLIC authorities have shown an admirable readiness of meet their critics more than half way. In Tanganyika, for example, they recently stated that the Church recognizes that education is a social service and that according ly its schools are equally open to all without religious test. They added that the Church would not open further schools in any district in which schools guaranteeing freedom of conscience al ready exist. Both in Tanganyika and elsewhere the bishops realize that education is going to become more and more a state function. They believe the cause of religion will best be served by accepting the inevitable gracefully, cooperating in the transfer, and developing new social activities calculated to benefit! the entire community and to further the national objectives as established by the people through their own representative institu tions. 1 T~ 3 7— tf 7 li >7 */ THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN THIS TIME AN ARCHBISHOP PAGE S Another Speaker Banned Across 83 Orient 1 Scatter 5 Egyptian Sacred bull Down 9 chopped 13 Bishop's seat (ancient) l *' gypsy 2 cepa (vegetable) 3 consider 4 severity 5 obstruct 6 He worked to ——— the 7 people with contempt of 8 temporal death Pollcltal party; abbr. 9 fee io mouth ii 3 ways 12 bother 16 Confederate States of 19 America; abbr. 21 A degree 23 flock of wild fowl 24 cant coagulate 29 shrewd 33 an 34 designating high octave 35 shell fragments 36 He lived during the time of 37 Emperor , 38 used in cooking; abbr. 40 old make of car 42 smirk 43 anecdote 45 mollusk 46 flues 47 note; music 49 chalice veil 50 out; Scottish 54 Gaelic Sea God 55 after thought 56 Babylonian God of Wisdom 57 deed 58 He taught the people the 60 love of life 63 He refused to ——the Gods 64 of the Emperor 65 opera 87 top notch 69 retinue 70 Slav 72 Algonquin Indian 74 fool 77 long hair 79 14 15 17 18 20 22 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 35 39 41 42 44 48 61 52 53 55 56 59 60 61 62 63 64 66 68 89 71 73 75 76 78 80 frl 82 wireless unlatches exercises enticed current stride worldwide worker's group The who watched him saw God visit him hunting cry compass point desire observation Norwegian please blast anger The state whose nickname is- “Gunfllnt"; abbr. N. Z. vine attendant exclamation prefix: together Truth personified —Harrison airship pat friend in Paris a p.uddlng "Blue Eagle” lamprey love; Scottish ideology favoritism macerate raised level Galilee town opens tree; (Br) exact point shavetail; abbr. lights winter precipitation Bethsheba’s husband gain Female name and so on; abbr. Roman Goddess digraph exist ANSWER TOLAST WEEK'S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7 LOS ANGELES (RNS>—Arch bishop Thomas D. Roberts, S, J„ controversial English pre late, has been denied permis sion by the chancery to speak in the Los Angeles archdioce san area. A lecture tour from July 19 through July 29 at various sou thern California communities has been cancelled, according to the Catholic Human Relations Council, a group of laymen hav ing no official status with the Church’s administrative ma chinery. ARCHBISHOP Roberts was to have spoken before Protestant, Jewish and Catholic bodies and civic groups under overall sponsorship of the American Friends Service Committee and the CHRC. Archbishop Roberts' present visit to this country was origi nally under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a religious pacifist organization founded by Protestants 50 years ago. “UNDER A papal constitu tion issued last December, " said the 71-yean-old prelate (in a release by CHRC), “all Catholic bishops have the fac ulty to speak in any diocese with the presumed permission of the local ordinary.'’ The ordinary here is James Francis Cardi nal McIntyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles. Archbishop Roberts said that in this country he did not "pre sume'' but “asked" for per mission, making clear the visit was arranged by non-Cathoiic and unofficial Catholic bodlta “anxious to increase yet further the impact for peace in Pacem in Terris,” the encyclical is sued by the late Pope John XXIII. The archbishop added that he made clear he would accept “in advance any restrictions, abso lute or partial,” according to the CHRC, He has lectured and participated in seminars in 10 dioceses in this country and Canada. HE SAID Cardinal McIntyre ARNOLD VIEWING Inept ‘Carpetbaggers’ BY JAMES W. ARNOLD We may have to wait another generation before seeing again a movie as stupefyingly inept as “The Carpetbaggers.” The pornographic best-seller by Harold Robbins has been turned into a solid contender for the worst big-budget film of all- time, an area where there is already stiff com petition. In almost every movie, no matter how ex cruciating, it is possible to find something worth praising, even if it is only the back ground music or a 30-second camera shot that shows someone somewhere was doing more than putting in his time. But in "Carpet” everything - script, direction, sets, costumes, act ing, photography - has the zip of a pop fly with the bases loaded. THE CRmC'S first im pulse is to ignore what is basically a grievous offense against human sensibility; if he cannot ignore it, he can always, somehow, make it laughable. But in this case one is staggered by the simple facts. “Car pet" is a hit. It has been, for a month, the big gest theater attraction in this country. It has made even more money than “road show” films selling tickets at two or three times the price. (In Juicy contrast, the biggest grosser in Ger many since the war has been Ingmar Bergman's ’The Silence.") The phenomenon is beyond understanding. After feverish work by censors, there is less ex plicit sex in “Carpet" than in most issues of Life Magazine. The insistent are reduced to getting kicks from an occasional Minsky-ish costume or crudely double-meaning line. The story has no sympathetic characters, little action and no suspense; the dialog would be funny even in an original Fathers Night show at the PTA (“We're both bad - we belong to gether" or “Don’t call me crazy I" - the latter accompanied by a wild look and bongos on the sound track). Of the stars (Poppard, Ashley, Baker, Cummings, Hyer) none means or meant anything to the public except the late Alan Ladd. OF COURSE, millions read the book, and the movie has been widely promoted as naughty. But word must get around that the film is no more titillating than a stiff shot of yogurt. There are two plausible explanations. One, people have been up to their eyebrows in junk for so long they can no longer tell the difference. Two, they enjoy watching the allegedly Rich and Famous being beastly to each other. Both possibilities are worth worrying about, if you can spare the time from Red China and the conventions. If a large number of Ameri cana can really enjoy “Carpet," either as art or as vicarious living, then we are sicker than we dare to be, Here are a few of its more ob- vious themes: The hero: a sadist whose entire motivation is to get power over people so he may control and hurt them. Played by George Peppard with a fixed Jerry Lewis grin and glazed eyeballs. Women: masochists: (they love to be hurt) who are over-sexed and stupid. Played by Car- roll Baker and Martha Hyer, indistinguishable blondes whose acting is only slightly more graphic than the over-ripe sets, and Liz Ashley, a high-class newcomer now and then visible over the goo of the script. Fathers: drunken brutes who mistreat their children. Character motives: sex, money, power, re venge. BUSINESS success: achieved by luck, ruth lessness, cunning, treachery. One executive coolly sends his young son to seduce an alcoholic movie siren into a new contract. Among the more spjne-cracking moments: The miserable scene in which overacting Bob Cummings threatens non-acting Miss Hyer with showing one of her old obscene films. The two scenes in which Miss Ashley catches her hus band in their apartment with a blonde. (A re prise of a stimulating moment). The Ladd- Peppard fight in which doubles splatter the set with make-believe blood. The Ashley-to-Peppard line: “You're not an easy man to love, but I’m trying." All this wonderment was scotch-taped together by scenarist John Michael Hayes (“The Chalk Garden”), whom producer Joseph Levine has re warded with the job of script chief for all future productions, and director Edward Dmytryk, whose lant film was, illogically enough, ‘The Reluctant saint.” PARDON my limited <ecstasyover plans to film the stage production of Richard Burton’s “Ham let" and offer it as a movie on a “road show” basis at theaters across the country. The en tire “movie" has already been shot from seven special cameras during an actual performance at New York's Lunt-Fontanne theater. The thing will be an artistic bomb, whatever advantage there may be in preserving the play via photography for the untutored masses west of the Hudson, The assumption that a successful film can be a mere record of a performance designed for the stage is a heresy already too widespread to be further encouraged. This pseudo-film will have none of the ad vantages of film, except perhaps closeups of actors rolling their eyes and salivating for the balcony customers. There will be no editing, changes of time or place, complete control of sound, artful use of camera angle. informed him that the “pre sumed permission” had been ‘ removed.” The cardinal explained, he said, that a visit at this partic ular time would not be oppor tune. Visitors from abroad have been speaking at four colleges in California, he said, and since some of them have been pre lates, the result has been' much confusion." Supplementing the cardinal’s letter was a telegram from Msgr. Benjamin G. Hawkes, chancellor of the archdiocese, which said that the required permission "was not forthcom ing." The chancery had no fur ther comment. ARCHBISHOP Roberts, who retired as head of the Bombay See in 1950 in favor of an In dian, now Valerian Cardinal Gracias, has engaged in many controversial issues. The prelate, who lives in Lon don, does extensive travelling, lecturing on the Vatican Coun cil, peace, the cold war and oth er topics. Soon after coming to this country in April he called on the Vatican Council to give some study at its third session to the problem of birth control. The subject, he said, is of “great ecumenical importance and di vides Protestants and Catholics very sharply." THE ARCHBISHOP maintains that the laws of nature and 01 the Church have undergone im mense changes over the cen turies and there is no certain ty that the Church's attitude to ward contraception is not liable to change. In the past he also has call ed for more “freedom" in the Church, and has been critical of the Sacred Roman Rota, the Church’s court of appeals in matrimonial cases. ALMOST PRESIDENT Just 100 years ago Gen. Wil liam S. Rosecrans (above) Civil War general and con vert to the Catholic faith, turned down a chance to be the Republican nominee for President of the United States. Later at the conven tion, when nominations were being considered for vice- president he was offered the chance to be Lincoln's run ning-mate. Seminary Fund 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 semi narians and in the Masses offer ed annually for the benefactors of our &EMINARY FUND God Love You BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN It is very difficult to convince anyone of the words of Our Lord: “Give, and it will be given to you.” The counsel of the world is; “Keep it for yourself, and you will have it,” Those who have followed the Lord’s advice have always prospered spiritually, but those who hoard are not necessarily so fortu nate. Recently this letter came to our attention: “Twenty-two years ago I promised the Lord that if He would provide work for me, I would give a tenth toward His work. Soon I had my first job. I earned eighteen dollars in six weeks Gladly 1 placed a dollar in the offering, but how the devil tempted me not to part with the eighty cents, then with a quarter, and then to withhold a nickel. Fortunately, for me, the Lord reminded me to keep my promise, and h re solved to give; not cheerfully, I admit. God had kept His promise, so I had to do the same. I have not since been tempted to withhold any of the Lord’s portion. The Lord continues to open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings. He has increased my earning abilities twenty times in twenty-two years. I, too, have increased my giving. Instead of one tenth, I am now giving three tenths of my earnings. There are mant blessings in giving to the Lord, be cause: “Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.” To whom should you give the Lord’s portion? This is some thing you must decide for yourself, but always keep in mind the words of the Vicar of Christ: “Charity to the Propagation of the Faith exceeds all other charities as Heaven, earth and Eternity, time..” In other words, the best way to remember the Lord is to extend the Faith to others. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith is the Holy Father’s own Society and all the money that you give to his society goes directly to him. No distribution is made by any bishop, or any diocesan or national director. Only the Vicar of Christ distributes your sacrifices to the many needy missions thrvughout the world that carry on the work of the Lord. GOD LOVE YOU to a lawyer for $1,000 “This check is not a contribution, but a debt. It represents the fulfillment of a pro mise to deliver my full fee to the Missions if I were successful in settling a law case. The case presented insurmountable pro blems which were unquestionably solved by the invocation of Divine Aid.” ... to P.S.C. for $50 “Please accept this for the Holy Father's Missions.” ... to a waitress for $30.27 “My regular donation of all my Tuesday tips for the past three months.” We think the world of you, our benefactors. But do you think of the world? The multicolored W0RLDM1SS10N ROSARY re minds you to pray for each of the five continents where our missionaries are striving to win souls for Christ. Send your request and an offering of $2 to The Society for the Propaga tion of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10001. Cut out this column, pin youn sacrifice 10 it and mail i( to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Society for the Pro pagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth avenue. New York lx, N. Y. or your Archdioces'an Director, Very Rev. Harold *J V Rainey P, O. Box 12047 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.