Newspaper Page Text
I
I
PAGE 6 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY. JULY 30, 1964
PAX ROMANA CONVENTION
Laymen Call For Catholic
Action In Secular World
S TRANGE BUT TRU r ISSUES SCRIITTNIZFD
Littl.-K nown Facts For Catholics Lv
By M. J
WASHINGTON, D.C. (RNS>-
Two laymen called upon fellow
Catholic graduates to repudiate
an approach to the world which
sees It exclusively as *‘secular"
and "evil," and Instead to
"take the temporal order seri
ously" as the medium In which
the layman properly works out
his vocation and Christian com
mitment.
Dr, William J. Nagle,
director of external research In
the U, S, Department of State,
and August Vtnlstendsel, gen
eral secretary of the Interna
tional Federation of Christian
Trade Unions, addressed ses
sions of Pax Romans, Inter
national federation of Catholic
student organizations meeting
here for a world assembly at
George town University,
DR, NAGEL told representa
tives of the Pax Romans gradu
ate commission that the attitude
of the Catholic layman has
greatly matured in the past de
cade, What was called "the lay
apostolate" in the '40s and
'50s had, he said, "s some
what conspiratorial approach
— the Idea of Infiltrating
society, the very valid notion
of 'restoring all things to
Christ,' But the idea seemed
to be that one went from the
cell meeting to bring Christ
out into the secular if not evil
world, something like raiding
parties going out from die safety
of the pioneer fortress and
scampering back In for safety,"
In contrast, today the layman
sees that '‘his Christian
function Is determined by his
situation In the world, that is,
by his natural commitment to
the work of the world which he
does not ‘give up* in order to
serve God's Kingdom, We give
glory to God, not by withhold
ing ourselves from that work,
but precisely in it and through
it."
Citing John F, Kennedy as an
example of a Catholic layman
m* MUSMNO JUST atilt) ANDMtDitfT
UKiNC KIR TO 1MC fMVURA
RESTAURANT/
who made a great contribution
"not so much to the theory
as to the practice of the lay
vocation," Dr, Nagle said that
the late President "taught the
Catholic layman something
about how to act as an adult
Christian."
"MR. KENNEDY put a proper
value on the work of the world,”
he said, "Faced with a .atti
tude of problems in the tem
poral order, he didn't keep
looking over his shoulder for
guidance from the clergy,
"h his very independence of
the organized Church, the late
President helped to form a new
kind of Catholic layman in the
U.S, — a layman who might
very well need his priests more
and will demand more of his
priests, but who will not go
running to them before taking
necessary action in the tem
poral order,"
DR, NAGLE charged that re
sponsibility in areas concerned
with Justice and charity in the
social and political order has
been taken by secularists, He
blamed this lack of involve
ment on the part of Catholic lay
men on the widespread notion
that the world is "the dark
valley, the vale of tears, the
world which will one day pass
away. For the most part Catho
lic laymen — though we now
number some 40 million—have
not taken the lead. But a new
type of layman is emerging
today,
'This new layman under
stands what the Incarnation
really means — that we can't
resign prematurely from the
human race. The temporal
order — and all the dirty prob
lems in it — are our responsi
bility,
"THE MORE educated Catho
lics there are who realize this,
the more will be attracted to
careers in public service or
at least to part - time in
volvement in the problems of
their community, their patlon
and their world — not simply
to infiltrate, to bring the Gospel
to 'the heathen,' but because
the world and the temporal
order are good and worth the
best efforts of each of us."
Dr. Vanistendael also called
for Catholic participation,
particularly in international or
ganizations,
"I do not pretend that inter
national agencies are per
fect bodies — even the Church
is not — but I do feel that
Catholics, and that means
Catholics, intellectuals in all
scientific disciplines, have not
sufficiently engaged In these
international activities. In pro
portion to the number of its
graduated laymen and women,
the Catholic community has
not made to the U.N, and to
other international agencies the
contribution it could be expected
to make,
"WE CAN be proud of the
thousands of missionaries we
have sent to many developing
countries, but the fact that we
fall to send there equal and
greater numbers of experts for
helping to build a human society
should set us thinking about our
real attitude towards the world.
' In Latin America, in Africa
and Asia, we the Catholics have
to show that religion is no ob
stacle to progress, and that
again means deep and real
knowledge, hard work, great
human involvement and con
cern. We have to be within the
revolution and not skeptical
spectators or reactionary op
pressors,"
Mr, Vanistendael declared
that the work of Catholics
through exclusively Catholic lay
organizations is no longer
enough,
"IN MANY countries the
Church has not or has no longer
a sufficient establishment for
organized apostolate , , , and
there the general Christian wit
ness of the individual or the
smaller group will be of the
utmost importance, Within the
Church structure itself, and at
all levels, the role of the laity
has to be reappraised,"
The trade unions leader cited
the "rather timid but neverthe
less encouraging" admission of
a few lay auditors to the Second
Vatican Council as one sign of
the emergence of the laity,
as far as I am concerned,"
he said, "means that they should
have the right to advise the
highest levels of the Church,
that is, the College of Cardinals
and the various departments
of central Church administra
tion, the regional and national
conferences of the hierarchy,
the bishops in their dioceses,
and the parish priest,
"Of course, such a demo
cratization of the methods of
work in the Church will create
some difficulties, but I feel that
the loss in substance which we
witness — and which could be
come more serious still -- en
tirely justifies such democrati
zation. The present system does
not work and produces a lot of
frustration."
TiHiE LATH INI SCMOOIL
Under the Patronage of
Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
Director of School
Monsignor Patrick J. O'Connor
Director of Vocations
Faculty
Reverend Mr, Glenn Davis
Mr, Charles LaDuca
Classes to be conducted at Saint Plus X High School
August 3 to August 21 inclusive
Class Hours Each Day
9:00 a,m, - 9:50 a,m,
10:00 a.m, - 10:50 a,m.
lltOOa.m, - 11:50 a.m,
Monday, August 3, 1964: 9:00 a.m,, Opening Mass
Registration of Students
Division of Groups: I and II Beginners
III Upperclassmen
Daily Schedule: Classes from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 m.
On each Friday during the last hour of the day there will be
Confessions, Holy Mass, and a Sermon
Latin assignment books will be made available and are to be purchased by the
students. These books for the most part will be used by students during their
courses in the regular school year.
No charge for attendance at The Latin School.
Eligible for Attendance
Young boys who are entering high school and those who are now attending
Catholic and public high schools who may believe that they have a vocation
to the Sacred Priesthood and who wish to be Priests of the Archdiocese of
Atlanta are eligible for attendance. Further information may be obtained
from Monsignor Patrick J. O'Connor.
Copyright, 1M4, N.C.W.C. New. Service
9COLPTORS, 90
NURSE’S TRAINING
Ecumenical Slant
To Nuns 9 Program
NEW ORLEANS, La.(NC)—'The
Slaters at Mercy Hospital here
have given a new slant to the
word "ecumenical."
They use it to describe the
hospital's nursing program un
der which Mercy nuns impart
their hospital knowledge to Sis
ters of other communities.
THERE ARE now at the hos
pital 12 Mercy Sisters who are
also nurses. And there are nine
other Sisters representing six
other religious communities
who are students in Mercy's
nursing school.
With the Mercy order paying
most of the costs, nuns of other
communities learn to be nur
ses—either to work in hospi
tals of their own or to be able
to give nursing services in or
phanages or old people's homes.
THEY INCLUDE two Sisters
of the Congregation of our Lady
of Mt. Carmel; two of the Sisters
Marianites of Holy Cross; two of
the Sisters of St. Joseph of
Bourg; and one each of the Eu
charistic Missionaries of St.
Dominic; Sisters Servants of
Mary; and School Sisters of
Notre Dame.
The Sisters from the various
communities pay only for their
books. 'Riltlon and room and
board are taken care of by the
Mercy Sisters.
Sister Mary Edwins, director
of the nursing school, said the
Sisters take part in almost all
student activities—"everything
except the prom."
[
1 ^
1 .
MISS Patricia Ann Weldon,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James
T. Weldon of Atlanta, will wed
Donald Raymond Carmody of
St. Louis, Mo. in St. Thomas
More Church, Decatur, Sept.
7. Miss Weldon is a graduate
of St. Pius X and of Spring Hill
College. Mr. Carmody is a
Spring Hill graduate and will
attend the University of Miss
ouri School of Law in the Fall.
Religious Groups Stress
Morality For Campaign
ON ’HILL OF THE ANGELS’ AGAIN—This newly rebuilt
national monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will be
dedicated soon on the Hill of the Angels, near Madrid.
Located at the exact geographic center of the Spanish
peninsula, it replaces one destroyed by communists, Aug.
6, 1936 during the Spanish civil war.
Issues of the election season
now underway make it certain
that the campaign will have a
broad religious dimension. Vir
tually all key subjects likely to
be extensively debated have in
the past prompted wide reli
gious concern and will be close
ly scrutinized in coming months
by religious groups and indi
vidual Christians and Jews.
As delegates te the Republi
can Presidential Convention at
San Francisco enthusiastically
handed their standard to Sena
tor Barry Goldwater of Ari
zona, the spotlight of public
attention focused on several is
sues of prime interest and
importance to the nation's re
ligious community. These in
cluded civil rights, extremism,
foreign policy, poverty, fede
ral aid to education, immigra
tion and devotional acts in
public schools,
IN THE opinion of The Pi
lot, newsweekly of the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Bos
ton, the "thoroughly conserva
tive victory" at San Francisco
will result in a "good test of
democracy" by providing
clear-cut issues between two
widely divergent points of view,
"Whatever else may be said
about the convention," an edi
torial inThe Pilot said, "plain
ly it knew its own mind and
wrote its thoughts unmistakably
in both candlate and platform,,,
The parties this year are not
going to be running on the same
ideologies with different names
and different characters,"
And it appeared during the
week since his nomination that
Sen. Goldwater has no inten
tion of letting the broad gap be
narrowed between his conser
vative views and those of Pre
sident Johnson, the presumed
Democratic candidate. State
ments he has made have firm
ly underscored the strong op
inions expressed in his accep
tance speech.
To an extent possibly un
paralleled, it appeared that re
ligious views on campaign
issues would be widely voic
ed. A leading Protestant theo
logian, President John C, Ben
nett of New York's UnlonTheo-
logical Seminary, saw this de
velopment this week as he told
a largely Catholic audiece that
"something new has happened
in American life and it is going
to be a great problem for us as
Christians,"
DR, BENNETT, addressing
the Institute for International
Service, an organization of
Catholic laymen serving around
the world, said that he per
sonally regretted speaking out
in the area of politics but that
he was doing so because the
conservative views held by Sen.
Goldwater pose moral questions
for the Churches,
The theologian, while stating
a belief that the GOP candida
te's conservatism runs coun
ter to nearly all modern so
cial teachings of the Protestant
and Catholic Churches, also
noted that Mr. Goldwater's poli
tical views have strong appeal,
"It wraps itself in a cloak
of religion and morallsm that
is dangerous," he said, "and
therefore will win a tremen
dous amount of support within
the churches. And that is why
there has to be a kind of in
terpreting of what is really the
teaching of the churches by the
clergy and others who have re
sponsibility to do this,"
In spite of Sen. Goldwater's
expressed hope that civil rights
can be discussed in the cam
paign in a way that will not in
flame racial tension, the threat
of continued violence was wide
ly feared. According to one
leading religion and race
spokesman, Dr. Robert W, Spike
of the National Council of
Churches, a sharp rise in Negro
hostility is Inevitable unless
the Republican candidate's
views are modified,
IT WAS questionable whether
the GOP.candidate’s insistence
that he personally believes in
civil rights and that his ne
gative vote on the new legis
lation was on purely constitu
tional grounds could quiet the
possible new racial storm. Dr.
Spike called Sen, Goldwater's
claim that the rights bill is
unconstitutional "an offense to
the Negroes of America." Seve
ral other religious and civil
rights spokesmen saw forebod
ing signs in thelack of a pro
gressive platform plank on
racial justice in the Republican
platform.
With civil rights initially de
scribed as a moral question by
the late President Kennedy, as
he introduced the bill, and with
the large majority of Pro
testant, Catholic and Jewish
groups having actively pro
moted the legislation, therewas
little doubt that the religious
community would remain deeply
involved in the issue,
The religious community also
was in the thick of the dis
cussion on ' extremism," Long
before the Republican conven
tion refused to denounce spe
cific groups as being extremist
and in advance of Sen. Gold
water's statement that ex
tremism in the defense of lib-
erty is no vice, a great many
religious leaders and groups
had denounced such groups. At
the same time, many com
mentators were of the opinion
that the candidate's statement,
on which he has refused to ela
borate at length, was certain
to encourage activity by reli
gious and political groups of the
extreme right and left,
AMERICAN foreign policy,
which Sen, Goldwater has said
will be his prime target, has
long been a concern within the
religious community. And as
the nation's role in relation to
communism and the current ln-
ternatlonalscene is debated, the
candidate's views seemed des
tined to provoke both support
from some conservative wings
of religion and sharp attack
from more liberal churchmen.
Internationally, a large part
of the religious community's
views on the search for peace
has been seen in the lace Pope
John XXIII's call for an end to
the armaments race and a ban
on nuclear testing and in par
allel statements by the World
Council of Churches’ Commis
sion of the Churches on Inter
national Affairs.. At the same
time, there is an appreciable
religious segment favoring the
conservative senator’s more
militant stance. This segment,
however, would take issue wjth -
Dr, Bennett's charge that
"Goldwater Republicanism"
desires "to throw American
power around recklessly" in the
world conflict with communism.
AS CONGRESS this week took
up President Johnson’santi-
poverty bill, Sen, Goldwror and
his firm supporter, Sen. John
G, Tower R.- Tex.) served
notice that they would fight what
they called "handouts" and the
"institutionalization of pov- *
erty," They stood alone against
a 31-member majority in the
Senate Labor Committee which
cleared the bill.
The nation’s Portestants,
Catholics and Jews earlier were
urged by R. Sargent Shriver,
director of the anti-poverty
program , to Join in support
of the measure. He called the
war on poverty "America’s holy
war." To date, both the Ame
rican Friends Service Com
mittee (Quaker) and the Nat
ional Council of Churches have
planned specific anti-poverty
programs. The Quaker unit has
announced a four-state Peace-
Corps-like endeavor and the
NCC, with financial assistance '
from the World Council, this
fall will launch a continuing
drive against poverty in the
Mississippi Delta area,
ALSO, ALL Americans have
been urged by the Social Ac
tion Department of the National
Catholic Welfare Conference, to
become personally involved in
the fight against poverty, It cal
led for the utilization of all
resources, including schools,
public and voluntary agencies
and other community activities
in the effort.
Other topics of importance
to the religious community in
cluded the extended controversy
over federal aid to education,
wlch the Republican candidate
opposes, and the "Becker am
endment," to permit devotional
acts in public schools, a pro
posal opposed by many religious
leaders but endorsed by others.
Religious interest in Ameri
ca's immigration policy was
highlighted during the Repub-
llcan convention when some 35
immigration, welfare and other
agencies charged that the
Party's platform plank on the
subject was "innocuous," In
cluded among those making the
charge were Protestant, Catho
lic and Jewish groups,
TOGETHER with such speci
fic issues were the broad ques
tions of political ethics and
morality in government.
CHRISTIANITY TODAY,conser
vative Protestant fortnightly,
declared that America is deep
ly rooted in the Judeo-Chrie-
tian ethic and urged that the
political debate be lifted to a
high level of "social and ethi
cal concern."
'To render its highest and
most ennobling service," the
publication said, the Judeo-
Christlan ethic "must be taken
seriously by a people and re
flected honestly in the utteran
ces of their spokesmen, the
politicians. Religious verbal
ism and professional piety are
not enough. An infinite God
cannot be contained within the
postscript of a campaign
speech."
* (
SPKWio. Terence
J O Brien
v 4/ KNOWS LIFE
INSURANCE
Suite 715
270 Pchtr Bldg. N.W.tAtl., Ga.
Home BU 4 1191 Office 688-2600
Southland Life
INSURANCE fSLj COMPANY
Horn* Othca • Southland Canttr • Dallai
ARCHDIOCESE OF
ATLANTA
*964
PRICK
S1.00
Your Nome
Address....
City.
State
