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EMERGING LAYMEN Some Dangerous Ideas BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW Fuzzy ideas are dangerous ideas. If nobody famous enough to make up lasting quotations has ever said that, somebody ought to do so. It ought to be almost a first principle of contem porary communication - in politics, social life and, indeed, religion. Especially during times of change and adjustment, such as the Catholic Church is now experiencing, catchy slogans and half-formed statements of new ideas can gain great currency. The result may be either that the unwary will be misled to their own harm or that the worth of'even an excellent idea will never receive a fair hear ing. What I have said is a bit exaggerated on the subject of the "emerging Catholic lay man*’ but it strikes me as a legitimate concern. The lay man’s place in the Church - in the sense of a positive, responsible and distinct role that is his by duty and right - has never received full theological treatment. The Second Vatican Council is expected, for the first time in Catholic history, to take the subject under consideration in its treatise on the constitution of the Church. The revised body of Canon Law is likewise expected to recognize juridically the direction of present thinking on the subject. While absolutely necessary, these are developments to be estimated only from a long-range view. IN THE MEANTIME, there are the concerns with which I began. If the "emergence’’ of the modern layman is misconstrued simply as a reaction to the passive role he has been assigned in the recent past, then it is ready prey for continuously accelerated misunderstanding. The liberals and the conservatives will assume their accustomed poses and we will be off to the races on the wrong issue altogether. On the other hand, if the only enlightenment the layman receives on his "emergence’’ is peripheral, he is going to weary of trying to consider it new or interesting. This would be the ruin of an important - even essential - element of the renewal of the Church. If the only difference the lay parishioner can notice is that he may discuss which direction the chairs he sets up in the parish hall ought to face, then he is not going to be terribly fascinated with the idea of lay emergence. However, it is not necessary that this be the case. Even while we await the statement of principle from the teaching Church, there can be a beginning of communication with the layman regarding the basic elements of his re-discovered position in the Church, THERE ARE three general areas in which the total health of the Mystical Body demands the initiative and commitment of its lay members. First of all, there is the freedom which the layman must enjoy within the organized activity of the Church. There are new apostolic needs today. Today’s parish, for one example, must meet these needs. Family problems, social con flicts, the mass of the non-religious population, i the adjustments demanded of the urban and subur ban parish, the execution of roles in the liturgy - all these and many more needs must be met by ' official" activity organized by the parish and the diocese. Within all this area, the Church needs the initiative, experience and commitment of the laity. This is his first area of activity. Outside of the official structure of the Church organization, the layman who is informed and committed must answer for his faith. He must interpret it to the world in which he lives. He must draw upon his own-by definition, "lay," not "clerical" - experience to make it relevant. Fina.Vy.the apostolateof the layman - of "like to like" - is the only approach which can hope to accomplish the renewal of the world, the goal of all Church zeal and activity. QUESTION BOX Tight And Selfish BY MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY Q. About six years ago a relative of mine died. He was tight and selfish, saved every penny he made, and never gave his sisters, who were in need, any help. When he died he willed all of his money to the Church, so his sisters would not get any of it. Now since all this time there has not been a sprig of grass on his grave. Is it because the fire of hell is burning in his grave? A. I suspect he tried to take some of it with him and the gold mixed with water creates AuH20, harmful to herbage. Q, My son once wanted to be come a priest, but now he has become interested in Yoga, and claims he wants to be a yogi. I don’t care to investigate this in detail and would appreciate it if you could disprove its veracity. A, Maybe you should send him into the forestry service. I don't care to Investigate Yoga in detail either, but I suspect that a quick cure for your son’s interest would be to send him to a Buddhist monastery, or Meditation House, for his train ing period of three years, three months and three days. There he would be a voluntary prisoner, observing silence most of the time* meditating continuously 16 hours a day, every single day, without ever lying down to sleep. He could doze of course three or four hours a day in his sitting position. If his enthusiasm for Yoga wanes before the three years, months and days are over, by all means keep him out of a seminary. We need priests, but not that kind. Q. I read where St. Alphonsus said that he who prays is certainly saved, but he who prays not is certainly lost. I would like to know how often we must pray in order to get saved, and what kind of prayers. A. I am not familiar with such quotation from St. Alphonsus, but I know that Jesus said: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven." However, I doubt very much that you will be able to do the will of the Father in heaven with out a considerable amount of prayer; and I don't think we should be looking for the minimum amount required. St. Paul says we ought always to pray. Prayer is our encounter with God in thought, desire, affection, and conversation. It is through encounter with God that grace comes into our souls; and it is grace that saves us. The grace which saves us is the love of God active within us; we cannot love one whom we do not know. You can never get to know a person unless you have some sort of personal encounter with him, especially in an intimate exchange of- thoughts and feelings. Such is prayer. We follow Paul’s monition to pray always when we frequently renew our awareness of the presence of God and live constantly for the love of him. So, if you must have your minimum: I would say a recommendation of yourself to God’s care each morning, with an offering of all your words, works, thoughts and suffering for love of him; a renewal of that offering several times during the day, by brief thoughts or ejaculations, and a checking up on yourself each evening, with a renewal of love, and contrition for your fail ings during the day. ORTHODOX WELCOME HELP Your World And Mine CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 priests. The missionaries gradually saw new horizons. In 1911 they started a magazine called Zoe (mean ing life). It has prospered and has now a weekly circulation exceeding 150,000. It has also ex panded into Greece's biggest religious publishing operation, printing bibles, prayer books, devo tional books, pamphlets, and a range of period icals for the young. Incidentally, the Brotherhood, an unsubsidized non-profit organization, lives mainly from the profit on its printing and pub lishing activities. PUBLISHING IS, nevertheless, onlyone phase of Zoe’s work for young people. It has organized a broad spectrum of other programs and activities, from hotels for university students to technical schools, clubs for young workers and for young intellectuals, summer camps, and training centers for catechists. A group of unmarried women university graduates has been formed into a lay community, something like a secular institute, to run hostels for university co-eds. Contacts have been established with counter parts among both Protestants and Catholics in the West, and a few members of Zoe have stud ied Young Christian Worker methods in Western Europe. THE WORK is, of course, carried on with ap proval of the Holy Synod of Greece. Many, never theless, criticize it for its departures from tradi tion. When one of the Brothers expressed to me his concern at a falling off in the membership of the Union of Young Workers, I suggested that perhaps the almost monastic regime they counseled was too removed from the actuality of these young people's lives. "I agree," he re plied, "but as of now we seem to be trapped. A few years ago we introduced Joint talks to uni versity students of both sexes, in separate sec tions of the hall, of course, but still together. The outraged protests from the older people almost brought the building down around our ears." Since World War II, Athens has felt the full impact of the modern world. The movies, the transistors, the television serials, the bop tunes • and all the paraphernalia of the new way have seized the young people. Their world is light years removed from that of traditional Orthodoxy.^ Those who understand the need for change are still few. They are also conscious of their own inadequate preparation for dealing with strange, foreign phenomena. That is why, as Father Ellas said to me, they need our know-how. Dogmatic agreement may still be far in the future., but moral and technical cooperation can quickly become a reality. Saints in Black and White A jr~ v JU ST. JOHN FRANCIS REGIS 103 13 *'/ Tr 3c TC TjT 7c Tf nr? If /O If IX 13 H WL '7 a) 133 THURSDAY, AUGUST 13. 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5 'JEWEL OF THE COMSTOCK* Historic Church Featured 73 77 7? n ACROSS 1. name chosen by pcpes 5. gasconade 9. sop 14. river “Kubla Khan’ 15. acrid 16. South American animal 18. hatchet 19. seated (Fr.) 21. carried 22. cache 24. charger 25. Jot 26. youngest of a famous family 28. Gabor 29. Turkish money 20. gibbon 33. French river 35. Arabs •16. Japanese coin 38. expend 39. Presidential nick name 40. Biblical country 41. degree 42. Greek letter 43. reliance 47. cut 49. plpa 50. resting 51. engineering degree 52. He was very de voted to the 53. gore LX PT LJ 7o 7/ 7*. FT 54. mast 20. 57. utters impulsively 59. Conrad's "Victory” 23. hercine 27. 60. Jezebel 29. 61. unfair move 62. convene 30. 64. Polynesian God 31. 66. shepherd prophet 32. 68. His birthplace 34. 73. tear 35. 74. soils 37. 76. tie 39. 77. record 42. 79. Biblical-character 43. 80. care for 44. 81. ruler 45. 82. coast bird 46. 83. weeds 48. DOWN 49. 1. cards 2. island 52. 3. ascent 54. 4 friable 55. 5. popular organlza- 56. tlon; abbr. 57. 6. flag maker 58. 7. kind of life he led 63. 8. erne 65. 9. his religious order; 67. abbr. 69. 10. account 70. 11. egocentric attltude71. 12. Phonlclan princess; 72. Gr. Myth. 75. 13. heaved 78. 17. constructs overwhelming quantity moray incertitude punishable in the army waste son of Adam Austrian physicist verb ending freshwater worm swim (Fr.) plats indigent odeon musical Instrument Mexican slave saga pronoun He entered religious life here weight participate obvious spies pythons Thor’s wife important Council theater mlra color gnarl noun form eels (old Eng.) day star clerical form of ad dress; abbr. ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7 VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. (NC) — The church of St. Mary’s in the Mountain, which has been de stroyed and rebuilt in this historic mining town three dif ferent times, was nearly the victim of another catastrophe at the hands of the U.S. Post Of fice Department. A scene featuring the church and the man who founded it more than 100 years ago was pictured on a new 25-cent stamp issued by the Post Office to mark Nevada’s centennial. In the nick of time it was dis covered the church and the picture of Father Patrick Manogue were printed back wards. A corrected version was hurriedly prepared for the (July 22) date of issue. THE POST Office error seemed somehow appropriate with the history of St. Mary's in the Mountain. The original crude wooden structure of St. Mary’s was built by Father Hugh Gallager at the southern edge of town in 1860. The paint was hardly dry when the building was knocked down by one of the occasional tornadic winds, known to the natives as "washoe zephyrs," that sweep this sec tion of the continental divide. TWO YEARS later, Father Manogue erected another church at the site of the pre sent one, but in 1868 he de cided it was too small and tore it down. That bame year Father Manogue built a third church large enough to sit 800 persons, many of whom had lushed to Virginia City in an attempt to cash in on the ARNOLD VIEWING Breathlessly Big BY JAMES W. ARNOLD Both "Becket" and "Fall of the Roman Em pire" are films in the Breathlessly Big tradi tion, transporting patrons in wide-screen and color to remote history (800 and 1800 years respectively) and dealing, rather more in ventively than factually, with fascinating actual personages portrayed by gifted actors. If neither film may substitute for junior’s history lesson, both are expensive, skillful and often exciting productions, though in much different ways. "Becket," which closely fol lows Jean Anouilh’s play, an existentialist interpretation of the relationship between St. Thomas a Becket and Henry II of England, has the smaller budget but the surer literary merit. "Empire", despite its pretentious title and occasional floundering in the cliches of spear-and-chariot melodrama, is much more of a treat for the eyes. Oddly, both films - the intellectual tragedy and the blood-and-thunder mass entertainment - deal with the harmful effects of power and politics on love and friendship. ALTHOUGH a film should not be Judged in its fidelity to history, audiences should know that "Becket" oversimplifies a wickedly complex 12th century Church - State issue. The saint’s character, and the portrait of Pope Alexander III, are largely creations of the playwright. The events in "Empire" are true only in the same general sense as Mickey Mantle might be called a 20th century American athlete. "Becket" tells a very personal story, that rare species (since we have been made so overly con scious vOf the perverse) about the comrade ship of two men. Anouilh’s view is that Henry, in appointing Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, made an enemy of a friend indispensable to his happiness. The whole point of the drama is to reveal why. TO BELIEVERS, the Anouilh Becket is bound to be disappointing; he is too much the modern skeptic, sensitive to the absurdity of things. A profligate young man without ideals, he comes suddenly, by what seems an ironic joke of fate, to be Archbishop and defender of the honor of God. The role gives him purpose, and he plays it nobly, even to the death. Whether he believes in a reality behind his duty is largely irrelevant. At times he seems to, at times he doesn't. For Anouilh (who, despite his unbelief, wrote the script for one of the great Catholic films, "Monsieur Vincent"), men are isolated, con demned to "do absurdly what it has been given us to do" in an unfriendly, perhaps meaningless universe. Man's true dignity lies in being true to himself, in playing his role to the very depths. Hence the central irony of "Becket": the saint finds his happiness and meaning in the very acts which must destroy the only happiness and meaning in the King’s life. ST, THOMAS is existentialist, rather than Christian, hero, exhibiting even the essential existentialist virtue: compassion for his fellow sufferers in the prison-universe. This may not be far removed from Christian charity, feven so, the tempestuous Henry, motivated by love for a person, seems more attractive and human than the somber Becket, who loves only a vague absolute). But the fact that Becket’s sanctity comes from his sense of role rather than love of God tends to leave the viewer strangely cold. Otherwise the film has splendid sets (the Canterbury interior is brooding and awesome) and high-angle shots, but is basically a series of filmed dialogues. These, however, are far from trivial: the acting of Peter O'Toole as the King is the most brilliant likely to be seen anywhere this year. Richard Burton's bland, cool style as Becket makes a forbidding character even more frosty. His booming Churchilllan tones and impassive face are seldom moving except in long shot (e.g., a harrowing excommunication scene in the darkened cathedral), THE EXPLICATION of the Becket - Henry friendship is marred only by a 'Tom Jones" emphasis on boozing and wenching. The treat ment of Vatican intrigue and the Pope (one of the Church’s great men) is bush league and Juvenile; rather than come to grips with com plicated forces, Anouilh retreats to comic stereo type. "Empire" describes the effect of the power transfer, after the death (180 A.D.) of the philo sopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guin ness), on his son and daughter (Christopher Plummer, Sophia Loren) and a young general (Stephen Boyd). This is the start of the decline, rather than the fall of Rome, but the mad emperor and the orgies tend to look familiar. Story and intellectual grace (and the painful Loren-Boyd love scenes) are not the film’s finest points, Insteaa, they are: 1 - The lavish spectacle, including hordes of extras, eyenumbing sets and a tingler of a chariot fight - five minutes of screen action and cutting which no devotee of film ought to miss. 2 - Larcenous acting by Plummer, who con verts the whole extravaganza into a setting for his talents. Mad emperor roles are noted for bringing out the worst in actors, but Plummer, despite an hysterical script, makes his man magnetic. 3 - The fact that it can be seen and enjoyed by kids without notable damage to either their souls or psyches. THE PICTURE was shot in Spain by the pro ducer-director team of "El Cid" (Samuel Bron- ston, Anthony Mann). One of its flaws is cool disregard of the role of Christianity in second century Rome (Aurelius, for all his stoic no bility, was a major persecutor). On the filmic side, the battle scenes are as confusing and uninteresting as a bargain sale at Macy's. And as one child remarked to his father: "Why do all the barbarians have long blond wigs?" To tell them, of course, from the Romans. CURRENT RECOMMENDED FILMS: Superior art: Tom Jones, 8 1/2, Bridge on the River Kwai (re-release), Superior entertainment: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Lilies of the Field, Dr. Strangelove. Worth seeing: America America, Love With the Proper Stranger, Becket, Billy Liar, Charade, Paris When It Sizzles, The Pink Panther. famous Comstock Lode, a fabulous silver discovery. Built at a cost of $65,000 at a time when Mark Twain was a reporter for Virginia City's newspaper, the church was considered the most beautiful in the west and called the "Jewel of the Corn- stock." T WAS too good to last. In 1875, when much of the community was destroyed by fire, St. Mary's in the Moun tain was dynamited to pro vide a fire break. In grati tude, the mine owners financed the building of a new and still larger church with five doors on two levels, two transepts and a gallery. The style of this latest church, which is still stand ing, is described as modified 14th century Gothic. It boasts eight minarets each 60 feet high, and the cross atop its main spire is 170 feet above the ground. The roof rests on six arches suanended from twn rows of pillars, allowing the roof to sway with the wind in case another "washoe zephyr" comes along. ST. MARY’s is a key at traction of the Nevada cen tennial this summer. Father Paul Meinecke, the pastor, has created an admission - free museum and art gallery that captures the history of the church and Virginia City. Many of the gleaming crucifixes and chalices on aisplay were used by Father Manogue 100 years ago. Father Meinecke is also of fering to send four 25-cent postage stamps, with a cor rected view of Virginia city, to anyone who sends him$l. Birth Symposium WASHINGTON (NC)--A "Sym- posium on Rhythm" for priests, physicians and experts from family life agencies will be con ducted here Oct 20 to 22 under the joint auspices of the Nation al Catholic Welfare Confer ence's Family Life Bureau and the National Federation of Cath olic Phvsicians Guilds. 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 SEMINARY FUND. God Love You BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN We are novena-conscious, devotion-minded, rosary-saying and highly sacramentalized Catholics. But during the week, do those who work alongside us at a factory lathe , behind a counter or in an office know that we belong to Christ? Do we ever men tion the name of Our Lord to them? Are we pious merelyto feed our own souls, or to gain strength to spread the Faith to others? It is this condition which should make us re examine the life of Our Lord. First of all, He said: "For their sakes, I sanctify Myself." In other words, piety must not be divorced from love and service to neighbor. Furthermore, one is struck by how little Our Lord approved of pro fessionally holy people. In His parables, the only three religious people were the priest and the levite who passed by the wounded neighbor, and the Pharisee who sent up to the front pew to tell God how bad his neighbors were, Christ disapproved of the "nice" people because they isolated themselves from the common people. Then who were the approved people? They were housewives who ministered to others, like Peter’s mother-in-law; mothers who brought children to Him; lepers; despised Roman sergeants; harlots; publicans; tax collectors; pagan women and little men who climbed trees to see Him. The one bond between them all was a common humanity. And this is where our piety, if it is to be real, must take us. As George MacLeod has put it: "Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on a town garbage heap, at crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write the title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek (or shall we say in English, in Bantu, and in Afrikaans?) at the kind of a place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse and soldiers gamble. And that is where churchmen should be and what churchmen should be about." Why is the world talking about ‘‘Religionless religion"? Why do we have books entitled "God or Religion"? Because we who are supposedly religious are organising "drives" for religion, while the hungry, germ- laden, leprous mass of humanity draws from us no more than 27 cents a year — for that is the annual per capita contribu tion of United States Catholics to the Holy Father for the spiri tually and physically starving people in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Christ is with the poor just because they are poor! I asked a non-Catholic woman, twice married and divorced, why she was so good to a leper. I said: 'To me, he is Christ. That is why I am good to him," She answered: "I am good to him for the same reason." This is true Christian insightl My fellow Catholics! We save ourselves not only inside our church walls, but outside! The Lord is yearning to get out of the tabernacle, not just into your soul, but into your feet, that you may visit the poor; into your hands, that you may give them bread; into your eyes, that you may see Africa and Asia. Throw yourself into suffering mankind and you will become a saint. The only reason others say "I cannot be religious" is because they see how little it means to us. tention." . . .to J. R. for $10 "In thanksgiving for a special favor," . . .to W, H, for $100 ' In thanksgiving for recovery from an illness, I am a very happy convert. I was baptized a Russian Orthodox and I have returned to the religion of my forefathers, I have lost some friends in doing so, but I have found One Who is dearest to me, My God." Mission combines the best features of all other magzines: stores, pictures, statistics and details, human interest. Take an interest in the suffering humanity of the mission world and send your sacrifice along with a request to be put on the mail ing list of this bi - monthly magazine to: The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y, 10001. Cut out this column, pin youn sacrifice to it and mail it to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Society for the Pro pagation of the Faith, 366 Plfth Avenue, New York lx, N. Y. or your Archdiocesad Director^ Very Rev. Harold^ Rainey P. O t Box 12047 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.