Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 24, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5
THEOLOGY AM LAW
Period Of Adjustment
Saints in Black and White GUILT FOR CRUCIFIXION
ST. JOHN LEONARDI
118
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
We live, as Catholics, in an age of transition.
This is so obvious and commonplace an observa
tion as to have become trite. The fact remains,
however, that many of the implications of the
transitional character of our time have not had
their full impact on us. This partial awareness of
our present state at this given moment is surely
inevitable. When affairs of great
moment are in a profound state
of flux, it is difficult, even im
possible, to grasp them firmly.
They do not stand still. There
is too much going on for most
of us to analyze. At the same
time, this partial awareness of
what is involved in an adjust
ment such as the Church is ex
periencing is the source of much
of the difficulty and discomfiture felt by many
Catholics.
We are passing from a state marked by a deep
conviction of the supremacy oflaw.The moral and
spiritual demands of the Christian faith were
couched, by preference, in terms of law: natural
law, divine positive law, canon law, civil law, end
lessly distinguished so that it would fit every
theoretically possible combination of circumstan
ces. Extremism within this mentality produced
casuistry, an abstract system of morality con
cerned more with situations than with persons.
Canon Law was in fact if not in principle, the su
preme science of the Church. Even the doctrinal
content of our faith was frequently measured prin
cipally by the degree of authority its various facets
held from Councils, papal documents, theological
manuals, and so forth.
IN SUCH a situation, things were at least clear.
At least, they seemed so. That, to many both with
in and especially outside the Church, truth and
morality were not so clear nor so simple, was of
ficially ignored. This is the state to which we have
become accustomed. Unchangeable practices and
immutable truths were our daily fare. Authority
could always be depended on to provide definite,
even instant, solutions.
It is not true that all this has changed. Far from
it. What is true is that a good many of the ideas
and assumptions we took for granted are in the
process of changing. We do not, and cannot, know
exactly what our future state will be in every de
tail because the change is not yet complete. It is
still going on. In many instances, the letter of the
law has not been able to keep pace with the intro
duction of new practices.This is true, for instance,
in liturgical matters, where progress has been so
rapid under the impetus of the Constitution of Sac
red Liturgy of the Vatican Council. Pope Paul has
spoken frequently of the coming revision of Canon
Law which, presumably, will incorporate the chan
ged approach of the Church to these and other
matters.
WHAT APPARENTLY disturbs many Catholics
is the loss of the absolute certainty and uniform
ity that the legalistic approach guaranteed. They
mistrust a future marked by flexibility, variety
and incompletely controlled initiative. They per
haps fear that freedom will really degenerate into
license, as the text of so many sermons warned
us.
There are many motives for confident optimism.
The change from rigid legalism is not being made
in a void - nor, into a void.The Church, and those
whose leadership she is accepting, are planted on a
firmer base than law. The starting-point and
guideline is theology - our always partial but al
ways progressing understanding of God’s mys
tery-filled word to us in Christ. In some instan
ces, it means a return to traditional ideas which
have been temporarily obscured. Principally, it
means what Pope Paul spoke of in his brilliant
and important encyclical, Ecclesiasm Suam.
THE CHURCH is in the process of considering
its inmost nature and constitution. Pope Paul
writes that from this contemplation of the mystery
of the Church we must conclude what practical
steps of reform and renewal are to be taken.
Change will follow on knowledge and the enlighten
ment Christ promised always to provide.
QUESTION BOX
About Lay Trustees?
3Y MSGR. J. D. CONWAY
Q. In your answer about lay trustees in a parish
you say that in signing the annual report he cer
tifies that it is true to the best of his knowledge.
This sounds like you’re ducking, and I know you
better than that. Does the trustee have a respon
sibility to study the report and understand it? If
he i,d<?9 s g!t v ijp/derstand i$,49fl§ he have a respop-
pnestri and dpes the priest
have a responsibility to see that he does under
stand it. Unless your answers are yes, please ex
plain why there are trustees.
A, My answers are yes. In our own state the
trustees are members of a corporation. Certain
ly they have a right and a responsibility to know
the details of the corporation's operation, espec
ially when they are certifying a report of these
— operations to the president of
the corporation, the bishop.
On the other hand, it is sel
dom, in practice, that the trus
tees will make or demand an
audit of the parish books. They
trust the report prepared by
their pastor, and in this sense
they certify that it is true to the
best of their knowledge. There
may be circumstances when they should demand
more thorough investigation. Then they may lose
their jobs as trustees. Which is no great loss,
since the pay is poor.
♦ **
Q. Please give your opinion on these so-called
novenas. We receive one in the mail: a novena
to Our Lady of Fatima, nine Hail Mary's and nine
Our Father’s, 'This was started by the Sisters of
St. Francis and has been around the world four
times. Copy this and send it to nine different peo
ple within four days. If you don’t wish to continue
this, please send it back to the Sisters of St.
Francis, Boston, Mass. Don’t let this be broken
in your home. On the ninth day you will receive a
favor from Our Lady of Fatima.”
The other was found in church. It is a nine-day
novena to St. Jude: "Say the following prayer for
nine days in succession leaving a copy in church
each time. It hasneverfailedtogranta request by
the ninth day.”
A, This sort of thing is plain superstition - not
religion, I am sure that Fatima novena has been
around the world far more than four times; it has
passed by me at least a score of times, and it has
always been broken when it reaches me. Those
poor Sisters of St. Francis in Bostonl Imagine the
burden of junk mail they receive - if it is ever
delivered. I counted up one time, but my memory
is poor: there must be 25 to 50 convents of the
Sisters of St. Francis in Boston. What is a poor
postman to do?
Probably most pastors have shared with me the
nuisance of picking up that St. Jude novena from the
floor of the church day after day. St, Jude was a
pastor himself, and I am sure he would not look
with favor on litter bugs.
Say your prayers with love and devotion to adore
the great and good God who made you, saved you
and sanctifies you. Offer yourself to Him through
His Son who became man to link us to Him. Honor
the Mother of this Son, and all His faithful Apo»-
tles, martyrs and other saints. But beware of
charms and incantations, of never-failing prayers,
and of nine times nine equals certainty.
There is only one place for chain letters:
the waste basket. And prayers dropped delibe
rately on the floor end up in the incinerator.
Q. A Greek Orthodox church in our town has
returned to the Greek Catholic Rite, and my moth
er says that the Greek Rite is the same as the
Roman Catholic Rite. What is the difference, if
any? Does the Greek Rite obey the Pope of
Rome, or do they have a separate pope?
A. A Catholic church of Greek Rite has dif
ferent ceremonies, customs and traditions, but is
just as Catholic as the Roman Rite, It is subject
to the same Pope, Paul VI. And you are per
fectly free to assist at its Sacred Liturgy (Mass)
and to receive Holy Communion in it. You will
receive there under both forms, bread and wine.
SAVE SOUTH VIETNAM?
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE *1
as did the patriots fighting the French after
World War IL The south has for three years
been trying to apply the same process in re
verse. All the indications are that it has failed
to achieve any worthwhile success.
Why is the government of South Vietnam un
able to evoke the enthusiasm of the masses?
I think the answer can only be that it is not a
government of the people, and— however ob
scurely — they know it. Admittedly, this part
of the world, where force was ever the cement
of public order, never in the past knew a govern
ment of the people. But one may legitimately
wonder if the Communists have not ushered in a
new era in which self-interest must combine
with terror to achieve government stability.
Ngo Dinh Diem was the only figure of na
tional proportions to emerge in South Vietnam
since partition. He understood the use of power
within the traditions of rule of his country. He
had the personal integrity and the moral forma
tion to make those who knew him hope that he
could govern in the interest of all Vietnamese.
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atlon
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color
62
formerly
30
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facts
64
taboo
13
object of art
65
Baseball term
31
14
football team
66
one of his out-
34
15
folk singer
standing virtues
16
lowland
69
limited
35
17
made
70
man’s name
37
18
mastaba
71
seed covering
38
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portico pier
72
state
39
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estop
74
feats
21
counterpart
75
mid-western city
40
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initials of a rellg-
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trouble spot
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ious group
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desist
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pas
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agency
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spruce up
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comparative suffix
80
baldrick
48
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fillip
DOWN
49
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stage (fr.)
1
5-year periods in
32
in that degree
ancient Rome
51
33
rancor
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silkworm
52
36
Orient
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none (dialect)
54
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fruit of tropical
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toward
57
Am. tree
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near
58
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sirs
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area measure
59
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(Annam)
60
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fuss
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preposition
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Anglo Saxon letter
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rate
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He did much to
9
malady
67
spread our
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state (v.)
68
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glad
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banter
70
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flower
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been very
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rule
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pronoun
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flying mammals
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scene of a recent
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salty
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ancient times
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principal medical
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elevate
Presidential nick
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wagon
girl's name
puncheon
souvenir
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boat
cutting tool=
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Columbium
BY JAMES C. O’NEILL
(N. C. W. C. NEWS SERVICE)
VATICAN CITY -- The Jews
of the world are greatly con
cerned with what will be the
final text of the ecumenical
council’s declaration of the re
lation of the Catholic Church
and the Jews because of the ef
fect it can have on the future.
Dr. Joseph L. Lichten, di
rector of the department of in-
tercultural affairs of the Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai
B’rith, said it is for this rea
son that the final form of the
declaration deals with the rela
tions between the Catholic
Church and those outside it.”
“I WOULDNT DARE,” he
said, ' to interfere with pure
ly internal matters, but as a Jew
I am extremely involved in this
matter because of what the
council will have to say.”
Lichten said the chief objec
tion to the declaration draft as
it now stands is that it fails to
state clearly that Jews are not
guilty of the crucifixion of
Christ, that is, of deicide or
the killing of God.
*‘WE, THE Jews of the world,
and I as a Jew, feel that the
deicide issue is the most im
portant issue of the declara
tion,” he said. 'The present
draft is much weaker even than
the original chapter four of the
ecumenism schema which was
not taken up at the last ses-
ARNQLD VIEWING
‘Tennessee’ Huston
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
Tennessee Williams is tilting at the same
old tired windmills in "Night of the Iguana,"
and if this film is more bearable than others
made from Williams plays, It is due largely
to the tough, sardonic genius of director
John Huston. What's more, for all its char
acteristically bizarre situations, "Iguana" now
and then oddly resembles Graham Greene-
in its theology, if not in its aura of cracked
optimism.
is
at
can
Let it be emphasized, dutifully, that "Iguana”
not everyone's idea of a scintillating night
the picture show. Set in a decaying Mexi-
Unfortunately, he allowed family and class con
siderations to prevail over his instincts.
Yet nothing has been gained by his assassina
tion. The current regime enjoys even less popu
lar backing than did his. It has grown more cor
rupt by the month than the other by the year.
In such circumstances, the me gained by a
military pause can only run in favor of the Com
munists. The people of thesouthhave already lar
gely lost the will to fight. Defections from the
army are increasing. If the south stagnates in
corruption while the north drives ahead w ith the
creation of a stronger economy and a more
equitable social system, the people will in due
course make their inevitable choice.
The dilemma is one which the United States
faces in many parts of the world. What we offer
to underdeveloped countries as the democratic
way of life proves neither meaningful nor viable
in the terms in w hich we present it. But now
here is the issue more clearly defined than in
South Vietnam today. We need not only a greater
effort but a very different evaluation, if we are
to make democracy a goal for which Vietna
mese will fight and work.
seacoast resort during the sweltering
off season, it is mainly about
a crisis in the soul of a half-
mad ex-minister (Richard Bur
ton) who knows and loves God
better than most but can't re
sist temptation, a fix that is
clearly both tragic and comic,
rlt is also an oddball love
story involving the cleric, an
Inhibited Nantucket spinster
(Deborah Kerr) and the hotel
proprietress, a cackling South-of-the-Border
Auntie Marne (Ava Gardner).
HUSTON has coolly thrown out some of the
sensations Williams habitually pulls from his
bag to keep the audience alert, and substitu
ted others (a pathetic-comic seduction, wrest
ling on the beach, etc.) that are familiar adult
film fare. But mostly he has added comic coun
terpoint to the high drama, salted in some sen
timent, made the characters more likeable,
and paved the way for a happy ending that
would enchant the editors of Ladies Home
Journal.
It has been done without compromising Wil
liams, who has been repeating himself, in mar
velously poetic dialog, for an embarrassingly
long time. This is still Williamsville. where ap
pearances are turned upside down; the saved
are lost, the immoral are moral, the monst
rous is beautiful, and there is no sight so horrible
as Virtue Triumphant.
BASICALLY, "Iguana" is a moral fable argu
ing the case for romantic naturalism. The hero
charges that religion has turned a God of Love
into a "senile adolescent. . . who brutally pun
ishes all He created for his own faults in con
struction" Moralists, he complains have chan
ged man into their own creation, not God's.
Williams takes special trouble this time to
specify that sex is not everything, though
temptation and fall are clearly more human than
no temptation at all.
NOW THE arid spinster, scorned in the ortho
dox Williams gospel, emerges as heroine-
saint: "There are worse things than chastity,"
she says, meaning chiefly the prime Existent
ialist sin, unkindness to a fellow sufferer in
this baffling world. She has devoted her life
to her 97-year-old grandfather, a poet who,
tragicomically, has outlived his talent by 60
years. The whole law of God. Williams has dis
covered, is love, meaning not sex but charity.
None of this is especially new. There has
hardly been an intellectual drama in 20
years that has not taken a club to Victorian
morality (by now a hoary Freudian stereo
type of Religious Man) and urged kindness,
understanding, endurance and (above all) commu
nication between the isolated. The great theme
persists: why is God silent, and what do we do,
lost out here in the stars? Many Catholics do
not dig Williams, of course, because secure
in their Faith, they have either not thought of
these questions, or already found answers.
WHAT IS NEW is the note of hope. The spin
ster’s sacrifice bears fruit; the old man pro
duces one last brave beautiful poem (extolling,
not surprisingly, the need for human courage in
the face of decay and death). And when she throws
out a final prayer-"Please, can’t we stop now?"-
the Silent God answers, almost with a thunder
clap (and echoes of Bergman’s "VirginSpring”).
Huston indulges his noted fondness for setting
characters in conflict in an exotic locale and let
ting them tear each other apart. He relies heav
ily on closewups and wrings every emotional
overtone from lighting effects and camera set
ups. (Still, for film purists, this is only a film
ed play, shrewdly crafted, withspotlight on actors
and language).
SOME sequences are pure Huston: the pitiless
observation of a busload of Texas women on a
cheap Mexican tour, a beach brawl (to the tune
of "Mexican Hat Dance") in which the clean-
cut American boy is not only wrong but badly
humiliated.
The Huston- Anthony Veiller script often im
proves on the original. Sometimes it is in such
complicated maneuvers as clarifying the moral
relationship between Burton and the predatory
17-year-old 'Sue Lyon) or softening the Gar
dner character. Sometimes it is simply trimming
the fat from dialog, as when Miss Kerr tells of
pitying that poor deviate underwear salesman in
Singapore.
BURTON’S acting is probably the best he has
ever done on the screen. Sample: the remark
able way he lets his character slip impercep
tibly back into the jolly-good-fellow manner
isms of a public relations-minded minister.
Miss Kerr still belongs on my mantle next to
Greer Garson, and Miss Gardner, thanks cer
tainly to Huston, is just about convincing for
perhaps the first time in her career.
The film is hard to its villains, the middle-
aged schoolmarms who are forced to re-re-
sent stupidity, frigidity, old-time religion and
spiritual desolation all at once. But Williams
and Huston clearly do not think much either
of the Cool Generation (represented by Miss
Lyon) and its tight pants, go-go morality.
The old and young women have reversed their
morals, but their hearts and minds remain bar
ren.
sion.
He was referring to the fact
that in the earlier draft there
was a specific sentence stat
ing that the Jewish people were
not to be blamed for Christ’s
crucifixion. Reports on the
present text say there is a
sentence which states that con
temporary Jews are not to be
charged with this guilt.
LICHTEN said he has been in
Europe since mid-July visiting
Catholics on a goodwill mission
aimed at a constructive decla
ration about the attitude of Cath
olics toward Jews to be adopted
by the council.
"I have met several Euro
pean cardinals and bishops, and
I have been extremely well re
ceived with great understanding
of my mission and intentions,”
he said. "My mission was to
tell them how as an average
Jew I feel about the issue of the
present draft of the declaration
and the unhappy result that
would come about if the present
draft of the declaration is adop
ted by the council, and particu
larly that portion about deicide
which needs considerable
strengthening.”
In connection with the "un
happy result” that would re
sult, Lichten principally cited
the results of a survey of U.S,
Catholic and Protestant atti
tudes toward the Jews, A sum
mation of the survey, sponsored
by B’nai B’rith and conducted
by a California university’s re
search center, was released in
Rome by the Dutch documenta
tion office.
'THE initial results of the
survey found that a significant
number of American Catholics
show anti-Jewish prejudice
which can be traced to their
interpretation of the crucifixion
story,” said Lichten. "We hope
that the council declaration could
free us Jews from the charge of
deicide and will help to combat
this kind of prejudice.”
Secondly, he said that if the
deicide question is not faced
by the council, the result will
be to create antagonism rather
than better relations between
the two bodies. "If the declara
tion does not deal with the dei
cide charge, we will waste our
time in explanations why the
deicide charge was not a part
of the declaration instead of
working more actively and vig
orously for the common good
of all men,” he said.
THE survey covered the atti
tudes of 545 Catholics and 2,326
Protestants. It was based both
on questionnaires and personal
interviews. Among the conclu
sions reached in the summary
prepared by Lichten for the
Dutch documentation office
were:
"Generally speaking, the ma
jority of Catholics acknowledge
their mutual roots with Ju
daism, although there is a mod
est tendency to Christianize the
Old Testament,
THE survey linked anti-Sem
itic prejudices to religious
tenets and noted that similar
patterns were found to an even
greater degree among Protes
tants.
Lichten said he was still opti
mistic about the council decla
ration, He said he placed his
hopes particularly in the
American bishops “because
they come from a country which
has the largest Jewish commun
ity in the world. They are the
ones who understand the Jewish
community, and they have had a
chance to observe the tremen
dous success of our colloquy
and discussions.”
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
Within the past three weeks there came to our office two of the
most remarkable women of God it has ever been our privilege to
know. Both of them were religious. One of them founded a commu
nity twelve years ago which now has 270 members and whose pur
pose is the service of the poor. In addition to the vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience, a fourth vow is taken, namely, the vow of
always serving neighbor in preference to self,The nun who found
ed this community has already had 16,000 converts in India, Al
most all of them were men and women whom she found dying in
the gutters and to whom she preached the love of Christ as they
The other religious is starting in Africa the first
contemplative community in the history of the
world for lepers. This nun, who is an American,
has as her prioress, a French contemplative who
was taken prisoner by the Japanese in Southeast
Asia during the war, (When the Japanese heard
the American and British planes flying over the
concentration camp they brought the nuns into the
city streets so that the bombs might fall on them.)
The prioress escaped however, founded the first contemplative
order for Africans and now one of her daughters is doing the
The prioress escaped however, founded the first
contemplative order for Africans and now one of
her daughters is doing the same for lepers.
Imagine a community in which only stumps of hands will hold the
breviary for Divine Office, in which some will crawl to choir on
knees half-rotted from leprosy, and in which the passive acceptance
of suffering will be crowned with the active surrender of will in
the hard discipline of total abandonment to Christ.
How many of our readers would be willing to send $5,000 to help
start this contemplative convent for lepers and to further other
sacrificial work in the mission world?
Cut out this column and send it to The Society for the Propaga
tion of the Faith
tion of the Faith with your sacrifice. We will not divulge either the
name of the religious or the community. Both wish to remain hidden
unknown. You may take our word as representatives of the Pontifi
cal Society for the Propagation of the Faith. It is better that you
wait until the day of judgment for the joy of knowing how many sins
you have made up for by any sacrifice made in Christ’s name,
GOD LOVE YOU to J.C.P, for $100 "Inspired by your article,
'What I saw at the Council,’ I*m once again enclosing $100 for you
to take to the Council to distribute among the poorest bishops you
meet there. I wish to remain anonymous. I’m sending it in care of
my good guardian angel.” ....to L.A. Jr, for $20 “We have a lot
to be happy for, I hope the Good Lord will continue to be good to us,
as He has been in the past.”
You carry the Blessed Mother’s image in your heart, but why not
show it by wearing her GOD LOVE YOU medal? The ten letters of
GOD LOVE YOU form a decade of the rosary as they encircle
this medal designed by Harry Winston and originated and blessed by
Bishop Sheen to honor the Madonna of the World, With your request
and a corresponding offer you may order a GOD LOVE YOU medal
in any one of the following styles:
$ 2 small sterling silver
$ 3 small 10k gold filled
$ 5 large sterling silver
$10 large 10k gold filled
Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to it and mail it to
Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Society
for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York
1, N. Y, or your Archdiocesan Director, Very Rev. Harold
■J. Rainey P. O. Box 12047 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.