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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1964)
i 0 0 0 0 0 0 * % VOCATION MONTH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5 Fun, Games And Sacrifice BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW There are a few signs that we are at last getting away from, the sentimental and/or silly kind of vo cation propaganda. There has been nothing like a hundred percent clean-up yet but there are a few encouraging signs. A few nuns have spoken out clearly and with considerable heat against the non sensical idea of religious life fostered by some of the ads and pamphlets aimed at young girls. The same ought to be said about the material on the priesthood di rected to boys in the hope of fostering vocations. Fun and games in the seminary or no vitiate hardly offers either solid motivation or clear un derstanding. One of the most bothersome vocational propaganda boome rangs is the harping on sacrifice which charac terizes many of our efforts. This, of course, lies at the other extreme from the supposed appeal of the well-scrubbed young seminarists busy at bas ketball. The talk of sacrifice is supposed to appeal to the idealism of the young, who are thought to be fascinated with the idea of martyrdom. In the first place, they simply are not. That ought to be enough to start some second thoughts. THE PHYSICAL and mental strain of maintain ing married equilibrium and properly raising a number of children will not take second place t the tensions of any vocation. The pressures exert ed by business competition are felt acutely in deed by those laymen who take seriously their Christian vocation. In terms of the courage re quired of them in order to maintain their Chris tian commitment, their vocation is as demanding as any other could be. UNDERNEATH the stress on priestly or re ligious sacrifice, there seems to be another deep er misconception. To begin with, sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice is a negative and not terribly appealing idea. Sacrifice only becomes noble when it is the means to the acquisition of an other wise unattainable and clearly superior good. Abstracting from the movement of divine grace, the attractiveness of the priestly vocation really springs from two sources. In the first place, it allows a man to be caught up with the noblest concerns that exist. The awesome position he oc cupies in the liturgy pervades all his activity. The priest and religious are offered the opportun ity to love others more widely, if not necessari ly more intensely. This ideal of service to many is the key to understanding the priest’s or nun’s vo cation. Secondly, priests and nuns have no monopoly on sacrifice. In actual fact - let us be completely THE PRIESTLY life offers a chance for total personal fulfillment. The same is true of the nun’s life. Every quality or talent; indeed, all the ener gy of the whole person is called upon. It is a kind of happiness and satisfaction that is unique, be cause complete. A realistic appreciation of this side of the religious vocation ought to appeal to what is best in young people who are pondering their futures. QUESTION BOX Losing Faith? BY MSGR. J. D. CONWAY Q. Slowly (or is it rapidly?) I am losing my faith in the Catholic Church. Hardly a week goes by that I do not hear or read of a teaching being changed. When I received instructions twelve years ago, one point was strongly emph asized: that Mary had to have experienced death because she would not be granted a privilege greater than Christ’s, and he experienced death. There is even the story of St. Thomas visiting the tomb where she had been buried. Today at Mass, we were told that the Church teaches that Mary did NOT see death because of her Immaculate Conception. Rather she * as sumed” (not WAS assumed) into heaven without passing through death. ft 11'.n11 t 'ijt .** r A^,May I.sugg£st a new course of instructions, or the reading of some good book which explains the teachings of the Church? No doctrines of the Church es have been changed, and none will be; but modern studies in Scripture and Theology have given us better understanding of some of the old doctrines, and will continue to do so. the teachings of Christ or the doctrinal tra dition of the Church. Various practices of the Church are chang ing, as demanded by the needs of modern times; e. g. fasting for Holy Communion, the hours at which Mass may be said, and the use of English in the Mass. None of these changes involve Many attitudes of Catholics are changing: we are becoming less prejudiced against our non- Catholic neighbors, and laymen are gradually taking a greater part in the life, prayer and work of the Church. It seems to me that none of these changes should tempt anyone to lose his faith. On the contrary they should revive our belief in the Church as a living organism created by Christ. Guided by the Holy Spirit she has the vita lity to snap out of a period of lethargy and sanctify the turmoil of the twentieth century. This is not the first time in her long history that she has had to bring herself up to date and adapt her methods to the needs of changing civilization and varied cultures. If we seem to be changing a bit faster now than formerly, it is because we are in the age of jets and rock ets, Speed is essential to modern living. When Vatican Council II is over, when doors and windows are opened to the realities of mo dern life, and when new forms of prayer, preach ing, and teaching have added new vigor to our spiritual activities in Christ’s Mystical Body, we will still find that it is the same old Church, with the same doctrines, Mass and Sacraments. Your particular problem a bout the Assump-- tion represents no change of Church teachings at all. It is merely a case of two priests stat ing ther own theological ideas with excessive certainty (presuming that you understood them both correctly) ADL SURVEY Are Catholics Anti-Semitic? CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 '’The way in which these last questions were stated s_eems likely to have resulted in under- were "uncertain'’ and 14% agreed). estimating the actual agreement on each. Taken, then, as conservative estimates, they suggest that the portrait of the ancient Jew in rela tion to Jesus is a strongly negative one for a substantial proportion of the Catholic laity. ' The next question is, of course, whether these images of the Jews are simply regarded as ancient history of little inportance in pre sent-day Catholic-Jewish relations, or whether they spply jo the contemporary Jew as well. Some findings are: 46% agreed with or were uncertain about the statement: "The Jews can never be for given for what they did to Jesus until they accept Him as the True Saviour" (32% 11% agreed "The reason the Jews have so much trouble is because God is punishing them for rejecting Jesus" and 30% were uncertain. "Clearly, the majority of Catholics do not sub scribe to these hostile religious images of the modern Jew, although nearly a third were ambi valent on these questions. However, if these per centages are accurate, they represent millions of American Catholics who still believe that the Jews living today are implicated in the death of Jesus. As would be expected, such judgments of the modern Jew were predicated on hostile images of the historic Jew; few who did not blame the ancient Jews for the crucifixion agreed with these statements." HONG KONG Your World And Mine CONTINUED FROM FAGE 4 China. Nor is water the only thing that Hong Kong enjoys by favor of its Red neighbor. Rather, the existence and wellbeing of the colony reflect the tacit agreement of China and the West that this exchange point is to their mutual ad vantage. Nobody knows just how many of the factories, warehouses, stores and banks are controlled by Pekin through dummies, but all agree that mainland capital is substantial. It is also evident that both sides expect the situation to continue for the forseeable future. There is no hesitation about making major capi tal investment^. need and the opportunity for Christian missionary, endeavor. As new communities are being or ganized at a fantastically rapid rate, each is compelled to create the social institutions which will determine its future positions and development. THE GROWING prosperity lessens the number of starving to feed. But it does not lessen the These are the crucial years. If we can esta blish centers of worship, of education, of culture, movements like the Legion of Mary, the Catholic Youth Organization, the Young Christian Workers, the Christian Family Move ment, then we can hope to hold these who are Catholics and to project the Christian message to others. If we do not, the society that emerges will be pagan. And we Christians shall have lost touch not only with Hong Kong’s four million but with the 700 millions on the Chinese mainland, for whom Hong Kong will long be the principal point of contact and of exchange‘of ideas. Saints in Black and White I MISSIONER Congress-Authorized Serra honest - there can be, and often is, considerably more sacrifice in volved in the vocation of mar riage and parenthood. There are very few priests and nuns in our country who are deprived of or dinary physical comforts and security. I don’t know any. On the other hand, every priest knows a good number of parents who have to go without some or all of these comforts for the sake of the health and education of their children. Medals Struck By Mint PHILADELPHIA (NC)—Five gold medals of the Padre Juni- pero Serra commemorative authorized by Congress last year have been struck at the U. S. Mint here. V 7A. 7J 71 rs~ sy J cr ci 76 Uv rr Tl Arrangements are being made to present them to Pope Paul VI; President Johnson; Generalissimo Franco of Spain; and Serra International, a worldwide Catholic men's group devoted to fostering religious vocations. ANOTHER is for display at Santa Barbara Mission Mus eum, Santa Barbara, Cali fornia. ACROSS I even if 4 He was born here 8 field duty II root mean square (abbr) 14 adjective suffix 15 mitis 16 land measure 17 at odds 18 road sign 19 University officer 20 negative 21 noun suffix of condition 22 elevator inventor 24 watch 26 band 27 He established a monastery here 30 plot 33 requirements 36 He was taken here by his father at age 7 40 comb, form-foot 43 intimidate 45 circle part 46 cultivated land 48 chic 50 bramble 51 grant 53 He was 55 Babylonian Chief Gods 56 ransacks 58 solitary 60 double curve hook 61 His feast day is in 67 71 74 77 78 79 81 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 blanches Government Agency; (abbr.) His sister’s name indigent press bore shine head covering years poorly suffix denoting origin leaf vein festival Teacher’s Associa tion (abbr.) watt hour labor union swirl He is among them DOWN 1 amateurs 2 female nick name obtain from oil clear metallic rock castle ditch combining form- nine Asian animals Nigerian Negro capture bellow silent meat dish transgress Its capital is 59 62 64 66 68 69 70 71 72 73 75 76 79 80 82 83 Raleigh platitude directed affirmatives transit coach encourage thud slug compensate plugs bird life Egyptian ruler Greek dialect City in Western Netherlands assemblage sorrow salt water fish snares person a month of the year (abbr.) electric reluctance unit a dance trench twelfth grader streaks ait book of maps bow of ship pledge hearing( Law) measure knight’s oath triple trouble long ago utter This was said to be a rare "special concession" in the use of gold by the Mint. The Treasury officials said the con cession was granted by the Of fice of Gold and Silver Opera tions because of the rank of those who will receive the presentation medals. THE Padre Serra National Medal was authorized by Con gress to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Padre Junipero Serra— November 24, 1963. This was also said to be the first national medal to honor a Catholic priest, and the first official national re cognition for California's first citizen and founding pioneer. ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE, PAGE 7 Production of the medals at the Mint is sponsored by the Padre Junipero Serra 250th Anniversary Association, a non-profit group with head quarters in Santa Barbara, Calif. Congress stipulates that there shall be no expense to the U. S. Government in such commemorative actions. ARNOLD VIEWING Fun Play For Writer BY JAMES W. ARNOLD "The Visit" is a fun play for the writer, ac tors and director, but it is the type of thing that drives most customers to television or poker It has been shamelessly overrated by critics, who may be impressed by its clarity of design or awed by the apparent profundity of its mes sage. or occasionally even honor, chosen to put other things first. On stage, in the grip of performers like Lunt and Fontanne, it might have been an interesting emotional exercise. But changes in the movie ver sion have only accentuated its faults, which would have been apparent enough when subjected to the relentless truth of the camera. they zen The basic idea is daring and fresh. A fantastically rich and ruthless woman returns to the- town that mistreated her as a girl. The town and its people are in the middle of economic disaster. She promises to make them all comfortable if only will arrange the death of a leading citi- the former lover who was to blame for her youthful degradation. The citizens’ single-minded reaction to the of fer,* built slowly on their credi: purchases in Quinn’s own store, is exaggerated and comic. The movie emphasizes this with a scene in which sports cars and refrigerators are dis tributed in the square ("No down payment! Pay when you canl) that invokes visions of a Friend ly Sam the Warehouse Man TV commerical After the final public trial, the mayor accepts In grid's checks with undisguised glee, a reac tion thr. seem? entirely wrong, psychological ly. THE ISSUE is (perhaps too) clearly drawn; greed vs. justice under law, materialism vs. devotion to moral principle. Given the wide moral variation among men, and the 20th century re levance of the conflict, this is an idea any dramatist would love to explore. The danger is that instead of real characters he will wind up with rigid representatives of class-types (the Church, the law, the press, education, labor, politics) who will mouth philosophies pre capsuled for them by the author. This is exact ly what happens. Director Bernhard Wicki (who did the Ger man sequences in "The Longest Day") has shot everything in murky black and white. The inter iors, especially, seem to have been photo graphed at 20,000 fathoms, and are uninspir ed as well as invisible. Wicki is better when the camera is outdoors, and the best scenes center on the train stat.on: Ingrid's dramatic arrival and departure, Quinn’s har 'owing attempt to escape. SWISS playwright Friedrich Duerrenmatt (ad apted for the English stage by Murice Valency and for the movie by Ben Barzman) chooses the side of ultra-pessimism. Greed wins a total victory. The drama moves inexorably to trage dy as every civilized element in town rationa lizes expediency over principle. The woman wins complete vengeance in the death of the lover and the moral prostitution of the town. Changes from the play tend either to cheapen it or weaken its complexity. A young girl charac ter (Irina Demick) is invented and required to run through several sexual episodes (per haps to juice up the coming attra ji.ions). Ingrid is less bizarre (sh't doesn’t smoke cigars, get married for the eighth time, or carry Quinn off in a coffin). The Quinn character has more chance to grunt and is allowed to w reck one : i a fi pique. It is useless to argue whether such an out come is probable 0 r possible. If meant to reflect the real world, the play is dubious, if only because the issues are so sharp (rationalization proceeds best in a thick fog) and there is no physical threat to anyone who might refuse to be bought. One also questions the unanimity of the choice, stressed more in the film than in the play, even if only because of the perverse ten dency of many humans to dissent from the majority on any issue. The Church, as one might expect, does not shine, but in the film the pastor is somewhat less despicable. On the moral issue he is merely neutral. In the play he buys a fancy new bell for the church, on credit. CURRENT RECOMMENDED FILMS: Superior: Behold a Pale Horse. For some tastes: Nigh, of the Iguana, A Hard Day's N;ght. BUT IF Djerrenmatt means this as a fable, credibility is less essential. It is a rare man who does not surrender to expediency at times, and the writer may not so much be telling us what we are as describing what we may become. Yet it is easy for a negativlst to seem profound, especially when optimism is out of fashion. Du errenmatt overlooks the entire world of grace, as well as the plain fact that most men manage to handle temptation rather well.yrhere is the great line in "Citizen Kane”. "IT's not hard to make money, if all you want is to make money." Most men through the ages have known that, and out of habit, timidity, Better than most: What a Way to Go, Mafioso, Black Like Me, One Potato, Two Potato, Bec- ket, Fall of the Roman Empire, Island of the Blue Dolphins. mm r£js- MINTING of the medals was delayed, as priority was given the Kennedy half dollar, so that they did not become avai lable to the public until March. The first minting quickly sold out. More have been ordered, in silver, bronze and platinum. By law, the silver issue is limit ed to ten thousand, and the plat inum to twenty-five proof piec es. None will be produced after Dec. 31, 1964. patron because he chose vocation at an early age. his BLACKBURN 64+ THE gold medal for Pope Paul VI is expected to be presented at the Vatican by the Minis ter General of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor, of which Padre Serra was a member. The date will be chosen later. Presentation to President Johnson is expected to be made by California officials this month. SENOR Manuel Fraga Iri- barne, Minister of Information and Tourism, will receive the medal in Sai Francisco later this month on behalf of Gene ralissimo Franco. Ben j. B.Blackburn, III Republican Candidate for House of Representatives for DeKalb County In May, 1963, the government of Spain held a Solemn Serra 250th Anniversary Commemo ration on the island of Mallorca. A Spanish delegation visited California for ceremonies there. SERRA International, with headquarters in Chicago, will receive the gold medal at its next convention in the summer of 1965. Padre Serra is its "No time will ever be bet ter than the present to be gin building a two-party system in Georgia” EX) YOUR PART NOW GO CONSERVATIVE. . . GO REPUBLICAN. . . GO BLACKBURN If the philosophy is arguable, the surface dra matics border on grand opera. The old capita list (Ingrid Bergman, with toothily sinister smile, pet panther and ominous male retinue) romanticizes and broods over a teenage affair (w ith glowering Anthony Quinn) that was entirely ph> -Jcal and silly-breathless on both sides. One cannot swallow the True Confessions pater nity .-ait and its lurid aftermath without losing interest in the characters. If people insist on falling in love after panting at each other from a balcony, the fault is not all in their stars. God Love You BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN The Holy Father has declared that this Sunday be observ ed as Mission Sunday throughout the world. How we wish that every Catholic in the United States could be here with us in Rome to hear bishops from all parts of the world tell of the conditions in which their people live, conditions of starva tion, sickness and sub-human housing. Perhaps then, on THIS Mission Sunday, each of you would be inspired to help the Holy Father right the glaring imbalance between us and our impover ished brothers. It is almost impossible for us who live in the United States to grasp the horrors, anguish and emptiness of stomachs and hearts in the slums of the world. Two hundred million Indians live on less than $3 a month; their diet is rice and pepper water once a day, some times one meal every other day . . . half the children in the world have no chance for education, and far more than half above the age of ten have never been to school. Each year, 15 million more Chinese and 6 million more Indians are born into these con ditions. If this increase continues throughout the world, within forty years more than 76 out of every 100 people on earth will belong to underdeveloped nations. The future of the United States depends not upon its econo mic growth, but upon the aid that Christians, as well as taxpayers, give to these undernourished, sick and badly hous ed. Nor is this only an economic problem; it is a moral and spiritual problem. Is it not over our civilization that Christ weeps and says: "Would that even today you knew the things that were for thy peace"? His tears are being shed over the Cain, that is within us; over the unusspecting, unheeding cit ies; over the parishes and dioceses of our civilization; over each individual who asks with indifference: "Am I my broth er’s keeper?" How much do you love the world? The poor? Your faith? The Missions? Just picture yourself looking out of a window of your Church. What do you see? Two billion sould who know not Christ! Lepers! Africans! Asiatics! Brothers! It is this suffering, agonizing, persecuted, thirsting Christ in the poor, the lepers, the slum dwellers and the unevagelized Who w ill one day rise up in judgment, saying, "I w as hungry. . . I was thirsty . . . I w as naked . . . and you gave Me to eat. You gave Me to drink." Or, "You gave Me not!" Mission Sunday is the only day in the entire year when you are asked to aid Christ in every single part of the world. You may not be able to help everyone, but you can aid him who aids everyone. And that is the Holy Father. All monies collected are sent to him, and he aids all equitably. Remember, anything you are asked to sacrifice is small in proportion to what missionaries and even your brother Catho lics are suffering. No one else is bidding for the heart of the world except the Heart of Christ. Help us! GOD LOVE YOU toR. W. B. for $350 "I have seen poverty' in Asia and India. Believe me it is something. This year I did not go on a cruise and so lean give $350 directly to the Holy Father through you." ... to B. MacN. for $5 "Once again I forw ard my offering to you. You have given me the most rea listic picture of the hardships endured by our neighbors. I quit smoking about two w eeks ago and am sending the money I would ordinarily have spent on smokes. I sincerely hope that my offering will help someone who can use it as a neces sity and not as a luxury as I have done in the past." ... to Anon, for $50 "This money was intended as a gift for the children of a relative we were visiting, but when we saw how much they had, we decided that it could be used by some good missionary to far better advantage." We are not asking for your sacrifices only, but for your prayers as well. To remind yourself to pray for the Missions in every part of the world, order the WORLDMISSION ROSARY. Each decade is a different color and represents the five missionary continents of the world. Send your request and an offering of $2 and you will receive your ROSARY bles sed by Bishop Sheen. 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.
