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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLET IN THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1964
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SEKVINO GEORGIA'S 71 NORTHFBw COUNTIES
Official Organ of the Archidocese of Atlanta
Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News
PUBLISHER- Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan
2699 Peachtree N. E.
P. 0. Box 11667
Norths ide Station
Atlanta 5, Ga.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N. C. W. C. News Service
Telephone 231-1281
Second Class Permit at Altanta, Ga.
U. S. A. $5.00
Canada $5.00
Foriegn $6.50
In Defense Of
Dorothy Day
“See those Christians, how
they love one another!'*
This seems to be the silly
season with some Catholic publi
cations. Recently, we had the spe
ctacle of Ramparts, a magazine
out of California, swinging wild
ly (and in bad taste) at Card
inal McIntyre of Los Angeles; and
at the late Archbishop Joseph
Rummel and his successor in
New Orleans, Archbishop John
Cody. Then we had the disgrace
ful display of advertising for
political hate propaganda appear
ing in The Wanderer, which is
an organ of the extreme Catholic
Right.
V/e appear to have gone full
circle with the appearance of a
crassly intemperate article in the
November 22 issue of Our Sun
day Visitor which questions both
the loyalty and Catholicity of Miss
Dorothy Day, one of the great
est American symbols of the
Church's concern for the poor.
Sometime ago she was given an
award by the National Catholic
Social Action Conference. Jesuit
Father John E. Coogan, OSV
columnist, and a spokesman for
the Catholic ultra-Right, now
challenges the award and feels
free to express his disapproval
by calling Miss Day names, de
riding her ideas, and scoffing at
the poor.
Ah, the poor--all of whom are
invisible to Father Coogan des
pite the hard facts offered by
Michael Harrington and Pre
sidents Kennedy and Johnson.
In Our Sunday Visitor, we find
this priest-columnist amazed
at Miss Day's championing the
rights of deprived people. Father
Coogan knows the poor do not
exist because factory parking lots
are full of expensive cars.
This blindness to the world as
it is, coupled with the un-char-
itable attack on Miss Day's
Catholicity and very integrity,
are matters we cannot allow to
pass without comment. She hard
ly needs defending by us; her
life and devotion to her commit
ments for The Catholic Worker
Movement are sufficient answer
to such critics.
Yet, let us get some things
straight:
Her right, and any Christian's
right to be a pacifist, for ex
ample, cannot be denied simply
because someone else does not
agree. We do not, in disagree
ment, haul up the worst word in
our vocabulary, “Communists"
and toss it about loosely.
In our critical comments, we
try desperately to avoid persona
lities and wish always to stick
to issues.Alas, in this particular
situation, the personalities and
issues are interwoven, and we
feel it our duty to speak out.
We do not go along with
everything that Dorothy Day
says or does, but we are happy
that she was singled out for a
Catholic honor. Her lifetime of
working for unpopular causes
puts her in the good company of
the saints. We are proud to
have her in our midst.
GERARD E. SHERRY
Two-Edged Sword
The complex question of ato
mic destructive warfare has
been raised by the Council
Fathers. The now famous Schema
13 which has been roundly criti
cized for diverse reasons calls
for the total elimination of nu
clear arms as immoral while
remaining silent on the problem
of disarmament. Bishops from
England and the Unived States
have defended their government's
attitude of sane nuclear respon
sibility.
The problem of world peace is
a just topic for the Council Fath
ers. Many of them have lived
through the horror of war and
its attendant problems. They have
seen their people killed, their
churches destroyed and even
their priests shot for protest
ing the inhuman conduct of the
war. Their concepts of the con
sequences of a nuclear war are
made more vivid by these me
mories.
There should not be any haste
to condemn those nuclear powers
whose foreighn policy has been
one of constructive peace. This
nuclear sword has enabled the
West to check the spread of in
ternational Communism with its
atheistic attitudes. New techni
ques in the production of wea
pons systems have limited the
-destructive power to
a level where it can be reason
ably regulated. In certain cases
the norms of conduct which the
Church has applied to the mor
ality of just warfare could be ap
plied favorably to the use of ato
mic weapons. A flat, blanket
statement condemning nuclear
warfare would make our past
use of the atomic bomb im
moral acts.
To be neutralistic or pacific
unilaterally means the end of
world peace. A condemnation or
a branding as immoral those
nations who possess nuclear
weapons would fail to consider
the good that has been mainta
ined by these powers. To de
sire that all weapons of this
type be sc rapped without adequate
safeguards would not be a real
istic approach to world peace.
The Council should encourage all
men to live by the mandates
of Christ and should show a
greater sense of gratitude for
those men and nations who have
borne the heavy burden of main
taining this precarious peace.
Justice alone will regulate true
peace, Until all mankind have
the same sense of justice and
brotherhood, the justice that re
sides in an atomic arsenal is
the only language which interna
tional bullies understand.
CATHOLIC FREE PRESS,
WORCESTER, MASS.
Advent Offering
GEORGIA PINES
‘And Away We Went!’
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
At the risk of appearing monotonous, once more
I write about the “Good Olde Days” and pro
mise to my faithful readers that this will be the
last in the series. Saturday nights for me would
not be complete without watching the Jackie
Gleason show. (My good mother can’t stand him
because she thinks that he shouts too loudly, but
somehow or other I am fascinated by what he
has in the cup he drinks out of. I live in hope
that someday the handle will break and 1*11 be
able to see whether it is tea of coffee 1). Any
how, the other night he talked
about the “good old days’* too.
I thought I was old but he
mentioned somethings I had
never even heard of myself.
The program opened up with
Jackie Gleason describing the
home of a millionaire friend
of his. The house was loaded
with antiques such as a play
er piano, phonograph, overstuffed sofa, etc.
At any rate it seems that this house was really
admired by everone and Gleason couldn’t ima
gine why, because as he put it, he had one just
likeitwhen he was on relief,
REMINISCING, Jackie Gleason told of some
of the things in the by-gone days. See if you
recall any of them. Do you remember bathtubs
with legs; penny candy; (or even nickle candy!);
running boards on cars; rumble seats on the sports
roadsters; butchers who gave away bones for the
dog and liver for the cat?
Does your memory go back to the time when they
gave two pairs of pants with every suit; and do
you remember the time when doctors would make
house calls? (this really brought down the house
with applause), Jackie wanted to know just why
doctors write prescriptions in penmanship which
is impossible to read and then send bills which are
ever so legible?
RED PITCH
MEAT CARTS and travelling grocery stores
went from house to house and the baker would
even deliver on Sunday, Milk men made daily
rounds. Refrigerators were not born yet and
a twenty cent piece of ice would be worth about
ten cents by the time the iceman had lugged it
up three flights of stairs.
We seldom see women shaking out a dust mop
any more. Gadgets and instantmixes have reduced
the time spent in the kitchen. Kitchens now are
as attractive as living rooms, I suppose because
they are used about just as much. Children were
named after movie stars and I guess this is why
we have so many children named Shirley (Temple).
An occasionally patriotic man would name his son
after the President and since the only ruler so
many of us knew was Roosevelt, this insured at
least one Franklin in every town across the coun
try.
DO YOU remember when the lot next to the high
school was filled with bicycles instead of auto
mobiles? For that matter do you remember
when children walked to school? Time was when
the only night out of the house was Friday. The
other nights meant study!
10 cent movies and afternoon shows for the high
school students are a passing fancy. Junior proms
when you were given the use of the family car for
the evening seem as ancient as the horse and buggy
days. Gas was 14 cents a gallon and a corsage
cost only a dollar and a half. Howard Johnson would
stay open late to accomodate the Prom crowd and
the price was within the reach of all.
THE FAMILY radio was regulated by the head
of the house and you had to study in a room by
yourself. Gosh, where have those days gone?
Well just as Jackie would put it; “And away
we go!*'
IN AFRICA
Your World And Mine
BY GARY MacEOIN
Is Communism winning in Africa? The question
is one that arises almost spontaneously on Ameri
can lips in any discussion of that continent. Per
haps its frequency indicates some justification for
the common African complaint that we are less
concerned with their welfare than with their sup
port in the Cold War.
Be that as it may, I shall attempt to answer it.
Communism starts with an enormous advantage in
the newly independent African states. Capitalism
has been tried in these countries for a hundred
years. It has disrupted their traditional socio
economic systems without cre
ating prosperity or a high living
standard in any one of them.
Their leaders are convinced
that free enterprise cannot
serve them any better today
than it did yesterday, that it will
continue to work against them
and to the unfair benefit of the
highly developed Western na
tions who sing its praises.
Communism, on the contrary, has not been tried
in Africa. It, consequently, has no negative his
tory' to live down. African leaders discount the
Western criticisms of its inhumanity. Not a few of
them have been indoctrinated in its teachings in
Western universities in which they were subject
ed to discrimination and exposed to the worst
in our culture because of their color. All of them
are constantly reminded that Communism has
raised an under-developed Russia to a position
of world leadership and high levels of education
and living in fifty years, and that it is currently
modernizing China. It can do the same for Africa,
they are assured.
THE ARGUMENT that Russia sacrificed count
less millions of its citizens to achieve its rapid
advance and that China is sacrificing an entire
generation carries little weight. “What do we have
to lose,” they ask. “If we do nothing, we sacri
fice both ourselves and the future. Would a gene
ration not be a small price to pay in order to
bring the good life to our children?*'
The point is one that we in the West tend to
overlook. The love of parents for their children
is one of the strongest weapons of the Commun
ists, and it will remain in their hands for as long
as there are masses of children living indestitu
tion.
The Communists proclaim loudly that no strings
are attached to their aid. What Africans are dis
covering, however, is that it is very expensive.
Ghana saddled itself with a fleet of Soviet com
mercial planes, poor imitations of earlier Ameri
can versions. The Russian technicians who ope
rate and service them cost more than their Wes
tern counterparts, and many of them need inter-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
LITURGICAL RENEWAL
Bishop Is
The Father
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
We are reminded by advocates of renewal that a
bishop is the father of the Christian community;
from him the responsibilities of the priesthood
are delegated in the parish. We are told by schol
ars that in the primitive church, a messenger
would be stationed near the bishop, and he would
bring the word to the other parishes to begin the
Mass only after the bishop had begun his.
It is to this concept of the Bishop as Father, as
he who sets the
tone for the
People of God
in his care,
that we turn
our thoughts on
this the eve of
the First Sun
day of Advent,
1964. We are
face to face
with problems in relation toliturgical reform that
urgently need the direction of our bishops.
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
The Council Fathers overwhelmingly approved
reform of the liturgy and the introduction of the
vernacular in certain parts of the Mass. Indeed,
on the final vote, there appears to have been only
about four against. Now, almost a year since Pope
Paul VI promulgated the Constitution on the sacred
Liturgy, some of it is going into effect next Sun
day, November 29, The First Sunday of Advent.
ALAS, DESPITE the action of the Council Fath
ers; despite the millions of words that have been
written in explanation; despite the millions of
words that have been expounded at recent diocesan
liturgy conferences, the People of God in many
areas seem neither enthused nor prepared. Indeed,
in some areas of the country, one gets the imc
pression that from the top to the bottom there is
misgiving. What is at the root of the problem?
The people must be lead into liturgical reform;
they must be taught to understand it; they must be
told the reason why. Above all, they must be given
example. If the Bishops and Priests appear luke
warm or hesitant, can the faithful be blamed for
their lethargy or lapses into ennui?
I was reading the official instruction to the cler
gy and laity of one diocese in relation to liturgi
cal reform. It was suggesting what to do and how
to go about it. Tragically, the instruction wasun-
enthusiasticin tone and persistently negative in its
message. It contained caution after caution com
forting to those who do not want to change or re
form in the liturgy. It did not look into the future
with joyous Christian arrtieip6tion»'‘lt was^etrietly
a canonical document devoid of all warmth and
spiritual love.
THE LTURGICAL Constitution, signed last De
cember, called for an immediate and intense pro
motion of liturgy reform through educative pro
cesses in every diocese, parish, and Catholic
home throughout the world. This was done in some 1
dioceses in this country. Alas, in many, there ap
pears to have been hardly any promotion or edu
cation on the subject. In some others, there has
been in the past couple of weeks, the appearance of
a crash program to get the people ready for No
vember 29. In others, again, the reform that is
permitted is strictly to the letter of the law. Where
there are loopholes, great care has been taken
that they be used to advantage, so that gradualism
rather than smooth sailing is the watchword.
All bishops are bound by the same Liturgical
Constitution, yet reading some of the Episcopal
directives on it, one would gather that a great
deal hinges on who’s interpreting it. There is no
uniformity, despite the fact that the U.S. bishops
agreed upon a basic plan, and a date to implement
it. Can we wonder, therefore, that in some areas
of our country, the people are neither enthusiastic
nor willing to go along with even the bare minimum
of reform and renewal.
HOW DOES this situation come about? It is basi
cally because of the fuzzy interpretation given
many issues within the Church. The same now
goes with liturgical reform.
If some bishops and priests are less enthusias
tic than others, then this is bound to have a damp
ening effect on the momentum of implementation
of such reform. Furthermore, as long as some of
the priests and laity can keep referring to the
slowness to adapt liturgical reform in various U.S.
dioceses, it will make it doubly difficult in those
areas where enthusiastic acceptance is being en
couraged. If the public utterances and writings of
some bishops and priests are but lukewarm and
begrudging, then the confusion and bewilderment
among the laity will continue to spread.
The laity seeks answers: ’The elaborate gothic
altar that was in our church from my grandfather’s
day can’t be used for Mass facing the people; why
must it be sacrificed for this innovation?” “I’m
not used to singing; I’m a Catholic. It disturbs
my prayers.” “I don’t see how I’m going to carry
on my private prayers. I always remember the
Poor Souls, and I don’t intend to stop.’ “After
communion, it’s going to be awfully hard to say my
own prayers.” “I don’t want to give up saying
my rosary during Mass,”
CONFUSION and bewilderment! Who is answer
ing them? If, from the bishop down, the spirit of
renewal is weak, then no one is answering them.
In the areas where the bishop has worked, the
priests and people have worked too. Then answers
to difficulties have been offered and accepted. But
here and there is not good enough; we need a
united effort. VVe must go forward together, not
merely making the motions, but one in spirit.
The Holy Spirit is urging us into a new age of
the Church; let us embrace it sincerely to rt_-ap
CONTINUED ON PACE 5