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PAGE 2 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1964 TEXT OF CHRISTMAS MESSAGE Pope Scores Racism-Urges Disarmament, Brotherhood BRANAN A SCHMITZ REALTY CO. 4641 Roswell Rd. N. E. Atlanta, Georgia 255-7770 BUYING OR SELLING A HOUSE? contact Branan & Schmitz for qualified personal service! Specialists in AREAS I & II- Residential Sales • Acreage - Insurance - Leases DtUusumce in all iti fpMtib! 91 iti written, uie urtite it■ Sutter & McLel/an 1422 RHODES HAVERTY BLDG. JAckson 5-2086 WHCKK INSUHANC* IS A FSOSSSSION NOT^A SIDELINE and peoples to be watchful and to moderate this facile instinct of prestige and rivalry, or it can once again prove fatal. We make it our wish that the functions of the organizations set up for uniting the nations may be sus tained and respected by all in the spirit of loyal and recipro cal collaboration. Patient nego tiations and opportune pacts are needed to avoid war and to pre vent clashes, to facilitate the growth of the awareness and ex pression of international law and, briefly, to give peace its lasting security and dynamic eauilibrium. Another obstacle that raises its head again is racism, which separates and opposes the dif ferent branches constituting the great human family, resulting in pride, mistrust, exclusivism, discr'mination and sometimes even oppression, thus ruining the mutual respect and due es teem which ought to turn the diverse ethnical groups into a peaceful concert of brotherly peoples. And so, we cannot help being alarmed at a militarism no longer focused on the legiti mate defense of the countries concerned or on the mainte nance of world peace, but tend ing rather to build up stock piles of weapons ever more powerful and destructive—a process which consumes enor mous quantities of money and manpower, feeds the public mind on the thought of power and war, and induces men to make mutual fear the treache rous and inhuman basis of world peace. IN THIS context, we have no hesitation in expressing our hopes that the rulers of na tions will find a way to pro mote, prudently and magnani mously, the process of disar mament. We would like to see a generous-minded investigation- of how—at least in part and by stages—military expenditure could be diverted to humanitar ian ends; and this, not only to the advantage of the particular countries concerned, but also of others in the course of de velopment or in a state of need. Hunger and misery, sickness and ignorance still cry out for remedy in this age of plenty and of brotherhood, we do not hesi tate to make our own once more the pleas of the innumerable poor and suffering today in need of genuine and substantial re lief. You, good and generous men who are in a position to help the hungry and the suffer ing, those in misery and in a state of abandonment, hear in our voice the divine and human voice of Christ our Brother in every human need. Can we, in this tragic list of obstacles to human brother hood, ignore the barrier of class, still a very real source of bitterness in modern society? Can we Ignore the spirit of di vision and strife over ideas, methods, interests, organiza tions within the structures of the various communities? On the one hand, such complex and widespread social phenomena VATICAN CITY— Following is an English text of the Christmas address (Dec. 22) of Pope Paul VI in which he calls for an end to racism and nationalism and urges disarmament. The text was released by the Vatican Unfailingly tender and mov ing, touchingly human and at the same time sacred and myster ious, the feast of Christmas, followed by the beginning of the new year, beings to our heart even more than to our lips an overwhelming abundance of best wishes to all of you who are so kind as to listen to our voice. WE EXTEND these best wish es to you, our dearest children and brethren, whom the same faith and the same charity bind to us in united joy, enabling us to sense the tidal wave of emo tion and of contemplation with which the heart is flooded as it reflects on the mystery of Christmas. We express our best wishes also to all men of all ages, of all countries, of all be liefs, toward whom today more than ever we feel we owe our esteem, our affection, and our united efforts. In a genuine sense Christmas makes us experience the very essence of our universal re sponsibility of announcing the Good News to all men, the Good News which reveals to men their potential for happiness, for peace, and for salvation* For this reason, on this day more than on any other, we feel our selves not merely anxious but even obliged to communicate to the world our message of good wishes. This year the message that we address to all our hearers is one of brotherhood, a broth erhood which is more meaning ful, more effective, more uni versal than the type which now unites men. VIVIDLY impressed on our heart is the recollection of our recent trip to Bombay, a trip directed by a religious purpose, as is obvious, but at the same time a trip which has become for us something of inestimable human value. We went forth as a foreigner and a pilgrim into a distant land unknown to us. We could have remained as an iso lated foreigner, surrounded only by our brothers in the faith. Instead we met people, a festive, overflowing throng which seem ed to us to represent not only the countless peoples of vast India, but also all the other Asian peoples. To be sure, they were not Catholic, but they were courteous, receptive, eager for a glance and a word from the strange visitor from Rome. It was indeed a moment of un derstanding and blending of many hearts. What it is that these rejoic ing crowds saw in us, we do not know. In them we saw a most worthy segment of humanity, one faithful to its millenary cul tural traditions, not all Chris tian, to be sure, but profoundly spiritual and in many respects humane and good, at once most ancient and youthful, today alive to and turned toward something which even the marvels of mod ern progress cannot provide, if they are not perhaps actually an obstacle.' Then a feeling of profound understanding brought us a con firmation of what Christianity has been saying for centuries, and which the evolution of civ ilization has been slowly and gradually discovering and pro claiming; AH men are brothers. CONTACTS among men are becoming so numerous and so convenient that they should lead to love. Distances are so reduc ed and almost abolished that love should become universal. The idea of neighbor, which the parable of the Good Samaritan extends beyond conventional limits, embraces the whole of humanity; Every man is our neighbor. On the one side, the evidence of men's needs becomes so manifest and deplorable, and on the other, the possibility of relieving them increases daily so abundantly that it becomes clear toward which goal today the progress of civilization should tend: the mobilization of these forces for solidarity mong men, so that no one will lack for bread and dignity, so that all men will make of the com mon good their major preoccu pation. Human progress has been discovering the importance and the value of that which Christ, having become man like us and our teacher, had already taught us in these words of His Gos pel, which have never been fully comprehended and not yet uni versally put into practice: “You are all brethren*’ (Mt. 23, 8); that is, equals, united among yourselves, having an obliga tion to acknowledge the image of the same Heavenly Father re flected in each of you, and to work together to achieve the same destinies: fullhumanper- fection and divine sonship through grace in this life, and eternal happiness in the next. TODAY brotherhood must be given recognition; friendship is the principle of all of today's living in common. Instead of seeing in the other the outsider, the rival, the undesired, the ad versary, the enemy, we should accustom ourselves to seeing the man, which is to say, a be ing like ourselves, worthy of respect, of esteem, of assis tance, of love, as we ourselves are. May these marvelous words of the holy African doc tor echo in our heards: "Dila- tentur spatia caritatis" (May the boundaries of love grow wid er) (Sermon X, “On the Words of the Lord*'). The barriers raised by the spirit of selfishness must come down; the promotion of legiti mate private interests must never prove detrimental to oth ers or run counter to the rea sonable claims of public wel fare. Democracy, to which all man kind today appeals, must take on a more universal aspect, which will transcend all the ob stacles that stand in the way of the effective brotherhood of all men. We know that these ideas find today a ready response in the hearts of men. We feel that the young are particularly con scious that these are the fruits of the future, because rooted in the irreversible progress of civilization. These ideals are lofty without, however, being utopian; though arduous, they deserve study and call for ac tion. They have our support; just as the young have our sup port who yearn to create a world which will be a home for all men and not a system of tren ches at the service of undying hatred and never-ending strug gle. BUT WE are also aware how transient these lofty ideas can too easily be. At different moments of history they ap pear as if rising brightly in the heavens, only to be sudden ly obscured by opposing clouds. The path toward genuine pro gress can never be free from toil and uncertainty. Mankind, by its stubborn resistance, knows how to divert the contin uing quest for good. Men are in constant, The pursuit of hatred comes more easily than love. Because of this, we desire to place at the service of the world the inexhaustible and ever timely patrimony of divine and human truth and of spiritual energy inherent in Catholicism, thereby to sustain the efforts of men of good will to promote the common good, to bring about universal peace and the broth erhood of all men. Ours is a sincere offer. In the ecumeni cal council the Church is engag ed in meditating on these rich es; she is drawing them out of a heart filled with a new love, a love which Christ has enkindled in the world. In a humble, friendly gesture, she offers these riches for the free accep tance of the modem world, which cannot, however, refuse them if it is really concerned about its own salvation. We are not unaware of the ob stacles which continue to stand in the way of human brother hood, and it is with sorrow that we observe that at the present moment we are passing through a period in which 1 they appear more clearly in evidence, and prove themselves at times to be dangerously effective. In the presence of the charming sweetness of Christmas it is PENSIVE PONTIFF, Pope Paul VI, in his Christmas ad dress (Dec. 22) called on ‘'all men, of all countries and of all beliefs” to seek relief from the ills of the world — hunger and misery, sickness and ignorance” — through brotherhood that would combat "nationalism, racism and militarism.” not possible to enter into a de tailed discussion of these ob stacles which show the dramatic and frightful aspect of the con temporary world situation. In a message, however, of essential sincerity like the present one, it would not be proper to pass over in complete silence this threatening reality. LET US then briefly point out some concrete forms from among so many existing and possible ones, in which the op position to human brotherhood manifests itself. We just men tion them by way of example, as it were. First of all there is nation alism, which divides peoples, putting them in opposition to one another, raising up among them barriers of conflicting ideologies that produce closed outlooks, exclusive interests and self-sufficient ambitions, if not greedy and overbearing forms of imperialism. This enemy of human brotherhood is today gaining strength. It had appeared to have been at least virtually overcome after the tragic experience of the last World War. It is rising anew. We appeal to governments FORESEES COUNCIL END Pope Urges ‘Perseverance’ To Members Of The Curia VATICAN CITY (NC)— Pope Paul VI urged officials of the Roman curia to “generous perseverance, continous stri ving toward perfection and wise efforts to give ideal and spiri tual value" to their tasks. In his Christmas Eve audie nce to cardinals living in Rome and to officials of the curia, the Pope expressed “thanks for the work which each accomp lishes for the Holy See." The curia is the collective term for all offices, congregations and commissions which assist the Pope in Rome to carry out his mission of guiding and serving the universal Church. IN addition to exchanging seasons greetings ami thanking all for their assistance, the Pope disclosed that the fourth council session would be the last. However he set no date for its opening. Speaking especially to the curia, the Pope said: of Rome, Pope Paul declar ed he was not "displeased" that the council did not ach ieve its results without "long, diverse and difficult dis cussions." He said this in dicated the “liberty of opinion and of speech which was per mitted ever since the start to the Fathers, and it is a sign of the lively interest they took in various matters submitted to their study." THE Pope, however, said it would be inexact to character ize the council as riddled with inner dissensions.He poin ted to the “profound and mu tual desire for substantial unity and fraternal coopera tion which inspired Indivi dual conciliar declarations," and to the “almost unanimous agreement" with which the final results were accepted. It was at this point that he spoke of the “fourth session which will be without doubt the last." . Pope Paul took note of the nations of the world where the Church is not free to carry out its mission, and to the suffer ings undergone by mission aries this year. ALMOST immediately after he finished his speech, the Vatican Press Office release the text of a telebram from the Pope to Catholics in the Con go, urging them to work for peace in their country and commiserating with them for the sufferings many have under "May we be allowed to en courage all of your venerable brothers and beloved sons to generous perseverance, con tinuous striving toward per fection, wise efforts to give ideal and spiritual value to your respective tasks so that this Roman curia of ours may appear more and more the in dispensable instrument, the well-ordered unit, the exempl ary circle about the chair of St. Peter in its pastoral of fice for the good of the Holy Church." NO reference was made in the speech by the Pope to the expected reform of the Roman curia which has been under consideration by a special com mission for more than a year. However, it was understood from various informed sour ces that the announcement of the plans for reform may be ex pected within the first months of 1965. Although nothing of ficial has been released to date, it is known that the gen eral program for curial re form has been drawn up and is being readied for final approval. Elsewhere, in his discourse to the assembled prelates to f -si* POPE PAUL VI pours aromatic balsam into water before immersing the wax medallions known as “Agnus Deis.” With him. left to right, are Bishop Canisius Van Lierde, O.S.A., papal sacristan and vicar for Vatican City; Amleto Cardinal Cicognani, papal secretary of state; Archbishop Enrico Dante, secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and papal master of ceremonies; Msgr. Salvatore Capoferri, a privy chamberlain of the Pope, and Archbishop Diego Venini, the Holy Father's private almoner. bring together men who share common interests. But on the other hand, they create great rifts between the various groups, making strife itself the center of life, and stamping our society—so highly developed technologically and economi cally- with the tragic and bitter mark of division and hatred. Men are not happy because they do not live as brothers. WE KNOW well enough the enormous and seemingly insol uble difficulties which lie across the path of freedom and friendship in social life. But, for our part, we will never grow tired of urging love for one's neighbor as the basic principle of any truly human society; and we shall go on hoping that sin cere reflection and the exper ience of life will help men to see where our many social di visions come from, and to search for a pattern of social living that is evermore authen tic and humane. Also, for this reconstruction of modern society according to the unsuppressible demands of peaceful living together, for the restoration of mutual col laboration among various so cial classes and various na tions, and for the restoration of happiness resulting from liv ing together, our ancient Gos pel, open today to the page of peace on earth to men of good will, has new living words to of fer to the brotherhood of man. Listening to our message, some may ask: Is not religion a motive for the division among men, and especially the Catho lic religion, so dogmatic, so de manding, so discriminating? Does it not impede an easy conversation and a spontaneous understanding among people? Oh, yes, religion. Catholic no less than any other, is an ele ment of distinction among men, even as is language, culture, art and the professions, but it is not of its very nature a di visive element. It is true that Christianity, by the newness of the life which it brings into the world, can be a motive of division and of con trast because of that which brings good to humanity; it is a light shining in darkness, dif ferentiating the various areas. But it is not of the nature of religion to oppose itself to peo ple. It is in behalf of people, it stands in defense of all that is sacred and unsuppressible in them, of their fundamental aspiration to God, and their right to manifest this external ly in a worthy form of worship. THE CHURCH must, how ever, express publicly her sor row when so incoercible a pro pensity is impeded, hindered, forbidden and even punished by force of public power, which in this case presumes to enter a field beyond its competence. Apropos of this topic, which demands a more full and rea soned reply, we can at least repeat what the Church today goes on proclaiming: justice and well-understood religious liberty, which forbids one to shake the foundation of others' beliefs when they are not con trary to the common good, which forbids one to impose a faith not freely accepted, or to proceed by odious discrimination or un deserved vexations, promoting respect for whatever is true and good in every religion and in every human opinion, with the special intention of promoting civil concord and collaboration in every sort of good activity. Truth stands fast and charity sheds light on its beneficent splendor. This today more than ever is our program, convinced as we are that the world needs love, needs tobreakthe bonds of self ishness within itself, needs to open out to a sincere, ever in creasing, universal brother hood. And it is our wish for you, sincere, good people listening to us. We make it with joy and hope in the name of Him who is the “first born among many brethren" (Rom. 8, 29), Christ the Lord. IN THIS wish of ours, our heart opens in a father's loving embrace for mankind the world over, for whose redemption the Divine Saviour came down to earth. And, in particular, we turn to our venerable brothers and dear children, those es pecially who by reason of the sad restrictions still impose upon them cannot add outward signs of happiness and serenity to the feast of Christmas. Next we turn to priests, to men and women Religious, especially our beloved missionaries whose anxieties and difficulties we well know. AGAIN, we turn to all Chris tian families, to the generosity and promise of youth, the inno- cense of the little ones, the en thusiasm of young people. In our embrace we include all who work, with their tiring and at times monotonous daily tasks; the sick and suffering with their burden of pain known to God alone who understands and re wards all; and we have a very special thought for the poor of the whole world—their fears and hardships echo deeply in sorrow in our heart. May the newly born Child bring to them the comfort of His love and the sweetness of a renewed confi dence; and may He likewise spur all who have the power and the means- those most of all who are responsible for the com mon good—to unite in a con structive effort, in an effec tive solidarity, to bring new means, speedy remedies and suitable plans to bear on the im mense needs of the world's poor and on their hopes which can not continue to be disappointed. Filled with these thoughts we renew our good wish to you and with an open heart we give to all of you who are listening and to the entire family of mankind the comfort of our apostolic blessing as a pledge and re flection of the goodness of the Divine Child of Bethlethem. AM I TO A39UME THAT NX! NAVE NO OBJECTIONS TO HAVIN6 DINNER AT THE RIVIHRA RHTAURANTf diet Studio- WEDDINGS PORTRAITS COMMERCIAL BLACK - WHITE AND NATURAL COLOR 1164 N. HIGHLAND AVE., N,E. ATLANTA, GA. TR 6-3716 WE SPECIALIZE IN FINE WEDDING- PHOTOGRAPHY. OUT OF TOWN ASSIGNMENTS ACCEPTED