Newspaper Page Text
rVOL. 3, NO. 2
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
inUKSUAi, J AJNUAKY 14, 1905
4>D.UU IrtiK YtAK
SERVING GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
FOR CHURCHES
i Tax Exemptions
Constitutional:
Maryland Court
SPECIAL GIFTS
Expansion Program
Committee Set Up
BALTIMORE— A circuit
i court judge has ruled that tax
exemptions for church proper
ty violate neither the U. S.
. nor the Maryland constitutions
and has suggested that it might
in fact be unconstititionalto tax
church property.
These views were expressed
in a memorandum opinon by
Baltimore Circuit Court Judge
[Wilson Barnes explaining
, his dismissal of a suit against
property tax exemptions for
f churches.
THE SUIT was brought by
Mrs. Madalyn Murray, much-
publicized Baltimore atheist,
and others against a number of
state tax officials. Entering the
[ case as intervenors in support
of the tax exemptions were
Archbishop Lawrence J. Shehan
[ of Baltimore, the episco
pal Diocese of Maryland, the
Maryland Synod of the Luthe
ran Church in America. Temple
Emanuel of Baltimore, and Uni
ted Christian Citizens, Inc.
Judge Barnes dismissed the
suit Dec. 17, explaining at the
time that he would file a me
morandum giving his reasons
later.
In his written opinion he de
clared that the tax exemption
for church property, grant
ed under Maryland law, is “a
reasonable, proper and non-
discriminatory exemption
which does not result in an es
tablishment of religion or pro
hibit the free exercise thereof.
"The exemption. . . repre-
[ sents government neutra
lity, not prohibited by the
First Amendment," he held.
JUDGE BARNES noted that
Maryland grants tax exemp
tions to 56 other categor-
' ies of groups besides churches,
including hospitals, charitable
institutions, fraternal orders,
1 veterans organizations,histori-
3. cal societies, the Boy Scouts
f and the Girl Scouts. Also, he
| said, all 50 states and the
: District of Columbia exempt
i'^Church property from taxation,
-and courts have always upheld
2 these exemptions.
« "It is well settled that the
Estate may select its objects of
■ taxation and may decline alto-
; gether to tax certain kinds of
property, as long as there
%is a reasonable basis for the
:. exemption. . . . All that is
necessary is a showing of some
,fe fairly discernible relationship
VKRCELLI MEDALIST —
A I f red A. _ McGarrag-hy,
Washington, p. C„ H o 1 y
Name leaden has been named
to leceive the Vercelli Medal
for 1965, awarded annually
by the national headquarters
of the Holy Name Society.
PUBLIC, PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS
Poverty Plan Will Aid All
WASHINGTON (NC)-Presi-
dent Johnson’s much-heralded
plan for Federal aid to educa
tion emerged as a new venture
to encourage public and pa
rochial school cooperation to
aid needy children.
Advertised in advance by ad
ministration spokesmen as in
tended to cut through the
Church-State impasse over aid,
the President’s program calls
primarily for $1 billion to be
given public school districts
enrolling children from needy
families.
PAROCHIAL and other pri
vate schools would participate,
according to administration
spokesmen, through extension
to them by local public schools
of shared services and other
special education projects.
Spokesmen said such projects
could include bookmobiles, edu
cational television, mobile
science laboratories, and re
medial classes in subjects such
as reading which would be set
up in private school space, but
conducted by public school
authorities.
"Every encouragement will
be given that public and paro
chial schools systems work to
gether," said a spokesman. He
noted that of the 5,000,000 child
ren classified by the adminis
tration as coming from poverty-
stricken families, an estimated
15% are in parochial schools.
The President said in his ed
ucation message to Congress
(Jan. 12) that he also favors
other forms of assistance. They
are smaller in scope than the
aid to public school districts.
IN TWO of the lesser pro
posals, parochial school pupils
would share directly.
These are a $100 million pro
gram of grants to assist in the
purchase of library and text
books and a $100 million effort
to establish centers in which
special courses and cultural
enrichment programs would be
nefit both public and private
school children.
In the textbook program pro
posed by Mr. Johnson, an
administration spokesman said
that if a state is prevented by
constitutional provisions oi -
statutes from channeling such
assistance to private schools,
the Federal government would
do it directly. This has a pre
cedent in the Federal school
lunch program.
The books, it was explained,
would be those used in local
public school classes or select
ed by public schools as library
volumes.
AS FOR the proposed Fed
eral “supplementary centers,"
the President sees these as
sites of assistance to both slow
learners and the gifted through
specially arranged courses.
"Within each community,
public and private non-profit
schools and agencies will coop
erate to devise the plan and
administer the program for
these supplementary centers.
Common Prayer
ALBANY, N. Y. (NC)—
The Catholic and Episcopal Di
oceses of Albany and the Cap
ital Area Council of Churches
will join in sponsoring a pro
gram of "common prayer for
Christian unity" Jan. 18 to 25.
Their services should be adapt
ed to meet the pressing needs
of each locality," Mr. Johnson
said in his message.
Other parts of the President's
proposal to aid elementary and
secondary schools includea$45
million expansion of Federal
involvement in research,
through regional educational
laboratories, in which new
courses and textbooks would be
developed.
He also proposed a $10
million effort to strengthen
state educational agencies and
a $150 million program to raise
the level of pre-school facili
ties for children of slum areas.
UNDER THE President’s
program of aid to public, school
districts, which are found to be
"poverty-impacted," funds
would be given any district in
which 100 children, or three
percent of all pupils, come from
families whose income is less
than $2,000 per year.
Administration spokesmen
admitted this would include be-
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)
He said there is "much" in
the decisions of the U. S. Sup
reme court- 'which gives
"aid and comfort to” this view.
"Complete exeption of hou
ses of worship, parsonages
and appurtenant land from
real estate taxation by the
state is far more calculated to
maintain the required neutral
ity than any possible system
of taxation could be," Judge
Barnes said. “The states and
the United States do well not to
enter this 'religious ticket,"
CURRENTLY another major
church-state text case is pend
ing in Maryland, involving the
constitutionality of state laws
giving matching construction
grants to four church-related
colleges.
Arguments in the case were
heard last month in Anne Arun
del County Circuit Court in An
napolis and a ruling is expect
ed soon. The plaintiffs in that
case are the Horace Mann Lea
gue, an organization of public
school administrators, and 13
Maryland taxpayers.
Organization of the Archdio
cesan Expansion Program
moved ahead rapidly this week
in two areas. Seventeen laymen
joined the Special Gifts Com
mittee which now totals twenty-
five priests and laymen. At the
same time, in preparation for
the eventual visitation of every
Catholic household, Archbishop
Hallinan disclosed that the
parishes of the Archdiocese will
be divided into six regions for
administrative purposes. Ap
pointment of priest regional
moderators and lay regional
chairmen will be announced next
week, the Archbishop said.
Cardinal Takes
Turn For Verse
BOSTON (NC)-—In answer to countless questions on the current
state of his health, Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston turned poet
and diagnostician.
A poem printed in the weekly "News Notes from the Cardinal"
section of the Pilot, Boston archdiocesan newspaper, presented an
imposing array of symptoms with the concluding refrain, repeated
three times, "I’m awfully well for the shape that I’m in."
The full text of the poem reads as follows:
I’M FINE
I live out in Brighton, close to BC. *
And I’m just as healthy as I can be.
I have arthritis in both my knees
And when I must speak, then I talk with a wheeze.
My pulse is weak and my blood is quite thin
But I’m awfully well for the shape that I’m in.
I need arch supporters to strengthen my feet.
My ankles are swollen; I’m white as a sheet.
I toss in my bed without sleep every night; .
No wonder each morning I look like a sight.
My memory is failing, my head’s in a spin,
But I’m awfully well for the shape that I’m in.
Diverticulitis is a word hard to spell
But it’s a disease from which I’ll never get well.
Ulcers that keep me on a diet with malox
Prevent me from resting in funeral box.
The length of my sermons brings yawns or a grin,
But I’m awfully well for the shape that I’m in.
The moral is, friends, as this tale I unfold,
That for you and for me who are fast growing old,
It’s better to say, "I am fine" with a grin
Than to let people know of the shape that we’re in.
’BOSTON COLLEGE
between the good of the person
receiving the exemption andthe
good of the community," he
said.
"For the state to exempt
the property of other charit
able corporations. . . and de
cline to exempt the property of
houses of worship. . . would
indeed be an act of ’hostility
toward the religious’ and would
represent' a brooding devotion
to the secular’ . . . prohibit
ed by the First Amendment.
This would destroy the princi
ple of 'neutriality' and would,
in effect, cause government to
intervene on the side of the-
secular and non-believer," he
said.
THE JUDGE took particular
note of the argument put for
ward by Temple Emanuel that
it would actually be unconstit
utional undar the First Amend
ment’s guarantee of free exer
cise of religion for the state to
tax church property.
SOME OF
the new
gram.
the .children at St. Joseph’s Home, Washington Georgia who will the benficiaries of
St. Joseph’s Village planned for Atlanta as part of the Archdiocesan Expansion Prq-
The seventeen new men were
welcomed at the first organi
zational meeting of the Special
Gifts Committee by G. Albert
Lawton, General Campaign
Chairman. Archbishop Hallinan
was the principal speaker of the
evening and reviewed the four
projects included in the Arch
diocesan Expansion Program.
In speaking to the new com
mitteemen Archbishop Hallinan
expressed his gratification at
the many expressions of sup
port and encouragement which
have come from Catholics in
all parts of the Archdiocese
who learned of the four pro
jects of the Expansion Program
through an announcement in the
Georgia Bulletin and in the
daily and weekly papers and on
radio and television.
The projects include a new
home for dependent boys and
girls, the Village of St. Joseph,
in southwestern Atlanta; a
Catholic Center for Lay Ac
tion on Ivy Street in downtown
Atlanta, a Student Chapel and
Newman Center at the Univer
sity ; of Georgia in Athens and
the beginning of a High School
Development Fund.
Archbishop Hallinan stressed
that the total needs for all four
projects were in excess
ELECTED coadjutor abbot
of St. Martin’s Abbey, Olym
pia, Wash., is Father Gerald
Desmond, O.S.B., who will
succeed Abbot Raphael Hei-
der, O.S.B., upon confirma
tion by the Holy See.
Arefidiocese of Atlanta
YOUR
PRIZE-WINNING
NEWSPAPER
G. ALBERT Lawton, general chairman of the Archdiocesan Ex-
pansion Program, shown discussing detail of plans with
Archbishop Paul j. Hallinan.
The new members include:
Edward G. Rice, Jr., Robert
Troutman,, Sr„ P. Joseph Do
ran, Leonard Long, Judge Sam
Phillips McKenzie, James
Haynes, Leon Kaniecki, Dr.
Bruce Jagor, J. Wallace Win-
borne, Jr., Dr. Reese Coleman,
Jr., Dr. William Hopkins, Ri
chard L. deGolian, Dr. Spald
ing Schroder, Patrick McGinn,
Hal Cook, Frank McGaughey,
Chess Lagomarsino and Russell
Bellman.
Already serving as Chairmen
Of the Committee are: Msgr.
Joseph A. Cassidy, Pastor of
Sacred Heart Church, Milledge-
ville; Father John F. Mc
Donough, Pastor of Christ the
King Cathedral; Hughes Spald
ing, Jr.; Furman Smith; Alex
W. Smith, Jr. and RaWson Hav-
erty.
of $2,000,000 and expressed the
hope that the Special Gifts Com
mittee could account for a sub
stantial portion of the
$1,750,000 minimum goal which
has been established for the
Campaign.
Committee Chairmen indi
cated that additional members,
both priests and laymen, will
be added to the group and that
the Special Gifts Committee’s
activity would begin immediate
ly. A Report Meeting has been
scheduled for Thursday evening
January 28th in Cathedral Cent
er.
Very Rev. Harold J. Rainey,
Chancellor, announced that a
Central Campaign Headquart
ers has been opened in Cathed
ral Center on East Wesley Road
adjacent to the Chancery
Offices.