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GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1966
j&g4,
diocese of Atlanta
SERVING GEORGIA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News
PUBLISHER- Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew
2699 Peachtree N. E.
P. O. Box 11667
Northslde Station
Atlanta, Georgia 30305
Member Of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N. C. W. C. News Service
Telephone 231-1281
Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga.
U. S. A. $5.00
Canada $5.00
Foreign $6.50
The opinions contained in these editorial columns are
the free expressions of free editors in a free Catholic press.
Welcome Bishop
It was fitting that Bishop Joseph
L. Bernardin began his service
to the Church of Atlanta with a
solemn expression of worship
and unity. Yesterday evening’s
concelebrated Mass also sym
bolically links his arrival with
the work of the Vatican Coun
cil. The Archdiocesan Consul-
tors, who joined the Auxiliary
Bishop around the altar, repre
sented the whole People of God,
clergy, religious and laity. The
liturgical celebration represen
ted our common dedication to
continue our effort to renew the
life of the Church and its ser
vice to the world.
We urge as many of the fam-
ly of the Archdiocese as pos
sible to greet Bishop Bernardin
at the public reception this Fri
day evening at 8:00 in the Ca
thedral Center. The Church’s
strength as community depends
on our person-to-person openness
with each other: Archbishop,
Auxiliary Bishop, priests, reli
gious, laity. Bishop Bernardin's
reception is a family celebra
tion.
Sisters Leadership
Hearty congratulations are in
order to all the two hundred
Sisters of the Archdiocese who
took part in the Sisters* Con
gress. It was a moving and edi
fying experience to see the Sisters
of so many religious congrega
tion cooperate so harmoniously
in a venture of such seriousness
and far-reaching implication.
To our knowledge, this is the
first congress of this kind to
take place in this country. The
many issues concerned with the
work of the Sisters in the Arch
diocese were studied seriously
and discussed freely. Each sug
gestion and resolution in the
five areas considered -- De
velopment, Liturgy, Education,
Social Service, Health Service—
had its own importance both for
the Sisters and for the Archdio
cese.
The most important effect of
the Congress, however, lies over
and beyond the value of any
single proposal it adopted. The
Sisters’ Congress publicly fo
cused attention on the member
ship of the Sisters within the
whole body of "the Church. Nei
ther the Sisters themselves nor
any other group or individual
can separate them from any part
of the life or concerns of the
Church. Their right and duty to
assume a mature and responsible
role in all that concerns the
Church’s mission is assured and
can never again be ignored.
Justice For Farmers
Many of our readers are cer
tainly aware of the important
breakthroughs that recently have
been made in the Delano, Cali
fornia, grape pickers* strike.
Their 300 mile, 25 day pilgri
mage behind the banner of Our
Lady of Guadalupe, ended on
Easter Sunday in a tremendous
outpouring of 10,000 persons, in
cluding countless priests, nuns
and seminarians. The last dozen
miles of this wearying march
were made eaxsier by the an
nouncement that the second-lar
gest grower in the Delano area had
offered to recognize the National
Farm Workers Association. A
few days later, the Christian Bro
thers and the Jesuits, both of
whom own vineyards, recognized
the NFWA.
Important as these develop
ments are, it would be a mis
take to assume that they signal
the end of the farm workers*
struggle. One can securely fore
cast that unless necessary natio
nal legislation is soon passed,
the next few years will see many
more crises of this kind all over
the nation. Moreover, it is high
ly unlikely that these other De
lano’s will be conducted as peace
ably and with such sound Chris
tian motivation.
TUe only tiling wnicn nas any
chance of preventing such pro
blems and the only way in which
farm workers can achieve an
adequate and honorable living
would be the passage of legisla
tion to protect the workers right
to roganise and to enforce the
corresponding duty of employers
to recognize and bargain collec
tively with them. As of now, farm
workers are excluded from such
protection of the law.
In this session of Congress,
legislation will soon be consi
dered to bring farm workers un
der the National Labor Rela
tions Act and thus provide them
with the necessary legal protec
tion and with the well-established
mechanisms for collective bar
gaining. In a Pastoral Letter
from the Catholic Bishops of Ca
lifornia, the convictions of the
most immediately involved
spokesmen for the Church were
stated most emphatically: “...it
is quite clear that the Federal
Government must take steps to
bring agricultural labor into line
with the dignity achieved by in
dustrial labor. First and most
important is the inclusion of
agriculture in the provisions of
the National Labor Relations
Act.’’
We suggest that those who have
been stirred by the valiant
struggle 6f the Delano grape
pickers now let their Congress
men and Senators know by let
ter or telegram that they in
sist that this legislation be pass
ed. , Christ’s injunction to feed
the hungry and clothe the naked
can most effectively be fulfilled
in our time by exercising our
rights as citizens in promoting
such legislation. In this context,
a letter to a legislator is indeed
an act of Christian love. Simply
because it calls only for a few
minutes of time and a five-cent
stamp, such a letter surely is not
of less worth than the cup of cold
water given in His name.
Many Years ago the Bells of Seville Cathedral^
in SPAiM were rung by Youths who swung
FROM LEATHER STRAPS ATTACHED
TO THE CLAPPERS, At A Dizzy J ' Mon m vmtm
HEIGHT ABOVE THE STREETS. / fl J*
For $3 or them, there
WERE NO LESS THAN
2000 MONKS AND
J£0O NUHS IN HIS
MONASTERY AT
One of the most important t ^
MONUMENTS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN ' ,t1E N,LE '
IRELAND IS THE CROSS OF DONAGH, WHICH
is bel/eyed to be about one thousand three
HUNDRED YEARS OLD. MADE FROM A MASS/YE BLOCK ™^
OF STONE OYER TEN FEET IN HEIGHT, ITS ENTIRE SURFACE
Apart from Galilee,
THE LAKE WHOSE
SHORES ARE MOST
ASSOCIATED WITH
Saints is perhaps
THAT OF ANNECY /H
THE FRENCH ALPS.
THOSE BORN OR WHO
LIVED IN THE
VICINITY INCLUDE
ST MAURICE,
ST BERNARD, AND
THE FOUNDERS OF
THE VISITATION
ORDER, ST FRANCIS
DE SALES S' STJANE
CHANTAL.
IS COVERED WITH ELABORATE CARVINGS.
GEORGIA PINES
3 Families Rewarded
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
"I.KNEW that if he were given the time in a
conscious state, that he would surely make an act
of contrition, which he later told me he did",
these were the thoughts of an anxious father who
had just been summoned to Trenton, Georgia, be
cause his son had been trapped in a cave and
it was feared that he was already dead.
The story centers around nine boys and two
leaders who left Atlanta, on Saturday, April 16,
about six in the morning to ex
plore a cave near Trenton,
Georgia.
They arrived in this north
west Georgia town, cooked a
breakfast around the entrance to
the cave and then began their
expedition into the cave
nine o’clock that morning,
did they suspect that this pleas
ure trip would end in tragedy.
They had been inside the cave for about three
hours. They had explored the main passage and
some of the off-shoots when they decided to leave.
Someone had suggested going to another cave.
As they were preparing to leave suddenly there
was an explosion. The boys in the lead were
blown out toward the entrance and a leader with
three other boys was knocked to the ground.
deaths had occurred and it was feared that the
remaining three boys who were stranded would
suffocate before help could reach them.
I was in the rectory giving a marriage instruc
tion when the phone on my desk rang. This was
the first that I had heard about it. Immediately
1 turned on the radio and television. Conflict
ing reports began to come in when I decided to
get in touch with a good friend who is a state
patrolman.
At this point is when I really appreciated what
friendship meant. Without asking, it was he who
suggested that we should go up to Trenton.
In the meantime he received reports from the
State Patrol in Dalton, and the hospital In Chat
tanooga. Things began to look better and so we
decided to wait a little while longer.
Finally, about eleven o’clock the news looked
real bad. The phone rang and a voice said to
me, "Father, I’ll gas up the car and by the time
you get. over here I’ll be all ready”. (Later I
realized that he had called his wife to say that
he could not get home, and had arranged for
others to cover his duty for him. This, I call
real friendship.)
But God is good and before we had driven ten
yards, the radio reported that the three boys had
been rescued unharmed.
They were in the process, at that moment, of
lowering themselves down from a ledge to the
passage which lead from the cave. It is thought
now that gas had filtered into the cave and when
one of the boys was carrying an arc lamp came
in contact with the gas, it set off the explosion.
At any rate the boys who had lowered themselves
to the ground were blown toward the cave’s
mouth, and the other three boys with their lead
er were stranded, without lights, on the upper
ledge.
Two college boys who heard of the explosion
over the radio raced to the cave. They donned
masks which proved fateful to them because of the
lack of oxygen and the stranded leader, over
come, fell off the ledge to his death. Three
I had a talk with one of the fathers of the boys.
He had written down his thoughts, and his ex
pression of resignation to the will of God was
one of the finest Acts of Faith I have ever wit
nessed.
Three of those boys were members of Saint
Anthony’s parish. It would have been a real trage
dy for this parish. Later as I thought about it
these thoughts came to my mind. One boy’s
father is a very devout member of the Legion of
Mary; another boy’s father is a very faithful
usher on Sundays; and the other boy’s mother
is an ardent worker in youth activities and his
sister is a most dependable organist. God had
rewarded these families for the time and energy
they have given to Him.
TOO MUCH PROSPERITY
OTHER RELIGIONS
Ecumenical—
To Understand
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
THE NATIONAL Council of Catholic Men’s pro
gram on ecumenism launched last week in Kansas
City should light a fuse on a much needed con
cern. To many people, ecumenism is more or
less an extension of a local "be kind to God
week.” Naturally, there’s a lot more involved,
even in its elementary phase.
There are first of all steps we must take to
know about other religions; why are we separated;
what can we do to
further the aim
that all can be one
in Christ. It’s not
sufficient to look
upon other Chris
tians as heretics
or in error. This
purely negative
stance has ac
counted for more
mis-understanding and acrimony than one would
care to admit. Hence, our actions must be di
rected to the points upon which we agree in the
community; this so that we can cooperate with a
separated brethren for our mutual benefit and
the further establishment of God’s law.
It’s interesting, therefore, to recall that
Methodists of America last week celebrated the
200th anniversary of the establishment of their
church in the U.S. Although Methodists can
trace their origins in England to 1739, they did
not organize themselves in America until 1766.
It is strange to relate, the Methodist mis
sionaries who first erected a place of worship
on these shores came from Ireland in 1760.
Six years later, Methodist classes were form
ed in the colonies under the leadership of Robert
Strawbridge, one of John Wesley’s Irish preach
ers. One was at Sam’s Creek in Maryland, the
other in New York, under the direction of another
Irish immigrant, Philip Embury.
Wesley sent out other missionaries to conso
lidate these foundations, one ofwhomwas Francis
Asbury, the principal American Methodist leader
until his death in 1816. Incidentally, Asbury was
the only one of Wesley’s missionaries who re
mained in the U.S. through the revolution.
Methodism grew rapidly because of the circuit
system brought from England by Asbury and his
associates. The preachers rode with the moving
population and established themselves at every
frontier. The preachers lived from a saddle
bag and the sky was often their roof.
The emphasis on riding was symbolized last
week when 12 Methodist ministers from various
parts of the country re-enacted the ride of a min
ister 100 years ago to the Methodist centennial in
Baltimore. Baltimore was again the center for
the bicentennial. Enroute to Maryland, one of the
riders paid a brief call in the nation’s capital,
where an equestrian statue of pioneer Francis
Asbury is erected. By the way, Asbury is known
in Methodism as the "prophet of the long road.”
It was the ability to keep in contact with moving
communities which enabled Methodism to increase
the American membership to more than a quarter
of a million by 1820. Twenty years later it had
grown to three-quarters of a million. Indeed,
it grew to such influence in national councils that
President Lincoln told a group from that church
in May 1864 — during the Civil War — that "It
is no fault in others that the Methodist Church
sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses
to the hospital, and more prayers to heaven than
any. God Bless the Methodist Church.’’
Lincoln, of course, while a God-fearing man,
was not said to have attached himself to any par
ticular Church group. His enthusiasm in this in
stance was occasioned by the fact that Methodism
had become a powerful political as well as spirit
ual force within the country-political at least in
the sense that its adherents were to be found in
all areas of national life.
What about the Methodists today? There are now
22 different groups with a membership of almost
13 million. The Methodist Church is largest of
these with 38,990 chapels and more than 10 mil
lion members. The present organization was
formed in 1939, with the merger of the Metho
dist Episcopal Church, the methodist Episcopal
Church South, and the Methodist Protestant
Church. The unification of these three bodies
had been in the making since 1872, when their
leaders first broached the matter.
Significantly, the development of the Methodist
Church has been credited to two things— their
church press and their church-related colleges.
There are some 75 colleges related to Method
ism. The various paper and periodicals number
several hundred.
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
Your World And Mine
BY GARY MACEOIN
WHAT COULD be crazier than the economic
problems of the United States? The financial writ
ers of our serious newspaper are telling us that
the "nagging deficit’’ in our balance of inter
national payments threatens to worsen, that the
chief reason for this dangerous situation is the
boom in the economy, and that the suggested
cure is a tax on tourists to keep them home.
There is, in fact, a payments deficit. It was
an estimated $1.3 billion last year. It is an
amount not to be sneezed at. If
it continued for too long, it
could be serious.
But it should be kept in per
spective. Direct U.S. invest
ment abroad (excluding private
portfolio investments) totaled
almost $42 billion in 1964, an in
crease of $3.9 billion over 1963.
That Increase is just three
times die 1965 deficit.
Now I’m certainly not opposed to American busi
ness making profits overseas or at home either.
But its activities cannot be disassociated from
the whole context of our political, social and
moral place in the world. If the new investment
was concentrated in the underdeveloped regions,
in line with the Vatican Council’s urgent appeal
to the rich nations, I should feel highly sympathe
tic, But in fact, nearly $30 billion of the total is
in the developed countries. Almost all of the 1964
increase ($3.3 billion) was in developed coun
tries.
West Europe alone accounted for $2.3 billion;
and while American capital was most helpful
there 20 years ago, today it is an unwanted and
disturbing element, a factor in our troubles with
General de Gaulle, for example.
For the past few years, foreign Investment
has been held down by a kind of gentlemen’s
agreement between the Treasury Department and
the banks and big international companies. These
voluntray controls have proved Inadequate. Be
sides, they are unfair to organizations with a so
cial conscience, placing them at a disadvantage
vis-a-vis less scrupulous competitors.
{CONTINUED ON PAGE 5)
I can already hear some of our traditionalist
friends saying, "So whatl Why give all this pub
licity to those not of the one, true Church?"
It reminds me of the columnist in the National
Register of last week, who was scandalized that
any Catholic writer or critic could praise the ef
forts of a communist film director. It seems the
communist had produced "The Gospel according
to St. Matthew," a film highly praised by the
experts, Catholic and otherwise. Alas, our Reg
ister ’ guardian of souls,’’ was shocked. Ob
viously, it could only be good and authentic if
produced under Catholic auspices. Otherwise,
it had to be suspect.
It is pathetic that we still have so-called edu
cated Catholics whose narrow-mindedness goes
far beyond the most stringent cautions of the old
Holy Office. It seems as if getting a doctorate
leads some people to assume the mantle of a Doc
tor of the Church. It’s about time they got down
to the realities of the Apostolic Age. If such
critics had any sense of history, they would wel
come any efforts of good will, no matter from
what church or group they came. Offering the
hand of friendship does not imply acceptance of
the recipients* viewpoint or moral standards.
Incidently, the most ecumenical hymn that I
have come across to date is "Where Charity
and Love Prevail,There God is Ever Found.’’