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4 GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1967
Inalienable
BULLE
ARCHDIOCESE OF ATLANTA SERVING GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
Chris Eckl
The Rev. R. Donald Kiernan
Publisher
Managing Editor
Consulting Editor
2699 Peachtree N. E.
P. O.^Box 11667
Norths ide Station
Atlanta, Georgia 30305
Member o.f 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
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Published Every Week at the Decatur-DeKalb News
Tha opinions contained in these editorial columns are
the free expressions of free editors in a free Catholic press.
A Year Of Faith
"It is anything but a com
pliment to the health of our
modern Church that the Holy
Father deemed it necessary
to proclaim a "Year of Fai
th" as the method by which
we shall mark the 19th cen
tenary of the martyrdom of
Sts. Peter and Paul. Un
told good has resulted from
the Vatican Council. But like
freedom, worthwhile good
can be preserved only at the
cost of eternal vigilance and
restraint.
"It is apparent to even
the most casual observer
that our generation is deep
ly involved in a revolt against
authority -- both civil and
religious. With the possible
exception of Berkeley and a
few other college campu
ses, nowhere is the crisis
in authority more keenly felt
that in the postconciliar Ca
tholic Church."
These two paragraphs
from another diocesan news-
•paper, we think, strike the
1 wi*ong note on why Pope Paul
has called a "Year of Faith."
(We definitely do not agree
with the crisis-in-authority
viewpoint).
True the Pope did warn
that the Church faces a dan
ger from new opinions bor
rowed from secular philoso
phies which try to introduce
a so-called "postconciliar"
mentality among the People
of God. Unfortunately, when
the Pope issues a warning
or takes a cautionary stance
a section of the Catholic
world jumps to the false con
clusion that the Church is in
terrible shape, constantly
rocked by "way-out" think
ers. On the other hand, an
other sector thinks he wants
to return to the "good old
days" of rigid authority and
orthodoxy.
In an analysis of the Pope’s
reason for declaring a "Year
Fa-
says
of Faith" (See Page 3),
ther Robert Graham
the pontiff was inspired by
concern among masses of
the faithful resulting from
certain postconciliar deve
lopments.
He wants to counteract
sensationalized theological
speculation by public acts of
faith, the priest writes, but
at the same time insists
again that he wishes to en
courage study of the teach
ings of the Second Vatican
Council "to sustain thev
energies of Catholic thought
in its search for fresh and
original expressions while
remaining faithful to the doc-
The Candidate
For Everything
WILLS
trinal
Church. 3
deposit of
the
GEORGIA PINES
John Conway
By R. Donald Kiernan
And, we think the Pope
provides the best reasons
for calling the "Year of
Faith" in a key paragraph
which said in part, "A single
profession of faith we wish
to offer to the blessed Apos
tles: one «that is, individual
A pall of sadness hung over the Shrine
of The Immaculate Conception on Sunday
morning, Feb. 19, as every priest and
parishioner met on the Church steps
to express sorrow and shock over the death
ofoneoftheShrine’s finest and best loved
young men, 19-year-old John Kenneth
Conway. John, son of Mrs. Elizabeth
Conway, of 817 Cherokee Ave. S.E., was
killed in a" v tragic automobile accident
and collective*. frees a^ddeli^. Friday njgfc& Feb. 17, as tfe.was areturn-
berate, inte rnaflAand^ e'xte r*
nal, humble and frank. We
want this profession of faith
to arise from the depths of
every faithful heart and to
resound with the same loving
tones throughout the
Church."
Isn t
hope?
that what we all
UNTIL WE
RECENT
INSTITUTION OF
eJeNing Mass,
WE LAST MASS
on Sundays was
KNOUN COLLOQUIALLY
'IN SPAIN AS 7WE MASS
or THE SHAMELESS
IT WAS CELEBRATED AT 2 PM. FOR
THE SAKE OF THOSE WHO GOT UP
VERY LATE INDEED/
ing' ; hom#fr;6rn his after-sscRool; job.
The accident occurred on the East
Expressway. One of the mothers of the
I.C. School and
her little Scout
sons were
caught up in the
traffic following
the accident and
she tells us that
every driver in
that area parked
their cars any
where they Could FR. KIERNAN
and everyone ran to try to help the in
jured young man. Truly can it be said,
the drivers on the East Expressway that
rainy night did not wait to ponder* “in
volvement or not"-they answered the call
only to find their willing hands and hearts
were powerless to help. The Good Angel
of Death had already come for John Con
way.
John came from a family long identi
fied with the spiritual and material grow
th of the Shrine of The Immaculate Con
ception. His maternal grandparents, Mr.
and Mrs. J.J. O’Donnell, and their large
family moved into the parish in 1923 and
the O’Donnell family has alw'ays been
among the hardest and most devoted wor
kers for the Shrine.
Mr. O’Donnell was one of Atlanta’s
outstanding meteorologist in the days
when the U.S. Weather Bureau was lo- j
cated on the top floor of the Healey Build
ing. Mrs.. O’Donnell lived to be 82 and
even in her bed-ridden days knitted warm
sweaters for poor children. The O’Dpn-
nells had two daughters to become Reli
gious in the Order of The Holy Names of
Jesus and Mary. Mrs. O’Donnell lived
7 t0? see her .grands'? 1 ?, ^Father JBerrian
•Zettler, ordained a> Marist priest- ■ in
Rpme, Italy in 1963. John and his mother
witnessed this ordination and John always
spoke of this day as being one of the hap
piest of his life.
John was born and reared in Imma
culate Conception parish and from ear
liest years served as altar boy and later
as master of ceremonies on many historic
occasions in the parish. He received his
elementary education at the Immaculate
Conception School, enrolled at Marist
College, graduating with the Class, of
1965. John was, at the time of his death,
a sophomore at Georgia State College
and was studying political science.' John
was an Eagle Scout and had been active
in Scout work, assisting Scout masters
Tommy Valentine and Florian Repik. He
was a member of the choir and the Holy
Name Society, having held the office of
Holy Name secretary in the past. Every
Sunday John served,as lector at one of
the Masses. Using his talents for the
honor and glory of God was John’s main
purpose in life, so it is no-wonder his
untimely death has left a deep wound in
the Shrine parish. The inspiration this
happy, holy young man was to all his fa
mily and friends will, we. know, bear
fruit in increased devotion to God, Church
and Country as time goes on.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••a
A NEW YORK CITY ad
dress by Roman Catholic
Archbishop Faul J. Halli
nan of Atlanta, Georgia, de
serves widespread publicity
not only because of its sig
nificant content but also be
cause it brings the prestige
apd influence of a distin
guished Catholic prelate to
the support of clergy con
cerned about Vietnam, The
address was fortunately tim
ed, since Protestants and
Jews had begun to wonder-
indeed, to complain-about
the silence of high level
Roman Catholic clergy in the
debate on the morality of the
armed conflict in Vietnam,
Though it should not be as
sumed that Archbishop Hal
linan has officially joined the
organization known as
Clergy and Laymen Con
cerned About Vietnam, he
did address an equmenical
study conference on "Viet
nam and the Religious Con
science" sponsored by this
group, and in his address he
A Second Selma
stated: "So, like you, I atn
a ‘clergy concerned about
Vietnam.’ My concern is
merged with your own." Hal
linan divides the issues in
the controversy over Viet
nam into two parts. First,
there are issues that "rise
not out of moral but out of
political soil; questions of
armament and negotiations,
bombing and withdrawal, on
these we can and must de
bate," Since many politicans
and some clergy say that
these are matters with which
the clergy should not concern
itself, the archbishop’s
contentions that these
issues must be debated is an
interesting twist. Second,
"other issues are fundamen
tally moral: indiscriminate
destruction and/or methodi
cal extermination of cities
and peoples; the acknowledg
ment of the courage and ho
nesty of the honest soldier
and the honest pacifist; es
calation and overkill; fullac.-
cess to all necessary facts
from civil and military lea
dership; the use of interna
tional bodies working for
peace, like the administra
tion policy in Vietnam. If
you expose or condemn the
C.I.A.’s nefarious, inflitra-
tion of American institu
tions, it will be said: "The
gentlemen of the Fourth
Estate might just as well be
scuttling carriers in the
Tonkin Gulf." Such com
plaints illustrate the exis
tence of an ugly and rapidly
growing mood that equates
patriotism with blindness,
loyalty to American men with
the willingness to sacrifice
more American men, Ame
ricanism with the repudia
tion of the essence of Ame
ricanism. But this unfor
tunate American mood does
not change the facts. The
United States blundered when
it undertook an aborted
By Garry Wills
Robert F. Kennedy is in the candidate
business. Not candidate, necessarily, for
any one thing; vaguely, for everything.
He was willing, for a while, to be sena
tor of the first state where the office
opened up. He will no doubt be willing,
until something higher comes along, to
be president of the first country that
finds itself with a vacancy (after all, he
has campaigned in most of them by now).
It is in the light
of this undefined but
obtrusive state of
Candidacy that the
New York Times
comments on
Bobby’s abortion
stand. J.F.K. did a
neat job of disso
ciating himself
from suspected hierarchical control; and,
as the Times puts it, R.F.K. seems to
think that "what is good for one presi
dent might be good for another.” So he
took the opportunity of the New York bis
hops’ attack on a proposed abortion law
to say that he is in favor of liberalizing
abortion requirements — especially where
the mother has been raped. Then, accor
ding to the Times report, he added: “I
took an oath of office like any other public
official to uphold the Constitution of the
United States and I try to make my judg
ment in these matters not based upon
religion but upon how I believe as a Sena
tor.”
An interesting disjunction. Apparently
I what he “believes as a Senator” and what
he believes in the area of religion are to
tally different matters, at least “in these
areas”— (e.g., abortion, which is presum
ably treated in theConstitutionheis sworn
to uphold). Sundays at Mass, I suppose, he
says his credo in the ThreePersons. Mon
day through Friday he recites his credo in
the Three Branches and other constitutio
nal dogma.
If we must search, quixotically, after ,
some logical basis for this manifesto, we.
come up with the following possibilities.
Either a) religion has nothing to say on the
matters Bobby “believes as a Senator.”
Or b) religion has something to say “in
these matters,” but it is not as important
as what the Constitution says. Or c) what
religion has to say is more important for
everybody else,, but not for a man who has
taken “an oath of office.” In short, either
the matter is indifferent so far as the gui
dance of a faith is concerned, or loyalty
to the Constitution dispenses onefpom that
■.guidance;! Oripublic feffice diap|n8e»orf^
Not, any of them, easy positions to de-^
fend — not, anyway, for those with a vesti
gial regard for reason.
If Mr. Kennedy has litttle light to shed -
on the relation of conscience to Faith and
political duty, what of his position on the
substance of this law? He seems to be
against some of the looser provisions
of reform, but in favor of sparing a
raped girl the trauma of delivering her
unwanted child — (not the burden. of
bringing the child up, since that can be
taken from her by means other than abor
tion). Yet the only meaningful case against
abortion rests on the fact that one cannot
take one human life to spare some other
person inconvenience -- (even severe
inconvenience, even trauma). The unborn
child does not lose its right to life because
of its father’s crime, any more than the
delivered baby does. If the convenience
of the mother can take precedence over the
child's life in this case, why not in any
other case? The principle is established
by this one rule; why shrink at its conse
quences? Perhaps out of an innate aver
sion to consistency?
No, Senator Kennedy is not that scatter
brained. His position cannot be discussed
in terms of moral reason. The Times is
on the right track when it treats his de
cision in favor of aborting the children of
criminals as strategic, assumed to pla
cate the technicians around him whobusi-
ly mold and pat and polish his “image”
to the moment’s specifications. It was
simply time for a Catholic candidate to
appear “in conflict with his Church, but
not grave conflict.” - You give a little
and you get a little in the world of poli
tics. (Give them the rapist’s babies, and
keep the others).
It Is even easier to understand his
nonsense on the two creeds he adheres
to (presumably with two consciences).
We all know what he was trying to say.
He meant, among other things, that he
has no obligation to impose on others the
moral imperatives that are binding upon
him. This is not, of course, a departure
from those imperatives; it is, more ac
curately, a corollary of them (a point
one would never grasp from his own
formulation of the matter).
We know', in short, that he was crying
to make the distinctions his brother' made
in his campaign for the presidency. The
interesting point is that, trying to make
those distinctions, he didn’t. And he fail
ed to make them, I think, not because he
is less intelligent than his brother, but
because he lacks the thing J.F.K. had to
perfection — political "ear.” In giving
answers to political questioners, J.F.K.
had perfect pitch. R.F.K., by contrast,
despite daily -coaching by -the true-^vir-
tuossfe gnd'“tietrerrnined daily praqtjae on
the sS6es^fe^fctitS:pHy#3h'Si-«^f»\^tch-
ing his attempts to repeat his brother’s
performance, one is reminded of Mane’s
dictum that everything in history repeats
itself—the second time as farce.
Farenheit 451-
An Offbeat Movie
French role in southeast
Asia; it blundered when
it intervened militarily in
Vietnam’s civil war; it blun
dered when it began to bomb
North Vietnam and spread
the war; it blunders now
when it multiplies the es
calating steps. We cannot
correct original mistakes by
making new ones; we cannot
by expanding an unjust war
make it a just one.
THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Rev.
Raymond Buck, pastor of
the Lutheran Church of the
Ascension, has discontinued
his column in the Georgia
Bulletin. Pastor Buck has
accepted a call to become
pastor of the Hedy- Cross
Church in Toledo, Ohio, and
will leave Atlanta after Eas
ter. He asked to be relieved
of his column because of
his Lenten duties and the
many details of moving.)
By James Arnold
"Fahrenheit 451” is one of those science
fiction films that suggests'that if you
think the world is bad today, just wait
until tomorrow. In the movie’s society
of the future, people are so well protect
ed from upset and unhappiness that they
are discouraged from living, except vi
cariously through the soothing pap df
omni-present television.
The chief enemy
of this super-bene-
ivolent welfare state
is books, which
obviously are going
to upset and chal
lenge people out of
their minds. The
hero (Oskar Wer
ner) is a fireman, ARNOLD
whose chief social task, now that all buil
dings are successfully fireproofed, is to
track down and burn books. Once he reads
a few, however, he gets hooked, and it’s
only a matter of time before his frighten
ed and conformist wife (Julie Christie)
turns him in. But this is a happy sort of
totalitarian terror film, and Werner es
capes to the hills and the underground,
where each person memorizes a book to
preserve it for posterity and spends much
of his time wandering about reciting it.
That’s fine if you get "Hamlet” or “The
Iliad,” but what if the only volume handy
was "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”?
This is the film of Ray Bradbury’s fa
mous short novel, considerably brighten
ed (in the book the heroine dies and the
city is atom-bombed) by France’s bril
liant avant - garde director Francois
Truffant ("The 400 Blows,” "Jules and
Jim”), here making an impressive debut
with a mass audience picture.
The film is less a realistic prediction
than a nigntmare based on already exist
ing social tendencies, e.g., the substitu
tion of TV living for real lving, the me
dia as tranquilizers rather than stimu
lants, the fear of non-conformity,, the
growing institutionalization of work and
impersonalization of relations between
people.
Truffant has found striking images to
illustrate all this (police forcibly ad
ministering a haircut to a long-hair or
including
a disin-
randomly searching citizens,
a pregnant woman, for books
terested medical team joking crudely
as they pump out the blood of the hero’s
drug-stricken wife; affection- starved
people nuzzling furs or kissing their re
flections in windows).
But the grim theme has been salted
with Truffant*s goodnatured humor and
sense of play, and the film is entirely
a visual joy. The book-burning sequen
ces, with their montage of colors, hi
lariously assorted titles, flipping and
peeling pages, are poetic enough to make
one a pyromaniac. And the finale, in which
the book-people, in their lovely forest
domain, walk before the camera reciting
their books, in all the languages of the
world, is one of the most imaginative and
moving in recent film history.
A stunning film, “Fahrenheit 451” is
unhesitatingly recommended to all who
occasionally like their movies cerebral
and oft-beat.
***
The biggest box-office sensation since
James Bond is an Italian western, film
ed in Spain with foreign actors, called
“A Fistful of Dollars.” Is it worth it
or has the public taste again been de
bauched? There hasn’t been such a mo
mentous issue since society was oblig
ed to pass judgment on the Beatles.
European westerns may sound ludi
crous, but they are old and popular stuff
abroad, where skilled technicians simply
hire a couple of out-of-work Texas types
for the leads, go out to the Spanish plains
and produce a shoot-'em-up about Wichi
ta or Dodge City. “Fistful” is one of the
first considered good enough for showing
here, and it is draw ing so many customers
that three sequels are already either shoo
ting or planned.
Some critics have described its success
in Bondian terms: indestructible hero,
amorality, black humor, super-violence
and super-villains. There is no doubt about
the violence - there is more brutality, sa
dism and death than in all the Hollywood
westerns since William S. Hart. But the
hero is not sophisticated enough to be amo
ral, and there is little or no sex. (Unfor
tunately these “defects,” I understand,
may be remedied in the sequels?.