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4 GEORGIA BULLETIN,
THURSDAY,
APRIL 13, 1967
BULLETIN
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 sfcpmf
2699 Peachtree N. E.
P. O. Box 11667
Northside Station
Atlanta, Georgia 30305
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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.
Listen To Us,
Speak For Us
I From the porch of the Cosmopolitan
AME Church, 170 Vine St., you can see
a gleaming white skyscraper being built
in downtown Atlanta.
And from the skycraper you can see
Vine City and Lightning. This is the only
contact between the two areas — one af
fluent, one not; one white and one black.
How do you reconcile the two areas
within the city limits of Atlanta? No one
really knows. The city government has
not done it, the charitable agencies have
not done it, and the churches, well, most
of them haven’t tried. The areas are out
of their suburban spheres of influence.
The job of doing something for these
and others areas and doing something
with the people who live there has become
the task of Atlanta’s Community Rela
tions Commission.
Four members of the commission and
its executive director spent one night
last week attempting to establish some
form of dialogue and find solutions to
the many problems of Vine City and
Lightning. They met at the Vine Street
Church.
“We would like to have a dialogue
with you about the things that are bugging
you,’’ said T.M. Alexander Sr., chairman
of the panel. “You tell us, We didn’t
come to give directions,” he commented.
tinued. “Quit tearing down houses. Hous
ing projects have unnecessary re
strictions. Those big trucks come through
Lightning and children play in the area.
The houses don’t have hot and cold water.”
Finally, the big question came from a
VISTA worker. He asked, “What makes
you think the people will listen to you?
It seems the motive of the city govern
ment may be to placate some -people.
Don’t you think you are being used?”
Alexander replied, "I believe the mayor
was sincere in trying to get to the botton
of the problems.*'
Archbishop Hallinan stud. “I’ll quit if
it’s used as a rug to sweep things under.
If after a reasonable period of time some
of the problems are not being sqlved,
then I’ll resign.”
Mrs. Fred W. Patterson, another mem
ber of the panel, said, “We’re not under
any illusion that we can solve all the
problems. We don’t know how much power
we’ll have, but we'll use all we can get.”
A Negro man then said, “It’s no acci
dent we have Vine City and Lightning.”
Some one else said, “We feel Vine City
has something to offer Buckhead.and we
hope they will learn something about us.”
“I hope you’ll probe attitudes,” a man
said.
The opinions and comments came
quickly.
"Education is the most important
thing,” a woman said.
“We can’t reach the downtown people,"
a man said. "You people have the influence.
You tell them to listen to us. You speak
for us.”
“Everybody in Vine City is somebody
and We’ve got to get rid of paternalism”
The complaints and observations con-
No one said it or perhaps thought
about it, but Pope Paul expressed the
hopes of the people at the meeting when
he wrote in his encyclical, "On The De
velopment of Peoples,” that men seek
“freedom from misery, the greater as
surance of finding subsistence, health
and fixed employment; and increased share
of responsibility without oppression of any
kind and security from situations that do
violence to their dignity as men. . .’*
Though the people of Vine City and
Lightning have not read the encyclical,
they know it because they live it.
-CHRIS ECKL
\
A Good Servant
‘Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of
England, whose soul was more pure than
any snow, whose genius was such as
England never had — yea, and never
shall again, mother of good wits though
England be. . .”
This was the eulogy Erasmus wrote
when he learned of More’s death. And,
praise as high has been written about
the movie about MoreJ'A Man for All Sea
sons, ” now playing in Atlanta.
In his book, “Freedom Today, “Hans
Kung wrote, ‘Thomas More, in his se
cular dress, with his secular culture,
in the midst of his family, his possess
ions, and his public life, was a saint.”
True, none of us possesses the in
telligence of More, but we all would be
fortunate if we knew how to use and enjoy
the things of the world as he did. He
possessed the things of this world, but
was not possessed by them.
Praise of the movie is justified. The
acting, the photography and particularly
the dialogue are outstanding — in short,
it is an excellent movie about an in
credible man.
But this column was not written to laud
the movie except to say — everyone
should see it«but to write of More, who
should be an ideal for all laymen.
TfcAPPlST MONKS,who
LIVE TOGETHER IN VIRTUALLY
COMPLETE SILENCE, MAKE USE
OF A SIGN LANGUAGE EVOLVED
IN THE ANCIENT MONASTERIES
OF EUROPE. It is based oh
GESTURES WITH THE HANDS,
AND BEARS LITTLE
RELATION TO
THE MODERN
DEAF
AND
DUMB
ALPHABET.
To read of his career would make any
man striving for social, financial and
intellectual improvement envious. He was
a student at Oxford at 14, and afterwards
in London; at 22, the friend., of Erasmus
of Rotterdam and himself a brilliant hu
manist ■ and jurist; at 26, member of
Parliament; then Under-Sheriff of the
City of London and reader in law at
Lincoln’s Inn; Under-Treasurer of Eng
land at 43; then Speaker of the Lower
House, and High Steward of the Univer
sities of Oxford and Cambridge; finally,
at 51, Lord Chancellor and first states
man of the realm. Is it any wonder that
More has been pictured as a reluctant
martyr?
But martyr he was, and a great one.
Kung said he died as few have died
before hiih or since; on the scaffold,
with a smile in the royal freedom of a
Christian man. More said that he died
“the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
This is in contrast to Cardinal Wolsey,
who said on his deathbed that he wished
that he had served his G v ~ as well as he
had served his king.
And this may be the most impressive
theme in the movie — the use of power.
More had power and used it wisely,
and Henry VIII, Wolsey and Cromwell
did not. This is something that all of us
should remember in running the Church
and in electing our public officials
absolute power corrupts absolutely.
CHRIS ECKL
—GEORGIA PINES
Father ‘Abouna’
— By R. Donald v
Last Saturday’s morning newspaper
contained an article that the Melkite
Bishop will make his first official visit
to Atlanta next week to visit Saint John’s
Church on Ponce de 'Leon Avenue. The
occasion also happens to be the twenty-
fifth anniversary of the ordination to
the priesthood of Father William Haddad.
As I read the article I could not help
but think back to the day when the small
Melkite Rite community here in Atlanta,
asked permission
to buy this proper
ty. It had original
ly been the Candler
home and later was
occupied as the
state headquarters
for the American
Legion.
t
“Father Haddad
saw the potential for a church, and short
ly after the property was purchased«re-
novation began both on the. inside and
outside and today it is one of the more
attractive church properties on Ponce
de - Leon Avenue.
Father Haddad is not the first pastor
of the Melkite Rite community here in
Atlanta. There had been a priest back
some 30 or 40 years before. However,
a real effort at establishing a commu
nity of this rite began under Father
Haddad. The first Mass was offered by
Father Haddad in the basement chapel
of Sacred Heart Church, and was offered
there every Sunday until the Ponce de
Leon property was purchased.
I remember well Father Haddad’s first
days in Atlanta. Although he had been
a seminary professor and spoke French
fluently, he could not speak or under
stand English at all. It is a real tribute
to his persistency that he took courses
at Georgia State in addition to private
tutoring and was able to master the
English language in less than six mon
ths.
Living at the Immaculate Conception
rectory in those days were the late Mon
signor Grady, Father Harry Phillips,
Father Emmanuel Trainor C.P., and Fa
ther Vincent Connors C.P. (and, of course,
myself). Father Haddad was a welcome
addition to the "fraternity”. He couldn’t
understand a word we said I However, he
didn’t like Grady and Kiernan*s Boston
baked beans on Saturday night, nor Father
Phillips* grits, or Father Trainor*s corn
ed beef and cabbage. Soon real Leba
nese food began to appear. Instead of us
winning him over, he made converts of
all of usl
I remember the night Bishop Hyland
was coming for a visit. It was during the
time when Father Haddad used 7 to prac
tice his English lessons out loud. I went
over to his room and gave him an idiom.
I told him to use it whenever he passed
a plate of food to the Bishop. Father
Haddad rehearsed and rehearsed this
idiom until he thought that he had if down
perfect. Proud of his accomplishment he
went into Monsignor Grady’s office and
asked him to listen in order that he might
be sure about the proper inflections. He
told the Monsignor, “Father Kiernan
told me to use this expression whenever
I passed a plate to Bishop Hyland. I
would like to have you hear it”. "Sure
thing, Father”, Monsignor said, “let’s
hear it”. Then Father Haddad, making the
gesture of passing a plate, blurted out
with a big smile, “I hope you choke”.
(Needless to say, he didn’t use it).
Those were good happy days at the
"I.C.” and Father Haddad added as much
to the good humor and spirit of the rec
tory as much as anyone else. His humi
lity, generosity, and unselfish spirit made
the good father loved by all of the parish
ioners.
Even the school children came to look
upon Father Haddad as one of the parish
priests. Often times they confused the
Arabic word Abouna, which means Father
and they would call him, “Abouna* Fa
ther” or else “Father, Abouna”.
Father Haddad has a tremendous sense
of humor. Even back in those days when he
could not handle English too well, he
could appreciate a joke, I remember on
one occasion when the Melkite community
had a testimonial for him. Richard Azar
Was the toastmaster. In Richard’s enthu
siasm he likened Father Haddad’s coming
to Atlanta, to the triumphal entry of Christ
into Jerusalem and how happy the people
were to receive him. Richard did a good
job. Then' he called upon me to speak.
I reminded the people that they also cru
cified the Lord five days laterl
I wish Father Haddad the choicest
blessing on this holy occasion and I am
real happy to know that he is my friend.
VIETNAMESE WOMAN gets medicine from a medical
corpsman of the First Philippine Civic Action Group, as a
medical-dental team aids residents of the Tay Ninh, Viet
nam, area, (NC Photos)
‘Countess’ Is
A Museum Piece
By James Arnold
In “A Countess From Hong Kong,”
septuagenarian Charles Chaplin proves
(1) that he is still a master of the
incredibly timed sight gag, and (2) that
he has become woefully out of touch
with the comedy tastes of the inter
national movie audience.
“Countess is an expert bedroom farce
of the slamming door variety, in which
dignified diplomat Marlon Brando des
perately tries to
salvage his reputa
tion by hiding the
presence of stow
away Sophia Loren
during a cruise
from Asia to
Hawaii. Eventually,
of course, they fall
in love, and then
the problem be
comes Brando's du
existing wife.
ARNOLD
to his country and
It’s not so much that this is old material.
(Every traditional possibility is explored,
including the dilemma of where Sophia
is to sleep and how silly she looks in
his pajamas, people' dashing into
bedrooms, baths or closets whenever
there is a buzz at the door, and even
getting the cast seasick). All of it is
masterfully executed, and there is
pleasure in seeing a classic charade
performed with professional skill and
elan.
But it remains a museum piece, rather
as if writer-director Chaplin were trying
to show that he can build and operate a
model T Ford better than anyone. It’s
nice but irrelevant to and beneath modem
audiences, who have suffered through a
dozen years of “I Love Lucy.” It’s as
if nothing had happened to the style
and sophistication of film comedy since
the 1930’s.
What dates it most of all is a peculiarly
static and claustrophobic quality normally
associated withunimaginativefilm adapta
tions of stage plays. The action is
restricted not just to interiors butpracti-
cally to a single set. While the film is
certainly visual, with much comedy and
timing not easily achieved in a theater,
it cheerfully ignores the trend, now many
decades old, to spread movie comedy
over a wide landscape of authentic back
grounds.
In contrast to ‘The Knack,” a very
modern film farce, “Countess” seems
not to move at all. But worse, it seems
paralyzed even in comparison to recent
Doris Day or Elvis Presley epics.
The cast is fine, although Brando, an
actor who can handle anything, is never
at his best in an absolutely one
dimensional role that offers no challenge.
(His reservoir of power is cleverly used
for comedy in one closeup when he
demands, grimly and for the last time,
that Sophia get out of his pj's).
Miss Loren is an excellent and good-
natured farceur, and frosty Tippi Hedren
is expertly cast as Brando's ice-cold
wife. Further help comes from wry Sidney
Chaplin (what has kept him out of movies
for so long?) as Brando's confused friend,
and from Patrick Cargill, as a stuffy
valet who is forced to convert from
non-person to person status with hilarious
effect.
As in all sex farces, the moral tone
is dubious, with matrimony particularly
getting offhand treatment. But there is an
odd old-fashioned dignity about the pro
ceedings (which some will also find dated):
it is assumed, after all, that a strange
girl in one’s cabin is a shocking develop
ment. There are no hot romantic scenes,
and one sequence, where Brando-
in-bathrobe goes to buy clothes for Sophia,
utterly avoids a 1960-ish innuendo of
perversion.
This is Chaplin’s first film since the
magnificent “Limelight” and “Monsieur
Verdoux,” which were not widely screened
in this country. His reputation among
the immortals will not be hurt by
"Countess” or a dozen such films, and
he has no need to wait breathlessly for
our assurances on that score.
CriticaLCongress
/ T\ r\ 7 \ x - Y
Of Lay Apostolate
By Gary MacEoin
ROME - Next October, Rome will be
host not only to the first meeting of
the Synod of Bishops created in response
to a request of Vatican II, but also to the
first post-Council meeting of COPECIAL.
This awkwardly initialed body is the Per
manent Committee for International Meet
ings on the Lay Apostolate, and a major
item on its program will be a World
wide survey of the impact of lay parti
cipation in Church renewal.
The report will show that more issues
have been defined than resolved. Indeed,
the feeling in many countries is that the
immediate post -
Council period has
brought a down
grading of the lai
ty. I hear frequent
ly a comment that
was first made dur
ing the Council.
When that body vot
ed the collegiality
of bishops, a cynic
observed that Magna Charta’s transfer
of power in medieval England from the
king to the barons left the common peo
ple worse off than they had been before.
The laity rand lesser clergy who feel
the parallel in the present situation may
take heart from the historical evolution
which finally enabled the benefits to tf5ck-
le all the way down. But lay leaders in
many countries are insisting that the
result did not come by a simple ap
plication of the law of gravity. It re
quired a long and harsh struggle.
The organization of COPECIAL is such
that the Congress membership will re
flect principally only the so-called of
ficial Catholic Action, bodies direct
ly under the control of the bishops and
often exisiting primarily as fronts for
the expression of episcopal views. It is
nqt only in the United States that they
seldom provide a clue to what people
are really thinking.
Neither, however, is it only in die
United States that they are feeling the
need to become more truly representa
tive. The recent resignation of the pre
sident of the U.S. National Council of
National Men because of “the failure of
all our efforts to have a life of our own
and serve as an instrument of dialogue
with the bishops” was a mild incident
in comparison with many in other coun
tries.
France, for example, has had one clash
after another for the past several years,
with frequent resignations or firings of
top officers. The basic cause of con
flict has been a desire on the part of
young Catholic intellectuals to take' a
more active role in social progress than
the bishops judged appropriate. Spain has
had similar conflicts for the past year,
and for much the same reasons. The
archbishop of Madrid went so far as
to get the police to seize an issue of
a Catholic Action publication.
Similar differences have erupted in
Canada, in Belgium, in Germany, in Ar
gentina, almost everywhere. They show
not only the dissatisfaction within the
official bodies but also the fear that,
if they do not move faster, the focus
of power will shift from them to com
pletely non-official bodies. That is hap
pening in the United States, where move
ments are growing up around “Cross
Currents,” "Commonweal” and the “Na
tional Catholic Reporter,” movements
that are starting to institutionalize, as
witness the Institute for Freedom in the
Church and the more- recent National As.
sociation\For Pastoral Renewal, It is even
farther advanced in England, where
“Slant*’ has polarized Catholic opinion
around two dangerously separated ex
tremes.
One country which is strikingly free
of all such expressions of lay frustra
tion is Holland. In spite of the widely
publicized reports of extremist ten
dencies, it is noteworthy that the Dutch
bishops, priests and laity are solidly
united, especially when it is remembered
that the unity does not come from a need
to hold together against external ene
mies.. On the contrary, Dutch Catho
licism was never so free of outside pres
sures. Relations both with the State and
with Protestant Churches and other ideo
logical groups are excellent.
If one simple explanation can be given
to a complex phenomenon, it is that the
Dutch bishops have anticipated the de
sires of the priests and laity by im
plementing in depth the Council’s call for
the organized expression of public opin
ion. The Dutch Pastoral Council, which
first met last November, involves all the
people of the country in the decision-mak
ing process.
As is clear from a recent joint pastoral
on the role of the priest in contempor
ary society, the Dutch bishops have not
abdicated their authority. They have, how
ever, agreed to use it in a manner simi
lar to that of the pope when he ratified
the Council decrees. It is an extension
of the concept of collegiality, and I am
sure we shall hear more about it during
the COPECIAL congress.
MACEOIN