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12 GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1968
Letters To The Editor
EDITOR:
The recent terrible tragedy in
Los Angeles has brought home to
us the tremendous need for an
effective gun control law.
As you know the bill before
the President has been amended
by the , Senate so severely it is not
truly effective. It deals only with
handguns and does not in any
way prevent the sale of mail
order rifles and shotguns. There is
at present no law to prevent a
criminal, a mental patient or a
child from purchasing a rifle or
shotgun through the mail.
Even though nation wide polls
prove that more than 80 per cent
of our citizens believe there
should be an effective gun
control law - Congress does not
act. Unfortunately, the House
and Senate do not respond to
Polls but do respond to mail from
their constituents. The mail they
receive on this question is largely
from the 700,000 members of
the National Rifle Association
and other local and state gun
clubs.
We are hopeful that
churchwomen from all over this
country will deluge their Senators
and Congressmen with mail
requesting a strong, effective Gun
Control Law that will include the
control of firearms of all kinds.
There should be at least a
three-day waiting period before
purchasing a firearm - a check
should be made to see if the
purchaser has a criminal record or
a record of any mental illness.
The law should also require
registration of firearms.
Since the turn of the centry
there have been over 750,000
deaths in this country
attributable to firearms. More
than 80,000 of these deaths have
occurred since President Kennedy
was assassinated with a mail order
rifle in 1963.
Please write to your State
Representative and Senators as
well as those in Washington, D.C.
It is possible that our own
legislature may enact an effective
gun control law this year because
of the climbing death rate in
Georgia due to the use of
firearms.
At the National level please
write immediately to: Senator
Richard B. Russell, Senate Office.
Bldg., Washington, D.C.; or
Senator Eugene Talmadge, Senate
Office Bldg., Washington, D.C.
Write today, the life you save
might really be your own.
Mrs. William M. Dennon
Retiring President
Mrs. H. T. Mallon
President-Elect
Archdiocesan Council
Of Catholic Women
EDITOR:
Please continue “The
Question Box” in the Bulletin. I
find it most interesting.
Wayne Adams
Hoschton, Ga.
EDITOR:
These are trying times for the
clergy, if we may judge from
Father Kieman’s chip on the
shoulder “Caught In The Middle
column (June 6). The clergy is
beginning to find out what it
means to be involved. The
Christian family has always
known. We hear opinions all
week long upon the topics Father
Kiernan referred to. We accept or
reject them according to our own
judgment and experience. If the
Sunday homily is another group
of opinions these will be
considered accordingly.
Perhaps the clerical problem
here is that because the priest
says it does not mean that the
priest is right. If the clergy is
finally going to become involved
“dedicated to your boy’s future . . .
with understanding,
guidance and challenge
ST. STANISLAUS
Brothers of the Sacred Heart
Boarding School for Boys
from the 5th thru 12th grades
For more than 100 years, St. Stanislaus has built a
reputation as the school of character, with emphasis
on guidance of the spiritual, emotional, intellectual
and moral development of young men. Located on
the beautiful Gulf Coast with an extensive campus,
the newest dormitory residence hall in the South,
facilities for all kinds of sports, and the latest and
accepted trends in education under the individual
guidance counseling of the Brothers of the Sacred
Heart.
WRITE FOR FREE BROCHURE
Director of Boardinc Students
ST. STANISLAUS
Bay St. Louis, Mississippi 39520
it must be prepared to accept the
conditions of involvement. While
Christ was teaching, most people
found fault with what He said
and did. He spoke on the issues
of the day so convincingly that
the words are still applicable. In
fact, He did not even need a
church in which to preach. If He
were caught in the middle He did
not let it show.
The family is the most
difficult Christian station in
which to live. No religious is
subjected to the family’s
demands, buffeting, frustrations,
or its joys, either. On Sunday we
need instruction, counsel,
exhortation, solace and a little
peace. Wfe need Christian
instruction on the issues of the
day. If you give us your opinions,
Father Kiernan, then you will be
doomed to writing many more
“Caught In The Middles.”
Rudolph T. Franklin
Athens.
EDITOR:
Congratulations are in order
for Father James F. Scherer for
the Day of Awareness held at St.
Joseph’s. I can only pray that it
has lighted a fire under the
participants rather than just
soothed their consciences.
It is unfortunate that so many
parishes do so little, talk so much
and celebrate their tremendous
generosity to the poor by buying
$10,000 organs and wall-to-wall
carpeting.
In fact, it’s an indictment
against the Church that a Day of
Awareness should have to be held
at all.
Richard Oppenheimer Jr.
Atlanta
Begs For
Missions
VATICAN CITY(NC)-Pope
Paul VI, likening himself to a
beggar with hand outstretched,
has appealed to the world’s
Catholics to help the missions in
general and the pontifical mission
works in particular.
“The needs of the mission
territories are immense, from
whatever point of view they are
considered,” he wrote in a
message to the bishops and
faithful of the Catholic world.
“They need schools, hospitals,
churches, oratories, leprosariums,
seminaries, centers of formation
and of repose, and voyages
without end.”
The Pope began his message
by recalling that this year’s
Mission Sunday would fall on
Oct. 20.
“It is meant to be a time to
rekindle in the heart of each
Catholic the realization of the
missionary vocation of the whole
Church,” he said. “The Church
was founded to be missionary.
Christ’s Church calls herself
Catholic, that is, universal. She is
called to become in fact, in
history, in the ranks of mankind,
what she is by right, what she is
by duty: Christ’s witness for all,
the means of salvation for all, a
mystic and human society open
for all.
ROMAN Catholic Archbishop Terence J. Cooke of New York .right,
addressed the General Board of the National Council of Churches
here. He was greeted by Dr. Arthur Flemming, left, president of the
agency representing 33 Protestant and Orthodox C urches. In his
remarks, the archbishop said that “despite our doctrinal differences,
we are now walking together, praying together, working together,
trusting and respecting one another. (RNS Photo).
Cooperation To Increase,
Archbishop Tells Council
NEW YORK (RNS) - Raising
hopes for increased
Protestant-Roman Catholic
cooperation in this country were
emphasized in an address to the
General Board of the National
Council of Churches here by
Archbishop Terence F. Cooke of
New York.
Archbishop Cooke is the first
member of the U.S. Catholic
hierarchy to address a meeting of
the NCC policy-making body.
The New York prelate traced
efforts of the archdiocese in two
areas which the NCC has marked
for priorities in its own program
- world peace and the crisis of
the cities.
He began and ended his
address with a plea for renewed
efforts for Christian unity.
Addressing the delegates to
the Protestant and Orthodox
organization as “my very dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, ’
the Catholic leader noted that
“to our sorrow, we are divided,”
and asked: “Why? How? For how
much longer?” :
He urged that all Christians
allow Christ “to pour out His
love into our hearts and inspire us
to act as God’s own people, to
act even more vigorously than we
speak, and to act together.”
The spirit of Christ, he said,
“is the Pentecostal spirit,
God’s own spirit who drives us on
to live and work for one another
as for ourselves.”
At the conclusion of his
remarks the archbishop pleaded
“for your prayers for me and my
people; I devotedly promise you
mine. ’
“I believe Christian unity
depends far more on charity and
mutual affection than it does on
deeper knowledge,” he
continued. “Love is the driving
force behind all our efforts
toward unity. Love has its own
way of sharpening and clearing
our vision so that we can
recognize the truth more readily.
“Those who love one another
always see the good qualities
which those who are indifferent
overlook. Love makes us more
perceptive. This is why the future
looks bright and promising for us
- because despite our doctrinal
differences, we are now walking
together, praying together,
working together, trusting and
respecting one another.”
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