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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1968)
4 GEORGIA BULLETIN' THURSDAY, AUGUST, 29, 1968 AaainHH w ot Arum sewing utawun n "wwthfhn < w vm* Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher Christopher E. Eckl Managing Editor Rev. R. Donald Kiernan Consulting Editor 2699 Peachtree N.E. P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Member of the Catholic Press Association and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. Newsservice Telephone 261-1281 Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga. Atlanta, Georgia 30305 U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.00 Foreign $6.50 Published Every Week at the Decatur - DeKalb News Hie opinions contained in these editorial columns are the free expressions of free editors in a free Catholic press. Vincentian Letter (Ed. Note: This guest editorial is from a letter to members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. It was written by Joe Flanagan, executive secretary). Father Hein has set aside the weekend of October ,1-3 at Ignatius House for an Exercise in Christian Community. He has made available thirty reservations for members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. According to the Manual, it is requested that there be an annual retreat for all members of the Society. This has not been the custom in the past, but this weekend at Ignatius House could help us fulfill this obligation. AN “ECUMENICAL Day,” reportedly the first ecumenical event ever held under Roman Catholic auspices in overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia, was part of the program at the 39th International Eucharistic Congress in Bogota. Father Samuel Pinzon, an Anglican priest, is the speaker. At left is Father Gabriel Stephen, an Orthodox clergyman and at right Bishop Hermann Dietzfelbinger, chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKID). This month will complete two years of my service as your Executive Secretary. By reports to you at Particular Council meetings and through the medium of this Newsletter, you are aware of the numerous activities that I have been engaged in. I think that it is safe to say that the Society today is-quite different from, the Society of two years ago. This change is not due to me but to you. Change requires action and it was you who, in accepting the ideas that came to you from the Central Office and from the hierarchy, have made the Society a strong force in the Church’s concern for the poor. It is normal to feel complacent when we feel a job is going well, and at such a time it is good to review our ideas and our activities, and see how they fit into the objectives of the Society. St. Vincent de Paul stated that “the poor who belong to Jesus Christ, are our lords and masters.” Do we truly feel this way? There are two primary purposes of the Society. The first is the sanctification of the individual member; the second is to serve those in need and bring them closer to God. With these statements as a background, it would be well to review our commitment to the Society and to the poor. Can we give an honest answer to such questions as: Why am l a Vmcetian? The Rule of the Society makes it definitely clear that in giving aid, any distinction on the basis of creed, color, or nationality is unworthy of the Vincentian spirit. We are merely dispensers of the gifts of God and His gifts are for all alike. How does this fit with my attitude? Do I feel that everyone I serve is my brother in Christ and in true humility of spirit thank Him for my ability to be of service? Again, what was my real reason for joining the parish Conference? Did I do so because it offered some sort of prestige or recognition? If I joined it to be of service to the poor, and there is not enough activity in my parish Conference, am I willing to serve the poor in any phase of the Society’s activities? In offering myself to the activities of the Society either on the parish level or in committee work, is my commitment total to the limit of my time and ability, -or do I set my own terms on the amount of service I will render, and the conditions on which I will render that service? And one final question: in taking pride in my work as a Vincentian, do I negate the spiritual value of my work by comparing, like the Pharisee, my commitment to that of other members? Without being judgmental, however, we must recognize that in the membership of the Society there is a lot of mindpower and a lot of manpower and a lot of money power that is not being used in the service of the poor. Only you, as you examine your response to Christ’s concern for the poor, in the light of what Christ has done for you, can determine the quality of your commitment to the objectives of the Society. May the light of the Holy Spirit guide each of us. Bishop Denounces PARIS (NC)—Archbishop Geraldo de Proenca Siguad, S.V.D., of Diamantina, Brazil has denounced “communist infiltration in the Catholic Church of Brazil,” LeMonde, Paris daily, reported. In a statement to the press (Aug. 16),. the 58-year-old Brazilian-born archbishop said: “Communist infiltration in the Catholic Church of Brazil is so visible that only the desire to preserve an appearance of Catholic life or the desire not to ‘Red’ Infiltration alarm the faithful can explain the fact that priests and bishops deny it.” After stating that communist elements have probably entered the seminaries and then “have been raised into the clerical hierarchy,” the archbishop added that many priests and Catholic leaders “repeat, as if they were children, communist slogans against North American imperialism and neglect censuring the world’s worst imperialism, which is communism. GEORGIA PINES ‘Pope’ And Janitor By R. Donald Kiernan THE GOOD Father had not been in the country very long when some hospitable soul asked him to speak to the local Rotary Club. Not knowing a word of the language, he needed an interpreter. The speech began with the telling of a joke, and the interpreter followed with the translation. The crowd roared. The Father decided to tell another joke, and when the interpreter followed with the translation this time the room was filled with laughter to the rafters. Then the Father decided to scrap his talk because the jokes were better. Following the telling of the next joke absolute pandemonium broke loose. The Father sat down and as the routine matters of the civic club were being handled, he turned to the interpreter and commented that he must have retold the jokes with real style judging from the way the club members reacted to them. “Oh, no”, the interpreter said, “1 merely stood up and said, ‘the Foreigner has told a joke, please laugh" ’. But after living with the Father for nearly a month now, I can testify that he has quite a sense of humor coupled with quick wit. Father Tony Glynn is a native of Australia and has spent his priesthood working in Japan. Short in height by American standards, he comments that “he feels like a giant among his parishioners.” the only Christian, “he has to start somewhere”. Running a kindergarten over there is a full time job. In addition to teaching, instructions, playing with the children, etc., Father Tony is his own chief cook and bottlewasher. It might be summed up that in that big metropolis, being the only Christian, he is Pope and janitor. Father Tony has a couple of brothers who are also priests. One brother came for a visit and he cautioned him to laugh whenever his guests laughed. He instructed the townspeople that his brother was very sensitive and whenever he laughed, that they should return the laugh too, or otherwise his brother would be offended. The whole evening was spent in laughter, and as Father Tony puts it, “it seemed that one was trying hard to outdo the other” - . When they returned to the rectory his brother had a real puzzled look as he asked Father Tony, “What’s wrong with those people? Are they crazy or something? I told them about my ulcer -and they burst into laughter!” COMMENTING on the different customs, Father Tony said that the importance of a funeral is judged by its length. Of course being the only Christian, he does not have many funerals. Occasionally there are a couple of death bed conversions. Sometimes the dying persons relatives don’t mind their kin folk converting because it’s better to have “one of them die, than one of us”. FATHER TONY talks with real affection about his assignment in Japan, and right now he is in the States raising money to build a kindergarten. He had a kindergarten and was doing a beautiful job running it but the school was state-owned and the communists took up a petition to toss him out. He said that no one was even aware that there were communists in the town until they appeared with a petition, but Father Tony will outsmart them (he hopes) in January, when he returns with enough cash to build his own school. Kindergartens might not seem too important to us here in this country, but in a city of a hundred and fifty thousand people where Father Tony is The other day 1 took Father Tony to visit police Chief Jenkins. It was quite a gathering as the Atlanta Chief, an Inspector from Scotland Yard, and this Australian-Japanese priest .talked about different customs. Father Tony talked about “justice” in Japan before the War. He told the Chief, “There never was an unsolved crime over there. Of course they didn’t always get the right man, but they got someone.” I venture to say that if Father Tony is half as successful in Japan as he has been in Atlanta, he’ll have that city Christian in no time at all. All he needs is a starting place, and that’s why he’s here now: hoping that we’ll help him to put his foot inside the-door over there.
