4 GEORGIA BULLETIN' THURSDAY, AUGUST, 29, 1968
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Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher
Christopher E. Eckl Managing Editor
Rev. R. Donald Kiernan Consulting Editor
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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.
