Southern cross. (Savannah, Ga.) 1963-2021, March 09, 1963, Image 4

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Southern cross., March 09, 1963, Image 4

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Newspaper Page Textt? > PAGE 4—The Southern Cross, March 9, 1963 Target-The Corrupters Both the distribution of obscene and moral ly objectionable books and magazines and their easy accesibility to youth, particularly in our larger cities will be evident to anyone who cares to take the time to browse about for a few minutes in almost any newstand. Unscrupulous publishers realize millions upon millions of dollars every year from the sale of such publications, and the conse quent corruption of the minds and souls of thousands of impressionable young boys and girls. Mr. J. Edgar Hoover and other emminent law-enforcement officers have cited such books and magazines as contributing heavily to growing juvenile delinquency and promis cuity among the young. The social and moral problems raised by the growing volume of written and pictorial filth has caused grave concern all over the nation, resulting in attempts to tighten anti obscenity legislation in many States, includ ing Georgia. A Bill designed to curb the distribution and sale of material considered obscene within the meaning of the Supreme Court’s definition of the term was passed earlier this week by the Senate. Perhaps the people of our State now have a meaningful and effective law to cope with the problem of printed obscenity. Only time will tell. But in the light of recent Supreme Court rulings striking down, as unconstitutional, similar attempts on the part of State legis latures in several northern and midwestern states, it is to be expected that Georgia’s anti-obscenity law, too, will be challenged by the smut merchants, and no one should be surprised if it, like so many others, is struck down or so emasculated as to become little more than an ineffective declamation. Meantime, Georgia parents still face the problem of safeguarding the minds and mor als of their youngsters against predatory publishers. They cannot be certain that the courts will not throw more obstacles in the way of the State’s attempts to make drug stores and newstands safe for immature, impression able, and naturally curious youth. The National Office for Decent Literature offers a program which can be of great help to concerned parents. We recommend it as a plan of action on the home level, and one which no parent genuinely interested in the spiritual welfare of his children should pass off lightly. 1. Parents should set a good example by reading good books themselves and discussing them in the family circle. 2. They should know the type of literature their child reads, both inside and outside the home. They should try to develop in the child a love of good literature, coupled with an enthusiasm to read. 3. They should know the books listed on their child’s required program at school and make sure the child reads them intelligently. 4. They should encourage the child to take every advantage of the local public library, and urge the child to buy books with money from his weekly allowance, if he has one. 5. Both parents and community groups should compliment publishers, wholesalers and retailers who stock good literature. Local community groups can also under take activities to promote a taste for good literature on the part of the young. They can help the local libraries by promotional campaigns and financial aid,* when it is needed; sponsor book fairs; book review contests; and, where it is not prohib ited by law, make inexpensive books easily accessible hy sponsoring paperback book stores in the school, which may be manned by the students themselves, with the profits set aside for school activities. Court actions which make government at tempts to safeguard the mental and moral health of its youngest citizens more and more difficult may indeed be frustrating, but they need not and must not mean the abandon ment of our young people to the cynical greed of the corruptors. Atheists Have Rights To find a Catholic newspaper coming to the defense of an atheist inevitably suggests the "man bites dog’’ comparison. Yet we do not hesitate to defend the litigant in a school prayer case which the Supreme Court has agreed to review, on at least one point, in order to illustrate the fallacy of a broader principle on which his case is apparently based. A Pennsylvania father has challenged a State law requiring daily reading of the Bi ble, sometimes followed by the Lord’s Pray er, in which pupils may participate or not as they wish. The father, an atheist, contends that excusing his children from this exer cise would label them as "odd-balls." We welcome the opportunity of throwing a spotlight on one fatal flaw in the reasoning of those who are over-solicitous about the "rights” of atheists. And atheists do have rights, we must remember. The Supreme Court, in the New York Regents school prayer case, appeared to base its decision in part on an assumption that all religions have equal rights under the law. The implication was that atheism enjoys the same rights. The high court cited, of course, the much quoted (and much misunderstood) First Am endment. Now the First Amendment, in addi tion to prohibiting "an establishment of re ligion," also guarantees "the free exercise thereof." It might fairly be argued that, when sev eral hundred school children and their par ents wish to open class with a prayer, they have at least the same right to pray as the atheist child has not to pray. But that is not the point we wish to make. Is atheism a "religion," within the mean ing of the law? We have to distinguish be tween atheism as a concept, and atheists, who have certain rights as citizens. It is impossible to justify atheism as a religion. Religion is based on belief in God. Atheism, by definition, is a denial of that belief. The Supreme Court, in the majority opinion in Zorach v. Clauson in 1952, laid down the principle that "we are a re ligious people whose institutions pre-sup pose a Supreme Being." If this be the case, atheism as a concept cannot be said to have the same status un der the law as its opposite, religion. They can’t have it both ways. So we come to the rights of the individ ual atheist as a citizen. He is entitled un der the Constitution to the "free practice" of his beliefs. But since his "beliefs” consist chiefly in the denial of belief (in God), all he needs to do to enjoy the "free exercise thereof" is to refrain from join ing in the prayers of those who do believe. Instead, he takes refuge behind his sensitiv ity over being an "oddball" and challenges the right of the majority of children to ask God’s blessing on their daily work. Whether or not this constitutes a "tyran ny of the minority," it hardly seems con sistent with our guarantee of religious free dom, or with the principle enunciated by the high court itself that "we are a religious people.” They risk the just rath of God who deny His plea to "suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." Let us remember, however, while we con demn atheism as an enemy of God, to pray in our charity for the atheists. For if there is anyone more deserving of pity than the man who has lost his faith, it is the child who has never found it. - (The Catholic Virginian) Red Threat Portrayed By Speakers At Capital Forum RAVAGING INNOCENT AND GUILTV ALIKE We Can’t Be This Bad It Seems to Me (By J. J. Gilbert) WASHINGTON—Some jar ring thoughts on the threat of communism in this hemisphere were evoked at a forum here. Speakers from more than a half dozen Latin American countries said the rise of Cas troism has greatly heightened the communist threat, but is not the only problem; that the threat is not to the United States alone, but to all nations in this half of the world and all of them must cooperate in meeting it; that it is not enough merely to overthrow bad governments, but justice—political economic and social—must be guaranteed to the peoples of the various nations. Readers of the Catholic press are familiar with all of these disclosures. However, the fact that the speakers carried im pressive credentials, and often attacked the problem from a new angle gave this particular meeting new impact. "The proximity of Cuba to the United States is only incidental to the problem" of communism in this hemisphere, said Hora- cio Estol, U. S. correspondent for Clarin in Argentina. Only just returned from his own country, he said "Castroism can only be stopped if all the Latin American countries keep awake and alert." But Dr. Manuel A. De Varona, expresident of the Senate of Cuba, saw Castro Cuba greatly facilitating the spread of com munism. "Before the Soviet domination of Cuba," he said, "communist subversion in La tin America was carried out on a limited scale." Russia’s great distance made it very difficult to establish a satellite in this hemisphere, he asserted, adding that "the fail ure of the communist attempt in Guatemala demonstrated this fact." The conquest of Cuba "opened up unexpected horizons to the imperialistic designs of Russia," he declared. Joaquin Belaguer, former president of the Dominican Re public, said "Cuba has con verted herself into a tremen dous focus of agitation covering the whole hemisphere." He add ed that while Castro’s image has become somewhat blurred in Latin America, "he is still, however, a symbol for great segments of the population in Latin America which consider themselves the victims of eco nomic and social injustice." Dr. De Varona said the peo ples of Latin America "are already alert and in a belli gerent mood," but that "a new strategy" is needed to meet the "Castro-communist chal- (Continued On Page 6) If it seems to you that there is a look of dumb horror in my eyes, as of one who has been put on a diet of spinach, or sentenced to listen to radio announcers, I can only tell you d e s p a r- ingly that you are right H i deous- ly right. I fear for all of us with a great fear, be cause I see that we are going to be put through another interminable go-around on the subject of American Catholic intellectual infer iority. Evan as I write, the letters— pitying letters, patronizing let ters, denunciatory letters—are beginning to appear in the pub lic prints. And I am sure I can hear the first faint sounds of a revival of that dread tribal chant: "Where are our Catho lic Einsteins, Oppenheimers, Salks?’’- In imagination I can look across our once happy land, and envision the preparations for our new martyrdom. I can see the perennial convention speak ers dry-washing their hands and chuckling as they contemplate the sadistic pleasure of strip ping us, some summer, of our last shreds of self-respect. It is a blood-chilling pros pect. It is a more fearful thing, indeed, than the self-accusation orgies of the communists, be cause at least the communists JOSEPH BREIG have their tongues in their cheeks. It will not be so with us. Our breasts are going to be piously beaten for us by all kinds of earnest Catholic publi cations, pundits and lecturers. Sackcloth and ashes will be in short supply; hair shirts will bring premium prices. In my mind’s eye I can watch Donald McDonald, Our Oracle, as he bends over his desk at midnight, laboring on an eru dite column exhorting us to di vest ourselves of mediocrity, to rise into greatness, to ini tiate a cultural renaissance. I can see Robert Hoyt of the Kansas City Reporter, Our The oretician, jotting names for a symposium of intellectuals who will discourse profoundly about why we have no intellectuals. I can look into the office of Father Raymond Bosler of the Indianapolis Criterion, Our Gadfly, as he draws up some criteria for us—we who do not even know that the word is not criterions. Nothing short of a miracle certifiable to the Congregation of Rites, I fear, can dissuade Ave Marie magazine from send ing men with machines to tape- record solemn interviews with our duly licensed great minds, who will analyze our mental deficiencies and perhaps sug gest a bit more oxygen to the brain. In the vision vouchsafed to me (I being Our Prophet) I can hear Commonwealth magazine commenting upon the situation with clarity, charity, and civil ized expressions of regret for Second Sorrowful Mystery THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR Our^ Father They bound Jesus and delivered him to Pilate./ And Pilate asked him, 'Art thou the king of the Jews?’ Mark 15:1, 2 HailMary Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world./ But thou sayest it; I am a king.’ John 18:36, 37 Hail^Mary 'This is why I was born, and why I have come into the world,/ to bear witness to the truth.’ John 18:37 Hail Mary Then Pilate said, 'I find no guilt in this man./ I will therefore chastise him and re lease him.’ Luke 23:4,16 Hail^Mary Pilate, then took Jesus/ and had him scourged. John 19:1 Hail ^ Mary Scriptural 3\osar? Part 7 Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,/ a man of suffering. Isa. 53:8, 3 Hail Mary Though he was harshly treated, he sub mitted,/ like a lamb led to the slaughter. Isa. 53:7 Hail^Mary He was pierced for our offenses,/ crushed for our sins. Isa. 53:5 Hail ^ Mary It was our infirmities that he bore,/ our sufferings that he endured. Isa. 53:4 Hail ^ Mary Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,/ by his stripes we are healed. Isa. 53:5 Hail n Mary Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit./ As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Editor’s Note: This is one of the 15 decades of the Scriptural Rosary, a modern version of the way the Rosary was once prayed in the Middle Ages. We are presenting the complete Scriptural Rosary in 15 install ments as a service to our readers. You are invited to save these meditations for future use. Or you may obtain the complete set in illustrated prayer-book form by sending $ 1 to the nonprofit Scriptural Rosary Center, 6 N. Michigan A venue, Chicago 2, Illinois. Addresses Presbyterians BALTIMORE—Daniel Calla han, associate editor of Com monwealth magazine, will ad dress the congregation and guests of Towson, Md., Presby terian church March 10th on "The Vatican Council and Christian Understanding." His talk will be one of a series sponsored by the church on the ecumenical movement. For Mental Disorders TAYLOR, Mich.—A shrine to St. Dymphna, patroness of those afflicted with mental and nerv ous disorders, was opened here. Solemn dedication ceremon ies will be conducted in the spring by Bishop Nicholas Elki of the Pittsburgh Byzantine Rite diocese. New Vatican VATICAN C IT Y—Vatican City will issue a special series of stamps supporting the Cam paign Against Hunger of the United Nations’ Food and Agri culture Organization (FAO) on March 21st. They will be of four values: 15, 40, 100, and 211 lire. Promote Immigration CANBERRA, Australia— Australian Minister for Immi gration, Alexander Downer, has praised this country’s church es for their work in promoting immigration. The six bishops of the Austra lian Federal Catholic Immigra tion Committee have warned in a joint statement that immigra tion restrictions are harming this nation’s future. They also said immigrants have not only strengthened the country econo mically but have changed its social patterns for the better. Fair Housing Law Lithuanian Latins our mindlessness. I see telephone dials whirl ing as eager program chairmen heat the wires with messages arranging for learned papers proposing "a commitment to excellence". The Jesuits at America magazine will contrive both to defend us (we being subscrib ers whose dollar is just as good as a thinker’s) and to examine our brains and find them revolt ing. Dan Herr of Critic, Our Of ficial Headsman, will cut off some heads. Msgr. John Tracy Ellis will repent himself anew that he ever wrote a book about Catholics and the intellec tual life. The publisher will perhaps bring it out in paper back and retire to enjoy his wealth. So much for our friends, from whom heaven protect us. I shudder to think what Pro testants and Other Americans, Etc., Etc., will say about med ieval obscurantism, monolith ic uniformity and hierarchical authoritarianism. Not to one single mind, of course, will it occur that loose generalizations are bad reas oning; that a couple of officials at Catholic University of Amer ica are not the Church in Am erica, and that if one were to search assidously, one might find a Catholic campus where the Four Theologians would be welcome, even if they did shake the foundations of the cosmos by saying that it would be nice if Catholics could know what they are saying when they assemble for divine worship. SAN FRANCISCO—The Ca tholic Interracial Council of San Francisco has adopted a resolution urging support for extended fair housing state leg islation with commission en forcement. The council president recom mended a bill to provide for enforcement by the commis sion which now implements the California Fair. Employment Practices Law. Proposed legislation prohi bits discrimination in housing because of race, creed or col or. Exempt are owner-occup ied single family dwellings. Atlanta Movie Law ATLANTA—The Georgia Su preme Court reinstated this city's controversial movie-rat ing ordinance but noted it re frained from ruling on the law’s constitutionality. The high court said a Fulton County judge erred in holding the city’s right to enact such an ordinance as invalid." But, said the court, "we make no ruling upon any of the at tacks challenging the constitu tionality of the ordinance." Warns Against Haste MONTREAL—Auxiliary Bi shop Gerald E. Carter of Lon don, Ont., suggested here that religious differences should first be ironed out before there is widespread discussion of complete union of all churches. "We certainly all deplore the schisms of humanity," he said, and it is terrible to see Chris tian churches sometimes fight ing against each other. But I don't even like to talk about church union now, "Talking about it," he added, "might frustrate the type of unity we are seeking. Years ago we were at odds. Now we are discussing with respect our re ligious differences." MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay— About 8,000 of the approximate ly 100,000 Lithuanians now liv ing in Latin America in exile from their Red-ruled homeland Missouri Bus Bill ST. LOUIS—A bill to permit pupils of private schools to ride tax-paid school buses faces a dim future in the Missouri Leg islature, a survey here showed. The St. Louis Review, arch diocesan newspaper, said sev eral of the lawmakers it con tacted predicted the bill will die in committee. The paper said the bill has been met with indifference. It has gotten little publicity, few supporters and lacks backing from Catholic organizations or any of the state’s four Sees, the paper said. attended the 2nd Catholic Lith uanian Congress of Latin America held here last month. Sentence Confirmed SEOUL, Korea—Gen. Ghong- O Kim, Korean Army chief of staff, has confirmed the 3 year suspended sentence given to former Premier John M, Chang, leading Korean Catholic lay man. Chang will appeal to a higher court. Pardoned shortly after his first trial last September, Chang refused the pardon, insisting on his innocence. Buddhists, Catholics MUTWAL, Ceylon—A rally here marking Ceylon’s 15thAn niversary of independence was the first time that Catholics and Buddhists in Mutwal cele brated a national event toge ther, according to a Buddhist monk. The monk, Narammala Indrajothi, shared a platform at the rally at a Catholic college here with Father Alexis Serru, O.M.I. Reds In Trouble ROME—Italy’s Communis party has been hit by a wavf of resignations at the outse of its election campaign. 50 members resigned er masse at Scafati in the province of Salerno, and a woman deputj from Bari, Ada Del Vecchio- Guelfi, also resigned declaring that party leaders were acting "contrary to the interests ol Italian workers." The Bari deputy also com plained that communist leader; had allied themselves withneo- Fascists and fought against the ruling Center-Left coalitior "just as the conservative anc reactionary forces fight it." Frequent Communicants Every-Day Saints’ VANCOUVER, B. C., (NC)~ Catholics who frequently re ceive Holy Communion are the "every-day saints of this Se cond Vatican Council year," Archbishop W. M. Duke of Van couver said here. The Southern Cross Vol. 43 P. O. BOX 180. SAVANNAH. GA. Saturday, March 9, 1963 No. 25 Published weekly except the last week in July and the last week in December by The Southern Cross, Inc. Subscription price $3.00 per year. Second class mail privileges authorized at Monroe, Ga. Send notice of change of address to P. O. Box 180, Savannah, Ga. Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough, D.D.J.C.D., President Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor John Markwalter, Managing Editor Rev. Lawrence Lucree, Rev. John Fitzpatrick, Associate Editors