The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, September 05, 1963, Image 4

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The Georgia bulletin, September 05, 1963, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 5, 1963 the Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA BULLETIN SEUVING GEORGIA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published Every Week at the Decatur Dekalb News Published by Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan Printed at Decatur, Ga. MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence Member of the Catholic Press Association jind Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 | U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 2699 Peachtree N.E P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Ga. Application to mail at Second Class Postage Rates is pending at Atlanta, Ga. Parent-Teacher Our children went back to sch ool this week, and it is qerhaps a good time to reflect on the fact that teachers complement, rather than supplant, parents. This is especially so in relation to reli gious formation, which we believe is important in the education of the whole child. All too often parents are apt to ignore the fact that they are the prime educators of their children. They sometimes gripe about school regulations and the alleged attempts of teachers to usurp parental rights. Alas, we need more emphasis on parental responsibility. This includes the training of well-disciplined chil dren who respect parental autho rity and carry this respect to those who have authority delega ted to them in the schools. It is for this reason that we suggest that all parents take an active part in parent-teacher associations, offering their tal ents and free time in improving our educational processes. One cannot satisfy this responsibil ity, or buy oneself free from it by signing a check or making a donation, or paying one’s dues. The teachers in our schools need the prayerful cooperation of all the parents, rich and poor, pro minent and unsung. Much of the teachers’ time these days is taken up in worry ing about classroom discipline, school bus vandalism and infra ctions of safety rules. All these things have solutions which are found in the home, rather than in teachers’ manuals. So, too, many parents com plain that they have no say in their schools, even though they are expected to make heavy con tributions to them. This may well have been the norm in years gone by, but today the laity is asked to help, not only with their money, but also with their talents. Most school principals, welcome constructive criticism, but they get so little of it. Rather, they get a lot of complaints about things which are, in fact, the parents’ responsibility. Quite of ten, these complaints originate from parents who have never at tended a PTA meeting, and in some instances, never even visit ed the school. These notes apply, not only to our parochial* schools, but also to the public school system. We should cooperate all we can to make a success of this school year. The more we supervise our children in the homej the more we insist on completed home work and home study, the more we will be giving the teache r time to teach. Confraternity Classes We mentioned in the above edi torial the need of religious for mation in education. This is espe cially so in relation to children attending public schools. The parochial school is rightly conce rned with the education of the soul. However, the emphasis in the public school system is on the material side of education. Indeed, recent Supreme Court rulings have all but banned reli gious expression from the public school classroom. Catholic parents of children in public schools, therefore, have an added responsibility in insur ing the religious instruction of their youngsters. Our parishes provide a valuable aid in this regard. The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine has special classes of religious instructional times which do not conflict with school attendance. Parents should take advantage of this service, insisting that their children attend these classes. Parents of high school students are especially advised of the im portance of teen-age attendance. This is the most neglected age group of all, even though it is the one most in need of persever- ing faith. Parents seem to feel that the teen-ager is too grown up to attend religion classes. Yet, the statistics in every sp here of life show that this is the most naive of thinking. Who would dare to say that he has an absolute grasp of the reality in any sphere of the Ch urch’s life*? Who would be as bold as to assert that he has nothing more to learn about this marvelous family into which Ch rist has called us? Parents, then, would be doing themselves and their youngsters a positive service by insisting on attendance at Confraternity in struction. True Christian edu cation does indeed have concern for the soul. We would be dere lict in our duty if we ignored the importance of religion in edu cation. To Dare BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA FOURTEEN rH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. Sunday Mass is a weekly reunion of the sons and daughters of God, of men and women so conscious of their dignity in Christ that they dare say "Our Father.” Nothing, not even grievous sin, can de prive us of that dignity, of the mark, the seal of Jesus Christ that is on us. But part of that dignity is the dignity of decision, frequent decisions, free choices. The Word of Cod today teaches realistically about our choices in order to encourage us to make them always as sons of God, "in the spirit” (First Reading). God speaks plainly to us, not to deflate us nor to lay us low, but to lift us high, as high as*ur baptismal and Confirmation commit ment. What are we affirming Sunday after Sun day as we gather for the Eucharist but that com mitment and our willingness to make itour"first care to find the kingdom of God, and his approval” (Gospel)? MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, ST. PETER CLAVER, CON FESSOR. What an important feast this is in 1963, when the Christian conscience so long dormant and uncritical of large areas of life lived according to the "impulses of nature” as finally awakening to the impli cations of man's dignity I It is a dignity quite Independent of skin-pigmentation and ANCIENT WRONG Meaningful Meeting BY FR. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW Some 200,000 Americans, mostly Negroes, ga thered on August 28 around our two most meaning ful national shrines. They gathered there **to redress an ancient wrong and to solve a present crisis.” They marched in demand of jobs and freedom. It was a most impressive demonstra tion. History will inevitably record the event, relate it to its causes and effects and pass a verdict. I cannot feel that anyone here and now ought to presume to judge an event that embodied so much of human value - so much suffering and so much dignity. The ancestors of these 200,000 Negro Ameri cans arrived on these shores well over a century ago. They came in the most degraded condition to which man can be reduced. Torn from their homes, they were exhibited on an auctio neer's block and they were bought and sold, for a hand some profit, to be owned, body and soul, by other men. Hus bands and wives, mothers and children were separated at the pounding of an auctioneer's ga vel, without qualm of con science, without the least hu man sympathy. Here in America they were used as beasts of burden, as props for the luxury of the idle, as victims of lust. Freed one hundred years ago by proclamation of President Lincoln, they found precious little freedom, precious little share of the American dream of opportunity to which their leaders referred again and again on August 28. And so they gathered, 200,000 strong, to air their pain and their hopes and - may God forgive us - their still-free souls and their love. It was here in America that these people were taught about freedom by those who held them in bondage. It was here that they learned about the ideal of this nation which, in its beginnings, held it to be "self-evident” that men are, each and every one, created equal. It was not in Africa but here in the United States that someone read to them from our Declaration of Independence LITURGICAL WEEK To Say ‘Our the strait jacket of social custom. • w/io is my neighbor?” Jesus queries in the Gospel. And the First Reading tells us that only when we have the right answer, only "then shall you call, and the Lord shall hear.” No answer and no action is not neutrality—it is the wrong answer and the wrong action. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, ST. NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO, CONFESSOR. The dignity the Christian sees in the human person is not so fragile that human injustice can shatter it. We can be hooted at, reviled, persecuted and retain our dignity (First Reading). But the hooters, the revilers, the persecutors, the people without the right answers and the right actions—these are the ones whose hearts like their treasures (Gospel) are not in heaven, who need ourhe^ and our con fession of our faith in deeds. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, MASS' AS ON SUNDAY. "Look kindly on us...and discern the face of your Christ,” we sing in the Entrance Hymn. Even though our Opening Prayer admits that our mortal nature is "unstable” so that we need God’s grace, nevertheless the face of Christ is seen in our faces or He is not seen at all. "Have you not an excellence beyond theirs?” (Gospel). THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, THE MOST HOLY NAME OF MARY. That this dignity be longs to the whole human person and not just to a man’s soul Is clearly seen in the Blessed Vir- that it was also self-evident, beyond argument, that all men everywhere are endowed by their Creator with certain rights which cannot betaken away, that are beyond question, that belong to a man because he is a man. It must have been a shock - of pain and thrill combined - to learn that in America we hold one of these rights to be liberty. And they were told that another is the right to pursue happiness, to chase it and bring it down, to fight and stretch every fiber of your heart to capture this precious prey, the right to decent human life. And pursue it they have and will! There is something else the Negro learned about in America. He was taught about the Chris tian religion. He was taught to be baptized into Christ to be a son of God. He was taught about heaven and the final glory when "God will wipe away every tear...and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more.” (Apocalypse 21) And they learn ed that Jesus had to be betrayed and whipped and killed to earn this for us. And they heard his commandment to love one another, even those who persecute us. With this knowledge they con soled themselves in the days of their bondage and suffering. And on August 28, 1963 they stood before the nation and the world and the Christian community and they reproached our conscience. The immense throng gathered in Washington, D. C. last week was made up of peaceful men. They came and went with no harm done to any one. They voiced only noble aspirations and they demanded only their rights. One of their leaders, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, reminded them that they must not hate those who mis treated them. He reminded them that unearned suffering is redemptive. He spoke to them of the strength of the freedom within each man’s soul. And they cheered him and went to their homes bravely. I do not pretend to know all that history will say of the events of August 28, 1963. But one thing it must say. It must say that seldom in the years since man began to walk this earth has there been such eloquent testimony to the dignity, the nobi lity, the potential for good within the human heart. Father’ gin. Body and soul, she yielded herself to God and became totally an instrument of His saving grace. Her name is sweet to the human race because in her we see God’s will and His mercy for us all. The history of salvation would be a different story were it not for her conception, her womb, her giving birth, her nurture of the Saviour. Hymning her name, we know that more than our souls is involved in that history. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, MASS AS ON SUN DAY. Our life is divided among different duties and a variety of tasks. It is so easy for us to iso late them and regard each of them as independent. Sunday Mass calls for integration (in more senses than one). It asserts that, though this division of life is necessary and proper, there is one end, one purpose, one meaning to it all—and therefore one orientation which must penetrate all the divi sions. This key to wholeness and unity is not an idea nor a system, but a Person, Jesus Christ, who holds up the kingdom of God as the proper end of every human activity. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, THE EXALTA TION OF THE HOLY CROSS. Death itself, in which human eyes see an apparently final division of man, body from soul, becomes in the cross and Resurrection a proclamation of a fully human dignity. Jesus’ triumph over death, apparent to us because He first submitted to it, promises a re-integration of die whole person in the life of the most holy Trinity. There is no area or part of our life but will know that completion, no area, then, that can be excluded from the eucharistic offering. EQUALITY We All Have A Dream BY GERARD E. SHERRY I was there when history was made in Wash ington last week. I would not have missed it for anything. More than 200,000 Negroes and Whites gave the greatest lesson in brotherhood that this country has witnessed in its entire history. The day started in fear and apprehension; fear that disorders might break out, and apprehension that the original estimate of 100,000 marchers would not be achieved. Indeed, at 10:00 a.m. on the morning of the March, I stood in the marshal ling area around the Washington Monument, and the crowds were sparse. Maybe some50,000per sons, and there was only an hour and a half to go. In fact, one tele- v i s i o n announcer quite close to me told viewers that it look ed like it was going to be "a colossal flop”. BUT HE HAD not reckoned with the fortitude of the • marchers or the terrific traffic jams that had oc curred on the main routes leading into Washington, especially from the north. In the following hour and a half bus load after bus load deposited a rising swell of humanity bent on promoting racial justice with a constant cry of "The time is now!” The moment the March started from the Wash ington Monument along the nine blocks to the Lincoln Memorial one sensed that its success was assured. This because this was no unruly mob, rather it was group after group of persons with a purpose, who were impressive because of their orderliness. Although the cry was "Jobs and freedom now”, there was no bitterness or hate, rather the compassionate plea for love and understanding. GREAT SACRIFICES had been made by many of the marchers. Some gave up a couple of days’ pay; some would lose their jobs merely for exer cising their right to petition; some would lose their meager savings to pay for the trip; and most lost a couple of nights of sleep. W r hat was said and done has been well reported in the nation’s press. What will be accomplished by it one must leave to the history of the imme diate future. One thing is certain, the March can not be ignored because it proved a basic point in our .American society — men of good will, black and white, Catholic, Protestant, and Jew, can work together to further the American dream so elo quently spelled out at the rally by Dr. Martin Lu ther King. DR. KING dismissed the hate mongers, even those of his own race, in thebattlefor racial jus tice. He talked about America the beautiful, the land of the free and the home of the brave. His was a message of conciliation, and we would be fools not to take it to heart. The spirit of the marchers was something to behold. It had all the earmarks of a jolly good picnic in the country coupled with the erection of a revivalist tent. As one speaker remarked, "Everyone seemed to have ”got religion”. SIGNIFICANTLY, religion and religious lead ers had a lot to- do with the March's success. Leaders from all denominations were present. It was gratifying to see two archbishops and five bishops present on the platform at the Lincoln Memorial rally. They did not march, but the priests and lay men and women who did made a solid Catholic contribution. Archbishop O’Boyle of Washington, who gave the invocation, set the tone with an urgent plea that the love of God "replace the coldness that springs from pre judice and bitterness.” The speakers thatfollow- ed kept it that way, although one of them came close to spoiling it all with a toned-down appeal of militancy. One of the most memorable scenes was the appearance of a delegation from Mississippi. "Young jailbirds” would be their designation back home, but in Washington they were the heroes who defied the consequences of political oppres sion in their state. Many of them had indeed been jailed for peaceful demonstrations. They had suf fered the indignity of being chased by police dogs and pushed by electrified cattle poles, but they had survived, as do most men who fight for freedom. THE MOST disappointing aspect of the day was the response of one southern Senator who ridi culed the March, claiming that the American Ne gro has plenty of freedom and more justice than he would have in Communist lands. He used a ra ther insulting argument, claiming that the Negro has more television sets and cars than he would have in Soviet Russia; that such a demonstra tion would not be permitted in a Communist land, and therefore the Negro cry for freedom was a hoax. REAPINGS AT RANDOM We can be grateful that most southern legisla tors, even if they disagree with the Negro de mands, have more sense than to answer in such an absurd and callous way. THAT THIS Senator’s views are anything but the majority opinion is clearly illustrated by the number of White marchers who joined hands with their Negro brethren in Wednesday’s historic mo ment. These white people also came from the south. Not too many, perhaps, but enough to show that the tide is turning in the Negro’s demands for equal treatment as a fellow citizen. "I have a dream,” cried Martin Luther King, and it was shared by millions of his fellow citi zens from all corners of the land. Men and wo men, black and white, the mighty and the lowly, all who are fed up with the snail-1 ike progress toward equality.