Newspaper Page Text
4—THE CATHOLIC TIMES Friday. May 13, 1955 THE CATHOLIC TIMES Published Every Week by Th* Catholic Times, Inc. Columbus. Ohio NOTIC•p Send All Changes of Address to p. 0 13ox 636 Columbus. Ohio Executive and Editorial Offices: ”46 E Tom n Street, Columbus 15. Ohio Addrc ss all communications foi publication O Box 6"6 Columhus 16. Ohio Teleulilones: CA 4-5195 CA 4-5196 The 1 •yelc brings A us n Sunday hclorr th Asce.ision, and Christ elected bjr the Church for the the M:' s arc im]lortant ones indet*d, nw tri the 1 351 the words Bunday’s Epistle apeak* of “the perfect law nf Mhertv,” which is not license to do as one pleases, fnr any such license could lead only tn social chaos, political anarchy and individual ruin. True liberty i* freedom from the bondage nf sin, derived from the acceptance and practice of the teachings of the Savior Its marks are faith and hurtnility and joy, and It is protected and sustained by sincere, trustful prayer. No Place for Worry Warts The saddest man today is the lad u'ho has ulcers and nn success to show for his worry. ApparentIv thia includes most of us. We arc living in a world that demands a hard if not callous indifference to trifles. And yet we are immersed in them. If we are not anxious about health or bills or exams or labor demands or the tightening newsprint market, we ni Gospel of standing 35 sage before He leaves the world tr Father And they are words of com ncc which He clearly wished His fol rs to keep before them at all times. If vou ask the Father anything in My loved Me, and have believed that I came forth trom God.” Asking is thus made the test of the Christian s faith: since you believe in Me. the Savior says, you dependence upon Him thus will you s in His friendship and make yotir •ficiaries of His Almighty strength leave to His all-wise judgment the doctrine of prayer—the asking of God, in Christ me for whatever wp need—that the Church sc aside the three days before the Feast of the Asc ngation Days, with special Mass and a during which the intercession nf the nvoked to lay our petitions before God. In olden time* these processions moved through It1 fields, with pravers to God tn make them fruitful, sn that men might havp what they needed for the physical as well as the spiritual sustenance of life: a reminder that the farmer must pray as well a* wnrk. and a reminder, too, that the city-dweller must |mn in prayer that the labor of the farmer may bring forth, with God’s help, a bountiful harvest. And prayer, most assuredly, should go with every man, woman and child in their activities their wnrk. study, recreation, worship that all they do may be worthy nf God’s blessing Whatever econnm If, social and political evils prevail among us can he ascribed tn the sad fact that prayer, earnest and confiding, is not a preliminary tn the plans and decision* men ma ke they dn not ask God tn direct them, but obey their own selfish instincts they dn nM rely nn His infallible guidance, hut follow their own judgment, repeatedly proven weak and incom pet ent. an ulcerous tension by conjuring icn on the mo id much time Some I*pp(h»iiition If these to the each, or foliar hill than for a poor li. We are all preoccupied ind warts Passing the cn after death depends pretty idence we had in ourselves be dost roved cplied the Pre If I were to try to read made on me, thi and face a big building problem. “Thus, non-Cathohcs could contribute one-half or more of the amount »ought in the current drive, and profit. Of course, they are not expected to do so, hut it is to their interest and quite in order for them to help some. “Catholics pay taxes for public schools, whether their children attend them or not. In addition, they pay the cost of sending their children to Catholic schools.” As has hern said before in this column, our non Catholic neighbors are, for the most part, quite fair minded. If some such encouragement such as thia in the Houston paper were to be given them instead of haters of the Catholic Church stirring them up through unfounded fears, there would be a quick justice in the matter, so that tax money paid by Catholics could he used to benefit their children as it is used to benefit the children of other tax payers. Just Among Ourselves Patting Comment Contidered er Incontiderate Next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday,—th* three days preceding the Feast of the Ascension of Our Ijord into heaven,—are called "rogation” or “asking’’ days. They are days of especially urgent prayers of petition that God will spare us the rigors of His justice, and will bless us in His mercy, be stowing upon us abundance of spiritual and material benefits. Among the good things we ask for are the fruits of the earth by which our bodily life is sustained. The observance of Rogation Days began in the fifth century in a diocese of what is now France. Terrible calamities had afflicted the place, and to prevent their recurrence a solemn service of petition and penance, including processians and recitations of litanies, was instituted, and set for the three days preceding the Ascension. Within a few years, the local practice had spread through all France in three and one-half centuries, the Rogation Days were observed throughout the Church. It is suitable indeed that tho faithful should, sn to speak, gather around Our I-ord during the last hours of His sojourn on earth, before His glorious Ascension into heaven, and heg Him for necessary gifts and blessings. True, Our Lord is always with us according to His word, He has not left us or phans He dwells among us, God and Man, in the Holy Eucharist. But His visible bodily presence among men was to end when he rose from the Mount of Olives, forty days after His Resurrection from the dead, and the Apostles saw the bright cloud which received Him out of their sight. It was at noon, in the light of mid-day, that Our lxrd ascended into heaven. Two angels appeared to th* watching Apostles to tell them that Christ would come again nn the last day, as gloriously and visibly as He had then departed from them Th* Apostles returned to the city of Jerusalem to wait, in obedience to the Lords command, the coming nf the Holy Ghost nn Pentecost Day, ten days later. Our Izird was the first to enter the gates of heaven which in had closed against the human race, and which His work of Redemption had re opened. 'I’he souls of the just that waited in Limbo for this hour followed their Redeemer into the eter nal happiness and glory of the Beatific Vision. We remember always that the saints who lived before Christ and during His days on earth were all enabled to save their souls by lhe grace and mer its He won for them With Our Ixird when he ascend nd intn hehvrn were the souls of our first parents nf Abraham, Isaac, Jacob of the holy Job of the pen itential David of all the great and small of the hu man family who had help to the hope of the Re deemer, and who had kept pure, or made pure by penance, the souls touched in anticipation by the grace and merits of Christ and Him crucified. For Christ is the center of all history His com ing and His work, culminating in Death and Resur rection, make Him the Sun of Justice whose rays penetrate in all directions, hack as well as forward, into the past as well as intn the present and the future. 'I’he one true religion is the religion of Christ, this religion is now exercised in the one Church which He established Yet his true religion was exercised in hope and in expectation among all those who lived before the Church was actually in stituted, and w'ho believed in the Redeemer to come. No grace comes from God but through Christ, God made Man Even the grace which enabled the faithful angels to obey God was grace won hy the Redeemer and applied, as we should say, in antici pation. 'I’he fallen angels rejected the same grace of hrist. 1 hr Blessed Mother of God was conceived immaculate and filled with grace through the fore seen merits of Her Divine Son. Our laird Jesus Christ. I he fidelity nf the patriarchs, the fruitful repentance of sinners like David, the enduring vir tue of steadfast souls like Tobias and Job, were all made possible and actual hy the grace and merits of the Saviour who was yet to come, but whose infinitely meritorious work is always present to the eternal God. Mistaken people have found difficulty in be lieving that the holy persons of Old Testament times could enter heaven, since they had not been bap tized. This notion involves two errors first, it fails to notice that Baptism was made necessary hy Our Lord who instituted it as a sacrament, and from that moment on it is necessary to salvation. In I he second place, the mistaken notion fails to realize that there is such a thing as implicit baptism of desire, and, allowing that baptism is always neces sary, we justly maintain that the Old Testament saints were baptized hy such a desire. For a person who does not know the obligation of baptism, even a person who has never heard the name of Christ, may have the strong good will to serve God as he ought And such a will implies the person’s wish to do whatever God would have him do it thus includes, albeit unconsciously, the desire for baptism. The requirement for the sacrament of baptism tn he conferred by the use of the water and the name of the Three Divine Persons of God, was not imposed upon mankind until Our laird declared it necessary. A simple desire for baptism, expressed or iin plied, is sufficient to product the main effects of the sacrament—cleansing from all sin in guilt and penalty, and giving the soul birth into the family and heirship of God—only when the desire cannot, in fact, be realized. It is mere folly for a person to say, "I desire baptism therefore I am baptized there is no need for me to receive the sacrament by way of water." A person w ho iL.'ould say that would have the lie tn his dami to hiive desire. For desire looks on to fulfillment, it nc'rr rejects ful fillmcnt Desire is itself of v aluc finly when fill fillmcnt is not possible, and while fulfillment re mains possible. Besides, baptism does not imprint upon the soul the indelible character of the first and most neces sary sacrament. A person who has baptism of desire, and then is enabled to receive baptism of water, is not twice baptized. The baptism of water fulfills the desire and impresses the baptismal character for the first and only time. Well, we seem to have wandered far afield. Rut nor wanderings have nn( been unpleasant, nor. one hopes, without profit. r#c I CAV/4R II OF IL 4 SHING TON TETTER WASHINGTON A story about the Bandung Conference that seems not. to have been re ported in any other medium has made its way back here in cor respondence. A letter received here reveals that th* topflight participants in the Bandung meeting invoked the Deity so consistently that it irked Chou En I^ai, the commun he letter quotes a really lop leader of the conference as saying that all rep resentatives invoked the Deity, but that seems to he a slight exaggeration, because Chou En Lai seems to have been an ex ception. The reporter says this reverence annoyed the boss of the Red regime in Peking. Chou En Lai, he saltd, asko1 for tolet a nee of atheism. Thie letter reveals, too, lha nothing was brought up at th conic•rrncc relating to the rf leasp of A rocricans held in car tivity by the Red Chinese govern ment. While it is not yet known what the full American stand wdll be on the amendment of the United Nations Charter, for eoi ns f. in den/. It is my painful duty to re port that the Daily Worker is carrying forward the three front psychological w'ar on the Amer ica n nation with the same fury and by the same devices with which it conducted “the battle against McC a y ism Wp arc w i n esses to the Red i umph in that "battle" in that effective Congressional in vestigations into the Soviet fifth column have come to a halt. We are now to be pulverized into agreeing to the end of our internal security system from within, and to further set backs in Europe and Asia. If that Mos row program goes through, then our great military establishment and our tremendous ability in production will prove largely fu tile in our defense. Complete Retreat, The Program On April 10. the Daily Work er, in huge headlines on its front page, runs the slogan which it has been emphasizing for some weeks: NO QUEMOY' WAR! The comrades are given instructions to spread the idea that unless the United States abandons Quemoy and Matsu, war will be the outcome with "cities reduced to ashes." We have been advised, by the admissions of Malenkov and Kruchshev, that Soviet power is so weak internally it dare not have a full-dress war against the United States. We have been forewarned, in the Daily Worker of April 3 and in current issues of the New Times, direct from Moscow, that American surren der of Quemoy and Matsu will be followed by Red moves against Formosa and South Ko rea. The program of the New Times is complete American re treat across the Pacific. Confidentially... No! of ■Ni w Vietnam exceed 800000 W. ...... I, Chou En Lai Irked as Bandung Meeting Members Mention God vhich a confer cncip roay hp 1call (his year, it has been sugjjest again that WP work for he limination of thr1 veto on the admission of new' members. Henry Cabot laidge, Jr., U.S. representative to the UN, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S, should support the holding of a confer ence to review the charter, but should work to restrict amend ments to the elimination of the veto on new members. By the terms of the charter itself, the question of its review arises automatically this Fall. Former Presidents Herbert Hoov er and Harry S. Truman indicat ed to the Senate committee that they did not think much could bp accomplished in the way of an advantageous revision of the charter. Mr. Ixidge was more hopeful. Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, chairman of the Sen ate committee, has pointed out that "the United States is al ready on record as favoring re moval of pacific settlement of disputes and admission of new members from the province of the veto.” To go beyond this, he 'Reds' lake Up the Pen Again Boldfaced Instruction Apparently, many men in pub lic lite and many editors of our daily papers do not understand this program, for the Daily Work er can quote them in support of this first item of the current Communist line. Indeed, the Red organ chides the trade unions in an April 10 loading editorial for not having conic forward favoring the sur render of Quemoy, Matsu and Formosa as have so many pub licists and men in public life. Five days later, the Daily Work er gets the ball really roiling with this boldfaced instruction to its readers: “As protests, against military intervention in Quemoy and Matsu grow' through out the country, we urgently need the help of our readers in covering this great story. Please send us clippings from your lo cal newspapers of letters to the editor and editorials." As usual, it is the United States which is accused of “mil itary intervention.” Negotiations The Goal The same tactic is to be used now as was employed so effec tively in “the battle against Mc Carthyism”— that is, the conceal ed Communists will induce un wary persons to write letters, favorable to American surrender in the Far East then the Daily Worker will print these letters, thus stimulating still others to deluge the newspapers and Washington with this "demand.” For weeks during 1952 and 1953 the Daily W orker ran a special section every day, "Americans Versus McCarthyism,” containing such letters and editorials from local newspapers. By April 17, the daily organ of the Red conspiracy can glee fully proclaim in great headlines: WASHINGTON SPLIT OVER QUEMOY. New instructions are now given the comrades again in boldface type —“Wire, write the President, your Representa added, raises fundamental ques tions. One of these fundamental questions is whether to work for the elimination of the veto in the Security Council, where is sues involving the use of Amer ican troops abroad arise. Mr. Ixidge said he was not prepared to see this country give up the veto in the Security Coun cil, but that the veto on new members was another thing. He pointed out that 14 "deserving and qualified nations” have been blocked from membership in the UN because of Soviet Russia’s abuse of the veto. These include Italy and Japan, and will include the Federal Republic of Germany and Spain, if and when they ap ply. Mr. Lodge could have said, too, that Soviet Russia has in voked the veto power some 60 times, and that nearly half of these times it has blocked the. admittance to the UN of nations which had received more than enough favorable votes in the Se curity Council. Russia has vetoed the admit tanee of Ireland three times and that of Italy five times. tive, your Senators, demanding: Hands off Quemoy-” The entire hullabaloo is clear ly set forth as not merely pres sure to induce the United States to abandon the off shore islands, but also to compel our Govern ment to enter into negotiations with Red China, as proposed by Chou En-lai. A Super-Yaita Their Hope The whole history of such "ne gotiations” in accord with the nature of Soviet Communism— has been the total defeat of the United States. We can be certain that a super-Yalta will come forth from any new parley of this kind, the opening scene of a debacle for our Government in the Pacific. Patriotic America, being ill informed by our daily press con cerning the Communist line, is counted upon by the Communists to let this campaign be lost to Moscow by default. From the Red stress on letters and tele grams to Washington and to the press, it is evident ‘hat they ex pect to dominate American opin ion by superior activity. While the Communists are do ing all these things under the Stalin slogan of “peaceful co existence,” William Z. Foster ad vises them in the Daily Worker of April 29 of what their real goal in all these maneuvers hap pens to be. Political Milestone Writing on the Bandung con ference, where the Asiatic and African nations came together, Foster states: "Bandung was one of those political milestones by which the historians of the fu ture (and many of today) will mark the decay and decline of the world capitalist system.” Of the Bandung conference I shall write later. But one thing came out of it: the importance of friends for the United States in Asia. We cannot w'in such friends if wc abandon some of them to the Reds. Inquiry Corner -------------------Fathar Haalay ■............■ Q. If there is a good reason (e, ff. a desire to return some distance to the parental hovne where you are well known) can permission be obtained to have n baby baptized in a parish other than your own? A. The administration of the Sacrament, of Baptism is reserv ed to the pastor of the place in w’hich the parent live (or to the Bishop) but with the pastor’s permission the Baptism could take place in another parish. Such exceptions should be rare for the pastor is the spiritual father of all in his parish and it is his privilege and duty to care for the souls within the limits of his pafish. There is the additional problem here of the delay in having the child baptized, but if your pastor judges the reason mentioned to he sufficient he can give his permission. Q. Is it always sinful to be nngry? It seems difficult to avoid some feeling in correcting the children and sometimes seems the only way that regis ters with them i.e. when they see that you really mean it. A. It is not always sinful to be angry. We read in the New Testament of Christ's anger (e g. with those who were buy ing and selling in the temple John 2:15-17) and we know that Catholic philosophy includes it In the passions, which may be good or evil, depending upon the circumstances. It is listed as one of the seven capita! sins when it is uncontrolled, unjust or arises from malice, selfishness or ha tred. While parents and others who are “aided” in exercise of authority by just anger should take care to keep control and to have motives of love, such anger is not sinful unless it is indulged in without sufficient reason or control. Q. Must we stand by and let n good and innocent person suffer when a s i pie and pain less treatment or drug would relieve him nf hopeless suffering? A. If the “treatment or drug” simply relievos pain there is no reason in Catholic morality against such usage. If the re lief from "hopeless suffering” means euthanasia or mercy-kill ing that is a different matter. We are not judges or executors of life and death for innocent people even if they are suffer ing. “Or do you not know' that your members are the temple MON SIG NOR HIGGINS Eyes That Max Eastman, one of the most articulate ex-communists and anti-communists in the United States, has just published a book that ought to serve as a warning against the uncritical acceptance of every policy or program which happens to be merchandi sed under the label of anti com munism. This is no reflection in Mr. East man's sincerity. ... He is utterly sincere in his op position to Marxism no doubt about that Nevertheless his own alternative to the Marxist pro gram is not only inadequate-from the practical point of view, but completely unacceptable from the point of view of Christian so cial ethics. The fact that he himself is not aware of this is bad enough. Much worse are th facts that "Reflections on the Failure of Socialism” was published by a firm with some Catholic connec tions, reprinted in David Law' rence’s weekly magazine, enthus iastically reviewed in many re spectable periodicals, and is be ing distributed free of charge hy at least a few individuals or corporations. This would almost seem to indi cate that many influential Amer icans have become so obsessed by the evil of communism that they are no longer able to recog nize anticommunist materialism when they see it. In this respect they are no better than the fuz zy-minded ultra-liberals of the thirties and the early forties w’ho were so obsessed by Naziism and Fascism that they were un able or unwilling to recognize the evils of communism until it was almost too late. Laissez-Faire Plus Birth Control Mr. Eastman’s alternative to communism and socialism is a combination of birth control and laissez-faire economics. Fie thinks that “there are too many people in the world,’ and he feels very strongly that something ought to be done about it.“More goods and fewer people,’1 he says, is the slogan I should like to see car ried at the head of humanity’s march into the future.” According to Mr. Eastman, "mankind is confronted with a choice between two and only two business systems.” One is a sys tem "in which amount and kind of goods produced is determined by the impersonal mechanism of the market The other is a system "in w’hich this is deter- of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and THAT YOU ARE, N O YOUR OWN? For you have been bought at a great price. Glorify God and bear him in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19 20) Again St. Paul gives the Christian answer to suffering: “With Christ I am nailed to the that live, but Christ lives In me." (Galatians 2:20). Q. Do we have to call a clerk's attention to receiving too much change after all they often make mistakes the other way? A. The Golden Rule prohibits this evasion of justice. Wc all know that we call the clerk’s attention to a mistake to our disadvantage, so we should have the same zeal for justice when the mistake is going the other way. It simply is unjust to re ceive more goods than wc are paying for and it is self-decep tion to argue that they probably have cheated us in the past or “it is such a big company and they’ll never miss it” etc. Some times, of course the error is trivial and we notice it at home or we’re not sure and then there is no strict obligation to remedy the situation. Q. How is a. St. Christopher medal different from, a good luck charm? A Protestant friend of mine wants one and I'm not sure he understands I want to be able to explain it to him. A. There is a great difference between a sacramental and a superstitious object. Supersti tion means attributing to a pro cess or thing some power it does not have e. g. a rabbit’s foot which is superstitiously suppos ed to bring good luck. This is irrational and sinful if deliber ate- The sacramental such as a St. Christopher medal is not taken as a charm or magic in strument, but as something en dowed with power by Christ's Church. This power comes only from prayerful and reverent use of the object as a sign of honor toward the saint and as a re minder to pray for his interces sion. Saeramentals in their use are directed to the Blessed Vir gin, to the Saints or to th* Blessed Trinity and always ulti mately to God and in accordance with His law and His will. Send questions to Father Ed ward F. Healey, Inquiry Comer, The Catholic Times, Box 636, Columbus (16) Ohio. See Not! mined by commands issuing from a personal authority, hacked hy (armed force. There is no other alternative. Moral inconsistency 1 would hate to think that Mr. Eastman’s twofold formula of universal birth control and Jaissex-faire economics is the best that the United States has to offer to a world on the brink of disaster. If it is, we might just as well do awa with the Voice of America and our other infnr jnation agencies and stoically pre pare forXhe deluge. Reverse of Formula 'i’he Christian tradition is ex actly the reverse of Mr. East man’s formula. On the one hand, Christian .m cial teaching completely rejects the notion that economic life can or should he regulated exclusive ly bv the impersonal, automatic operation of the law of supply and demand. And, while it also rejects the alternative of social ism, Christian social teaching ex plicitly says that the various groups engaged in economic life have not only the right but the duty, in cooperation with one an other and with the government, to regulate the market conscious ly and deliberately in the inter est of the common good. On the other hand, the Chris tian tradition condemns as sinful any artificial restriction or con trol of population by means of contraception. vurth e rm ore, while the control of population by abstinence or periodic contin ence is legitimate under certain conditions, it is not permitted much less encouraged—merely as a means of progressively and indefinitely raising the standard of living of an arbitrary maxi mum o‘ human beings. Decrease Whose Population? To give the devil his due, even the communists, with all their diabolical contempt for human life and human values, have not yet officially advocated anything quite that selfish with respect to the problem of population. They may eventually do so, of course, if it suits their evil purposes. Meanwhile, whatever their mo tives, their official policy in this one respect is better than Mr. Eastman’s and, incidentally, is likely to have a greater appeal to the suffering masses of the world. For the people of Asia and Africa and other under de veloped areas are smart enough to know, or at least to suspect, that v-hen Americans begin to talk about decreasing the popula tion of the world, what they prob ably mean is decreasing the pop ulation of Asia and Africa and othei under-developed areas out side the continental boundaries of the United States-