The Catholic times. [volume], August 24, 1956, Image 4

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4—THE CATHOLIC TIMES Friday. Aug. 24,1956
The Washington Letter
WASHINGTON—Relief work
carried on by American volun
tary agencies overseas received
warm indorsement in the clos
ing days of the 84th Congress.
Unfortunately, in the rush
of “getting away,” the praise
did not receive the notice it
might have ordinarily.
As a consequence, the gen
eral public did not get an op
portunity to make what might
have been a very instructive
comparison. This is the com
parison:
The American voluntary
agencies lauded on the floor of
Congress are religion-sponsor
ed. At the same time they were
being praised here, persons in
authority in Russia were urging
a stepped up campaign to
stamp out religion. And, the
want and suffering which the
American religion- sponsored
agencies are helping to re
lieve is largely the result of
the aggression of atheistic com
munism.
Feeling that the “very con
structive provisions” of the
Agricultural Trade Develop
ment and Assistance Act of
1954 “are little known to the
people of the United States.”
Representative Michael A.
Feighan of Ohio undertook to
draw attention to them in the
House of Representatives. The
law, he pointed out, provides
The Family Life Bureau of
the National Catholic Welfare
Conference does not exist for
the sake of instigating some
feverish activity or other—and
it certainly is not a “marriage
bureau,” though we do receive
frequent requests concerning
“I/onely Heart Associations.”
This bureau necessarily has a
distinct purpose it must ful
fill a designated need of the
Church in this country.
The Bishops’ Statement, giv
en at their annua) meeting in
Washington in 1938, is clear
and forthright in this regard,
both in what it says and in what
it implies.
Organized by the Bishops of
the country in 1931, shortly aft
er the promulgation of the En
cyclical of Pius XI on Chris
tion Marriage, the Bureau ex
ists to minister, not administer,
to exert moral influence, not to
he a strait jacket.
The Greater Common Good
Its function is to coordinate,
not supplant family programs.
To unify, not merge movements.
To represent the mind of the
Bishops. To guide diocesan fam
ily life-directors. To suggest a
positive family program for Lay
Organizations. To present Ca
tholic family ideals in any ap
propriate forum.
To study the trends in fam
ily life. To arouse public in
terest. to provide a clearing
house and interchange of in
formation. To promote and to
... .....................IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIH^
On July 2, the Feast of the
Visitation of the Blgssed Vir
gin Mary, Pope Pius XII ad
dressed a brief letter of com
mendation to the so-called Re
treat Movement of Persever
ance, which is made up of as
sociations of workers and pro
fessional men in Italy. Organ
ized hy the Society of Jesus,
the movement's only activity is
the “closed retreat" three
days of spiritual exercises and
conferences geared to the speci
fic problems and needs of the
particular working groups.
In the words of His Holiness,
the purpose of the movement
is to help “all classes of work
ingmen ... to remain aware
of their calling as Christians,
of their baptismal promises,
and of fidelity to their duties
In life, and this during their
everv waking and working
hour
It was a happy coincidence
that the Holy Father’s letter
to the workers’ retreat move
ment of Italy should have been
written at this particular time
when, all over the world, Ca
tholics are commemorating the
Silver Jubilee of Pope Pius Xi’s
encyclical, “On Reconstructing
the Social Order.” It serves to
remind us that workers’ re
treats were also highly recom
mended in the latter document
as a “most valuable means of
84th Praised Relief Work
Making Marriage Click
that surplus U.S. food may, un
der certain conditions, be trans
ferred to the governments of
friendly countries for use of
persons in. need. It also pro
vides for the transfer of sur
plus food stuffs to American
voluntary agencies, together
with funds to cover ocean trans
portation to the foreign coun
tries. The Congressman said
this latter authority is
“unique,” and in his opinion
“opens the way to the accom
plishment of a great deal of
good throughout the world.”
Representative Feighan nam
ed Catholic Relief Services
National Catholic Welfare Con
ference, the Lutheran World
Federation, the Church World
services of the National Coun
cil of the Churches of Christ,
and the Aid Refugee Chinese
Intellectuals, lnc„ as the Amer
ican voluntary agencies “car
rying out these successful pro
grams.” He said they are ac
complishing a “great service in
easing the sufferings of mil
lions of victims of communist
aggression.” He said they are
helping to feed up to 40,000
children a day in Hong Kong,
to cite just one example of this
far-reaching work.
“It is a certain fact,” said
Representative Feighan, “that
programs such as those which
fNot For Lonely Hearts
Uy Msgr. Irving A. LeBlanc
produce timely literature for
all family life levels. To organ
ize the specialists in the field.
To sum up results. The focus to
he always on matters of gen
eral import, always for the
greater common good of the
Church and society.
Dual Horned Enemy
In its present family life
program, the Bureau is con
fronted with a dual horned en
emy. First, the compartmental
ization of religion, or secular
ism secondly, the fact that
Catholics are such imitators, or
conformists.
The mere announcement
now of an engagement to mar
ry finds couples soon plagued
with pamphlets and advertise
ments telling them how to frus
trate the primary purpose of
their sacramental contract.
“Sacraments, after all, are not
to he taken too seriously. Like
a walking stick, religion may
serve an occasional purpose.”
Expediency is the popular
commandment of the day. For
this group, religion is a certain
luxury—like going to an opera
They would call something
“birth control" and that alone
would justify even the destruc
tion of unborn children. And,
maybe, someday it will be ex
pedient to sponsor “wife con
trol” and that will be that!
Compartmontalist Trend
Dr. John R. Cavanagh in his
new book, Fundamental Mar
riage Counseling,” quotes esti­
The Yardstick
T| Laborers Neetl Retreats
both personal and social restor
ation.”
School of the Spirit
This is a salutary reminder.
For in commemorating the an
niversary of the greatest of so
cial encyclicals, there is a nat
ural tendency to concentrate al
most exclusively on its specific
proposals for economic and so
cial reform to the neglect of
those sections of the encyclical
which emphasize the necessity
of training deeply spiritual
apostolic lay leaders for the
purpose of effecting these re
forms.
Specialized retreats—for em
ployers and professional men
as well as for workers—are not
the only means of developing
such leaders, but surely they
are one of the most important.
Thanks be to God, the lay
retreat movement in the Unit
ed States is relatively strong
and is growing all the time. It
would probably be fair to say,
however, that in general the
movement suffers from two
principal defects, both of which
are relevant to this discussion.
New Type of Retreat
First, there are not enough
retreats for ordinary working
men as opposed, for example,
to those for business executives,
professional men, or union of
ficers. To be sure, laymen from
every walk of life are equally
have been developed by the
American voluntary agencies
using our surplus foods, devel
op bonds of friendship and un
derstanding with the people of
foreign countries.” He added
that these bonds are necessary
if we ever are going to have “a
just and lasting peace.”
Meanwhile, the U. S. Infor
maton Agency has disclosed
that it has intercepted a radio
program broadcast from Radio
Minsk, in Soviet Russia, calling
for a stepped up attack on re
ligion. The radio broadcast as
serted that the number one
task of schools in a communist
country is to teach the children
to become atheists and “irre
concilably hostile” to all forms
of religion.
While groups sponsored by
religious organizations labor to
bind up the wounds inflicted
by communist aggression, com
munism calls for increased an
tagonism toward religion.
In a 27-month period of this
program’s operation U.S. vol
untary agencies distributed re
lief worth a total of more than
$472 million. It went to 20
countries in Europe, 18 coun
tries in the Far East, seven in
the Near East, 15 in Africa and
24 in the Western Hemisphere.
It included food, clothing, tex
tiles and self-help items.
mates for the U.S.A, of an an
nual one million “abortions” of
all kinds—some natural, some
induced, some therapeutic,
some criminal. The estimates
show half to be immoral and
criminal. But the compartment
alist would say, “What's the
difference? That's my private
affair, like keeping a diary.”
In giving you figures we de
sire principally to indicate a
trend, a movement, a direction
in which many are going. The
exact figures, we feel, are less
important than the trend.
Half of thousands of Catholic
laymen surveyed by Father Lu
cius Cervantes, S.J., disagreed
with the God-given doctrine
against divorce and remar
riage. Divorce is now reaching
the proportion of a plague. It
is possible that every fourth
adult met in this country by
a matrimonially inclined young
ster is a divorcee. Behind this
fact of divorce is the selfish
idea that marriage is a contract
to do “my will” and not the
will of God. “Religion after all
is a sort of decoration, like a
fern—isn’t it?"
Adverse Statistic*
All mixed marriages are not
unhappy failures, but consider
the dangers. Six out of every
ten Catholics who enter a mix
ed marriage are lost to the
Faith. Four marry outside the
Church, and two drift away, ac
cording to Father John L.
Thomas, S. J.
By Msgr. George G. Higgins
welcome at all of our retreat
houses, regardless of their oc
cupation. Nevertheless, for a
number of reasons, lower in
come workers as a group are
not represented at the average
retreat in proportion to their
numerical strength in the over
all Catholic population. One
reason is that they find it dif
ficult to get away to an isolated
retreat house for a complete
week-end.
To meet this problem realis
tically, the Jesuits of the New
England Province are experi
menting with a new type of re
treat under the auspices of St.
Joseph’s Retreat league for
Workingmen in Boston. Retreat
evenings are held every week
—Monday through Friday, from
September through May—in a
parish school conveniently lo
cated in the heart of the city.
The men are expected to make
one evening of retreat a
month. They may choose any
evening they wish.‘This gives
them 20 choices of evenings
every month. Usually they come
during the same week each
month.
A second defect of the lay
retreat movement in the United
States is its relative lack of
emphasis on the social, as op
posed to the purely individual,
purpose of the spiritual exer
cises.
toeop fe ie/hethr
Sunday’s liturgy again has as its theme the
obligations of man to God. In the plain, direct
terms of the Epistle of the Mass St. Paul points
out that we are to “walk in the Spirit” and not
according to the promptings of the flesh: he
cites the blessed fruits of the spiritual life as
contrasted with the evils which are brought on
by yielding to our lower instincts. In the
Gospel, Christ Himself tells us that we must
serve God, not mammon, and sweeps away the
excuses offered by those who claim that be
cause we are in this world we must follow the
standards and practices of the world.
These timeless teachings, although they were
spoken to the people of nineteen centuries ago,
have a startling definite application to modern
society and to us who are a part of that society.
Thus St. Paul names as “the works of the
flesh” such things as immorality, uncleanness,
idolatry, witchcrafts, jealousies, anger, quarrels,
factions, envies, murders, drunkenness, carous
ings are not these the precise offenses which are
debasing the world today? The papers tell how
common they are on all sides we see the im
morality, the drunkenness we see people given
over to idolatry of wealth and position we find
many consulting dream interpreters and astrol
ogers and affirming belief in other superstitions
equivalent to the “witchcraft” of which St. Paul
speaks we see envy and factionalism dividing
men who should be brothers.
These evils, as the Apostle makes clear, do
not just happen they come upon civilization
because mankind is obeying, not the Spirit of
God, but "the lusts of the flesh.” We pass laws,
and hold conferences, and make speeches in an
effort to deal with these evils yet there is a re
fusal to face the fact that they come from failure
to meet our obligations to God. We do not want
We Also Educate
Several months ago the Diocesan School Of
fice produced a little booklet called “Vision.”
The growth of the parochial schools during the
ten year period 1945-1955 was carefully docu
mented.
It told a remarkable story of wise planning,
tremendous sacrifice and community responsi
bility during years of unprecedented increases
in school enrollments. Hardly a secret document,
the booklet was proudly distributed as a sum
mary of achievement already evident in hun
dreds of new classrooms
A similar story was told in Columbus this
past week by the Metropolitan Committee of
100 It, too, was a magnificent story of planned
achievement during the years 1945 to 1955.
But it was the review of school growth and
accomplishment, presented with the familiar
omission of any reference to parochial schools,
that Catholics find difficult to understand.
Father Healey’s
Q. What is the difference
between Hinduism, Buddhism,
and Islamism?
A. Hinduism includes a
number of sects (Vishnuism,
Shivaism etc.) which follow
the worship of Brahma. This
pantheistic god, whose worship
includes worship of nature and
even of demons, is the deity
for more than two hundred
million people. This religious
group is nationalistic and is
noted for the caste system and
an involved social system.
Buddhism is an offshoot of the
first, being started by a Bra
hmanistic prince named Bud
dha about 500 B.C. It denies
much of Brahmanism, includ
ing the caste system and has
as its goal Nirvana, eternal
unconscious repose. Islam is
another name for Mohamme
danism, the religion founded
by Mohammed in 632 A.D. It
is a combination of Arabian
heathenism, Judaism and
Every Knock a Boost
There's agmethrhg wrong somewhere.?
The more we attack Got/, the more
The Service We Owe
Christianity, with great em
phasis laid upon paradise as a
place of sensuous delights and
upon conversion or destruction
or unbeliveres by force.
Q. What is the meaning of
the term “Mass of the Catech
umens”?
A. It is the first part of the
Mass from the prayers at the
foot of ‘he altar to the Offer
tory. It is so called because
in the early Church the cat
echumens (those under in
struction in the Faith) were
to attend this part of the Mass
but were to leave before the
Mass of the Faithful (Offer
tory on) began. It is also cal
led the Synagogue Service be
cause it is largely taken from
the Jewish service which the
Christians first attended and
then borrowed and placed be
fore the actual Sacrifice of the
Mass. For centuries however
these “two Masses” have been
considered as one and Catho­
to admit that we can have an ordered, whole
some world by living according to the Spirit,
and thus bringing the fruits St. Paul names—
charity, joy, peace, goodness, faith, chastity—
the very blessings for which men yearn so
ardently.
No, we cannot have peace and the other
fruits of the Spirit if we shape our lives ac
cording to the desires of the flesh. “You can
not serve God and mammon,” is the solemn,
explicit declaration of Our Lord, but there are
many, too many, who try to do that very thing.
They claim to love God but they obey the dic
tates of the world they claim they are obeying
God’s laws, but they are actually evading them
so that they may do what the world tells them
is necessary for material success.
“We must do what those around us do” is
the excuse of those who think it is possible to
serve two masters “we must be ruthless and
unscrupulous or else we will be passed by in the
game of life we must cheat, or we will be
cheated.” they say. They argue further: “If we
apply the Christian counsels of love and truth
and justice and charity we cannot attain wealth
and security and this means we cannot be hap
py.” That is, they are actually serving mammon
in their quest for happiness, and the only pay
ment mammon can give them is unhappiness.
“Oh you of little faith!” exclaims Christ as
he speaks of those who thus ignore the things
of eternity because they are worried about what
they shall eat or what they shall wear. “Is
not the life a greater thing than the food, and
the body than the clothing? Therefore do
not be anxious ... for your Father knows that
you need all these things. But seek first the
kingdom of God and His justice, and all these
things shall be given to you beside.”
Granting that the Committee is primarily
concerned with the financing of new public
schools, its concern embraces all schools and
all children. With its enrollment of 13,220 chil
dren during the 1955-1956 school year, the
parochial schools embrace 20% of the total
school population in Columbus proper. The en
rollment has doubled since 1945.
Both in a proud glance at the past or an
anxious look at the future Columbus must log
ically recognize the achievement and planning
of the Catholic schools. Catholics, with the bur
den of financing their own schools in terms of
millions of dollars, have consistently supported
the recommendations of the Metropolitan Com
mittee. They are justifiably disturbed when the
bare minimum—a word of recognition—is omit
ted in a review of school growth and effort in
their community.
lics are bound to be present
from start tc finish (i.e. re
garding Sunday obligation).
Q. Is general confession ab
solutely necessary or is it op
tional?
A. It is optional. While gen
eral confession is suggested for
certain important moments in
a person’s life (e.g. just before
marriage or a religious novit
iate) it is never required. The
only time it would be neces
sary to confess sins previous
to the last confession would be
in case they have been omitted
or improperly confessed. If such
an omission were deliberate it
would constitute a bad confes
sion and the penitent would
have to reconfess all sins since
that bad copfession—whether
the time elapsed were a month
or twenty years. A general con
fession is designed to show us
something of ourselves by a
survey of our past moral and
spiritual life so that we may
profit by the observation and
renew our sorrow for past sin.
Often it is strongly urged when
past sins are a source of dis
quiet. but scruples in this mat
ter should be disregarded. In
doubt consult your confessor
and he will give you advice on
the suitability of a general con
fession.
Q. Doesn’t it seem unfair
that some people have
many to remember them in
prayers and Masses while
IVST
P0M.no Comment
Co- ^dered or
Inconsiderate
When John Dorayme sat down before the family television
sex to enjoy the spectacle of a National Convention, he w’as
disposed and equipped for hours bf undemanding enjoyment.
He w’as in accord with that modern Yogi philosophy of which,
the cardinal commandment is “Relax.” He had an easy chair and
a clear picture. Fourteen brands of approved cigarettes (all the
best, and each brand superior to all the others) were arrayed
tastefully within ready reach. An ice-box filled with the seventy
necessary kinds of superlative beer was available. The children,
deprived of their usual TV programmes, were abroad seeking
divertisement. Mrs. John Dorayme, unattuned to political oratory,
was in some far recess of the house. John D. -had the place to
himself.
Here, you would say, was a man marked for placid enjoyment.
Here was a citizen well circumstanced for the pleasing surge
of fine civic and patriotic sentiments which a rousing partisan
speech, or endless series of speeches, must engender. The spec
tacle of John Dorayme, lolling comfortably in his armchair,
shoes off, feet elevated, belt eased, with a cold bottle in hand,
and smoking three cigarettes at once, is a spectacle calculated
to charm the American (male) heart. And no one would en
dorse your approval of the situation with heartier agreement
than John Dorayme himself. He was all for it.
Wise men tell us that indulgence in pleasures, even legiti
mate pleasures, is likely to have unpleasant results if persisted
in, such indulgence may well induce an abnormality of outlook
and even of conduct. The thing is manifest, of course, in the
case of alcoholic pleasure. Yet John Dorayme, the hero of this
little story, was to prove that convention oratory can be more
intoxicating, and involve a heavier hang-over, than any teasing
liquid however potent.
John D. sat before the TV set far into the night. He heard
speeches and more speeches. He was impressed, again and again,
with the greatness of our nation, and felt the even more im
pressive greatness of the States considered severally. He sat
silent yet alarmed as he heard instance after instance of the in
competence, the inhumanity and diabolical malice of the Opposi
tion Party. He was elated and inspired by the ability, the purity
of purpose, the concern for All The People, exhibited by Our
Party. Above all, John Dorayme was impressed by the indispen
sable need of Leadership. Of this most necessary quality the
Opposition had none at all, but Our Party had Leadership in
gobs Leadership in lavish abundance Leadership to Spare
Leadership to burn. When John D. had heard the message about
Leadership for the thousandth time, he felt that burning some
of it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Then the spirit of the whole exciting Convention entered
into John Dorayme. He fell into complete accord with the son
orous swing of the sentences. He identified himself with speaker
after speaker, rising to heights of joy in every phase of self
laudation, and sinking to deeps of scorn in each indictment of
the Opposition. He staggered to bed at last the surf of oratorical
seas pounded in his ears and continued in his dreams. John
Dorayme had. all unknowing, contracted a virulent case of Na
tional Conventionitis.
In the morning, John D. came to the breakfast table with
measured stride. He was glassy-eyed in appearance, resolute in
manner. Rapping sharply upon his plate with cereal spoon, he
startled his family by addressing them and the universe in that
somewhat nasal and fully sonorous tone which is assumed by all
male speakers at National Conventions. It is the inability to
achieve this tone which makes women speakers ineffective at
National Conventions striving to be orotund, they become merely
shrill.
“Ladeez and genlmun,” shouted John Dorayme, “my Felloe
Americuns, Delegates, and members of our great and glorious
Party, it is my rich privilege and my high honuh to interduce
to you this time an article inseparably associated with the
history of our great nation—an object whose golden glow
greeted the Founding Fathers as they foundered on Plymouth
Rock—an article that has ever graced the table of the humble
and furnished forth the more sumptuous fare of the rich—an
article which, born of the bounty of benign nature and fostered
by the unremitting toil of the assiduous husbandman, lent its
friable form to the simple requirements of Benjamin Franklin
as he gave come-dppance to the proud representatives of foreign
tyranny and offended their haughty eyes and outraged their
delicate appetites with a dish of Hasty Pudding an object
which lends lush opulence to our great Middle West and beau
tifies in serried emerald growth the fields of every section of
our country an object that gives essential support to the
pork raising industry and renders possible the pleasant and
enlightening game of Bingo—an article that gladdens the soul
of the Kentucky distiller and makes profitable the brain-searing
efforts of a million gag-yvriters—I present to you an object that
commands our veneration, whets our appetites, enlivens our
muscular system, warms our coursing life-bloodj and exercises
our jaws—an article which, above others, possesses among its
sparkling attributes that glorious quality of Leadership which,
grain for grain, puts it far ahead of anything in its class, and
sets it commandingly above the poor pabulum served by ths
snide and sniveling Opposition Party—an article which, in its
most pleasing form of crisp and crunchy flakes, is now before
You, Ladeez and genlmun: I give you CORN FLAKES’
After a wild burst of applause, and a parade of the family
about the dining-room, the Doraymes settled down to breakfast.
others may have to stay in
Purgatory for a long time be
cause they have no one who
cares?
A. No. A person is in Pur
gatory because he deserves to
be there. We have no idea as
to the exact application of
prayers and Masses to the
souls who are temporarily de
tained there i.e. some may
gain more from a few devout
prayers or from one Mass than
another gains from a great
number offered for him All
Masses include the faithful de
parted and God can apply the
fruits to neglected souls in
Purgatory. It is true, never*
theless, that we should especi
ally pray for people who ap
pear to have few to remem
ber them. Some Catholics have
a custom o* offering prayers
for the “most neglected soul
in Purgatory.”
Send questions to Father
Edward F. Healey, Inquiry
Corner, The Catholic Times,
Box 636, Columbus (16) Ohio.
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