On a dozen fronts, Christians and Jews are carrying the message of the Gospel or Torah into streets, meetings, newspapers, neighborhood and urban boards. Watching them, some good folks are scandalized - “they should stay in the pulpits”. Others are heartened to see the Church more relevant to modern life.

There is no one Catholic answer to this involvement. If we begin with Our Lord, we find ourselves involved in casting money - changers out of the Temple. We are blessed when we suffer persecution for justice’ sake. We are commissioned to enkindle the fire that Christ cast on the earth.

But we lack Our Lord’s perception and His humility. Our motives are not as pure as His. Moreover, He is Wisdom incarnate, the Son of God become man. So we start out with good intentions only to find that often the road leads us far from heaven.

What are some of today’s religious leaders saying about this new engagement of the Church (her laity, her ministers) in the world?

Reverend John Harmon, Episcopalian, says this: “The Church’s central function is to live within the world, not outside of it. Yet an imperialism can develop: pedagogic (the Church alone has, or should have, the answer to every issue); programmatic (the Church has a programmatic way of responding to such issues).” Father Robert Reicher, Catholic, states: “Problems arise, for me, when the clergyman states he is speaking in the name of the Church or if he uses the Church to obtain institutional or structural reforms in society.”

Rabbi Richard Hirsch sees “a danger that the heady exhilaration of demonstrations may cause us to forget the slow, arduous task of improving human relations.”

Father George Higgins, NCWC, counts two good reasons for being “selective” about the causes worthy of organized, visible support from religious bodies. One, “the more often we demonstrate, the less impact each occasion will have on public attitudes;” too “churchmen must be sure they have the facts, and that a clear-cut moral issue is involved rather than an honest difference of opinion.” It would be foolish to give neutral place to issues that call up the very justice of God’s society. Racial discrimination, economic suffocation, destruction of marriage and family life are clearly moral issues - and there is a Catholic solution.

But it would be equally foolish to carry moral judgment to every single provocation or to every technical solution. This particular racial demonstration, this conflict between management and labor, that national traditions of married life -- these are not always clearly judged. Both sides must be humble and fair-minded.

In between is a twilight area where the answers are not clear at all. Free speech must be balanced over against filthy literature. Is fluoridation of water an emotional hysteria or a scheme to poison American people? Vietnam has no easy solution -- does the clergy know the facts, and does he realize his responsibility as proportionate to the president’s? In inviting your letters, I suggest these comments be considered:

(1). Should the laity rather than clergy provide “the presence of the Church” in these temporal conflicts?

(2). Do we need to update Pope Pius XI’s norm: the Church should speak on moral principles but not on technical details? Please write me your opinions on the questions: Should the Church become involved in temporal crisis? Involved how far?

What’s That Again?

The heading was definite but startling:-

Atlanta Catholics Have Their Own Church For First Time

Somehow it didn’t look right for Apostolate among the Peachtree’s. There’s been a church here since 1837, a dozen parishes since the 1930’s and a Cathedral since 1937. How’s that again - Atlanta gets its own Church.

Right city, wrong state. The headline, story and photographs were from Atlanta, Texas.

Best wishes, and may God bless this new parish out among the cactus. They may not have the Braves, or Coke or Lockheed. But any town in Texas called Atlanta must be the best of two possible worlds!

The parish is probably sitting on top of an oil well. Tithing, anyone?

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta