J^ortfj
Carolina
Catholic
Edition of Our Sunday Visitor
Subscription $3.50 Copy 10c
Volume L January 21, 1962 Number 38
RALEIGH, N. C. P. 0. Box 9503
Fr. Robert J. MacMillan
Buried From Charlotte
CHARLOTTE — Father Ro
bert J. MacMillan, aged 52, for
many years pastor of Immacu
late Heart of Mary Church,
High Point, died on January 8,
• and was buried from St. Pat
rick’s Church here Friday, Jan
uary 12.
Father MacMillan had served in
High Point from 1940 until 1957
when hepatitis forced him to re
sign. Since 1957, after long hospi
talization at Duke University Hos
pital, the well-known priest lived
in residence and served at Greens
boro, Jacksonville, and at St. ’at
rick’s, Charlotte. While on a brief
'Christmas holiday in New York,
Father MacMillan died suddenly.
Monsignor George E. Lynch, Chan
cellor of Raleigh Diocese, accom
panied the body of the deceased
back to Charlotte.
Born in Idaho
Robert J. MacMillan was born
May 19, 1908, at Coeur d’Alene,
Idaho, son of Alexander MacMillan
and Mary Cameron. His parents
had been married at Annunciation
Church in Leadville, Colorado, in
1890.
Young Robert MacMillan re
ceived grammar and high school
ing at Immaculate Heart of Mary
Academy in Coeur d’Alene. He en
tered seminary classes at Catholic
University in 1929 and completed
his last two years of Theology at
Mount St. Marys, 1933-1935. There
he was ordained June 2, 1935.
Under Bishop William J. Hafey,
Father MacMillan was assigned to
Greenville in 1935, shortly after
ordination. In 1940 he was trans
ferred by Bishop Eugene J. Mc
Guinness to High Point where the
tall, jovial priest served until
stricken with illness in 1957. For a
Fr. MacMillan
time after 1940 he served as Su
perintendent of diocesan schools,
and during the Second World War
See Fr. MacMillan, page 7A
JFK Still Questions
Nonstate Pupils' Rights
WASHINGTON — President
Kennedy stressed in his State of
the Union message his belief that
“across-the-board” U.S. aid to non
state schools is unconsitutional
The Chief Executive’s comment
came in his appeal to Congress to
adopt the administration’s $2.3
billion, three-year program of
help for state schools.
The bill, providing assistance
for construction and payment of
teachers’ salaries, passed the Sen
ate last session, but did not come
to the House floor because the
House Rules Committee denied
clearance for debate.
A watered-down version was
prepared for House action, but
, members voted 242 to 169 not to
consider it. The bill’s feature was
a one-year, $325 million program
for state school construction.
The outlook for action on the
President’s new request remained
dim after his address.
House education leaders have
indicated they do not expect ac
tion on the bill this session be
cause they hope to avoid the con
troversy in an election year. One
'-of them, Rep. Adam Clayton
Powell of New York, chairman of
the House Education Committee,
said that despite the President’s
address he still does not expect
action.
President Kennedy’s comment
on the constitutionality of Federal
aid to nonstate — parochial and
other private — schools came in
this sentence in which he referred
to the administration bill introduc
ed last year.
“I believe the bill . . . offered
the minimum amount required by
our needs and — in terms of
across-the-board aid — the maxi
mum scope permitted by our Con
stitution.”
He added: “I therefore see no
reason to weaken or withdraw
that bill; and I urge its passage
at this session.”
The Chief Executive’s first
statement that parochial and
other private schools should be
denied “across-the-board” aid
came in February, 1961, in a mes
sage to Congress detailing his edu
cation proposals.
At that time, he said:
“In accordance with the clear
prohibition of the Constitution, no
elementary or secondary school
funds are allocated for construc
ting church schools or paying
church school teachers’ salaries.”
This comment precipitated a
See Pupils’ Rights, page 7A
Pontiff Tells
His Sorrow
In Disasters
VATICAN CITY — (NC) — His
Holiness Pope John XXIII has ex
pressed his sorrow over natural
disasters that have taken thousands
of lives and caused heavy damage
in Peru and Yugoslavia and has
sent money to victims of the ca
tastrophes.
Pope John requested Archbish
op Romolo Carboni, Apostolic Nun
cio to Peru, to convey his sym
pathy and the assurance of his
prayers to Peruvian authorities
and the families of victims of a
massive mountain slide that buried
nine villages in the Andes and
killed an estimated 3,000 to 4,000
persons.
The Pope also sent a message to
Bishop Franjo Franic of Split ex
pressing his deep sorrow at the
news of the deaths and damage
caused by earthquakes along Yu
goslavia’s Dalmatian coast.
The amount of aid sent to both
nations was not made public.
The disaster in Peru occurred
when some six million tons of ice,
rocks, mud and snow fell from the
nation’s highest peak, Mt. Huas
caran, and buried the village of
Ranrahirca on January 10.
DURING A BOSTON visit, pretty Debbie Sue Brown, 5. of
Clarkston, Wash., 1962 National Poster Child of the March of
Dimes, was welcomed by Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbish
op of Boston, on whose lap the Child cozily perched. Debbie
must w^ar leg .braces because of weakness caused by an open
spine, one of the birth defects with which 250,000 infants are
| afflicted every year in the U.S. March of Dimes funds finane
! ed much of Debbie’s treatment.
Vatican Paper Sharp
On 'Better World' Book
VATICAN CITY _ (NC) — The
Vatican City newspaper has criti
cized some of the recommenda
tions for a “reform of the Church”
made by the noted Italian preach
er, Father Riccardo Lombardi, S.J.,
founder of the Movement for a
Better World.
The Jesuit priest,, made his rec
Sftuneqdations in a new book, “The
Council.” He called on the prelates
who will take part in the forthcom
ing ecumenical council to make
sweeping changes in the Church’s
administrative staff, the Roman
curia, including the establishment
of a “world senate” of Catholic lay
men. The priest was also critical of
the curia’s efficiency.
An editorial in L’Osservatore
Romano replied:
“Certain of the judgments which
the author hazards on the clergy
and the Roman curia, whose great
worthiness and magnificent work
for the Church and for souls have
not been placed in a just light, are
rash and unjust.”
The editorial said that Father
Lombardi’s book “advances
thoughts, observations and criti
cisms which have only private and
personal value.”
In Judging books, the editorial
continued, one either agrees with
them or “rejects or holds them as
questionable, or at least inoppor
tune, according to the measure in
which they appear to conform with
the norms given and the example
offered by the Supreme Pontiff, to
whom alone the Redeemer has en
trusted the task of caring for the
sheep and the lambs, learned and
unlearned, ecclesiastics and lay
men.”
The Vatican City daily stressed
the teaching authority of the popes
and bishops in its editorial. It not
ed that in the preparatory stage of
the council the opinions and sug
gestions of bishops, theologians and
members of the curia were collect
ed, and continued:
Merchant Sailors
Get Dispensation
NEW ORLEANS — (NC) —
The Holy See has. dispensed mer
chant seamen from Church law on
fast and abstinence when sailors
find that difficulties in observing
it are present and continuing.
Father Thomas A. McDonough,
C.SS.R., secretary of the National
Catholic Apostleship of the Sea
Conference, announced the dispen
sation here.
It applies, he said, on all days
of the year except Good Friday,
“in so far as it is possible to keep
| the law on that day.”
“The Second Vatican Ecumeni
cal Council shows itself, then, as a
work of the whole Church, past
and present, in which numerous
members of the Church have col
laborated and are collaborating,
not excluding laymen, although in
a different way.”
L’Osservatore Romano pointed
out that only members of the Hier
archy will take part in the com
ing council. It emphasized that the
cooperation of laymen with the
clergy, “above all by means of
prayer and then by suggestions or
thoughts expressed with perfect
submission to the judgment of
legitimate authority, has not con
ferred on any (layman) the right
to take part in the (council); or to
interfere in any way in the delib
erations reserved solely to the
Hierarchy.”
The editorial said that interest
in the council is praiseworthy, “but
in a measure proportionate to the
condition of each person and al
ways in conformity with the exam
ple, directives and the norm of
prudence and discretion laid down
by the Supreme Pontiff and other
members of the sacred Hierarchy,
See Better World, page 7A
Church Accused
Of Promoting
Soviet Policy
NEW YORK — (NC) — The
Russian Orthodox Church joined
the World Council of Churches re
cently to promote tenets of Soviet
foreign policy and to form a com
mon front against Russian Catholi
cism, according to a reference pa
per distributed in the U.S. and
Canada.
The paper, distributed by the
American Committee for Libera
tion, also states that the Soviets’
anti-Catholic activities have been
stepped up because of a fear that
the forthcoming Second Vatican
Council will issue an official con
demnation of communism.
The paper was compiled by In
stitute for the Study of the USSR
in Munich, Germany, described as
“a free corporation of scholars °
who have left the Soviet Union.”
The institute issues a journal edi
ted by a professor B. Ivanov.
President of the American Com
mittee for Liberation is Howland
Sargent, a former State Depart
ment official concerned with U.S.
information programs abroad.
The Russian Orthodox Church
was admitted to membership in
the World Council of Churches on
November 20, 1961.
Cub
By Ct,r*ent stff ®7?tere^
er'ngs
MIAMI, Fla. — (NC) — The
sufferings which most of the Cu
ban people now endure under the
communist-controlled government
of Fidel Castro may result in a
stronger faith in God, according
to a non-Catholic resident of the
island.
In a letter to a Miami priest,
the writer pointed out that Christ
mas was for the most part a “sad”
occasion in Cuba.
THOSE WHO were sufficiently
well-off to buy the usual Christ
mas fare nevertheless were sad
dened by the absence of children
or other family members living in
exile or in prison, the writer said.
As for the poor, they “celebrated
their first communist Christmas
with no pork, few chickens, no
eggs, no butter, no oil, etc. Masses
were held in all the churches
which were full to overflowing.”
“How sad it is that people have
to suffer before they realize that
nothing can be achieved without
the power of God,” the writer,
whose identity cannot be dis
closed, commented.
“AS A RULE the churches here
are noisy and little attention is
paid to the service. This year you
could hear a pin drop and there
was no mad rush to leave the
church at tlje first possible mo
ment.
“It was as if they felt it was a
refuge and that they were reluc
tant to leave the peace and safety
of the church. Even I, though not
a Catholic, have faith that this
cannot last, but even so there are
days when I question how is it
that communism can have so much
success.”
The writer emphasized that in
some sense Cubans who remain
on the island are “luckier” than
those who have left. Those who
remain, she explained, “will have
had an experience which could
change their ideas as to the part
religion should play in their lives.”
MOST CUBANS, she continued,
realize that communism is “one
great lie and everything is said
and done to further the anti-Christ
forces throughout the world. Less
food to lower their resistance, con
tinual brainwashing when the re
sistance is low, military displays,
and big shows and the lionizing of
young people who are supposed
to have taught the peasants to read
and write.”