J^ortl)
Carolina
Catholic
Edition of Our Sunday Visitor
Subscription $3.50 Copy 10c
Vol. LII
December 1, 1963
No. 31
RALEIGH, N.C.
P.O. Box 9503
Billy Graham Delivers
Belmont Abbey Address
y BELMONT, N.C. — He preached
the gospel according to Graham
and it sounded as though Billy the
Evangelist was using a Catholic
translation of Holy Scripture for
his text.
The crusading evangelist of
world renown won a standing ova
tion from priests, nuns, and lay
men for the first address he has
even delivered on a Catholic col
lege campus.
Speaking at Belmont Abbey Col
lege to an audience that overflowed
the gymnasium of the Benedictine
institution, Billy Graham called for
Christian unity, praised the Ecu
menical Council and the late Pope
John XXIII, confessed that he has
used the words of Bishop Fulton
Sheen in some of his sermons,
strongly condemned the secularis
tic trend in America.
“WE HAVE ON OUR COINS,”
he said, “the inscription ‘In God
we trust’; we have chaplains in our
armed forces. And we have people
tvho seem bent on removing these
things from our way of life.
“We must remember,” he ex
Rome, Italy
Rt. Rev. Msgr. James E.
McSweeney, Chancellor
Diocese of Raleigh,
Raleigh, N.C.
Saddened, shocked, prayer
ful, at tragic loss of Presi
dent. Letter follows.
Bishop Waters
horted the audience of some 2,000
persons, “that God honors the na
tion that honors God.”
“There is,” he reminded his lis
teners, “a great revolution in
Christendom. I don’t know when
See Billy Graham, page 5A
In Messages
Pope Paul Notes Grief
At 'Tragic, Sad News'
VATICAN CITY — (NC)— Pope
Paul VI expressed his grief at the
“tragic and sad news” of President
Kennedy’s assassination in a formal
statement and in separate mes
sages to his widow, his parents, his
brothers, President Lyndon B. John
son and Richard Cardinal Cushing
of Boston, who celebrated Mass at
the president’s funeral.
Pope Paul said in his statement:
“We have been greatly stricken
by the tragic and sad news of the
killing of the President of the
United States, John Fitzgerald
Kennedy, and of the serious
wounding of Governor Connally of
Texas.
“We ARE deeply grieved by this
execrable crime for the grief
which has struck the great and civ
ilized country and for the suffering
which Mrs. Kennedy, her children
and her relations suffer.
“We deplore this event with Our
whole heart. We express the hope
that the death of this great states
man will not bring damage to the
American people, but will strength
en its moral and civil sense and
sentiments of nobility and concord.
We pray God that the sacrifice of
John Kennedy may help the cause
promoted and defended by him of
President Mourned
By Nation. World
WASHINGTON — (NC) — Re
quiem Mass for John Fitzgerald
Kennedy, 35th President of the
United States and the first Catholic
to occupy the presidency, was of
fered while the nation and the
world mourned.
Hundreds of dignitaries of
Church and State filled St. Mat
thew’s Cathedral here to pray for
and honor the 46-year-old chief
executive.
AND THROUGHOUT the coun
try Americans joined in prayer for
Mr. Kennedy in response to Presi
dent Lyndon B. Johnson’s procla
mation of a “National Day of
Mourning.”
Mr. Johnson’s proclamation said
in part:
“I earnestly recommend the
people to assemble on that day in
their respective places of divine
worship, there to bow down in
submission to the will of Almighty
God, and to pay their homage of
love and reverence to the memory
of a great and good man.
“I INVITE the people of the
world who share our grief to join
us in this day of mourning and
dedication.”
Richard Cardinal Cushing of
Boston, a longtime friend of Presi
dent Kennedy and his family, of
fered the Pontifical Requiem Mass
See President Mourned page 2A
the liberty of peoples and of peace
in the world.
“HE WAS THE first Catholic
president of the United States. We
remember that We had the honor
of his visit and that We noted in
him great wisdom and high pur
pose for the good of humanity. We
shall offer Holy Mass tomorrow
(Nov. 23) for the peace of his soul,
for the comfort of those who
mourn his death and so that, not
hatred, but love shall reign in hu
manity.”
The Pope’s message to President
Johnson said:
“To Your Excellency and to the
See Notes Grief, page 7A
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
(1917 — 1963)
'We Were Wrong
Or So It Seems
Viet Catholics Persecuted
By Father Patrick O’Connor
Society of St. Columban
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
HUE, Vietnam—About 20 fami
lies who became Catholics some
four years ago have been forced
to renounce their Faith in a vil
lage northwest of here.
Catholics in Thua Thien prov
ince, of which Hue is the capital,
,wm. • "... - sm a
ECUMENICAL EVANGELIST — Prior to the first lecture he has ever delivered on the cam
• pus of a Catholic college, Dr. Billy Graham talked with students of Belmont Abbey College
in a dormitory lounge. Dr. Graham is here pictured with the President of the College, Father
John Oetgen, O.S.B., and a group of students.
and adjoining provinces are being
threatened, falsely accused and
bloodily beaten.
Some have been made prison
ers.
Some have been terrorized into
taking down the Crucifix and re
ligious pictures from the walls of
their little homes.
High pressure intimidations are
being applied to force Catholics
converted in recent years and
those now under instruction to
abandon Christianity.
All this has happened since the
recent revolution that brought
about a local as well as a national
change of government. Contrary
to official assurance, the situation
in the villages of this province
has not improved in the past
week.
Out in the lonely countryside,
this correspondent has visited a
parish where a band of young
men descended upon two villages,
obliged the Catholics and catechu
mens to gather and harangued
them with accusations and threats.
The young men accused them of
killing Buddhists and demanded
that they remove their religious
emblems.
IN ANOTHER VILLAGE, a
Catholic woman was seized and
terrified into accusing four Cath
olic men of murdering Buddhists
by putting them into rice sacks
and throwing them , into the river.
This fantastic allegation has been
spread assiduously. It is probably
the distinctive propaganda inven
tion of the present anti-Christian
campaign.
In many villages now, Christians
are afraid to store ordinary rice
sacks in their houses.
In one district headquarters, an
official assured this correspondent
that no Catholics were held pris
oners there. At that time a Cath
olic school teacher seized in an
other village was seen in the
headquarters, not locked into a
cell, but certainly under detention.
CATHOLICS have been beaten
and tied with wire. Victims
wounded by beatings in one vil
See Persecuted, page 2A
REMINDER
Saturday, December 7,
the Vigil of the Feast of the
Immaculate Conception, is a
day of Fast and Partial
Abstinence.
FATHER JOHN BROWN SUFFERS
HEART ATTACK IN FLORIDA
Father John A. Brown, Pastor of St. Eugene’s Church, Ashe
ville, suffered a heart attack while vacationing in Florida. He is
presently recovering at Mercy Hospital, Miami.
Father William N. Pharr will administer St. Eugene’s Parish
during the period of Father Brown’s recuperation. This appoint
ment was made by Rt. Rev. Peter McNerney, Vicar General of
the Diocese of Raleigh.