Letter to the Editor
Laborers in the Vineyard
Each year, thousands of migrant workers come to North
Carolina to do the back-breaking work of harvesting crops.
Often their lot is not a happy one. A letter from Rev.
James L. Vizzard, director of the Washington office of the
National Catholic Rural Life Conference, offers a practical
suggestion on how we can help our brothers in Christ. The
text of Father Vizzard’s letter follows:
Your readers are certainly aware of the important
breakthroughs that recently have been made in the Delano,
Calif., grape pickers’ strike. Their 300-mile, 25-day pil
grimage from Delano to Sacramento ended on Easter Sun
day in a tremendous outpouring of 10,000 concerned per
sons, including countless priests, nuns and seminarians.
The last dozen miles of this wearying march were
made much easier and more joyful by the announcement
that Schenley Industries, the second-largest grower in the
Delano area, had offered to sit down with them as equals
for the purpose of collective bargaining.
A few days after Easter this breakthrough was rein
forced. Both the Mont La Salle Vineyards Corporation,
owned and operated by the Christian Brothers, and Los
Gatos Novitiate Winery of the California Province of the
Jesuits announced that they too were recognizing the
NFWA, and were prepared to negotiate and sign a contract
with them.
No End to Struggle
Important though these developments certainly are, it
would be a mistake to assume that they signal the end of
the farm workers’ struggle. Actually, even in Delano it
self we are witnessing only a beginning.
One can securely forecast that unless necessary national
legislation is soon passed, the next few years will see dozens
and perhaps hundreds of other Delanos in California and
in other parts of the nation. Moreover, it is highly unlike
ly that these other Delanos will be conducted as peaceably
and with such sound Christian motivation. In fact, some
of these struggles will almost certainly lead to violence
and bloodshed.
The only thing which has any chance of preventing
such eruptions and the only way in which farm workers
can achieve for themselves an adequate and honorable liv
ing would be the passage of legislation to protect the work
ers’ right to organize and bargain collectively with them.
As of now, farm workers are excluded from such pro
tection of the law. In this session of Congress, however,
legislation will soon be considered to bring farm workers
under the National Labor Relations Act and thus provide
them both with the necessary legal protection and with
the well-established mechanisms for collective bargaining.
U.S. ‘Must Take Steps’
In a pastoral letter from the Catholic Bishops of Cali
fornia published in the Central California Register on April
14, 1966, and signed personally by Most Rev. Aloysius J.
Willinger, C.Ss.R., D.D., Bishop of Monterey-Fresno, the
convictions of the most immediately involved spokesmen
for the Church were stated most emphatically:
. . It is quite clear that the federal government must
take steps to bring agricultural labor into line with the
dignity achieved by industrial labor.
“1. First and most important is the inclusion of agri
culture in the provisions of the National Labor Relations
Act_”
Would it be asking too much to suggest that those who
have been stirred by the valiant struggle of the Delano
grape pickers would now let their congressmen and sena
tors know by letter telegram or personal visit that they
insist that this legislation be passed?
It seems to me that Christ’s injunction to feed the
hungry and clothe the naked can in our time most effec
tively be fulfilled by the individual Christian exercising his
rights and duties as a citizen in promoting precisely such
legislation.
In this context, a letter to a Congressman or senator
is indeed an act of Christian love. Simply because it calls
for a few minutes of time and a five-cent stamp, such a
letter surely is not of less worth than the cup of cold water
given in His name.
Q.irn,,!.,. IIINMN JSJ
NORTH CAROLINA CATHOLIC
The Weekly North CeroRna Catholic newspaper of news and views
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ttons ot Oils Association nor the official position of the Cathode Church in
matters outside the field of faith ana morals.
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Editor -
Associate Editors:
Rev. Roderick O’Connor
Rev. Joseph Home
Rev. Robert Lawson
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Volume XX, No. 84
May 29, I960
The Noise of A Great Wind
And Tongues of Flame
Chariot
But Where Is Wisdom?
By Rev. Paschal Boland, O.S.B.
The Week in Liturgy
The Age of the Holy Spirit
May 29
PENTECOST SUNDAY. Holy Scripture
records in Genesis that the children of Adam
attempted to build a tower which would reach
the sky, and that this plan displeased God who
miraculously thwarted them by confounding
their speech so that they could not understand
one another.
On Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit, in a
divine intervention, united what had been con
founded centuries ago so that all present on this
occasion could understand the words of the
Apostles, “They were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak different tongues.” In
the audience were Jews from many nations and
“each heard them speak in their own language”
(1st Lesson).
The confounding of the languages caused
misunderstanding over the building of the tower
of Babel and led to the dispersal of the children
Return of Relic
To Athens Praised
ATHENS — (NC) — The return of the pri
mary relic of St. Titus from Venice to the Greek
island of Crete—where he had been consecrated
first bishop of Crete by St. Paul—was an occasion
of joy for all Greece which showed signs of a warm
ing outlook toward the Roman Catholic Church on
the part of the leadership of the Orthodox Church
of Greece.
In his speech welcoming the return of the
skull of St. Titus to the Cretan capital of Heraklion
after its 300 years in St. Mark’s basilica in Venice,
Orthodox Metropolitan Eugenius of Heraklion de
clared: “A great event in our relationship with the
Catholic Church has taken place today.”
The skull—encased in a reliquary in the form
of an Eastern-rite miter—had first been brought
here from Venice two days earlier by a Catholic
party led by Auxiliary Bishop Giuseppe Olivotti of
Venice. It was met at the Athens airport by Arch
bishop Chrysostomos of Athens, Primate of the
Orthodox Church of Greece, who has been an out
spoken opponent of the closer Catholic-Orthodox
ties promoted by Pope Paul and Patriarch Athena
goras of Constantinople.
Two years ago, when the Pope announced that
the head of St. Andrew the Apostle was being re
turned from Rome to Patras, Greece, where St. An
drew was martyred, Archbishop Chrysostomos de
scribed the ecumenical gesture as a “trap, cunning
ly held out.”
The following September, when Augustine Car
dinal Bea, chairman of the Vatican Secretariat for
Promoting Christian Unity, took the relic of St.
Andrew from Rome to Patras, the Greek Primate
remained in Athens.
But for the visit here of the relic of St. Titus,
Archbishop Chrysostomos joined in the motorcade
from the airport to his cathedral. There he deliver
ed an address expressing thanks to Pope Paul and
Giovanni Cardinal Urbani of Venice for their friend
ly gesture.
The reliquary was exposed for veneration in
the cathedral for 24 hours, and thousands of Athen
ians went to pray before it.
of Adam to various parts of the world. It had a
disunifying effect. Now, however, the Holy
Spirit promised by Christ (Gospel) unified the
descendants of the dispersal by the miraculous
gifts of tongues.
This coming of the Holy Spirit took place
on the Jewish Pentecost which commemorated
the alliance God made with Moses on Sinai
establishing the Jewish race as His chosen peo
ple. The new Pentecost, the Christian Pentecost,
signified a new alliance between a new people
of God assembled from all nations and races, not
from one chosen race.
May 30
PENTECOST MONDAY. In the days of the
Old Testament the people who believed in God
were those of the Jewish race. To them all oth
ers were Gentiles or pagans. The first Christians
were Jews and the New Testament* opened with
the birth of the Messiah, completing and fulfill
ing the era of the Old Testament. The first
Christians were amazed that the Holy Spirit
descended on the Gentiles also. Seeing this St.
Peter declared, “Can anyone refuse water to
baptize these people who have received the Holy
Spirit? ... And he ordered them to be baptized”
(1st Lesson).
May 31
PENTECOST TUESDAY. The Sacrament of
Baptism initiates one into the Christian life and
the Holy Spirit is infused. To help bring a
Christian to maturity the Sacrament of Con
firmation is needed; thus Peter and John went
to Samaria to administer the Sacrament of Con
firmation (1st Lesson).
June 1
PENTECOST WEDNESDAY (Ember Day).
The Holy Spirit so filled the Apostles that they
sounded like men beside themselves, ecstatic,
bubbling over, having visions, and prophesying.
St. Peter in his first sermon recalled that the
prophet, Joel, foretold such an outpouring of
the Holy Spirit (1st Lesson). —
June 2
PENTECOST THURSDAY. Many charisras
were bestowed not only upon the Apostles by
the Holy Spirit, but also on their disciples such
as the deacon, Philip. “The crowds when they
heard Philip and saw the miracles he worked,
listened witlj. general accord to what he said”
(1st Lesson).
June 3
PENTECOST FRIDAY (Ember Day). Aft
er an invasion by a plague of locusts which de
stroyed the crops, God promised the Jews food
in plenty and that He would abide in their
midst (1st Lesson). Today, in a spiritual way,
the Holy Spirit does the same, providing the
vital 'nourishment of grace to men’s souls and
abiding in them by a divine indwelling.
June 4
PENTECOST SATURDAY (Ember Day).
Initiated by the Sacrament of Baptism, deep
ened and expanded by that of Confirmation, re
stored or implemented by the other Sacraments,
the fullness of the Holy Spirit is possible to all
Christians as foretold by the prophet, Joel, “I
will pour forth my Spirit on all mankind” (1st
Lesson).