Newspapers / North Carolina Catholic (Nazareth, … / Dec. 3, 1967, edition 1 / Page 1
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I Jlort!) Carolina Sunday Visitor , W W p Edition IIJ I t ^ P.O. Box 9503 Subscription M- V IJ 4 I V RALEIGH, N.C. $**®® Volume LVI December 3, 1967 No. 31 Copy ^ w 'w' N_^ >.✓ v—-■ X—/ 'w' \^v_x '—/ ' \ ' __' V ' V __' Vx 1ST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, DEC. 3 — The whole theme of Advent can be summed up in this ■ song of the Church. As we await the coming of Christ at Christmas, we cry out, “Come, Lord, come and save us!” (NC Photo)__ Editor's Desk A Letter from the Mail Bag “Dear Father, We hope that you had a fine Thanksgiving. Our family, as always, has so much to be thankful for. My hus band and the children are all well and happy. Two of the chil dren are again attending the parish school. The boy has a fine teacher and we are very pleased that he is still doing so well and enjoys school so much. His report card was really one to be >roud of. The little daughter oves first grade. She hasn’t nought home a report yet, but er daily papers show a great mprovement from week to week, he two pre-schoolers are still ay traveling companions to and rom school. There isn’t too much else new rom our house. Needless to say, am constantly on the ‘move’ irith my little group, but I would lot change a day of my life with anyone. . . .” This correspondent, a parish oner during one of our previous >astorates which involved the administration of a parochial fschool, personally drives her S children 12 miles daily one way ■ to classes. Within our present Cary parish there are parents most willing to make similar ef forts and sacrifices. In comparison, the following headlines were seen in the Cath olic press related to the parish schools: “Says Cath. Ed. must be Free of Narrow Denominational ism; Warns on Abolition of Non-Public Schools; Calls for Broader Educational Financing; Pressure Urges Parents for Non public School Aid; and to quote the King of Siam, “Etc., etc. etc.” It’s still worth the sacrifices and effort. And a second letter, this one from our sister, a Benedictine nun: “Appreciate your work on the paper ... do feel you put effort into the selection of your news. See Editer’s Desk, page 8A Thanksgiving Observance Ecumenical Service Conducted in Raleigh RALEIGH — This Thanksgiv ing season, Protestants, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Jews worshiped together here. The joint service in observ ance of the' National Day of Thanksgiving was held at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. A choir of 450 children sang seven anthems. The service was an ecumenical milestone for the relations among men of faith here. It was especially fitting that there was this common opportunity for all to present their thanks to God as a community group at this na tional holiday. A dialogue reading of psalm 103 was made by the Very Rev. Charles J. O’Connor, Cathedral rector and the Rev. Henry Cof fer. The Prayer of Thanksgiving was offered by the pastor of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church. Hie Rabbi of Temple Beth Or gave the call to worship and the benediction. Among the childrens’ choir were a group of students from the Cathedral Elementary School and Our Lady of Lourdes School. An estimated 2,000 persons at tended. Among the co-sponsoring groups were the Father Thomas F. Price Council of the Knights of Columbus and Court Bishop Hafey of the Catholic Daughters of America. Melkite Rite Picks Patriarch BEIRUT, Lebanon — (NC) — Melkite-rite Archbishop Georges Hakim of Acre, Israel, has been elected Melkite-rite patriarch of Antioch and all the East, it was announced here. The 59-year-old prelate suc ceeds Maximos IV Oaidinal Saigh, who died here Nov. 5. Twenty-one bishops partic ipated (Nov. 22) in the election held in the patriarchate here. For U.S. Soldiers Serving in Vietnam By FR. PATRICK O’CONNOR ' SAIGON — (NC) — “When you walk through the door, you feel you’re home again,” is a typical U.S. serviceman’s com ment on the USO in Vietnam. There are 15 of these doors wide open to him all the way from Danai\g down to Vung Tau southeast of Saigon. A 16th will soon be opened farther south in Cantho. Inside the door he can find hot dogs to eat, a juke box to listen to, a tape recorder for his voice message to the folks and a Polaroid camera for a photo to send with his next letter. The homey feeling comes nat urally, since the home folks have created the USO and keep it supplied with everything from money to melody. SIX AMERICAN civilian agencies form the USO, which stands for United Service Or ganizations. The six are the Young Men’s Christian Associa tion, the National Catholic Com munity Service, the National Jewish Welfare Board, the Young Women’s Christian Asso ciation, the Salvation Army and the National Travelers’ Aid As sociation. The National Catholic Com munity Service is represented by 11 men and women in the pro fessional staff of 45 operating the USO clubs in Vietnam. It is estimated that in one month some 650,000 servicemen make use of USO facilities in this country. What do they appreciate most? “The snack bar,” answered Sam Anderson of Pine Bush, N.Y., USO executive director here. “They get the things they eat at home, a hamburger, for instance, a hot dog, ice cream or a milk shake.” IT’S ALL PART of the home atmosphere. “Sometimes you see them sound asleep in the chairs, com pletely relaxed,” Margaret J. Roach of Corvallis, Ore., who works in the Di An USO, said. This club serves the men of the Big Red One, the 1st U.S. Infan try Division. The USO clubs in Vietnam are invaluable, in fact essential, be cause of the war conditions. Here the armed forces can pro vide only limited facilities for relaxation and entertainment. Without the USO, many serv icemen would be restricted to these limited facilities or would have recourse to the kind of “bars” that are a disgrace to both the Vietnamese operators and their American customers. THOUGHTFUL PEOPLE at home send gifts to the USO for distribution to the GI’s. Any day may bring fruit cakes, cookies, shaving gear, tape recorders and tapes, and cash donations. Christmas always inspires spe cial generosity for the, season when the man or women over seas thinks most wistfully of home. Letters come, too, to remind the serviceman that he is not forgotten. “We get heartening letters from communities of nuns,” Mrs. Patricia K. Krause of San Diego said, in her crowded little office in the USD here. (She is the widow of a U.S. Navy offi cer.) “I have read some of these letters on our radio program. ‘We want you to know we are praying for you,’ one letter said, and it was signed by a whole group of Sisters. We get spirit ual bouquets, too, and assur ances of Masses offered.” Evangelist Gets Belmont Degree, Warns of Change BELMONT — At a special ac ademic convocation honoring Billy Graham, the international ly famous evangelist returned to Belmont Abbey College, here, for the second time to address the faculty and student body and to receive an honorary de gree Doctor of Humane Letters from the famous Southern Ben edictine institution. Speaking to the largest crowd ever to assemble on the campus, Billy Graham directed his ad dress to the college students who packed the college gym and crowded into a large dining hall to hear him by closed cir cuit television. Billy Graham warned that there are radical changes taking place because of the rapid ad vances of technology, but there are other areas that do not, can not, and will not change. The present changes are shaking hu man society. “THE DAYS will come, in which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down,” Graham quoted from the Bible, Luke 21, and outlined the problems fac ing the world today — Vietnam, the Middle East crisis, trouble in Rhodesia and Greece, a pes simistic atmosphere in the Unit ed Nations, and domestic prob lems with civil rights and pov erty. He added the growing popu See Billy Graham, page 2A Catholic Chaplain Missing in Viet Action DAKTO, Vietnam — (NC) — Father (Maj.) Charles Watters of the Newark archdiocese, of ficially reported missing in ac tion, was last seen assisting the wounded on Hill 875, about 12 miles southwest of here. He was chaplain with the second battal ion, 173rd Airborne Brigade. On Sunday evening, Nov. 19, after hard fighting, the battalion had reached the upper slope of the hill, held by North Viet namese troops in strength. In the small area described as a natural clearing a perimeter was formed into which the wounded were brought to await evacuation by helicopter. SURVIVORS SAID they saw Father Writers bringing two wounded men into the perimeter on his shoulders. Pfc. Dale Goodman of Van Nuys, Calif., who was him self wounded, said he saw the priest, whom he knew well, help ing men, giving them water just before an explosion that took some 20 U.S. lives inside the perimeter. Pfc. Goodman, a Methodist aged 21, attended Fa ther Watters’ services. He said the men thought very highly of him. (A battalion has only one chaplain. Hence, the second bat talion had no Protestant chap lain with it) Another California soldier, John Flagg, a Catholic, said the men “thought the world” of Fa ther Watters. “I AM NOT a Catholic, but I went to Father Watters’ Masses and I learned to pray on Hill 875,” Spec. 4 John Steer, aged 19, of Minneapolis said. He had been wounded and brought inside the perimeter, where he was wounded again by a bomb explosion. “I can’t say enough in praise of the man,” Chaplain (LA. Col.) John W. Hulme of Jackson, Tenn., Methodist brigade chap lain, said of Father Watters. “The men who came in from the battalion were praising him ev ery way they could. Most of them could not talk about him without breaking down. He was a father to Protestants as well as Catholics.” Chaplain Hulme gave his tes timony between the tents of B Medical Company, where he him self continued his constant at tention to the wounded. Chaplain (Maj.) Nofman Wal ker, a Baptist from Pascagoula, Miss., also of the 173rd Brigade, likewise busy with wounded, said of Father Watters: “He was a very wonderful man. I have known him only two months and feel that he was a real brother in Christ.” FATHER WATTERS had fin- . ished his full year of service in Vietnam last summer, but volun teered to extend his time here. The four-day fight to eject North Vietnamese troops from Hill 875 was part of a series of battles lasting some three weeks in the Dakto region and involv See Chaplala Waring, page 8A
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