Vol. 27 No. 6 ROSARY HILL COLLEGE, BUFFALO, N.Y. DECMEBER 13,1974 Christmas Is As Real As Make-Believe Feelings are supposedly transmitted through books and not newspaper articles; however, with the coming of Christmas and Santa Claus, comes by janetsusanelmer the exception to that rule. This piece is on Christmas and I hope will transmit to you the feeling and wonder of this time of year and why! continue to make glad the heart dl could say to you that it smelled ' . (2) life. In her letter, Virginia asked of childhood.” This is the It was and has been said that like Christmas outside or that it The most renowned piece of for truth. Church, if nothing else meaning of Christmas. It is real, our age is a skeptical one; but I felt like Christmas, but in a American journalism was can be said, gave her truth. He as all the make-believe world is, will not believe that! This era rational world there is no smell or published in “The Sun” on Sept. said, “Yes, Virginia, there is a and that is the wonder of it all. seems to me just as full of feel to Christmas . However, 21st inv 1897. The piece was an Santa Claus. He exists as (3) wonderful things as any period in you would probably know what I editorial by Francis Church and certainly as love, generosity and According to the skeptics, like the past has been. The problem meant when I said that there is a it has come to be called “Yes, devotion exist, and you know they Dr. Lee Salk, pediatic-psycho- with our time is that people are smell or feel to Christmas. Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” abound and give to your life its logy director at N.Y. Hospital- more concerned with being Because you also know the world That line from the middle of the highest beauty and joy. Alas! Cornell Medical Centre, from the realist then anything else. Today of make-believe, even if you deny piece is probably the most well How dreary would be the world if very beginning a child should be a person who does not act totally its true existence. recognized sentence in the whole there were no Santa Claus.” The told that Santa is a fraud. Dr. rational is seen as being a little editorial. The rest of the reply is most important part came at the Bruno Bettelheim, child Psycho­ mentally disturbed. To see is Christmas is a time when, even often ignored. What a loss, end of the letter and no one can analyst and professor of Educa­ most certainly to believe; but is in this realist time, we are because the entire reply of state it better: “Only faith, tion at the University of Chicago, that the only way we will come to allowed to bring our fantasies out Francis Church is the feeling of fancy, poetry, love, romance, can disagrees ... He has never seen a believe something? in the open. We can let others Christmas. It-is real for all its push aside that curtain and view child extremely troubled over know of our belief without being make-believe! and picture the supernatural believing in Santa and then We all know the feeling we have ashamed, but we do not. Instead beauty and glory beyond. Is it coming to his disillusion (?) when we are happy, we know we cover up our belief by saying To read the whole answer real? Ah, Virginia, in this world gradually. Church believes there those that come with sadness that we are only pretending to received by Virginia is to gain a there is nothing else real and is a Santa Claus and a Christmas and, yet, they are unseeable. pretend that Christmas is real! new preception, a new meaning abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank and “The most real things in Feelings exist inside' us, as does To look at Christmas so for existence. It’s simple, yet God! He lives, and lives forever. the world are those th a t. ” are the world of make-believe, and rationally is sickening and brings profound proof that Santa Claus A thousand years from now, unseen. A Christmas that you can therefore are more basicly to mind characters worse than lives is an influence which can Virginia, nay ten times ten smell and feel and a Santa that intimate to our very being. I Scrooge. change your whole outlook on thousand years from now, he will comes once a year. Poet’s Co/tne/t 'Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus' Come Around The branches come around in swatches of silveryl green, brushed once or twice with burnt sienna, Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. devotion exist, and you know the world. The most real Some of my little friends say they abound and give to your things in the world are those To remind us of the time there is no Santa Claus. Papa life its highest beauty and joy. that neither children nor men Alas! How dreary would be can see. says “If you see it in “The When they all come around Sun” it’s so.” Please tell me the world if there were no San­ the truth; is there a Santa ta Claus. It would be as by the wind that blows them Dreary as if there were no in ever-swelling circles, Claus? Virginias. There would be no You can tear apart a baby’s Whirling a message from one tree to the next; childlike faith then, no poetry, rattle and see what makes the no romance to make tolerable VIRGINIA, your little friends noise inside, but there is a veil this existence. We would have covering the unseen world Once to me are wrong. They have been no enjoyment except in the which not the strongest man, and next to you affected by the skepicism of a sense or sight. The eternal nor the united strength of all skepical age. They do not be­ light with which childhood fills the branches come around lieve except they see. They the strongest men that ever the world would be extingui­ lived, could tear apart. Only In whispy circles that gush through the air, think that nothing can be shed. faith, fancy, poetry, love, ro­ which is not comprehensible mance, can push aside that by their little minds. curtain and view and picture And blush for the childlike gossip Not believe in Santa Claus! the supernatural beauty and that flows through their playful fingers You might as well not believe All minds, Virginia, whether glory beyond. Is it real? Ah, from one heart to one listener; they be men’s or children’s in fairies! You might get your Virginia, in this world there is are little. In this great unir Papa to hire men to watch in nothing else real and abiding. While all the time. verse of ours, man is a mere all the chimnies to catch Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, but insect, an ant, in his intellect, The air and the messages remain sweet, as compared to the boundless even if they did not see Santa world about him, as measured Claus coming down, what and real, and finding their way by the inteligence capable of would that prove? Nobody No Santa Claus! Thank to when you and the br&nches sees Santa Claus. Did you ever God! he lives, and lives for­ grasping the whole truth and Come around again. knowledge. see fairies dancing on the ever. A thousand years from lawn. Of course not, but that’s now, Virginia, nay ten times by Cathy Tobia no proof they are not there. ten thousand years from now, Yes, Virginia, there is a Nobody can conceive or he will continue to make glad Santa Claus, He exists as cer­ imagine all the wonders there thé heart of childhood. tainly as love, generosity and are unseen and unseeable in By Francis Church PAGE 2 THÉ ASCENT DECEMBER 13,1974 Out of Nothing, A Most Memorable Christmas “I refnember a Christmas about 1957,” said the soft spoken Sister Judith Fehyvesi who spent ten years in a communist prison.* “Twenty-five of us who were locked in one big cell. The guards heard us singing Christmas carols. They took out all our mat­ Will Rogers once said that all he knew was what he read in the news­ tresses. For two days we slept on papers. However significant his statement may have been, it certainly the cold hard floor,” she said is quite significant for prospective Rosary Hill College students who matter-of-factly. know nothing else about the college but what they read. As a matter of fact, when I visit various high schools, publications and pictures representing the campus are constantly requested. Therefore, copies of the “Ascent” and “Summit 1974” are now always part of my Hungarian Sister Judith, of the presentation. Sisters of Social Service and The purpose of this letter, then, is to share with you the numerous chairman of the Sociology-Social compliments that these media attract. In a word, the compliments are Work Concentration, always “terrific.” Keep up the good work. speaks softly. She exudes a kind Sincerely, of quiet strength. No trace of Stephen J. Ad<jrian, Ph.D. bitterness tinged her explanation Assistant Director of Admissions of the guards action. “The inmates were most closely watched. Especially on holy days. They wanted to make it impossible for us to show any outward sign. But ¿11 the prison­ ers had a great desire to cele­ brate Christmas,” she said.