In this exclusive
Family Weekly
interview, our first
orbiting astronaut
tells what has
happened to him
and his family
since he became
America's No. 1 hero
By JACK RYAN
appeared at more scientific and engineer-
ing meetings. We are few, and we have had
a unique experience. It is part of our
responsibility to share what we have
learned with the people who made it pos
sible but time simply couldn't be found,
and in that area we have real regrets."
But John Glenn has found time his
nights, weekends, holidays to reply to
the 100,000 persons who wrote him after
the flight and those who still mail him
300-500 letters a week. (He also received
800 personal gifts, from carvings of his
space capsule to religious mementos ;
they are being held for future exhibits
in museums.)
"That mail," John Glenn says, "was
something we were totally unprepared for.
Steve Grillo (NASA director of adminis
trative services) helped me set up a
system by which I could personally reply
to any letter requiring a reply."
That "personal reply" is not a figure of
speech. If you have a letter signed by John
Glenn, it is authentic. He has refused
suggestions he use a duplicating device,
and he insists any letter stating his ideas
or feelings be dictated by him, not a public
relations man. His secretary says he has
taken home up to 1,200 letters a night to
sign. Why?
"Other than the flight itself," Glenn re
plies, "the response of young people to our
program has been the most gratifying
thing of the past year. Read their letters,
and you'll see they have been inspired to
set new goals in school and in life. It's a
side benefit of the program we never ex
pected, and it won't be right to do anything
that wouldn't show our appreciation."
Glenn's private dedication is obviously
toward American youth. When the Boy
Scouts asked him to spark a recruitment
drive, he replied : "I'll do anything for the
Boy Scouts." After a full day's work last
summer, he spent more than four evening
hours taping radio and television an
nouncements for the Scouts. In three sub
sequent months, 840,000 boys joined the
John Glenn "Go" Roundup, about 20 per
cent more than in the previous year's drive.
The Glenn family has had less happy oc
casions this past year. When NASA moved
the space center from Langley Field, Va.,
.to Houston, they were forced to leave a
home in Arlington, where they had deep
roots. A serviceman's family must move
frequently, but Glenn says :
"You never get used to leaving friends
and neighbors. We were part of Arlington
(he was Scout adviser, son David and
daughter Lyn participated in Scout pro
grams and school activities, and Mrs.
Glenn was an active PTA member and den
mother), and we hated to leave."
Houston is still a new experience to
the Glenns as. are the astronauts to
Houston. In Arlington the family was
taken for granted; now they faced the
prospect of being "somebody special."
The astronauts solved the problem by
building homes (estimated price around
$35,000, though some say higher) in a
small, rather sophisticated suburb where
privacy was more assured. They are each
others' neighbors. Scott Carpenter is
Glenn's next-door neighbor. Gus Grissom
and Wally Schirra built adjoining homes
one block away. Gordon Cooper lives one
mile from Glenn, and Deke Slayton is
building in the same area. Only Alan
Shepard lives in a Houston apartment
The Glenns spent much of the fall just
settling in their new home. Only recently
have they had a chance to pick up the
activities which made them familiar and
"ordinary" in Arlington. The exception is
John Glenn. "I haven't had enough time at
home to get into things, but I believe I
will. We sort of made it a rule the Glenns
aren't going to be different than before.
I think we've been reasonably successful
the past year, and it's still the rule."
4 Before their move to Houston, Tex., the Glenns John (left), son David, daughter Lyn,
I and Mrs. Glenn were given a farewell party by Arlington, Va., friends and neighbors
as,
What Do You Mean-
Only ONE True Church?
Non-Catholics often resent the
claim that the Catholic Church
alone is the true Church of Christ.
"You Catholics," some of them
say, "have a lot of nerve. The
Church is universal. Anybody can
belong to it who accepts Christ as
his personal Savior and models his
life after Christ's teaching. We can
be members of the true Church
without being Catholics."
Many who feel this way about
it are, of course, sincere and devout
people. And it is not our intention
to challenge the various shades of
Christian thought which they rep
resent. We do ask them, however,
to understand that the Catholic
claim is not a matter of arrogance
or intolerance but of the deepest
religious conviction.
Nearly all Christians agree that
there can be only one true Church.
Yet there are hundreds of differ
ent denominations some of them
miles apart in what they teach all
claiming to be the true Church.
Certainly all of them cannot be
right ... in fact, only ONE can.
But which one? How can we
identify it?
The Son of God made Himself
recognizable to men by coming
upon the earth with a body and
soul like ours. It was in His phy
sical body that He died for our
redemption. Having thus so care
fully revealed Himself to the
people of His own time, would He
not make equally sure that future
generations should also know
Him?
Catholics believe that the Savior
did so, through the Church... in
which He is "able at all times to
save those who came to God
through Him." The Church is,
therefore, not merely a body of
people believing in Christ . . . but
the body appointed by Christ
Himself to continue His mission
of redemption.
SUPREME
A
"He who hears you," the Savior
said, "hears Me." For Catholics,
this means that when the Church
speaks it is Christ speaking. When
the Church offers prayer and sac
rifice and forgiveness of sins, it is
Christ's prayer and sacrifice and
forgiveness of sins. The Church,
as Catholics see it, is Christ living
in the world today! .
Must the Church be an organ
ized system? Is the Church invisi
ble? Is it composed of saints and
sinners? Can we reject the Church
without rejecting Christ? Must I
belong to the Catholic Church to
be saved? The answer to these and
many other important questions is
available in a pamphlet which we
will send you immediately with
out cost or obligation. You can
read it in the privacy of your
home and nobody will call on you.
Write today for Pamphlet FM-16.
SUPREME COUNCIL
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