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3 ► Pope John's Latest Encyclical Stresses Need For More Native Priests, Lay Participation In Public Life Of Mission Areas By Msgr. James I. Tucek (Radio, N.C.W.C. News Service) VATICAN CITY — The need for recruiting and training na tive priests and lay mission aries, and preparing Catholics in mission areas to play an ac tive part in public life was urg ed by His Holiness Pope John XXIII in his first encyclical on the missions. These and many other coun sels for bringing missionary ef forts in line with present-day demands were given in the en cyclical letter “Princeps Pasto- rum” (The Prince of Shep herds), with which Pope John marked the 40th anniversary of another encyclical on the mis sions, Pope Benedict XV’s “Maximum Illud.” The setting and force of the new encyclical’s directives are found in the fact that “many mission territories are undergo ing a phase of social, political and economic evolution which has important counsequences for their future.” The document, dated Novem ber 28, is addressed to the bish ops and faithful and the entire Catholic world to commemorate “Maximum Illud,” which gave new impetus to the modern his tory of the missions, with a par ticular insistence on the need for the recruiting and formation of native clergy. Pope John con tinues the theme of Benedict XV’s encyclical, insisting that still greater responsibility be entrusted to native bishops and priests. He adds furthermore, for the first time in an encyclical, an appeal “to all those lay Cath olics, wherever they might be, to come forward in the profes sions and in public life to con sider seriously the possibility of helping their brothers.” The encyclical is divided into four parts. The first two are dedicated to local hierarchies and clergy and the last two to the laity in mission territories. The encyclical, the fourth of Pope John’s pontificate, opens with the Pope’s personal recol lection of the years (1921 to 1925) when he worked in the national office of Italy’s Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He recalls his contacts with Benedict XV and with Pius XI, and' how the latter, be fore the conclave that elected him Pope, remarked to the then y_o. u n g Msgr. Angelo Roncalli that the two tasks which should concern any f ut u r e pope should be the spread of the FREE INSPECTION Gospel throughout the world and the establishment of a spi rit of peace. Pope John takes account of. the encyclicals of Pius XI and Pius XII on the subject of the missions and adds, as though to explain his own, that “en ough can certainly never be done to bring about fulfilment of the wish of the Divine Re deemer that all the lambs may be part of one single flock un der guidance of one single shepherd.” He goes on to say that now, whenever he gives attention to the Church in mission lands, he sees “regions full of the har vest, regions in which the la bor of the workers in the vine yard of God is particularly ar duous, and regions where the violence of persecution and the hostility of regimes to the name of God and of Christ strive to suffocate the seed of the work of God.” From every quarter, the Pope says, he hears the cry of people saying “help us.” The Pope quickly reviews the progress in mission lands since publication of “Maximum Il lud,” quoting statistics to dem onstrate his point. His review covers mission work under the supervision of the Sacred Con gregation for the Propagation of the Faith, and excludes that under the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church. The latter body, besides supervising the Catholic Eastern Rite bodies throughout the world, has ex clusive territorial jurisdiction in the Near East. The Pope states: “A rapid glance simply at the statistics for the territories en trusted to the Sacred Congre gation for the Propagation of the Faith, not including those at present subjected to perse cution, reveals that the first bishop of Asian origin was con secrated in 1923, and that first apostolic vicars of African ori gin were named in 1939. By 1959 there could be counted 68 bishops of Asian origin and 25 of African origin. The native clergy has increased from 1,919 members in 1918 to 5,553 in 1957 in Asia, from 90 members to 1,811 in the same period of time in Africa.” Here he recalls the observa tion of Pope Pius XII that while ecclesiastical life once flowed from its ancient European sources, today “many regions in other continents have long since surpassed the missionary phase of their ecclesiastical organiza tion and are governed by their own hierarchy and give spirit ual and material goods to the whole Church, whereas before they only received them.” To this the Pope adds his own appeal: “We wish to address our pat ernal exhortation to the epis copate and clergy of the new (mission) churches to pray and act in a very special way so that their priesthood may be come fruitful, and that they as sume the task of speaking very often in catechetical instruc tions and in their preaching of the dignity, beauty, necessity and lofty merit of the priestly state in order that they might persuade all those whom God TWO COMPLETE PLANTS 1107 Peachtree St., N. 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May they also have the souls entrusted to them pray, while the entire Church, according to the exhor tation of the Divine Redeemer, does not cease to raise prayers to heaven for these same in tentions.” The Pope then turned his at tention to the training of the local clergy which “having ori gin, disposition, mentality and aspirations in common with its co-nationals, is marvelously suited to instilling the Faith in their hearts, because better than anyone else it knows the ways of persuasion.” The Pope began by saying that any priest’s first duty is his own sanctification. Then he added that, with this beginning, native priests must “enter into holy competition with the cler gy of the more ancient dioceses which have given priests to the world who have . . . deserved to be proposed as models for clergy of the whole world . . .” The Pope said that the per sonal sanctity of a native cler gy would effectively “teach the faithful that the perfection of Christian life is a goal to which all sons of God can and must aspire with every effort and perseverance, whatever be their origin, their environment, their culture and their civilization.” He added that holy native priests would also lead their own “students of the sanctuary” in the ways of holiness. While the encyclical placed emphasis on the native hierar chy and clergy in the mission territories, the Pope hastened to add that many still need the help of the missionaries coming from other lands. He noted that they should not be looked upon as foreigners by the people “since every Catholic priest finds himself in the discharge of his duty as though in his own country.” In the training of native priests the Pope made four rec ommendations: It should take into account the , environments of the differing regions. It should foster initiative of ac tivity so that native priests might quickly arrive at assum ing their own duties without dependence on outside help Local values and traditions should be adapted to the prac tice of the Faith. Native priests should be trained sufficiently well to penetrate the cultured classes. Pope John repeated the coun sel of Pope Pius XII to semi nary authorities in which he said that students should not be formed “in an environment too much apart from the world” be cause “when they enter society they will find serious difficul ties in their relations with low er classes and with cultured classes.” He issued instructions that “the programs of the local sem inaries in mission lands will not fail to provide study courses in the various branches of missio- logy and instruction in the dif ferent skills and techniques es pecially useful for the future ministry of the clergy of those regions.” Again quoting Pius XII, Pope John said “the Catholic Church neither scorns nor completely rejects pagan thought but ra ther, after having purified it of every dross of error, completes and perfects it with Christian wisdom.” He added that for his own part “wherever authentic val ues of art and thought are apt to enrich the human family the Church is ready to favor these DeKalb Musicians Supply 145 Clairmont Avenue DR 3-4305 DECATUR products of the spirit. As is known, the Church does not identify herself with any cul ture, not even with the western culture to which her history is so closely linked.” In order that well educated priests may be able to pene trate the cultured classes, the Pope instructed bishops to pro vide immediately, according to , their judgment, “centers of cul ture in which the foreign mis sionaries and native priests may be able to put to advantage their intellectual preparation to the benefit of the society in which they live by choice or by birth.” Along with the culture cen ters the Pope also called for the clergy and the faithful “to mul tiply and propagate the Cath olic press in all its forms” and also to interest themselves in the “modern techniques of dif fusion and culture, since the importance of a formed and en lightened public opinion is well known.” While counseling that the Church in mission lands should be generous in its social and charitable undertakings, the Pope cautioned that care should be taken not to burden the mis sionary apostolate with a com plex of institutions of a pure ly material nature. Pope John said that “one should limit oneself to those indispensable services of easy maintenance and of easy use, the operation of which might be placed as soon as possible in the hands of local personnel, and matters should be arranged in such a way that the missionary personnel itself be allowed to dedicate its best energies to the ministry of teaching sancti fication and salvation.” The Pope called for the fos tering of a universal outlook and repeated Pope Benedict XV’s condemnation of the mis sionary who “thinks more of his native land than of heaven and excessively concerns himself with spreading its power and extending its glory.” The Pontiff said that “this same danger could repeat itself today under other forms, be cause of the fact that in many mission territories the aspira tion of the people to self-gov ernment and to independence is becoming general, and the conquests of civil liberty can unfortunately be accompanied by excesses that are by no means in harmony with the au thentic and profound spiritual interests of humanity.” Addressing himself to the faithful instead of the mission aries on the same problem, he warned that “no local Church will be able to express its vital unity with the universal Church if its clergy and its people al low themselves to be influenc ed by an individualistic spirit, by sentiments of ill will toward MULLINS T.V. 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Select clientele, con genial companionship. other peoples, by a misunder stood nationalism that would destroy the reality of that uni versal charity which edifies the Church of God and which alone is truly ‘Catholic’.” Speaking of the important part in the life of the Church played by laymen, the Pope said that the Church must be active “with its whole organic structure, and not therefore only with the hierarchy and its various orders, but also with the laity.” He cautioned against the er ror which reckons the spread of Christianity in numbers of con versions and baptisms, and said it should be figured according to the change that newly ac quired Christianity brings about in a man’s practical life.” He went on: “A Christian instruction and education that is satisfied with the teaching and learning of catechetical formulas and pre cepts of Christian morals by a summary casuistry, without in cluding practical conduct, would run the risk of procuring for the Church of God a flock that might be merely passive.” The Pope said that it is a fundamental and primary duty of every Christian to give tes timony of the truth which he believes and of the grace which has transfored him. He said this same testimony should be con firmed and amplified by the whole Christian community. He recommended that this be ex pressed in active participation in the liturgy of the Church, which is “a marvelous means of educating them to that charity which is the distinctive sign of the Christian, a charity that is alien to every social, linguistic and racial discrimination.” While calling for generosity from the whole Church in sup port of the missions, the Pope also said it is important for the faithful in mission lands to be educated to the practice of sup plying their own material needs. He said: The material needs of the faithful also include those of the ecclesiastical organism. It is therefore, well that the na tive faithful should become ac customed to supporting spon taneously within the limits of their capabilities of their churches, their institutions and the clergy who have given themselves entirely to them. It does not matter if this contribu tion cannot be considerable. The important thing is that it is the concrete testimony of a living Christian conscience.” Here the Pope inserted a word of praise for missionary catechists, calling them “the right arm of the workers of the Lord.” On the question of Catholic Action, the Pope returned to his first encyclical, “Ad Petri Ca- thedram (Near the Chair of Peter), and recalled the many reasons why it is necessary to recruit laymen in the peaceful army of Catholic Action. In applying Catholic Action to the missions, the Pope said, “one cannot insist enough . . . on the need to adapt conven iently this form of the aposto late to local conditions and needs. It is not enough to trans fer to a country what has been done elsewhere, but ... it is necessary to act in such a way that organizations are not over write for details . . . DEVOE & RAYNOLDS QUALITY PAINTS INDUSTRIAL HOUSEHOLD DEVOE PAINTS DEVOE & RAYNOLDS CO.. INC. 228 Techwood Drive, N. W. Atlanta, Ga. burdened to the point where precious energy is robbed or dissipated with fragmentary movements and excessive spe cialization.” Starting from the thesis that Catholic Action is an organiza tion of laymen, “with proper and responsible executive func tions,” the Pontiff stressed that Catholic Action leaders should be specially trained in special schools. He said that their fun damental training would begin in Catholic schools where they are formed as solid Christians. But, he added, special training for Catholic Action cannot eas ily be adapted to scholastic courses. Therefore, he said, “it will most often be necessary to en trust (training of Catholic Action leaders) to a program outside the school which brings to gether the most promising youth to instruct and form them for the apostolate. Ordinaries, therefore, will seek to study the best means to give life to a school of the apostolate, whose educational methods are obvi ously different from true and • proper scholastic methods. The Pope said to the faithful in mission lands: “The ‘good fight’ for the Faith is fought not only within the secret of one’s conscience or in the intimacy of the home, but also in public life in all its forms . . . Many mission terri tories, moreover, are undergo ing a phase of social, economic and political evolution which has important consequences for their future. “Problems which in some na tions are either already resolv ed, or find the elements of so lution in traditions, confront other nations with an urgency that is not quite free of dangers in that hurried and changing solutions might be applied with deplorable levity of doctrine which does not take into ac count, or simply contradicts, the religious interests of individuals and of peoples. 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