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( i The following story is a roundup of the second session of the ecumenical council. (N.C.W.C. News Service) The ecumenical council’s second session took up the ecu menical and pastoral lead from Pope Paul Vi’s opening address and made a slow but steady drive toward “aggiornamento” — bringing the Church up to date. The session started its busi ness Sept. 30 with a study of the nature of the Church—a cri tical analysis that included self- criticism — and advanced on Nov. 18 to debates on ecumen ism which covered what the Church must do for Christian unity. Seemingly endless debates were occasionally sparked with sharp clashes. Speeches on the council floor answered with arguments for the “new order” were answer ed with arguments for the “old order” in a process that seem ed like stalemate. But when is sues were put to a vote, the new order overwhelmingly won out: —The council Fathers voted clearly in favor of giving bish ops a larger role in governing the universal Church. —They approved a reform simplifying the Church’s public worship, and bringing modern languages in the Mass and sac raments. —They adopted a set of prin ciples on the Church’s use of press, television and radio. —They voted in favor of re storing the deacon as a perma nent member of today’s Catho lic clergy. The session showed unmis takably that the new order is to replace the old. The rule of secrecy which covered almost everything that took place in the council hall during the first session (Oct. 11-Dec. 7, 1962) was eased during the second session. Archbishop Pericle Felici, the council’s general secretary, explained at the session’s first general meeting that secrecy was now limited to the actual texts of the proposed schemas and the work of individual coun cil commissions. Direction of the council’s work was taken over by four moderators—Leo Cardinal Su- enens of Belgium, Julius Car dinal Doepfner of Munich, Gia como Cardinal Lercaro of Bo logna and Gregorio Cardinal Agagianian, Prefect of the Sa cred Congregation for the Pro- gagation of the Faith. Sixty-three non-Catholic re ligious leaders came for the second session of the council which opened Sept. 29 as ob server-delegates or guests of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. This was 18 more than those at the first session. Pope Paul gave laymen an of ficial role at the council for the first time. He named 15 lay audi tors. Their role, according to a council press bulletin, was to help in the work of the council. The bulletin said that they might “be called upon to give their advice to the conciliar commis- Barton House Wrecking Co. New and Used Lumber, Sashes, Doors, Bricks and Plumbing All Ki*uU ojj Buildup Mgt&Ual 1227-9 D’Antignac St. AUGUSTA, GA. 7 B. & B. LUMBER & SUPPLY CO. — Yard & Office — 1245 D'Aniignac Si., Corner Thirteen!Ji PHONE PA. 2-6639 AUGUSTA, GA, THEY DIRECTED WORK OF COUNCIL—The Cardinal delegates or moderators pictured above were named by Pope Paul VI to direct all the work of the second session of Vatican Council II. The session, opened September 29th came to a solemn close last Wednesday, Dec. 4. A Third session is tentatively scheduled for September 14th, 1964. Cardinal Suenens strongly urged (Oct. 22) that more lay auditors be named, including women, “since women consti tute one-half the population of the world.” He also said there should be representatives from the “great congregations of Brothers and Sisters who con tribute so significantly to the apostolic work of the Church.” Just a week before the coun cil opened, Pope Paul said in a speech to the members of the Roman curia (Sept. 21) that the curia, the Church’s central ad ministrative body, had “grown ponderous with its own vener able age.” It needed to be sim plified and decentralized he said. The Pope outlined the reforms needed—reforms to be ‘ ‘formulated and promulgated by the curia itself”—and these reforms were seconded later in debates on the council floor. —Members of the curia will be recruited on a “ supranation al” basis. (Its membership is now predominantly Italian.) —Members will have what the Pope called an “ecumenical” education to prepare them for work in the curia. —Local bishops will take over those functions now per formed by the curia which can be handled more efficiently on a local basis. —Local bishops may be brought into the curia. ‘ ‘And We shall say more,” the Pope continued. “Should the ec umenical council show a desire of seeing some representatives of the episcopacy, particularly, prelates who direct a diocese, associated in a certain way and for certain questions . . . with the supreme head of the Church The moderators are (1. to r.) Giacomo Cardinal Lercaro, Archbishop of Bologna, Italy; Gregorio Cardinal Agagianian, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith; Leo Cardinal Suenens, Archbishop of Malines- Brussels, Belgium; and Julius Cardinal Doepfner, Arch bishop of Munich and Freising, Germany. SHOWN ABOVE are the five Cardinals of the United States as they emerged from one of the early sessions of Vatican Council II after it reconvened on September 29th. They are (1. to r.) Cardinal Ritter, St. Louis, Mo.; Cardinal McIntyre, Los Angeles; Cardinal Spellman, New York; CardinaTCushing, Boston; Cardinal Meyer, Chicago. HEATING-AIR CONDITIONING • SHEET METAL CONTRACTORS • GAS APPLIANCES All 2305 MILLEDGEVILLE ROAD PHONE 736-6082 - 736-5363 AUGUSTA, GEORGIA in the study and responsibility of ecclesiastical government, the curia will surely not oppose it.” . . This idea of bishops taking a bigger- part in running. the Church, with possibly an “epis copal senate” to work with the Pope was talked over in the council hall. And on the last day of the session, the Pope published a document increas ing the powers of bishops. Pope Paul set the tone of the session in a moving opening ad dress (Sept. 29): He told of his ‘ ‘deep sadness” at the * ‘prolonged separation” of the Catholic Church and other Christian Churches. ' ‘If we are in any way to blame for that separation,” he said, “we humbly beg God’s forgive ness and ask pardon too of our brethren who feel they have been injured by us. “For our part, we willingly forgive the injuries which the Catholic Church has suffered. His words moved a non-Ca tholic American delegate-ob server to say later: “This is the first time since the Refor mation that such gratifying words have come from a Pope.” The Pope said that the * ‘prin cipal concern” of the session would be to * ‘examine the inti mate nature of the Church.” The Church must be seen as totally Christ - centered, he said, if the council’s main ob jectives were to be rightly un derstood. He outlined these ob jectives in four points; “The knowledge, or—if you prefer— the awareness of the Church; its reform; the bringing toge ther of all Christians in unity; the dialogue of the Church with the modern world.” The session itself opened with discussion on a controver sial but vital subject, the na ture of the Church. As they debated the nature of the Church, the Fathers also voted on the changes to the Li turgy schema. This schema had been discussed in the first ses sion. On Oct. 9, the Fathers pass ed—by an overwhelming ma jority—changes to the schema which would eventually bring modern languages into the Latin Rite Mass. Ten bishops from nine English-speaking nations start ed drawing up plans for a com mon English language text for the Mass and the sacraments. The 10 bishops—including two Americans, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan of Atlanta and Auxil iary Bishop James H. Griffiths of New York—are calling on liturgical experts, biblical scholars, musicians and ex perts in English style to help draw up a suitable English text. While the council was dis cussing giving greater recogni tion to the role of laymen in the Church—covered in the third chapter of DeEcclesia—a U. S. prelate, Bishop Robert E. Tra cy of Baton Rouge, La., asked for a council declaration against racial discrimination. Another Archbishop Lawrence J. She- han of Baltimore, called for a full and accurate treatment of the question of Chtjfch and State. Both spoke in the name of all the U. S. Bishops. The U. S. Bishops objected to the schema's phrase “regretable separation,” holding that the American experience of sep aration has not been regret- able but very good. On Oct. 29, the Fathers de cided in a close vote (1,114 to 1,074) to include their de claration on the Blessed Vir gin in the schema on the nature of the Church rather than in a separate schema.” Explaining this decision, Father Bernard Haering, C.SS.R., a council expert, said after the meeting that it was a matter of expressing the ful ness of the doctrine on the Bles sed Virgin in a balanced per spective and presenting the ven eration of Mary in its proper relation to the adoration of Christ. The debate on the nature of the Church clearly showed that the issues of the collegiality of bishops and the restoration of the permanent diaconate were two of the major issues at the session. A new procedural device was introduced Oct. 30 which let the moderators gauge the think ing of the Fathers without ex tending the interminable num ber of arguments for and against. The moderators submitted five questions for a vote. Four of them dealt with the idea of the “collegiality” of bishops and the vote explained what the Fa thers understand by that unfam iliar term: episcopal consecra tion is the highest grade of the sacrament of Holy Orders; ev- ry bishop, who is in union with all the bishops and the pope, belongs to the body or college of bishops; the college of bishops succeeds the college of Apostles and, together with the pope, has full and supreme power over the whole church; the college of bishops, in union with the pope, has this power by divine right. With their affirmative answer to the fifth question, the bishops showed they thought the diacon ate should be restored asadis- tinct and permanent rank in the sacred ministry. It was a per manent rank in the early Church, but it has become, in the Western Church, just a step to the priesthood. The balloting was to serve as a guide to the Theological Com- mision in revising the chapter dealing with the hierarchy in the schema on the nature of the Church. A four-day recess followed the Oct. 30 vote, and when the council reconvened it seemed to have gained momentum. The Nov. 5 meeting saw the start of biting criticism of the Roman Curia and serious char ges of tampering with the sche ma presented to the council on “Bishops and the Government of Dioceses,” the fifth chapter of De Ecclesia. Archbishop Leo Binz of St. Paul, a member of the Com mission for Bishops and the Government of Dioceses, call ed the schema an * ‘unhappy sch ema” with “no real intro duction, no connecting link and no real conclusion.” He said that this was because five chapters of the original schema had been deleted when it was returned from the Co ordinating Commission. The schema was completed in March, 1963, he said, and only the bishops near Rome and the experts of Rome were invited to review it. He said that no one objected to what (Continued on Page 3) t DIXIE-MAID CAKE AND PASTRY COOLER For cooling cake layers, pies, cookies, and pastries. All aluminum frame with 16 mesh aluminum screen. 21” x 10 1/2” x 1 1/4”. Brushes clean easily, fits your kitchen tray cabinet. Price $2.10 P pd. 2 For $4.00 MAKES AN UNUSUAL GIFT W. E. RAINES COMPANY BOX 878 AUGUSTA, GA. POULTRY PALACE >» / FRESH DRESSED POULTRY FRYERS, HENS AND OTHER POULTRY IN SEASON 1204 ELLIS STREET • PHONE PA. 2-9937 AUGUSTA. GEORGIA Have a happy holiday. PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, December 12, 1963 The Second Session Of Vatican Council II CITIZENS & SOUTHERN NA TIONAL BANK Augusta, Georgia PICTURESQUE SWISS GUARDS in colorful costumes designed hundreds of year ago were in evidence at all solemn ceremonies during Council’s sessions. They are shown above as they observed the 435th anniversary of the “Sack of Rome”, when 147 guards men gave their lives for the Pope. Anniversary was observed last year. 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