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PAGE 2—The Southern Cross,^November 24, 1966
Action-Packed Conference
(Continued from Page 1)
The meeting elected 40
archbishops and bishops to
serve on the new, enlarged
administrative board of the
secretariat, including 10 mem
bers with portfolio and 30
without.
The bishops set up a theo
logical committee and a com
mittee on canon law, and named
tne chairmen of numerous
''standing committees.
The nation’s bishops voted to
ask the Vatican for permission
to use the vernacular for the
canon of the Mass and to in
troduce controlled liturgical
experimentation. These were
almong 13 liturgical proposals
which the meeting approved for
submission to Rome. Nine of
these requests had beendrawn
up in advance of the bishops’
conference and four, including
the requests for a vernacular
canon and experimentation,
were proposed at the confer
ence by “a significant num
ber” of bishops.
The statement on peace said
the Catholic bishops con
sidered it their duty “to help
magnify the moral voice of our
nation,” which “fortunately,
is becoming louder and
clearer.” They said it was
their “duty to insist” that the
issues involved in the Vietnam
conflict “be kept under con
stant moral scrutiny.”
The statement ilso said “it
is reasonable to argue that
our presence in Vietnam is
justified,” but that, “while
we can conscientiously sup
port the position of our country
in the present circumstances,
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it is the duty of everyone to
search for other alter
natives.” “And everyone—
government leaders and cit
izens alike—must be prepared
to change our course whenever
a change in circumstances
warrants it,” it added.
“There is a grave danger
that the circumstances of the
present war in Vietnam may,
in time, diminish our moral
sensitivity to its evils,” the
statement warned. * ‘Every
means at our disposal, there
fore, must be used to create
a climate of peace.”
In their statement on “race
relations and poverty,” the
bishops said that “while there
are many causes of poverty,
most are connected with past
or present discrimination.”
They also said “the Negro,
the Spanish-speaking, and the
Indian suffer inordinately”
under burden of poverty.
“Our present concern,’’they
said, “is to reduce principles
to action, ideals to programs,”
to have “dialogue replace slo
gans.” They urged that a con
centrated attack be mounted
against poverty “on many
fronts,” seeking quality ed
ucation, family assistance
“given in a context that favors
family stability and respects
the human dignity of those who
cannot earn a living,” job op
portunity involving training
and employment, and adequate
housing.
At a news conference
following adoption of this
statement, Auxiliary Bishop
James P. Shannon of St. Paul-
Minneapolis said: “It might
be of interest to the press
that the statement on race,
after it was presented in final
form, was moved by the Car
dinal Archbishop of Los
Angeles (James Francis Car
dinal McIntyre) with the state
ment: ‘I recommend that the
bishops in this conference en
dorse this splendid statement
most cordially.’ There was
then a unanimous vote by the
bishops of the conference.”
The statement on birth
control was issued by the re
tiring administrative board of
the National Catholic Welfare
C onference, but was approved
by the bishops’ meeting.
The statement said “the
freedom of spouses to deter
mine the size of their families
must not be inhibited by any
condition upon which relief
or welfare assistance is pro
vided.” It also said that “in
the international field, as in
the domestic field, financial
assistance must not be limited
to policies which pressure for
birth limitation.”
«
Bishop Raymond J.
Gallagher of Lafayette in
Indiana and Auxiliary Bishop
Edward E. Swanstrom of New
York, executive director of
Catholic Relief Services-
National Catholic Welfare
Conference, appeared at a
news conference the same day
to give “background” material
on the statement. Bishop
Gallagher said it had been
sought earlier this year to pre
sent this viewpoint to govern
ment authorities, but that their
letters had not received res
ponses.
When Department of Health,
Education and Welfare and Of
fice of Economic Opportunity
officials denied there was any
coercion connected with their
programs, Bishop Gallagher
and Bishop Swanstrom appear
ed at a second news con
ference. Bishop Gallagher said
the coercion did not appear
in the letter of the law, but
in the way resulting reg
ulations are written and
carried out by workers in the
field.
The meeting, which had the
over-all objective of adapting
decrees of Vatican Council II
to the Church in the United
States, discussed a wide
variety of topics. These in
cluded: The authority of the
general secretary of the U
S. Catholic Conference, Inc.,
in relation to the directors
and personnel of the depart
ments of the secretariat and
to other offices quartered in
the secretariat’s building; the
letter sent by Alfredo Cardinal
Ottaviani of the Vatican’s Doc
trinal Congregation to con
ferences of bishops round the
world, calling attention to
abuses in interpretation of
conciliar documents and to
dangerous opinions circulating
on doctrinal matters; the ap
pointment and retirement of
bishops; the selection of a
delegation of four prelates to
represent the U.S. at the inter
national synod of bishops es
tablished by Pope Paul VI.
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HOMECOMING QUEEN — Homecoming day ceremonies for Savannah’s
Benedictine Military Academy were held at half-time during football game
with Glynn Academy of Brunswick, Ga. Here, Queen Susan Jackson (center
foreground) poses with her escort, Cadet Walter Wyle and members of her
court and their escorts.
SPOKESMEN SAY
Duty Of Penance Stressed
In Abstinence Statement
WASHINGTON (NC) — The
action of the U. S. bishops in
dropping the requirement of
mandatory Friday abstinence
for Catholics outside Lent
underlines the personal peni
tential duty of every Catholic.
This was emphasized in two
background statements on the
bishops’ decision, read (Nov.
18) at a news conference here
“The pastoral statement
does these things:
“1. It reemphasizes the im
portance of penitential obser
vance in the life of the Christ
ian.
“2. It renews and strongly
encourages the liturgical ob
servance of the Advent season
as a season of effective pre
paration for the mystery of
the Nativity.
“3. It continues and
strengthens Lent as the prin
cipal season of penance in
the Christian year and asks
urgently and prayerfully that
we as a people of God make
of Lent a period of special
penitential observance.
“For this purpose the Con
ference of Bishops gave
specific directives for Lent;
“a) It declared that the
obligations to fast and to ab
stain from meat still bind on
Ash Wednesday and Good
Friday. (Ash Wednesday is the
solemn opening day of the Len
ten season. Good Friday is
kept as the day on which Christ
suffered and died for us.)
“Regarding obligation to
fast and to abstain from meat
on these two days the bishops
declare: ‘No Catholic Chris
tian will lightly excuse him
self from so hallowed an ob
ligation. . .’
“b) The tradition of absti
nence from meat on all Fri
days of Lent is preserved.
Again the bishops declared
their confidence ‘that no
Catholic Christian will light
ly hold himself excused from
this penitential practice.’
“c) For the other weekdays
of Lent the bishops strongly
recommended voluntary ob
servance of fasting and the
practice of other spiritual
works such as participation in
daily Mass, spiritual studies
beginning with the Scriptures,
traditional Lenten devotions
such as sermons, stations of
the Cross, rosaries and other
works of self-denial and of
deeds of mercy.
“4. It decreed that vigils
and Ember Days no longer
oblige to fast and abstinence
although the bishops express
the reminder that greater
Christian joy will be found in
the feasts of the liturgical
calendar if Christians prepare
by a day of self-denial.
“It is to be noted then that
the vigil of Christmas is no
longer a day of fast and absti
nence.
Ik
“5. In discussing Friday
outside of Lent it notes that
the heart of the Catholic tradi
tion of abstinence from meat
lies in the spiritual doctrine of
Christ’s death for us.
“They note that changing
circumstances have brought it
about that in our times absti
nence from meat is‘not always
and for everyone that most ef
fective means of practicing
penance.’ Therefore the
change introduced is motivated
precisely by the desire to give
the spirit of penance greater
vitality for all, especially on
Fridays.
“To achieve this the bishops
made the following norms:
“a) Friday itself is to re
main a special day of peniten
tial observance throughout the
year.
“b) Christian Catholics
should freely make of every
F riday a day of self-denial and
mortification in prayerful re
membrance of the passion of
Jesus Christ.
“c) The bishops terminate
the traditional law of ab
stinence on Fridays outside
Lent under pain of sin.
“d) Among the works of
voluntary penance for Fridays
outside Lent the bishops as
sign first place to abstinence
from flesh meat in the hope
that ‘the Catholic community
will ordinarily continue to ab
stain from meat by free choice
as formerly we did in obe--
dience to church law.’
“The bishops base this ex
pectation upon the sense of
solidarity with generations of
our forefathers who practiced
Friday abstinence as ‘no mean
evidence of fidelity to Christ
and His Church;’ and upon the
deliberate personal abstinence
from meat as a sign of dif
ference from the spirit of the
world, and a sign of the in
ward spiritual values that
Catholics cherish.
“e) To avoid scrupulosity in
personal decisions on Friday
abstinence the bishops em
phasize that Catholic Chris
tians are free from the former
canonical requirement or ob
ligation under pain of sin in
the matter of Friday absti
nence outside of Lent.
“f) The bishops direct Cath
olics not to pass judgment on
those who freely choose peni
tential observance other than
abstinence on the Fridays out
side Lent. The modern need
for self-discipline in the use of
stimulants, such as alcoholic
beverages, is emphasized.
“g) The bishops gave a new
encouragement to Friday
as a day of volunteer charity
and of engagement in works of
mercy.
“6. In concern for those
Catholics who fear that these
new pastoral regulations show
a weakening of the faith, the
Conference of Bishops gives
the assurance that if entered
with the proper spirit, their
pastoral statement‘will herald
a new birth of loving faith and
more profound penitential con
version by both of which we
become one with Christ,
mature sons of God and ser
vants of God’s people.’
‘7. The effective date of
these regulations is set for the
First Sunday of Advent,Nov.
27, 1966.”
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SINCE 1789
Fasting Rules
Studied Before
WASHINGTON (NC)—The
action of the U. S. bishops at
their annual meeting here to
mitigate the laws of fast and
abstinence recalls similar ef
forts made by the bishops
throughout the history of the
Catholic Church in the United
States.
At the time of the founding
of the U. S. hierarchy in 1789
(the year the republic was
born), the Church here in
herited its laws of fast and
abstinence from England. Ab
stinence from meat applied not
only to Fridays but also to
Saturdays.
As early as October, 1829,
the six bishops comprisingthe
First Provincial Council of
Baltimore issued two Pas
torals, one addressed to the
clergy and one to the laity. In
the pastoral letter to the laity
they noted that: “the laws of
fasting and abstinence are part
of the earliest, the most
necessary, and most whole
some discipline of the Church,
yet there are many, and we
write it with affliction of soul,
who profess to be of our body,
and who disregard ordinances,
making themselves slaves to
gluttony rather than servants
of God, who prefer the grati
fication of their appetite to the
practice of their religion. . .”
In the years 1829 to 1849
seven Provincial Councils of
Baltimore met and though not
strictly national councils, did
legislate for the fast growing
church. The council of 1833
had petitioned Pope Gregory
XVI for dispensation from the
law of abstinence from meat
on Fridays and Saturdays. It
was granted (except during
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Lent) for Saturdays but. not
Fridays. (Pastoral Letter of
1833.)
When the Third Provincial
Council of Baltimore (1837)
asked for relaxation of the laws
of fast and abstinence during
Advent, it was granted except
for the Fridays.
The Fourth Provincial
Council, meeting in Baltimore
in 1840 , asked that the dis
pensation regarding absti
nence from meat on Saturdays,
granted in 1834 for ten years,
be extended in perpetuity. It
was granted for a period of
20 years.
The Church’s law requiring
complete abstinence from
flesh meat on Fridays had re
mained since the beginning
of the American Church (1789),
except in cases, such as
a national or civic holiday,
when a local Ordinary could
grant a special dispensation.
Pope Pius XII at the begin
ning of World War II, granted
to bishops throughout the world
the power to dispense the fast
and abstinence laws on all but
two days, Ash Wednesday and
Good Friday. In 1949 this power
was restricted.
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