Newspaper Page Text
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PAGE 6 - January 8,1970
LED BY CATHOLIC BISHOP
Mississippi Churchmen
Back Integration Order
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST, observed in the liturgy of Sunday, Jan. 11,1970, is represented in
the Samuel H. Kress Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. in this classical
painting by the French artist, Nicolas Poussin, done in 1641-42. The painting measures 37 by 47
inches. (NC Photo)
The Community Comes
Together To Celebrate
BY JO-ANN PRICE
JACKSON, Miss. (NC) -
Mississippi religious leaders,
led by Catholic bishop Joseph
B. Brunini of Natchez-Jack-
son, have mounted a major
campaign to “make
Mississippi’s public schools a
model” of integration for the
rest of the United States.
Formation of an ad hoc
committee to organize a
Mississippi Conference of
Religious Leaders was
announced jointly by
Protestant, Catholic and
Jewish officials on the eve of
Supreme Court-ordered
integration of the public
schools.
The committee was
announced as civic tension
about public schools was
rising. Formation of a
Southern National Party,
opposing the court order, was
being discussed at a statewide
rally held at Jackson’s old
City Auditorium.
The announcement by the
ad hoc committee, which
held its first meeting at the
chancery office here,
preceded by one day the
publication of a
strongly-worded pastoral
letter by Bishop Brunini to
105 parishes of the statewide
diocese denouncing “hasty
schemes designed to avoid
court oiders” and urging all
Mississippians to “make
stronger our public school
system.”
The Catholic school
system “does not offer a
refuge from integration,” the
pastoral, addressed to the
(The author of this article was
a UN correspondent for the New
York Times for 15 years and has
written two books on the UN)
BY KATHLEEN
MCLAUGHLIN
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.
(NC) — Directly or by
insinuation, the purveyors of
rock and roll music have for
several years been
conditioning millions of the
younger generation toward
tolerance or even use of
hallucinatory drugs, as
reported in a recent United
Nations publication.
The trend is chronicled in
a review of the situation by S.
Taqi, a Swiss journalist and
broadcaster, in the Bulletin
on Narcotics, a quarterly
published in Geneva by the
division of narcotic drugs of
the UN’s department of
economic and social affairs.
Taqi cites numerous vocal
numbers disseminated by
major recording companies
and radio stations as far back
as 1963, and “plugged” by
outstanding favorites among
performers, as indicative of
this drift.
From a fairly mild and
innocuous beginning in
1963-when a song called
“Walk Right In” leaped to
the top of the American hit
parade-the author probes the
development down to the
present time, in an
examination of what has
happened, and why it
happened.
He concludes that “this
lively, bouncy melody sung
cheerfully by an urban folk
music trio, the Rooftop
Singers, to the zippy
accompaniment of a
twelve-string guitar,” was not
recognized at the time as a
reference to marijuana
smoking. This quality of
double-entendre has in the
interim acquired the label of
“split-level” lyrics, he notes,
Implying that the words mean
one thing to mature
individuals, and quite another
to the “hip” teen’age groups.
This characteristic of
ambiguity of phrasing has
state’s 82,383 Catholics, said.
Nor, it said, are Catholic
schools in competition with
the public schools, but enjoy
an “ever growing degree of
cooperation” with public
education here.
“All Mississippians should
respond positively and
creatively to the present
opportunity to make stronger
our public school system,”
the letter continued. “The
task of education is the most
important task facing any
people. We can ill afford any
wasted time in the
educational process.
“Makeshift schools, hasty
schemes designed to avoid
court orders, and emotional
appeals to the social patterns
of a dead past will do nothing
but defraud young
Mississippians of their rightful
place in tomorrow’s
world...The task that is ours
is to support this system by
every means possible. I call
upon the Catholics of
Mississippi to exercise a
responsible citizenship in this
matter...”
“We have an opportunity
in Mississippi to turn an
historic comer and to become
pacesetters in public
education for the rest of the
nation.
“We can either choose to
live for the future, or to be
buried in the past.”
The bishop’s letter was
expected to be one of a series
of actions undertaken by the
sponsors of the newly-formed
committee, which was
organized as the result of a
been a refuge for originators
and disseminators of a
number of the songs, Taqi
states. He concedes that in
quite a few cases they have
been performed by songsters
and songstresses uanware of
the double purport of the
verses-al though there has
been a gradual awakening to
their covert psychedelic
messages.
(As an example, he
mentions “Eight Miles High”
by the Byrds, a California
quintet, on Columbia
Records, released in the
United States in 1966).
Because of its esoteric lyrics,
Taqi relates, the record was
quickly tagged as referring to
marijuana smoking.
“Jim McGuinn, leader of
the Byrds and one of the
song’s authors, denied the
rumor and said the record
was about a jet aeroplane
flight, and no doubt, all of
the song’s lyrics could be
explained as describing the
bustle and confusion of
landing at a crowded
airport,” the Swiss writer
states.
Of “Along Came Mary,”
listed by Billboard magazine
as one of the hundred most
popular records of 1966, the
article states that the author
once candidly revealed that
the Mary of the title is Mary
J a n e • • t h e English
transliteration for marijuana.
In 1967, Taqi reports, the
Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band”
was released internationally,
about the same time that
some of the Beatles admitted
they had used LSD. The first
song on the album was “With
A Little Help From My
Friends,” in which the singer
tells of managing to survive
with help from his friends
and also getting high with this
help. The second, “Lucy in
the Sky with Diamonds” (the
initials spelling LSD), offered
“a string of colorful, bizarre
and clearly hallucinatory
images.”
The album “caused
Christmas sermon by Bishop
Brunini calling on religious
leaders to organize to prevent
racial polarization over the
state’s public school crisis.
The proposed conference,
according to Bishop John M.
Allin, head of 14,800
Episcopalians in the Episcopal
diocese of Mississippi, would
be part of “an ongoing
process” among religious
leaders cooperating to speak
out against injustices.
Bishop Allin termed the
statement issued by the ad
hoc committee “a witness to
what we ought to believe”
and a ‘-‘statement of
reassurance” to Mississippians
who may be hesitating to
express their support of
integration.
Its signers, from both
white and Negro churches,
included Methodist Bishop
Edward Pendergrass of the
Jackson area of the Methodist
Church, Dr. William P. Davis
of the Mississippi Baptist
Convention, an affiliate of
the Southern Baptist
Convention; the Rev. T.S.J.
Pendleton, Presiding Elder of
the Jackson District A.M.E.
Church, and Rabbi Perry E.
Nussbaum of Beth Israel
Congregation in Jackson.
The religious leaders’
statement said there is “no
reason why Mississippi cannot
be a model of racial harmony
in her schools as well as other
areas of life.” It noted that
“concern for children does
not know racial boundaries.”
This “common concern
for our young” should unite
all persons “in making any
necessary present adjustments
in our public school system a
success.”
something of an uproar
because of its alleged
references to drugs,” Taqi
writes, adding that the final
song, “A Day in the Life,”
was the subject of the most
controversy, with some of its
audiences declaring that it
was about a drug experience.
The Beatles asserted that it
was about a dream; that the
LSD implication was merely
a coincidence; and soon
thereafter announced that
their drug phase was finished
and that they were off to
India to take up meditation.
Nevertheless, Taqi
comments, “After Sgt.
Pepper, drug-usage themes in
rock and roll visibly
increased, and there was
progressively less outcry
against them, presumably
because there were scores of
such songs, now; indeed, it is
difficult to think of a pop
group that has not explored
the subject to some degree.”
He follows with a list of
eleven titles, and their
performers.
Attempts to counter the
movement with anti-drug
songs have been made by
some rock and roll artists,
alarmed at the evolving
mood, the article notes. Most
have met with little success
save for a record by an
American group, Paul Revere
and the Raiders, called
“Kicks”. (Words and music
by Barry Mann and Cynthia
Wells). It was introduced in
1966 by Screen-Gems-
Columbia Music, Inc.)
Taqi tends to discount any
direct and immediate
influence upon the tens of
millions of young listeners to
the drug-centered songs, to go
out and purchase narcotics.
In his opinion their more
ominous menace is inherent
in the conditioning of
youth-when eventually he
emerges into a world in which
he may be offered a
marijuana cigarette or a dose
of LSD-to remember them
not as something his health
and hygiene teacher warned
against, but as something
Mick Jagger or John Lennon
used and enjoyed.
BY FATHER VINCENT
J. GIESE
(NC NEWS SERVICE)
To celebrate is to
remember who we are and to
say “yes” with ceremony.
Fourth of July picnics and
Thanksgiving dinners are
celebrations of freedom,
democracy, and whatever else
it means to be American.
The Christian community
comes together at Mass to
celebrate its past and to look
to its future as God’s People.
“On the night before He
suffered” Christ gave His
Church a sign--a sacrament-of
His death on Calvary and of
His Father’s acceptance of
that sacrifice.
The Last Supper of Jesus
was the sign--the
sacrament-the People of God
were to imitate “in memory
of Him.” They were to
celebrate in the way Jesus
taught them by a
“eucharistic” proclamation
over food and drink.
When they remembered in
this way, Christ would
become present in a very
special and unique manner.
This is the mystery of faith,
of which St. Paul speaks, “the
mystery of Christ among you,
your hope of glory.” (Col. 1:
27)
The Eucharistic Prayer
over food and drink recalls
Christ’s death and asks that
the Christian community
make Christ’s sacrifice for
others their own sacrifice.
According to the new
Order of the Mass, the
Liturgy of the Eucharist
begins with the Offertory,
which now has a new name,
the PieDaration of gifts, since
the essential offering will not
take place until later during
the Eucharistic prayer.
At the Offertory, the table
of the Lord’s banquet is
prepared and the gifts of
bread and wine, needed for
the Eucharist, are brought
forward.
When the Prayer of the
Faithful is finished, the
Offertory begins with a
hymn, during which the table
is prepared and the gifts are
brought forward. The
Offertory antiphon, or a
seasonal alternative from the
simple Gradual or an
appropriate hymn, may be
sung. But if a prescribed
Offertory antiphon is not
sung, it is to be omitted
rather than recited.
The gifts of bread and
wine are placed on the altar.
Money and other gifts for the
Church and for the poor may
also be brought forward but
are not to be placed on the
altar.
After the rites of
preparation have been
concluded with an invitation
of the priest to prayer and by
the “Prayer over the Gifts,”
the heart of the Mass-the
Eucharistic Prayer-begins,
during which thanks is given
to God for the entire work of
salvation and the Body and
Blood of Christ are offered.
First of all, the priest
invites the people to lift up
their hearts to the Lord in
prayer and thanksgiving. He
joins them with himself in
prayer directed to the Father,
through Jesus Christ, in the
name of the entire
community.
The Eucharistic Prayer
joins the entire congregation
of the faithful with Christ in
proclaiming the wonderful
deeds of God in the offering
of sacrifice.
Once the bread and wine
have become the Body and
Blood of Christ and after the
passion, death, resurrection
and ascension of Christ have
been remembered, the Host is
then offered for the needs of
the Christian community.
The Church invites the
faithful not only to offer the
host but also themselves and
their daily work in union
with Christ, the Mediator, so
that God may be all in all.
The Eucharistic Prayer
(there are now four options)
demands that all listen
attentively with reverence
and silence and that they
participate through their
acclamations.
With regard to eucharistic
Prayer 1 (The Roman
Canon), the new Order of the
Mass provides that the words
of consecration and the
acclamations of faith be the
same as for the other three
prayers.
Because the Eucharistic
celebration is a banquet, the
Body and blood of Christ are
taken as spiritual food. The
breaking of the bread and
other rites pertain to the
immediate preparation of the
faithful for Communion.
In the Rite of
Communion, which rounds
off the Liturgy of the
Eucharist, the new Order of
the Mass gives a clearer
arrangement of the basic
elements.
Of the minimal changes in
the Communion Rite,
perhaps the most difficult for
people to adjust to will be the
peace ceremony, in which the
handshake of peace is
strongly recommended as a
fitting ritual gesture of
fraternal union.
In our American culture,
the handshake is the nearest
expression we have to the
double embrace of the
Italians or the hand kiss of
the Europeans. For many it
appears as a rather routine
gesture devoid of much of its
meaning.
But communion with God
also means communion with
our brothers. Despite the
reserve of our Puritan
tradition against outward
manifestations of friendship,
some human sign of fraternal
love is needed.
The breaking of bread
during the Communion Rite
has deep roots in Christian
tradition, going all the way
back to our Lord’s encounter
with some of his apostles on
the road to Emmaus, when
the apostles recognized Him
in the “breaking of bread.”
In small group Masses, it is
permissable for all to partake
of the one bread which has
been broken by the priest;
(Next week: An analysis
of the Eucharistic Prayer).
CAMPFIRE GIRLS participate in the Presentation of Gifts
(Offertory), by bringing the water and wine and a ciborium to
the altar. The New Order of the Mass permits of many variations
in the texts to allow for a fuller participation of the laity in
the Holy Sacrifice. (NC Photo)
CITES 'SPLIT-LEVEL' LYRICS
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U.N. Bulletin Links Pop
Music To Use Of Drugs
NONCOMP REPORT
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Fewest Family
Films In 1969
NEW YORK (NC) - The
National Catholic Office for
Motion Pictures said that a
smaller number and
percentage of movies suitable
for general audiences were
produced in 1969 than in any
12-month period of the
Catholic film rating offices’s
existence.
The NCOMP added that
during the year a larger
number of exploitation-
directed films was produced.
During the year, NCOMP
reported, of 315 films
reviewed, only 26, or 8.25%,
received an A-I (general
audience rating), while 40, or
12.70%, were given a C
(condemned) rating.
“If NCOMP had applied
the same rigorous policy
(concerning the employment
of even insignificant nudity in
film treatment) which had
been in effect until October
of 1968, the number of C
movies during the current
year would have been at least
double the present total,” the
report stated.
The appraisal was
contained in the year end
(Dec. 30) report of the
Catholic agency’s Catholic
Film Newsletter.
In addition to the A-I and
C classified films, the office
reported 47, or 14.92%, were
rated A-II (morally
unobjectionable for adults
and adolescents; 126, or 40%,
A-III (morally unobjection
able for adults); 28, or 8.89%,
A-IV (morally unobjection
able for adults with
reservations), and 48, or
15.24%, B (morally
objectionable in part for all).
The NCOMP said lack of
moral and artistic qualities in
1969 movie making hurt the
industry. It stated: “The
family and over-30 audience
is staying home, not only
because television is still free,
but also because they-
consider it idiotic to pay to
be bored or offended.” Their
numbers will increase,
NCOMP predicted.
“As a new decade begins
NCOMP can only wish the
best of success to the motion
picture industry, for in its
hands is the medium that can
create a new era of human
enrichment, cultural and
spiritual, for us all. There are,
however, no short-cuts,
computerized or other, to
artistic achievement; its basic
ingredients must include a
respect for man,” the
Catholic agency statement
asserted.
IN SPRING
Tito Expected
To Visit Pope
VATICAN CITY (NC)-
Pope Paul VI will probably
receive a visit this spring from
Yugoslav President Josip
Beoz Tito, whose communist
regime imprisoned the late
Aloysius Cardinal Stepinac
and hundreds of other
churchmen.
Informed sources expect
Tito to visit the Pope during a
state visit to Rome. Italian
President Giuseppe Saragat,
during his state visit to
Yugoslavia last autumn,
invited the Yugoslav
president to visit him in the
Italian capital. The date of
Tito’s visit has not been
officially announced, but the
sources say he will almost
certainly come in the spring.
The stated policy of the
Holy See is that the Pope
does not refuse to receive any
official personage who asks to
see him.
Thus far there have been
no contacts between the Holy
See and Yugoslavia about a
possible visit by Tito to Pope
Paul, the sources said.
However, negotiations are
proceeding on the question of
raising present semidiplo-
matic relations between the
Holy See and Yugoslavia to
the level of full diplomatic
relations.
Yugoslav diplomats in
Rome have not been content
with the formal but
semidiplomatic status of
Vatican- Yugoslav relations.
It is also an open secret that
top officials of the Yugoslav
regime want an upgrading of
these relations, which were
established in 1966 through a
protocol signed after two
years of negotiations.
Biafra Plight—
(Continued from Page 4)
Last week, I visited the
area and found 44 feeding
centers operated by Caritas
under the able direction of
Father Willie Fitzpatrick, a
native of Dublin and one-time
engineer with Ireland’s
National Transport Company.
Father Fitzpatrick now cares
for 41,000 children and
destitute adults at his feeding
centers, as well as 1,600
refugees from other occupied
areas in eight refugee camps.
To take care of the sick,
he has only three
sick-bays-glorified medical
names that really mean a
converted mud school
building with bamboo beds
and stuffed elephant-grass
mattresses covered with the
empty sacks that have been
rescued from the supply
stores.
One sick-bay has 378
kwashiorkor (a nutritional
disease) patients, and another
has 420. There is no resident
doctor in the area, but a
Biafran Red Cross doctor
pays periodic visits from
Owerri as does the Sister-
doctor from Emekuku about
16 miles away. Medical
supplies are in very short
supply at the moment but
with the recent increase in
the airlift it is hoped to
improve. The food supply is
hopelessly inadequate. The
amount of food distributed
to the three sick-bays in the
past few weeks was sufficient
for 100 patients, while in fact
there are 933;
Because of the priority of
the sick-bays, the refugees
and the people in the villages
have to make do with
whatever small amounts can
be obtained either locally or
from supplies flown in by the
Joint Church Aid airlift. Last
week the supplies given to
each feeding center, and
intended for 500 people for
one week, were one sack of
milk-powder, 15 small
stockfish, five cups of com,
soya, milk mixture, three
cups of salt.
No comment is needed.
Still, the people and
Father Fitzpatrick struggle
on. They are hoping to open
another sick-bay shortly and
expect two qualified Holy
Rosary nursing Sisters to join
them soon. Farming has been
resumed in he area, the
overgrown bush is being cut
down and every available
piece of arable land is being
cultivated. The problem is the
length of time it takes the
crops to grow. Six to nine
months are necessary for a
proper crop.
But the question in my
mind as I left this crisis area
is: Can the people survive on
a below-subsistence level until
then? If not, will the Church
airlift increase in sufficient
quantities to prevent mass
starvation of the 41,000
people in Mbutu-Okohia
depending entirely on the
airlift?
Only God knows the
answer now!