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IIS BIAFRA
Replies To Attack
On Missionaries
ROME (NC)- British
Member of parliament
Woodrow Wyatt was “talking
through his hat” when he
accused Catholic missioners
of spreading pro-Biafra
propaganda, according to one
of the missioners.
“Our people were
suffering desperate hunger,
and we asked the world to get
food to them,” said father
Dermot Doran, C.S.Sp., who
helped organize the massive
airbridge that brought about
60,000 tons of food and
medicines to the blockaded
zone.
“You can’t call this
propaganda. You can’t call
that political. Whoever this
Woodrow Wyatt is, he’s
talking through his hat.”
(In the House of
Commons (Jan. 26) Laborite
Wyatt attacked Catholic
missioners and Catholics in
key posts in the British mass
media for allegedly slanting
Nigerian news in favor of
Biafra.
(He claimed also that the
British mass media had shown
a pro-Biafra bias and that one
of the main causes for this
were the Catholic
missionaries in Biafra who
had been going about putting
out progaganda).
F a ther Doran, an
Irishman, said the missioners’
efforts to draw attention to
the plight of people in Biafra
often aroused opposition
from Biafran authorities.
“They felt we were
making Biafra look bad in the
eyes of the world,” he said.
“Some Biafran officials
wanted to play down the
sufferings of their people.
Some of them went pretty far
to stop us. In no way and at
no time were the missioners
exploited by the Biafran
government. The missioners
spoke what they saw, and
tried to relieve the sufferings
of their flock.”
Father Doran said that
missioners who pointed to
the federal blockade as the
reason for the hunger “were
just speaking facts, facts
everybody knew about.”
But could not somebody
confuse that with
propaganda?
“Not in the cold light of
reason, he couldn’t,” he
replied.
From ‘‘the very
beginning” the relief
operation was “missioner to
IN U.S.
missioner,”he asserted.
Father Doran and Father
Fintan Kilbride, like him a
member of the Holy Ghost
Congregation, got the first
shipment of medicines into
what was then Biafra in
February of 1968.
“That six and a half tons
of medicines was given us by
a missionary organization and
by manufactures in the
United States. We took it in
on the chartered plane that
brought Msgr. Dominic
Conway and the rest of the
papal mission into Biafra.
“On the basis of what the
papal representatives saw,
Caritas International^ began
its large-scale relief program.
This had nothing to do with
any Biafran official.
“From then on the press
got wind of what we were
doing and came begging for
seats on the plane. Sometimes
we carried them in and
sometimes we did not, for at
that time we were afraid of
too much publicity. The press
saw things for themselves,
aroused humanitarian
feelings throughout the
world, and then the thing
carried itself along.”
In his House of Commons
attack on Catholic missioners
and Catholics in the news
media, Wyatt said:
“I fear that some of the
organs of opinion have been
in the hands of Roman
Catholics in this matter. It
does not seem to me to be
any conincidence that the
director general of the British
Broadcasting Corporation
(Charles Curran) is a Catholic.
It does not seem to be a
coincidence that the editor of
the Times (William
Rees-Mogg) is a Roman
Catholic.”
Wyatt claimed also that
the Times had given a highly
selected and slanted account
of the report of the official
British observer in former
Biafra — Lord Hunt,
(Lord Hunt’s report said
that the over-all relief
situation is unsatisfactory but
that it is not as serious as
earlier reports had suggested.
Lord Hunt had also criticized
newspaper and television
reports of the Biafran relief
problems as exaggerated.)
Wyatt suggested setting up
a television council similar to
the existing Press Council,
which is a voluntary
independent body that serves
as a watchdog on ethics in
newspapers.
Appeal Set To
Aid World Needy
NEW YORK (NC)- Initial
phase of the 24th annual
American Catholic Overseas
Aid Fund Appeal will be
launched Feb. 11, Ash
Wednesday, with a radio
message from Pope Paul VI
beamed to more than 5
million students in U.S.
Catholic elementary and high
schools.
The second phase of the
campaign, directed to adults,
will be conducted generally
March 1 to 8 in Catholic
parishes throughout the
country, climaxed by the
traditional Laetare Sunday
collection, March 8.
The annual fund appeal is
the principal source of
revenue for operations of
Catholic Relief Service,
worldwide relief agency of
U.S. Catholics.
In addition to food,
medicines, clothing and other
relief materials from the
hungry and homeless, CRS
conducts self-help and social
welfare projects in more than
70 countries.
The Ash Wednesday
message of Pope Paul to the
Catholic school students will
be broadcast nationwide by
the major radio networks. In
recent years, by contributions
made throughout the Lenten
season, the Catholic school
students have contributed
more than $1 million
annually to the fund.
The appeal, conducted
under the auspices of the U.S.
Catholic bishops, enabled
CRS to extend aid, without
regard to race, religion or
color, to more than 40
million impoverished persons
last year, particularly in Asia,
Africa and Latin America.
CRS, founded in 1943, has
grown into the largest private
relief organization in the
world.
Bishop Edward E.
Swanstrom, CRS executive
director, at a regional meeting
in San Francisco planning the
annual appeal, announced
(Jan. 28) the agency has
made available $100,000 in
cash, plus $2 million worth of
clothing and $25,000 worth
of blood plasma to aid
victims of the Nigerian civil
war.
The action was taken in
response to a request from
Gus Hall of Briston, Va., CRS
program director in Nigeria,
to supplement CRS’s
emergency program in the
war torn country.
MELKITE RITE PATRIARCH MAXIMOS V HAKIM of North and South America, is interviewed by John Maher of the
Antioch, on a tour of Melkite-rite Catholic communities in NC News Service staff. (NC Photo)
PATRIARCH ON MIDDLE EAST:
‘Prospects For Peace Not Good’
BY JOHN MAHER
WASHINGTON (NC) -
“There are no good prospects
of peace in the Middle East,”
a prelate from that area said
here.
This is so, Melkite-rite
Patriarch Maximos V Hakim
of Antioch told NC News
Service because one of the
two opposing parties is too
strong. “Israel,” he said, “is
much stronger than the Arabs
and does not think it should
make concessions to reach
peace.”
The patriarch visited here
during a tour of Melkite-rite
communities in North ar.d
South America. In a terse
answer to a question about
his view on Israel’s right to
exist as a state, he replied:
“Israel exists. There is no
point in discussing its
existence.”
He stressed, however, what
he called the irony of Israel’s
relationship to the United
Nations. Israel, he said “is the
only country in the world
created by the United
Nations. We would have
expected that, because of
that, it would have abided by
decisions of the United
Nations.
“In fact, we see that even
unanimous decisions--such as
that concerning
Jerusalem--are not only
ignored by Israel but publicly
refused. Israel would say that
if there is a force that can
make Jerusalem revert to the
status quo before the 1967
Israeli-Arab war, let it be
used. As if might made
right.”
In 1967, the UN General
Assembly voted 99-0 against
Israeli annexation of the
former Jordanian section of
Jerusalem. Israel, however,
has proceeded with the
annexation and Israeli
officials have expressed their
intention to keep the unified
Jerusalem under Israeli
control.
In 1969, the UN Security
Council censured “in the
strongest terms all measures
taken to change the status of
the city of Jerusalem,”
deplored “the failure of Israel
to show any regard” for the
General Assembly and
Security Council resolutions
on Jerusalem, and called
upon Israel “to rescind
forthwith all measures taken
by it which may tend to
change the status of the city
of Jerusalem, and in future to
refrain from all actions likely
to have such an effect.”
Patriarch Maximos, who
has residences in both
Damascus, Syria, and Beirut,
Lebanon, said that, because
there is no peace in the
Middle East, “our situation as
religious people is very hard
because we have so many
problems, so many refugess,
no access to the Holy Places.
For 25 years, no Arab
Christian from the Arab
countries has been able to
visit the Holy Land, because
Israel has refused access.
“Today it is the same with
Jerusalem. Arabs do not have
free access. What happened to
the Jews for 20 years because
I
of Jordanian restrictions is
now done by the Jews to all
Arabs.”
(A spokesman for the
Israeli embassy here said Arab
Christians from Arab
countries do have access to
Jerusalem and the Holy
Land.)
The patriarch also
discussed Lebanon’s
relationship to the other Arab
states and to Israel.
“Lebanon, being a state
that does not like to be
involved in war and which has
no real army to defend its
frontiers from outside
attackers, would perhaps be
more inclined to accept UN
decisions concerning the
existence of Israel than many
of its Arab neighbors.”
The patriarch denied that
any fear of Moslems on the
part of Lebanese Christians
influenced Lebanon’s attitude
toward Israel.
“The relations between
Christians and Moslems in
Lebanon as in many other
Arab countries are improving
constantly, and in Lebanon
itself, both Christians and
Moslems have come to realize
that the only danger to the
existence of Lebanon is an
internal one.
“This is why the
rapprochment between
Moslems and Christians is
growing, and a very good
example of it was the
committee of seven that we
were able to form in October,
1969. It is composed of four
Christian bishops of different
Churches and three Moslem
leaders of the three different
sects in Lebanon. We hope
that these efforts will bring us
closer for the good of all
concerned in Lebanon.”
Indicating the similarity
between Lebanon’s attitude
toward Israel and that of
other Arab countries, the
patriarch said: “We in all the
Arab countries feel that
justice should be done to the
Palestinian people, to the
millions of refugees.”
Explaining what he meant
by justice for the Palestinina
people, the patriarch said a
UN decision in 1948 had
stated that they should either
receive copensation for their
properties or be allowed to
return to their land.
“Justice,” he said, “would be
the implementation of this
decision.”
“Since the 1967 war,” he
went on, “we have new
refugees, other than
Palestinian: Syrian refugees
from the Golan Heights,
150,000; Egyptian refugees, a
million from the Sinai
Peninsula and Suez Canal
cities. When the United
Nations on Nov. 22, 1967,
declared that Israel should
withdraw from the territories
it had occupied, that decision
meant that all those people
could return to their homes.”
Concerning changes in the
Melkite-rite Church since the
Second Vatican Council,
Patriarch Maximos said, with
a smile: “Liturgically, we
have not made many new
changes, because we are still
waiting for the Latin rite to
do something other than
copy what we have. Till now,
we have not seen anything
new. All the changes in the
Latin rite were taken from
the Eastern rites: the
vernacular, concelebration,
communion under both
species, the new canons, and
so on.”
With regard to Vatican II’s
decisions concerning the
structure of the Church itself,
the patriarch said: “We hope
that the new developments in
the Western Church
introduced by Vatican II will
be fairly implemented, by the
Roman Curia the Church’s
administrative offices
particularly, and that the
Western Church will then be
nearer to the Eastern
Churches and even to the
Protestant Churches, and will
thus come to a real dialogue
in the new ecumenical era
into which the Catholic
Church was led, without
possibility of turning back,
by Pope John.”
Discussing prospects for
the growth of the Melkite
rite, Patriarch Maximos said
that they are not bright in the
Middle East “because of the
continuous emigration of our
people to other countries.
Today we see the number of
our faithful diminishing in
the Middle East and
increasing elsewhere,
particularly in North and
South America and in
Australia.”
Current statistics show a
worldwide membership of
nearly a million persons in
the Melkite rite. In the
Middle East, the patriarchate
of Antioch has 330,300
members and the patriarchate
of Alexandria 81,250. There
are 75,000 Melkites in the
United States and 25,000 in
Canada. In Central and South
America, there is a total of
403,500 Melkites. Europe has
less than 5,000 Melkites and
Australia has more than
14,000.
In the world outside the
Middle East, however, he
added, “we are not yet
organized as well as our
Orthodox brethren because
of Latin-rite interference, and
we hope to be able to take
very soon the necessary steps
to correct this wrong. We are
sure that this will be for the
benefit not only of our
people but of the Universal
Church.”
‘‘In my opinion,” he
emphasized, “a Church is not
Catholic if Eastern-rite people
are not at home in it.”
The patriarch then
discussed the controversy
between the Melkite-rite
synod and the Holy See
concerning the appointment
of a successor to the late
Bishop Justin A. Najmy as
apostolic exarch for the
Melkite-rite Catholics in the
United States. The
appointment of Archbishop
Joseph Tawil as exarch was
announced by both the
Vatican and the patriarchate
last October.
‘‘The nomination of
Archbishop Tawil was a
compromise,” Patriarch
Maximos said. “We agreed
upon it after discussions over
more than 15 months. We
thought we had the right to
act according to our own
traditions and elect in synod
the exarch, but, taking into
consideration the point of
view of the Oriental
Congregation (the Vatican
Congregation for Eastern-rite
Churches), we agreed, for this
time, to propose three names
to the Holy Father, who
selected Archbishop Tawil,
my vicar general in Damascus,
Syria, with two conditions:
‘‘--That he remain a
member of our Melkite
synod;
“--And that in six months’
time the status of exarchate
be changed into the status of
an ordinary eparchy, or
diocese, like our other
dioceses.
PATRIARCH MAXIMOS V, Melkite Greek-Catholic Patriarch
of Antioch and AU the East greets one of the smaller of the
more than 4,000 who jammed the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception for the Divine Liturgy celebrated by
the Patriarch to conclude the annual Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity on Sunday, Jan. 25. Melkite Archpriest Armand
J. Jacopin, director of the St. Paul Center. Washington, D.C.
looks on. (NC Photo!
PAGE 3 - February 5, 1970
1
8
Revised Calendar
Key To New
Order Of Mass
1
W
BY FATHER VINCENT
J GIESE
(NC NEWS SERVICE)
parton saint or a local saint of
importance in a particular
area.
A key to the proper use of
the new Order of Mass is the
revised liturgical calendar,
which became effective Jan.
1. Especially in the
preparation of weekday
Masses, the new calendar
provides for more variety in
choices.
Obligatory memorials
require that every priest at
least make a commemoration
of the saint of the day at
Mass and in the recitation of
the Breviary, although the
Mass itself may be dedicated
to some other purpose or
saint.
The years of 1970 and
1971 will allow for a
transition from the old
liturgical calendar to the new.
Tire complete reform of the
Roman calendar will not go into
effect until the entire reform
of the Roman missal (the New
Order of Mass), including its
translation into the
vernacular, and the revised
Breviary is completed.
In the new calendar, a
renewed emphasis is given to
the Paschal Mystery
celebrated each Sunday and
most solemnly in Holy Week
and on Easter. Fewer feasts
displace the Sunday
celebration.
But there are some
simplifications and changes.
Some examples
Septuagesima, Sexagesima,
and Quinquagesima Sundays
are dropped. Paschaltide
extends from the Easter Vigil
until Pentecost. The Octave
of Pentecost is eliminated.
The feast of Christ the King is
placed on the last Sunday
before Advent. Advent is now
a preparation for both the
feast of Christmas and the
Second Coming of Christ.
For those who are familiar
with the old calendar, new
terminology has been
introduced.
As is obvious, only on 96
weekdays, plus the 52
Sundays, is there a prescribed
Mass, or less than half of the
liturgical year. On the other
days there is a wide variety of
options.
Solemnities are reserved
for Feast Days of Christ, The
Virgin Mary, and important
saints, such as Sts. Peter and
Paul.
Obligatory feasts are
reserved for well-known,
high-ranked saints, such as
the other apostles. Mass must
be dedicated to the saint of
that day, unless there is
conflict with a nation’s
Optional Memorials must
allow for a recommended but
not compulsory prayer to a
particular saint. On these
days a priest can select either
the Mass of the weekday or
the Mass of the saint or the
Mass of the commemoration
of a saint, of some saint
occuring in the martyrology,
or a Votive Mass.
Finally, ferials. On
weekdays throughout the
year the priest can choose the
Mass of the weekday, or that
of some saint occuring in the
day’s martyrology, or a Mass
for a particular purpose or a
Votive Mass.
The first major change
Jan. 1, traditionally the Holy
Day called the Feast of the
Circumcision, which has now
been removed from the
calendar. In its place is a feast
dedicated to “Mary, the
Mother of God.”
On Feb. 11, a new feast
will make its appearance (in
1971), the Feast of the
Apparitions of the Virgin
Mother, which will honor all
the apparitions of the Virgin
at all times. In 1970, the feast
falls on Ash Wednesday, so
it will not be celebrated.
The Feast of the
Annunciation, formerly
honoring the Virgin Mother,
now honors Christ and is
called the Feast of the
Annunciation of Christ. In
1970 it will be celebrated on
April 6, but thereafter have a
fixed date.
Because it is considered a
duplication of the Feast of
the Birth of Mary, the Feast
of the Name of Mary has
been removed from the
calendar.
What is immediately
obvious in the new liturgical
calendar is that very few
saints have been dropped
from it because of questioned
historical fact. None has been
demoted.
Old
New
Number
Feast of I Class
Solemnity
10
Feast of II Class
Feast
23
Feast of III Class
Obligatory Memorial
63
Optional Memorial
95
Ferial
Ferial
LUTHERANS
Call On Churches
To Fight Poverty
NEW YORK (NC)-
Commitment of churches to
“a radically new approach to
poverty” which holds that
“poverty need not be, indeed,
must not be in our society,
and must be eliminated” was
proposed here at the fourth
annual meeting of the
Lutheran Council in the USA.
Supported by background
study and other resource,
material, a position paper,
“The Elimination of
Poverty,” sets forth a series
of 10 specific affirmations
and a seven-point “call to the
churches and their people.”
As a contribution to
efforts to eliminate poverty,
the statement affirmed that:
-“The first priority of the
nation must always be given
to the well-being of its people
and all its insitutions must be
judged on the basis of their
contributions to this goal.”
-“Families must be given
every possible support and
aid as they seek to fulfill their
God-given function.”
--“Programs of education
should continue to be
reviewed, improved, and
extended throughout the
whole community.”
-“Actions growing out of
discrimination based on race
or ethnic origin in the
community must be
identified and eliminated.”
-“The economy of the
nation must continue to be
expanded and strengthened.”
-“The organization and
d e 1 i v ery of income
maintenance programs in
public welfare need to be
reviewed and, where found to
be requisite, new forms
developed.”
-“The health services of
the nation must continue to
be developed and systems
activated to make them
available to all people.”
--‘‘Social services to
individuals and groups in
need of support, guidance,
and counseling should be
strengthened and extended.”
-“Programs must be of
such character and dimension
as to break the present cycle
of poverty.”
-“The poor must be given
every opportunity to break
through society’s insulation
and brought into full
participation in society.”
t