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REORGANIZED BY POPE PAUL
Biblical Commission Gets
New Ecumenical Outlook
By Patrick Riley
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
Pope Paul VI has reorganized
the 69-year-old Pontifical
Biblical Commission, recalling
it to its original mandate of
stimulating biblical research
and at the same time giving it
a wholly new ecumenical
outlook.
In structure, the
commisson will be converted
from a virtually independent
office of cardinals aided by
lifetime consultors into a
group of experts named for
five years after consultation
with the world’s bishops and
“linked” - as the new
regulations put it - to the
Vatican’s Doctrinal
Congregation.
In function, the biblical
commission “continues its
task of rightly promoting
biblical studies and offering
assistance to the Church’s
teaching magisterium
(teaching authority) in
interpreting scripture,” Pope
Paul stipulated in a motu
proprio laying down the
commission’s new
regulations.
Early in this century, an
atomsphere of suspicion and
defensiveness generated by
the so-called Modernist crisis
had diverted the commission
to warnings and
condemnations, but the
commission now is ordered
by Pope Paul to consult
non-Catholic experts and to
foster good relations with
non-Catholic institutes of
biblical studies.
A Vatican spokesman
observed that the Bible was
the “apple of discord”
between Catholic and
Protestants in the early part
of this century, but now has
become the chief sustenance
of the ecumenical movement.
“The future of ecumenism
will depend in great part
on the courage and initiative
of the new Pontifical Biblical
Commission,” said Msgr.
Piero Rossano, a Biblical
scholar who is undersecretary
of the Vatican Secretariat for
Non-Christians.
What he described as
“miraculous progress” in
Catholic-Protestant accord on
biblical matters can be seen,
he declared, by comparing
Pope Paul’s motu proprio on
the reform of the biblical
commission and Pope Leo
XIII’s letter of 1902 creating
it.
But he insisted that Pope
WHO IS HARRY
KELLERMAN AND WHY IS
HE SAYING THOSE
TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT
ME? (National General), asks
40-year old pop glamor boy
Georgie Soloway who after
seven years of analysis is
ready for a lasting marriage.
And now that Kellerman guy
is phoning up all of his
girl-friends and saying those
terrible things. We won’t
exactly reveal who Kellerman
is, but we will point out that
Soloway isn’t quite as ready
as he lets himself think. As
the poor little rich Jewish kid
from Flatbush, Dustin
Hoffman portrays yet
another classic New York
paranoid-schizoid, as much a
victim of his fabulous success
as he is an oppressor of those
he trampled along the way or
dragged along with him to an
office-living duplex atop the
towering G.M. Building on
Fifth Avenue. Ulu Grosbard
has overdirected Herb
Gardner’s too-hip and
too-personal black humored
story, and the result is a film
that is long on flashy
techniques and short on
substance and dramatic
interest. Yet Barbara Harris is
shattering in a cameo role as
Leo had showed courage as
well as confidence in the
wholeness of truth by urging
Catholics to welcome
scientific advances in an age
when science was extensively
and intensively explointed
against religion.
The Pontifical Biblical
Commission will not issue
condemnations, he said.
Asked how Catholics can
be warned against false
interpretations of the Bible,
Msgr. Rossano said that other
organisms of the Catholic
Church are empowered to
decry error.
Article 10 of the new
regulations stipulates that
conclusions reached by the
biblical commission “are to
be submitted to the supreme
pontiff and transmitted for
the use of the Sacred
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.”
Article 11 states that the
commission has the duty of
“preparing instructions and
decrees which the Sacred
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith may
publish with special mention
to the biblical commission.”
However, Msgr. Rossano
said that other organs of the
Holy See might publish the
commission’s findings. And
the regulations make express
provision for other
procedures should the Pope
so decide.
Of the b.blical
commission’s new relation
with the Doctrinal
Congregation, the Vatican
spokesman declared with
emphasis: ‘‘Such
coordination -- and it is a
question of coordination and
not of absorption -- finally
resolves a tension that had
been unable to find
equilibrium these past
decades.”
Although Msgr. Rossano
did not explain such
“tension” further, it is
commonly held in Rome that
for the past 20 years the
biblical commission has been
more liberal than the
Doctrinal Congregation and
its predecessor, the Holy
Office. This, combined with a
partial overlapping of
competencies, was bound to
occasion conflicts.
Under the new rules, the
prefect of the Doctrinal
Congregation - now Cardinal
Franjo Seper - will
automatically be president of
the biblical commission. The
commission’s secretary,
nominated by tne president
after consultation with the
members “so far as possible,”
and named by the Pope,
automatically becomes a
consultor of the Doctrinal
Congregation.
Members of the
commission are appointed
“on the proposal of the
cardinal president” after
consultation with the
national bishops’ conferences.
They may number no more
than 20, and may be
reappointed after their
five-year term is up.
There was considerable
scepticism among biblical
scholars in Rome that
thrusting the biblical
commission so deep within
the shadow of the Doctrinal
Congregation would not in
fact mean its virtual
absorption by the Doctrinal
Congregation.
However, members of the
International Theological
Commission, which is
juridically “within the
bosom” of the Doctrinal
Congregation, have
frequently stated that they
enjoy broad liberty under the
present prefect of the
Doctrinal Congregation, said
Cardinal Seper who is
president also of the
theological commission.
It was not immediately
clear what relationship will
exist between the theological
commission and the biblical
commission. However, Msgr.
Rossano said he thought that
there would be a
“cross-fertilization” between
the two. He pointed out that
the theological commission
includes biblical specialists.
Another unresolved
question was what the new
ecumenical orientation of the
biblical commission will
imply for the biblical
commission new functioning
within the Vatican Secretariat
for Promoting Christian
Unity.
However, the motu proprio
did resolve a question that
had been in the air since last
autumn, when consultors of
the commission were told to
stop functioning because a
new biblical commission was
in the making. Scholars who
had been preparing for
degrees under the
commission’s degree-giving
authority, and who had been
in a sort of limbo of
un certainity since the fall,
now learn that the
commission “continues to
confer academic degrees in
biblical studies.”
«<>x^w/xwawictihwi<iot REFLECTIONS FROM ROME: :»r*k**s
^ I
Answers Criticism Of |
1
Pope As Pessimist
By Canon William Purdy
ROME (NC) - Within
recent days Pope Paul has
made two long speeches of
exceptional importance.
One was to the Italian
Bishops’ Conference,
gathered in Rome for a
plenary meeting. The
conference naturally
concerned itself with the
agenda of the coming world
Synod of Bishops. No less
naturally the Pope was
interested in their approach
to this task, partly as a
fellow-Italian, more as the
supreme pastor concerned to
see how conferences of
bishops approach the
problem which are his daily
solicitude. Here was the
conference thatmet on his
doorstep, whose language was
his; of whose particular
problems he has the longest
continuous experience. No
wonder that he should open
his heart to them with a
certain depth and fullness.
The second address was
made to the cardinals of the
Roman Curia, who had just
addressed words of loyal
congratulation to him. The
occasion and the mood was
different, but it was the more
striking how both speeches
centered round the same
theme. He stated the theme
as succinctly as could be in
speaking to the cardinals:
Come va la Chiesa? How goes
it with the Church?
Many of the Pope’s critics
long ago made up their minds
that he has only one answer
to this question-the
pessimistic one. This kind of
stock conviction or ready
made image can become so
fixed that only the most
highly-colored evidence to
the contrary will do much to
shake it.
The Pope does not
naturally provide such
highly-colored evidence. He
thinks antithetically, he is not
afraid of symbolic utterances
and nuances; certainly he is
no rumbustious old-fashioned
triumphalist. Yet when he
tackles such a broad theme as
the present state of the
Church it is all the more
necessary to listen to
everything, and avoid the
temptation to highlight only
the bits that chime in with
one’s own prejudices.
Both the Italian bishops
Film Classifications
Soloway’s momentary love
interest, Jack \terden is
satanic as the psychiatrist
who pops up in his patient’s
nightmare fantasies, and the
late Ehvid Burns is haunting
as Georgie’s “old world”
Poppa who refuses to cash
the generous, guilt-ridden
checks his son sends him.
(A-m)
WILD ROVERS (MGM) is
Blake Edwards’ (A SHOT IN
THE DARK, DARLING
LILI) first foray into the
subdued, Romantic Western.
The rovers, who are not so
wild at all, are aging cowpoke
William Holden and eager
sidekick Ryan O’Neal.
Together they make a likable
December-May pair, and
when they rob a local bank in
order to finance Holden’s
dream of a little Mexican
ranchero they are polite and
apologetic as all get out.
Things inevitably turn sour as
they head for the border,
though, and the original
romanticism -- classic
barroom brawls, gaudy
bawdy houses, philosophizing
around the campfire, crooked
card games - gives way to
ultimate despair and a
senseless double death. The
film is by no means a success,
but its lapses in themselves
will prove intriguing to
Western buffs. In any case,
Holden and O’Neal are fine in
their compatibly contrasting
roles. (A-III)
SHAFT (MGM) Richard
Roundtree is excellent as
John Shaft, private eye, a hip,
tough, and savvy black man
aprowl in seamy old New
York. On assignment for a
despised (but well-paying)
black mobster (Moses Gunn),
Shaft searches for the man’s
kidnapped daughter. The job
takes him in and out of
danger and keeps him
tightrope-walking between
the so-called Mafia
kidnappers and the pursuing
police. Director Gordon Parks
has captured the wild side of
New York perfectly, and his
black detective story is a
routine but polished and
exciting adult entertainment.
(A-III)
THE SEVEN MINUTES
(20th Century Fox)
represents the collaborative
efforts of tw> of America’s
most profoundly banal
creative talents: writer of
best-sellers Irving Wallace and
A — Section I — Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
A — Section II — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults Adolescents
A — Section HI — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
A — Section IV — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
B — Morally Objectionable in Part for All
C — Condemned
king of the old-fashioned
skinflick nakers Russ Meyer.
Meyer’s numbingly
sensational rendering of
Wallace’s novel about a
California censorship trial has
all the depth of a Hollywood
press release and all the
titillation of an arcade peep
show. The characters are
uniformly sterotyped, the
purportedly relevant issues
hopelessly obscured, and the
action suffocatingly
theatrical. In the past,
Meyer’s films have been dirty
but funny; this one is merely
dirty. (C)
WILLARD (Cinerama
Releasing Corp.) The Los
Angeles chapter of the
ASPCA might be satisfied
with the care given rodents
Ben, Socrates ET AL. during
the filming of WILLARD, but
viewers may not be as
charmed. Bruce Davison
(LAST SUMMER) stars as the
psychotic under-thirty son of
hypochondriac mother Elsa
LanChester. Death spares her
from the viewer’s fate as
Willard plots to punish his
boss (Ernest Borgnine) for
the injustices heaped upon
him and his family and his
girl (Sandra Locke) vies with
Ben for the poor boy’s
affections. Alas, Willard trains
the little beasties all too well.
Taut editing and pacing might
have given director Daniel
Mann a first class horror film.
As it is, Moe Di Sesso, animal
trainer, runs away with the
booby prize for his direction
of the rats. (A-II)
and the Roman Curia could
find in their tradition an
attitude of censorious,
detached paternalism towards
the world of the day with its
doubts, its uncertainties, its
groping after new modes of
living and expression; still
more with its occasional naive
confidence that it has found
for age-old puzzles or pains a
solution which will in fact
look old-fashioned more
quickly than it was
discovered. This fatherly
skepticism is the permanent
temptation of the elderly
churchman, and to chime in
with it is an easy way to raise
a cheer.
With scissors and paste you
could make a patchwork
from the Pope’s speech to the
Italian bishops which would
seem to be doing just this. In
fact some of the Italian
papers did just that. Certainly
he referred to the present as
“a period in which everything
has become a problem:”
certainly he spoke of “a
difficult hour,” “an hour of
storm and squall,” and
quoted St. Paul’s “all conflict
without, all anxiety within”
(II Cor., 7, 5.), and even the
Gospel cry of the
storm-tossed Apostles, “Lord
save us, we perish!” More
concretely, and perhaps a
little over-conscious of his
audience, he allowed himself
some lamenting over the
Italian Catholic labor
movement’s recent cutting of
its ties with the Church and
moving closer to socialism.
But to insist on these
snippets would be to travesty
the discourse. Paul VI stated
with unusual clarity that he
sees his task as that given to
Peter, “confirm thy
brethren,” and backed the
statement by tackling the
task with some of his most
interesting recent reflections.
The reference to “this
period in which everything
has become a problem” he
completed with “ ... and all
can be RESOLVED in a NEW
EPIPHANY of Christianity if
we above all, the prime
responsible ministers of the
Gospel, KNOW HOW to give
a RENEWED, faithful and
harmonious testimony.” The
capitols are mine: they
merely emphasize that the
passage cannot be read as
encouragement to the
“censorious, detached
paternalism” of which I
spoke earlier.
To the pastor who can do
LE MANS (National
General) Steve McQueen is
just fine in a role that allows
him to combine his acting
talent with his expertise as a
racecar driver. At speeds in
excess of 200 mph, McQueen
and others take the cameras
along for the ride during last
year’s 24-hour grind at Le
Mans. The film is all surface,
as slick and sinuous as the
winding blacktop itself, and
full of moments of incredible
speed, danger, excitement,
and beauty as the brave men
pit their skills and screaming
machines against time, the
track, and each other. The
racing footage is mostly
authentic, including two
hair-raising crack-ups. (A-I)
RECENT NCOMP FILM
CLASSIFICATIONS
Peter Rabbit and Tales of
Beatrix Potter (MGM) — A-I
The Hired Hand
(Ihiversal) — A-III
Wild Rovers (MGM) —
A-RI
Bunny O’Hare (AIP) —
A-III
Klute (Warner Bros.) —
A-IV
no better than cry “Lord save
us, we perish,” Paul replies in
the words of our common
Master: “Why are you fearful,
you of little faith;” “in the
world you have trouble, but
have confidence in me, I have
overcome the world.” And to
his cultivated Italian audience
he quotes the phrase of Don
Abbondio in Manzoni’s
classic “I Promessi Sposi”
who spoke of the pastoral
courage which “no one can
give to himself.”
The courage one finds for
oneself is likely to be no
better than obstinacy or
obliviousness. The courage
that the pastor draws from
the Good Shepherd is based
on facing facts and judging
them, not uncritically but not
unsympathetically. The
psychology of the world is in
evolution, says the Pope, and
we are often hard put to it to
understand its features, its
fallacies, its resources.
Here he states perfectly the
source of his own intense
strivings after sympathy and
understanding, his own
anxieties; the antithesis of
“fallacies and resources” he
seems to see as built into
today’s situations, but the
antithesis is a challenge to
apostolic courage. Courage
manifests itself in a situation
of stress, but it does not
spring up from nothing in
such a situation: it is made
and stored ready.
The striking thing in Paul
Vi’s address is that he stresses
so strongly the pastor’s own
natural contribution to
“apostolic fortitude:” the
Master is with him and gives
what is indispensable. But, he
said:
“We can also find natural
sources of apostolic fortitude
nearer to our internal
reflection and our human
experience; the study of the
relations arising between
ourselves, our ministry and
contemporary man. It is what
everybody is doing-searching
out the phenomenology of
modern life. This is changing
or perhaps becoming better
known. We perhaps do not
realize this sharply enough.
This mobility, this new
a wareness can be
disconcerting, terrifying or at
least intimidating. But we
must look it in the face.
“We have a new duty, to
emerge from habit, (I do not
say tradition!’ from
empiricism, from
custom-bounJ formalism. It
is pastoral love that will make
us ‘know the sheep,’ make us
use to the best advantage the
new sciences, see the new
possibilities.
“One who loves discovers,
invents the art of making
approaches. A new trust
should strengthen our
ministry-a trust in men who
are often better than they
appear.”
To the Cardinals a few
days later, having spoken
with some optimism of the
“progressive internationaliza
tion of the Curia” bringing in
a rich variety of traditions
and increasing our
consciousness of the
situations and needs of local
churches, the Pope quoted I.
Thess. V, 19:
“Do not stifle the
utterances of the Spirit; do
not hold prophecy in low
esteem; and yet you must
scrutinize it all carefully,
retaining only what is good.”
And whoever thought of
this as only words needed to
be reminded that a few days
before the Pope had, with
great courtesy and at very
short notice, received 400
Southern Baptists from
Dallas, Texas, searching for
points of contact with them,
leaving on men and women in
a very new and strange
experience an unforgettable
impression.
NEW VATICAN AUDIENCE HALL: Pope Paul VI greets the crowd attending the opening of the
new Vatican audience hall. The ultra-modem structure replaces St. Peter’s Bascilica for general
audiences. (NC PHOTO)
Crime In Vatican City
Deep End (Paramount) —
B
The Seven Minutes (20th
Century Fox) — C
By Father Leo
E. McFadden
ROME (NC) — Thousands
of persons who visit the
Vatican every day carry away
with them lasting impressions
of the treasured works they
have seen.
But a few prefer to visit
the Vatican at night-and
carry away the actual
treasures.
Thieves struck again at the
Vatican the night of July 3
and made off with about
$1,600 from the post office.
To accomplish this, they
successfully opened a safe,
eluded the night guards and
slipped out of Vatican City.
Headquarters of Vatican
Radio were also entered by
some “strangers in the night”
recently. For their trouble.
however, they got from a
third-floor office only some
taped recordings, a small
amount of cash and a
160-pound safe
There have been some
extraordinary burglaries in
the past few years of the
Vatican Museum, St. Peter’s
Basilica and the Pope’s own
apartment
Historical treasures,
including a 14th-century
manuscript of Italian Poet
Francesco Petrarch, were
stolen from the museum in a
nighttime raid in 1965. Two
days later police recovered
most of the stolen articles in
an empty lot in Rome.
Roman thieves customarily
watch for apartments
abandoned during the hot
summer months by residents
who have gone off to the sea
or mountains for a breath of
fresh air.
Knowing that the Pope was
at his summer residence at
Castelgandolfo in August,
1969, thieves entered his
Vatican apartment for a
nocturnal visit The Vatican
has never revealed what, if
anything, was taken--although
some said at the time that
several valuable paintings
were stolen.
Also in August of that
year, thieves stayed behind
after St. Peter’s was closed
and looted a gift shop. They
made off with gold medals
and money worth thousands
of dollars.
Once again the thieves
emulated St. Peter himself.
They seemingly walked
through locked gates and
unseeing guards to safety in
the city.