Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3—January 10, 1974
Historian Says Seminaries Neglect Church History
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
SAN FRANCISCO (NC) - Church
history is a neglected science in the
nation’s seminaries, Msgr. John Tracy
Ellis told the American Catholic
Historical Association (ACHA) at its
annual meeting here.
Msgr. Ellis, one of the country’s
leading historians, said his findings were
based on a survey of 27 seminaries in
the United States from which he
received 22 responses.
While he cautioned that the survey
would be considered “unscientific” in
many professional circles, he said it
showed a lack of meaningful courses on
Church history in many of the
seminaries.
A summary of the survey showed
that:
-- The number of Church history
courses averaged between four and six,
with a high of 15 at Mundelein
Seminary near Chicago, to one (elective)
at Dunwoodie Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.
-- Twelve seminaries had links with
other educational institutions offering
such courses and 10 had none.
-- The number of required credit
hours ranged from 14 at Christ the King
Seminary to none at Dunwoodie. Ten
seminaries said they did not allow
transfer of such credits, while another
10 said that sometimes “it depends on
the registrar.”
Eleven seminaries said they
required a survey of Church history
from the beginning to the present, while
eight others said no such survey was
required. Three other seminaries offered
only surveys of various periods of
Church history.
A discussion on the survey brought
out that many seminaries were planning
to incorporate a greater in-depth
instruction of Church history and that
since the survey was taken, some had
already introduced more courses.
In his address as retiring ACHA
president, Father Astrik L. Gabriel of
Notre Dame University compared
professors in medieval universities with
those of the present day. He said the
ideal professor in medieval times was
expected to possess:
- “A combination of profound
learning and excellent virtue, a proper
balance between intellectual and ascetic
performance.
-- “Wisdom in securing salvation for
himself and for his audience through his
teaching, creating peace and accord in
his earthly society, and knowing the
limits of his field of study and not
transgressing them.
-- “Firmness and stability in his
character and personal behavior.
' - “Obedience to the statutes and to
the elected officers of his corporation
(university).
- “Charity stemming from the
practice of corporal and spiritual deeds
of mercy, developing it into a unified
force in a corporation composed of
individuals of disparate temperaments.”
Father Gabriel said all this has been
lost in today’s university, which no
longer has sense of unity and fraternity
among the faculty, which has lost much
of its respect among the student body.
At the convention Mass, the chief
celebrant and homilist, Msgr. Michael V.
Gannon of the University of Florida,
said that “one of the gravest evils from
which the Catholic Church suffers today
is that many Catholics are no longer
proud of their faith.
“Too many of us seem to believe,” he
said, “it is good politics or good taste to
act as though, after all, we are no
different from anyone else. What is the
greatest praise that many Catholics
seek? It is the judgment: ‘He is a
Catholic, but he is really very nice. You
would never think he was one.’
“Should not the contrary be the
case? I don’t mean Catholics who would
wear their faith like feathers in their
caps, but Catholics who make their
Christianity so enter their everyday lives
and work that unbelieving persons
would have cause to wonder what secret
force animated them, what special
radiance transfigured their personalities
- so that unbelieving persons would say:
‘On the contrary, he is a very good
person, and now I know why. He is a
Catholic,”’ Msgr. Gannon said.
NORTHVALE, N.J. (NC) - Families should turn deaf ears to prophets of
doom “and look to the future with optimism, finding in the innocence and
inquisitiveness . .. of children the basis for some hope and joy,” according to
Msgr. James T. McHugh, director of the Family Life Bureau of the U.S. Catholic
Conference.
Msgr. McHugh made his remarks during his sermon at St. Anthony’s Church
here, where he helps out on weekends and holy days. He is a priest of the
Newark archdiocese. '
Speaking on the feast of the Holy Family Dec. 30, Msgr. McHugh said that the
family is a basic social unit, its instability rosters personal breakdown among
children.
“It is in the family that the life of each individual begins,” he said, “and in the
network of family relationships that living is learned.”
In order to secure stability, Msgr. McHugh added, the family must be
protected from Social planners and advocates of zero populations growth.
However, married couples, he said, “must balance their personal hopes with the
good of society.”
Historical Group
BISHOP VISITS PRISON - In his shirtsleeves, Bishop Joseph A. Durick
of Nashville plays piano for inmates at Tennessee State Prison on
Christmas morning. The bishop said he spent the holyday with prisoners
because “society has legally judged them to be criminals, as society once
illegally judged the Savior to be a criminal,” (NC Photo)
SAN FRANCISCO (NC) - Dr. Eric
Cochrane, professor of Renaissance and
early modem Italian history at the
University of Chicago, was elected
president of the American Catholic
Historical Association at its annual
meeting here (Dec. 28-30).
Cochrane succeeds Father Astrik L.
Gabriel, O. Praem., director of the
Medieval Institute of the University of
Notre Dame.
Other officers elected were Jesuit
Father Robert I. Bums, professor of
Medieval history at the University of
San Francisco, first vice president;
Dominican Father William A.
Hinnebusch, professor of Church
history, Dominican House of Studies,
Washington, D.C., second vice president.
It was also announced that Prof.
Robert E. Quirk of Indiana University
had received the association’s John
Gilmary Shea Prize for his book, “The
Mexican Revolution and the Catholic
Church, 1910-1929.”
The prize of $300 is given each year
to the American or Canadian author
who, in the judgment of the association,
has made the most original and
significant contribution to Catholic
Church history in the past year.
POPE MEETS GARBAGE MEN -- Pope Paul VI shakes hands with
Roman garbage collectors during a stop near St. Peter’s Basilica to pray at
a creche the men built. The pope was on his way back from the Vatican
after celebrating Mass in St. Anthony’s parish in south Rome and saying
“Peace depends on you also.” The day was observed as the World Day of
Peace. (NC Photo)
Pope Warns Against “Mafia Mentality”
ROME (NC) - Pope Paul urged
Italians to unite against a “Mafia
mentality” that takes justice into its
own hands, setting off a chain-reaction
of vendetta and counter-vendetta.
“Do we not see the disgust and
indignation this way of thinking and
acting brings on our nation?” The Pope
asked in a New Year’s Day sermon.
“Do we not see that the survival of
this mentality is unworthy of the
WASHINGTON (NC) - A Colorado
physician who faces criminal charges for
mailing anti-abortion material has
gained the support, of the Catholic
League for Religious and Civil Rights.
The league announced here that it is
setting up a Freedom Defense Fund for
Dr. Frank Bolles, a Boulder, Colo.,
physician. The league said it would seek
contributions from those who would
like to help Dr. Bolles.
Charges against Dr. Bolles were filed
by the district attorney’s office at
Boulder. Dr. Bolles was charged with
violating a state statute which makes it a
misdemeanor to “communicate with a
country called Italy? Must we not all
work together to destory this way of
thinking and acting at its roots?”
The Pope was speaking without notes
to a predominantly Italian audience in
south Rome. His sermon there was on
world peace and the responsibility of
individuals to work for it.
“We must be bearers of peace, bearers
of the sense of true justice within our
person ... in a manner likely to cause
alarm.”
Dr. Bolles, who is president of the
Boulder Valley Right to Life
Committee, mailed out anti-abortion
material consisting of color photos of
aborted fetuses and live babies.
Stuart D. Hubbell, the Catholic
League’s executive director, said the
league is prepared to defend Dr. Bolles
“in every way possible,” all the way to
the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
Hubbell said that the charges against
Dr. Bolles are “the poison fruit” that
has come from the U.S. Supreme
hearts, before we can demand that it be
brought into public and international
life,” he asserted.
Earlier New Year’s Day Pope Paul
visited St. Anthony’s parish in south
Rome to celebrate Mass and delivered a
speech without notes on the theme of
this year’s World Day of Peace: “Peace
depends also on you.”
“The world has apparently become
Court’s Jan. 22, 1973, rulings on
abortion.
Dr. Bolles has assumed full
responsibility for the mailings of the
material to residents of Colorado. He
said he felt “a responsibility to inform
and educate the public as to the value of
human life and to the fact that abortion
is the killing of an innocent human
being. ”
Dr. Bolles said that he sought legal
counsel before mailing the material. “In
light of my confidence of our
Constitution, it did not enter my
thinking that my freedom to express my
beliefs would be restricted or even
placed in question,” he said.
balanced, indeed,” the Pope said. “But
this balance is only a test of strength,
Indian-wrestling one fear against
another fear. People are talking again as
if there were no atomic arms. My God!
Think of what happened in Japan to
finish the war.”
The Pope echoed the theme he had
chosen for peace day by declaring:
“It isn’t enough for authorities, the
politicians and the heads of state, to
worry about peace. Peace is the interest
of the people, and the people must
know at least what their fate is.”
Then he raised an objection put by
some: “What can I do? I live my modest
life in the circle of my profession, my
family, my affairs. How can I do
anything about such enormous
problems?”
The Pope replied: “It is true that the
big decisions are taken elsewhere and by
other persons. But it is also true that the
conscience of the people, of the
multitude, of you, of us, weighs upon
the decisions that the authorities must
take.
“And if the conscience of the people
is unanimous in deploring and rejecting
these tragic clashes between people and
people, then in some way they are
settled or at least do not explode with
that deadliness and that long-drawn
brutality they can so easily assume.”
FROM CATHOLIC RIGHTS GROUP
Anti-Abortion Doctor Gets Support
NC NEWS ANALYSIS
Colombian Priests Join Guerrillas in Increasing Numbers
BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
BOGOTA, Colombia (NC) - The recent capture of Father Luis Zabala Herrera by
the Colombian army in an anti-guerrilla military operation highlighted a little known
fact in this Latin American country: more and more priests and committed Catholics
are participating in guerrilla activities against conservative government authorities.
The first priest to take up arms against the government in Colombia was Father
Camilo Torres, who was killed in an army ambush in 1968, a few months before the
second meeting of the Latin American Bishops’ Council in Medellin, Colombia, Camilo
Torres became a symbol of the Christian commitment to the poor and to the
liberation of the continent for many, and a whole new concept of the theology of
liberation began evolving among many religious groups throughout Latin America.
Out of these groups came the Chilean Christians for Socialism, the Argentinian
Third World Priests movement and the Colombian Golconda Group. Meanwhile, the
Catholic Church as a whole in Latin America was moving toward a more progressive
position after the 1968 Medellin conference, undoubtedly influenced to a certain
extend by the shock of the death of Torres.
The latest campaign by the Colombian army -- begun in September - to rout the
guerrilla groups in the Antioquia area has been one of the most successful undertaken
in many years, and some 200 guerrillas have already been captured or killed. Two high
officials of the jercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) - the National Liberation Army -
and brothers of its leader, Fabio Vasquez Castano, were killed during an ambush last
month.
According to intelligence sources, casualties among the ELN ranks have caused
Spanish Father Domingo Lain to rise to a leadership position and to become the
“intellectual mentor” of the guerrilla movement. Father Lain had been previously
expelled from the country, but returned illegally.
A recently ransomed landowner, Alirio Serrano Sanchez, said that during his
six-week captivity he saw at least six priests among the guerrillas, but that he could not
identify any of them. His kidnapers operated in the Department of Santander in the
northeast part of the country.
It is known that two Spanish priests joined the guerrilla movement two years ago.
They are Father Manuel Perez and a Father Guerrero.
Father Zabala’s capture has also uncovered the fact that three more priests from the
Bucaramanga diocese have also joined the guerrillas and abandoned their pastoral
work. They are Fathers Laurentino Bueda, Pedro Duarte and Jose Esguerra.
The ELN seems to have a complete network of urban contacts and aides who
provide it with money, clothing, medicine and food. Intelligence services of the army
have made raids in several Colombian cities arid have captured some priests, accusing
them of cooperating with the guerrillas. Fathers Saul Anaya and Roberto Becerfa
Pinilla will be tried by a military court and Father Cristobal Gaitan was arrested Dec.
7, allegedly while preparing to deliver medicine and food to the Fuerzas Amadas
Revolutionaries Colombianas, another guerrilla army.
The Colombian Church, considered the most conservative of the continent, has not
reacted officially to the involvement of its priests with the guerrillas. The government’s
censorship has tried to silence references to the priests activities in the Colombian
press.