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PRAY FOR
THE COUNCIL
diocese of Atlanta
SERVING GEORGIA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
VOL. 1 NO. 40
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1963
$5.00 PER YEAR
CARDINAL BEA SAYS
Unity Progress
Matches Scripture
Study Growth
THE 1963 James J. Hoey Award for Interracial Justice will be
presented in New York, October 27, to Dr. James T. Carey,
(left) of the Department of Criminology, University of California,
Berkeley, Calif., founder of the Catholic Interracial Council of
California and to Percy H. Williams, (right) of Sacred Heart
parish, Washington, D. C. Mr. Williams is a member of the Pre
sident's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities, serving
as Assistant Executive Director of Contract Compliance.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (RNS) —
In a message to St. Louis Uni
versity, Augustin Cardinal Bea,
president of the Vatican Secret
ariat for Promoting Christian
Unity, held that "it is not ac
cidental that the growth of the
Ecumenical movement has cor
responded to the renewed in
terest in the study of Sacred
Scripture."
"If we are to unite," he said,
"we must go constantly to the
Word of God, and try to pene
trate more and more deeply
into the mystery of His re
velation."
NATURE OF CHURCH
Council Fathers
Continue Debate
THE GERMAN-BORN Je
suit's message was recorded in
Rome and delivered on tape to
the university. It was featured
at the opening of a public lect
ure series on ' The Ecumenical
Movement," sponsored by the
Catholic university.
Cardinal Bea cautioned that
''union will not come about by
VATICAN CITY (NC)--Criti
cism of the document on the na
ture of the Church continued
unhurriedly on the fourth day
of the ecumenical council's sec
ond session.
Augustin Cardinal Bea, pre
sident of the Secretariat for
Promoting Christian Unity, as
serted that some of the Bibli
cal passages cited in the text
did not prove what they were
supposed to prove.
JOSEPH CARDINAL Ritter,
Archbishop of St. Louis, indi
cated that the document does
not give enough emphasis to the
need for restoring preaching to
its proper place in the life of
the Church,
tical Body of Christ are one
but are not considered under
one same aspect, he said. We
must admit, he continued that
our separated brethren are in
corporated into the Church by
their Baptism, and that Bap
tism imprints a sacramental
character on their souls, even
though heresy or some other ob
stacle may interfere with the
full exercise of their rights and
with their share in the spiritual
and social benefits deriving
from the Church.
Just any reading of Scriptures.
God has spoken, but we must
listen with open heart, with full
readiness to accept everything
God is saying to us,"
"OTHERWISE," he said, "we
are in danger of hearing only
what we wish to hear; we are
in danger of putting the Word of
God in chains against St. Paul's
statement that The Word of
God is not bound.'
The majority of the critics of
the "De Ecclesla" schema
made two particular points: that
the text should be more clear
about the fact that through Bap
tism all Christians are included
in the Church, and that the
place of the Blessed Virgin
Mary in the Church should be
treated in the schema on the
Chur h rather than separately.
With an apparent reference
to the speeches made previous
ly in the council hall by the
Fathers, Cardinal Lercaro df
dared that the doctrinal com
mission—the Commission on
Faith and Morals— should not
concern itself only with minor
textual changes. It should, he
said, give special attention to
the views expressed by the en-
CONT1NUED ON PAGE 8
"Unless our reading of the
Scriptures is humble and open,
the 'sin of disunity* will con
tinue as a scandal to non-
Christians and a hindrance to
the mission of the Church."
Cardinal Bea said 'love of
truth and love of our neighbor
must permeate all our actions."
"WE WILL be quick," he
stressed, "to find that which is
good in the teachings of relig
ions different from our own and
PERMANENT DEACONS?
Cardinal Critical
THIS 40th GENERAL congre
gation since the beginning of
Vatican Council II was held on
Thursday, October 3. The pre
siding moderator was Leo Car
dinal Suenens, Archbishop of
Malines-Brussels, Belgium.
Of Diaconate Plan
Giacomo Cardinal Lercaro
of Bologna left the moderators’
table to go to the microphone
and open the day’s discussion
on the first chapter of the
schema on the Church.
VATICAN CITY (NC)—Fran
cis Cardinal Spellman, Arch
bishop of New York, strongly
criticized a proposal to bring
back a permanent diaconate to
the Catholic Church as the ecu
menical council entered discus
sion on the second chapter of
the proposal "On the Nature of
the Church
This has been particularly
urged by missionary bishops
who want to use die diaconate
to help overworked missionary
priests.
THE CHURCH and the Mys-
Cardinal Spellman objected
to a provision in the schema
which would abolish the pre
sent Church law which requires
that the diaconate be conferred
on no one unless he intends to
continue on toward priesthood.
IN THE LATER half of the
council's 41st general meeting
after discussion on the sche
ma's first chapter ended and
discussion on the second chap
ter opened. Cardinal Spellman
addressed the assembly and ex
pressed surprise that the text
should propose establishing the
diaconate.
ARCHBISHOP Josef Beran, (ab-
obe) of Prague, has been re
leased after 14 years of arrest
under the communists, along
with four other bishops of Cze
choslovakia. See Story this
Page.
IN THE sacrament of Holy
Orders, there are seven steps:
four minor orders (porter, lec
tor, exorcist and acolyte) and
three major orders (subdea
con, deacon and priest). In the
early church, the diaconatewas
an order to which a man could
aspire without intending to go on
to the priesthood. St. Francis of
Assisi, for example, was a dea
con but never a priest. But, in
relatively recent Church legis
lation, the diaconate has been
restricted only to those who in
tend to be priests.
This is a disciplinary mea
sure, he said, first of all, which
has no place in a dogmatic con
stitution, There is even some
doubt, he added, as to whether
it should be discussed at all.
With the passage of time, the
diaconate as a stable rank in
the hierarchy has become ob
solete and for this reason no
steps should be taken to re
store it to its previous form
without careful consideration
of the reasons which led to the
original change.
In recent years, some here
asked that the permanent sta
tus of diaconate be restored.
THE CARDINAL noted what
he considers practical difficul
ties which stand in the way of
restoring the permanent dip-
conate.
in the men of goodwill who lead
holy lives according to their
convictions.
"We will not attribute bad
faith to those who differ from
us/
The cardinal said the most
challenging problem of the ecu
menical movement "is the dis
covery of that union which
Christ wills and which He gave
to His Church. It is generally
agreed and, especially in re
cent years, has often been stated
in the World Council of
Churches that this union is
something beyond that which is
now had by all who believe in
Christ as God and Saviour. In
other words, it is Just not an
invisible union but one which is
manifested in the Visible
Church."
POPE PAUL VI took time off from the cares of the Second
Vatican Council to hold a special audience in the courtyard of
St. Damasus, where 250 polio victims, some in wheelchairs,
on stretchers and on foot gathered for his blessing. The Holy
Father is shown here as he caresses the head of a polio-stricken
girl held in the arms bi her lather.
AGREEMENT HINTED
Archbishop And Bishops
Released By Czech Reds
VATICAN CITY (NC) —Arch
bishop Josef Beran of Prague
has been released after 14 years
of arrest under the communists,
along with four other bishops
of Czechoslovakia, the Vatican
nr*««i office haa announced.
Almost simultaneously with
the Vatican announcement came
a similar announcement from
the communist government of
Czechoslovakia. The chief dif
ference between the two com-
mitnintON wan that fho Rod re
gime referred to "theex-Arch-
bishop of Prague."
Archbishop 9 s Text
On Mariology
COMMUNIST POLICE in
Prague arrested Archbishop
Beran on June 19, 1949, one day
after he had publicly vowed he
would "never conclude an
agreement dial injures the
rights of the Church and of its
bishops." Detained at first in
his official residence in Prague,
he was later moved from place
to place in an effort to keep his
whereabouts unknown.
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
Managing Editor
Last week the Associated Press released
a story from Rome concerning a statement
by Archbishop Paul J, Hallinan on the place
of Mary, the Mother of Christ, in the vene
ration of the faithful.
Neither the Vatican com
munique nor the Czechoslovak
one gave any indication of why
the five bishops had been re
leased. But observers here
took the fact that the commu
niques were virtually simulta
neous to mean that some agree
ment had been reached between
the Holy See and the govern
ment of Czechoslovakia.
Several newspapers, in reporting the
story, used headlines or lead paragraphs
suggesting that the Archbishop attacked so-
called “excessive Mariology ’, and that he
was urging the downgrading of the Blessed
Mother in the life of the Church.
DESPITE AN initial report
that the prelates were already
in Rome when their release
was revealed, there was no word
in either communique as to
where they were staying or
whether they would be leaving
Czechoslovakia shortly.
We have received the text of the state
ment issued by Archbishop Hallinan. Since
it conforms to traditional Catholic teaching
about the Blessed Virgin Mary, newspaper
reports implying such downgrading are in
error. Archbishop Hallinan*s statement fol
lows;
“If our Lord Jesus Christ is kept in the
center of the Christian life of prayer and
worship, all other elements appear in their
proper place. Surely the place of his mother,
Mary, was made clear by Christ himself at
the wedding feast of Cana, and at Calvary
by Mary herself, and should be clear to all
of us. Because she is the Mother of Christ,
she has the claim upon our filial love and
our proper veneration. But to attempt to cen
ter our religion in Mary, to exaggerate her
cult, to multiply her devotion in such a way
that Christ is obscured or forgotten would be
blasphemy to the Son, and embarrassment to
the memory of the mother, and a pathetic
deviation on the part of those baptized in
Christ.”
The communist communique
specified that Archbishop Ber
an and Bishop Karel Skoupy
of Brno had been "freed to
day (October 3) from intern
ment.*’ It said on the other
hand that Bishops Jan Vojtassak
of Spis, former Auxiliary Bis
hop Stanislav Zela of Olomouc,
and Bishop Ladislav Hlad—who
was consecrated secretly in
1950 and whose assignment has
not been revealed—were all
"freed at the same time thanks
to an amnesty granted by the
President of the Republic
(Antonin Novotny)."
Archbishop Beran, now 74,
has been Archbishop of Prague
since 1946. His arrest by the
communist regime inl949came
four years after he had been
liberated by the U. S. Army—-
along with the other prisoners
—from nazi Germany's infam
ous concentration camp at Da
chau. He had been a nazi pri
soner for three years.
BISHOP SKOUPY of Brno,
in Moravia, is 76. He was
arrested in 1953.
AWAITS POPE’S NOD
Fathers Vote
Vernacular
For Masses
VATICAN CITY (NC)— The
Council Fathers voted over
whelmingly on Wednesday to
incorporate the vernacular (la
nguage of the country) In many
parts of the Mass. This would
still require the approval of the
Pope.
Ballots were also cast on the
amendments to the liturgy sch-
ma "On the Nature of the Ch-
vernacular. It therefore pref
erred to adopt a middle-of-the-
road position to insure that no
particular group would be able
to Impose its views on the oth
ers in a body of universal leg
islation. For this reason, the
amendments provide for vary
ing practices in different local
ities, always under the control
of competent ecclesiastical aut
hority.
urch" was conducted sim
ultaneously. Thus two separate
currents were going in the coun
cil hall at the same time:
silent decision on one and liv
ely discussion on the other.
The first five of 19 amend
ments to the second chapter on
the liturgy schema were pas
sed by an overwhelming majo
rity. Voting on the remaining
amendments was to continue in
the following days. It was anti
cipated that the entire second
chapter would be completed be
fore October 11.
Regarding receiving Com
munion under two species, he
said, the mind of the commis
sion under two species, he said,
the mind of the commission
again was to avoid any univer
sally binding regulations, but to
allow an elasticity of practice.
Discussion of the schema on
the Church continued while vot
ing was in progress.
Bishop’s
The five amendments passed
were briefly summarized as
follows:
Function
• A new Introductory para
graph was given to the second
chapter of the schema expla
ining the Mass as the Euchar
istic Sacrifice entrusted to the
Church by Christ as the memo
rial of His Death and Resurre
ction, as the sign of unity and
as the Paschal Banquet.
ROME (NC) —A noted French
theologian said here that the
question of the collegiality of
the bishops, one of the chief
problems facing the ecumenical
council's second session, has
only recently come under close
theological scrutiny.
• An addition to the text was
proposed to the effect that the
revision of the rite of the Mass
should keep in mind especially
those of the Sunday and feast-
day Masses in which the great
er number of the faithful parti
cipate.
Father Yves Congar, O. P.,
said that, as a result, "many
questions are not ripe in many
minds, many ideas are not ex
act."
HE SAID THAT before the
end of October there would be
a "confrontation’’ on the quest
ion within the council hall. He
spoke at the council documen
tation center.
• More directives for
the change of die Mass text and
rite were proposed which would
give greater simplicity to the
Mass and omit certain duplica
tions and additions which have
been added to the Mass in the
course of history but which are
now considered less useful.
The question of collegiality—
the position and authority of
all the world’s bishops when
considered as a body succeed
ing the college of the Apostles
—arises in the council's
schema, or draft declaration,
"On the Nature of the Church,"
which is now before the coun
cil.
One report stated that: die
commission had been confron
ted with a wide variety of re
commendations on the use of the
FATHER CONGAR said that
the very word "collegiality*'
was not used among modern
Catholic theologians until about
10 years ago.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
A LIVING ROSARY was presented by the School of Nursing,
St. Joseph’s Infirmary, Atlanta on Oct. 3. The tableau con
sisted of the nuns of the faculty, forming the cross, and the
student nurses, forming the circle. Sponsor was the St. Jo
seph’s Infirmary Sodality'.