The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, October 17, 1963, Image 4

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The Georgia bulletin, October 17, 1963, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17 t 1963 the Archdiocese of Atlanta GEORGIA BULLETIN SERVING GEORGIA S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published Every Week at the Decatur Dekalb News PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan a. **7sT** MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan 2699 Peachtree N.E, P.O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta 5, Ga. Member of the Catholic Press Association nd Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga. U.S.A. 55.00 Canada 55.50 Foreign 56.50 Honest Voices The hazards are great in pub lication of any newspaper in these days of greater freedom of the press. The difficulties are com pounded in a Catholic newspaper, for this freedom has a deeper meaning for us, and carries with it added responsibility. If truth is the lodestar of all our act ions, then we must be extra care ful that we use this freedom with both prudence and charity. We are forcibly reminded of this in the recent publication of a cartoon on the RomanCuria. Thr ough a syndication, for which we have no responsibility, the car toon was inserted in our editor- ical page. It was a mechanical, not an editorial, error. We found it most offensive, and in extre mely bad taste. We wish it had not appeared. Our reasons are quite simple: One may wish to disagree with some decisions of the Roman Curia, and this August body is Catholic enough to accept it in the spirit of charity and under standing, However, the bond of charity which unites the Curia and the faithful carries with it the demands of natural respect and a recognition: of the es sential role of the Curia as the Guardian of the Divine Deposit. To emphasize this, we can only refer to the Holy Father’s recent address to Curia members. Pope Paul said he had a three-fold purpose in gathering these offi cials around him; “to praise you, to bring you peace, and to exhort you. ‘Praise is, infact, owed to the faithful, competent, devoted ser vice that you render the Holy See and the Pope, and therefore, to the entire Catholic Church as well. . Pope Paul also told the Curia that it “has no need to defend itself by making itself deaf to suggestions that come to it from honest voices, especially if these voices are those of friends and brothers. To accusations, so of ten groundless, it will reply; it will defend its honor; but without stubborness, without hurling back charges, without polemics.’ We trust that at all times the Catholic press will be portrayed, through its actions , as one of these “honest voices,” So, too, we wish to treat all as friends and brothers. In viewing the mis takes of others, we must take care to admit our own (however uni ntentional) lapses of charity--in words or illustration. GERARD E. SHERRY Doctrinaire Position In the above editorial we have spoken of hazards, even in the Catholic press. One of the great est we have found is in relation to the right of dissent. Outside of faith and morals, the Popes have laid down that there is a vast area in which Catholics can disagree with each other as long as such disagreements are tempered by competence, sin cerity, and charity. We have a deep-seated suspic ion of any doctrinaire position. The doctrinaire Conservative, who refuses to entertain any new idea or any newapproach just be cause it's new, is no worse than the doctrinaire Liberal, who wants to change everything for the sake of change, and attacks every Conservative position simply be cause it is conservative. In this regard, there is too much excoriating going on be tween Catholics, So much so that honest men are being pil loried for no other reason than “Here comes instant trouble!” they hold a dissenting view. The current political extremist attack on some Catholic leaders and editors is a case in point. It has resulted in an emotional out burst of un-Catholic utterances, and abusive letters to editors who dare to “rock boats”, or who re fuse to accept the status quo. These extremists send copies of their letters to high Church offi cials hoping to embarrass, or have silenced, anyone who disa grees with them. What is most amazing is that, in some Church circles, the extremists have a most sympathetic hearing; where as those they pillory are denied the elementary courtesy of re- luttal. Extremists’ letters cer tainly have nuisance value, be sides sowing the needs of distrust and disunity. The call to renewal made by the late lamented Pope John XXIII is exemplified in the cur rent discussions of the Council Fathers in Rome. Many bishops, priests, and laymen, including Catholic editors, are attempting to conserve basic immutable truths by searching forever new ways of bringing them to bear on the life of modern society. They are ever working for a better un derstanding of eternal truths, trying to conserve the essential by re-enfleshing it in the ever- changing language of the present. One may want to call them Con servative or Liberal --it really does not matter. What is im portant is that they should be able to get on with their job with out having their integrity as Ca tholics challenged by people whose motives and competence are, to say the least, suspect. GERARD E. SHERRY AT COUNCIL Better Press Coverage BY GERARD E. SHERRY One thing can be said about the Second Ses sion of the Vatican Council it does not lack adequate press coverage. The same situation pre vailed at the first session, but there is a difference this time. There was very little hard news com ing out of the last Council Session. Much of what we did have to report was garnered and sifted through the intermingling of fact and ru mor. The spate of books which resulted from the first session came about mainly because of in adequate information from official sources. That these books have been severely cri ticized in Rome came as no surprise: for the authors had to rely upon second hand information or unquotable sources. The fault lay in the arrangements made for the press, not in the dissemination of the subsequent infor mation from Rome’s rumor-factories. Inqeed, this became one of the Eternal City's most flour ishing businesses. THE RELIGIOUS PRESS, as well as the se- cular press, can no longer, however, claim tha the Council’s seal of secrecy hinders the right c the faithful and the rest of the world to knov The secrecy is still there; but what can be td is being told, and the world of the Church ben- fits from it. REAPINGS AT * 4 RANDOM FAR-REACHING Council’s Pastoral Role BY REV. LEONARD F.X. MAYHEW A dispatch from Rome, carried in the secu lar press, emphasizes the pastoral character of the Council. The bishops are voting on various amendments to the schema on the Liturgy, while they continue to consider the treatise on the st ructure of the Church, which will ilndubitably prove to be the most far-reaching and influen tial statement to emerge from the Council. Among the prescriptions on the liturgy, several will apparently deal with the simplification of the ritual and the encouragement of active partici pation by the laity. It seems sure that some use of the vernacular will be permitted at the discretion of regional conferences of bishops. One decree will lay strong stress on the im portance of preaching at all Sunday Masses. The preferred norm for the sermon is to be the liturgical context of the Mass itself, particular ly the Scriptural readings and selections appo inted for the day. IT WAS the genius of John XXIII that created and preser ved the pastoral flavor of the Vatican Council. As the outlines of the Liturgy decrees emerge, it seems clear that the Coun cil Fathers intend to carry this impetus to its logical conclus ion, the application of the new spirit of the Church to the life of the parishes. The parish is, after all, the organizational building block out of which, from one point of view, the Church is constructed. For the vast majority of Catholics the parish is the front line of the Church’s apostolate, the normal medium through which its sacramental, instructional and governing funct ions operate. Like almost everything else not of immedi ate divine institution in the Church, the parish has been the subject of a good deal of self- criticism in the past few years. On the Ameri can scene increasing urbanization, the mushroom ing of the subrbs, geographic and social mobi lity and dozens of other factors have created problems limiting the efficient operation of par ish life. The benign clericalism of the past has been demostrated to be deficient in adapting it self to rapid change. The newly awakened needs of a more sophisticated laity have been largely left unsatisfied. The criticism, if somewhat one sided, has broad justification. It may, however, be more fruitful - and more in the spirit of renewal - to concentrate on the basic nature of the parish and its potential rather than to remain purely negative. THE GUIDE lines for parochial renewal may well be contained in the liturgical decrees of the Vatican Council. The parish after all, in its most fundamental operation, is a liturgical community. Its basic reason for being is for public worship. If the ritual reform envisioned by the Council is able to spark an honest real ization of the implications of liturgical activity, then the parish will develop into a real, rather than merely a legal, community. If pastors and people are able to carry the spirit of the lit— rugical renewal into all the phases of parish life, there will undoubtedly need to be some drastic re-organization and change. The end re sult ought to be that the parish will not only reflect the visible organization of the Church but also the interior vitality of the Mystical Body worshipping, believing, teaching and loving in true oneness. That celebrated word, made pertinent by he late lamented Pope John XX III, “aggiornamen)", has extended also to the press. There is,'ln- deed, “renewal" in Council coverage. Wecan thank Archbishop Martin J. O'Connor, rectr of the North American College, as the prelate ppo- inted by Pope Paul to supervise press arrnge- ments. We can also thank some members f the American Hierarchy who realized that the Wrld's press had justifiable complaints about arange- ments during the first session. WE CAN THANK, too, Xavier Rynne (wbever he might be) and Robert Kaiser, whose books on the Council Session drew such criticisn from persons within high places within the Ihurch. One American bishop, writing tomeafterheCat- V » • holic Press Association had awarded agitation to the New Yorker for the best secular cover age of last year's Council Session, charged that the Xavier Rynne articles were a collection of halftruths and full of disrespect to several mem bers of the Vatican Curia. I replied that if what the bishop said was true, Xavier Rynne was only partly to blames Inade quate press briefings had led reporters to seek information wherever they could find it Hence, the Vatican itself would have to assume some of the blame for the alleged rumors and half- truths being spread around in the press of the world. I pointed out that whenever the press was treated in a responsible manner and given access to information (other than classified) it nearly always acted in a responsible manner. LITURGICAL WEEK Emphasis On Time BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA bering Sion" (Offertory Hymn). THE IMPROVEMENT in the current session's press arrangements has made it possible for the readers of the Catholic press to enjoy inter views with many of the leading Council Father who are unburdening themselves in a most op-n manner. So, too, our own Catholic NC Ne^s Service is providing more documentation and x * plantion of the daily happenings which affct, not only Catholics, but also our separated fc*et- hern. OCTOBER 20, TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. Note the emphasis on time in both scripture readings of today's Mass. The Gospel makes much of the hour of Jesus’ assurance to the nobleman and the First Reading implies that time is even more important than money. In the value system created and nourished by the Liturgy—the Church’s public worship—time means simply man's meeting Christ and man's growth in Christ. Time means a progressive di- vinization of man through the * 'putting-on’’ of Christ, through “meetings" with the mystery of Christ as our human form and prototype—once in Baptism, repeatedly in the Eucharist, annually in the feasts and seasons of the liturgical year. As we gather around the altar today for our celebration of God’s Word in lesson and in sign, we affirm our Christian belief that all time finds here its focus and its meaning. MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, MAS AS ON SUNDAY. The Christian does not believe that his public worship is the only bit of time worth the doing or the living. He,does believe that the liturgy is the means by which all the rest of his week and year and life can be also a "put- ting-on" of Christ. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, MASS AS ON SUN DAY. "You must grasp what the Lord’s will is for you" (First Reading). It is in grasping this will of God, this vocation, this sense of mission, that all time is drawn together at the altar and all action gathered together in the deed of Christ there celebrated. Then we can indeed "give thanks continually" (First Reading), not by for ever “making intentions" but by recognizing sim ply the unity of human life. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, ST. ANTHONY MARY CLARET, CONFESSOR. The "confessor" in the Church is one who has manifested this integrity in his concrete daily life. When we celebrate Mass in honor of such a one, the texts always speak of good example, of witness, of a spirit of watchfulness and readiness. We who are the Church know what a power and inspiration such a life can be for the whole community. We know to what extend we need each other’s help. We know we must be Christ to one another, even as we see Him in one another. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, ST. RAPHAEL, ARCHANGEL. Those familiar “prefaces" which introduce the great prayer of the Mass sing our praise and joy in the fact that in our sacramental worship time is caught up into eternity . We trans cend ourselves because Christ joins us to His eternal worship of the Father and a spirit world above our own is present, too. The person for whom Baptism and the Eucha rist are meaningful meets Christ in his neighbor, in the challenge of his work, in his family and po litical and economic life, even in his sins (con trition) and failures and misfortunes. “There by the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept, remem- Today's Mass ells us God has messengers who are not strangers to the human scene. Not only is there no iron curtain between this world and hea ven, but a mysterious commerce assures us of an ultimately clear relation between the two. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 Another by-product of better press brings has been the dissipation of reports of ^agon- ism between so - called Liberals and pnser- vati\es, Progressives and Traditionalists among the Council Fathers. It was the rumor-fcctories which attacked Cardinal Ottavianl's stard* in the Council: it was the Rome rumor-factoros which portrayed him as being against Pope fohn's call for renewal: that an injustice was cqnmit- ted against him is. only partly the fault oi news reporters. The main cause was the dea'th of authentic reporting from out of the Cowell's deliberations. IT IS OBVIOUS that we are now gettirf most of the information that can be given without compromising future actions of the Counci Fath ers. No longer do we get emotional othursts from frustrated journalists, harrassed y their home desks for even a Council rumo* To be sure, there will still be some exaggeration, some rumor, some untruth, pedaled aI authen tic. But there is no excuse for it n* w » and it can be exposed for what it is. We can b grateful to Pope Paul and Archbishop 0’Conrv r for the present happy situation.