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THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 3
SURVEY SHOWS
I'KAISKS NATION'S WAK DEAD—The Archbishop of New York, Francis Cardinal
Spellman, who is also Military Vicar of the U. S. armed forces places a wreath before
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National Military Cemetery in Arlington, Va„
May 10. He previously presided at a Solemn High Mass in the amphitheater there, and
in his sermon praised the nation's heroic war dead. The occasion marked the religious
observance of the centennial of the founding of the cemetery, in May 1864.
How To Understand
Liturgical Changes
BY ARCHBISHOP PAUL J. HALLINAN
This is the first of a scries of seven articles
written by the Archbishop to assist the people
of the Archdiocese of Atlanta in an understand
ing of the fuller worship in which they have
been called to participate,
I, An Invitation on Sunday
Most of us are not really at home with abstrac
tions, Although they are needed in theology, the
Church is constantly translating them into
realities; mediation becomes our parish priests
at the altar or in the confessional; transubstantla-
tlon becomes the host which we receive, and so
on.
Now, in our time, the Church is undergoing
a renewal of her public worship. Some critics
will see it all as a noisy disturbance; others as
a gimmick to arouse curiosity; still others as a
gesture to Protestants, To explain why parts of
the Mass will be in English, why the people's
part is being stressed, why other changes are
coming, the Fathers of Vatican II made several
points clear;
''Christ’s faithful should . . . through a good
understanding of the rites and prayers, take
part in the sacred action conscious of what they
are doing with devotion and full collaboration.”
"This full and active participation By all the
people is the aim to be considered beforTIir
But have not our parents and grandparents,
(and we ourselves) understood, collaborated
and participated? Many have, but they have
not Been encouraged by the Latin tongue, enforc
ed silence and stiffness, the arrangement of the
altar, the time given to parish announcements,
if they remained, in the critical words of a re
cent pope, "mute spectators,” the fault was not
theirs. And if they turned to “side-devotions,”
novenas, and the like, it was because they were
more interesting.'* Good sermons have never
lost their power; personal silent prayer is still
the staple of most sincere Christian lives. The
Sunday Mass, however, too often has become
only an obligation, an interruption and a for
mality.
Let us think of it as an invitation. Our Lord
wants us to be there. We take part as vital mem
bers of His mystical body, while He worships
the Father as His Son and as our Head. When we
say, "Holy, Holy, Holy” at the Sanctus, we are
saying it with Christ. And in thlfactof the public
worshipping community, we offer ourselves for
sanctification — we need to grow in that hol
iness, These certainly are no abstractions.
The parking of cars, the Sunday splitting up of
families, the speed of our lives are all part of
modern living. But we can respond wholehearted
ly to the meaning of Christ’s invitation — if
we really want to. Many parents already explain
the Mass to children in advance— it is a meal
with Our Lord; an opportunity to praise Cod
A year of participation in Latin has prepared us
for the new English prayers, More instruction
and practice are needed now.
Meanwhile the invitation still stands— to Join
with Christ. The Sabbath in the Old Testament
was "a day of delight” (Isalas), a feast of the
home and family, until the Pharisees (and,
in later centuries, the Calvinists and Puritans)
turned it into a nightmare of blue-laws and legal
rigor. Christ protested all that, and His Church
made Sunday the "holy day” of mercy and liberty,
the day of living contact with the risen Christ,
You are invited, with your family, neighbors
and friends, to Sunday's Mass, If you understand
it and take full and active part in it, your lives will
be enriched. The blessings of the Mass do not stop,
as you leave the church— they are renewed in
everything you do.
The Church, in Christ’s name, is inviting us to
full active worship. Can we decline?
■m
‘TIME TO ACT•
Cardinal Backs Rights Bill
BOSTON (NC) — Laws are
needed to protect the rights of
Negroes, Richard Cardinal
Cushing asserted here as he ad
vocated passage of the civil
*M| IN SUCTIO^CAU,. 2j^-3QjQ
rights bill now being debated in
the U, S, Senate.
In a statement (May 17) for
guidance of his people, the Car
dinal branded racial discrimina
tion as “an evil of enormous
dimensions.” He called on all
segments of society, particu
larly on the clergy, employers,
landlords and educators, to co-
Elects Atlantan
Mr, Thomas E. Medcalf, son
of Mr, and Mrs, J. L. Medcalf
of 530 Ponce de Leon Pi., De
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ed to the Board of Directors of
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nard College, St. Bernard, Ala.
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operate in securing racial jus
tice.
“ALL HAVE something to
give in the solution of this prob
lem. When each does his part it
can be easy,” the Cardinal said.
Commenting on the lengthy
debate of civil rights legisla
tion in the U.S, Senate, the Car
dinal said no law ever should be
passed without discussion, but
there also is a time to end dis
cussion, there is a time to act.
“IF WE must delay so long
over a law that only reaffirms
our nation's basic premise—
that 'all men are created equal'
—surely there is a fatal sick
ness among us. The enactment
can be the first step in restor
ing our national health,” the
Cardinal said.
Legislation alone is not the
answer to the problem—there
must be cooperation for racial
Justice on all levels of society,
the Cardinal said,
MASSACHUSETTS laws on
civil rights, he said, are "mod-
sis of their kind” but condi
tions in Massachusetts for Ne
groes remain very far from
ideal. The Cardinal observed;
“Our Negro population is large
ly confined to ghetto areas.”
“I call this city and its citi
zens to Justice,” the Cardinal
said, "I call them to change
their hearts and to raise their
hands before the evils that we
are tolerating,”
Christian* Jewish Dialogue Developing
BY RELIGIGUS NEWS SERVICE
The past several months have
seen a widespread, intimate and
•soul - searching confrontation
taking place between Christians
and Jews, with both sides urged
to speak “honestly to each oth
er" in order to rid themselves
of "burdens that have hinder
ed our relationship.”
Possibly at no time has so
much attention been centered
on the need for Jews and Chris
tians to come face to face as
brothers, each entitled to his
own special dignity, and both
respectful of the other’s free
dom of conscience.
NOR HAS there been so much
practical evidence of the will
ingness on the part both of
Protestant and Roman Catho
lic churchmen and rabbis on
national and local levels to join
together to explore — in the
words of one Jewish leader —
“opportunities to improve this
world and be a light unto the
nations,”
Two events — one yet to
come, the other already an out
standing entry in the religious
diary of 1964 — have provided
strong points of Interest as
efforts continue to create new
patterns of mutual Chrlstlan-
Jewish friendship and under
standing.
SEPTEMBER will see the
opening of the third session of
the Second Vatican Council from
which, it is confidently predict
ed, will come an historic dec
laration on Catholic-Jewlsh re
lations that will constitute a
ringing denunciation of anti-
Semitism in all its forms and
stress mankind’s, not the Jew
ish people's, guilt in the Cruci
fixion of Christ.
Meanwhile, in the United
States, Protestants, Catholics
and Jews are each engaged in
fine-combing their religious
textbooks to eliminate whatever
is found to be “negative and
distorted” about those of other
faiths, This is being done in
the same ecumenical spirit that
prompted two Popes — Pius XII
and John XXIII — to eliminate
from the Good Friday liturgy
phrases deemed offensive to
Jews.
THE SPOTLIGHT has also
been on the little market down
town of Logumkloster in South
Jutland, Denmark, where some
40 Lutheran scholars wound up
a week-long consultation —
sponsored by the Lutheran
World Federation —by pledging
to work toward overcoming an
ti-Semitism and reconciling
Christians and Jews.
The participants — repre
senting 14 countries — urged
congregations ' 'to know and love
their Jewish neighbors as them
selves; to develop mutual un
derstanding and to make com
mon cause with the Jewish peo
ple in matters of spiritual and
social concern, especially in
fostering human rights.”
Several cardinals, archbis
hops and bishops have publicly
expressed their confidence that
the Second Vatican Council at
its next session will approve the
chapters on anti-Semitism and
religious liberty which are part
of a comprehensive schema on
ecumenism.
Among them are Augustin
Cardinal Bea, president of the
Vatican Secretariat for Pro
moting Christian Unity; Franz
Cardinal Koenig, Archbishop of
Vienna, who returned home re
cently after a visit to the United
States; and Richard Cardinal
ON BLUE WAVE—Organiz*
lng, among other things,
radio classes that begin at
4:30 a.m. and continue
throughout the day is Father
Robert Kearns, M.M., for
merly of the Bronx, N.Y.,
and now of the Blue Wave
radio school in Puno, in the
mountains of interior Peru.
Cushing, Archbishop of Bos
ton.
#
OTHERS were Archbishop
John J. Krol of Philadelphia,
Archbishop Lawrence J. She-
han of Philadelphia; Archbis
hop William E. Cousins of Mil
waukee; and Bishop James A.
McNulty of Buffalo.
All agreed that it was a
blessing in disguise that the
Council’s second session end
ed without any vote being taken
on the two chapters, because
they have now been greatly
strengthened.
In a talk in April at the Tem
ple Sinai in Marblehead, Mass.,
Cardinal Cushing, who has
spoken before numerous non-
Catholic bodies in recent
months, asked his Jewish au
dience to "pray for the two
statements.” Regarding the
statement on anti-Semitism, he
said he hoped it would hold
"everyone who ever sinned...
responsible for the death of
Christ.”
“Charges of 'Christ killers’
leveled against Jews over the
centuries are absolutely and
totally a colossal lie” he said,
adding that “in the name of two
million Catholics of Boston, I
repent for any injustice, in any
form whatever, that Catholics
may have ever committeed
against the Jewish people.”
EARLIER, Archbishop Krol
had said, in a talk to some 500
Jewish leaders in Philadelphia:
“In recent years some have
distorted the Gospel account of
the Crucifixion, and used the
distortion as a pretext for per
secuting the Jews...The New
Testament provides no basis
for hate or antl-Jewlsh feel
ing.”
In an address this week at
the 28th Boston Archdiocesan
Congress of the League of Cath
olic Women, a noted ecumenical
leader presented a summary of
the chapter on the Jews, noting
that a translation had been pub
lished by several newspapers,
.even though the rules of the
Vatican Council Insist that any
‘ schema under discussion re
main confidential.
The speaker was Msgr. John
M. Oesterreicher, director of
the Institute of Judeao-Chrls-
tlan Studies at Seton Hall Uni
versity in Newark, N.J. He
said the chapter acknowledges
that the roots of the Church
are in the Israel of old, and that
it is unjust to consider Jews
as “an accursed race,” as
Christians have often done.
H E SAID the chapter goes on
to declare that “as the Church
unyieldingly rejects Injustices
committed against any man,
any community, any nation, any
where, so she laments and con
demns the abuse and persecu
tion suffered by the Jews in
the past as well as in our own
time.”
The chapter concludes, Msgr.
Oesterreicher added, by sug
gesting theological studies and
brotherly colloquies between
Christians and Jews so as to
further mutual knowledge and
esteem. It suggests, he said,
research and dialogue “be
cause of the marvelous heritage
Synagogue and Church have in
common.”
In essence, the chapter re
flects the statement adopted
by the Lutheran scholars at
Logumkloster, who met under
the chairmanship of Bishop
Heinrich Meyer of Luebeck,
Germany.
Anti-Semitism, it declared,
is not only a “denial of the dig
nity and equality of men,” but
is “primarily a denial of the
image of God in the Jew;| a dem
onic form of rebellion against
the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, and a rejection of Jesus
the Jew directed upon His peo
ple.”
(The statement paralleled a
resolution unanimously approv
ed by the World Council of
Churches' Third Assembly in
1961 which denounced anti-
Semitism as a “sin against God
and man” and urged member
denominations to "do all in
their power to res 1st every form
of anti-Semitism.”)
THE LOGUMKLOSTER doc
ument went on strongly to en
dorse “dialogues” with Jews,
stressing that this "presuppos
es the existence of common
ground as well as differences.”
It said these conversations
should aim at understanding
rather than conversion and
should not be "aimless exercis
es which do not dealwithfunda-
mental beliefs and problems.”
At the same time, however,
the Lutheran scholars agreed
that Christians must continue
missions activity because of
their belief in the uniqueness
and centrality of Jesus Christ
and that to exclude as a matter
of policy any person or group
from the Christian witness to
this belief would be discrimi
natory.
On this point, Bishop Meyer
stated that anyone who thinks
that Lutheran missions engage
in a “Christian witness” that
violates the personality or the
freedom of another person,
treating him simply as an ob
ject of conversion, is dealing
with a “caricature.”
That the fight against anti-
Semitism is far from won was
indicated meanwhile when dele
gates from seven European
countries, gathered at Flo
rence, Italy, for the annual
meeting of the International
Consultative Committee of Or
ganizations for Christian-Jew-
ish Cooperation, heard reports
of what remains to be done in
Europe.
ONE EXAMPLE: The dele
gates from Germany, where 38
of the approximately 62 chap
ters of the committee are found,
reported that a growing number
of books appeared last year in
that country praising Hitler,
and right-wing and nationalist
papers rife with anti-Semitic
views have increased in cir
culation.
One of the bright spots of the
meeting was an address by May
or Giorgio La Pira of Florence,
a renowned Catholic layman,
who declared that “the winter
in Jewish-Christian relations
is past. Now the spring is come,
We must find ways to abolish
hate and live together as broth
ers in the world.”
Confirming the mayor’s be
lief in the new "spring” in
Christian - Jewish relations
have been a number of recent
developments in this country
and abroad.
In New York, Francis Car
dinal Spellman, addressing the
American Jewish Committee,
declared that anti-Semitism
“can never find a basis in the
Catholic religion.”
SPEAKING in New Orleans,
La., at the first Catholic-Jew-
isK symposium on understand
ing held in the South, Father
Thurston N. Davis, S.J., editor-
in-chief of ^An\epica, national
Catholic weekly, said that
though there are differences in
belief, there exists a kinship
between Catholics and Jews that
derives from the antiquity of
the two faiths and "the worship
of the one true God.”
In Argentina, for the first
time in the history of the Ca
tholic Church there, a rabbi
was present at the consecration
of a bishop. Attending the con
secration of Bishop Italo D’
Estefano as head of the new
Diocese of Saenz Pena was
Chief Rabbi William Schlesin-
ger of Argentina.
In Vatican City, Pope Paul
VI, receiving a delegation of
U.S. Jewish leaders, expressed
pleasure at the growing “cor
dial relationship and construc
tive cooperation between Ca
tholics and Jews” and hoped
that these would "continue to
advance both in spiritual and
temporal matters.”
IN BROOKLYN, N.Y., some
50 seniors in a Catholic high
school were led in prayer by an
Orthodox rabbi, as part of a
three-day interreligious semi
nar sponsored by the school.
Finally, in London, Catholic
Archbishop John C, Hjenan be
came" the first head of the West
minister See to address a mcet-
in of the British Council of
Christian and Jews in ten years.
Referring to the wtth-drawal of
Catholic participation in the
organization in 1954, he said
this had been done reluctantly
and was based on a “misunder
standing,”
In Lo.ndonalso, Rabbi Herman
S, Stern, acting senior spiritual
leader at a Liberal synagogue,
created what was believed to be
an interreligious “first'' by
preaching on Easter Sunday
night before an all-Christian
congregation.
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