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SENSE OF COMMUNITY
Liturgical Renewal - II
Saints in Black and White
ST. THOMAS OF VILLANOVA
117
BY REV. LEONARD F. X, MAYHEW
One of the major impressions of the St.
Louis Liturgical Week was the almost uncanny
sense of community that developed among the
thousands of participants. There were, of course,
a good number of individuals who were previously
personally acquainted. Priests, religious and
laity came in groups from various dioceses.
But the cheerful atmosphere and the obvious
spirit of camaraderie could not be accounted
for on that basis alone. It was much broader in
its inclus ion of the entire group
attending the convention. There
was no barrier because of dif
ferent origin, age, race or other
consideration. There existed a
very tangible spirit of brother
hood, of kinship that was re-
■ sill marked by everybody present.
The explanation was certainly
to be found in the common in
terest and enthusiasm for the
liturgy renewal. But, more importantly, the
genesis of this spirit was in the daily experi
ence of the common celebration of the Mass.
It was this experience that was the most instru
ctive part of the Week. This experience made real
and tangible all the theoretical-sounding princi
ples of the Constitution on Liturgy and the litera
ture which has accompanied it.
FOR ONE THING, the Masses in which we
participated were truly ''celebrations” to use the
term which the Constitution favors so frequent
ly. We did not just go to Mass,_follow_ the Lit
urgy and receive the Sacraments- we cele
brated. There was a joy and a healthy emo
tion To be felt by all as we prayed together,
sang together, learned together and, above
all, shared in the Eucharistic meal very much
conscious of each other.
The second root of our experience was the
deliberately encouraged sense of the litirgical
actions as "signs of faith”, to use another
much favored expression of the Liturgy Constitu
tion. The Council has reminded the Church of the
traditional understanding of the Sacraments,
especially the Eucharist, as operative signs. Too
much, since the Protestant Reformation, we have
emphasized the almost mechanic effectiveness of
the Mass and Sacraments to the detriment of their
sign-value, their significance. The Second Vatican
Council brings us back to a consideration we have
neglected to our own cost: "Because they are
signs, the sacraments also instruct. They not
only presuppose faith, but by words and ob
jects they also nourish, strengthen, and —
express it; that is why they are called sacra
ments (i. e. signs) of faith.”
WHAT WE actually experienced in St. Louis
was the truth of the abstractions we had long
ago learned (or memorized). It is one thing to
know that the Eucharist is a common meal,
that the Mass is the action of the entire Church,
that Penance, Baptism and Confirmation are
personal encounters with the personal action of
Christ. It is quite another thing to realize this
deep within oneself, within one’s own experience.
The outward actions and words of these Sacra
ments are, by Christ’s design, signs. They are
supposed to communicate the significance, the
meaning of the Sacrament to the recipient and to
the community. In the common experience of
common learning and prayer, spoken and sung,
the individual is to be nourished and the com
munity, in a sense, created and strengthened.
In the minds of all, this was the most important
thing we took from the Week in St. Louis.
It was also an answer to the urgent need of
our parishes to be honestly realized communi
ties which appeal to the personal involvement of
all their members. If 16,000 relative strangers
could create, through the instrumentality of the
liturgy, a community of common interest and
love, then the same thing is possible in our par
ishes. The liturgy can be celebrated, not just
as a clerical function, but as a common
experience by a people, a community. We are look
ing forward to praying, singing and learning
in our own language. This will add some of the
immediacy we need to the signs of our worship
and sanctification. To quote Father Godfrey Diek-
mann; "May we learn to use well the gift
already received, in order that, please God, we
may not have long to wait before the chief word
of faith (in the Eucharist Canon of the Mass),
a comprehensible fulness of the comprehensive
sign of our salvation, may likewise be grant
ed us.”
QVESTION BOX
Mary As Mediatrix?
BY MSGR. J. D. CONWAY
Q. I have been a Catholic for some fifty
years now and I can honestly say that until
the Marian year, and after, I had not heard of
Mary as the mediatrix of all grace. 1 don’t
believe this. Does this make me a Protestant?
A. No, you are still a Catholic; it has never
been defined as doctrine that Mary is the medi
atrix of all graces. I had never heard of this
teaching until I went to the seminary; and 1
imagine many of our fellow Catholics are still
unaware of it. However, it is now quite gene
rally taught by theologians in one form or another.
I find it difficult to explain.
One devout lady recently wrote me an expla
nation which went something like this (unfor
tunately 1 cannot now find the letter); We pray
for something; Jesus hears us, and lets Mary
know about it; then Mary prays,
and her Son grants the favor.
I am quite sure that things are
not that complicated in heaven,
and that Jesus does not make
His good Mother work so hard,
day and night. After all there
must be more than a billion
prayers a day waiting towards
heaven, and Mary with all her
graces and glories is only a
human being by nature.
Neither is Mary a mediatrix in the sense
that her Son is Mediator. He alone forms a link
between God and man, sharing both natures, bring
ing God to us and leading us to God. It is only
through Him that our sins are forgiven, only
through Him that we share the same heavenly
Father.
But Mary is often called our co-redeemer,
because of the vital indeed, essential- part
she had in God’s plan for our redemption. God
waited for her consent before making His Son
incarnate. Mary’s "Be it done to me according
to Thy will” was a free acceptance of Jesus as
her son, along with all th e joys and sorrows,,
sufferings and triumphs which were inseparable
from His mission on earth—and in heaven. She
even accepted us as members of His mystical
body. She became our mother, and it took a lot
of courage to accept so many delinquent chil
dren.
Her present role as mediatrix means that
her vital part in our redemption and sanctifi
cation was not confined to her life on earth,
but continues in her glorified life in heaven.
She remains His mother and our mother. Her
maternal love for us is constant; her maternal
influence with her Son is powerful.
Neither your sanctificationjiormine is an isola
ted process; it takes place in the Church; we are
taught and given example by our parents, receive
sacraments from our priests, join our brethren
in sacrifice, pray for them and ask their pray
ers. Often we ask help from our favorite saint.
It is a community project, with many media
tors in-volved. None tries to imitate the role of
Christ, the one Mediator; none stands between
us and Christ, our personal Savior. But all lead
us to Him, help us to believe in Him, love
Him and remain with Him.
Amid all these mediators Mary our Mother-
the Queen Mother of Heaven—holds highest place,
a role as essential as the one she played on earth.
We say that graces come to us through our
parents, through the priest, through the Church,
through the Communion of Saints. But above all
they come to us through Mary whose fiat— “let
it be done" set the whole process in motion.
Q. W r ho coined the expression and when was
it originated: "O death, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?” I found it in my
Old Testament in quotation marks.
A. I do not find these precise words in the
Old Testament. However, St. Paul, in I Corinth
ians 15, 55, does have them in quoting from
Osee, 13, 14, even through the words are not
precisely the same. Osee wrote: "O death, where
are thy plagues'! 0 Sheol, where is thy sting!”
In Osee you may have found these words in
quotation marks because they are threats made
by God to Israel promising destruction.
KASHMIR CONFLICT
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
treaty. Only British India was to be partition
ed. The government of each princely state was
to choose between accession to India or to Pakis
tan.
Before the Kashmir government could act,
thousands of Pakistani soldiers swarmed over
the border and occupied part of^ the state. The
Maharajah then declared Kashmir's accession to
India, a decision confirmed by th e Kashmir
National Conference representing Hindus, Mos
lems and Sikhs. India’s sovereignty over
Kashmir was subsequently recognized by the
United Nations, and this body also called on Pakis
tan to withdraw its troops from the part it had
occupied, a demand still ignored. Later, as Gan-
ghl had warned, power politics replaced merit
as the criterion, and the United nations express-
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE,5
AATIONAL NEKMM CUJBS
Convention Resolutions
Endorse Ecumenical Moves
>L.
77
vx
*7
ACROSS
1 unspoken
6 his episcopal rev
enue was spent
on
10 shed
13 flog
14 David Copperfield
character
15 personal pronoun
16 a degree
17 part of a church
19 keepers
21 bitter vetch
23 twilled fabric
25 Asiatic weight
26 ass; German
28 obstruct
30 coach
33 tapestry table
cloth
35 amateurs
37 half
38 cutter
40 chest sounds
42 hank of twine
43 well-bred
45 burdened
47 “mITcapital Is
Blsmark
48 baseball term, abbr
50 purposeful
52 degrees
54 they; French
56 approximates
68 of the nostrils
61 tropical headgear
63 bend
all
stole
artifice
Biblical country
claw
disintegrate
auction; abbr.
distressing
blade of grass
Granite State;
abbr.
entity
compact
pleased
extreme degree
clutched
rearrange
DOWN
digraph
Brazil parrot
detonators
termination
he had a great
for science
exclamation!
man’s name
food
herring
27
29
31
32
34
36
39
41
44
46
48
49
51
53
55
57
59
60
62
64
67
6
7
8
9
10 69
11 decaae 72
12 years; abbr. 74
13 pertaining to foot 76
bone 77
16 a vegetable; pi. 78
18 butterfly
20 God; (Latin) 80
22 pertaining to sepia 84
24 of an hour 86
lawful
central
sultanate
peel
sept
type of car
provoked
prickles
mendacious people
temerity
poses
political union
withered old
woman
city In Italy
he was the glory of
the
Church
towers
In a circle
to killed by mob
action
formerly Persia
correct
Charles ap
pointed him Arch-
blshoD
Roman official
entice
periods
Indite
emmet
gypsy word for
paper, book
summer (French)
Doctor’s Insignia
and (Latin)
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE ON PAGE 7
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (RNS)—
Resolutions supporting the Civil
Rights Act and the ecumenical
movement were approved here
by the National Newman Club
Federation,
Delegates expressed appre
ciation to President Johnson
and members of Congress for
passage of legislation.The res
olution said;
"As Christians we should ap
proach world peace by develop
ing in all aspects of our lives
and in society a peaceful mode
of life. As Christians we should
develop dose, continuing per
sonal relationships with indivi
duals of all races, creeds and
cultures."
THE RESOLUTION suggested
that Newman clubs, composed of
Catholic students on non-Catho-
lic campuses, should undertake
the education of persons with
discriminatory attitudes. It al
so said students should partici
pate in community development,
working in housing projects and
slum areas.
Newman clubs were urged to
educate their members in ecu
menism and to undertake ser
vice projects with Protestant
and Orthodox Christians in
areas of social action, dialogue,
liturgical experience, and unit
ed Christian witness on the
campus.
' Ecumenism involves a
searching together for unity in
the Christian faith," the reso
lution said. "Unification seems
to imply a higher synthesis of
ARNOLD VIEWING
Foreign Film Report
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
ed itself in favor of a plebiscite.
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL today is a peaceful sol
ution to enable India and Pakistan to unite against
the common enemy to the north. A plebiscite
would have the contrary effect, regardless of
outcome. It would encourage religious fanaticism
among the Kashmir Moslems whose leaders have
consistently backed a liberal secular democ
racy. Islam’s trouble everywhere today is that
moderate leaders are few and that fanaticism is
deeprooted among the illiterate masses.
As a backlash, India's political and religious
peace would be shattered. India has still nearly
forty' million Moslems, and the same logic would
start movements for cession of the territories
they inhabit. Counter-pressures would inevitably
be generated to establish Hinduism as a mark
of loyalty and to challenge the equal rights
not only of Moslems but of other religious
minorities.
Foreign movies are not quite what they used
to be. This opinion is a grim one, since it was
largely the foreign directors - the Italian neo
realists and later Bergman, the French and Brit
ish- who rescued the medium after World War
II from what seemed like permanent adoles
ce nec.
The revolutionary thing about foreign films of
1946-60 was their freedom from the commercial
values that had stultified Hollywood. They were
made for reasons other than making money:
their creators desperately
wanted to say Important Things
through the infinite possi
bilities of a 20th century art-
form. The result was a stream
of great pictures: "OpenCity,"
"Shoeshine," "Bicycle 711161,”
"La Strada,” "The Seventh
Seal,” "Wild Strawberries."
This European influx, coin
ciding with the rise of televis
ion which "stole" the mass audience, had many
effects, good and bad, on Hollywood. But it "open
ed up" the U. S. market for new and exciting
film material. Hundreds of small theaters found
they could make a profit by showing good, inex
pensive films to limited audiences.
THE SAD TRUTH, apparent in the current
industry debate over the decline of the "art”
film, is that economics have corrupted this healthy
arrangement. Costs of distribution rose. Bigger
audiences were needed to maintain profits. Big
ger audiences required juicier themes and a flat
tening out of standards. The quick-money impre-
sarlor hurried the cycle along, ignoring stand
ards and joyfully out-shocking the competition.
The effect on foreign movies has been pro
found. Compare the social and humanistic themes
of the early I950*s with the sensationalism of
even the superior films of more recent vintage
("La Dolce Vita," "The Silence"). A film needs
a highly exploitable theme not only to make a
profit, but even to find screening time in thea
ters glutted with sex products of all coun
tries. The main hope for a good director in the
1960’s is to get hold of a wild story and try to
moke something humanly valuable of it.
IT IS UNFAIR simply to blame the audience.
Human nature being what it is, sex and trivia
lity will always outdraw serious art. The real
villains are the carpetbaggers in the industry
whose desire to make more money faster has
again made it difficult for quality to pay its
own way.
the Christian churches which
would respect what is essential
to each tradition.
"The immediate goal of ecu
menical dialogue on the univer
sity campus should include unit
ed action among Protestants,
Orthodox and Catholics in an ef
fort to serve that university
world. The spirit of dialogue,’
says Pope Paul VI in his en
cyclical Ecclesiam Spam, ’is
friendship and even more, is
service.’
"HOPEFULLY this engage
ment of Christians is a common
mission to the campus would
engender at the same time a re
spect and understanding of one
another,"
Another resolution called at
tention to the problem of ob
scene literature and asserted
that the federation "must con
demn and try to remove all
pornographic literature from
newsstands."
’This must be carried out
three varying episodes, the obvious charms of
its star, Sophia Loren. (The humor depends,
once, on Miss Loren’s over-availability, sex
ually speaking, for co-star Marcello Mastroi-
anni, and twice on her seeming availability, then
unnerving withdrawal). "Mafioso,” a clever satire
on the moral cowardice of man, with no sale
able stars or provocative situations, is drawing
little attention.
"YESTERDAY" DIFFERS from current Holly
wood products only in minor respects; (1)
Its casual acceptance of the facts of life. e.g.
in one episode there is heavy emphasis on pre
gnancy- a state that American puritanical tra
dition either pretends not to exist or disguises
in fashionalable clothing. (2) The episode form
itself, currently popular abroad but never very
successful here.
The film has a slick commerical gloss, pro
vided ironically by Cesare Zavattini and Vitto
rio DeSica, the great writer-director team of the
neo-realist era ("Bicycle Thief”), and has its
memorable moments: the Neapolitans reaction
to Miss Loren’s being excused from jail because
of her "belly”, and the superb automobile pho
tography in the Milan episode- perhaps the
longest and most dazzling example of this kind
of work.
The worst sequence is the final one, in which
(among other things) prostitution is sentimenta
lized and the Hail Mary is used tastelessly as
a cue for laughter. De Sica also knows full
well that while sex may be satirized (cf. "Tom
Jones"), it is hard to muster even a chuckle
while a girl of Miss Loren’s heroic propor
tions is demonstrationg the art of striptease.
"Mafioso” combines comedy and melodrama
in tightly wrought tale about a likeable family
man (Alberto Sordi) who returns to his native
Sicily on vacation and allows himself to be used
as a killer by the Mafia. In the process direc
tor Alberto Lattuada makes almost every com
ment possible about Sicilians, from superficial
(their social backwardness and emotionality) to
profound (their perversions of the virtues of mod
esty, religion and loyalty).
THERE ARE MARVELOUS cinematic moments;
Sordi’s subjective impressions as he is smuggl
ed to New York by air in a crate, his human
laughter at a home movie Intended to show him
the man he is to kill, the pervasive atmosphere
of death and decay worked into shots of the
Innocent Sicilian locale.
Honest pictures are still being made. But un
less it is sex they are honest about, they are in
trouble. Competition is so tough. Variety re
ports, that a foreign film has to do "Soffo”
business just to break even. The result: the in
ternational film product is becoming standar
dized at a pseudo-sophisticated level (comedy,
sex, big stars, slick production) that is per
haps higher than 1945, but distressingly short
of the promise of the first Dost-war decade.
Two current Italian imports typify the situa
tion. "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," despite
its many likeable qualities, is a box-office bon
anza, tailored for the pseudo-sophisticates. It
is a lightweight comedy designed to exploit, in
For all its humor and gangster violence, "Ma
fioso" alms to do more than entertain. Lattuada
wants to tell us something about ourselves:
specifically, how each decent man too often is
shaped by outside forces and not only con
sents to the continuity of evil in the world, but
serves as its instrument.
Unless the film audience responds to depth as
well as surface brilliance, it will ineviably be
condemened to slow, oozing suffocation in charm
ing but meaningless triviality. Good films can
survive, ultimately, only if people pay to see
than.
both at the national and local
level," it added.
v
Local clubs were urged to
cooperate with the campaign of
the Citizens for Decent Liter
ature in Cincinnati, Ohio, by
asking for its kits containing
information on how to proceed
against pornography.
Donn Kurtz of Monroe, La.,
was elected president of the
federation. A junior at the Uni
versity of Southwestern Louisi
ana, he will take office Jan. 1,
succeeding Julius Cilbertson of
Eau Claire, Wis. The presiden
cy is a full time position. The
federation’s office is in Wash
ington, D. C.
Others elected were Gerald
Biese of Fox Lake, Wis., exe
cutive vice-president; Michael
Marlow, Winter Park, Fla., in
ternal affairs vice-president;
Barbara Meggins, New York
City, external affairs vice-
president, and Allen Wall of
Garfield, N. J„ extension vice-
president.
Seminary Fund
Remember the SEMINARY FUND
of the Archidocese of Atlanta in
your Will. Bequests should be made
to the “Most Reverend Paul J.
Hallinan, Archbishop of the Catho
lic Archdiocese of Atlanta and his
successors in office*'. Participate
in the daily prayers of our semi
narians and in the Masses offer
ed annually for the benefactors of
our SEMINARY FUND.
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
All expect God to judge first and most severely the Com
munists and persecutors of the Church. But God's ways are
not our ways. Do we realize that judgment, when it comes,
will begin with the Church not with the world . It will not be
with the Khrushchevs who have denied God, but with us who
have professed to love God yet have not served our neighbors.
The Apostles called the attention of Our Lord to the beauty
of the Temple, glorious in the morning sunrise, but Our Lord
said that not a stone of that Temple would be left upon a stone.
In the old Testament, God’s judgment was: Begin with the
Temple." St. Peter, referring to the new Testament, warn
ed: "Judgment must begin with the house of God.”
Tlie sterner judgment is reserved for those who have the
greater responsibility. **Not everyone who says, 'Lord', ’Lord’,
will enter the Klndgom of Heaven,” said the
Lord Himself,. Have we piled stone upon stone
in school, rectory, gymnasium, social center
and convent without giving even one percent
of the million collected to the Christ with
out a Church in Africa or the sisters living
under a tent in Kenya? Is God pleased with
us because we have "successful drives"
for 3 million, 10 million, 20 million and
33 million dollars, if we give not even
$100,000 o f that to our brother priests and
fellow members of Christ’s Mystical Body in other parts of
the world? May we keep 10,000 cakes in one house on the
block, while the other houses on the block do not have bread?
To the glory of the Church, one bishop in the United States
sees this so clearly that he is giving a percentage of his dio
cesan revenue to the Holy Father for the propagation of the
Faith throughout the world; another priest gave $18,000-
his life savings and mass stipends- which he garnered for
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith by living poor
ly; another priest and his brother both sent vacation money.
Countless are the laity who have little but who share that
little with the poor of the world.
We pray that each diocese in the United States will set
aside a percentage of its annual diocesan budget for God's
poor, so that spreading the Faith to the millions in Africa,
Asia and elsewhere will not be dependent upon a collection
once or twice a year. We pray that the laity, is making dona
tions for the Church In the United States, will also send a
percentage of them to the Holy Father. If judgment begins
with the Church, as it does, then let it not be with the Church
in the United States. It was a pagan who said that "charity
does not begin at home." It begins with the entire Mystical
Body of Christ throughout the world.
Our stomach takes in food, but it circulates its energy
throughout the entire body. The Church in the United States
is the "stomach" of the Mystical Body of Christ in the
world; it must take in the "food" (money) and distri
bute it to the "whole Christ" throughout the world.
GOD LOVE YOU to D. L. for $750 "I am an avid reader
<of your Mission booklet which inspired me to promise God a
contribution if He would help me dispose of a very difficult
house to sell. He heard my prayer) the transaction was
finally consummated". . . to P. T. for $10 "I won this on a
lucky race. Perphaps a missionary can use it in his effort
to win souls’*. . . to E. P. for $25 "In thanksgiving for a suc
cessful operation on my little grandchild."
WORLDMISSION, a quarterly magazine of missionary act
ivities edited by Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, is an ideal gift
for priests, nuns, seminarians or laymen. Send $5 for a one-
year subscription tc WORLDMlSSIONl 366 Fifth Avenue, New
York, N. Y. 10001.
Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to it and mail it to
Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Society
for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York
I, N. Y. or your Archdiocesan Director, Very Rev. Harold
J. Rainey P. O. Box 12047 Northslde Station, Atlanta 5, Ga