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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5
NOT ABSTRACT
Specific Lay Role?
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
In general, talk about the "emerging layman"
is entirely too abstract and unspecific. Now
is high time to become more specific. Ser
ious discussion ought now to press doggedly
beyond the basic principles of full lay emer
gence which are, after all, pretty well estab
lished and quite respectably orthodox. What is
needed now, first of all’, is a clear and detail
ed statement of the theological position of the
laity in the Church. We fervently hope that such
a statement will emerge from the present sess
ion of the Council. The Constitution on Liturgy
has already moved in this direc
tion wdth its recognition of
"official" lay roles in the
liturgy.
The practical and necessary
step that is most appropriate,
now is to muddy the water’s a
„ little with some specific dis-
k cussion - and perhaps a little
controversy- about the prac
tical implications of the lay-
restored position. We are passing
from a legal notion of the laity to a theological
conception. Until now, the laity have been'con
sidered- in theory and in practice- as the sub
jects within an ecclesiastical monarchy. The
laity, in the mass, have constituted that part of
the Church "to be taught and to be ruled."
This idea is not so much untrue as seriously
incomplete.
THE CHURCH ought not to be pictured as a
pyramid with a broad base of passive sub
jects. It would be more correct to picture it
as a circle. The Church is a people, the people
^ of God, This Biblical notion alters considerably
how we understand our common membership in
the Church.
man s
The people of God, in the Old Testament and
QUESTION BOX
in the New, is called into being by the initia
tive of God. This stresses clearly that member
ship in the Church is the result of a vocation.
This applies equally to all members of the
Church. Analogously, each of the members
is the subject of a vocation. The state of lay
Christian- of believing, baptized and confirmed
Catholic- is then a particular and specific voca
tion just as literally as is the priestly or reli
gious state. The layman is called to unqualified
personal sanctity and brotherly love and to
mak e his unique contribution the honor of God
and the redemption of the world.
UNDER THE impetus of the last several Popes
various forms of the lay apostolate have develop
ed. Even in papal teachings, the understanding of
the layman's proper apostolic role has gradually
expanded. From die rather limited idea of "Cath
olic Action" - the cooperation of the laity in the
apostolate of the hierarchy - we have arrived
at a specifically lay apostolate. On one side, we
acknowledge the layman’s place in "official"
organized efforts of the apostolate: parish organ
izations, diocesan councils, lay missionary
groups. On the other hand, much has been writ
ten about the layman’s mission in the world,
to mediate between Christ and the world in his
private and public life. In this direction, the lo
gical next step would seem to be an Increas
ed liberty for completely lay initiative in the
apostolate.
Still, the layman seems to operate mostly as
a "helper" rather than as an authentic agent
of the Church. The many concerns of the Church
which seem most involved with the secular-
finance, buiding, art, journalism, to name a
few- remain on the whole, the reserve of the
clergy, Some hard thinking seems called for
in this area, if the layman is to grow in his role
and if the Church is to enter the world as ef
fectively as possible.
Christianity And Women
, BY MSGR. J. D. CONWAY
Q. Would you please state what is taught or
implied from the Scriptures and the oral tradi
tion of Christianity about the position of women,
single or married, in society? Specifically, out
side of the leadership required in family life,
may a woman prepare herself professionally and
spiritually to take a course of leadership in civic
and professional life? This includes authority
over men, the development of certain "manly"
virtues necessary for success in such a life,
etc. Is there anything in such an attempt that
is not consistent with the Christian ideal or with
4 the salvation ofn-a woman’s soul? In an ideal
world, ,bi.v?olild-' , ‘”*V4ry woman be married, or
would there still be the pos
sible ideal of a single life in the
world? Is there something suit
able or "becoming" in deliber
ately deferring an opportunity
to a eentleman. that is if you
are not hoping to marry said
gentleman?
A. Christian apologists point
with pride to the elevated posi
tion of women in our culture as
compared with her degradation
in most other areas of the world, especially
where pagan, Islamic, or various Oriental
ideals dominate. By comparative standards
much of this pride is justified, but it remains
true that Christian woman has needed a full
1900 years to acquire the position of relative
equality with man which she enjoys today.
From Judaism, Christiantiy did not inherit a
very high regard for woman’s place insociety,
and while Greek and Roman cultures treated
women better than many of their neighbors, the
* position of woman in early Roman law was
practically that of a chattel of her husband.
Jesus glorified the position of woman supre
mely in His favors to His own mother, and in
His special marks of kindness to various women
whose stories are told in the Gospels. Christianity
has always held that woman has a complete
human personality, and is equal to man in moral
value and in position before God, her Creator and
Redeemer. Yet there has been a persistent con
viction that there is something inferior about her,
both in body and in soul.
Part of this may result from teachings of St.
REFUGEES ONCE MORE?
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
tralia or Brazil?" That is the question they
i ask the visitor today, in the same breath in
which they bid him welcome. They are afraid.
They see themselves sacrificed once again onthe
altar of international diplomacy, "if only they
would give us arms," they say, "we would wipe
out the nests of Communist infiltrators inthefor-
ests to the south. We have the will to resist,
which is w'hat the South Vietnamese do not have.
We admire the American troops and their cour
age, but they do not know how to fight this kind
of enemy. He tricks them every time."
Whatever the Intrinsic merits of their argu
ment, it is an academic one. If the Diem re
gime refused to arm these North Vietnamese,
there is even less possibility that its Budhist-
dominated successor will do so. On the contrary,
t they have lost many benefits they previously
enjoyed. Thu Due's village center, for example,
in the early days housed two thousand refugees.
They were individuals separated from their fami
lies, war widows, orphans, the wounded, the sick,
the old and the blind, the last named particu-
NEW NATIONS A CHALLENGE
Old Missionary Era Gone
For Good, Societies Told
ACROSS
1 This saint Is also
known as St. -—
5 So. American
country
9 epos
13 Latin verb form
14 mangle
15 this adjective de
scribes any saintly
life
17 coarse wool
18 River flowing into
Mississippi
20 bitter drug
22 Impute
25 Pindar work
26 man’s name
27 French article
28 vestment
29 limb
30 exacerbate
31 Eliot’s initials
32 eye
34 existence
35 monk
39 his life was devot
ed to the service
of
41 tumeric
42 conger
44 British cavalry
force
48 he baptized Clovis
as a -—
51 wild sheep
52 regret
53 envelop
55 Kentish freed man
23
24
29
56 auger
59 spy
60 have reality
61 exclamation
62 and others
63 fortify
64 He was one
66 American Histor
ian
68 Samoan mollusk
69 crescents
71 evergreen shrub
73 plum
75 ancient Jewish
month
76 Arabian chieftains 45
78 phone
80 knob
81 state (abbr)
82 viola
83 Ionian City
DOWN
1 stately
2 obliterate
3 grape refuse
4 repeat
5 Jumble
6 Iroquoian 60
7 pluck wool 63
8 unbecoming 64
9 that Is 6 s
10 grass 67
11 otiose 69
12 king baptized by 70
this saint 72
16 periods of time 74
19 esteems 77
21 cut 79
33
34
35
36
37
38
40
42
43
French pronoun
type of shot
Army Pay Corps
(abbr)
twigs
Japanese outcast
rudiments
German Cardinal
stick
monies
small (Scot.)
cycle
ferocious African
cat
“Blue Eagle"
harmel
besides
hurry
Wife of Frankish
King converted by
Remigius
medicine man
merciful
establish
pale yellow
he was bishop
of —-
prohibition
personal pronoun
coin
mah-Jongg pieces
sour
atta
wild plum
Brazilian parrot
asarum
sack (abbr)
exclamation
Paul: "Let wives be subject to their husbands
as to the Lord; because a husband is head of the
wife, just as Christ is head of the Church"
(Eph. 5,22-23). "A man indeed ought not to cover
his head, because he is the image and glory of
God. But woman is the glory of man. For man is
not from woman, but woman from man. For
man was not created for woman, but woman for
man" (I Cor. 11,7-9).
And yet St. Paul had definite ideas of equa
lity: "For all you who have been baptized into
Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman;
there is neither male nor female. Foryouare all
one in Jesus Christ" (Gal. 3, 27-28). And his
glorification of virginity and of widowhood con
tributed much to later Christian respect for wo
men in their own right, apart from their roles
as wives and mothers.
Aristotle taught that woman is an incomplete
or mutilated man, and his ideas had influence
on medieval Christian thought, of which one of
the kindest expressions is found in St. Thomas.
In his Summa Theologica (Q. 92, art 1, ad 2)
after explaining that good order in human society
requires that the multitude be ruled by men of
greater wisdom, he says: "And so woman is
naturally subject to man, because in man the
discernment of reason is more abundant."
Some 50 years ago when the "woman ques
tion" was a subject of intense debate, Catho
lics generally found it difficult to endorse
the movement for women’s rights. They took the
position that woman’s place in society was de
termlned by her place in the family; subject
to her husband, confined to the home (or the
convent). In a truly Christian society her
"rights" would be properly safeguarded by the
wisdom, justice and charity of men. Of course
it was admitted that no such Christian society
existed, but the ideal was to restore it rather
than to give women the vote, or permit them to
hold office.
Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948) states that "EVveryone is
entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth
in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind,
such as race, color, sex, language religion,
etc."
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE, PAGE 7
WASHINGTON (NC) —More
than 1,000 U.S. Catholic mis
sionaries were told here that
"the missionary era as we
have known it is gone and will
never return."
The missionary who fails to
reckon with this fact is doomed
to be "as contemporary as a
dodo bird," declared Father Al
bert J. Nevins, M.M., editor of
Maryknoll magazine.
FATHER Nevins sketched a
portrait of the new model mis
sionary and his training in an
address to the opening general
session (Sept. 28) of the 15th
annual meeting of U.S. mission
sending societies. His pre
scription:
"Change and you can sur
vive; fail to change and your
effectiveness is ended."
PRIESTS, Religious and lay
men engaged in foreign mission
work were on hand for the
opening session of the annual
meeting sponsored by the mis
sion Secretariat, an agency here
engaged in providing mission
information and services.
Theme of the meeting was "Re
appraisal: Prelude to Change."
Father Nevins said the chang-
over from colony to independent
nation in many countries of the
world and the accompanying po
litical. and social developments
had taken old-style missionar
ies by surprise and caught them
unprepared.
In many instances, he said,
men whom the missionaries
had been accustomed to think
ARNOLD VIEWING
Hashed Re-Hash
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
Just to prove that movies are not necessarily
better than ever, Universal has arranged a de
pressing remake of its 1946 Mark Hellinger
semi-classic, "The Killers."
The original, in which Robert Siodmak direc
ted two rising young stars named Burt Lan
caster and Ava Gardner, was a violent melo
drama conducted by writer An
thony Veiller (who has since
gone on to such edifying mate
rial as "Mouling Rouge" and
"Night of the Iguana"). Its aim
was to answer the mystery pos
ed in Ernest Hemingway’s
famous short story: why should
a man, told that two men are
coming to murder him, calmly
sit and await his execution?
larly numerous in the trachoma-infested tropics.
THE CENTER stabilized in recent years at about
800, mostly the old and the blind. Since last
November’s coup, government aid has been par
ed so sharply that the center has had to cut its
population to a hard core of fewer than 200
desperate cases. "We include many Buddhists
and members of other religions, and we all live
inpertect harmony," they told me. "But a Catho
lic village can expect no sympathy from the new
regime." Actually, in addition to the feeling that
Diem unduly favored Catholics, the easy-going
southerners resent the progress of the hard
working northerners.
As we drove back to Saigon in the brief
tropical dusk, flares soared over the forests
to the left. A sweep against Vietminh infliltra-
tors had begun. The rat-tat of automatic
weapons drifted on the night breeze toward Thu
Due, chilling the spirits of the villagers. This
alone stood between them and the vengeance
of Ho Chi Mlnh, the South Vietnam army ancf
its American advisers. From their front-row
seat, a tenuous protection indeed.
THE OLD movie may not have been great art,
but It had intelligence, style and the rough vir
tues of the hard-n’osed gangster film. Among
its assets were a superbly photographed pay
roll robbery and a taut opening 10 minutes that
was a pure interpretation of the Hemingway
prose and mood.
The new version, by producer-director Don
Siegel, salvages nothing from Heminway and only
the violence, sadism and bad taste from Veiller.
Its standards are well illustrated by the lud
icrous climax, in which Lee Marvin, oozing blood
all over the living room rug, lies on his stomach
confronting villains Angie Dickinson and Ronald
Reagan. After they dutifully plead for mercy,
he drunkenly waves a huge silencer more or
less in the right direction and plugs them with
several shots each. Marvin staggers to the lawn
where he expires poetically, surrounded by stolen
money.
NEARLY everything is a mistake, starting
with the use of color, which is about as tough
and realistic as strawberry custard. The open
ing killing takes plane at mid-day in a crow
ded school for the blind, under conditions that
would make any professional gunman cringe with
embarrassment. The mystery is unreveled, not by
a sympathetic detective, but by the hired kil
lers, at least partly out of a philosophical in
terest in the complexities of human behavior.
At the end, they moralize before beating up
the girl crook.
The story is really about the Perfidy of
Woman, specifically, a classy number who urges
her charms among the Gangster Set to earn the
finer things of life. The plot is complex, involv
ing a triple-cross, and the viewer, who is never
sure why anyone is doing anything, doesn’t
much care,
MISS Dickinson, as the incarnation of feminine
evil, is given a sorority girl wardrobe that seems
to put her midway between psychology class
and the school picnic. She reads the classic line-
"All right, so I like nice things, expensive
things, doesn’t everybody?" - with
malice of a president of the Troy Donahue fan
club.
Perhaps the master blunder is casting actor
Reagan, who in his youth was so nice he made
iLiberace.- seem like Jack the Ripper, as the
vicious criminal loader. Siegel is also so fond
of as "these children" sudden
ly became "presidents and
prime ministers, ambassadors
and archbishops."
’THE missioner found him
self caught tip in a whirlwind
that questioned the validity of
all his traditional patterns of
life," he said. "He was ac
cused of paternalism, of cul
tural imperialism, of subser
vience to the former colonial
power, of deliberately helping to
train an army of clerks but no
leaders. And in some areas
of the world—Ceylon and the
Sudan, by way of example—
doors were actually slammed in
his face."
"Certainly," he added, "the
missioner as the Great White
Father, the administrator and
guardian, can no longer exist
except in a few isolated pockets
of the world, and the sooner
he disappears there, so much
the better."
FATHER Nevins Insisted ,
however, that "there is room
for a new type missioner" for
tified with a new theology, new
attitudes and new techniques.
H e gave special emphasis to
a new outlook on mission work
that sees it as a responsibility
of every Christian. Such an at
titude, he said, also sees "that
this mission is not a mission
of georgaphical concept to so-
called mission territories, but
begins where every Christian is
and ends only with the last man
who lacks knowledge of Christ." ^
TURNING to the subject of
missionary training, Father
Nevins called the traditional
seminary course "entirely in
adequate for today’s revolution
ary world." He recommended
a "compression" of theological
and philosophical studies in
seminaries so that more time
could be given to training future
missionaries in such subjects
as missiology, linguistics,
techniques of communication,
group dynamics, anthropology
and preparation for "cultural
shock." ^
"Seminary curricula based
on 16th or even 18th century
systems and traditions can
not properly prepare men mov
ing into the 21st century," he
commented.
FATHER Nevins also called
for intensive in-service train
ing of young missionaries at
preparatory institutes or orien
tation schools followed by field
training under the direction of
veteran missioners. And he
urged that the period of the
missioners' first home furlough
be used to fill in the "gaps"
he has discovered in his train
ing.
NKWLY ARKIVKI) in New
York as the Holy See’s ob
server at the United Nations,
Msgr. Alberto Giovannetti
says it would be impossible
for the Holy See not to be
interested in the U.N.
of his version of the big robbery- a mail truck
heist much like dozens in grade B movies-
that he shows it to us three different times.
THIS IS the kind of film in which romanti
cally inclined characters say "I want you"
instead of "I love you." Women are slugged
and tortured on-camera and dangled by their
ankles out of hotel windows, It’s hard to tell
whether some shots e. g., a view of the hero’s
eye past the girl’s head in a love scene
are art or clumsiness, though one has his sus-
picios,
It’s not a complete loss, the bad guys, that
is, all the people in the movie, lose. Marvin,
with that voice like an oiled gravel read, and
Clu Gulager, who affects "La Dolce Vita" sun
glasses, try with intermittent success to act
killers in their Madison Avenue suits. John
Cassavetes, sometime evantgrade director
("Shadows"), makes sure you know he’s wasted
as the hero-victim. And there are some
noisy auto race sequences and a Henry Man-
cini song by Nancy Wilson, who sings better
than almost anybody.
AMERICAN International Pictures recently
celebrated its 10th anniversary, and this in
trepid company was honored by a special sec
tion in the trade paper, Variety. One of the ads
seemed to say it all better than anyone could;
"Australia and New Zealand are proud to join. . .
in tribute. , . Ten years have fully demon
strated AIP's ability to assess the mass audience
and produce what it wants. . . And what it
WANTS is films like: Beach Party, Masque of
the Red Death. Comedy of Terrers, The Jet Set,
the Maid and the Martian, Muscle Beach Party,
Rumble, Bikini Beach."
Americans, sometimes shocked by the sex
content of foreign movies, may wonder what fore
ign morals are coming to. They may not be
aware that while Europeans tend to be casual
about sex, they are genuinely scandalized by
the horror, sadian and violence in American
films.
STATE censors in Sweden, for example, where
Bergman and lesser film-makers have abundant
freedom in sexual matters, recently banned
"Lady in a Cage" as too curel and violent.
This Olivia de Havilland film has been shown in
the U. S. mostly at neighborhood theaters and
drive-ins which cater to family and adoles
cent audiences.
CURRENT RECOMMENDED FILMS.
For connoisseurs: Night of the Iguana.
Better than most: What a Way to Go, Mafioso,
Black Like Me, One Potato, Two Potato, Backet,
Fall of the Roman Empire, Island of the Blue
Dolphins.
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
"Historians of the future may remark on whether it was
more important to have worked towards putting a man on the
moon during the 1960’s or to have worked toward averting
the world famine of the 1970’s." These are the words of
Raymond Ewell, research expert of New York State Univer
sity, who estimated that one of the worst famines in the his
tory of the world will strike Asia, Africa and Latin America
within the next twenty years.
The population of the three above-men
tioned areas will increase by 900 million
in that time. Mr. Ewell goes on to say
that famine will affect possibly one billion
persons and, "If this happens, as it appears
very probable, It will be the most colos
sal catastrophe in history." But first look
at the present. Everyday of THIS week in
these areas 10,000 people die of malnu
trition. In the United States the average
daily intake is 65 grams of animal protein.
Thirty grams are the minimum requirement for adequate
nutrituon. Yet, in Peru the figure is 13; in Ceylon, 9; and in
India, 61
What do these figures mean to us, as we sit down three times
a day to a choice of appetizing foods and afterwards scrape
into the garbage can enough per meal to keep several per
sons alive for a week? What does this mean to us, members
of the richest country in the world, where nine million families
have to or more cars, where ten million families own stocks,
where the average family’s savings and investments are in
excess of $5,000? What does this mean to us, members of the
Mystical Body of Christ, that our fellow human beings, our
brothers in Christ, creatures of God, are perishing?
Presently, each United States Catholic puts into the hands of
the Vicar of Christ an average of 27^ a year to care for the
people of Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is the poor
people who are making great sacrifices, who are giving large
proportions of their incomes. Yet, there are very few readers
of this column who could not sit down right nown and send the
Holy Father at least $100 to avert the famine of the near fu
ture, to keep TODAY’S poor from starving to death. Remember,
The Society for the Propagation of the Fatih is the arm
of the Holy Father for soliciting alms for the poor of the entire
world.
GOD LOVE YOU to H. B. for $50 "I am enclosing $50
for the Holy Father to use as he sees fit. I am doing this in
atonement for my sins and in honor of my seceased family.’’
.... to D. and L. M. for $2 "We are youngsters aged five
and eight. Because of the starving children in the world, we
are each sending $1 on behalf of our grandfather who is
very Ill."
Send us your old gold and jewelry- the bracelet or ring you
no longer wear, last year's gold eyeglass frames, the cuff
links you never liked anyway. We will resell them and use
the money to aid the Missions. Your semi-precious stones will
be winning precious souls for Christ. Our address: The Soci
ety for the Propagation of the Faith, 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 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.