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} 1 T T 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.