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FIRST SUNDAY
English Masses
Set For Advent
ROME (NC)—-The Bishops of
the United States at a meeting
here (Oct. 19) formally approv
ed Nov. 29, the first Sunday of
Advent, as the official date for
the introduction of English in
the Mass.
THIS DATE, the first day of
the new Church year, had been
widely anticipated as the day
that the new English use would
go into effect in the Mass
throughout the United States.
In some American dioceses,
however, English was intro
duced in the Mass last summer.
The Nov. 29 change will put
into effect the decisions adop
ted by the American bishops at
their meeting in Washington last
April 2. The decrees they adop
ted were made public on May 14,
less than two weeks after they
were confirmed by the new
Commission for the Execution
of the Constitution on the Sac
red Liturgy.
The changes to take effect at
the end of November include
the use of English instead of
Latin for most of the Service
of the Word—the opening part
of the Mass—and for much of
the Communion service as well.
THUS the Introit, Kyrie, Glo
ria (when said), the lessons,
Gospel and Creed, and the re
stored “common prayer” or
“prayer of the faithful” will
all be in English. The Offer
tory anthem will also be in
the vernacular.
In the Canon, the Sanctus-
Benedictus alone will be in'
English; the rest, including the
-prayers, remain in Latin.
BUT IN the Communion ser
vice, the Lord’s Prayer will be
in English. So will the Agnus
Dei. At the Communion of the
people, the Ecce Agnus Dei and
the triple Domine, nonsumdig-
nus will be in English. So will
the Communion anthem. While
the Postcommunion prayer re
mains Latin, the dismissal and
blessing will be in English.
The last Gospel, when said,
remains Latin. But it is to be
eliminated completely under the
further changes which become
mandatory next Lent.
POPE PAUL VI greets Bishop Ardavazt Terterian of the Armenian Church of Marseilles,
France former professor of the patriarchal seminary in Lebanon, and one of 75 council
observers representing 23 churches of the world. The Pontiff presented each observer with
a leather-bound copy of the New Testament in both Latin and Greek. Augustin Cardinal
Bea, president of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (center), and Bishop Jan
Willebrands, secretary of the unity secretariat, introduced the observers.
PROTESTANT CONVENTION
Cardinal Cautions Against Ecumenism
Becoming Only A Passing Tad’
ST. LOUIS (NC)—Christians
should not let ecumenism be
come “only a passing fad,” a
RETIRING Archbishop Edward F. Hoban (upper left),
Bishop of Cleveland, and Bishop Joseph H. Albers (lower
left) of Lansing. Mich., have asked for reasons of health
and age to be relieved of the active government of their
dioceses. Pope Paul VI has appointed Bishop Clarence G.
Issenmann (upper right) Coadjutor Bishop of Cleveland,
with right of succession, and Bishop Alexander M. Zaleski
(lower right) Coadjutor Bishop of Lansing, also with right
of succession.
spokesman for Joseph Cardi
nal Ritter told an ecumenical
dinner during the general con
vention of the Protestant Epis
copal Church.
FATHER Paul C. Reinert,
S.J., representing the Cardi
nal who is in Rome, called
ecumenism a “burgeoning
spirit” and “a hope that must
be kept alive and progressing
toward the achievement of
concrete results.”
”The danger, as I see it,”
he said, “is that the ecumeni
cal spirit can remain a vague,
vapid and formless idea; in time
it might prove to be only a
passing fad,” Father Reinert
said.
’The ecumenical spirit must
be for all of us an abiding atti
tude, a permeating atmosphere,
a milieu in which we work and
think and have our being.
“it must become for us what
water* is to a fish—the only me
dium in which we are at home.
Outside of it we should feel un
comfortable; outside of it we
fear we may die,” he said.
CARDINAL Ritter, in Rome
for the Second Vatican Coun
cil, sent a message to the
church’s triennial convention.
He said his regret at being
absent was “multiplied by the
realization that much of the
ecumenical spirit abroad in the
world today can trace its ori
gin to movements within your
Communion during the past 100
years.”
“At the same time,” he
added, ”1 am happy to be tak
ing part at this time in the
third session of the Vatican
Council, which I am convin
ced will seal our determination
to participate to the fullest ex
tent possible in the ecumenical
encounter.’’
THE EPISCOPAL convention
sent a message to the Vatican
Council, assuring Pope Paul VI
of the continued prayers of
Anglicans and pldeging prayers
that the Holy Spirit may guide
the deliberations of the coun
cil “to the salvation of souls,
the further refreshing and in
vigorating of the Holy Church
and the good of all men every
where.”
As one feature of the Epis
copalian gathering, delegates
visited area Protestant and
Catholic seminaries with
spokesmen for one church
speaking in an institution
operated by another.
DR. ALLEN O. Miller, a
member of the United Church
of Christ and professor of
systematic theology at Eden
Theological Seminary, St.
Louis, spoke at Kenrick Semi
nary, a Catholic seminary.
He said the Christian era is
yet to come, adding that “an
honest appraisal of our total
situation might identify our
times as effectively post
modern as well as post-me
dieval, but surely still pre-
Christian.”
Dr. Miller called it impera
tive that the Christian church
today “become utterly what her
Lord is—a Christ-bearer, suf
fering servant.”
“She may no longer be the
spiritual imperialist who emas
culates the world and is hated
for it, nor the paternalistic di
spenser of ‘cheap grace* to
whom the world becomes be
holden and who is despised
for it,” he said.
FATHER Robert Coerver,
C.M., vice rector of Kenrick,
major seminary for the St.
Louis archdiocese, spoke at
Concordih Lutheran Semi
nary here.
Speaking on Christian wit
ness, he said that ”we must
love the world, we must really
care what is happening to it.”
“It may be true that in the
past clericalism and the pater
nalism of the clergy reduced
the role of the parishioner to
that of a mere 'consumer,' a
spiritual proletarian.
“But the day when any Chris
tian could say ‘that is not my
business, I'm only a parish
ioner,* is long past. The lay
man who is content to receive
from the Church and does not
labor for the coming of the
Kingdom is a traitor to his
vocation,” he said.
THE 61ST general convention
of the church also reaffirmed a
resolution to cooperate in any
efforts toward a "common Bi
ble” which would include the
best scholarship of Catholic and
Protestant exegetes. The Epis
copalians first pledged their
cooperation three years ago.
The church body also called
the charge of deicide against
Jews a “tragic misunderstand
ing” and in a unanimous state
ment called anti-Semitism “ a
direct contradiction of Chris
tian doctrine.”
“All men are guilty of the
death of Christ, for all have
in some manner denied Him;
and since that curcified Christ
were common human sins, the
Christian knows that he him
self is guilty,” the church said.
Baptismal Font
MILAN (NC)-— Archeologists
uncovered here a baptismal font
they believe to be the one at
which St. Ambrose baptized SC
Augustine in 387.
The six-sided stone font is
the latest and most important
result of three years of arc».
ological excavations. It is set
in what remains of a black and
white marble floor dating back
to the 4th century. The present
excavations are just in the front
of the famous Gothic cathedral
of Milan.