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•v RENEWAL CONTINUED Sacraments Meant To Stress Worship^ Corporate Action BY FATHER FREDERICK R. MCMANUS (N. C. W. C. News Service) The revolutionary constitut ion on public worship enacted by Vatican Council II not only concentrates on reforms affect ing the Mass, the principal liturgy, but also provides for renewal of all the sacraments. Chapter III of the council’s constitution is called 'The Other Sacraments and the Sacramentals.” It deals with the sacraments other than the Eucharist (to which Chapter 11 is devoted) and with the sacra mentals or "lesser sacra ments." It begins with a funda mental explanation: 'The pur pose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body o f Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God." ALREADY THE spirit of theological renewal is evident in the words of the council. The least instructed Catholic sees in the sacraments sources of God’s favor for himself ("to sanctify men")—in fact, there is always great danger of view ing the sacraments exclusive ly in this way, almost as mechanical and routine sources of infallible grace. The bi shops of the council bring to the fore two other notions: that the sacraments, all the sacra ments, have a social, corporate, and public nature ("to build up the body of Christ,” which is the Church); that the sacra ments require dedication, com mitment, faith, and devotion from those, who take part in them ("to give worship to God"). The idea of the sacraments as channels of God's grace is not harmed or lessened by the council’s teaching. It is impor tant to Insist also on the ven erable phrase, "sacraments of faith," and to sho'« how the sa craments instru .. The sacra ments (and the sacramentals and indeed all liturgical rites and deeds) are signs which "the faithful should easily understand." Anyone familiar with the complex service of Baptism will readily see how much revision and simplific ation is needed. In this and other cases what should be the most clearly expressed words (the “form" of the sacrament), with the greatest significance and meaning to the people, have been said up until now in a language not understood by the participants. THUS THE Pope and the other Fathers of the council decree a reform and a revision, beginn ing with the introduction of the mother* tongues—to the extent decided upon by the bodies of bishops in each country or re gion. The purpose of the re form is simply expressed: "With the passage of time there have crept into the rites of the sacraments and sacramentals certain features which have rendered their nature and pur pose far from clear to the people of today; hence some changes have become necessan to adapt them to the needs of our own times." The first matter taken up by the council, after the use of the vernacular languages, is the preparation of local or regional rituals for the celebration of sacraments and sacramentals. The principle at stake is an im portant one: to correct the error that the Chruch’s unity requires uniformity of practice, or, stated positively, to show the special excellence in diversity. Prayers and rites are thus in tended by the bishops to reflect the genius, customs, or re ligious traditions of different nations and peoples. In Chapter Ill of theconstitu- tion on the liturgy there are eight articles or paragraphs on Christian initation. They begin with the plan to revive the catechumenate, the period of formation and preparation be fore the Baptism of an adult. Nowadays this period is often considered merely as a time of instruction, for acquiring in formation. The council wishes it to recover the character of a period of spiritual formation conversion of soul, prayer by the whole community for the candidate. ALL THE rites related to Baptism, the first of the sacra ments, are to be reexamined: for infants, for adults, for the reception of converts, for the first welcome of a child into the parish church after he has been received into the Church by Baptism administered in an emergency, etc. More impor tant than these revisions is the attempt to unite the three sa craments of Christian initia tion: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist. Confirmation is rarely tho ught of as completing Baptism and leading to the celebration of the Eucharist. The bishops now propose that this meaning should be brought out by the renewal of baptismal promises just before the rite of Confir mation and by celebrating Con firmation itself where pos sible, during Mass. In the United States most of the candidates for Confirmation have already received Com munion for the first time, per haps several years earlier. Nevertheless even in these cir cumstances it is still desirable that the newly confirmed should take part in Mass immediately and receive Communion. At least on that single occasion, the fullness of Christian initia tion would be evident: Baptism completed by Confirmation, Confirmation leading to the eucharistic celebration. ALL SACRAMENTS (and sa cramentals, for that matter) are dependent on the Eucharist and flow from it. The Instinct of the Church has always been to show this relation—this is the reason why the sacrament of Holy Or ders is conferred during Mass. Now the council wishes to allow for, and encourage the cele bration of Baptism, Confir mation, Matrimony, religious profession, etc., as a part of Mass. In the case of the Marriage service, which is brief and simple in itself, the council's directive is clear: it will take place during Mass after the reading of the Epistle and Gos pel and the preaching of the sermon or homily; it will be followed by appropriate prayers of the people and by the re mainder of Mass, in which the bride and groom take part. Still on the subject of the Marriage rite, the constiturion directs that, even when Mar riage is celebrated apart from Mass, the Epistle and Gospel of the nuptial Mass should be read beforehand and the nap- tial blessing given. This bless ing will be revised to Include mention of the groom as well as the bride, so that the equal fidelity will be expressed and taught. Such changes require a future correctoin of ritual texts. This is not the case, however, with the council's strong teaching on the sacrament of Anotlntldg. In theory, the faithful are already instructed to summon the priest at the beginning of a serious illness and not to delay. But many things have conspired against a proper understanding of the sacrament of healing: the expression "last rites,"theof ficial name "Extreme Unct ion,” the practice (of many cen turies) of administering anoint ing after Viaticum. Even priests sometimes demand proof of the seriousness of the illness or of the imminence of death before feeling free to ad minister this sacrament. THE COUNCIL has tried to change all this, by the better name for the sacrament; 'The Anointing of the Sick,” by mak ing clear that the Eucharist it self, Communion as Viaticum, is the "last" sacrament, and by explaining: Anointing "is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as any one of the faith ful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to re ceive this sacrament has cer tainly already arrived." Finally, the revision of the sacramentals, blessings, pro cessions, etc., should be ment ioned. This must, in the words of the council, "take into ac count the primary principle of enabling the faithful to partici pate intelligently, actively, and easily; the circumstances of NEW YORK (RNS>—Protes tant churches were urged to ob serve Reformation Sunday — October 25 — with prayers for Christian unity in order that the entire Christian Church nrght minister to the needs of the world. A Reformation Sunday mes sage to American Protestant and Orthodox churches was is sued by Dr. Ralph M. Holde- man, associate executive di rector of the National Council of Churches* Central Depart ment of Evangelism. "IF WE are to be true to this Reformation we are called to pray and work for unity for the sake of our witness to the world," he said. "Our eyes, our faces, our life, our witness our own time must also be con sidered." Of special interest is the de cision of the council to provide sacramentals which may be ad ministered by lay people, for example, the blessing of child ren or of the home by a father or mother; blessings to be glvdh by catechists in the absence of a priest; specific blessings which may be prepared for lay religious superiors or for those incharge of schools. The changes in the sacra mental rites which the council has decreed are lmportant.The council's teaching of doctrine is more Important; The liturgy of sacraments and sacramen tals gives the faithful access to the power of Christ’s Easter passage from death to life. IT’S DEFINITE Bombay VATICAN CITY (NC)—Pope Paul has announced he will go to India for the International Eucharistic Congress being held in Bombay from Nov. 28 to Dec. 6. The announcement was made at the end of his address during the canonization of 22 African martyrs of Uganda in St. Peter’s basilica (Oct. 18). THE POPE revealed no de tails of his trip except to say that it would be "very brief and simole." It is expected that the Pope will go to Bombay forf the closing ceremonies in the congress on Dec. 6. After his tribute to the Ugan da martyrs, Pope Paul an nounced that he intended to go to India "to bring to them our sincere message of Christian faith. . . 'This is the second time we have occasion to announce in this basilica that we are about to make a journey abroad, something which hitherto has this suypA y must be turned toward the world." Observing that "today, the spirit of reformation is alive among all faiths,” the Protes tant leader praised both the in tent and the results of the Sec ond Vatican Council. 'The very calling of the Vat ican Council itself and especial ly the events of this past month have certainly proclaimed to the world a new willingness on the part of Roman Catholics to un dergo thorough reformation and renewal. It has also proclaim ed a new willingness to engage in fellowship, service and in some cases, actual worship and communion with Protestant and Orthodox churches." In Protestantism today, Dr. KLDKMT CARDINAL AT COUNCIL— Francesco Car dinal Mora no, 92, attends council sessions dally. A priest for 67 years. Cardinal Morano has served the Holy See In various scientific and administrative posts since 1900. Congress been completely outside the or dinary scope of the papal apos tolic ministry." The first time was on Dec. 4, 1963, when the Pope announced, at the close of the second session of the ecu menical council, that he was going as a pilgrim to the Holy Land in January, 1964. ‘THE POPE is becoming a missionary, you will say. Yes, the pope is becoming a mis sionary, which means a witness, a shepherd, an apostle on the move. . . 'Our journey, though very brief and simple and limited to a single stopping place, where solemn homage is paid to Christ present in the Eucharist, is in tended to be a testimonial of gratitude for all missionaries of yesterday and of today who have consecrated their lives to the cause of the Gospel, for those especially who, following in the footsteps of St. Francis Xavier, have *planted the Church^ with so much self-sacrifice and success, in Asia and particular ly in India." Renewal Holdeman said, reformation "is calling for a greatre respon siveness to the needs of the world in the racial revolution, the war on poverty, the popula tion explosion, automation, leisure and education." MARTIN Luther’s proclama tion in 1517 of his 95 theses, which Reformation Day cele brates, was an attempt to bring understanding of what he felt were basic Christian doctrines rather than to launch "a move ment", Dr. Holderfian said. Luther saw the Christian Gos pel "as the disclosure of God'a freely forgiving love in Christ that must be apprehended by faith and not by works." the Protestant official said. Reformation Sunday Pope Will Visit