Newspaper Page Text
LITURGICAL REFORM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5
The Aim: Participation
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
The first major steps in the reforming of
Cathoic liturgy are following one another rapidly.
Introduction of English into the Mass, in those
parts which are instructional and those prayers
which belong to the entire congregation, is set
for November 29. This move honors the first
principle set by the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy;
“In the restoration and promotion of the sac
red liturgy, this full and active participation by
all the people is the aim to be considered be-
fore all else. The use of our own language
will create immediate contact between the ac
tion of the Mass and the as
sembly. No degree of skill in
latin or earnest use of mis
sal translations can substitute
for this immediacy.
The second major stage of
reform has just been publish
ed by the Holy See. Accord
ing to Father Frederick R. Mc
Manus, president of the Ameri
can Liturgical Conference,
these new changes aim at stres
sing the community nature of Catholic worship.
They will also enhance the liturgy's educa
tional and formative function. The private pray
ers which had been added over the centuries
to the beginning and end of the Mass-rite will
be omitted. Some of the important public pray
ers said by the celebrant in silence until now
will be recited aloud to stress their communal
nature.
ONE DEVELOPMENT in the rite for Mass which
will do much to involve the congregation in
the celebration is the Prayer of the Faithful.
This will be a brief series of invocations or
petitions to be said or sung at the completion
of the service of God’s Word. These petitions
will include intentions for the Mass which will
be of tangible concern to the faithful. As a re
sult, they will feel themselves more closely in
cluded in the intentions of the Mass.
Like the Constitution on the Liturgy, this newest
instruction on liturgical reform is conceived
in pastoral terms. In other words, the one
over-riding concern of the Church is that the
celebration of the liturgy should promote
Christian living among the people of the Church.
From a deeper experience of the truths of the
Faith should come a clearer and more concrte
realization of the demands of our Christian voca
tions.
THE CONSTITUTIONS on Liturgy teaches that
participation in liturgical celebrations “is the pri
mary and indispensable source from which the
faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit.”
This means that the ultimate test of our grasp
of the liturgy will be growth in virtue. Our com
mon celebration of the Eucharist and our re
awakened appreciation of the other Sacraments
should bear fruit in charity. Our homes ought
to be more evidently filled with a spirit of faith.
Ultimately, problems like juvenile delinquency,
racial prejudice, lack of business ethics, etc.
should be lessened by the stronger impact of the
Faith on us.
We have a duty to receive the program of
liturgical reform not merely as more Church
legislation but as an opportunity to grow in
grace and zeal. If zeal for promotion of the
liturgy is a providential sign of God’s presence
in the Church in our time, then zeal for the
growth of Christian living which should result is
an equally necessary consideration.
QUESTION BOX
End Justify Means?
BY MSGR. J. D. CONWAY
Q. Does the Church have any position on the
unnatural practice of spading animals.
A. Not any more than she has on de-tassel-
ing corn.
Q. I know that we are taught that the end never
justifies the means and a wrong is never con
sidered right because of what it accomplished
(for instance telling a lie is always wrong even
a Mt may save someone’s life), but it is difficult
for me to see the justice of
this doctrine for me and thus
perhaps clear my mind on the
subject. I am a convert of four
years.
A. St. Paul answers this ques
tion without giving any explana
tion: “And why should we not,
as some calumniously accuse
us of teaching, do evil that
good may come from it? The condemnation of
such is just.” (Rom. 2, 8).
I believe you have made the problem seem
harder than it really is, by giving me an ex
treme and improbable example. Just how would
you save a man’s lift by telling a lie? I can
think of two possible ways: (1) by giving false
testimony which might save a murderer from
conviction, and (2) by giving misleading infor
mation to a mob out to lynch someone. In the
first case you would surely agree with me that
your lying would not be justified. It obstructs
the process of justice and endangers society.
In the second case you would not be telling a lie,
in the sinful sense of the word.
In the past many moralists, following the lead
of St. Augustine, labeled as a sinful lie any
statement which did not conform to your know
ledge and beliefs— and then they provided for
skillful mental reservations to take cart of situ
ations in which the blunt truth would be harm
ful. Today there is more emphasis on the social
purposes of speech. We have two obligations:
to be honest with our neighbor, and to be reli
able about keeping secrets. Sometimes these two
obligations may come into seeming conflict;
in such cases prudence must guide us as to
which obligation prevails, and how we can best
fulfill this obligation.
In the case of the lynch mob I would simply
give them false directions plainly, without fear of
sin; because 1 am keeping the just secret of
my refugee. I would not get myself tangled up
in contrived mental n. servations, which might
betray the whole secret. And later, I am sure the
best of my neighbors would not consider me a
liar. We lie when we mislead people unjus
tly, ,._ien we fail in our social duty of being
honest and dependable. We do not lie when the
people questioning us have no right or reason
able hope of obtaining a factual answer. There
are many cases in which you are rightly ex-
ected to give your name, rank and serial num
ber—and that is all. Lying is betrayal of trust.
It is evident that such a rule for ' ’lying’'
must be followed with strict honesty. It is open
to dangerous interpretations—especially for chil
dren, or for those given to rationalizations.
But I am convinced that more harm is done by
a person nervously scrupulous about the truth,
than by one who speaks in frank and open man
ner to convey truth or guard secrets as duty
may require.
I digress from your main question. There is
simply a matter of principle involved: evil is
evil, and our good purpose cannot change its
nature. There was a time when little argument
was required to convince most people of this.
But in recent years there has developed a new
concept of morality, which disdains principles,
and leaves it to the individual conscience to
judge on the spot and in a given situation which
course of action is right or wrong, just by weigh
ing or estimating conflicting values. Laws, moral
principles and church teachings do not neces
sarily influence the weighing.
We agrte, of course, that each person must
use his own conscience to judge whether a par
ticular action is right or wrong in a given situ
ation. But we insist that he must know the laws
of God, the moral principles which sound rea
son and human experience have stablished, and
teachings of the Church which Christ establish
ed to guide us. Even with all these guidelines
moral judgments may sometimes be difficult. But
imagine what they are when you throw away the
rules and trust to “divine inspiration” or to a
vague sense of values which may be much disv.
torted by the sentiments or emotions of the
moment.
Q. I would like to know if a Catholic man who
has married a non-Catholic girl in a Protestant
church, by their minister, and now is divorced,
can marry now in the Catholic Church.
A. My opinion is affirmative, but the case will
have to be investigated by the bishop’s office.
The man should consult his pastor.
US. VIETNAM FUTURE
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
do not want to be satellites of China any more
than Ireland wants to be a satellite of England or
Mexico a .'satellite of the United States. What
we, accordingly, have to seek at the inevitable
conference table is an arrangement to permit a
normalization of their relations with China with
out their absorption by China.
To do this will require moving from strength
in two senses. First, we must move from mili
tary strength. We must have bargaining power.
In consequence, it is legitimate to anticipate
an increase in our military involvement in the near
future as a prelude to negotiations. We must
convince the other side that we are not ready to
sell out our friends, especially those who left
their homes in North Vietnam ten years ago to
find freedom,
WE MUST also move from strength in the sense
of going to the conference table with a program
to capture the imagination of the people whose
future will be at stake. We must offer them the
possibility of building for themselves alongside
their giant neighbor a future similar to that of
Mexico and Ireland.
Such a program will demand a greater con
tribution by the United States than its present
military commitment. It will also demand more
faith and more statesmanship, for we will no
longer be in a position to dictate. But I see no
viable alternative that will not ensure a rapid
absorption .of these countries and their neighbors
by Red China.
I MAY add, as a footnote, thatprtssure is like
ly to mount in favor of allowing Indonesia to
absorb Malaysia in order to save it from China.
That would, I believe, be a tragic error. It would
confirm the Communist charge that ihe concerns
of the West in South-East Asia are purely sel
fish, that everyone and every thing is for sale.
It would also tempt China to enter the race and
push militarily all the way south to Malaysia
on the pretext of protecting its southern neigh
bors from Malaya's fate.
Saints in Black and White
ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL 113
Across
1 Her husband was
one
6 exceedingly: music
10 solemn declaration
13 lure
14 mew
15 dread
16 a degree
17 coveted award
10 ripple
21 unit of electrical
intensity: abbr.
23 mentor
25 prefix: half
26 St. Vincent De Paul
saw her----aecend
as a ball of fire
28 rent again
30 closes
33 senior
35 restore
37 one
38 bayonet
40 Shropshire
42 Chinese herb
43 German Army rifle
man
45 lemon-like fruits
4 7 a title; abbr.
48 sine prole; abbr.
50 tusk
52 musical medl.y
• 4 church sitting
SO citrus fruit
.id restricted
6$ God of Love; Gr.
22
24
27
29
31
32
34
36
63 frisk
65 roll
66 kinks
68 fresher
70 rodent; pi.
71 Lotus (poet)
73 token
75 woo
76 approve
79 survives
81 more than one; abbr
82 quince; Bengal y:
83 land measure
85 amen
87 shaver
88 annum 48
89 eterhal'. poetic. 49
nown 5i
1 to happen 53
2 bustle
3 corrode 55
4 pass 57
5 trimmer 59
6 tierce; abbr. 60
7 crude 02
8 knight's oath C4
9 She lived to l?e 67
-----ty 69
10 St. Francis cabled 72
her “the 74
woman” 76
11 be In debt 77
12 dank 78
13 by-product of flour 80
16 soothed 84
18 parts go
ostrich-like bird
dumpy
of the kidneys
valid
purposeful
oxhide strip; So. Afr
sun
stately
She founded 87
Religious homes
for
musical instrument.'
punitive
Latin
pluck
specification
S.A. Country
one who lassos
plant of the Irish
family
Her governess was
post
interest
disk
swamp
endure again
wander
bolt ‘
verb suffix
part of paYrot’s bill
outflow
modernist
time
term of address
comparative ending
lboron; abbr.
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE, PAGE 7
SECRETARY GENERAL —
Msgr. Raymond P. Etteldorf,
Dubuque, Iowa, has been
named secretary general of
the international headquar
ters in Rome of the Society
for the Propagation of the
Faith. A native of Ossian,
Iowa, Monsignor Etteldorf
is a former editor of The
Witness, Dubuque archdioce
san newspaper, and in recent
years has worked in Rome
with the Congregation for
the Oriental Churches. He
succeeds the late Archbishop
Leone Nigris.
Ministers Attend
Bishop’s Funeral
LA CROSSE, Wis. (NC}~
Twenty-five non-Catholic min
isters, some wearing their
clerical robes, attended the fun
eral Mass (Oct. 15) of Bishop
John P. Treacy of La Crosse.
Of the 300 priests at the fun
eral, 20 are members of the La
Crosse Assoc ation of Chris
tian Clergymen, formerly call
ed the Ministerial Alliance, A
year ago the name was changed
to encourage priests to join.
ARNOLD VIEWING
‘Four Days In November’
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
Since the Great Depression Americans univer
sally have shared four great emotional exper
iences: Pearl Harbor, the end of the war, the Cu
ban missile crisis, and the assassination of
President Kennedy. “Four Days in November,"
a two-hour interpretive summary of last year’s
tragedy by skilled film documentarists, is the first
major attempt by movies to deal with any of them.
Why so soon? The two cynical possibilites are
profit and politics. But built-in factors in the
assassination encourage this
kind of report. There is the in
herent drama, involving per
sons rather than intangible for
ces, with a remarkable cast
of heroes, villains and clowns,
and a story with a reasonably
clear-cut climax and ending.
There is the eminently photo-
graphable nature of the event
(as compared, say, with the
missile crisis). And there is the obvious fact
that so many of its details were photographed by
nearly everyone who had access to a camera.
THE PROFIT aspect is a gamble at best.
While the Warren Report undoubtedly stirred
new interest, this may have been more than satis
fied by subsequent press coverage, especially
the two-hour CBS-TV report, which used many
of this film's techniques and drew an amazing
audience of 27 million homes on a Sunday
afternoon. Whatever draws the audience- curio
sity, sympathy or a morbid desire to punish one
self- there can’t be much left of it.
“Four Days," moreover, is serious journalism,
produced by United Press International with David
L. Wiper, one of television’s top documentary
men. Unhappily, there is little audience for such
material even while it’s free, as indicated by the
ratings for programs like “CBS Reports” and
“The Campaign and the Candidates.” If the movie
makers are to get rich, they will have to do so
abroad, where the audience is less informed about
the Dallas tragedy and more discriminating.
(“Four Days” played only three days in one
large city where no film had run less than a week
sinc«. Zsa Zsa Gabor played ingenues).
POLITICAL chicanery is possible but unlikely,
despite the Democratic connections of top United
Artists executives. This film will appeal mainly
to a “sold" audience, politica *.y; besides, it is
calm, balanced, and rather fair. Only rarely is
rhetoric used to add emotion to the sheer pow
er of facts. However, the flat record of what they
suffered and did last November cannot possibly
hurt men like President Johnson and Robert Ken
nedy at the polls.
Regardless of its intentions and dubious box-
office prospects, the film serves an important
public need. It puts the events of 11 months ago
in the perspective of their true context (civil
lights unrest, political fenc.-mending by JFK
in the South) and organizes scattered details
into their logical time sequence.
When these are added to the probing of the sound
camera, which reproduces the real sights and
sounds of the events and locales, there is no
doubt the citizen can better understand What Hap
pened.-
SOME MAY' fault the movie for a lack of taste-
in its use of film clips to manufacture tension
and suspense (e.g., frequent dramatic cross
cutting to clocks or to the Book Depository
during the Dallas motorcade). But a reporter can
not really be grudged the right to tell the truth
artfully. More seriously, it uses pitiful Jack
Ruby as a whipping boy ("he had finally made the
big time”) while exuding good will toward the
law enforcement agencies. Police help, of course,
made the film possible.
Technically, “Four Days” is a marvel; in truth,
the documentary is an art form that has reach
ed practical perfection. The basic material, which
intensively covers the preceding week as well as
the four days, comes from newsreels, TV tapes,
amateur movies. The wonder is that so few shots
are poorly lighted, grainy or out-of-focus. The
editing is often touchingly clever (cutting from a
lamenting folksinger to people laying flowers at
the murder site, while the music continues behind).
OFTEN director Mel Stuart sends hand-held
cameras along the route followed by Oswald, with
the tape-recorded testimony of witnesses on the
soundtrack. (We enter the Texas theater in the
dark and see the same empty seats, the same
movie Oswald saw). When film is lacking, editor
William Cartrightuses stills but keeps the camera
panning and tracking. The assassination itself is
<jolt, broken only by the thunder of the rifle
shots. Why, nearly a year later, is this so heart-
breakingly moving?
And there are hundreds of those perceptive
“little images,’’ some new, some old, that made
these events, for those who loved John F. Ken
nedy, half-nightmare, half-Greek tragedy:
-Jacqueline Kennedy, in that unforgetable pink
suit. I had never seen Mrs. Kennedy cry until
this film. The break comes at a crushing mom
ent; the last playing of “Hail to the Chief”
before the Capitol.
- The weeping Negro waiter behind the serv
ing table at the Trade Mart, the candlelight pro
cession in Berlin, the grinning newsmen carry
ing Oswald’s coffin.
- The Image of Oswald as a cherubic second
grader, with the background comment that his
mother had just divorced her third husband.
- The Secret Service man beating his fist in
despair against the presidential limousine; the
woman in Ireland who sent a letter “with deep
regra. . .” (her voice chokes into silence as
the camera moves in).
- Cardinal Cushing, “the great craggy arch
angel,’’ praying “I am the Resurrection and
the Life" in that flat melancholy voice echo
ing among the tombstones at Arlington; the bugl
er whose expert composure, like so many hearts,
cracked as he played “Taps” in the bright, grim
sunshine.
S.H. KRESS & COMPANY
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God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
Provety has been mentioned many times here at the Coun
cil, but the most concrete testimony of its existence is the
real poverty of over half the bishops present. We from the
land of wealth daily look on our brothers in Christ who have
nothing! Here are extracts from letters written to me by
missionary bishops attending the Council here in Rome:
“In my diocese neither I, the bishop, nor any of my priests
have enough Mass stipends to buy food for daily living. Our
people are too poor to make any offering.”
Another letter reads: “My diocese extends 40,000 square
miles. In this area there are 151,000 inhabitants, but only
seven priests and seven sisters to care for them. We have no
cathedral or seminary, neither do I have a house. Our
priests serve the faithful on horseback. A jeep is necessary
for this area, but we are too poor to afford one and so are
the people. Maybe you could help us with some Mass stipends?”
Another writes: “My cathedral is a tiny
little shack which holds only 60 people.
If I had any personal needs I would never
dare to write you, but because of my love
for my little flock I have to undergo this
torture and I hope not, your refusal.” And
still another: “In order to come to the
Council I sold an icebox, a little portable
radio and a portable typewriter. With aid from
my old mother, I had $400. What wealth!
The other day a pick-pocket took all I had
left—$330. Will you give me something?”
This is a side of the Council that few know about, the poverty
of the bishops. These letters come from all over the world,
for The Society for the Propagation of the Faith cares
for not one area or one group, but the entire world. What a pity
it is that those who write critically of the Church, while pro
fessing to be loyal members, do not know of the deep spirit
of sacrifice in which many priests and bishops live day by
day.
We received another letter from a bishop in the United States
who had been a missionary in China. He lived in China for 27
years and spent some time in a Japanese concentrationcamp.
When the Chinese Reds took over, he was in solitary confine
ment for two years, spendng four months of this time in a small
cell* He was served two meals a day: one of poor grade rice
and the other of boiled leaves. He writes; “Whereas it is im
possible for me to send any money to China, and whereas 1
am privileged, able and happy to confer ordinations and con—
firmations, give a gew days of recollection and receive a little
honorarium, 1 feel I should give some of this superabun
dance to help the Holy Father's Missions. Enclosed is a check
for $500." This is not the first time this Bishop has sent
$500. to the Holy Father. Only the wounded know how to care
for those who are wounded. Bishops and priests who have suf
fered for the Church are always the first to come forward to
help.
May those of you, both priests and laity, who read these
letters be inspired to make sacrifices to help The Society for
the Propagation of the Faith bear the burden of the poor bishops
of the world. The Church is so blessed in such men!
GOD LOVE YOU to F. W. for $100 “Enclosed is a token of
my gratitude for all the blessings God has showered on my
family, my business and myself.” ... to a new R. N. for
$10 “Today I received notice that I passed my examinations
and am now a registered nurse. I promised God that when I
became a nurse I would send $10 to T1k Society for the- Pro
pagation of the Faith. Here it is for those who have so little”
. . . to M. M. H. for $70 “This year 1 received a generous
increase in salary. This good fortune I wish to share witn the
poor of the world.”
The ten letters of GOD LOVE Y'OU became a decade of the
Rosary as they encircle the medal originated by Bishop Sheen
to honor the Madonna of the World. What better way to remind
yourself to pray for the world, and especially now, for the
bishops of the world in Council?
$2 small sterling silver
$3 Small 10k gold filled
$5 large sterling silver
Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to it and mall it to
Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Society
for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York
1, N. Y. or your Archdiocesen Director, Very Rev. Harold
•J. Rainey P. O. Box 12047 Northside Station, Atlanta 5, Ga.