Newspaper Page Text
LITURGICAL RENEWAL
A Sense Of Community
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1964 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5
ST. LEONARD OF PORT MAURICE
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
One of the most important elements of the
liturgical renewal is the understanding and ex
perience of a sense of community. As a matter
of fact, it is impossible to understand even the
basic definition of liturgy without this sense of
community. Liturgy is social worship. The Con
stitution of Vatican Council II says: “in the lit
urgy the whole public worship is performed by
the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that is, by
the head and his members.*’
This notion of the living body
of Christ of which we are the
members is indispensable for
grasping and properly partici
pating in the liturgy.
It is a paradox that our time
has found so much fruitful
meaning in this doctrine of the
Body of Christ, which is the
Church - which is ourselves. The paradox is
that we find it so fruitful and at the same time
so difficult. Our conditioning and our inhibitions
are in opposition to our ready experience of such
a reality. We live in an age of individualism,
exaggerated and magnified by a thousand facets
of modern ltfe which daily exert their pressure
on us. Sociologists and philosophers speak of the
fragmentation of modern society, caused by our
mobility and lack of roots, among other things.
AT THE same time, our best personal in
stincts thirst for community and communication
with each other. Modern psychology and philo
sophy have given us the insight that a person is
best understood as one who knows and loves other
persons. Concern for our ability to communicate
with other persons and for our all too frequent
failure to achieve it is the daily fare of learned
journals as well as family-type magazines. Much
of the neurotic frustration, so common as to have
become a hackneyed element of innumerable con
versations, springs from a very common sense of.
isolation.
With all this in mind, undoubtedly, as well as
the true nature of the liturgy as common wor
ship, the Council has set certain norms for re
forming the liturgy based “on the communal
nature*’ of our worship. “Liturgical services,*’
the Fathers declare, “are not private functions,
but are celebrations of the Church...namely, the
holy people united and ordered under their bish
ops.*’ They conclude from this that celebrations
of the sacred rites involving the presence and ac
tive participation of the faithful are to be preferr
ed to a celebration that is individual and quasi
private. This applies especially to the celebra
tion of Mass.
CHRIST enclosed the reality and effects of his
redemptive deed under the sign of a banquet, a
communal meal. Part of this sign, then, is con
tained in the assembly of persons participating
in the banquet. Granted that the Mass has, of its
very nature, even when celebrated in solitude by
a priest, a social and public nature, the fulness
of die sign instituted by Christ demands the pre
sence and activity of an assembly.
The next generation of Catholics probably will
not have our problems. They will probably be
able to feel themselves a community without long
explanations. We, however, have to make a de
termined effort. Many of the elements of a full-
grown liturgical program in a parish, for example,
are designed to make real for us the communal
nature of our active worship. Common singing,
common acclamations and prayers, changes in
posture on the part of the congregation, the
solemn presentation of the gifts in an Offertory
procession - all these attempt to give us what
abstract argument can hardly accomplish, a
sense of belonging to each other. This is the
main reason for the altar facing the congre
gation: not primarily visibility but the picture
of a family encircling a common table.
QUESTION BOX
Baptism By Immersion?
BY MSGR. J. D. CONWAY
Q. Recently, while on a European tour I had
the pleasure of visiting the ancient Cathedral
in Milan, Italy. To my astonishment, I heard
the Italian guide, who escorted my party, say
that in Milan they baptize by immersion and not
by pouring the water, as is done in Rome.
I have always believed, and
I am sure that I was taught,
that for Baptism to be valid,
the water must be pouredJMow,
if the Church is universal, how
can a Sacrament so important
as Baptism be administered in
more than one way.
A. In the Archdiocese of Mi
lan the Ambrosian Rite is used
(just how extensively I do not
know). The traditional method of Baptism is
this rite is by immersion.
The law of the Church (Canon 758), notes that
Baptism may be validly conferred by the pouring
of water, by immersion, or by sprinkling; but
permits the use of only the first or second meth
od (or of these two methods combined). In other
words, sprinkling is not permitted by present
law of the Church, though it was sometimes used
in past centuries in some places.
In earliest centuries the most common method
of Baptism was by immersion; though the pour
ing of water seems to have been used in some
cases, even from the beginning. In later times
VITAL RELIGION
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
dorovitch Uitchev, chairman of the ideological
committee of the Communist Party’s central
directorate and former editor of Pravda, publish
ed this January.
OUR evaluators of the Cold War tend today
to rely primarily on the So' v ietr*Ch inese rif L
By encouraging this, they argue, we strengthen
our position. That is perfectly logical. But
my study of the Ilitchev Report and a host of
observations and discussions in Europe and Asia
convince me that religion remains the true Ach
illes’ heel of Communism. That system is found
ed on a faith, of which it is a basic dogma that
religion is reactionary and must wither away in
a Communist climate. This Communist faith is
up against hard facts. Religion in the Soviet Un
ion, as Ilitchev sadly confesses, is no longer
reactionary. And it is not withering away.
But the Communist faith, like any faith, is en
tire. If the believer becomes convinced that a
single dogma is false, he must end by reject
ing the whole of which it forms a part.
IT IS no secret to the leaders of the Western
world that since 1959 a wave of anti-religious
persecution, as savage as any under Lenin or
the early Stalin, has been sweeping Russia. This
year’s Conference of European Rabbis has again
documented the fate of Jews in Russia. A com
mittee of Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox has
been formed in France to spotlight the situa
tion of Christians behind the Curtain. Its func
tion is not to stir up further the already wide
spread fanatical anti-Communism. On the contra
ry, its members are ail known for their dedi
cation to dialogue, to lowering of tension, and to
Saints in Black and White! EDUCATOR WARNS
Population Boom Demands
More Catholic Attention
1/
it
7(~
77
vA
>■/
1
ACROSS
1 lethal
6 He suffered
health
10 drowse
13 senility
14 California Indian
tribe
15 In debt
16 note: music
17 amphibians
19 He wrote many——
21 decline
23 vision
25 gas
26 He encouraged peo
ple to live——lives
28 borders upon
30 roundup
33 He was bom in
35 slashes
37 Lokl’s son
38 absolve (arch)
40 earn
42 favorable vote
43 dart
45 Southern States
47 concerning
48 centigrams (abbr)
50 ancon
52 perfume
54 King Alfred’s City
(abbr)
56 fiend
58 a cigar
61 Esau’s father-in-
law
63 more crippled
65 Ethiopia’s title for
ruler
66 He Joined a society
similar to Friars-—
68 marine
70 dispatched
71 He was canonized
by Pope —- IX
73 Country In Hlmlay-
an Mountains
75 scruple (abbr)
76 extra seat on saddle
79 soars
81 diphthong
82 man's nickname
83 retreat
85 Portuguese coin
87 years (abbr)
88 defer
89 S. African guns
DOWN
1 Buddha
2 Siamese coin
3 New Mexico Indian
Tribe
4 afresh
5 shelves
6 phenye (abbr)
7 suffix: adjective
8 frank
9 scarcer
10 midday
11 confess
12 article (Fr)
13 career beginnings
16 dark reddish-brown
18 medieval wind in
strument
20 satellite
22 a metal
24 endeavored
27 abscond
29 fillet
31 sooner (arch)
32 platinum wire loop
34 harvest
36 He was beatified
by Plus
39 brand
41 Atlas
44 Latin
46 overhanging edges
of a roof
48 male nickname
49 India musket ball
51 distaff
53 fads
55 mystify
57 ne’er
59 messenger
60 pertaining to stars
62 waste fiber
64 sword
67 wrecks
69 riata
72 grime
74 stone monument
76 exert
77 comparative ending
78 opposite of taboo
80 over (Fr)
84 “Bluegrass State"
(abbr)
86 repeat (abbr)
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE, PAGE 9 1
WASHINGTON, D.C. (RNS)—
A noted Catholic layman said
here that Catholics, because of
their belief in the Ten Com
mandments and the Word of
Christ, are obligated to give
more attention to the “popu
lation explosion*’ which, he
said, may doom to poverty many
nations even now unable to cope
with the problem.
Catholics are unrealistic in
their approach to many of the
world’s great problems, ac
cording to Dr. George Shuster,
keynote speaker before the an
nual convention of the Catholic
Association for International
Peace. Currently assistant to
the president of the University
of Notre Dame, Dr. Shuster is
a former president of CAIP.
HE said many Catholics are
conversant with the finer points
of doctrine and can give dis
sertations on what is morally
right or wrong from the
Church’s point of view, but are
“woefully ignorant** of steps’
they should take to help alle
viate world problems.
“We Catholics set up schools
and hospitals. . .send abroad
priests, religious and lay folk
with prodigal charity. But we
have not yet grown accustomed
to recognizing that something
like the introduction .of hybrid
corn can accomplish many thou
sand times more in terms of
human well-being on this earth.
“We have not harnessed the
sciences to our conception of
service.*’
HE urged Catholic secondary
schools to include in their cur-
a custom developed of having the candidate for
baptism enter the font or pool, in which the water
might come to his knees or his waist, and then
water would be poured on his head.
In the Latin or Roman Rite in recent centur
ies our liturgical books permit only the pour
ing of water. Eastern Catholic Rites still bap
tize by immersion.
The Church is one in doctrine, one in sanc
tifying union with Jesus, one in loyalty to the Vi
car of Christ on earth, one in the collegiate unity
of all its bishops, successors of the Apostles.
The Church is one in sharing the same Sacrifice,
in joining in the one Holy Communion of mutual
love with Christ and with each other, and in re
ceiving the same Sacraments. But in the course
of 20 centuries it has developed a variety of
rites and ceremonies.
The Bishops of the Church, joined in Coun
cil in St. Peter’s, have the Mass (or Sacred
Liturgy) quite often in one of the Eastern Rites-
which seem quite foreign to you and me.
Q. I am wondering if it Is all right for a
married woman to wear shorts around her own
home and to picnics in the park, as long as she
doesn’t wear them on the street or to the store.
I don’t mean short shorts, but Bermuda or
Jamaica shorts.
A. Why not? Everybody else does, even many
who are estheticaily not designed for tern.
ARNOLD VIEWING
Comic Crime Caper
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
At the supreme moment in “Topkapi," a man
is dangling by his feet at 'the end of a 300-
foot rope inside a bizarre Istanbul museum,
struggling to lift a huge glass case that guards
a priceless jeweled dagger- without setting off an
alarm.
Meanwhile, up on the parapeted roof, a plump
ne'er-do-well who is frightened to death of heights
is straining at the rope. He is trying to keep
the thief from the floor, which is wired to sound
the alarm. A companion is pull
ing a second rope to provide
a delicate lift for the glass
case. It is a heck of a time
for anyone to sneeze.
co-existence.
What they want to do is to use the facts con
structively. All believers, but in particular the
Christians, Jews and Moslems who are the main
victims of the persecution, have a common in—
terest in bringing pressure on Soviet Russia to
desist. All lovers of freedom have a common
interest in persuading Communists that their faith
is false.
IN THIS effort the Orthodox occupy a key posi
tion. Inside Russia, they alone can raise any
protest. And though they have to speak cautious
ly, they do speak. Four years ago at a disar
mament conference, Patriarch Alexis protested
against continuing attacks on the Church. Last
year, a group of Russian Orthodox appealed to
the Orthodox Patriarchs of Constantinople and
Antioch to help them in the “bitter persecu
tion” to which Antichrist had subjected them
since 1959. To strengthen Orthodoxy around the
world is thus to promote religion in Russia and
hasten the withering away of Communism.
It is not only for the unification of the West or
the revival of freedom in Russia however, that
religion is a value we have neglected. In the less
developed world, religion plays a still bigger role
in social and political organization and even in
economics. In the Near East, in Africa, in the In
dian subcontinent, in Japan and elsewhere, it is
often a destructive and divisive force.
Nevertheless, if we understood its power and
significance, we could in our foreign policy of
ten use it postively and creatively. By acting as
though it wasn’t there or didn't matter, we
are stultifying our efforts and wasting much of
our contribution to world development.
TO SAY that producer-direc
tor Jules Das sin, the ack
nowledged master of the caper
film (“Rififi"), does not make
the best of this would be to
understimate genius. It is a
funny, breathless half-hour stretch of film.
The rest of “Topkapi” is not, could not, be
quite that good. It is mostly a predictable ex
ample of the caper film-type, spiced with ironic
adult humor and touches of Dassin’s delightful
filmmaking skill. If it has a weakness, it is that
one is always concious that Dassin is despera
tely filling time before he gets to his piece-
de-resistance.
WHILE the sophisticated will easily recognize
that crime and sin are spoofed, not endorsed,
the moral tone is hardly uplifting. The hero (Max
imilian Schell) is a master thief, the heroine
(Melina Mercouri) has extensive passions for
men and emeralds, and the key character (Pet
er Ustinov) is a pornography peddler. In the
context of the current movie obsession for the
amoral, “Topkapi" will add little to man’s
quest for virtue.
While this may sound like questionable comedy
material, Dassin establishes an aura of make-
believe from the start with a stunning series
of surrealistic color shots of the museum,
a carnival and Miss Mercouri’s wacky schem
ing. “Topkapi" clearly joshes films that glorify,
as sort of a supreme sophisticate, the high-
fclass, high-brow International Jewel Thief.
A CAPER film, of course, is about a gang of
crooks, including an attractive female, who plan
an impossible job. As tension mounts, they
squabble among themselves. One or many un
foreseen developments force changes in plan
and test the mastermind's ingenuity. The crime
is carried out in harrowing detail, and usually
the mob is foiled, either by human weakness
or some accidental twist of fate. Sometimes the
film is serious (both versions of “The Killers"),
but more often it is comic (“Lavender Hill
Mob," “The Pink Panther").
“Topkapi” has several extraordinary elements.
One is the sheer mad elegance of the crime it
self; another is the fabulously inventive way
Dassin has photographed and edited it. Cameras
careen about roofs or slide down ropes to the
ground; backgrounds begin to rotate for no ap
parent reason; mirrors show speaker and lis
tener in closeup simultaneously. (No film study
club could want a better example of how cross
cutting, to different scenes of simultaneous ac
tion, with imperceptibly increasing speed, can
be used to generate ulcer-producing suspense).
Other good bits:
-A Turkish wrestling match, a long, noisy
spectacle in itself, during which the gang man
ages to elude police who are following them.
Dassin achieves this without a word of dialog.
- The sight of police in a small Volkswagen
pursuing the crooks in a shiny white Lincoln
convertible.
- The clever police lieutenant with the dark
glasses - the current movie symbol for sinis
ter-sophisticated. When he solves the case (be
ing no longer in the "dark"), he removes them
for the first time.
ANOTHER unusual element is introducing into
the gang an incompetent rascal (Ustinov) who
serves as genial foil for the deft professionalism
of the other crooks. He is not only reluctant,
but clumsy enough to botch the job at any point.
This character is the creation of suspense
author Eric Ambler, who used him as narra
tor-hero in the originial 1963 novel ("The Light of
Day”). Ustinov, with his patented cynicism and
twangy Yorkshire accent, makes him amusing
if not entirely loveable. In one of the best se
quences, Ustinov clings wildly to the rope as
its weight drags him down a rain gutter toward
the roof's edge and oblivion.
ricula courses showing '‘ex
plicit’* and “searching con
cern*’ with the problems of
economic and social develop
ment. “Far too many products
of Catholic education fail to see
any relevance between religion
and the world in which they live
other than that which is peren
nially suggested by the inevit
able mortality of the human
race.*’
While Catholics rightly show
concern over such problems as
abortion and infanticide
throughout the world, and are
making inroads in these realms,
he said, they appear to over
look the large numbers who are
bom into other adverse condi
tions and are victimized for life
by those conditions.
“Vastly more significant, no
doubt, is that large numbers of
children are bom in absolute
squalor, without having the
slightest chance to attain even to
an absolute minimum of human
decency.*’
DR. Shuster told delegates
that if the resources of science
“were fully utilized, the face of
the earth could be changed with
in the century, virtually making
mass poverty a thing of the
past.*'
He said that “if we wish to do
so vigorously enough, it will
soon be unnecessary to go about
the world with our guilty con
sciences on our sleeves, com
paring our pampered selves
with the multitudinous poor
tumbling with each new day
deeper into the pit of despair.*’
HIGHER education, “and in a
special sense, Catholic higher
education, is called upon to
make the problems of economic
and social development, includ
ing population control, a matter
of deep concern,” the educator
emphasized.
He urged the CAIP to under
take the project to “hammer
out through consultation and
discussion an appropriate
course of study...
“If knowledgeable persons in
this country or in others direct
ly affected could be utilized as
resource speakers, and if ade
quate bibliographies could be
prepared, then, it seems tome,
the association could move into
the mainstream of education
down which, after all, the cargo
of the future will be carried.”
Encyclopedia
NEW YORK (NC)—Hawthorn
Books, Inc., announced here re
lease of two new volumes in the
150-volume ’Twentieth Cen-
tur y Encyclopedia of Catholi
cism.*’ They are: “Religious
Orders of Women,” the 123rd
volume in the series, and “Law
and Morals,” the 124th.
AT LEAST half the movie’s box-office is based
on the fact that blonde Miss Mercouri (Mrs.
Dassin in real life) is a dish, with strong
predatory instincts. This mature beauty comes
equipped with a wiggle, a Grecian profile as
craggy as the Aeolian Isles and the only female
voice in the world deeper than Walter Cronkite’s.
Melina engages in much self-satire ("Do you
mind that I am a nymphomaniac?" she asks
Schell soulfully). But one feels that Dassin is
constantly poking him in the ribs and asking him
to observe how maddeningly sexy she is.
Most spectators will find this more tiresome
than tempting; after eating seven or eight appl
es, one contemplates another Macintosh with de
clining enthusiasm, Some of the prettiest shots,
however, are simply of Melina strolling about in an
array of pastel costumes. On the less glamor
ous side, there are fascinating candid views
of the ordinary people of Istanbul, shot from
a moving car as they hurry about their daily
business. The cast, which also includes old pros
Robert Morley and Akim Tamiroff, is deter
minedly droll.
CURRENT RECOMMENDED FILMS;
Superior: Behold a Pale Horse.
For special tastes: Night of the Iguana, A Hard
Day’s Night, Four Days in November.
Better than most; Topkapi, Becket, One Potato,
Two Potato, Fall of the Roman Empire, Mafio
so.
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
This week's column is addressed from Rome to our brother
priests and to you, good laity, living in comparative comfort
all over the United States. You have been generous with
both your time and money; your churches, rectories and
schools stand as silent testimony to this. Many of you feel
that you have given over and above "where it was most need
ed" - closest to home.
Consider for a moment what and where "home" is for over
half the bishops present at the Council. Just take one par
ticular bishop whose diocese is rather ty
pical of most mission areas. The average ex
tent of each parish is 400 square miles, and
the average number of parishioners in each
parish is 18,500 souls. Fourteen rural par
ishes of this size and five city parishes
have no motorized transportation - only don
keys. Illiteracy runs from 60 to 80
per cent of the people. Onehalf of all the bab
ies die at birth. In fifteen of the parishes
the t* al income of each priest is $15
a month.
Last week we spoke about the poverty of the bishops pre
sent. Perhaps some are impressed by the learning manifest
ed here at the Council. What impresses me most is the poverty
of the bishops I Poverty you can see in the jewel-less pre
lates, some who have even sold their pectoral crosses. Pov
erty you can hear daily in the voices that plead for Mass
stipends to give their priests the means for subsistence.
And when these Mass stipends are gone we see the symbol
of the world's greatest pain - four empty hands: the two beg
ging hands stretched out to me, and the two empty hands I
extend to them I
We address this God Love You especially to our brother
priests who may want to help Our Blessed Lord Whose poverty
is being relived in these. His ambassadors. Share your com
fort, your abundance. It is not really so much that they need
help, as we do. They need only a roof over their heads and
a jeep, but we need to win intercessors for our souls. We
see Christ in the Eucharist with the eyes of faith, but there is
also the Unknown Christ in the poor, Whom we can see only
with the eyes of charity. Send us stipends, sacrifices- any
thing 1
And you, good laity, remember The Society for the Pro
pagation of the Faith by a daily sacrifice. We wish we could
place a different Catholic each day in my seat at the Coun
cil and let him be visited by one of these bishops and hear
his pleas. How kind and generous you would be to each bishop.
Take my word for it, that what now seems to you to be super
abundant generosity would then be seen in a truer light of
justice. I offer my Mass every Sunday for you who are kind
to the Holy Father’s Society for the Propagation of the Faith
while I am here in Rome.
GOD LOVE YOU to H. W. for $25 “When I read your
MISSION magazine my heart went out to the poor and afflicted.
1 received this as a retirement gift but would rather those who
are unable to retire have it." to J. H. for $12 "I promised
that I would send $4 a month in honor of St. Joseph and St.
Jude. 1 am on Social Security disability but I want to share what
I have. The Holy Father will know best how it should be used."
to B. R. S. for $200 “I had been saving this money to invest
and after thinking it over, 1 decided that there could be no
finer investment than in The Society for the Propagation of the
Faith.”
Bishop Sheen’s latest book, THE POWER OF LOVE, is now
available in paperback. Based on His Excellency’s nationally
syndicated column and including material never published be
fore, THE POWER OF LOVE shows how love belongs in every
major area of our lives. He shows how love can give us direc
tion despite the complexities and distractions of our time.
It will be an important contribution to your dally life and the
lives of all to whom you give it. THE POWER OF LOVE is
available for $.60 by writing the Order Department of The
Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue,
New York 10001.
Cut out this column, pin your sacrific. to it and mail it
to Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of The So
ciety for the Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10001, or to your Diocesan Director,
Rev. Harold J. Rainey P. O. Box 12047 Northside Station
Atlanta 5, Georgia.