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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.