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$ * * \ COLLATING RENEWAL Advent Liturgy BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW The Advent liturgy opens with a marvelous vision. It embraces the entire history of God’s redemptive plan to gather his people to himself in Christ. The theme of the Advent celebration r<- sts upon the two poles of the beginning and the final end of salvation history.Over the panoramic vision Christ presides as the Lord of History. ' The four Sundays of liturgical preparation for Christmas recall the ages of the old Testament dispensation bet ween God and his chosen people. In accord with his promise, God formed a covenant with the He brew nation in anticipation of the “eternal covenant” He would one day establish through his Son. The generations of the Old Covenant were filled with the wondrous deeds by which Y ahweh, the living God, gradually revealed him self to his people. Patriarchs, prophets and kings were appointed to bear his message, to correct his people’s faults and to demonstrate the moral perfection demanded of God’s chosen ones. THE AGES of the Old Covenant were a time of faith and hope in the power and faithfulness of God to his promises. They were a gradual revealing of Christ, whose advent climaxed the years of expectation. This is what St. Paul re called to his readers in the Epistle to the He brews; “Long ago God spoke in incomplete and varied ways to our fathers through the prophets; in these, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, whom he has made heir of all things, and through whom he created the ages.” The mystery of Christ’s coming is so rich and varied in meaning that the liturgy must stretch the portrayal of it over the weeks of Advent. The historic coming of Jesus at his birth is the simplest element of the picture. It is Christ’s coming as Lord, heralded by all the prophets ending with John the Baptist, that the Liturgy wishes particularly to portray. After centuries of promises that God’s reign would be estab lished once and for all, Christ emerges to pro claim effectively; “the Kingdom of God is here.’’ God’s love is now to embrace all men, summoned by His Son to become his sons. LAST SUNDAY’S Gospel stretches our imagin ation to its utmost to impress upon us the full force of what is meant by Christ's advent. The coming of Christ which we see leaps from his historic life and preaching to the final day when he will return to gather his kingdom to Himself and subject it eternally to his Father. “Men will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with great power and glory.” To the early Christians, this Parousia, the second coming of Christ in glory, was a familiar consideration. They look ed forward to it as the final consummation of their faith and hope. It is in view of this final day that the demands and trials of the Chris tian life are meaningful. From it flows the assurance transmitted in Christ’s words, “Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will never pass away.” For us, who live neither at the beginning nor at the end of this history of salvation but in the middle, so to speak, the lesson is clear. This vision of faith is to reach into our “here and now”. As Paul reminds us, we live in a new day; “It is now the hour for you to wake up from sleep.” This is a new day when justice must be done, love must be expanded, solutions and answers must be struggled for and discovered. It is a call for action. QUESTION BOX Vocation Puzzle? MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY Q. Suppose that a young man wished to enter the brotherhood of the Benedictine order, and sup pose that he really felt that he was being called by God to this life. If, however, he knew that he had homosexual tendencies would this disqualify him, even if he did not wish these tendencies, and for the most part fought against them, although he had given in at times? If he would be able to enter would the superior have to be informed of the con dition? A. In my judgment, a person with such tenden cies - not completely under control - would have no business in a religious order, and I believe it wouldx.be •wrong to deceive the order into accepting him. How ever, in a particular case I recommend the counsel of a wise spiritual director, who can consider all angles of the case, *•* Q, I have a friend who is a wonderful person and a very good parent. He was not raised Catholic, but later was convert ed, He believes in the Good Lord, but no longer attends Mass or receives the sacraments. What will happen to his soul after death? A, The Good Lord will decide that; He alone knows what is in the hearts of men. He alone knows how honest men are with themselves, *** Q. Now that a change has taken place in the Mass how shall we say our own private prayers? And should one buy a new missal? A. Come early and say your private prayers be fore Mass, stay after Mass to say them, make a visit to the church at some other time of the day, or say them at home. We must grasp the basic concept that the Mass is a community project. It is public worship. It is the Church- the People of God - gathered to hear God’s word, to offer praise and sacrifice in union with Jesus Christ, and to participate together in a banquet of love and brotherhood. You may have a few moments for private prayer while the priest offers the common prayer of all the congregation in Latin; the oration, secret pray er, and postcommunion. You may findafewmom- ents for private ado ration at the time of the Con secration and after it; and also a brief moment for intense personal thanksgiving after the Com munion procession and its hymn are completed. But don't be selfish; do not let-ypur private devo tions intrude on your participation in the songs, gestures, prayers, and listening of the priest and congregation. I do not recommend a new missal. To the best of my knowledge none is available with the transla tions which will be used - especially for the Epis tles and Gospels. You should listen to these when they are read to you; you hear God's word. I would suggest that you take your old missal to Mass; it can be helpful during the Canon, for in stance. Then, if your parish does not distribute cards for the English parts in which you partici pate, you should obtain a missal insert, which may cost you a dime. *** Q. Please help me with a question of etiquette. Who gives the stipend at baptism, the parents or the godparents? A. Frankly I don't know. I have seen it done both ways without rhyme. Reason indicates to me that it should be the parents. ASIAN CHRISTIANITY Your World And Mine CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 rr SEEMS TO me that in the coming period of relations on a level of equality between the cul tures of East and West, Christianity is destined to play a far more important role. Japan has, for ex ample, more than 15.000 students in 21 Catholic colleges and universities and ten times as many in protestant institutions of higher learning. Chris tian missionaries made an immense and heroic contribution to the feeding, settlement, education and integration of the refugees from China who more than doubled the population of Hong Kong since 1946. Hong Kong is today the West's main point of contact with China. Its people, educated largely in Christian schools, will be the interpre ters of the VVest to China when dialogue is renew ed. The number of converts to Christianity today is not insignificant, especially in Hong Kong and Sin gapore. But the immediate task of Christians in the new Asia, in India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Japan and elsewhere, is less to make Christians than to make Christianity meaningful to the cultures of Asia. It is a slow, exacting grind, with few visible rewards for the dedicated men and women engaged in it. In many places it can be conducted only with dif ficulty, Restrictions on the entry of missionaries are the order of the day. Restrictions on their ac tivities are common. Governments are constantly more inclined to take over mission schools and charitable institutions. Development of nationalis tic attitudes reduces the opportunity for contact with the people to whom the missionary seeks to offer the Gospel message, ALL OF THIS, nevertheless, calls not for a de crease but for an increase in the number of mis sionaries. It also compels more specialized and intensive training. Today's missionary in Asia needs increasingly to be a scholar both in his own culture and in that of his adopted home. Already, all Catholic missionaries to Japan spend two years on arrival in a specialized language school, return frequently for further courses. On the shelves of a rectory in a mountain town some hundreds of miles north of Tokyo, I found alongside Saint Thomas the works of Mauriac, Teilhard de Chardin, James Joyce, Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre and Jack Kerouac. “I have to keep up with the people I meet," the French- Canadian pastor explained. “The newest books are translated into Japanese as they appear in the Unit ed States and Europe. Not a few enquirers about the Church know of us only through such biased sour ces." The specific task of these missionaries is to strengthen and deepen the spiritual life of the tiny Christian minorities, and to develop among them vocations to the religious life and the priesthood. The apostolate to non-Christians will be largely religious life and the priesthood.The apostolate to non-Christians will be largely indirect, centers of learning to familiarize the East with the culture of the West and the West w*ith that of the East, re-interpretation of the Christian message and Christian worship in terms more meaningful to their people. Catholic and Protestant missionaries here find themselves with very similar terms of reference. To make their work fruitful, they will have to co ordinate it, according to Father Joseph J, Spae, specialist in oriental philosophy and languages and Japan's leading Catholic sociologist. “The attain ment of Church unity, at least to a degree that takes away the scandal of division,*’ he^ says, "seems a requisite for the further penetration of the message of Christ.” Saints in Black and White ST. SERVULUS 130 ACROSS 1 smart 5 concoct 9 tattle 13 corridor 14 woman’s nickname 15 thong 17 auk genus 18 son of Agrippina 20 loose robe 22‘ pullulating 25 Government Organ ization «. 26 capable 27 baseball abbrevia tion 28 existence 29 personal pronoun 30 Benedictines (abbr) 31 Its capital is Raleigh 52 no person 34 a variety of beans 35 wild animal’s trail 39 completes 41 hole-ln-ono 42, even if 44 His life teaches us 48 camouflage 52 fall ill 53 pertaining to the loot 55 quarrel 56 autumn pear 59 disorder 60 and (Latin) 61 Hezekiah’s Mother 62 limited (abbr) 63 suffix denoting origin 64 exclamation! 66 drones 68 Miao, Chinese Tribe 69 herded 71 advantage 73 guided missile 75 Russian sea, inland 76 eternal (arch) 78 unwritten 80 bluster 81 among 82 Portuguese naviga tor 83 stains DOWN 1 talks 2 drags 3 that one (Latin) 4 He was carried to St. Church to beg 5 a Bachelor’s degree 6 environ 7 compass point 8 loud shout 9 bags (abbr) 10 shavetails (abbr) 11 melody 12 reed 16 He was afflicted with from birtt 19 pertaining to the peritoneum 21 i/ 2 Hebrew shekel 23 Inclusive 24 Canadian province (abbr) 29 drunkard 33 devourer 34 compass point 35 heavy 36 landing craft 37 O, plural 38 He died December twenty- —— 40 glowed 42 Philliplne Island tree 43 small bone of the ear 45 siesta 46 Labor Union (abbr) 47 young pig 49 good till cancelled (abbr) 50 an aardvark 54 youth 55 manager 56 Polish cake 57 bulky 58 rest 60 W. W. IT Theatre 63 correlative 64 hoist 65 dawdles 67 appear 69 crowd 70 squirrel’s nest 72 triple 74 medieval money 77 Sioux State (abbr> 79 note; music ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE, PAGE 7 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 iq^ GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5 LEGION OF DECENCY ‘Condemned’Films Increase Family Productions Drop WASHINGTON, D.C, (RNS)— The Legion of Decency announ ced here that in the past year Hollywood has produced the smallest number of "family film*" in the history of the Raman Catholic reviewing agency. Its annual report said that the period (August 1963 through August 1964) saw Hollywood (and distributors who import foreign films) reflect "an avid desire for mass audiences and high profits, and a disregard for the spiritual and moral re quirements of the spectators.” OF THE 209 American-pro duced films reviewed by the Legion of Decency, only 42 — or 20 per cent — could be con sidered "family films," the agency said. Ektring the period, the Legion reviewed 270 films, 62 of foreign origin. Of this amount, it said: Sixteen (or 5.93) per cent) received condemned ratings, the greatest number and high est percentage in the 30-year- history of the reviewing agen cy. Three of the films were U.S, productions. 2. Domestic films rated "for adults only" rose sharply in the year — 53 films or 25.48 per cent of all productions. The figures for the previous year were 35 films or 18.6 per cent. 3. So-called "B" classifica tion films also rose. Forty- three films, described by the Legion as "morally objec tionable in part for all," rep resented 20.6 per cent of the U.S. output (up 17 films, 7 per cent). THE "DEPLORABLE trend," the Legion report said, of "sub stantial decrease in family films and the increase in objec tionable fare’’ is well describ ed as "moral brinkmanship.” The Roman Catholic agency also assailed double-features which pair family films with those which are either "adult" fare or "objectionable." In the report of the Episco pal Committee for Motion Pic tures, Radio and Television, made up of five bishops, a plea was made for increased produc tion of family films. It said: "Religious leaders, educa tors and government officials should join in urging film in dustry leaders to produce a greater number of family films. We make a particular and fer vent appeal to parents to meet their conscientious responsi bility towards their children in is matter. "WE BEG them not to expose their children to the corruptive influence of morally objection able movies.” Children, the report conclud ed, should not become "pawns or victims of the dangerous game of ’moral brinkmanship’ ” played by U.S. and foreign film producers. The report was submitted to the U.S, hierarchy at its annual meeting held in Rome. On Dec. 13, the bishops will invite Cath olics to renew their pledges of support to the Legion's program for better films. Superior Dead MILWAUKEE (NC)—Mother Mary Hilaria, 77, commissary general of the 6,000-member School Sisters of Notre Dame from 1956 to 1959, died (Nov. 27) at Notre Dame Infirmary in suburban Elm Grove. Seminary Fund Remember the SEMINARY FUND of the Archidocese of Atlanta in your Will. Bequests should be made to the “Most Reverend Paul J. Hallinan, Archbishop of the Catho lic Archdiocese of Atlanta and his successors in office". Participate in the daily prayers of our semi narians and in the Masses offer ed annually for the benefactors of our SEMINARY FUND. ARNOLD VIEWING Basically Ludicrous BY JAMES W. ARNOLD In 'The Outrage” the people who made "Hud” (director Martin Ritt, cameraman James Wong Howe, actor Paul Newman) labor at length try ing to re-paint the "Mona Lisa.” They produce a picture that is often pretty but basically ludi crous. Yet even if it were a masterpiece, the looks of this film would not really salvage the mischief of its meaning. ’The Outrage” is a close remake of Kuro sawa’s 1951 Japanese classic, "Rashomon,” which won the Venice grand prize, the Academy Award as best foreign film, and continuing critical acclaim as one of the truly great movies. Why do it again? Ritt has said he had to get back to work and it was the only good script available. Besides, most Americans had not seen "Rashomon.” Vast treats are in store when he recalls that most of us have not seen 'The Seventh Seal” or “La Dolce Vita” either. T ISN'T quite the same as updating a classic, since "Rashomon" is timeless, or as putting on a new version of "Hamlet.” A play has no life of its own; it can be passed from generation to generation only by repeated, and hopefully better, productions and interpretations. But a film exists as long as prints of it exist, and once a concept is perfectly filmed, we are not obliged to produce it again but only to screen it again. Ritt's new enterprise is better compared to do ing the "Hamlet” story with a new script. Worse, it is as if there were a conscious effort to stick very closely to Shakespearean structure and style. There is no point in reworking a mas terpiece unless the new man takes only the basic concept and completely re-creates it according to his own gifts and vision. There can be new paint ings of smiling, enigmatic women, but they ought to be more than Mona Lisas in beehive hairdos and basic black cocktail dresses. THE ETHEREAL 12th century Japanese fable has been transplanted to 19th century Arizona, a guilty, realistic territory as familiar to movie goers as their own backyards. The fit is as snug as if Scarlett O’Hara had been moved to a split- level in San Diego. Actor Newman plays a mean Mexican bandit who ambushes an aristocratic Southern couple (Claire Bloom, Laurence Harvey) in a forest of brush and papier-mache saguro cactuses. The husband is killed, the wife raped. The bandit is brought to an open-air trial on the dusty main street of a town which looks, inexplicably, as if it had recently been hit by a small atomic bomb. they have hold of Something Profound. TWO POSSIBLE solutions are suggested. One, favored by critics, is that there is no objective truth. Each person sees only a part of the whole, and what is true for him may at the same time be false for someone else. This notion, popular in the colleges today, is important to Ritt, who confes ses he made the film to promote this idea, which he describes as "terribly pertinent" to Americans. A second solution is to accept the idea that everyone is lying, but that the prospector, the most objective observer, is closest to the truth. In his version, all the actors behaved like clowns and cowards, and lied to make themselves seem noble or important. As a cynical character puts it, men like to think they are heroes, but in reality they are pipsqueaks. THUS THE field is leftto two contending modern philosophies. Truth is relative, or else man is ab surd, a comical creature whose tragedies cannot be taken seriously. The intellectual poing is sof tened (as in Kurosawa's film) by a far-fetched sentimental ending. An abandoned baby turns up, and the prospector resolves to care for it. We are left with the thought; men are fools, liars and thieves, but deep in our hearts, we know they are loveable. The most charitable view of all this cerebral jousting is that is is oven-rated. It is certainly true that the same event can be experienced dif ferently by different people (e.g., the wife thought she resisted, the husband thought she consented). But an event still occured ’ out there" whose truth is independent of what anyone may think or say about it. Furthermore, one tires of this terribly fash ion- able disparagement of man. He is either made in the image of Gsd, or he is not. If one believes that he is, then man is loveable not because he is small but because he is large. Our films are full of small men, but our press is not: a peasant Pope, an assassinated president, a martyred missionary doctor. These are men who asked to be taken seriously. BEYOND THIS, space only for a few random comments on art. Parts of ’The Outrage" are visually stunning, and the prospector’s story is deft satirical comedy. All the tales, in fact, are interesting interpretations of such genres as the traditional western, the feminine sociological tragedy, etc. But actors Newman and Harvey are too funny. Newman's bandit caricature proves again that no actor can hold the peak of his powers when he allows himself to be abused in a string of worthless, unchallenging roles. As for Harvey, he comes off best when completely bound and gagged. The crux of the matter is that events in the for est are narrated differently by each of the four wit nesses - the bandit, the wife, the dead husband (reporting, hold on, through an Indian medicine man who found him before he died), and an aged prospector who wanders by. Who really killed the husband? Was the woman willing or not? What is the true character of the participants? In raising these questions, the film-makers seem convinced Miss Bloom, when visible behind acres of dis heveled hair, is trapped by the need to play a make-believe woman in a realistic setting, and never quite figures a way out. Muchof director Ritt's work is admirable - the lyrical, spinning shots, the blurs and mists, the outting, the fast tracking shots through the brush. But the more art he uses, and too much of it is obvious, the more this false, contrived, stagey western is exposed for what it is. God Love You BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN Sometimes one must look into the future to decide what one must do in the present. The Apostles looking on the glory of the Temple of Jerusalem shining in the moming sunlight, called to Our Lord to gaze upon it. They saw magnificence; He saw not a stone upon a stone. Now what of America? The most momentous decision in our his tory, even more than our involvement in two worlds wars, was the decision of the Supreme Court to. exile God and prayer from schools. All the future chapters in American history will start here. One can foresee what is to follow. The next chapter will be the elimination of religious education alto gether by taxation. This is already being prepar ed. The third chapter will be taxing churches and religious life out of existence. In the fourth, re ligious people will affirm their liberties andpro- ,test the destruction of constitutional rights. This will provoke the fifth, a chapter of persecution, because of the re fusal of religion to be anti-religious. Here we are not concerned with legal measures to be taken, but rather with spiritual attitudes. Today, we can go to bed without fear. But is it not just make-believe to think that the attitude we take to people who have no bed has nothing to do with our future? The more capital we amass the more drives we have, the more we add bam to barn and gymnasium to social center, the more we be come like that gleaming Temple of Jerusalem, which to the Apos tles seemed a sign of prosperity, but to Christ Himself was al ready a ruin. We now need to prepare for the future; 1) By building humbly to share more of our wealth with the rest of the world, 2) By inspiring our college youths to dedicate two years in the Missions, as do the Mormons. 3) By self-criticism, asking ourselves if we are not like rich relatives whose poor relatives envy us to a point of waiting to lay hands on our money, 4) By going out into the world since the world will not come to us, reviving parish visitations, tightening bonds with men of good will, praying together with them. 5) By facing the sad fact that Communism is more missionary than we are, does more for the poor than we do and all for the sake of the partyl Does Christ mean less to us? Call that day when we lose our schools, X day. What regrets we will have that we did not have more drives for souls and less for money 1 Christ alone can save us. And where is He? In our tab ernacles I Yes. But that is His private presence. He also has a social presence, the Divine Incognito. He is in the leper; in the starving in India; in the famished children of Latin American slums. He is hidden in the heart of a lonely soul down the street; in the lives of the little children in Africa who yearn to go to school and in their parents Who long to have even a hut for a chapel, THERE is the Christ Who will save us I Religious vitality and love of Christ are on the wane \<nen they are interested principally in "acts of devotion." Scripture says that judgment begins with the Church! May we prevent it in our time by helping you share these sentiments, cut out this column and send it to us with your reflections, your prayers and your concrete proof that the Cross means something in your life, GOD LOVE YOU to M.J.S, for $100 "1 am only a secretary. 1 don’t have everything but I can spare two weeks salary for the poor of the world. 1 know they need more than I do." ...to M.V.K. for $14.35 "for months now I have been trying to go on a diet. Then I read about the starving millions of the world and here is the result, no sweets to fatten me and the sama money to feed them," Not too late for Christmas giving! Bishop Sheen’s, THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS, is a book the whole family will en joy and treasure. Simply and movingly, he tells the story of the Nativity - its meaning through the ages and for all of us today. Beautifully illustrated in color, this compact hard-bound book can be purchased for $1,50 by writing to the Order Department of The Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 366 Fifth Avenue, New York, N, Y, 10001. Allow one week for delivery.