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MORAL CHALLENGE OF MODERN AGE
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1964 GEORG LA BULLETIN P.'GE 3
1964 - Religion’s Most Dynamic And Momentous Year
RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE CORRESPONDENT
One of religion's most dynamic and momentous years of the
century, 1964 saw a surging ecumenism, marked by new and often
dramatic gestures of inter-Church goodwill. The Roman Catholic
Church moved decisively into aggiornamento as the Second Vatican
Council wound up its third session inNovember. It was a time also
when religious spotlights were focused on some of the great social
and moral challenges of the modern age.
In the United States, where racism was the paramount issue of
the year, religious forces — Protestant, Catholic and Jewish
threw massive support behind the Civil Rights Act that was signed
by President Johnson on July 2. Meeting atTutzing, West Ger
many, the World Council of Churches’ Executive Committee com
mended in particular the National Council of Churches and its
member denominations for their part in the burgeoning struggle
for interracial justice.
TWO OTHER issues preempting worldwide attention during the
year were religious liberty and Christian-Jewish relations. Sharp
disappointment was voiced by both Catholic and Protestant leaders
when Vatican II deferred action for "lack of time” on an epochal
religious freedom declaration that had won the support of a majori
ty of the Council. A "revolt" by 1,400 Council Fathers aimed at
bringing the draft to a vote foundered when Pope Paul VI declined
to intervene, promising instead that it would be a top item at the®
Council’s fourth session. One result of the postponing action was
noted in Spain where officials announced that parliamentary debate
on a long-awaited bill liberalizing the status of the country’s Pro
testant minority would be deferred until the Council finally acts.
Approved by Vatican II in a preliminary vote, another historic
declaration absolving the Jewish people of guilt in Christ’s crici-
fixion and roundly condemning anti-Semitism was warmly hailed in
CANCER RESEARCH has interested Dominican Sister
Rosarii Schmeer of St. Mary of the Springs College, Co
lumbus. Ohio, since she was an undergraduate there 16
years ago. Sister Rosarii has discovered a substance in
clams which successfully retards cancer in animals, ac
cording to a report on tumor-prevention issued by Dr.
C. P. Li of the National Institutes of Health, Washington,
Jewish circles, but bitterly denounced in the Moslem countries as
a political, pro-Israel, anti-Arab document — charges Vatican au
thorities promptly denied, stressing that the document was purely
religious in character and intent.
OTHER MAIN topics in the religious arena were: world poverty (a
challenge which continued to gain high priority on church agendas);
birth control (a subject that took on a new dimensions as prominent
Catholic scholars urged re-examination of the Church's theological
teaching on the matter); and disarmament (urged in important
Catholic and Protestant pronouncements as the number of nations
with nuclear know-how already totaled 40, among them Red China).
In the United States, another paramount issue involved prayer
and Bible reading in the public schools. A proposed Constitutional
amendment to override the Supreme Court ruling in 1963 barring
such practices — the so-called Becker amendment, named for its
author, Rep. Frank Becker (R.-N.Y,)—remained stymied in com
mittee after most major denominations had opposed it as an
abridgment of the First Amendment which guarantees religious
freedom. Meanwhile educators and churchmen studied ways and
means in which religion might be handled objectively — as the
Supreme Court indicated was permissible — in the public class
rooms.
ON THE international plane, shocked reactions were provoked
around the world during the closing weeks of the year by the sav
age murders of thousands of Congolese and white hostages — in
cluding many Protestant and Catholic missionaries (nuns among
them) w-i by Communist-backed rebels in the Congo. In October, a
D.C.
to establish dialogue with other Christian Churches, although warn
ing against "imprudent zeal" in unity efforts. The third decree
confirmed the relative autonomy of the Eastern Rite Churches, ac
cepted as valid marriages of Eastern Rite Catholics and Eastern
Orthodox in ceremonies performed by Orthodox priests, and paved
the way for interdenominational worship and Communion.
POPE PAUL, acting on his own authority, conferred on the
Blessed Virgin Mary the new title of Mother of the Church. This
had been debated by the bishops, who had finally decided to defer
decision on the matter. The Pope also shortened from three hours
to one hour the period during which Catholics must fast before re
ceiving Communion. EXiring the Council, the Pope appointed 15
women to the list of lay auditors. This marked the first time in
history that women had been admitted to an ecumenical council.
The Council’s initial affirmative vote on the declaration on the
Jews was only one of the year’s developments in the field of
Christian-Jewish relations. At Logumkloster, Denmark, in May, a
consultation sponsored by the Lutheran World Federation’s Com
mission on World Missions, condemned all forms of anti-Semi
tism and endorsed the "dialogues" with Jews. In October, the
61st General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
the United States approved a statement attacking anti-Semitism as
"a direct contradiction of Christian doctrine, and said the charge
of deicide against the Jews was "a tragic misunderstanding of the
true significance of the Crucifixion." In New York, the National
Council of Churches' policy-making General Board renewed a call
to Christians to recognize the "ever-present danger of anti-
Semitism."
IN DECEMBER, the American Jewish Committee announced the
opening of a joint Catholic-Jewish research center in Rome to ana
lyze and combat prejudice. Six months earlier, Pope Paul had
read a formal statement to leaders of the Jewish group deploring
"the horrible ordeals of which the Jews have been the victims in
recent years." In a talk later on the same day to members of the
Italian Association of War Prisoners, the Pope took issue — at
least implicitly — with charges in the controversial play, ‘The
Deputy," by German playwright Rolf Hochhuth that the late Pope
Pius XII failed to speak out adequately against the Nazi persecution
of Jews during World War II.
Both the documents on religious liberty and on the Jews received
especially strong support at Vatican II by the American bishops,
,who also called for a forthright denunciation of racial discrimina
tion. This was during initial discussion of a schema on the Church
in the Modern World (schema 13), which covered issues of far-
reaching social and economic as well as spiritual importance.
Although the year saw racial tension erupt also in such areas as
the Congo, the'Union ol"bouth Africa, Tanganyika, Northern Rho
desia and British Guiana, the chief spotlight was on the United
States, where mushrooming church-supported Negro non-violent
demonstrations in the South culminated finally in enactment of the
civil rights law. Three months before, more than 5,000 Protestant,
Catholic and Jewish clergymen had converged on Washington to de
mand immediate passage of the law. In June, the 176th General
Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. had
called on church leaders to proclaim interracial fellowship as an
immediate goal.
WHEN A backlash of racial riots erupted in New York, Philadel
phia and other northern cities, church leaders spoke out in sharp
condemnation. Pleas for racial harmony came not only from such
groups at home as the National Council of Churches, the National
Catholic Welfare Conference, and the Synagogue Council of Ameri
ca, but also from abroad. Meeting at Frankfurt, Germany, in
August, the 19th General Council of the World Presbyterian Al
liance called for strong Christian participation in the racial jus
tice struggle. Hero of the year was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr„
head of Southern Christian Leadership Conference and symbol
of Negro resistance to Jim Crow laws and other restrictions, who
was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize to the accompaniment of
worldwide general acclaim. Accepting the award, the Baptist min
ister said it was "a profound recognition that non-violence is the
answer to the critical political and moral questions of our time,"
TWO MONTHS AFTER signing the Civil Rights Act, President
Johnson put his pen to the Economic Opportunity Act enacted by
Congress to support another vital cause—-the war against poverty,
Leading Protestant,Catholic and Jewish groups promptly pledged
full efforts against wnat the President called "the plagues of our
contemporary society — ignorance, disease, poverty and unem
ployment."
At Vatican II, where attention was focused on poverty as a stag
gering international evil, James J. Norris, American lay auditor,
president of the International Migration Commission, made a stir
ring call for worldwide Catholic cooperation in a general mobiliza
tion of all men of goodwill to control poverty "which has taken on
a new shape, new dimensions and a new urgency." At a press
conference in Bombay, Pope Paul expressed the wish that nations
would contribute "even a part of their expenditures of arms to a
great world fund for the relief of many problems of nutrition,
clothing, shelter and medical care which affect so many peoples."
CALLS FOR accelerated religious interest — and action — in
the social revolution taking place in Latin America, where mass
poverty remains a chronic problem, were sounded by many
Protestant and Catholic church bodies during the year.
Kremlin >sh*k«*up that ousted ''liberal” PremierNikita Khrush
chev* stirred’uneafey speculation! over possible new anti-religious
reprecussions within the Soviet orbit, where intensified atheistic
propaganda continued to be a major threat.
For Catholics everywhere, the year was marked by the introduc
tion of liturgical reforms — involving principally more active lay
participation in the Mass — which were approved by Vatican II at
its second session in 1963. Pope Paul meanwhile made world head
lines by becoming the first reigning pontiff not only to travel by air
but to visit the Near East and Asia.
His first trip was in January to the Holy Land, where he was
joined by Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.This
was the first occasion in five centuries that a Roman Pontiff had
exchanged personal greetings with the holder of Orthodoxy’s su
preme office. Paul Vi’s second visit was in December to Bombay,
India, for the 38th International Eucharistic Congress. Met at the
airport by top government as well as ecclesiastical leaders, he
was given a tumultuous popular reception never before experien
ced by any foreign visitor in predominantly Hindu India. His visit
was seen as a fitting aftermath to his announcement on Pentecost
Sunday revealing the creation of a new Vatican Secretariat for
Non-Christians — another extension of the Church’s ecumenical
outreach.
THE POPE'S visit came shortly after Vatican II— attended by 63
non-Catholic delegate-observers — had promulgated three decrees
expected to shape the Church's course for centuries to come. The
most vital was De Ecclesia (On the Nature of the Church) — a sort
of postscript to the teachings of Vatican I on papal infallibility —
which declared that, collectively, the bishops of the Church share
with the Pope in its government. The decree, among other things,
also provided for the creation of permanent deacons, including
married men, to assist priests.
In its second decree— hailed by one Protestant observer as "an
unbelievable step forward" — the Council set forth the Catholic
principles of ecumenism. It formerly declared the Church's will
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Birth control and disarmament were other major issues within
the broad scope of Vatican II’s schema 13. In June, Pope Paul
announced that a Church commission was engaged in studies in
volving new developments in the "extremely grave problem of
birth control," but in the meantime, he said, there was "insuf
ficient motive or grounds at present to revise the Church’s ban on
artificial contraception."
Progressive theologians during the year had been urging a re-
evaluation of the Church's traditional teaching, especially in the
light of the population explosion and the development of an oral
contraceptive which was claimed to preserve the integrity of the
sex act itself and thus posed no moral dilemma for Catholics. At
Vatican II notable pleas for a "new approach” to the birth control
question were made by leading "progressive" spokesmen.
AS THE Vatican Council’s third session drew to a close the
Fathers urged adoption of a statement calling for a ban on nuclear
weapons and an end to the arms race as strong as that contained in
Pope John XIII's encyclical, Pacem in Terris. Disarmament was
also a topic at a meeting of the World Council of Churches’ Execu
tive Committee in Odessa — its first on Russian soil. A WCC
statement addressed to governments and religious groups around
the world said the time was "ripe" for a new advance toward
peace through disarmament.
involving six denominations — hit what some considered rocky
ground when both Methodist and Protestant Episcopal representa
tives declined to seek denominational endorsement of participation
in forming a proposed union plan. Both Churches, however,
agreed to continue discussion with United Presbyterian, United
Church of Christ, Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) and
Evangelical United Brethren delegations in discussion of theologi
cal stumbling-blocks to unity
Among outstanding Orthodox events of the year was die Third
Pan-Orthodox Conference at Rhodes, Greece, in November, which
reiterated a desire for dialogue "on equal terms" with Roman
Catholics, but put off indefinitely any action leading to inter-
Church unity discussions. However, die conference endorsed con
versation widi the Church of England and die Old Cadiolic Church
and named a committee to prepare the groundwork.
In April, reports that the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul
was being persecuted by Turkish audiorities as a result of the
Cyprus crisis prompted the World Council of Churches to send a
cable to the government asking that die patriarchate be allowed "to
perform its functions.” Turkish officials had already expelled a
number of Orthodox dignitaries, closed die patriarchate’s printing
IN JUNE THE World Council's Commission of the Churches on
International Affairs urged that "an effective ntemational peace
keeping machinery be developed so that existing national defense
systems might be abolished gradually."
Ecumenically, 1964 was a period of many notable, often startling,
gestures of mutual respect and esteem between the Churches.
house, and announced street-widening plans diat necessitated de
struction of patriarchal buildings.
IN EARLY FALL, die spodight was on 86-year-old Patriarch
Alexei of Moscow, supreme head of the Russian Orthodox Church,
as he made his first visit to England as the guest of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and his first visit to the headquarters of die World
Council of Churches in Geneva.
At an audience in August to top leaders of the United Presby
terian Church in the U.S.A., Pope Paul joined them in reciting the
Lord’s Prayer...The Pope turned over to the Orthodox Church in
Greece a relic of St. Andrew the Aposde that had been preserved
in St. Peter's Basilica for about 800 years...The 17th biennial
Ecclesiastical Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
North and South America held at Denver, Colo., in June, was ad
dressed by Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, and
Dr. R. H. Edwin Espy, general secretary of the National Council of
Churches...Catholic Bishop John J. Wright of Pittsburgh became
the first member of the American hierarchy to address the General
Conference of The Methodist Church and Lutheran Church in
America's biennial conference.
OTHER ECUMENICAL highlights; Cardinal Cushing entered
Trinity (Protestant Episcopal) church in Boston and knelt in silent
prayer after talking on Christian unity to some 200 ministers at the
nearby parish hall...In Cambridge, Mass., Protestant Episcopal
and Catholic clergy and laymen observed the start of the Advent
season by jointly conducting an ecumenical service unprecedented
in U.S. religious history.,.ln New York a Catholic bishop attended
the consecration of a new Methodist bishop named for the Congo...
In London Pope Paul was officially represented at the enthronement
of Metropolitan Athenagoras of Thyateira, new head of the Greek
Orthodox community in Great Britain.
On the organizational level were these developments: In Septem
ber, Pope Paul announced he was planning to set up a permanent
study center in Jerusalem to seek Christian unity and better rela
tions between the Catholic and non-Christian religions...Th U.S.
hierarchy set up an Ecumenical Affairs Committee to provide for
contacts with Protestant and Orthodox Churches and conferences
...In Chicago, Protestant and Catholic theology professors took
part in December in an institute — sponsored jointly by the Uni
versity of Chicago Divinity School and Jesuit-conducted Loyola
University, in cooperation with the National Conference of Chris
tians and Jews, to explore the implications of ecumenism for theo
logical education generally...At West Germany’s Tuebingen Uni
versity an Institute for Ecumenical Research was founded by the
Catholic theological faculty...The General Conference of The Meth
odist Church authorized the establishment of a Commission for
Ecumenical Affairs... At Nijmegen, Holland, a Catholic interna
tional center was created to foster contacts with non-Catholics
and Jews.
IN HIS first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam (His Church), dealing
largely with Christian unity, Pope Paul denounced communism by
name, calling atheism “the most serious problem of our time.”
However, he said "we do not despair that atheistic ideologies such
as communism might one day be able to enter into a more posi
tive dialogue with the Church." At the same time he offered him
self as "a mediator between nations for the cause of peace.” In
one of his many addresses to representative groups received at
the Vatican, the Pope exhorted businessmen to adopt a Christian
view of their functions, transcending selfish materialism which he
said was at the root of the class struggle.
An agreement signed in September between the Vatican and Hun
gary, easing anti-religious restrictions, marked the first occa
sion on which a Communist state has signed a pact with the Holy
See, Pope Paul promptly named five new bishops in Hungary and
transferred Bishop Endre Hamvas of Csanad to the long vacant
archiepiscopal See of Kalocsa.
In Poland, Catholic authorities continued to be concerned over
Communist encroachments on the Church’s rights, principally in
the field of religious education. Both in Poland and Czechoslo
vakia, as well as in Hungary, 1964 was a year of wary truce as the
Communist regimes tacitly admitted that they had been unable so
far to alienate believers from their religion, and the Church queit-
ly conceded it must live with communism if it was to continue to
carry on an effective spiritual ministry. In Czechoslovakia a
government minister announced that since "only" 60 per cent of
Czechoslovakia's 14 million people were Catholics, no new chur
ches would be built and some of the 200 in Prague (population
40 per cent Catholic) would be closed,
TRIALS BESET the Church in South Vietnam. (December saw
Communist Vietcong seizures of control in the central province
result in a mass exodus of Catholics seeking religious freedom.)
And, early in the year, 272 Catholic and 28 Protestant missionar
ies were expelled from the Sudan by the military government of
President Ibrahim Abboud (later overthrown) on the pretext that
they had been involved in politics and had opposed the "Sudani-
zation" of the country's southern region. In Haiti, 18 priests and
brothers, representing the entire Jesuit missionary force in the
country, were expelled in a climactic episode of President Fran
cois Duvalier’s long battle against the Catholic Church.
OTHER NOTABLE developments of the year: Eight religious
pavilions at the New York World's Fairdrew22.5 million visitors,
the biggest record (13,823,037) being scored by the Vatican Pavil
ion in which Michelangelo's Pieta was brought for display... In
January the first international Protestant chapel to be opened in
Moscow was formally dedicated... The Conference of European
Churches, an informal organization since 1957, was made a full-
fledged ecclesiastical group at a meeting attended by delegates
from 21 countries... Ordination of women was approved by the 104th
General Assembly of the Prestr*;erian Church in the U.S. (Sou
thern) and the Evangelical Churcn of Westphalia, West Germ any...
The American Lutheran Church became the first of four bodies
to approve a proposed new Lutheran cooperative agency represent
ing most of the 8,500,000 Lutherans in the U.S. .. Five of the ten
eligible Baptist bodies voted to join the proposed North American
Fellowship of Baptists, but one more was needed before it could
become operative... A mass meeting in Atlantic City, N.J., attended
by 16,000 members of seven Baptist denominations climaxed Bap
tist Jubilee Advance celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of
organized Baptist missionary work in the U.S. on a national scale...
In New York, religious leaders joined business, public affairs,
law, labor and education spokesmen in forming a Council for Civic
Responsibility to combat the "radical reactionary propaganda"
disseminated by the John Birch Society and related organizations...
In the 1964 U.S. Presidential campaign, a number of churchmen
and religious publications spoke out against the reactionalypolicie
and religious publications spoke out against the reactionary policies
of Senator Barry Goldwater, the defeated Republican candidate.
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Foreword by
HiS EMINENCE JOSEPH CARDINAL RITTER
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A survey conducted by the World Council of Churches revealed
that church union negotiations throughout the world totaled 38
and involved 102 Churches in 30 countries on five continents. Pub
lished in November was a draft plan for a merger of the Anglican
Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada. In the same
month three major Anglican dioceses announced overwhelming
support for proposals to unite the Methodist Church and the Church
of England. In the United States, the 115th Assembly of the In
ternational Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ)
authorized drafting a proposed union plan witjjthe United Church of
Christ. Earlier, officials of the Methodist and Evangelical United
Brethren Churches announced that General Conferences of the two
denominations, meeting simultaneously in November, 1966, would
vote on a proposed merger. In Nigeria, formation of a new United
Church of Nigeria seemed assured when seven Anglican Sees voted
in favor of a merger with Methodists and Presbyterians patterned
after the plan which led to the formation of the Church of South
India in 1947,
IN THE UNITED STATES, the Consultation on Church Union —
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