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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 r Ed Curtin Presents c & s REALTY COMPANY Specialists in Commercial and Industrial Real Estate" Suite 200 Henry Grady Bldg. Atlanta 3, Ga. Warehouses, Stores, Mfg. Plants, Acreage, Shopping Center Dev., Subdivision Dev., Industrial Dev., Insurance 524-2052 MIKE & STEVE SERTICH CONVERT AT NO COST Wet Process Photocopies To New Process Dry Copy HYNES co. 172 Whitehall St. 525-6417 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. Servin( Atlanta Sitter 1912 550 FORREST ROAD, N. E., ATLANTA, GEORGIA ••WAITING 0 -,; ns • LITHOGRAPHING TRinity 5-4727 ST. JOSEPH’S INFIRMARY SODA FOUNTAIN COFFEE SHOP AND RESTAURANT LOCATED NEXT TO GIFT SHOP ON MAIN FLOOR IN NEW BUILDING ATLANTA, GA. 4th Printhtg! How To Understand Changes In The Liturgy by ARCHBISHOP PAUL J. HALLINAN Foreword by HiS EMINENCE JOSEPH CARDINAL RITTER W IDELY ACCLAIMED at National Liturgical W eek “America” praises it as “Especially Enlightening’ PRICE 2 5 £ 100 at 20c each / 300 at 18c each / 500 at 15c each Order now from - GB PUBLICATIONS — P.O. Box 11667 • Northside Station • Atlanta, Georgia 30305 Encloied find $ for copies of Archbi»hop Hellinen'* Book "urn*/ m iihjncDCTAkin ruAwnic iw tmf imiRflY" 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 — PRINT Name Address City State Zip ££ you Can £al !! shrimpSSIlobster 2 75 Across roads! 3 75 FLORIDA “Where Peachtree Meets Spring” Complete Sea Food Menu Free Parking— TRinity 5-2288 and Your Favorite Beverage OPIN DAILY 'TILL MIDNIOHT — MKMBEK AM 1*1 CAN KXPKKSS