Newspaper Page Text
VATICAN YEARBOOK
The Pope’s
BY FLOYD ANDERSON
(N. C, YV. C. News Service)
The 1965 Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican year
book just published, lists approximately 58 pre
lates who serve as “ambassadors” forthe Holy
Father. These are the Apostolic Nuncios, 44 in
number, and the Apostolic Delegates, totaling 14.
There are some vacancies in the nunciatures and
delegations listed by countries in the Annuario,
for quite a number of these are without occupants,
due to the present lack of diplomatic relations
with the Vatican.
The parallel may not be an exact one — call
ing the apostolic nuncios and apostolic delegates
“ambassadors” of the Holy Father — but it is
close enough for all practical purposes. An am
bassador has been defined as an official repre
sentative sent by or to a sovereign or public body
-r and that too fits the work with which these
representatives of the Holy See are charged.
THE HISTORY of papal representatives goes
back to 383, when Pope St. Damasus I sent an
apostolic vicar to Thessalonia, according to Sem
inaries and Universities. His book, ‘The Apos
tolic Delegations ,” published in Rome in 1959, de
scribed an apostolic delegation as being: “an es
tablished and permanent representation of the
Supreme Pontiff, instituted by him through an
official act within the ecclesiastical hierarchy of
a specific territory or nation.”
Sometimes the positions of apostolic nuncios and
apostolic delegates are confused in popular under
standing. The difference primarily depends on the
country to which they are accredited. If the Holy
See has diplomatic relations with a country, an
apostolic nuncio (having the rank of an ambassa
dor) or an intemuncio (with rank of a diplo
matic minister) is sent. And, where there are
no diplomatic relations, as in the United States,
an apostolic delegate is sent. The apostolic del
egate, as the personal representative of the Holy
Father, is sent to the bishops of, the country,
and not to the government, as the nuncios and
intemuncios would be.
Archbishop Staffa in his book defined the func-
GOOD
Ambassadors
tions of these “ambassadors” of the Holy Fath
er in this way:
*TO WATCH over the position of the Church,
to supervise the execution of laws, decrees and of
the instructions and directives of the Holy See, of
which the apostolic delegate must be constantly
of faithful interpreter.
“It must also exert unofficial influence by giv
ing advice and' suggestions, eliminating contro
versies and promoting the welfare of the Catholic
community of the area.
"It is also the official means of communicat
ing with the Holy See, through which the Holy See
transmits its instructions and wishes and re
ceives its information.”
IN MANY WAYS, an apostolic delegation or
nunciature is a “listening post,” a source of
information for the Holy See — just as an em
bassy is for a government.
It is also a "transmission belt,” in effect
— for the transmission of instructions, docu
ments, etc., from Vatican City to individual bis
hops throughout the world. One might imagine
the problems involved in so simple a matter as a
world-wide dispensation granted on some day of
fast and abstinence, if the Vatican had to send in
dividual messages to each bishop. But, through
the apostolic nunciatures and delegations, the
messages are forwarded to the bishops of each
country, and they in turn advise the pastors —
and they, again in turn, their parishioners. If
this procedure is so useful in so simple a prob
lem, imagine how much more so when it comes
to transmitting complicated instructions on more
technical ecclesiastical matters.
As one goes through the history of papal rep
resentatives, he is a bit shocked to read of the
treatment given to Msgr. Gaetano Bedini in the
United States.
HE CAME to New York in 1853 on a special
mission to President Pierce, but was insulted
and mobbed in various cities by members of the
CONTINUED ON COLUMN 5
NEWS
While They
BY MARY PERKINS RYAN
MANY OF THE NEWER BOOKSdesigned to help
parents and teachers prepare children for their
first Communion base their explanations of the
Mass on the child’s experience of family meals.
One may question the wisdom of insisting, as
some do, on the enjoyableness of family meals —
most" garents^ijnd c^fl^lren^fjpql^ndj^e
e v^ng^e ^,ce s jly 3 th ! ifj(n}0St,f nj oygbfejtirp,^
of day, especially when Father is tired from his
day’s work and Mother is trying at once to serve
dinner, feed the baby and keep the other children
in order. Nevertheless, liturgists and theologians
alike tell us that we will understand the Mass bet
ter and take part in it more appreciatively if we
see it primarily as a meal, because this was the
way that our Lord Himself instituted the Eucharist.
Were Eating 9
we shall share God’s life, and share it together.
In the accounts of Our Lord's resurrection, His
meals with His disciples are stressed to show us,
commentators say, that the promises have been
fulfilled and the Kingdom has begun.
BUT ONE MEAL above all was prescribed in the
± Old Testament--JJjejjfgqlial; meal, taken family,.
a by ,’<S<ffi\5 i ett(pr@tingothevgreat; event .ofls-
d rael’s history, the dejivengpcel tom Egypt* „iAtlq.
this meal, at which the paschal lamb was eaten,
there was a special blessing of bread at the be
ginning of the meal and a very long and solemn
blessing of the final cup of wine at the end. But
all Jewish meals, especially those of groups of dis
ciples gathered together with their master, includ
ed — like Christian meals — some forms of
blessings.
In these columns, we have been speaking about
the human Christian meaning of food and drink in
general, and of bread and wine in particular. Hu
man experience and Holy Scrip
ture also have much to tell us
about the meaning of meals —
not just eating but eating togeth
er. In every culture and civili
zation, to eat together is a sign
of sharing life. We need food to
live; to partake of food and drink
from the same table, to share
the same loaf of bread and the
same drink means some kind of
community of life. To invite a guest to a meal in
one’s house shows a desire to include him, in some
way at least, in the family community. Groups
and organizations of all kinds naturally schedule
some kind of meal or banquet as the beginning or
climax of a year’s program of working together.
So it is not surprising that, in the Old Testa
ment, a liturgical meal was prescribed connect
ed with the offering of sacrifices, a meal taken in
God’s own dwelling, indicating the community ex
isting between God and faithful Israelites. Again,
the prophets and Our Lord Himself speak of the
happiness that God means to give His people in
His Kingdom in terms of a meal and, more parti
cularly, a wedding feast. For, in the Kingdom,
Scripture scholars are still discussing whether
the Last Supper was actually a paschal meal or a
"meal with paschal overtones” (astheNewTesta-
ment Reading Guide #13 puts it). Butin any case,
it was an already-existing meal liturgy that our
Lord used and transformed into His Eucharist.
If we are to understand the structure of the
Mass, then, we need to see the Offertory as the
direct preparation for the holy meal, when the
bread and wine are placed on the table, and to see
the Great Eucharistic Prayer, from the beginning
of the “Preface” to the final Amen at the end of
the Canon, as the supreme “Grace”, or “Bles
sing” before the meal in which we at once "bless”
God for His gifts to us and draw down His bless
ing on us, and do so with Christ. Because the
celebrant who carries out this great Prayer speaks
in the name of Christ and repeats His words at
the Last Supper, our thanksgiving becomes
Christ’s own act of praise and sacrifice, re-pre
sented here in our midst, and our bread and wine
.become His Body “given for us” and His Blood
shed for us. And so the holy meal in which we
share by receiving Communion not only signifies
but really gives us participation in Christ's life,
together. "Because the bread is one, we thought
many are one body, all of us who partake of the one
bread.”
EAST AFRICAN REBUFF
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
munists by effecting the union Zanzibar and Tan
ganyika as the Republic of Tanzania, with him
self as its head.
What must be remembered is that Nyerere is
no dictator. He can retain power in an extremely
unstable situation only by retaining the Support
of many volatile Torces. His greatest strength is
his personal popularity, but unlettered people are
easily swayed and easily decieved. Many friends
feared he would not recover from the humiliation
of having to call English soldiers back to restore
order last year. It is an experience he could not
afford to repeat.
COMMUNIST PENETRATION of Zanzibar had
gone a long way before the union, and Nyerere
is in no position to challenge directly the Com
munists in high places. It is logical instead for
him to play off the factions within the Commu
nists, to play no favorites between the supporters
of Russia and those of China.
What is clear is that when he visited China,
he sedulously avoided any word or act that would
place him in the Communist camp. On his return,
he praised highly the simplicity of life of the
Chinese and held it up as an example for his own
people. The Tanganyikans were not slow to read
into his words a veiled criticism of the Chinese
diplomats and technicians in Tanzania, whose
automobiles and big homes are far more*’pluto-
cratic” than those of their American counter
parts.
Last year I spent several weeks in Tanganyika,
traveling extensively in this big country. From
discussions with President Nyerere and his as
sociates, I came away with the conviction that
one of their major issues with the West is our
unconcern for die sufferings of black Africans
in white-controlled South Africa, Rhodesia, An
gola and Mozambique. They are giving out of
their poverty to the victims, while we defend
the wrong-doers and support them with mili
tary aid and private investment.
OUR GOVERNMENTS contend that overriding
considerations of world power structures com
pel this position. It may be so. But while it con
tinues, we must not expect kind words from any
African politician with a sense of self-preserva
tion.
THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1965 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE
ARNOLD VIEWING
k
Q. In the opinion of the Church, how long ago was Adam created?
Are Neanderthal, Pithecanthropus, Java Man, etc. (and other pre
historic cavemen) ancestors or descendants of Adam?
If there were ancestors, then they could not have been truly
men with immortal souls. If they were descendants, is their
state to be regarded as the result of original sin?
A. The Church has no official opinion
regarding the age of the human race. We
must leave this problem to scientific stu
dies. It ' seems beyond reasonable doubt
that sons of Adam inhabited the earth dur
ing the Pleistocene age—the epoch of the
great glaciers — which began two million
years ago and ended 25,000 years ago.
The most conservative estimate I have seen
recently would date Adam back 300,000 years,
with a gopd probability that he lived 600,000
Tragicomic Nightmare
years ago.
The “Java Man” is the same as Pithecanthropus erectus. He
possibly lived at the very beginning of the Pleistocene epoch, about
two million years ago. There is no clear evidence that he, or any
creature of his type, was the direct ancestor of man.
Neanderthal man probably lived about the middle of the Pleis
tocene age — about a million.years ago — but he is not generally
held to be the ancestor of any human race now on earth, though
he lived in most parts of Europe and the Near East. His type ap
parently died out. And some would claim that our own ancestors
were his contemporaries.
Cave men were human beings inearly stages of development. As
members of the race of Adam they suffered, even as we do,
:from the effects of original sin. Whatever preternatural gifts
God may have given to Adam were lost by original sin; and for
their natural development the cave men had to depend on their
human faculties, even as we do. If we don’t explode the bomb, future
generations may consider us quite primitive — making such a fuss
about simple orbits around the earth.
Q. I have just passed my 59th birthday and have heard a great
deal from others about fast and abstinence thereafter. Will you
please state what the rules are AFTER 59, as they apply to me
and others like me.
A. You arenowexemptfrom the law of fasting, but you are bound
by the law of abstinence just as you have been for the past 52
years.
On Fridays, Ash Wednesday, Dec. 7 and Dec. 24 you may
not eat meat. On Ember days and vigils which require “half
abstinence,” or partial abstinence, you may have meat only
Once. On fast days, and during Lent, you may eat as you please
-- or as your doctor advises (watch that diet!).
Q. Dr. Oliver R. Harms, President of the Lutheran Church,
Missouri Synod, states in the May 9 issue of the Lutheran Wit
ness Reporter, "It is the church’s opinion, for a Christian to
needlessly destroy, or shorteri' his life by smoking (as confirm
ed by recent findings of the Surgeon General of the Public
Health Service) is morally wrong.”
A. Possibly Dr. Harms’ statement, as quoted, is a little
more definite and sweeping than the present status of our
knowledge on this subject justifies. But I agree with the at-
itude presented in a position paper of his church, which sug
gests Christians .refrain frottP cigarette smoking, warn othecs,
about knovvnC harmful effects, ^todenca
but always Wlth^iehCe’hr&undeP^ariding
to quit,.
OJ
We should re-think oilr attMides on this subject, and be
iready to accept moral obligations as they become clear.
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
THE SOFT-HEARTED pirates still get their
celebrated comuppance from a handful of sinis
ter children in the fascinating film version of
the Richard Hughes classic, "A High Wind in
Jamaica.” But a few subtle changes take some
of the chills from this tragicomic nightmare.
In the view of Welsh novelist Hughes, whose
“Jamaica” antedated “Lord of the Flies” by
more than 25 years, adults
sentimentalize children at
their own risk. The child’s
world is neither innocent or
evil. It is rather a place in
which adult morality is un
derstood only by rote in the
most surface way (“drawers’*
is an unspeakable word) and
is largely irrelevant. It is an
especially savage world be
cause children lack experience of the reality
of pain and the compassion this knowledge brings.
Children, Hughes implies, are much like a
half-Christianized aborigine tribe. When the mis
sionaries are gone, they are still likely to burn
candles before statues and say grace before
meals, but the meal might well be an unfortu
nate uncle. The beast of original sin is not
easili tamed; in the case of children, not much
before adulthood.
HUGHES' THEORY is the opposite of the more
orthodox view of children as innocents victimized
and soiled by adult sophistication. This naive
view is held, to thier sorrow, by all the adults
in “Jamaica.” Hughes works a deliciously ironic
switch on the innocents-vs.-evil conflict, pitting
the children against a presum ably ruthless band of
pirates. The results are often funny, but they are
also frightening.
The children, en route from the West Indies
to school in England, are captured, rather ac
cidentally, by the pirates, a seedy but competent
group of ruffians whose only interest is that
their good-natured thievery doesn't too long
interrupt their pursuit of rum and rascality.
The kids, simply by being normal, drive the pi
rates to professional ruin.
Some of it is only the usual kiddie harrass-
ment: sliding back and forth on the rolling, sea-
washed deck or stealing the captain’s three-
cornered hat. But there are dark intimations:
mock religious rituals, ghostly pranks that alarm
the superstitious crew, hints as to what they would
do if they were pirates. And thier strange cold
ness when the oldest boy is killed in an acci
dent. They merely go on as if he had never exist
ed, except to determine who will inherit his
blanket.
THE CAPTAIN’S PATERNAL instincts are a-
roused by 10-year-old Emily, and he begins to
^^tlttnk of^JhorUie. and..retirement. At.-great risk, -
Tie' arranges to returttthf:chlldrep. to cfviliza-
Bur fi c a ^Im&trsfCn' 6f' dreadful £ irony, he
and his crew are betrayed.
The film follows the story closely, but di
rector Alexander MacKendrick’s writers blurl
the novel’s terrifying edge. For Hughes, the be]
trayal is coldly calculated, although Emily onl!
half understands what she does, and the bitte I
captain attempts suicide. In the movie the gir
is badgered and confused into it by vengeful adults
and the captian seems to understand and forgiv
her. To his worried crew, facing the gallowsl
he smiles philosophically: “You must be guilr I
of something!” The sentiment fits the mood o:|
the tale, but it is several shades brighter tha
Hughes intended.
The film also adds drama by having the cretl
mutiny against their captain’s growing softness!
mainly because it interferes with their greed
This further reduces the bite of the ending. In
stead of likeable men being duped by their fait
in a cruel child, it is only rogues who are trap
ped, and less by the child than by pious, well j
meaning but dim-witted adults.
IF THE MOVIE lacks Hughes’ beautiful des-l
criptive passages, it has marvelous color foot-]
age, both day and night, of the schooner’s voy
age and of local color on the islands (wherl
Lila Kedrova is busy again running a,house
pleasure).
Pope’s Ambassadoi
* CONTINUED FROM COLUMN 2
Know-Nothing movement. It would likely ha\|
been more than useless to cite to them the pro
visions of canon 2344, which refers to penaltiel
and penances which may be applied to those wh
"either directly or indirectly, in the public pres:
or in speech or writing,” make attacks on thl
Pope, a Cardinal, a legate of the Pope, the Sac!
red Roman Congregations, the tribunals of th
Holy See and their major officials, or upon theiJ
bishops. ‘
Fortunately, Msgr. Bedini (later a Cardinal) wal
not influenced by his sad experience and recoml
mended the establishment of a Vatican represen |
tative in the United States. However, the smoldi
ering anti-Catholic feeling in the United State,
made this seem unwise at that time; and so th<[
apostolic delegation was not permanently estabj
lished until Jan. 14, 1893.
With the decisions and actions of the apostolij
nuncios and delegates, as with those of one’
own pastor or bishop, there is always the righ.
of appeal to higher authority, to the Holy See, anl
even to the Holy Father, if one wishes to do sol
Such right of appeal, though well known to bis-1
hops and other ecclesiastical authorities, is sel |
dom used, at least in modern d"vr.
ONE MIGHT sum up by saying that apostoli<|
delegates are representatives of the Holy Fathejj
without diplomatic status; apostolic nuncios art!
much the same — but with diplomatic status I
This diplomatic status is conferred by the Hob I
See’s relationships with the country involved; no L
by die position 'of the-Holy Father’s represents-1
-tive. Thus, under ecclesiastical protocol, botl 1
apostolic delegates and apostolic nuncios out-|
side the territory assigned to them take preceJ
dence according to seniority -- not according tq
whether they are delegates or nuncios.
OLD AND NEW
The True Disbelievers
BY GARRY WILLS
LAST FALL, Yale had both a new President
and a new class of freshmen. And the new
P. told the new c. of f. that in the standar
dized language of demonstration — he expected
them to get committed and involved and all that.
After a year of harrassment (and, presumably,
of oppression)* Yale’s President Brewster—who
seems to be sharing winces with
other presients like Clark
Kerr of California and Grayson
Kirk of Columbia — came tc
commencement this month to
suggest that “the pleasure of
harassing the-oppressor” had
*■ got out of hand. Now he real-
■ - izes what a Pandora’s box he
A opened last September; and he
used some, strong language in
his attempt to get it closed
again. He attacked the arrogance of the new
radicals, the strident zeal that becomes "heed
less action for its own sake.”
for those determined to shake off, for a while,
the burden of their humanity. St. Thomas was
relying less on scholastic categories than on plain
shrewd observation when he said (in On Kingship)
that revolutions, even for a good cause, tend to
mobilize men’s vices more readily than their vir
tues. We are often unaware of the mass move
ment’s ugly little side effects — things like the
rash of bomb threats that usher them in and out.
And even the public meannesses are often un
reported because unreportable. The paper could
not print the Berkeley bluestockings’ obscene
battle cry. It is only in a paper as untied by tabus
as The Village Voice that one can read the foul
speech SNCC leader James Farmer gave, in Sel
ma, to a group dotted with nuns and clergymen.
The UP wired everywhere the fact that 125 de
monstrators publicly urinated before the state
capitol of Alabama; but many papers were under
standably loathe to print the information. I heard
from a Catholic editor about a demonstration he
had to abandon because the picketers of a restau
rant forced their way inside and urinated around
the premisses.
"The pleasure of harassing” — it is a good
phrase. Eric Hoffer, in The True Believer,
describes the ability of a mass movement to tap
obscure discontents unrelated to the ostensible
purpose of the movement. So long as the mecha
nism of the movement gives men the release for
such discontents, "the cause” can be compara
tively unimportant. In that sense, there are “true
disbelievers” who have simply come along for
the emotional ride. This explains what Hoffer
calls “the interchangeability of mass move
ments,” something perfectly illustrated this year
at Berkeley: when students could no longer riot
over civil rights, they raised the cosmic issue
of policy affecting a bit of Berkeley pavement;
when they could no longer ululate over that, they
opted for martyrdom on the eternal issue of man’s
right to diffuse obscenities through whatever elec
tronic outlet comes within reach of his sulphurous
lips. If nothing else suggests itself in California
this summer, the students may end up picketing
the sun for daring to burn them while they picketed
the Pacific for daring to float American ships on
its waves. The New Yorker’s Calvin Trillin re
ported a student leader’s frank admission that if
the Berkeley administration had given in to all
the students’ demands, they would have invented
new demands to keep the discontent percolating.
And The Reporter described how the SDS Easter
Marchers went to Washington demanding to see
McGeorge Bundy — but did not attend the meeting
when Bundy unexpectedly agreed to see them. That
was a dirty trick of Bundy's — trying to break up
their protest by acceding to its requests I
IN MOBS, human beings caii safely be a little
less than human — which is a powerful attraction
One can get addicted to the pleasure of haras
sing. What will bother people most? Disrupting
the World’s Fair? Leaving the water faucets on?
Throwing all one’s garbage in the streets? In
terfering with the astronauts' reception? So far,
the most offensive campaigns have not been
attempted; but every day the ante goes up. We
are already tapping the very depths of man’s
ingenuity for nastiness.
You doubt it? Then ask New York’s Mrs.
Christopher O’Sullivan how it feels, when one’s
husband has died wearing his country’s colors
in the line of duty, to get “protests over our
Vietnam policy” in the form of anonymous
phone calls saying: “He got what he deserved.
I’m glad.” Mrs. O’Sullivan fainted after the such
call. Hie police had to guard Captain O’Sullivan’s
funeral because of the threat of "demonstra
tions.”
ADLAI STEVENSON, bravely maintaining Pre
sident Brewster’s fall theme on into June, playing
Pandora in the accents of Pollyanna, says he
is still impressed with the idealism of student
demonstrations. Like that of the idealists at
Columbia who, not content with picketing the
NROTC graduation, forcibly broke it up? These
gentlemen and scholars brought the light of rea
son into the area of foreign affairs by bran
dishing placards that said “No honor for mur
derers.” The boy uplifted by the airing of that
sentiment is well on his way to becoming one of
the anonymous little men who makes telephone
calls to the widows of our Captain O'Sullivans.
One so easily gets hooked on hate.
God Love You
BY BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
ONE READS IN THE PRESS of wars and rumors of wars, racel
riots, fear of nuclear explosions. About 90 per cent of the news is |
made up of stories about those who break God’s commandments.
In our office we live in a different world — a world of faith and!
sacrifice in which souls in America are in almost immediate touch J
with the hungry and thirsty in other lands.
I am writing this just a few minutes after the following incident!
took place. An elderly woman with little of I
this world’s goods had saved $300 for T
operation on her ear in order that she might I
recover her hearing. After thinking it over |
she decided that she would give the $300 to the I
Holy Father ’s Society for Propagation of the j
Faith and remain hard-of-hearing for "whatl
little time is left for me here on earth.”]
When I wrote to thank her for her gift I toldl
her that Our Blessed Lord had said that some]
have “ears and do not hear.” He was re-1
ferring to those who are spiritually deaf, that is, unreceptive to the!
world of salvation. I assured her that, thanks to her resignation tol
deafness, many in mission lands would be able to hear the Gospel.!
It is good for us to know that we live in a Church in which the!
Cross and the Sacraments inspire such beautiful devotion. It is al—1
so very likely that the gift of $300 which she gave will do an excep-l
tional amount of good in the Missions because of the love that went!
into it. Thomas a Kempis said: "Regard not so much the gift oil
the lover as the love of the giver.” That is one of the reasons why!
we try to inspire in our readers a deep love of the Missions, in or-l
der that with whatever gift you sacrifice, there may be poured out|
to the unbelieving people some spark of the love of God which is al
ready in your hearts.
GOD LOVE YOU to “Grateful” for $50 “It’s about time that 1
started thanking God. This is just the start of what I should havel
done years ago.” ..to 42 sixth graders in Newburgh, N.Y. fori
$10.72 “Our study of Africa, China and. India made us realize howl
much the people there need. So we saved our money. It’s not!
much but it’s all we have right now.” ..to Anon, for $286 "In|
reparation.”
Increase your knowledge and love of the Missions by reading!
MISSION, a pocket-sized, bi-monthly magazine edited by Most|
Rev. Fulton J. Sheen. Keep yourself up-to-date on missionar
activities the world Over. Let us put you on our subscription!
for only one dollar a year.
Cut out this column, pin your sacrifice to it and mail it to Most
Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of The Society for the
Propagation of the Faith, 366 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. lOOOlJ
or to your Diocesan Director, Rev. Harold J. Rainey, P.6. Box
ion*? Rno/4 w P NnY-thaiHa Station. Atlanta 5. GeoreiaJ