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Teilhard’s Theories
No Longer Unknown
BY CARDINAL
Dutch Laymen
Given Control
Of Education
UTRECHT, The Netherlands (NC) — Bernard Cardinal Al-
frink of Utrecht announced that the Dutch bishops have given
up their exclusive responsibility for Catholic education, as
signing it to the parents of school-going children, the teachers*
unions, and the school boards.
NEW YORK (CPF)—Whenthejesuit geologist and philosopher
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died 11 years ago at the age of 74,
his superiors had not allowed him to publish his theologically
unconventional views on evolution and the origins of Man.
Today, one decade and one aggiornamento later, de Chardin
is being written about in Catholic publications in a manner once
reserved for St. Paul and St. Thomas Aquinas.
In magazines ranging from the scholarly Catholic World
(‘Teilhard de Chardin and the Afri-Asian World”) to the de
votional Queen of All Hearts (‘Teilhard de Chardin and the
Mother of God”), writers probe the relevance of his philoso
phy. A Fordham University Jesuit has written the latest of
dozens of books on him, ‘Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery
of Christ” (Harper & Row), and last month the annual Cath
olic Book Awards prize for best biography went to Helicon
Press for Claude Cuenot’s ‘Teilhard de Chardin: A Biograph
ical Study,”
Who was he, what did he say, and why is it receiving so
much attention? Presented here is a. ‘primer” on Teilhard
de Chardin (pronounced ‘TAY-yard DAY shar-DON”), pro
viding a brief introduction to the man and his thought.
The Man: French-born, he became interested in stones when
he was a child and before ordination dedicated his life to the
study of fossils. He was professor of geology at the Catholic
Institute of Paris and was later given charge of fossil excava
tions in East Asia. He took part in numerous geological expe
ditions. His work in the field and his thoughts on the connec
tion between theology and the phenomena of cosmic life re
sulted in his major work, ‘The Phenomenon of Man,” written
during life resulted in his major work, ‘The Phenomenon
of Man, ” written during World War II while he was in Peking
but published posthumously by a committee of his friends and
associates. He spent the last four years of his life ‘‘in exile”
from his community, working with the Wenner-Gren Founda
tion for Anthropological Research in New York.
On Evolution: It was Chardin’s belief that everything in
the world—plants, animals, man—has been in a steady pro
cess of evolution from the very first instant of Creation.
Nothing can suddenly come to light after various stages of
evolution that was not in some form present—even if unknown
—from the very beginning. He rejects the "and then God
made” theory of Creation. There was only one act of Crea
tion. Everything evolved from it.
The “Within” of Things: From that first instant of Crea
tion, each living thing was equipped with an inner driving
force—what- Chardin- labeled the “within” of things—conf-
pelling it to seek the development of itself, the perfection <$f
itself, its destiny. It is easily identifiable in Man, but has also
existed in plants, animals and insects—all of which developed
certain exterior characteristics (antlers, wings, beaks, etc.)
in their drive for perfection.
Origin of Man: Of all the species, only the primates—after
the development of the massive brain and intricate nervous
system—ceased striving for exterior development and allowed
the "within” itself to develop. Out of this species, sudden
ly, came Man. With his appearance, the evolutionary urge in
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the non-human branches waned, because the peak of biological
evolution had been attained.
Toward “Point Omega”: Chardin was not really as con
cerned with the past as he was with the future, searching
the past for a due to what is ahead. He saw all of creation
as working its way from a broad base at the beginning (which
he terms “Point Alpha”) and spiralling upward toward its
ultimate destiny (which he terms “Point Omega”).
In Man, the evolutionary process is still continuing—but
on a mental level rather than a physical one, and in conjunc
tion with other men, rather than alone (evidence: mass com
munications, swift transportation, international governing bod
ies such as the UN), The object of all his mental energies is
Point Omega, which already exists and which from the begin
ning of time has been attracting thinking man to itself.
Christ: Creation came from God, Point Alpha. It culmi
nated in Man and perfects itself through the return of thinking
things to God. God-Made-Man is in this last phase of return.
In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, PointOmega appears tangi
bly for the first time. Evolution will now continue along the
axis of a self-evolving Christianity, the only religion to have
developed spiritually and Intellectually—in line with a key prin
ciple of evolution: namely, constant striving toward its ulti
mate perfection, becoming more complex in structure.
Teilhard de Chardin's philosophy presents problems to stand
ard Christian theologians (his theories leave little room for
Paradise, Original Sin, the first parents, the Redemption), but
it is also looked upon as providing some answers to questions
that theologians have long been grappling with:
The problem of the existence of evil in a God-made world
is easier to comprehend if the world is seen as constantly
evolving, since everything arranging itself must necessarily
include some disorder at every stage.
Chardin's philosophy provides the basis for a strong union
between science and religion, which have never been fully at
peace with one another. By stressing the spiritual perspec
tive of evolution, Chardin has given a constructive answer to
materialistic atheism, which has tended to interpret every new
fissil discovery as still another argument against the Christian
concept of Creaton.
Evolution, which is provable, destroys the concept of abso
lute death, since the cosmos is shown to be pushing all living
things toward higher and higher forms of life.
The professional theologian, according to Joseph Kipp in
‘Teilhard de Chardin: A New Synthesis of Evolution” (Paul-
ist Press) is now called upon “to immerse himself in Teil
hard's work, to examine carefully the whole evidence, to pay
the same serious attention to paleontological conclusions (re
lating to the study of fossils) as to theology, and to demon
strate courageously to us what part of the Catholic Church's
teaching up to now on the origin of man is really theology, what
part is made up of outdated philosophical concepts or the cloth
ing of theological statements in the language of their time.
This work is not easy, but it cannot be avoided, for it is a pas
toral duty in the highest sense of the term.”
In his address to the 22
members of the Catholic Edu
cation Council, Cardinal Alfrink
said:
“Today your bishops lay the
full responsibility for the well
being of the Catholic schools
on your shoulders, on you, pa
rents; on you, teachers; on you,
school boards; who together
constitute our faithful, over
whom we have been appointed
as helpers and whom we wish
to serve with our pastoral
care.”
Tracing the history of Ca
tholic education in the Nether
lands, the Dutch cardinal told
his audience that thoughts about
the nature of episcopal respon
sibility have quickly changed.
In 1959, he recalled, he had
himself said that both bishops
and lay people were responsi
ble for the Catholic schools.
Now the responsibility has been
transferred to lay people, with
the bishops as their helpers.
“According to the conciliar
Constitution on the Church, it
will always be up to the bishops’*
the cardinal said, “to preach
the word, to sanctify society,
and to govern the community.
Yet the way in which they do
so concretely will also be de
termined by the circumstances
under which society is living,
by the extent to which the faith
ful can bear their own respon
sibilities, in short, by the ex
tent they have grown up.”
“Only thus can it be under
stood that elsewhere in the
world the responslbilityforCa-
thollc education is still fully
the concern and the tasks of the
bishops, as It was in the Ne-
JtherlamJsJbefoEe. 1920, when the
Catholic schools were not sub
sidized and had to be paid
for by the faithful themselves.
In such a situation the bishop
had to become the man pri
marily responsible for Catholic
education, not only in the minds
of the faithful, but also in his
own mind.”
“Now things have thoroughly
changed, with the Catholic
schools fully participating in the
mamm
Cardinal Alfrink
national school system, fully
subsidized by the state and yet
fully independent.”
In the situation of education
In the Netherlands, Catholic
schools flourish. All 1,600 pa
rishes in the country have an
elementary school. They are
attended by more than 600,000
children, 44.3 per cent of the
total elementary school youth.
The same is true for the near
ly 600 Catholic technical and
secondary schools, with a total
enrollment of 350,000 boys and
girls. The two Catholic univer
sities of Nijmegen and Tilburg
are also subsidized by the Dutch
government.
Sister Melanie
Attends Meeting
About Medicare
Sister Mary Melanie, R.S.M.,
administrator of St. Joseph's
Infirmary, has attended a meet
ing at the White House to review
plans for the beginning of the
medicare program July 1.
She and other hospital ad
ministrators were invited to at
tend the meeting to discuss
problems connected with the
program and compliance with
the Civil Rights Act.
Lutheran Urges ‘Return To Rome’
JACKSON
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (RNS) —
A Lutheran theologian has
written an article in the June
issue of Una Sancta, a Lu
theran quarterly, urging Church
union on the basis of a Pro
testant “return to Rome.”
Prof. Carl E. Braaten of the
Lutheran School of Theology in
Chicago called upon his fellow
Protestants to look upon the
Reformation as an event in
history which, having accom
plished the reforms it set out
to bring about, must now become
past history. The “exiles” of
that period, he maintained,
should now return to their “ec
clesiastical homeland” — the
Roman Catholic Church.
Martin Luther never intended
to begin a new Church, Prof.
Braaten said, particularly if he
could have foreseen that his
efforts would “in the long run,
turn out so many illegitimate
offspring.”
“The farthest thing from Lu
ther’s mind was to make his
reform movement into an in
dependent Church, named after
him, that would exist per
manently outside of and in com
petition with the Roman Catho
lic Church. . .The tragedy is
that what was intended to be
only a temporary Church has
become a permanent arrange
ment. . .The Reformation was
not intended to bring about a
Protestant Church, much less a
collection of Protestant
Churches.”
Prof. Braaten said he found
in Protestantism today “ a new
birth of catholicity, .a recovery
of catholic substance and pri-
ciples that have been lost in
Protestant history.” He main
tained that this renewal is not
intended merely “to revitalize
the Protestant communities for
prolonged separate existance,
but to renew in them the long
ing to be integrated with their
Roman brethren in the one ca
tholic Church. There is no doubt
that a phenomenon we best call
evangelical catholicity is grow
ing among Lutherans.”
This “evangelical catholic
position,” Prof. Braaten said,
“has a high regard for the Re
formation, appreciates its
necessity, but sees its franchise
as limited, provisional andter-
minal, and always related to the
Roman Catholic Church.
“It takes seriously the often
glibly made statement, ‘Luther
never intended to found a new
church, but he was excommuni
cated.* Now the thing to do when
you are excommunicated, and
you are convinced you are in
the right. . .is to try to rec
tify those conditions which pro
duced the wrong, and finally to
have the bans of excommuni
cation withdrawn. Meanwhile,
life must go on; the Gospel
must be preached; persons must
be cared for. So you set up a
temporary government, a pro
visional ecclesiastical order,
while in exile.”
Prof. Braaten maintained that
it is becoming “increasingly
difficult” to answer the question
as to whether Protestantism
should continue as “an indepen
dent movement running along
side the Roman Catholic
Church” or to reunite with
Catholicism and continue “to
work as the leaven of reform
within the church.”
Were Martin Luther living
within the conditions of present-
day Catholicism, he would pro
bably not “sound his call tore-
form in the same uncompro
mising fashion, especially if he
knew that his reformation
would, in the long run, turn
out so many illegitimate off
spring,” Prof. Braaten said.
Speculating on the nature of
the reformed and reunitec
church, Prof. Braaten wrote:
“For our part, we long for a
Church which will be both evan
gelical and catholic, continuous
with the faith of the apostles
and continuous with all that
is universally valid in the ex
perience of Christ’s body on
earth.
“We long for a Church which
will be unified and in which the
one bread and the one cup
may be shared by all, without
regard to class, race or de
nomination. ”
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