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GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1966
Scholar Cites Slanted View
About Martin Luther
WASHINGTON (NC) — A
Catholic scholar said here a
viciously slanted view of Martin
Luther perpetrated by a 16th
century biographer dominated
Catholic scholarship on Luther
for more than 300 years.
Dr. Leonard Swidler, co-edi
tor of the Journal of Ecumeni
cal Studies, declared that
American Catholics are faced
with the problem of a "cul
tural lag” when it comes to
understanding the causes of the
Reformation. European scho
lars have the edge in this field,
he asserted. Although American
scholars are rapidly closing the
scholarship gap in many areas,
they have not caught up to their
European counterparts in stu
dies of the Reformation.
Swidler, a member of the
subcommittee on ecumenism
and Catholic education of the
Bishops’ Commission for Ecu
menical Affairs, spoke at work
shop on Education for Ecu
menism at Trinity College here.
His audience was composed,
for the most part, of Catholic
elementary and secondary
school teachers from Washing
ton, Baltimore, Wilmington,
Del., and Richmond, Ife. The
teachers met here to learn how
to teach ecumenism to Catholic
youngsters.
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Stressing that teachers
should tell students the truth,
Swidler also advised them to
neither deny nor play down the
fact that the Roman Catholic
Church has made mistakes.
"When the Church is defen
ded by something less than the
whole truth, she becomes a
captive of the lie,’’ he said.
As an example of something
less than the whole truth,
Swidler cited what he called
the centuries-old slander of
Luther begun by the Catholic
polemicist John Cochlaeus. By
and large that tradition endured
until about 25 years ago. Then
Father Joseph Lortz began to
turn the tide of Catholic scho
larship with a study which de
picted Luther as a man deep
ly religious but afflicted with
the "fatal flaw of religious
subjectivism,” Swidler said.
But many Catholic teachers
have not caught up with Father
Lortz he stated. One reason, in
this country at least, might be
that Lortz’s major work has
never been translated from
German into English. Another
factor, Swidler pointed out, is
a tendency to deny that the
Roman Catholic Church shares
the guilt for the historical event
which disunited Christendom.
If widespread and prolonged
abuses had not existed in the
Chuch, and had not gone un
heeded by some in authority,
the ground would not have been
EDITOR SAYS
prepared for the Reformation,
he indicated.
Swidler advised the teachers
to improve their knowledge of
the Reformation period by read
ing good scholars, whether
Catholic or Protestant. Two
smaller works by Lortz were
translated into English in 1964,
he said, and the English Catholic
editor John M. Todd wrote an
accurate and highly readable
biography of Martin Luther last
year.
Swidler recommended that
the teachers invite various
Protestant scholars to the
schools to present a histori
cal development of their re
spective traditions. He also told
the teachers that they them
selves should strive-to pre
sent the Protestant position as
objectively and sympathetically
as possible. He said they should
emphasize the things which
Catholics and Protestants have
in common, point out the areas
of difference, and also acknow
ledge that there are “cloudly
areas” where more scholarship
is needed.
Recommending that Catholic
teachers re-study the Reforma
tion, he told the group they would
do well to investigate Catholic
textbooks for biased interpre
tations and statements. When
these are found, the students
must be warned about them
and the appropriate authorities
should be induced to correct
them.
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CLEVELAND (NC)—The Catholic layman’s greatest hope is
"that he will be taught and encouraged to worship God in spirit
and in truth, that his encounter with God will be real and per
sonal, that it will include an element of risk and a conscious
ness of grandeur and mystery,” the editor of the National
Catholic Reporter said here.
Robert G. Hoyt told the
Catholic Hospital Association’s
51st convention that for most
laymen the most meaningful
document produced by the Se
cond Vatican Council was the
Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World.
"In this document the Church
takes the world seriously,” he
said. "The laymen has always
had to take the world serious
ly, but sometimes in isolation
from his religion,” he said.
Often, he added, the world is
presented "chiefly as a source
of temptation rather than as
the object of Christ’s redeem
ing love; and human life has
been portrayed simply as a
time of trial rather than as an
opportunity to take part in the
work of redemption by advanc
ing the cause of human soli
darity and progress.”
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The layman, he continued, "is
no longer satisfied with rheto
ric about the nature of the
Church; he wants to see the
principles realized in prac
tice.”
As an example, he said, he
was often taught that the pope,
as a human being, is capable
of sin and error and "his in
fallibility must be narrowly
countered.” In practice, how
ever, "no pope was publicly
criticized until he was 100 years
in the grave.”
"There was a gap between
principle and reality, a gap
which is now beginning to
close,” he said.
"In my judgment the truly
contemporary Catholic does not
wish to protected from the facts
by his pastors until such time
as the facts can be neatly ar
ranged and authoritatively in
terpreted. In the case of an is
sue like birth control, he not
only wants to know the facts, he
wants authorities in the Church
to realize that he knows them,”
Hoyt asserted.
Among Catholics of this kind,
he said, "personal intellectual
integrity is perhaps the highest
of all values. The Catholic who
shares this view is still aware
of and grateful for the Church’s
authority; but he is also aware
that he is a human being as
well as a Catholic.
"In a sense that is not mere
ly chronological, he is a human
being first and a Catholic se
cond,” because he uses data
and criteria from sources other
than the Church "in his re
sponse to the Church as in
stitution, as teacher and as
guide.”
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While this development "po
ses problems and creates
risks,” it also has a positive
aspect, he said, because it al
lows the layman "to combine
fidelity to the traditions and
principles of my Church with
a consciousness that these tra
ditions do not contain all the
answers to all my problems or
the problems of the world —
and that I will have to not only
the opportunity but a respond
sibility to make my own con
tribution toward the clarifica
tion of Christian thought and
the resolution of the world’s
dilemmas.”
STRUMMING ALONG with Leonard Schmitt, a guitar instructor, are seven nuns—the
Music Makers of St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood, Mo. While their playing is for fun, the
nuns strive to produce the’ best music possible. The musicians are Sisters Carol Joseph,
Mary Hyacinth, Domitilla,, Gemma, Clara Vincent, Ann Ambrose and Alan Margaret.
BY SECRETARIAT
Ecumenical Handbook
Is Being Prepared
ROME (NC)--Members and
consultors of the Secretariat
for Promoting Christian Unity,
meeting in plenary session for
the first time since the Second
Vatican Council, are preparing
a handbook of ecumenical ac
tion.
The secretariat had pro
mised this "Ecumenical Di
rectory” to the bishops of the
Second Vatican Council. In draf
ting it, the secretariat exa
mined suggestions from re
gional conferences of bishops.
In a somewhat vague com
munique, the secretariat said
its' members "came to an
agreement on several elements
that might constitute the first
part of such a directory.” A
spokesman of the secretariat
said he could not specify the
subject of this "first part”
of the directory.
The communique continued,
"The meeting then considered
other forms of ecumenical acti
vity that might be the subject
of a second part of the direc
tory.” The spokesman said he
could not be any more specific
on the subject of the second part
of the handbook. The secre
tariat plans to ask the world’s
bishops for suggestions on this.
Members and consultors of the
secretariat will examine these
suggestions at a second plenary
session at a date not yet de
termined.
At the first plenary session
(June 6-14) the secretariat ex
amined its relations with va
rious commissions on ecumen
ism set up by national and re
gional hierarchies.
The participants also dis
cussed relations between the
secretariat and various Chris
tian churches, and means of
developing these relations.
Despite the reticence of the
secretariat’s communique and
of its spokesman, some details
of the work accomplished be
came known through an autho
ritative source.
A first draft of the "Ecu
menical Directory” was sent
to all bishops’ conferences
last March. Although it was
reworked on the basis of sug
gestions received both from
the bishops' conferences and
from non-Catholic Christians,
the present version does not
differ substantially from the
original.
In its present state of de
velopment, the directory ma
kes suggestions for the crea
tion of diocesan ecumenical
commissions. It also discus
ses the establishment of ecu-,
menlcal commissions attached
to regional or national con
ference of bishops.
The directory offers criteria
for the conditional baptism of
converts to the Catholic Church.
This practice has been severe
ly criticized by non-Catholic
churches on the ground that
it implies that their baptism
is not valid. Some Catholics
maintain that unless carried
out only after rigorous inves
tigation of the conditions of the
earlier baptism, it involved
grave risk of a sacrilegious
attempt to re-administer a va
lid sacrament that has already
left an indelible sacramental
character.
The plenary session also ex
amined recent trends in ecu
menism.
Sunday Mass
| In The
Georgia Mountains
RIDQB
KLLIJAI
CLARKESVILLE
TOCCOi
JASPER
CUMMIHJ
Only the towns underlined have Sunday Mass.
BLAIRSVILLE
11:00
a.m.
GAINESVILLE
8:00
a.m
(June, July, August only)
9:00
a.m
10:15
a.m
CLARKESVILLE
9:00
a.m.
5:00
p.m
HARTWELL
8:00
a.m
CLAYTON
I 11:15
a.m.
(Evening Mass every
other week,
check locally)
CLEVELAND
\ 8:15
a.m.
JASPER
11:45
a.m
TOCCOA
10:00
a.m
DAHLONEGA
' 10:00
a.m.
(Evening Mass every other week,
check locally)
Pope Paul Says Church
Is ‘Bride Of Christ’
VATICAN errY (NC)—Pope
Paul VI has continued his week
ly lessons on the names of the
Church with a talk on "those
elect but strange names,’ the
Church as the Bride of Christ
and as the Mother of Christians.
Asking why the Church is
called the Bride of Christ at his
weekly general audience, he
first traced the use of the term
bride in the Old Testament
"where the relation between
God and His people is several
times symbolized in nuptial
love.”
The Pope also recalled that
in the New Testament, John the
Baptist refers to Christ as a
bridegroom, and that Christ
compares Himself to a bride
groom.
But again, he said, it is St.
Paul who gives to the image
its most precise ecclesialogi-
cal meaning in the famous pass
age in the letter to the Ephe
sians in which he compared the
relationship between Christ and
the Church to that between a
husband and wife (Eph. 5, 21-
32).
The Pope also referred to the
marriage of the lamb in the
Apocalypse.
The image of the Church as
the spouse of Christ, he said,
"teaches us the love exceed
ing every love that Christ had
for the Church.”
"It teaches us the intimate
and indissoluble union and at the
same time the distinction be
tween Christ and the Church,”
he continued.
"It teaches us that the Church
is neither a principle nor an
end in herself; she is of Christ;
from Him she receives her dig
nity, her sanctifying power, her
lowly and sublime royalty. It
teaches us that the Church is not
only an instrument of salva
tion but a term of salvation, be
cause in her the Lord's design
and charity terminate...
"Let them think of this who
have for the Church nothing but
judgments of criticism or of
antipathy. Let them think of this
who consider her a useless baf
fle between man and God, and do
not remember that she is the
point of encounter of Christ's
love for us. The nuptial house,
that is the holy Church, wrote
St. Gregory the Great” (Horn.
38; P.L. 76, 1287).
Turning to the figure of the
Church as the Mother of Chris
tians, Pope Paul said: ‘Toher
we owe everything: she has gen-
e rated us to a new life, that of
grace, that which will be our
eternal happiness. She has
given us the faith, and with her
magisterium preserves it for
us univocal, integral and fec-
cund. She has given us grace.
She is the dispenser of the sac
raments. She has given us char
ity, the agape, the society of our
brothers. She unites us, she
educates us to love, to true hu
manism.”
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INDIA:
A JOB
FOR YOU
THE HOLY FATHER’S MISSION AID TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCH
HELP
NATIVE
SISTERS
HELP
HELPLESS
BOYS
AND
GIRLS
If your daughter or sister were a nun in southern
India, you’d show this letter to your friends. . ..
Writes Sister Mary James, the Mother General:
“In Vaipur, a backward steaming village, our
Franciscan Clarist Sisters are old at 40, worn out
and frequently ill, since they lack even the basic
necessities. They have no convent or chapel,
and they eat and sleep on the ground. They’ll
die in Vaipur, rather than desert the helpless
children, however. These children will be India’s
salvation tomorrow.”' ... A convent (with
chapel) will cost only $2,500, since the grateful
villagers will build it free of charge evenings
after work. Name it for your favorite saint, in
your loved ones’ memory, if you give it all by
yourself. Or sacrifice at least as much as you
can ($1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50, $25, $10,
$5, $3, $1) right now. You’ll be adding years to
the Sisters' lives, sharing their goodness and
hardships for the poor.
A The inability to read or write is "one of the great
SISTER plagues of our times,” Pope Paul says. A sure
OF way to fight illiteracy? Train a teaching Sister
YOUR overseas. . . . We’ll send you the name of a
OWN young girl who needs help to become a Sister,
you may write to her, and she will write to you
and pray for you. And you may pay for her
two-year training at your own convenience (the
full $300 right now, or $150 a year, or $12.50
a month). She’ll be ‘your’ Sister as long as
she lives.
Mtk
CARPENTERS
IN
BETHLEHEM
To enable Arab refugee boys to become eco
nomically independent as carpenters, Salesian
Father Lino Russo in Bethlehem needs lumber
(total cost: $600) to make worktables, desks,
stools, etc. $30 will take care of the needs of
one boy.
REMEMBER
THE
POOR
In making your will (or reviewing it) don't forget
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330 Madison Avenue • New York, N.Y. 10017
Telephone: 212/YUkon 6-5840