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12 GEORGIA BULLETIN. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 19, 1968
‘Off-The-Cuff’
Pope Warns Priests
Of ‘Novelties’
VATICAN CITY—Pope
Paul has urged priests to
beware of the “almost
subversive novelties” which
today threaten their
vocation.
In an extemporaneous
series of remarks Pope Paul
dwelt on the subject of the
priesthood at the opening of
a general audience (Dec. 11).
The Pope had taken his seat
in the Hall of Benedictions in
the Vatican and was
preparing to deliver his
prepared address for the
audience. But then, looking
at a number of groups of
priests who had come to
assist at the audience, Pope
Paul launched into a series of
off-the-cuff remarks on the
priesthood.
The Pope said that priests
today are faced with the
questions: Am I what I am
supposed to be? Am I at my
post? Am I doing what I
should be doing?
He replied: “It seems to
us that there is an easy
answer to these grave
questions. Do well what the
Church gives you to do. Do
not believe that in the almost
subversive novelities which
have been proposed that you
can find a better solution, a
better employment of the
great choice which the Lord
has made of your persons.”
Developing his theme,
Pope Paul said that there are
two recurring reasons behind
the present turmoil among
priests. One, he said, was “to
find authenticity, and on this
we are all in agreement; we
seek to be truly authentic
priests of Christ and the
Church.”
The second reason is that
“we wish to be close to the
world. For this motive as
well we cannot but praise
those who have this concern
and this intention, unless
those desiring to be closer to
the world would almost
break ranks, leaving the
discipline which the Church
has created _and always has
professed and believing that,
either by tossing aside the
habit or taking on worldly
ways of the nonsacred and
the like or by taking up a
non-sacred working
profession, one can better
draw closer to the world.”
Pope Paul asked: What
does it serve a priest to be
assimilated by a world which
he seeks to convert?
Answering this question he
said: “It gives the impression
of an immediacy of contacts,
but let us look to it carefully
that the efficiency and the
specific function is not lost
which he [the priest] must
carry out, which sets him
apart, which makes of him
the source of strength of the
people and which does not
assimilate him materially and
socially within the people
themselves to whom he
wishes to address his
message.”
Before returning to his
prepared text Pope Paul
paused to refer, indirectly, it
would appear to recent
developments at Isolotto in
the Florence archdiocese.
Speaking specifically of the
Italian clergy, he said: “You
can find the fecundity of
your ministry on the
doorsteps of your rectories
and of your churches. The
people are there, you have
only to open your heart, to
understand them and to serve
them. Also, the ministerial
and sacramental function
entrusted to you has no
equal. If it is carried out well,
besides giving a great fullness
to him who feels himself the
living instrument for the
transmission of the grace of
God, it acquires an efficacy
which cannot be
compensated for or
substituted for by any other
means. Courage, therefore,
brothers, courage.”
During his prepared
discourse thd Pope returned
to the theme of the existence
of God, which has been his
subject for the past several
audiences. During this
audience he concentrated on
the subjective problem of
knowing God.
“This problem! We
consider it principally at least
for now-it is a problem of
knowledge, or psychological
knowledge above all. It can
be said quickly that to
dispose one’s knowledge to
an awareness of God, His
living reality, His incumbent
presence, His silent action,
does not mean to shut our
critical and reasoning eye so
as to abandon ourselves to a -
fabled enchantment, to a
pietistic suggestion, or to a
mythologized weakness.
Rather it means to make
more acute one’s perceptive
sense of spiritual truth, and
to have one’s vigilance
purified of distractions,
prejudices and ignoble moral
weaknesses.”
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Holy Name Men
Given Privilege
NEW ORLEANS (NC)-Holy
Name Society members
throughout the New Orleans
archdiocese have been granted
permission by Archbishop Philip
M. Hannan to receive
Communion under both species.
The privilege, which will
become effective on Jan. 4, 1969,
will apply during a Mass to be
said on the first Saturday of each
month.
Father John A. Bendix,
archdiocesan Holy Name spirtual
director, said the privilege
specified that the intention of the
Mass be world peace as asked for
by Our Lady of Fatima.
He added that the privilege
extends to the families of Holy
Name members and to all persons
attending the Mass on the first
Saturday.
Father Bendix said the
privilege was used in “pilot”
Masses in 11 parishes in the
archdiocese. He said there was an
increase in attendance at these
Masses, adding that in his parish
there were at least 100 men at
the Mass.
The priest said permission for
the rare privilege was requested in
order to interest the men and to
bring them out for a Mass other
than on Sundays.
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