Newspaper Page Text
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PAGE 6 — January 7,1971
News Review Of Catholic World
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Covers last week of Dec
ember when no paper was
published.
In WASHINGTON, Family
life directors of the nation’s
Catholic dioceses expressed
confidence in the modern
American family’s ability to
adapt to the changing social
conditions of the 1970s. In a
public statement prepared for
the Dec. 27 observance of
Holy Family Sunday, they
noted that some observers
have proclaimed the end of
the family as it has
traditionally been known.
“Others have relegated family
life to a position of
irrelevance,” the statement
said. “But the family is
neither ended nor irrelevant.
Rather, we believe it can
serve as the cutting edge in
man’s effort to adapt to new
life styles, new demands and
new roles . . .” (NC)
* * *
In LANSING, Mich., the
Michigan state Supreme
Court ordered the state board
of education to continue
providing auxiliary services
for nonpublic schools - at
least until it makes a final
judgment on a state
constitutional amendment
banning most nonpublic aid.
In another directive, however,
the court ordered state school
authorities not to hand out
any of the $22 million which
the state legislature
appropriated earlier this year
for nonpublic school
teachers’ salaries. (NC)
* * *
In WASHINGTON, an
estimated 200 supporters of
imprisoned Fathers Philip and
Daniel Berrigan gathered
across Constitution Avenue
from the Justice Department
to protest FBI director J.
Edgar Hoover’s accusation
that the two priests were
members of a kidnapping and
sabotage conspiracy. The
two-hour protest
highlighted by a paraliturgical
service led by Puerto Rican
Bishop Antulio
Parrilla-Bonilla - followed a
night-long vigil of prayers and
fasting. (NC)
* * *
In NEW YORK, the state’s
attorney general, has
launched an investigation
here to determine if the fees
charged by abortion referral
agencies in the state are just.
The practices of about 15
companies in the New York
City metropolitan area, which
have served thousands of
By Father Leo
A. McFadden
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
Pope Paul VI set his 1970
Christmas message against the
temper of the times, asking
all mankind to rally to the
hope of Bethlehem rather
than bow to skepticism and
despair.
He spoke to dipolmats and
a TV audience at midnight
Mass in the Vatican’s Sistine
Chapel, and again at noon
from the balcony facing St.
Peter’s Square, where radio
and TV also sent his words
out from Rome.
The corps of diplomats of
some 60 nations accredited to
the Holy See assembled in the
Sistine Chapel and heard
Pope Paul call Christmas “a
feast of joy and hope, a feast
that puts new life into man’s
future.”
Then the Pope referred to
the way all men today,
including himself, are
searching for some signs for
human progress. He said that
work for peace and justice
now appears to be like the
labors of the mythological
King Sisyphus, who spent his
time in hell fruitlessly trying
to roll a stone up a hill. The
obvious reference was to vain
efforts to obtain peace and
goodness.
The Pope said that “if it
were not for Christmas,” he
and others seeking peace
would be led to “skepticism
women since the new
abortion law went into effect
last July 1, are being studied
along with those of
physicians and several private
hospitals and clinics. Stephen
Mindell, assistant attorney
general in charge of the
investigation, said that the
state’s primary concern was
those women from outside of
New York who “may be
paying more than a fair and
reasonable raK for abortion
referral.” ‘‘We are
concerned,” he continued,
“that many proprietors of
these services have had no
medical training whatsoever.
They are businessmen, and
we are concerned with the
conditions of the hospitals
these women are being sent
to.” (NC)
* * *
In TAIPEI, Taiwan,
Cardinal Terence Cooke of
New York, with one arm
round the shoulders of
Airman David Marcus of New
York City, said “this is why I
make these trips. . .” My
trips have a pastoral purpose,
to bring something of home
to our men overseas at
Christmas.” The military
vicar arrived here Dec. 19
from Japan on his way to
Vietnam to spend Christmas
with U.S. troops. He was met
at the airport by the bishops
in Taiwan, including Cardinal
Paul Yu Pin, exiled
archbishop of Nanking;
Archbishop Edward Cassidy,
the apostolic nuncio;
Maryknoll Bishop William
Kupfer of Taichung, Taiwan,
from FIu shing, N. Y.;
Maryknoll Bishop Frederick
Donaghy from New Bedford,
Mass., exiled bishop of
Wuchow, China; and a group
of chaplains headed by Msgr.
Paul Hammerl (Capt. USN) of
Buffalo, N.Y. (NC)
* * *
In WASHINGTON, a priest
who was allegedly spied upon
declared he was “shocked and
discouraged” by the recent
disclosure by a former army
intelligence officer that he
and other priests involved in a
dispute with Cardinal Patrick
O’Boyle of Washington were
put under army surveillance
in 1968. Former Army 1st
Lt. Quentin Burgess made the
allegations in a televised
interview several days after
another former agent, John
O’Brien, told newsmen that
more than 800 individuals -
including high public officials
- had been spied upon by the
army in the state of Illinois.
Burgess said “blacks and
antiwar groups were the
primary targets” of military
and despair.” He added that
this “feast of rejoicing,”
symbolized by the
“captivating frailty of
babyhood,” is a gift from on
high which admits of “no
measure, no regret, a love
that wishes to make of us and
all mankind a new people, a
good and happy people.”
The noontime “Urbi et
Orbi” message - “To The
City and The World” - also
reflected the dual emotion of
hope in Christ and the
“anguish of despair” in the
world. Pope Paul, as he did in
many of his speeches during
his recent voyage and also in
his message of peace for
1971, appealed to young
people and the downtrodden
of the world to consider
moral and spiritual values as
top priority in a new world.
“Does Christianity still
have today something
relevant to say to the modern
world?” the Pope asked. The
answer to this question comes
from faith, he insisted, faith
that believes the Gospel is
“an ever new and vital
message.”
He admitted a “dramatic
doubt” and an “inner fear”
that men would not listen to
this message, but went on to
say that he was sure that his
effort “is not in vain.” He
held up to mar/the example
of Christ as a person who is
“little, unarmed and
crucified,” but who also
“aligned Himself with those
rebelling against hypocrisy
spying here in Washington,
but that other groups such as
the priests in dispute with the
cardinal were also under
surveillance. (NC)
* * *
In UTRECHT, The
Netherlands, an experimental
religious community broke its
ties with the Dutch
Capuchins and the Franciscan
Sisters of Denekamp after the
Vatican Congregation for
Religious ordered two Sisters
to leave the community. The
Vatican congregation said
that if the Sisters did not
leave the community they
would be expelled from the
Franciscans and released from
their Religious vows. Until
now, the community was an
experiment in living the
Religious life approved by the
Capuchins and the Franciscan
Sisters in the Netherlands.
From now on, it will
continue as an unofficial
group. (NC)
* * *
In VATICAN CITY, Pope
Paul asked whether the
Christian West realizes its
duty toward the world’s
less-favored nations. At the
same time, he deplored “the
movement of corrosive
criticism towards the
institutional and traditional
Church,” mentioning
“America” by name as one of
the intellectual centers from
which it stems. The Pope
pointed out in his Christmas
speech Dec. 22 to the college
of cardinals that next
autumn’s Synod of bishops
will deal with world justice as
well as with the problems of
the priesthood. (NC)
* * *
In TOLEDO, Ohio, a
three-judge U.S. district court
panel upheld the
constitutionality of Ohio’s
abortion law which prohibits
that procedure unless the
mother’s life is at stake. In a
2-1 decision, judges argued
here that the exception of
performing an abortion for
preservation of the mother’s
life is justified because
“self-defense has always been
recognized as a justification
for homicide.” The
constitutionality of the
state’s law had been
questioned in a case brought
before the federal court by an
obstetrician, a psychologist, a
social worker, a clergymen
and a pregnant woman. (NC)
* * *
In JACKSON, Miss.,
charges of racism and
and injustice and who
breathed sentiments of
goodness and love into the
exasperated hearts of man.”
As the Pope was speaking,
a few persons staged a silent
protest with placards on
behalf of two Jews sentenced
to death for plane hijacking
in the Soviet Union. Police
asked them to move back
onto Italian soil and they did
so. Before the midnight Mass
at a Polish church in Rome,
20 youths from the
Committee for Czechoslo
vakian Freedom carried
blazing torches and
distributed handbills on
behalf of “martyred Poland.”
Their protest was also
peaceful.
The Pope said in his noon
message that the prime
candidates to listen to the
message of the Babe of
Bethlehem were the poor, the
suffering, prisoners, refugees
and those “bewildered by the
darkness of evil.”
To this list he then added
the young, scientists and
intellectuals, economists and
politicians. He asked the
latter: “Do you not notice by
the very shadows that are
fearfully projected in front of
us that we often have our
backs turned on Christ?”
As Pope Paul gave his
warning at midnight Mass in
the Sistine Chapel, it was not
without irony that over four
centuries ago Michelangelo in
his ceiling frescoes said much
indifference to the plight of
the poor were hurled at the
Natchez-Jackson diocese by
the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored
People during a hearing held
to “get to the bottom and
solve the problems of
STAR.” STAR is a diocesan
sponsored, manpower and
education program but
operates as an independent
corporation federally funded
by the Office of Economic
Opportunity. It is controlled
by a 30-member board of
directors over which the
bishop here has little control.
Bishop Joseph Brunini of
Natchez-Jackson said he was
confident that any
misunderstanding between
the state’s NAACP chapter
and the diocese could be
smoothed out. (NC)
* * *
In LONDON, an official
Church of England
commission recommended
that leading clergymen of
other denominations be
appointed to the House of
Lords, Britain’s non-elected
upper chamber of Parliament.
The commission’s report, the
product of four years’ work,
also recommends lifting the
existing bar to the election of
Catholic priests and other
Christian ministers to the
House of Commons, the
lower, but politically more
powerful, house of
Parliament. The report deals
with the Anglican Church’s
position as the “established
church” and its control by
pari iament and the
monarchy. The report
recommended that the
Church of England remain
the established church of the.
land, with the monarch as its
supreme head - as it was set
up by Henry VIII in the 16th
century - but it urges that
the Church take over from
Parliament final authority
over worship and doctrine.
The report also said that
Anglican bishops should no
longer be appointed by the
monarch on the
recommendation of the prime
minister. (NC)
* * *
In VATICAN CITY, the
Vatican City’s weekly
magazine called the recent
outbreak of violence in
Poland a natural reaction of
men crushed by the economic
and social dogmas that
Poland’s communist regime
has been trying to impose.
“The teaching to be drawn
from these tragic events as
well as those of the past is
that the experiments of the
the same thing. Running
down the center of the ceiling
are nine scenes depicting the
hopelessness of man left to
his own r esources.
Michelangelo, like Pope Paul,
pictured Christ as man’s only
hope.
In the Sistine Chapel, with
its recently cleaned' frescoes
alive and awash in the glare of
spotlights, the loudest noise
was often the catlike panning
of a TV camera. Pope Paul
recited a low Mass in Latin on
a plain altar facing the
people. The Pontiff walked
out briskly at the end of Mass
as the Sistine choir sang a
Christmas hymn. He paused
only briefly to greet a few
diplomats in the front row.
Then, foregoing the
traditional blessing, he waved
and smiled his way down the
aisle.
Ten hours later, the Pope
celebrated his third Mass of
the day in the Vatican, having
said his second in his private
chapel. At noon, following an
11 a.m. Mass in St. Peter’s, he
went to the balcony facing
the square to deliver his “to
the city and to the world”
message. His words were
carried live to Europe and
later transcribed to other
parts of the world on radio
and television.
As the Pope began to
speak, the sun sliced through
an overcast sky and dried
away the deluge which had
pelted the city through the
night.
economists, crushed between
the rigid schemes of ideology
and the rule of laws regarded
as inflexible, end up driving
man into straits where he
cannot live,” said an editorial
by Federico Alessandrini in
L’Osservatore della
Domenica’s Dec. 27 issue.
(NC)
* * *
In COCHIN, India, The
Vatican commission
investigating the
circumstances of Indian girls
sent to convents abroad may
turn out to be conducting the
most sweeping public inquiry
ever held in the Church. The
commission has already sent
out from its one-room office
about 4,000 copies of a
message addressed to parish
priests, Church institutions,
nuns and other persons likely
to have information on the
controversial program.
Publications in Europe and
the U.S. reported last summer
that girls from India were
being exploited when they
were sent to European
convents. It was charged that
they were being used as
servants and given menial
tasks instead of being trained
as full members of their
Religious communities. In
October the recruiting
program was suspended,
pending investigations by the
Indian bishops and India’s
government, as well as by the
Vatican. (NC)
***
In ROTTERDAM, The
Netherlands, the executive
board of the Rotterdam
diocesan pastoral council said
it is disappointed that Father
Adrian J. Simonis was named
the new bishop of
Rotterdam. The board said
that a bishop must be a
unifying force and that there
is reason to fear that as
bishop Father Simonis will
cause contestation that may
harm the diocese. Father
Simonis was considered a
spokesman for conservative
Catholics at the Dutch
National Pastoral Council.
Church sources said that
Cardinal Bernard Alfrink of
Utrecht, president of the
Dutch Bishops’ Conference,
had tried to intervene at the
Vatican to prevent the
appointment of Father
Simonis as bishop of
Rotterdam. (NC)
In NEW YORK, Father
John Sheerin, Paulist editor
of the Catholic World, the
nation’s oldest Catholic
monthly, announced that the
magazine will be available in a
new cooperative ecumenical
program. Designed to reach
doctors, lawyers and others
who have charge of waiting
rooms, the Professionals for
Interfaith Leadership
Program allows professional
men and women to order a
Protestant, Catholic and
Jewish magazine through one
subscription. (NC)
***
In BURLINGTON, Vt.,
observers pointed out that
the third week in January
represents a time bomb to
Vermont’s parochial schools.
During that week-about Jan.
18-Gov. Deane C. Davis will
submit to the legislature a
budget which will make or
break Catholic schools,
according to the Burlington
diocesan Board of Education.
The board has gone on the
record officially citing “the
chilling effect if substantial
state help is not
forthcoming.” Burlington
Bishop Robert F. Joyce asked
the governor to include $1.2
million in the budget for all
nonpublic schools in the
state. “It is a plain fact of
life,” the bishop said, “that
some of our schools will have
to close without assistance.”
(NC)
***
In VATICAN CITY, the
Vatican City daily newspaper
reported the Holy See has
received word that
Archbishop Raymond
Tchidimbo of Conakry,
Guinea, has been arrested by
Guinea’s left-wing
government. L’Oservatore
Romano noted that no
official confirmation of
Archbishop Tchidimbo’s
arrest had yet arrived, but
said the report “is a cause of
lively worry for the Holy
See.” L’Osservatore Romano
also reported that about 100
Europeans living in the West
African republic have been
deported without warning
and had reached wintry
European airports still
wearing tropical clothing.
(NC)
***
In VATICAN CITY,
Vatican Radio reported that
the decision to lift the death
penalties of Basque
separatists convicted in Spain
was received in the Vatican
with “particular satisfaction.”
A news commentator of
Vatican Radio said that the
decision of the Franco
government had given top
officials in the Vatican
“particular satisfaction since
the gesture made (by the
Spanish government)
responded also to the
personal appeal sent by the
Holy Father to the (Spanish)
chief of state.” Vatican Radio
also expressed satisfaction
with the later decision of the
Supreme Court of the Soviet
Union to commute the death
sentences of two Jews
imposed by a Leningrad court
earlier in the week. (NC)
***
in DETROIT, about 100
black Catholics marched into
Blessed Sacrament Cathedral
on Christmas Eve, demanding
that Catholic schools in the
inner city be kept open
despite increasing financial
problems in the Detroit
archdiocese. The
demonstration, led by black
layman Joseph Dulin,
principal of St. Martin de
Porres High School, took
place as Cardinal John
Dearden was preparing to
celebrate midnight Mass. A
brief service on the
cathedral’s steps closed the
protest. (NC)
***
in WASHINGTON, the
head of the National Catholic
Educational Association said
the NCEA strongly favors a
federally sponsored
multimillion dollar test of
school reform in the shape of
educational vouchers. “We do
not endorse the voucher plan
as the cure for educational
ills,” said Father C. Albert
Koob, “but because it
represents progressive
educational thought based on
American competitive
tradition, we vigorously insist
there is a national obligation
to give the program honest
and complete experimenta
tion.” Reform measures
projected by the Office of
Economic Opportunity
would provide vouchers to
parents of school-age children
for use as tuition not only at
neighborhood public schools,
but at any participating
private or public school of
their choice. (NC)
***
In CHARLESTON, S.C.,
parents, educators and
pastors in the Charleston
diocese have given
overwhelming support to
Catholic schools in a survey
conducted by Father John
Bond, the diocesan school
superintendent. Ninety
percent of the 4,353
respondents polled “indicated
without qualification that
they definitely wanted
Catholic schools,” researchers
reported. They added the
survey revealed “a strong,
positive attitude of the
people toward their schools.”
(NC)
***
In VATICAN CITY, an
alarmed Pope Paul VI
appealed for peaceful
solutions to the problems of
Poland, in a message to the
leader of Poland’s Catholics,
who has made a similar public
plea. In his first comment on
the upheavals that brought
about a turnover in the Polish
government, the Pope told
Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski,
the Polish Primate, he was
concerned “with the fate of
the Polish people who are
dear to us and about whom
we think with great alarm
these days, and for whom we
never stop invoking the
Lord’s help.” In W’arsaw, the
cardinal asked for a
conciliatory attitude by
Poland’s workers and for
greater production to solve
the nation’s food problems.
He avoided any sharp attacks
on the communist regime,
and said everyone-including
himself and the Church-must
accept blame for the
bloodshed that accompanied
the workers’ revolt. (NC)
AGAINST WORLD’S SKEPTICISM
Pope Set Hopeful Christmas Note
MOTHER TERESA, superior-general and foundress of the
Missionaries of Charity, has been awarded the first Pope John
XXIII Peace Prize by Pope Paul VI. (NC PHOTO)
Fr. Champlin-
(Continued from Page 5)
Tallulah Bankhead’s last radio
extravaganza.
On a Valentine’s Day
several years ago, Mr. Wilson
married Rosemary Sullivan,
began going to Mass with her,
and “hasn’t missed a Sunday
since.” Shortly after his
presence became known at
St. Martin of Tours parish on
Los Angeles’ Sunset
Boulevard, the organist-choir
director stopped Willson in
the parking lot, handed him a
card with the new English
translation and simply
suggested, “Meredith, why
don’t you write a Mass?”
“The Mass of the Bells” is
ready now for unison chorus
or solo voice with piano or
organ accompaniment (Frank
Distributing Corp., 122
Boylston Street, Boston,
Mass. 02116). It includes a
“Lord, Have Mercy,” “Glory
to God,” “Holy, Holy, Holy”
and “Lamb of God” with,
naturally, a dedication, “For
Rosemary.”
The Mass was first publicly
performed, according to
Willson, on a cold, dreary
Thanksgiving eve in 1970
before an audience of
two-this writer and his
brother. We listened to Mr.
Willson play his latest release
on a Baldwin piano, the same
instrument presumably upon
which he created “The Music
Man,” “The Unsinkable
Molly Brown” and the recent,
ill-fated “1491.” He also sang
for us this “Mass of the Bells”
in a voice, “not good, but
shamelessly loud.”
The composer sings on
Sunday, too, still loud, but in
his view, lamentably alone.
The people at St. Martin’s,
despite Wilson’s strong vocal
support, aren’t too
enthusiastic about
congregational singing,
although of late they have
improved. His new Mass,
difficult for most parishioners
and lengthy for ordinary
services (18 minutes when
done completely), won’t help
them much in that direction.
Nor was it intended to do so.
Willson envisions 'his
composition for use on
special occasions like
Christmas and Easter when
well-trained choirs, gifted
sojoists and competent
instrumentalists are available.
If I read Mr. Willson
accurately, he sees a musical
place in the Church for both
choir and congregation, for
music at Mass which
sometimes is uncomplicated
or easily singable and which,
at other moments, may
require talented or
thoroughly trained artists. In
a word, Catholics should
learn both how to sing well
and to listen attentively.
Is community singing at
worship foreign to the
American mentality?
“Hogwash, poppycock,”
Meredith Willson says, “It’s as
American as applie pie.” He
readily recalls, in proof of
this, the hymns of his
Protestant upbringing and the
liveliness with which they
were rendered by different
congregations.
Willson’s attractive home
has expensive works of art,
including an original
“Repentant Peter” bv Ribera
(1588-1656), and she^es of
coveted awards. But he hasn’t
forgotten humbler beginnings
in Mason City. There his
mother used to take him to a
black Baptist church where
the congregation sang with
abandon and from the depths
of its heart. The Music Man
would like to see Catholic
communities sing that way’
and hopes choirs or soloists
will do likewise when they
perform his “Mass of the
Bells.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What ideas from the
entertainment field can be
used to improve our liturgy?,
2. What musical
instruments could be
considered “appropriate” at
Mass?
n I
New Status For
Retiring Bishops
WASHINGTON (NC) -
Latin rite bishops upon
retirement no longer will be
assigned to a titular diocese
but will bear the official title
of former bishop of the
diocese served.
The change was made by
Pope Paul VI following
consultations at a plenary
session of the Vatican
Congregation for the Bishops.
Cardinal John Dearden of
Detroit, president of the
National Conference of
Catholic Bishops, was
notified of the change in a
letter from Archbishop Luigi
Raimondi, Apostolic Delegate
in the United States.
Archbishop Raimondi said
the change would enable
retiring bishops to “continue
to be associated with the See
which they have renounced
but with which they continue
to have a certain spiritual
bond.”
“From discussions of this
subject among the bishops of
the United States, I
understand that this provision
will be most acceptable to
them,” Archbishop Raimondi
wrote. “I share their joy that
it has come to pass.”
The Apostolic Delegate
requested that bishops who
already have retired and been
transferred to a titular see
inform him whether they
wish to retain the title.