Newspaper Page Text
’ News Monday, November 25, 1974
Page 14
Floundering in sea of change
By NE A/London Economist News Service
• (First in a Series)
ROME - (LENS) - While
Pope Paul and his bishops
tussled and maneuvered dur
ing this fall’s month-long
meeting in the Vatican’s new
Synodal Hall, their flock has
been deserting the Roman
Catholic Church in droves,
even in the traditional bas
tions in southern Europe and
Latin America.
The process is still going
on, to tne point where many
people wonder whether this
venerable institution is now
doomed.
That may be premature.
Things could be a lot
brighter, to be sure. But the
old firm may still be capable
of pulling itself together and
staying in the business of
universal churchdom.
The years that have passed
since the Second Vatican
Council ended in 1965 when
Vatican II thought up these
synods as away of giving the
bishops some say in the run
ning of the Church, have been
a time of trouble and tur
bulence for the Catholic
church.
The three previous synods,
in 1967, 1969 and 1971, have
disappointed those who
wanted the church to change
faster and those who
basically wanted it to stay
the same.
At this year’s synod, the
unhealthy brooding had ap
parently stopped. The three
previous synods all turned
out to be inwardlooking and
defensive. That was especial
ly true of the one in 1971
which tore itself apart over
the question of whether Cath
olic priests of the Latin rite
should be obliged to remain
celibate.
This time the subject
chosen for discussion by the
Pope was the more construc
tive one of evangelization.
The result was that, in order
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The Church’s future
to decide how best to preach
the gospel to the world, the
bishops were obliged to sit
down and take a hard look at
what was required from them
and their church.
Instead of hitting each
other over the head with
theological and moral argu
ments, they spent the first
two weeks of this synod swap
ping experiences.
For many of them — and
the Pope, who listened in to
most of the reports - there
was sobering news. The pic
ture that emerged of the state
of the Roman Catholic
church in the west was par
ticularly gloomy.
An Austrian bishop re
ported that, although about
90 per cent of his fellow
countrymen considered
themselves Catholics, fewer
than a third actually prac
ticed their religion.
Even in Italy, under the
Pope’s very nose, fewer than
one Italian in three goes to
church now; as recently as
1956 more than a half did.
The desperate shortage of
priests is even beginning to
hit countries like Italy, where
nearly 2,000 have left the
priesthood since the war. The
Vatican daily L’Osservatore
Romano pointed out during
the synod that all over the
world more than 20,000
priests have left the church
since 1945.
In recent years the rate of
defection has accelerated:
3,579 priests walked out in
1972 alone. Although 7,735
new ones were ordained in
that year, they did not
replace all those lost through
defection and death.
In Africa, on the other
hand, Christianity is growing
fast, at the rate of 714 million
more Christians each year.
Not all of them are Catholics,
of course, but quite a lot are.
Africa now has 42 million
Catholics, and although that
is only 6.2 per cent of the
America’s 200th birthday.
Everybody else will cele
brate in 1976. But Pacific 21,
the Bicentennial-inspired
world total of 669 million
Catholics the synod was
delighted by Africa’s evi
dence of growth instead of
decline.
The synod also relished the
optimism and the confidence
of the African bishops. That
made the other bishops
readier to lend a sympathetic
ear to their African col
leagues’ call for more “in
digenization”,. which means
bringing Christian ritual and
practice closer to African
custom.
Unless they could preach
the gospel more simply, the
African bishops said, they
could not beat Islam in the
neck-and-neck race for the
soul of Africa, in which
Moslem preachers are
powerfully backed by Arab
money.
But both the Africans and
the Latin Americans, who
talked a lot about revolution
and the “theology of libera
tion’’, were told by their
fellow-bishops about the
dangers of too much horizon
talism, the word used to de
scribe the involvement of
priests in politics at the ex
pense of the spiritual side of
their job. This has been a
central issue at the synod.
The Pope touched on it in
his opening address. A cogent
and powerful warning came
from Cardinal Bengsch of
Berlin and his colleague from
West Germany, Cardinal
Hoffner, spoke against a
secularized pseudo
eschatology which seeks
paradise on earth in the
name of a revolutionary
counter-gospel. There was
a visible effort at this synod
to say that the most impor
tant thing was the spiritual
life. No doubt one reason for
this is the appearance in
many parts of the world of
small unofficial communities
dedicated to contemplation
and prayer. These things are
felt in Rome.
mini-World’s Fair, will open
in 1975, for a one-year run.
“We’re doing it in ’75,” says
John McComb, Pacific 21’s
executive vice president and
general manager, “because
we’d be lost if we did it in ’76.
That year, the focus will be
on the East, Philadelphia and
Boston primarily.”
This will be California’s
only major event for the big
year (or the year preceding
it, as a matter of fact). It’s
what McComb calls “a mini-
World’s Fair,” covering
about 10 acres in Los
Angeles’ Century City area.
“'Costs, economics and the
time factor prevented it from
being a maxi-World’s Fair,”
McComb says.
The somewhat confusing
name stems from its aim.
Pacific 21 will look at the
Pacific area in the 21st cen
tury.
“The Pacific is the arena of
the future in world politics,”
McComb says. “What we’re
doing, in effect, is to invite all
the countries around the
Pacific Ocean to help us
celebrate our birthday.
They hope to have some
three to four million people
attending Pacific 21 during
the time it is open. It will be
another tourist attraction in
this land of tourists.
One of the most remarka
ble autobiographies yet pub
lished is Jack Hawkins’
“Anything For a Quiet Life.”
What makes it remarkable is
the last chapter, written after
he died by his widow, Doreen.
In it, she tells of his death,
and the months of struggle
for survival.
“I wrote it all just three
days after he died,” Doreen
Hawkins says. “I doubt that I
could have written it at all
six months later, or even to
day. But then, three days
after Jack died, it was so
fresh in my mind.
“To set down the details of
Jack’s last months was, in
effect, a purge, a bit of liter
ary therapy. Later, even now,
it would be too tragic to have
to dredge it all up again.”
The problem of how to
climb aboard the modest new
bandwagon of spirituality
was clearly preoccupying the
bishops, particularly Car
dinal Suenens of Belgium
who has put himself at the
head of the new effort. But
there are other reasons for
this shift in emphasis.
One of them is that the
passage of time since the sec
ond Vatican council in 1965
has provided a better sense of
perspective. Most of the
ultra-conservatives who
were then opposed to all
change have been pensioned
off or died.
Those who remain in top
positions have realized the
inevitability of change and
are trying to adapt them
selves to it. Perhaps even
more important, some of the
reformers, having achieved
some of what they wanted,
are now having second
thoughts.
Many of the impatient
younger priests have left,
often to marry. The field has
thus been left to men of the
center whose inclination is to
consolidate what has been
done since 1965.
There has also been a dis
tinct conservative backlash
against excessive reformism,
especially in the United
States. It may be a symbol
that a radical new theologi
cal movement that had come
into being before the pre
vious synod disbanded itself
on the eve of this one.
There was virtually no
vocal opposition on the
fringes of the synod this time,
except for a few redoubtable
women campaigners from
the United States lobbying
their bishops, and everybody
else, with slogans such as “No
mini-ministries for women”
and “Let the Holy Year of
1975 be holy for women too”.
NEXT: Who’ll be the next Pope?
(c) 1974 The Economist of London
INFLATION WORRIES
ROME (UPI) - Italy’s
inflation worries have crept
into children’s letters to Santa
Claus.
Paola Mola, 11, told Santa in
a letter published in the
newspaper Paese Sera:
“The times being what they
are, I wish you could turn my
dog into a cat so he would eat
less.”
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Coal workers have world over barrel
By NEA/London Economist News Service
LONDON—LENS—The
American coal strike which
began last week means that
the world coal crisis is now
briefly going the way of the
oil crisis. Coal demand has
shot up after the quadrupling
of crude oil prices, but trade
has been dropping as coun
tries have cut exports to meet
their own needs. So world
coal prices have exploded.
Coking coal has actually
risen by more than Arab oil,
from $14.00 a ton in 1970 to
$22.40 in 1972 and this year to
$134.40 on the spot market
and $61.60 on long-term con
tracts.
On top of this, miners all
over the world are waking up
to their new industrial power.
They have anyway been tra
ditionally militant, but there
were no major strikes in the
1950 s and 1960 s when pits
were being closed all over
the world.
Today, militancy can pay
off in a big way as the British
miners showed in their 1972
and 1974 strikes. The Ameri
can miners’ strike is their
first major national stoppage
since the 1948 strike led by
John Lewis, and is partly in
spired by the tactics of the
British miners. The journal of
the United Mine Workers
carried ecstatic accounts of
the British strike earlier in the
yea?-.
AEROSOLS FADING?
COLLEGE STATION, Tex.
(UPI) — A Texas Agriculture
Extension Service resource
management specialist says
aerosol hair sprays might be on
the way out.
“Reports of malfunctions and
health hazards with aerosol
sprays have caused the indus
try to turn to pump-style bottles
for hair spray,” Janice Carber
ry said. “But hair sprays will
have to be reformulated before
they can be put into non-aerosol
packages. Only 50 to 70 per
cent of the spray is active
ingredients. The rest is propel
lants.”
Miners see, miners do
Miners in France have had
a series of strikes in recent
weeks and their Australian
colleagues won a big raise in
the summer following a
strike outbreak in New South
Wales. In Britain, the miners
are showing no signs of mod
eration after a rise of nearly
40 per cent so far this year.
This week they were voting
on a productivity offer; even
though it could be worth over
25 per cent, the betting is that
they will reject it and de
mand another straight wage
rise of at least 30 per cent.
Even in Poland, last month
the government gave the
miners a 30 per cent wage
rise, although they have long
enjoyed earnings far above
the average.
If the American strike is
over in two or three weeks, as
optimists predict, it will not
hit exports badly. In any case,
the 30 per cent of American
coal production that is non
unionized will continue.
Hopes rose on Wednesday of
an early end to the strike. But
any deal agreed could still be
rejected in the ballot and the
strike could then last a lot
longer. This would hit exports
hard.
Japan is the most vulner
able importing country. Last
year, it bought 56 million tons
of coal, four times more than
any other country. For
tunately for the Japanese,
M
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“DM’S THEMM”
they were wily enough to sign
a series of long-term con
tracts with America, Canada
and Australia at the low
prices that prevailed a few
years ago. So although there
may be a gap in supply, the
Japanese will not have to
face the cost of the American
strike for several years.
Europe’s coal strategy, by
contrast, has been a disaster.
Few of the big European coal
users saw the coal shortage
coming and they are now
paying the price. Europe’s
steelmakers are hard put to
find any coking coal to keep
their mills rolling. The Brit
ish Steel Corporation is pay
ing top prices for the high
grade coal it needs to mix
with the low-grade coking
coal mined in Britain.
Britain used to be a sub
stantial net exporter, but its
volume of coal exports has
tumbled by more than 50 per
cent over the last decade and
in 1971 it became a net im
porter. The British Central
Electricity Generating Board
has tried to increase imports
because the National Coal
Board has failed to meet its
targets thanks to low prod
uctivity.
But so far in 1974 the CEGB
has only imported 1 million
tons, mainly from the United
States and Australia, a mere
3 per cent of its total supply.
It is still trying to negotiate
FOR A BETTER SCHOOL
SYSTEM....
ELECT
Dan Boyd
Post 7
Griffin Spalding County
Board of Education
(Paid Political Adv.) _
Who exports the coal (>973)
49
36 figures are in
mm million metric tons
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U. P A R G C C, 8
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NR I A D hY A
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* Source World Coal
further contracts for the next
two years but the going is
hard. Britain still does not
have enough ports like Im
mingham that can handle
coal.
There is no shortage of coal
reserves across the world. All
the major coal producing
countries, including Britain
and the United States, have
substantial unexploited
coalfields, though many of
them are in the wrong places.
Coal supply will eventually
catch up with demand and
lead to glut. But that is little
comfort for today’s coal-hun
gry world.
(c)1974 The Economist of London