The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, February 21, 1963, Image 5

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The Georgia bulletin, February 21, 1963, Image 5

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Newspaper Page TextCATHOLIC UNIVERSITY ! J \Gf 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 21. 1963 Archdiocese of Atlanta the (;i:ORGIA BULLETIN SERVING GEORGIA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published [ very Week at the Decatur DeKalb News PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sue Spence Member of the Catholic Press Association - and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service 2699 Peachtree \. I . Telephone 231-1281 P.O. Box 1166" North side Station Atlanta 5, Ga. Second Class Permit at Decatur, Georgia U.S.A. $5.00 Canada $5.50 Foreign $6.50 Lent For Growing A Swedish Christmas carol sings of what a happy vision the year would make, looking from Yuletide merriment to Easter joy - if only Lent wouldn’t come between. Let us be honest. No body (with trie possible excep tion of the few for whom Lenten penance is unecessary) is parti cularly overjoyed at the approach of the season of self-denial and fasting. As with so many things that we know are going to be good for us, we also realize they are going to be more or less unplea sant to swallow. The important difference is that we can deter mine how much good Lent will do for us by the approach we make to its demands and opportunities. One approach that obviously precludes much profit from Lent is the “grim endurance” men tality. The grim endurers enter L‘-nt determined to observe the letter of the law and to ignore anything beyond that. They cheat themselves and, by trying to steer too exact a path along the boun- dary of obligation, risk violating that boundary all too easily. A practical and realistic atti tude toward Lent will strike a balance between its negative and positive aspects. It is such a balanced approach that the Lit urgy recommends - a combina tion of penance for past sins and a positive renewal and develop ment of our spiritual lives. Both the obligatory fasting and any vo luntary “extras” that we take on can and ought to embody both these aims. The necessity of reparation for our actual sins is unequivocally an important element of our re ligion. To concentrate on other less arduous practices to the exclusion of this unpleasant task is an understandable temptation- and a serious mistake. Like St. Paul we need to “make up in our flesh what is lacking of the suf ferings of Christ.” What is lack ing is their personal application to ourselves and our voluntary sharing of the work of repara tion. But Lent is as well a period of renewal and growth, which are eminently positive duties. As Lent was for the early Christians the proximate preparation for their baptismal re-birth at Eas ter, it is an opportunity for us to stir up and re-activate the life that began in us at our baptism. It is a time for growing. By all means, let us not be “grim endurers.” But letusalso not merely be “givers up”. It will profit us far more to take up some positive practices. With the right attitude even our self- denial can be a growth of our freedom and our control over our selfish instincts. A determined effort of charity toward others, fed on strength gained in pray er, attention to the Liturgy and, above all, in increased participa tion in the Mass and the Holy Eucharist - this would be a posi tive and balanced program of growth in the real spirit of Lent. L.F.X.M. Sunday 6 Blue Laws 9 The State Legislature is con sidering so-called Sunday “Blue Laws”. There are lobbyists on both sides of the issue emphas izing their various positions, but very little of the lobbying is done in the interest of morality. What should be our attitude to a “business as usual” mentality for Sunday shopping? Sunday is God’s special day. We keep it holy to honor him. And tne Church instructs us con stantly how to make it a day of worship and rest, not a day of work and gam. There are six days a week to make a living; one day is not too much to re turn to the Lord who grants us all the time we have in which to build our eternity. such stores very many house wives have been freed from much of the ordinary cooking chores of Sundays in former times. We may well urge limited hours of busin ess for such places, but we need not object to their opening since they make Sunday a day of rest for many more people. Finally, in this regard, we should note that Sunday is a day of joy as well as one of rest from unnecessary work. It has led in this country to the Sunday afternoon exodus from crowded cities, the Sunday amusements, sports and the like. "IF IT'S NOT IN THE CONSTITUTION...WHERE IS IT?" LITURGY AND LIFD LIFE Catholic Social Doctrine all things in Christ," the Church recognizes the compelling need to create a reasonable temporal order as the foundation of man’s su pernatural efforts. Christians are dedicated, from the moment we assume that demanding title, to the reign of justice and charity among individuals and groups in society. We can feel the thrill of a challenge accepted when Pius XI rejoiced that we should live in this time "when it is no longer permitted to be mediocre." It is we Christians who have the truly revolutionary, truly radical concept of what the world ought to be. The application of right reason and the Gospel to society has had a very tangible impact. Many statesmen and public leaders, some not members of the Church, have been struck by the inherent rightness of the Popes’ teaching and have applied their principles in various manners to their part icular concerns. At the same time, a few months after the publication of Pope John’s Mater et Magistra, a national Catholic magazine could print the results of a survey about Catholic social doctrine entitled "Our Untaught Teaching." The fact must be faced. There exists a vast lack of understanding among even otherwise well-informed Catholics on the subject of the Church’s teaching on social issues and the reasons for this teaching. That this ignorance (a prettier word would be deceitful) coincides with times of fearful crisis makes it not so much regrettable as scandalous. Jacques Maritain wrote: "the decline of the Roman Empire was a minor event compared to what we behold." St. Augustine spoke in terms of faith and reason to a world bewildered by the passing of Roman law and stability. The Church speaks today w - ith the same reason ableness and authority in the midst of greater confusion and overwhelming danger. But teach ing untaught and unheard is teaching undone. One obvious moral: read Mater et Magistra. Philip Scharper, editor of Sheed and Ward, has suggested "rocking chair seminars" with Catho lic lay people discussing Pope John’s encyclical. The encyclical "is a charter of Christian revol ution that could change our world - if taken seri ously," he says. .American Catholics "by and large have not taken this document of human dignity with real seriousness; . . .the most practical thing that all of us can do would be to read the encyclical and make every effort to understand it." BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW 1891 . . .1931. . .1961. .. these are the years that stand out boldly in the history of Catholic social doctrine. On May 15, 1891 Pope Leo XIII published the first comprehensive treatment by the Church of the moral problems facing a newly emerged industrial society. This was his great encyclical letter on The Condition Of Labor (Rerum Novar- um). Forty years passed, forty decisive years that witnessed World War I, the rise of Commun ism and the Russian Revolution, the beginning of the great depression, the start to power of Adolf Hitler. In 1931 Pope Pius XI published his encycli cal on Reconstructing the Social Order (Quadra- agesimo Anno) to re-state and develop the principles of Leo’s teaching and to sketch a iramework of a truly human world society. Finally, thirty years later - in a world re volutionized by another World War, the breakdown of colon ialism, instantaneous comm unications and the treat of in stantaneous annihilation-Pope John XXIII wrote the final word for this generat ion regarding Christian principles of social order (Mater et Magistra). The world has never pass ed through seventy more decisive years of hist ory and the Church, ever ancient and ever new, has shouldered its responsibility to teach all the nations through every vicissitude. THESE three great documents are landmarks and milestones, not isolated and solitary islands. The path which leads from one to the other in cludes many other proofs of the Church’s anxiety to focus the light of Christian reason on the mas sive problems that face mankind. Leo XIII and Pius XI wrote many other letters concerned with areas of social difficulty. They and Pope Pius XII spoke and wrote with great wisdom on edu cation, marriage and family life, political and social justice, Communism and world peace, the impact of scientific advance. The hierarch ies of many individual nations have spoken clearly on problems peculiar to their own coun tries, as in the several statements of the Amer ican bishops condemning racial discrimination and defining social justice. Pope St. Pius X epitomized the drive that directs the Church in its social teaching. In the motto of his reign "to restore and renew LITURGICAL WEEK Approach To Lenten Season It will be noted that we have not spoken against legitimate services rendered on Sundays. Public he alt n and welfare necess itate or at least permit the open ing of such business as highway restaurants and stands, drug stores and the like. Suchare con sidered socially necessary in our day to the extent that they are needed. We may permit them to operate on Sunday. But he re again it should be noted that it is the needs of the community, not the gain of the owner, that warrants this permission. In addition, insisting uponSun- day as a day of rest for as many people as possible makes necessary or useful the opening of delicatessens, bakeries and the like. Through the services of BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA (Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory) FEB. 24, QU1NQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. We ap proach the Lenten season of concentration on Baptism and the new life to which our Baptism initiated us. The Gospel teaches that it is Christ (through our "christening") who gives us the abi lity to see things as they are, who gives us true vision. I Faith is no escape from the real world. Faith is the key to the real world. In faith reality un folds itself. Of the reality we call heaven we still have in faith only glimpses (First Reading). But without faith, without the vision Jesus offers, man has only glimpses even of this world. Lent’s consciousness of our sinfulness and of our sins, a frequent note in the liturgy of the next few weeks (Collect), is a matter of repentance, not despair. God’s grace remains free, given, available. Its glory is greater in the darkness of our sins and our gratitude keener. But we repent that our response of love (First Reading) has not corresponded—as much as a human being can correspond—to the dignity of our calling. MONDAY, FEB. 25, MASS AS ON SUNDAY. But even our response is in a mysterious way the gift of Him who "works wonders", who has made known His power (Gradual), who is our "strength", our "refuge" (Entrance Hymn). Without this gift of love, the great human acts and talents referred to in the First Read ing are as nothing. Love, cha rity, is more than the acts by which it must be exercis ed. God is love. And love is a participation, a communion, a being. TUESDAY, FEB. 26, MASS AS ON SUNDAY. Since this is a party day, we are naturally drawn to the text of the Communion Hymn: "They ate and were well filled, and the Lord gave them what they craved...." It is no Christian idea to think of our appetites as tricks God has played on us and of our frustrations as His pleasures. Bad enough to humanize Divinity, but to make Him also sick is too much. Our appetites are blessings and the things toward which they move are truly goods. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27, ASH WEDNESDAY. A repenting our failure to worship God and our lack of respect and love for man, we embark on 40 days of conversion to newness. Part of this conversion is a rehearsing and fresh study of God’s saving deeds (Offertory and Communion hymns). Part of it is repentance and penance for our sins (First Reading and Gospel). Both aspects are hymned in the Lenten Pre face: "For by means of our bodily fasting you re strain our vices and uplift our minds...." (Note: All translations of texts from the Masses of Lent are from "The Layman’s Missal", Baltimore; Helicon Press, 1962). Continued On Page 5 Is A Ban Not A Ban? BY GERARD E. SHERRY A Catholic press report last week that four prominent theologians had been banned from speaking on the campus of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C., brought forth a denial from Msgr. Joseph B. McAllister, vice rector. Those allegedly barred are identified as Jesuit Fathers John Courtney Murray and Gustabe Weigel, both of Woodstock (MD) College; Benedic tine Father Godfrey Diekmann, editor of Worship magazine; and Fath er Hans Kueng, Ger man theologian and author of the best seller, The Council, Reform and Reunion. Msgr. McAllister told NC News Ser vice that the four were included in a list of 12 possible speakers, submitted by the stu dent graduate council for a lecture series. The university administration indicated that it did not want them invited because they were controver sial — and the university did not wish seemingly to be taking sides, especially on matters still being debated at the Ecumenical Council. It was further stated that while no invitation was ex tended to them, Father Weigel was scheduled to conduct a class on the campus in the near future. The decision not to invite the four priests was made some time ago. However, it only came to light last week when the campus newspaper, The Tower, raised the subject anew. Msgr. Mc Allister said that the university administration had "no objection to any of these men as such," and that to say they had been banned was "putting it very extremely." Despite such assurances, it does seem strange that theologians, who can be consulted by the Council Fathers, are held "undesirable" by offi cials of the major Catholic university in this country - . The CU administration argument seems to be that these theologians represent "a definite point of view" on certain issues within the Church. There were 12 speakers originally suggested; what then are we to think of the eight who re main? Are they indeed men 'without: convic tions, theologians lacking a view or purpose? If they cannot be so described, are they perhaps men who do have a "definite point of view" but one which is in accord with the university ad ministration? Is it not true that Catholic Univer sity is replete with theologians who daily teach and interpret views at variance with the unin vited four? Where is the Catholic right of dis sent? There will be some who deplore the public con troversy created. But more harm could come from keeping silent — after all, a lot of unfounded rumors have been bandied about. What is more, the Council Fathers gave us the best example in this kind of a situation. They did not hide the fact that while the bishops of the world agreed on the essentials of the Faith, there was ample disagreement on methods to be adopted in the application of Catholic principles. There is no sense in hiding the fact that theo logians have differences with each other. It is through such differences that error is discovered and eliminated. In every age of the Church, great men, including saints, have been held suspect on one subject or another. It is to the glory of the Church that there are always men big enough and saintly enough to listen and learn, as well as to teach and preach. In many areas of controversy within the Church we are up against those who confuse the kernel of our Teaching with the outer shell. There are answers to many problems of our modern world which cannot be found in a prayer book. There are bound to be differences in the approach to problems and in the search for solutions to them. What are some of us afraid of? Surely not of the Truth: for it is the Truth which makes us free, and which casts away spiritual and intellectual immaturity. To argue that because the Council Fathers have not yet made up their minds on some controver sial matter, we should all remain silent, is naive The Council Fathers are, in many areas, discuss ing these matters with their priests and their people. This is as it should be. No Shepherd wants to lead a flock that is blind and passive. What is at stake? It seems to me to be the old, perennial problem of the right to the dissenting view. The late, lamented Pope Pius XII constant ly stressed that outside of Faith and Morals, dif ferences of opinion within the Church should be tolerated with charity, and with a desire to seek the truth in all situations. Pope John XXIII has re cently • re-inforced this viewpoint. One recalls his advice to the Council Fathers last fall, and his intervention in their discussions when emotion seemed to be taking over from the cool balm of reason. We have no doubt that the administration at Catholic University sincerely believes that it has made a prudential judgement in failing to accept the four so-called controversial theologians as speakers in the lecture series. But its own ivied walls contain a number of equally "controver sial" theologians. The only difference is that the CU theologians are not deprived of the right to present "the other side of the coin." All is not lost. The uninvited four are still con sidered loyal, capable sons of the Church. We rejoice in the knowledge that many of the Coun cil Fathers — the authentic teachers in the Church -will welcome them, and will be humble enough and tolerant enough to seek out their viewpoint. REAPINGS AT RANDOM