March 14, 2014

What was in the news on March 13, 1964?

A new schema on ecumenism is prepared for the council, and a look at poverty in Indianapolis

Criterion logo from the 1960sBy Brandon A. Evans

This week, we continue to examine what was going on in the Church and the world 50 years ago as seen through the pages of The Criterion.

Here are some of the items found in the March 13, 1964, issue of The Criterion:

  • ‘Bolder’ schema on ecumenism prepared for study by council
    • “VATICAN CITY—Council Fathers and experts of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, closeted in a retreat house south of Rome for two weeks, have rewritten the Vatican Council’s proposed schema on ecumenism, including its statements on religious liberty and Jewish-Christian relations. An official of the Secretariat said after the conference that the rewritten schema is ‘bolder’ than the original. The new draft, reshaped along lines that emerged during debates at the council’s second session last fall, will be sent to bishops throughout the world. It is expected that it will be considered and voted on during this fall’s third council session. All five chapters of the schema were rewritten, including the final two on religious liberty and the Jews which were not put forward for full debate last fall.”
  • Providence nuns name Regional Superiors
  • Lack of low-cost housing crucial in ‘inner city’
    • Editor’s note—As a follow-up to President [Lyndon B.] Johnson’s package proposal to Congress to combat poverty in the United States, Criterion News Editor Paul G. Fox is preparing a series of articles probing in depth the extent of poverty and its effects in the Indianapolis area. “From the steps of venerable St. Mary’s Church in downtown Indianapolis, one can view startling contrasts in the living conditions of parishioners. Towering into the skyline just three blocks to the northwest are the gleaming, half-occupied buildings of the luxurious Riley Center apartment project. This cluster of 30-story housing units is the pride of the ‘we-can-solve-our-own-problems’ attitude of conservative Indianapolis officialdom. Less than a block east of the church exist the more typical dwellings of the 700 parishioners of the 106-year-old parish. One can see dingy, one-family frame houses, shabby rooming houses and two and three-story apartment houses.”
  • Pope urges new efforts for unity
  • Liturgy Commission expanded by pontiff
  • Laymen and the Council: The layman as a prince
  • Maryknoll nuns study everything from journalism to witchcraft
  • Official cites Church’s role in urban renewal
  • Pope Paul names two new bishops
  • Former Jewish officer defends Pope Pius XII
  • Anglicans oppose separate council
  • Deplores Church’s neglect of youth
  • Requiem offered for priest-editor
  • CYO slates Jubilee Ball
  • Mission of the ‘Hoodlum Priest’
  • Eucharistic Congress plans are underway
  • Won’t let church doors go
  • Pope Paul receives ousted missioners
  • Mayor pays tribute to Little Sisters
  • Terre Haute men plan annual Recollection
  • Debate grows on role of Catholic education
  • Debate rages in the Netherlands over moral aspects of the ‘pill’
  • Hibernians name breakfast speaker
  • Specialist cites role of churches in civic problems
  • Teachers given fast dispensation
  • Medical-moral center started

(Read all of these stories from our March 13, 1964, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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