What was in the news on April 17, 1964?

A joint campaign for civil rights, a call for episcopal unity and a hope for moral means of regulating families

By 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 April 17, 1964, issue of The Criterion:

• National church groups plan joint civil rights campaign
  • “WASHINGTON—National agencies of the major faiths in the U.S. have launched a joint drive to win congressional passage of the ‘strongest possible’ civil rights bill. The high point of their effort will be an April 28 National Interreligious Convocation on Civil Rights here at which Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders will stress the moral issues at stake in the fight for civil rights. ‘The United States faces its greatest internal crisis of the 20th century,’ spokesmen for the convocation’s sponsoring agencies said in a joint announcement.”
• Get united, pontiff tells Italy bishops
  • “VATICAN CITY—Pope Paul VI has urged the Bishops of Italy to work for greater unity among themselves, to get wholeheartedly behind the ecumenical movement and to deal in a practical way with the four major problems challenging the Church. At an audience granted to the Italian Bishops’ Conference, the pope listed the four problems as: The need for an ‘inner and outer restoration’ of the people’s religious life; the need for concerted action to improve private and public morality; the need for closer relations between individual bishops and their clergy; the need for greater support and expansion of the country’s Catholic press.”
• Home for aged drive seeking $1.5 million
• Dedication scheduled Sunday at Scottsburg
• Belgian bishops remind striking doctors of duty
• Orthodox leader appeals for unity in Woods talk
  • MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Ind.—“Reunion will not result from reviewing with satisfaction the much that we share, but from the prayerful, charitable and patient examination of the little which we differ,” the top official of U.S. Syrian Orthodoxy said in an address here Wednesday climaxing an ecumenical meeting between Archbishop Schulte and the speaker, Metropolitan Antony Bashir of New York. The meeting, believed to be a precedent in the Midwest, was sponsored by St. Mary-of-the-Woods, to symbolize the ecumenical confrontation last January in the Holy Land between Pope Paul VI and Athenagoras I, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Istanbul. One of the most dramatic aspects of Wednesday’s observance was the initial meeting of the two prelates on the stops of Le Fer Hall. Just as Pope Paul and Patriarch Athenagoras did earlier, the Archbishop and the Metropolitan embraced each other in the traditional kiss of peace. Another highpoint occurred after the formal reception and dinner, when the two prelates joined in leading the guests in a Litany of Unity and then imparted their personal blessings. The entire proceedings were carried out in good taste and high dignity. Following their initial exchange of greetings at the entrance of Le Fer Hall, the two prelates met for private discussion in one of the parlors, where they were joined by the board of directors and officers of the college. The reception and dinner followed. During the dinner, the two honor guests were presented souvenir books of the occasion by Sister Mary Joseph, S.P., vice-president of the college, in the absence of Sister Marie Perpetua, S.P., the president, who could not attend because of illness.
    In his address, which concluded the historic day, Metropolitan Bashir emphasized the “tremendous achievement” in the suggestion of the late Pope John XXIII that serious consideration be given to the possibility of Orthodox and Roman reunion. The major difficulty in the way of reunion, the speaker pointed out, “is the question of the basis for the Papal Primacy and the concomitant dogma of Papal Infallibility.” “One cannot minimize the differences, evident and implied, in these dogmas,” the Metropolitan continued, “but is it not possible that the time has arrived, when the two mutually exclusive but closely related teachings—an infallible Church and an infallible Primate—may be so re-stated as to synthesize both traditions on a new and higher level?” Aside from the question of the Papacy, the differences between the two Faiths are minor, the speaker said. “The hierarchy, the sacraments, the saints, the liturgical and devotional practices that express them in life, all are one and the same in broad outline. As we explore differences, we must constantly revert in thought to this common ground for inspiration and encouragement…” While warning against oversimplifying true differences, the speaker branded as spiritual pride and vicious hypocrisy “to condemn each other for views or attitudes which are no farther apart than the conflicting opinions of our own theologians.” “Let us not despair,” Metropolitan Bashir concluded. “Surely the good God who has brought us so far will not leave us in sight of each other but painfully separated. He has lifted the veil, has shown us the glorious possibility. Can we do less than assault the very gates of heaven with prayer, forgive forty time forty thousand, and study and work that his will may be done in our day?”
• City to participate in Home Visit Day
• Pope offers Mass in Roman jail
• Schema on nature of Church seen answers to doubting laity
• Plan national group to help ex-convicts
• 4th session of council predicted
• ND to hold symposium
• Liturgical ‘kit’ ready for parishes
• Question Box: Is heaven a place of rest or activity?
• No easy way to limit families, bishop says
  • “WOLFHURST, Ohio—Steubenville’s Bishop John King Mussio said here there is just no ‘easy’ way of limiting morally the size of a family. The prelate told 400 members of Catholic women’s clubs [that] the Church does not order large families. ‘I am certain, though, that means will be provided for conscientious parents to achieve their purpose without semi-impossible conditions or haphazard chances,’ he said. ‘Our efforts must be continually brought to bear on searching the means allowed us to accomplish a safe and moral family limitation plan.’ ”
• CYO parley is hailed as ‘finest’ in history
• Student nurses to present play
• Camp applications pass 1,300 mark
• Speaker says mothers make ‘best statesmen’
• U.S. missionaries in Brazil total 546
• Uneventful voyage: ‘Pieta’ arrives at Fair
• Grandson of FDR becomes Brother

(Read all of these stories from our April 17, 1964, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †