May 2, 2014

What was in the news on May 1, 1964?

A call for the passage of a federal civil rights law, and to reject an evil racist philosophy

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 May 1, 1964, issue of The Criterion:

  • Rights law is needed now, archbishop tells convocation
    • “WASHINGTON—Archbishop Lawrence J. Shehan told 4,000 civil rights supporters gathered here in a national convocation that the time for passage of federal civil rights legislation is the present. ‘Further delay in bringing about what we have come to recognize as a requirement of justice may well do irreparable harm to this nation’s whole future,’ the Archbishop of Baltimore said. The prelate was Catholic spokesman at the National Interreligious Convocation on Civil Rights [April 28]. Held at Georgetown University, the convocation heard from spokesmen for major religious bodies. … It was designed to exert what spokesmen called ‘moral pressure’ at a crucial point in the Senate deliberations of the rights bill.”
  • Editorial: Stop this evil
    • “The Churches were silent in Germany when the Nazis ran for political power. Church leaders feared they might be accused of dabbling in politics, so they failed until too late to warn the people against the evil pagan philosophy that inspired the Nazi Party. We are not going to make that mistake here in Indiana. Governor [George] Wallace of Alabama, who seeks your votes in the presidential primary, is not seriously campaigning to become president—not yet at least—but he is seeking your support of his philosophy of life. And that philosophy is evil. It is racist, as Nazism was racist. It is anti-Christian, as Nazism was anti-Christian.”
  • Ordination rite slated Sunday at St. Meinrad
  • Communion formula shortened
  • Day of Prayer scheduled for new priests
  • Celebrates 60th year as a priest
  • Answers objections to civil rights bill
  • Seeks closer ties: Pope to Orthodox
  • Laymen and the Council: Freedom within the Church
  • Native of the U.S: Married ex-minister to be ordained priest
  • Race teaching seen part of ‘maturing’ Church
  • Baptized princess, cardinal reveals
  • Comment: Here is what’s at stake in the Indianapolis School Board election
  • Our Lady of Grace nuns to staff foreign mission
  • Integration is ordered
  • Crowd at Songfest ‘near capacity’
  • Marian bares list of scholarships for coming year
  • Symposium slated at Marian College
  • Retreat set for women in Kentuckiana area
  • Calls Latin a ‘hindrance’
  • Statue crowning ordered stopped
  • Eases condemnation of John Birch group
  • Shared-time is approved for Chicago
  • Law needs change, canonists agree

(Read all of these stories from our May 1, 1964, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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