June 27, 2014

What was in the news on June 26, 1964?

Pope Paul plans to make pronouncement on the pill, and the Civil Rights Act about to become law

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 June 26, 1964, issue of The Criterion:

  • Pope plans pronouncement covering birth regulation
    • “VATICAN CITY—Pope Paul VI revealed that the Church is in the process of a major re-evaluation of the question of birth control and said that for the present, at least, the pronouncements on the question by Pope Pius XII must be considered valid and binding for all Catholics. Pope Paul spoke out [on June 23] with the apparent intention of ending the current controversy over the possible legitimacy for using certain recently discovered hormone control pills which can prevent conception. He did not refer explicitly to the ‘pill.’ But he said that the Church is being aided by ‘many eminent scholars’ in an intensive study of the question, and that its findings will be revealed as soon as possible. Pending a further pronouncement, he said, nobody is to ‘take it upon himself to speak in terms different from the norms’ laid down by Pius XII.”
  • Faiths mark passage of rights bill
  • Accept mission challenge: Hoosier woman, family headed for foreign duty
  • Relic of St. Andrew going to Orthodox
  • Brazilian parish is operated by four nuns
  • Full of activity: Pope Paul’s first year
  • Paulists expand their apostolate
  • Married in joint ceremony
  • Churches play key role: Signing of rights bill is expected on July 4
    • “WASHINGTON—President Johnson is expected to sign the historic civil rights bill into law on July 4 with an appeal that forces mobilized in its support stay active to urge compliance with it. The president’s anticipated appeal has been foreshadowed in several statements, including some to religious groups which vigorously backed the legislation on its yearlong journey through Congress. Only five days before the bill’s passage in the Senate, Mr. Johnson told an interfaith group from New York: ‘Certainly the nations religious leaders can play a very key role in creating an attitude of compliance when the bill is enacted.’ ”
  • Scriptural scholars reinstated
  • Noted Negro priest named provincial
  • Question Box: Is the rights bill pulpit material?
  • Ban placed on art show
  • Nun given rare dispensation
  • Sunday Mass on Saturday approved in some areas
  • Sees nuns as top teachers in U.S. within 15 years
  • LaFarge Award goes to banker
  • Australia to launch English Mass July 5
  • More help urged for humanities
  • Believe ancient slab is Christian relic
  • Reds ‘restore’ cathedral
  • Catholic prelate assumes helm of interfaith body
  • Stamps to honor three Hitler foes
  • Marian terminology called ‘confusing’
  • Allocations to missions announced
  • ‘Incident resolved’: Catholic paper defends cardinal in Los Angeles racial hassle
  • Questions ‘discretion,’ cites sense of ‘urgency’
  • Abp. Ramsey plans visit with Pontiff
  • Lauds new edition of St. Thomas
  • Pope Pius XII felt he should denounce Reds as well as Nazis
  • New Maryknoll seminary blessed

(Read all of these stories from our June 26, 1964, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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