What was in the news on Jan. 13, 1961? The pope and the Church in the Congo

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 Jan. 13, 1961, issue of The Criterion:

• Aid those who are less fortunate, pontiff urges well-to-do families
• Church is free to work in most of the Congo
• School grab in Ceylon seen without parallel
  • “COLOMBO, Ceylon—The Catholic Bishops of Ceylon labeled government plans to seize ownership of private schools ‘drastic legislation which is without parallel in any democratic country.’ … ‘The government proposes to summon Parliament immediately, and introduce the necessary legislation whereby all school premises and buildings will be taken over completely and the ownership thereof vested in the government without compensation.’ ”
• A Protestant Answers: Is U.S. Catholicism more robust in rural areas or urban centers?
• ‘Honkers’ gain Pope’s ear
  • “ROME—Ever honk your car horn for the pope? A bunch of Romans did, and it worked: His Holiness, Pope John XXIII, came to his window and even blessed the honkers. It happened on the feast of the Epiphany, a time of mad celebration in Rome and a day when the normal anti-noise laws are suspended. Hundreds of Romans drove their cars into St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican at noontime, and sent up a raucous chorus of horns to summon Pope John to his window.”
• Quest for Unity: Catholics and the Ecumenical Movement
• At National Shrine: Special services scheduled for Unity Octave
• Germany acts to halt needless Sunday work
• Foraging priest finds self on fighting front in Laos
• Question Box: May godparents marry each other?
• Family Clinic: Feels husband visits his mother too often
• Mark Twain is new Red ‘Hero’
  • “MOSCOW—A Moscow Radio broadcast said some of the writings of Mark Twain were being utilized by Soviet atheistic propagandists because all his life the American author ‘struggled against religious prejudice.’ ‘Not for nothing,’ the station said, ‘was he called the American Voltaire. He realized that in the history of mankind, the Church had always played a reactionary part, that it had been a stronghold of obscurantism and ignorance.’ According to the Moscow station, Mark Twain described Christianity as ‘sham and hypocrisy.’ ”
• Egypt’s Catholics fear new assault on their schools
• Catholic pupils survey parish racial attitudes
• The Faith Explained: Heaven is more than family reunion
• Marian College adopts new honors program

(Read all of these stories from our Jan. 13, 1961, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †