What was in the news on April 7, 1961? Those rising hemlines and predictions of the future

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, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Here are some of the items found in the April 7, 1961, issue of The Criterion:

• Stop resting on laurels, Catholic educators told
• Christ will triumph, pontiff tells the world
• Plea made for rights of women
• Congo violence flares
• Orthodox rabbi appeals for private school aid
• Extremists hurt anti-Red cause
• What does patriotism mean?
• Catholic editor decries supermarket patriotism
• Senator Dodd: Hits excesses of John Birch Society
• What about ‘Operation Abolition’?
• 300 parishes in U.S. serve Eastern Rite
• There’s no place for strikes in space age
• Are parochial schools a ‘divisive’ element?
• CYO convention to open tonight
• Anne Culkin: Those rising hemlines
  • “ ‘Dear Miss Culkin: What do you think of the new above-the-knee hemline for spring? I have awful knees. Do you think I would look out of style or silly if I didn’t wear my dresses that short?’
  • “ ‘I think you will look silly if you do wear them “that short!” And I would be of the same opinion even though you had attractive knees. A woman [young or old] who really knows fashion allows designers to serve her, but she will not allow them to dictate to her. She is well dressed because she is never guilty of the extreme. When a new fashion calls for drastic change, she will not be one of the first to wear it. She, like all well-bred persons, has no desire to be conspicuous.’ ”
• New Orleans lay group seeking racial justice
• Vermont tuition aid case goes to Supreme Court
• Daily paper hits film smut
• Air France pilot ordained a priest
• Catholic scholars take look at Church’s future
  • “OKLAHOMA CITY—Within 50 years, the Catholic Church will see a wider centralization of administration in the diocese while parishes concentrate on the formation of apostolic Christians. The laymen’s role will greatly expand—both in participation in worship—which will be mostly in the peoples’ language and in administrative functions. And unity with other Church bodies will be near reality, if not a fact, by that time. These are some of the predictions of seven Catholic experts in special articles written for the Easter edition of The Oklahoma Courier, weekly newspaper of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa diocese.”
• Attorney detects ‘snare’ in school aid proposal
• Says Reds will fail to silence Church

(Read all of these stories from our April 7, 1961, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †