April 29, 2011

What was in the news on April 28, 1961? A Council prediction and a defence of modern art

By Brandon A. Evans

50 Year LogoThis 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 28, 1961, issue of The Criterion:

  • Catholics bear brunt of Castro’s reprisals
  • NCWC official: Asks Catholic impetus in global unity drive
  • Plan to honor Cardinal Ritter
  • Rome official: Sees Council opening by autumn of 1962
    • “VATICAN CITY—The Second Vatican Council may start in the autumn of 1962 if preparations continue to be as successful as they have been to date, the secretary of the council’s central preparatory commission [Archbishop Pericle Felici] has stated. … The archbishop noted that His Holiness Pope John XXIII has said that all members of the various preparatory commissions must have freedom of expression so that the voice of the bishops will reach the pope clearly. This, he added, refutes the charge that the coming ecumenical council will reflect only the opinions of members of the Church’s administrative staff here at the Vatican.”
  • Pope again asks prayers for success of Council
  • Catholic, Orthodox prelates see unity as anti-Red weapon
  • JFK asks prayers on Memorial Day
  • St. Louis nun defends modern art
    • “ST. LOUIS—Twentieth-century modern art is as justifiable and understandable as the development of nuclear energy, a nun art authority said here. ‘Modern art, including painting, sculpture, poetry, music, architecture and literature, is a product of a very challenging era,’ Sister Mary Leo, C.P.P.S., maintained. “There are bomb-sized upheavals in the social, political and physical world; there are such terrific developments in the areas of mass communications [camera, TV, motion pictures] that the artist has to strike a new pitch with his form of communication even to be heard.’ Today’s art must be challenging if it’s going to be authentic, insisted Sister Leo.”
  • Swing from traditional in Church design lauded
  • Why Philomena’s feast was dropped by Church
  • Urges U.S. agency to teach people Commie techniques
  • Bishop in Scotland backs movement for English liturgy
  • Theologians plan session on unity
  • Dutch prelate asks suggestions from the laity
  • Test school loans in highest court, Congress urged
  • ‘Vast St. Peters’ presents a maintenance problem
  • Pontiff tells farmers to exercise ‘initiative’
  • Threat of secularism in Latin America cited
  • Ironic coincidence noted in date of Queen’s papal visit
    • “LONDON—Queen Elizabeth II’s scheduled audience with Pope John XXIII on May 5 will take place on the feast of the pontiff’s canonized predecessor who excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I, observers here noted. They recalled that in 1570, St. Pius V published the Bull, Regnans in excelsis, which declared Elizabeth I, ‘pretended Queen of England,’  to be excommunicated and deprived of the kingdom which she claimed.”

(Read all of these stories from our April 28, 1961, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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