May 20, 2011

What was in the news on May 19, 1961? The need to fix the race problem

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 May 19, 1961, issue of The Criterion:

  • Papal encyclical to examine social and economic issues
  • High court backs ban on tuition aid
  • Report: Growing faith among Cuban Catholics
  • The position of Catholics on Church unity
  • Urges prayers to Mary for success of Council
  • Holiness starts in home: Pope says at canonization
  • Emphasizes role of lay apostolate in foreign aid
  • Editorial: The race problem
    • “We Americans are an impatient people. We are proud of the fact. We want results, and we want them right now. We are impatient about most everything under the sun. Except one thing. And about this one thing we are extremely virtuous. We are not only most patient, we are most prudent about it. The race problem, we say, will not be solved in our lifetime and, more than likely, not in many lifetimes. It will be a gradual process, we say, requiring much education of both Negroes and whites. Those who are pushing us into precipitous action, we say, are really setting the cause back many years. We must be prudent; we must be patient. This is not the way Americans ordinarily approach a problem. This is untypical of America. And when you come right down to it, everything about the race problem is untypical; it doesn’t fit into the American picture. And that is why we ought to get rid of it. Right away.”
  • Peace Corps hailed by Vatican Radio
  • Tiny Carmelite cloister ignites Swedish debate
  • No quick changes seen in nuns’ garb
    • “NEW YORK—Don’t look for overnight changes in the traditional garb of nuns. … According to Sister Fides, an English teacher at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., ‘given the present uncertain situation … most Sisters will undoubtedly retain the design of their tradition habits.’ Sister Fides, writing in America magazine, points out that the question of modernizing nuns’ garb has been much discussed in recent years, especially since Pope Pius XII urged changes in 1951 and 1952. While some communities have made ‘conspicuous’ changes and other more minor ones, she says, ‘for the most part, in spite of goading to the left or to the right, Sisters have clung to their antiquated dress because of its tradition and symbolism.’ ”
  • See underworld ‘frame’ behind Ratterman arrest
  • Pontiff lauds German bishops
  • Catholic prelate fetes Anglicans
  • Priest pleads cause of migrant workers
  • Pope asks unified effort by Catholic Actionists
  • [Jacques] Maritain denies he plans to enter religious order

(Read all of these stories from our May 19, 1961, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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