What was in the news on Feb. 22, 1963?

A cardinal asks to revise the definition of Church, and an uproar over a university’s decision on speakers

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 Feb. 22, 1963, issue of The Criterion:

• Private school aid possible, justified, House group told
• Asks revised definition of Church
  • “ST. LOUIS—The Cardinal-Archbishop of St. Louis has called for a new definition of the Church to help make it possible to achieve a greater degree of Christian unity. Cardinal Joseph Ritter said while there can be only one Church of Christ, it can and should take on a spirit of newness to make it more acceptable to ‘our separated brethren.’ Other Christians are ‘essential’ and ‘necessary’ to constitute the true Church of Christ, the Archbishop of St. Louis said … before the St. Louis Advertising Club [on Feb. 12]. He stressed repeatedly in speaking to the mixed Protestant-Catholic audience that all Christians are ‘essential members of Christ’s Church.’ ”
• Three Providence nuns to launch Peru mission
• 4 theologians ‘barred’: Catholic U. criticized for speakers’ blacklist
  • “WASHINGTON, D.C.—A controversy has broken out on the campus of the Catholic University of America over action by its administration in banning from a student-sponsored campus lecture series four nationally-known Catholic theologians. The four, whom a university spokesman said it ‘preferred not to invite’ at the present time while debate of the Second Vatican Council is stirring Catholic circles, include two noted Jesuits, Father Gustave A. Weigel and Father John Courtney Murray. The other two were Father Hans Kueng of Germany, a member of the University of Tubingen faculty, and Father Godfrey Diekmann, prominent Benedictine scholar who is vice-president of the National Catholic Liturgical Conference.”
• Consumer magazines: The wonder and waste
• Japanese girl is Woods art major
• Council may act on anti-semitism
• Training in religions parental obligation
• Bishops’ senate suggested
• Larger percentage in poll back private school aid
• Catholic Sisters erect plaque on Episcopal church
• Stevenson hails pope’s guidance in ND speech
• Beatification date set for Mother Seton

(Read all of these stories from our Feb. 22, 1963, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †