April 19, 2013

What was in the news on April 19, 1963?

Superintendents asks for a course in communism, and a priest calls for the end of a migratory worker program

Criterion logo from the 1960sBy 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 April 19, 1963, issue of The Criterion:

  • Peace on Earth: The pope and Marxism
  • Pope affirms encyclical plea in annual Easter broadcast
  • Urges clergy-lay board for schools
  • ‘Crash program’: Bishops act to save faith of 500,000 Sudanese
  • Bare translation error in pope’s race comments
  • Groundbreaking set at St. Leon
  • ‘Appeal for survival’: U.N. head hails peace encyclical
  • N.D. to host conference on Latins
  • U.S. government calls encyclical ‘historic’
  • 400,000 in square for pope’s blessing
  • Choir to sing at Butler
  • Red Mass set for April 30
  • NCEA speaker: Raps ‘unfair’ criticism of U.S. Catholic schools
  • Ask communism course in senior high school
    • “The nation’s Catholic school superintendents have said that formal instruction about communism should be offered in Catholic high schools. They said it should be given to all students as a four-week course in social studies in one of the later years of secondary education. It should not only expose communism’s evils and its threat to free men, but more importantly, develop an appreciation for Christian democracy as set forth in the papal social encyclicals, they said.”
  • Drop ‘bracero’ program, Rural Life chief urges
    • “WASHINGTON—A priest-authority on farm labor problems called on U.S. agriculture to ‘throw away its labor crutch’ and let die legislation which permits importation of Mexican migratory workers. … The ‘braceros’ program dates back to World War II days. Peak years for employment of the Mexican migrants were 1956 and 1959, when close to 500,000 were employed each year. Last year, fewer than 200,000 were hired. … ‘No group in the American labor force has the cards stacked so high against them as do the migratory farm workers,’ Father [James L.] Vizzard said. ‘They receive the lowest wages in the American economy.’ ”
  • ‘Food for Peace’ program lauded
  • Ask laymen to join in parish management
  • Predicts Catholic link with World Council
  • Benedictine nuns extend vow period
  • Complete text of encyclical ‘Pacem in Terris’
  • Make art intelligible, Italian prelate urges
  • Mothers launch vocation prayer crusade
  • Labels racial injustice a matter for confession
  • Launched in New Orleans: Vast study of U.S. nuns’ health boon to preventive medicine
  • Parley will explore problems of youth

(Read all of these stories from our April 19, 1963, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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