June 21, 2013

What was in the news on June 21, 1963?

The papal conclave opens, and the Supreme Court bans prayer in public schools

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 June 21, 1963, issue of The Criterion:

  • Secret conclave opens balloting for pontiff
    • (Bulletin: Two ballots were cast in the papal election on Thursday before Criterion press time. Both were unsuccessful.) VATICAN CITY—Four-score Churchmen charged with electing a new Bishop of Rome calmly sealed themselves off, and automatically created an air of tension and expectation in the world they left behind. The conclave to elect the successor to Pope John XXIII began beneath Michelangelo’s massive painting of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel on the evening of June 19.
  • Justice Stewart dissents: Public school prayer barred by High Court
    • “WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court has ended a year of nationwide suspense by barring devotional Bible reading and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer from public schools. These practices and the laws requiring them are ‘unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause’ of the First Amendment and violate the ‘wholesale neutrality’ of the State toward religion, the court held [June 17] in an opinion by Justice Tom C. Clark.”
  • Scottsburg groundbreaking slated Sunday
  • Last tribute is accorded to Pope John
  • Marian buys Stokely property
  • Two more Franciscans named to New Guinea
  • Meet with Kennedy: U.S. religious leaders to combat race problem
  • How custom of sealing up the conclave began
  • Rome’s ‘Humility House Street’ outpost of American scholarship
  • This is the 5th conclave for American cardinals
  • Editorial: Court decision
    • “To the surprise of no one, but to the chagrin of many, the Supreme Court has put an end to Protestant influence in public schools. The reading of Bible verses and the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer were the last vestiges of the one-time close union between Protestant Christianity and the public schools.”
  • Question Box: Why did God let Pope John die?
  • Clears Catholic stand on shared-time project
  • For conclavists: Turntable is only link with the outside world
  • Drop ‘dating’ socials, Catholic schools urged
  • Pope wrote own epitaph
  • New Zealand nuns get Korean ‘aid’
  • Laity’s role is stressed
  • Marian’s Sister Gonzalva changing her classrooms
  • Parish is named for Mother Seton
  • U.S. receives pope’s stole
  • Five are named observers for Montreal conference

(Read all of these stories from our June 21, 1963, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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