March 4, 2016

What was in the news on March 4, 1966?

Understanding Vatican II’s call for religious liberty, the cost of the council, and a condemnation of war

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 March 4, 1966, issue of The Criterion:
 

  • No tradition break seen in Vatican II freedom declaration
    • “NORTH AURORA, Ill.—The Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Liberty was not a departure from tradition, but a reconsideration and a recognition of ‘her identity and her mission,’ a professor of biblical literature declared here. ‘The Church did not depart as much from an established pattern as we thought; the pattern really never was established,’ said Father John L. McKenzie, S.J., visiting professor of biblical literature at the University of Chicago. ‘What we heard was a noisy and persistent minority who knew what they believed. The great majority remained silent, either from fear or from a lack of a clear understanding of their own belief,’ he said. Father McKenzie told a symposium on religious freedom that the ‘supreme religious act of the Christian’ is ‘to exhibit the sovereign love of God,’ and ‘he cannot perform it unless he does it with supreme freedom.’ ”
  • Officials of seminaries to convene
  • Cost of Vatican II set at $7 million
    • “VATICAN CITY—The Second Vatican Council cost more than $7 million, which was met by the contributions of Catholics throughout the world. This statistic is only one of hundreds contained in a special edition of the Vatican City weekly, L’Osservatore della Domenica (The Sunday Observer). The edition, which came out in the first week of March, consists of 228 pages instead of the usual 16. It is to be translated later into all major languages.”
  • Urges ‘unequivocal’ condemnation of war
    • “NEW YORK—A Catholic priest said that the Church must take the fundamental step in outlawing war by issuing a ‘firm and unequivocal’ condemnation of it. … [Father Philip Berrigan, S.J.,] said that at one point the [Constitution on the Church in the Modern World] lapsed into a type of socio-political concession. He said that a statement such as ‘governments cannot be denied the right to legitimate defense once every means of peaceful settlement has been exhausted’ is a rehashing of the just-war theory. This theory has done infinitely more to sanction war than to abolish it, he said. ‘When in modern times has every means for peaceful settlement been exhausted?’ Father Berrigan asked. ‘History reminds us that preparation for war—which includes the cultivation of a “war psychology” by the propaganda of one side or both—precludes efforts for a peaceful settlement. A nation cannot seriously investigate areas of reconciliation, and still adequately prepare for war,’ he declared.”
  • Economic sanctions defended
  • Native of Terre Haute slated for ordination
  • Donate $60,742 to Fatima fund
  • Polish assault on Church seen inspired by Moscow
  • Text of Church in Modern World schema
  • Cardinal McIntyre suspends Fr. DuBay
  • Theologians aided spread of atheism, Fr. Haering says
  • Holy Name, Beech Grove, Cadet champs
  • Seek to save sinking basilica
  • Pope Paul plans busy liturgy schedule for Holy Week
  • Cardinal Ottaviani heads new body on family problems
  • Marian announces changes in faculty

(Read all of these stories from our March 4, 1966, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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