May 4, 2012

What was in the news on May 4, 1962?

Observers at the Second Vatican Council, and a plea to fuse liberal and conservative principles

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 May 4, 1962, issue of The Criterion:

  • Plenary sessions of Council will be open to observers
    • “ROME—Non-Catholic observers at the forthcoming Second Vatican Council will not be limited to formal sessions, but will be able to attend the plenary sessions. Cardinal Augustin Bea, S.J., head of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, told more than 60 representatives of the world press that the Holy See will invite to the council those non-Catholic observers ‘who want to be invited.’ … The cardinal made it clear that non-Catholic representatives at the council, which opens next October 11, will be observers in fact, and will take no active part in the work of the Council. He also said that the observers cannot simply be interested churchmen without any official status, but must be representing Christian bodies of significant standing. Asked if non-Christian observers might also attend the council, the 80-year-old German-born Jesuit said that the matter had been discussed by his secretariat and was still under study.”
  • Five to be ordained for the archdiocese
  • Nun wins prize for ‘family’ letter
  • Parish appeal launched: Payments lagging badly in High School Drive
  • Exchange choir program slated
  • Emergence in Africa
  • Catholics urged to fuse liberal and conservative
    • “DETROIT—The editor of America magazine said here that Catholic colleges must be faithful to the ‘full Catholic heritage of reason,’ which combines both liberal and conservative principles. Father Thurston N. Davis, S.J., told a college educators’ session at the 59th annual convention of the National Catholic Educational Association that Catholics spend too much time talking pointlessly about ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives.’ The words are being ‘pinned on individuals and on groups in imprecise and misleading ways,’ he said.”
  • Moral degradation of West deplored by African bishop
  • Asks observance of ‘Police Week’
  • Priest ‘sparks’ cabinet of Dominican Republic
  • Pope asks May prayers for success of Council
  • Scecina High School to roll out welcome mat for CYO delegates
  • Essay winners point up need to fight racism
  • Interracial Council at South Bend sets housing bias drive
  • Orthodox Church bodies will merge, prelate predicts

(Read all of these stories from our May 4, 1962, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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