November 23, 2012

What was in the news on Nov. 23, 1962?

Controversy over the Council’s draft on revelation and musing on how youths have lost their nerve

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 Nov. 23, 1962, issue of The Criterion:

  • Council’s draft text on revelation feared possible blow to unity
    • “VATICAN CITY—The ecumenical movement, which aims at eventual reunion of the Christian churches, has come under direct examination at the Second Vatican Council for the first time. The council Fathers’ debate at their 23rd general session centered on expressions in a draft text concerning divine revelation. Some speakers maintained that as it stood, the text would tread unnecessarily on non-Catholic sensibilities. One council Father, speaking on behalf of the Sectretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, pointed up the problems which an inflexible and highly scholastic formulation of Catholic teaching on revelation might create for the unity movement.”
  • At interfaith meeting: Stress Catholic stand on religious freedom
  • Opposing viewpoints: Two concepts of council’s work seen in revelation discussion
  • Groundbreaking set for St. Gabriel Parish
  • Four missionaries arrested in Sudan
  • Social issue dialogue urged among churchmen
  • Council Fathers may visit Holy Land
  • Seeks greater unity: Lutheran minister voices council hopes
  • Belgian bishops stress principles in baby case
  • Hits civic apathy of Catholics
  • Asks 12-years’ school plan
  • First Mass in 325 years
  • Divorce picture draws criticism
  • Tells why youth has lost its nerve
    • “MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.—The modern young person has lost his nerve because society has lost its religious faith, [Rev. Andrew Greeley] a Catholic priest-sociologist and author, told an audience here at the University of Minnesota. … There have been all kinds of excuses for the failures of religious faith, the priest said, but for most Christians it has been the disregard of the Gospel message to restore all things to Christ. … Father Greeley said there is one small cause for hope for man: ‘Western man can go no farther down the road to nothingness; if there is to be a reaction, a swing of the pendulum, it will be toward the search for meaning.’ ”
  • Schools drop grade system
  • Peril seen in speed-reading
  • Encyclical seen antidote to virus of frustration
  • Relation of religion to life seen in council
  • Protestant doctrines of the laity clarified
  • Foreign students enjoy some Hoosier hospitality
  • Ohio teacher policy seen blow to Catholic schools
  • Questions moral impact: People are runners-up to ‘things’ in science, Fr. Hesburgh charges
  • Haiti expels three clerics

(Read all of these stories from our Nov. 23, 1962, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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