October 4, 2013

What was in the news on Oct. 4, 1963?

Pope Paul VI opens the second session of Vatican II under revised rules

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 Oct. 4, 1963, issue of The Criterion:

  • Pope’s opening council talk hailed as Church ‘milestone’
    • “VATICAN CITY—In an address marking another major milestone in the new age of the Catholic Church, Pope Paul VI opened the second session of the Vatican Council II. His words, he said, were a ‘prelude not only to the council but also to our pontificate,’ and an anticipation of the encyclical that he will issue ‘once these toilsome days are past.’”
  • ‘Nature of Church’ first topic for council study
  • New rules to obviate deadlocks
    • “VATICAN CITY—Revised rules governing the second session of the ecumenical council promise to prevent any deadlock such as the one which Pope John XXIII had to step in to solve personally last fall. A new edition of the book of regulations for the council, made public [on Sept. 26] three days before the start of the second session, also provided several additions designed to give greater power to council Fathers on the minority side of questions under debate. … Continued in effect is the requirement of a two-thirds majority vote to approval of the whole or of a part of a schema, or council statement. The same is also required for an amendment to a schema. But in order to postpone or to conclude discussion of a schema, the majority required is reduced to an absolute one—50 percent of the members voting plus one.”
  • Jews ‘remember’ John XXIII
  • Methodists playing host to dialogue
  • Non-Catholic observers at council now total 63
  • 2,427 prelates at second session
  • Laymen ‘auditors’ attending council
  • What Vatican II has done so far to justify world-wide interest
  • JFK calls social reform top Latin America need
  • Editor comments from Rome: Bishops’ role in the Church seen ‘great issue’ of 2nd council session
  • Abolish Latin in liturgy, Father Hans Kueng urges
  • Raps numbers approach to religious vocations
  • Family Clinic: Perplexed teenage girl asks rules for kissing
  • Pilgrimage sets precedent
  • Racial leader deplores myths about Negroes

(Read all of these stories from our Oct. 4, 1963, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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