March Vocation Month
WASHINGTON — (NC)— Spe
cial prayers, church services and
classroom programs throughout
the country will highlight diocesan
Observances of March as Vocations
Month.
Many bishops have issued speci
al statements urging priests and
laymen — especially parents —to
be active in promoting vocations.
The more unusual programs in
dude the following:
—In Pittsburgh, Bishop John J.
Wright will conduct a retreat from
March 18 to 20 for young men in
terested in the priesthood. More
than 500 young men of the diocese
have been invited to the retreat,
which will be held in a Pittsburgh
hotel.
—In Omaha, Neb., a Religious
Vocations Fair will be held April
S and 3 in the Omaha Civic Audi
torium. Representatives of many
religious communities will staff
booths at the fair to provide in
formation to young people who re
quest it. Members of the Omaha
Outdoor
Apostolate
Meeting
RICHMOND — Announcements
went out this week from Rich
mond’s Bishop John J. Russell re
garding the annual Outdoor Apos
tolate Convention. Priests and
Bishops of the Southeastern region
of the United States have been
meeting yearly since 1946 when
Bishop Vincent S. Waters founded
the Outdoor Apostolate. This year
the convention is scheduled for
April 19-21, Capital Hotel, Rich
mond.
‘Outdoor’ apostolate refers to
various approaches to convert
making which take place outside
church buildings. This includes
street preaching, motor chapels,
door-to-door contacts and like
means of bringing the Church to
non-members.
Among the scheduled speakers
and forum members is Fr. James
Jones of the Pinehurst Mission Fa
thers. All priests are invited.
Serra Club, which is sponsoring
the fair, predict that 15,000 people
will attend.
His Eminence Richard Cardinal
Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, is
sued a statement on vocations in
which he warned “unthinking and
unenlightened” parents against
hindering the vocations of their
children.
Bishop Coleman F. Carroll of
Miami declared that “for a long
time to come” the Miami diocese
“will be aware of the extreme
need of more priests and Sisters in
this constantly growing area.”
Bishop Carroll called for daily
prayers for vocations in all par
ishes and schools. A committee of
16 priests has been appointed to
visit schools of the diocese and
speak to boys in grades 8 through
12 on the need for more priests
and Brothers. Religious communi
ties of women in the diocese spon
sored a vocations exhibit Febru
ary 27 and 28 at a Miami Beach
parish.
Bishop Clarence G. issenmann,
of Columbus, Ohio, urged Catholics
to invoke the intercession of St.
Joseph for vocations. He pointed
out that “the groundwork of most
vocations continues to be laid in
the grade school and in the home.”
Bishop John J. Carberry of
Lafayette, Ind., directed that a tri
duum of prayer for vocations to
be observed in every parish of the
diocese on the three days preced
ing the feast of St. Joseph, March
19.
Bishop Carberry also announc
ed that he will personally visit
each high school in the diocese
during March to offer Mass and
speak on the need for religious
vocations.
Bishop William A. Scully of Al
bany, N. Y., calling for prayers
for vocations, announced that a
day of recollection will be held
during March in each school in
the diocese. Diocesan priests and
members of religious communities
of men and women will speak at
these days of recollection and be
available for personal interviews.
FIRST CARDINALS IN THEIR COUNTRIES
March 17, St Patrick
Jean Chariot
How the snakes have grown sirice Ms time
New Cardinals Enter College
VATICAN CITY —(NC)— His
Holiness Pope John XXIII has
named seven new'cardinals, rais
ing the Sacred College to a record
high of 85 members.
The new cardinals include the
first Negro, first Filipino and first
Japanese to be named to the card
inal'ate.
in decade . . .
Negro-Indian
Catholics Up
55 And 25%
WASHINGTON —(NC)— The
number of U.S. Negro Catholics
has risen 55 per cent in the last
decade, and the number of Indian
Catholics 25 per cent.
Negro Catholics now total 615,
964, an increase of 217,853 over
the 1950 figure of 398,111. Indian
Catholics total 124,154, compared
with 99,200 in 1950, an increase of
24,954.
These figures are contained in
the annual report of the Commis
sion for Catholic Missions among
the Colored People and the In
dians, which has headquarters
here. Father J. B. Tennelly, S.S.,
is secretary of the commission.
In the last decade, Negro con
verts totaled 100,000, the report
stated. Converts during the past
year numbered 12,066. One of ev
ery 12 U.S. converts to Catholic
ism is a Negro, according to the
report.
Negro Catholics in the South in
creased by 85,000, and in the 45
dioceses outside the South by 218,
000. The disparity in the size of
the increase is largely due to im
migration of southern Negroes to
other parts of the country, the
report said.
THREE OF THE SEVEN NEW CARDINALS named by His Holiness Pope John XXm are in countries
never before represented in the Sacred College. They are, left to right: Their Eminences Peter Tatsuo
Doi (left), Archbishop of Tokyo, Japan; Latvian Rugambwa (center), Bishop of Rutabo, Tanganyika,
East Africa, and first Negro Cardinal, at least In modern times, and Rnflno J. Santos (right), Arch
bishop of Manila, Philippines. (NC photo)
The new members of the Sac
red College will be elevated to
their posts at a Vatican consistory
on March 28.
The new cardinals and their or
der of precedence are: Archbish
ops Luigi Traglia, Vicegerent of
Rome; Peter Tatsuo Doi of Tok
yo; Joseph Lefebvre of Bourges,
France; Bernard Alfrink of
Utrecht, the Netherlands, and Ru
fino J. Santos of Manila; Bishop
Laurian Rugambwa of Rutabo,
Tanganyika, and Msgr. Antonio
Bacci, Secretary of Briefs to
Princes.
The two Italian nominees for
the cardinalate bring the number
of Italian cardinals to 33. France
will have 8 cardinals. The U.S.
has 6; Spain, 5; Germany, 4; Bra
zil, 3.
Argentina, Britain Portugal
and Canada each have two cardin
als.
Countries with one cardinal
each are: Ireland, Belgium, Hun
gary, Poland, Armenia, Syria,
Austria, India, China, Australia,
Mexico, Uruguay, Ecuador, Cuba,
The Netherlands, Philippines, Ja
pan and Tanganyika. Tanganyika
is a United Nations’ trust territory
in Africa under British adminis
tration. It is scheduled to become
self-governing this year and fully
independent in the future.
The language breakdown of the
College of Cardinals is as follows:
Italian, 33; English (counting
Archbishop Rugambwa), 13; Span
ish, 11; French, 9; German, 5; Por
tuguese, 5; and one each, Arabic,
Armenian, Chinese, Dutch, Flem
ish, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish,
Kihaya, and Tagalog.
BISHOP’S RESIDENCE
15 North McDowell Street
Raleigh, North Carolina
February 29, 1960
My dear Brethren:
The Second Sunday of Lent has been assigned as a Sunday
when we are asked to help our Indian and Negro Americans in
their progress towards God and His Church. No two groups are
more deserving of our help.
The first group is the original Americans who were mistreat
ed, often unjustly robbed of their possessions, and driven from
their lands to the West, as a dramatic pageant in western North
Carolina, “Unto These Hills,” so well portrays. We owe these ab
original Americans a great deal. We could give them no better
gift than that of our Holy Faith which is the heritage of so many
of their Oklahoma and western kinsfolk. The second of these
groups for which your charity is solicited is the good American
Negroes who have also suffered much injustice and who deserve
all the kindness and charity we can display to make up for our
neglect, forgetfulness, and injustice.
As Catholics and Americans we should sympathize with them
and assist them wherever possible in their aspirations to possess
human and civil rights to become First Class American Citizens.
Likewise, we should open our hearts to them and with prayer and
sacrifice assist them to full possession of the Faith in the true
Church of God upon earth. The Catholics of the Diocese of Ral
eigh have been outstanding in these matters in the past, for which
I am mighty proud and grateful. I am sure that our good Priests,
Sisters, children and parents are setting an example in the South
which could be well followed by many for the solution of these
problems.
On the Second Sunday of Lent, March 13th, we should earn
estly ask God for grace for these, our own countrymen. Then we
will, I am sure, make a generous sacrifice to help them in their
progress towards the Church. No better missionary means could
be used in attracting these good people to the true Church of
Christ on earth than treating them as we would like to be treated,
or as Christ would treat them if He were in your place today.
Wishing each of you God’s choicest blessings, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Bishop of Raleigh.
I
T