LAY LEADERS of the National Council of
Catholic Men and the National Council of Catholic
Women held a joint meeting at the Villa Cortona,
Bethesda, Md., (Jan. 22) while the boards of di
rectors of the two organizations were in session.
Bishop John J. Russell of Richmond presided in
his capacity as assistant episcopal chairman of the
Department of Lay Organisations of U.S.C.C. At
left of Bishop Russell is Martin H. Work, execu
tive director, N.C.C.M., and at right Miss Margaret
Mealey,^executive director, N.C.C.W. (NC Photos)
Bishop Tells Ecumenical Service:
Weigh Validity of Disunity
ST. PAUL, Minn. — (RNS) —
A Catholic bishop said here that
it is time for Christians of var
ious traditions to see if they
have sufficient reason to re
main divided any longer.
“We should all examine our
backgrounds to see if we can
continue to justify our separate
existence,” said Auxiliary Bishop
Jerome J. Hastrich of Madison,
Wis.
He spoke at an ecumenical
worship service at the Minnesota
State Pastors’ Conference at
Hamline Methodist Church. The
service marked the Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity.
The pastors’ conference, spon
sored by the Minnesota, Minn
eapolis and St. Paul Councils of
Churches, for the first time at
tracted a sizeable group of Cath
olic priests. About 35 were
among the 300 registrants.
IN HIS SERMON, Bishop Has
trich said the Protestant re
formers had not intended that
their separation from the Cath
olic Church would be a perma
nent arrangement.
They had expected to return
when the Church had purified
itself, the bishop said, noting
that one of the main objectives
of the Second Vatican Council
was to make the Catholic Church
more like the Church of Jesus
Christ.
Bishop Hastrich said the things
which divide Catholics and Prot
estants are mostly “man-made”
and not as meaningful as those
that unite them.
He expressed hope that a
common Bible for Christians
“would lead our minds to the
same conclusions” through the
influence of the Holy Spirit.
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Dr. William G. Law, pastor of
Hamline Methodist church, led
the interreligious congregation
in a “confession of disunity” and
in prayers for unity.
AT THE CONFERENCE din
ner which preceded the service,
Dr. Roger Hazelton, a United
Church of Christ theologian, said
the search for wholeness is the
present orientation of the ecu
menical movement.
“No one Church can truly be
the Church without the others,”
he declared. “The denom
inational form of the Church is
at best a halfway house on the
way to the Church’s wholeness
— a house to be lived in for a
time and then to be moved on
from.”
Dr. Hazelton is a professor
at Andover-Newton Theologi
cal Seminary, Newton Centre,
Mass.
In an earlier lecture, Dr. Sher
wood Wirt of Minneapolis, edi
tor of the Billy Graham maga
zine, Decision, discussed the
“death of God” theologians from
an evangelical point of view.
Dr. Wirt said he agreed that
“a lot of churches are dead,”
but that this does not affect
God.
THERE IS LITTLE difference
between the Christian atheist
and the hard-core atheist, Dr.
Wirt observed. One says that
“God no longer exists” and the
other says that “God never did
exist.”
The “death of God” theo
logians, by their own choice,
have put themselves outside the
household of Christian faith, Dr.
Wirt continued. He said these
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men had “built up the biggest
case of celestial sour grapes in
the history of mankind.”
The “real tragedy” of the
“death of God” theologians, he
said, is that they are unaware
of God’s moving power in the
world today.
Telling how some people have
had their lives changed through
Billy Graham’s preaching, Dr.
Wirt asserted: “We believe God
is alive because we see Him an
swering prayer all the time.”
He added that he does not be
lieve the “God is dead” move
ment has yet “crested.”
“We are moving into a secu
lar age,” he said, predicting that
by the end of this century “a
lot of churches, including some
in the Twin Cities, will be little
more than social and political
improvement clubs.”
Dr. Carl H. Lundquist, presi
dent of Bethel College and Beth
el Seminary, led devotions at
the sessions as conference chap
lain.
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VATICAN CITY — (RNS) —
Pope Paul VI has nullified a pro
hibition against Catholics partici
pating in Christian unity services
in Protestant churches of Rome,
according to Vatican sources.
The reversal was contained in
a letter to officials of the Rome
diocese from the Vatican Secre
tariat of State which said that
“higher authority” — apparently
the Pope — has rescinded the
earlier ban.
(While the Pope is Bishop of
Rome, the day-to-day operations
of the diocese are the responsi
bility of Luigi Cardinal Traglia
as papal vicar.)
ROME’S CATHOLICS were to
participate in ecumenical prayer
— not liturgical — services in
the city’s main Anglican, Epis
copal and Lutheran churches in
connection with the Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity.
But an opinion from the Con
gregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith (formerly the Holy Office)
said that it was “not opportune
for the moment” that Catholics
should take part in the unity
services.
The ruling applied only to
Rome and no reasons were given
for the prohibition, deliberately
expressed in terms that left the
door open for a reversal. It came
as a disappointment and as a
surprise to organizers of the
unity services and to many Cath
olic and non-Catholic leaders
abroad who have promoted the
ecumenical movement.
It was noted that during the
unity octave, interreligious serv
ices were held in many parts of
the world with permission of
Catholic bishops including the
Madrid diocese in Spain, re
garded as conservative.
VATICAN SOURCES speculat
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ed that the ban from the Con
gregation for the Doctrioe.of the
Faith came .without knowledge
of Pope Paul who at Ihe time
had cancelled appointments be
cause of a mild case of influ
enze. The Pope is head of the
congregation, wMjje Pro-Prefect
is Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani,
known as one of the more con
servative prelates in the Roman
Curia.
No official announcement of
the Pope’s reversal of the pro
hibition was made by the Vati
can, presumably to prevent any
embarrassment to Cardinal Ot
taviani.
The Pope’s reversal of the
earlier ruling was seen as having
only symbolic value as it came
too late for Catholic participa
tion in the three planned unity
services. However, it was an in
dication that Catholics in Rome
would not be forbidden to at
tend ecumenical services on fu
ture occasions.
Honors Award
Miss Alice Alspaugh of Rural
Hall, N.C. was one of the 39
Sophomores named to the Dean’s
Honor List at the College of Mt.
St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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