In the Changing Parish
The diocesan office for religious education recently sent out a
notice to all parishes that it was offering a religion teaching training
program to interested parishes within a given area of the state. This
service organization is of course commonly known as the Confra
ternity of Christian Doctrine. The program covers the phases of adult
education and a weekly hour instruction for high school and grammer
school students presently attending the public school system.
The importance of this project was brought to our attention re
cently as we assisted in the preparation of a First Communion class of
93 boys and girls. Half of this number were instructed by the Con
fraternity program conducted by Confraternity trained lay teachers.
A second factor in the consideration of the importance of expanding
the lay teacher program is a statistic released recently that the aver
age parish has invested seventy-three percent of its property and
building holdings as well as its running expenses in the parochial
school. Experience has shown us that in a parish of approximately
eleven to twelve hundred souls the parochial school enrollment was
215 in generally not crowded conditions.
“Religious Education in the changing parish community” is the
theme for each CCD committee to think about for a Fall program.
The English Mass focuses attention to the need of a workshop on
adult education as a necessary stepping stone to an appreciation of
the Mass and to a renewal of the Christian community of the parish in
the spirit of the second Vatican Council.
The teaching training program may also be the inspiration to re
activate lay teachers and leaders in a parish council. The National
CCD director recently said “This is a new and vital challenge for the
confraternity in our country—to form a caring group which is both
parochial and civic, extending into an adult religious education, in
volving parents, adolescents and young adults.”
In other words there must be a proportion in quality teaching
and expenditure of promotional literature and visual aids in this
separate system of the religious education of our Catholic youth. A
certification is required for the parochial school faculty certainly a
teacher in the confraternity program must likewise be equipped with
a facility of method and teaching background to do the job well. The
parish board chairman of the confraternity committee should look
into this matter and push to promote the teacher training program
and encourage the teachers in the parish school of religion to make
every effort in attending the courses in method and doctrine presenta
tion. There is always a need for updating teaching information through
in-training courses which will refresh as well as give new insights
into this Post-Council period.
Optimism in Crisis
It somehow seems that the “B” in “Benedictine” stands for “bal
ance.”
Perhaps that is why this, the oldest of the monastic orders has
survived the ages by the observance of this particular quality of its
1587 year old rule. Throughout the four years of the Vatican Council,
the statements made by the Benedictine Abbot and later Auxiliary
Bishop Butler, O.S.B. of Westminister, England, made the deep im
pression of possessing this facility. He is presently on a lecture tour
in this country and this scholar discussed aspects of the Church in to
day’s world which we missed somehow in the news service. He said
he was “Tremendously optimistic.”
“My view is that the council brought about a creative upheaval in
the church. It was certain there would be strains, stretches and trag
edies of individuals, but the motion is in the right direction,” Bishop
Butler said.
Ecumenism in England, he said, is “just on the verge of a great
breakthrough. There’s great warmth of feeling and sentiment on both
sides. There has been delay on the part of authority, but great good
will.”
He said the English hierarchy has been awaiting a directive due
soon from Rome, providing ecumenical guidelines. The bishops have
hesitated to take steps now they might have to retrace later, he added.
Comparing renewal of the liturgy in England and the United
States, Bishop Butler said:
“You’re just a jump ahead of us. We still have the preface in
Latin and the canon is not said aloud ... I have a feeling there is
more experimentation here. I attended a folk Mass at the Yale chap
laincy last week, and I must say it was a some-what strange pheno
menon—with music from a guitar . . . But if they like it, let them
have it, God bless them. I wonder though, if they won’t grow tired of
it.”
He was asked about the attitude of the laity in England toward
renewal programs.
“They are waiting to be led. There is willingness to be led on the
part of the laity and loyalty in following where they are led — but I
don’t think they’ve got many ideas of their own. Many of them don’t
like to have their established religious habits upset — but I suppose
you have that fa this country, too.”
The bishop took a critical view of current laymen in theology.
“This is rapidly becoming the age of the lay theologians. The
trouble is, they are tremendously keen on theological thinking but
almost completely theologically uneducated. I’m afraid that makes me
sound like a conservative, and I count myself a liberal.”
In this period of the Octave of Pentecost gives us courage and
assurance that the Church will be prepared to meet the future and
under the guidance of the first grace of its birthday it will continue
in its mission of salvation. “As a result, the Church is a living, vital
reality in the modern world.”
Vatican Weekly criticizes jvumsiurrc
VATICAN CITY—(NC)—The Vatican City weekly has la
mented the wearing of miniskirts as degrading to womanhood.
The weekly, L’Osservatore della Domenlca, in a regular feature
column of answers to letters from readers, took a dim view of -
recent fads among young people.
“Boys let their hair grow, girls wear miniskirts,” the column
noted. “There is nothing left for parents, educators and pastors
to do but to look wi and wait and be ready to seize on the first
sign of boredom or of a readiness to listen. Unfortunately these
symptoms are not wily slow in coming but at times they merely
lead to even more radical fashions for young girls, often with
the connivance of the mothers, who are proud to be among the
first to submit to the tyranny of large fashion houses. . . .
“It is almost as if there were a competition to see who succeeds
in imposing the shortest skirts and to bare the female body as
much as possible, apparently to show off its beauty but in reality
to degrade womanhood.”
Pioneer Statement
Second Instruction
Further Directives Given
In Changes of Rubrics for
The Offering of Holy Mass
VATICAN CITY — The Holy See, in a second instruction im
plementing the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy,
has opened the door to the use of local languages throughout the
Canon of the Mass and has simplified the celebration of the Mass.
At the same time it emphasized that only the Church itself has
the right to alter the Liturgy in any way. The instruction of the
Congregation of Rites, was dated May 4 and is effective June 29 of
this year.
It grants “competent territor
ial authority” the power of al
lowing the vernacular in the
Canon of Masses with participa
tion of the people. The same au
thority may allow the vernacular
rite when the people are present
at ordination, and at the choral
recitation of the Divine Office.
The instruction reduces the
number of genuflections by the
Mass celebrant It also reduces
the number of times the cele
brant must bow, make the Sign
of the Cross and kiss the altar.
The priest and people to
gether say the Domine Non Sum
Dignus before the Communion
of the priest, who then proceeds
immediately to the distribution of
Holy Communion. After Com
munion it calls for a silent pause
or the singing of a psalm or a
hymn of praise.
The people are dismissed from
Mass immediately after the Last
Blessing instead of before it.
The color violet may be used
in Requiem Masses. Episcopal
conferences may allow the use
of another liturgical color in
conformity with local mental
ities.
The priest need not wear the
maniple.
Priests concelebrating Mass
should all wear the vestments
prescribed for individual cele
bration of the Mass, but, for ser
ious reason, such as the lack of
enough vestments, all but the
principal celebrant may dispense
with the chasuble. All concele
brants, however, must wear the
alb and stole.
Favorable Acceptance
The new document said the
reforms ordered by the first in
struction produced “abundant
fruit” It said that the world’s
bishops had reported an in
creased and more active partic
ipation in the liturgy — espe
cially at Mass — everywhere.
“With the aim of fostering
still more this participation,
above all in the Mass, and to
render the sacred rites clearer
Bad more intelligible, other sug
gestions have urged adaptions
which, presented to the Consil
ium for the Implementation of
the Constitution on the Sacred
Liturgy, were attentively exam
ined and discussed by that Con
silium and by its Sacred Con
gregation (of Rites).”
Father Bugnini, C.M., secre
tary of the Consilium, told NC
News Service that this “defin
itive reform” is actually “the re
form now going on step by
step.” He said this reform can
be considered complete “when
the new liturgical texts are pub
lished.”
These changes “can be actu
ated with simple rubrical ar
rangements” without altering
present liturgical books.
Strict Adherence
The instruction continued,
“but it seems also necessary in
the present circumstances to re
call that fundamental principle
of the discipline of the Church,
openly reconfirmed also by the
Constitution on the Sacred Lit
urgy, which establishes: ‘regula
tion of the sacred liturgy
depends solely upon the author
ity of the Church. . . . Therefore
no other person, even if he be a
priest, may add, remove or
change anything in the liturgy
on his own authority’ (Constitu
tion on the Sacred Liturgy, Ar
ticle 22, No. 1 and 3).
Norms Cited
Among other prescriptions
and options contained in the in
struction are:
—Instead of the Oratio Imper
ata, the bishop may include in
the prayers of the faithful one or
two intentions of local interest.
—The priest genuflects only
when arriving at and leaving the
altar, if it has a tabernacle with
the Blessed Sacrament; after the
elevation of the Host and after
the elevation of the chalice; at
the end of the Canon after the
Doxology; before saying “Panem
caelestem accipiam” at Com
munion; after returning uncon
sumed Hosts to the tabenacle.
—The celebrant kisses the al
tar only at the beginning of Mass
'Well Begun'
Church in Atlanta
Is Cited for Synod
Final Publication
Under the title “The Church
of Christ,” the Archdiocese of
Atlanta, headed by Archbishop
Paul J. Hallinan, has issued a
65 page booklet with the sub
title “Decree Enacted by the
First Synod of the Archdiocese
of Atlanta.” This admirable re
port is recommended unreserv
edly to all who wonder how the
broad principles of Second Va
tican Council may be genuinely
implemented.
The Atlanta Synod, held No
vember 20-23, was the result of
meticulous planning and of
preparatory meetings that ex
tended throughout 1966. Dele
gates were elected for a Sisters’
Congress, a Lay Congress, a
Young Adults Congress, all of
which were held before the end
of September. Priests met reg
ularly in spontaneous sessions
and in two pre-synodal gather
ings. In his decree of convoca
tion, Archbishop Hallinan de
scribed the synod as the
“authentic voice of the people of
God — Archbishop, priests, reli
gious and laity.” By all evidence,
the synod was exactly that.
After a preamble, the decree
has six chapters: The People of
God, Archdiocese of Atlanta,
Parishes, Christian Life, Chris
tian Formation, The Church in
the Community. What chiefly
strikes the reader of the decree
is its careful balance between
dedication to “openness and
adaptation” and fidelty to the
“essential concept of the
Church”; its insistence on the
principle of “shared exercise of
authority”; and its lack of any
tone or hint of triumphalism.
We would wish to address to
the Archdiocese of Atlanta a re
sounding “Well done.” Archbish
op Hallinan and the people of
his diocese would probably pre
fer us to say: “Well begun,”
(America).
while he says the prayer “Ore
mus te domine”; or when he
ascends to the altar if the initial
prayers have been omitted; and
at the end of Mass before giving
the blessing and dismissing the
people.
—At Mass in which the people
participate, even if not concele
brated, the priest may recite
the Canon aloud if the thinks it
opportune.
—At sung Masses the cele
brant can sing those parts of
the Canon which may be sung
in the rite of concelebration.
—The celebrant remains erect
with outstretched hands when be
ginning the “Te igitur” (this
means he no longer bows).
—The celebrant makes a sin
gle sign of the cross over the
unconsecrated bread and wine
at the words “Benedicas haec
dona,” “Haec munera,” “Haec
sancta sacrificia illibata.” The
priest also omits the sign of the
cross before his own Commun
ion.
—After the Consecration the
celebrant need not keep thumb
and forefinger joined.
NORTH CAROLINA CATHOLIC
Weekly Newspaper
lor Raleigh Diocese
Second Class postage paid at Hunting
ton, Indiana.
Entered at the Post Office in Hunting
ton. Indiana, U.S.A., at the rate of post
age provided for in Section 1103 of the
United States Act ot October 3, 1912
and of February 28. 1925.
Associate Editors
Rev. H.C.X. Mulholland
Rev. Frederick A. Koch
Address: Rax 9503
Raleigh, N. C.
Tel. 919-033 5293
May 21, 1967
Vol. XXII, No. 31