February 10, 2012

What was in the news on Feb. 9, 1962?

Ecumenical Council opening set for Oct. 11, and Jesuit priest discounts planetary fears

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 Feb. 9, 1962, issue of The Criterion:

  • Ecumenical Council opening set October 11th
    • “VATICAN CITY—His Holiness Pope John XXIII set next October 11 as the opening date for the long-heralded ecumenical council. In so doing, he chose to tie it to the memory of the Council of Ephesus in 431, whose decision upheld belief in the Virgin Mary as Mother of God, which remains today a keystone in the belief of both Catholics and Orthodox Christians. October 11 is the feast of the Divine Maternity of Mary. The Pope said his main hopes for the results of the council … are ‘that the Church, Spouse of Christ, may strengthen still more her divine energies and extend her beneficial influence in still greater measure to the minds of men.’ ”
  • Top jurisdiction held by Ecumenical Council
  • Archdiocesan men set for Associates’ drive
  • School bus driver likes her work
  • Liturgical Study Day for priests scheduled
  • Dutch young people met to discuss unity matters
  • Report 3 priests die in China jails
  • Episcopalians set to fund drive to aid Catholic missioners
  • New Archdiocesan mark is set in mission giving
  • Yugoslavia a land of contrasts
  • Catholic education: a reappraisal
  • President reaffirms school aid stand
  • Help our Anglican neighbors
  • Resignation of Italy’s premier seen as a move for left support
  • Second cardinal dies in 24 hours
  • Fanfani asks cooperation with ecumenical council
  • Would vernacular change the Chant?
  • Laity to instruct non-Catholics
  • Stresses responsibility to lapsed Catholics
  • Cardinal brothers parted by death
  • Reports retreat movement gaining with Protestants
  • Laity help ‘sell’ forum program
  • Ecumenical movement, Council ‘not the same’
  • Priest discounts planetary fears
    • CALCUTTA, India—A Jesuit astronomer gave assurances here that the conjunction of five planets, regarded as a portent of doom by Indian astrologers, would have no influence on tides or earthquakes. … Meanwhile, nearly 700 Hindu scholars joined in marathon prayer to Hindu gods and goddesses to avert the worldwide catastrophe forecast by the astrologers.”
  • New Delhi observer lauds ‘serious’ unity concern
  • ‘Sold like soap’: State official deplores ‘Pollyanna Catholicism’
  • Unity inevitable, minister declares
    • “DES MOINES, Iowa—Some form of ‘church unity or union is inevitable,’ a Methodist bishop [F. Gerald Ensley] said here at the annual meeting of the Iowa Council of Churches. “We are moving irresistibly to some form of ecclesiastical unity. … We can’t stop it. What form it will take, I don’t know. How can we bring peace in the world if churchmen don’t get together?’”

(Read all of these stories from our Feb. 9, 1962, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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