May 18, 2012

What was in the news on May 18, 1962?

Observers at the Second Vatican Council, and a plea to fuse liberal and conservative principles

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 May 18, 1962, issue of The Criterion:

  • Proposed calendar revision seen as East-West unity step
    • “VATICAN CITY—A reform of the Gregorian Calendar, submitted to the Central Preparatory Commission for the agenda of the coming ecumenical council, may bring East and West together for the first time in centuries in their celebration of many Christian feasts. This reform, if adopted, would mean that Easter would fall on a fixed date every year. It would also mean that every date of the year would fall on the same day of the week every year. The project for the calendar reform was presented on May 12 by Cardinal Amleto Cicognani, acting in his capacity as president of the Preparatory Commission for the Oriental Churches. If accepted, it would radically change the Gregorian Calendar which went into use in 1582 with the bull ‘Inter Gravissimas’ of Pope Gregory XIII. … Suggestions in this respect were submitted to the League of Nations in 1923 and 1931, and to the United Nations in 1949 and 1950. One of the recent proposals provides for the division of the year into four three-month periods of 13 weeks each, that is of 91 days, with each period beginning on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday. … In order not to break the balance, the last day of the year would be considered a repetition of Saturday, Dec. 30, and it wouldn’t be included in the ordinary count but would become a kind of blank day without a date.”
  • Chancery announces 21 clergy assignments
  • ‘NC’ experts hits charges on textbooks
  • High school graduates total more than 1,100
  • Father Cronin defends booklet on communism
  • Free discussion to mark Council, pontiff declares
  • ‘Ecclessia’ opposes Franco labor stand
  • New book raises questions: German Catholics and Hitler’s wars
  • Six priests to observe their silver jubilee
  • U.S. race problem is Soviet propaganda tool
  • Hopes that Council will aid dialogue
  • Canonization is called ‘victory over bigotry’
  • ‘500’ race winner to address K of C
  • Church’s help is urged for resettled migrants
  • Ladywood building contract awarded
  • Convert brings 1,000 into Church
  • New anti-integration group formed
  • Woods to present 12 Angry Women

(Read all of these stories from our May 18, 1962, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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