December 11, 2015

What was in the news on Dec. 10, 1965?

The Second Vatican Council comes to an official end, as do 900 years of mutual excommunication

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 Dec. 10, 1965, issue of The Criterion:
 

  • ‘Go in peace’ is Pope Paul’s message as council closes
    • “VATICAN CITY—‘Ite in pace—Go in peace.’ With these words Pope Paul VI brought to a close the Second Vatican Council on December 8, the Feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. In a colorful outdoor ceremony attended by an estimated 150,000 onlookers, the pontiff thus formally brought to an end the solemn deliberations which were opened by his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, on October 11, 1962. Pope Paul’s words were directed primarily to the more than 2,300 council Fathers who had painstakingly hammered out 16 decrees designed to open a new era in Roman Catholicism and to revamp the Church’s relations with other Christian and non-Christian religions. Government heads, princes, foreign ministers and other dignitaries from more than 80 nations occupied places of honor as the council Fathers in copes and miters moved from inside the basilica out in the square. Many wore the simple gold rings the pope had given them as a council memento.”
  • Body gets new name: Pope Paul VI decrees Holy Office reform
  • At historic service: We’re on unity road, pope tells observers
  • Post-council jubilee to begin January 1st
  • Schema 13 is approved by council
  • Twin rites end ancient dissension
    • “VATICAN CITY—Rome and Constantinople, the chief Sees respectively of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, have buried in simultaneous ceremonies the excommunications their leaders hurled at one another more than 900 years ago. These excommunications of 1054 heralded the great schism which has rent East from West for nine centuries. In relegating them to history, both Churches took a long step toward that unity which two general council assembled for that purpose—at Lyons, France, in 1274, and at Ferrara and Florence, Italy, 1438-43—failed to achieve. Twin ceremonies took place at the same time at St. Peter’s and at the Phanar, the headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, in what is now Istanbul on December 7, the day of the last formal voting of the Second Vatican Council.”
  • U.S. represented at council closing
  • Archdiocesan School Board is reorganized
  • Ask U.S. to halt Viet bombing
  • New parish church to be constructed at Mitchell
  • No plans to bar ‘jazz’ during Mass
  • Lay missioner elected mayor
  • Urges parish school boards
  • Raps diaconate restrictions
  • Stresses challenges in ‘Pacem in Terris’
  • Says priests can solve crisis in vocations
  • Catholics, Orthodox seen closing breach
  • Expansion of English set in Mass
  • Marian to present movie on Africa
  • Growth in Cursillo surprises founder
  • Speaker cites variety of factors in producing priestly vocations
  • ‘Fantasticks’ slated at Marian
  • Symposium emphasizes lack of understanding of rhythm

(Read all of these stories from our Dec. 10, 1965, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

Local site Links: