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No. 3074. Perth, Thursday, March 14, 1963 •
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(Registered at the GPO., Perth, for transmission by post as a Newspaper.)
rhe Town Hall is oppos:ta
Reaction To Play On PoDe B ERLIN.—Germany's Catholic community is irate about a new play depicting Pope Pius XII as a selfish weakling whose silence in the face of the Nazi slaughter of the Jews contributed to their destruction. The drama is "Der Skilvertreter" (The Vicar), by 32-year-old playwright Rolf Hochhuth, who Iaims to have done intensive historical research before writing it. His implication is that Pope Pius XII because of cowardice and selfishness dici not speak out against the annihilation of the Jews by government, the German and thus 3nares. the guilt for the death of six million Jews. In the published text of the play, Hochhuth states in his epilogue: "Perhaps never before in history have so many people paid with their lives for the passivity of a single politician." DEFAMATION Joseph Cardinal Frings, Archbishop of Cologne and bead of the German Bishops' declared Conference, has that the Hochhuth work is a defamation of Pope Pius XII and that Catholics cannot He said put up with it. Hochhuth understood neither the historical situation nor the personality of Pope Pius. Cardinal Frings said that if Pius XII had intervened directly on behalf of the Jews, the Nazis might have reacted with even harsher measures.
spoken to Hochhuth. It said that neither Father Anton Weber, S.A.C., who it says was Pius XII's representative for Jews, nor Father Robert Leiber, S.J., Pius special adviser, saw Hochhuth. Nor did any prominent members of the Jewish community in Rome, it said. K.N.A.'s information service added: "Hochhuth's play lays the blame on one single churchman, Eugenio Pacelli, thereby supplying all his other contemporaries with a welcome alibi. One does not need much imagination to realise what an impression such an indictment of the Pope by Germans must produce abroad." Petrusbiatt, has printed two pages of detailed background by Monsignor Walter Adolph, .Vicar .General of the Berlin See, on what Pius XII and other Chur-th auth30~N##4.4.
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rities did in the face of IIitler's atrocities. He contends that facts of history make the Hochhuth thesis indefensible. Hochhuth, a member ot the Evangelical Church of Germany, has claimed that his play is not only "Christian" but is an "outspoken Catholic work." He charged that criticism of his \yolk was "consciously planned character assassination." .0#004NNP•
Columban Visitor
German newspapers have accused Hochhuth of "scientific dilettantism." The playwright claims to have done research for the play in Rome. But K.N.A., German Catholic news agency, said it was unable to locate one pi-eminent person in Rome Who had heard about or
LAYMEN WILL MEET AFTER THE COUNCIL Rome: A world congress of Catholic laymen to help implement the decisions of the ecumenical council was planned here during a fiveday meeting of the board of directors of the Permanent Committee of International Congresses of the Lay Apostolate.
IMPORTANT "Th:s third world congress
i i
NOT KNOWN
A group of contented residents at the Home for the Aged conducted by the Little Sisters of t he Poor at Glendalough. They will be happy to see you on Sunday, March 24, which is "Pound Day' ' at the Home. See Page 5 for a special feature on Glendalough.
Tne congress will meet after the end of the council at the wish of His Holiness Pope John XXIII. Martin H. Work, executive -director of the National Council of Catholic Men in the U.S. and a member of the board, said the congress would meet about 18 months after the council's end, perhaps during 1956. "There will be a precono-ress of 200 or 300 experts about six months after the end of the council," he said. "This precongress will study the ordinances of the council and in a sense will prepare the programme of world congress itself," Work said.
Monsignor Erich•Klausener, whose father was murdered by the Nazis, declared in "Petrusblatt," the weekly of the Berlin dbrese, that, "Hochhuth mingles historical persons with figures of his imagination." By fabricating legends which bolster old anti-Catholic prejudices, he said, Hochhuth "makes it easy for his audience by presenting the Pope as the seapezeat for all lur corn weaknesses." Fides Romana, an organisation of Catholic men, also seized on this latter point. It said in a statement: "Nc one will understand this at. mpt coming from Germany shift to the shoulders ot e Pope, who was highly resnectf d the whole by civilised world, the terrible crimes with which we are charged."
A Welcome Will Be Given
o f the lay apostolate," he c ontinued, "will undoubtedly stand among the most
On a short visit to Perth last week is Very Reverend D. McAlindon who stayed with t he Columban Fathers in Mt. Lawley. He is on a visit to priests of the St. Columban's Foreign Mission Society in Burma, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. Father McAlindon holds the position of First Counsellor to the Superior General of the Columban Fathers, the Very Rev. James Kielt and normally resides with him at the Columban headquarters in Navan County, Meath, Ireland. PAMININMS41..."0,00,04,""4".."40,4,0,11,41.4,04W#141,004,11,4,011,1POINP4,11,111,######414
important meetings of laymen in Church history because its major task will be t o take up the findings of the Second Vatican Council relating to lay people." The permanent committee, he said, intends to spread information on the council's t eachings and directives regarding the laity. It is also encouraging inquiries into the bases of unity among
Catholics, between Catholics and non-Catholic Christians and among all men. Study outlines. Work reported, are being sent , to
lay apostolate groups throughout the world. The results of the studies in each country will be returned to the committee.
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Big Question Awaits Supreme Court Decision WASHINGTON.—DOES RELIGION HAVE A PLACE IN AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS? That question is now pending before the United States Supreme Court in two cases whose outcome is expected to attract more attention than any c3urt ruling of recent years. Observers a.e already Predicting that the decision, whatever it may be, will make the biggest impact on the public imagination since the school desegregation rulings of 1954. The nine justices of the nation's highest tribunal -pent four hours spread over two days hearing attorneys argue the merits of having public school students listen to readings from the Bible and recite the Lord's Prayer. Having heard the oral ar-
guments, the justices will now _thrash out the issues in the two cases in private. A decision is expected before court adjourns in June. The court's ruling is anticipated as a clarification of its decision last June 25. when it ruled against a prayer composed by State officials and prescribed by the New York State Board of Regents for recitation in New York public schools. Specifically at issue in the new cases are Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Maryland public schools and Bible reading alone in Pennsylvania public schools. In both school systems, students whose parents object to the exercises can be excused,