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Session's Momentous tast Week Gives Us Big Liturgy Reform V ATICAN CITY.—The Fathers of the ecumenical Council in a momentous week completely approved a charter of sweeping liturgical reform and saw Pope Paul VI intervene to provide for reorganisation of the Council commissions. Meantime, they had witnessed the Fathers of the English-speaking world present a solid front in favour of the document seeking to tighten the ties that bind all Christians together. The finalisation of the whole liturgy schema provides for major reforms designed to lead the people to full participation inwardly and outwardly in the Mass and other services of the Church. The schema was approved with only 19 nay votes out of a total of 2,178 cast. One vote was invalid.
PROCLAMATION
existing council commissions from the normal 25 to 30 members. The council Fathers were to choose the majority of the new members in a special election on November 28. The Pope was then to appoint one new member apiece to each commission. The commissions themselves were to elect vice-presidents to succeed those appointed by the individual presidents 14 months ago. The papal intervention was interpreted as a move to forestall any possible foot-dragging by the commissions in the work of revising council documents in line with the concensus of the Fathers.
All that remained before the document becomes the official guide of the Church were the ceremonies surrounding the solemn proclamation of the schema by the Pope. According to Bishop Thomas K: Gorman, of Dallas - Fort Worth, bishops could then authorise the use of English or other vernacular languages in the Mass and the sacraments at once. The day before the approval of the worship document, the Fathers received word that Pope Paul had arranged for the enlargement of the
Two French - speaking council Fathers asked that ecumenism be furthered by a less strict law against Catholic participation in the religious senvices of non-Catholics. And a Spanish Father, Bishop Jaime Flores, of Barbastro, asked that "the widest possible latitude be allowed for participation in non-Catholic religious services in order to avoid the struggles which are all too common among those who should be living together in peace.
P ARTICIPATION
The Second Session of the Second V atican Council closed yesterday, Wednesday, December 4. This typical daily scene of the Council Fathers emerging from St. Peter's Basilica has ceased till the Counci l is reconvened next September. It has been reported that the next Session will not interfere with the International Eucharistic Congress in India in November 1964.
Pope Calls Catholics AFTERMATH OF TAKE-OVER: Help To PRESSURE GOES ON IN PARTS
HUE, VIETNANI: ABOUT 20 FAMILIES WHO BECAME CATHOLICS SOME FOUR YEARS AGO HAVE BEEN FORCED TO RENOUNCE THEIR FAITH IN A VILLAGE NORTHWEST OF HERE.
Catholics in Thua Thie.n Province, of which Hue is the capital, and adjoining provinces are being threatened, falsely accused and bloodily beaten. Some have been made prisoners. Some have been terrorised into taking down crucifix and religious the tures from the wallspicof their little homes. High-pressure intimidations are being applied to f orce Catholics converted in recent years and those now under instruction to abandon Christianity. NOT IMPROVED All this has happened since the recent revolution that brought about a local as well as a national change of government. Contrary to official assurance, the situation in the Villages of this province has not improved in the Past week.
OF VIETNAM
Out in the lonely countryside, this correspondent has visited a parish where a band of young men descended upon two villages. obliged the Catholics and catechumens to gather and harangued them with accusations and threats. The young men accused them of killing Buddhists and demanded that they remove their religious emblems. #4 , 004,04`4.41.4^41 ,0#41^4.4.4"14.00414.0041N
• By FATHER PATRICK O'CONNOR, S.S.C. in VIETNAM In another village, a Catholic woman was seized and terrified into ac-
cusihg four Catholic men
of murdering Buddhists by putting them into rice sacks and throwing them into the river. This fantastic allegation has been spread assiduously. It is probably the distinctive Propaganda invention of the present anti-Christian c ampaign. In many villages now. Christians are afraid to store ordinary rice sacks in their houses.
DETAINED In one district headquarters, an official assured this correspondent that no Catholics were held prisoner there. At that time a Catholic schoolteacher seized in another village was seen in the headquarters, not locked in a cell, but certainly Under detention. Catholics have been beaten and tied with wire. Victims wounded by beatings in one village were reportedly refused treatment in the small government medical station to which they had recourse. Ino Quang Tri Province, north of here, touching on the 17th parallel which divides South Vietnam from the communist-ruled North, the situation is particularly disquieting. FEAR • One village police chief has been leading a group of young men making night raids on Catholic houses. Buddhists in that area are so intimidated that they fear to be seen going to a Catholic hospitP,i that has been serving people of all religions. It
V ATICAN CITY: POPE
was constructed with aid from Misereor. the German Bishops' relief fund. SLANDER The slander campaign that goes with these attacks includes allegations that priests and Sisters have poisoned the wells and that Catholics keep guns and daggers to kill Buddhists. The Legion of Mary has been singled out for attack, as has also Catholic Action. Cont. Page 2.
PAUL VI HAS CALLED CATHOLICS TO ON HELP IN A "NEW DEVELOPMENT- OF PROTO
ASSIST.
E MIGRANTS
AND
GRAMMES
PRAISED THE WORK OF CIVIL AUTHORITIES IN THIS FIELD. In a nation-wide afternoon broadcast in connec-
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DECEMBER 11
1963
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ton with Emigrant Day— December 1 — the Pope said that emigration has a great effect on the' conditions of mo&rn society and a "positive influence on economic life, but a negative one on other aspects, especially in the spirit of the emigrant, uprooted from his original environment."
NEED The Pope said there is a need for "new development of religious and aid emifor programmes grants." "We hope that Our voice may be heeded—for love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, through emigrants. suffers, wonders, and is in need—by Our brothers the bishops, by parish priests. by the many assistance and charitable institutions, by Catholic Action and by the associations working under the guidance of the Church. "We know that civil authorities and many institutions wisely concern themselves with this problem. To them may Our encouragement go for a work of such great human and Christian value.-