OFFICIAL
No. 3153.
ORGAN
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ARCHDIOCESE
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EASY TRANSITION EXCEEDED EVERY EXPECTATION
ALL CLIENTS INDEMNIFIED TO The EXTENT of 0000
PERTH
, Registered at the GPO., Perth, for Perth, Thursday, Aug. 6, 1964 tranamirsion by peat as a Newspaper. ) 111111
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INDIA'S CONGRESS New f011 SET , THO USANDS Church BOMBAY, INDIA:
A"BASIC TRIANGULAR MOTIF" LEADING UP TO TWO SUSPENDED CRUCIFIXES GOLDEN HAS BEEN SELECTED AS THE DESIGN FOR THE MAIN ALTAR OF THE THIRTY - EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS HERE NEXT NOVEMBER 28 TILL DECEMBER 6.
THE REACTION OF LAY PEOPLE TO THE USE OF ENGLISH IN THE MASS LAST SUNDAY WAS OVERWHELMINGLY FAVOURABLE AND ENTHUSIASTIC. This was so noticeable that it surprised many of the priests who thought that the sudden transition might cause some bewilderment.
The altar will rise up from the centre of the Oval, the picturesque grounds in the heart of Bombay where the liturgical functions of the congress will be held, and will be flanked by a raised dais to seat 500 bishops and a tiered choir-stand holding 500 singers. In front and behind the white and silver-grey altar will be seating accommodation for 80.000 people, standing area for thousands more and more than a dozen gates to the streets around.
It seemed to one "that a hidden stream had been tapped and gushed to the surface in lively vocal participation of the faithful in the liturgy of the Church of God." One parish priest, surveying the reaction from the back of his church while another priest offered the Mass, noticed that people who normally propped themselves on the kneeler and seat seemingly dreaming through Mass without a Missal suddenly came to life and took an active interest in what was going on. "You know where you are," said a layman who has used a missal for years and was always "catching up."
Response Another priest almost blinked in astonishment and was most gratified at the full-throated response which came back from the congregation at his greeting, "The Lord be with you." From reports, it seemed that the majority of the priests, after getting over the initial difficulty of breaking years of habit, found themselves moving into the new rite with ease. This was especially the case where they had to offer a second Mass. One comment from a layman was: "It was the first time. I had actually felt that I was participating in the Mass."
COMPETITION The designs of the altar and ground layout are the work of Suraj P. Subherwal. of Calcutta, one of eight architects who joined a competition for the designs announced last year by the organising committee.
Coming School Crisis
Microphones The use of microphones was found to be an absolute necessity in even a small church. After two Masses, one priest, without a microphone in a small church, found that the effort of keeping up his voice for the Mass as well as preaching was most wearying.
.....
Against Some comments against the change were from people who had made full use of the missal in the past and were content with a silent participation in Mass. Others who read devotional prayers found they could no longer do so without distraction.
Government THEis British reported to be conContrasting colours highlight the altar in the newly constructed church of St. Pius X Manning. A charcoal colour on the rear brick wall centres attention on the white altar. ( Report on page 8.)
ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP DENIES "PLOT" TO JOIN ROME
ANGLICAN
Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury has denied in Parliament a suggestion that proposed changes in Church of England laws were a "plot" to join the Roman Catholic Church. The Primate, who as a senior bishop of the Established Church of England has a seat in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament, was speaking in a rather heated debate on a measure to approve the use of certain Catholic -like vestments. Earl Alexander of Hillsborough, a leading Labour Party spokesman and president of the Council of P rotestant Churches, Claimed that changes in the law on what Anglican Churchmen may wear at
some other _ Church in Christendom. That is not true."
services wow "a direct departure from the original Protestant prayer book." APPEASEMENT A government supporter, Lord Brentford, called the measure "the greatest act appeasement of since Munich." He said that to give clergymen freedom to wear the vestments they choose was part of a trend to direct Church of England policy towards a sympathetic outlook to Rome. The Archbishop of Canterbury in his reply said: "I am a Protestant precisely in the way in which
the Prayer Book and the Anglican formularies use that term. When I say in the sense of our formularies I am a Protestant, I use it without any qualification. I believe in what these formularies call the Holy Catholic Church precisely in the sense in which our formularies do—without qualifications . . . I want to repudiate and deny from my heart and my conscience that behind our Church legislation there is some kind of subtle plot to assimilate the Church of England to
The suggestion is "either scandalous or silly," he said. He added that he values vestments because they symbolised the continuity of the Christian Church down the ages and they add colour. The Anglican Church needs to bring its obsolete laws up to date, he stated.
APPROVED The measure—the Vestments for Ministers Measure was approved by 86 votes to 15. To date, the only legal vesture of Anglican ministers during their ministry has been the cassock and , surplice, though a cope could be used for Corn.. munion in cathedrals. But a great majority of Anglican clergy now use such
Catholic vestments as the stole, alb and chasuble and the same liturgical colours as the Catholic clergy. These will now be permitted by law. The measure recently approved by the Anglican Church Assembly had appeared innocuous. But once is went into Parliament it became political dynamite. A group of "Low Church" politicians decided to fight it, to the embarrassment of the government and the Labour opposition leaders. If the Low Churchmen had stopped the measure, there was some risk that Archbishop Ramsey, who has constantly sought more freedom for his Church from political interference, might have taken even stronger measures to break with Parliament altogether.
sidering further aid for Catholic schools now facing a population crisis in England and Wales. Government officials met with the Bishops following the latest official estimate of an increase in the school population of 50 per cent by 1970. The new estimate places Catholic education in an increasingly difficult position. Without more substantial aid the whole structure of separate government -subsidised catholic schools inside the State system may collapse. VALUE The Universe, nation/ Catholic newspaper, called for a comprehensive review of the situation to discover whether Catholics are really getting value for the colossal sums they are spending for their own schools. "Catholic schools must stay, but need it be in their present form?" it asked. "In prospect are the raising of the school leaving age and new forms of higher education for the whole of youth. How can we possibly pay for it all? •