March 20, 2015

What was in the news on March 19, 1965?

Archdiocesan clergy report from Selma, and hints of the dropping of Friday abstinence

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 March 19, 1965, issue of The Criterion:

  • Early action pledged to voting right plea
  • Eyewitness report: Archdiocesan clergy on Selma firing line
    • “ ‘You have never known the experience of being hated, unless you have walked through the city of Selma, Alabama, with people jeering, shouting obscenities and making menacing gestures at you. Because you are a “white agitator.” Because you are a “meddling” clergyman. Because you came to show support and moral encouragement for the civil rights of American Negroes. This was part of the firsthand commentary of Father Stephen Hay, one of three diocesan priests who spent last Monday in Selma, Dallas County, Alabama. … Father Hay, who also serves as assistant pastor of Our Lady of Greenwood Parish, Greenwood, drove to Alabama late Sunday evening with another Indianapolis priest, Father David Lawler, assistant pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish. They arrived there on Monday at noon to join Father Donald Schmidlin, archdiocesan director of Catholic Charities, who had flown down the previous day. Eight Benedictine monks from St. Meinrad Archabbey also visited the beleaguered city over a period of several days. The Benedictines included: Father Camillus Ellsperman, Father Cyprian Davis, Father Brian Betz, Father Basil Mattingly, Father Laurence Lynch, Father Xavier Maudlin, Father Alban Berling and Father Terrence Gerken.”
  • Pope cites Vietnam, U.S. race conflict
  • Help needy of world, pope urges
  • $1 million collected in drive
  • ‘Acies’ set this Sunday
  • Cardinal Micara dies; Pope’s vicar general
  • Interfaith effort set for migrants
  • Clergy ‘witness’ issue is probed
  • Vatican sources reported unaware of ‘ecumenical services’ directive
  • More than 100,000: Many Catholics among refugees fleeing from Viet Cong Reds
  • Cardinal Cushing still on the mend
  • Saint’s relics to be returned
  • Permission given for epistle change
  • Start wing on Marian dormitory
  • Bishops announce plan for ecumenical guide
  • Cardinal to visit Eastern Primate
  • Pope gives gifts to patriarchs
  • Schulte senior wins Woods scholarship
  • Rome-Church Council talks expected soon
  • Pay hikes given to lay teachers
  • ‘Church of the UN’ is dedicated
  • Hints eventual dropping of Friday abstinence
    • “VATICAN CITY—Pope Paul VI noted that the only days of Lent requiring fast and abstinence in Italy are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and hinted at the same time that the Friday abstinence law might be abolished in the future. What he said was that the law of abstinence from meat on Fridays remains in force ‘for the time being.’ ”
  • Secularism denounced by pontiff
  • Appointed to head Mission of France

(Read all of these stories from our March 19, 1965, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

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