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Page Two THE SKYSCRAPER May 19, 1965 IHE SKVSCRfiPER IS 1 NIL UII I U U IIIII L II will grip current issues and events and hold them before the campus in order that members of the Mundelein community may sense and direct history rather than bob in its wake. Speech Becomes Noise Unless Action Ensues Speech just dissipates into noise rattling around the universe, so what's the value of talking? was asked not long ago on campus. None, unless the talk is somehow made permanent by action, is the reply. It hardly need be reiterated that no other generation has faced so many problems demanding answers. Nor has any other generation been as prepared to cope with them in terms of education as the current uni versity generation. But in this very asset lurks the danger the danger of letting the energy of a generation expend itself in talk and fade away without a trace. The campus of the '50s was dominated by Angst and reflected in soul-searching conversations about T. S. Eliot, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. But every influence on the '60s stresses action the War on Poverty, Angry Young Men, the Marches to Washington and Selma, Betty Friedan, Project Apollo, kinetic art, discotheque music. Add Action to Debate It is no longer enough to debate hotly or deeply in high rise class rooms or Harvard quads. If the purpose of higher education is not pro gramming facts into one's head, but searching for the ultimate questions and creative answers to meet the conditions in which they are currently asked, the student of the '60s has no choice but to act. Recently USNSA in cooperation with the Ford Foundation cata logued in a booklet called SCOPE some 96 projects, both salaried and volunteer, which can offer 27,000 students opportunities for constructive action. A recent edition of the National Catholic Reporter also devoted a whole page to project listings for summer. This is not to say that everyone must dash bright-eyed and idealistic to the nearest service center and contract for summer action. It goes beyond that. Investigate Organizations A more realistic approach is to investigate Church and civic groups to find one best suited to one's ability, energy and time. Then prepare to act, more during the summer months, perhaps, but all through the year. The jobs may not be glamorous or page one material, but no or ganization be it local or national can exist without a staff. Because it is extracurricular the job need not be unrelated to college life. It may be tutoring children in one's major field of study, writing press releases, planning inexpensive recreation or meals for children, or learning grass roots politics in a community organization. Continue During Year Nor need it end with the fall opening of school. Working one Sat urday a month even planning or typing for the organization and return ing completed projects by mail can be worked into the 3-3-3 calendar. Talk about urban renewal, the New Breed, voter registration, the society that has spawned the Angries dissipates into noise rattling around the universe. It is not enough to make an Issue of issues. They must prompt action. New Christian Emerges As 'Man for Others' Dietrich Bonhoeffer once described Christ as the man for others. He was born for others, and at their hands, he died. Theologically, Christ was a revolutionary man. He rejected the Jewish tradition of a chosen people with his plea for one flock among all men. He replaced meaningless Jewish laws, ridden with trivia, with the new law of love. Today Christians are on the brink of a new revolution led not by one man, but by many. The spirit of a new breed of Christians is one of questioning, not of automatic acceptance. They are challenging the teachings of the Church, not seeking consolation in her doctrines. Conveys Message to Others Above all, the new Christian is a man for others. He is concerned, not with action prudent or beneficial to himself, but with the rights of other human beings. To him has fallen the task of conveying the mes sage to his fellow Christians that there is no consistency in observing a rigorous Lenten fast and then signing a petition barring Negroes from their neighborhood. The failure of traditional Catholic teaching concerning social action is apparent in the bitter criticism to which numerous laymen subjected their priests and nuns who went to Selma. The same priests who could explain to any Catholic why he must obey the precepts of the church could not make their congregations understand why it was necessary for the clergy to be Christ's witnesses in Alabama. Fails to Teach Humanism The Catholic church, up until now, has been able to convince her members that it is a grevious sin to eat meat on Friday, but has failed to teach them that it is more serious to violate the rights of one's fellow man merely because his skin is a different shade. Just as Christ lived for others, the church must exist for the world. It must not be a static institution of ecclesiastical rules, but an active association of believers capable of transforming religious dogma into social action. Callahan Challenges Laymen: Resume Roll in Priesthood Unless today's Church curbs her passive contentment with private spirituality, the entire Church will be impoverished. The modern layman must reach out to others and transcend his individual longing for per sonal salvation. Youthfully exuberant, Daniel Callahan, Commonweal associate edi tor, spoke concerning The Laity and the Clergy: Challenge or Conflict? May 16, at DePaul University as part of the Charles Carroll Forum Lec ture Series. Noting that the laity must em ploy witness rather than prayer, and action instead of meditation, the young editor stressed that it is imperative to understand the Church in man's horizontal rela tionship with other men rather than in man's vertical relation ship with God. He pointed out that both the clergy and the laity are common victims of their education and up bringing. If laymen want free dom the freedom of decision and initiative, the freedoms of adults so priests do also. In order to gain this freedom, the layman should realize that the recognition of the Church's witness depends on his ef forts, and the priest must take the layman seriously, Callahan said. After asking What is the reality of the layman's place? Callahan referred to the insig nificant role the laity played in Vatican II. There were no lay men on conciliar commissions and only a few informal lay consultants. He noted that the Catholic laity involved with Council work have far less con sequence than the observing Protestant ministers. Callahan explained that such a situation is difficult to change overnight. The laity is cur rently conditioned to a mon archical, hierarchical society. Few have dared to experiment with lay-clerical relationships, and there has been little im petus to encourage laity to think due to the close rein priests exercise over power and prestige in the Church. The Constitution on the Church was observed as seeing the laity in a better perspective. Referring to. the first two chapters, Callahan emphasized that a bsic under standing of the Church is impor tant in order .to grasp the lay man's role. The Church is composed of free men, not robots. He pointed out the fact that .the Constitution does not ignore the significance of the Church as a so ciety, since the concept of the Church's role as a society is the initial thrust to make the Church seem real ... a community subject to a common bond. Continuing with this idea of a Church community, Callahan re minded his audience that all the people of God in the Church share in Christ's prophetic office. He asserted that when the Church discerns truth, authority can't dis cover it alone . . . (it) must guide and protect what the whole Church sees. There is infallibility to all. No priest . . . can ignore the pos sibility that the Holy Spirit can speak through the lowliest lay man. In the Old Testament a whole people was empowered and commissioned to honor Yah- weh. This act certified a priesthood of all the people, and this concept has not van ished wilh age. Every Chris tian, by right of his Baptism, shares in the priestly dignity of Christ ; a common gift. Just as we call them Chris tians, all are priests by virtue that they are members of one Priest. Recognizing that the Mass and the sacraments and obedi ence to the commandments are not sufficient for the layman to fulfill an active role in the priestly office, the editor ad vised that the layman must perform his most extensive work where he finds himself most the world. Today's layman can't be content with only devotionalism; he must see the poverty and illiteracy in the world and the affluent, stupid, empty society of to day. Switching to the priests' duties to the laity, Callahan urged that they must di rect the eye of the laymen to the other world. The world now needs the layman more than the parish. He warned that the laymen will become in- Daniel Callahan different and re main inwardly untouched if they are treated like children in the Church. The problem of the great yawn will become preva lent. This is defined as no sense of what it means to live in the contemporary world. Since canon law, tradition and custom are on the side of the priest, the laity cannot force them into action; the initiative rests with them. The priest must recognize his humanity and get off his pedestal. He must get the dour housekeeper away from the rectory door and let the laity in. Sounding Board Editor; Sister Mary Irene thoughtfully sent members of the Legislature a copy of your edition of March 10, (capital punishment issue) and as a newspaper man and former edi tor of a college newspaper, I want to commend you for having a news paper that comes to grips with is sues that face us. Keep up your good work. Paul Simon State Senator 47th District Editor: If your recent editorial really was pleading for students' free dom to demonstrate without harsh treatment and name-calling, it would deserve great praise for I believe in this freedom. Cer tainly everyone has a right to an educated opinion of foreign policy and to express it. But I believe this issue was only used as a vehicle to express sym pathy and agreement with the stand taken by the students who picketed the White House. There fore, I ask for one thing or the other an outright statement of opinion on Viet Nam or a plea to allow these opinions to be ex pressed. I feel the real concern of Uke -3 d craper Vol. XXXV May 19, 1965 No. 16 Newspaper of Distinction The Skyscraper Is published semi-monthly, September to May Inclusive except during exum and vacation periods, by the students of Mundelein College, 6363 Sheridan Rd., Chicago. III.. 60626. Subscription rate is 2 per year. Entered as second-class matter Nov. 30, 1932, at the U.S. Post Office, Chicago. III., under the act of March 3, 1897. The Skyscraper is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Catholic School Press Association. Letters to the editor must be signed. The Skyscraper reserves the right to cut letters in case of limited space. Editor in Chief Mary Etta Talarico Associate Editor Rae Paul Feature Editor Sylvia Hujck Make-up Caryl Jean Cinclli. Barbara Kubicz. Bobbie Bohan Stall Jean Durall, Diane Sargol. Patricia Toussaint, Nancy Vandenberg. Eileen Jack, Marilyn Gibbs, Judy Wardwell, Pat Czapar. Barbara Mounsey. Rose Goetz, Kathy Riley, Brenda Dinneen. Mary Lynch Photographers Betsy Braunlin, Diane Sargol, Aldine Favaro the author was thinly veiled by the use of the latter. Marybeth Wagner Editor: A most peculiar irregularity has come to my attention that in volving the addition of a name to a ballot in the course of its prepa ration, duplication, by an erstwhile candidate who did not submit her candidacy to the meeting, much less in accordance with the for mality laid down by rule and cus tom. Needless to say such an election is invalid. Such a candidate is by no measure of proprieties a write- in even if such a type of can didacy would be allowed. My judg ment would be that in this elec tion such write-ins are not per mitted. How to remedy the situation? Another election is in order but unless the office of social chair man is deemed to be one of extra ordinary responsibility and pres tige, I would think that such an extreme measure would be unjusti fied as too costly. I would think that the Board could either decide the matter by majority vote for one of the other candidates, or that at the next meeting of the entire student body, such an elec tion could be done by voice vote with the candidates absent, or by written ballots collectible then and there. In no case should the cul prit who insinuated her name into the formal ballot be considered as a candidate. Obviously without the votes cast for her, neither of the others had a sufficient vote for election. If an organization codifies its rules for nomination, the flaunting of these rules should be penalized. In any event, the rules must be respected and adhered to. Sister Mary Liguori, B.V.M. Sociology Department
title:
1965-05-19 (2)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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Students
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Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
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Mundelein College Records
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English
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Mundelein College