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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1956)
o Medford L'rulea Press Full Leased Wire Tribune United Press Full Leased Wire Second Section MEDFORD, OREGON, MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1956 Pages-1-6 Catholics, Protestants Praying for Reunion of Family of Christendom Editor' Note: The following dis patch reDorts on the status of the church unity movement. It coincides with worldwide Catholic and Protes tant observances which will continue from Jan. 18 through Jan. 25. By LOUIS CASSELS United Press Correspondent "Washington (U.R) Catholics and Protestants around the world are praying this week simultaneously but separately for reunion of the long-divided family of Christendom. Both of the great branches of Christianity have set aside the period Jan. 18-25 as the time of concentrated prayer for church unity. But the special observ ances are being held under cir cumstances that demonstrate, not so much the progress that has been achieved toward unity, as the depth of the gulf still to be Abridged. Catholics are emphasizing at ell of their services their un swerving adherence to the prin ciple that unity can be achieved only by the "return" of Protest ants to the Church of Rome, with full acceptance of the Pope's authority as "Vicar of Christ on Earth." Protestants, who have been trying to teal their own num erous differences by steadily-increasing inter denominational cooperation, are pointing to this Catholic stand as the biggest ob stacle in the path of eventual Christian unity. Profound Cleavage The profound cleavage that exists on this vital point is re flected in the different names which Catholics and Protestants apply to the annual "unity" ob servance. Catholics call it the "chair of unity octave." A spokesman for the National Catholic Welfare Conference said this name was chosen purposely to remind Catholics that they are praying, "not for some vague concept of church merger, but specifically that all those who are separated from the chair of Peter at Rome may return to the one true church." The "octave" consists of eight successive nights of prayer serv ices for the conversion of groups outside the Roman church. Pray ers are offered on Jan. 18 for "the return of all 'other sheep' to the one fold"; on Jan. 19 for "the return of all Oriental sep aratists"; on Jan. 20 for "the submission of Anglicans to the authority of the vicar of Christ"; on Jan. 21 "that Lutherans and all other Protestants of contin ental Europe may return to the holy church"; on Jan. 22 that "Christians in America may be come one in communion with the chair of St. Peter"; on Jan. 23 for "the return of lapsed Catholics"- on Jan. 24 for "the conversion of the Jews"; and on Jan. 25 for "the missionary con quest of the world for Christ." Although it is now celebrated by Catholics throughout the world, with the blessing of Pope Pius XII, the unity octave orig inated in America. It was in itiated in 1908 by an Episcopal clergyman, the Rev. Paul Watt son, who shortly thereafter en tered the Catholic church. A monastic group founded by Father Paul near Peekskill, N.Y., known as the Society of the Atonement, has worked for nearly half a century to make the octave the major Catholic event which it is today. A Nichol's Worth of . . . Comment On This and That By HARMAN W. NICHOLS United P'lf Faahiw Wif Harmon Nichols Washington (U.R) When Jim Ryan of Jersey City, N. J., went into the Marine Corps all he knew a'b out the Supr erne Court of the United States was that it was some where in Washington. Now he has just ' been admitted to practice before the highest court in the land. Not only can he appear before the high court, but he is assist ant corporation counsel for Jer sey City. No small job, that, either. The young man, he's only around 30, has Jerry Greene, a Washington reporter for the New York Daily News, to thank for part of his growing up. But Jerry didn't do the whole job. He says that he discovered the lad like people discover things like uranium, dinosaur tracks and rare pieces of bric brac. By accident. Anyhow, James Ryan wound up as a clerk, private first class, under Capt. Greene in the Fourth Marine Air Wing in the Central Pacific during the Gilbert-Marshall campaign of World War II. Eventually, under the fine hand of a fine reporter-Marine, Jim worked up to staff sergeant. A pretty nice job for a kid with only a spot of high school learn ing. Eventually' he became a photo interpreter. That means that he looked over the pictures of bombing raids and offered his opinion of how the job should be done in the second half of the war. After he left the service, Jim kind of lost track of his old Ma rine captain friend. So he went out on his own. But Jerry had put a burr under the lad. He poured cement. He wore his fingers to the nub laying bricks. He painted bathrooms and foyers by the dozen, hung a lot of wall paper and stirred up a few cookies in a bakery. All of this was night work. Jim spent the daylight hours in law school. It took five years, but as Jim my says, it was worth it. He's balding now. Hard work, maybe. But his head is high, as high as 5 feet, 8 inches can go. Jimmy and Jerry hadn't seen one another much until the other night. Greene's doorbell rang and when he opened the door there was the sergeant. Dressed fit for big things, ready to ap pear before the high court. You can guess who was in the cheering section wishing the lad luck the next day when he was formally authorized to appear in cases before the nation's high est tribunal. The Protestant observance, which is on a much smaller scale, is called "the universal week of prayer for Christian unity." It has been officially sponsored, since 1940, by the World Council of Churches, an organization in which 164 Pro testant and Orthodox commun ions in 47 countries have achieved a loose but growing unity. Despite the world council's pleas for widespread participa tion, many Protestant churches mark the "week" only by a sin gle special prayer at the regu lar Sunday worship service, and others ignore it altogether." . The influential Protestant magazine Christian Century said recently that this tendency to ward aloofness reflects a feeling among many Protestant leaders that Catholic emphasis on papal supremacy has made the annual observance a source of "friction" rather than unity. The magazine suggested that Protestants "find another week" to pray for unity. Long Deadlock - Roman and "non-Roman Chris tians have been deadlocked on the issue .of papal supremacy for a thousand years, since the "great schism" of 1054 split the Western church under Rome's pope from the Eastern church headed by the patriarch of Con stantinople. R e p u d iation of papal claims was a. fundamental aspect of the Protestant refor mation which further fragment ed the Western church five cen turies later. The Roman position, on which Catholic theologians believe that no compromise Is possible, is that Christ explicity appointed St. Peter head of the church, and that the sweeping authority conferred on Peter has passed to his successors as Bishop of Rome. Protestant and Orthodox theo logians assert that Jesus was not speaking to Peter only, but to all the apostles, when he said "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom." They say that St. Peter was .never recognized as ruler of . the , church during the apostolic era recorded in the scriptures, and that it was -not until hundreds of years after that the Bishops of Rome began to assert a claim to supremacy. CENTRAL POINT Visitors Are Entertained By MURIEL W. SHORTRIDGE Central Point Mr. and Mrs. John D. Shortridge entertained Mr. and Mrs. Carol Nelson of Minneapolis, Minn., D. E. Car rier, San Diego, Calif., and Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Robertson of Medford last week end. Carrier is father of Mrs. Robertson and Mrs. Nelson is her sister. The Nelsons and two sons, John and Charles, had been visiting in Tucson, Ariz., San Diego and Berkeley. While in California they at tended the Pasadena Rose Pa rade and the Rose Bowl game. They especially remarked on the many parade spectators who spent the previous night at their posts, with at least some of the comforts of home such as camp stoves and cots, and one luxury loving group with an old over stuffed chair and davenport. The Rev. and Mrs. H. James Krieder, one of the Pilgrim Holi ness church, left last week for Charleston, W.Va. With them were their two children and Mrs. Kieder's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Easter, whose home is in Charleston. While in the east they will visit Mrs. Krieder's parents, in Orlando, Fla. Mr." and Mrs. George Byron Backus and two daughters ex pect to move to Central Point from California about Jan. 20. Backus is brother to Mrs. George Van Galder of Central Point. Mr. and Mrs. Backus are both teachers and will be teaching in Medford. Mr. and Mrs. Gene Carrigan, of Freeman road, report that their children are all on the road to recovery after a bout of ill ness. 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