Lex Ecclesiae Fundamentalis, a ninety-five-article proposal for revision of canon law, shook the Roman Catholic world this summer in a way reminiscent of Martin Luther’s ninety-five Reformation theses.
World-wide debate on Lex, which in effect would give the church a new constitution, was touched off by publication of the previously secret text in Latin and Italian in the pages of Il Regno, a progressive Catholic biweekly in Bologna. Copies of the 160-page document had been circulated only among Catholic bishops and a few Vatican elite. The bishops have been asked to submit reactions to the Vatican by September 1.
The religious editor of Milan’s Corriere Della Sera reported: “The Catholic press has exploded in polemics, more radical and violent than anything seen in connection with debates surrounding other documents like La Humanae Vitae.”
Conservative Catholics generally favor the present draft, and progressives criticize it sharply. Settigiorni, an Italian weekly, calls the work of the fifteen-member canon-law revision commission a “holy coup d’etat.” It notes that from the moment on November 20, 1965, when Pope Paul VI made his decision to “establish a common and fundamental code containing the constituted law of the church,” the proposal has moved ahead like an irresistible machine.
Pope John XXIII had instituted the commission for revision of canon law on March 28, 1963. Then, many were hopeful that the supremacy canon law had exercised over the church for centuries was about to reach an end. John apparently sought to conform antiquated church law to the fresh spirit of Vatican II.
Under Paul, conservatives turned the revision effort into an ambitious attempt to bridle the innovations set in motion by the Vatican Council. So far they have been successful, partly because of a compromise agreed to by progressives during the council. A total of 435 traditionalist bishops opposed Lumen Gentium (the key Vatican II document on the church). At the last moment, wishing at all costs to get the document voted upon, the majority of the bishops agreed to attach a nota praevia (foreword) to the document. The foreword bore the signature of Cardinal Pericle Felici, a conservative who subsequently was named by Paul to direct the work of the canon-law revision commission. Although contrary in both letter and spirit to the document for which it purports to furnish a basis for interpretation, the foreword supplies conciliar authority for the ninety-five abrupt, brake-applying Lex articles.
One progressive member of the canon-law commission has been quoted as saying: “In spite of all good intentions, it seems to me that the Lex may be a first-class funeral for the council itself!”
Cardinal Leo J. Suenens, primate of Belgium, has been outspokenly critical of Lex. He has also scored the Vatican for its failure to encourage open debate on the document. “It is being carried out in a secret or semi-secret manner,” the cardinal declared.
Informed sources say the Lex debate may drag out for years. They do not expect, however, that it will make the agenda of the Synod of Bishops this fall.
Not forgetting how the tempest became public domain, the Vatican began punishing the paper responsible. The editor-in-chief of Il Regno, Father Luigi Sandri, who is considered by many to be one of Italy’s most objective ecclesiastics, was relieved of his post. The director and four editors of Il Regno then went on strike.
Sandri told journalist Raffaello Baldini: “This event once again confirms, even though it is only a very small confirmation, that in the Roman Catholic Church, at least in Italy, there is still that terrible habit of filling your mouth with beautiful words like dialogue, co-responsibility, plurality, service, poverty, etc., but to act in a way that is absolutely opposite.”
Reigning With Christ
June Kelly dared to make Jesus the center of her performances in the Miss Black Teenage America contest—and won the title.
In the talent division of the competition she sang, “I want Jesus to Walk with Me,” and prefaced it with a personal testimony entitled, “I Have a Friend in Jesus.”
A sixteen-year-old from Forth Worth, Texas, June was crowned the first Miss Black Teenage America last month in Atlanta after competing with twenty-seven other girls on the basis of beauty, talent and personality.
With prizes of $3000, a spot on a television series, and a one-year appearance contract in fund-raising for sickle cell anemia, June has a good start toward her goals of college and a career in music.
“Christ will be included in everything I do,” she vows.
Moon Witness
Now there’s a Southern Baptist advertisement on the moon—thanks to astronaut James B. Irwin, one of the 1,000 members of Nassau Bay Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.
Irwin took with him aboard the recent Apollo 15 flight two photographic copies of a banner displaying the signatures of 700 persons praying for him, a picture of his church, and the slogan, “Things Happen At Nassau Bay Baptist Church.” He left one copy on the moon.
Earlier, the forty-one-year-old Air Force lieutenant colonel testified at special services at the church that “the most momentous event in my life was the night when at age eleven I stepped forward in a little Florida church and accepted Christ as my Saviour. I have relied upon him since that time.” He said Christ had been especially close as he fought his way back from serious injuries in a near-fatal jet crash in 1961, and he asked for prayer for the Apollo crew.
The sight of the Appenine mountains during one moon jaunt stirred Irwin to quote from Psalm 121. As if on cue, CBS television newscaster Walter Cronkite opened a Bible and read the entire psalm.
“Brother Bill” Rittenhouse, Irwin’s pastor, was on the VIP platform at Cape Kennedy to see the astronaut off with prayers and a cheer; nights later he joined 100 others from the church who waited in a downpour to welcome Irwin on his return to an Air Force base near Houston.
Irwin has been a member of Nassau Bay Baptist for about four years. His wife is a devout Seventh-day Adventist. Their four children attend church with Mrs. Irwin on Saturdays and with Irwin on Sundays. Daughter Jill, age ten, will be baptized at the Baptist church on Irwin’s first Sunday back in the pews.
Pupils at Nassau Bay’s Vacation Bible School took time out to watch the astronauts explore in a lunar rover, but there were no such doings during Sunday services at church. Church members joked about Irwin missing Sunday worship for a drive through the mountains.
The other Apollo 15 crew members were David R. Scott, an Episcopalian, and Alfred Worden, a Catholic.
Previous Apollo missions have left mini-Bibles and other religious objects on the moon, and astronaut Tom Stafford sent a Bible into orbit around the sun aboard a spent lunar module. Other religious articles carried in space capsules will be placed on display in the new Edward White memorial youth center near the Manned Spacecraft Center in Seabrook, Texas.
Industrial chaplain John M. Stout of La Porte, Texas, says that his Apollo Prayer League has 2,400 prayer groups in nineteen countries praying for the astronauts. A number of the forty-seven astronauts, he says, are themselves involved in three Bible study groups.
EDWARD E. PLOWMAN
Keeping The Faith
Four organizations of theologically conservative Southern Presbyterians are creating a joint steering committee to coordinate strategy in the face of the “apparent inevitability” of a division in their denomination. The committee will be responsible for “developing and implementing a plan for continuation of a Presbyterian church loyal to the Scriptures and the Reformed faith.” It will be composed of three members each from the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship, Concerned Presbyterians, Presbyterian Churchmen United, and the Presbyterian Journal.
