Mary's Christmas

In small Bethlehem, jammed with tourists last week, the U. S. chaplain of Jerusalem's Collegiate Church of St. George touched a button which set ringing the bells of St. Thomas and Old Trinity in Manhattan. A great radio audience listened, feeling that this was properly Christmassy.

In Washington, Dr. Albert Joseph McCartney grumbled against "commercialization," filed a complaint with the Federal Radio Commission against Station WRC (National Broadcasting Co.) whose Christmas broadcasts included a reference to the Star of Bethlehem as symbolic of what electric light companies had to sell.

Brought to U. S. listeners "by the makers of G. Washington Coffee'' last week was not the usual Sherlock Holmes program but a Christmas Eve broadcast of the Sistine Choir from Rome. Punctuated with buzzings, cracklings and discreet references to G. Washington Coffee, this first international broadcast of the famed choir was arranged last year by the personal representative of the company's President George Washington, devout Roman Catholic, at a reputed cost of $10,000. Though reception was poor, the broadcast pleased the Catholic public: the Sistine Choir is traditionally associated with the papacy; it was a pleasant prelude to the Christmas activities of His Holiness Pope Pius XI. Three days later a microphone was for the first time placed near the high altar of St. Peter's. The Pope celebrated mass. and Vatican Station HVJ sent out his voice (on short wave) in the final benediction. Meanwhile, the Holy Father gave the world two Christmas messages. Terrifying Spectacle-- To visiting cardinals, Pius XI said: "We will not say anything about peace or disarmament because we or our predecessors have done that so many times that now everybody knows our opinion. On the other hand, it is the Divine Child who speaks of peace during these days. . . . Instead of speaking to men we would rather speak with God on this subject, imploring Him to give true peace to humanity. Regarding this we unfortunately see but one solidarity, namely, of distress, of pain and suffering. . . . From this terrifying spectacle which the world presents we must raise our eyes to Heaven. . . ." Among the sorrows of the Church, said the Pope, are difficulties in Spain, Mexico, Russia--"a sort of triangle over which hovers the greatest menace."* The Holy Father again regretted "that statesmen do not think of the hand of God and do not turn to God." Exception: the U. S. where on Thanksgiving Day "it has been remembered [by the President in his proclamations] to thank God for past benefits and also to thank Him that in America troubles are not so grave as in other countries." Lux Veritatis. To commemorate the i,Sooth anniversary of the Council of Ephesus which reaffirmed the traditional belief that Mary was the Mother of God (TIME, Dec. 28), the Pope issued last week an encyclical headed Lux Veritatis (The Light of Truth). Published in Latin and Italian, broadcast in Latin from Station HVJ, Lux Veritatis was summarized only briefly in English. Pius XI established a new mass for the Church: the Maternity of Mary. He urged Protestants as well as Roman Catholics to venerate her, especially "those mothers of modern times, who, annoyed by children and the marriage bonds, have vilified and violated the duties which these impose. Such mothers will find it particularly useful to lift their eyes to Mary and seriously consider to what height of dignity she has elevated the very heavy task of motherhood. . . . Are they [Protestants], perhaps, ignorant of, or do not they reflect attentively on the fact that nothing can be more acceptable to Jesus Christ, who certainly burns with great love for his mother, than to venerate her according to her merits, to love her deeply . . . ?" To all Protestants and to Eastern Christians who still cling to the heresies of Nestorius, Pope Pius XI proffered his Church's traditional invitation to return to the fold. Lux Veritatis treats in great detail the judgments of the Council of Ephesus, summarized thus: "Thatin Jesus Christ the true natures, divine and human, are united in one only divine person (hypostatic union); that the Virgin Mary is the true Mother of God; and that to the Roman Pontiff belongs by divine right a supreme and infallible authority over the whole church in matters of faith and morals." The Pope is "confident that [Protestants and Eastern Christians] becoming convinced by history, life's teacher, will be able to feel at least a longing for one fold under one shepherd and for a return to that true faith which is jealously conserved, ever secure and inviolate, in the Roman Church. "We recall to those who govern flocks separated from us that the faith which their ancestors solemnly professed at the Council of Ephesus is conserved unchanged and is strenuously defended, at Present as in the past, by this supreme chair of truth."

*For news of the Mexican menace, see p. 16.

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