The Vineyard

Last week these labors made religious news:

In Rome, solemn ceremonies, sacred music and fluttering banners celebrated the 72nd birthday of Pope Pius XII. Most Vatican offices were closed for the occasion, but the church's sacred congregations were not taking it easy. They were working at top speed to head off a victory for the Communist-dominated "Popular Front" in the coming elections on April 18.

In Manhattan, the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church announced that dollars were piling high in the collection plate in response to Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill's radio appeal for contributions to a special world relief fund. Indications were that the $1,000,000 Episcopal goal would be comfortably exceeded.

In Boston, the Rev. E. Harold Smith, editor of the Corpus Christi Chronicle, told the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems that the U.S. free enterprise system was "amoral" and failed to meet the requirements of the Roman Catholic Church. The profit motive, Father Smith said, was "legitimate if kept within bounds [but] the primary purpose of an economic system is to provide a living for all and not, therefore, huge profits for the few, with some measure of what remains trickling down to the lower levels. This is the age-old traditional Catholic teaching. Unfortunately . . . even among Catholics ... it has received scarcely any support."

In Philadelphia, the American Friends Service Committee announced that nearly 800 U.S. college students would participate in 60-odd Quaker-sponsored summer work projects. Samples: rebuilding a fire-razed Maine community; the development of recreation programs in Detroit, Chicago and Rowland, Me.; reconstruction of homes and community buildings in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland and the U.S. zone of Germany.

In Springfield, Mass., Rabbi Samuel Price jolted his listeners on a Brotherhood Week program by suggesting an official "Week of Hate." Said he: "It would be much better to have the one week in 52 dedicated to hate, a week when we would all be able to get the hate out of our systems, treat one another as badly as we know how, and then observe the remaining 51 weeks as Brotherhood Weeks."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.