Catholic Attitude To Crucifixion

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 26

Catholic Attitude To Crucifixion

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copi/HghO VATICAN CITY, September 28. New efforts will be made to strengthen the Roman Catholic. Ecumenical Council declaration on the Jews. Archbishop J. C. Heenan, of Westminster, told a press conference: “I can say, not only for myself, but for all the members of the Christian Unity Secretariat, that we are determined to produce a document that will be satisfactory to our Jewish brothers.” The revised document on the Jews, coming up for debate by the 2500 council fathers in St Peter’s Basilica on Monday, was not the final text. The new version omits a statement, contained in the original text, introduced in the council a year ago, that Jews could not be considered responsible for “deicide” and that all mankind shared in the responsibility for the Crucifixion. The next text declares that the Jews of today cannot be blamed for the events in the Passion of Christ. Cardinals and bishops at a secret consistory attended by Pope Paul yesterday approved the canonisation of the Roman Catholic Church’s first African saints—22 Ugandan martyrs. At the ceremony. held on the Pope’s sixty-seventh birthday about 40 cardinals gave their approval and were then joined by about 60 bishops in semi-public consistory.

Vatican officials said approval for canonisation on October 18 was unanimous by both cardinals and bishops.

The new saints, Charles Lwanga, Matthias Kalemba Muramba, and 20 others, killed in 1885-87, will be the first canonised since Pope Paul's reign began.

The two miracles which the Roman Catholic Church requires for canonisation are held to have been worked through their Intercession in 1941, when two European religious sisters, a Swiss and a German, recovered from pulmonary plague at Rubaga Hospital.