support of his school and for his coal collection; yet they have not the same obligations as the folks who live there all the year around, and get the benefit of the school and of the heat.

In brief, I believe that both pastors will make out well if they present their requests to the people courteously and moderately, without trying too much to establish obligations. The gentle approach is usually more productive of results than an oratorical tirade, leaving the congregation with the impression that they are renegade Catholics if they do not give lavishly to the needs of the particular parish, whether at home or at a vacation spot.

There is some difficulty in this situation when a pastor has induced his people to tithe, assuring them that by doing this they satisfy all their obligations to the church. If a family from such a parish spends a couple of months at a summer resort, are they free from all obligations toward the local pastor? Or, will their home pastor send to this latter a portion of the tithes to recompense him for his summer work? I present this as a problem connected with the tithing system, and I admit that I have no satisfactory answer. Yet, I believe that a priest who is striving to introduce the tithing system should take it into consideration.

FRANCIS J. CONNELL, C.SS.R.

CHALICE MATERIALS

Question: May glass be used for a chalice? Is there any official document about the material, etc. to be used for chalices?

Answer: Glass is specifically ruled out as material for a chalice (Missale Romanum, De Defectibus in Celebratione Missarum Occurrentibus, Cap. X, n. 1). The wording in the new missals is the same as in the old. Legislation on the material to be used in chalices is not to be found in one document but must be gathered from the references in the missal (reference given above; also Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, Cap. I, n. 1) and from decree n. 3136 of the S.R.C.

SOME SEDE VACANTE PROBLEMS

A number of questions were raised during the period which followed the death of Pope John XXIII. Although we now have a new Supreme Pontiff and hope that it will be a long time before the Holy See is vacant again, it might be well to gather these questions with their answers here and now for the information of our readers.

Question 1: Was it correct to offer a Requiem Mass on the day after the Holy Father's death? Which Requiem formulary is required for such a Mass?

Answer 1: The rubrics themselves make no exception for thus observing the Holy Father's death. Since Pope John died on Monday of the Pentecost octave, a Requiem Mass was ruled out by the current rubrics throughout the octave. However, in view of this unusual circumstance, the authorities ruling during the vacancy permitted "in all churches, chapels, oratories, and to all priests including those celebrating privately, one Requiem Mass for our late Holy Father." For such a Mass the formulary of the first Mass of All Souls' Day is used, with the collect, secret, and postcommunion "Pro defuncto Summo Pontifice."

Question 2: How long is the official period of mourning for a deceased Pope?

Answer 2: The period of mourning lasts nine days, exclusive of any principal or great feasts the observance of which would seem to call for an interruption of the mourning. After Pope John's death, the feasts of the Most Holy Trinity and of Corpus Christi were excluded from the period of mourning.

Question 3: What is the wording to be used in the Canon when the name of the Pope is omitted?

Answer 3: The words "famulo tuo Papa nostro N." are omitted and the celebrant says: "una cum Antistite nostro N."

Question 4: Our Forty Hours occurred during the vacancy of the Holy See. It was obvious enough that we should omit the versicle and response for the Pope as well as the later prayer for

un, but am I right in thinking there should have been some Sange in the Litany of the Saints?

1steer: In the Litany of the Saints the petition "Ut Domnum postolicum, etc.," omits the reference to the Pope during a Vacancy and should then be recited or sung as "Ut omnes ecclesiasicos ordines, etc." This omission would occur whenever the tany of the Saints would be recited during the vacancy of the Joly See

Chestion 5: In pictures of the deceased Pope as he lay on his ict noticed an unfamiliar vestment over his chasuble and under ne pallium. What is this vestment?

inter 5: This vestment is the fanon, "a liturgical vestment reserved to the Pope, which he wears at Pontifical Mass. It con

is of a full double collar which comes down to the breast and as on the back, with vertical stripes, yellow and red, of which cde part remains over and the other under the chasuble. It is ceived from the amice" (Lercaro, A Small Liturgical Dictionary, ...anon).

LAVABO WATER

stion: What is to be done with the water used at the Lavabo? Mess it be poured into the sacrarium?

Power: I find no prescription to the effect that this water must oured into the sacrarium and I know no reason for doing so. Surope I have seen it thrown on the floor or against the wall chately after the Lavabo.

THE AMBRY

Chestion: Where is the proper place for the ambry? In the church the sacristy?

Answer: "The ambry for the sacred oils is ordinarily attached to or set into the wall of the sanctuary on the Gospel or the Epistle side (S.R.C. 1260). But the ambry may also be located in the baptistery, These matters, however, should be decided, not merely

asis of one's personal convenience, but first and foremost

on the basis of the great reverence due to the sacred oils. Nothing but the sacred oils may be kept in the ambry, except when the baptistery ambry is used as noted, in which case oils may be kept with the salt, the candle, and the like" (Matters Liturgical, n. 110, n).

JOHN P. MCCORMICK, S.S.

COMMENT

THE BIBLICAL APOSTOLATE

John XXIII's short reign had a unifying theme: truth. In speaking to Catholics and non-Catholics, he never tired of insisting that, if God is to be properly served, truth must be followed and error avoided. On February 13, 1963, he stressed the role of the Bible in this quest for truth, urging everyone to read the sacred texts frequently, to meditate upon them, to become familiar with them. But he reminded his hearers pointedly that the Fathers and Doctors of the Church always interpreted the Scriptures "in conformity with the spirit and the magisterium of the Church."

A thorough understanding of the Bible is most valuable in the ecumenical apostolate. The late Pontiff remarked that Christ, at the end of his mission on earth, "did not say to His apostles, 'Go and write,' but 'Go and teach.'" We must teach this living word of God. To do so, Karl Barth suggests, will bring Christians closer to Christ and to one another. In an article in Theology Today (June, 1962), Barth wrote:

Being together in large conferences, greeting one another, this may be very nice, but this is not Church unity. Nor is compromise. This [unity] can only be realized . . . by our common obedience to the Biblical message. I think reading the Bible together is the most that can be done for Church union.

A BIBLE MISSAL

Indifference is the usual reaction to the publication of English missals these days. After all, there are already a dozen or so available that are more or less serviceable. Do we really need another one? What is so special about the new St. Andrew's Bible Missal? Just this: it is designed specifically for the "participating congregation." More than a guide to the mass or a simple translation of the Roman Missal, it is a well-planned and valuable aid to help the laity take an active part in community worship. Edited by a special Missal Commission set up by St. Andrew's Abbey in Belgium, the new missal has a pleasing format, good quality paper, and readable