Canonizationis, by Angelo Mitri, O.M.I...... . . . Mary and the Priest, by Mark J. Lyons. BOOKS RECEIVED 140 141 143 Firms with Episcopal Authorization to CHICAGO: CINCINNATI: NEW YORK: OMAHA: ST. PAUL: ALT SILVER PLATE MANUFACTURING CO. DAPRATO STATUARY CO., 762 W. Adams St. FR. PUSTET CO., 210-216 East 4th St. THE EDWARD O'TOOLE CO., 65 Barclay St. RAMBUSCH DECORATING CO., 40 West 13th St. KOLEY PLATING CO., 2951 53-55 Harney St. THE E. M. LOHMANN CO., 413-415 Sibley St. advertisements please mention THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW Every Catholic Church Reaches its Goal and Beyond Under the direction of Ivan S. Justice & Associates Fund Raising Counselors A free survey for your parish or diocese on request. IVAN S. JUSTICE & ASSOCIATES Annual Subscription: $7.00, U.S., Canada and Foreign The Catholic Historical Review THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS In answering advertisements please mention THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVI Pope Paul VI On June 21, 1963, Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani spoke the historic words, "Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam." Giovanni Battista Montini born 65 years ago at Concessio, near Brescia, had been elected Pope Paul VI. His training and experience singularly qualify him for the office of Supreme Pontiff. A man of deep theological learning, he has years of diplomatic and curial work to give him the sense of practical reality so necessary in his role as universal father. In these anxious years, Christendom and the whole world look for a strong man of peace in the Chair of Peter. Pope Paul VI has pledged himself to make every effort to achieve in the world that peace which is "a reflection of the order wished by God, the creator and the Redeemer." To those not of the one Fold, but "who glory in the name of Christ," he made a special appeal: "We call them with the sweet name of brothers, and may they know that they will find constant comprehension and good will in us." As Paul III summoned the great Council of Trent, so Paul VI promised to reconvene the great Council of the Vatican. His words during the Requiem Mass for John XXIII, whose first appointment to the Cardinalate he was, express almost prophetically the direction of his own Pontificate: "Should we wish to keep our eyes fixed on the tomb which is now sealed, we could speak of what he has left us, which that tomb cannot hold; of the spirit which he instilled into our age, which death cannot suffocate, and we should be obliged to predict the future which springs forth from him rather than describe his past." The Holy Spirit who works in His Church and through its Holy Father will find in Pope Paul an instrument, of brilliance and humility, for the restoration of all things in Christ. We of The American Ecclesiastical Review ask the blessing of God on Paul VI, our beloved Sovereign Pontiff. DIVINE VOCATION: A NEW THEORY A divine vocation is a complex reality. The task of explaining how God enters the life of an individual and "calls" him to the priesthood or to the state of perfection, is not an easy one. Indeed, a divine vocation is something we will never perfectly understand, since it is so intimately bound up with divine predilection. Faith and reason, nevertheless, can teach us something about this mysterious reality, and even though the matter may be difficult to understand, any new insights gained are of immense value; they provide those already in the state of perfection or the priesthood with a more profound understanding and appreciation of the divine and human activity that sustains them in their present state of life; they also furnish those charged with recruiting and accepting candidates with a deeper knowledge of the reality they are attempting to activate or to assess. Those who see the needs of the Church in a practical way seem to consider the recruiting of divine vocations more important than knowing their exact nature. In turn however, this attitude often leads to practical mistakes, and mistakes regarding vocations can lead to embarrassment for the Church through scandal and defection, and to grave spiritual harm to the individuals involved.1 Realizing the importance of understanding vocations as well as the importance of properly recruiting and training them, the Holy See seven years ago issued the Apostolic Constitution Sedes Sapientiae, which clarified the discussion concerning the nature of religious vocations. The purpose of this work is to explain the principles proposed by this document, to consider the difficulties to which they give rise, and to answer these difficulties by means of a new theory explaining the type of unity found in vocations. Although this study will be chiefly concerned with the priestly vocation in apostolic religious communities, as is the Papal document under study, many of the statements and conclusions will apply to other forms of divine vocations as well. This point was emphasized in the introduction to the following Papal documents: Quantum Religiones, Sacred Congregation of Religious, Dec. 1, 1931; Instruction, "De Candidatis ad Statum Perfectionis," Sacred Congregation of Religious, Feb. 2, 1961; Circular Letter, Sacred Congregation of Sacraments, Dec. 27, 1955. |