Religion: Words & Works

¶During 1956. the Vatican announced, the Sacred Rota had 976 applications for marriage annulment, considered 259, granted 128, denied 128. (In three cases special formulas for separation were found.) In 1946 only 63 annulments were granted.

¶The Rev. William W. Stratman. pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Houston, lashed out at the ministers and church groups campaigning for prohibition of alcoholic beverages in Texas as "both un-Christian and un-American." As

"the bride of Christ, the church has no business to dabble in politics." he told the Houston Junior Chamber of Commerce. "If the state is not to exercise an)' form of control over the church, the church is not to exercise any form of control over the state."

¶Humanism is as much of a modern blight as atheism, said Giacomo Cardinal Lercaro in an address to Catholic Action in Milan. "The development of humanism—understood as a shifting of history's and life's center from God to man—has become a part of man's mentality, and has grown through the centuries to the point that besides atheism there has grown up an indifference to God, a habit of mind wherein the need of God is not felt in that man feels sufficient unto himself. In this atmosphere God is relegated to the place of a 'poor relation' . . . But such an attitude cannot provide man with a reason for his existence—much less can it provide man a reason for his death. If a man lives for himself, what can he die for?"

¶Members of the 85th Congress reported the following denominational allegiances, or lack of them:

Senate House Methodist 18 84 Roman Catholic 11 75 Baptist 14 55 Presbyterian 13 52 Episcopal 12 45 Congregationalist 8 19 Lutheran 4 15 Disciples of Christ 2 14 Jewish 2 8 Mormon 3 4 Evangelical and Reformed 2 4 Unitarian 2 3 Quaker 2 2 Church of Christ 4 Universalist 2 Christian Scientist 2 Apostolic Christian 1 Evangelical Free Church 1 Hindu 1