Religion: Words & Works

¶ Some ministers' wives do not play their full part in parish life because they are prone to "creeping caution," wives of fledgling ministers were warned by the Rev. Theodore A. Gill, managing editor of the Christian Century. "You don't have to be ghostly to be godly . . . Beware lest your piety get too drab and narrow."

¶ Roman Catholics in the U.S. and its territories (Alaska and Hawaii) now number 33,574,017, an increase of nearly 1,000,000 over last year and a rise of 37.5% in the Catholic population in the last ten years, announced the Official Catholic Directory for 1956.

¶ The Egyptian Ministry of Education warned Protestant and Roman Catholic mission schools that beginning next year they will be obliged to provide instruction in the Koran to Moslems in their schools, courses in Egyptian history, geography and civics to all their students. Penalty for refusal: confiscation.

¶ Elderly people do not go to church as often as young people because they cannot afford the collection plate, reported Long Beach (Calif.) Sociologist George M. Logan after querying 30,000 elderly persons. "More than half reported attending church less frequently than they did ten years ago. Transportation difficulties and low income combined with social pressure for financial support of the churches have offset attendance."

¶ Roman Catholics "need not be afraid" of the Dead Sea Scrolls, said the Rev. Ernest Vogt, the Vatican's foremost expert on scripture studies. In Osservatore Romano Jesuit Vogt said that the manuscripts discovered so far give proof of "the substantial faithfulness of the sacred texts transmitted to us."