DISABILITY FUND BROKE IN 2016
JEAN STAPLETON
The actress who portrayed Edith Bunker died at the age of 90 over the weekend. Jean Stapleton was known as the ditsy wife of Archie Bunker but the character was much more. Stapleton’s character explored the issues of rape, infidelity, as well as tolerance for minorities and gays. At a time when issues like that weren’t discussed on TV, let alone a comedy, Stapleton’s Edith Bunker character rose to the occasion with the way she reacted with pain, sadness and outrage to the complexities of these issues and the time in which they occurred. Stapleton was much more than Edith Bunker..just like there was more to Edith Bunker than being Archie’s dingbat.
GOOD POPE JOHN DIES
The very first Pope that I actually remembered was Pope John XXIII. I had very vague recollections of Pope Pius XIIth’s funeral on TV but being very young, I never understood the significance of that moment. But as a Catholic School student growing up in the 60s, Pope John XXIII was embedded in my consciousness. The Pope would appear every fall in our weekly Catholic reader handouts we received from the nuns. It seemed fitting that Pope John, the vicar of our faith had that vintage look while our President seemed so vibrant and young. The church we were told was an old institution with old, long held traditions.
In the school year 1962-63, I was in the third grade. Every day, our nun Sister Isabelle would teach us our required religion course. But those classes were taught against the backdrop of the news that in October of 1962, John XXIII was calling a Vatican Council. John XXIII actually said he would convene the Council in 1959 a few months after assuming the Papacy but it was not top of the mind among most work a day Catholics. Details from our teachers were sketchy in October of ’62 but the undercurrent of speculation from our parents and their friends told all of us that this was a big thing happening. Catholic newspapers and even the Nightly News talked about the Council called by the Pope.
Later that month, the talk of the Council was overshadowed by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The atomic missile replaced any changes in the news of any big change in the weekly missals we used back then at church. (If, as a kid you had access to a full blown Catholic missal, with the color ribbon bookmarks, it was a type of status symbol). As the fall gave way to Christmas and then the early spring, the work of Pope John’s Council went unnoticed by just about everyone. The first session in 1962 lasted only 15 minutes and then work would be split up among various participants to begin the Second session in 1963. The Council needed organizational meetings in preparation for the formal convening of Bishops but that was suspended when it was revealed Pope John took ill with cancer. (When John XXIII died, the Council was immediacy suspended and put into limbo until the next Pope reconvened it. Pope Paul VIth did just that).
John the XXIII’s illness was at first kept under wraps but as 1963 progressed, the seriousness of his condition was revealed. In April of 1963 at an audience, the Pope said this about his mortality, “"That which happens to all men perhaps will happen soon to the Pope who speaks to you today." The Pope made only one more public appearance in May of 1963. He was anointed and given the Last Rights on the morning of June 3rd, 1963. The priest who was performing the sacrament got the tradition out of order and before he slipped away, the Pope gently corrected him and gave him the right order in which to perform it.
Fifty years ago today, in the early evening, John XXIII died of peritonitis caused by a perforated stomach.
As a Bishop he had made his mark during World War II saving many Jewish people from sure death against Nazi Germany and other European countries. He was the first Pope to visit the children of Rome in hospitals and prisoners in jail during the holidays venturing out of the confines of the Vatican. And he was the last Pope to have the full regalia of a Papacy which included a five hour Coronation. Subsequent Popes after Paul XI would later refuse the crown offered.
During his Papacy, John was on the cover of Time Magazine at least five times and was a mainstay on secular magazines like Life, Look and the Saturday Evening Post. Multiply that exposure tenfold on Catholic magazines and you can see that he was a hard man to ignore. When John XXIII died, I remember it being big news. CBS News ran an hour long special with Rome correspondent Winston Burdette who told us of the Pope’s earlier life (born in 1881, being one of 13 children) and his subsequent rise to Papal power.
His funeral occurred a few days later, we were taught about him in school, and were told that it might be possible he could be a Saint. (Pope John Paul II started that action for his predecessor). Being only nine, I was surprised that his body was on the front pages of all the newspapers. The funeral was broadcast on delay and as a young Catholic, it gave me the first inkling of what a traditional vehicle the Papacy was for the church I attended. As I grew, I felt fortunate to have witnessed history because ever since his death, the Papacy has always been compared to the standard set by John XXIII. Fifty years ago today, he died at the age of 81…….
and fifty years ago this week, the number one song in LuLac land and America was ”Easier Said Than Done" by the Essex.