Watching the World
“An Exodus” of Priests, Nuns
◆ Writer Phil Santora stated in New York’s Daily News of October 20, 1970: “The troubles besetting the Roman Catholic Church are steadily growing in number and intensity. Five years ago, the outflow of priests and nuns smothered by the inflexibility of the traditional church structure was a trend. Now it is an exodus . . . The number of seminarians and novices needed to plug the widening gap has fallen far short of adequacy.” He noted the comments of an ex-monk who said: “I predict there will come a day when monastic orders like the one I left may die out entirely. During the past 18 months, the community in which I lived for 15 years lost 100 of its total of 600 members. Of these, 12 died. The rest simply left. They were not replaced and this is significant.”
Empty Pew—Empty Plate
◆ The exodus of priests and nuns is now being matched by an exodus of the Catholic population in general. Jesuit priest Gerry Waldorf stated: “The church no longer has a hold on the person. It has failed to bridge the credibility gap and people no longer rely upon it for guidance.” Priest Rocco Caporale, director of research at Claremont College in California, said: “Even more significant is the falling off of church participation in terms of money. . . . In many areas, contributions have dropped so sharply that local churches are having very real fiscal problems.”
Unprecedented Peacetime Measures
◆ When Canada’s War Measures Act was invoked in October because of what was called an “insurrection” by Quebec terrorists, it was the first time in peacetime. It gave the government extraordinary emergency powers and was invoked after James R. Cross, a British trade representative, and Pierre Laporte, Quebec’s Minister of Labor and Immigration, were kidnapped. Mr. Laporte was later found murdered.
In Italy during the same month, about 4,500 soldiers were sent into the southern city of Reggio Calabria, shaken by violence since July. It was the first time since World War II that the Italian army had been assigned to quell civil disorder.
World’s Tallest Building
◆ After a reign of 40 years, New York’s Empire State Building became the second tallest as of October 19. On that date the new World Trade Center in Manhattan passed the 102-story level, 1,254 feet above the street and four feet higher than the Empire State Building. The Trade Center will be 110 stories high. However, in Chicago work has begun on the Sears Tower, which will be even taller.
Inflation in South America
◆ Prices of goods and services continue to rise nearly everywhere in the world. Several countries in South America have been particularly hard hit recently. Chile’s cost of living in 1968 grew more than 25 percent, and in 1969 it was over 30 percent. Brazil’s high rate in 1968 was 24 percent, and in 1969 it was 23 percent.
Economic Collapse Predicted
◆ Dr. Kenneth Watt of the University of California predicted the total collapse of the United States economy within three years. He based his prediction on computer studies and said: “It takes more and more money to do anything at all, and money is harder and harder to get. The problem is basically that the old and the young who need money spent on them vastly outnumber the self-supporting group who normally pay for them. This will lead to an economic collapse I expect to see in the next 36 months.”
Huge Welfare Roll
◆ The number of people on welfare in New York city at the end of August rose to a staggering 1,111,077, more than one out of every eight persons in the city. This represented 423,017 different households. The Cost to the taxpayer is well over a thousand million dollars a year.
Money Crisis for Colleges
◆ American colleges and universities are in deep financial trouble. Income is not keeping pace with expenses. Twenty-one institutions have closed in the past two years. Dartmouth College’s president, John G. Kemeny, stated: “Higher education, both public and private, is facing its most serious financial crisis in history.” A college president in Alabama estimates that 50 private black colleges are near collapse. Yale University reported growing deficits as follows: 1967—$300,000; 1968—$900,000; 1969—$1,250,000; 1970—an estimated $1,750,000. Columbia University had a deficit of $11 million in 1969 and an estimated $15 million for 1970.
Fantastic Crime Burden
◆ The growing financial burden of crime in America has now passed $50 thousand million a year. The “take” by organized crime is about $20 thousand million; law enforcement costs about $9 thousand million; crimes against property and business total $13 thousand million; private crime-fighting services and equipment cost over $5 thousand million; and other crime costs are over $4 thousand million. From 1960 to 1969 serious crime rose 148 percent, compared to a population rise of only 13 percent.
‘Crime Winning,’ Says Interpol
◆ In Brussels, at a meeting of the international police organization known as Interpol, police chiefs from almost 100 nations were presented with sobering news. Leading criminologists showed that law-enforcement agencies world wide were continually losing ground against crime.
White Bread Starved Rats
◆ University of Texas biochemist Dr. Roger J. Williams charged that the ordinary white bread most Americans eat daily is so low in nutritional value that rats eating it and nothing else for 90 days died of malnutrition. Dr. Williams stated: “Two-thirds of the animals were dead of malnutrition, and the survivors were severely stunted.” A similar colony of rats thrived when their bread was supplemented with vitamins, minerals and protein elements.
Hormone-fattened Meat Banned
◆ Sweden has banned the importation of meat from animals that are fattened with the aid of hormones. Nearly all beef cattle in the United States is fattened with the aid of hormones, usually diethylstilbestrol, which has caused cancer in mice. Many countries do not permit the feeding of hormones to meat animals.
Bacteria-resisting Drugs
◆ A common practice in most “developed” countries is to feed antibiotics to animals. The purpose is twofold: to try to prevent diseases before they begin; and to make the animals grow larger. However, Japanese scientists reveal that large numbers of commercially raised fish are dying from infectious diseases and that antibiotics have not been effective in treating them.
Tougher Mosquitoes
◆ Two species of mosquitoes in California have become virtually immune to DDT and other insecticides. One, the pasture mosquito, travels in swarms as dense as 2,000,000 per acre, endangering man and animal. In 1945 DDT was first used to bring them under control. But in seven years they became so resistant to DDT that a new chemical, ethyl parathion, was used. That failed in 1961. Methyl parathion failed in 1963. Another type failed in 1968. Time magazine reports: “Today, California has no chemical able to kill the pasture mosquito in safe dosages.”
High DDT Content
◆ The National Audubon Society notified American authorities that woodcocks, a game bird, contain so much DDT that they are unsafe to eat. It was noted that Canada had already banned hunting the foot-long bird after discovering that they averaged 65 parts per million of DDT, one bird that was examined having 773 parts per million. Both Canada and the United States permit only 7 parts per million of DDT in commercially sold meat.
More Wildlife Endangered
◆ A growing number of animals throughout the world are nearing extinction. Science Digest states concerning the Ceylon elephant: “Officials of Ceylon fear extinction may not be far off for this mighty mammal. Elephants in the wild have dwindled to 2,500, half the number only 20 years ago.” The United States Department of the Interior says that 22 more types of animals, birds and fish face extinction. This increased the endangered list in America alone to a record 101, which includes: mammals—14; birds—50; reptiles and amphibians—7; fish—30. Hundreds more are listed in the “rare” category.
Drugs Close Hawaii School
◆ The worst drug-abuse case in Hawaii’s school history forced the temporary closing of a high school. An estimated 2,000 barbiturate pills had been passed around when school buses arrived at 8 a.m. Two hours later classes were suspended because of brawling and the drugged condition of about 200 pupils. Milton Shishido, principal of the Waianae High School, said: “I haven’t heard of anything ever on a scale this large. Most of the pupils were dazed and wandering around campus. Some of them could hardly walk. It was frightening.” The 17-year-old student-body president said: “There were people walking around campus looking for fights. It was completely out of hand.”
Damage from Marijuana
◆ A New York professor, Dr. Vincent DePaul Lynch of St. John’s University, exposed pregnant rats to smoke from the equivalent of one marijuana cigarette a day for ten days. Twenty percent of their offspring had serious defects. These findings corroborate other tests where pregnant rats, hamsters and rabbits injected with marijuana resin produced deformed offspring.
LSD a Killer
◆ A 24-year-old Philadelphia medical student had spent the summer working with mental patients suffering from the bad effects of the drug LSD. Wanting to experience first hand what the patients were going through, he took a pill himself and told his wife to observe his reactions. He was dead in 24 hours.
Fewer Passenger Trains
◆ The number of passenger trains in the United States has dropped sharply in the past 40 years. In 1929, when there were relatively few automobiles and airplanes, there were about 20,000 passenger trains. In 1959 there were 1,200. Now there are only 376. Even that number is expected to decline further.
Church Contributions Off
◆ The Episcopal Church in America was told that it faced a serious and growing financial plight. Due to declining contributions, church receipts are expected to fall an estimated $4 million short of the $14.7 million budget for 1970. In 1969 the shortage was $1.7 million. Most other churches are experiencing similar declines.
Protestant Missionaries Decline
◆ For the first time in 35 years, the number of American Protestant missionaries in other countries declined. The drop was from 34,700 in 1967 to 33,289 in 1969. The U.S. missionaries make up the majority of the worldwide Protestant total of about 50,000.
Rosary Recitation Abandoned
◆ For ten years a radio program in the province of Quebec was devoted to reciting the rosary. But Montreal’s station CKAC announced that the 15-minute program would be discontinued because the number of listeners had dropped 72 percent.
Car Owner Accountable
◆ In one of the first decisions of its kind, New York State’s Supreme Court awarded a verdict of over $33,000 against the owner of a car that had been stolen and then involved in a fatal accident. The judgment was based on the fact that a New York statute prohibits owners from leaving the keys in their car when it is unattended. In this case a set of keys had been left in the car.