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Berlin and Pope Paul VI

Published: 1964
Play Audio Archive Story - UPI
Pope Paul VI embraces Cardinal John Patrick Cody of Chicago on June 20, 1977 in Vatican City after an audience with 80 U.S. Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops who attended the canonization on June 19 of America’s first male Saint John Nepomucene Neumann. (UPI Photo/Files)

Pie Chamberlain: Across the border, Germany, East and West, and Berlin, Communist and Free, are waiting and working toward progress of their own, with varying results. Edward Shields reports from West Berlin.

Edward Shields: "The Wall has remained the basic fact of life here. But this has been a year of lowered tension for West Berliners, and slightly better living conditions for the 17 million East Germans still held by the Communist regime. The communist agreement to open the wall for four or two week periods a year, so West Berliners could visit their relatives in the East hasn’t proved the atmosphere here.

"It also brought unprecedented criticism of West Berlin Marvelli brand because the West German Government and the western allies felt the pass agreement made concessions to the Communists. Erhard has been in difficulty himself, not only from Brand Socialist, but also from a faction within his own party led by the aging but wily Adenauer. This faction accuses Erhard of sacrificing Germany’s friendship with France, to close their ties with the United States.

"The issue was crystallized around Erhard’s determination that West Germany should join the American sponsored multilateral nuclear force. While the Adenauer group favors all European force under Franco German leadership. This is Edward Shields in Berlin."

Pie Chamberlain: 1964 brought significant changes in the Roman Catholic Church.

The traveling pontiff Pope Paul VI celebrating mass in Jerusalem. With the story of the year of renovation for the Church, William Sunderland in Vatican City.

William Sunderland: "Pope Paul VI had been on the throne of Peter only six months when 1964 began, but at the end of the year he’d become a traveling pontiff or they called themselves an apostle on the move.

"For Pope Paul things got off to a fast start. He flew by a Jet liner to the Holy Land. There as a pilgrim, he received a historical welcome from Christians and non Christians alike. Then there was a trip to India to attend the Eucharistic Congress in Bombay. Aside from the new concept of a traveling pontiff, the Ecumenical Council was the most important event of the year for the Catholic Church.

"The nine week third sessions moves swiftly ahead. Debating and studying such crucial questions is the role of the church in the modern world. Perhaps the most disappointing phase of the council was its failure to complete work on two important documents, dealing with religious liberty and Jews. Another sore point was birth control. Ecumenical Council speakers were ordered to keep their discussions to generalities, since in any case the final decision on possible change on the churches ban on artificial contraception would have to come from the Pope himself, this is William Sunderland in the Vatican."

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