Religious leaders, hailing signing of the civil rights bill into law, stressed that it is up to all Americans to make it work.

Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan of Atlanta, GA, said that on civil rights the “majority” of Catholics, Protestants and Jews “do not stand with the extremist whose creed is hate, nor with the gradualists whose tactic is delay.”

Archbishop Patrick A. O’Boyle of Washington said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “presents to the people of the United States an achievement and a challenge unsurpassed in our history.”

“Will those who opposed the bill, however sincerely, accept it now with the same sincerity as the law of the land?” Archbishop O’Boyle asked, “Will political leaders rise to new heights of statesmanship -- as many of them already have -- putting the rights of all the people above traditional sectional differences?”

“Will those who have suffered from the injustices of the past, chiefly our Negro brothers, remember now to be generous in their hour of vindication, recognizing that some wounds heal slowly and time and patience are needed rather than overnight cures? Will we have the greatness to match the rightness of our decision with charity and forbearance in its execution?”

“These are the critical questions which challenge us today. Pray God we find the light and fortitude to meet them wisely.”

Citing the interreligious cooperation that helped win passage of the rights bill, the archbishop, who is chairman of Washington’s Interreligious Committee on Race Relations, suggested that “this was what the late Pope John XXIII, that modern apostle of peace and order in the universe, had in mind when, as a spiritual father, he called on ‘all men of good will’ to make common cause to win for every creature in every land the dignity with which God endowed him.”

“Perhaps we may imagine that, from his place in heaven, the beloved Pontiff looks down on us and is glad at the start we have made this day,” he said.

Bishop William G. Connare of Greensburg, PA, speaking before the bill’s enactment to a convention of the Wheeling, W. VA, Diocesan Council of Catholic Men, said Catholic laymen should be “in the vanguard” of those working for compliance with the measures.

With the passage of the bill, he said, “it will no longer be a matter of whether you agree, but rather whether you accept the law of the land.”

Bishop Connare said the civil rights law was putting religious people “on the spot.”

James Francis Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles said he was “happy that the elected representatives of the people have kept faith with the constitution of the United States and the benign spirit of Abraham Lincoln.”

“We are confident that the provisions of this new law will be accepted and obeyed with docility, understanding and Christian love,” Cardinal McIntyre said.