The Catholic times. [volume], November 23, 1951, Image 4

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4
THE
CATHOLIC TIMES
Published Every Week by
The Catholic Times, Inc,
Columbus, Ohio
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er opinions expressed tn the communications of our
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Su Francis de Sales Patron of the Catholic Press
and of th* Dioees* of Columbus, Pray for Us I
A Patriolic Statement
It is with a sense of pride and privilege that
the Catholic Tunes this week gives to its readers the
Annual Statement of the Bishops of the United
States. Each year their scholarly words are well
worth study, not only by Catholics but by all Ameri
cans This year’s Statement is no exception. Their
vords of previous years have had profound influ
ence upon American religious and social thought.
They have contributed much of value to the welfare
of our nation
This year the Bishops’ Statement is most timely
Even a hurried reading of it uill reveal its value to
all Americans. It comes at a time when American
new.'-paper'- have given much space to Kefauver Com
mittee investigations to sports scandals, to political
and social corruption With much reason patriotic
people are concerned about the moral decay of the
nation.
The Bishops Statement of 1951 has the only
true answer. Entitled. “God’s Law: The Measure of
Man'v Conduct.' the Statement gives a clear warn
ing of the riangei that threatens because of moral
relapse. And the remedy must he applied to indi
viduais and to local living as well as to groups and
on the national scene
The Statement ends with an exhortation to all
Americans to rededicate themselves in the spirit
expressed in George Washington s Farewell Address,
that religion and morality are indispensable supports
on the road toward political prosperity and that
“reason and experience both forbid us to expect that
national morality can prevail in exclusion of re
ligious principle
“God's Law The Measure nf Man s Conduct is a
truly patriotic gift to the people of these United
States.
-------------------o-------------------
The World Is Coming
To An End!
There are certain types of new* stories that re
appear year aftei yeai w’ith disarming frequency.
You just have to ait there and take them.
Some are sea-onal like the members of the Polai
Baar Club breaking the icy crust of the river or lake
to take a swim in subzero weather, 01 the blooming
of the Japanese cherry blossoms in Washington.
Others aie not dependent on the vagaries of the
weather but are born of a far more unpredictable
element: some fellowman's fertile little brain. Each
year we stuff our eyes with the accounts of the in
sane antics of those whose goal it is Io fling them
selves over Niagara Falls, or eat unfried goldfish
whether it is Friday or not.
Editors who feel constrained Io foist these newsy
fid-bit* on John Q. must do so with a smile akin to
that of a dentist, with drill in hand, about to attack
a particularly decadent molar.
Our favorite, if that is the word, among these
printed eyesores is the one hearing the shocking
information that the world is coming to an end in
two weeks or two months or some such convenient
period. Convenient, because you will just have time
enough to send all your money to the prophet and
prepare to shuffle off.
We suggest, parenthetically, an even more divert
ing and newsworthy project for these wacky seers
would be to try to maintain the role nf prophet
while predicting the world has already come to an
•nd two weeks ago.
These people, the prophets, and those who pub
licize their cause are favorites because they do a real
service. The world is coming to an end and we too
often forget it. They serve as a handy reminder.
We will all experience the end of the world. We
shall die. It is of small consequence whether we
leave the world or it leaves us—the result for us
Will be the same
It is good, in the sense of salutary, for us to
think about this coming end of things. A holy old
priest’s recipe for a successful spiritual life was to
live at least one minute a day in the conjured-up
presence of death.
For those who would like tn hear a real News
story by a real Prophet about the end of the world
listen to this Sunday’s Gospel.
—o-------------------
Another Year
The week which begins this Sunday and ends
the following Sunday might be called Advent s Ad
vent. It is a time of looking back on the old year
and looking forward to the coming year, for this
Sunday marks the close ol the Church’s liturgical
year and next Sunday will be the beginning of a
new one
Sandwiched in between the last Sunday after
Pentecost and the first Sunday of Advent these seven
days should be a time of feverish activity, nf spir
itual bookkeeping We have seven days to prepare
for the Christian New- Year’s Eve celebration.
The mistakes and the joys ot the past year will
be weighed this week and from this list al accounting
of our spiritual life will come the resolutions to
guide us through the new cycle of Christian feasts
about to begin.
The Church year begins with the holy season of
Advent It is a time of suppressed toy, a time of
anticipation It i a time vibrant with the promise
of New Life Let u spend the next seven days in
thoughtful preparation for the coming season.
Happy New Year!
o-------------------
Those Skyrocketing
Figures Again!
For some years now people have made wise
cracks. aooui the big figuio^ used oui Federal
Government Numbers quicklv get bevond compre
henaion hen used to indicate the costs of war. the
numbei of tax dollars needed or any of a thousand
thing* in the big business that government has he
rome People have become accustomed to the fact
that the fjjures are so great even though they do
not adequately realize their full import.
In this regard it is inspiring to read some other
figure1 a so tremendous, hut concerned with the
fundamental concept of Uhristianitv charity The
American Bishops heard this thrilling story last
week at then meeting in Washington It was thr
xtory of thr War Rehet Services of the National
Catholic Ueltarc Conference The amount of charity
done bv \mcrican Catholics—aided not a little
their non athnlu neighbors takes on something of
the dramatic when put down in numerical figure'
translated into numbers of pounds of supplies. O'
into dollars and cent*.
During the last yeai alone 76,757,786 pounds of
food, clothing and medicines, valued at $21,892,800
were sent by War Relief Services for distribution in
the areas of greatest need throughout the world.
The figures become staggering if we total all that
WRS has done since its establishment in 1943. Dur
ing the intervening years relief goods weighing ap
proximately 419.467,845 pounds and valued at more
than $169,800,000 has gone to war-stricken peoples.
To Korea where the privation is rather that of cloth
ing and shelter, WRS sent 3.811,40” pounds of relief
material valued at almost,$5,000,000.
WRS also assisted directly in the immigration of
30.202 persons to the United States, and aided a
total of 95.380 individuals of those admitted to this
country under the Displaced Persons Act. This was
35 per cent of the total admitted.
American Catholics can be quite proud of-this
record. This is the abounding charity of Holy Writ.
One cannot help but think of the words of Sacred
Scripture, “Charity covereth a multitude of sins,”
and hope that the tremendous charity of all Amer
icans through the Marshall Plan, food aqd clothing
collections of all sorts, and various financial grants,
that Almighty God will cover over our sins and fail
ings and protect us from the catastrophe of war, not
only within our own borders but anywhere iu the
world.
Just Among Ourselves
Pasting Comment Considered or Inconsiderate
One of life’s notable satisfactions is achieved in
puncturing pretentious bubbles, in seeing an up
start put in his proper place, in savoring the tang of
a perfect rebuke perfectly administered. Even when
we do not know the persons involved we enjoy
the deserved discomfiture of the brash individual
who gets his come uppance. We like to read instan
ces of “the perfect squelch,” and one of our most
flourishing weekly magazines furnishes us a sample
of such reading in every issue.
Sometimes a writer, eager to tell of a proper
squelching, is dishonest in reporting his facts. Only
last week we read that Sam Johnson once reduced
a forward lady to powder in this fashion. The lady
remarked that Dr. Johnson’s dictionary contained no
improper words. The Doctor fixed her with hard
and glittering eye. “Madam,” he said icily, “you
have been looking for them.”
Now, this is unfair. One has only to look into
Roswell to find that the story was not a "squelcher.”
Two ladies,—not one,—remarked the absence of bad
words from Johnson’s dictionary. The old gentle
man was much amused. There was no brstling, no
use of icy glances. “Aha, my dears,’’ he said jovially,
“you have been looking for them.” Here was a mat
ter for chuckles, not for rebukes. Doubtless the two
ladies joined in the laughter. Eagerness to furnish
an instance of squelching moved the modern report
er of this ancient wheeze to revamp the tale to
his purpose. For this, he deserves “a perfect
squelch.”
But is there such a thing as “the perfect
squelch'”’ Likely n J. We shall continue to enjoy
the stories of upstarts and nincompoops reduced to
their common factors, but that is because we enjoy
instances of justice—in the abstract. For no matter
how concrete the instances, the justice is abstract.
The person “squelched” is never aware of justice
done in his ease: indeed, he feels himself the vic
tim of rank injustice. He may feel insulted, hurt,
humiliated, outraged he never feels he has got
what was justly coming to him.
You may set it down as a thesis,—but one un
likely to attract the scholarly efforts of prospective
Ph.D.'s.—that nobody was ever successfully “put in
his place.” For, to be completely successful, a
“squelch” would leave the victim, as well as the
spectators, aware of justice done. The squelch
would be a lesson to the squelchee, not merely a
harsh and resented experience. And, human nature
being what it is, it is manifest that a rebuke, how
ever well deserved, is not going to be accepted at
face value it will always be regarded as an insult,
and therefore as an injustice.
No man is put down by what he considers a raw
deal. And the most perfect squelch is always a raw
deal in the opinion of its victim. He may have some
awareness of his fault in the matter he may have
a partial awareness of justice done by the squelch
er yet he will inevitably feel that an advantage was
taken, that he really had no fair show, that his
words or actions were received in the worst light,
unjustly, unfairly.
At the head of the book and in letters of brass
it is written: "If you think you have put an upstart
in his place, go get yourself another thought.”
The pride of fallen man will not permit him to ac
cept a lesson harshly administered, or to acknowl
edge that he needed any such lesson.. One of the
shivery TV movies which keep us aware of the tre
mendous amount of fast riding required by our
western plains, shows a bully thoroughly beaten by
the hero. No man was ever more completely thrash
ed. Afterwards the bruised and bleeding bully re
marked. “Aw. he hit me when I asn’t looking.”
That’s the attitude of mind which makes "squelch
ing'’ an utterly impossible thing—except, of course,
in the abstract.
The victim of the “place putting’’ business will
be angry at the squelcher as unjust likely, he will
be even more angry at himself for “not looking,”
for leaving himself open to unfair attack. But in
no case will the feeling of the person squelched
he one of humility or repentance. The victim may
he humiliated he is never humbled.
There is tar too much desire among us to sec
people put in their place, and not enough effort on
the part of individuals to recognize their own place,
and to retire to it. In a word, there is far too much
pride in us all and not enough humility. Each of us
may recognize, upon due examination of conscience,
the Hitlerian character of our attitudes towards
others. Despotically, we should like to put people
in their place, and make them acknowledge that it
their place. But we shall never succeed Thank
God, we shall never succeed. It would help us to
recognize the fact that most people would like to put
u in nur place,—and that the place is not one of
distinction.
V V
It is, to be sure, sane and healthful to ha'e a de
sire for justice. And it is right enough to find in
the talcs of "squelching” a sense of justice achiev
ed. But let us remember that these tales are tales
that only half the story is ever told that the squelch
tng reported is badly objective, and docs not in
clude the feelings and the resentments of the
squelchee.
If ever a horrible person were open to a perfect
squelch, it was the dastard who came into a garden
with a torch-bearing crowd at his heels, and a com
pany of soldiers. The only rebuke he received,—
from the Master of us all,—was the kind greeting.
“Friend, whereto art thou come?’ Here is a thing to
think upon when we find ourselves raging against
impudence, indignant at brashness, resentful ot
crass forwardness And it is perhaps the only in
stance on record of a rebuke which was not a re
buke actually putting a man his place. For
Judas went out from the garden to the Sanhedrin,
and thence to the halter and the tree, “that he might
go unto his place.”
IT ASH I !\GTO\ LETTER
WASHINGTON (NC) The
prospect now is that the world
is going to earn real peace by the
sweat of its brow.
In the light of what has hap
pened to date in two widely sep
arated places n the world—Par
is and Korea—there is no reason
to hope for any magical dissipa
tion of the tantalizing obstacles
that block the road to world
peace. Actually, the prospects
for a real and large-scale peace
are remote. On the other hand,
so long as the international sit
uation does not worsen apprecia
bly, it is possible to avoid a third
world war and achieve some
kind of agreement among na
tions to work together.
The alternative to the rapid at
tainment of our goal is to get
there step by step. That, it
seems, is what we arc going to
have to settle for. And it is go
ing to take real work.
The need for this unremitting
toil was dearly indicated in the
words of His Holiness Pope Pius
Xll, spoken when the new Span
ish Ambassador to the Holy See
presented his credentials at
C’astelgandolfo. The Pope spoke
at a point geographically be­
FATHER HIGGINS
THE CATHOLIC TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1951
Cargo Of Mercy!
1
wo
World Must Earn Peace
By Sweat of Ils Brow
The Catholic
press of the
United States
is to be con
gratulated on
its objective
appraisal o I
one of the sea
son's most con
o v e s i a 1
books, “God
and Man at
Yale” by Will­
I Ml
iam Buckley, Jr. Given the fact
that Buckley a Catholic (“a
devout but unusually aggressive
Catholic,’’ according to a recent
editorial in Life magazine) and
given his vigorous defense of the
Christian religion. Catholic re
viewers might have been tempt
ed to exaggerate the merits of a
book which, in man* respects is
tragically superficial from the
Catholic point of view.
This is not to say that the
book is completely without mer
it. Buckley's defense of the
Christian religion and his criti
cism of the anti-religious philos
ophy of some of Yale's most pop
ular and influential professors
are worthy of praise. But, some
of his most ardent admirers—
such as the editors of The Free
man—have suggested, "he has
not given the faculty as a whole
a break.” Nevertheless, he has
performed a real service to
American education by dramat
ically, if somewhat brashly, call
ing attention to the presence of
admittedly anti rcligiou1 profes
sors or the faculty of a univer
sity founded 250 years ago as a
Protestant theological seminary.
Even today. Yale officially pro
claims its adherence to Chris
tianity.
tween the United States, where
President Truman had just an
nounced a new American plan
for international disarmament,
and Soviet Russia, whose repre
sentative at the UN meeting in
Paris, has just laughed publicly
at the President’s offer.
His Holiness said that, unfor
tunately, the present hour is such
that “even the most sincere love
of peace cannot overlook al/rt
vigilance against the danger of
unjust aggression.” At the same
time, he added, those who call
themselves members of the
Christian community of peoples
and states must do one thing
unfailingly: ‘they must do “ev
erything humanly possible” to
fill in the “abyss” that has been
dug between peoples of the
world.
And even though it is impos
sible for the moment to achieve
a "definite solution” of the inter
national problem, the Sovereign
Pontiff emtUiasizcd^ it is “neces
sary to favor all partial, sincere
solutions, although they are grad
ual, and to wait with patience
and vigilance for the break of
the dawm of better days in which
world public opinion, in a more
A 'Tragically Superficial' Book
Unlikely Thesis
Fo the performance of this
unpopular service which he
must have found personally dis
tasteful as a devoted alumnus of
Yale—he deserves a lot of credit
from his fellow Catholics and
from all other religious-minded
Americans. By the same token,
however, he deserves nothing
but criticism, as a Catholic, (or
his completely inadequate an
alysis of economics. This com
ment is made not so much be
cause his own social philosophy
is thoroughly mistaken from the
Catholic viewpoint, but rather
because of his attempt to iden
tify the heresy of "economic in
dividualism" with the C’tholic
or Christian tradition.
His thesis is tl.at Yale Univer
sity. in addition to fostering ag
nosticism and even atheism, is
also promoting the cause of what
he chooses to call “collectivism."
The line of argumentation fol
lowed in attempting to estab
lish this unlikely hcsis is a dead
give-away as to his own total and
complete unfamiliarity with the
Catholic social teaching.
By collectivism he means, ap
parently, any measure and es
pecially any governmental meas
ure which in any way intei feres
with the “automatic” operation
of the so-called “laws” of free
competition. He considers “any
infringement upon the compon
ent parts of free economy to be
unsound economics” and regards
“such infringements as militat
ing against maximum freedom
He openly identifies himself as
an enthusiastic disciple of Adam
Smith and almost seems to sug
gest that unlimited free compe
tition is an article of divine rev
elation. Support of the weak, he
argues—almost as though intoxi­
tranquil and serene atmosphere,
may find itself better prepared
for mutual understanding.”
At nearly the same time, Brit
ish Foreign Secretary Anthony
Eden, speaking in the United
Nations General Assembly in
Paris, voiced a somewhat similar
pica. “Preparation, confidence
and agreement,” Mr. Eden said,
“that should be the order of our
endeavor, starting from small
issues and working to the great
a steady pursuit, with a fixed de
termination and with real good
will.”
President Truman, in offering
the world his “foolproof" plan
for military disarmament, said
“We will do it the hard way to
peace—the way of reducing the
armaments that make aggression
possible.”
That, it would seem at the
present moment, is the way we
are going to get peace—the hard
way. But we must try even the
hardest way. for, as Pope Pius
said, the armaments race is
fraught “with economic and so
cial consequences that must
frighten every clearsighted
spirit.”
cated or hypnotized by his own
logic—“is an automatic result of
the free enterprise .system be
cause no one can bring prosper
ity to himself without bringing
it to others (except where pros
perity is due to government sub
vention).”
Less Than 'Honesty'
His criticism of those who
want us to rely upon the gov
ernment almost exclusively for
the sound ordering of economic
life is well taken. But even Life
magazine, which was criticizing
socialism when Buckley was still
in grammar school, has felt it
necessary to point out in an oth
erwise rather favorable review
that his bill of particulars
against the Yale Department of
Economics is rather unconvinc
ing and somewhat less than "hon
est.”
Honest or not, his analysis is
based on the philosophy of 19th
century economic liberalism, ex
plicitly rejected by the Church
and clearly identified in the so
cial encyclicals as one of the
principal causes contributing to
the development of modern so
cialism. Nowhere in his indict
ment of his alma mater is there
the slightest indication that he
has ever heard of these encycli
cals.
No wonder the Catholic press,
however reluctantly, has felt it
necessary to warn the American
public that Buckley's social phil
osophy has little, if anything, in
common with official Catholic
teaching. “In a word." says a re
cent editorial in America. “Mr.
Buckley's own social philosophy
i* almost as obnoxious to a well
instructed Catholic as the as
saults on religion he rightly
condemns.”
RICHARD PATTEE
I
Tito the Butcher
The Catholic
Herald of Lon
don, with ref
erence to the
a o a ch of
the recent gen
eral elections
in Great Brit
ain, suggested
that hecklers
at political
meetings con
cern themsel
ves with posing
certain u es-
tion regarding Yugoslavia, espec
ially because in labor circles af
fection for Tito has increased so
ostentatiously. Since the falling
out of Tito and the Kremlin
there has come about, say„ this
leading London Catholic paper,
a trend to make a hero of Tito
and to consider that a change of
policy means a change of heart.
A Curious Tendency
To date, so far as anyone has
discovered, no demand that Tito
cease the persecution of religion
has been attached to the aid,
economic or military, extended
to the Belgrade government. Yet
the figures of actual persecution
demonstrate to what degree the
Tito regime is every whit as san
guinary as that of other so-called
popular democracies.
From the best possible sour
ces it is evident that 228 priests
have been executed since the
war. In Tito’s prisons not only
the heroic Archbishop of Zagreb
but 1,726 priests are serving
long terms. Of the 1,916 Catholic
parishes in the country, fewer
than 400 have a resident priest
at the present time. On Novem
ber 3, 1950, the Bishop of Trieste
stated publicly that “there are
some nations now being visited
and praised by western minis
ters wherein religious and polit
ical persecution continues un
abated and saying this we are
mindful of the Yugoslav zone of
our territory. We request there
in religious liberty and humane
living conditions we request
that those who guarantee liberty
do not forget their duty.”
Obviously Absurd
1 have recently come across a
considerable body of material
brought together by distinguish
ed and capable Vugoslav exiles
in Europe regarding the status
of things in the homeland. The
evidence is overwhelming, from
GRETTA PALMER
Let's Be Different!
Writing
straight with
crooked lines,
God has per
mitted a Paul
Blanshard to
appear at the
very moment
when we might
without his
bracing bigot
ry, have for
gotten that
Catholics are necessarily set
apart from all the “Christian”
sects. The danger was that we
might sink our differences and,
affected by the intellectual cli
mate of our times, forget the
vast importance of dogma and
theology. That danger exists no
more.
There have been, in America
in recent years, a dozen organi
zations whose noble purpose it
has been to gather up the peo
ple of good will and make them
work together. The Conference
of Christians and Jews is such
an organization: the Christopher
movement is another “Guide
Posts” is a third. Saintly Cathol
ics have been active in such
work nobody will wisely criti
cize its goal.
But God, arranging the events
of our era. has apparently deter
mined that we shall not be per
mitted the easy way of co-opera
tion with the splendid men and
women outside the Faith who
share with us a certain minimum
of Christian belief. God has de
cided that, in this strange and
frightening century, Catholics
are to be set apart from all the
men and women who have just
good will and a dislike of Com
munism, joined with an honest
detestation of wickedness as they
define it. We are not, it seems,
tc be “Christians we are to be
that far more exacting and def
inite thing—Catholics.
How much do we have in com
mon with the best men of the
present age outside the Faith?
Not very much. It would ue com
forting and pleasant to imagine
that all men and women who
fight on the angels’ side are
joined together—that we can
stress the agreements and for
get the differences, and work to
gether, side by side to build a
better world. That is not the pat
tern of our day. Instead, we find
ourselves forced into a separa
tion that we did not choose, re
quired to emphasize the differ
ences and not the likeness to
the other groups of fellow
“Christian” Americans.
Label of Quality
The latest statement of the
Holy Father which has received
a wide appreciation in the Amer
ican press dealt with one of the
Catholic positions least accept
able to Protestants and pagans:
the uncompromising condemns
tion of birth control. The last
ex cathedra pronouncement of
the Holy See was on the extremely
official Tito sources, that the re
ligious persecution continues. To
be sure, The Tablet of London
reported recently that there is a
lessening of the violence of this
persecution and some evidence
of religious tolerance. Neverthe
less, we are assured by the au
thoritative Osservatore Romano
(September 9, 1951) that press
and government circles in Yugo
slavia persist in their attacks on
organized religion and particu
larly on the Vatican.
The Vatican City publication
refers particularly to certain
impressions on Yugoslavia eman
ating from an American visitor,
George Seldes, who produces
one of those frequent eulogies
of the Tito regime to which w®
and becoming increasingly accus
tomed. L’Osservatore notes that
“it is perfectly understandable
that Yugoslavia be admitted to
the scheme of western defense.”
But on the other hand, it js ab
surd to ask Catholics to close
their eyes to the obvious perse
cution of their co-religionists in
Yugoslavia or to abandon their
reservations at the dictate of po
litical convenience.
Palpable Betrayal
The thing that it is impossible
to make non-Catholics under
stand is that our opposition to
communism does not spring
from contingencies but from
principle. It is not what commun
ism does or fails to do that
makes the slightest difference in
the Catholic positions. It is what
communism is, be it of the Stal
in or the Tito persuasion. If
Catholics were to applaud the
Tito version of the Marxist faith
and condemn Stalin, it would be
palpable betrayal of principle
since the doctrinal basis of both
is the same.
Just as during the last war
Catholic opinion refused to be
led astray by the obnoxious ef
fort to “sell” us the Soviet Un
ion as a democracy—and many
of us were charged with every
thing from treason to sympathy
for Hitler as a consequence—so
in case of Tito the major task of
Catholics is to keep before pub
lic opinion constantly that the
Yugoslav regime is intrinsically
evil, that its policy is profound
ly anti-Christian, and that in go
ing overboard for it, we are
committing the precise error we
made in 1941 when “Mission to
Moscow” became the mirror of
our beliefs regarding the USSR.
Catholic and supernatural fact
that Our Lady was assumed into
Heaven, body as well as souL
The Vatican knows what is re
quired of Catholics in times like
ours—and the Vatican has spok
en out in these two cases, in a
way which will shock and scan
dalize all the sects.
The Holy Father wishes us to
stand firm, disregarding the in
junctions of the clever public
relations experts who would say,
“Go easy on the matters which
divide the Christian world.
Stress all the things that join
modern Catholics with Protest
ants and pagans who are also
fighting Communism. Sink our
differences, and forget our divi
sions.”
The Church is never content
to be clever or opportunist: the
Church stands out for truth, at
any temporal cost. And that is,
perhaps, the hardest of all things
for modern Catholics to accept—
the fact that the Holy See in
sists on rocking the boat, and on
bringing up, with a great want
of “tact,” these questions which
might have been let lie, as sleep
ing dogs. The Church, like her
Master, is no pacifist: she brings
not peace, but a sword to divide
man from man. She knows that
the best is the superlative of the
good—and she requires the best.
Time of Decision
Indifferentism is a tempting
position for us to take today.
Gray becomes an attractive col
or when contrasted with the
pitch-dark black of the Soviet
system. We should like, all of us,
to find allies among men of good
will who do not completely share
our belief but that is not the
way that things are being deter
mined in this difficult century.
For in every country where the
Reds have gained politics.! con
trol, the lesson is the same and
it is this: the only opposition
that stands firm and refuses to
compromise with evil is the
Catholic group. Fair weather
friends desert us when the price
of friendship is raised to the ex
orbitant sum of martyrdom on
ly those who have the sacra
ments to help theii wills and the
magnificent logic of the Faith
to enlighten their minds can re
sist the strong temptation to
apostasize to evil such days as
this.
We are not just “Christians”
we are Catholics, and the distinc
tion is being driven home to us
ix. many ways. The indignation
stirred among the Protestants—
kindly men and “Christians”—
by the appointment of an Am
bassador to Rome is merely an
other reminder of the fact that
we are set apart, that “1 have
taken you out of the world,” and
that the world, when it was
friendly, was more of a threat
to us than now when its true
hostility is shown. We are con
cerned with sanctityl