The Catholic times. [volume], July 20, 1956, Image 4

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4-—THE CATHOLIC TIMES Friday, July 20,1959
The Washington Letter
HIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIillllIllilllllllll
WASHINGTON—One import
ant result of the recent dis
turbances in Poznan, Poland,
may have been to disturb the
propaganda timetable ot the
Moscow Reds. They apparent
ly expected a great deal from
this program this year, too.
It was not thought here, nor
anywhere else for that matter,
that the riots in Poland would
lead to an overthrow of the re
gime in that country. It was
not that kind of a rising. It
was a protest against hunger,
unemployment, and want. It
could not have very serious po
litical effects, because the op
pressed had so little and the
oppressor had so much, in the
way of arms and resources.
But the riots were en*ar
ra^sing to the Red rulers, b«th
in Warsaw and Moscow. It
gave them something that they
will have to explain away. And
while thus engaged, they must
put aside to some extent the
propaganda campaign that
seemed to be progressing satis
factorily.
It was predicted months ago
that Moscow vias going to make
a big propaganda effort this
Some said fortune. Some said
love. Some said beauty. Some
said children. And the more
he asked, the more varied were
the answers and the more con
fused he became.
Voice of Exporionco
Alas! A year and a day later,
despondent and prostrate on
the side of the road, he wailed
loudly as he saw his inevitable
Heeding for a Showdown
In last week's column refer
ence was made to the contro
versy stirred up by a speech
which Guy Nunn, radio direc
tor of the United Automobile
Workers, read as a proxy for
Mark Starr of the International
Ladies Garment Workers Un
ion at a recent meeting of the
Planned Parenthood Ijcague in
Detroit. While we have no de
#ire to prolong this contro
versy unnecessarily, we should
like to outline in the present
column some of our objections
to Mr. Starr’s endorsement of
the Planned Parenthood League
•nd, more specifically, to his
recommendation that the pro
gram of that organization be
incorporated into the social
•ervice program of the Amer
ican labor movement.
Tn the first place, his en
dorsement of birth control as
a solution to the population
problem is utterly reactionary
from a point of view of eco
nomics and potentially harm
ful to the cause of international
peace. Moreover, it runs di
rectly counter to the tradi
tional economic program of
the American labor move
ment.
ShMr Defeatism
The American labor move
ment has consistently taken the
•ptimistic position that a prop
erly organized economic system
e«n provide an adequate living
for all of God’s children, and
What Poznan Did
Making Marriage Click
It is Chaucer, in his story
"The Wife of Bath,” who tries
to answer the above question.
The handsomest sheik of the
country had committed a hein
ous crime for which he was to
be decapitated. But the wily
king, not wishing to anger his
feminine followers, turned
over the punishment of this
“lover boy” to his queen and
her court. After secret con
sultation, the ladies decided
that the young man would live
if he answered to the satisfac
tion of oil women present the
following: “What is it that
woman wants more than any
thing else in (his world?
Answers Varied
Quickly the comely villain
would have answered. But no,
he was stopped, then informed
that he was to return in ex
actly a year and a day and to
announce his answer. He skip
ped merrily from the court and
quickly asked one lady, then
another, “What is it that all
women desire most?”
year. This prediction was being
borne out. Moscow’s changed
attitude towards Tito, the
smiles at Geneva, the visit of
Bulganin and Khrushchev to
England, and the down-grading
of Stalin were all part of the
program. Some of the “sweet
ness and light” attitude was
necessary to prepare the way
for the deflation of Stalin, but
if the present masters of the
Kremlin got away with that, it
would gll tie in together,
A big objective was to get a
hid for Bulganin and Khrush
chev to visit the United States.
It is thought now that Moscow
will have to soft-pedal that and
other phases of the program,
at least for the time being.
The Poznan riots showed dra
matically that all is not happi
ness in satellite countries.
When the Reds indignantly re
jected an American offer of
food to help feed Poland’s hun
gry people, the Warsaw radio
said: “As is well known, there
is no hunger in Poland.” But
this was offset by the word
which workers themselves were
able to get out of Poland by
Westerners who left when the
rioting was in progress.
I What A Woman Wants
By Msgr. Irving A. LeBlanc
end. He was startled by the
touch of 8 lady’s hand and more
startled by her horrible ap
pearance. “Why do you wail
so?” she asked. “If I do not
say today what is the one de
sire of all women,” the youth
stammered, “I lose ray head."
“Ah!” the old bag-ofhones rat
tled as she bent down and whis
pered the answer in his ear.
“That's it!” he shouted and up
ped and ran triumphantly to
the court and soon to his free
dom.
And what ido you think it.
was? Just think for your
self what every woman most
desires. Yes, that's what Chau
cer said, “to be sure the man
she loved loved her.”
Most students of human na
ture would agree that all peo
ple, men or women, want some
one to really love and some
one who really loves them.
Lov* Detected by Little Things
If a man is not aware of all
the work his wife does, she
begins to question his love. I'm
c6nvinced a couple could al
most run their married life on
two words,” How wonderful!"
He should never take the at
titude, “Women have it easy.
They can go to bed and take a
nap any time of the day. They
can have card parties, an au
tomobile at their disposal, a
bank account. My! What a life!"
Nor should women say, in that
The Yardstick
On Planned Parenthood
has consistently talked in terms
of expanding economy Reared
to meet the needs of an ex
panding population. Mr. Starr,
on the other hand, seems to
have suffered a complete loss
of nerve in the face of the
world population problem.
In summary, Mr. Starr’s en
dorsement of birth control as a
solution to the population prob
lem is sheer defeatism. Let us
hope that the rest of the world
will not interpret his position
as an official policy
s‘atcment of the American la
bor movement. God help us all
if the teeming millions of tho
underdeveloped countries ever
get the impression that the
American labor movement, to
which they now look with con
fidence for leadership and in
itiative in the field of social
justice and economic expan
sion, has sold out to the forces of
pessimism and despair. If that
day ever comes, we might just
as well hoist the white flag of
surrender peaceably to the
communists without further
ado, for we will have fortified
our right to represent the
cause of human dignity and
freedom and will have lost the
battle for the souls of men.
Voice of Minority
We are confident, of course,
that things will never come to
such a sorry pass. For, unless
we are badly mistaken, Mr.
Starr was speaking for a min-
What is worse, probably, is
that in Poznan the Reds turned
their guns not on capitalists,
not on religionists, not on re
volting army personnel, but on
workers. Observers feel that
this will have serious ill effect
in France and in Italy, and
that it will hamper the efforts
the communists had already in
itiated to revive the “united
fronts” programs that served
them so well in the past.
In the light of this reason
ing, it is felt that Moscow will
not be able for some little
while to devote its full atten
tion to the propaganda drive it
had got under way.
It has not been abandoned
necessarily, just delayed a lit
tle. But there is a widely held
theory that dictatorships of ev
ery kind must have success
after success to feed upon.
Communism is not now spread
ing at the startling rate that
had marked its progress since
the end of World War II. If
it can be slowed even more,
and maybe halted altogether,
there is hope that in time its
process of growth may be re
versed into one of deterior
ation.
same tone, “Men! They can get
a coffee break at just any time.
They meet exciting people all
day long. They don’t have to
put up with squeaky neighbors
who complain every time you
see them and look like wet
hens. They don’t have to stuff
babies with pablum and wash
eggs and peanut butter from
dinner plates. What a life!
You Men!”
Magic Word*
The change of attitude and
vocabulary to “I don’t see how
you do all you do!” is 'magic.
Mean it and try it. If you don’t
mean it and it comes from the
teeth, then of course it doesn’t
work.
Be aware of your wife’s ef
forts to please you. If she cooks
an extra good meal, don’t blurt
out: “Whose birthday is it?”
Every word you use means
something to her. And it isn’t
so much what you say, it’s what
she thinks you said. She is a
fanatic at reading between the
lines. Note how often she says,
“Why did you use that word?"
If you want to show her you
love her, notice nicely her
odd hat, her new dress, the lit
tle circles under her eyes, or
how beautiful she looks. Com
pliment her on the dress that
fits her so well and incidental
ly, this is also pure economy—
she wears it until it is thread
bare!
By Msgr. George G. Higgins
ority of American trade union
ists. Nevertheless his recent
address to the Planned Par
enthood League of Detroit was y,
an ominous straw in the wind
and much too serious in some
of its implications to go un
challenged As we have already
indicated, he not only endorsed
the program of the Planned
Parenthood league but recom
mended that it be incorporated
into the expanding social serv
ice program of the American
labor movement.
Very frankly, the price of a
birth control program under
the auspices of the American
labor movement would be a
civil war, which, if it lasted
long enough, could tear the
movement apart. This isn’t a
threat, nor is it a manifestation
of religious or denominational
sensitivity. It is merely a state
ment of fact.
Word to tho Wise
As AFL-CIO President George
Meany pointed out in a public
address several months ago, the
American worker “is independ
ent of his union and always has
been except insofar as the work
of the union concerns itself
with wages, hours, conditions
of work, and of course the
community activity to which all
good citizens should subscribe
and in which the trade union
movement in this country plays
a vital part.”
In other words, American 4
For it tells how Christ, looking out over
Jerusalem, wept at the thought that destruction
was to be visited upon the city, because of the
infidelity and offenses of its people. “If thou
hadst known,” He lamented, “the things that
are for thy peace! Thy enemies will not
leave in thee one stone upon another, because
thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.”
It was the merciful Heart of Christ that caused
Him to weep when He thought of the suffering
Jerusalem was to endure yet He knew that in
the name of Divine Justice the punishment was
due, because the people were not doing “tlje
things that are for thy peace.”
He found evidence of this when He entered
the temple, and saw it being profaned by buy
ing and selling in righteous anger He drove out
the money-changers, uttering the terrible in
dinctment: “My house is a house of prayer, but
you have made it a den of thieves.” But even
this warning action did not avail to bring the
people of Jerusalem to their senses, and the
full measure of destruction was visited upon the
city, through a Roman army, in literal fulfill­
Opportunity for America
AMEN,AHeN, IF YOU bib IT TO OFF OF
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Our Responsibility is Grave
Sunday’s liturgy calls upon the children of
the Church to give glory to God because of His
justice: “The judgements of the Lord are true,
sweeter than honey and the honeycomb," we
are told to cry out, in the words of the Psalm
ist. Under the mantle of God's justice, too, we
call upon Him for help: “Deliver me from my
enemies, O my God Save me, O God, by Thy
name, and deliver me in Thy strength.” But if
we are to appeal to God’s justice for help and
protection, the liturgy points out, we must re
member the obligations that are ours. The Gos
pel of Sunday’s 4ass makes this clear.
Bridey Lost and Found Out
The “search fof- Btidey Murphy” has now
been pretty well concluded, sucessfully. As
Listening In predicted in this paper, months ago,
she has been found, and also found out. Bridey
is a fictitious creature, the product of the imag
ination of a hypnotic subject submissive to her
control.
The imagination after all is simply an active
recreation of past images stored in the memory.
We recall them, recombine them, and produce
the wonderful world of arts and music or fiction.
We exercise this fascinating gift in another way
and become Baron Muchausens and tellers of
tall tales. We may even let this somewhat
strange power seize control, and then we end up
in a psychotic no-man’s land of dreams and shad
ows and illusion. “Bridey Murphy" is an inhabit
and of a dark fairyland of this sort produced in
this instance by hypnosis.
Unfortunately, though the book which bears
her name has now been pretty well exposed as a
routine hypnotic phenomenon, not an argument
for anything—least of all the transmigration of
souls—the damage it has done to the cause of
true science and legitimate psychology has not
yet been brought under control. The Search for
Bridey Murphy has, in fact, had a serious harm
ful effect for which experts in the field publicly
express loud lament.
The book is still a best seller and has been
running high on the nonfiction list, at one time
with 160,000 copies sold. Many people who
know no better have been taken in by its super-
workers don’t want the labor
movement meddling in their
personal or family affairs, least
of all if this meddling involves
a violation of their religious
beliefs. If worse came to worst,
many of them would disaffil
iate rather than permit even a
portion of their union dues to
be misappropriated as a sub
sidy for an organized pro
gram of birth control.
Let us hope that a word to
the wise will be sufficient to
put an end to this controversy
once and for all. If not, we are
heading for a showdown which
could conceivably do more
harm to the American labor
movement than any other bat
tle in which it has ever been
engaged.
ment of the prophecy that not one stone would
be left upon another.
Is not the lesson, for us, plain? Like Jeru
salem, we haVe been chosen as beneficiaries of
God’s love and mercy time after time we have
been spared the retribution due us for our care
lessness and our disloyalty to God incessantly
we have been warned that we must turn to “the
things that are for thy peace.” But our offenses
continue we worship at the shrine of material
ism, instead of worshipping and obeying the
true God we profane what is holy we fail to
shape our lives according to truth and justice
and charity. How can we think that the destruc
tion which overtook Jerusalem, the city for
which Christ wept, will be withheld from us,
indefinitely?
As professed followers of Christ, redeemed
by Him, it is our responsibility to help lift our
times out of the paganism and materialism that
are bringing destruction upon us. For our own
sakes, and as an example and inspirat’on to the
world around us, we must heed the council of
St. Paul in Sunday’s Epistle. “We should not
lust after evil things,” he declares, speaking
nineteen centuries ago in words that are di
rected straight to the failings of our civilization.
“Do not become idolators,” he continues, as if
he were viewing the idolatry of pleasure and
wealth and position so rampant today. “Neither
let us commit fornication,” he says, naming the
scandalous modern sin.
“Neither let us tempt Christ nor mur
mur,” is his final warning, one which should
strike deep into our hearts. For his exhortation
is a summons to spirituality and holiness, in
fulfillment of our responsibility as Christians.
ficial pretensions. It has created a tremendous
interest in hypnosis itself—which is all right in
expert and hontst hands but it has given free
reign to an untold number of quacks and ama
teurs.
We learned from Newsweek some interesting
facts worth repeating here. The “Ruth” Sim
mons” who was the star witness suffered a
serious illness as a result of all the publicity
attendant upon her now famous “regression.”
One psychologist, outraged at the abuse of a
legitimate process, has complained that this book
has set back medical hypnosis 25 years. Of course
it is not our purpose to discuss medical hypnosis
since this is the prerogative of the specialists,
and there is not yet complete agreement among
them about its value.
A certain Dr. Lewis R. Wolberg of New York,
author of Medical Hypnosis, has recently de
manded the setting up of some official sanction
for the whole procedure. Dr. Wolberg writes:
“Because of the nature of hypnosis and the pos
sibility of using it in a spectacular manner on
public platforms, as well as in private parlors, it
is constantly in danger of falling into the dis
repute which has frequently halted its progress
in the past. What is needed at this time is pro
tective legislation, which would restrict
the use of hypnotherapy to members of the med
ical profession in the same way that drugs and
narcotics are restricted to prescription admin
istered under medical supervision."
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WST AMONG
’ourselves
P^stno Com”**
Considers
Incon*«iefOt
It appears that psychiatrists have so far failed to turn their
penerating and scientific gaze upon the makers of cross-word
puzzles. We do not mean the people who arrange the design#
in black and white squares any one who has had a normal baby
hood acquaintance with building blocks and a high-school fa
miliarity with graph-paper can turn out a design for a crossword
puzzle, or a hundred designs. The people in need of psychiatrie
investigation are the boys( or girls) who make up the definitions.
Certainly it is a peculiar mind that can define a three-letter
word as “organ of hearing,” and then blandly offer a six-block
vacancy the blunt statement, “kava.” It is an interesting mind,
from the psychiatrist’s viewpoint, that can offer “head covering”
for a three-letter word beginning with h, and immediately after
that present “nahoor” as the definition of a six-letter word
beginning from scratch (the word turns out to be, believe it
or not, “bharal”). All this is like asking little Tommy for the
sum of two and two, and then demanding that he give the
cube root of 43,657. A psychiatrist should be interested.
No doubt the puzzle-maker finds difficulty in keying-in a
lot of words, and a strange one is bound to crop up now and
then. We have to bear with an occasional sacred bull of Egypt,
or a Turkish regiment, or a Hindu queen (which is rani or
ranee, according to exigencies). But surely any puzzle-maker
worthy of publication should be able to maintain a kind of
level throughout each piece of work. It isn’t fair, and it is hardly
even sane, to lead a solver along smooth and pleasant ways and
suddenly, without slightest warning, bring him up against a
towering cliff or toss him into a Grand Canyon.
There are cliff-climbers, of course, and canyon connois
seurs. But the point we make is that such specialists have their
own specialists have their own special puzzles prepared for them.
If the mere stroller along the simple paths of puzzledom, the
lad seeking a reposeful sort of relaxation, is suddenly confronted
with an alien and upstart difficulty, he is not justly dealt with.
And the average puzzle-fan is a stroller. He wants nothing less
than a demand that he rack his brains for what is not in them,
or that he be required to endure the intolerable labor of haul
ing down the big dictionary. And, anyhow, the real puzzle-solver
feels that it isn’t playing fair to pull a dictionary on a cross
word puzzle.
Once you get at the dictionary, however, you are pretty
sure of gaining incidental bits of information to add to your gen
eral culture. If, for example, you look up that word kava (it de
fines pepper), you will be informed that the word means either
of two species of a shrubby pepper plant. Then, reading on, you
find that the roots of either species '’an be used to make a
kind of intoxicating drink. You find moreover that the impatient
person,—like the fizz-powder lad who can’t wait for a tablet to
dissolve,—can get exhilarated by chewing the raw root of the
kava, not delaying to brew or distill it into a drink. Such are the
rewards of research.
The mean, alien words thrust suddenly upon placid and
somnolent solvers are often defined with an off-hand use of the
definite article,—a practice which seems to suggest that the term
defined is something anybody should know. Thus you find “the
urial” or “the sweetsop” (ates, aha!) presented the “the” is in
sult added to injury. Only familiar things are commonly referred
to in this fashion, as, for example, “the back door.” or “the tele
phone.” The puzzle-maker who leads you on with a list of send,
and eel, and hat, and tote, and Great Lake, and consume, and
then airily murmurs “the urial” is a stinkeroo. He shall not have
any of our kava-root to chew.
Now, that word, “the urial” (which also means nahoor and
sha) is an interesting one, once you have overcome your resent
ment of the “the” and your aversion to looking the thing up in
Webster’s Unabridged. It means a wild sheep of northern India,
reddish brown in color, with a white neck, and a dark beard from
chin to chest. Why did the puzzle-maker not define his .word
(nahoor or sha) by “wild sheep or northern India?” Tha^. w#
could have passed on, hopeful of keying it out without djjU re
search. But no he says,—the insufferable snob,—“the urir* as
though anybody who knows anything must know what that
means, and leaving us so resentful of his snide uppishness that
we don’t even watch how (and whether) it keys out.
It is good to know “the urial” and to learn that the word
is pronounced oo-rial, with stress on first syllable, and with no
sound #f a y about it anywhere,—it is like Arthur Godfrey’s
oo-ke-le-le. It is good to know Webster’s definition of this animal,
and to muse on the question of who told Webster about it. It is
pleasant to contemplate in fancy the wild urial fleeing from th#
wild urial-hunter of northern India, who, sappointed of his
pray, doubtless murmurs sha. One can see the urial, in momenta
of alert repose, stroking its long dark beard with meditative hoof,
and deciding which of the north Indian wilds he will next be
wild in.
a a
That infernal thing, “the sweetsop,” eluded us’ for years. W#
learned to put down ates quickly and banish it from mind. But,
driven to Webster by “the urial,” we turned back to S for infor
mation on “the sweetsop” which we had unaccountably associ
ated with sweetbreads, those mysterious things which are neither
sweet nor breads. Well, “the sweetsop” turns out to be a tree
and the fruit of a tree. It is, says our competent informant,
N. Webster, “a tropical American tree, annona squamosa also
its sweet, pulpy fruit, which has a thick, green, scaly rind, and
black seeds.”
Back to our cross-wards. Did you know there is one called
“the soursop?” Pearshaped fruit slightly acrid taste. Let “th#
urial” expert figure out a slippy name for that one.
Father Healey’s
'nqiury Corner
Q. If a person is found dead
in bed should the priest be
called? What if the person had
been away from the Church
for years?
A. The best general rule is
to call the parish priest and
tell him the circumstances.
Conditional absolution and Ex
treme Unction can be given
some time after apparent
death. No one can tell exactly
when the soul leaves the body
and in this extreme situation
the person can receive the
effects of the Sacraments if he
had at least imperfect contri
tion before he lost conscious
ness. If a person has been
away from the Church (e.g. by
marriage outside the Church)
but expressed a desire to re
turn or even said he would
like to receive the Sacraments
he would be given the bene
fit of the doubt.
Q. Why does the Church
outlaw meat on Friday? Why
not let each Catholic choost
his own penances?
A. The Church does not ex
actly “outlaw” meat but sim
ply chooses abstinence from
meat as an obvious universal
penance and applies that pen
ance to the day of the week
upon which Christ died. The
union of our sufferings with
Christ is an important part of
penance along with the devel
opment of self-control which
will help us in time of temp
tation. Each Catholic should
choose his own penances but
the Church establishes a few
for universal observance in or
der that all may do some pen
ance and so that there may
be some general observance of
Friday with its commemora
tion of the Passion.
Send questions to Father
Edward F. Healey, Inquiry
Corner, The Catholic Times,
Box 636, Columbus (16) Ohio.