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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 rursc.... you tMbrrro .A a? 1 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." THE CATHOLIC TIMES Published Every Week by The Catholic Times, Inc. Columbus, Ohio NOTICE: Send All Change of Address to P. O. Box 636 Columbus. Ohio Executive and Editorial Offices: 246 E. Town Street, Columbus 15, Ohio Address all communications for publication to P. O. Box 636 Columbus 16, Ohio Telephones: CA. 4-5195 CA. 4-5196 Price of The Catholic Time* la S3 per year. AU subscriptions should ba presented to our office through the pastors of ttie parishes. Remittances should be made payable to The Catholic Times. Anonymous communications will be disregarded. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any views or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Entered as Second Class Matter at Post Office. Columbus, Ohio. St Franc!* de Sale*. Patron of the Catholic Praia. Pray for ual THIS PAPER PRINTED BY UNION LABOR .............. 1,1 "f 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.