What is the

Catholic Attitude

on Big Industry

on Corporatism

on Liberalism

on Communism

on Fascism

on Democracy

on Race and Color

on the Worker

on the Poor

on the Rich

by

William J. Smith, S.J.

Director of the Crown Heights

School of Catholic Workmen

Editor of the Crown Heights

Comment

THE AMERICA PRESS
/





What Is The

Catholic Attitude?

be

WILLIAM J. SMITH, S.J.

Director of the Crown Heights School of Catholic Workmen

Editor of the Crown Heights Comment

Price: 254 5 copies: $1

Bulk prices on request

AMERICA PRESS

70 East 45th Street New York, 17, N. Y.



CONTENTS

1. The Catholic Attitude

2. Toward the Workingman

3. Toward the Wealthy

4. On Industry

5. On Corporatism

6. On Liberalism

7. On Communism

8. On Fascism

9. On Democracy

10. On Race and Color

11. Toward the non-Catholic

12. On the Catholic Attitude

Imprimi Potest: James P. Sweeney, SJ.

Nihil Obstat: Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D.

Imprimatur: Francis J. Spellman, D.D.

Provincial: New York Province

Censor Librorum

Archbishop of New York

2

Deaddffiee*

5



1.

The Catholic Attitude

The Catholic Attitude on any problem, issue or event must be

unique and distinctive. There is nothing else like it on earth. It

can neither extend itself to the extreme of a liberalism that makes

the individual a god unto himself nor can it be constrained to

accept a conservatism that denies to any person the dignity and

the royalty that marks each human being a child of God.

The Catholic Attitude is neither a mere opinion nor the ex-

pression of a temporary theory. It must be universal in its out-

look, embracing every factor in creation that stems from an

omnipotent Creator. It is traditional in its formation, having

grown and evolved through almost two thousand years of

thought and progress. It is so comprehensive in its concept that

it must acknowledge elements, both within and without its own

sphere, which militate against and would even destroy every-

thing that it considers sacred. It transcends the visible universe,

reaches out beyond the farthest star and yields its own puny

claim of independence to an intangible, infinite, but very real

and existirig Deity in whom and through whom every created

thing has its own being.

God is the alpha and omega—the beginning, the guide and
the goal of the Catholic Attitude. Creation is not a jumble of

disjointed phenomena flung together by an impossible, non-exist-

ing nothingness, stupidly called chance. Order, beauty and har-

mony unite the diverse elements of the universe. The tiniest atom

and the topmost planet betray the inventive genius of a personal,

infinitely intelligent Modeler, Maker and provident Keeper. The

3



noblest, most necessary and only responsible agent on
earth is

Man. He is made in the image and likeness of his Maker. His

dignity derives from the source of his being and the
destiny for

which he has been created. He lives not only by the presence

within him of a vivifying spirit, so intimately united with a
body

of corruptible clay that together they form in him one
person,

but he is surrounded by invisible, bodyless spirits,
whose influ-

ences have an effect upon his thoughts and actions.
They are

the unseen, though real, agents of heaven and of hell
the angels

of God and the still-defiant emissaries of Satan.

The Catholic Attitude postulates the family as the first essen-

tial and necessary unit of human society. The inhabitants of the

world, no matter where situated nor how diversely divided by

circumstances of color, climate, custom or caprice, make up one

human family. The State is a natural union of families, ordained

by the Creator so to live that the rights of the
individuals be

protected through the collective strength of a unified
authority.

The representatives of the people, of these families, wield this

authority through the instrumentality of what has become
known

as Government. In civil matters legitimate
government is the

Voice of God. By promoting the common good, the public wel-

fare of all, it guarantees peace and prosperity to its
citizens.

The purpose of human society is not the mere fulfillment of.

the materid needs and natural desires of the inhabitants
of earth.

Man is a composite being. He is made up not alone of chemical

and biological elements, but is essentially a living being
endowed

with a spiritual soul. By it, he is truly ennobled and a truly

responsible being. This spiritual factor of human life takes prece-

dence in all things over every material consideration
both within

and about the human person. The Divine destiny of man is pri-

marily pointed toward the preservation of the things of the
spirit,

for the ultimate objective of enjoying an eternity of
uninterrupted

bliss in union with the Infinite Creator of aU things. The Catho-

lic Attitude attests that, devoid of this infallible truth,
life itself

has no meaning.

The Catholic Attitude finds an harmonious balance and a

beautiful blending of authority with personal liberty. It
measures

4



all events, past, present and future in the Light of a Divine

Revelation. It weighs the value of all things in the scale of Jus-

tice and Charity. The yardstick of Truth is found in an Infallible

society of otherwise fallible men, the Church, founded and pro-

tected by Jesus Christ, the true and ever-living Son of God.

Born of a Virgin, He assumed human nature through the power

of the Holy Spirit. Through Him, the Catholic Attitude can

satisfactorily and adequately determine the limits of legitimate

authority and the excesses to which the unwarranted claims of

personal liberty might be inclined to drive it.

The Catholic Attitude, while personal, framed as it is in the

mind of a .human, can not be individualistic. It is not the view-

point of a day or a year or the duration of a lifetime. It began

in eternity, was first promulgated with the creation of man, was

reasserted and clarified by the Christ who died on a cross and

has been sustained, succored and strengthened through nineteen

hundred years of conflict in the words and actions of an undying

Church.

Nor is it the lifeless corpse of a regimented opinion of the

masses. It knows the meaning of liberty in its true sense because

it recognizes a human being for what it is—a free-born, indepen-
dent Sovereign in matters of personal rights, semi-dependent on

the authority of the State in things that touch upon the common

good in civil society, absolutely and unqualifiedly subject to

Almighty God, through His Church, when moral precepts or

doctrines of Faith are at issue.

The Catholic Attitude rejects entirely ecclesiastical dictation on

questions of a purely political nature. With equal vehemence it

will defy an encroachment of the State into the sphere of the

spiritual. God alone is the only Judge of life and death. Such

monstrosities as euthanasia, birth-control, the sterilization of the

assumed unfit, advocated either by public persons or private

soothsayers, will bring furious resistance from the soul of him

who has caught and kept the priceless treasure of the Catholic

Attitude.

In the field of modern social action the Catholic Attitude is

represented neither by the retarded mental viewpoint of the

5



‘‘reactianary” nor the arrogant license of the ‘liberal. It must

be as conservative as Christ and as progressive as Pius. No single

individual can lay claim to the title of infallible interpreter of

the Catholic Attitude except him, whom Jesus Christ has called

as Vicar of the Church on earth. The blueprint of the principles

to be followed are found in the social Encyclicals of the Popes;

the authoritative interpretation in the approved ^vritings of recog-

nized experts and promulgated by the Hierarchy.

If at times, for prudent reasons, official pronouncement on

certain phases of Catholic doctrine is slower than the impetuous

desires of individuals demand, the Catholic Attitude will not

attempt to out-run the modern framers of its contour. The Catho-

lic Attitude is an indivisible concept. It can neither go beyond

nor lag behind the official Church. The Catholic Attitude is the

Thinking Church. The zealous efforts of individuals, joined in

battle by close contact with hostile forces, may spur on the

Catholic Attitude to an increased tempo or sound the warning

of lurking, unseen dangers. They may never usurp the place and

position of those upon whose shoulders Christ has placed the

responsibility to carry into execution the correct concept of the

Catholic Attitude.

In summary, then, the Catholic Attitude is the collective con-

viction of the members of Christ’s Church on all things that re-

late to human living. It is conceived in Truth, imparted by God

Himself; It is founded in a Faith, strong and invincible, the

torch of which has lighted civilization down through the cen-

turies. In each age, it is currently formulated by the Vicar of

Christ and transmitted through the channels of ecclesiastical

authority. It is neither the passing fancy of some importunate

promoter, nor the stagnant dogma of a dead epoch, nor the

muddled musings of the multitude.

In brief—it is a Divine Idea, out-poured into many minds,
worked upon, grappled with, brought into contact against all

the forces of human striving until it has crystallized into a glow-

ing, living, soul-stirring conviction of the right and only way

for the human race to live, survive, progress and prosper. It is

embedded deep in a fuller, greater life, the life of God Himself^

6



2 .

Toward the Workingman

and the Poor

Hardly a Pope but has cautioned, challenged, cried out against

the tendencies of human nature to cause injustice to working

people and the poor. Championing the rights of the underpriv-

ileged, the less powerful in things of the world, has been a

tradition, long ago established, at Vatican Hill.

In our day we have seen the effect of the Papal Encyclicals of

Leo XIII, Pius XI, and Pius XII on the thoughts and actions of

men. Long before the Supreme Court of the United States got

around to the neglected task of declaring the legal right of

workers to organize into unions of their own choosing, Leo XIII

had boldly proclaimed that right as inherent in the very heart

of man. Long before other governments granted certain conces-

sions to the toilers in the field and the factory, Papal pronounce-

ments had been echoing around the world in defense of funda-

mental justice and elemental charity.

The Church’s primary function among men is to teach the

truth. Her hierarchy and her clergy are neither union organizers

nor business enterprisers. They have been ordained to be instru-

ments of salvation for the human race. When the harvesters are

few and time is short, very often the paramount necessities of

that day or age must be selected, concentrated upon and empha-

sized. In practically any age, when pioneer ventures are under-

taken, the very first endeavor that must be attended to is the

founding and the building up of the organization of the Church

7



itself in the various countries into which the missionaries pene-

trate.

Now and again, the isolated voice of some “old-timer” pro-

tests the lack of a specific interest in trade union problems by

the Catholic Attitude in times past. Is the accusation true? If it

means that priests in the past have been most hesitant to mix

into labor politics, no doubt it is. If it means that there have

been individual pastors, who, rightly or wrongly, failed to under-

stand the meaning of trade unionism, that too must be admitted

as factual. But has the Catholic Attitude toward the workingman

and the poor failed them? Hardly. The simplest proof of a

close and intimate relationship between the working-classes and

the Church lies in the very make-up of the Hierarchy, the clergy

and the members of Religious Orders. The working-classes have

been the backbone of American Catholicism, materially and spir-

itually. From the ranks of the poor and the wage-earners for the

most part have come the vast army of priests, Brothers and nuns,

the teachers and instructors of youth, of rich and poor. Could

those edifices of ours that stretch from one end of the land to

the other have been manned by these volunteer apostles, the

children of the workers, unless there had been established a

mutual respect, confidence and devotion one with the other?

Who but the Church has warded off from unsuspecting people

the onslaughts of Socialism in its various phases? Who has

grown the moral fibre of the American Catholic working people

by the constant preaching of the Commandments, the dispensing

of the Sacraments and the thousand and one charitable agencies,

organized and parochial—who but the Catholic Church mani-
festing the Catholic Attitude toward the workingman and the

poor.

At this late date, we see the rise of Labor Boards, Commissions

on Mediation and Arbitration, enactments of various kinds for

the social betterment of many. No living society has so prepared

the ground, urged, advocated and championed all these concepts

as has the international Catholic Church. We must not lay the

blame at the door of Christ’s Church if great numbers of the

human race, the weak as well as the powerful, have refused to

8



listen to her unchanging, ever-insisting Voice. Other accusations

may be levelled against individuals in her ranks, who through

lack of perspective, or inexperience, have not intimately and

personally associated themselves with the labor movements in

one form or another. But never can the unjustified claim of a

lack of interest in the workers be sustained against the Catholic

Attitude. Specific means of assistance and effective techniques to

cope with changing conditions may not always have kept pace

with the onrush of events. The fundamental Attitude, nevertheless,

of charity and sympathy and a defense of justice for the poor

and the wage-earner has always been and will always be the

attentive object of the Catholic Attitude.

The Catholic Attitude guards jealously the concept of legiti-

mate authority. None but the rightful representatives of all the

people can be sanctioned to speak and act in the place of God

for the people. When economic domination by finance capitalism

raised its ugly head throughout the world the Voice of the Vati-

can was unstinting in its condemnation of the tyranny and usur-

pation. If there should come a day when trade unionism or any

other workers’ movement should become so strong as to jeopard-

ize justice and the common welfare of all, we can expect an

Encyclical on the subject pointing out the dangers and charting

the true course of harmony and happiness for all. Pius XII speak-

ing to a great gathering of Italian trade unionists on Sunday,

March 11, 1945, at Rome, intimated the even-balanced nature

of the Catholic Attitude when he said : “As to the democratization

of economy: it is menaced not less by monopoly that is brought

on by the economical despotism of an anonymous conglomeration

of private capital than by the prevailing force of a multitude,

organized and ready to use their power against justice and other

peoples’ rights.” The Catholic Attitude is one of absolute justice,

neither favoring nor fawning upon the usurpers of power in the

hands of either the rich or the poor. It is as antagonistic to

right-wing dictatorship as it is to the left-wing revolution.

9



3 .

Toward the Wealthy

The personal relationship between prelates, priests, lay people

and men of means will vary. It depends to a great extent on the

character of the wealthier citizen and the knowledge of and

loyalty to the Catholic Attitude on the part of others who may

be involved.

The genuine Catholic Attitude measures men not on the norm

of “what you have” but the Christ-like criterion of “what you

are.” “Whom does he serve?” is much more a Catholic query

than the measly, little, meaningless question, “who is he?”

The Catholic Attitude concerns itself not so much with what

a man possesses or how much but rather how he uses whatever

he rightfully owns* Neither riches nor poverty is a fool-proof

guarantee of salvation. The Divine Master Himself, however, has

uttered dire warnings on the dangers of amassed wealth and

chose to walk among us poor, and perhaps penniless, as an ex-

ample of the safest way to imitate Him.

The Church has never, can never condone the communistic

myth of a classless society. Property is as natural to man as the

air he breathes or the food he eats. While the earth and all

things in it belong to man for his use and enjoyment, specific

title to any portion of it must be left to human initiative, human

inventiveness and the outcome of personal energy and effort. A

man’s a man e’en though he be king or potentate.

The Catholic Attitude delves deep into the heart of humanity.

It sees there a noble creation of an All-Wise Maker. It sees, too,

the remnants of a soul-searing struggle. Man is not now what

10



God made him and meant him to be. Greed, ambition, hatred,

injustice have left their mark. In spite of all, that noble nature,

though shrunken and strained by sin, is still a truly human

thing. Beautiful in its created formation, debased by paternal and

personal guilt.

The Catholic Attitude will not grovel at the feet of wealth.

It will not sacrifice principle for the paltry pittance flung from

the pockets of the proud plutocrat. Better to worship God in

the humble hovels of a weather-beaten hut than to raise up to

Him costly temples of cut stone contributed by hands that have

wrung the dry rot of riches from the blood-streams of the poor.

The Catholic Attitude will not condemn the wealthy because

God has blessed them with abundance, nor will it cravenly fear

to investigate the source of a large and bountiful donation. As

men live and must live, legal title to possession is an accepted

tradition of legitimate ownership. Good faith is to be presumed

until possession through plunder and pillage is a proven fact.

The wild and hot-blooded impulses of revolutionists who, with

fire and gun, would batten down all to the level of an equal

pauperism, is no argiunent of the evil of riches. There were

wealthy men in the days of Judaism, when God called the Israel-

ites to be His chosen race. There were men of m« ans in Gospel

times. Christ dined with many of them. It is not what a man

holds in his hand, but what he has in his heart that steers the

course of the Catholic Attitude toward or against him.

The Catholic Attitude recognizes and accepts the inequalities

of birth and position. All men are created equal in the dignity

of their nature and the destiny of their calling. All will have

sujfficient graces for salvation which is the purpose for which

God created them. All men are not born equal. Neither in tlie

capacities of their souls, nor the condition of their bodies nor

the accidental circumstances of their lives and livelihood are any

two men equally alike. All, however, have an equal chance to

gain the particular eternal goal toward which an All-Wise Creator

directs them. If the relative standards of life are good enough

for and satisfactory to an All-Good, All-Holy and Ever-Just God,

they are good enough for any piece of mud into which that same

11



All-Provident Creator has infused the breath
of life.

Injustice and Inequality are not identical
terms. The inequali-

ties of life, which give to one man an advantage
in some things

over another are allowed for a higher
purpose in God’s scheine

of things. The injustices of life, by which one
human being is

exploited by the ruthless action of another, are
due solely and

sinfully to the stubborn defiance of God by men.
We should not

blame God for what men do, contrary to His Will,
and in which

we aU share.

The Catholic Attitude on life follows the golden
mean hemmed

in by parallel guide-rails—Justice and Charity.
Any man, whether

he be wealthy or propertyless, if he stay
within that channel

merits commendation. Outside of it, he walks
alone and his view

of the CathoHc Attitude is a distorted picture
in a warped mind.

Social iconoclasts may rave and rant, and rend
asimder if they

can, whatever remnants of a social order that
is still left in the

world. They can never change the nature of
man. Nor by dis-

tortion will they ever completely divert all
human society from

the end ordained for it by its Creator. A structure is not
strength-

ened by uprooting the pillars upon which it is
built. Liberty and

property are two essential props of human existence.
Property,

protected by the seal of individual ownership, is
the guarantee

of security. Liberty is freedom from external
coercion. As long

as these are preserved, order and harmony are
possible among

peoples. At the same time, as long as man is free to abuse
both

liberty and the exercise of ownership, he will
also be free to

exploit his neighbor. Freedom to be unjust,
however, does not

confer the right to be so. Obedience to law is
essential to liberty.

Law that would restrict not merely the abuse of liberty
but the

very exercise of the right in its proper
sphere is just another

name for tyranny. To be truly human, man must be capable
of,

though restrained by law, from injuring his neighbor.
Such con-

trary concepts as these the Catholic
Attitude keeps in good

balance.

12



4

On Industry
Conquest, Conflict or Cooperation! Those are the three prin-

ciples by which the industrial life of a nation might be governed.

In a complex society each of them involves trying difficulties.

Two of them, Conquest and Conflict, are accompanied by lam-

entable sufferings and injustices.

Conquest is by far the simplest method of solving the intricate

entanglements that arise from economic enterprises. Just as sui-

cide or insanity are the simplest ways out of personal problems.

It merely means the assertion of the slogan that “might makes

right,” and action suitable to the thought follows. Complete eco-

nomic dictatorship by a relatively small number of men, whether

in the name of the State or of rugged individualism or of one

class of people is the principle of conquest in action no matter

what fancy title may be attached to it. A minority lives on the

fat of the land and the majority fight for the lean. The Catholic

Attitude condemns it totally. It is unjust, inhuman, indefensible.

No matter what its form, no matter what be its claim to neces-

sity, it is “practical only in the sense that robbery, murder and

rapine are “practical” under certain circumstances.

Conflict, as a principle of enterprise, is a compromise with

the weakness, cowardice and selfishness of human nature. Under

the title of “Competition” it wears the smile of highest endeavor;

beneath the mask is the sinister, knife-scarred countenance - of

piracy and plunder. Calling cut-throat callousness “Competition”

will not give a new nature to the monster.

There is a definite place in human life for competition, for

13



contending influences, forces and personalities.
Without it, in-

dividual initiative, which is the source-spring of
effort, would

soon dry up and die. But it is stupidity to confuse
the water in

the well with the life-blood of him who drinks from it.
The fire

that purifies the gold is not the same as the precious
treasure

that results from the process in the heating of it.
Competition is

an essential element of Industry. It is not and
cannot be the

whole of Industry.

There is no more sense in advocating full freedom
of the

“blind forces” of Competition under Capitalism than
there is in

admitting the inane theory of the “blind forces
of nature in

Communism. Every concept of Industry, as in any other
human

activity, is subject to limitations, must be classified
as good or

bad, worthy or despicable, according to a norm.
That norm is

human nature as an All-Wise and All-Provident God created
it.

Whether men recognize or reject the Creator does not
change

the content of the Book of Life. By their actions
they merely

spell out happiness or suffering for humanity.
They can in no

way hinder or prevent the workings of the natural
law. Do

good, avoid evil” is just as clamorous a caU in
human hearts

todav as it was in Paradise. Rejection of God and His
law, and

with It the crucifixion of humanity by fellow-members
of the

human family, inevitably creates chaos and calamity with
the

same stealthy step as disintegration and destruction
follow the

disregard of the fundamentals of health in the realm
of physical

law.

Nothing on earth can blot out the presence of the
human in

the picture of industrial relations. Neither
ignorance nor indif-

ference nor sheer dishonesty can ever change the
relationship of

men to men as it has been written in the human heart from
the

first act of creation. The goods of the earth are
for all. The

abundance of nature is a bounty bestowed upon the
human race

for sustenance in its journey from God and back again to
Him

along the road of life and through the gates of
death. Whether

nature’s goods be still in their crude, raw form of
undeveloped

substances or transformed for better use by the magic
of ma-

chinery, they are meant for man: for each and every man in the

14



quality and quantity that he needs to live a decent, respectable,

worthy life as a human being, a child of God. Any form of

society, any arrangement of government, any association of in-

dividuals that unjustly deprives even one human being (to say

nothing of millions) of that elemental opportunity of human

living is immoral, cruel, contrary to the very purposes of crea-

tion. It must be changed.

The principle of conflict, upon which the modern world has

built its industrial systems, is just such a principle. It is anti-

human in its nature. The men who follow its dictates are not of

necessity evil as is the principle itself and the system which it

has created. Oftentimes they are either the unknowing or the

unwilling victims of its tryanny. Yet it is they who must change it.

In the heat of conflict or the flush of conquest, ignorance may

excuse some impetuous action. But in the quiet of the peace

conferences or in the lull of an armistice honest, worthy men

will give a hearing to an insistent proposal for justice even from

an alien source. The industrial world today is at the turn of a

new era. The Voice of the Catholic Attitude is neither dim nor

weak nor new. From the Vatican it has been heard in every age.

Spiritual leaders in every corner of the globe, representing 400,-

000,000 followers, proclaim its message. It is definite in demand-

ing that only on the principle of Cooperation can human society

be restored to anything like a semblance of stability and harmony.

Cooperation cuts deep into preconceived pretensions of per-

sonal prerogatives. The wild onslaughts of Liberalism, of rugged

individualism against the sanctity and the sacredness of the hu-

man being in the past have levelled Industry to a state of chaos,

to a plane of social anarchy. Whatever appearances of order that

exist are the result of natural resistance to total decay. They are

remnants of a unity that once did bind men together in brother-

hood; they are not the good effects of a thoroughly bad system.

In spite of conquest, we have associations, for instance, of work-

ing people today. Because of conflict, they bear the marks of

dictatorship in some instances and of corruption in others,

wounds inflicted from within and without, in the long struggle

to preserve their very existence. Unless tempered by the cool

15



balm of the cooperative spirit, they, too, will turn to conquest

as a sustaining principle should the wheel of fate favor them

unduly as the industrial battle is waged on the principle of

conflict.

There can be no possibility of cooperation between manage-

ment and labor unless objective norms of justice be established.

There can be no mutual working together unless a common goal,

a mutual objective be envisioned. There can be but a constant

renewal of bitter hostility if both employer and employed must

contend viciously for an undetermined share of the same prize.

Someone must determine the limits of the proper possession

and use of property in any form. For, it is the grasping for ex-

tremes in proj>erty that curtails the enjoyment of human rights

by the less fortunate. Under the present system of conflict, the

struggle is between human rights and property rights! The com-

batants to date have refused or been unable to draw the line that

marks off justice from injustice. The Government in some falter-

ing, catch-as-catch-can fashion has been forced to make some

scratches of delineation on the surface. It is unsatisfactory. It

must be so, for industrial life, just as family life and civic life,

k actually just that—a life. The fact has been unrecognized and
thereby, for the most part, unknown. The thing that men know

least about is life and how to live it. Modern man is concerned

in the main about things. Society itself has been allowed to be-

come a mechanized arrangement of individuals. The very con-

cept of humanity as a unified, living whole has been lost. Is

there any wonder that industry is looked upon as a systemized

method for amassing personal power and profit? How many

industrialists know or care about the answer to the simplest

questions on the purpose of man on earth? The reason for the

very existence of human society? The relationship of the goods

of earth to human destiny? Not one in a hundred, we wager.

How can there be cooperation among conflicting classes when

few if any know the aim and object of their strivings and their

struggles? It is appalling to look with the mind’s eye on the

seething masses of the multitudes of earth, (conscious of the

fact that in the answer to these questions alone is the defense

16



against social revolution), and see the blind and often
bloody

battle that goes on. And yet there, indeed, is the problem
of

industrial relations, of world peace, of renewed harmony
or of

chaos.

Can the world be educated in the simple answers to
these

simple questions before the Scythe of Time swings in its
revo-

lutionary arc as men fight everywhere for the bread that the

profiteer withholds from them? Not as long as materialism
is

the norm of action.

Conquest needs but take possession of a few men to control

large portions of the earth. Cooperation painfully exacts the
edu-

cation of millions as the price of her reign. Conflict,
in the

meantime, continues to usurp the scene.

The Catholic Attitude on industry calls for a reorientation first

of all of the thoughts of men. The primary objective, mutually

agreed upon by capitalist and laborer, would be the sustaining

and the progressive perfecting of the family of every man who

works for a living. This ideal is impossible while any living

person is looked upon as of less value than some sterile material

object of wealth and possession. Once recognized and granted,

the first collective demand on the fruits of industry would be a

decent livelihood for self and family of each and every human

engaged in the enterprise. Considerations of increased dividends,

wages and salaries for the better skilled and the more essential

agents of the business, would come after, not before, that essen-

tial determination had been made.

17



5 .

On Corporatism

Mussolini messed up a great many things in his few strutful

moments on the stage of life. Perhaps nothing that he did was

any more harmful than the stigma he placed upon the perfectly

honorable term “Corporatism.” Confusing Corporatism with

Fascism has dealt a fatal blow to the use of the term for a long

time to come. Yet coming from the Latin “corpus,” meaning

“body,” it is the one word that most adequately expresses the

Catholic Attitude on the organization of society.

Pius XII in his Christmas message of 1944 on democracy

pointedly expresses the proper meaning of the word. He said:

“The State is not a distinct entity which mechanically gathers

together a shapeless mass of individuals and confines them within

a specified territory. It is and should be in practice the organic

and organizing unity of real people. The people and a shapeless

multitude (or as it is called, the ‘masses’) are two distinct con-

cepts.”

When you speak of the people as an organic something it is

likening society to a living body. Every part of tbe body is essen-

tial for the integrity of its being, but not all have the same func-

tion. Yet the members make up one unified whole. When any

part is injured the tendency of every other part is to rush to its

defense because all feel the effects of the injury to the single

member. There is organic unity though diversity of function.

In the unity of human beings, in the State, because of the

nature of the component parts, an organic oneness is equally as

imperative as in the human body for you have a natural group-

18



ing of naturally dependent beings. The union of human
person-

alities, however, in human society is moral, not physical.
The

bond of unity is based upon a common meeting of minds
and

a common concordance of human wills implementing the natural

tendencies that Almighty God had previously put in the hearts

of the constituents. The coalition of cells and members
in a

physical body, results in an actual physical unity. The organic

nature of society is moral not physical from the very nature
of

the members.

Every human being is a distinct, separate personality. Each of

us has a personal objective in life that we must reach. As Pius

XII points out: ‘The people lives and moves by its own life

energy; (the masses are inert by themselves and can only be

moved from the outside) . The people lives by the fullness of life

in the men that compose it, each of whom—in his proper place
and in his own way is a person conscious of his own responsibil-

ity and his own views.”

While that is true and easily understandable, it is equally true

that even as we are individuals, so too is each human being born

a social being. We have been made to live in society, to help and

be helped, to perfect and be perfected one with the other. Social

isolation is contrary to the nature of man. Moved by a nigher

inspiration and with spiritual motives a man may deliberately

sacrifice the advantages of social cooperation and live entirely

alone. But even then, indirectly at least, he will need the help

of his fellow humans. Such examples are rare. The interdepen-

dence of man upon man is so evident in every action of our

daily lives that the naturalness of the need demands no proof.

The constant clash of personalities and groups on all sides in

our modem world shows how far the present generation of

humans has strayed from this simplest concept of human living.

The very first principle of harmony in human living has been

lost in the maze of conflict as men battle for the possession of

the material things about them. Nowhere is it more evident than

in the field of industrial relations. The very thought of the

brotherhood of man and the common objective of a decent life

for every human person is entirely submerged in a struggle over

19



the fruits of industry. Working people are often denied the

exercise of elemental human rights because usurpers of authority

both in business and in labor unions, have lost all thought of

the common good and the organic nature of human society.

Capital-ownership and management have preempted to themselves

positions of power which they now tenaciously claim as “rights.

The labor unions, swelled to great proportions, both financially

and in point of numbers, organize gigantic pressure groups to

combat the ill-gotten positions of the economic oppressors. Gov-

ernment, as a result, is compelled to play the part of a policeman

instead of a prudent guide and guardian of the public welfare.

Fundamentally what is missing in the world of industry today

is a clear realization of what industry really is and what it is

meant to do. Power and profit have taken priority over the basic

concept of the organic nature of society. The outcome is the

corruption of countless characters. Personally in their individual

lives they may be above reproach; socially they submerge a

humane consideration for their fellow citizens in a deluded and

de-humanized devotion to an amoral, unethical system of com-

mercial exploitation. The one great obstacle to the restoration

of industry to a state that would be in keeping with the dignity

and the liberty of both employer and employe is the stubborn

fact that men refuse to be human. It is futile to think or talk of

peace, internationally, nationally, domestic or economic, unless

those in places of responsibility are willing to accept a common

code of decent conduct based at least on the natural principles

of justice and charity.

The Papal plan for social reconstruction hovers in the realm

of empty words while k yearns for the necessary renewal of men's

mutual respect for man. The approach is the most practical yet

to be advocated. It is built on the solid basis of the very nature

of man and of society. The Catholic Attitude claims that industry

participates in the nature of an organic body. Just as the family

is the primary social unit of a nation, so too is each industry a

natural economic unit of the organic whole. Industry should be

endowed with a juridical system of its own. Each industry should

be so autonomous and so independent of the State as to have

20



authority to determine every action that is
necessary for it to

promote the common good of those involved in the
organization,

while at the same time it labors to contribute to,
rather than to

fight against the interests of the public welfare.
The Government

should intervene only in so far as it would be necessary
to guar-

antee the safeguards to the common welfare.

Neither capital nor labor would hold the place of
power. The

system would be built on the principle of cooperation
imbued

with a spirit of mutual respect for the rights and
duties of all

concerned. The practical application would be made through
the

establishment of industry-wide councils, implemented by
regional

councils and coordinated through a National Council.
Workers,

for the most part, would be thoroughly organized and
represented

by the best brains on their side of the industry. The
employers

would be united in associations with similar representation.
Every

phase of the industry would come under the jurisdiction of the

combined authority. The sacred cows of profits, prices, production

scales, expansion programs that now graze so placidly in the

pasture lands of the temples of the economic royalists would be

put to the knife. They would be sacrificed on the altar of honesty

and social justice. Labor would have a real voice in the industry

of which it is an integral part, supplying as it does the life-giving

seed to sterile money in the production of goods into usable and

consumptive form for the benefit of humanity. A right-minded

State would exercise its authority to curb any tendency of both

capital and labor to monopolize the machinery in a conspiracy

against the consumer.

The proposal, though long familiar to the Pontiffs on Vatican

Hill, is an innovation to the modern mind. As a matter of fact,

it is so radical that even Catholics hesitate to urge it. It is emi-

nently practical because it takes into consideration the most

fundamental dictates of human life and human living. It is based

on the one theory that is consistent with the nature of man and

the end and purpose of human society itself. The probability of

its acceptance is meager. Not because the proposition is without

soundness or merit, but because it presupposes human beings

who are willing and ready to think and act as human beings. No

21



blueprint of any kind can change a human heart. That
must be

left to the naturally good impulses of the individual
and the

over-flowing grace of God. The blame for the failure
to gain a

hearing and the charge of impracticability, however,
should be

lodged in the proper place. The fault is not with the
Papal pro-

posals. It rests in the lives of men who persistently demand
the

untenable privilege of exercising all the rights of
human beings

while rejecting utterly the very basic responsibilities
upon which

those rights are predicated.

The approach to social reform through the
acknowledgment

of a natural law and natural orders in society
may never be

admitted by our materialistic-minded generation. That
does not

change the essential evidence in the case. The world once
repudi-

ated the Son of God Himself. The rejection neither
disproved

His claims nor lessened by one iota the fact that He actually
was

and is the Son of God.

The doctrine of Corporatism in all its details is not
derived

from revelation. It is simply the common sense conclusion of
a

right reason functioning free of prejudice and preferential
selfish-

ness. We are aware that it will find no favor with Big Business

battling to build its empires of monopoly nor perhaps
will it

appeal any more strongly to Big Unionism battling with
equal

ferocity to break down the bulwarks of finance-capitalism.
We

are absolutely confident, however, they will discover
no other

avenue that leads to the goals that all men are seeking. The cor-

rect answer to the fundamental fallacy of modern social
thinking

can be summed up in one positive statement: ‘‘You can’t beat

nature.”

22



6 .

On Liberalism
No real Liberal thinks and acts logically. If he did he would

•

be an anarchist. Man by his very nature is a limited being. He

is hemmed in by laws for his own good whether he likes it or

not. His freedom is curtailed by the very fact that every other

human being has as much right to liberty as he himself has. No

logical Liberal can admit this. If he did, he would be modifying

his Liberalism. The very necessities of life, however, force him

to acknowledge it and compel him thereby to live an illogical life.

To subscribe to Liberalism in its fullest sense is to define man

as an absolutely independent sovereign in all things. Freedom

of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of action without regu-

lation or restraint must be the fundamental tenet of the Liberal

who makes a man a god unto himself. He cannot admit of any

authority outside of himself that has the moral right to restrict

him. To do so would be to deny Liberalism. Every day experience

shows him clearly how ridiculous his position is, but pride of in-

tellect and pitiful prejudices prevent him from succumbing to the

honest demands of common sense. His very nature may cry out,

‘T am not God!”—^the grim spectre of anarchy may raise its ugly
head, a thousand necessities of normal existence may press their

demands upon him—he will have nothing to do with that horrid
word

—
‘‘authoritarianism.” He sees in it too much of the sanity

and the order and the logical position of the Catholic Church

and he will have none of it.

Once you admit that there is and must be an authentic voice,

outside of your own pigmy being, that can dictate your choice

23



of thought and action under certain circumstances, you must ad-

mit to the obligation of discovering its whereabouts and you

commit yourself to the consequences of listening to it. The Lib-

eral does not want to learn. He is a human ostrich with his head

in the sands of doubt, confusion and ultimate chaos. He will use

his intellect with fullest freedom in all things except to consider

the claims of any institution that boasts a super-hmnan jurisdic-

tion over all human beings.

The human mind was made to make distinctions. Error creeps

in and blends itself with truth because of the weakened condition

of man’s nature and the intrusion of evil upon his senses and his

soul. Truth must often be salvaged by weeding out the excres-

cences of error. To presume the infallibility of every first thought

is to fall prey to the enticements of intellectual caprice. The

Liberal does that from the very beginning. To him there can

be no norm of truth outside himself. And yet, by depriving his

intellect of the opportunity to investigate the possibilities of such

a norm, he contradicts the very assumption of its own omnipo-

tence. He fears to give it freedom of research, lest he discover that

it really is not so omniscient after all. How does his intellect

know that there is no such authority, if he refuses to apply his

mind to the study of it? Legal authority he is compelled to

acknowledge by the very force of earthly circumstances. Divine

authority, from which legal authority derives its power, is to the

sincere Liberal a phantasy of the imagination. How he knows

that, is a mystery, for, he refuses to use his free powers of reason-

ing to reject it. He merely presumes its impossibiity.

Totalitarianism is anathema to the Liberal. And rightly so.

What he does not understand, however, is that totalitarianism is

but the Liberalism of one or more individuals carried to its

logical conclusion. "‘Totism” is a perversion of the
honorable and

necessary concept of authority. Vice is often nothing more than

virtue stretched out to an illogical extreme. Virtue demands a

middle course. It lessens its efficacy when it strays from center.

It loses its title to honor when it allows passion, prejudice
or

unbridled license to usurp its place of dignity. Liberalism,

by its very nature, must insist upon the extreme. To stand

24



in the middle is to put a stop to
freedom. That meats

to

contradict the very concept of Liberalism.
Freedom Imows no

douhts to tihe Liberal. It is the only
virtue. Why that is so and

how it came by its power to be so delegated
the Liberal never

stops to tell us. But why should he? Am I not his equal
and have

I not the right in my own name to proclaim the
same dispensa-

tion from all outside influences? And so, too,
has every other

human soul—and if we were all to insist upon
that personal pre-

rogative in all things at once, universal
anarchy would prevail.

But the Liberal never seems to see that. ^

From time to time we hear the term “Catholic
Liberal.” In

the strict sense, there is no such person. Some
Catholics may be

slow in recognizing the progressive social
doctrines of the Church

and thereby earh the label of “reactionary”
in matters that per-

tain to proper social progress. Others of
the Catholic Faith may

be more keenly alive to the dynamic message
of the Papal doc-

trines and more intimately in touch with the
pressing problems

for which they hold the solution and thereby
be falsely looked

upon by the less alert as “Liberals.” When the title is
earned by

too close an association with those who hold in
contempt almost

everything that the Church teaches, while promoting
at the same

time parallel social programs for material
ends, the epithet is

usually not meant in a complimentary sense.
No Catholic can be

more Catholic than the Catholic Church. Nor
should any of the

Faithful feel proud of being less so.

An immediate, courageous and uncompromising application
of

the social doctrines of the Church would mark every
Catholic in

the country not merely a “liberal” but a
radical. The Catholic

Church can never be reactionary in the field of
social improve-

ment. To be reactionary means to be smugly
satisfied with

“things as they are.” If we were to acknowledge
approval of the

“status quo” of today as proclaiming the Catholic
Attitude, we

would be condoning what the Papal Encyclicals have
condemned.

Present-day capitalism in practice runs counter
to the social doc-

trines of the Church. It is an antiquated economic
system founded

on conquest, furthered by conflict and grown
to maturity

through the application of false principles. It was
born of Liber-

25



alism, and injustice and inequity are its off-springs. The Catholic

Attitude condemns it and looks forward to a renewed, organic

society, the activities of which will be conducted on the principle

of cooperation through the vitalizing virtues of justice and

charity.

In regard to faith and morals, the Catholic Church is stub-

bornly, uncompromisingly and infallibly reactionary. The status

quo of religious belief was decreed by God in eternity. It was

confirmed by Christ on Calvary. It has been unflinchingly de-

fended in every age and in every land by every true Catholic.

It will be so until the end of time. If the Liberals want to argue

about that, their protestations will be welcome. But we would

first bid them examine the evidence before condemning us all,

unheard without trial, to the blistering nether regions into which

good Liberals plunge their unbelieving impenitents.

26



7.

On Communism

Complete condemnation of Communism, in all its phases, U

the only true expression of the Catholic Attitude on the subject.

Individual Catholics may be deceived as to the workings of the

evil. They may not always be able to catch the full significance

of the twists and turns in the Party Line. Unwittingly they may

be caught up in the maze of Communist propaganda and be un-

aware of the source or the direction of certain proposals that

they espouse in good faith. The diflSculty of discerning who is

a real Communist and who merely the silly “Liberal” will often

plague the Catholic of good will as it does even expert investi-

gators of the conspiracy.

On the nature of the menace, however, there is absolute una-

nimity on the part of all who adhere to the Catholic Attitude. We

know of no intelligent member of the Catholic Church who dis-

sents from the Papal Encyclical on Atheistic CofninunisTn* The

thing is evil in its essence. In its philosophic origins, its methods,

its morals, its aims and objectives it holds not the slightest ele-

ment in common with the teachings of Catholicism. It is the an-

tithesis of Christianity. As a matter of fact, there is much that

inclines us to the belief that the only adequate explanation of its

full concept is to attribute to it the support of a diabolical influ-

ence. Each day adds new evidence, of the impossibility of asso-

ciating with the followers of the Marxian creed in anything.

Some honest and upright men have from time to time thought

that a coalition of Communists and non-Communists for a com-

mon, honorable objective would be feasible. It has been the

27



personal conviction of the writer of these Comments that no

good can ever be attained from such alignments. Even in cir-

cumstances where the collaborators might skirt the edges of the

boundary line that forbids “cooperation with evil” we have

always maintained that in this country, at least, there was no

necessity for it and the efforts would result in greater evil than

good. We can understand how, under the stress of war conditions,

certain factions in other nations may be forced into the position

of some kind of cooperation with Communist cliques on the

principle of living and acting in circumstances that place them

in an “occasion of necessary evil.” We see no reason for inviting

the same situation to arise here. That has been our position and

unless some extremely unseen circumstances engulf us, it will

be our position.

Communism is built deep in the oozy mire of materialism.

The choice of materialism for the base of its build-up is not

something accidental. It is not a mere indifference to matters

spiritual. It has not been occasioned by the inability of men, as

sometimes happens, to coordinate and correlate the demands of

the spiritual life with the necessities of providing for the material

things of life. Communism positively and purposefully and de-

fiantly rejects, repudiates, and rebels against the very concept of

man as a spiritual being of any kind. A human being, to the

Communist, has but one reason for existence, namely, to produce,

distribute and consume the goods of earth. To achieve that goal

on a nation-wide plane is the end-all and the be-all of the Com-

munist State. Any other concession to the hopes, the dreams,

the aspirations and the natural tendencies of the human heart

that may be allowed to the citizen depends totally, entirely, ex-

clusively upon the will of the dictators who have usurped the

power of government. To them it is but normal to torture the

very souls of their subjects in their inhuman and ruthless efforts

to remake their lives by clamping them into the Socialist mold.

The sacredness of human life and human liberty have no meaning

for the orthodox disciple of Leninism. These are words in the

dictionary but they have no corresponding reality in existence.

Man is matter and nothing more.

28



In Communism there is no such thing as morals as the normal

person ordinarily understands the term. Adherence to the Party

Line is to the Communist the only virtue. Whatever aids and

abets that strategy is morally good ; whatever runs counter to it is

morally evil. Since all things, organic and inorganic, are consti-

tuted of but one element, matter, there can be no place in the

theory for a spiritual soul nor a Divine Being who created both

the spiritual and the material. There is, therefore, no relationship

between the human spiritual soul and the spiritual, Infinite

Creator. Religion is a non-existing phantasy and an instrument

of exploitation to the closed mind of the Communist.

Economically, the citizen is but a tool of the State. He has no

rights. Only duties. Unless he works and slaves when, where,

with whom and how the straw-bosses of the dictators command

him, he will have little or nothing to eat, the door of the com-

munal lodging place will be shut on him, his clothing will be the

best that he can find. The air and the sunshine are still free

unless he be so foolhardy as to express an honest opinion in the

wrong place. That is anywhere. For, such a system can be

maintained only by a gigantic espionage agency which functions

in every nook and corner of the nation.

Politically, Communism runs on its own power—crude, brutal,
communistic force. Authority, like liberty, is a foreign concept

to the Communist. Government is established by a minority

usurping the places that legitimate authority formerly possessed.

The change is achieved by violent or non-violent means according

to circumstances. Acquisition takes place gradually or in one

full swoop depending on which procedure best suits the purposes

of the moment. Control is kept on the same principles. Locally,

nationally or internationally, the technique is identical.

Hypocrisy and deceit are not accidental by-products of the

evil. What other men do with a consciousness of guilt, the bona

fide party member performs with a feeling of exultation. Blind

adherence to the “cause” transforms fanaticism into the virtue

of “idealism.” Language, the common medium of expression

among men, is diabolically distorted to deceive. There is no

common basis for relationship with the Communist in anything.

29



8 .

On Fascism
Fascism is a weather-beaten word that has been kicked around

80 much that oftentimes it is dfficult for the ordinary reader

to know what it means. Special pleaders for utopian causes
and

intellectual anarchists usually make use of the term to signify

anything that stands opposed to them. That is especially
true of

the Communists. So true, as a matter of fact, that you
cannot

treat of Fascism without talking of Communism. The Reds
have

deliberately and maliciously based their smear technique
on the

simple expedient of dividing the whole world into Communists

and Fascists. If you are anti-Communist, regardless of
what

your positive doctrine or pirogram be, you are automatically
a

Fascist. The irony of that maneuver, and the tragedy where
it

succeeds, is that Communism can rightly be called “Red Fascism.’

For the purpose of this little piece, as simple a definition
ot

real Fascism as you would want is contained in the short
sentence

of the late but hardly lamented Mussolini when he uttered
the

words: “Everj-thing in the State, nothing against the
State, noth-

ing outside the State.” In a sentence it is the
deification of the

State—the complete and arbitrary dictator of all within its boim-
daries. There is no room for God and revelation for they do

not come within the orbit of the State. Individuals, organizations,

associations are within the State, but they exist and function

not by any right of the natural order of beings but
merely

through participation in the divine power that the State
dictator

deigns to give them. They cease to exist or to show any
sign

of actmty on the whim or the word of the same usurped
aii-

30



thority. The effects of Fascism display themselves as the
All*

Wise” governing body of its machinery bestows a blessing
or

wields an ax upon the heads of the various elements
within the

realm.

Fascist Italy today pays the penalty of its error as
conflicting

groups claw and bite for whatever is left of its moribund sover-

eignty. Its hopes for national existence as a self-governing
and

respected State are meager. The only threat that it holds for the

obstruction to international peace is in the dynamite of the

clashing interests that now battle for possession of her being.

Nazi Germany, as the military menace to world civilization,

is as lifeless as the charred remains of the little, mustached paper-

hanger who brought about her doom. There were differences

and distinctions that had been made between Italian Fascism

and German Nazism, but neither had anything to be commended.

They can and have been lumped together as twin objects of

denunciation and contempt. Despicable as systems of life, let

them share equally the deprecations of decent men in their state

of putrified corpses.

Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany no longer exist as menacing

threats of military power. If the poisonous seed of the doctrine

is still lodged in the distorted minds of its adherents in either

land, the stern Guardians of their destiny, in the form of the

United Nations’ jurisdiction over them, will see to it that it will

have little chance to develop into anything formidable again.

But the term “Fascism” and the opprobrious epithet “Fascist”

is still very much alive, and it will be kept alive. Those noble

souls, the stooges of Stalin, whose breasts bun? with an all-

consuming fire of conflicting desires, must insure the survival

of the slogan. Their love for Russia and their hatred for America

demand a symbol for hate against which they can drive their

spears of dissension, discord and deceit.

While Russia was engaged in a mutual military effort against

a common foe, the Communists (who, we must remember, are

not more than 4 per cent of the people of the Soviet) hid their

hatred for their capitalistic allies. That is over now and they

have profited handsomely by the venture. The slogan “Fascism”

31



represented evil both, to the Communist
and to the capitalis

world, but for different reasons. As of
today. Capitalism an

the Catholic Church are the basic
constitutents of Fascism m

the mind of every Communist in every
part of the world.

same fire and fury, the same hatred and
power must be directed

against th^e two institutions in society as
that which contribute

to the destruction of the real evil
itself. If anyone has the

least

douht that this is so or if anyone
thinks that the warfare of

the

Communists against human society will be
abated because o

the efforts and the hopes of honest
men to establ^h world peace,

let thran read the revelations of
the Communist mind in their own

literature. It is the height of folly to
think that Marxist-Leninism

can be dislodged from the
Communist mind by concessions,

pleadings, or compromises preferred
by the bourgeoisie world.

Capitalism is not Fascism and we in
America, with our grow-

ing trade union movement, know it.
But it is to the Communist.

American democracy, which has given
the greatest exercise of

freedom that has ever been known in the
world, is not Fascism.

But to the Communist it is “bourgeois”
democracy and Fascism.

The Catholic Church, the greatest
bulwark in the world of human

rights, civic, social and spiritual, is the
same today as it has been

for over nineteen hundred years.
Her Founder laid down the

principles for the destruction of
Fascism before the evil ever had

that name. Her condemnations of the
cursed thing in every and

any form in which it has appeared
are a matter of record. Her

sons, while perhaps not as
vociferous as the champions of

Fascism’s twin, have been adamant in
their opposition to the evil.

The accusation has been made, even by
near-sighted Catholics,

that the Catholic clergy and laity
in America have over-empha-

sized the danger of Communism and have
soft-pedaled the issue

of Fascism. We, no doubt, would
be placed in the category of

such unfortunate advocates of
social justice. Without apology,

we have and shall continue to wave
the danger signals before the

eyes of all whose attention we can
attract. From the beginning,

guided by die beacon lights from the
Vatican, the nature of both

evils was apparent. To us the doctrine
of Fascism and Nazism

was all that the Vicar of Christ said
it was, vicious and abhorrent.

32



A aanger, however, is to be estimated by its imminence. The

threat of Fascism to us lay in its military power, of which our

government was well aware. The progress of propaganda in its

behalf in our country never reached the proportions that the

insidious onslaughts of the Russian menace did. Subsequent

events show the correctness of the evaluation. Italy and Germany

have been reduced to impotence. Within a few short months

the Nazi and Fascist traitors were on trial and imprisoned.

Where were there any organized Fascist, potential saboteur trade

unions in America? Where organized Fascist school teachers?

Where organized Fascist boycotting book reviewers, radio com-

mentators, journalists of the type and the number and the de-

ceptive American born appearance as those who still pipe the

Moscow tune? Where were the millionaire Fascist sympathizers

to finance and defraud sincere Americans by a thousand false

fronts? Where were the Fascist traitors who had wormed their

way into every department of our military services? Where were

the Fascist intriguers who stole secret documents to disrupt our

harmonious relations with a faithful ally? Where were the or-

ganized Fascist political action groups? Where were the or-

ganized Fascists who had bored into many segments of the

American Churches? Where were the organized Fascists that

really had a strong and wide influence upon the minds of

America’s youth?

Yes, we had our Fritz Kuhn and Fascist-like movements such

as that of Gerald K. Smith and his ilk. We haven’t the least

doubt that every effort was made to turn to their own advantage

anything that our enemies might find in America that had poten-

tial Fascist tendencies. By comparison with the Communist

propaganda machinery and the inroads made by it into the

social, civic and intellectual life of American citizens, the efforts

of the Fascists did not warrant the emphasis that has been placed

upon the dangers from Communism. When the whole story of

the Communist conspiracy is told, if it ever can be told, wc

have every confidence that the stress that has been placed upon

it by too few, rather than too many, will be found to have been

under-emphasized rather than exaggerated.

33



Another poignant bit of pleading, which can be touched upon

in passing, is the wistful murmur: “Isn’t the Communist my

neighbor?” “Shouldn’t I extend to him the charity of the Chris-

tian tradition?” It is a rule of fraternal correction that there is

no obligation to attempt it where the hope of success is futile.

No Christian hates any man—Communist, thief or murderer. He
prays for all men. If he has any sense he doesn’t try to make a

household pet of a fox, a bearcat, or a rattlesnake. Communism

can be prevented from taking hold of the minds of the non-

Communist population by the acceptance and the application of

the principles of social justice. A semi-Communist, or by ex-

ception some individual Communist, may respond to the normal

treatment by which one person exerts an influence upon another.

As a unique type of human being, however, caught in the chains

of fixation, the ordinary means and methods of human relations

have no effect upon the orthodox Communist until some drastic

personal disadvantage breaks the spell and makes him a victim

of disillusionment.

There is but one means of curbing the Communist lust for

power. The specimen must be isolated. Deprived of its camou-

flage trappings and stripped of its support from duped allies, it

must be made to stand forth in its true nature of naked ruthless-

ness. Then will its spurious appeal to the unwitting victims, which

it hopes to ensnare, be recognized as repugnant to any normal

human being. The task is a stupendous one. It cannot be accom-

plished by silence. Only by repeated exposes of each new twist

and turn, by ceaseless vigilance in detecting the latest covering,

by constant and courageous perseverence in pursuing party-line

tactics, by the total rejection of wishful thinking can there be

an^ hope of meeting and mastering the ever present menace.

The New Leader for June 9, 1945, sums up the inevitable

attitude that is forced upon us by the pressure of circumstances.

It is not pleasant to contemplate it in all its possible conse-

quences. Yet as long as Communism remains the Marxist-Lenin-

ist monster that it is, no other conclusion can be drawn by sane

men. The Socialist editor writes: “This is a movement on the

Like it or not, it is dynamic. You must take it or fight it.”

a4

move.



»

9 .

On Democracy

The Sovereign Pontiff, Pius XII, in his Christmas
message of

1944
,
cut away the stubhie of deception and duplicity

that has

been growing up around the term democracy and
revealed what

the hardy little plant really looks like in the
clear.

Reduced to one sentence, we can gather from the message
that

it is a “government in keeping with the dignity
and the liberty

of the citizens.'’ Granted those two attributes,
the form that

government takes is of lesser moment. Deprived of them,
there

is no democracy no matter what glamorous name the pawns
and

puppets of tyranny may attach to it.

A human being has no dignity that would rank him above the

mud, the weed, or the beast, unless in truth he possesses
a higher

order of being in his creation. That he does. The principle
of

life, by which he grows and matures physically, by
which he

perceives objects through the medium of his senses, by which he

thinks, wills and acts, places him on a higher plane than all

else in the material universe. He is endowed with a spiritual,

immortal soul, the image and likeness of its Creator. Sharing,

as he does, the very life of God Himself through Baptism and

the sacramental graces of Christ, that original dignity,
derived in

its nature from the creative Hand of God, is enhanced, beautified

and enriched a thousandfold. Man is unique among the creatures

of earth. So marvelous and mighty a being is he that no ruler,

potentate or power may restrict his liberty for one second or

constrain him in his action by one inch merely on the personal

whim of him to whom he is subject in civic matters. He is a law

35



unto himself in all things over which the Almighty and All-Wise

Sovereign of the Universe has granted him mastery and proprie-

torship. Only when he himself steps beyond the bounds marked

out by the Creator as the limits of human freedom, may an

outside authority (which, too, has been established by God for

this very purpose), check and curtail his activities.

The State has no power to create fundamental human rights.

God has anticipated governments in that regard. Natural rights

adhere to, are inherent in the nature of the human being himself.

The State may define the limits of the exercise of individual

rights in keeping with the demands of the common good. It does

not institute the right itself. What the State can give; the State

can take away. If for a moment we were to grant the authority

of the State to inaugurate the right of free assembly, of freedom

of speech, of religious worship, of education, then no objection

to or criticism of a Hitler, of a Hirohito, or even of a military

ally, Stalin, has the least basis in common sense. We do not

grant that, nor do we grant to any government any right, priv-

ilege or authority of any kind in its own name. The State has

the right to rule because Almighty God has so constituted human

society and has so created His human children that public

authority is essential to the progress and the perfection of the

race, collectively and individually. If there be no God or if His

jurisdiction be denied, anarchy has as much claim to toss men

about on the winds of revolt as Absolutism has to bind them by

the shackles of slavery.

The rule of the majority is not a norm of government, unless

the decisions of the majority coincide with the dignity and the

liberty of the citizens. It is possible for a majority to be just

as wrong as a minority. If the major portion of the voters of

America decided today that mercy-kiUing were legal, you would

have no more right to do away with your aging father than you

had before the majority spoke. If the majority of voters decided

that you as a Catholic have no right to educate your child in a

parochial school and train the youngster in the ways of God,

that vote would be just as void of authority as though it had

never been taken. If the majority of the nation took it upon

36



themselves to declare that a man was not entitled to
vote bwause

of the color of his skin (as happens in some
places) that majority

would be just as wrong as if it had denied to
a group of white

people the right to live or work or eat or to
breathe the free air

that God has given. Government by a majority does
not and can-

not change the nature of man, the purpose of
human society nor

the essential character of authority. Men, in
large numbers or

small, are still merely men. They represent God in
their civic

functions and the execution of their public duties
or they lose

claim to act for or by the people. The only
authority that can

be wielded which is in keeping with the dignity
and the liberty

of the citizens is that which has as its source
and as the founda-

tion of its strength—God and His law.
The danger to democracy, real democracy, that

is inherent in

the rise of “pressure groups” in this country
needs no long

elaboration. It sometimes happens that one or the
other side of

these conflicting forces that meet in the arena
of public opinion,

but work stealthily through the medium of paid
lobbyists in the

various capitols, champion a cause that coincides
with the wide

interests of the people as a whole. Too often, one or
both, moti-

vated by personal, group or local interests, clamor
for very par-

tisan advantages. It might be well to ponder the
words of the

Holy Father in his Christmas message of 1944.
He said:

“The State is not a distinct entity which mechanically
gathers

together a shapeless mass of individuals and confines
them within

a specified territory. It is and should be in
practice the organic

and organizing unity of a real people. The people and a
shapeless

multitude (‘the masses’) are two distinct concepts.

“The people lives and moves by its own life energy;
the

masses are inert by themselves and can only be
moved from

outside. The people lives by the fullness of life in the
men that

compose it, each of whom—in his proper place and in his own
way—is a person conscious of his own responsibility and his
own views. The masses, on the contrary, waiting for the

impulse

from outside, becomes an easy plaything in the hands of
anyone

who seeks to exploit their instincts and impressions. They
are

ready to follow, in turn, today this flag, tomorrow another.

37



10 .

On Race and Color

The brotherhood of man, under the Fatherhood of God, is a

fundamental tenet embodied in the Catholic Attitude on the

human race. All men are men and nothing can change the fact

or transform their human nature. Essentially, every human being

is possessed of a superior dignity worthy of respect and rever-

ence. Because of circumstances or culpable responsibility,
few

men are near-perfect and the general run of individuals mar the

beauty of their own beings by faults, defects and negligences.

The conflict between man as he is and man as he should be gives

rise to misunderstandings, dislikes, discrimination. Proper educa-

tion may purify the mind of prejudice; no amount of pleading,

persuasion or propaganda can convince a normal human being

that he likes what he dislikes.

The Catholic Attitude holds fast to the Divine dictum, “Love

thy neighbor,” ^*Do good to them that hate you. At the same

time it can not stultify its sincerity by pretending to be blind to

the difficulties of the practical application of even the noblest

principle. Men do not live in a vacuum of celestial equanimity.

They rub elbows with one another in a hundred different rela-

tionships day by day. There, indeed, is the “rub” that creates

friction and results all too often in untold miseries. Human nature

is tried in the crucible of personal contact and its manifest weak-

nesses are all too clearly revealed.

The Catholic Attitude elevates a man above the dismal at-

mosphere of the natural. It bids him soar into the stratosphere

of the supernatural. By birth from human parentage he is a

38



natural, human offspring. By Baptism,
regenerated

water and the Holy Spirit, he is made an
adopted child of God.

He participates in some way in the very nature
of his Creator.

He is made one in a mystical union with
Christ the Redeemer

of all mankind. He can no longer view things
merely as they

are seen; the dull-dark veil that
shrouds the human senses is

penetrated hy the piercing light of a Faith
born of God. Men

are still men in all their human frailties, but
glowing out from

beneath the sin-covered coating, the man of
faith beholds the

brilliant beauty of an immortal soul. It is
that vision and that

alone that can correct the astigmatism
of social color-blindness.

In the very act of seeing, the cataracts
of racial hate drop from

the strained eye-lids of the short-sighted.
It is the miracle of

grace in a modem day.

The Catholic Attitude proscribes the
impotency of “propa-

ganda.” The real facts of life have been revealed
by God Himself.

The existence of the supernatural and its
necessity for harmony

among men are primary truths of that unfolding.
No amount of

propaganda, no matter how skillfully proposed or
patiently pro-

moted, can ever take their place.

The modern, progressive propagandist, both
of good causes

and bad, falls prey to a pitiful delusion.
In most instances he

seeks perfection from another; for himself he
blandly overlooks

defects and more than once is found surreptitiously
hiding un-

pleasant facts that would do damage to his case.
The beams are

all in the eyes of others; his own insignificant
imperfections are

tiny motes that can be dismissed with the
flickering of an eye-

lash. Respect for human dignity, despite the
failings of the

individual, is too sacred a theme to be made the
plaything of

propaganda for selffsh purposes. Nor can it be a rusty
reed

that pipes a tune to inflame the slumbering
resentments that

rest fitfully on the couch of human passions. The truth
and noth-

ing but the truth must be the basis upon which
will be built a

better world of social justice and fraternal charity.

The Catholic Attitude embraces all men and encircles them

in the love of a God-man who died that they might live.
It

directs men’s minds to concentrate on the substance and
to ignore

39



the shadow. It does not presume that likes and
dislikes can be

eliminated from human life; they are rooted too firmly
in the

fallow ground of a fallen nature. It not only presumes
but posi-

tively prescribes the all-consuming motive of strong,
deep, super-

natural love of neighbor as the only sound basis
for human

relations. Tliat love is not a mere natural passion or
emotion.

It is a sweeping force within the soul settled there
by God Him-

self. Divine Love, even as it is shared in the human soul,
is not,

cannot be blind to the irritations, the annoyances,
the multi-

farious misdeeds that grate upon human sensibilities. But
it can

and does brush aside dislikes and displeasures that
rise to rankle

in the human breast. Not always, however, without a
struggle.

It recognizes realities; it cannot call black, white,
or inconveni-

ence, comfort. It takes life as it is. But it steels the
soul to mount

above the petty tyrannies of sense-reaction and serenely
grapples

with unpleasantness until it makes man master even of
himself.

This is the only fool-proof prescription for the
malady of racial,

class and color intolerance.

The Catholic, the Negro and the Jew are often the
special

targets of discrimination in America. Surely they
should not be

antagonistic one to the other. The Jew is the spiritual broker

of the Catholic by the very nature of God’s Divine
Dispensation.

Any individual who thinks otherwise is just so much
off the

beam of the Catholic Attitude. Catholicism is the flowering
of

the bud of Judaism. The rejection by Jewish leaders of
the re-

demption of mankind through the mediation of Jesus Christ
does

not change one iota of the historical fact. The misguided
adher-

ence of many of the Jewish people to a traditional hope that has

long ago ceased to have a meaning for them, does not
give to

any follower of Christ the right to judge the soul of his
neighbor.

Racial characteristics that differ among peoples are not a cause

for criticism among intelligent men. The Jew, as any other

human person, is to be judged solely on the merits of his own

personal worth or lack of it. He should not expect special

privilege or exaggerated sympathy for himself because he happens

to be a member of a traditionally persecuted people. Nor should

he be blamed and boycotted, as an individual, for faults
that

40



some other son of Israel may unfortunately
possess He is a man

with all the rights and all the dignity
of any other man. Let him

be treated with respect or reserve,
according to circumstances,

like the rest of men.
.

The Negro is much more sinned against
than guilty of sin.

Sufiace it to say that it is a crime
that cries to heaven for ven-

geance when one of God’s creatures must
bear the chains of a

cruel constraint because of the
color of his skin. It is doubly

damnable when his inferior social and
economic status is tlie

result of inhuman neglect or positive
discrimination by fellow-

humans who had condemned him to slavery
in the first place

and kept him in servitude even after he
had been released from

the bondage of a fraternalistic tyranny.
The restoration of the

Negro to the plane of equal opportunity
is one of the primary

obligations on the collective conscience of
American society.

It might be a profitable experiment for
the Catholic to reflect

on the Catholic Attitude on the Catholic
himself. The standards

for the proper social relationships
between men are not private

judgments nor personal preferences. The Vatican
has gone to

great pains, in every Pontificate, to
point out correct norms in

many Encyclicals.

The prophecy of Christ that “the gates of hell
shall not prevail

against her” refers to the Divine institution,
the Church, not to

some fancied little house of cards that some
individual Catholic

might have builded within his own brain cells.
As Catholics we

can neither be content with the smug assurance
that social dis-

turbances will right themselves without effort
on our part nor can

we allow either the racial idiosyncrasies of a
Hitler or the class-

conscious poison of a Stalin to have any play
in our minds and

hearts. Individually we have the obligation to perfect
and save

our own souls. Socially, we are our brothers keepers.
Spiritually

we have the protection of an international
organization, guar-

anteed by God Himself to outlast the ravages of time
and the

resentments of men. We can neither be more Catholic than the

Church by rushing to extremes nor must we fall short
of the

mark by nurturing pet theories that run counter to her
teachings.

The shadow of a coming conflict is even now creeping
upon

41



the Church and many individuals. It will be the clash of “prop-

erty” rights vs. human rights. It must be met and resolved

within the confines of the Catholic Attitude. Over the years the

Church, by innumerable sacrifices, has endeavored to make secure

the functioning of her spiritual ministries for the benefit of souls

by the attaining of property. Schools, churches, institutions of

many kinds are included among her possessions. Some individual

Catholics have succeeded in numbering themselves among the

relatively rich. To teach fearlessly the complete social doctrine

of the Church is to run the risk of losing the favor of individuals

who may have proved generous in benefactions in the past. To

not merely passively allow but to positively promote the entrance

of colored students to our schools and subsequently as candidate

for the clergy and the Sisterhood may in some sections create

embarrassing complications. Will principle be sacrificed to preju-

dice or pride or an overestimation of the value of “property”?

Not if the Catholic Attitude prevails and the content of its thought

be fearlessly applied.

42



IL

Toward the Non-Catholic

The Catholic Church makes a distinction between religious

organizations that present themselves to the world as a Church

and the men and women who may be affiliated with such organi-

zations. The Catholic Attitude boldly asserts that neither the

Roman Catholic Church nor any “rival” society has any right to

claim authority over the souls of men unchallenged. It defends

the duty of every soul to put them all to the test, demand that

they produce their credentials and to prove their right to exist-

ence.

On her part, she flings an unqualified assertion at the world:

“If any man can find one single doctrine that we teach today

that is not taught officially the same in every corner of the globe,

if any man can find one single doctrine that we teach today that

was not taught in the days of the Apostles down through the

centuries—we have no right to exist, we should go out of busi-
ness!” Her claim is one of unity in Faith and obedience uni-

versally both in time and in place. Her juridical right to speak

in the name of Christ is based on an unbroken succession of

spiritual rulers from Peter to' Pius, an unchanged and unchanging

transmission of all the truths proclaimed to the world by Jesus

Christ Himself. Truth is indivisible.

If the Catholic Church was the Church of Christ in the be-

ginning, she still is. If she was not the society upon which

jurisdiction in spiritual matters was originally bestowed, there is

no Church of Christ existing today. The guarantee
of the

Founder, “I shall be with you all days even to the end of the

43



world,” has prevailed or it has not. If it has, the Catholic Church

is His Church (for so it was for sixteen centuries). If not, there

is no Christian Church and the whole redemption of mankind

by the Son of God is a hoax. There is a serious indictment and

it can not be disregarded. The Catholic Attitude is adamant in

its contention that there is but one true Church and it is the

weighty responsibility of every soul to find it.

The Catholic Attitude toward souls who refuse to recognize

her unique position in the lives of men is one of paternal solici-

tude. Every validly baptized person falls within her jurisdiction.

There is but one Baptism. “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.”

She who has jurisdiction over the Sacrament of Baptism, has

juridical claim to all who submit to it. The Catholic Church,

carefully conscious of the greater spiritual good of all souls, does

not always press her claim to be sole spiritual sovereign of the

world. Many sincere souls, in good faith, fail to see the validity

of her position. Ingrained prejudice or unaccountable ignorance

has cast a veil upon their vision. For those she prays daily that

a stronger light may dawn upon their souls. She relinquishes her

right to deal directly with and to legislate for these divinely con-

stituted subjects. Never has she, nor never will she, acknowledged

that any other human society, spiritual or civil, can rightfully

claim their true allegiance.

It comes as a surprise to a good many followers of a man-

made sect when they learn that their particular church had its

origin through the instrumentality of a disgruntled or dissenting

Catholic priest. Trace back the modem sects to their beginnings

and hardly a one existing today but stemmed from a protesting

priest or layman who once pledged allegiance to the Church of

Rome. All of them have split and been severed one from another

until they are now numbered in the hundreds. Rome alone re-

mains the center and the source of a unified, unbroken, infallible

teaching.

The Catholic Attitude toward those who grope toward the light

through a thousand separated channels is one of steadfast, un-

feigned charity. It can be intolerant only of error. Truth, half-

truth and no truth can never be accepted as equals. Human beings

44



created by the one, same Omnipotent God,
suffered for in the

spilling of the Precious Blood of the one,
same Redeemer, led

on to salvation and sanctification by the
one, same Holy Spirit,

those human beings, all of whom make up the one
human family,

can never be anything else but
subjects of solicitude of the

Catholic Attitude. Each living person is a
potential member of

the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church,
of which He is the

Head and all the baptized in union with His
Vicar, the members.

The Catholic Attitude toward those not now of
the Fold is

that of a watchful father awaiting the
return of a wandering

child. It makes no pretense of judging the
condition of their

souls. That is God’s absolute prerogative.
It makes no odious

comparisons on the relative righteousness of
those who live

beneath the mantle of the Church and those who
loiter in fields

apart. It only knows that Christ established but
one, unified

infallible Society to serve in the salvation
of mankind.

The Catholic Attitude cannot compromise either
with the

minions of the world or the champions of other
spiritual theories.

It has been molded in a set form by a Divine
Commission. Re-

flecting the reality that God Himself has ordained for
men (the

Church), It can cater to the things of time only
as they relate

to the accomplishment of the purpose that God intended.
It must

ward off the influences of the world which would
accept her in

partnership by changing her nature. Misunderstood by
men of

good will, maltreated by many enemies, a source of
suffering

to ber own and often a riddle to tbe sympathetic
bystander, the

Catholic Attitude is impossible of change regardless
of all con-

sequences. To the non-Catholic It can but offer the credentials

of nineteen centuries of history, the beauty of a
supernatural doc-

trine once really known, the testimony of its million martyrs
who

gave up their most valuable possession on earth, to be numbered

among the glorious dead rather than desert the loyalty which they

knew was more precious than life itself. The Catholic Attitude can

but wait in patience until by inquiry and study those who are now

cheated of the treasures which it possesses come to an under-

standing of the things that they are missing.

45



12 .

On the Catholic Attitude

The human intellect has the unique faculty of being able to

‘‘bend back upon itself,” to reflect not only upon previous thoughts

of its own making, but to consider, contemplate and conjecture

upon its own nature and operations. In this short piece we will

endeavor to have the Catholic Attitude attempt the same feat.

The Catholic Attitude, as it reflects the official mind of the

Church, represents an infallible judgment on all subjects that

relate to Faith and Morals. It cannot err in its ex cathedra pro-

nouncements concerning matters of belief or in questions of

morals. The official Catholic Attitude is infallibly correct and it

knows it. On subjects closely related to Faith and Morals, for

instance, certain propositions that pertain to the social, economic

and industrial field, it is the habitual and traditional endeavor

of the Church to reduce her conclusions to metaphysical certainty,

as far as it is possible, through the medium of the human mind.

Ordinarily her position on such subjects, if not professedly

presented as infallible dicta, is strongly buttressed hy iron-clad

arguments from Scripture, Tradition, expert testimony, as well

as sound natural reasoning. Because of her historical link with

the past, her strategical position in world affairs, her ability to

call upon the most learned scholars in almost every line of knowl-

edge and experience, the Vatican stands out as the best equipped

medium in any age to convey sound judgments on every con-

ceivable topic that deals with human relations. In the sphere of

even merely human testimony she towers high above any other

known institution. Infallible in spiritual matters, she is likewise

46



supreme in her sublime office as the purveyor
of deep wisdom

on practically every co-related subject.

Before this great storehouse of knowledge can
be resolved into

action, however, it must be filtered through the
minds of millions

and millions of those who profess obedience and
belief in the Di-

vine mission of the Catholic Church. There is
never the slightest

doubt in the mind of the intelligent and loyal
Catholic as to his

position in regard to the official Catholic
Attitude on strict matters

of Faith and Morals. In these things God Himself has
revealed His

Will and the Church is but His Spokesmen. It is
in the realm of

interpretation concerning undefined subjects
that division or di-

vergence is ant to appear. The personal equation enters
in. National

and local circumstances sometimes stand in the
way of proper

progress in the understanding and execution of Papal
pronounce-

ments.

Intellectual lethargy inclines the mind to error. Prejudice,

passion and simple human selfishness at times becloud the
per-

sonal viewpoint of the recipients of the Church s
teachings. The

age-old difficulty of applying principle to practice
presents itself.

Invariably the Vatican is about fifty years ahead of her
subjects

in her thinking. It takes much more than a generation or two
for

even a simple concept to spread far enough, and be
deeply enough

imbedded in human minds to affect the population of the world.

Thus at times there seems to appear a rift between the
official

Catholic Attitude and that of certain segments of the Faithful.

Usually what it means is that the slow-minded students have
not

yet been able to catch up with their more alert and keener-minded

Teacher.

The official mind of the Church on all the current social topics

of the day has been enunciated and reiterated in
dozens of

Encyclicals, on hundreds of special occasions. A study of her

documents will reveal clear-cut and definite statements, recom-

mendations, precepts and irrefutable conclusions in regard to

them. The social aspects of property, labor, wealth, industrial

relations, on society itself have all been dealt with in an expert

and scholarly manner. Communism, Liberalism, Race theories.

Corporatism, all have been scrutinized with exacting care and

47



the content of the Catholic Attitude concerning them has long

ago been formed.

Time and dutiful attention to their demands are the only ele-

ments still to be added so that the thought of the official Catholic

Attitude may percolate through the humanly-limited minds of the

members of the Church Teaching. When the Catholic Attitude

of both Teacher and student coincide and are completely in

conformity, both in concept and in action, then will the world

be made aware of the wisdom and knowledge that it now lacks

and needs so much.

48