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DANIEL A. LORD, 5.1. 

~ CT'HE GlUEE~T'S WORK il. 1 c:><..; J '\. 
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.. ! ST. LOUIS 8. MO • 

. * 





{ 
.. Sequel to .. } 

"The Questions They Always Ask" 

by 

REV. DANIEL A. LORD, S. J . 

THE QU EEN'S WORK 

3742 W. Pine Blvd. 

St. Louis 8, Mo. 



Imprimi potest: 

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Third printing, April 1945 

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«'ill be Hsed f07' the advancement 

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Copyright 1944 

THE QUEEN'S WOH.K, Inc. 

DeactcJmed 

'. 



WITH A BOW OF THANKS 

to Robert Bakewell Morrison, S.J., 

who gave these questions a very 

careful reading and made 'sugges-

tions that were wise,accurate, 

from the viewpoint of the author 

most welcome, and from the view-

point of the potential reader mos,t 

important. 

D. A. L., S. J. 





"ASK ME A~OTHER" 

By DANIEL A. LORD, S. J. 

qut of the question boxes which I have 
opened in many retreats and days of recollec-
tion, I made a first sifting called "The Ques-
tions They Always Ask." In this booklet I 
included the normal run-of-the-box questions, 
the type that invariably cropped up in every 
question box. 

Then it occurred to me that the less usual 
questions might be of interest. So I made a 
second sifting-this time for the out-of-the-
ordinary question, the problem that seemed 
somewhat different. 

Yet I threw out the purely personal ques-
tions . or those which were abnormal or 
"queer." I did not include questions that 
clearly pertained to one person and only one 
person. I did include the questions that .might 
be asked by a great many people. They were 
unusual in the sense that they did not happen 
to everyone; but they occurred, I was sure, to 
a great many people. 

And most of all the questions interested me. 
So I thought they ' might interest readers as 
well . 

. Here they are, offered with the answers that 
may serve as enlightenment. 

For the standard questions that are sure to 
be in large measure your problems too, I refer 
you to "The Questions They Always Ask." 
For questions that open vistas -of less routine 
difficulties, for problems that may interest 
many but not all readers, I now submit this 
little booklet. 

If in the two booklets you are still not an-
swered-well there may be place for a third 
and a fourth book of questions and answers. 
Of the making of questions, there is no end. 
Of the writing of answers, there may be par-
allel endltll:llill1tl§§, 

-6-



A Catholic couple are married by a Cath-
olic priest in a Catholic church. Outside 

the church they separate: He goes to 
New York, and she goes to Californin. 

One year later they meet again, decide 
that the marriage ceremony was a 

mistake, and again separate without 
ever having lived together. Can the, 

marriage be annulled? 

This is what is called a marriage that has ' 
been ratified and never consummated. If the 
couple can prove that they never lived to-
gether as man and wife and have a just reason 
for separation, the marriage can be annulled. 

But the procedure is by no means a simple 
one. The case has to be referred to the Sacred 
Congregation concerned with the Discipline of 
the Sacraments. The dispensation must be 
granted by the Holy See, and it does so only 
after it has been persuaded that the cause is 
adequate and just. . All this takes time and 
must go through a rather complicated proce-
dure in the diocesan marriage court and the 
chancery office. 

In other words even here the Church does 
all it can to safeguard the sanctity of mar-
riage. The Church does not regard any appli-
cation for dispensation, however righteous the 
reasons, as trivial or to be granted lightly. 

How important is pride in the process of 

one's losing the faith? 

Someday we may be able to st age some such 
debate: Resolved that lust has caused more 
men and women to lose their faith than has 
pride. 

- 6 -



I am quite sure that in the long run the 
affirmative will win. Certainly of the men and 
women that I have known who have lost their 
faith, nine out of ten have done so because of 
some illicit love. As a wise old Irish pastor 
once said, "When a man loses ~is faith, if it 
isn't punch, it's Judy." 

Pride does however very frequently enter 
the picture. A man is convinced that he has a 
very brilliant mind and that what he ,knows is 
right and that what he cannot accept is neces-
sarily wrong. The Pharisees were probably 
scrupulously pure men, but they were too 
proud to believe that a carpenter could teach 
them anything. 

So many a young man has gone to a secular 
university, received an excellent education-
during the course of which his faith was ig-
nored or derided-and at the end has felt that 
he knew a great deal more than did the priests 
of his acquaintance and much too much to 
accept the teachings of the "antiquated" 
Church. 

One famous apostate, Conan Doyle, is 
reported to have said that he had mercifully 
outgrown the religious superstitions of his 
adolescence. Later on he swallowed-sheet, 
tambourine, and ouija board - the supersti-
tions of spiritualistic seances. 

One of the most brilliant students of the 
Catholic university where I taught left the 
Church shortly after he was graduated be-
cause there were so many things that the 
Catholic Church taught that he "could no 
longer believe." 

But aside from this pride of mind there is 
another pride which is muoh more frequent in 
its undermining of faith. There is the pride of 
the man who makes a lot of money and who, 
consciQUs. gf his power, finds it annoying to 

-7 -



have to kneel in the confessional or be one of 
a congregation made. up largely of the day 
laborers in his plant. There is the society 
woman who recognizes that Catholicity is a 
social handicap, sends her sons and daughters 
to fashionable non-Catholic schools, and dis-
likes to attend the devotions at which her cook 
and her upstairs maid are present. 

There is the author who refuses to submit 
his books for the censorship required by the 
Catholic Church, and the banker who regards 
the Church's laws on honesty as a handicap to 
his success in business. There is the young 
man who finds that success in business goes 
oftenest to the man who sports the Masonic 
pin; in his anxiety to rise to power and fame, 
he gives up his faith, of which he has grown 
ashamed. 

Pride has a great deal to do with the losing 
of one's faith, but I still believe that in the 
long run passion causes more men to turn 
their backs on their religion than does pride. 

How can I get my father to receive Holy 
Communion? He receives . only once a year. 

Sometimes it is more difficult to get a mem-
ber of one's own family to practice his religion 
than it is to get a stranger to do so. Would it 
be possible to interest your father by having 
one of his Catholic men friends invite him? 
Couldn't a friend get him to join the married 
men's Sodality or the Holy Name Society or 
some other Catholic fraternal organization 
that receives Holy Communion frequently? 
Couldn't you get one of his friends to invite 
him to make a retreat, in which frequent com-
munion would certainly be discussed? 

As for yourself, it might be that if you in-' 
vited him to go with you to communion he 
would go. Pick some important day, Mother's 

- 8-



Day for example, and ask him to go to Holy 
Communion for mother's intention. Or pick 
out the anniversary of some family death and 
ask him to go for the r epose of the beloved 
soul. 

Or if you know that there are going to be 
Eucharistic devotions, like the forty hours, 
ask him to go along with you to these devo-
tions. Plan to go to confession, and suggest 
his going with you; then take it for granted 
that he will also go to communion with you at 
Mass the next morning. 

. Sometimes · these things are best handled 
without too much discussion. Just take it for 
granted that the occasion calls for Holy Com-
munion and that you would love to have him 
with you, and he may come of his own accord. 

A Catholic friend of mine is going to marry 
a divorced man. What attitude do you 

think I should take? ' 

I think that in all honesty you ought to tell 
her what a mistake ' she is making and what a 
serious sin she is committing. Don't you think 
you could do this, not sternly, but in as 
friendly a fashion as possible? 

Tell her that in most dioceses, St. Louis for 
instance, not only would she be excommuni-
cated by her action but her bridesmaid and 
groomsman would be excommunicated too. 
Many Catholics pretend that they don't know 
this. Perhaps they don't know it, but they 
should. They might then take the whole per-
formance less casually and a little more 
seriously. 

Of course if she persists ' in going through 
the civil ceremony with the man, you cannot 
attend such a wedding. Tell her that in ad-
vance. And remind her that despite the civil 
character Qf the ceremony she is not 'married 

- 9-



in the eyes of Christ or the Church and 
receives none of the rights and duties of a 
married person. 

She must realize that after the civil wed-
ding your social relationships with her will 
necessarily be curtailed. It is possible how-
ever that you will be her only remaining link 
with the Church. So I think you would be wise 
to keep up some sort of contact with her after 
her marriage. You can see her occasionally, 
for example at lunch, when her husband is not 
present; you can even invite her sometimes to 
go with you to church or to some parish affair. 
She may thus retain some slight connection 
between herself and the Churcll~ 

But you should let her know that if at any 
time she does want to talk with a priest, you 
will be happy to help her toward the begin-
nings of a return to her faith. 

I recently came across the reyelations of a 
woman who seems to haye been yery holy. 
I talked about it to a priest, and he ap-
peared skeptical. I talked to . another 
priest who seemed to belieye the reye-
lations. I then found that her life had 
been written and that it bore the 
imprimatur of a bishop. What am 

I to think about these priyate 
revelations? 

At present the Church is manifesting a 
great deal of concern about "private revela-
tions" and "false mysticism." Indeed in 1937 
the Holy Office in Rome warned the bishops 
of the world against their tolerating "new and 
often silly forms of mysticism." And the new 
encyclical of Pius XII, "Mystici Corporis," 
again smashes at false mysticism. 

In examining these private revelations, the 
Church is usually very slow and very careful. 

- 10 -



The Church is not so much concerned with the 
question: "Did Our Lord or Our Lady or some 
saint reveal this or that to such and such a 
person?" as she is with the question: "How 
does what this person says he received in rev-
elation agree with Christ's teacliings, the an-
cient tradition of Catholic faith, and Christian 
morality?" 

Undoubtedly' there have been instances of 
real revelations. Our Lord evidently appeared 
to Saint Margaret Mary in order to reopen to 
the world the treasures of His Sacred Heart. 
But what the Church considered was, not the 
revelations in themselves, but the devotion to 
the Sacred Heart, which was what was 
revealed. 

'So when any revelation occurs or seems to 
occur, the 'Church is inclined to be extremely 
aloof, watchful, hesitant, critical, and even 
skeptical. Thank heaven that this is the case. 
Apparently holy people have not been above 
the faking of revelations. And in moments of 
intense subjective piety men and women have 
thought they have received revelations which 
were later on proved dangerous nonsense or 
sheer heresy. 

A lot of things must be carefully examined 
by Church authorities before any revelation is 
accepted. The holiness of the life of the person 
claiming the revelation is examined carefully. 
Bernadette of Lourdes had. to prove by the 
virtues of her entire life the truth of her reve-
lations. Joan of Arc proved her revelations 
less by her victories in battle than by her 
saintliness. God does not as a rule choose 
people of less than saintly stature for his 
revelations. And saints ar'e very, very slow to 
believe even the most miraculous of manifes-
tations. The gesture by which little Berna-
dette sprinkled holy water . on the apparition 
of Our Lady is characteristic of the wisdom of 
the saints. . 

~ Jl -



So we are very wise if like the saints, like 
the Church we accept private revelations very, 
very slowly. In fact we are quite right if we 
hold back until the Church has examined the 
content of the revelation-in order to find out 
if it is in accord with Christ's teaching-and 
the life of the person-in order to make sure 
of his or her virtue and trustworthiness. 

You are not required to give your faith to 
private visitations and revelations. And the 
Catholic course is to accept these revelations 
only after they have received careful scrutiny 
and honest investigation. 

Why hasn't the Catholic Church been more 
acti'JIe to set up its ideals before the 

United States and the world? 

For the last three hundred and fifty years 
the Catholic Church has been in a state of 
almost continued siege. Even in the so-called 
Catholic countries its enemies have been 
largely dominant and have made its existence 
difficult and often precarious. In countries 
dominated by England, the Church was for 
two and a half centuries either exiled, perse-
cuted, or barely tolerated. The persecutions 
of the Church in France, in Italy, and in 
Spain are matters of simple historical record. 

For a long time here in the United States 
we Catholics, always in ~ minority, belonged 
to the poorer classes or to classes that were 
regarded as distinctly unfashionable. As a 
result the leading newspapers could safely ig-
note us, and the big universities could ,treat ' 
our struggling educational system with pat-. 
ronage or contempt. 

All this made Catholics almost timid. In 
lands where Catholics have been persecuted, 
they have dreaded the return of persecution 
and n~ye fel~ that by being quiet and unob-

-12-



trusive they would cause less attention to be 
paid them and less dislike to be aroused 
against them. In Italy, France, and Spain-
to take the examples of lands where belliger-
ent anti-Catholic minorities seized power-
Church property was confiscated. The schools 
were closed, and, as happened under the Kul-
turkampf of Germany, the right to print a 
newspaper or publish a book was denied. 

All this certainly made Catholics self-con-
scious, often glad enough to be allowed to live 
unmolested or reluctant to arouse further per-
secution by an aggressive attitude. 

I do not for a minute pretend that such an 
attitude may not be cowardly. I do think how-
ever that anyone can see that the attitude was • 
natural. 

So we are very foolish if we take the pa'1t 
as an excuse for present apathy and lack of 
zeal. Even if we arouse the most bitter per-
secution, as the magnificent Catholic Center 
'Party did in Germany or as Catholic Action 
did in Italy, we owe it to ourselves, to Christ, 
and to the Church to present our ideals cour-
ageously and without consi~eration of conse-
quences to ourselves. ' 

Yet despit~ all this it is difficult to see how 
Catholics can in many cases-and non-Cath-
olics in almost all cases-be apparently un-
aware of the leadership of the bishops of this 
country ' and of the frequent pastorals they 
issue on almost every question of importance 
to our nation. Are they unaware that the 
bishops meet every year . to discuss and to 
present to the world solutions of current prob-
lems, to apply Catholic principles to the 
questions of the hour, and to view contempo-
raneous matters in the light of Christ's great 
teachings? ' 

Are they still unacquainted with the Papal 
encyclicals and the applications which the 

~13-



bishops and other Catholic leaders are making 
in all fields of human relationships? 

It is a little perplexing that we are taunted 
because we do not speak out on public ques-
tions and then in so deep a silence and so wide 
a neglect are ignored when we do speak out. 

When does gambling become a sin? 

Gambling becomes a sin when a person risks 
money which is not his own, money which he 
should rightfully use for other purposes-such 
as the care of his family; when through the 
excitement of gambling he neglects his duties 
-for example by failing to work properly at 
his own profession; and when gambling brings 
about a nervousness that unfits him for nor-
mal life . 

. There is in all of us a strange gambling in-
stinct which makes us like first of all to take 
chances and then to lay our hands on a little 
money that came to us with apparently no 
effort on our own part. The gambler is always 
convinced that easy money lies within the next 
turn of the card . 01' the next click of the rou-
lette marble. . 

For that matter we are gambling more or 
less all the time. Every new business venture 
is a gamble. If a man writes a book, he gam-
bles on whether or not it will be a success. If 
we make a new acquaintance, we gamble to , 
some extent on whether or not the friend will 
prove faithful and trustworthy. 

Some of the evangelical religions have 
pronounced all forms of gambling sinful. I 
remember a minister who wrote to me, de-
nouncing Catholics because they did not list 
gambling as one of the greatest of sins. I 
retorted by asking him where in the Bible 
gambling was explicitly forbidden. Since he 
was an evangelical, he believed that the Bible 

-14-



contained all articles of faith and morals. 
Where in the Bible was gambling forbidden? 
I never received an answer from him. 

But though a certa.in amount of pleasant 
risking of money-money that we do not need 
for other purposes-in friendly companionship 
over a card game in the living room is surely 
harmless, still gambling is associated with real 
perils. A gambler makes a terrible husband. 
A youngster who acquires the habit of gam-
bling may later on become a thief or a wastrel. 
The sad leading man of "Showboat" is merely 
typical of the professional gamb1er, who usu-
ally succeeds in wrecking too, too many lives. 

Can you prove that there is a personal 
. God? 

That is relatively simple. I need not remind 
you that Our Blessed Lord spoke of God as 
Our Father. Nothing else could be more per-
sonal than that. Christ claimed to be God and 
proved Himself to be God. Certainly Christ is 
a person. And when He spoke of the Holy 
Spirit as the Comforter, He was referring to a 
quality to be found only in a person. 

But if the person who asks this question 
prefers a non-Biblical proof, the philosophical 
proof is simple too . . 

The visible world around us is proof of an 
intelligent creator. The whole structure of 
the world is of such an elaborate plan that a 
great non-Gatholic scientist was led to say that 
quite clearly the maker of the universe must 
be the greatest of mathematicians. The car-
rying of that plan into effect, an effect which 
continues from day to day and from minute to 
minute, requires the strongest and most effi-
cient will on the part of the planner. But a 
being with an intellect and a will is a person. 
So the creator of the universe is a . person. 

-15 -



I should like to know your attitude toward 
international affairs-briefly. 

I state the question exactly as it was asked 
me, for I must admit , that when I read it I 
laughed. How anybody could handle the ques~ 
tion of international affairs briefly is beyond 
me. It reminds one of Rosalind's barrage of 
questions in "As You Like It," for which she 
demanded an answer-in a word. But it is 
possible to give something like a brief outline 
sketch of the Catholic international viewpoint. 

God is of His very nature an international-
ist-a universalist-the Father of all the 
world. 

Christ is by His very nature an internation-
alist. He died for all men and the salvation of 
all races in all times. 

The Catholic Church is of its very nature 
international. It was founded for the salva-
tion of all the world and was mea,nt to gather 
all mankind into its ranks. Christ prayed for 
His Church that there might be "one fold and 
one shepherd." 

Truth is international. It belongs to all men, 
and it was meant to be the light and guidance 
of all men. All men hunger for it, and all men 
have a right to it. 

The laws of God and of nature are interna-
tional. Right and wrong do not change as one 
crosses boundar;y lines, nor are the Ten Com-
mandments and the laws, of the Savior ' modi-
fied to blend with the color of a complexion. 

Human nature is international. However 
strong may be national characteristics or na-
tional features, man everywhere is essentially 
the same. Surface appearances do not change 
his basic nature. 

Heaven will be international. In heaven 
there will be no question of any citizenship 
other than the citizenship in the City of God. 

- 16-



So we can understand why Christ talked of 
uniting all mankind like branches grafted onto 
Himself, the vine. We can understand why 
Saint Paul thought of all men as. at least po-· 
tential members of one Mystical Body. We 
can see why the Catholic Church regards the 
whole human race as properly its children and 
offers faith, all · the sacraments, priesthood 
itself to any man capable of receiving these 
things, all question of race or color - disre-
garded. 

Patriotism is a great virtue. It is implicitly 
demanded by the Fourth Commandment. It is 
that virtue by which we love our country for 
the splendid gifts· it has conferred upon us 
and serve it in the same spirit in which we 
serve our family. And as in the case of our 
family, we must love our country even when 
it treats us badly. That is our stern duty. 

But the Catholic must look beyond his COUl;l-
try to all mankind. Weare members of the 
human race before we are Americans. To be 
Catholic is more important than to be white. 

Race prejudiCe and the exclusion of any 
man from the faith and from his basic human 
rights is utterly un-Catholic. 

A non-Catholic friend of mine tells me that 
Catholics have the wrong Bible. He says 
that the true religion is contained in 

his Bible and that the Bible used oy 
Catholics is different. 

The Catholic Bible contains everything, all 
the books that are in the Protestant Bible. 
The Protestant Bible does not have all the 
books which are in the Catholic Bible; the 
Catholic Bible has all the books which are in 
the Protestant · Bible. You will find in your 
Catholic Bible anything that the Protestant 
Bible contains. The Protestant will not find in 

-17-



the Protestant Bible some of the things that 
are in your Catholic Bible. 

There have been differences between the 
King James or Protestant Bible and the 
Douay-Rheims or Catholic Bible. But it is in-
teresting to note that many of these differ-
ences have disappeared since the Protestants 
revised their Bible and eliminated some of · 
their incorrect translations and especially 
since in the new version of the Catholic Bible, 
just brought out in English under the guid-
ance of the bishops, our translation has been 
made more readable. 

You would be very wise by the way to 
become well acquainted with this new version. 
Nothing is added, nothing subtracted; but a 
fine body of scholars have worked over the 
original versions of the Bible, made a fresh 
translation, and brought the New Testament 
(the part retranslated thus far) in closer 
touch with modern English. 

And again by the way . . . How often do 
you read your New Testament-not to men-
tion your Bible-at all? 

Sometimes girls seem to fall in 10'Ve with 
girls. Why · is this considered worse 

than for a girl to fall in 10'Ve 
·with a boy? 

In the first place most "crushes" or "cases" 
. between girls are as harmless as they can pos-
sibly be. There is something quite charming 
about a girl's being enthusiastic about another 
,girl, thoroughly enjoying her company and 
laying at her feet little sacrificial gifts. 

Within recent years the type of author who 
persists in putting the blackest interpretations 
on everything has made a lot of young people 
self-conscious about something that is as a 
rule quite innocent. There has been a deal of 

-18-



black and unpleasant taLk about the love of 
women for womeri; 

It is quite true that rare cases of love be-
tween women that amounts to passion and 
becomes sinful dQ exist. Such love is wro.ng. 
for the simple reason that it is an abnormal 
Bubstitution for love between men and women. 
Men and women were meant to fall in love 
with each other, ' not women with women nor 
men with men. 

But fortunately among wholesome people 
such sinful love is extremely rare, and it is a 
shame that young people should look upon 
t1].eir innocent affections with eyes that have 
been trained ,to expect evil. 

How do you disprove the charge that the 
Catholic religion is a religion only for 

those who are of strong character? 

This is a perfect case of "Damned if you 
do, . and damned if you don't." How many 
times~ I have heard the Catholic religion ac-
cused of being a religion only for the weak! 
It is, according to these objectors, intended for 
those who need to be frightened by the fear of 
hell; who need the protection of the Ten 
Commandments; who aren't strong enough to 
decide right and wrong, truth and error, for 
themselves; who need P"opes, bishops, and 
priests. ' 

So you see the proper answer to your ques-
tion is this: The Catholic religion is the reli-
gion for the strong, for the weak, for every-
body. If you are weak, Christ placed within 
His Catholic Church all those aids that make 
strength possible. If you are strong, you can 
rise with the help of God to the highest 
sanctity. 

If your 'mind is not too vigorous, there are 
the simple truths of religion, beautifully and 

-19-



easily expressed. If your mind is strong, you 
can study the great philosophy and theology 
of the Church. If your will is weak, you have 
all the strength of the sacraments and of 
prayer and of the intercession of the saints. 
If you are strong, you can use these aids to 
scale heroic heights. 

If two Catholics are married by a priest, 
and one of the parties to the marriage 

contract is in the state of mortal 
sin, is the marriage recognized 

as 'valid by the Church? 

Most assuredly yes. However the person 
who is in the state of -mortal sin does not at 
the time receive the grace of the sacrament. 
Later on when the mortal sin has been re-
moved and ,he is in the state of grace, then the 
grace of toe sacrament enters his soul. / 

But even if he is in the state of mortal sin 
when he contracts the marriage, he is validly 
married. 

It does not need a lot of deep thinking how-
ever to realize the sacrilege involved in one's 
receiving the sacrament of matrimony when 
one is in the state of mortal sin. And how can 
a person hope for the blessings of God on a 
life started with God's enemy in the posses-
sion of his soul? 

Hence the wisdom of the Church in that she 
insists upon , a good 'confessionbefore mar-
riage. In the St. Louis Archdiocese the pastor 

. is instructed "strenuously to insist that they 
confess their sins for the worthy reception of 
the sacrament of matrimony." In some dio-
ceses a priest will not marry Catholics who 
have not first gone to confession. That seems 
to be nothing short of a sensible and wise 
provision. 

-20-



Did God create evil, or did it exist from 
all eternity? 

Neither. 

Gad permits evil, which He did nO't create 
and which in a kind O'f way has nO' PO'sitive 
existence. 

That last . statement may sO'und a little 
queer. Indeed it WO'uld take a IO'ng discussiO'n 
to' make it absO'lutely plain. But evil in itself 
is, as St. ThO'mas explains, the absence O'f 
gO'O'd. When yO'U are well, yO'U have all that is 
requisite fO'r health. When yO'U are sick, sO'me-
thing necessary fO'r health is missing. When 
yO'U have mO'ney enO'ugh fO'r yO'ur needs, yO'U 
are in a satisfactO'ry state. When bankruptcy, 
a financial evil, hits YO'U, yO'U are simply in a 
state O'f being withO'ut enO'ugh mO'ney. 

Evilis sO'metimes cO'nsidered as the physical 
actiO'n. A man picks up a gun, pulls the trig-
ger, and fires. In itself this physical actiO'n is 
neither gO'O'd nO'r bad. The man may be a 
murderer; he may be a herO' prO'tecting. his 
cO'untry; he may be a husband striking dO'wn 
the villain whO' WO'uld kill his wife and 
children. 

But beyO'nd this physical actiO'n there is 
gO'O'd O'r evil. Men were intended to' prO'tect 
life. · SO'me men thrO'w this O'bligatiO'n away 
and cO'mmit murder. The physical act is 
neither gO'O'd nO'r bad, but the mO'ral intentiO'n 
either to' prO'tect life O'r to' destrO'y it is sO'me-
thing else. When the man's intentiO'n is evil, 
it is really a negative thing because it destrO'ys 
sO'mething, puts sO'mething O'ut O'f his SO'ul and 
character, and leaves him less than he was 
befO're the crime was cO'mmitted. 

SO' GO'd helps man to' perfO'rm his physical 
act. That negative, evil thing which he dO'es 
is the man's own. 

-21-



Why did God permit men to commit evil? 
That question is bound up with the whole fact 
of our free will. God, as · we have heard a 
thousand times, did not want to be served by 
slaves. He asked His sons and daughters to 
help Him run the world. If they agree, He is 
glad. If they refuse, He has given them a free 
will that makes refusal possible. 

If you were like the stars, moving by the 
resistless law of gravity through the sky ... 
if you were like an ant, controlled by blind 
slave instinct, you could commit no "evil. But 
you are a fr\!e child of. God. Hence God has 
put it in your power to save or to destroy the 
beautiful things of the world and of your own 
life if you so will. He strongly repudiates the 
evil that you do. He will not interfere to pre-
vent you. 

Should a boy keep company with a girl 
who ;s out of his . financial class or 

marry out of his financial class? 

I am taking it for granted that this is a 
young man who has suddenly become inter-
ested in a young lady who has a good deal 
more money than he has. For some reason, 
perhaps obvious, I do not think he is a rich [ 
young man suddenly about to confer his riches 
on a girl who happens not to belong to the 
moneyed class. 

We in America are smart to avoid ' the use 
of the word class-in any connection. Cer-
tainly we have no strict social classes. And 
may we be long preserved against them! Cer-
tainly even our financial classes are very im-
permanent and unstable. The poor boy of 
today may, in proper Horatio Alger style, 
become the rich man of tomorrow. We are 
very proud of the opportunities by which a 
young man with ability and energy can attain 
to almost any financial stature. 

-22- , 



So it is possible that a young man might, by 
falling in love with a daughter of the rich, be 
inspired actually to work harder. But if he is, 
as I hope, the kind of person who doesn't in-
tend to make money the goal of his life, he 
had better talk pretty honestly to the rich girl. 
Will she be satisfied to live on a smaller in-
come? Will she resent the small house that he 
can afford, after the mansion in which she has 
been living? Will she stop depending upon her 
-father's income and willingly live within the 
income of her husband? In other words is she 
wed to riches lor is she willing to be wed to a 
young man of moderate income? 

I thin~ that a rich wife and a husband who 
is not rich is not a very satisfactory situation. 
There are too many sad stories of husbands 
who are embarrassed at the higher incomes of 
their wives or who are infuriated if they find 
themselves dependent upon their wives' 
money. They are placed in false positions, 
since they live, not according to their own 
incomes, but according to the incomes of their 
wives. 

As for the young , man's keeping company 
with a girl who is outside of his financial class, 
I think this is largely a practical problem. 
Will the girl be satisfied with his flivver or 
with the streetcar, or will -she expect him to 
call for her in a taxi or in a limousine? Will 
she be satisfied with the movies or a "coke" 
and a hamburger, or will she want to be enter-
tained via the _ Stork Club and a box at the 
opera? The young man will soon find out 
whether the young woman loves him enough 
to -accept what he can give her on his income. 
If she isn't satisfied, he had better go wooing 
elsewhere. 

-23-



Is the Rhythm Theory ad'l'ocated 
by the Church? 

"Advocated" is entirely the wrong word. 
The Catholic churchmen have definite views 
on the subject, views which have been ex-
pressed on many occasions. The Rhythm 
Theory is not wrong. Whether or not its use 
by a particular couple is right will depend 
upon their intentions. But the Church does 
not advocate something which it is inclined 
rather to tolerate. 

In any case a couple are extremely unwise 
to set themselves ,to practice the Rhythm 
Theory without first talking things over with 
their confessor and then with a Catholic phy-
sician. Too many people are using the possi-
bilities of the Rhythm Theory as excuses for 
selfishness. Too many are putting much too 

\ much trust in its unguided use. 

A man plans a murder. He has e'l'ery ~nten­
tion to commit it. Then circumstances 

arise which make him change his mind. <; 
The ci'l'il law would not punish him. 

Does Catholic morals regard him 
as a criminal? 

Before a crime can be committed, it :qmst 
first exist in the mind of the criminal. So 
when this man planned his crime and. fully 
determined · to carry it out, he was in fullest 
intention a criminal. Hence if the act in itself 
would have been a mortal sin, his fully deter-
mined intention to commit this act is a mortal 
sin. 

- 24-



Perhaps you can suggest some ways by 
which we can keep from being dis-

tracted during Mass or while 
we are saying our prayers. 

Since the greatest of saints have not suc-
ceeded in avoiding distraction, I am afraid 
that there is . no sure recipe. At Mass the 
easiest means against distraction is to follow 
the priest as closely as possible. Hence the 
use of the missal and the actual offering up of 
the Mass with the priest is the best guard 
against distraction. 

But I think that a great deal of distraction 
would be avoided if people sat in the front of 
the church instead of in the back. 

Sometimes distraction results from our go-
ing to church with the wrong person,either 
someone who is fidgety or s<;>meone who at the 
moment is too much interested in us-or we 
in him. 

I am quite willing to admit that a young 
man or woman may perhaps pray more de-
voutly if he or she is praying for some very 
dear person who happens to be along. But a 
high emotional state may flot be conducive to 
great attention to the Mass. 

If however when you come to Mass you , go 
up to the front of the church, do not sit in the 
end of the pew so that everyone will have to 
disturb and climb over you, follow Mass with 
a missal or a prayer book, offer up the Mass 
-before it begins-for some important inten-
tion, and then carefully follow the priest at 
Mass, distractions will be cut to a minimum. 

Somewhat the same procedure should · be 
followed in the case of prayer. Make · your 
intention for your prayers; use your rosary, 
your meditation book, a prayer book, or some 
favorite form of prayer; choose a lace for 

- 25 -



prayer where you are not likely to be inter-
rupted or disturbed; and ask God to be with 
you. 

If a girl has been di'JIorced, marries again, 
and has a child by her second hus-

band, can that child be baptized 
in the Catholic Church? 

A famous old parish priest who was almost 
notorious for his sleuthing after souls was one 
day walking down the street. Toward him 
came a man wheeling a baby in a baby car-
riage. The man was a Catholic, had been 
divorced, and was married again; this child 
was the child of the second and civil marriage. 

When they met, the priest stopped, looked 
sternly at the father, and said, "Has that baby 
been baptized?" , 

The Irian shook his head in solemn negative. 
"The Church doesn't baptize babies like this," 
he said. 

The priest leaned forward, his face danger-
ously red. 

"Look here," he said, very quietly but very 
tensely, "you can go to hell yourself if you 
want to, but you have no right to put that 
child in danger of losing his soul. Wheel that 
baby right down to church this minute, and 
I'll baptize him." 

To this answer however a warning should 
be added. The Church is very urgent that 
babies that are baptized be reared in the Cath-
olic faith. Hence she will not permit the off-
spring of non-Catholics to be baptized unless 
there is reasonable hope of their Catholic 
rearing. So though in the case given baptism 
must be administered, it is true only if there 
is a reasonable prospect of the child's receiv-
ing Cath6lic education and training. In the 

- 26-



case I gave, this was certain-and was later 
borne out. 

Must a Catholic necessarily be buried In a 
Catholic cemetery? 

In most modern dioceses the Church law 
requires this. The reason is obvious. Our 
bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, have 
been again and again the tabernacles of the 
Eucharistic Christ, will rise on the last day to 
rejoin our souls, and hence are precious and 
in a very real sense sanctified. 

So the Church out of respect for this body 
which has been and will again be the com-
panion of our soul throughout eternity de-
mands that the body be placed in earth that 
has been blessed and consecrated. 

Sometimes this causes apparent hardship 
for people whose Catholic relatives must by 
the demands of Church law be buried in con-
secrated ground. The Church does not lose 
sight of the precious and consecrated charac-
ter of the body of a Catholic even in cases 
like this. The bodies that are to be forever in 
heaven must rest in ground that is marked 
with special blessing and dedication to God. 
And· in these days, when the human body has 
been treated with the contempt bestowed on 
something merely animal, that legislation has 
special force and value. 

Is it possible to love two people 
at the ' same time? 

Apparently it is possible to love a great 
many people at the same time. You love your 
mother, your sister, your wife, your daughter, 
and yo~ love them all at the same time. 

But I realize that I seem to be quibbling. 
Quite clearly what you mean is this: Is it pos-

-27-



sible for a man or a woman to love two people 
enough to want to marry them both at the 
same time? Well the answer to that seems to 
be that it sometimes is possible. The capacity 
of the human heart for affection is unlimited. 
Yet as a general rule a man or a woman who 
falls in love does so at the time so deeply that 
the one person becomes the sole preoccupation 
and is the only one that the man or the woman 
desires to marry at that time. 

Don't go around trying to fall in love with 
two people at the same time. But don't be sur-
prised if, like the poet, you find yourself torn 
with the realization that you could be happy 
with either dear charmer away. 

We should loye God before our parents, 
shouldn't we? 

As a matter of fact we should love God be-
fore everyone else. God is the supremely lov-
able being, the one who has done far more' for 
us than have all our friends and relatives com-
bined. Our hearts were destined to love Him; 
and if any other love prevents us from loving 
Him, that love is harmful, sad, and perhaps 
evil. 

Sometimes it may happen that our lov'e of 
God forces us to do things that may seem to 
hurt · our parents. This is the case when a ' 
child becomes a priest or a religious despite 
the unreasonable opposition of parents. 

Christ spoke of occasions like these when He 
said in almost frightening fashion that some-
times we must hate father, mother, brother, 
sister, and everyone else for His sake. If they 
stand between us and our duty to God, we 
must push them 'aside. 

Yet in the long run that apparent hardness 
is the truest love we could show those others. 
If we love God and ask Him to care for those 

- 28 -



we love, we may be sure that His generosity 
will more than make up for any apparent 
coldness or hardness on our part. I have seen 
this a hundred times in the case of · parents 
blessed in the religious vocations of their chil-
dren, even though these parents might sav-
agely and selfishly have opposed them. 

But let's remember this: We should love our 
parents, our husbands, our wives, our imme-
diate relatives with great care for the prepo-
sitions "'before" and "after." Don't let's think 
of loving them "before God" or "after God." 
Let's love them "in God." That means that we 
love them as God meant us to love them; we 
love them even more because we love God; 
and we love them because God loves them and 
has given them to us as among his greatest 
gifts. 

In what way does purgatory differ from 

hell? 

Largely the di~erence lies in . the fact that 
hell is forever and purgatory is merely for a 
time. So in hell there is no hope. In purga-
tory there is every hope. In hell there can be 
no love of God. Purgatory is rich with the ·love 
of God's friends. At the end of the world 
purgatory will close its doors and disappear 

. forever from the memories of men; hell will 
go on as l~ng as God is God. 

Will we look the same m heaven? 

I imagine that if the questioner is beautiful 
he or she is hoping that the answer is yes. If 
the questioner quite honestly regards himself 
or herself as not too attractive, I imagine that 
the answer desired is no. 

Basically our bodies are beautiful. If there 
is something about us that is unattractive, that 
is a defect. We should all have been hand-

~ 29-



some .. beautiful, and attractive had we been 
born in Paradise. 

So we have all the necessary equipment for 
beauty. When our bodies rise on the last day, 
blemishes and defects will be removed. We 
will no longer be capable of sickness or aeci-
dent, the frequent causes of ugliness. Our 
bodies will be glorified, and that means that 
though our friends will still be able to recog-
nize us we will be the kind of people worthy 
to live in the glorious courts of God. 

Is there such a thing as exorcism in the 
Church today? 

Exorcism, or the driving out of devils, may 
be practiced in the Church today only with the 
explicit permission of , the bishop of the 
diocese. 

Yet on his way to the priesthood the young 
candidate receives as one of the minor offices 
that of exorcist. This means that he has been 
given the power over the evil spirits. 

In Christian countries and in countries that 
have long known the presence of the Blessed 
Sacrament, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, 
and the powerful prayers of the faithful, the 
power of the devil is much limited. He may 
still powerfully affect the human soul; he sel-
dom is allowed to express himself :visibly by 
a power over the human body. Yet even in 
Christian lands "the devil sometimes does take 
possession of an individual, and then exorcism 
may be practiced in that case. 

But missionaries find that in pagan coun-
tries where the Christian influence has never 
existed or where it has been slight the power 
of the devil often remains quite strong. He 
has been served so faithfully in some false 
religions that he can enter into possession of 
his worshipers. 

-30-



So exorcism in missionary countries may be 
more frequent. But always in these days it is 
exercised with the greatest caution and under 
the most careful ecclesiastic supervision. 

How does the Church feel toward 
stepparents? 

It feels toward stepparents exactly the way 
it feels toward all good people who in the kind-
ness and charity of their hearts are serving 
the needs of others. 

I have never read anything official about the 
. attitude of the Church toward stepparents. 
But the Church loves all those who care for 
its little ones. It admires and praises all those 
who do the corporal and spiritual works of 
mercy. 

So if the stepmother and the stepfather are 
doing their best by the children of others, they 
may be sure of full approval from the Church 
and rich reward from God. 

Don't the mysteries of the Catholic religion 
disproye the theory that our appetite 

for truth was meant to be 
completely satisfied? 

No one ever said that our appetite for truth 
was intended to be completely satisfied in this 
world. We are tremendously curious about 
the earth, but we will never see it all or know 
it all. The scientist is enormously curious 
about his pet scientific field, but its vastness 
continues to baffle him. 

So the mysteries of our religion are enor-
mous truths too vast for our minds completely 
to comprehend them. We know that there are 
three persons in God, but we don't know how 
such a thing can be. We know that God be-

-31-



came man, but we don't know adequately how 
such a mysterious union could actually have 
taken place. 

So we know the facts that are contained in 
a great many mysteries, though we struggle to 
find the explanations. 

The day will come when in heaven both the 
facts and the explanations will be ours. We 
will see the Trinity face to face in the Beatific 
Vision. The mystery of the Incarnation will 
be explained to us. Throughout. eternity our 
mInds will continue to explore the beauty and 
the truth that is God. 

Then we shall know that complete satisfac-
tion of our appetite for truth, an appetite 
which in this world must be content with 
morsels. 

Can a Catholic justice of the peace marry 
people in his office? 

When a Catholic assumes civil office, he is 
expected to carry out his civil duties. Among 
the civil duties of a justice of the peace is that 
of marrying those who present themselves 
with the proper credentials received from the 
civil authorities. 

So in marrying couples in this way, a Cath-
olic justice of the peace acts as a civil officer 
and with full right. 

Very completely different however is the 
type of justice of the peace who in certain 
sections of America has turned into a racket 
his right to perform marriages. There is the 
justice who actually solicits marriages, who at 
any hour of the day or night will perform a 
"hedgerow" marriage for the young couple 
who come dashing up breathlessly demanding 
a quick union. There is the justice who makes 
no effort to discover whether the requirements 

-32·-



of the law have been fulfilled and who uses his 
office simply as 'an easy way to '·make , money. 

No Catholic could act in this way; but for 
that matter no decent man with or without 
religion could lend himself to so shameless a 
trading on human emotions. 

II all men are basically the same, does the 
Church oppose marriage between people 

01 different colors? For example does 
the Church lorbid marriage between 

a white man and a Negro? 

The Church is so convinced that all human 
beings are the sons and daughters of God that 
it has never legislated to forbid marriage be-
tween people of dift;erent colors. 

Wisely it has considered that national tastes 
, and customs would determine this factor in 

marriage. But a man's a man and a woman's 
a woman regardless of color, so the Church has 
never legislated to forbid marriage between 
people of. different colors. 

Why do some Protestants distinguish 
between Catholics and 

Roman Catholics? 

The word Catholic, as I have often insisted, 
is really a description. It comes from the 
Greek word Katholikos, which means universal. 
So a Catholic is a person who believes all that 
Christ, taught and does all that Christ ordered. 
The Catholic Church is the Church which was 
intended for all men, all nations, and all ages. 

In the beginning there was only one Cath-
olic Church. Naturally enough other religions, 
as they arose, tried to appropriate the name. 
Some of the Pl·otestant leaders were honest 

-33-



enough to give up the title Catholic. They 
ceased to be Catholic, universal; they became 
Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, 
Christian Scientists. 

But some of the churches continued to cail 
themselves Catholic-notably the Greek Cath-
olics of the so-called Orthodox religion. 

The true Catholic Church, in order to dis-
tinguish itself from these others, reminded the 
world that its head was in Rome. These were 
the Catholics in union with Christ's Vicar; and 
Christ's Vicar had established his residence in 
Rome. This was abbreviated to the title 
Roman Catholic. 

Father Conway, in his famous "Question 
Box," says clearly on page 133: "In no official 
document has it [the Catholic Church] ever 
styled itself 'The Roman Catholic Church'." 
He adds that "The English bishops protested 
against this term at the Vatican Council in 
1870." 

Yet properly the word Roman is in this case 
only a kind of clarifying distinction .. It came 
into wide use when a group among the Epis-
copalians decided that they disliked the name 
Protestant and very much respected the name 
Catholic. They began to call themselves Eng-
lish Catholics or Anglo-Catho1ics. They were, 
they maintained, Catholics whose superior 
authority was in England as distinguished 
from those Catholics whose superior authority 
was in Rome or in Greece. 

We have never worried too much about this 
distinction. We are Catholics. The others have 
only a part of what Christ taught and do only 
a p:;trt of the things He ordered. They really 
don't lay claim to all the world as their flock; 
and their relatively recent origin prevents 
them from claiming, as true Catholics should 
claim, every age since the birth of Christ. 

-34-



How can you pro'Ve the existence of your-
self? If you can't, why not? 

This has been a question that has bothered 
a great many people for a long time, and all 
the thinking in the world really doesn't much 
improve this situation. You know you exist. 
The fact that you are reading these lines and 
understanding them proves that you do exist. 
This existence is, to use the philosophical 
phrase, self-evident; and if you are not con-

. vinced by the evidence of your own conscious-
ness, no other proof c~uld possibly convince 
you. 

For before you begin to prove that you 
exist, you have to know that you exist. Other-
wise how can you argue or reason? 

So your existence is self-evident-and don't 
drive yourself crazy by trying to go any fur-
ther into the matter. 

Why should a priest say, " I am sometimes 
shocked at the number of people who 

commit objecti'Ve .sins of un charity; yet 
they ne'Ver gi'Ve a thought to what 
they ha'Ve done"? Did he mean 

that a pel'son can commit a 
mortal sin of uncharity or any 
other kind of sin and not 

know it? 

It is impossible for a person to commit a 
mortal sin if he is really ignorant of what he 
is doing. But let's say that this completely 
thoughtless woman tells her friend a secret 
mortal sin of a third person that she happens 
to know. She destroys the third person's rep-
utation and commits a kind of social murder. 
In itself what she has done is a mortal sin. It 
is an objective mortal sin. She may be saved 

-35-



by her thoughtlessness and ignorance, for it is 
amazing how thoughtless people can be and 
how ignorant they can remain in the face of 
all the effort made to instruct them. 

Were she to stop to think for just a minute, 
she would realize the evil of what she is doing. 
But she is excused by her own ignorance. 

If however a person remains deliberately 
ignorant, then of course his ignorance doesn't 
excuse him. 

Let's take the example of a bank cashier 
who wants to steal. He knows that the steal-' 
ing of a certain amount of money constitutes 
a mortal sin; but he determines not to find out 
what this amount is so that he won't know and 
hence will not be guilty of mortal sin no 
matter how much he takes. Of course he has 
committed a mortal sin. His ignorance is de-
liberate, and he hides behind it so that he 
won't be guilty. But you may be absolutely 
sure that he has not escaped the guilt---and 
he knows he hasn't escaped it. 

Is there anything wrong with birth control? 

Of course I am not even going to pretend 
to answer that question. It has been answered 
a thousand times. I merely put the question 
in here to show how little attention some Cath-
olics pay to what the Church teaches over and 
over again. I merely present this question, 
which was honestly included in a question box, 
because it indicates the abysmal ignorance 
which some Catholics seem to cultivate. 

Is Our Lady of Loretto the patron of 
aviators? If so, why? 

Yes she is. According to the ancient legend 
in the Church the house of Our Lady in the 
.Holy Land was lifted and carried by angels 

-36-



through the air to its ultimate resting place at 
Loretto in Italy. This lovely tradition of a 
flight through the air became the basis of de-
votion of aviators to Our Blessed Lady of 
Loretto. TheJ! asked that their flight through 
the air be guarded by angels and by the sweet 
Lady of Loretto. 

How soon after receiving Holy Communion 
should the Host be swallowed? Is it 

permitted to keep it reverently 
upon the tongue? 

One should swallow the Host as quickly as 
possible. A good rule is to swallow the Host 
before one leaves the coinmunion rail. If one 
allows the Host to dissolve upon the · tongue, 
one may not really have received Holy Com-
munion-although it is rather unlikely that the 
Host would be so completely dissolved that not 
even a small particle would enter the stomach 
and thus preserve the nature of the sacrament. 

Is it possible to offer Holy Communion 
for others? ' 

I am a little puzzled at the fact that this 
question seems to appear so recurrently. Cer-
tainly it is possible to offer Holy Communion 
for others. During the time of Holy Com-
munion we can pray especially for some per-
son and ask the dear Savior present in our 
hearts to make our communion the occasion of 
His granting great graces to our friends. 

Or during the time of Holy Communion we 
can ask the dear Lord to shorten the stay of 
our friends in purgatory. 

- 37-



When an argument about religion starts, 
should the Catholic person present re-

main passive? Or should he aggres-
sively uphold the Catholic side and 

take a part in the argument? 

If he doesn't take a part in the argument, 
he is either a coward or too ignorant of his 
religion to present it in any adequate fashion. 

For a Catholic to sit passive while his reli-
gion is attacked is in the very same category 
as a son's sitting passive while his mother's 
honor is attacked. It would seem to indicate 
either that he believes the charge true or that 
he himself is too cowardly to enter a defense. 

But on the other hand I sometimes shudder 
when uneducated, ignorant, or stupid Catho-
lics rush to the defense of the Catholic reli-
gion, make fool statements, say things that 
are entirely wrong, and leave the non-Catholic 
worse off than he was before the argument 
began. 

All this is just another way of saying that 
we must defend our religion but that first we 
must prepare ourselves to be worthy and intel-
ligent defenders. 

Wasn't Robin Hood a villain and a thief? 
If he was, how can the various motion 

pictures based upon his career be 
other than immoral and unfit 

for children to see? 

In the first place nobody really knows 
whether or not Robin Hood ever existed. He 
is a legendary character who may not have a 
real basis in history. So each one who writes 
the story of Robin Hood writes it somewhat 
differently. It is easy to turn a fiction;:tl char-
acter from a villain into a hero. 

-38-



Had Robin Hood been presented in motion 
pictures as a highwayman who robbed-even 
though from the rich in order to feed the poor 
-he would have been a villain and beyond 
the range of our approval. 

But in the two big motion pictures based 
on his character, if you will recall, he was 
really not presented as a robber at all. He 
was a patriot who ran a kind of guerrilla war-
fare. With his band he worked behind the 
lines of opposing villainy for what he believed 
to be the patriotic interests of his country. 

This would make a very different story from 
that of a highwayman, though I might hint 
that the whole problem of guerrilla warfare is 
one which is right now being heavily discussed. 
There is many a moral .issue connected with it 
which has not as yet been fully decided. 

I ha'Ye not heard that notoriously immoral 
books, of which I could give a number 

of obscene instances, have eyer been 
placed on the Index. How can 

this be explained? 

The Church very seldom bothers to place 
frankly obscene books on the Index. In some 
cases however it has done so, and by name. It 
is much more likely to place on the Index a 
book which is not obviously obscene but which 
expresses a philosophy of life that would be 
destructive if it were widely followed. It js 
more likely to place on the Index philosophical 
works which lay down general principles that 
are dangerous to society. 

If a book is frankly immoral, filthy, and ob-
scene, no one in his right mind needs to be 
warned against it. The minute he picks it up, 
he realizes that the book is an occasion of sin. 
But if the book is not explicitly against faith 
or morals but is subtle and insinuating, then a 

-39-



person in good faith might read it, be harmed 
by it, be filled with wrong principles, and 
never guess the harm that was being done to 
him. This is the type of book which the Index 
lists, since it is the kind of book whose char-
acter is misleading and whose effects are per-
nicious though often hidden. 

So we can remember that: 

There are general laws which forbid "books 
which openly deal with, describe, or teach las-
civious or obscene matters." This is the canon 
law. 

Then there is the Index of Prohibited Books, 
which is a list of books forbidden by name. 
Some of these are obscene. Others are dan-
gerous to faith and m,orals in a more subtle 
fashion . 

All books that fall under either of these two 
classifications are forbidden to decent men and 
women. 

I am a convert and have been in the Cath~ 
olic Church for nearly five years. Now I 
find myself remembering sins of my pre-
Catholic life. I cannot recall whether or 
not I confessed these sins at the time 

of my conversion. Am I obliged 
to confess them now? 

Most assuredly not. You are never obliged 
to confess sins about which you are doubtful. 
If you are not sure whether or not you con-
fessed them, forget them, and don't let them 
disturb the happiness of your Catholic life. 

A scrupulous , person however under the 
direction and guidance of a 'confessor may be 
permitted to tell these doubtful sins for the 
peace of his conscience. 

-40-



A person in doubt may wisely take this up 
wtih a trusted confessor. 

How do you account f(Jr the overwhelming 
numbers of followe,rs who accept Confu-

cius, Buddha, Mohammed? These reli-
gious leaders must have had some-

thing to offer, or so many people 
would not have been duped. 

Undoubtedly even false or partially false 
religions have something to offer. Sometimes 
they have -much to offer. 

Man is incurably religious. He is always 
thirsty for religion. So Whell for some reason 
he does not find the true religion, he finds one 
that is partially true and accepts this as a 
substitute. 

Confucius and Buddha, men of high moral 
principles, gave their followers a religion that 
made demands upon them, lifted their ideals, 
and put into their souls the ambition to be 
good and to perfect or improve their natures. 
Mohammed was wise enough to present a sim-
ple form of religion that, though it made few 
moral demands upon its followers, still had a 
code, a creed, and the promise of eternity. 

It is sometimes surprising and always reas-
suring to see how much of right and truth is 
found in even the falsest religions. The better 
among them seem to be not far away from the 
true religion of Christianity. 

So even a false religion may give a man a 
glimpse of supernatural realities, a sense of 
his immortality, a faith in some divinity that 
shapes qis end, and the hope of eternity. It 
may hold him back from vice and form him to 
virtue. 

And even the falsest of the false religions 
prove; all over again that man must have some 

- 41-



kind of religion. As a general rule the people 
who accept false religions are likely to be bet-
ter morally and in their spiritual aspirations 
than are people who accept no religion at all. 
Within those religions they find many ele-
ments of truth and much of morality. 

Yet in the main these other religions make 
slight demands upon their followers. Conver-
sion to these religions does not demand the 
great act of faith needed in a convert to the 
Christian faith. The morality called for by I 
these religions does not impose the need for 
Christian sacrifice and heroic virtue. The 
ideals are not so exacting as those of Christ's 
religion. Hence it often happens that the fol-
lowers of these false religions find vestiges of 
religious satisfaction without the stern mor-
ality and exacting ideals demanded of 
Christians. 

By what method may a wOTking giTI 
aTTive at sanctity? 

No one else should have a simpler route to 
sanctity than the girl who is working · for her 
living. She can offer up a laborious day in the 
knowledge that God will accept it gratefully. 
She can make her work, whatever it is, part of 
God's plan fOIl the happiness of mankind. She 
can see in her employer, however ungrateful 
and ungracious he may be, a substitute whose 
orders and directions she accepts as if they 
were spoken to her by Christ Himself. The 
money that she earns is undoubtedly making 
other people happy-her family particularly, 
who most likely depend upon her in some 
measure for their necessities and comforts. 

It is possible that because she is working she 
has an independence that makes attendance at 
religious services easier. She may even have 
a little left for charity out of her income or 
allowance. 

• 
-42-



She certainly can find during the course of 
her noon hour a moment to talk to God. No 
day is so busy that · she cannot punctuate it 
with ejaculations. Her association with others 
gives infinite opportunity for charity and good 
example. Many a Catholic girl in shop or office 
has been a real apostle to those who knew 
nothing of religion. 

Father LeBuffe always maintains that the 
simple secret of sanctity is this·: to do well the ' 
job one has in hand. If this girl unites her job 
with Christ, offers her day to God, continues 
to be cheerful and smiling, and without osten-
tation sets herself to be an example of the full 
Catholic life, she can do marvelous things for 
God even as she is working for some human 
employer. 

Is there any harm in one's having one's 

fortune told? 

The other day on a business street I passed 
a shop that had been taken over by a crew of 
Gypsies. I Two poor, wretched, down-at-the-
heels, slightly dirty women were on duty, one 
seated at the window and one standing in the 
doorway, soliciting patronage. I wondered 
how in heaven's name anybody with sense 
would expect these broken-down failures to be 
guides to fortune and prophets of the future. 
Certainly they had not read the future very 
happily for themselves. They showed no signs 
of having been able to turn to their own finan· 
cial or social advantage any foretelling of a 
rising stock market or the winning horse in 

. the Kentucky Derby. 

Of all the silly credulity of credulous human 
beings, this trust in fortunetellers is the 
stupidest. 

Is it wrong? 

-48-



It certainly is wrong to believe that human 
beings possess a power which only God can 
have or God can give to His saintly repre-
sentatives. 

It is certainly wrong to encourage tricksters 
to dupe the ignorant and to deceive the fiutter-
brained. 

It is certainly wrong to help maintain and 
sustain one of the shoddiest of professions-
and one of the most dishonest. 

And it is certainly wrong to pay to creatures 
an awe and a faith that God alone deserves. 

1 haye been wondering about my religious 
yocation. In fact I haye prayed that I 
might haye temptations so that 1 could 
oyercome them and proye that ~ haye a 
yocat;on. A yery close friend of mine 

is praying that if 1 am not supposed 
to go to the conyent I will meet 
some attractiYe person who will 
want to marry me. What , do you 

think of this whole muddle? 

I think that both you and your friend ought 
to visit a priest or a doctor, and I am not sure 
whicl:l one. What is the idea of praying for 
temptations? It's the easiest thing in the 
world to find out whether or not you have a 
religious vocation. You don't have to go 
through the harrowing experience of being 
forced to choose between the love of a man 
and the love of God. 

Clearly this friend doesn't want you to go 
to a convent; that is her interfering, busybody 
attitude. 

But if this attractive person comes along 
and you do fall in love, you have the choice of 
two courses. You Can decide once and for all 

-44 -



that you were never intended to be a religious, 
and I am not at all sure that that newborn 
love would prove ' anything of the sort. Or 
now with a new chain of love fastening you to 
the world, you must try to break away and 
start a new life as a religious. 

I have never understood why people insist 
on making things so difficult for themselves. 

If you haven't committed a mortal sin and 
still want to go to confession, what 

do you confess? 

You may confess an~ veni.al sin that you 
care to tell or any serIOUS sm of ·your past 
life-confessed as a sin of your 'past life. 

Don't deprive yourself of a confession. Go 
whenever you feel the impulse. Remember 
that there is a special grace that comes from 
your confessing and new strength that you 
receive with every absolution. 

If you want to direct your confession con-
structively, select some venial sin which you 
especially wish to overcome, and confess it. 
Or search your soul for that particular sin 
which is the cause of annoyance and trouble 
to others, and confess it. Your confession will 
then serve as an occasion for real character 
building. . 

-45-



Here is a man who has been a sinner all his 
life and on his deathbed gets the grace of 
a good confession. Here is another chap 
who has led a virtuous life for fifty 
years, commits O1ie mortal sin, and dies 

without confession. The lifelong 
scamp gets heaven; the life-

long saint gets hell. 

Of course this is purely an academic ques-
tion. Did any such instances ever really hap-
pen? We know of one sinner, the good thief, 
who actually reached heaven in one leap from 
his death. But we don't know positively of a 
single saint or holy man who went to hell after 
he had committed a single mortal sin. It may 
have happened. We have no proof that it did 
or did not happen, so it · would be the easiest 
thing in the world merely to deny your facts 
or at least ask you to prove them. 

Between a mortal sin and a lifetime of mor-
tal sins however there is merely this differ-
ence: The lifetime prolongs the single act of 
the rejection of God. A man who cO!r:mits a 
mortal sin tells God to get out of his hfe. He 
turns from God to evil and by that very fact 
chooses hell. If ~e has done this over a life-
time or if he has done it just once, the act it-
self is the same. 

I am very glad that you feel that God is 
lenient with lifelong sinners. You are prob-
ably right. I am sorry if you feel that He is 
likely to be stern with lifelong saints. We 
~ave no proof of that. 

But any mortal sin is a turning from God, 
complete and-for the ' time being at least-
final. If death comes before confession or con-
trition, then hell is the fate of the sinn,er, the 
fate he chose for himself. 

This should give us a healthy respect for 
God and His Law and should make us careful. 

-46-



You are evidently strongly opposed to 
young people's "going steady" until sucll 
time as they can think approximately of 
marriage. Yet you seem to think that a 
person can fall in love when he is 
about nineteen or twenty years old. 
Well suppose that I do fall in love 
with a boy that I have met )"ecent-
ly. How do I know that he is all 
that he should be? If on the 
other hand I have known a boy 
since he was sixteen or seven-
teen -years old and have gone 
out with him, I could be 
pretty sure that he is . the 
kind of boy I want to 
marry. So I think that 
"going steady" is a safe-
guard for my marriage. 

Yes I frankly dislike to see young people 
"going steady" until there is some possibility 
of their considering a , marriage in the fairly 
near future. I think it limits their power of 
making friends. It makes them socially lazy. 
Their constant association with one person 
sharpens their temptations and may because 
of the constant opportunity make their physi-
ca1 urges stronger. 

Most often the young person who "goes 
steady" during high school or · the early years 
of college (or at an age that is the equivalent 
of these stages) does not marry the person he 
or she' went with. Such young people give 
years of ,their lives to one person-and at a 
time when they should be meeting a great 
many people and learning to be friendly with 
people of a variety of temperaments and char-
acters. They come to be so narrowed that 

\ 

-47-



they cannot dance with anyone but with the 
one person, who from long practice matches 
their intricate or off-the-beat steps. 

This is just the sketchiest answer, for to me 
the idea of "going steady" is the prelude to 
marriage. Otherwise it is the lazy way that a 
boy concentrates on one girl or a girl allows 
one boy to monopolize her. It is the failure to 
develop one's ability to make friends and be 
congenial with people. It is a sort of social 
monopoly, a social exclusiveness. Invariably 
in later years those who "went steady" wished 
they had swung out into a wider circle of 
friends. 

It is by no means necessary to "go steady" 
in order to come to know a person. If a young 
person is a member of your social crowd, your 
club, the group with which you dance, play, 
talk, walk, you soon come to know a great 
deal about him or her. In fact you may even-
tually know more about him by seeing him in 
relationship to a crowd than by seeing him in 
relationship to yourself and your limited inter-
ests and taste. 

I myself in my salad days was a member of 
several groups. I knew extremely well both 
the boys and the girls of those groups. It cer-
tainly was not necessary for me to concentrate 
on one person, go exclusively with her, bar • 
others from that same personal association ' in 
order to come to know her well. The girl who 
in later years I knew best and upon whose 
family I later exercised the largest influence 
was during all the time that she belonged to 
our crowd engaged to a young man whom she 
eventually married. She was in her twenties 
though at the time. 

The smart young man and the wise young 
woman associate socially during youthful days 
with a great many young people. They come 
to know as wide a gamut of personalities as 
they can. They watch their associates deal, 

-48-



not with a single individual-themselves--but 
with groups, crowds, individuals of widely 
varying temperaments and interests. And dur-
ing all this group relationship they come to 
know the others in the crowd surprisingly well. 

Indeed I believe they know these persons 
better than they would know the young per-
son to whom they might have given an exclu-
sive companionship, a restricted and a limited 
kind of companionship, an association cer-
tainly not full of varied life. 

. The days of youth are the days for many 
happy friendships and many charming people. 
Don't cramp your style by allowing or prac-
ticing a monopoly. . 

May a Catholic act as god/ather In the 
baptism 0/ a non-Catholic in a 

Protestant church? 

It seems to me that the question almost an-
swers itself. A Protestant baptism is a :teligious 
service. Catholics are not allowed to take part 
in relil?ious services of other religions. 

Quite aside from that however a godparent, 
by the fact of his being a sponsor, promises 
that the child will be educated in the true reli-
gion. So in the case you indicate, you would 
have this amazingly contradictory situation: 
You, a Catholic, would' be promising God that 
the child would be educated in the true reli-
gion, although at the very time of YOUr prom-
ise he was being baptized into a false one. 

It doesn't make sense, does it? 

---,- 49 -



Maya Catholic be godparent for a child 
who is not likely to be brought 

up a Catholic? 

When a person becomes a sponsor, he un-
dertakes a real responsibility. He agrees, as 
you remember from your catechism, that he 
will see that the child is brought up a Catholic 
if the parents decline this responsibility or 
happen to die. 

Now if the Catholic sponsors know very 
well that the parents will make it impossible 
for the child to be a practical Catholic and 
will not allow.the godparents to enter the pic-
ture to fulfill their obligation, naturally 
enough they cannot accept this office. This 
simply means that they cannot accept the re-
sponsibility, which they could not possibly 
fulfill. 

On the other hand if you should happen to 
know that the parents are weak Catholics but 
would not object to your educating the child 
in the Catholic faith, you might po13sibly be 
doing an apostolic work if you became a spon-
sor for the child. But you should explain then 
to the parents that you take your duty seri-
ously and really intend to see that the child is 
reared a goop Catholic. 

In this it is more than likely you might be 
saving the soul of the child. 

It may be however that the whole question 
is purely academic. No priest would baptize a 
child about whose future Catholic upbringing 
he had serious doubt. 

If it should happen that you are sure that 
the child will not be brought up in the faith, 
you would be doing your simple duty if you 
talked it over with the priest who was asked 
to baptize the child. He probably doesn't know 
the circumstances. Knowing them, he would 

--50 -



take ,a great many steps to make sure of the 
child's future Catholicity before he poured the 
waters of Qaptism. • 

1 am hoping to become a sister some day. 
1 really love to meet people, but I just 

can't make myself do so. Will this in-
ability to meet people be an impedi-

ment to my future work? 

The inaoility to meet people is always an 
impediment. Unless you intend to be a con-
templative nun, you are going to spend a large 
part of your life meeting people and dealirig 
with them. So' it . is a shame if you let your 
shyness -and timidity get between you and 
people, whom you should later on influence. 

I would strongly recommend at least a sim-
ple social life. Be sure to drop into the living 
room when the family has visitors, and meet 
them. When you are invited out, accept the 
invitation. ·If you feel that you are going to 
be shy, think in advance a little about subjects 
to discuss, comments to make, or contributions 
that you can m,ake to the conversation. 

Remember that talk is not the only thing 
neCE)ssary to make people feel at home with 
you. A pleasant smile is often more than an 
equivalent for conversation. 'The ability to 
listen well, to .ask the right questions which 
draw out the other person's spontaneous, in-
terested comments is something that can be 
developed. 

But don't let shyness get its grip on you. It 
is certainly no moral Wrong, .yet it is or can 
be a handicap for a religious. 

You will be very wise quite calmly to ap-
praise your own good qualities. If You have a 
fair measure of good looks, don't hesitate to 
cultivate them. If you have a talent, be quite 

-51-



willing to use it socially. Listen to people who 
talk well, and find out how they do it-with 
the purpose of doing the same yourself. And 
cultivate that sweet charity and willingness to 
do things for others which are far more im-
portant than brilliance in conversation or the 
ability to do parlor tricks. 

Few other things are greater assets to reli-
gious life than is the ability to deal with peo-
ple. The happy, socially-minded religious is an 
enormous asset in a community and a joy in 
the recreation room. Cultivate that art among 
your relatives, your friends, ·and your 
acquaintances. It will · make you a better 
religious. 

A man and a woman fall in love. The man 
leaves, and, lefs say because of a war, 
they do not see each other again for long 
years. In the interval the man has be-
come a priest and the woman has 
become a nun. Then they find each 
other again and realize they are still 
in love. What can be done about it? 

This sounds like the basis for a story that 
should be written by a sob sister or sent in to 
the True Story magazine. What in the world 
kept a man for all those long years away from 
the woman that he loved? What made this 
man who was in love ever think about becom-
ing a priest? Was the girl illiterate? Couldn't 
she write him a letter? And if she couldn't, 
where did she find a religious order that was 
willing to accept somebody who couldn't even 
write a letter? 

But taking out of this query the one point 
of serious moment, the nun could of course be 
dispensed from her vows. How far she would 
do wrong to ask for a dispensation would have 

-52'-



to be settled by her confessor and her con-
,science, But the priest could never get such a 
dispensation, He is a priest forever, and the 
reappearance of the now-aging inamorata 
would in no sense change his status, 

I am reading a book that tells "the facts of. 
life" very frankly. I am reading it with 
the intention to gain knowledge and 

not lor any satisfaction I might get 
from the reading. Is this wrong? 

It is impossible for me to answer this ques-
tion without my seeing you face to face. How 
old are you? Have you no mother or father 
or priest friend or nun confidante or family 
doctor to whom you could go for this informa-
tion? Is the book Catholic in tone or thor-
oughly pagan? Are you shortly to be married 
or is marriage a long way off? 

Unfortunately during the period of youth 
many a young person has a quite literally 
burning curiosity. Millions of copies of these · 
"sex books" are got out, not in any honest 
desire to give information that will be of help 
in the living of a rich and wholesome life, but 
simply to satisfy the curiosity of young peo-
ple. And even there the word satisfy is incor-
rect. The proper words would be stimulate, 
increase, and fire the interests of youngsters 
in subjects which they need never come close 
to until they have reached the age when mar-
riage is near at hand. 

Do you really think that there ever has 
been in the history 01 the world a woman 
in her right senses who has been robbed 
01 her innocence? Isn't it the man in 
such cases who really should be pitied? 

Quite obviously this is a question asked by 
a man. ;1',. 

-63-



If a woman were completely in ·her right 
senses, she would know the value of her inno-
cence and the hideousness of sin, and she 
would not fall. What happens is that the fool-
ish girl or woman is tricked into sin-and 
usually at a time when she isn't in her right 
senses. Men have known from the dawn of 
seduction how to get a woman out of her right 
senses. They have pleaded, cajoled, begged, 
browbeaten, urged a thousand arguments 
against purity, wept, besought, argued with 
the skill of a defense attorney, and so thor-
oughly upset the girl's right senses that she 
has hardly seemed to know right from wrong, 
innocence from evil. 

Women have been of course on a thousand 
occasions physically robbed. But far, far 
more women have believed the liar and lis-
tened with willing hearts though reluctant 
minds to the brilliant pleadings of men argu-
ing the cause of their own selfishness. 

Who is to be pitied? Both the sad men and 
the sad women in the sad tragedies which have 
spoiled so many lives. 

Do you think it,· possible for a mature 
woman who. has gone out very little 

socially to fall in love with the first 
man who takes her out? 

My inclination is to say that it is not only 
possible but probable. Apparently there is no 
age limit to love. People fall in love quite late 
in life and marry sometimes very happily the 
men or women they meet in their very mature 
years. 

, It is possible that a person who is destined 
by God and nature for marriage never during 
the course of a quite long life meets anyone 
suitable at the times when marriage was pos-

~ 94 = 



sible. Later on the right person comes along; 
they fall in love, marry, and spend their au-
tumnal years in deep peace and happiness. 

Theirs is not likely to be the romantic pas-
sion of youth. Instead they may know a very 
splendid companionship and a deep and con-
tented love. 

If you know and go out with young people 
who. drink and "neck," and you don't do 
these things, is there the possibility that 

you will be able to reform them? 

It is of course possible; but the chances are 
ten to one that if any changes are made they 
will be the changes that the drinkers and the 
"neckers" will make in you. Good example is 
in the long run a powerful force. In the short 
run bad example seems to have the more im-
mediate effect. . -

I can imagine nothing duller than your sit- . 
ting sipping a soft drink in the company of 
tho:;;e who are getting themselves "high," if 
not positively drunk. To the drunk all jokes 
are funny. To the person who is cold sober • 
the humor of a drunk is abQut the wettest, 
stupidest drivel in the world. And I should 
imagine that it would be a little difficult to 
sit around discussing books, . the victory gar-
den, and politics while the rest of the young 
people were "necking." 

Isn't it possible for you to find young people 
who like the things that you like and do the 
things that you want to do? The world is 
really full of such people. Why should you go 
around with a crowd in which you, right and 
decent though you are, are the one who seems 
to be out of step? 

~ 55-



Would a confession be 'l'oid if the confessor 
was deaf and the penitent felt that the 
confessor would as a consequence be 

easier on him than would the other 
priests who were hearing confes-
, sions in the same church? 

If a priest is allowed to hear confessions, 
you are perfectly safe to take it for granted 
that he can hear what you tell him. The con-
fesional is a very intimate place, and the .voice 
carries easily over the brief distance that is 
marked by the grill. So if the confessor is in 
pis confessional, if you tell your sins in your 
normal confessional voice, and if he does not 
show clear signs that he cannot hear you, you 
don't need to worry in the least. 

We don't need to worry much about deaf 
confessors. Seldom does a priest miss' any-
thing that is told him in the confessional; and 
when he do~s miss something, he invariably 
asks that the statement be repeated. 

How do you go about shaking a person 
who literally is making a nuisance of 

h.mself and persists in ha.nging around? 

This question was asked both by a young 
man imd by a young woman, so evidently the 
offenders can be of either sex. 

It is simply amazing that people should want 
to hang around where they clearly are \ in the 
way and persist in clinging to people who are 
using all their strength to shake them off. It 
makes one wonder how anyone could be so 
lacking in sensitivity. 

There undoubtedly comes a time when a 
kind of brutal frankness is called for. You 
remember the old story of the bore who 
phoned his friend. 

-66 -



"Will you have dinner with me on Monday 
night?" 

"Sorry," said the friend, "but I'm busy." 

"Then how about Tuesday?" , persisted the 
bore. ' 

"Too bad; I have an engagement.'" 

"Then let's make it Wednesday." 

"You're awfully kind, but that isn't going 
to be possible." 

"Then what about Thursday?" 

"Oh heck!" cried the cornered victim. 
"Let's make it Monday." 

Now the mistake this victim made was sim-
ply not to be frank. He had reached a point 
with a thick-skinned individual where he 
might as well have told him the truth. He 
could have put the truth without ' tOQ much 
venom or brutality. He could have said, in all 
candor, "Thanks very much; but I am going 
to be busy for a long time, and I shan't have 
a chance to go out with you." 

If after some such statement the bore still 
persists, I think the frank statement, "sorry; 
but really I am afraid I don't care to go out 
with you," is the only adequate answer. 

If politeness and a tactful dodging of invita-
tions won't secure results, you have a right to 
your privacy even to the extent of your telling 
another person that you would rather not have 
him come around and that you prefer not to 
go out with him nor be invited to go out with 
him. 

In the end this may be kinder than long-
continued and unsuccessful efforts gently to 
shake the nuisance. 

- 57 -



" (I __ (I __ {'~I'''''''I' __ I' __ II __ {I'-'II'''I~II __ (I-'(I'-'('''''(I . 

Queen's Work Pamphlets That 

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Discussed in This Boo,klet 

• 
Questions I'm Asked About Marriage 
Re.volt Against Heaven 
When We Go to Confession 
Confession Is a Joy? 
Forever and Forever 
Divorce. a Picture From the Headlines 
The Man We Can' t Ignore 

The Best Best Seller 
Whose Country Is This? 
'I'he Catholic Church and the Negro 

Why Are Jews P ersecuted? 

Dare We Hate Jews? 
This Virtu~ Caned Tolerance 
Are the Gospels True? 
Man Says: "If I Were God 
Going Steady 

What to Do on a Date 
Why Be a Wallllower? 
What Birth Control I s Doing to the United States 
Speaking of Birth Control 

W ·hat of Lawful Birth Control? 
How to Pray the Mass 
Prayers Are Always Answered 
The Souls in Purgatory 

Everybody's Talking About Heaven 
Problems of Courtship and Marriage · 

Don' t Say It! 
What Is Decent Literat-ure? 
I Can Read Anything 
Don' t Hate Your Job 
Hard-Headed Holiness " 

A Guide to Fortune Telling 
Shall I Be a lIIun? 
Who Can Be a Nun? 
Shall My Daughter Be a · Nun? 
Prodigals and Christ 
The Pure of Heart 
Why Be Decent? 
The Questions They Always Ask 

How to Give Sex Instructions 
Modern Youth and Chastity 



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The Church Is a Failure 

The Church Is Out of Date 

The Church Unconquerable 

The Gateway of Grace 

My Friend the Pastor 

The Priest Talked Money 

. Send for Complete List of Pamphlets 

THE QUEEN'S WORK 

3742 West Pine Boulevard St. Louis 8, Mo. 



The Pamphlet Written Expressly for 

Servicemen 

A SALUTE TO THE 
MEN IN THE SERVICE 

, 

by Father Lord 

* ji: * 
Straight-from-the-shoulder . 

discussion of 

• Patriotism and its real meaning 

• What we're fighting for 

• Obedience to orders 

• The attitude to be taken toward the 
enemy 

• The acceptance of suffering and 
danger 

• The power of good example 

• Cooperation with the chaplain 

• Relations with women 

• The drink question 

• The promise of the future 

Single copy, 10c (by mail, 12c) 
25 for $2.25 50 for $4.00 

100 for $7.00 

THE QUEEN'S WORK 
3742 West Pine Boulevard St. Louis 8, Mo. 



•••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• 

A Triumphant Story About 

The Manthe Savior 

Praised 

What Do You know About 

St. John the Baptist? 

Meet the crusader, the hermit; thrill 

at his courage, his devotion, zeal, 

eloquence, and the drama of his life 

and his high heroism in obscurity . 

• 
Single copy, lOc (by mail, 12c) 

25 for $2.25 50 for $4.00 

100 for $7.00 

• 
"I:'HE QUEEN'S WORK 

3742 West P ine Boulevard 

St. Louis 8 , Mo . 

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 



Personality Doesn't Just Happen! . 
The aliveness, vitality, and characteristics that 

make us attractive, charming, gracious, 

interesting depend in large measure 

on our own planning 

• 
Father Lord's New Pamphlet 

SUCCESS 

THROUGH 

PERSONALITY 
is about the two most popular words 

a person could use 

• 
. . . Send for a Copy .. . 

. Single copy, lOc (by mail, 12c) 

25 for $2.25 50 for $4.00 

100 for $7.00 

THE QUEEN'S WORK 

3742 West Pine Boulevard St. Louis 8 , Mo. 





~3a 

THE QUEEN'S WORK 

3742 West Pine Boulevard 

St. Louis 8, Missouri 


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