Pieta (verse)
Ryan, Kathryn White
September 22, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 465 ments, one might doubt that these were the poems of have Angela da...
...So collaborators...
...Knees of the saint, and of the thief impenitent, Among the various collections of sacred texts, how- Knees of the soldier stung with sudden lead, ever, we have the Libri della Fede, edited by Gio- All shall, at the last, on these vanni Papini, which have met with much popular Tender soft maternal knees favor...
...some of them of immense importance for Italy...
...Who, today, reads the great Catholic literature...
...Twenty-six volumes have already appeared, Lie dead...
...There are stories for nazionale, while at Milan another publishing house is young girls or seminarists...
...One of the volumes is an anthology of Italian popular What else does our Catholic literature offer at the religious poetry...
...This last, it may be remarked, does not prePascoli, and D'Annunzio applied to religion...
...Little or nothing...
...verse that is either the busied with an anthology of the "best pages" of the dregs of Arcadia, or a strange mixture of Carducci, saints...
...The prime necessity is the religious instruc- Pieta tion of our people...
...Even today, writers, philosophers, and artists abound Then indeed, closely united to the soul of the Church, among us who have little or no acquaintance with shall we be in a position to become the architects of a Christianity or Catholicism...
...few that exist are either organs of religious communi- Another series is being edited by Battelli, one of ties, or influenced by them...
...much is certain...
...It is possible that what we lack whatever quarter proceeding...
...The books published by it, striking as is their Lie broken...
...Our writers, old and today we may possess tomorrow...
...outward appearance, offer little that is at all distin- Knees of beseechers prostrated to idols, guished...
...Turning over the pages our finest scholars, who is devoting himself to transof these journals, it is hard not to feel a sensible chill...
...What is lacking above all, is a studies upon saintly lives is being produced at Turin virile review-a review for men who believe in the by a fine writer for young people-Giuseppe Fanciulli inseparability of art and religion, and in the manifes- -while the Internazionale announce publication of a tation of religion through art...
...The in a magnificent fourteenth-century text...
...Who reads the sacred authors...
...Perhaps this is an impos- heartening to note that a public exists which is arsible ideal...
...We have no re- La Leggenda Aurea, by Jacopo da Voragine, forgotview to be compared with those which the German, ten for more than a century, and now restored to us French, English, and American Catholics possess...
...A collection of the convent girl...
...Fathers of the Church...
...Before we can be young, must learn what Catholicism is...
...We KATHRYN WHITE RYAN...
...The All shall, at the last, on these Catholic University, up to now, has given only scanty Cradling broad maternal knees results...
...It is impossible not to com- Todi, the Blessed Colombini, Santa Francesca pare the verse of Claudel, to mention only one con- Romana, Saint Augustine, Giovanni da Rivalto, etc., temporary poet, and to recognize the very different with de Maistre, Donoso Cortes, and Father Benson...
...stance-they must conceive it in its full grandeur...
...Possibly we have not enough Catholic dently interested in religious matters and reads religwriters, and the reason such a review does not exist ious books with enthusiasm...
...Is it in this quarter that may be that it would perish through sheer lack of we are to look for our true Catholic renaissance...
...Still of all, lifeless...
...I do not conceal stone strong and cemented, and our workers filled with it, because I am convinced that to do so would ag- zeal, no edifice we shall rear need fear attack, from gravate the evil...
...Our Catholic erudition is defective...
...essays tend to any but a purely commercial aim...
...If our foundations are secure, the This is a disheartening conclusion...
...Another, yet to appear, will give us present moment...
...In every subject handled, poverty of another is announced by the Casa Editrice Interimagination is only too evident...
...For this function, the Catholic University of Milan Knees of the knighted lord bending to the sword-tap,, Strong knees of pressers trampling out the wine, seems the body clearly indicated, not to mention the Knees of the creeping babe, child-knees in arm-chairs, various collections of religious texts which have been Slow knees of dancers after love has spoken, initiated and which promise great developments...
...spirit that presides over the work of the two men...
...In other words, we series of Catholic theatrical texts, Italian and foreign need a live Catholic review, written by men and In the world of Catholic study and research, then, women who are, at the same time, authentic artists we find very marked activity, and it is extremely and authentic Christians...
...September 22, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 465 ments, one might doubt that these were the poems of have Angela da Foligno, Saint Antonino, Jacopone da a religious man at all...
...lations of the best Franciscan texts, which have reThe tone is narrow and typically bourgeois, or, worst mained practically unknown to the present day...
...They must formed and organized, a solid and profound culture see it from the inside-they must live it in its subis necessary...
...The inward flame which is to enkindle faith Knees of the murderer crouching through the dark, is still to be sought...
...At the preswhich seem to have taken for their inspiration the ent moment, it is noticeable that the most worldly of Sunday sermon or the rhetoric of a hundred years publishing houses stands ready to publish religious ago, the bleating of sheep, and the sentimentalities of works of whose sale it feels secure...
Vol. 4 • September 1926 • No. 20
