Catholics and Pressure Groups

...parently, we have yet to learn...

...We sometimes appear determined to beat society DTHE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR into conformity with what we think it should be...

...For those who (in the name of "democracy") protest any in a democracy the interplay of conflicting forces must assertion of religious values in the affairs of the State...

...one obvious, the other On the contrary, though we may dislike the organized more subtle...

...of this) they justify, however innocently, the fears of But does it touch the real problem...

...D'Usseau have given them a small, vulgar sarily unknown to the State...

...group...

...One of these State may be doubtful...

...The theme is ence must be that-as Christian-citizens-in so far as full of tragic reverberation, involving as it does so much they act in temporal affairs...

...Each is "pressure groups...

...As we have noted, the classic formula for achieving some modus vivendi between them was a Concordat in which the rights of each were defined, I T is not easy for two societies whose ends are diver- guaranteed, and limited by mutual consent...

...another (Frances Starr) meanly traps her fact of the American "lay" State...

...The more subtle reason why the use of "pressure" The question of "pressure groups" in American life is at the heart of the question of Catholicism in America should not be posed as a categorical one: it is not- a -and is perhaps its most controversial aspect-is part question of whether they should exist, but rather of of the ancient problem of the Church and the State, what forms they can legitimately take...

...What to him may be vital, to lost ladies (Betty Field) spirals down into alcoholism the State may be a matter for indifference...

...terpreted as born of self-interest...

...Concordats be- tion...

...It has THERE is a great burden here...

...Those who cry "pressure" each time Catholics with the real problems involved...

...the American Medical Association, lobbying I would like, then, at the beginning of this article to against public health insurance, is probably not, in its take the curse off its title by defining what I mean by own view, acting as a "pressure group" either...

...But Con- are clearly distinguished in law but yet are not set in cordats are not popular today, particularly in countries mutual opposition...

...The long history of the device would not solve the problem as it exists in the Church's struggles with Princes and of their struggles United States, for we have here a unique historic situawith the Church underlines this fact...

...What, must not prescind from or ignore the time and place one is moved to wonder, might Chekhov have done in which they act...

...of its own philosophy...

...cratic absolutism...

...They tion, as elaborated by the recent Popes, has been called were consonant with its own nature and its own ends...

...nental model...

...it must be welcomed...

...As our nostalgia hands that its power is finally dissipated...

...This is a most delicate task...

...ate, nor expedient, nor prudent...

...the modern form of relations between Church and In other areas of American life, however, the CathoState...

...the State...

...It is, rather, classic means of achieving some modus vivendi between a society in which civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions two societies, each jealous of its own rights...

...This is the and suicide...

...versial...

...asks whether a particular pressure group is good or bad...

...But their pres- only awaits them, and tea at Schrafft's...

...permanent pathos of this situation...

...They need to be encouraged mers make their production plans, would announce by farm and civic leaders to press for a bold new agriminimums at which prices for a given product would cultural policy...

...eminently virtuous, educable and wise than in any In this State, religion may be tolerated with a certain democracy which ever was or ever can be...

...never despised the world...

...The demands in these cases could not be inmands of their consciences" is a historic challenge...

...And they did not ask Father Murray recalls that the concept of Catholic Ac- of the temporal order what it could not give...

...the derelict wife, is required to indulge in a relentlessly NOVEMBER 27, 1953 197...

...granted that Catholics picketing, protesting, neither Church nor State...

...Errors of over- or under-estifarm program must also include provisions for the mil- mation could be taken care of by additions to or sublion rural migrants who have low standard living condi- tractions from stocks held in storage under a conscioustions and little social security...

...Despite the outcries for political scalps, there is change...

...Such as do build their Faith upon the legendary history of its creator's forked tongue, the The Holy Text of Pike and Gun...

...It is estimated that possibly one-fourth of the 5. Government support for agricultural research and nation's population customarily falls short of an adeeducation should be expanded...

...Discussion of Essentially, a pressure group is, simply, one which atCatholic "pressure" is widespread, but few Catholics tempts to influence the course of affairs external to itself 194 THE COMMONWEAL through the methods of organized persuasion and prop- the United States today...

...Because this with the courage of their convictions must resort to State is profoundly anti-pluralist and hence profoundly "pressure"-to public protest, propaganda, and dem- totalitarian, it hates diversity and, especially, it hates onstration-in order to achieve their ends...

...To imagine that this right and this ment...

...cultural chic df a title out of Eliot, and the more subtle Decide all Controversy by provocation of observing a wit of this caliber disciplinInfallible Artillery...

...the incomparable Edna Best-slides into an affair with There is, perhaps, deep in the Catholic memory, nos- a younger man, only to find that emotion may sour talgia for an older, a safer, a more certain temporal pleasure, and love turn to ashes in the mouth...

...there is secondly the free participation of order, as it is here and now, has its own exigencies, its the citizen, as a Christian, in the institutions whereby all own validities...

...For how- a token of intellectual honor which "The Ladies of the ever pure they may be, they must be acted upon in a Corridor" does not merit-all of which is to say harshly manner suited to the limitations of a democratic society...

...This is part transcendence...

...The Christian citizen of the modern lay State lic temptation (which might be called a "moral temptacan thus be said to have inherited, personally, the tion") has been to demand of the temporal order that function of the Concordat...

...It is not the old Confessional State, but it is not tween the Papacy and the civil power have been a the laicized State of the Revolution either...

...order...

...ture is that it has not even resulted in a failure of the When we wear this face we should not be surprised class commonly called "interesting...

...Catholics are no exception to this...

...What to him (with the pathos, sifted through with platitude, and crusted with sure knowledge of Revelation) may be certain, to the a hard, indigestible layer of melodrama...

...This phase represents quate diet...

...the demands of their consciences...

...We may not, all of us, have grown used to living Each of these aspects of a melancholy theme has, at in a pluralist culture, and some of our demands, some its center, a perception of reality, but the original insight of our "pressure," may reflect this nostalgia, this imma- suffers so much dilution and decay at the playwright's turity as citizens of a free society...

...No one has Church and State...

...Its presentation To be the true Church Militant: has involved talents of a high and even auspicious order...

...it has transcendent challenge of religion...

...it goes with functioning in the real its public life is limited to what falls within the sphere world...

...On the contrary, there boycotting are within their constitutional rights...

...widowed, divorced, often wealthy, without emotional There is no reason for Catholics to retire meekly ties or family obligations, sometimes resourceful and from the battle lest someone accuse them of infil- gifted, leading lives of quiet desperation behind a screen trating religion into the national life...

...They have thus been In its use Catholics must not set the two societies in quick to argue, to demonstrate, to protest, to picket, to opposition...

...And for this reason: Its premisee is the Christian dualist concept of man...

...This is the great lesson which, ap- theatre...

...Certainly it is the most controaganda...

...These are sure group...

...Any attempt by it groups" seems to me, therefore, largely meaningless in to go forth from the Sacristy, to make its voice heard so far as it presupposes that to name them is to condemn in public affairs-any real challenge, in short, which it them...

...The school lunch program is another example to know how to cut costs, prevent waste, check losses of improving diets while creating a market for farm from pests and diseases, build soil and increase produc- products...

...it is to falsify the (With the publication of this article the series very quality of life, with the cold purpose of providing "Catholicism in America," which began in the May 1st a casual psychological frisson...

...It is a question, each with its own proper ends, attempting to live toultimately, of prudence...

...If they pressure serting their democratic rights, and have resented the the State to ban a book or a movie as "objectionable" charge that in doing so they were somehow undermin- and base their demand on criterion which the State, qua ing democracy...

...that stubborn crew appointment of the season: a verdict which Of Errant Saints, whom all Men grant must be recorded with positive dismay...

...A complete not result in surpluses...

...Americans for Dem- simple cases of promoting morality, securing justice, or ocratic Action, lobbying for public health insurance, is suppressing scandal-all praiseworthy efforts which probably not, in its own view, acting as a "pressure only an enemy of religion would denigrate...

...Republicreasing his percentage of the consumer's food dollar...

...trous...

...Their double duty, of afternoon movies, visits to the hairdresser, and the as Christians and as citizens, demands their presence moral crises of choosing a book at Womrath's...

...Such Administration which was established to assist low In- a policy does not incur the criticisms levelled at parity come farmers is well suited to carry out this work and price supports since the guaranteed minimums would to provide the necessary supervisory service...

...extended...

...ing itself to the dramatic form, caused considerable anAnd prove their Doctrine Orthodox ticipation...

...that, to no visible degree, does the work here either To act otherwise is to lay ourselves open to the charge refine or extend the life of the contemporary American of totalitarianism...

...the processes of temporal life are directed to their Organized Catholic efforts in the labor movement, in proper ends," therefore " . . . in the native structure the fight for racial equality, in the struggle for social of the American system the citizen-of-religious-con- justice have undoubtedly involved many cases of "presscience is placed in the mediating position between sure," but little has been said of them...

...The Church is free to form the con- protested that in fighting against restrictive covenants sciences of her members and they as citizens are free or demanding the right of labor to organize, Catholic to conform the life of the City to the demands of their groups were in a conspiracy to subvert American freeconsciences...

...it cannot, therefore, tolerate the The Church has always resisted Quietism...

...again unique, in that it is a recognition of the pri- granted all this, the real problem of when the use of macy of the spiritual life of the human person, as pressure is appropriate to the Christian-citizen's role in a value supreme over any values incorporated in a "lay" State remains unanswered...

...But this gent to live together...

...They must not ask that the State become boycott when they have believed basic moral issues the Church...

...That is, perhaps, that our motives are widely misunderstood...

...it had its classic expression in the French Revoduty can effectively be exercised without the use of lution, and its hangover in the Third French Republic...

...To melodisappears, as we mature, our voice may be lowered, dramatize the conflict of a mother and son-bound our demands grow less strident, and (it is to be hoped) each to the other by hostility as well as love-is, for our own sense of vocation-in this time, in this place- example, to do worse than merely obscure the true and more secure...

...I think, two reasons for this...

...of the President's Commission on Migrant Labor are a 7. Auxiliary programs which have been undertaken minimum objective to be secured for this branch of the to improve the diet of the American people should be agricultural community...

...When we learn it thor- "The Ladies of the Corridor" are those genteel vicoughly we will have matured in our role of mediator tims of a business society, the unnecessary women: between the two societies of which we are members...

...The area of challenge it will tolerate in of "democracy...

...The recommendations ly planned storage program...

...As Father Murray has written: like our own where there is great concern over "separa- There is [in the United States] a unique historical tion of Church and State...

...gether peacefully...

...Death in the national life as Christian-citizens...

...And so they serve the good of process...

...It is in the world, and is This is, I say, an obvious reason for the controverconcerned with the world's good-even its natural sial aspect of Catholic "pressure," but it has little to do good...

...The definition seems to me to have likely to think of itself as acting patriotically...

...In addition to being Chris- absolute quality which is proper to the Church...

...Our public face is frequently the face of Samuel Butler's OROTHY Parker's play, in which Arnaud seventeenth century Puritans: D'Usseau has collaborated, is the sharpest dis...

...Granted that the those who see Catholic influence as a threat to Ameriuse of pressure is, in itself, part of the democratic ca's free traditions...

...which it must operate-the framework of pluralistIn such a lay State, Father Murray observes liberal American society...

...THE STAGE Unfortunately, we too often seem too sure of ourselves...

...The ancient problem of the realization of the "lay" state-unique because this two societies remains, and its resolution is still far from lay state is not laicized or laicizing on the Conticomplete...

...they arise when one on one's prejudices and predilections...

...influence of those with whom we disagree and find it The obvious reason is the rise in the United States polemically convenient to characterize it as "pressure," of what Father John Courtney Murray has called "the we must admit, I think, that such influence-"pressure" New Nativism," the modern counter-religion of demoor not-is a necessary part of the democratic process...

...State, cannot know (sacrilege is the now classic example The resentment, in many cases, has been justified...

...For them demands of the temporal order were made-but with a to be "free to conform the life of the City to the de- difference...

...were at stake...

...Pressure," as a justifiable form of Catholic acThe use of "pressure" has been one of the means by tivity, must be exercised in reference to the ends of the which Catholics living in the United States have at- temporal society in which it operates as well as by intempted the task of conforming the life of the City to spiration of the eternal values from which it springs...

...degree of enlightened benevolence, but its influence Much of the heated talk about Catholic "pressure must be confined "to the Sacristy...

...It is not enough that some196 THE COMMONWEAL thing be true to justify Catholics' demanding its enforcement in the temporal order...

...can wheat Senators can do business with Democratic 6. To remove some of the uncertainty associated with cotton Senators...

...with these ladies and their empty corridors...

...Paul Blanshard is its most celeIn a free society not only individuals but groups as brated prophet but he most certainly is not its founder, well have a right to make themselves heard and a duty for it is the contemporary manifestation, in American to work toward those ends which they believe necessary terms, of an old idea...

...There are, therefore, imply that one necessarily disapproves of it...

...granted is in the First Amendment a recognition of the that the outcry against them is often the result of antiprimacy of the spiritual-a recognition that is religious bias rather than of a real concern for freedom...

...the one to nothing to do, essentially, with who composes them, achieve "social justice," the other to preserve "free what their motivation may be, what methods they ementerprise...

...They would rather insist that Pressure Groups" is that "pressure" is a loaded those organized Catholic activities which some call word, applied ordinarily to groups whose activities "pressure" are nothing of the kind but rather clear and one wishes, by its use, to condemn...

...In these areas the Catholic effort has been made for the same basic reasons as in other more controversial areas...

...This lay state does not pretend to be The use of political pressure by Catholic groups is a The Whole-an absolutely autonomous, all-emmajor-perhaps the major-aspect of this problem in bracing religio-political magnitude with its own NOVEMBER 27, I9S3 196 quasi-religious content...

...In every free society there are times when men may offer to the State-must be resisted...

...Anxious to assert the validity there is first the free obedience of the Christian con- of absolute moral values in the temporal order, Cathoscience to the magisterial and jurisdictional authority lic groups have sometimes forgotten that the temporal of the Church...

...Miss Parker What may be obvious to the Christian may be neces- and Mr...

...What is disheartening about all this expendiBy Apostolic Blows and Knocks...

...It has divided Catholic from non-Catholic and, To admit that a pressure group exists does not, in specific instances, Catholic from Catholic...

...it has frequently been exercised without reference to and it recognizes that a dyarchy therefore governs the historic cultural and political framework within the life of man and of society...

...It must also be possible in terms of that order's own traditions and ends...

...CATHOLICISM IN AMERICA XVI Catholics and Pressure Groups WILLIAM P. CLANCY T HE initial difficulty in discussing "Catholics and like to admit that it exists...

...tivity, and to turn out a superior product...

...They must Any farm program must meet the test of political have knowledge in order to switch crops when markets realism...

...Farmers need income...

...Again: Miss Field, as issue, is concluded...

...not only be tolerated...

...In this they have insisted they were as- But they sometimes seem to do this...

...Moreover, the present expanded program of a behind-the-scenes basis for a bi-partisan farm promarketing research should benefit the farmer by in- gram...

...pressure" is to postulate a hopelessly romantic, hope- It is the idea of the completely autonomous, thoroughly lessly utopian State, one in which the citizens are more laicized, anti-religious State...

...For Christians, as been the attempt to apply Christian principles in the citizens, to be "in the mediating position between temporal order, and as part of the attempt certain Church and State" is a terrible responsibility...

...They cannot be expected politically to combined with a storage program...

...Its roots are in the Enlightenfor society's good...

...There is, I think, a reason for this...

...Improvement in their diet will mean an the government's traditional role in agriculture and one increase in the demand for protective foods and in farm in which it has been the most successful...

...When tian-citizen he must be diplomat too, reconciling the this temptation has expressed itself through pressure, two cities of which he is a member wherever possible, particularly in the realm of ideas and the arts, the maintaining the principles of each without compromis- result has been often unfortunate and sometimes disasing his loyalty to either...

...dom...

...It is external to them seek to influence society betray a poor understanding and concerns the peculiar totalitarian mentality of not only of the Church but of democracy as well...

...Their assertion of spiritual conspicuous human waste: it invites a dramatist of values in the political and cultural life of the nation sloth and languor, of a civilization's dying fall...

...But each is likely to think the other a "pres- ploy, or what merits their goal may have...

...Commodity lines cut across party lines...

...But Congressmen are also badgered by farming, we might also adopt a system of forward prices pressure groups...

...It is a fact Catholics son into a life of subservience, and a third-played by should remember in their life as citizens...

...According to the drop a program for which there is currently such agitaformer, a government board would estimate future sup- tion as the present one, except for another program ply and demand conditions, and each year before far- which is clearly better...

...Application of the term depends, usually, important but secondary questions...

...In other words, the First Amend- I think we must say that in many specific instances ment rescues the American State from the monism the use of Catholic pressure has been neither appropriwhich has characterized the modern laicized State...