Week by Week
THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1927, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, Grand Central Terminal, New York, N. Y. MICHA~L WXZLIAMS, Editor Assistant...
...The seriousness of making an oath in the name of the Almighty, and then glibly lying "to help out a friend," or for some similar reason, seems to have been entirely overlooked by many who have dis- cussed the condition as an impediment to the adminis- tration of justice...
...History (in Paraguay and elsewhere) is testimony that she can be a very efficient ruler indeed...
...These principles, moreover, were set forth by the Papacy in its declaration upon the Mexican situation, and repeated by the bishops of Mexico themselves.9 In its issue dated December 29, The Commonweal made the following comment: "It is instructive to note to what a meagre extent the official American press has dealt with the pastoral letter, and to see how cautious its comment has usually been...
...The mysterious, oriental languor of the people whose extremes of conduct are indicated by bloodshed and Guadalupe, is an abyss into which our nicely formulated concepts sink without an echo, and out of which there rise staggering phantoms we cannot even bear to see...
...In our own immediate time, the testimony is not merely that of constantly more numerous hospitals and institu- tions, but also the active interest of the universal Church in such problems as the relief of the Near East...
...The major portion of this potential deposit of knowledge is the fact that the "liberal" moves in a world he has hermetically sealed against outside influences--even such influences as are conveyed by ordinary news...
...After all, the gist of the whole problem is contained in the sacred advice to seek first the kingdom of faith...
...We do not want to be informed that "Mexico's war upon the Church is the natural outgrowth of the latter's history...
...But to christen the child "liberty," is really a little too kind...
...Ironically enough, it was one of the most romantic of soldiers, Phil Sheridan, who virtually carried the order of execution for the vision- ary and far too righteous Hapsburg prince...
...May it not be that we too, quite like Carlotta and her hus- band, have been entertaining a romantic view of the problem...
...That a deplorable condition was becoming every day worse, was generally admitted...
...This opinion has been published in full and quoted from widely.9 On page 46 of his pamphlet, Mr...
...This action comes too close upon remarks we made anent Mayor Walker's recent action on home-grown pornography for us to do more than hint at its significance, and approve, at least, the spirit it registers.9 Abb~ Bethl~em, as those who read his annual series, Livres /t Lire et ~t Proscrire, with an open mind have to admit, is not only a forceful but a witty critic.9 But there are evi-dently occasions when, like Saint Thomas before him, he feels the need of something more concrete than sweet persuasiveness.9 WHAT ABOUT "THE NATION...
...At Vitebsk, the beautiful Orthodox cathedral is now a storehouse for Soviet archives...
...Then and now, of course, absurd stories were set afoot to kindle the fury of the popu- lace...
...WHAT he designated the most important political question now before the American people, was dis-cussed by Reverend John A. Ryan recently, in an ad- dress at the Mid-Day Luncheon Club of Springfield, Illinois...
...Monsignor Leonid Fiodoroff, the exarch of the Rus- sian Catholics of the Byzantine rite, sentenced in I923 to ten years' imprisonment, but liberated at the end of April last, has again been arrested and put in prison...
...Flaherty and his aides...
...So used are we to con-sidering the French as a law-abiding nation, shep-herded through life by the Code Napol~on, that the action of Abb~ Bethl~em, as reported recently in the press, comes with something of the same pleasant thrill that we get when the little fellow in Screenland throws the saloon bully through the swinging doors.9 Faced with what he considered too liberal a display of anatomy on a bookstall in the precincts of the Gare du Nord, the Abb~, whom correspondents agree in de- scribing as large and rugged, did not content himself by taking notes for legal action...
...and so in the end, Maxi- milian died like a first-class soldier and gentleman, Carlotta knelt at the feet of indifferent monarchs until anguish had destroyed her reason, and another series of revolutions began in Mexico...
...That is why a paper like The Nation--and ever so many other exemplars of American opinion-- look so ridiculous to us...
...William D. Guthrie, of the New York Bar, prepared for the American bishops a legal opinion on the problems created by the rule of Calles...
...There are others;in fact, to those with one fixed idea, the whole history of mankind, of movements as well as men, of customs as well as laws, is made into a joke...
...Seizing the otiend- ing publications by bundles in his powerful hands," we are told, "he began tearing them in pieces, scattering the fragments on the ground...
...THEY do these things differently in France," Yorick's fellow-traveler in The Sentimental Journey was fond of noting...
...The retreat of all foreigners from the country would not mean peace, responsible government, or social reconstruction...
...To their minds even the mission of Christ was a thing that might be subordinated to purposes of economic and political dominion...
...Inevitably the rise of imperialism, the thing now at stake in China, was contemporary with a wide-spread repudiation, by philosophers and statesmen, of this concept of political rule...
...Long before the mighty empire of Rome collapsed, the first great Cath- olic hospitals were established within its borders...
...The inmates are, moreover, deprived of any possible opportunity for the exterior practice of their religion...
...There also took place, not long ago, a conference which proudly proclaimed at the end of its sessions that the empire had "ended...
...It is even suggested that the "revolt led by the Archbishop of Guadalajara" may have been financed by the Knights of Columbus fund...
...It was the envy of dying paganism, sensible that in itself it possessed no such response of life or promise for the future...
...At Moscow, the monasteries of Saints Martha and Mary, and of Saint Nicholas, have been closed by the authorities and the former turned into a work-man's club...
...We may now add the conviction that many persons who profess to feel an anxiety about the "Catholic stand" have not read it at all...
...Even Christmas and Easter pass, as other days, in this intolerable servitude...
...But what is nationalism today in China...
...Government, which under purely primitive conditions is simply restraint of crime and the domi- nance of the strong, became the earthly guardian of a Christian people and carried out a mission of justice and social charity...
...But the existence of WHAP continues to indi- cate grave danger latent in the possible abuse of radio stations...
...It knows that Great Britain owes to the Reformation, not only its liberty of thought, speech and action, but the British empire itself...
...News of an attack upon a Dominican convent, fomented by a fanatical report that the children cared for by the nuns were being dissected for scientific pur- poses, compares very well with incidents chronicled in the history of older uprisings...
...Qui mange le Pape en meurt" (who eats the Pope dies of it) is a motto that has already proved its accuracy, and Italy's dictator, when he next reviews his black-shirted young robots, and misses any religious emblem above their ranks, might well make it matter for thought of an intensive nature...
...So far as we have been able to discover, none of the peoples associated with this really grandiose triumph of imperialism, has been aware of any outstanding accession of freedom...
...W HEN Reverend Dr...
...IS possible to learn a great deal from "liberal" I T expression of opinion...
...Nothing could, after all, be more agreeable to the "tyranny of Rome" than to concede the parentage of imperialism to the Reformation...
...The peril lies not so much in what is said, as in the fact that the prestige with which radio is still endowed in the public mind makes the passions enkindled by vicious propaganda unusually harmful...
...And it is an obvious and benignant fact that never from that day until this, did Catholic conscious- ness fail to envisage the corporal works of mercy...
...At Leningrad, one of the churches con- nected with the great lara of Saint Alexander Nevesk~ has become a crematory...
...If any way can be found to reduce what is an insult to God as well as an affront to the courts, a step forward will have been taken...
...Arrests and prosecutions have again become general and affect both the Catholics and the Orthodox...
...THEREFORE,while anxiety for the future and par- ticularly for the fate of Christian missionaries is shared by us all, it is useful to consider the truth that, despite all weaknesses and defections from principle, the west- ern nations really can offer to backward peoples the example of political order...
...William Walker Rockwell, professor of church history in Union Theological Sem- inary, told the Lutheran Ministers' Association a few days ago, that neither John Calvin nor Martin Luther were prohibitionists, he made no startlingly new revel- ation...
...facts of political tyranny which deny the premises of all tolerant governmentwplainly summarized and confronted...
...This is one of the jokes of history...
...A few years ago, in fact as recently as the first negotiations about revision of the tariff schedules, no one would have credited the report that Great Britain would soon be gathering the frightened flock of her representatives under the shelter of ships of war, and that the whole "industrial expansion" achieved by a generation of engineers and business men would be laid waste...
...ONE of the most remarkable bits of apologetic we have ever seen, is quoted from The Churchman, by the Religious Press Digest: "The heart of the British people is as evangelical as it ever was...
...To date, it has not gained for us a single friend...
...the press of the world has denounced imperialism in Latin Amer- ica...
...We too seldom reflect upon the idea, formulated by Aquinas, that by reason of the continuing triumph of grace over human nature, the barbaric purposes of the state have been tran-scended...
...Now comes Magistrate Joseph E. Corrigan, of New York, with a suggestion of real value...
...It reposed on the flimsy belief that a symbol of order could halt the swirling cycle of Mexican chaos and change...
...Ryan pointed out, the ruling of the court of last resort estab- lishes a precedent which is full of danger in giving the owners of a public utility, "although they possess a monopoly of a necessary commodity, and although their money is practically guaranteed," a return of no less than 30 percent on their actual investment...
...We want to hea~ the verdict: right or: wrong.9 Then we shall know y(here The Nation stands...
...He must have wondered, as we do now, what good would come ultimately from the determination to Americanize the two vast continents...
...The Puritans of today may listen with profit to the words of the distinguished student and historian : "It is one of the jokes of history that the Puritans are credited with being the fathers of prohibition...
...Now that death has ended the long tragedy of Car- lotta, once empress of Mexico, there must be many who ask what the fate of the country of the Monte- zumas would have been if her dream of it had become reality...
...Perhaps it was the stark, engulfing vision of Mexico...
...During November, 1926, Mr...
...Though often enough it meant con- siderable sacrifice and danger, the final result in Mex- ico has been legal, economic, and political chaos...
...Perhaps it was not personal failure which broke the mind of Carlotta...
...But now these things have come to pass, with a thoroughness which only those who know China intimately can realize...
...Attempts to make the sign of the Cross are checked with the whip...
...LAST week The Commonweal printed a letter ex-pressing the repudiation of WHAP, a New York radio station, by the Christian Science Committee on Publica- tion...
...Villard for having swallowed one of the biggest hoaxes ever saddled upon the reading public...
...The station in question has angered a great many people by reason of bigoted absurdities emanat- ing from it regarding Catholics and Jews...
...Nothing like it had ever been seen before in the world...
...There is not, nor can there ever be, any reconciliation between that empire and the Church of Rome, so long as the British empire stands for liberty, and the Church of Rome stands for tyranny or autocracy...
...Undoubtedly, a situation such as this should become a live political issue until the day it is changed...
...That is a fact worth bearing in mind while considering the phenomenon that more deeply interests the Amer- ican or European observer--the abandonment of almost all strongholds and trading centres excepting Shanghai...
...An example comes to hand in an editorial entitled, What About the Cath- olics?, which appears in The Nation for January 26...
...But it is rather astonishing to see "liberty" enumerated among the various virtues of the British empire...
...In any case, the organizations that will not have her as an honored guest, sooner or later reap the fruit of their inhospitality...
...To wit: the common people of the United States have united in protest against war with Mexico...
...There is no doubt that juries generally are loath to find a conviction for perjury in any but the most flag- rant cases...
...The second is that, when summoned by the civil (or uncivil) power to evacuate organizations not strictly religious, built up by her, she has often displayed an alacrity in submission that disappointed the more militant among her children...
...No one familiar with the courteous and intelligent character of the Monitor would have believed it linked with the malicious drivel which flashed and soared above the chimney-pots of Manhat- tan...
...In the midst of the great pestilence of Carthage, Saint Cyprian could in- vite the Mediterranean world to admire the common devotion of Christian men and women to all the vic- tims, without distinction of creed...
...In the first place that needs a kind of substant'ati0ta nobody is in a position to supply, and in the seco/~ place it is beside the point.9 We want to see tlxe t~tcts in the Calles case--facts of law which abrogate the concept of law...
...But she has generally contented herself with giving her benediction and encouragement to what seemed good, and warning against what seemed evil...
...The whole adventure was, of course, a romantic mistake...
...He has proposed to the District Attorney, to the Chief Justice of the Court of Special Sessions, to the Chief City Magistrate, to the Baumes Crime Commission, and to the Bar Association, that the crime of perjury be changed from a felony to a misdemeanor...
...S PEAKING at the opening of a large new hospital in the city of Brooklyn, Bishop Shahan, rector of the Catholic University of America, reminded his audience of a very important fact: "There is surely a Catholic pathology--the long story of the practical interest of the Church in the physical sufferings, not alone of her own children, but of all mankind...
...Simple fear cf the facts---fear of looking at this malignant thir:y .9 .9 .9 .9 .9 .9 whlch Is Calles tyranny m Mexico, fear of conslderm~ it apart from all subterfuge of theory or doctrine, fe~ of being driven to the conclusion that this is a "damn)~ thing...
...Knowing the exact point at which re-sistance will become a duty, and at which the terrible weapon must be drawn which she is all the more loath to use because she knows it is of unearthly temper, it is a point, not only of good manners, but good ethics, for her not to raise a supreme issue on subsidiary mat- ters...
...The real rea-sons for her docility are not such as need encourage her enemies...
...In fact, if recent reports have not been entirely spurious, there has been some complaint on precisely this score by Irishmen, Indians, and Egyptians...
...It is now a pleasure to notice that the Publishing Society, an au- thoritative body inside the Christian Science Church, has now formally disapproved the entire enterprise by declaring: "The station is conducted by a group of persons using the term 'Christian Science' without au- thority from the governing board of the Christian Sci- ence movement...
...In the first place, one may suggest that only the "heart" could know such a thing as that liberty is the product of the reform in England...
...The roots of the disorder seem to lie deeper than the sources of the Boxer Rebellion...
...Catholics have declared where they stand, about as clearly, emphatically and reasonably as human words can declare anythin 8. But where on earth is "liberal thought...
...Here are repeated precisely the same charges which the outstanding ignoramus of Senate history, Heflin of Alabama, read into the Congressional Record...
...What really must be pointed out, however, is the circumstance that in its attitude toward the Mexican problem The Nation is really very much like the nation.9 Has there been no oftldal, collective statement of Catholic opinion ? Is there no way of telling where Catholics stand on the matter of Mexico...
...The Calvinism of today which seeks to make people good by law, needs the reminder that Calvin not only drank in moderation, but that he was given a special wine allowance for the entertainment of his many visitors at Geneva...
...THE decision of the Supreme Pontiff to dissolve the flourishing Catholic Boy Scout organization rather than subject it to Fascist discipline, is one of those dig- nified gestures of submission in which a reproof lurks that the most hardened cannot escape...
...A new institution, of universal human value, was thus created by the Catholic religion, and perpetuated by the love and the sacrifice of clergy and people...
...It would seem to be a mood exploited by military factions in- terested in the acquisition of power in that gross, tangible sense which is so actual in all countries lacking stable and reasoned concepts of government...
...Guthrie de- clared that "thoughtful Catholics will not endeavor by agitation, political or otherwise, to force the hand of our government.9 On the following twelfth of De- cember, the Catholic Episcopate of the United States issued a pastoral letterwin itself an unusual eventmon the religious situation in Mexico.9 On page 28 of this letter, copies of which were sent out as widely as pos- sible and other copies of which are distributed at a nominal cost by those terrible Knights of Columbus who rasp the sensitive nerves of so many "liberals," these words are found : "Christian principles forbid the Church founded by the Prince of Peace to take up the sword or rely upon such carnal weapons as the inflamed passions of men would select.9 The letter went on to say that the episcopate made no plea for intervention or political action of any sort, and counseled all to be- lieve and pray that justice would triumph in the end...
...WE gather from a recent number of Ir~nikon, a magazine published in Belgium by the monks of the Reunion of the Churches, that there has recently been a recrudescence of active religious persecution in Soviet Russia...
...I N recent years, judges and magistrates have repeat- edly called attention to the prevalence of perjury in the courts...
...lief...
...The head, particularly when it profits by a good course in history at Cambridge or Oxford, normally manifests a desire to change its religious affiliations...
...but surely he must know that there is a million times more evidence to show that Mexican propaganda in the United States is bought and paid for than exists to indicate that a lonely country bishop obtained funds from Mr...
...This is the inevitable increase in the cost to the public of transportation, light and power, as a result of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Indianapolis water case...
...but how to correct it was a problem which appeared to defy solu- tion...
...Those who are acquainted with the history of the Church, in good times and bad, cannot have failed to have noticed two characteristics of her action where what might be termed the outlying spheres of her influence are con-cerned...
...The lot of ecclesiastics is purposely made harder than that of other prisoners...
...There was liquor aboard the Mayflower, and early Massachusetts did not prohibit the sale of liquor except on Sundays and to the Indians...
...The first is that she has never been in a hurry to assume responsibilities only remotely connected with her teaching and saving function...
...In the face of this slow martyrdom, suffered by so many Orthodox priests and bishops, dare we say that the Russian Church is dying...
...facts of brutal misrule whic~ almost baffle b...
...the sinister purposes of the oil barons have been circumvented but Catholics, excepting for a bit of editorial opinion expressed in The Commonweal, have been silent or even guardedly bellicose on the subject of intervention...
...The pur- pose of this contemplated change is to take perjury cases out of the hands of juries, and allow them to be dealt with summarily by judges in Special Sessions...
...Of particular im-portance to us is the fact that American intervention, dictated by the Monroe Doctrine, was the final blow at Maximilian's power...
...Religious foundations, being defenseless, are always the first targets of that bigotry which nationalism can use so advantageously...
...We can forgive Mr...
...As Dr...
...THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1927, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, Grand Central Terminal, New York, N. Y. MICHA~L WXZLIAMS, Editor Assistant Editors THOMAS W~.I.SH Hm.~N WALKER HENRY LONGAN STUART GEORCE N. SHUS~R JOHN F. McCoRMICK, Business Manager Editorial Council T. LatwRasoN Ric, rs JAMES J. Wm.sa CARLXON J. H. HAYES R. DANA SKINNER United States : $5.00 Foreign : $6.00 Canada : 5.50 Single Copies: .10 WEEK BY WEEK C HINA in the throes of a nationalistic revolution is not a pleasure resort, either for the orientals themselves or for citizens of other lands...
...It is easy to understand that if state legislatures and Con- gress do not make a clear and reasonable definition of "fair value," "fair return," and "going value," the rail- roads will seek the same increase, and all other public utilities concerns will turn to the public and demand higher rates to meet this "fair return" upon their valu- ations...
...And the reason why...
...The prison camp of Solovki, situated on a group of islands in the White Sea, is receiving a constant stream of persons, for the most part ecclesiastics, condemned to suffer the tortures of that terrible place...
...But it is a pity that his remarks were not broad- cast to certain parts of the country where they might have been pondered to advantage...
...And just as we ourselves should have neither peace nor good government if this prin- ciple were accepted in practice amongst us, so also is there no hope that territories in the Orient or elsewhere will be free of cataclysms while imperialism and its corollary of exploited nationalism abide...
Vol. 5 • February 1927 • No. 13
