Communications
COMMUNICATIONS OUR NEED OF A DAILY PRESS Pakenham, Ontario. TO the Editor: The advocates of a Catholic daily press in different parts of the United States and Canada have frequently set before...
...By the constant dissemination of truth many of the prejudices against the Church would be removed...
...There are Catholic editors of existing daily papers...
...Now, I too might become upset over the neo-pagan on the horizon, if some one would tell me what he looks like...
...Everything written on Russia nowadays is quite interesting...
...and the sum total of my gleanings is: (i) that the old "paganus," or his brother, the gentleman who...
...It is one which follows closely in general outline the existing secular dailies...
...It will publish accounts and pictures of sports and social events...
...Its stories need not be of the Sunday-school variety, but they must not offend against the Commandments of God...
...In the meantime faultfinding, finger-pointing, articles in the Catholic press, will not help the spirit of persevering prayer...
...What advantage would there be in a Catholic daily...
...It is neither justice nor humanity so to grind men down with excessive labor as to stupify their minds and wear out their bodies...
...TO the Editor:-I think a good answer to Mr...
...It doesn't sound so good coming from a Catholic priest...
...At the same time they would fearlessly defend truth and the civic and national rights of Catholics...
...We did feed European victims of political conditions after the war...
...The children could be taught religion in the home and church...
...THE EVOLUTION OF A MODERATE DRINKER Philadelphia, Pa...
...The same question was put a generation ago about the Catholic school...
...Anderson's article, Common-Sense Charity Abroad, which appeared in The Commonweal for November 13, is contained in the following quotation from Chester Rowell's Comment in the San Francisco Chronicle, written some weeks ago in Pekin and published November 4. "The American Red Cross declines to participate in Chinese famine relief on the ground that the present conditions are caused by the acts, not of nature but of man, and that the only cure for these acts is a government in China which will not commit nor permit them...
...TO the Editor: The advocates of a Catholic daily press in different parts of the United States and Canada have frequently set before the readers of the Catholic weekly papers the urgent need of a daily press under Catholic control...
...There is too much of "perhaps," "we are told," "one is told," "apparently...
...Its aim would be to assist in the betterment of mankind at home and abroad...
...Mark O. Shriver quotes a Nebraska court decision to the effect that "Bible reading was declared to be worship and sectarian instruction, and hence prohibited...
...I have listened in on discussions...
...Starvation is still starvation, whether caused by floods or by war and the immediate remedy for starvation is food...
...Is a Catholic daily paper necessary...
...The shipwreck to the faith of myriads of children whose fathers did not heed the solemn warnings of the Church gives the sad answer...
...It has published, if my memory serves me, an article by an Anglican, which resulted in its being charged with promoting heresy...
...The reply is similar to that which might be given to those proposing to build a necessary bridge at a given point: "People are not in the habit of swimming across the stream...
...and (3) that neo-paganism is the proper term for the lazy Catholic critic to apply to what he does not like...
...But surely the starving common folk should not be punished because through no fault of their own they have been driven to subsist on bark and grass and, alas, in some instances, on the flesh of their fellow-men...
...I have asked questions...
...But let us, at least among ourselves, understand what a Catholic daily is or should be...
...It has said some kind words about Mr...
...It will print legitimate advertisements as do the present Catholic papers, but reject fraudulent and immoral advertising, or the advertising of improper plays, books, etc...
...It looks as though the good father had become intoxicated with prohibition...
...The title page and index for Volume X of The Commonweal are now ready...
...Just a short year ago we heard these things from the Ku Klux Klan, the Anti-saloon League, the Methodist preachers, from President Hoover's friend, Mr...
...They were too widely scattered...
...Why not substitute prayer for "waiting...
...He no doubt would have followed his revered parent to the woodshed, or whatever place was used to knock foolish ideas out of the heads of wilful boys...
...And what is the purpose of the paper...
...Is it non-recognition propaganda combined with watchful waiting...
...It has vastly more important reasons for existence...
...They are invariably told that the people will not read a religious daily...
...Those who disobeyed the injunction paid the fearful penalty...
...But the editorial named is not as informative as it sounds in the beginning...
...It would tear off the masks from the pseudo-scientists who are continually hoaxing the people...
...We know full well that there are tremendous difficulties in the way of founding daily papers...
...TO the Editor: I read with interest the editorial in The Commonweal of November 6, Russia against Heaven...
...lived on the heath, was a decent fellow, ignorant, perhaps, an Aristotle, an Aeschylus, a Confucius, but still a reasonably decent fellow...
...Prayer is a mighty big job...
...Its editorials would not be religious homilies, but nevertheless would follow Christian principles...
...He gave His hand to the woman taken in adultery, to the leper and even to Pilate...
...George W. O'Toole...
...Nobody questions these facts, though many will disagree with the conclusion...
...Our schools provide only for Catholic children...
...Paul Chubaroff...
...It would counteract the malign influence of newspaper obligarchs of the present day whose purses are fattening on the sacrilegious treatment of the sacred beliefs of Christians...
...TO the Editor: In an able discussion entitled Reading the Bible in School, appearing in The Commonweal November 27, Mr...
...While admitting to its columns the news of the world and of the multiple activities of men here, there and everywhere, it will exclude news that is damaging to faith or morals...
...2) that the new pagan, a knowledgeable chap, a Bernard Shaw, a George or Bertrand Russell, is a jolly indecent fellow...
...They are found in his encyclical on labor...
...The above quotation is found in the same number of The Commonweal as the editorial, Russia against Heaven only a few pages distant...
...The exactions of war lords, the depradations of bandits and confiscatory taxation cannot be cured by feeding victims...
...H. L. Mencken, thereby bringing down upon its head some animadversion on the part of the Catholico-Puritan group...
...Just another thought: I was amazed to learn that hundreds of thousands of Catholics are drunkards...
...Let us take a sentence or two which might appear in an editorial, say on labor: "The first concern of all is to save the poor workers from the cruelty of grasping speculators, who use human beings as mere instruments for making money...
...WTien they are sufficiently informed, and are not circumscribed by the editorial policy of the paper, and when they have the courage, they can inject Catholic principles and Catholic thought into a great variety of articles without ever mentioning religion...
...If 350,000,000 people all over the world start to pray daily, or even once a week, for the return to unity of the eastern schismatics, and continue to pray for at least one-quarter of a century (an insignificant space in eternity) what would be the result...
...Much the same as there is in a Catholic school...
...All this is much to the good, and connotes progress...
...Amen, Amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you...
...There is no mention of religion nor Catholicism in these lines, and yet they contain Catholic thought from no less a person than Pope Leo XIII...
...It may be that I should be as frightened over the bogy of neo-pagnism as a Daughter of the American Revolution is over the bogy of pacifism...
...Rev...
...If millions of dollars can be spent in great churches, educational institutions, seminaries, hospitals, etc., why is the greatest weapon of defense and propaganda in the world left in the hands of the foes of religion...
...If Red Cross funds in China have been misappropriated by native leaders (no one has said so) then the funds should be distributed hereafter through reliable agencies...
...Nor do I think that The Commonweal is as much exercised over the ghostly shadow cast by the modern pagans as it was during the swaddling-clothes stage of its career...
...If some kindly soul will tell me why I should be disturbed, I can certainly assure him of at least one attentive auditor...
...Why not give the Russians the same square deal as we give the Negroes, at least, and treat them as "brethren in the Lord" ? It is absolutely true that "no aspect of our Lord's ministry on earth is more striking than His consciousness of the purely human differences which would divide His followers into hostile groups...
...This is erroneous...
...Nevertheless the Church commanded the people to build schools...
...The decision referred to was handed down as a commissioner's opinion which, upon appeal, was reversed by Chief Justice C. J. Sullivan, a former son of the Church, who ruled by way of compromise that the Bible may be read with comment in the public schools not as sectarian instruction, but as a text-book of literature, history and the sciences...
...Truth would dispel the fogs of error which now envelop the non-Catholic mind...
...RUSSIA AGAINST HEAVEN Factoryville, Pa...
...A. Wagner...
...John P. Moore...
...But what a whale of difference only a few pages make...
...Catholics have been "waiting" for hundreds of years, ever since 1054 A. D. Must they be kept "waiting" until doomsday...
...Rev...
...Moreover, I gather that much of its support comes from people who see no cause to become emotional over the possibility that neo-paganism is inimical to either our civilization or to Catholicism...
...The Catholic newspaper would take a genuine interest in civic, provincial and national affairs and strive to foster among its readers local efforts for the common good and all worthy movements for the general welfare...
...I may (with customary consistency) be all wrong...
...READING THE BIBLE IN SCHOOL Paul, Neb...
...Rev...
...But He was tireless in pointing out to those who would follow that they were dedicated to a love which transcended all natural barriers...
...You can ship a famine refugee to Manchuria for $2.00, and once there he will care for himself and in a few weeks contribute to the famine fund the cost of transporting another refugee...
...COMMON-SENSE CHARITY ABROAD San Francisco, Cal...
...It would strive to overthrow much of the cant and the false philosophy which have come from Luther, Kant, Gibbon and Hume in the past, and from the Freuds, the Wellses, the Shaws and the Durants of the present day...
...Donald Powell...
...TO the Editor: On reading The Evolution of a Moderate Drinker in your columns, I was surprised to learn that a "moderate drinker" started at the early age of three years, with his sangaree on being tucked into bed at night and was further surprised to hear that at the advanced age of twelve he defied the venerable Cardinal Gibbons, and refused to take the pledge that is given to all loyal Catholic boys on receiving the sacrament of confirmation...
...Editor: Although The Commonweal, as I recall it, was established as an antidote for something called neo-paganism, I could never work up much enthusiasm with this as raison d'etre...
...Catholics were too poor to compete with the costly public schools...
...I hate to think what would have happened to him had he been raised in the old parish that I came from...
...The Church today through her spiritual leaders is urging the faithful to develop the Catholic press...
...Why not have an editorial or article on Russia entitled Brethren in the Lord...
...In Manchuria he and his posterity will be self-supporting forever...
...Angell of the Fellowship Forum, and from Senator Moses of wild jackass fame...
...These will be sent upon request...
...Our Catholic daily would reach the non-Catholic better than any other agency used by the Church...
...A REBEL FROM CONNECTICUT Norwalk, Conn...
...That must be the result...
...But if the Catholic press did nothing else, it would teach our people to think correctly on the many subjects coming daily to their attention...
...Even more...
...Information on binding will be given upon application to the offices of The Commonweal.lication to the offices of The Commonweal...
...I have read somewhat here and there...
...The same arguments were used against the Catholic school at that time as are used against the Catholic daily press today...
...The public knows so little about the country that anything which tends to give the latest edition of news from over there is gladly accepted...
...It is based too strongly on hearsay...
...They are wiser in their generation than the children of light...
...The author did not use that word, but said they abused liquor, which means the same thing...
...And some of the famine relief work now going on in China is constructive as well as palliative...
...Arrangements have been made for binding Volume X in leather or cloth...
...Hazel M. Moore...
Vol. 11 • January 1930 • No. 9
