Communications
20 THE COMMONWEAL May 7, 1930 COMMUNICATIONS NEO-PAGANISM Rome, Italy. TO the Editor:—Mr. Donald Powell, of Norwalk, Connecticut, seems to have discovered a friendly flowing...
...And I would, he continues, "also meet members of the more emotional of the non-Catholic churches," who would, he suggests, be less congenial to my "type of mind" than the aforesaid God-denying, graceless, moral, and presumably unemotional, Norwalk pagans of the all-sorts variety...
...The neo-pagan is more of a potential Catholic than the Protestant," says Mr...
...W. L. Scott...
...But in the United States, so widespread is the error, even among otherwise well-informed Catholics, that we are forcing the name "Greek Catholic" on the Orthodox Church, in disregard of the obvious and accepted meaning of the words...
...We have even tippled and chopined together most theologically, as Epistemon would say...
...I would have the satisfaction to throw that above quotation in his extradry throat...
...As one of 'the Catholic clergy of the City' I was invited by a lady writing for the president of the W. C. T. U. of Superior 'to unite in a movement to further the observance of the Eighteenth Amendment.' I was very, very kindly warned 'that neglect to participate in this national movement may give the impression of lack of patriotism.' May 7, 1930 THE COMMONWEAL 21 "It is almost next to impossible for a gentleman to remind a lady that 'patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.' Too bad the president of the 'We C to U' is not a man...
...The obvious objection to it is, of course, that it implies that there may be Catholics who are not Roman...
...Donald Powell, of Norwalk, Connecticut, seems to have discovered a friendly flowing savage, and to have dubbed him "neo-pagan"—or "paganus," as he usually prefers to call him...
...Powell (and I bow to the almost incredible good nature which he displays even in the midst of an "articulate" controversy) grants "Sir Bertrand [Russell] to be the nearest approach to the ideal neo-pagan" and quotes one of Russell's sunshine-shedding paragraphs to prove it...
...F. P. D'Alessandro...
...Then there was Michael Bakunin, logical outcome of Rousseau, Bakunin the famous "Russian giant" of the Paris cafes, high priest of anarchy during the early part of the nineteenth century...
...but a saving wage granted to its employees...
...Why, I have met even Methodists (though not in Rome) without bloodshed...
...It lacks the very first element of a true law: a rule of reason...
...THE AMBIGUOUS "ROMAN" Ottawa, Can...
...The use of "Roman Catholic" in an eastern context is open to another objection...
...I am not afraid of them," he boasts, referring to the cocci in question...
...Powell does not mean that these faithless Catholic-Protestants are faithless in the sense of being unreliable...
...They have not heretofore made claim to the name...
...But the cream of the jest is when the amiable Mr...
...The use of "Roman Catholic" where referring to Catholics of Eastern rites, as in the case in point, is, I think, peculiarly unfortunate, because in the East, the designation "Catholic" is universally and upon all occasions conceded to those of our faith...
...Nobody could have been more ideally neo-pagan than he, or more amiably have put the theory of believing in nothingin-particular-save-one's-self into practice...
...Quite jolly, was it not...
...Powell makes a shrewd guess when he fancies that "even in Rome" I do not "seek companionship among the Methodists...
...For one thing, from the moment he becomes convinced that he is a sinner until the time, if it ever comes, when God knows him as a saint, he is apt to be worried about something...
...Young's principles...
...He is all smiles, like the Cheshire cat—and the Cheshire canary simply is not there...
...After all, Mr...
...Young is looking for peace, no doubt sincerely, as are so many others of his fellow-countrymen and international associates, but what principles of peace is he proposing...
...I have, he declares, in merely describing these neos, attempted "to indict two-thirds of the human race," notwithstanding the fact that "Burke suggested the impossibility of indicting" even "a whole nation...
...Which reminds me...
...We suspect a principle of force and not a principle of mind behind Mr...
...TO the Editor:—I was surprised to see the term "Roman Catholic" used by an editorial writer in The Commonweal of March 19...
...God forbid...
...Is it really so in Norwalk...
...Furthermore, while it is glaringly indubitable that political theory since the 1919 treaties has been divorced from truth and reality, it is equally glaring that post-war economics has been no less so, and if now they have joined hands, since the last Hague consultation, does Mr...
...So I must have seen the neo-pagan if not quite yet almost in his prime...
...As a common-sense man, I am against prohibition...
...Harvey Wickham...
...True, none of them viped in Norwalk, Connecticut, where Mr...
...He is a Catholic, without faith, while the Protestant is a faithless Catholic...
...I never could see the difficulty in indicting a nation, or even humanity in toto...
...The trouble begins only when you seek to secure a conviction, or to execute the verdict...
...In eastern Europe and western Asia, where the Orthodox chiefly come from, the distinction is universally understood...
...The term "Greek Catholic" is no exception to this rule...
...And yet what seems to me to be a court of competent jurisdiction has already ventured not only to indict but to render judgment against natural man, the neo-pagan par excellence...
...If he meant true "economic reintegration" on the principles of the encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII, his predecessors and successors (which are the principles of Catholic thought) would he then have lent his distinguished talents to the International Bank (so politely treated by the American press) ? Comrade Lenin long ago pointed out what such an institution could mean, and though his preventible suggestions are not tenable, his warning is not amiss...
...Think of not being afraid of "two-thirds of the human race...
...Powell himself (at all times) he is amiable— outside of business hours...
...True, he cut a great many throats, but what of it ? They were other people's throats, and he worked by proxy—and he helped to make possible the "rational" institutions of Soviet Russia...
...And once upon a time there was a whole generation authoritatively described as a generation of vipers...
...Cooper evidently finds it hard to associate holding companies with benevolence...
...Powell plays golf, and it is on the links that paganus is at his amiable best—if you don't put him too many holes down...
...The italics are mine...
...We doubt his guarantee, or he would most certainly have cleared up his fanciful metaphor of all the human faces moving together with politics and economics...
...But it happens that, though residence in Norwalk has thus far been denied me, my own American home (when it is not in San Francisco) is in Connecticut—not in Norwalk, but at least in Greenwich...
...YOUNG'S PRINCIPLES New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—The swiftness with which a mutual admiration society is forming around Mr...
...They sound suspiciously like the principles of the justness of the German reparations and the principles of international organization of finance...
...I do not smoke...
...Powell says that "jolly," when used in such expressions as "a jolly indecent fellow," is "synonymous with thoroughly," and has no connection with mirth...
...We have always been trained to think that faces were moved by minds behind them, which took definite stands for good, or evil...
...A company which can subscribe to a wage scale permitting its employees to invest an approximate average of 13 percent of its wages in one or more of its thrift plans certainly deserves to be classified as something other than despotic...
...You see, "even in Rome" one's choice is not limited to moralists without need of grace on the one hand, and emotional Methodists on the other...
...THE W. C. T. U. THREATENS Superior, Wis...
...They were at least trustworthy to that extent...
...Let me quote another Russell paragraph— this one from Marriage and Morals: "There is no country in the world and there has been no age in the world's history where sexual ethics and sexual institutions have been determined by rational considerations, with the exception of Soviet Russia...
...Some deny God, some Christ, some the necessity of divine grace as an instrument of salvation...
...Owen D. Young on the principles of his recent speech at the University of California, causes food for thought as to what this may portend...
...It is a curious fact that the "Roman Church" is the official Turkish name for the Orthodox Eastern Church and, therefore, when used in the East or in an eastern context the word "Roman" is ambiguous, since it may refer either to us or to the Orthodox, whereas the word "Catholic" can refer only to us...
...By early education confirmed by older-age convictions, I never did like liquor...
...In addition to this I believe the plan for employees' pensions, disability benefits and death benefits adopted by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and associated operating companies can in a broad sense be considered a "benevolent plan" although Mr...
...TO the Editor:—At the request of my fellow-priests of Superior, I send you the enclosed clipping from the Superior Evening Telegram of January 30, 1930...
...Even though I must admit that Mr...
...I fear Mr...
...They are not...
...The phrase "Roman Catholic" can, of course, be used in an orthodox sense, treating the two adjectives as synonymous terms, but the question is, not what meaning the phrase might have, but what sense it actually has here and now in the mouths of those who insist on applying it to us...
...In the "Connecticut community," he tells me in your issue of March 5, I "would meet continually all sorts of neo-pagans...
...But Mr...
...Powell's ideas were formed in part by Rousseau, who also took an amiable view of things—especially of savages...
...There is, in the United States, a widespread popular misconception as to the meaning of "Greek Catholic...
...In this category are placed General Motors, the United States Steel Company and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and certain power groups...
...Bernard Lefebvre...
...For the so-called neo-pagan, for all his supposed conformity to moral standards (oddly enough taken from Christian sources) is simply the non-religious person—or one religious only in a feeling that all's right in the world since the paganus flourishes so obviously therein and nobody's throat is cut except somebody else's...
...Powell admires the creature...
...Of those who use the so-called "Greek" or Byzantine liturgy, the Catholics are universally called "Greek Catholics" and the others are universally called "Greek Orthodox" or simply "Orthodox," never "Greek Catholics...
...Powell suggests I should live if I wish to overcome my "fear" of the paganus coccus...
...It happened that on Sunday, January 19, when—to be patriotic—I had to burn incense and genuflect before the sacrosanct Eighteenth Amendment, the excerpt from the Bible I read each Sunday to my people, dealt with Jesus changing water into wine at the wedding of Cana (John II, i-n...
...I therefore think I know just why Mr...
...FORD'S LATEST Providence, R. I. TO the Editor:—An article by Lyle W. Cooper in The Commonweal of February 26 mildly criticizes certain "prosperous companies in the billion-dollar class which do not see fit to stimulate purchasing power by means of higher wages...
...Clearly Mr...
...Right reason does not, cannot prohibit the moderate use of something good or, at its worst, indifferent, in itself...
...The religious person seldom has such amiability to show— especially in the presence of those who do not regard divine grace as an instrument necessary to salvation, or at all...
...As is well known, this matter was fully discussed at the Vatican Council and it was decided that the official name of the Church was, not "Sancta Romana Catholica Ecclesia," as was at first proposed by some of the bishops, but "Sancta Catholica Apostolica Romana Ecclesia," as was finally decided upon with practical unanimity and as it now appears in the dogmatic definition put forth by the Council...
...Not only is a living wage (by the way, what is this thing called living wage...
...And think of all Christians, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Shintoists, etc., amounting to only one-third...
...Owen D. Young guarantee that they have joined hands on justice and the truths of human nature...
...Many people falsely imagine that members of the Orthodox Eastern Church are properly so called...
...This ought not to interfere with his amiability, but it frequently does...
...To this I have nothing to say, my "type of mind" being incapable of seeing the fine distinction between Catholics (or Turks, for that matter) who are without faith and those who are merely faithless—for surely Mr...
...Powell ought to take one of their tips on the stock market...
...Like Mr...
...but, regardless, whether from affection for God [while denying Him?] or respect for the rights of their fellow-citizens, they manage to maintain moral standards at least the equal of those of their Christian associates...
...This is something I jolly well ought to have known...
...Here is a problem for constructive Catholic action as called for by the editor of The Commonweal in a recent issue...
...To me, prohibition is not even a law...
...It was said, if my memory serves me, that the human heart is desperately wicked and in need of repentance—certainly not a neo-pagan virtue...
...While I do not in any sense speak in an official capacity for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, permit me to voice my humble opinion regarding the wage policy subscribed to by the particular subsidiary of this holding company with which I am associated...
...M. R. Madden...
Vol. 12 • May 1930 • No. 1
