THE HOME FRONT
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN The World and the Flesh Once More THE NEW LEADER is read by every sort of human creature. We have among our subscribers many Catholics, Protestants and...
...My notion on Christmas Day was that great ideas, great words, even if they have not been completely made flesh, have an abiding power...
...John, a prosaic fisherman before his call to follow Christ, was not writing poetry when he described Christ's raising of Lazarus from the dead, and Christ's own Resurrection...
...THE MEN AND WOMEN who read this paper are interested in understanding the world and in doing something toward making it safer and happier...
...to Umptr with the day every time It t comes around...
...The two developments are closely interrelated...
...This leads him to write: 'Now though he had worked so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in Him.' "You say that the Church has failed, < because 'we do-not have peace.' But the Church cannot force peace upon the world, any more than she can force her own children to be personally peaceable...
...the number of party members has declined considerably...
...Largescale unemployment which served as the basis for Fascist ascendance to power, does not exist in France at the present time...
...ALL OVER Europe, in Socialist circles as well as among non-Socialists, I often met with the conviction that Socialists are obliged to show leniency toward Communism, that by the very nature of things Socialist governments must be weak and reluctant when (bey have to deal with Communist-staged political offensives, general strikes, and illegal armed might...
...She teaches that both war and peace have their source in the human soui She communicates to those who are receptive all that is necessary for both personal and world-wide peace — Christ's light of truth and strength of grace...
...neither hierarchical nor...
...You use St...
...I recall fairly well some of the things which I learned in my youth about the Gospel of St...
...That is what Thomas Jefferson and the others were up io when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, and what Lincoln had in mind when he spoke those immortal words at Gettysburg...
...rw* only to be J#dh...
...How can it be said that the Church has failed when in every age she has produced her Leos and Gregories, Benedicts and BernarQs, Augustines and Aquinases, Francises and Dominies, Joans and Bernadettes...
...Frenchnattenalist movement in foreign affairs...
...The column entitled "The Home Front' states unassumingly that its Christmas thoughts are 'right on the beam,' and then says flatly that 'when Christians speak of the incarnation they refer to the manifestation of spiritual perfection as it took place in the person' of Jesus.' However, the approximately 390,000,000 Christians who acknowledge allegiance to the Catholic Church have no such milk and water attitude toward the Incarnation...
...ttvirr of ¦ fellow-traveler...
...IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS, on the other hand, De Gaulle's party has not yet formulated a distinct program...
...Jliancial dependence exists...
...The Home Front By WILLIAM E. BOHN The World and the Flesh - Once More THE NEW LEADER is read by every sort of human creature...
...By a paradoxical development, De Gaullist foreign policy may suit Moscow better than that of (Continued on Page Fourteen) In David J. DsdUa's arncia...
...Their colleague, Jules Moch, the Socialist Minister of the Interior, has recently Investigated the connection between French Communism and Moscow and' accused Maurice Thorez' party °* being "under the orders and in the pay of 'Moscow...
...If they are at all informed about their religion they know that before St...
...John grieves, not because those who have heard and seen Christ will not recognize Him as 'the incarnation of spiritual perfection,' but because they reject His clear claims to divinity...
...Their people remember statements and theories to the effect that the Socialist Party Stels akin to the Communists and refuses to participate in a government & irhich the Communist Party is not lljuijuocuted...
...John straight on the meaning of the Incarnation, as expressed in the phrase, the word was made flesh,' in the first chapter of his Gospel...
...It is pleasant to note that in his last paragraph my correspondent rather comes over to my side of the argument...
...It wants France to play the leading role in continental affairs...
...The latter has attracted supporters from among Communists and Socialists as well...
...iffV * / "I will always oppose," Daniftl Mayer' said in 1946...
...John's second chapter, which recounts the changing of water into wine, to see that your use of the first chapter was invalid...
...a number of writers and leaders of the "left" at present are part of the inner circle around General DeGaulle...
...Jesus Christ and the Christian religion are involved in this effort...
...I think, at this late day, I could make a fairly good theological argument in support of the point of view which I suggested in my Christmas column...
...The Church, he is saying, cannot force people to be ' good, but it is working with might and main to get them \o be better...
...I still think it Is a good idea...
...his incarnate 'Ideal' claiming divine equality with God the Father...
...it is likely to enter on a political road which could mean a separation from the other western powers...
...Sued statements are injurious and slanderous and not a tingle Socialist tuill accept them...
...I am sure that the Reverend Bertrand Weaver would be far from claiming a monopoly of this man and his religion for the "approximately 350,000,000 Christians who acknowledge allegiance to the Catholic Church...
...If he had continued a little longer he would have been writing an addition to my original essay...
...The decline of the Socialist movement and the rapid growth of DeGaulIe's Party during a short period of three years is the outstanding characteristic of France's postwar history...
...If general elections would take place today, no government would be possible without De Gaulle...
...I hope that my good friend will be patient even with unbelievers who find inspiration in the gospels...
...Today De Gaulle's following is likely to embrace 30 to 40 percent of French voters...
...Populate has become a small-size newspaper ever struggling financially...
...St...
...Communists themselves axe, of course, never handicapped by con* siderations of this kind...
...Today, despite sonfe failures, the Communist* appear le retain their strength of about 20 to 28 percent of the French electorate, while the Socialists have lost at least half of their supporters and almost all of their driving-force and prestige...
...Now on Christmas Day 11 sent out a message which I hoped was conceived in the spirit of the day and which I tried to put into words which could not give offense to anyone...
...Unfinished Task...
...To many people this idea is almost an axiom: do not both Socialists and Communists term themselves "workers" parties...
...John, about when it was written and whence came its ideas...
...It was really thought- ' ful of The New Leader to set St...
...ft was in line with such theories in 1938, that Leon Blum made the statement that his party will not participate in a government with the MRP or other parties unless the Communists take part in it These leaders of French Socialism would propably be happy today if their statements were forgotten...
...But the argument would not be interesting to New Leader readers...
...Are Socialists entitled to apply rough measures against Communist "class comrades...
...In fact, you would have had to read no further than the ninth verse of St...
...la last week's Mew Leader, it was erroneously stated that* "the editors of the (Lendon) Tribune were inclined to keUeve the objee...
...John has...
...Moch has also applied stern measures against a Communiststaged political strike...
...knfcke the rounds'(n the De Gaullist...
...John wrote in that first chapter 'the word was made flesh,' he declared/without equivocation: ,'ln the beginning was the...
...Word, and the Word was with God: and the Word was God ...' "The New Leader tells us that St John meant merely that in Christ the ideal was made flesh.' You say nothing about the fact that four chapters later the same St...
...Their position has deteriorated to that of a second-rate party...
...The philosophy of De G^ullisrn is rather 'nebulous and hazy.;r ^tdistinct theories .el social trans^orriaiion, of a new type Of trade unionism...
...those who say that the Communist Party is under the orders of Moscow or is an agent of a foreign power...
...People wonder why hundreds of Communist small fry are imprisoned while the real wire-pullers from the Party's Central Committee remain unmolested and continue to prepare new "campaigns...
...In fact, DeGaulIe's successes are the direct result of the Socialists' failures...
...In one place, St...
...His policies, however, are considered half-hearted and weak...
...De-Gaullism, Communism, Socialism By David /. Dallin Auocme Editor of Tn New Leaou PARIS—Three or four yean ago the Communist and the Socialist parties were almost equally strong — actually, the strongest parties — in France...
...Monopolies are bad things—especially monopolies of virtue and of knowledge...
...Vincents de Paul and Frances Cabrlnis...
...f • • • BUT 1 FAILED in my ambition...
...From the Reverend Bertrand Weaver, C. P., of the PasslonM Monastery, West Springfield, Mass., comes a gently worded protest: "As a member of the Church which has preserved the story and significance of Christmas for almost two millenia, I ask why secularistic and agnostic writers feel compelleo...
...with every new Communist "offensive" its influence grows...
...This conviction—almost a fixed idea —has become the curse of some Socialist groups in Europe, especially in France and Italy...
...discarded, ft-would be enoneotia to call De GauUism — as some observers do — a Fascist movement, since no totalitarian ideas exist among its leaders and members...
...Can it be said that men and women' such as these were ever 'content with a purely personal religion?' Can it be alleged that the more than 11,000 Sisters of the Poor, conducting more than 300 homes for the aged poor, without personal compensation, the 10,000 Sisters of the Good Shepherd, with their hundreds of houses for penitent women, the thousands of nuns laboring in hospitals, to mention a few classes of social workers in the Church, aft tontent with a purely personal religion...
...its apprehension7of a German political revival as its main preoccupation distinguishes it from the United States and Britain whose main preoccupation is the Soviet issue...
...In other lands we number among our readers Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists and every other sort of cultist and heathen that you can think of...
...We have among our subscribers many Catholics, Protestants and Jews...
...as a resrton against Comosmrn, »<¦ is alt* m' strongly emphasUM...
...It could, in fact, hardly be given space in our pages with any degree of propriety...
...The third of the postwar political parties - the MRP — has equally lost ground and millions of its supporters have left for DeGaulIe's movement, the RPF...
...The French Commta*****,** Leon Blum wrote in 1945, "l^ apt Working under the orders or the patf of Moscow...
...It should have read, "the editors of the New Statesman and Nation...
...All good men— no matter whether they are of the 380,000,000—are working toward their "mere complete incarnation...
...Whether or not he would be able to carry out his promises, to Stop inflation, to reduce the bureaucratic machinery, to create normal relations between workers and employers— he would certainly apply efficient measures against the fifth column in France—precisely what the Socialist Party proved unable to do...
...Ho, the French begin to say, whether it is Leon Blum, Daniel Mayer, or Jules Moch— all of them are incapable of applying appropriate measures If their enemy is THE CHjtt& of this ifijMence is DeGeujtfdV, .".'iM-J De Qmn«>* movement Ulif popular reaettoijUt'fc't inflation, bUteaucratic lriefteawjLtfed tape, andf W&Uity to cope WfH the Communist,problem...
...John's first chapter as though he had not written in his fifth chapter that this Incarnate 'ideal' fed Ave thousand with five barley loaves and two fishes, and had walked on the sea of Galilee...
...And I almost forgot the chaps who are quaintly called "unbelievers"—though as far as I can make out these "unbelievers" are more ardently devoted to their beliefs than anyone else...
...its attention is completely absorbed'^Jy the German issue...
Vol. 32 • January 1949 • No. 3
