de PORRES * i" a HIP HOUSE ATL. 0518 THE CATHOLIC INTRRRACIILISE=: Formerly HARLEM FRIENDSHIP HOUSE NEWS Vel. 9 Ne. 2 JUNE, 1949 New York, N. Y. 10 Cents New Theatre Policy in D. C.? By Jacquelyn Crawford HEN THE LITTLE The-'er, St. Vincent de Paul. It atre Washington recently adopted|ment of in downtown was achieved through agree- its stockholders, — | a policy of non-segregation, it | doubtless precipitated by the widened a bit further the! fact that one of the Catholic} HOLIER THAN THOU It Is Just As Bad to Be Anti-Southern As It Is to Be Anti-Negro NTIL I WENT to live in North Carolina I had breach in the wall of the color | Churches in Washington made|peen under the impression barrier which had initially a request that colored people/ that “damyankee” was.an ob- been broken by the Dupont | be allowed to attend the Theatre, situated in the center) showing of “Monsieur Vin- of one of Washington’s reput-/| cent.” Although both the Dupont edly more exclusive sections. The hitherto accepted prece-| dent of segregation downtown theatres of Wash- ington has been challenged both on a moral and a business basis by the management poli- cies of these two theatres. in the} The Dupont Theatre had| been built by its former own- er, J. Daniel Weitzman, with) the idea of admitting both col-| ored and white people. It is understood that the Dupont) had been an experiment in race relations by Mr. Weitz- man since the race issue was especially bitter at the time ' | | } } (Continued on page 6) solete word. It seems I was mistaken. Though I was born and raised in Washington, which, as everyone knows, is below the Mason and Dixon By VIRGINIA SOBOTKA line, I had not been in the “real” South very long before I had been called a dam- yankee several times. It usu- ally went something like this: “You damyankees are always | coming down here and trying to tell us how to treat the niggers. Why don’t you let ius handle our own affairs, etc., | etc. ?” a man, they meant it when | they said, “Why don’t you let |us handle our own affairs?” it may seem odd, even child- 'ish, to the northern mind for a people to still be harboring |}resentment over a war that was fought over eighty years ago but what the average northerner cannot or will not | bear in mind is that it is a | great deal easier to be a good The tone ranged from | | pure banter to pure wrath but | there was little doubt that, to) southern neighbor is com- pletely unjustified. The white southerner’s at- titude toward the Negro has always been at once con- descending and affectionate. The white northerner’s inter- ference has not removed the condescension but it is turn- ing the affection into bitter resentment. It is not my purpose here to try to justify the southern at- titude nor to advocate a com- plete “hands off” policy on the part of northerners. There are still not enough southerners (though more than you think) in favor of needed reforms to accomplish the job without outside help. But if the north- erner is to be a help rather than a hindrance he will have to drop his superior attitude. To accomplish this it might the theatre was built in winner than it is to be a good help . he would specs mes a March, 1947. When the pres- loser. It is a whole lot easier a CCRC; OF Nene = ent management, Lopert 'to forgive than it is to ask to ©° lective conscience of the Films Incorporated, took over this theatre in 1948, they continued a policy which had already been prov- en (atid is continually prov- November, | ing) from a human and busi-| ness standpoint to have been completely successful. Significantly enough, the policy of the Little Theatre to admit Negroes began with the showing of the movie “Mon- sieur Vincent,” the life of the great Christian social reform- | | Capitalism Atheistic! | In an editorial appearing in L’Osservatore Romano, Vati- can Newspaper, editor in chief, Count Giuseppe Dalla Torre said that the spirit of capitalism is fundamentally more atheistic than “com- munism which, as an economic system, does not run counter to the nature of Christian doc- trine as strongly as capital- ism.” He went on to state that capitalism “is atheistic in its structure; gold is its God.” Significantly, the editorial was published simultaneously with a meeting of Catholic Employ- ers in Rome. It was written as an attempt to refute the widespread con- tention that the Catholic Church favors and supports capitalism. The editorial as- serted that nothing could be farther from the truth and that, in the eyes of the church, | “capitalism is a social disease and a pestilence.” Proof of | MEE ST. PAUL | beseech you, brethren, that you present your bodies A living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God. MISSION PRESS IN SOUTH HITS HARD ‘Colored People led with 10 out of 18. Catholic Mission publica- tions in the South hit hard and often the problem of Ameri- can race prejudice. A high is given to forthright discus- sion of racial discrimination and segregation. To take a fey examples: St. Augustine’s Messenger, published by the Society of the Divine Word, Bay St. No account of interracial activity in the South would 'be complete without mention percentage of space in them ‘The North Carolina Catholic, Louis, Mississippi, ran 9 ar- | ticles out of a total of 16 ina recent issue on _ interracial justice with no holds barred. The Colored Harvest, pub- lished by the Josephite Fa- thers, ran 8 articles out of a *. XII on social questions, of that vigorous weekly paper, published by the North Caro- lina Layman’s Association. In every issue an editorial, news ' or feature article is devoted to the cause of complete integra- tion of the Negro in American life. These periodicals give cov- erage to everything from dis- crimination in medical facili- ities to news of recent injus- tices to Negros and advances tin race relations in both Cath- this, it stated, could be had by | total of 17 and Our Colored) reading the papal encyclicals| Missions published in Ten-| as well as the speeches of Pius|nessee by the Catholic Board for Mission Work Among a Resneeeitenmaaee | olic and secular institutions, with plenty of sound editori- alizing on the Catholic Doc- trine underlying interracial | justice. | be forgiven, especially if you | have not been convinced that | you owe an apology. Neither |can he seem to remember that ‘his section has not been a | very good winner. The way | the South has been deliberate- | ly held down economically is | common knowledge The “holier than thou” attitude | which the northerner almost ‘invariably takes toward his | people of his section. HILE LIVING in North Carolina I attended sev- eral retreats. Southern re- treatants behave pretty much the same as all retreatants ex- cept that they took longer to say their prayers. Most of them kept the silence very well. Some didn’t. But dur- ing the periods when it was (Continued on page 6) THIS IS THE ANSWER! By John Gavin Nolan a FIRST INTERRACIAL | are still being studied to de- monastery ever attempted in the South make progress. Sponsored under Catholic |auspices, the monastery will _be a place where chosen men , of both races can devote their |lives to prayer and teaching, }according to the monastic | Rule. | Four members of the Bene- | dictine Order from St, John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minn., since last fall have been lay- ing the foundation of such a monastery at the small Mis- ‘sion of St. Dennis here. Of the four men, two are Negro and two are white. Father Harvey W. Shep- herd, a Negro native of New Orleans, and Father Alexan- der Korte, a native of Farm- ing, Minn., arrived: in St. Dennis last fall. In January they were joined by two lay brothers, Brother Stephen Thell of Krain Town, Minn., and Brother Henry Young of Charlotte, N. C., a Negro. The four religious sent to St. Dennis continues to by of Bishop Francis R. Cotton of | Owensboro, Ky. At present, St. Dennis is the ‘site of the foundation. Plans! were | St. | John’s Abbey at the invitation | termine whether it would be | better to erect the new monas- | tic institution on a farm near |St. Dennis or to occupy a 'group of institutional build- |ings near Bowling Green, Ky. |The priests are caring for the ; mission at St. Dennis. | The interracial monastery |is being established as a prac- | tical example of race problem jamelioration, Abbot Alcuin | Deutsch, O.S.B., of St. John’s /abbey, pointed out. “In view of the situation in the United States,” he de- clared, “the foundation in | Kentucky is intended not only as a means to the teaching of the Church to the Negroes, but also as a means of rap- prochment between the races in the spirit of the Gospel.” The monastery will have about equal numbers of white and Negro members, the Ab- bot said, and will be as self- supporting as possible. Out- | side assistance, of course, will be required for the foundation to become permanently estab- lished. It is expected that it will grow into an_ independent priory and in time will be- come an independent abbey. - Platform of the Catholic Interracialist WE BELIEVE in the sublime doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ—for He is the Mystical Vine and we are the branches. He is the Head and we the members. WE BELIEVE that the fruit of the Incarnation and the Redemption is the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. WE BELIEVE that we are our brother’s keeper and have a personal responsibility, there- fore, hefore God, for the welfare of that brother in Christ and this embraces all men, irrespective of Race, Nationality or Color .. . for Christ died for ALL man- kind. WE BELIEVE that a lasting social order and peace will be achieved only by a Christian Social Order based on Christian Social Justice which includes Interracial Justice. Editor, June, 1949. Aggressors, Not Victims! In the Extraordinary Consistory of the College of Cardinals on February 14th of this year, Pius XII said that the Catholic Church ‘“‘accepts any and every form of civil government provided it be not inconsistent with divine and human rights. But when it does contradict these rights, bishops and the faithful themselves are bound by their own conscience to resist unjust laws.” This statement was made on the occasion of the ex- communication of those persons involved in the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, Primate of Red Hungary. The application of the Pope’s directive is clearly uni- versal. The pattern of municipal and state laws throughout the South limiting the freedom of the minority Negro group in such matters as voting, health, education and marriage is definitely a case in point, for these laws are based on the denial that the Negro as a human person is fully equal to every other human person and thereby violate a fundamental principle of justice. We must make of ourselves the Christian aggressors in this godless society, not its victims! Resistance to unjust laws means primarily the courage to practice Christian principles in the market-place. It means that those Catholics who happen to be in a region where unjust laws are enforced must place themselves at the side of the persecuted in the back of the bus, in the jim crow train, etc., and cheerfully accept the consequences, for as St. Paul says: “In all things we suffer tribulation : but are not distressed. We suffer persecution: but are not forsaken ... always bearing about in our bodies the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” It is easier to obey man rather than God. The woods are full of conformists hiding the Face of Christ and His Church from the world. Pius XI in his Encyclical, Caritate Christi compulsi, has said it well: “Often the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” Our obligation “to resist unjust laws” is not merely a passive one. .We must be active resisters of aggres- sive good-will. Our interest will be in justice rather than in personal safety. The Christian technique of non-violent direct action is founded on the Gospel tenet of counseling the wrongdoer rather than the pagan precept of retribution. It is a technique as old as Christ and as contemporary as Gandhi. “In the clash of selfish interest, unleashed hate... nothing could be better or more powerful to heal, than loudly to proclaim the new commandment of Christ. That commandment enjoins a love which extends to all, knows no barriers nor national boundaries, excludes no race, excepts not even its own enemies.” (Pius XI], Encyclical to the Catholic Priesthood, 1935.) a CATHOLIC INTERRACIALIST Negro Press Comments Editorial— ; (66° THE ANNOUNCEMENT the other day that more ‘than 8,000 Negroes had joined 'the Roman Catholic Church last year probably came as a ‘cause of much wonder to ‘many people. It is even under- standable that it may have come as something of a shock to some others, ministers and church leaders among them, who had come to smugly as- sume that the Negro was a Baptist or Methodist, and ‘would stay that way. | These people might well stop and wonder. If they will, they will find that there is much cause for the increasing number of colored worship- pers who seek the sanctity of the Roman Catholic Faith for these causes, they will very likely observe much that they can emulate, and had better emulate unless they are pre- pared to see more and more of their members leave them. The Roman Catholic Church in this country in recent years has been taking the lead in the fight to break down racial barriers. From time imme- morial there have been a few colored worshippers in most Ke | PENTECOST I will not leave you orphans; I go, and | come again to you And your heart shall rejoice! ‘Catholic churches, even in the deepest South where the white Protestant churches in- dignantly refused the black worshippers of the Lord any access to the Lord’s House. /_When the number of these worshippers has grown large ‘enough, the Catholic Church ‘has operated Missions or 'Churches for them with wide- ly-spread welfare programs that the non-Catholic popula- tion could not help but see— .often with very frank envy. More lately, Catholic colleges and universities have wel- comed Negro students, and have given them scholarships and other assistance away out of proportion to what some of 'their Protestant colleagues \ever felt called upon to offer. | In the very latest days, in ‘the midst of the whole Ameri- | can struggle to accord recog- nition to all men on an equal ‘and brotherly basis, the role | of the Roman Catholic Church has been open, commendable, and pretty nearly universal from the Louisiana parishes to the college and hospital in Burlington, Vermont. In simpler words, while some faiths have been preaching the Word of God, the Roman Catholic Church has _ been putting the Word to work. \People are seeing a lot of | 'things nowadays that they | ihad been missing before, and | this is one of them. Cleveland Herald. their Church Home. Studying | Readers Write Dear Friends: We are all one in Christ and Dear —-—— We are enclosing herewith | $2.00 to buy a couple pounds | ; : of coffee or something at the work you are doing is Friendship House. very dear to us. For the last We are not in a position to two years we have had an give any amount of money to Interracial Committee in our good causes such as yours, but Sodality and have achieved a after having read the story of small degree of success with Friendship House my husband God's halo. hi and I decided whenever we | 7045 Help. Most of our stu- entertain a few friends we dents are from the South but would send you the money we their attitude toward the receive for refunds on Coc Negro is gradually changing. and beer bottles, which would The greater number feel that perhaps buy a few cups of we should accept Negro girls coffee occasionally .. . into our Academy and Con- Mr. & Mrs. H.S.K. vent. May the courage of God Westport, Conn. help us to meet the persecu- tion of man when the first Dear applicant arrives. Please accept this little do-| Here is an item that might nation. Two weeks ago my prove of interest to you. On husband was very unexpect- March 10 of this year Father edly replaced while ill with Daniel A. Lord conducted a the flu. It seemed an act of one day Sodality Rally here great injustice and I must in Fort Smith. For the first confess I was extremely bitter time in Fort Smith history and reluctantly resigned my- colored delegates were in- self to cutting our comfortable vited and were present. Due way of living. to discrimination in the cafe- During this two weeks I terias downtown where the have had opportunity to re- other Sodalists were to eat flect on the fact that I was lunch they were invited out becoming very material to St. Scholastica Academy. minded. I received thirty- Four of our Interracial Com- five dollars from my husband mittee asked to bring them that he had earned unknown Out, ate lunch with them and to me and I felt that I should took them on a tour of Bene- share a little of it... dictine Heights. Mrs. F.B. | Sr. MS. Chicago, III. Fort Smith, Arkansas The Church Speaks Monsignor Ancel, Auxiliary! Father Gillis in The Catho« Bishop of Lyon, stated recent- lic World writes that “It would ly that “the communists who not be fair to lay all the blame remain workers, who have not | for the de-Christianization of yet been ‘trained’ and ruined the world at the door of non- by politics, are often better Christians. We Christians are than their doctrine. For us it | scarcely less guilty. Christian- is just the opposite. We never ity has been left untried not completely measure up to our,on'y by secularists but by. doctrine. One day a commu- | Christians the original nist said to me: ‘What L re-| Christianity has been diluted | proach you Christians for is| and adulterated to such a de- not that you are Christians, gree that observers from with- | but that you are not Christian out, looking at us, see little or | enough’.” no difference between our words, deeds, life and those of | atheists. Christianity has not Canon Cardijn wrote re-| failed us, we have failed Chris- jcently in a French publica- tianity.” | tion that “if Pius XII landed —— |in South America and devel-| Father M. M. Coady in the | oped his social teaching there,| Maritime Co-Operator pointed he would surely be arrested as | out recently that “People who a communist and deported to | talk against materialism are a concentration camp at the! very often the worst material- other end of the country.” _| ists. Their materialism is re- vealed in their attitude to- wards education. They go to In The Irish Catholic pub- | colleges and into the so-called lished in Dublin appeared this: higher professions for eco- pertinent quotation from nomic reasons ... but in the Bishop Bossuet written in the|experience of this writer, 18th Century: “Christ would | higher education means a lib- be well content to see in His\eration from the economic |'Church only those who bear|drudgery of farming, fishing, | His mark—only the poor, only | industry, or what they are dis- |the needy, only the afflicted, posed to look upon as the low- only the distressed ... the rich|er callings. This is a perver- are aliens; but they are natu-|sion of our whole Christian ralized by service to the poor.” philosophy.” ee” Vol. 9 June, 1949 CATHOLIC INTERRACIALIST Formerly Hariem Friendship House News 34 WEST 135TH STREET Tel. AUdubon 38-4892 MARGARET BBVING....cccscsccesccccscccssscccecccsccseccccsseves Editor JAMES GUINAN........-cccccccccccccccvccesescesssesCirculation Manager REV. EDWARD DUGAN ....csccesisesecveeses Official New York Moderator CARL, MERSCHEL:. 1c cc ccccccccccscncccevecccscscccscccscesees Staff Artist A Member of the Catholic Press Association | Catholic Interracialist is owned, operated and published monthly, September through June and bi-monthly July-August by Friendship House at 34 West 135th Street, | New York 30, N. ¥. Entered as second class matter December 13, 1943, at the Post Office at New York, Ni Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Reentered_as second class matter September 16, 1948, at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 3, 1879.; Subscription price, $1.00 year. Single copies, 1¢c. : ae f Ts | is a en The voice of the poor is body of the poor is the body of Christ; the life of the poor is the life of that Christ, who although rich, made himself poor, His poverty. | the voice of Christ; the in order to enrich us by | Pius XI | Nov. 10, 1947 CHRIST AND MONEY | By REV. R. P. RIQUET What was Christ’s attitude | in a world characterized by | the primacy of money and human exploitation? He is im- mediately presented to us as a man of the poor and we find | him inculcating his disciples | with the necessity of disen-| gaging themselves from the fascination of money. Christ then becomes the murmur and turns his face and hope to God alone.” The Messiah came for these | men. Who could doubt this, | listening tu his Mother’s joy at | the thought of the coming lib- eration of the oppressed and of God’s constant predilaction for them: “He has showed might in his arm: he has scattered the | proud in the conceit of their heart. champion of the poor. Better) He has,put down the mighty still he becomes one of them.| from their seat and has ex- Recall his birth in a rustic|alted the humble. shelter where the first ones to| He has filled the hungry with good things: and the rich reet him were _ shepherds. 3 bep he has sent empty away.” For they who saw him grow| ; up in these peasant surround-| _ The poor man, according to ings, he remained a carpen- | the Bible, will find God, free- ter, son of the carpenter and| dom, salvation and happiness of Mary who weaved and! spun as all of the other wom-| en in the village. His first in- | timates and disciples were) chosen from among the fish-| ermen of the Genesareth lake, | whose only fortune was their fishing boat and their work- hardened hands. In a world divided on the| more easily than will a rich one hand between a few im-| man because it is less difficult mensely wealthy privileged for him to free himself from and on the other a mass of toil-| the tyrannic hold of money. ing working men, Christ took) For the greatest obstacle to) the part not of the exploiters| love of God and of neighbour, but of the exploited. This can! and therefore to love of one’s | be better understood if we! clarify the meaning of the word poor as it is employed in the Gospels and in the Bible. | It is not a question here of | the indigent, the destitute, the | vagabond or the door-to-door | beggar. Other words are used | to designate destitution. The} words used in the psalms and | echoed in the Sermon on the Mount, i.e. the word “ani,” which could be rendered in} Greek only by substituting three different words for it, does not mean precisely poor | or indigent but rather op-|rich fall into temptation, the is not a pressed, humiliated without resources, or abandoned. “It! is the defenseless man, a vic-| tim and plaything of the tyr- anny of the powerful who ac-| cepts his pitiful lot without a/ The Catholic Student, Apostle of Interracial Justice By Betty Prevendar It is almost midnight in| Heaven. Seven-thirty Chicago time. All is still at midnight in| Heaven for that is the time the Father ; watches most surely over His children who aban- don themselves. At seven-thirty Chicago time | the Four Roses sign on| Michigan Boulevard shoots into color; the next morning editions shout about Chinese communists Milwaukee murder Joe Louis. turned pro- ‘moter; a AG fellow-man, is the love of money. As expressed in the Bible the poor man is the exact anti-thesis of the rich man; he is not necessarily a penniless man, but he is one who cares | little for money; one who pre- | fers God, justice and charity | to wealth; he is one who, like | St. Paul, is satisfied with hav- ing simply enough to clothe, feed and lodge himself: “For | the love of money is a root from which every kind of evil | springs. Those who would be) Devil’s trap for them; all those useless and dangerous | appetites which sink men into) ruin here and perdition here-| after.” , Translated by L. K. | the last shift shuffles into | General Electric; the Lake Street el rumbles through “Nigger | Town” where men are jailed | and cry and curse. Where Christ is jailed. Christ is stripped... “Negroes not served.” Beaten... “No Negroes allowed.” Nailed... “Back section for Negroes.” Crucified ... “Burn them out!” Conditions exist everyone knows. They must be corrected almost everyone says. Conditions exist the. Catholic. student should | wake ri tung’ 3 : ; ‘ |The difficulty inot of Negroes |but of whites. ‘| crucify know. | They must be corrected the Catholic student should | say with his prayer | with his study ‘Seeds of Contemplation. with his action. | Thomas Merton. New Di- Intelligent action. | rections, New York. 201 pp. Begotten by | $3.00. observation judgment -The genius of Father M. Louis |Merton, O.C.S.O., (for he was It is Catholic student’s job | to know in order that he may articulately ries discuss ‘ulate the hidden aspirations sound the Gospel of Love of the masses of mankind, that in the ears of the deliber- | he fires thought into action, ately deaf. ‘that he fills with marrow the But first idry bones of the catechism. it is the Catholic student’s job Seeds of Contemplation is es- to pray. isentially an extension and A spiritual insight is needed development of recurrent to see | themes in both his poetry and and end prior prose works. the crucifixion All that Father Louis here called discrimination. ‘says is, of course, fundamen- | Thursday, May 26th) lies in The spirit of prayer tally sound and the basic must burn | premise of any genuine spir- within us ‘itually—of man’s happiness as rooted only in doing the the Flame of Calvary Will of God—both introduces for without the Life the limbs are cold and and concludes the book. In numb. In “An American Dilemma” Myrday says \the intervening pages is a mass of material for medita- tion. Some of what is written He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers. Charles Peguy |needs to be unfolded from the ‘envelope of aphorism, some of it startles because of the use of sharp paradox, some of it ‘races like a forest fire through “The American Creed is liberty, equality, justice, and fair opportunity for everybody.” But Americans believe ‘the mind, some of it smolders according to A like swamp fire in mystery— | behave all of it demands the attention according to B. of any Christian strong enough And so to take his first stumbling the essence of the inter- steps in a world of reality racial problem (“reality” is a word much is favored by Father Louis) that the “conflicting valua- where all mundane values are tions” turned topsy turvy, where are held by a same person; many spiritual values are the struggle, dyed in a new light. within people It was noted above that the not only among people. There is hope no other recent Catholic work where there is struggle within. is the “Imprimatur” more The “Negro Problem” |reassuring — at times its “Negro” problem, |presence is almost anxiously verified. For example, the |startling sentence “Even ‘saints, and sometimes the at all. The difficulty is not slums saints most of all, waste their | restrictive covenants lives in competition with one Jim Crow. another, in which nothing is | half way in is b . ttitudes, y segregation. That way mental Desks ais 4 spiritual it takes six hours instead of three. Interracial justice is not Today wrong attitudes tolerance must be replaced ; by right aoe sunny Sunday morning : : complacency. We have been given right attitudes that we may replace Christ said “What you do to these...” wrong attitudes. and not : We have been given the T 7 you do not do. Sermon on the Mount . is ties to replace wrong attitudes. |. ™Y romers keeper | implies ‘me “... to take Christ into our 'The interracial problem arms is as well as into our hearts,” the challenge. says Eric Gill. It looks for us to reconcile our practice To be with our doctrine. my brother’s keeper There are those of us implies positive action a working apostolate. Pope Leo XIII declared in Rerum Novarum who would not by discrimination who pound the nails » Our Bookshelf ‘ordained priest on Ascension | |the fact that he makes artic- | ‘book is fundementally sound; | |it should also be noted that on | 4A ——— | ‘found but misery” (p. 45) is certainly an example. of (a) sloppy writing or (b) of a |thought so convoluted as to ‘have lost its pristine meaning. Again, in the extraordinary last chapter, which is a de- scription of the mystical apotheosis, he attempts to describe the apex of this (lit- erally) unimaginable trans- | figuration in the following | words: “What happens is that the separate entity that was _you suddenly disappears and | nothing is left but a pure freedom indistinguishable from infinite Freedom, love identified with Love.” Fortu- nately, we are soon told (on 'the same page): “Words are stupid. Everything you say ‘is misleading—unless you list |every possible experience and say: ‘That is not what it is.’ ‘That is not what I am talking about’.” Since Father Louis has just finished describing a possible experience (the mys- tical transformation men- tioned above) the reader very sensibly is set to wondering whether or not the description was foredoomed to failure. It is almost as though the author is telling the secrets of the King—and the King, in His infinite Wisdom, garbles his speech. It is all in all a wondrous book, a source book of high spirituality, leavened with an uncommon common sense and in places with a delightfully subtle humor. Beautifully bound, an outstanding ex- ample ofsprinting as an art (and priced with a dignity _that respects both the pub- lisher and the public), its ,strong paper will wear well the constant usage of those who value the rarely beauti- ful. . George A. McCauliff — “When there is the question of protecting rights of individ- uals, the poor and helpless have claim to special consid- ation.” In the student’s apostolate “to restore all things... the poor and helpless the cursing and crying crucified Christs have claim to special consideration. The first step of course is self-conversion which gives birth to the fire of | strong deep conviction. The next step is action. /When Christ said \“As the Father hath sent Me I also send you,” He laid His Cross for us — to take to complete. ' | Ours is the job ° of prayer of study of preparation. It takes more than a bebop whiz or an all-star center. (Published by the Loyola Unl- versity Unit of the Catholic Interracial Council) CATHOLIC INTERRACIALIST Around the Fri The B Jots It Down By Catherine de Hueck Doherty (Continued from last month) One of the primary ends of Friendship House is this first fruit of justice, the abolish- ment of these ghettoes. Friendship House sees _ its work as a two-way street. The first direction is the white group living with the segre- gated Negroes, entering their midst in deep humility and gratitude for being permitted to share their lives and learn of their needs first hand so that togetlier, white and col- ored, they can work out the above described apostolate to satisfy these just rights and needs. The second direction of Friendship House “street” is its final one, and what it con- siders, the fruit of its aposto- late . . . namely the abolish- ment of the ghetto and the reign of Interracial Justice in USA. Of course this is a long range apostolate, and Friend- ship House well knows this. Yet it is always on the look- out for ways and means to, at least partially, implement this, its vision of the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. In the Rural Apos- tolate it has found ONE such means. This does not mean that Friendship House wants to branch out in a completely new field.It simply means that it hopes, through «accepting future invitations of Ordi- naries of various dioceses for rural Friendship House branches to bring Negro fam- ilies out of these terrible ghettoes to areas of lesser ten- sion where their human rights would be safeguarded and their supernatural destiny would have an opportunity of being fulfilled under proper and normal conditions. Another very’ important reason for Friendship House branching out into the Rural COMPLINE By Margaret Schimpff Into Thy holy hands, 0, Lord, That smooth the sky, and stir the winds to motion, Within Whose cupped calm, Fearless the least of feathered folk, Nestle with lightnings, Before Whose awful ten- | derness adoring an- gels tremble, Laying my weary heart | to rest, May I, 0, Lord, Commend my spirit— into Thy Hands? Apostolate is the hope it cher- ishes that some day it may penetrate into the south of the United States which is still predominately rural. Corporal Works The SEVENTH SEGMENT is devoted to the Corporal works of Mercy. Palliatives in the general sense, and yet part and parcel of Christian Faith and Tradition. To feed the hungry, to clothe the naked is one of the biggest works of Friendship House and always will be, for the poor we shall have always with us. Spiritual Works The EIGHTH SEGMENT, like the seventh, is part and parcel of our Catholic herit- age, the Spiritual works of Mercy. Way of Life The SEGMENT of _ Friendship House is its way of life in the market place, the spiritual foundation and work of its whole. By that way of life, which is Primitive Christian- ity or Franciscanism brought to the twentieth century, Friendship House brings to bear on the social apostolate the fullness of lives rooted and lived day by day in Christ. Such then briefly is Friend- ship House. I hope it answers at least in part the many who constantly ask about it. Wisconsin Reporter By GRACE PRATT T. JOSEPH’S FARM is a regular beehive of activity these balmy Spring days! The warm weather brought not only the beauty of trillium blossoms and pussy willows, but also the inevitable “spring housecleaning.” Innumerable tasks like wall paper cleaning, varnishing floors, washing windows, and re-finishing old woodwork have really kept our noses to the grindstone this past month. We were lucky to have our work made a bit lighter during the “Work Camp” which was held here one Saturday in May; some of Marathon’s teen-agers came out from the village and spent the afternoon washing the li- brary walls. ning the first “Cook-Out” of the season was held down by the river while the staff and “volunteers” shared in a wie- ner roast and a bit of com- munity singing around the big bonfire. NINTH AND LAST | That same eve- | Those of you who have been reading this column regularly will be happy to know that on May 13 the Wisconsin legisla- ture gave “The Governor’s Commission on Human Rights” a generous appropri- ation of $18,000. Our staff- workers are indeed joyous about this good news, for now we can be assured that the | Commission will be even more effective than ever in its ef- forts to solve minority prob- lems in the state of Wisconsin. Grace Pratt recently spoke at St. Thomas College in St. | Paul, Minnesota, and also to | The Catholic Women’s Club in Stanley, Wisconsin, on “The Responsibility of the Lay Per- | son.” was represented at Madison, Wisconsin, at “The Institute on Human Rights” held on May 14; the Urban League, Also, Friendship House | NAACP, Anti-Defamation | League, the Madison Council on Human Rights, the Nation- al Conference of Christians and Jews were some of the organizations who sent repre- sentatives to participate in an afternoon and evening of lec- tures, panel discussions, and roundtables. Such conferences are encouraging! “The West Memphis News,” | an Arkansas newspaper edited by Jack Coughlin, has been doing a splendid job of expos- ing the deplorable conditions in the segregated West Mem- phis School for Negro chil- dren. St. Joseph’s Farm staff wrote to him commending his crusade and were pleased to receive a prompt reply of gratitude from this courage- ous “southerner.” Won’t you join us in praying that the West Memphis School Board will snap out of its lethargy and take some action fitting to the dignity of those littlest ones of Christ? We are still very poor here on the farm... lacking in ac- tual material goods, that is, for our blessings are manifold. The chief item on our thank you list this month is a bless- | ing indeed, for Alice New- | man, our House Mother, is home from the hospital al- | ready and is recuperating al- | most miraculously from an emergency operation which she experienced a week or so ago. Gifts of canned goods and other foodstuffs are still reaching us from our many generous friends, too. Tomorrow the annual Friendship House “I.C.” (In- formation Center) will begin here at St. Joseph’s Farm. Mabel Knight, New York “F.H.”s wonderfully able Di- rector, will teach the courses which will be geared to equip about fifteen of our new staff workers for intensive work in the Lay Apostolate “Friend- ship House style.” The “I.C.” will last a month after which the “Kids Camp” will begin. The “Kids Camp” is being held from June 25 through July 5 this year and will accommodate about six- teen of Milwaukee’s colored | children, aged 8 to 12 years. | The children will come from St. Benedict The Moor parish, | and for many of them it will | be their first visit to a farming | community. Meanwhile, we are making extensive plans | for our “Summer School For | Interracial Living” in the | hope that each and every one | of the students who attend it this year will be inspired to do something in his own home environment to break through Restrictive Covenants and Segregation and place in their stead a shining beacon of Love. | Washington Reporter By MARY HOUSTON ASHINGTON SEEMS to be made up of people from all over the U.S.A. Na- tives are as hard to find around here as in my beloved (bong) California. You can imagine with what joy we re- ceived our newest staff work- er, Beth Ann Cozzens, a na- tive Washingtonian. We don’t use her merely for display purposes either...“Our Na- tive,” proving we have struck roots or sompin...She is a most capable, attractive young lady and came already equipped with the FH spirit which is one of joy in being able to work for the love of God and neighbor in the in- terracial apostolate. Joe Gilli- gan, our next-to-newest staff worker, excels not only as a Spanish teacher on Friday nites but also in organizing the newest project of St. Peter Claver Center, a work camp where volunteer work- ers are helping neighbors to scrub, plaster, and paint their dwelling places. Believe it or not, the landlord in one case furnished the paint! It’s quite a change from Harlem where | the actual owner of a tene- ment apartment house is as hard to uncover as the pro- verbial needle in a haystack. “Whoever heard of white peo- | ple washing windows and do- | ing the cleaning for Negroes?” | exclaimed one lady. The pat- | tern But they are our neighbors in is usually the reverse. | Christ and that’s enough for | us. Last month Dr. Eva J. Ross of Trinity College and Eng- | land gave us a fine talk about the apostolates in Europe, well punctuated with interest- ing details she gleaned frem actually living with the va- rious groups. Mr. George Hol- land, as fine a speaker as we’ve had, told us about the prob- lem of getting information to | veterans concerning the bene- fits to which they’re entitled. Fewer community groups are concerned about the Negro | veteran .who has the same problems as the white vet- eran, plus several more be- cause he is a Negro, Mr. Hol- land told us that on his own “horse back” survey he discov- ered that only about 1,000 widows out of some 7,000 are receiving the pensions they should receive simply because of ignorance. While the VA distributes benefits freely to those entitled to them, it is not authorized to conduct a campaign to advertise those benefits. That’s up to the newspapers and organizations. community | Tonight we're going to hear | about the first priest in the history of the Church to have | the stigmata, Padre Pio the Italian Capuchin. was not a priest as a lot of people think, but a deacon. Our volunteers are planning a picnic supper meeting next Wednesday in Rock Creek Park, but we have an idea that the meeting will be tossed overboard and energies will go to roasting wieners and playing ball and taking care of St. Francis | June, 1949 Sf venees at eee CHE KInGEDOL LET US EXT FRIENDSHIP 4233 South India Chicago, Ill “Let the earth also r4foice Tilun dent rays; and enlightened with eternal King, let it feel that the world is dispersed.” = . (Blessing of the Pasc The Paschal Si Dear Friend in Christ: “The last to be hired—the first 1 just an idle phrase, Day by day ingly real to us. Three millic March is just a figure in the new to be written in the lives around see, for we live in a Neggo comm Men are coming often now, lc and asking for a meal. Jobs can Hours at the plant have been cut pay the rent and buy the grocer to stave the gap. It’s said that present a serious national proble1 is no cushion of savings to fall ba always been low here. And it « cause the Negro always has more fering. Now more than ever before — realize it is necessary for us to co terracial justice. We MUST helt the cup of water in Christ’s name. must redouble our prayess and ou ployment Practices Commission, FOR THAT CHANGE OF HE MAKE US SEE CHRIST, OUR MEN. In this joyous Paschal season, friends. We come begging. We our efforts with those who face th lems, born of the heresy of racisrr little chance to know Him, we 1 Christ. = Our humble bank account doesn ing “kids” to camp or dreams of the yard next,door. It deesn’t ev May. And somehow we still have to tell an anxious mother we ca food, sad as the checkbook looks. ing, trusting God, and you, His fr: Thank you from the bottom o constant kindnesses. May God b. In the charity of the Risen Chri The Staff of Friepdship H Betty Dr. John J. O’Con- {mont} children. nor of Georgetown Universfty South and Dr. Herbert McKnight of | segre; Freedman’s Hospital have) trans; planned to come with theirpgroup wives and families and 80/and | that’s eight children already.| beaut It is good in Washington| ing br (which one Negro speaker this! dren | 19 June, 1949 CATHOLIC INTERRACIALIST a oa Stately KINGDOM OF GOD US EXTEND IT NDSHIP HOUSE South Indiana Avenue Chicago, Illinois also roice Tilumined with such resplen- enlightened with the brightness of the t it feel that the darkness of the whole od,” e ° ssing of the Paschal Candle) The Paschal Season Christ: ‘hired—the first to be fired” is more than ise. Day by day it is becoming disturb- s. Three million unemployed during figure in the newspapers, until it begins the lives around you. That is what we in a Negyo community. ng often now, looking vainly for work 1 meal. Jobs can’t be found these days. nt have been cut and the budget doesn’t d buy the groceries. We’re called upon ». It’s said that unemployment isn’t at s national problem. Here it is... there savings to fall back upon... wages have vy here. And it all seems so unfair be- always has more than his share of suf- an ever before in the past years, we ssary for us to continue our fight for in- We MUST help where we can, giving ‘in Christ’s name. At the same time, we ur prayess and our efforts for a Fair Em- ices Commission, and, MOST OF ALL, HANGE OF HEART WHICH WILL ~* CHRIST, OUR BROTHER, IN ALL ; Paschal season, we come to you, our me begging. We must continue joining those who face the baffling human prob- e heresy of racism. To a world that has know Him, we must restore the risen ank account doesn’t fit our plans of send- mp or dreams of fixing up a play-lot in yor. It deesn’t even cover our needs for *how we still haven’t developed courage us mother we can’t help her out with checkbook looks. So we continue help- d, and you, His friends. om the bottom of our hearts for your kses. May God bless you for them. of the Risen Christ, ff of Friepdship House, Betty Schneider, Director. } J. O'Con-jmonth proclaimed to be Universfty Southern in every pattern of Knight of| segregation except public ital have| transportation) for interracial with theirpgroups to get out in the open bs and so|and be seen enjoying God’s n already.| beautiful country and break- ashington | ing bread together as the chil- peaker this! dren of God. | ery, Harlem Reporter By MABEL KNIGHT UR HARLEM FRIENDS are specially delighted that the long - dreamed - of | home in the country seems to *| be coming true. Several spe- | cial donations have enabled us to make a down payment on what we call Blessed Mar- tin’s Farm. By June 15 an- other $1,000 will have to be paid to take possession. Then we will need the help of many people to furnish it with the many essentials needed in housing any large number of people. Single or bunk beds, sheets, blankets, towels, cook- ing utensils, dishes, chairs, tables, and benches, paint, farm machinery, tools, seeds, and farm animals would glad- den the hearts of Nathan Lin- coln and Jim Halloran, who are working to get the place in shape to house and feed people who will come for study weeks, retreats, or rest. F YOU LIVE in the vicinity of Newburgh, Walden or Maybrook and have any fur- niture to give away please send us word. We hope to have a telephone listed under “Blessed Martin’s Farm.” Through the kindness of the Trappists in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, we have a panel truck with which we can takg things to the farm, the old Scofield place, on Bar- ren Road, town of Montgom- near Coldenham and Maybrook. Or you might bring the things up and pay us a visit. EVERAL STUDENTS and seminarians have clared their intention of working at Friendship House during the summer. In addi- de- | tion to giving a part of their | lives some are paying their own room and board. They will learn a. great deal about the lay apostolate and condi- tions in Harlem and should receive new zeal. We would be glad to have more people come to help during the sum- | mer to help bring the world to | Christ, especially in the in- | terracial field. HE LAST TIME we saw Peter was the day we paid our down payment on Blessed Martin’s Farm. We dropped in at the Catholic | Workers’ Maryfarm at sup- pertime and it was Peter’s birthday. He was like a good child doing what people told | him to do, detached even from | his old brilliance of mind. A | special cake was prepared | with red decorations, prob- | ably in honor of the Holy | Spirit who has guided Peter | in his career as one of the most influential men in | changing the lives of countless | numbers of people countries. Many of us at Friendship House owe much of our interest in the in many lay | apostolate to his clear, simple | exposition of the opposition between Christian principles | and the state of the world to- | day. We felt privileged to be | under the same roof with him and count on his kind help in heaven. May his soul rest in peace, | | | Chicago Reporter By BETTY SCHNEIDER AY WAS really the month of our Lady. From the first day on we could recognize blessings in Friendship Houses IN GOD ALL IS POSSIBLE | which Mary is sure to have | had her part. We had been struggling along, shortstaffed, counting as God’s gifts the volunteers who have pitched | in so well, and our new staff- workers, Ann Sisco, Wilfred | Mische, and Gregory Robin- son (Jeep to all of,us). The latter doesn’t seem to mind our corny humor. We keep in- sisting we prayed for a car and got “Jeep.” With all, however, we have found it hard to be detached | from the tremendous loss of what was once a family of fourteen. It started when Mary Houston and Jean Lang began St. Peter Claver’s in Washington. Then Betty Big- gers joined the vigorous Ca- nadians at Combermere. Rose- mary Boyle went back to St. Cloud to .help start the St. Cloud Book Shop, a new lay apostolate. Paul Fant went to Brooklyn, Mary Calloway left to be married, Mary Clinch to work in a factory, and Trax left for home because of ill | health. Knowing that ours is a fluid vocation and that God will call people to other apos- | tolates, we realize that the | seed is being sown only far- ther. We are happy in that. But humanly speaking, it was hard. Then the joys came. On Sunday, May 1, Lorraine, Lulu and Ramona were bap- tized. Lorraine had been com- ing around FH since our 43rd street days. When a work crew began going to homes to help redecorate them, the Fulths were among the first they | contacted. Lorraine became a member of the crew and in a | short time its versatile chair- man. With Lulu, Ramona, and several other friends they have been on the pail and | ladder crew each Saturday. Several months ago they be- gan attending instruction classes at St. E’s. The day ar- | rived and several were enthu- siastic godparents. As you can well imagine, there have been few meals more joyful than the dinner Teevy prepared for us all on that Sunday evening. | Sunday the eighth was a day of First Masses. We had to divide our group so that we | could attend them all. good friends Fathers Karl McNerny, Bob Carroll and Rollins Lambert were or- dained’at Mundelein and had their Masses on the same day. Realizing their zeal and the tremendous opportunity they Our | will have to further the apos- | tolate makes interracial jus- tice seem all the closer. Fr. Lambert is, incidentally, the first colored priest to be or- dained from Mundelein Sem- inary. OWN IN THE OMAHA diocese, Father Frank Kubart was ordained and we offered his~ first Mass with him in spirit on May 4. Father Frank werked with us all last summer as a visiting volun- By Mabel C. Knight For years we have felt that we are living in the bottom of a dry well with people who can’t get out. Those of us who are white can leave but many of our brothers in Christ find it almost impossible. The com- pany. is good but it is un- healthy down here in the well of Harlem. The air is full of smoke: and dust. We are over- crowded. There are rats and teer. In the week’s vacation before his ordination, he helped fix up the De Porres Center in Omaha too, quoting Mildred Heifner of that cen- ter, “look more like a Friend- ship House.” All of which makes us hopefully wonder what will happen to Fr. Frank’s parish. I don’t think any of us real- ized just how much we had missed Ann Harrigan — now Mrs. Nicholas Makletzoff, un- til we sat around her in the FH Library on a Monday night listening to all she had to tell us about personalism | | | | | } } | | } | | j and the weapons of the spirit. | It was so real too. Those of us who know and enjoy the FH we have, equipped building and the warmth of many friends know the well- | just how much of Ann’s sac- | rifice, her prayers and her tears went into the making. | That night was one of the high points of our month. Father Claude Heithaus was down to visit. He spoke to the Monday night forum group on Action. With the NFCCS Congress just over and a series of important interracial resolutions adopted, Father really had something to talk about. The Marquette group, under Father’s guidance, put through the resolution that all Catholic educational institu- tions stop or repudiate all stu- dent organizations having re- strictive policies or clauses. And _ it was the work of | Father Heithaus among others | that recently made the Wis- | consin National Guard a non- | segregated organization. Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker came to lunch one noon. We started out having lunch with just our staff and Ann Makletzoff. Then Father Fehrenbacher arrived from St. Cloud on a visit and the news spread among the vol- unteers that Dorothy was to be with us. Thanks to Teevy and Blessed Martin the meal stretched far enough and we all shared the wealth of knowledge, experience and Christian love which Dorothy | had to give us. The discussion | reminded me of the Baroness’ stories of her first visits to | Mott Street. Worker of New York City and Friendship House of Toronto began about the same time. How happy the two groups were to find one another and to find that they shared a deep interest in the liturgy, in pov- erty and in bringing Christ to the marketplace. Workers be- came acquainted. They agreed and disagreed on ways of ap- The Catholic | plying principles. A common | bond was there and continued to be. Dorothy’s time with us renewed it for us. other vermin and germs. There are no healthy, green, growing things. About 35% of the people are now unem- ployed. In the summer when the rest of Manhattan seems to be deserted, Harlem streets are crowded with people try- ing to get a cool breeze out- side their brick oven-like flats, People spend all their lifetime here never knowing the beau- tiful world God made for them to enjoy. Friendship House is with them until all barriers between children of God are destroyed by the love of Christ. Now we have found after long search a wonderful coun- try place. There are forty- seven beautiful acres, a nine- room house and about five farm buildings in good repair. We can imagine our Harlem children sailing boats on the pond, climbing the hills, sleeping in the big barn in the fresh, clean air after a happy day. We can see the old and convalescent people sitting on the porch or the lawn admir- ing the beautiful view. We can watch our young people growing food, making the place into a beautiful and Catholic home, having study weeks and retreats to help us to learn how we can bring our poor world to Christ, starting with ourselves. All of us could find a quiet spot to read and .meditate. Young fam- ilies might make their own little homes on their own part of it. It would become a free, healthy, growing part of the Mystical Body of Christ. This wonderful season of the Resurrection of Our Lord makes us hope that some of the people may be able to rise out of Harlem and that all of . us may rise to living as broth- ers in Christ. God has sent us many young, generous work- ers. Will you, His good stew- ards, help us to raise the money needed for this place? How much has He given you above your needs? Are you one of the five who can invest $1,000 where neither moth nor rust corrupt? Or are you one of the thirty who could spare $100 by sending $10 a month or $2 a week for a year? Or one of the hundred who can spare $10 (a dollar a month would do it). Or are you one of the thousand who can spare a dollar? Or do you know someone who has a place to give us? We'd welcome the help of all of you. Please join us in our novena to all the saints that we may get a coun- try place if it is God’s will. BLESSED MARTIN'S FARM R. D. No. 1 Montgomery, N. Y. NEEDS Sheets, blankets, towels Beds and chairs Food Live chickens Seeds, small trees Tools for farming serene eT ET EA PL LT LI COE DE LLL LDL LL LLL Ss. tes eatin Ms oe