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Without Interracial Justice

Vol. 6 Ne. 10

HARLEM

FRIENDSHIP HOU

'Mareh, 1947

NEWS

New York, N. Y.

10 Cents

Social Justice Wall Fail

ORANGE SUPREMACY AND WHITE SAINT PATRICK CARED
BY THER

SUPREMACY

CHARLES KEENAN, S.J. ;
AVING LIVED for some twenty years under the Orange
Supremacy of Belfast, Ireland, and having observed the
workings of White Supremacy for some sixteen years in the
United States, I am inclined to think that a comparison may
not be uninstructive.

The six counties of Northern Ireland have known full-blown
Orange Supremacy since 1921. The Orange Order is, of course,
more than a century older than that; but in 1921, through the
Partition of Ireland, it gained full political control in the
North. Its two chief allegiances are to Protestantism and the
British Crown. Its concept of Protestantism is succinctly
summed up in its brief credo: “To hell with the Pope”; and on
the rare occasions when the vagaries of politics brought about
a conflict between its anti-Popery and its allegiance to the
Crown, the Crown took a definite second place.

In its crudest form the?
olic South elects a Protestant

DRENSIREIAND | s:

Black O’Connell of the USA

(Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and famous Anti-
avery orator, wrote a book about his escape with names and

Orange creed takes a form of |

hysterical anti - Catholicism
such as was found amongst
certain Americans in 1928,
who expected the papal fleet
to anchor in the Potomac early
in November if the late Al
Smith had become President.
Its activities range from a
very effective boycott of Cath-
olics from jobs of any im-
portance to riot and open
murder. An important Min-
ister of the Government has
been known to apologize in a
public speech for having nine
Catholics among the hundred-
odd employees of his depart-
ment. He explained that they
were not of his choosing and
that civil service rules made
it hard to get rid of them.

OT EVERYONE, of

course, probably not the
majority of non-Catholics in
the North, subscribe to the
Orange creed in its full crud-
ity. But the poison is there,
and has its effects. The aver-
age Protestant or Presbyterian
of the North has a vague fear
of “falling under the domina-
tion of the South”; for. no
feasible scheme could ever
make non - Catholics in a
united Ireland anything other
than a minority. This vague
fear is not, so far as I could
ever see, based on reason
experience. Like the white
American’s concept of the Ne-
gro, the Northerner’s con-
cept of the South is based on
tradition hearsay, propaganda,
with a few incidents to bolster
a pre-conceived opinion. It is
impervious to reason or facts;
again paralleling the Ameri-
can experience. It makes no
perceptible dent in the North-
ern opinion when the Cath-

Are you interested in

cards with F. H. News pic-
tures on them? We have
three cuts.

Post-card size
with envelopes. Twenty-five
for 1.00. Order from N. Y.
Friendship House.

as its first President; when the

places to prove that he had been a slave. This made it danger-.
ous for him to stay in the United States during slavery times

yiand he went to England and later to Ireland where this

encounter took place. Mr. Douglass tells it in his own words.)
to REPEAL of the union between England and Ireland

was not so fortunate (as the repeal of the Corn Laws). It
is still, under one name or another, the cherished hope and
aspiration of her sons. It stands little better or stronger than
it did six and thirty years ago when its greatest advocate,
Daniel O’Connell, welcomed me to Ireland and to “Concflia-
tion Hall,” and where I first had a specimen of his truly
wondrous eloquence. Until I heard this man I had thought
that the story of his oratory and power were greatly exag-
gerated. I did not see how a man could speak to twenty or
thirty thousand people at one time and be heard by any con-
siderable portion of them, but the mystery was solved when
I saw his ample person and heard his musical voice. His
eloquence came down upon the vast assembly like a summer
thunder-shower upon a dustry road. He could at will stir the
multitude to a tempest of wrath or reduce it to the silence

non-Catholic groups in the
South testify repeatedly to the
liberal treatment they receive
from a Catholic government.
1941 brought a historic irony.
As a youngster, I remember
the anti-Catholic
which depicted the Belfast
City Hall falling into ruins
under the then threatened
Home Rule (which meant, of
course, Rome Rule). To avert
such a danger the Orange
leaders in 1914 openly
threated rebellion against
Britain and hinted that they
could look to Germany for
assistance. Well, the Belfast
City Hall is in ruins; and on
the night in 1941 when Ger-
man bombs ruined it and set
the City in flames, the Dublin
Fire Brigade came ag | a
hundred miles to help. But
still the anti-Catholic legend
survives,

ORE THAN ONCE it has

occurred to me that if I
had never seen a Negro in my
life, I would still be very sus-
picious of the things I heard
about them—because I had
heard much the same things
before, about myself and my
fellow-Catholics in Belfast.
Under Orange Supremacy
they are not, as a class, able
to attain wealth and social
position. Many of them dwell |
in slums, and exhibit the de-|
fects of slum-dwellers the!
world over, whether in Dub-
lin, Harlem, Hobart, Hong-
Kong or Bombay. Finding
themselves unprotected by
law, they often took the law
into their own hands; there-
fore they were _ trouble-
makers, lawless, a menace to
the community. Suffering
under an intolerable tyranny,
they continually agitate for
union with the South; there-
fore they are “disloyal”—a
blessed word which is as much
a salve to the more respectable
Orange consciences as “un-
assimilable” is to American
whites.

The result of all this is|

postcards | [>

Hymn of St. Patrick

Christ, as a light, illumine and
guide me!

Christ, as a shield, o'ershadow
and cover me!

Christ, be under me! Christ,
be over me!

Christ, be beside me,
On left hand and right!

Christ, be before me, behind
me, about me!

Christ, this day be within and
without me!

Christ, the lowly and meek,
Christ, the all-powerful

Be in the heart of each to
whom | speak—

In the mouth of each who
speaks to me—

In all who draw near me,
Or see me, or hear me!

a mentality compounded of

prejudice, fear, ignorance
and downright misinforma-
tion which seems to remove
the Catholic from the opera-
tion of justice or Christian
charity, and which makes the
average non-Catholic (who
may be otherwise a generous
and decent person) accept
with equanimity all forms of
legal and illegal discrimina-
tions against Catholics. It has
(Continued on page 6)

with which the mother leaves
babe.

Such tenderness, such pa-

the cradleside of her sleeping
—————-———

confined to the limits of my

thos, such world-embracing | own green Ireland; my spirit

love! and, on the other hand,
such indignation, such fiery
and thunderous denunciation,
such wit and humor, I never

4|| heard surpassed, if equalled,

at home or abroad. He held
Ireland within the grasp of
his strong hand, and could
lead it whithersoever he
would, for Ireland believed in
him and loved him as she has
loved and believed in no lead-
}er since,

N DUBLIN, when he had

been absent from that city
a few weeks, I saw him fol-
lowed through Sackville
Street by a multitude of little
boys and girls, shouting in
loving accents, “There goes
Dan! There goes Dan!” while
he looked at the ragged and
shoeless crowd with the
kindly air of a loving parent
returning to his gleeful chil-
dren. He was called “The
Liberator,” and not without
cause, for, though he failed to
effect the repeal of the union
between England and Ireland,
he fought out the battle of
Catholic emancipation, and

| was clearly the friend of lib-
erty the world over.

In introducing me to an im-
mense audience in Concilia-
tion Hall he playfully called
me the “Black O’Connell of
the United States.” Nor did he
let the occasion pass without
his usual word of denuncia-
tion of our slave system. O. A.
Brownson had then recently
become a Catholic, and taking
advantage of his new Cath-
olic audience in “Brownson’s
Review,” had charged O’Con-
nell with attacking American
institutions. In reply Mr.
O’Connell said: “I am charged
with attacking American in-
stitutions, as slavery is called;
I am not ashamed of this at-
tack. My sympathy is not

Pins

walks abroad upon sea and
|land, and wherever there is
| oppression I hate the oppress-
| or, and wherever the tyrant
rears his head I will deal my
bolts upon it, and wherever
there is sorrow and suffering,
there is my spirit to succor
and relieve.”

No transatlantic statesman
bore a testimony more marked
and telling against the crime
and curse of slavery than did
Daniel O’Connell. He would
shake the hand of no slave-
holder, nor allow himself to
be introduced to one if he

new him to be such. When
the friends of repeal in the
Southern States sent him
money with which to carry on
his work, he, with ineffable
scorn, refused the bribe and
sent back what he considered
the bloodstained offering, say-
ing he would “never purchase
the freedom of Ireland with
the price of slaves.”

It was not long after my
seeing Mr. O’Connell that his
health broke down, and his
career ended in death. I felt
that a great champion of free-
dom had fallen, and that the

‘| cause of the American slave,

not less than the cause of his
country, had met with a great
loss,

—From “The Life and
Times of Frederick
Douglass,” Pathway
Press, New York, 1941,

————— eee
NEW YORK CHILD SPEAKS

“If the cities weren’t so
stingy with their money
they’d tear down the slums
and build good houses with
playgrounds and not make

children live in houses not fit
for dogs.” (Much applause

from other children.)
— Youth Forum Speaker,
Feb. 22. See

e fey

Pee por te ctery meipertraernree Tagine terete

Pe an etneenarmentineshaaynireae

Sr yells niem

a
Vel. <p’ March °
$4 WEST 135th STREET Tel. AUdubon 38-4892
CATHERINE DE HUBCK DOHERTY........-cssessececcccccsneees Editor
BBTTY LABONARD. .ccccccccccccsccccccccccccscecsssseees Assistant Editor
MABEL C. KNIGHT. csccecccccescccceeceesewersssaccees Managing Editor
MUMLITA RODECE.. .. ccc ccccccces: -ceccecccccessssecceseseses Staff Artist

ANN HARRIGAN EDDIE DOHERTY
A Member of the Catholic Press Association

ARLEM FRIENDSHIP HOUSE NEWS Is owned, operated and published monthly
ptember through June and bi-monthly July-August by Friendship House at
Y. Entered as second class matter Decem-

4 West 135th Street, New York 30, N,
ber 13, 1943, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 8
1879. Subscription Price $1.00 Year. Single copies 196c.

LENT

“e 1°/STOP THIS MYTH!

March —
Special—“It is wrong to teach
people that the Negro is not

New York,

brave.”

STAFF R

ended its ninth and
F.H. started its tenth

Colonel Chancey Hooper,| year with a gay heart thanks
Negro officer of the Fif-|to the efforts of many people.

teenth Regiment,
workers and friends of Friend-
ship House that the American
Negro, even though abused
and discriminated against in
military service, has fought
with valor in every major
American war. The occasion
of his talk was the ninth
birthday party of the New
|York Friendship House, a

HIS IS THE YEAR of peace—or should have been. Pa gece see gamed
Hostilities were stopped on August 14, 1945—over | the heart of Harlem.

two years ago.

But the world and we still have

“Crispus Attucks, a Negro,

no peace. Uneasily we rest wondering constantly what| died in the first British volley

tomorrow will bring—desiring with a great desire fo
that real, true peace that is God’s gift to man.
If we really want it, then this is the acceptable time.

r|fired on a mob fighting for

liberty for the American colo-
nies,” Colonel Hooper said.
|\“A Negro woman, Deborah

Lent is upon us, and in Lent hearts turn to God or Garnett, fought like a man

should. Let us therefore make this a GOOD LENT. A

real, true Lent.
movies and candies. Let it not be a NEGATIVE LENT.

LET IT BE A POSITIVE ONE.
‘Let us begin from the inside out.

eleaning our hearts of all the tragic things that clutter it, |

Not one in which we give up only

| throughout the Revolution.
Commodore Oliver Perry rec-
ommended Negroes to the
President for heroism in the
Battle of Lake Erie. The

Let us start with Ninth and Tenth Cavalry

| saved Theodore Roosevelt in
the battle of San Juan Hill in

and do not allow our souls to soar freely, joyously up-|the Spanish-American War.

ward. Let us throw out selfishness, greed, intolerance,

racial prejudices and all other harmful ones. Let us
bring into it Faith that knows no limitation, hope that
is eternally renewed at the fountain of Faith. Charity
that is like a fire burning within ourselves, warming all
men, lightening the path of all men, leading all men to
God

Let us meditate deeply on the Counsels of perfection,
realizing with a new and great realization that they be-
long to us, the laity, too. That they are not for the
privileged few—priests and nuns—but for all. Let us
meditate on them and meditating pray to the Lord of
Wisdom to enlighten our intellects with His vivid light
so that we may see and seeing begin to practice Holy
Poverty in Her shining spirit . . . practice it always, day
in and day out .. . so that a world drunk with love of
gold may see more clearly the Son of Man through us.
Let us embrace the spirit of obedience to God’s laws...
to the Church’s and our Government. Let us be real,
true, OBEDIENT Catholics. LET US KEEP LENT
TRULY AND WELL... AND THEN ASK GOD FOR
THAT PEACE OUR HEARTS AND THE WORLD DE-
SIRE WITH SUCH A GREAT DESIRE ... AND IF
WE DO THESE THINGS HE WILL GIVE US PEACE
... BECAUSE HE LOVES A GENEROUS GIVER...
AND HIMSELF CAN NEVER BE OUTDONE IN GEN-
EROSITY ... YES, LET US MAKE THIS LENT OF

1947 THE BEST OF OUR LIVES.

Jim Crow in North

Brooklyn, N. Y., March 1—
Special — Northern segrega-
tion of Negroes “is far more
subtle but almost as effective”
as that practiced in the South-
ern States, Monsignor Ray-
mond J. Campion, pastor of
St. Peter Claver’s Catholic
Church charged here at the
first in a series of six forums
dealing with minority prob-
Jems, sponsored by the Brook-
lyn Catholic Interracial
Council.

Addressing an audience of
Negroes and whites at the
Catholic Charities Building,
Monsignor Campion, the
Council’s Chaplain, declared
segregation in the North is
manifested mainly “in hous-
ing and the almost complete
denial of better-class hotel
and restaurant service to Ne-
groes.”

The Monsignor, a member
of Mayor O’Dwyer’s Commit-
tee on Unity and of the New
York City Council of the
State Commission - Against
Discrimination in Employ-
ment, pointing. to, “two great.

ghetto areas, Harlem in Man-
hattan and the Bedford-Stuy-
vesant area in Brooklyn
said “segregation of the Col-
ored people and other minori-
ties” has afflicted “appalling
problems” on New York City.

Calling racial segregation a
violation of justice, he re-
marked that providing equal-
ity of jobs, housing and edu-
cational opportunities for mi-
nority groups is not the entire
answer to the problem.
“Something more fundamen-
tal is involved,” the speaker
said. “What is involved is that
segregation strikes at the dig-
nity of men as human beings.”

Segregation of the Negro
solely on the basis of his race
strikes at his dignity as a
human person, Monsignor
Campion continued. “This
segregation carries with it by
implication the untrue, and
therefore, unjust imputation
of an essential racial inferi-

In World War II the 15th New
York Regiment was honored
by having first American sol-
diers cited for bravery by the
French.”

Speaking of the discrimina-

tion practiced in the Army
against Negroes, Colonel
Hooper noted that the Army’s
practice of keeping Negroes in
this country on guard duty
sacrificed the lives of many
'whites. “There is only one
race, the human race,” the
officer said. “In the hospitals
white and Colored wounded
live harmoniously. They know
that a bullet does not respect
color of the skin.”

Colonel Hooper congratu-
lated the Friendship House
staff on the work they are
doing in Harlem, and com-
mended their efforts to break
down segregation by living
together as a positive protest.

“Only through unprejudiced
people, such as you at Friend-
ship House, can segregation
be overcome,” he said. “The
Pope is urging clergy and
laity of America to break up
segregation. To survive, the
world needs men and women
in the midst of the world to
fight for the Faith. Sacrifice
to the point of heroism is re-
quired.”

A $TUDENT DI$COVER$

THE $TEADY $UB$CRIBER
Culled not too many years

ago from Father John S.

Brockmeier’s feature column

in The Western Catholic are

these perennially timely lines:

How dear to our heart$ i$ the
$teady $ub$riber,

Who pay$ in advance at the
fir$t of each year;

Who $end$ in hi$ money, and
doe$ it quite gladly,

And ca$t$ ’round the office a
halo of cheer.

He never $ay$ “$top it, I can-

| not afford it,”

Nor “I’m getting more paper$

now than I read.

told staff

| In fact we all find it the thing
that we need.”

How welcome hi$ letter when-
e’er it come$ to uf,

How it make$ our heart$
throb, how it make$ our
eye$ dance.

Besides being royally enter-
tained by the Mothers Club
Saturday night, on Monday
(the official day for the birth-
day celebration) Sister Auxilia
brought ten hi-school gals to
cook and serve us a mos
scrumptious, five course, birth-
day dinner complete with
| Valentine decorations.

| After all this festivity we
|have now settled down to the
drab diet of Lent and thought
we were doing fairly well until
Stanley Vishnewski arrived
one day and insisted we should
live on locusts and wild honey
during Lent. Most everyone
rebelled at this because they
thought that locusts were
overgrown grasshoppers and
even if they did make a saint
of John the Baptist we didn’t
feel we were ready for that
However Stan insisted that
the next day he was coming
jup to cook us a really liturgi-
cal Lenten meal consisting of
locusts and honey. It wasn’t
bad at all tho after we found
out that locusts are dried fruit
from an Egyptian tree and
besides we had a few little
side dishes like pork chops and

| potatoes,

Last week Ken had a little
difficulty trying to convince
one of the Brother Christo-
phers in the clothing room
that our supply of trousers was
completely exhausted. Ken
was trying to wait on about
fifteen men and after having
given Albert everything pos-
sible, asked him to move on
to make room for the others.
But Albert refused to move
until he got a pair of pants.
After Ken had explained to
him twenty eight times that
he had none, Albert went into
a heartrending tale of how he
had spent fourteen years of his

life-off and on working for |
Catholics, playing the organ

EPORTER

at Sing Sing Prison and now
Catholics won’t even give him
a pair of pants. He kept this
up until Ken could stand it
no longer and said, “Listen
Mr. I don’t care if you worked
for the Holy Father himself,
I don’t have any pants.” Albert
went away mumbling about
the ingratitude of Catholics
after he had practically given
his life for them. Another
Brother Chris tried to soften
Ken’s heart by telling him,
“I’m an awfully good Catholic,
I go to Mass every night in the
week.”

HE BROWNIES are now

busily coloring Father
Lord’s “Imp and Angel color
books.” On one side of each
page is a picture of the little
imp inspiring the children to
do something naughty and on
the opposite page is a little
angel inspiring them to do
something nice. When I got
through explaining it, Little
Shirley said in her little
weeny voice, “Miss Betty, if
I had a little imp, I wouldn’t
pay him no mind.”

Our clubroom which is fast
becoming a theatre now boasts
a stage lighting system which
is regulated by a switchboard
offstage (in a closet, to be
specific). The other night
Muriel was taking a crowd of
people on a tour of F. H. but
when they reached the club-
room she ran into a little dif-
ficulty. Having led them into
the pitch dark room she began
a frantic search for the light
switch, covering up her confu-
sion by rattling off a mono-
logue about our activities. Of
course she never did find it
not knowing that we_ had
moved it into the closet, so she
finally had to make the best
of an embarrassing situation
by letting them view the place
with the light of a match.
Muriel’s burnt fingers are
better now and the light
switch has been pointed out
to her, so any prospective
visitors need have no qualms
about coming.

BIRTHDAY PARTY

RIDAY, FEBRUARY 14,

Friendship House cele-
brated its ninth anniversary.
We did our celebrating on Sat-
urday evening in true F. H.
style. The thought of a party
(our ears always perk up at
the word) was dimmed only
by the fact that the “B” who
was supposed to be present—
wasn’t. However, we volun-
teers cast aside our gloom, and
along with the Staff, Men’s
Club and our hostesses, the
Mothers’ Club, whittled down
the dishes filled with sliced
turkey and dressing, potato

salad, punch, coffee cake, wine |

and other goodies.

After we had fed our faces
the library rang with “Happy
Birthday to Us.” Muriel Zim-

merman, Helen Coolen, Joe}

McGowan and yours truly
gave out with a parody on
“Habanero” from “Carmen,”
the purpose of which was to
coax the “Vols” into partici-
pating in the gay antics. The
song was dedicated to all those
who had ever worked in the
children’s clubroom and told
of difficulties with keys and a
superabundance of children
trying to get in.

This was followed by good

| manoff the performance of the
Russian Choir was not as ef-
fective as usual. (Dear Maes-
tro, we did our best but our
Volga Boatman was really
mournful and our “hey”
'lacked the usual gusto!) The
/evening passed quickly and
the merriment reached its
peak when one of our “Sister
Christophers,” who had obvi-
ously over-imbibed in that
| good old “mountain dew,” sal-
‘lied in from without and
joined the party singing
“Open the Door Richard” and
dancing a jog that was strict-
ly from nowhere!

Finally, when we had ex-
hausted our repertoire of
popular songs and our throats
showed signs of wear and tear
we call the party to a
close. A kind friend quietly
removed our “sister-in-arms”
| and we departed for home and
bed.

And so we started another
year at Friendship House. We
offer a prayer that our coming
years will be many and happy.
That Blessed Martin keeps us
under his wing and God show-
ers His blessings over our
friends and absent brethren as
we proclaim the word of His

ority. The whole diabolical | We outwardly thank him, we
system of Jim Crowism is a|_ ™wardly ble$$ him;
violation of the natural moral| The $teady $ub$criber who
law,” pay$ in advance.

sew eatin ae Ca ST Ae eae ES

music with square dancing| Mystical Body through the
going on simultaneously in an- | Harlems of, America.

other corner. Due to the ab- Audrey Perry

sence of Joseph Harrigan Neu- Harlem V olunteer

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.

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. pitted lee Soe Ne

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or eS °
en
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day, although at the time even

Deke —
5 Bak OA,
“os a:
* * a
Ei

Strike Till the
, J. E. Coogan, S.J.
(Reprinted from “The Priest")
S never before in the
history of the Church in
America arise appeals of the
Negro for Catholic truth. In
ante-bellum days, held en-
slaved in regions largely Prot-
estant, with little choice he
commonly embraced some
form of the Protestant creed.
Today dissolving Protestant-|
ism is leaving an ever greater
number of Negroes un-
churched or but lightly bound,
ready to embrace a more
Christian faith if one is to be
had. The process has of course
been developing for many
years, but it is only recently
that we have had in our coun-
try the leisure or the resources
to attend in a large way to
Negro religious needs. The
greatly reduced Catholic im-
migration during the past
twenty years has made pos-
sible such assimilation and
integration of the foreign-born
into American life that they
no longer require the hercule-
an labors of former days.
Hence the religious plight of
the Negro is attracting un-
paralleled attention.
The Acceptable Time
Pastors laboring in Negro
districts report convert classes
limited only by the time and
facilities at their disposal.
“No, I’m not a Catholic, but I
sure would be glad to be
one,” is a frequent reply to
the parish _ census-taker.
Schools opening for the Negro
are filled before the paint is
dry. One which opened some
years ago in a corner of a half-
ruined warehouse had four-
hundred children on opening

desks were lacking. Last year
the one Negro Catholic school
in a large Northern city was
forced to turn away three-
fourths of the applicants for
sheer lack of room; this year
it had already turned away
four-hundred for whom no
seat could be found ten days
before the opening of classes.
Surely now is the acceptable
time for the Negro’s conver-
sion. If the chance is lost it
may never return, at least not
in our generation. How the
opportunity is to be met is a
matter of the most critical im-
portance.

That Catholics should wel-
come this promised accretion
is of course a matter of faith
and common decency. When
Christ declared, “I am the
vine, and you are the
branches,” He made no race
distinction. Nor did He when
He made His own the cause of
the last and least. Neither did
St. Paul exclude any race
from Christ’s mystical body;
for him there was “neither
Jew nor Greek, neither bond
nor free, .. . for you all are
one in Christ Jesus.” Mother
Church herself has sacrificed
too many of her best on the
missions of the Dark Conti-
nent to permit doubt of her

SE senna

CATHOLIC

Interracial

ig.

RIST?
Iron’s Hot!

burning interest in the conver-
sion of the race. Negrges of
our own land have of late been
assured of special interest and
appreciation by our present)
Holy Father and the National
Catholic Welfare Conference. |

& , db clagde, *Scky r Y se Th 4 ae

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through’ revulsion from Nazi
racial theory; today May-
flower, D.A.R., oldline Amer-
icans are finding it more dif-
ficult to despise Ellis Island
Americans, the Koboskis,
Wiesoreks, and Polombos,
whose names so nearly filled
the war casualty columns in
the press. We Catholics
therefore will,be in step with

It was therefore impious vie national trend if we scorn

doubt the Negro’s welcome

among us; there is question

only of what form that wel-

come should take.
» Secona-Class Catholics?

| segregation in the Church. On
‘the other hand, we are giving
|aid and comfort to intolerance
when we stigmatize a race:

“When will the American

Should the Negro race be Federation of Labor cease dis-

admitted to full fellowship in
the faith, sharing equally in
all religious privileges with
the whites, being received on
his merits as an individual,
with no suggestion of racial
discrimination? Or should he
be admitted as a reserved case,
second-class Catholic, Jim
Crowed beneath a color line?
Shall he think himself an ex-
pendable, a pariah in our
parish churches, shrinking
from the white man’s pres-
ence? Must he feel himself
almost an intruder at the
parish communion rail, taking
an apologetic place at the end
of the line, fearing—as Eliza-
beth Adams (Dark Sympho-
ny) says of hérself—to be
passed up even by the Christ-
bearing alter Christus? Must
even such a child of grace as
she be excluded from any part
in parish love-labors about the
altar? Is the eucharistic Christ
intolerant of such gentle min-
istering except from the fair
of skin? And shall our semi-
naries remain locked against
the race as though it lay out-
side Christ’s redemption; shall
our convents —- even of con-
templatives hidden with
Christ from the world—deny
the timid knock of a spouse
“black but beautiful”? Shall
our hospitals give this race but
lefthanded service at best,
with no Negro physician on
the staff, nor even brown-
skinned maiden among the
white-clad angels of mercy?
Shall our school doors open
not at all or only rarely and
grudgingly to children of the
darker race? Must the mass
even of our Catholic colored
children frequent the Christ-
less halls of Horace Mann in
search of education, despite

| criminating against the Ne-
|gro?” a group of priests re-
icently asked a Federation

official. “When the Catholic
|Churech ceases. discriminat-
jing,” was the devastating
| reply.

| There was a time when
| Catholics in America were ad-
| mittedly first in their racial
‘appreciation. Until Recon-
| struction days Catholie zeal
for Negro religious instruc-
tion, Catholic color-blindness
in admitting to full religious
fellowship, were a standing
rebuke to Protestants. In
Maryland, “The Catholics ad-
mitted the colored people to
| their churches on equal foot-
ing with others when they

AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE HOST

*‘Hoc est enim Corpus Meum”
Rush, ye winds! Surge, ye seas!
. Blase, ye sun, through space!
This is the day and this the hour,
This the appointed place.

O wonder, that this thing should be!

That five quiet words have found

The living Word, the strong man’s Bread,
The Silence, more than sound.

Bow ye down, oh, bow ye down,

How shall this be told?
Our trembling lips can scarce frame words,
Our dazzled reason hold,

O, almost more than soul can bear,
O, overwhelming flood,
Infinity to weakness lent,

We tabernacle God.

—PATRICIA MacGiLL.

I KNOW YOU NOT

“For it is more useful to us
to bear rude words from a
veritable friend who proposes
our amendment, than to listen
to the sweet and ‘flattering
discourses of those who do not
truly love us, and whose only
aim is to please us. ‘Wounds
made by those who love us,’
said Solomon, ‘are better than
lying kisses from those who
hate us.’—St. Thomas Aquinas.

| Richmond Barthe showed

were driven to the galleries| ys on our last trip to his

Murgatroyd Says

Open the door

Reechkard qui
Can't Keep
out yours .
brother in Chris

= Gloria Wimpy.

of the Protestant churches.
Furthermore, they continued
to admit them to their paro-
chial schools,” the egro

FRIENDSHIP HOUSE SUMMER
INTERRACIAL TECHNIQUES

The First CATHOLIC Summer Sessions Dealing With the

Write for Information About the 1947 Sessions to

JAMES QUINLIN, Dean
C/o Friendship House
MARATHON CITY, WISCONSIN

the canon law rejection for | historian, Dr. Carter Woodson,
Catholics of any but a Catho-|reminds us. It was, he says,
lic school? Shall Negro-haters|the zeal of Catholics for the
of whatever creed continue to|Christianizing of the Negro
avoid for their children in-|that shamed the Puritans to
terracial association by send-| imitation; these “like the An-
ing them to Catholic schools?| glicans felt sufficient com-
Only if we—and Christ—are | punction of conscience to take
content that but one American/steps to Christianize the
Negro in fifty should be!|slaves, lest the Catholics,
Catholic, but one Negro in| whom they had derided as un-
seven-hundred thousand a/desirable churchmen, should
Christian priest, may the}put Protestants to shame.”
Negro be offered such skimped ;
and rationed Catholicity. Only eros haat
if we are content to yield the| This more generous wel-
lead in American interracial}come given our Negroes in
cooperation to Protestants and | earlier days is still extended
the C.LO. them commonly in Latin
A Devastating Reply America, except where Yan-
Intolerance. of ‘group for kee intolerance has been car-
: : : jried to them by the movies
group is geing dealt a body! 4 tee: ini isteace
blow in our country today|2@"¢ PY *an ee VEN. .
a _| Americans may smile at these
southern lands as
irepublics, unfit for democ-
racy,’ but in race relations
they are far more democratic
and Catholic than we. In all

SCHOOL FOR

Question most prominent of the Cath-
olic clergy, are found men who
in our country would be racial

pariahs. Latin Americans have

olic conviction of racial one-
ness in Christ, whereas Amer-

(Continued on page 7) .

“banana |

| walks of life, even among the |

largely maintained their Cath- |

studio, the most powerful
piece of sculpture I have ever
seen and the most terrible. It
is the head of the angry Christ
chasing the moneychangers
out of the temple. I didn’t
dare stand in front of it but I
can’t forget it. Will that be the
face the damned will see at
their judgment? No need to
ask Mr. Barthe what inspired
him to do it. Knowing his
deep devotion to Christ and
his love of all God’s suffering
children, the reading of one
daily paper, realizing its sig-
nificance ,in the light of our
Master’s desire for justice and
love, would be enough in-
spiration.

Was that Christ watching
four innocent Negroes being
murdered by a mob which
feared no punishment because
one of the Negroes had
wounded a white man in de-
fending his wife? Did He see
a colored soldier’s eyes being
gouged out by a policeman be-
cause he refused to sit on a
Jim Crow seat on a bus? Did
he see a colored man forced
by a white man to take off his
hat and greet politely two
asses because they were
white? (The priest who wrote
this to us said the colored man
told him there were two white
asses but the priest knew
there were three.) Did that
Christ see a white man
who boasted of having killed
twenty Negroes, many of
them because he wanted their
| wives? Was He enraged by a
| white Catholic doctor who
| turned away from a Catholic
hospital a colored child with a |
{compound fractured leg be-|
| cause of the skin color He had
given her?

Or is He regarding the hor-
rible ingratitude shown Him |
|in the most generous gift of
| His love, the Holy Eucharist?
Did He see the colored man,
| kneeling to receive Him,
| ignored by the southern priest
into whose consecrated hands
He had entrusted Himself?
|The colored man continued to
| kneel there while the candles
were extinguished after Mass.
Finally the priest came out
and told him he should go to
his own church but he would
give him Communion this

time. Then, when the priest
had put on his stole, lighted
the candles, and opened the
tabernacle, the colored man
left. “The eternal Christ in-
sulted by men thinking of
their skin which will return
to dust! Or does He think of
the southern sisters who re-
fused to allow a _ colored
woman to enter their chapel
to receive Him and forced His
priest to carry Him outside of
His house to her? The priest
had left his parish church as
a special concession to the
sisters and this colored woman
was a daily communicant in
his church. (The priest never
ate a meal under their roof
again.) Is Christ watching
white ushers push one of His
colored children into the back
seat or second balcony of His
house (Washington, D. C.)?

Or is our Christ angry at
beholding His own dark lambs
turned away from His schools
because Of their color to
establishments where God
and morality are flouted?

Does He see Americans de-
stroying food in this country
while ships go half empty to
starving Europe? Are His
blazing eyes directed on na-
tions closing their rich, empty
countrysides to homeless, de-
sparing millions? Or are they
turned on a horrible mush-
room cloud covering thou-
sands of innocent non-com-
batants destroyed or weirdly
mutilated? ,

An®a certain man said to
Him, “Lord, are they few that
are saved?” But He said to
them, “Strive to enter by the
narrow gate; for many, I say
to you, shall seek to enter, and
shall not be able. But when
the master of the house shall
be gone in, and shall shut the
door, you shall begin to stand
without, and knock at the
door, saying ‘Lord, open to us.’
And He answering, shall say
to you, ‘I know you not,
whence you are.’ Then you
shall begin to say, ‘We have
eaten and drunk in Thy pres-
ence, and thou hast taught in
our streets.’ And He shall say
to you, ‘I know you not,
whence you are. Depart from
Me, all ye workers of iniquity.’
There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth, when you
shall see Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, and all the proph-
ets, in the kingdom of God,
and you yourselves thrust out.
And there shall come from
the east and. from the west,
and the north and the south;
and shall sit down in the king-
dom of God. And behold, they
are last that shall be first; and
they are first that shall be

last.”
. Mabel C. Knight

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MARLEM FRIENDSHIP HOUSE NEWS

DEAR WHITE GIRL, Ill

. ENT has begun already...
and my thoughts nat-

urally drift to church. I read
a book called “Negroes in
Brazil” once and it made me
realize for the first time a
most exhilarating thing. That

is, that in Latin American
countries, there is no race
prejudice! What hope that |

book gave me! Especially
when I read ‘n other books
about the fact that in coun-
tries like Mexico, Spain, Italy,
France, etc... . countries with
a Catholic past, Catholic roots
... there is no such thing as
race hate. Incredible! To a
native born American Negro
of the U.S.A. like me, this
sounds like heaven.

Mr. Pierson, the author of
this book, is a Protestant and
a professor at the University
of Chicago. Yet, the conclu-
sion that one must draw who
reads “Negroes in Brazil” is
that the Catholic church and
Catholic culture are largely
responsible for the absence of
racial segregation there. In-
deed, when the Portuguese
first settled Brazil priests did
all they could to show the
evils of concubinage, and
even secured a bill of excom-
munication for all those men
who refused to marry their
concubines. That is why they
don’t confuse intermarriage
with the rights and justice
due to all men of all races.

What then has happened to
this spirit of America these
past several hundred years?
Why is it so hard for our
Negro young men to get into
seminaries? For our colored
girls to.get into convents?

How does it happen that
there are some Catholic
churches in this country that
do not allow colored Catholics
to worship therein? And how
does it happen that at the
Communion rail when the

Holy Eucharist is being dis-

WHY PRAY?

SINCE EVERYTHING IS
ALREADY DETERMINED
WHAT IS THE USE OF
PRAYER?

“..« The answer is that
prayer does not attempy to
alter the divine decree: we
pray not against the frame-
work of Providence, but
within the framework of
Providence. WE PRAY BE-
CAUSE PRAYER IS ONE OF
THE FORCES, THE ENER-
GIES WHICH GOVERN
EVENTS IN THE WORLD—
AS MANY OTHER NON-
MATERIAL THINGS,
MODES OF THOUGHT AND
WILL AND DESIRE, GOV-
ERN EVENTS IN THE
WORLD.

—“Divine Pity,” Gerald Vann,

O.P.

“At the elevation of the
Sacred Host, always pray for
priests.”

—Old Irish Custom.

tributed (OQ Sacrament of
Unity!) colored people so
often must wait till all the
whites receive? And how still
more frequently does it hap-
pen that Jim-crow seating ar-
rangements are tolerated in
our churches?

It’s true . . . our oneness in
the unique gift of God, in that
the doctrine of the Mystical
Body of Christ is THE way
that mankind is unified. This
doctrine we Catholics have
in all its fullness. Yet, how
can you answer this question
... that fellow colored Cath-
olics ask me constantly in
rage of despair; How is it pos-
sible for Catholics to believe
in the Mystical Body of Christ
...and still treat Negroes the
way they do?

MET A VERY bitter |

colored girl, a former Cath-
olic, who was persuaded to go
to Mass with a companion in
Washington. Her report of
the services went something
like this, “Oh yes, we were
told in the sermon about the
Mystical Body of Christ...
from our segregated seats...”

I like to think of Fr. Far-
agher in Tuskegee College
who got a lovely chapel built
on the college grounds. It
seems that it was the only
Catholic church for fifty miles
around. So many whites found
it convenient to use. And they
were welcomed .. . to sit
where they pleased, and re-
ceive Communion wherever
they found themselves at the
Communion table. But they
began to segregate them-
selves! Then it was that Fr.
Faragher explained that this
was a CATHOLIC church...
and that segregation is a prac-
tical denial of a basic doctrine
of our faith, the Mystical
Body of Christ. Thereafter,
there was no segregation.

I like to think of Archbishop
Lucey who has a fine inter-

racial committee functioning

UNITY
“Pour forth upon us, O
Lord. the spirit of thy love:
that, as thou has fed us with
ONE BREAD from. heaven
Thou mayst, by thy mercy,
make us of ONE MIND.”
—Postcommunion from
the Mass of the Friday
after Ash Wednesday.

Father Dunne Receives

Los Angeles, Cal., March 1—
Special—In recognition of his
efforts on behalf of minority
groups, Rev. George H.
Dunne, S.J., author and play-
wright, has been appointed a
member of the Committee on
Human Relations by the Los
Angeles County Board of
Supervisors. Well known as
a protagonist of interracial
justice, Father Dunne is pro-
fessor of political science at
Loyola University.

BROTHERHOOD

Believe It, Live It, Support It

In the life of each one of us comes a time when we search °
within: “Just what am I contributing to the sum total of

human progress?”

And there is one of two answers: “I

work to bring peace and understanding to men of all faiths,

races and national origins.’

Or, “I contribute funds to

enable others through educational programs to bring peace

and understanding to men.”

Your time or money, prefer-

ably both, allow you both answers, through your local
branch or direct to American Brotherhood, National Con-

ference of Christians and Jews, 381 Fourth Avenue, New

sae» Mork.16, New. York.

THE DIFFERENCE
Dying
He said they knew not
What they'd done. But I
Knew — Father —I_ have
sinned:
Pve killed

Your Son.
—MARY FREGEAU.

in San Antonio, and of all
those Catholic Interracial
committees that continue to
work and grow in Washing-
ton, Detroit, New York, Chi-
cago, Los Angeles, and many
other cities. And I was won-
dering why can’t we have one
in every city of this country?

At a Chicago Interracial in-
ter-faith meeting I attended,
the chairman asked the ques-
tion, “I wonder how many
churches there are in Chicago
that DO NOT practise segre-
gation?” It was a question
that gave me pause...and I
am still thinking.

A Catholic Club lady once
said to a lecturer who had
tried to show that Catholics
are responsible for breaking
down race hate and building
toward love of all men for the
sake of Christ...“Why are
you bringing religion into
this? WHAT HAS RELIG-
ION GOT TO DO WITH HOW
I TREAT NEGROES? (sic!)”
Evidently the lady sincerely
thought that if a Catholic
rioted or caused violence out
at the Airport Homes Project
when Negro vets moved in,
it was definitely no matter
for confession...that there
was no MORAL Problem in-
volved!

WHAT HAS OUR RELIG-
ION GOT TO DO WITH
THIS?

EVERYTHING, SAY I.

THIS IS the crux of the
matter, our belief in Christ.
It is precisely here that we
must begin. All men, Cath-
olics or not, are morally re-
sponsible if they interfere
with the rights and dignities
due their fellow men in any
way. The same God who
gave us rights gave the rest of
men theirs, equally the same.
What is the responsibility for
us Catholics then, who have
the fullness of Christ?

Let us face the fact that
there are injustices amongst
us. Then let us see that we
have a moral obligation to do
something about these injus-
tices as we meet them in our
state of life. For if anyone is
going to be held more respon-
sible than the rest for racial
harmony, it is Catholics. If
any one group in the U. S. will
be held to account on Judg-
ment Day for the state of race
relations, it will be Catholics.

E HAVE THE Mass, the
Sacraments, our doc-
trines, the shining truths of

SS
A
SS

our faith in all their fullness,
especially that the Mystical
Body of Christ which sums up
the fact that what you do to

any human being, Christ con-
siders as done to HIM. So that
we Catholics know that if we
refuse a Negro in our hospital
we are refusing Christ. If we
cause a near riot when Ne-
groes move into our neighbor-
hood, we do it to Christ. It is
with Catholics that the words
of Christ will go hardest... “I
was that Negro whom you
turned away...”

I remember talking to the
rector of a western Catholic
College where Negroes and
whites had been going to
school together in true Cath-
olic fashion. Came time for
graduation...and some-
how an idea got started that
the white students didn’t
want to be graduated with
the Negroes. There was a lot
of conferring and advising.
Arguments flew back and
forth, like, “Well, they had
gone through the four years
together, why shouldn’t they
graduate together?” Rumors
were rife that all the white
Catholic parents would with-
draw their children en masse.
The famous red-herring went
around. ..“‘what wil] happen
to fhe souls of the white stu-
dents who may not come here
and may attend a non-Cath-
olic university instead?”...

What is going to happen—
and does happen—to the souls
of the Negro students who
ARE FORCED to attend non-
Catholic universities and pro-
fessional schools?—is a ques-
tion, dear white girl, that I’ve
been waiting to hear asked.
What happens to the faith of
the rest of us...who have to
“take it”...? What happens
to all those other Negroes, not
Catholic, who might be inter-
ested in the faith, who are
hungry for the true bread of
Life? But who are scandal-
ized by the way the members
of the one Mystical Body of
Christ treat each other? And
how much of this will we
have to answer for?

“Is the time ripe for inter-
racial justice?”

“Yes,” says Father La-
Farge, “The time is not only
ripe; it is over-ripe!” And it
might be added, when is the
time for putting Christ’s doc-
trines into action? Isn’t it al-
ways NOW?

What do you think, white
girl?

Ever sincerely,

INTERRACIALISM WORKS
The no-discrimination
policy upon which, in this
connection, they (Stage Door
Canteen) embarked had a
two-fold effect. Among Ne-
groes who came in contact
with it, it built up a little des-
perately-needed good will
toward the American Cau-
casians. (Our Negro Com-
patriots—and it scarcely re-
quires a slide rule to figure
out why—take a very dim
view of white people, ANY
white people, and are not gen-
erally disposed to regard
same as Queens of the May.)
The other result was that it
gave white people a chance to
meet and talk to and work
with Negroes who were not
wearing bandannas and carry-
ing mops...”
—“Color Blind,” Margaret
Halsay.

CHICAG
HOUSE

309 E yz §

ISAIAS TO THE PRE!
“... Loose the bands of wicked@pess
Undo the bundles that oppress
Let them that are broken go free
And break asunder every burden.

Deal thy bread to the hungry

And bring the needy and the harbor]
When thou shalt see one naked, cover
And despise not thy own flesh,

Then shall thy light break forth*as th
And thy hea?th shall speedily arise,

And thy justice shall go before thy f:
And the glory of the Lord shall gather

Then shalt thou call

And the Lord shall hear:
Thou shalt cry

And He shall say: Here I am;

FOR I THE LORD THY GOD AM MEI
—Lesson from Isaias, the Prophet,
Ash Wednesday. ie

ON THE cAMP!

In addresses which key- or *
noted the general discussion, oa 7
four student speakers out- si ry
lined the origin, history and of t die
problems of Negro education, —-
and surveyed briefly the =
status of Negro institutions of Interra
higher education in the coun- | being sf
try today. res oe

Jacques Leroy, of Iona Col- Mational
lege, Long Island, cited the | olice Coll
inaccurate conceptions of in- | effort on
terracial justice which follow- | gents th
ing the Civil War made Negro | on the «
educational institutions neces- | fyndame!
sary, and praised the progress segregati
these institutions had made | yacial di
for the race as centers of | lights of
learning, especially in produc- collegiate
ing qualified leaders, of race,

SE —

HAVE YOU ANY CATHOLIC MAGAZI
-s >»
CAN YOU SEND GOOD MODERN CA

_THEN PLEASE SEND THEN

MR. FABIAN OSA-AFIAI
POST OFFICE, ENUGU NIC
WEST AFRICA

HE NEEDS THEM DESPERATELY, TO BUI

LIBRARY! PLEASE!

ICAGO
OUSE

E yz ST

THE PREJUDICED
wicked@ness

ppress

n go free

ry burden. .

gry
id the.harborless into thy house;
e naked, cover him,

n flesh,

ak forthtas the morning,
eedily arise,

) before thy face,

rd shall gather thee up.

I am;

GOD AM MERCIFUL .
the —_— for Friday, ae

E CAMPUS

fete

1]
oy
a-
1e
ry
od
t-

—— SSS sss sss sss

minded people, White and Ne-
gro, to improve the situation.

| John Devine, a student at
St. Peter’s College, Jersey
City, N. J., discussed Negro
secondary and collegiate edu-
cation, and stressed the nota-
ble achievements being made
today, especially in raising
scholastic standards, and in
the institutions themselves,
which are increasing in num-
ber and influence.

A student at Manhattan-
ville, Miss Angela Bayo, sur-
veyed briefly the major Negro
colleges and _ universities—
Tuskegee, Fiske, Atlanta, Dil-
lard, Howard, and Xavier—
and stressed the importance
of their breaking down race
prejudice among the educated
groups,

Interracial Justice Week is
being sponsored again this
year in colleges and. schools
throughout the country by the
National Federation of Cath-
olic College Students, in an
effort on the part of the stu-
dents themselves to impress
on the other students the
fundamental injustices in
segregation and other types of
racial discrimination. High-
lights of the Week are inter-
collegiate forums on the topic
of race, and nation-wide po-
etry, poster, drama and essay
contests on race relations.

A feature of the Week was
the. benefit concert Tuesday
evening at the Metropolitan
Opera House in New York
City to raise funds for the
establishment of interracial
scholarships at Manhattan-
ville College of the Sacred
Heart.

XLIC MAGAZINES TO SPARE?

MODERN CATHOLIC BOOKS?

E SEND THEM TO:
\N OSA-AFIANA

, ENUGU NIGERIA
T AFRICA

TELY, IO BUILD A CATHOLIC

Sunlight and Shadow

By Maurice Ferguson

7 AMOUNT of sunlight
and shadow in the life of
a lone negro member of a
mid-western town is likely to
be about the same as that of
his white co-religionists.
That’s how it has been with
me. On second thought, I
probably had a great ad-
vantage in being “sponsored”
by special friends who
smoothed things over and
made it easier for me to be
accepted, and, except for the
beginning period when one
feels like a solitary goldfish,
naked and alone in a bright
new bowl, any lad coming to
the parish high school would
find his stay as pleasant, I’m
sure.

The assistant pastor first
noticed that I was a member
of a gang of boys, many of
whom were his parishioners.
This led to our becoming ac-
quainted and eventually I

' thought that I would like to

attend the parish school. He
made me feel I would be wel-
come. This is the big thing.
Writing will help and preach-
ing will help but personal
contact between the white
and colored people will do
so very much more toward
spreading the faith among
Negroes, a people who have
grown old listening to the
beautiful ideals and promises
of sermons and _ speeches,
waiting for them to materi-
alize. We are inclined to be
a little skeptical. A beginning
contact is never hard to make.
A simple “Good Morning”
and “Hello” will be answered
as often as it is given and it
may lead to who knows what!

E ALL can remember

instances where the twe
races were gathered in groups
—perhaps on a train, at a sta-
tion or theatre—each keeping
to itself, stealing embarrassed
glances at the other; times
when the silence and discom-
fort were almost painful—
each waiting and wanting to
say some word to break the
ice and it never came! The
world knows Negroes are a
laughing people who would
rather sing than sigh, rather
be a friend than a foe, so no
one should feel that any over-
tures of friendship they might
make will be resented.

Once in the parish school it
was to Sister. Mary Loyola
that I looked the most in the
bé@ginning. I quickly learned
that she was no exception
among the Sisters for wanting
me to get the very best from
myself. Since that time many
friends have reached out to
put good things in my way,
but it is to the Sisters that I
owe an immeasurable debt of
gratitude for inspiring exam-
ples, friendliness, and: loyalty.
It was true then and even
more so today. Oddly enough
it seems women have less
prejudice or overcome * their
dislikes with more ease than
men. In traveling about it
has been my experience to
find women have less reserve
once the “Hello” has been
said and are cordial—most of
them.

N THE SHADOWY side

there are some Catholic
men and women who are as
friendly as possible while in
the neighborhood of the
church, but when met with
their friends on the streets

downtown are so careful to
be\looking aside or pass by

BEHOLD

BY THE WOO
OF THE CROS
SOY ype

INT
THE WHOLE WORKS

with a stony unseeing stare.
These are the social climbers
who believe they risk losing
caste by acknowledging
friendship with a Negro, an
untouchable. There are

others who have prospered_

financially and thereby have
classed themselves superiors.
This form of pride takes some
queer twists. There are two
owners of taverns in the par-
ish who did well at home dur-
ing the war years and now re-
fuse service to Negroes. These
same men yelled loud and
long, denouncing the Ger-
mans, calling down the wrath
of the world on them for mis-
treating and humiliating the
people of their ancestral land
in Central Europe during the
height of the Hitler days—
now that they have found
some one to persecute, they
themselves have become “lit-
tle Hitlers.” In these cases
the barring of Negroes is a
left-handed compliment as the
more discriminating do not
patronize their places any-
way. However, by far the
majority of our parishioners
are not of this type, but earn-
estly «believe that whoever
prays “Our Father” must ad-
mit and recognize all men, as
brothers, without reserva-
tions. Outside of our parish
in several parts of the state
it has been my good fortune
to have met many Catholics
of this high stndard. Indeed,
there is a German family
which for years has treated
me as one of their own.

HARLEM FRIENDSHIP HOUSE NEWS

Across the Atlantic I have |

received this same treatment
—in France, in Italy, and in
North Africa. There was the
rt Italian prisoner in

izerte with the haunting
tenor voice who had been a
choir singer in Milan. He
would lean against an olive
tree to sing and his music and
the moon softened the sharp
silhouette of the tents, tanks,
and piled-up bombs, and put
a halo around the guns. When
I said that I too was a Cath-
olic he gave me one of the
scapulars he was wearing. I
have it today. His name was
Mario, I remember, and I
wonder where he is today.
His gentleness, kindness, and
courtesy seemed to me to be
a part of true Christianity in
action and I would never have
known it if he had kept silent
that night in Tunisia.

IN THE CASITA

{L.BERT FULTH was the
first to ask Miss Geni
(Mary Galloway) for a Ros-

ary. She gave him one and |

learned several days later that
he had to use a “book” to say
it at night. Then his little
brother put in a similar re-
quest. And ‘so it was that
Geni got the idea of having a
Rosary Club as a project for
Lent. It will meet at 5:30, on
Mondays for the small chil-
dren and on Tuesdays for the
older ones. Speaking of Lent,
Shirley Briggs told us at re-
cess one afternoon that she
hadn’t eaten a speck of meat
since Lent began. Shirley is
not yet a Catholic though she
hopes to become one. Not
understanding the fast and
abstinence regulations read at
Mass on Quinquagesima Sun-
day, she had settled on com-
plete abstinence as the safest
course!

We were grateful to Saint
Valentine for helping us out
with the four-parties-in-a-row
given in his honor, for we
came safely through all of
them. The teen-agers worked
hard the week before decorat-
ing the lights and hanging
rows and rows of little red
hearts ‘from the ceiling and
all ages enjoyed the fruit of
their labor.

Ed Adams and Lorraine
Schneider, teen-age coun-
cilors, are busy these days
visiting parents and homes of
this group. It all came about
this way. We learned that
one of the boys, Louis Hender-
son, had been in dn accident
and was in bed with a large
and heavy cast. So Lorraine
and Ed went to see him. The
next meeting, a youth came in
(hale and hearty) and signed
himself in as Louis Hender-
son. He had been doing it be-
fore, but had never been chal-
lenged. Then we discovered
we had two Willie Smiths reg-
istered. This time a visit to
the homes disclosed there
really are two Willies. How-

CHICAGO VOLUNTEERS’ COLUMN

HAT grand old volunteer,
Michael Barrett, was the

dynamo behind the ticket
sales of Father La Farge’s
lecture on Catholics and Race
Relations sponsored by the
Catholic Labor Alliance. It
was an S.R.O. success.

A ea mn

If someday you come upon
FH News in your dentist’s of-
fice be forewarned: Joanne
Mertensotto has just preceded
you. She’s our apostle of dis-
tribution. A good tip, Volun-
teers.

* * ck

The second marriage of the
year among volunteers will
occur on April 26 at St. Casi-
mir’s Church, when William
Lynch and Sylvia Owczarek
are united in the holy sacra-
ment of Matrimony.

ok * ok

7
Mexico is the richer these
days, having within her
boundaries two of FH’s top
volunteers, Genevieve James
and Rosemary Grundei. Re-
laxing and recreating under

“Answers to Tom” or

“léaving>

WE TURN THE TABLES
We’re madly searching for three precious pamphlets
which were published by F.H. press in the past. If anyone
knows the whereabouts of “St. Francis Comes to Harlem,”
“Three Months in Harlem” would

you send them to us? Thanks a million. Please send them
to Miss Mary Clinch, 309 E. 43rd St., Chicago, Ill,

ever, the real reason for home
visiting is to become better
acquainted with the Marteens
and to explain the youth work
of F. H. to their parents.

E ARE begging Blessed

Martin to find a pool
table for the Marteens. At
present they are using a small
wooden board and a broom-
stick handle. It is difficult at
best to lure our young “sophis-
ticates” into the Casita where
dolls, toys and kiddie furni-
ture are always so much in
evidence. Geni and Lorraine
are investigating candy and
coke machines and we hope
with a great hope that Blessed
Martin will not disappoint us
with that pool table.

With Rudy Thomas busy at
College and Clif off to the
Mardi Gras in New Orleans,
Ken Fick found himself
plunged into Cub Scouting
and all that it involves. The
course for leaders will not
start before another two
weeks or so, but Ken is pio-
neering bravely and with the °
help of our two loyal Den
Mothers, Mrs. Hagen and Mrs.
Kinnard, we hope the regular
weekly den meetings will
soon get under way. ca

Marge Quilty and Geni”
have started taking the course
for Brownie leaders given
doWntown and we can hardly
wait to break the news to the
girls—the future Brownies of
Chicago F. H. Said Geni
after attending one class: “All
our worries are over—there is
no ill (in the Casita) that
Scouting will not cure.”

No ene will ever know how
sorry we were to lose Tena
Roseman as a regular Casita
Councilor. The heavy de-
mands of her other work in
F. H. made it necessary for
her to give up the Monday
afternoon class in Negro His-
tory, to our deep regret.
Tena’s generosity, faithful-
ness and skill in teachin
have been an inspiration to all
of us.

the Southern sun, the girls

say they’ll stay until their

money runs out. Hasta luego.
ok * *

Speaking of the trip to old
Mexico recalls God’s provi-
dence in the Casita. The day
Rosemary told us she was
“in Walkéd* Loretta”
Gebhart, an art major at
Rosary College, who -offered
to teach Rosemary’s class in
arts and skills in addition to
painting the endless signs the ~
House always needs.

ok Eh ok

Ed Adams, teen age coun-
selor, relates this story of a
would be Marteen:

Ed had just returned from
visiting Louis Henderson, a
Marteen seriously injured and
encased in a cast up to his
neck. Ten minutes later a
young man came into the
Casita and stopped to register.

Ed: Name?

Young Man: Louis Hender-
son.

No, not a miracle .. . simply

economy (registration fee 25c)
. but it didn’t work.

a A ee a le

ee RE me Org aS _ er Sich,
LEAS I oh neta:

semen ae

SO eres ree

ethene

ote sient last taint mating

a—ieii=ee ee

ee Ee eR Tet Sere
we . A
m Fe a) .

Negro Martyrs

ROM THE HEART of

darkest Africa, in ‘ the
lifetime of some who will read
this account, came the most
recent outstanding example of
Christian heroism. Less than
sixty years ago, twenty-two
Negro youths of Uganda sacri-
ficed their lives in loyalty to
their faith and out of devotion

to the angelic virtue of holy ora ee
purity. | Be , sh ;
The country of Uganda lies " ie E Be

on the equator. It occupies | pon bral ae,
the crescent-shaped northwest | Crane Try
shore of Lake Victoria in Cen- | ee ee
tral Africa. To this land in the |
latter part of the last century |
came Catholic missionaries, |
the White Fathers. To the black |
eople of the forests they |
lenght the welcome message |
of God’s love for all men. |
They spoke of God’s mercy |
and of His love for all human |
beings. For the first time the
inhabitants of Uganda learned
about the Christian virtues of
charity, justice and purity.
Before long the missionary ' king realized that some of his | five hundred Negro Sisters.

fathers reaped a rich harvest | pages were evading him and |The present Catholic popula-

of souls. The water of baptism resisting him because they |tion numbers a half million

flowed freely. The teaching of | souls.

Christ brought peace and hap- | were followers of the pure, i :

einen to Snasenae of the/Christ. One day he called be- ‘the Wieaped Martyrs of Ugan.

men and women of Uganda. fore his throne all the young | aa in 1920. Their feast day is
, i it proved to! ’ d asked | aie <

At the same time it p ;men of the court and asked observed each year on June

be an obstacle to the fullfill- |) ow many of them were /3d.

t of the selfish and lustful; : =
jalan of the por of that|Christians. Without hesita-! For every Catholic that is
region. In 1886, King Mwanga | tion all the Christian youths, | canonized or beatified there

ruled the land. Together with twenty-two of them, stepped | are countless other faithful
his infamous partners, the forward. He then asked | souls whose virtuous lives and
Arab slave dealers, he grew | whether they intended always | heroic deeds are an
ys on the oe and aie remain Christian. In ae een except in the “Boo
of his own countrymen. And! voice came the reply, “Yes,
now the Christian mission-| yntil death.” With that King
aries dared to condemn in no! Nwanga turned to his execu- |
uncertain terms the traffic in|tigoner and commanded that

MADONNA FLA

=
fe

Or ee

(Continued from page 1)

other results as well, two of|almost three weeks. nc
that time, all political divi-

sions in the North have run

which I would briefly touchy)
on here, for they have special ne .
relevance to the American|0n religious lines.
| scene.

In a government which has | 4S 4 party.
the form of a democracy it is} Is_ it

Orange Supremacy & White Supremacy

in 1919, tieing up the City for

Since

Labor in

the North simply did not exist

also a_ coincidence

difficult to pass discriminatory | that in America the White-

legislation, at
strict ‘civil rights are con-| *€
cerned. Thus the laws of|Siasm for :
Northern Ireland which take} Workingman = in
away the civil rights of Cath-|North, as in the
olics—suspension of habeas
corpus, for instance, which |
dates from 1922—take away |

least where| Supremacy States also mani-
fest no perceptible enthu-
unionism? The

the Irish
American

South has to learn that when
labor is divided on creed or
color its strength is gone. As

human liberty. they be put to death.

Furthermore, the Catholic}; The hands” of the young |
priests censured immorality Christians — the eldest of,
and injustice. And King) whom was twenty-five—were |
Mwanga was a monster of|bound. Immediately they
vice and cruelty. He was! were made to begin their Way
given to the most debasing | of the Cross to the place of,
and depraved practices. The|execution, a village forty |
newly introduced. Christian|miles away. As the brave
religion constantly reproach-| warriors of Christ marched to
ed both his vice and greed.|their death they showed no,

| | the rights of everyone. There | Booker T. Washington pointed
is a “gentleman’s agreement” | 0Ut, the only way to keep your
that they will be used only fellow man in the ditch is to

against Catholics; but they are | 8¢t in there along with him.

la loaded pistol pointed at
PRIVILEGE

everybody’s head. And some- :

day the men in power may not| “Is it stop away from Mass,
be gentlemen. One thinks| whilst I have the legs under
of the “white primary” in! me to struggle to the chapel
Georgia. If the present|of a morning! Why, Sunday
arrangement stands up, elec-|Mass is our obligation; but

determined to stop at nothing found worthy to suffer for
until he had wiped out com-|Christ. They gave voice to
pletely the religion that op-|their joy in hymns of praise
posed him.

'and thanksgiving.

resent countless thousands of| party bosses. The State has
others who daily and coura-|jet go all controls of the
geously fight the good fight.

It is only thoughtless or | the bosses can exclude anyone

—An Old Dublin Wom- a
an, from “The Mass—
Our Splendid Privi-
lege” —Irish Messenger
Office, 5 Gt. Denmark -_*

primaries; which means that

In the king’s court were

For a week the twenty-two | vicious presumption for men | they wish from the primaries.

some five hundred boys and
young men, royal pages. One
of the chiefs of these court at-
tendaces was a young Cath-
olic convert, Charles Lwanga.
Charles made it his business
to protect as best he could his

Christians were imprisoned | to differentiate in their treat- | [t proved impossible to frame
without food or water. This|ment of any race that has primary election laws which
cruel treatment was meant to brought forth not just a few, | would
break their heroic resolve, but |ut unnumbered legions of| Negroes from the primaries;
it only strengthened their in-|G0d’s faithful ones. God does! therefore, in the name of

St., Dublin, Eire. a

successfully exclude Chair of St. Peter at Rome
Let the gift we offer bring
lus joy, O Lord, that, as we

tention to die for their cru-|0t discriminate racially. His} white Supremacy, the free|declare Thee wonderful in
cified Master. At last the day | Church does not discriminate | men of Georgia abandon all | Thine apostle Peter so through

primary laws. It will be in-

youthful associates from the|of their execution arrived and |'@cially. Nor should we.
shameful influence round!as they went forth to die their See

about them. faces glowed with a holy joy. |
It was not long before the! Pach of the pages was tied | BENEFIT TEA

with thongs and wrapped | AT FIDES HOUSE
around with dry reeds. Then |
the executioner placed the | ;
martyrs on the ground in a|— Special — A benefit tea,
long straight line. A blazing) to aid in the work being done
— = ao into ithe | at Fides House, Catholic set-
uman bundles. In an instan
flames shot heavenward. From | tlement’ house here at 1123

HAS NO ONE
BEEN FOUND

ARISE, GO THY Jas
may burn our bodies,” he!and whites.

|We will go into paradise.”

The death of the heroic! at Catholic University.
Martyrs of Uganda gives the |
lie to modern pagans who call

chastity an impossible ideal. | “The moral precept
The blood of their martyrdom| Which the Catholic Church

tively Christian is the
command of Christ to
love our neighbor.”

rich soil. The Catholic Faith
has since flourished in Ugan-
da. That country had 134

Washington, D. C., March |

{

Negro priests and more than | Archbishop Edw. J. Mooney. ! thousand of them out on strike

.
lM |the holocaust came the voice |New Jersey ave., NW, was| hams, die dither? cairo
of Bruno Serunkana. “You! largely attended by Negroes! forty-eight—a substantial vic-
Director of the; tory. Was it more coincidence
shouted, “but never our souls. House is Dr. Mary Elizabeth that in a year or eighteen

Walsh, professor of sociology | months religious strife had
| broken out in the city? It wisi

him we may share the gener-

teresting to see what will osity of Thy forgiveness.

happen in Georgia when the
party bosses realize that they
no longer need the “cracker”
vote.

HE SECOND POINT is the

state of labor. In 1919 or
1920 there was a_ general
strike in Belfast against the
then prevalent fifty-eight hour

hours, the strikers settled for

no sporadic eruption; it was
organized and long-continued.
It lasted for two years and
took a toll of some seven hun-
dred lives. The workers of
Belfast have never since then
been able to muster the una-
nimity that brought forty

—Postcommunion of the Mass
of the Feast, Jan.

Ba eet Meta
.

Ever <:

gregate the

(Continued from page 3)

tant intolerance.

This deterioration in our
Catholic racial appreciation is
largely a minority’s reflection
of the intolerance of the

“Protestant majority. We Cath-
olics were ourselves notably
suspected as un-American,
especially in the South; and
to win acceptance took on the
racial attitude of our neigh-
bors understandably embit-
tered because of the over-
whelming losses of the Civil
War. (A Southern missionary
priest has recently complained
that the most racially intol-
erant of his fellows are for-
eign-born who to win accept-

Biack Christ?

lly referred to—unfairly again
ican Catholics have borrowed |—as Wops, Bohunks, yes, and
heavily of what Dr. Woodson |even Shanty Irish, who “kept
has called Teutonic Protes-|the pig in the parlor, they of

the dirt and the brogue.”

Behind all these arguments
for racial religious segrega-
tion, and perhaps more potent
than them all, is the fear of

|interracial marriage: “Would
you want your sister to marry
a Negro?” It seems strange
that even priests should use
this dread of racial crossing
as a justification for the most
demoralizing religious depri-

vation. As though the races |

were. not originally one, and
we all sons and daughters of
an original pair. Some Cath-
olics in their determination to
;create a diriment marriage
impediment overlooked by
Mother Church, would refuse

ance and status perhaps un-/thirteen million Negroes the

consciously outdo the native-
born; out-Herod Herod.) Many
northern Catholics are today
heirs of the racial intolerance
of their immigrant fathers,
resentful of Civil War drafting
or of Negro economic competi-
tion.
Negro Saints

Catholic religious decencies.
In Latin America there is no
such shrinking from _inter-
racial marriage; good Cath-
|Olics there prefer that racial
| merging should be on a sacra-
mental level rather than on
the level so notorious in Amer-
ican history. And speaking of

When Catholics are asked to | Negro-white marriage, it is

justify their modern insistence
upon racial religious segrega-
tion, they labor heavily to ex-

lain why the traditional
atholic inclusiveness, the
mystical body, vine-and-

branches Christianity does not
apply: the Negro’s morals for
one thing, they say, put him
beyond the pale. This despite
the fact that twenty-five
blacks have been in modern
times raised to the honors of
the altar, whereas no native-
born white of our land has
been so honored in its history
of four centuries and a half.
And where the Negro is mor-
ally below par, is it not often
our fault? “Teach a child to
despise himself and fee] re-
jected, and you have a prob-
em child; teach a race to
despise itself and feel rejected,
and you have a problem race.”
During two centuries and
more of slavery the legal
status of Negro mating was
that of concubinage rather
than of valid marriage, and
violation of a slave woman
was at most trespass on an-
other’s property. If therefore
the Negro, so conditioned,
today fails at times to observe
the legal formalifies of mar-
iage, omitting either the
white man’s short form cere-
mony (60 seconds) or the long
form (90 seconds), is this
surprising? That the Negro,
given a decent chance, often
rises to heights of Christian
virtue, both the Church’s
honor roll and priestly experi-
ence leave no doubt. One of
the highest tributes possible
to the purity of a people was
spoken a few years ago among
us by a missionary returning
from so-called Darkest Africa.

Another reason urged by
some Catholics for religious
racial segregation is that the
Negro is unclean. White
friends of Negroes given half
a chance know how cruelly
untrue this charge can be.
Where it is true, inculpable
ignorance and grinding pov-
erty are frequently the reason.
Add to this the loss of self-
respect consequent upon be-
ing generally despised, and
there is little left to explain.
We Catholics would here
prove more understanding and
sympathetic if we recalled
how recent it is that our own

‘helpful to remember that in
| America one may be legally
|a Negro although with but
one-eighth or less of that
blood. He may in fact be fairer
of skin than many an in-
tolerant white.
Off the Point

However, while _ neither
theology nor biology is op-
posed to interracial marriages,
in America they are so gen-
erally ill-omened that good
sense forbids them. But is
interracial participation in
canon law religious rights and
privileges: to be therefore de-
nied? The fact is that such
race association, where had,
as for example in_ public
schools, so commonly ends at
the door that the consequence
of interracial marriage is al-
most unheard of; such mar-
riages are rather the result of
thrill-packed night-life, haunt-
ing the black-and-tan hot
spots, than of responsible day-
light association. One thor-
oughly familiar with the race
question hears with a sense
of futility this perennial “your
sister marry a Negro” objec-
tion coming even from men
who might be expected to
know better.

But what then can we do
to improve the race situation
in the Church? If nothing like
a parish caste is tolerable
among us, if we want no sec-
ond-class Catholicism, how
can religious interracial parity
be made to work? By making
our people fact-minded instead
of myth-minded in race mat-
ters. By emphasizing the facts
of race and race relations in
all our schools, from the semi-
naries and universities down
through the grades. By fre-
quent instruction of the laity
from a racially informed
clergy of the scandal now con-
sequent upon racial religious
discrimination. By a courage-
ous insistence that there be
no racial discrimination in
Catholic institutions.

Don't Rock the Boat
“Oh, the timidity of the vir-
tuous,” a thoughtful priest re-
cently exclaimed. In an earlier
day that was not so. In the
days when the foundations of
Christendom were being laid,

ig s kin were being sontemptuone. | churchmen were the radi-

SAINT JOSEPH

cals, fighting the battles of
the “have-nots” against the

“haves.” Today the watch-
word of churchmen too often
is peace, quiet, conservatism,
respectability, don’t-rock-the-
boat, especially the Bark of
Peter. The consequence is
that such conservatism has
left us with much less to con-
serve. It is an ordinary ob-
servation that we have in
Europe lost the working class,
through our failure to make
their cause our precious own.
Here in America the situation
is not yet so critical, but the
road of compromise respecting
the rights and dignity of the
poor of whatever race is surely
the same tragic downhill road.

Regarding Catholic efforts
to adjust this matter of race,
so emotionally charged and
so complex, complaints will of
course arise no matter what
course is taken; but why not,
for a change, let the com-
plaints come from the mini-
mizers of what it means to be

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Full text of "Harlem Friendship House News 1947-03: Vol 6 Iss 10"

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