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" Head Of Bishop’s Movie
Committee Explains Pledge
NEW YORK (NC) — The thinking behind the National
Legion of Decency’s pledge is to ask Catholics voluntarily to
give up attending certain films in order to raise the general
moral tone of movies.
This summarv is given bv Bishop James A. McNulty of
Paterson. N. J., chairman of the U. S. Bishops’ Committee on
Motion Pictures, Radio and Television. His explanation is
made in an article in America (March 11), a weekly Catholic
review.
“All too manv Catholics are under the impression thev
are being ‘pressured’ when they are asked to subscribe to the
promises which the legion proposes to them in its pledge,”
he wrote.
But the spirit behind the legion’s pledge asking Catholics
to remain away from pictures dangerous to moral life, he con
tinued, can be paraphrased this way:
“There are about 200 pictures a year that can be seen
without running the slightest danger of moral infection or
indifferentism.
“There are, on the other hand, some 75 films a year that
are, to say the least, unworthy of viewing by anyone who pro
fesses Christian ideals of thought and conduct.
“Are you willing, then, freely to give up those 75 films,
so that the Catholic body in the United States may present a
solid front and proclaim with a concerted voice, as it were,
. that it will not be satisfied until the general moral tone of the
films is worthy of the American people?”
Bishop McNulty expressed confidence that if the legion’s
pledge would be proposed this way, “there are few Cath
olics indeed who would not be generous to respond . . .”
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For the greater glory of God
and for the spiritual benefit
of authors, publishers, review
ers and readers.
JOHANN OF THE TREMB
LING HAND, by Theodora
Kobb, Bruce, 1960, 140 pp.,
$2.95.
Reviewed by
Elizabeth Hester
Johann Ehrlich is a boy of
seventeen, a native of Ober-
ammergau, the little Bavarian
town where every decade the
most famous of all Passion
Plays is acted. In Oberammer-
gau the people have a great
pride in performing their fam
ous play, and, as well, they
are proud of their wood carv
ers. The son of an accomplish
ed carver, Johann himself
when a small boy had given
promise of becoming a fine
carver and a good actor. But
he received an injury to his
hand, and though it healed, it
now trembles when he tries to
carve; even more, he has de
veloped a stage fright which
prevents him from acting in
the great play.
This little book for teen
agers is Johann’s story of re
covery. Pleasant and colorful
reading, it may serve, too, to
arouse interest in wood carv
ing and in Bavaria, both re
warding subjects for young
people.
The author is the wife of an
Army captain now stationed in
Augusta at Fort Gordon. Some
years ago she accompanied her
husband to Europe on a long
tour of duty, and from this re
sulted, JOHANN.
THEODORA KOBB BRUCE author of Johann of
The Trembling Hand.
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GRANT MOVES SOUTH,
by Bruce Catton, Little, Brown
& co., 1960, 564 pp., 9 maps,
$6.50.
Reviewed by
Msgr. George J. Flanigen
GRANT MOVES SOUTH is
not only a graphic account of
the battles in the West in
1861-1862 in which the Fed-
erals wrested control of the
Mississippi River from the
Confederates; it is also the
story of Gen. U. S. Grant’s
personal development. It de
scribes his progress from a
dedicated but somewhat re
luctant soldier to a '“forceful
general, conscious of his
worth and confident of his
future.”
When the brilliant biogra
pher, Lloyd Lewis, died in
1950, just before publication of
the first volume of his pro
jected three-volume series on
Grant, he left a mass of notes
for the second volume. His
widow and the publisher se
cured the services of Bruce
Catton, distinguished editor of
AMERICAN HERITAGE, to
analyze the notes, continue the
research and write the present
volume.
In his usual expert way, Mr.
Catton gives a blow-by-blow
account of the battles from
Belmont to Vicksburg. His
clarification of the confused
battle of Shiloh is very well
done. Between battles the au
thor tells of Grant’s difficult
dealings with men like Halleck
and McClernand; his soultion
of the thorny problem of what
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to do with the freed Negroes
who came into his camps; his
difficulties with Jesse Grant
who often tried to take advan
tage of his son’s power.
THE LIFE OF ST. CATH
ERINE OF SIENA, by Ray
mond of Capua, Kenedy, New
York, 1960, 384 pp., $4.95.
Reviewed by
Flannery O'Connor
The signs and wonders that
increased the faith of the 14th
century will very generally
have the opposite effect on
that of the 20th, and this
biography of St. Catherine,
written by her confessor,
Blessed Raymond of Capua,
can very well have the effect
of inspiring the reader with a
genuine repulsion for the
saint. For many of the mira
cles herein described, we can
find natural causes, others we
can ascribe to the imagination,
and some to the gullibility of
the author, but when the read
er has cut down these things
to managable proportions,
there still remains the hard
core of Catherine’s sanctity to
be mined out of Blessed Ray
mond’s tiresome platitudes and
preaching.
Catherine was a non-con
formist of a high order and
had all the stubborness neces
sary to carry out her way of
life. The consternation of her
family at finding themselves
with a visionary in the house,
a daughter who scourged her
self three times a day until
the blood ran, ate nothing but
herbs, and occasionally fell in
the fire during her ecstasies
(but was never burned) is well
detailed by Blessed Raymond.
What emerges most profound
ly is that all the saint’s actions
were conformed to a Reality
of which the ordinary man is
not aware. If the reader can
once realize the strength and
power of Catherine’s vision,
the scourgings and other self
punishments become under
standable. Conversely, it is
only from these penances that
the vision can be surmised and
vouched for. Altogether this is
not a book to give anyone
faith, but one which only faith
can make understandable.
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THE LADY FROM TOLEDO,
by Fray Angelico Chavez,
Academy Guild Press, 1960,
165 pp., illus., $3.95.
Reviewed by
Sister M. Harriet, O. P.
The Lady’s homeland was
Spain, not Ohio. Fray Chevez,
in tracing the gold thread of
her influence in New Spain,
awakens us American Cath
olics to the
d i m i nutive
and poor
though her
s t a t u e s
might be
the Virgin’s
role in the
history of
the South
west was a
glorious one.
We see in her the artery of
Grace: in the missionaries’
Christianization of the In
dians; in the final victory of
Christianity over Po-he-yemu,
symbol of Evil; and in little
Marie Romero’s day by day
acceptance of p a i n. Fray
Chevez writes in lucid prose
that complements the econo
my, purity, and simplicity of
style in his black and white
line and mass illustrations.
We Catholics in the 60’s
have an historical mission
thrust upon us. The inferiority
complex we have carried over
from the past century has had
its negative effect for too long
on too many of us. A personal
consciousness of American
Catholic roots could go far in
counteracting this. We recom
mend for it THE LADY FROM
TOLEDO with its delightful
vignettes of Catholic begin
nings in New Mexico. The
reader is promised acquaint
ance with adventuresome San-
te Fe pioneers and the miracle
on which Nuestra Senora del
Sagrario cured the crippled
Maria. Those who can write
may find in Fray Chavez the
cue for building their Catholic
Americana for other regions.
AMERICAN CATHOLI
CISM AND SOCIAL ACTION
by Aaron I. Abell, Hanover,
292 pp., $4.95.
Reviewed by Joseph Power
Here is an interesting com
panion to a textbook on social
justice in these United States.
Doctor Abell, a professional,
deals with the history of a
century of social service in sol
id and plain English.
The lay reader can envision
the need of this work in the
days of Buchanan and Lincoln
and Grant. There is a glimpse
of Archbishop Hughes of New
York, before 1860, giving ad
vice in this wise: ‘Stay here in
the cities, where you may get
to church and to school.’ Then
his people, his parishes, had
to get busy about poverty and
ignorance. His societies, like
that of St. Vincent de Paul,
had to grapple with broken
homes; with a superabundance
of illiterate teenagers.
From Minnesota, two dec
ades later, there comes the
voice of Archbishop Ireland:
‘Colonise! Have a future of
your own, out here in the
West.’ Then, his people had to
face the problem of organizing
a society in a new atmosphere,
almost in a vacuum.
James Cardinal Gibbons,
Ireland’s contemporary, is in
proper perspective. When la-
.bor unions began to he active,
after 1875, Cardinal Gibbons
was a balance wheel for civi
lian and cleric enmeshed in
the struggle for social justice.
From the time of Theodore
Roosevelt, Professor Abell is
the faithful chronicler of
events and movements, of
their interplay and conflict.
He leaves their evaluation to a
future historian.
MARTIN LUTHER AND
IGNATIUS LOYOLA, by
Friedrich Richter, Newman,
1960, 248 pp., $3.75.
Reviewed by
Elizabeth Hester
To the average practicing
Catholic the great difference
between his faith and a Prot
estant’s is that he has the
Eucharist and the other does
not. To the average Protestant,
the great difference is that he
owes no allegiance to the Pope,
nor, in practical purpose, to
anything ultimately except his
own conscience. In effect, this
means that the Catholic treas
ures the company he keeps—
albeit the Church’s moral
strictures sometimes gall him
—and the Protestant treasures
his independence, albeit it
sometimes evolves into chaotic
loneliness.
Richter’s book, however,
goes further into these funda
mental divisions between the
two roles of Christ followers.
Using Luther as illustrative of
the Protestant position and
Loyola as illustrative of the
Catholic, he makes magnifi
cently clear that subjectivism
—or individualism, or, ulti
mately, self-reference — is the
guiding force of Protestantism,
whereas objectivism — or al
lowance for the validity of
what is outside oneself — is
the quality the Catholic
Church relies upon to main
tain herself. Richter makes a
particularly interesting argu
ment of the fact that it is
only in such orthodoJdy Cath.
olic (and objectvie) beliefs as
the Protestant element has re
tained that it has any reality
at all.
Though the author does not
go very far into the matter,
the argument of his book
points very clearly to the
growth and development of
his the nihilistic chaos that
we have in much of today’s
existentialism. Obviously, this
has come about through the
natural evolution of the Prot
estant tenent of self-reference.
Seeking answers in the self
alone, one comes at last to
pure senselessness.
Particularly welcome is
Richter’s sane treatment of
Luther himself. Without ex
cusing him, there is neverthe
less compassion and a gener
ous scholarly allowance for
Luther’s real virtues, an at
titude the thoughtful Catholic
will be stronger to maintain
than to reject.
This is an excellent book,
not only for its superb de
lineation of the differences be
tween the Christian faiths, but
also for the clear insights it
provides on many' phases of
contemporary society. At
times it seems unnecessary to
repeat itself, but its cores is
firm and well developed.
THE NATIONAL PURPOSE,
Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
N. Y., 146 pp., Paper, $1.50,
Cloth $2.95.
Reviewed by
W. L. Schmidt
During the past year a series
of articles on The National
Purpose appeared in Life
Magazine. These articles, ex
cept one which appeared in
the New York Times, comprise
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OUR LADY OF THE HILLS
A Catholic camp for boys and girls ages
7 to 16. 200 acres, 37 buildings in the
Blue Ridge Mountains. Large modern
pool, mountain lake, with all camping
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THE BULLETIN, March 18, 1961—PAGE 7
the contents of this book, seri
ous thoughts expressed by ten
serious men, including John K.
Jessup, Adlai Stevenson, and
Walter Lippmann.
All are in agreement as to
our National Purpose. It is the
exercise of the rights as set
forth in The Declaration of
Independence, the rights of
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit
of Happiness, with emphasis
on the word Pursuit which in.
eludes spiritual happiness.
Among the principal rejuven-
ators of this purpose in the
hearts of American people
were Lincoln, Teddy Roose
velt, Woodrow Wilson, and
F.D.R. Now, however, there is
a deep sense of loss of our
Purpose. A frantic search is
taking place to find it.
Our National Purpose, how
ever, is not lost. We are fail
ing to exercise it. In its place
is not spiritual or cultural
growth. High consumption,
getting rich, “adjusting” our
selves to groups are our aims.
Not individualism, but trying
to be like everyone else. Our
individualism must be recap
tured, says Billy Graham.
Mass-produced machinery has
given rise to the mass-pro
duced man.
Clinton Rossiter, one of the
contributors, emphasises that
we are faced with the hard
question: Who speaks for
America? We have no Marx,
no Pope, no God-touched pro
phet. “If this country is to re
capture a sense of national
purpose, that purpose will
have to be voiced by a line of
plain-talking presidents and
given a cutting edge in laws
enacted by . . . tough minded
congresses. Then it will have
to be put into daily practice
by . . . dedicated administra
tors, teachers, ministers, edi
tors, managers and community
leaders.”
As we approach the age of
the New Frontier, perhaps
such leaders are beginning to
appear on the horizon. God
seems to give them to us in
time of crises. This is a time
of crises. We hope He will not
return our forgetfullness of
Him.
THE MIND AND HEART
OF AUGUSTINE, ed. H. M.
Flood, Academy Guild Press,
Fresno, California, 106 pp.,
$2.45.
This is a short biographical
sketch of the life of St. Augus
tine, fleshed out with quota
tions from his works. Its chief
value is that it presents the
years of St. Augustine’s life
after the Confessions had been
written and somewhat miti
gates the popular view of the
saint as harsh and interested
chiefly in damnation. The
book is perhaps meant to fur
nish the basis for meditations.
Anyone interested in studying
St. Augustine will have to go
to the sources.
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