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PAGE 6—June 3, 1976
JANE HOE Y ■ A GNES REGAN
Liberty And Justice For All:
American Catholics 1776-1976
AD GETS RESULTS -- Gus Mazzacaro, an active member of the
International Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, displays nearly 10,000
petitions to Pope Paul VI resulting from an ad in the Harrisburg Catholic
Witness. The petition asks the Pope for the consecration of Russia to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. (NC Photo)
A
TV Movies
USCC DIVISION FOR FILM AND BROADCASTING
SUNDAY, JUNE 6 - 9:00 p.m.
(ABC) - X Y & ZEE (1972) - A shrill
British sex melodrama. Relentlessly
vulgar and dramatically inept. (B)
TUESDAY, JUNE 8-9:00 p.m.
(ABC) - PRUDENCE AND THE PILL
(1968) - A failed British comedy of
manners that seeks to find hilarity in
BABE RUTH’S AMERICA, by
Robert Smith. Crowell. 309 pp., illustr.
$10.
REVIEWED BY JOSEPH GALE
(NC News Service)
“This was also the year that women,
finally recognized as people, would be
allowed to vote in a national election.
They still could not enter the major
professions with any real hope of
getting through the training period
alive.”
In such irreverent banter Robert
Smith, with profound hindsight,
recreates an innocent and happy era in
which it stili was possible to believe in
heroes, an era in which the virtues and
verities (though flogged as assiduously
then as they are today) still were clearly
discernable. Possibly a writer in the year
2000 will attempt to do the same for
the 60s and 70s - although from this
vantage point I fail to see how.
“Babe Ruth’s America’ is far from
seamless. Pages of interpreted
newspaper history are interspersed with
dollups of The Babe, and the transitions
are often abrupt.
It is the writing that entertains and
causes one to wonder whether the teens,
the 20s and the 30s were really as
unbridled, wacky and wonderful as they
are made to seem here.
The answer is yes, of course, but they
were also years of misery, injustice and
deprivation for much of the population.
Smith hardly ignores them, but one has
the feeling that all the bad things
happened to a miniscule minority and
all the good things happened to George
Herman Ruth, his friends and
colleagues, the fans and everyone else
connected.
Though there is at least one
full-length biography of The Babe,
basically there is not much to say about
him. Far be it from me to detract from
* ' »
the advent of oral contraceptives.
Deborah Kerr and David Niven can do
nothing to salvage things. (B)
FRIDAY, JUNE 11 - 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) - THE SALZBURG
CONNECTION (1972) - A rather dull
movie version of the best-selling Helen
Maclnnes spy novel. (A-III)
the image. No one who ever saw him at
the plate - or who witnessed a genuine,
gold-plated, out-of-the-park Babe Ruth
homer - will ever forget the man or his
legend.
The Babe, however, was basically a
good-natured, lovable rowdy with few
inhibitions and no pretensions. He was
an unprincipled high liver in every
sense, but never amoral according
to his own review.
He loved his wife and daughter, and
although he did feel occasionally guilty
about having cross-country liaisons, he
scorned suggestions of infidelity. How
could he be unfaithful when his heart
belonged to Helen and little Dorothy?
The Babe’s claim to fame was not his
character, his high jinks or his ebullient
personality, but that he could hit a
baseball harder, farther and faster than
anyone. This talent was buttressed by
local color that Babe manufactured like
red blood cells during the last period in
American history when folk heroes still
bore currency.
Soon the time came, red blood cells
were not enough. I remember news
photos of Babe’s cancer-wasted figure,
and they were pitiful then as they are in
the book.
There may not have been much to
Babe when measured against the poets
and philosophers, musicians and
dramatists, and the statesmen of his
time. But he loved children and the
elderly and did well by them. He was a
lifelong soft touch, and he was a
moment in the American dream. His
symbol deserves to live, especially
within the framework of such
reminiscent and heart-warming
treatment. Were there ever really such
times as these? You bet there were!
(Gale once was admitted without charge to
a Chicago ballpark upon presentation of a
baseball that Babe Ruth had just hit out of
the park and which the future reviewer
snagged -- on a couple of bounces.)
^ A
BY DOROTHY A. MOHLER
(NC News Service)
Most people think of women,
particularly Catholic women, as
newcomers to social activism. This may
be so if one defines an activist in terms
of today’s confrontation, demonstration
and protest. But there are other ways to
be involved in action, as the lives of
Jane Hoey and Agnes Regan show.
Almost a generation apart in age,
they had much in common. Both were
remarkably gifted women, deeply
committed to the service of others.
Their commitment was based on a
strong Catholic faith. Both were
daughters of Irish immigrants, both
came from families of nine children,
both were Westerners by birth.
Jane Hoey was born in 1892 in the
pioneer community of Greeley County,
Nebraska. Agnes Regan was born in
1869 in San Francisco to parents who
had lived for a time in Chile -- a
circumstance that influenced her
lifelong empathy with Latin Americans.
Both were educated in Catholic schools.
Miss Hoey was a graduate of
Washington’s Trinity College, Miss
Regan completed grade and high school
studies at St. Rose Academy, San
Francisco.
Both came under the influence of
Msgrs. William J. Kerby and John A.
Ryan of the Catholic University of
America, influential advocates of social
reform. For Jane Hoey they were
mentors who stimulated her choice of a
career in social work and whose writings
she cited in her own speeches and
papers. For Agnes Regan they were
colleagues with whom she shared heavy
responsibilities at the National Catholic
School of Social Service and the
National Catholic Welfare Conference.
Both moved quickly into
distinguished careers. Following
graduate study at Columbia University
and the affiliated New York School of
Social Work, Miss Hoey held staff
positions in several New York social
agencies and was a member of state
commissions on crime and
corrections. Through a brother who had
served in the state legislature she came
to know such prominent Democrats as
A1 Smith, Robert Wagner, and Franklin
Roosevelt.
For more than 30 years Agnes Regan
served in the San Francisco school
system as teacher, principal, and
member of the Board of Education and
its Playground Commission. She worked
with California Gov. Hiram Johnson to
secure enactment of the first teachers’
pension law in the state. Ironically, she
never profited fully from the benefits of
the new legislation because she left
California to begin a new career.
With solid experience at the local and
state levels behind them, both were
called to national service.
In 1936 Jane Hoey was appointed the
first director of the U.S. Bureau of
Public Assistance, Social Security
Board, a post she held for 17 years. She
was one of the tiny group of women
who filled one percent of the key
executive positions at the federal level.
She began her work in Franklin
Roosevelt’s first term, during the early
years of the Depression.
She was charged with major
responsibility for administering the
relief programs of the new Social
Security Act. When individual effort
could not provide the essentials of living
she believed ultimate responsibility
must be assumed by government. She
was an early advocate of guaranteed
annual income, which she regarded as an
essential support for strong family life.
Advocacy of human rights is far more
popular today, but Jane Hoey spoke out
early on behalf of migrants, American
Indians, working women and other
minorities whom “we fear, dislike, or
distrust,” and she anchored her defense
in religion.
In her presidential address to the
National Conference of Social Work in
1941, she noted how hard it is to
minimize racial, national, and personal
differences and went on to say: “History
and our own experience indicate only
one source of strength and inspiration
that can be depended upon to impel
men in this direction - and that strength
is spiritual and based on religious
concepts.”
Agnes Regan came to national
prominence by way of Church-related
work. Chosen to represent the San
Francisco archdiocese at the
organizational meeting of the National
Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) in
1920, she soon became its executive
secretary, a position she held for the
next 20 years.
It was a crucial time for the Church
in the United States. American
Catholics had been pushed from local
and parochial concerns to a new
awareness of the need for organization
and action at the national level. The
American bishops established the
National Catholic War Council, later the
National Catholic Welfare Conference,
which is today’s U.S. Catholic
Conference.
The NCCW was a constituent part of
the NCWC and Miss Regan traveled
throughout the country interpreting the
role of the NCCW as a federation of
women’s organizations and a body
coordinating its work with the work of
the hierarchy. It was a pioneering effort
and she had to contend with objections,
misunderstandings, and apathy. She
stimulated the development of
leadership in members of the NCCW and
urged them to study and support
legislation for housing, hours and wages,
and racial problems. She testified before
congressional committees in support of
subsidies for maternal and child health
care and on behalf of child labor
legislation.
Both women were closely identified
with the social work profession - Agnes
Regan as an educator, Jane Hoey as a
practitioner. The American bishops had
asked the NCCW to take over a training
school for women social workers that
had been established during World War
I. Miss Regan, in addition to her duties
with the NCCW, became assistant
director of the National Catholic School
of Social Service and its most loved and
respected figure. In her view
professional competence was important
not as an end in itself but as an
instrument of service for God’s people.
The link between religion and social
work was a fact of life.
Writing to students and alumnae
shortly after the passage of the Social
Security Act, she said: “Here in the
United States, we are making a great
experiment -- seeking to establish social
security through federal and state
enactments. If this experiment is to
succeed it will be because it is based on
Christian principles of social justice and
because Christian principles are applied
in putting the program into effect.”
Jane Hoey pressed hard for
THE BLUE BIRD (Fox) A
Russian-American co-production, this
film version of the classic children’s
play, is an earth-bound fantasy
redeemed in part by the charm of its
child actors. For younger children only.
A-I (G)
ECHOES OF A SUMMER (Cine
Artists) A young girl is dying of a heart
ailment. Sentimental, mawkish, and
generally mediocre. A-II (PG)
GRIZZLY (Film Ventures) If, as
popularly believed, imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery, the makers of
JAWS, if no one else, might find some
professional training for social workers
because she saw it as essential for a high
quality of service. Her conviction about
the professional character of social work
was illustrated in the stand she took in
1953 when, in the new Eisenhower
Administration, the post of director of
the Bureau of Public Assistance lost its
civil service status and became subject
to political appointment.
Miss Hoey refused to resign or to
apply for retirement and was dismissed.
Recognition came in various ways to
Jane Hoey and Agnes Regan. Both
received the Siena medal of the Theta
Phi Alpha fraternity given annually to
an outstanding Catholic woman. The
papal decoration, Pro Ecclesia et
Pontifice, and an honorary academic
degree were among Miss Regan’s honors.
When a new residence hall for women
social work students was erected on the
Catholic University campus it was
named for her. Miss Hoey was president
of the National Conference of Social
Work, the Council on Social Work
Education, and the William J. Kerby
Foundation. She served as U.S. delegate
to the United Nations Social
Commission. She received two awards
from the New York School of Social
Work, and honorary degrees were
conferred on her by three universities.
Agnes Regan died on September 30,
1943, Jane Hoey on October 6, 1968.
(Dr. Dorothy Mohler is associate professor
at the National Catholic School of Social
Service, Catholic University of America, in
Washington, D.C.)
pleasure in this gory, thoroughly inept
film. A-III (PG)
HAWMPS (Mulberry Square) The
army experiments with camels shortly
before the Civil War. A slapstick
comedy, from the makers of BENJI,
which only the youngest might enjoy.
A-I (G)
LEGACY (Kino) A day in the life of
a middle-aged woman too busy to
notice she is on the verge of a nervous,
breakdown. A film dealing with
repressed sexuality and guilt much too
specialized for theatrical presentation. B
(R)
BOOK
REVIEWS
L.1
LIFE IN MUSIC
BY THE DAMEANS
Come On Over
If my life gets like a jigsaw with the pieces out of place,
Come on over, put a smile back on my face.
And if all my bad days come at once, you would know just what to do
Come on over, baby, you would see me through.
And if you think I need you, come on over
Bring your love around, you can dry away my tears.
And if you think I need you, come on over.
Lay your body down, you know I will be here,
So bring your love around.
When I cannot see in front of me, and I know my darkest day
Come on over, you can taxe it all way.
And if you think I need you, come on over
Bring your love around, you can wipe away my tears,
And if you think I need you, come on over.
Lay your body down, you know I will be here,
So bring your love around.
If you think, if you think I need you, come on over.
by B. Gibb and R. Gibb
Casserole Music Corp.
Flamm Music Inc. B.M.I.
Sung by Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John’s latest single reminds me of Lucy at her Psychiatric Help
5-cent office waiting for Charlie Brown to come by. Both say a lot about the
importance of asking for help in times of trouble.
“Come On Over” is different from the Peanuts cartoon characters. It is more
like real life. Charlie Brown seeks help directly while Olivia sings as one who
knows she needs help at times but can’t bring herself to ask for it directly.
Instead, she approaches it shyly -- “if you think I need you, come on over.”
Asking for help is not always easy. We don’t like to admit we have weaknesses
or that we can’t do everything for ourselves. We’d rather struggle alone than to
let someone else know that sometimes we hurt inside.
Such an attitude is common today because our culture places a big value on
strength and makes fun of weakness. To admit weakness, we’re told, means that
we are defective -- no good - and this is not true at all.
We know deep down that it’s O.K. not to be perfect or strong always, but
because we’re pressured to be the prettiest, the strongest, the best dressed, the
winner, we tend to forget at times our worth as persons, imperfect though we
are.
Look at the response to the movies like “Brian’s Song” and “The Other Side
of the Mountain.” These true stories touched many people because they showed
how physical infirmity or even the closeness of death could not conquer the
spirit. Strength prevailed in spite of weakness.
But it wasn’t personal strength alone that brought these people through their
crises nor is it that way with us. It is only because people love us and accept us
with our weaknesses as well as with our strengths that we can make it through
life.
If “Come On Over” tells us something about ourselves -- that it’s not too bad
to admit we need help even though we are hesitant - it also tells us something
about others. We must be sensitive to the shy cries for help from people who live
around us, people who are afraid they will be rejected if they admit weakness to
us.
We must let each other know that because we are children of God, we are all
worthwhile persons whose strength and beauty flow from our hearts and show
best in the ways we love one another.
(All correspondence should be directed to: The Dameans, P.O. Box 2108; Baton Rouge,
La. 70821.)
— <
Film Classifications
A - Section I - Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
A - Section II - Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Adolescents
A - Section III - Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
A - Section IV - Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
B - Morally Objectionable in Part for All
C - Condemned
USCC DIVISION FOR FILM AND BROADCASTING