Cooperation

Media

Part of The Cross

Title: Cooperation
Creator: Kimball, Harry Woods
Language: English
Year: 1951
Rights
Fulltext: T By HARRY WOODS KIMBALL, D.D. 11 ith highest esteem and most cordial personal greetings, I am Your devoted friend (Signed) R. J. CUSHING Archbishop of Boston This is a most irenic ond yet emphatic statement. .The Archbishop's words, I feel, should compel constont study of the possibilities of cooperation. However, if this union of forces which all sincere Christians desire is WATCH FOR The Answer to this Article By FATHER LAFARGE Editor of the Respected Jesuit Weekly AMERICA In Our Next Issue. —Ed. to come about, certain obstacles must be cleored oway. Lord Tweedsmuir once remorked that "nothing is more divisive than a common faith held with differences." This sometimes seems to be all too true regarding Protestants and Roman Catholics. Too often the two groups emphasize their differences rather thon the common faith.. Is it not time to stress more the unity of purpose? Recently—on the eve of the elections in France ond Italy—the Holy Father pointed out the fundamental issue-—whether those nations would "continue to rest on the firm rock of Christianity, on the acknowledgement of a personal God, on belief in the spiritual dignity and the eternal destiny of mon," or whether they would entrust themselves "to the unfeeling omnipotence of a materialistic state without any ideal beyond this world, without religion, without God?" Thot question every Protestant can echo with fervor. 41 42 THE CROSS We oil know thot cooperation is needed—but how can we proceed to cchieve it? DIFFERENCE TO BE RECOGNIZED First of all, preliminary to plan for unity of action based on this common faith, there must be a recognilion cf that fact thot th;ra ore differences in belief. For a Roman Catholic the seot of authority lies in the Holy See ond the Councils of. the Church, and, indeed, in the ordinary teaching of the Romon Catholic Church. Whatever is set forth by thece is accepted os the truth. For a Protestont, on the other hand, the seat of authority is the individual conscience, ond the ideal church is a self-governing fellowship of Christion believers. Here, then, Protestants ond Roman Catholics do port company. There can be no question thot this is o fundamental difference in the conception of a church. This fact must be accepted, and it does not do much for good for the two groups merely to wrangle about it. Heoted argument only increases the tension. Meanwhile, both protestants ond Roman Catholics might well "agree to disagree" on some points, and seek for a common group on which they can cooperate to right the.materialism ond atheism which ore so strong in the world today. While the above-mentioned disagreement on the concept of authority is most fundamental, there are other differences which in the interest of united action should be minimized. One of these other differences concerns education. At the present moment the place of-religion in the education of our children is being widely discussed ond, of the lesser differences bptween Romon Catholics ond Protestonts, the question of oid to parochial schools is the most important. Our public schools moy not be godles^, as is sometimes claimed, but most certainly they do not even remotely teach ony religious faith. Roman Catholics believe—and with this most Protestonts will agree—thot a •ound training in the essentials of relig'on is o necessary part of ony real education. Our children do not .get this in the public schools today, or in the average Protestant Sunday School with its less-than-onrhour-a-week of casual instruction. Thot is why Catholics have parochial schools, where religion is an essential part of the whole curriculum. Without o bit of grumbling, Roman Cotholics poy taxes for the support of the Public Schools possible. Such a :ocr fice deserves the highest praise. The enrollment in Catholic schools hes more than doubled in the past twenty yeors, and today millions of dollors are being spent for the erection of a new building. Roman Catholics ore evidently determined that their children shall hove on Adequate training in the essentials of the Christian faith. Catholics must bear this extra costin education because 'of the interpretation of the phrase "separation of Church ond State." "Separation, of APRIL, 1951 43 Church and State" is apparently an American point of view. But just what that phrase means is a matter of judgment. It certainly suggests thot religion in any form shall never control the state. The Federal Government cannot, under the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court, provide funds for the maintenance of private school buildings, or for the payment of teachers in private schools. It can, however, do its port toward protecting the heolth ond general security of all children, regardless of what school they attend or what faith their parent profess. It. is therefore straining at a gnot when this pronouncement is used to condemn ony protection or care by lhe state of children who may be in private or parochial schools. For the state to provide free bus transportation, or lunches, or health care, or even nonreligious textbooks for the children in these schools, is surely not in ony way linking the state with relig:on. Cardinal Spellman hos said that the Roman Catholic objectives regarding Federal aid are limited to the items suggested. If this commonsense attitude could be accepted by Protestants, this controversial difference might become a minor one indeed. Another point on which Roman Catholics and Protestonts are not agreed is the question of birth control. The Romon Catholic Church is against contraceptives as -an artificial means of preventing conceptioh, ond for this stand it has good Bible backing. The Romon Cotholic Church therefore condemns birth control, except through a knowledge of the natural rhythm of fecundity. Protestonts, on the whole, believe that planned porenthood mokes for heolth ond a proper core of children. Since the two viewpoints do not seem reconcilable, it would appear-wise to let each group follow its own convictions in the matter, and leave to a decision by the voters ot the polls what the attitude of the state shall be. We have done this in Massochusets. A further point of difference concerns mixed marriages. On the whole, neither Prrotestants nor Roman Cotholic believe in mixed marriages, for no doubt the greatest barrier to unity of mind and heart is o difference in religion. Moreover, many of these marriages result in loss of interest in religion ond neglect of the church on the port of both parties. They become indifferent, ond often fail to give their children ony religious education at oil. The fact that the Roman Catholic Church insists that all children born of mixed marriages be brought up in the Romon Catholic faith may seem narrow to other, than Roman Catholics but it surely indicates a sincere attempt to see that such children do hot became hedthens GROUND FOR AGREEMENT These differences regarding schools, birth control and -mixed marriages should be removed, as for as is poss44 THE CROSS ible, from becoming sources of contir.uol dispute. For they ore certainly overshadowed by the need of unity against the materialism of the age, and its twin brother, atheism. The need for unity of action between Protestants ond Roman Catholics is very plain. A crucial task confronts the churches. The life of the modem world is largely pagan, both in its philosophy and moral conduct. Christianity faces a cultured ond sophisticated materialism. It has token over some of the temper ond c'hical impulses of Christianity, tut it is none the less pogan in its life potPresident Conant of Harvard University said recently: "Almost everyone who hos been immersed since childhood in the cultural stream of twentieth-century America carries with him a universe of moral and spiritual volues from which he will have great difficulty in escaping." Surely for a careful analysis of morals among individuals, and especially in politics, is convincing proof thot materialism, selfishness and ungodliness are ramBoth Protestonts ond Roman Cothcl:cs want decency and morality, and this common aid can be a ground of real cooperation. Roger Babson, wellknown financier, said a short time ogo: "Catholics are now doing practically all the protesting ogainst questionable movies, indecent divorces and other public sins." But Protestonts, too, are becoming vocal. Recently in New Orleans the City Council of Protestant Churches protested against the abortion practices in the city. Archbishop Joseph Rummel at the same time condemned the ease with which these illegal practices were carried on and called them "on assault on public morality." Elsewhere, also .there is evidence of a meeting of minds. In Great Britain a Christian Frontier Council has been formed which includes Catholics like Barbara Ward. "A sense of common danger," say members of this group, "is drawing Chri'ticn communities together." Many Protestants agree with the statement of Cardinal Stritch of Chicago: "Il is a time when all of us must stand conscious of our responsibility to God." This is especially true regarding atheistic communism. To fight this common foe Roman Catholics and Protestonts can certainly stand shoulder to shoulder. On this question of communism. Christions are not primarily concerned over the difference between socialistic ond capitalistic forms of economics. The danger lies in the fact thot Soviet influence everywhere is directed toward the total strangulotion of all religious life. What has happened in one country—Czechoslovakia—is typical. About 75 per cent of the Czech people are Roman Catholics, yet the Communistic regime at Prague is attempting to break the Church completely. Recently the Commissar of Edution in the Soviet Republics wrote: "We hate Christions. Even the best APRIL 1951 45 of them must be regorded as our enemies." The stote not the Christion faith ond ethics, must prevail. "Those men who are not governed by God must be ruled by tyrants," said Willicm Penn. Con there still be any doubt that all protestonts should olipn themselves with Roman Catholics in a wholehearted defense of the Christian faith? UNITED FRONT AT HOME It is not only abroad, either, thot Christianity needs a united front. Even our own United States is still for from being o Christion land. In 1949 the census reported some 80 million church members—a figure that leaves at leost half of our population outside any church. In his remarkable book. Peace of Soul, Msgr. Fultcn J. Sheen says: "Modern mon has locked himself in the prison of his own mind. Only God can let him out." This is all too true. Cooperation between Protestants ond Romon Catholics can help to liberate the souls of all of us. That cooperation is being welcomed by both sides is evidenced mony times. Lost June Catholic ond Protestont leaders of North America and Western Europe met in Paris ond set up a new organization, the World Organization for Brotherhood. From the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris, the Most Reverend Maurice Feltin, came a message of welcome, hoiling the group os "a rallying of the most authentic spiritual forces." Another group, mostly Protestant, has started a campaign called Religion in American Life, ond the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rhode Island has issued a statement endorsing this movement "to make all people more end more conscious of the Divine Presence, ond the duty of oil to praise ond worship Him." The need for the unity cf which Archb;shop Cushing spoke in his letter is then beginning to be recognized, ond his spirit is winning friends in Protestont circles. Bishop Oxnam of the Methodist Church hos soid of Archbishop Cushing: "I am caught by his friendly spirit, the chorm of his personoiity, which corries into our American life some of the winsomeness of the Emerald Isle." But thot geniol word does not go far enough. Archbishop Cushing is o real statesman, and I believe thot Roman Catholic churchmen with his breadth of - vision could lead both Protestanti ond Catholics in a mighty defense of the Christion faith. —America—1 /6/51 SPACE FOR MORE From Quote comes the following descriptive indictment, which originally oppeared in the Boston Journal of 1855: "Among the curiosities lately placed in a museum is a mosquitoe's bladder, containing the souls of 24 misers and the fortunes of 12 printers. It is nearly half full."