The Cross

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Part of The Cross

Title: The Cross
Issue Date: Volume VI (Issue No. 4) April 1951
Year: 1951
Language: English
Rights
extracted text: " 'p. Ay Editorial TO PLEASE A LADY, USE FIRESTONE TIRES!” Whether or not our women hove lost their self-respect and sense of shome and dignity, I do hot presume to know. I know not women. Who does, onywoy? But if the signs of the times are to be believed, then I am afraid that the glorious womonhood wh:ch men did reverence in the past is gradually "going to the dogs". I cannot understand why our 'women — or women of other nations for that matter — have not risen strong and indignant to protest against the way advertisers use (or abuse!) womanhood to sell razor hlades, rubber tires, tooth paste, shaving cream or some such cheap ftufjf. Take o recent advertisement that hit the country's billboards and newspapers. It reod: “TO PLEASE A LADY, USE FIRESTONE TIRES!" During the days of chivolry when knighthood was in flower, we ore told khights with dashing courage ond in gleaming armor came from for and near and fought in colorful tournaments to win their lady love. Those Un the days when men and women knew the intrinsic and delicate dignity 'womanhood. Today, however, it appears that all a guy has to do to win his love is to dangle before her a 2/,-karat gold wa(ch, or show her iflashy convertible — USING FIRESTONE TIRES! of course — or fah. his teeth with kolynos, or shave with BARBASOL. And presto! p lady love slinks to his side. I om not telling our women to demand of their boy friends that they ■in gleoming armor like dashing Prince Valiants and King Arthurs. I do insist that if our women wont to regain the respect ond reverence to them, they must first of oil be convinced of their innate dignity ond THE CROSS reol worth, they must show thot they deserve respect and reverence, advertisers continue to cheapen and debase womanhood, it is because worm have, by their conspiracy of silence, cooperated in the task. If hell hath no fury like that of a woman enraged, then let ou women, conscious of their God-given dignity, raise such fury to figi the debasing of womanhood to the level of a mere lure and bait. Ort of the greatest forces for the betterment of mankind in dll ages ht always been that glorious womanhood which men could and did reveence. Let such womanhood reign supreme over our land and y build the nation strong and undying! In an editorial in our Oeceml &■ AND NOW-—S. P. LOPEZ issue we pointed out how the Phil pine Diplomat, Carlos P. Romu "repented" of his grievous blun ter of adopting an appeasement attitude towards Soviet Russia. Since tl we have had our eyes on his trusted aide, Salvador P. Lopez, watching, or the moment when he too, like his boss, would retrace his steps. Now it is reported that Salvador P. Lopez has called on n United Nations collective measures committee to show “daring i initiative” in its work. Lopez spoke at the second meeting of he committee which was set up by the U. N. General Assembly to st.'dtf methods of meeting aggression anywhere in the world. Whot a far cry this is from SP's appeasement attitude a year <• p. Remember the time he spoke before the Manila Lions Club at Manila H >tel and said: ". . .the root of the present conflict lies in the failure of ei?uside to regard with generous consideration the point of view of the other '? Remember the time he spoke before the Baguio cadets and deciaredr A war can only be prevented by the self-restraint of the two powers (Ru's* and U.S.) themselves!" And now — SP Lopez would ask for “daring and initiative” ir meeting aggression anywhere in the world! Thank God our big men in the UN are beginning to realize after tragic blunders that the Russian juggernaut can not be melted y/ith the honeyed words of sweet-faced diplomats. Thank God our big Hrex are beginning to stand for truth and justice and peace. But while we welcome Solvador P. Lopez into the fold of honest cnc straight thinking men, we can not help but think of the million lives wo'/ec and sacrificed in the world's battle fronts because a few honorable men/lil him failed the world and humanity at a time of crisis and refused to stand for truth and justice and peace. Let us hope that Salvador P. Lopez remotu. in the realm of clear and honest thinking. The Millionaires1 Club FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS Matab-ang, Cagayan Occ. Negros Sir: Herewith is my money order of five pesos only for poor Seminar ians. Upon reading the March issue of our Cross Magazine I came across the Millionaires’ Club, ask ing for help... a letter which came from a poor Seminarian. I hope that for the salvation of souls your readers will help little by little to raise funds for these chos en servants of God. Wet should be very thankful to God Almighty that there are gifted souls who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the world. May we always pray to the dear Lord to make this club more suc cessful. Sincerely in the Lord, (Miss) Natividad Chua U. God blest you for your help. FROM A CLUB RECIPIENT Seminary . . . Manila Sir: I thank you so much for the amount you have generously ex tended me. In my letter of “application” I mentioned about inserting a name in the applicants” to the Million aires’ Club. It is my brother who is at present in Philosophy — at ----------------- Seminary. He has now and then approached me to share with him some amount of what I receive from my benefactors. But what I receive is just enough to pay my tuition. The school year is drawing to its close, and he has a very faint-hope of finding some generous souls. So I just handed him the amount you have sent me — for which I am very happy to repeat, I am deeply thankful. Sincerely in the Lord, (Name Withheld) Ed.—We're pasting your thanks over to our generous club members. Editorial Comment HOW GODLESS IS THE STATE UNIVERSITY? The other evening we settled down to a pleasant interlude with the Annuol of one of the branches of the State University. Or we thought it would be pleasant. Annuals usually make agreeable reading. They ore gotten out with much trouble and expense. Careful preparations are made. The "best brains" of the student body with copable foculty supervision, work for months to produce a bobk that the graduates con treasure for all future ^ears. But after a few minutes perusal, we put the book down. We felt mpty, sad, even indignant. This Annual of the State University, upported largely by the money of Juan dela Cruz, taxpayer, and. sup posedly representative of the best thought and highest sentiments of t Catholic Philippines, did not mention even once in all of its pages Lord of the Universe, Almighty God. But students are often forgetful, you may say, and we should noi lame them too much for what was probably just a careless oversight. Would that it were so! But no, the book was not entirely the work |f the students. It hod been supervised by the Faculty. It featured prominIntly messages and speeches by high officials. The first Message, penned by His Excellency the President of the Phil£ sines, urged th? young graduates to "meet the challenge," "make yourIves useful to the country." How is this to be done? Mr. Quirlno gives is answer, "Only a resolute, will and complete faith in our destiny can hake us succeed.. . ." Has the President never heard of Divine Providence? In the front of the book is a message from the President of the diversity of the Philippines. It is completely naturalistic. We wonder the distinguished Doctor Gonzales has ever heard of Divine Providence bhich rules the destiny of the universe, and of every individual student. Then follows a message from the President of one of the U.P. alumni associations. Similarly Godless. 5 THE CROSS Then comes the Dean’s message. Completely in the same vein. We scan the succeeding pages. Another speech of tije State University’s President is featured. But we find it just onother piece of Godless verbiage. We continue to read. Interspersed among the countless pictures of fresheyed, attractive youth, we find stories, essays, verse, varying in skill and readability, but all alike in the one point that all completely omit any men tion of the Creator, ony expression to indicate that the students realize in the least the Divine Fatherhood of God, the existence of a Divine Lowgiver, the omnipresence of the Divine Spirit dwelling in the universe. And to cap the climax, this Annual contains one story that is blasphemously atheistic, in an Institution composed mainly of Cath olic students, supported largely by the money of Catholic taxpayers. How long must we Catholics tolerate this state of affairs in our vaunted State University? Protestants, Masons, Aglipayans THE “LIBERAL” CATHOLIC and other non-catholics claim he is on their side — is( this spineless, unprincipled, vacillating, weak-kneed, double-dealing jellyfish of o man called the LIBERAL catholic. In the recent discussion on divorce, for instance, the Code Commission! claimed millions of Filipinos among them Protestants, etc.,... and Liberal Catholics believe that under certain circumstances absolute divorce should be authorteed by law. Truth is the LIBERAL catholic is on nobody's side. In every ques tion he recognizes only one side — the SELF side. He is neither cath olic nor non-catholic, but he bends where the wind blows. Christ called him a "reed shaken by the wind”. The Liberal Catholic is a “worm and no man" who wants to save his soul and gain the whole world in the bargain. He adores God and the mammon of iniquity at the same time. Christ said, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent bears it awoy." The Liberal Catholic would compromise with the world ond Christ. He would moke Calvary a trip to Jerusalem ond the crucifixion <» dote ot the Riviera. He would win heaven lying in a cushioned bed not on his knees. But will he? It is written in the Apocalypse: "I know thy works, that thou orf neither hot nor cold. I would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm. . . I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." (3: 15-16) 7 The local Federation of Christian (Evangelical) Churches recently spon sored a three-doy seminar on “Chris tianity ond Communism" for one APRIL, 1951 WHAT PROTESTANTS THINK OF ROMAN CATHOLICS hundred pastors, church administrators and laymen in Manila. The meet ings were conducted by a visiting Missionary, Dr. John C. Bennett, Professor of Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. Among the many interesting items that cropped up in the seminor as reported by the Philippine Christian Advance, Protestant monthly, are the following: “Among the delegates were those who were convinced that the major danger to the evangelical witness is not the threat of Com munism, but what one called the unseen power behind the Philippine Government, the Roman Catholic Church. No government official dares criticize- or 'Speak against the hierarchy of the church today, whereas during the Spanish rule there was constant open conflict between the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities; this contrast was cited by a Yiovernment official among the delegates as evidence of the actual power wielded by the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. A District Superintendent testified that during the Italian elections he had prayed that the Communist candidates might defeat those of the Roman Catholic Church, in order that the Vatican might become sub ject to the will of a group drastic enough to deal with clerical abuses. ON MODERN YOUTH It was close on midday when a pleasant young soldier came to re quest billets for himself and his Lieutenant. His name wos Nicolas ond he was as sure of himself as are most young Russians. The most cocksure of all are those between the ages of fourteen and twenty one, the age when youth does not think, not just in th Soviet Union but all over the world. By that I mean that they think a lot but that nothing sensible comes oat of it, for they do not think os they should. That is why dictators are always so eager to get hold of their country's youth. I have always been repelled by the juvenile, and the present fashion of gushing over it disgusts me. The concert and impertinence of those young Russian lads was just as intolerable os that of their European contemporaries in Fascist countries. Is it's youth a nation's flower? Not a bit of it. It's a dangerous charge of dynamite that ought to be kept under lock and key. — From "Comes the Comrade", by Alexandra Orme, an account of the Russian Occupation of Hungary, 1944-1945. pp. 169-170. THE CROSS Asked whether the conversion of a Huk or a Roman Catholic would be simpler, Dr. Bennett replied that while he had never met a Huk, he felt that disillusioned communists and former fellow travelers con stituted a fertile field for evangelism. “Other delegates expressed the opinion that there was more freedom to preach the gospel under the present regime in the Philippines than in a Communist dominated land. To them it was explained that the choice between Communism and the' Roman Catholic control is hypo thetical, since the influence of the Roman Church in the Philippines is modified by a democratic tradition inculcated by fifty years of American influence, by the grouting power of secularism, and by a large group of liberal Catholic laymen who are anti-clerical in their political sympathies. Therefore Dr. Bennett said the Philippines could not be said to be an illustration of totalitarian Catholicism.” “Dr. Bennett cautioned the seminar delegates against Ifeing stamp eded into a united front with Roman Catholics in a crusdde against Communism." We know thot our Protestont friends ore very nice people. We meor this very sincerely. Thot they should see in the Catholic Church a sinistei power behind the Philippine Government is very sod indeed. We ore sure thot oil this misrepresentation of the Catholic Church is due to the myths circulated in Protestont circles about her. The Catholic Church is interested in only one thing—the solvation of souls and the reign of Christ over the hearts of men. To misinterpret this intention is the height of folly. We could lough indeed, we could laugh loud and long at the damnable ignorance of those who would accuse her as bidding for anything like temporal power or wealth. Only it seems so sacrilegious to laugh ot men who, wittingly or unwittingly, go against the most tremendous work going on irt the world at all times and in all places till the crock of doom—the saving of souls. One can only hope—and proy that such men may see—and seeing believe "in Jesus Christ Whom God has sent" and in His One, Holy, 'Roman, Catholic, Apostolic Church. PATIENCE — IMPATIENCE Little Marilou was tired and restless and the preacher talked on and on. Her daddy whispered: "Be quiet, Marilou. He is telling you how to go to heaven."* In a loud whisper Marilou said impatiently: "Well, we don't hove to go today, do we?" IN EVERY PARISH My MALANG Readers may send in their observations of ‘Church Pests" to In Every Parish The Cross Magazine Regina Building 15-Banquero-Escolta Manila, Philippines "The End-Seat Buaya" Everybody has to step From Jose Ma. Espino, Jr. San Juan, Rizal "Porkingly yours" Waiting for someone? From Rolando Rolando Talisay, Cebu 9 IN EVERYPARISH By MALANG 10 An Editorial THESE CHURCH LANDS AGAIN! Church lands! Humph. The tremendous amount of lands owned by the Catholic Church in the Philippines. The Friar Lands. One of the supposedly vulnerable spots of the Catholic Church in the Philippines is the fabulous wealth of the Friars. Whenever enemies of the Church feel the itch of smear ing her name, the target of attack almost always includes these vast land holdings of the Friars. Recently the question of church lands came up for discussion at the fhree-day seminar sponsored by the local Federation of Christian (Evan gelical) Churches and conducted by a Dr. John C. Bennett for one hun dred pastors, bhurch administrators and protestant laymen. According to a report in the Phil ippine Christian Advance, Protestant monthly, 'The extent of the land holdings: of the Roman Catholic Church came into the discussiorr at many points; the estimates varied from one third of the nation's land to one tenth of one per cent. In the absence of reliable information the Seminar recommended to the Federation of Christian Churches that data concerning the extent of poverty, landlordism, and dissident elements be collected that an over all picture might be available for Christian workers." Sources of information on the land holdings of the Catholic Church in the Philippines are easily acces sible to anyone who sincerely wants them. It is a perennial wonder why enemies of the Church do not ap proach them. What is the truth about these Church lands? The fallowing facts and figures, taken from "LAND RESOURCES OF THE PHILIPPINES", a publication of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce in 1939, and from other sources (noted below), will show how utterly ridiculous are the disparag ing talks about the fabulous church lands in the/ Philippines. 11 12 THE CROSS According to this publication (page 3); "The TOTAL AREA of the Phil ippines is approximately 29, 629,600 hectares . . .it is estimated that 14,044.402 hectares, or 47.40 percent of the entire area of the Philippines, can be converted into productive agricultural farms." On page 16 of this some publica tion, under the sub-title "FRIAR LANDS", we find: "HISTORY.—During the’ Spanish regime, the religious orders in the Philippines were able to acquire vast tracts of lond, aggregating over 400,000 acres." As one hectare is equivalent to 2,471 acres, this would mean that, at the end of the Spanish Rule in the Philippines, the "Friar Lands" consisted of 161,877 hectares, (or d little over one half of one percent of the total area of the Philippines.) Were we to concede the most im probable supposition that all this land were part of the land convertible into farm land, then the "Friar Lands" would consist of a little over one and one tenth percent of the arable land. The publication continues: "Largely thru the efforts of Governor-General William H. Taft, who made a special trip to Rome in the year 1902 to negotiate the purchase of these vast landhold ings from the Roman Catholic Church, the Government in De cember, 1903, succeeded in pur chasing 153,330.4923 hectares of land. . . The tracts so pur chased. . . were later.on subdivided into lots. . . and sold to their oc cupants. . . pursuant to the Friar Lands Act (Act No. 1120)". According to these figures the 'Friar Lands' in the beginning of 1904 would amount to about 7,559 hectares. It must be noted here thot the lands then acquired by the govern ment are sometimes still called 'Friar Lands', though the possession of these lands has long since passed from the Catholic Church or any' of its religious orders. So much for the history of the 'Frior Lands'. On page 17 of thispamphlet we have a paragraph which is worth quoting: "OTHER ESTATES MAY BE PURCHASED:—In order to further rhinimize agrarian problems, parti cularly in Central Luzon, the Gov ernment has already taken steps ta expropriate the homesites in severe* estates (haciendas), and is study ing the advisability of the purchase of the agricultural areas in these and other estates. Among the es tates under consideration are the following:..." The pamphlet here goes on to enumerate estates for a total of 28, 307 hectares. (That is one fifth of one percent of the potential farm lands of the nation, if every hectare is actual farm land, which, of course,’ is not the case.) Regarding the paragraph last quoted a few points must be noted 1. Of that 28,307 hectares at least 7,654 hectares were sold to the tenants and other Filipino far mers (preference, however, having always been given the tenants) before December 1941. This was the Lian Hacienda. APRIL 1951 13 2. Regarding another of the Ha ciendas listed in the Dept, of Agri culture and Commerce Pamphlet, here are a few facts: a. It consists of about 2,286 hec tares. b. Of these almost 1,000 hectares are of no practical value, and are unwanted even by those who advo cate the confiscation of all sucfi lands and their free distribution among the poor'. c. 600 hectares of the remainder have already been sold to the te nants or other Filipino farmers. 3. Regarding other Church lands. The following is a quotation fr.om Gre gorio Zaide's "PHILIPPINE HISTORY FOR CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS" (Modern Book Company, Manila Philippines, 1947) page 367. For a substantiation of the truth of its facts, we are referred to 'THE EVE NING NEWS", Manila, Februory 24, 1947. "The Catholic Church, wishing to help the new-born Republic in improving the conditions of the tenants, offered for sale its landed estates. Accordingly, on Feb ruary 23, 1947, President Roxas (representing the Republic) and Archbishop O'Doherty (represent ing the Church) signed the formol agreement for the acquisition by the government of eight estates owned by the Church for the nom inal price of P5,630,000. Shortly after the purchase, the President announced that these estates would be sold in small lots at reas onable prices to the tenants." 4. The term "estates" varies in meaning in direct proportion to the number of authors who use the term. Few, if any, of these authors bother to define the term. It may mean anything from a square acre or two to a huge hacienda. 5. Regarding still another of the listed Haciendas: (And this, ac cording to the abovementioned gov ernment-printed pamphlet, consists of 14,082 hectares.) The following quotation, also taken from Mr. Zoide's History, is enlightening. "Aside from purchasing the eight Church estates, the Republic tried its best to contest Brig. Gen. Ernest R. Burt's purchase of the Buenavista Estate, owned by the the Hospital of San Juan de Dios. Before the war, the Philippine Com monwealth had a contract of lease with the option to buy said es tate, but shortly after liberation General Burt purchased it. The Republic filed suit in .the Court of First Instance in Bulacan for can cellation of Burt's purchase. On March 18, 1947, the court handed its decision in favor of the Repub lic of the Philippines. The decision nullified Burt's purchase and ruled that the Republic of the Philip pines, as successor of the Common wealth, still retains the right to buy the estates. . ." (underlining ' ours) NB. This would mean that before December, 1941, at least 22,336 hectares of the 28,307 hectares listed in the Dept. Agriculture and Commerce Pamphlet, as major Church land holdings, were no longer under the management of the Church. At present the Catholic Church and its Religions Orders hold only a negli gible portion of the arable land in the entire country. The first job of Cotholic Action Civilize Before You Christianize By SIXTO K. ROXAS There is a sense in which it is true to soy thot the immutable Coth olic Church must keep up with the changing world. And that is in this sense: that in each age, there is alwoys one particular set of Catholic doctrines out of the unchanging treas ury, thot must be stressed. You might soy Catholicism is on ormory of varied weapons. Each age brings a new enemy which must be vanquished with a particular weapon. Or to change the metaphor, Catholic ism is a medicine chest. Each age is afflicted with o different disease which can be cured with a definite medicine. The disease of this age is the social cancer. And out of the Cath olic chest must come, the Christian concept of. social justice. The mons ter that approaches with fire and fury is Communism. Out of the armory must come the sword of God given humon rights. But these weapons must be wield ed by men. Abstract doctrines are useless if men do not reolize them in practice. Medicines do not cure, un less they are applied. In no place is this application more needed than in the Philippines. Our country is a seething volcano of so cial discontent. Despite all the at tempts of our President to dismiss all warnings of our gathering storm as "foreign-inspired propagandq," still the fact cannot be denied. The Philippines is not a poradise of plenty for the workingmon, and that means for 17,000,000 of its 19,000,000 Filipinos. The city la borer, if he is skilled, is expected to keep an average family of five not only housed, clothed and fed but also provided with education and healthy recreotion with the enormous sum of P7.30 a day, — a task which would have been impossible even be fore the war. The task is even more f rightening now <when every peso, by pre-war standards is worth only 22 centavos. And these are the maxi mum wages. Unskilled laborers re ceive about two thirds that amount. And they ore still millionaires com14 APRIL, 1951 pored to the farm workers who re ceive less than two pesos a day. And what happens when these miserable laborers try to organize themselves into legitimate unions to bargain for the human treatment which their dignity demands? Man agers, government officials and often even courts conspire against them, until they cry (as one of them did) "You cannot fight the rich." And, men still ore amazed at the spread of Communism in this coun try. Big businessmen, sadly includ ing prominent Catholics, wave their hands, tear their hair and run all around looking for ways to stop Com munism, when all the time, with a little sincerity, good will, and the true Christian spirit, they could find the onswer in their very backyards— sore spots of social injustice. As for the Catholic majority in this country, it has been in a state of coma. When supposed Catholic leaders will think nothing of wreck ing legitimate unions, the only means by which the oppressed worker can fight for his right to a decent hu man existence, there is something deathly wrong. The encyclicals of Popes Leo XIII ond Pius XI give the cure — the social doctrines of the Church. But who will apply them? We say "The Church/' But that is too vogue. Who? The Hierarchy — the priests, prelotes ond bishops? — Yes, but in a very limited woy. Ultimately the application must be made by laymen — Catholic laymen. But most of the old Catholic laymen in the Philippines have been suffer ing from a weakness that grows out of exaggerating one virtue and neg lecting another. They have been suf fering from too much prudence and too little fortitude. They have made of the Church a delicate and flimsy thing that must t?e kept out of this trouble ond kept out of thot fight. What o far cry from the militant organization that Christ instituted — a Church built on rock against which all the fury of hell beats in vain! How far we have strayed from the wild and furious religion which was so much in the thick of trouble that the ancient Roman emperors identi fied it with trouble! The days are past when tbe sure place to find a Catholic was in the dungeons, and the favorite quarters of priests were torture chambers. Catholics have become too comfort able in this country. They have for gotten thot Christ come with the gift of the sword and we are not called the Church militant for nothing. The Church in this country has lost the divine recklessness of St. Francis of Assisi, of St. Thomas More, ond Blessed Edmtind Campion. The young Catholic student must recapAside from recapturing the pris tine vigour of Christianity, the Cath olic must also change his methods. The old opqlogetics approach of spreading the Catholic religion will no longer work now. It is useless to argue with a man whose stomach is empty. The first Jofj of Catholic action Is 16 THE CROSS to fight for the basic humon rights — the right to three square meals a day for a mon and his family, the right to home ond comfort, the right to rest and recreation. You con teach a man's children Cathecism all day — but unless you do something to better the conditions under which those children will grow, your efforts are like words spoken to the winds, useless of most ond at worst, the seeds of o bitter cynicSo to the Catholic we say whot the Popes have said so often: "Go to the workingman:" but go, not with empty words, but with fruitful deeds. Study the encyclicals—master the Catholic social doctrine. Learn the principles of trade unionism — for strong and free unions led by men of Christian principles are the strong est means for building a Christian social order. Investigate the conditions of your fellow Filipinos who must live by their labor. No true Cotholic can rest in comfort while his brothers live in' squalor—(victims of injustice). In your own homes, moke sure thot your servants have not degener ated into impersonal household ap pliances — like a dumb woiter or a vacuum cleaner. Remember that they ere human like you, ond must be treated as humans, with fiumon warmth and human kindness. They,. too, must eat decent food and wear decent clothing, ond not left-overs and rags. Whenever you have an opporunity to defend the workingmon, do so. Do not be afraid you will soil your hands or involve the Church in a scandal. Remember — Christ was a workingmon working among work ingmen. WOMEN DRIVERS A young woman learning to drive in Bodaran was proceeding along a little-used side street at a nominal speed. As on impatient motorist passed her, he shouted nastily, "Why don't you learn to drive?" Unabashed, she smiled sweetly ond shouted bock, "I am." THE AUDITOR COUNTS SHEEP An auditor got out of bed one morning and complained that he had not slept a wink. “Why didn't you count sheep?" asked his wife. "I did and that's what got me into trouble," answered the auditor. "I made a mistake during the first hour and it took me until I woke up this morning to correct it." VIVA LA MAMA!!' A Plug For Mothers By REGINA C. SY Lost year, on the 25th of June, tKe streets of Rome were jammed with pilgrims ond oil directed their woy towards St. Peter's Square. Fifty thousand people packed the great Basilica ond three hundred thousand crowded the piazza. They come to assist at the canonization of the new est saint, a 12 year-old girl, Maria Teresa Goretti. The girl's mother, now an old froil paralyzed woman, come too, ond as she was wheeled into the church, the vast gathering broke out into a mighty cheer: ''Vivo Io Mama" Maria Tereso Goretti was a poor peasant girl. Her rare beauty and early physical ■development enkindled an unchaste passion in a form labor er, a young mon of twenty ond a member of the Goretti household. Vainly he tried by every means to seduce the girl. Maddened by her repeated refusals, he threatened to kill her if she dared to breathe a word of what had happened. For 30 days the poor child lived in constant feor of death, but she would not give in. Her only answer was: "It is a sin; God does not wont it." When the ruffian finally got her in his power and offered her the choice between sin and death, she did not hesitate; she valiantly chose to die. She struggled heroicolly until ai length she sank to the floor, her b'ood gushing from eight mortal wounds. The stem wos broken, but the lily was still beautiful. Maria Teresa wos o martyr of purity. Where did this poor girl, brought up in the vast solitudes of the Italian Compagna, this child who had never been to school, who could neither write, —where had she learned to rise to such sublime heights of vir tue? The crowd in St. Peter's shout ed the answer: "Vivo la Mama!" Saints are not just born; they are made in homes that rear them. Without a Monica of TagaSte, there would have been no St. Augustine. Without Queen Blanche of Castile, France would never have been blessed with a regime of justice and chority under a St. Louis the IX. Impulsive 17 18 THE CROSS Boby Therese of three would not hove blossomed into the Flower of Jesus without the pious Zelie and Luis Mar tin, and without Asunta Goretti, there would not have been a Sta. Moria Teresa Goretti. After God ond her brave little heart, she owed it all to the splendid teachings of her mother. Asunta Goretti's home was a poor home, but it was a pious home. She hod to work hard to feed her or phaned children, but os she worked in the field she prayed and poured her own piety, her own love of God into the souls of her children, and like Blanche of Castile, she inspired them with a horror of sin. . . yes, she taught her little girl to prefer death rather than to consent to o single mortal sin. It is true that the business of mak ing saints is fundomentolly on offoir between the individual soul and God. But the parents have terrible respon sibility, the duty to prepare the ground, a fertile field for the good seed to fall on; an atmosphere where the seed can sprout and grow ond bear fruit. . . a pious home where the children learn to live in the-love of God. It is a curious fact, but there are parents w|?o seem to think that young children should not be imbued with religious thought—who think that children should be left to make their own decision when they are old en ough to judge whether they will have religion in their lives or not. These parents do impose their judg ment upon their children for what concerns their food and clothing, their rest and exercise, their school ing, medical care and everything else that tends to their physical-well-be ing, but they find that the least sug gestion of religion should be scrupu lously avoided. They seem to think thot religion might somehow interfere with their children's living a normal human life, ond that to force religion upon them is equal to depriving them of the good things of life. They take as great pains to keep religion out of the children as others do to get religion into them. When such parents detect religious leanings in their children, especially towards a religious vocation, they are decidedly alarmed. When pressed, they will soy thot their children are free to choose the religious life, but they must wait until they are mature; they must first get acquainted with the world. Just what do they mean by that stock phrase; get acquainted with the world? What kind of a world is it they should get acquainted with? A good world. ... or a bad world? Since a religious vocation offers a good world, I suppose they mean o bad one. . . and this leads to several rather queer conclusions: First let your children become bad, then make them good; first let their souls and bodies become soiled, then cleanse them; first let their tastes become viciated, then change their appetites. A salesman in a soap-flakes or metal polish moy soil an object in the house in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of his cleansing ma terials. That woi'ks, because the APRIL 1951 19 soiled object connot protest against being mode clean, but it is unwise to employ that process with human souls. They can and they do protest against change. A person may get so accustomed to indulging in vul garity and vice that he choose to continue to wallow in the mire of sin and shame. It can never be too early to start the training of the child in piety, in the love of God. Many people under estimate the ability of children to grasp spiritual truths... But why should children not converse with God more easily than grown-ups? Their souls ore pure, filled with the Holy Trinity, and the flow of grace is un impeded. Children have such simple faith in the efficocy of proyer, Ihot it is easy to teach them the habit to pray — not memorized formulas, but natural little talks with God, such as a "Thank you, Jesus, because you took care of me while I slept. . . Thank you, Jesus, for my lovely breakfast. . Dear Jesus, help Daddy in the of fice. . . help Mammy in her work. . . please Jesus, I was naughty. . . for give me..." and so on throughout the day. If the parents -teach their children early to see God in everything around them in the blue of the skies, the white clouds, the rain and sunshine, in the blade of the grass, the tree, the flowers. . . if they explain to their children the natural mechanical phenomena — the anatomy of rain bows, the hydrolitic cycle... how radios work ond how children are born, and if in these explanations they direct the attention of the chil dren to the goodness and wisdom of God who made the world and made it fundamentally good and beautiful, they will inculcate a solid piety and a Christian viewpoint. If they teach their children early that God loves them and is living right in their souls, they will give a sense of purpose to their lives and a motive for work well done, and suf fering accepted. They will establish in their children a pottern of prayer ond a habit of piety which will serve them in all the circumstances they will meet in later life. Serving God will become a joy, not a drudge; sacrifice and self-denial which invariably must be faced in later life, will be met, not with re sentment, frustration and neuroses, but with loving resignation ond trust in God. When in loter life, misfortune strikes, they will not fall into despair, but they will seek comfort in the arms of a loving God; they will not become suicides, but saints. You may soy, and with reoson that all that is easy as long as the children are smoll, but once they reach high school age, they get be yond the control of the parents. They contrast the pattern by which they were brought up with the cynical volues of the "outside" world. They meet other boys ond girls; they visit the homes of their friends. They see the advertisements and billboards, they hear the radios'. . . and every thing they hear and see shows them 20 THE CROSS that the rest of their world ore en joying themselves, while they are re stricted in a thousand ways by the dictates of religion. They look at their friends with their pockets bulg ing with money, at their movies, their comics... and they begin to won der if they are "suckers". Theii friends do not go to daily mass. . . . They moy see "Neptune's Daughter" . . . Why are they not allowed. . . Are they being cheated? Is religion real?. . . or ore the values of the world around them real? This is a crucial period for chil dren and parents alike. The instinct of the children is to pull them away from the elders. . . to become emotionolly independent... But if their home training until then has been Christian, has been pious, the parents need not be alarmed. The struggle of the adolescent for personal iden tity will not offect the spiritual pat tern their pious home has given them. But the time has come for the wise parents to moke a frank appeal to their children to embrace the life of grace, and to reject the life of self seeking. The time has come to show the children the wide chasm that lies between the following of Christ ond the following of self. . . It is then they should be made to realize that secularism cannot be sanctified ond Christianism humanized until they appear the same — they ere not the same and the children must choose. It is also then that the penance ond prayer and sacrifices of their long years of married life shall bear fruit. . . The example of the sincere piety ond wholesome Christ ian life of the parents will then do more for the children, thon a hundred sermons. . . The parents have suf fered for the souls of their children; they have paid for them; they have bought them with their own pain ond sorrow, ond when the time sholl come, they will pay with their death. . . They may leave the rest to God! A WILL ROGERS RETORT Will Rogers once ottended a fashionable Park Avenue offair in a cowboy duds. A dowager (in an extremely low-cut evening gown) looked down her nose. "My dear man," she sniffed, "don't you have any clothes besides those?" "Madam," drawled Rogers, "I was just about to ask you the same thing." Preparations is nine-tenths of the battle, in war or in business. WANTED: Better-Trained Catholic Journalists By ISABELITA FRANCISCO The end of journalism in general is to communicate ideas and infor mation. The aims of Catholic jour nalism are to convey accurate infor mation. to impart knowledge and in terpret -all news and events from the the trend of thought along the lines of sound morality, the newspaper should stress the need for justice and charity in the different phases of our present society. standpoint of Catholic philosophy with the aim in view of restoring all things in Christ. With this aim in view, it is evident that Catholic journalism must be universal, that is, universal in its contents ond universal with regard to its readers. If it is a fact that the volue of any newspaper or magazine depends upon the benefits the readers derive from it, the Catholic newspa per or magazine should aim to reach the maximum number of Catholic adults in order to influence their thoughts and actions and thus direct their lives towards their final goal. But in order to be read and to be useful to the maximum number of Catholic adults, the Catholic news paper or magazine must be written in the spirit, the tempo and the lan guage of the times; and to influence Catholic journalists should present the Catholic viewpoint on the whole of life; they should sell Catholicism as a system of thought or a way of life and be able to convince their readers that it is the only answer to the present day world problems, as it has been the answer to the prob lems of life in the post. Consequently, a Catholic newspaper must be Catholic with regard to the principles involved and their application to cur rent events. In the light of the foregoing prin ciples, let us -examine the present condition of Catholic journalism in the Philippines. We need not be silent about the fact that the Catholic voice in the Philippines is so weak that it is lost in the roar of secular ism and in the deadening silence of indifference. 21 22 THE CROSS I admit that the causes are all tied up in the general condition of moral degradation and indifference of our people—that there are what we call natural difficulties which hinder the progress of Catholic journalism in our country, but we cannot deny that much of the weakness of the Philippine Catholic Press is due to negligence, incompetence and pure cowardice. First let us take the case of our only notional Catholic weekly. "The Sentinel". A certified statement of circulation as of October 8, 1950 shows a total of 20,076 subscriptions three fourths of which are from the provinces. Note thot all are subscrip tions and that until now The Sentinel has not hit the newstand. Why? Be cause it has no popular appeal for the following reasons: —First—inadequate coverage of the news. It tries to cover all the religious activities so that little space is left for the important issues dis turbing the church, the nation and the world. Second, our Catholic weekly has little if any influence on the trend of thought in our present society. The paper does not place enough stress on the Catholic viewpoint on the social, political and economic issues of the day. For example, not enough emphasis is placed on the social order program of the Pope and its practical application to the labor problems that are confronting the nation and the world. It is not enough to give the facts about the news but whot is more important is to give the right com ment and interpretation of the news according to Catholic standards. Let us remember thot the majority of our countrymen do not have enough spiritual insight and knowledge of Catholic philosophy to be able to interpret the news correctly by themselves. All this results in the paper's not reaching the majority of the people precisely because it does not appeol to them, because they do nof find it useful. Our Catholic paper seems to ignore thot the crisis of our age is todoy and not tomorrow and that the decision rests not so much upon the youth as upon the Catholic adult. And what are the causes of these shortcomings? (1,) Lack of competent staff memIt cahnot be stressed too strongly that the editing of an important journal is a full-time job, a difficult and trying one. The Sentinel, for instance, has to depend largely on in competent amateur correspon dents in the provinces for local news which is generally inade quate. (2) There are not enough report ers and writers on the staff to cover all news areas—re porters and writers, who,.being imbued with the Catholic standards of values, will be able to giye what the people need, APRIL, 1951 23 from the right point of view in an interesting and appealing The Cross, a Catholic magazine of the Philippines has so far displayed the right fighting spirit with regard to its editorials. However, the arti cles are usually dry and uninterest ing precisely because it is so handi capped by a lack of a regular com petent staff that it often resorts to articles from amateur reprints and The Filipinos, the only Catholic Ta galog magazine is in the same The Mindanao Cross, a provincial Catholic weekly is fast gaining popu larity in Cotabato. In my opinion, it comes neorest to the ideal Catholic newspaper. However, being a provin cial weekly, its sphere of influence is limited. What ore some of the remedies which might be proposed to this de plorable state of affairs? There is an urgent need for cop able Catholic journalists who know what the people want ond what the people would get in order to live up to their glorious name as Catho lics. We need, in fact, definite, clearcut, brief, powerful and fearless edi torials not only on religious matters but also on all the important issues affecting the church, the nation and the world. We need direct and powerful editorials to shock the people out of their indifference. We need a paper thot is Catholic —in direct competition with the secular press—free to comment on any issue, and cover all news areas, uncommitted to any party or faction, and dedicated to the presentation of an integrated Catholic viewpoint on the whole of life. We need Catholic newspapers and magazines which will take the place of the Catholic education which the majority of our people miss. Catholic newspapers and maga zines need not be defensive and apologetic only, but they should main tain the offensive without becoming offensive. They should demonstrate the full force and application of the Catholic philosophy .as a way of life and not as an isolated set of doctrines. From all this it follows that the vocation of a.Catholic journalist calls for intensive, vigorous, thorough and practical training. A Catholic jour nalist should be well grounded not only in the techniques of journalis tic writing but also in Catholic his tory, philosophy and theology. And this leads us to the conclu sion that, in consideration of the prin ciples which should govern Catholic journalism and the present condi tion of Catholic journalism in the Philippines—our country is in despe rate need for better trained Catho lic journalists; hence, the present need—the urgent need of efficient up-to-date Catholic schools of journal-: ism in the Philippines. In a prison cell with Archbishop Stepinac By C. L. SULZBERGER Archbishop Aloysius Stepinoc, the leading Roman Gotholic prelate of Yugoslovia, said in an interview with this correspondent on Nov. 11, in a cell at Lepoglava Prison that it wos o motter of complete indifference to him whether he was liberated or not. The Archbishop said he wos content to suffer on behalf of his church and that his future depended not upon Marshal Tito or his Government but only upon the Holy See. Five days ago Marshal Tito, the Yugoslav Premier, soid that it was possible Archbishop Stepinac might in the future be removed from Lepoglavo, where he is incarcerated follow ing his conviction on charges of be ing a war criminal, and that he might be sent to o monastery within Yugo slavia or, possibly, be permitted to leave the country if it were judged useful to the national interest. The condition imposed by Morshal Tifb wos thot the prelate should never return to Yugoslavia to function os We spoke in French, which no one else in the room understood. The Archbishop apologized for his French, saying he wos far more fluent in Italian and Germon. Nevertheless, he has mastered the language. "Monseigneur," I said, " could you tell me what the state of your health is?" He replied, still standing: "I feel well. I om in no woy, ill. I hove lost no weight since I come here four years ggo." I then asked the Archbishop how he occupied his time. He said he devoted many hours to prayer, con templation ond, ot the moment, to the translation of a work on the lives of the saints. He is studying church history. He showed me the work he was engaged in exomining,: A Latin tome on the Franciscan order by on Irish prelate named Wadding. I osked whether it was difficult for him to receive reading material. My three escorts stood silently by and I am convinced they understood not- one word of the conversation. As for the Archbishop, it became evident as the interview progressed that he could not core less. He told me he received books con tinually. Most of them ore brought 24 APRIL, 1951 25 by his sister, who visits him every month, he said. He complained, how ever, that oil the reading material, even ecclesiastical, wos first scrutin ized by the prison censors. He said he hod no occess to newspapers; that he especially missed I'Osservatore Romano, the journal of the Vatican, which he described as "prohibited." I asked him if he wos in touch with the world outside the prison walls. He replied, "Letters ore not strictly forbidden. But they are sub jected to censorship. Therefore I do I then explained to the Archbishop whot Marshal Tito hod said to me concerning the possibilities of his re lease either to o Roman Catholic monastery within Yugoslavia or to exile—On condition thot he should never return. He stood there silently for a mo ment, dressed in his block clerical garb, one hand upon Wadding's ec clesiastical history, absolutely motion less. Then, in a calm and quiet voice he replied: "Whether I go to a mon astery, or whether I remoin here, or whotever should happen to me, I am utterly indifferent. "Such things do not depend upon Marshal Tito. They depend only upon the Holy Father, the Pope, and upon no one else." — Crusoder, Nov. i 8, 1950 The Oblate Fathers of St. Joseph wish to announce the opening of a new concrete Seminary building to house Filipino boys who have inclination to the religious life. Anyone who has religious vacation or who wishes to become a religious priest may ask for a prospectus from the REV. FR. SUPERIOR ST. JOSEPH'S MISSIONARY INST. SAN JOSE, BATANGAS Dear Miss Marlene, I am in love with a girl who is just out of the convent due to slight, nasal defect. H'e are both religious and of marriageable age (matured age). We belong to the same religious society. I love her very much and I intend to marry her any time as I am financially able. I think that we will live together very happily. She answered me however that it is almost impossible for her to agree to my proposal as she had her vow of virginity. So Miss Marlene what shall I do? Troubled Conscience Dear Troubled Conscience, It is my understanding thot a dispensation from -the Vow of Virginity may be obtained from the proper Ecclesiastical authorities. I suggest con sultation with your priest or bishop, giving all the pertinent details, and I om sure that you will receive the needed assistance. Dear Miss Marlene, I am sixteen years old and at present a second year college stu dent. I have so many friends and I am in love with a boy friend of mine who is seventeen years old but not exactly what you call “love". It’s just still a simple love. T am fond of him, I like his ways and character, and his way of dressing. We have been classmates and friends. Incidentally, we are always together in school activities. He hales dancing and parties while I like it, but I adopt myself to the things he likes for we have what you call “mutual understanding". He admires me most and no other and even tells his family about me. His family, indeed, is so nice and good to me. For two years, we have been writing each other seeking advice. He is at present study ing in another city. I am afraid he might change later especially he is far. I do not intend to enter in love affairs seriously and be en gaged either, not until I am old enough. I would like to hold him 26 APRIL, 1951 27 until we are old enough to be in Ifive.. 1 would like him to be my lifetime partner. How can I hold him during these years . X Dear X, You sound like o sensible young lady, especially when you admit that girts of sixteen should not think seriously of love. Nothing would be more disastrous for you and your friends than to give up the pleasant, carefree, joyous existence of youth for the responsibilities ond problems of adult hood. Try to realize that the tastes of youth change rapidly. For girls of your age it is the most natural thing in the world to imagine yourselves desperately in love with a fellow one day and change your mind the next. You are still growing up, physically, intellectually, and emotionally. Give yourself a break; do not handicap yourself at this stage by concentnoting on one single boy from whose affections you will not care a whit when the proper time comes for marriage. Just keep on being friends with him and with a lot of other nice boys and girls, and you will never be sorry. Dear Miss Marlene, I hope seriously that your advice will enlighten my understanding with regards to my problem. Just last week I broke with the man whom I love with a love developed through years of engagement. He’s a fine young man of 20 years old and a senior High School. I’m also 18 years old and a Junior in High School. We tvent steady for two years and my parents often complained about his health. Because three or four months after our engagement, he got a disease said to be contagious. In spite of this I stick to him because I love him, tho' I dont know whether he cares for me or not. Day after day I pray for his health, because I know Qod would clear him soon of that disease. Here lies my problem: I did not break with him because of his health, but because he’s after another girl right here in our city. I know not what to do, all I know is that I love him still. I’m terribly heartbroken, because in him I’ve found the real feeling of love through frequent companionship. With this condition of mine, I know Jesus calls for me to help Him bear the Cross. But just as I broke with the said fellow above, I accepted a suitor who is in Manila now.. .He’s finer than the fellow above, but I’m not so madly in love with him. So then, did I think of the convent. Can I enter the convent with out graduating the High School. Please Miss Marlene, help me to 28 THE CROSS choose whether to bear Christ's cross to the House of the Lord, to be secluded from the world or bear man's burden of uncertainty. Rom cal Dear Romzal, Your whole letter demonstrates what happens when too young and immature minds occupy themselves with affairs that properly belong to keep on praying. Then when the time comes and you are old enough to make up your mind permanently, you will be better equipped to make the proper choice. I'ear Miss Marlene, In my childhood days I had been attracted by a life of solitude. 1 had resolved to enter the convent at the age of 30. When I was barely sixteen or seventeen my love towards God greatly throbbed in my heart. So if possible I’ll enter the convent after graduation. My parents are against my will and one time mother scolded me. She chided me of my pfecious time spent in prayers. According to her, she is not op posed to adoring God, but if it is done excessively she’ll be displeased. At night when I pray, she watches me and when I commit mistakes she talks of things with regards to my prayers. I changed my plans that I must pray at midnight without using any light. I tried it out but I fell sleepy and my prayers seem weary. Truly for more than a week I was unable to pray the holy Rosary. I feel as if my life is insecure. • Now what advice can you give me with regards to my situation? a) Can you assure me that I can enter the convent in the Contemplative order? b) Would it be alright to pursue my studies and serve my parents first. c) Which is advisable — to cling to my ambition, having a character istic dislike of society, or to change my life anew and enjoy the world. Lourdes Dear Lourdes, An inclination to the religious life is a precious gift, to be nurtured and cherished as befits the greatest vocation in life. However, you are still too young to be certoin-about your choice of a state of life. Also, since you are not yet of age, you are duty-bound to respect your parents' wishes. So I would advise you to finish your studies first. At the same time. APRIL, 1951 29 do not shun a good wholesome social life, because a well-developed person ality makes for success not only in the secular but also in the religious life. Keep praying and doing your duty, and when the proper time comes, Our Lady will surely show you the way. Dear Miss Marlene, "I a>n practically 30 years old. I have never had a girl-friend (that is Gpd’s truth). I envy men who have and ■ wonder how in thunder can they acquire one. So far in life, I have been successful in pen-pal correspondence, having come in contact with different pen friends since 1939. At present I am one of the members of Aunt Lina’s Circle. But, never in my years of correspondence with these female pen friends has the idea of courting one of them come into my mind. The thought of doing so, would be the contradiction of the word pen-friend. / have been friend, confidante and even brother to all of them. Their problems relating to life in general. 1 have some female-friends, but when I start wooing them, they turn cold and they won’t speak with me anymore. As long as they are just friends, they are good listeners to my wit and to my sense of humor, but when I start getting romantic, they freeze (like the weather nowadays). I have courted 2 or 3 times, but I have received the same answers, that I lost interest on that matter. I have become fickle-minded. There are times that the one where I do out Shower my attentions is the one interested and the one where my attentions are concentrated is as cool as the ice-freezer. Incidentally, I am not a good dancer, I know only the slow-drag. But rather bowl, bike or go to show, rather than attend a party. What would be the steps wherein I can win over a g.f.. Miss Marlene? What is the thing that keeps me slow? How can I defroze the women I am interested in? Tell me how to solve this dilemma Dear H. H. A., H-H.A. Not knowing you personally, and from the meagre description you give of yourself in your letter, it would be presumptious of me to pretend to know the couse of your failure in courting. Perhaps there is really nothing the matter with you, since other girls seem to have found you interesting. It may be that in God's divine pion, the time for you to get married has not yet come. However, here are seme tips as to what a girl generally finds desirable in the man she wants to marry: He must be. of sterling diaracter, trust worthy, unselfish, considerate, and cooperative. Ho should have a steady 30 THE CROSS job, be industrious and hard-working. He should be friendly, kind, loyol, and true; on interesting companion, thoughtful and adaptable. He must hove clean personal habits, a gentleman in words as well as in deeds. So start checking up ' on yourself, will you? bear Miss Lily Marlene, What is Love? When can we say that' we are in love? How can can we detect whether a person is in love with us or not? What are the outward manifestations of a person in love? Frankly speaking, I think I am in love with a girl. But until now, I am not sure whether I am really in love or just infatuated with her. Well, I am determined to marry her. Suppose time comes when I lose my affections for her, can she say that I just fooled around with her? Is it wrong to court more than one girl at the same time? Even just for finding out whom I really love? When we buy something, we select. Is not courting the process of selecting the right girl for our partner in life? And selection implies more than one object. What factors inflame this passion, love, and what extinguish it? Some boys told me that embracing, kissing and the like makes girls love more. I have not experienced those things because they are sins if we commit them. Do you think that they are correct? Is breaking an engagement a sign that the couple are not really in love, as they have thought before? Since I fell in love with this girl, I lost interest in any other girls, Even how beautiful, lovely, and charming they are, they just cannot attract me because all that is in my mind is the girl I love. In spite of the merriments of the social functions I have attended in our town, I was never happy because she is not with me, we being from distant places. I am always craving for her companionship, but we have never been together in any affair. Now, I do not like to associate with any other girls for reasons I do not know. Am I right, Miss Marlene, and if I am wrong how can you correct me? In Love Dear In Love, Yes, you seem to have all the symptoms one usually associates with the complicated and inexplicable phenomenon that is this thing called "love*'. As to the rest oh your questions, I would refer you to a very instructive pamphlet that just about covers all your doubts: "Modern Youth and Chastity" by Father Gerard Kelly, S.J." < Ed.—This excellent pamphlet may be ordered thru The Cross. —Only P0.70 including postage. THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER CORNER In League with the Sacred Heart By Rev. PEDRO VERCELES, S.J. National Director As, ot present everybody is tolking obout Communism ond Religion, it may be well to point out why there is such opposition between Catholic ism and Communism. Communism is not only a political enetny which threatens our freedom, it is not only the enemy of our cu1ture ahd religion which prowls around our frontiers os Islom of oncient times. It is a mighty force that pervodes every place and threatens every thing. Like Catholicism it cloims to be universal and it hos spread with the rapidity of lightning all over the world; frontiers ore unknown to it, it posses through the most compact lines, enters well guarded strongholds, unbalances the cleorest minds ond shakes the most steadfast of hearts. Like Catholicism, it has its opqstles who go everywhere, ond moke "con verts" in the most unexpected quor-cr?. It has its fanatics, who call themselves martyrs. Like Catholicism it pretends to ennoble mon ond witn raise it to the highest level it can possibly attain, ond thus create a new civilization, a new literature, a new moral code, a new ideal, a new (Continued on page 34) ABOUT THE ARTICLE The following speech deliver ed by the Rev. Father Ledit, S.J. in one. of the A of P di rectors' conventions in Rome, will be of great interest not only to our, Associates and Promot ers but also to all our Cross readers. It is t finely, solid, in teresting. May we take this opportunity of inviting once again Cross readers to join the Apostleship of Prayer. Conditions for mem bership are easy ond simple, but the benefits are many and most consoling. To Promoters the Sacred Heart made this prom ise. "Those who shall promote th-s devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.” To become a member, apply i<> your Parish Priest or write to the National. Office of the Apostleship of Prayer, 2821^ Herron, Manila. — The National Director di Intentions Blessed General Intention: For those who suffer persecution for justice's sake The Divine Moster proclaimed blessed those who ore tormented for being good ond in spite of this remain faithful to their duties. "Blessed ore those who suffer persecution for justice's soke, for theirs is the kingdohi of heaven." All those who for being good Catholics, are mocked, molested, or persecuted in one woy or another, are blessed. These persecutions generally come from the wicked; sometimes they come from the good—ond these are worst. Hordly can one practice o virtue without some persecution in one woy or another. This is the patri mony of virtue in this life. Mony hove suffered for such mortyrdom. Actually millions of Catholics suffer imprisonment ond concentration in horrible camp, torture ond deoth for their foithfulness to Christ and His Church. Others, if not martyrdom, have to tolerate molestations or in justice. Jesus soid that all those who wish to live a religious life will suffer persecution. But He also said thot we should not be afraid of those who wish to destroy the body, but we should feor those who con condemn the soul to eternal punishment. So thot in the hour of trial our brothers moy not succumb to suffering ond columny, so ■ that they moy know how to resist the impetous attack of ony persecu32 the Holy Father for May tion, let us proy to the Socred Heort of Jesus that He moy ossist them with-His omnipotent grace. Let us also osk perseverance in the some for oil Catholics of the Mission Intention: For Christianity in Indonesia Indonesia comprises the three great islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo ond other smoll islands. In the islond of Flores may be found one half of the Catholic popula tion of the republic. Of its total population of obout 75,000,000 some 700,000 ore Catholics. In 1949 its politico! independence was proclaimed on the basis of five principles, the first of which is the recognition of the supreme authority of God Omnipotent. The next year Indonesia established her embassy in the Holy See and the Pope received her first minister. Said the Holy Fother: "Wherever the supreme jurisdiction of God is rec ognized ond defended as your Republic has done in its inauguration, there men are given their proper places— so ore notions, the rule of democracy and conscience and social justice with a firm and happy harmony. It may be thot outside events or humon errors may offer obstacles to this end, but while the end remains un changed, there will always be hope to realize these ex cellent principles." Jose Ma. Siguion, SJ. 33 34 THE CROSS THE APOSTLESHIP • • • (Continued from page 31) humon roce! If ever the world hos seen a more fantastic realization of the diabolical scheme, which St. Ig natius describes in his meditation on the "Two Standords" it has now cer tainly become a fact which even the blind must see. It is needless to soy thot Com munism is the enemy of Religion; only those who do not wish to see con deny it. Communism is non religious, and antl-rellgious. First, it is non-rellgious inasmuch as it tries to build up o society from which God is banished. It is hard for us to realize the great extent of this pion, since religion fills the very air we breathe. Surrounded by our churches, hoving always the crucifix before our eyes, receiving our Cath olic newspapers ond listening to the intimote confidences of our faithful, we are, os it were, steeped in the supernatural. There is nothing like that in Russia. For a great number of the U.R.S.S. inhabitants God no longer exists. The faithful must wor ship God in secret. The quinquennial plans have given rise to new cities that have, so to speak, sprung up from the desert. No churches, no priests, no divine worship for these countless multi tudes. Whole districts ore today without church and without priest, to be exdct for our Catholics there are just two foreign priests. The lamps which burned before the Blessed Sacrament are extinguished. . . The little bol shevik, goes to the Kindergarten, then to school ond meetings of the pio neers; from there he passes to the Komsomol, then to the factory ond to the army, takes part in all the sports, grows old and dies, and dur ing oil these years, the school the press, the public speakers, the gov ernment decrees, hove told him that there is no God! Atheism, formerly was madness of the few, now it has become the normal state of countless multitudes. If, when meditating on hell, we can •inderstand, that the essence of damno lion is the loss of God, we- may feel some pity for the immense masses immersed in this inferno of the U. R. S.S. For the moteriolist, who lacks on things only from the outside, these considerations have no interest.what soever; but they fill with horror and dismay the Christion soul, the soul of the priest, who is forever trying to gouge the void caused by the ab sence of God. Bolshevism is even more onti-religious than non-religious. In former days the Commissary of Public In struction declared thot the antireligious propaganda was not neces sary in the Soviet school, thot is was enough for education to be non-religious. A late decision (For Communistic Education, Aug. 4, 1937) declares that such o theory is rotten and harmful. It is not enough to be non-religious, it is necessary to be anti-religious. God is the enemy. He must be attacked, ond against Him all weapons are good. APRIL, 1951 35 First there is the weapon of blas phemy. It is hord for us to under stand the meaning of blasphemy, when it has attained such a degree ot universality. So in order to have some ideo of it, we must go back to the meditation on hell. There is the fashionable blasphemy of the "professor," who "proves" that there is no God, and thot science is in conflict with the Bible; there is the blasphemy of the popular heroine, the champion of porachutisme when, for example, she declares that she hos not found God in the clouds; there is the coarse blasphemy of the militant atheist who draws coricotures in the "Bezbozhnik", which he thinks ore amusing, but which are only impure. Always ond everywhere, the some idea: God as oh enemy; the enemy of the poor, the ally of those who cheat the people; the enemy .of prog ress, ollied to those who keep the world in ignorance and misery. All this is explained to little children when they begin to go to school and is kept up all through out their edu cation. Then there is desecration ond sac rilege .The churches ore closed, des troyed or desecrated. It is useless to repeat here the history of 'past years, when the churches one by one were closed; useless to remind the make-believe tales tqld by the bol sheviks, to explain to the world thot they did npt mean persecution. Many churches have been converted into anti-religious museums; and bams for animals, desecnation hos been thor ough; statues, ond even sacred vest ments ore used for shameful ond anti-religious campaign. Finally, there is persecution. Per secution of fhe clergy; more than one hundred priests Bishops ore now un der the Soviet law, most of them in concentration camps; others confined to places where life is nearly impos sible. Persecution of the faithful; the introduction of the uninterrupted week, with the obligation to work on Sundoys ond holidays under the pen alty of confiscation of woges that go Io pay for the anti-religious propa ganda; sentences of imprisonment, sentences of death. Doubtless there hove been in the past, blasphemies, desecrations and persecutions, but never have they been so universal as now. The world hod never seen an immense country such as Russia, reject all form of worship and all religious creeds. . . And wherever Communism enters, we see the same phenomena changing here and there, according to the'dif ferent countries, but having the same universal characteristics. Think of the bloody deeds now perpetrated in those countries, the convents and churches behind the iron curtain, des secrated, the nuns priests and bishops massacred or persecuted and with uni versality which afford clear proof thot we are witnessing the workings of a carefully thougHt-out diabolical pion. Satan hos risen to cjrive out .God. And it is appalling to see that so mony people have no clear Idea of what he is about. The vision of the Apocalypse, where Michael fights the 36 THE CROSS dragon ond his angles, is ter rible; but here the arena is the whole world. On one side the well-organ ized forces of international otheism, drawn together by hatred’of God; oil this scene strangely lighted by the fantastic mixture of smoke and fire of which St.' Ignatius speaks, and which deceives so many minds thot we believed were better forearmed. On the other side, the humble-spirituol forces of the Church, Infima munde, ridiculed by those who believe, only in humon means to fight ogainst o diabolical force, scattered like o flc:k of sheep surprised by o storm, "pusillus grex". Will this little flock ever understand that its best weapon is its great weakness? INFIRMA MUN DI ELEGIT DEUS UT FORTIA QUAEQUE CONFUNDAT. God hos chosen the weak things of the world to con found the strong. And here, we must admire and wonder ot the .great mercy of God towards His Church. What treas ures' has He not granted Her through the devotion of the Sacred Heart ap plied to humon society, thot is, de votion to Christ the King. It was during the 1st century that the Apostleship of Prayer was found ed. Its aim is to point out the super natural aspect of the Church's con quests at her struggle against her enemies. Devotion to the Sacred Heort, through the Apostleship of Prayer is the remedy God has given us for the great evils from which mankind is suffering. It is a devotion for humble souls. The "Messengers of the Sacred Heart'' are not intended for a small circle; they are widely read in our Christian families, teaching them how to live humbly ond in a Christian manner. Among workmen, in the peasants' homes, wherever there are Christians who pray ond suffer, there is always to be found a picture bf the Sacred Heart. It moy be such a one os to make an artist smile, but is one which has dried many a teor and inspired many o heroic reso lution. The prayers, communions, sacrifices, holy hours, all these prac tices of piety, which play such an important although sometimes un known part in the history of man kind, are brought about by these little monthly pamphlets of the Apos tleship of Prayer, which do not dazzle anybody, which are not even noticed by those who think themselves en trusted with destinies of the world. The program of self-sacrifice implied by the word "promoter" assures to the Apostleship of Prayer a scope of action oil the more widely spread os the promoter is often chosen from among the lowly ones of the world. The means used by the Apostleship of Prayer hove a supernatural effi cacy. The doily offering teaches the members of the Apostleship of Prayer resignation. The work ond suffering of every day ore not a burden, but form a precious treosure which is of fered every morning to the Socred Heort. Thot will not prevent a Chris tian from fighting io necessary, against the dangers which threaten his children, his family ond his coun APRIL, 1951 37 try; but his fight will be the fight not of a rebel but of o crusoder. Thus the soil where communism implants its doctrine of hatred and revolt will be purified anew every morning. For, let us say it again, the essen tial condition for the success of com munistic propagondo, is not pov erty and depression although these foctors have on importance not to be denied, but it is the naturalism ond materiel ism which hove penetrated everywhere, even at times, among the clergy, who hove forgotten, ot least in some places, what is the meaning of evangelical poverty. If in th? midst of the crisis through some countries ore possing which today, those who best withstand the instiga precisely those workmen who are suf fering under the stain of misery and wont of work, is not that in itself o striking proof that poverty and misery prepare the soul for heroism as well as for revolt? During the recent strike in Fronce, o poor working woman who had en rolled oil her co-workers in a Christ ian union, ond in the Apostleship of Prayer, wos violently threatened. The godless so terrified her companions thot they no longer dored to receive the monthly pamphlets which come to ternind them thot they were to offer lo God "the prayers, works and suf ferings of the day." Is not this a proof that the Reds well understood the efficacity of this little practice? (TO BE CONTINUED) tions of the "extended hand", ore 7)ke Chaperone Pen Pal Column conducted j7 By AUNT LINA J With this issue of the Cross, our club is a year and a month old. Come to think of it — our Family now counts with over a hundred and twenty members — all young Cath olics who believe in good wholesome friendship via the mail. And why not? We believe in it, too. The Chaperone Club was estab lished for that particular purpose — to meet that tendency among the youth to make friends by molf. Often times however, the friend-seeker chooses a non-selective medium and usually gets to meet pen-pals who are not quite "on the level". And sometimes, our friend-seeker discovers this too lote. We wont our Catholic Youth to know one another in the properly-supervised monner. . . hence, The Chaperon Club. It has been our greatest' pleasure during this year of "chaperoning" to find among our Catholic youth some reol fine Catholicity thot we can hon estly be proud of. The number of those who write about spiritual mat ters to one another is indeed surpris ingly high. (Ed.—See letter of Ray de -Medina in "I'll tell the Cross" Dept.) And this is a good sign. For if there is any difference between this Cross-sponsored Pen Pal club and other Pen Pol clubs conducted by sec ular popers, it's the fact thot ours'is Catholic. Its members are Catholic boys and girls, most of them from Catholic schools, and they all have one ideal — to keep clean, whole some, good Catholic friendships via the mail. By the time you read this, we will hove met one another at our first "Family Get-Together". And it will surely hove been delightful meeting our friends with the incognito masks of Code names set aside. However, for those who couldn't manage to attend the affair, you'll hear scoops and scoops of neWs from your "cousins" — so’ o detailed de scription of the "social" on my part will be mere repetitions. And besides, I have to meet the dealine which pops up long before the April 1 af fair. So, start those letters flying, folks. 38 APRIL, 1951 ' 39 In this month's column we’ll dispense with news of club members and go straight to the list of new “cousins" who were accepted lately. Pick your pal and write “hello!" Alley-oop! here we go... Swelling the Bulakeiia group this issue is Luisa B-109 who hails from Malolos, Bulacan. She’s a> nineteen-year-old lass...- graduate of the E.T.C. course... loves cooking, writing letters, badminton, and reading. Looks like the Aguilar clan is turning up for incorporation into the Family . . . first Herminio, then Nena (or Elena) . . . ond now a flesh-andbiood cousin — Chorito- A- i 1 I. She stays in Economia St,, Sampaloc, Manila. . . she's in her Sophomore year of dentistry at the Centro Escolar University. "Hope" S-106, an active club member, induced three of her friends to join — Augusto A-) 12 (age: 23); Nestor N-102 (age: 23) and Ernesto R- 105 (age: 21). All of them are Seniors in the College of Engineering, 'Mapua Institute of Technology. . . all like to struggle with math problems, ond go for bowling, badminton ond reading. Mila N-101 is a typical “baby" — she’s only 15 years old — a Freshman at UST—goes for badminton, bowling and occasional parties. She wants to cuddle on Auntie’s lap. “ Lenaidu C-106 got interested in the Family due to her class teacher who recommended reading the column in order to get a broad slant on the trend of Catholic youth. Zenaida is a sports-minded girl, goes for swimming and tennis. From Dimiao, Bohol, comes Irene V-109 who is another outdoor girl. Accent is on biking and volleyball. She’s a High School Junior of St. Nidi ol's Academy. Another member from Davao City is Amelita D-107... a Sophomore B.S.E. student at the Immaculate Conception College. She's o'hound for puzzle-solving games. Rustico A-100 introduced one of his intimate friends — Sisemundo D-108 — who hails from Meycawayan, Bulacan. He's an eighteen-year-< Old "binata" — no hobbies given. Primitivo C-101 is worried because he has only few ‘cousins’. So grab that pen, children, and. write him “hi! coz”. Concesa K-106 will have to leave off pouring over her school books and relax on pen-pal letters instead. Her poor eyes deserve a rest so she has stopped studying. But she’s not letting that get her down. She loves horse-back-riding, swimming and other active sports. This is all, children. Have a pleasant vacation. Written by a fair-minded Protestant, this article should be read by Protestants and Catholics alike . . . Protestant and (Catholic IN AMERICA TODAY two mighty forces exist side by side: Roman Cotholicism and Protestantism. The two hove much in common. Both groups are working to make religion an integral port of our national life. Both seek to establish the spiritual values of the Christian faith, as the only means of successfully comboting the increasing materialism of our oge. Yet there ore great differences between Cotholicism and Protestant ism, ond some of these differences are inevitable and irreconcilable. Each group stands for something the other does not believe in. Since this is a fact, is there any possibility thot Roman Catholics ond Protestants con come together in any woy ortd, in a measure at lebst, unite their forces in defense of the Christion foith? At the present moment it seems almost impossible. As the Americon Mercury soid: "The widen ing gulf between protestonts ond Romon Catholics hos become on im portant national issue." Now it hoppens- that time ago I wrote to Archbishop Cushing of Bos on, voicing my approval of the high moral and spiritual quality of his ad dresses. In my letter I suggested the possibility of some form of coopera tion between Roman Catholics and Protestonts against the common foe of modern materialism. In reply I received what to me wos o most ostounding letter, ond one which most certoinly is worth quoting in full. I hove Archbishop Cushing's permis sion to do this. Dear Mr. Kimball: The blessings of the Lord to you for your brand note. As you know full well, the way is hard, and a kind word like yours is a source of great encour agement. I am convinced that Christians of all classes, Protest ants and Catholics, must unite if we are to save the world from mo ral and spiritual decay, which is always the prelude to material de struction. 40 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 empha tic statement. .The Archbishop's words, I feel, should compel constont study of the possibilities of coopera tion. 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 Ro man 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 elec tions 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 acknowledge ment of a personal God, on belief in the spiritual dignity and the eternal destiny of mon," or whether they would entrust themselves "to the un feeling omnipotence of a material istic state without any ideal beyond this world, without religion, without God?" Thot question every Protest ant 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 com mon faith, there must be a recognilion cf that fact thot th;ra ore dif ferences in belief. For a Roman Cath olic 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 Pro testont, on the other hand, the seat of authority is the individual con science, ond the ideal church is a self-governing fellowship of Christion believers. Here, then, Protestants ond Ro man Catholics do port company. There can be no question thot this is o fundamental difference in the con ception 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 argu ment only increases the tension. Meanwhile, both protestants ond Ro man Catholics might well "agree to disagree" on some points, and seek for a common group on which they can cooperate to right the.material ism ond atheism which ore so strong in the world today. While the above-mentioned dis agreement 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 con cerns education. At the present mo ment the place of-religion in the edu cation of our children is being widely discussed ond, of the lesser differ ences bptween Romon Catholics ond Protestonts, the question of oid to parochial schools is the most import ant. Our public schools moy not be godles^, as is sometimes claimed, but most certainly they do not even re motely teach ony religious faith. Ro man 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 Cath olics have parochial schools, where re ligion 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 train ing in the essentials of the Christian faith. Catholics must bear this extra costin education because 'of the interpre tation 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 protect ing 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 transporta tion, 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 common sense attitude could be accepted by Protestants, this controversial differ ence might become a minor one in deed. Another point on which Roman Catholics and Protestonts are not agreed is the question of birth con trol. The Romon Catholic Church is against contraceptives as -an artificial means of preventing conceptioh, ond for this stand it has good Bible back ing. The Romon Cotholic Church therefore condemns birth control, ex cept through a knowledge of the na tural 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 convic tions in the matter, and leave to a de cision 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 con cerns mixed marriages. On the whole, neither Prrotestants nor Roman Coth olic 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 indif ferent, ond often fail to give their children ony religious education at oil. The fact that the Roman Cath olic 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 chil dren do hot became hedthens GROUND FOR AGREEMENT These differences regarding schools, birth control and -mixed marriages should be removed, as for as is poss 44 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 be tween Protestants ond Roman Cath olics is very plain. A crucial task confronts the churches. The life of the modem world is largely pagan, both in its philosophy and moral con duct. 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 Uni versity said recently: "Almost every one who hos been immersed since childhood in the cultural stream of twentieth-century America carries with him a universe of moral and spi ritual 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 prac tically all the protesting ogainst ques tionable movies, indecent divorces and other public sins." But Protestonts, too, are becoming vocal. Recently in New Orleans the City Council of Protestant Churches pro tested against the abortion practices in the city. Archbishop Joseph Rum mel at the same time condemned the ease with which these illegal prac tices 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 Fron tier 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 state ment 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 re garding atheistic communism. To fight this common foe Roman Cath olics and Protestonts can certainly stand shoulder to shoulder. On this question of communism. Christions are not primarily concern ed over the difference between social istic ond capitalistic forms of econo mics. The danger lies in the fact thot Soviet influence everywhere is di rected toward the total strangulotion of all religious life. What has hap pened in one country—Czechoslova kia—is typical. About 75 per cent of the Czech people are Roman Cath olics, 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 ene mies." 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 Christ ian 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 popu lation outside any church. In his re markable 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. Coopera tion 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 Pro testont 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 Reli gion in American Life, ond the Ro man 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 let ter 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 winsome ness of the Emerald Isle." But thot geniol word does not go far enough. Archbishop Cushing is o real states man, and I believe thot Roman Cath olic 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." The children were silent os I con cluded the story of the Wizard of Oz. I could almost feel the last words and the moral of the story taking root in their hearts: There is no place like home. Were the children my only listen ers, I would not now be writing this. For the children did not question my sincerity, and my love for home. It so happened, however, thot I was teaching at the convento. A young lawyer who was waiting for the parish priest in the porlor overheard the story. He called out to where I was conducting class and asked, "If you believe there is no pltjce like home, why did you leave yours to enter the novitiate?" I shall not say that the man was rother impolite. I think he was just curious and a little bit skeptical. But I don't think the children would ever have asked me that question. To their simple minds there was no in congruity in a man who had given up his own home telling them to love their homes, for there was no place like home. The young lawyer thought I had left home because I hod lost love for it; the children knew I Had left home because I loved it. They knew that the only things we give up are those which we love. The only things a man gives up are the things he treasures. And they are the only things worth giving up. No' man who hates cigarettes (I be lieve there are very few) can be said to give them up by not smoking any. No man who hates eating liver, (there moy bp more of this class) Why they all leave home . . . Z)kere 4 jVo Place gives up liver by not taking any. I think this fact is cleor enough. But a man who has a strong craving for liquor gives liquor up, when, to ful fill his promise to his wife, he abstains from it. The young lady who has a liking for bright, red lipstick gives up this liking, when, to satisfy her lover's likes, she does not use so bold a color. So also, a young man leaves home to become a priest or religious because he loves his home. He is giving up his home because he loves it. He is giving up his home for God Who is worthy of every sacrifice, and more. You see, when a young man leaves home for the novitiate, he is not merely changing residences. He is not preferring the novitiate to his home os a shelter. In fact, it is not right to think of him as leaving his home for the sake of the novitiate. The novitiote itself is not worthy of so noble a sacrifice as leaving home. But what the novitiate stands for is; and that is the service of God in o *6 Jjke J4ome By R. G. FERNANDEZ, S.J. ptal sense, in a vowed life. The £ing man gives up his home for the gious life, which is a life com.'ely consecrated to God's cause. We all know that there are at least two ways of loving a thing. One is to keep possession of it; the other is to give it up for something worthy of a higher love. So, a man can keep his love for basketball by playing it. - But, when out of care for his endangered health, he stops playing, it does not meon thot he hates the game. He still loves it, but is giving it up for something worthy of greater regard. A young man loves his home by holding on to it, by staying there whenever he may. But when Christ calls, "Come, follow Me" and the youth follows, it is not because he no longer loves home. He rather proves his love for it by sac rificing it to someone worthy of greater love—of all love—Christ. He shows that he loves his home and all that it stands for so much that he is willing to give it up only for Christ's soke. He still loves his home; only he loves something nobler still more. To prefer chocolate ice-cream to macapuno ice-cream is not to hate the macapuno. Simply because one loves something more that other thing does not mean that one hates that other thing. A man's love or hatred for the home is shown by his leaving it. This all depends on whether he leaves it for something nobler or based. If one leaves home to spend precious moments of the evening ot the canto, then he shows he has no great love for his home. When one leaves home to spend the time he ought to spend with his family away from it, say at a night club, or a gambling den, he shows no great love for home. When one leaves home because he is bored, only- to come back at the flicker ing hours of dawn, he shows no great love for home. Such men leave home for something less noble, even But when one leaves 47 48 THE CROSS volunteer for the army ond fight for the rights of the free, he shows a noble love for his home. When one with the blessing of the sacrament of marriage leaves his parents' home to build a home his own, he shows a noble love for the home he is leav ing. When one leaves home to serve Christ in the priestly or religious state, he shows a noble love for home. Such men show their love for home because they leave it only for some thing nobler. Men do not accuse volunteers for the army of hating their homes; neither do they accuse those who set out to start their own homes. Why should those who give up home to serve Christ be branded as home haters? Could a religious Teave home a thousand times over, I am sure he would. For he would thus prove his love for his home a thousand times over; he would thus prove his greater love for Christ a thousand times over. What I have here written was not the answer I gave the young lawyer. Him I answered but briefly, the rest I left for him to figure out. "I gave up home to follow Christ because I loved my home, but loved Christ “moderne” by AUNT LINA in the theatric way, they bade goodbye— with a sparkling tear and a long-drawn sigh . . . he warmly clasped her lotioned hand and whispered: "dear, you understand that duty calls, i must obey; but i'll return to you someday." and on her part, she hung her head and murmured low, "i've heard it said that absence makes the 'heart grow fonder; i'll feel thot woy, — but, will you? — i wonder." so through the length of afternoon, they sang the same goodbying tune, till finally the whistle blew and terminated love's adieu. the ship wos putting* out to sea when he remarked "bohemianly"; "why should i brood about and fret? i'd better woo a new Juliet." while on the shore, she wore the looks of waiting heroines in books; buf after a couple of tears were shed, she dressed to go out to El Coiro with Fred. The white hope of Asia "Converted Rice" From This Month The hope of Asia and the ravaged islands of the South Pacific rests in a tiny white grain rice. Not the familiar polished capsule of starch ccated with talc and glucose which is the staple food of Asia's millions, but a new processed grain, produced in America and called "converted The mon who swallowed years of failure and frustration to put convert ed rice into production is a deter mined Texan of mild manners and middle age. His name is Gordon Harwell. Before the war, Harwell wos a broker in Houston, Texas, the rice center of the Southwest. He had long been struck by the contrast be tween white rice ond brown and had determined to find o milling method that would combine the eye-pleasing qualities of polished rice with the immense vitomin value of field rice. Borrowing his wife's pressure cook er, Harwell set up o backyard labor atory and began to sweat over steam ing pots of rice. He worked for years, but he never solved his problem. Meanwhile the rumblings of the coming European wor were driving hundreds of German scientists across the English Channel, where they would be assured freedom of scien tific research. One of them wos a biochemist named Eric G. Huzenlaub. With the long-ronge plan of break ing the cycle of famine in Indio, Eric Huzenlaub had spent ten years perfecting a new processed rice. He wanted to strengthen the walls of the groin against invasion by the deadly parasitic weevil, which makes storage of rice for any length of t;me impossible. And he wanted to enrich the edible part of the rice plant to raise the health level of the Orient. After studying the vitamin content of rice husks and bran, he set to work to instill in the white heort of the rice grain all the health giving elements that were ripped off with the husks when the groin wos polish ed. Huzenlaub succeeded where Har well had failed. He constructed a huge, cylindrical vacuum which drew the air out of the paddy, or thrashed rice. Then, under tremendous pres sure, the water-soluble nutrients and minerals of the rice husks and bran were pumped permanently into the heart of the rice grain. Thiamin and other vitamins could be added at this stage. 49 50 THE CROSS Huzenlaub then dumped his rice in a rotory steamer where the starch cells were broken down, welding broken grains together. When the grains (still encased in meat pack ages of husks) cooled, they <had a glozed surface which kept the vitamines in and the weevils out. Only then was the rice husked, leaving a translucent white grain. Huzenlaub entered his invention in the British Patent Office. Back in Texas, Gordon Harwell read of the new process. Here wos his answer. He began bombarding the biochem ist with letters, cablegrams and trans atlantic telephone calls, trying to in terest him in a new rice industry for Texas. But Huzenlaub still cherished his old dream a string of reconverted rice mills across India. He had no use for a Houston broker. Finally Huzenlaub came to Amer ica, not to see Harwell, but to recruit American capital for his scheme of revitalizing the Asiatic rice industry. The Texan found him and proceeded to trail him. But he could make no impression on the biochemist. Then on accident occurred which turned the tide in Harwell's favor On the slippery pavement of a Texas airport ramp, Eric Huzenlaub fell and dislocated his shoulder. Having failed to raise American funds for his scheme, he was about tox board an airliner that would eventually, „ take him back to Britoin. Harwell's doily visits to the hos pital finally convinced Huzenlaub that the determined Texan could ably carry the banner of. converted rice and promote its cause. Before the patient left the hospital, Harwell hod secured his signature to use the con version method in America. To Gordon Harwell converted rice owes its international success. For Harwell set to work at once to mech anize the Huzenloub process. Prior ities were squeezed, junk yards were scoured for spore parts, apd a plant wos assembled in a dusty, old Ware house. Row with inexperience but domin ated by the pioneer zeal of Horwell, the plant gradually smoothed into precise production- with 900 barrels a day. Outlet problems were solved when the Army investigated the qual ities of the new processed rice and promptly contracted for almost the entire output. With the stamp of validity from the Quartermaster Corps on it, con verted rice proved to be the ideal military stople. Major O. Wodrickof the Quartermaster Corps speaking before a convention of the American Association of Cereal Chemists in 1943, said thot Army tests had shown the weevil resistance of the rice to be "very great". He also stated that the rice cooks up very well ond has the advantage of remaining in sepa rate particles instead of forming o gummy mass. Converted rice, he said, was tough ond durable, adapt able for long hauls and safe storage. Major Wodrick spoke only for the Army. He might have added, on beholf of the entire Orient for whom rice is the pledge of life, that the Huzenlaub process is one of the most APRIL, 1951 51 significant ond revolutionary develop ments in food history. Rice in Asio must be consumed ♦he year it is produced for weevils end deterioration quickly ruin the stored grain. Thus it is almost im possible to conserve bumper crops as a guard against lean years. A good harvest in India or China means plenty of rice; o bod harvest spells inevitable famine. To this condition, converted rice can put a final stop. During the process it becomes glazed with o \>rd, glassy surface which makes it ■fvil-proof and safe for. storage in usands of Asiatic granaries. Iqually important is the high nutJve value of the new rice. The c/riental diet suffers acutely from vitamin B deficiency which contributes to the dread disease, beriberi. Usual sources of the guardian vitamin are whole grain, lean pork, whole wheat bread, enriched flour, beans, nuts and eggs — all scarce items on Asiatic markets. Th^e "hard-to-get" items can now be replaced or supplemented by converted rice, recruited from the starch ranks and available in every Asiatic village. Loaded with vita mins, converted rice will raise the health level of half of martkind. The conversion method benefits the producer as much as the con sumer. A high milling return is as sured, meaning a better stacked gran ary or more money for crops. In the polishing method now practised, rice crops usually suffer a twenty per yit loss in milling. Converted rice. through o complete steaming whicn gelatinizes the Storch cells in the grain, attains resiliency that drastic ally reduces the number of broken Furthermore, the- paddy may be delivered to the conversion mill in almost any condition. The old polish ing mills demand bone-dry paddy; the new mills will take it dry, wet, or nearly sprouting, thus eliminating the hazard of unfavorable weather at harvest time. A possible solution for Asia's food problem lies in the native-operated plants milling locally produced grain, for the conversion method requires few skilled workers who may be train ed in as little as six weeks. Millers in thirty-six countries have already been licensed under the British po tent held by Huzenlaub. In Houston, Texas, where the tech nique was first commercialized, o conversion plont spreads over a bayou bank. .It was constructed during the war at the request of the government to insure a steady supply to the front line. Now, the sparkling value of the pilot plant lies in its function os a demonstration center. At the plant, teachers moy be trained to instruct native operators. Foreign representatives may inspect the process,, and expedite its applica tion to their homelands. For the billion inhabitants of In dia and the Far East who live or die by their dally bowl of rice, the new white grain may spell the end of un dernourishment ond famine. A short-short story T)ke Sini of the 9atkeri By RENICK Toke down thot crucifix/ This is a hospital, by gum, not a church! I'm poying here for my wife's hospitaliza tion—do you understand? She does n't need thot—thot—superstitious bric-brac. Toke it down! Take it down, I soy/ What's that? It won't do her ony harm? Won't affect her delivery? Drat it/ Who asked for your opin ion? I don't give a hoot for your meoly-mouthing. Do you hear me? Take thot crucifix down/ Listen. I don't want—ony child of mine—ever —to look upon—the image of—a crucified Jew/ ...to heck with these religious/ They'll put one over on you if you don't watch out. All this tripe about religion is just a lot of bunk! Fetish. Voodooism. Black magic. That's what it is. But they can't fool me. No. Sir! Ole mon Harrison is too smart for 'em. Ho/ ho/ the face of that nun when she heard me soy I never want ony child of mine ever to look upon the image of a crucified Jew/ Like a we rag, by gum/ A very wet dish-rg' It's worthithe trouble of getting rj just to see one of 'em jump out of skin. Golly, that was funny. The image of a crucified Jew? Weil, that's what it is. Thot man's been dead and buried these two thou sand years. No man in his right sen ses would worship a corpse. Much less a corpse that has rotted for twenty centuries. These fool Cath olics/ Scraping and bowing and all that sort of stuff. Well, just goes to show you there are fools bom every minute. . . Oh, here comes the doctor. Well, doc, how was the delivery? Any hitch? Okay, did you say? Fine work. I knew I could count on you. How's Mary. All right? Fine, Fine. What Js it? A boy? Gee, that's swell. Marvelous. Six pounds and ten ounces, eh? Ho/ ho/ Takes after his 52 APRIL, 1951 53 dad, I'll say. Boy, I feel like celebrat ing. Here, doc, have a cigar. . . So-a-y, Sister, —nun—or what ever you're called—what are you looking at me like that for? Still mad at me? C'mon. Be a sport. Let by gones. 1 can't be mad at anybody today. I'm a father/ What do you say we shake hands, eh? Forgive and forget—that's what I always. . . Listen, doc, give her a chance to say something, will you? Maybe, she hos something to say. Doc/ What are you stopping her for. . . . Hey/ Is any thing wrong? Gosh, Doc; nothing is wrong, is there? You told me the operation was .a success. Mary's all right—or is she? Nothing is wrong— tell me nothing went wrong—:Doc/ Don't stand there like a statue/ Whot does she mean by staring at me like thot? What wos thot, Sister? No. No/. No/ Gosh, Sister—you can't mean it! You can't! Don't tell me—my— son—wos born—blind! to gtal in By VICENTE ROMERO In the year of Grace, At the Philippines. To the Premier of Russia, Ruler and Supreme Master of those Nations that have been betrayed into his hands, Persecutor of good and Promoter of evil, At Moscow in the Land of Slavery; My dear Stalin, Can you sleep at night, Comrade Stalin? I should think every shadow would make you start witlu fear. The moonlight playing in the corners must remind you of the moonlight on the tombstones of those you have killed. And yet so few of them are buried beneath tombstones! Those open graves and those mass executions — do they not come back to haunt you at night, Comrade Stalin? Can you forget the faces-of those you have forced to work on your rail roads and your bridges, and driven to their death? Do you think that you can run away from them for ever? Can you forget Poland, Comrade Stalin, or Hungary? Do you find yourself unable to eat when you think of Estonia, Lithuania and 54 Latvia? I wonder that you do not cower like a frightened rabbit in the snow when they tell you about Austria, Czechoslovakia and Ru mania. They are nations calling for your blood, Comrade Stalin. You cannot shut your ears against their cries forever. What of Cardinal Mindszenty and • Archbishop Stepinac? Can the memory of their tortured faces ever be wiped from your mind, Comrade Stalin? Do you think they are the only ones? Can you not see that there are hundreds, even thousands more like them and that you must torture and im prison everyone of them, too, be fore you find peace? But even then you will not be through. There will still be priests with courage enough to bring Christ into the very heart of your own Kremlin. Have you ever heard of the Phil ippines, Comrade Stalin? I im agine you have. You think that we will be yours someday, even as China is. You think that the scor pion we hide in our mountains will grow and one day conquer us and make us yours. But you are Wrong, Comrade Stalin. We are too strong for you. The Scorpion will die, and with it your hopes of a Communist Philippines. We give you fair warning. We have pledged ourselves to your eternal salvation, Comrade Stalin. Does. that frighten you?. There is no gun in our hands; it is the crucifix the Spaniards gave us four hundred years ago. But one day you will find us clamoring at your door and you will know that your time has come. Even now we would forgive you, Comrade Stalin. We are proud of the Faith that was brought to our shores so many years ago in the little galleons of Catholic Spain. We are proud of our Catholic her itage, and we are proud of the Christ Who is our King. And like Him, and for Him, we Would par don you even now, and pray with you and help you make your peace with God. You cannot long resist us, Comrade Stalin. We are as relentless as the sea that beats everlastingly on our shores; we are as tireless as the wind that whispers in the tops of our palm trees; we are as confident of ultimate victory as we are that the sun will rise again tomorrow on our “Land of the Morning." We shall not rest till you and all Moscow kneel at the ' crib of the Christ Child. We tell you now that the day will come when you must yield to us., Your spldiery will not help you then, Comrade Stalin; your armies will stand by,helpless. All earth will pass away, but we will never die. Our God — and your God, too, Comrade Stalin — has promised that it would be so. We are praying for you. Comrade Stalin. VICENTE ROMERO 'Book Review RIZAL (A Biography) By JOSE M. HERNANDEZ Rizal (A Biography), By Jose M. Hernandez. Published by Alemar's, Manila, 1950. Distributed in the Philippines by The Alemar Book Store. Reviewed by Pura Santillon-Castrence. Jose M. Hernandez presents in this Biography a very human Rizal—that is the general impression the reader gets from the book in which the events of the hero's life are drama tized so that even those that have been, if possible, worn out by tell ing and retelling, receive new life from the novel imaginative setting. This manner of presentation is, in deed, to me, the attraction of the biography. It may, to a certain extent, constitute also its weakness. The drama Is unevenly distributed, and while that, in itself, invites at tention, the reader is not seldom discomfited with the change from an almost lyrical, certainly eloquent style, to one which is quite undistinguishedly pedestrian. The "feeling" portions are very effective, because Mr. Hernandez has the gift of words and knows how to use his periods with measure. The drama of The Shadow, for instance, which hovers over the hero, from childhood, it would seem, does not leave him, till symbolically, it be comes the Light. Rizal died and with his death, something is liberated: 'Then one day, on a beautiful morning in Bagumbayan they shot him down—they killed the nightingale that sang of the dreaming rose. . . This was the great, great man, grand, monumental, and magnificent, this was the moth, the wind, the knight, Promotheus; this was the warrior dead upon the field and now a simple, little blossom—" Thus,1 Jose M.. .Hernandez often burst into passionate, poetic prose when, taken away by his subject's greatness of being, nobility of soul, ond purity of heart, he-writes inspired lines about the beauty- of the life of the greatest Malayan. Parts of the book show the teach er in Mr. Hernandez, the pedagogue. One could almost hear an after-ques tion following a discussion: Do you understand? These are not the most 55 56 THE CR<» attractive parts of the work. Definite ly erudite, but not attractive, either, is the polemical discussion on Palma's book, particularly on the part of re traction, for while the reasoning throughout is logical and lucid, the implied name-calling is not a very generous gesture. Palma cannot de fend himself. The literary criticism parts of the Biography are extremely interesting and elucidating. There is a certain tendency to take for granted an erudition from the reader equal to that of the author, which comple ments the reader, while at the same time makes him wonder if there is not just a little too much of that commodity, erudition, in the work. In the meantime he learns enough from the Hernandez' analysis to make him decide that the answer to his ques tion is not important. The Filipino, and the foreigner sympathetic with the Filipino and his problems, will like this new book on Rizal. Many details he has not known’ before in the patriot's life are pre sented here; for instance, Rizal's nat ural exclamation in his cell about the futility of his knowledge of lan guages in the face of death, his facetious remark to a cross-eyed man who would hove his eyes straightened, little, seemingly insignificant items which fill up our ordinary knowledge of the noblest Filipino who ever lived and which make him closer, dearer "To millions of Filipinos", apost rophized Hernandez, in his very read able book, "he is not a mere man. He is the torch bearer of the brown race, an eternal sentinel on our quiet shores..." FLOWN DARKNESS Who would hove dreamed it? But this mom the light Of blessed doywas joy to me unknown; That happy sun, this tree, this meadow sown With flow's* rejoiced not my imprisoned sight. Yeo, one with thousands buried in the night Of prophecies, I longed with suppliant moan To see the lifted veil, the darkness flown Before the face of Christ all glorious, bright. But Sobbath-keeping Jews rejected me For calling prophet Him whose power kind My eyes has opened. Lord, more precious fee I willingly would give, if thus they'd find The very Lord of Sabbath hid in Thee, True God in Thy true mortal flesh enshrinedl Elodio Boria, S. J. J4ome Jfeaven "Pot!" "I beg your porfion?" "I said 'Pot' ". Nanoy raised on eyebrow. "Tatay," cut in Lucy, "is imitat ing Junior. Thot's Junior's favorite cuss word. I often hear him say 'Pot'*. Like one time he shouted at the top of his voice, 'Who the pot drew a mustache on Celia?' " "Pot! You would be saying 'Pot' too if somebody smeared lipstick on the picture of your boy friend." Nanay was perplexed. "But what does it mean. Junior?" "It doesn't mean anything, Na nay. It's just a harmless, little word the Fathers in school say we may use instead of some vulgar word like 'damn' or 'hell' "But I still .can't see why Tatay has to use It. He hos always been using Carambola Y billa. It sounds so nice." Tatay's head bobbed like a sub marine's periscope from the maga zine he was reading. "Nanay", he said, slowly and de liberately, " 'Pot' is the only word for this—this trash!" And he thrust the magazine to his wife. "'The Two Week Plan For Win ning a. Man' ", Nanay read the title of the article aloud. "Oh my," she remarked, "Isn't that sweet!" "Carabola y billal" Tatay ex claimed, throwing up his hands. " 'Sweet'! Nanay, do you call that 'sweet'? Why, it's the most idiotic, foolish, stupid,- crazy, inane, mo"Pottin'," suggested Junior. "... the most pottin' piece of writing I've come across in a long time. Such balderdash could have come only from the head of a wom"Tatay!" gasped Lucy. "Well, I can't help it," milrmured Tatay, 'It's such an insult to us men. Two weeks. Huh! We're not as cheap as that." And he stuck his pipe into his mouth so that he would not say more. But the Eve in Lucy got the bet ter of her. After a while: "Tatay", she asked demurely, "What is the two week plan for winning a man?" "Oho! So you wont to lay a trap for Bert, eh?" teased Junior, hiding behind a flower vase. "Quiet, Junior," Nanay broke in, "I want to hear this too." Tatay pulled up his chair nearer to the group. "We-e-ll," he began, "Our woman 57 56 THE CRO& HOLLYWOOD is "TAROS" "Hollywood, although still clutching its mantle of genius, is finished. Everything has gone sour out there. "The writers are bitter and frustrated. The producers arc fat, laxy and unimaginative. The new gctors are mostly freaks bored with their jobs. None have ever ac quired or learned any real art istry. The "atmosphere" of Hollywood is "sickeningly phoney." "It has lost touch with reality. It doesn't give the public what it .wants any more. The producers —most of whom sit behind four secretaries and eight receiving rooms, are afraid to try new faces, afraid of new ideas." Well? Don't ask us. We haven't been to a movie in yean and yean. Confidentially, we can't recall missing anything. —Information writer starts off innocently enough. She advises the heroine of this cap sule courtship to smile the moment she sights her man. She is to keep this grimace on her face at all costs." "Even if somebody around fall', down the stairs and smashes his up per plate?" "Junior," Tatay replied, "You have a horrid imagination. Anyway, as soon as the ice has been broken, the girl employs the 'admiration tech"Nakti!" exclaimed Nanay, "what's that?" "It means that our man-hunter must find something to rove about in the man to whom she is talking. ." "... you mean, whom she is stalking," quipped Junior. "... for example, she should rave about his unique set of ears, his taste in belts, the way he manipu lates his Adam's apple—" "Try doing that with Bert, sis, and you'll find yourself holding the bag!" "Humph 1"^ Lucy lifted her nose in the air, "I suppose Celia never does thot to you." "Collate," Nanay reproved them, "If you two keep on interrupting Ta tay the way. you do, he'll never fin ish. . . Go on Tatay." Tatay suppressed a smile and went "Rule Three—'the girl should throw herself into the sports which interest her prospective victim' ". This was too much for Lucy. "Tee hee," she giggled mischievously, "J should like to see Celia playing bJ ketball with Junior." APRIL, 1951 59 Before Junior could retort, Totoy wos on Rule Four: " 'It's quite proper for the girl to store, while eating a piece of apple ,ne, "This is yummy, but just wait till you taste the pie I bake." ' " "Oh, my," Nanay commented, ' The hook is too open. She will drive away her man." And she shook her head disapprovingly. "The Fifth Rule takes the cake for utter imbecility." "What is it?" asked Lucy ond Ju nior together. "In her conversation, o girl must '.emember that 'all her mon hos on is mind is sun ond sex' ". Tatay stopped, his face suddenly ^grown sad. Junior and Lucy knew »his serious mood of their father, ond they made no comments. Nanay put her hand on Tatay's shoulder. "Poor girl", Tatay said reflective ly, "either she's trying to be funny, or she has moved in the wrong crow^i. She seems to think that life is just a round of parties .and vacation trips, and that a husband nothing else but a dancing partner and a playmate. God forbid that such a mentality ever take hold of our Filipino girls. It is the surest way of destroying the fa mily, and with the family, our na tion . . . Junior, will you hand me Monsignor Sheens book Philosophies at Wor?" Tatay opened the book at a marked page. There was a ring of conviction in his voice as he read: "The foundation of marriage is love, not sex. Sex is physiolo gical and of the body: love is spirit ual and therefore of the will. Since the contract is rooted not in the emotions, but in the will, it fol lows that when the emotion ceases, the contract is not dis solvable, for the love of the will is not subject to the vicissitudes of passion. A life-time is not too long for two beings to become acquainted with each other, for marriage should be a series of perpetual and successive revela tions, the sounding of new depths, and the manifestation of new mysteries. At one time, it is the mystery of the other's incom pleteness which can be known but once, because capable of being completed but once; at another time, the mystery is of the other's mind; at another the mystery is of fatherhood and motherhood which before never existed; and finally there is the mystery of be ing shepherds for little sheep ushering them into the Christ Who is the door of the sheepfold." PAGING AUNTIE CLIMAX! A priest told of a Negro family in Californio which was blessed with three sets of twins. The first pair was "christened" Pete and Repete, and the second Kate and Duplicate. The third set taxed the parents' ingenuity for some considerable time, but eventually they found a solution. It was: Max and Climax! “I’ll tell the Cross... (Continued from page A) I hope for your progress as the monthly issues come out every now. and then. You may rest assured I do read every thing in the CROSS. Call me a “from-cover-to-cover” reader of The Cross. May God bless you in your work! Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus. RAY DE MEDJNA "LIKE HOT CAKES!" Diocesan Seminary of the Immaculate Conception Vigan, Ilocos Sur Sir: Our Legionaries are selling your Cross like hot cdkes! So far r>i, back copies left. More power to the Cross and its editors! Devotedly in the Lord, Anselmo G. Bustos, S.V.D. Ed.—And more power to Vigan Legionaries! "JUST FOR THE LOVE . . ." Burgos, Ilocos Sur Sir: It is with a feeling of joy that I am sending you another sub scription. May I take this occasion to ask you not to atop, sending me your wonderful magazine; you can count on me as a permanent subscriber, just for the love of your magnificent Cross-, although I may be rather late sometimes in renewing my subscription. Sincerely in Christ, (Rev.) Angel Soria Ed.—Deogratioi! 100% SUBSCRIBED Knights of Columbus Bangued Center Bangued, Abra Sir: In our recent regular meeting held March 3, 1951, it was agreed 60 APRIL, 1951 61 that we request the Cross to send us individually one copy of the magaiine. Each Knight will subscribe individually to that paper. This is in connection with our campaign for a Catholic newspaper. Respectfully, Dr. Vene Pe Benito .Voted: Rev. Carlos Breitenstein, S.V.D. EncL: List of members of the K. of C. Bangued Center. Ed.—The K. of C. Bangued Center subscribed 100%. You've got to give it to those Knights! "CAN'T GEf ALONG WITHOUT IT" Tuguegarao, Cagayan Sir; I know my subscription to The Cross is ended. Fearing that I might miss the issues to come, I am sending my renewal.... It seems I could not get along to see the coming months without your magazine. Please accept my great appreciation for your import ant task of spreading the word of God through the medium of your famous monthly—The Cross. With God's help, I hope that I will always be a recipient of your magazine. Praying for your true success, I am Sincerely yours, Marino D. Gatan ^d.—Neither can we get along without you—and each and every of our ubscribers. WONDERFUL Southern Consolidated Investments Co. Davao City Sir: Please be advised that, even if I have not renewed my subscription of The Cross through your office, my interest in reading your won derful magazine has not waned. Reason for my non-renewal is, that I am now getting my copies through the Rev. Fr. Turcotte, p.m.e. of the CYO club here in Davao City, from whom we can get the magazine at an earlier date; and for the same rate. May I take this occasion to offer my congratulations on your superb work, and offer my prayers for your continued success. Very truly gou/rs, Sergio W. Jalbuena Ed.—Thanks. 62 THE CROSS "ALL SO REAL . . Ateneo de Davdo Davao City Sir: I enjoy reading each and every article in every issue of the magazine. They are all so real I suppose, and realities published always fascinate me. Respectfully yours, Jose Melchor Velasco Ed.—The Catholic Preu mutt come to grips with reality savoring the north with the salt of Christ. NEEDED: "A LITTLE SALES TALK" Ateneo de Zamboanga Zamboanga City Sir: I am very much interested in the growth of the Catholic Press and of The Cross in particular. This is an idea I have in mind and I wonder if you would agree to the proposal. Just as the Reader’s Digest has field agents and allows them a certain commission I thought of getting some of our Ateneo students to go about the city soliciting subscriptions to The Cross and The Sentinel. There must be many people who want to subscribe but never get down to writing a letter. A little sales talk might be just the thing. During recent months some Protestants have come down here and they go from house to house selling their books; I was surprised wher I learned how innocently the uninformed people bought some of the books. Then and there I thought of combattingf their work by the spread of our Catholic Press. A commission, say of 10%, ought to attract some students and their earnings would help much towards their next year's tuition. Should you agree to this proposition, would you send some blanks and maybe a testimonial card that could be filled out? My main interest is not in providing work for the students but rather to see The Cross reach out and extend its influence over so many new readers. How successful the project would be I do not know but I think it is worth the trying. With every best wish, I remain, Sincerely in Our Lord, Rev. James A. Burke, S. J. Student Counsellor *RiL, 1951 63 —Splendid, Father! We only wish there were a thousand such proposals r all over the islands.. We are willing to try anything to bring the peoce Christ to our people. Go right ahead. And God be with your boys! "TO HEAVEN—EXCLUSIVE!" P. 0. Box 1323 I am renewing my subscription—for a life-time. Why not start a “Life-Subscription" Department! Enclosed please find the sum of P50.00 as payment for a subscripto the CROSS to cover the period from May 1951 to heaven— lusivet Rev. Charles J. Beaurms -We're starting the "Life-Subscription Dept." here and now! Thanks the suggestion. "A CRATE OF BOUQUETS" Novaliches, Q. C. A crate of bouquet^ to L. M. Gonzalez for her short-story “Monsieur d the Colegialas", a toast of champagne glasses to “Mrs. O’Reilly’s" ator—that highly-competent weaver of tales who is always hiding light under a bushel. A couple of Sl-gun salutes to your editorials, .hought they packed a lot of punch. And if it were physically pos•le, please pat P. O. Morales on the back for me for his deliriously (ightful Middle Aisle It—Now Showing. Regards to the Staff. May Our Lord prosper your work, and send only laborers but also good articles into your office. Amen. Sincerely yours in Christ, (Name Withheld) —So be it. "VALIENTE" Manicahan, Zamboanga City itinguido Sehor: Le agradeceria muy de veras me subscribiera a su benemerita vista mensual “The CROSS" y con este fin le incluyo un Money t*er. Oegeandole una amplia difusion de su valiente publication, queda de Vd. su afectisimo servidor, Peregrin Natividad MOTION PICTURE GUIDE Prepared by the Legion of Decency, a unit of the Campion Litero Guild, Sodality of Our Lady, Ateneo de Manila These ratings are to serve as a guide for one's conscience. CLASS A-l—Unobjectionable for all. Universally recommended. "Branded" "Next Voice You Hear, The" "Great Plane Robbery" "Saddle Tramp" CLASS A-11—Unobjectionable for adults. Not recommended for children. (EXCEPT IN CERTAIN CASES, ADULTS MAY VIEW THESE PICTURES WITHOUT DIFFICULTY) "American Guerilla In The Philippines" "Halls Of Montezuma" "Harvey" "Intermezzo" "Invisible Stripes" "Rimfire" "Sound Of Fury" "Storm Warning" "To Please A Lady" "Western Pacific Agent" CLASS B—Objectionable in port for all. Not recommended. "Admiral Was A Lady, The"—Reflects the acceptability of divorce. "All Quiet On The Western Front"—Suggestive sequence. "Life Of Her Own, A"—Tends to condone immoral action. "Operation Pacific"—Reflects the acceptability of divorce. "Vendetta"—Contains material morally unsuitable for enter tainment motion picture audiences. PLEDGE OF THE LEGION OF DECENCY I condemn indecent and immoral motion pictures, and those which glorif) crime or criminals. I acknowledge my obligation to form a right conscience about pictur that are dangerous to my moral life. As a member of the Legion of Decency I pledge myself to remain away from them. I promise, further, to sto> away altogether from places of amusement which show them as o mottern 64 4AKE IT A POINT ^OrS^j^DOW OF TURNING by Katherine Burton—A touching portrait ■, __t and good men, who followed the impelling sum°H anc* follow Christ. The life of Jomes Kent distinguished convert to the Catholic Church......... P6.60 i***dith B. Wilson—An autobiography of a modern, a t a very accomplished Cinderella, who writes, with apwith devotion and with profound understanding, of the democratic prince (Woodrow Wilson) she married ond the won. derful life she led with him................................................................ P2.50 IK-'-I. by Jose M. Hernandez—The life of our greatest national hero from the Catholic viewpoint. Cloth......... P7.00 Paper P5 00 IE QUEST OF BEN HERED by C. M. de Heredia, S. J., Told os fiction, with the dromotic impact of history, this is the story of a wealthy Spanish Jew who traveled to Palestine ot the time of Christ, meeting many of the fomous and infamous people of the time ........................... ........................................................... P6 60 ■OR ALL TO LIVE BY by Rev. Leo C. Sterck—This life of Christ, augmented with applications to the life of the individual, will appeal to any type of reoder. Simple, clear, and forceful, it interweaves history, dogma, theory, ond application ■ ■................ P6.05 jPE PIUS XII by Kees von Hoek—A biogrophy of the reigning Pon tiff: a deeply spiritual priest, o lovable man and one of the greatest statesmen of our time ............. P2.95 CARAVAN OF MUSIC STORIES by the World's great authors, edited by N. D. Fabricant and H. Werner—A collection of 26 memorablestories. Will be cherished by anyone who loves’ good reading.''. . -P2;5O FOUR FAVORITES by D. G. Wyndham Lewis—Studies of the personal magnetism of four historic favorites: Madame de Pompadour, Melbourne, Potemkin, and Godoy .................................................... P7.35 JOftN HENRY NEWMAN by John Moody—A beoutifully balanced account of Newmon's life and writings ............... P8.25 SHORT PLAYS OF THE PHILIPPINES edited by Jeon Edades. Eighteen selected plays all dealing with life in these islands. ..... Cloth PS.70 Paper P4.00 pTHER AND HIS WORK by Joseph Clayton—This account of Luther, the mon, incorporates a view of Europe as it was prior to and at the time of his revolt........................................ P7.70 (For mail orders, please add sufficient amount for postage} 4gina Building, 15 Banquero & Escolta, Monila, Tel. 3-22-31, Local 42 COMPLETE : DIRECT E xported . Manttfa cfarers . fxc/us/'y£ fi/sfri&u/ol " A NATIONAL INSTITUTION OF SERS/CE FROM SATANES TO SULU]