litE QyEENSYl8f~X 
3742 W cst Pine Boulevard 

ST. LOUIS, 1\10. 



Imprimi potest: 

Samuel Horine, S . ]. 

Praep. Provo Missollrianae 

. Nihil obstat: 

F. ]. Holweck 

Censor Librorum 

Imprimatur: 

>I< J oannes J . Glennon 

Archiepiscopus Sti. Ludovici 

Sti. Ludovici , die 4 Aprilis , 1932 

Sixth edition, January 1939 

ANY FINANCIAL PROFIT made by 
the Central Office of the Sodality 
will be used for the ad,lancement 
of the Sodality movement alld the 
cause of Catholic Action. 

Copyright, 1932 

THE QUEEN'S WORK, Inc. 

oeac\d\f\&Cl 



Whose Country Is This? 

A s they got into their golf clothes in the dressing room of the country club, 
Tom Floyd noticed the Shriners' pin on 
the coat lapel of his golf partner, the one 
stranger in the group. He had come with 
the best of introductions from Frank 
Hutchinson, of Oklahoma, a friend of 
Floyd's. So Floyd had arranged the four-
some, and now was glad that he had 
brought along one of his Mason friends. 

"In Oklahoma all your life?" Floyd asked 
as they ambled out to the first tee. 

"Nobody in Oklahoma has been there all 
his life," Overman, the newcomer, replied. 
"But I've been there for about twenty years, 
and that makes me practically a native son." 

"Hutchinson seems to think a lot of you." 

"Yes. We've been good friends for years. 
Grand chap and honest as the First Na-
tional Bank." 

"Doubtful compliment if I know some 
First Nationals," put in Stevens, the other 
Mason. 

"And do you know," continued Overman, 
"I never had the slightest idea he was a 
Catholic till he came back from one of 
his trips. All of a sudden he started going 
to church and even talking religion to the 
boys, and it knocked me flat. A Catholic! 
My stars! I thought all Catholics were 
Micks or Dagos." 

-1-



A quick but furtive kick in the shin pre-
vented Kelley, the other Catholic in the 
foursome, from reaching for a heavy iron. 

Un-American 

"No," said Floyd mildly; "there are a 
few Catholics who are native-born Amer-
icans." 

"Oh, I suppose so. But I've lived in 
Oklahoma long enough to know that good 
Catholics can't be good Americans. And 
though I'm a Democrat, I worked as hard 
as I could to keep AI Smith and the Pope 
out of the White House." 

"And put Hoover and depression in?" 
demanded Kelley, who avoided Floyd's 
warning look as he shot his shaft. 

"Of course," Floyd said quietly, "you 
didn't honestly think that the election of 
Smith meant the transfer of the Pope from 
the Vatican to Washing-ton, did you?" 

• 
"Not exactly," Overman agreed. "But in 

national office we want men who are 
thorough Americans, without divided alle-
giance, who have no loyalty to any foreign I 
power, who believe in American instit,utions 
and support them, and whose history proves 
their patriotism. And that lets AI Smith 
and the Catholics out." 

Postponed 

They had reached the tee, and Stevens, 
who had walked more rapidly than the 
others, proceeded to do the honors for their 
guest. Under cover of the preliminaries 
Ketley almost hissed to Floyd: 

-2-



"Are you going to let that guy get away 
with that stuff?" 

"No. But let's play our round. We'll get 
the subject on the table during dinner." 

"I'd like to take a poke at his nose." 

"Which is just the sort of argument we 
Catholics are accused of using. Keep your 
jacket on, Bill. He's just saying what he's 
heard and read a hundred times. We'll 
thrash it out while we're eating." 

As the first white ball sailed in a long, 
beautiful parabola toward the first green, 
conversation lapsed into intense concentra-
tion on the game. 

Dinner for Four 

The table was set in a corner of the 
hotel veranda opening off the main dining 
room. Cool breezes blew across the green 
links and rustled the decorations, hung in 
preparation for a party; the men sat back 
in complete relaxation. Four glasses were 
held in four lazy hands; the white mist 
that covered them added to the delightful 
sensation of coolness and rest. The waiter, 
order carefully noted, had disappeared, and 
conversation, which had leaped from hole 
to hole in postmortem discussion of im-
portant plays, lapsed. 

Though Kelley had admired the guest's 
exceptional golf, his casual comments about 
Catholics still rankled. So Kelley looked 
at Floyd appealingly in the hope that the 
subject would be resumed. Floyd caught 
the appeal and adroitly turned the conver-

-3-



s<ttiQn back to the subject of Catholics and 
patrioti s m. But he reached it over a long 

bypath,." Ghosfs and Lies 

"Another election," he said, almost as if 
to himself, "and gosh, how I dread it!" 

Election time is always rotten for busi-
ness," agreed Overman; "if even an elec-
tion could make business any rottener." 

"I wasn't thinking of business," said 
Floyd. "What I dread about national elec-
tions is the rattling of old skeletons, the 
half-forgotten lies, the slanders and brutal 
attacks, and the mud-slinging and incrimina-
tions that go along with it." 

"Oh," Stevens put in, "we're over much 
of that sort of thing in American politics." 

Floyd shook his head. "I should say not," 
he said. "And we never shall be as long 
as we have groups of men who make a busi-
ness of arousing hatred among their fellow 
men. We are going to have some months 
of dirt-and-ink slinging. Like an ignorant 
nursemaid frightening children with stories 
about the goblins and ogres who eat little 
boys and girls, the professional sower of 
hatred will tell his horrific yarns, strut his 
stock scandals, and use a time of national 
excitement to stir up suspicions, enmities, 
and distrusts ." 

"But nobody really takes it seriously," 
Stevens protested. In a few months the 
!j~citement and yarns are all forgotten." 

."Perhaps you wouldn't think that way 
about it if you happened to be a Catholic 
yourself," said Floyd. 

-4-



Overman turned about in his chair as if 
he had been hit. 

"You're not a Catholic, are you?" 
"Why, yes. Both Kelley and I are Cath-

olics." 
Overman came as near blushing as a man 

could under so well entrenched a tan. 
"I'm sorry for the things I said when 

Hutchinson's name came up." 

With Aversion 

"Oh, that's quite all right," said Floyd, 
to Kelley's intense disgust. Kelley had been 
hoping for a complete and abysmal apology. 
"In fact I'm glad the subject came up. We 
Catholics are used to all sorts of accusa-
tions. When election time comes around, 
we find ourselves regarded with suspicion 
and sometimes people avert their faces as 
they pass us in the street. 

"Election days are not particularly happy 
days for us. If a Catholic is running for 
office, he finds himself fighting, not a rival 
party, but a whispering campaign that 
touches his religion and his home life. If 
the candidate is a non-Catholic, the pro-
fessional bigot works with twisted zeal to 
link him in some damning connection with 
Catholics or Catholic influence. You know 
the sort of thing: 'His secretary is a Cath-
olic'; 'His wife's first cousin married a 
Catholic'; 'Once . he was present at a ban-
quet where the guest of honor was a Knight 
of St. Gregory'; 'He plays poker with a 
Catholic friend'; 'He contributed once to a 
Catholic charity'." 

-5-



The waiter was beginning . to serve; so 
Overman hid his embarrasSIllent in devoted 
attention to the chilled bouillon. IJe was 
an honest, sensitive person at heart and he 
was honestly vexed at himself for having 
~urt the feelings of two of his hosts. 

What's the Charge?' 

, "I hope you won't think me persiste'nt," 
Floyd went on, being most persistent eve~ 
in his apology, "but would you mind thrash-
ing this out with us? Kelley . and I <lre 
Catholics. We like to think we're decent, 
fairly patriotic citizens. We Ibve our coun-
try and are deeply grateful for what it has 
done for us. Just why is it that our Cath-
olicity is supposed to be a taint on our 
Americanism? Why does it suggest in-
capacity or ignorance, a spirit opposed to 
American life? Would you mind telling us?" 

"Personally," almost growled Kelley, "I 
don't like to think I'm a marked - down 
American, decidedly below par. And I'm 
doggoned if I can see why a man, just be-
cause he happens to be a Catholic, isn't 
quite fit for public office." 

Overman looked appealingly at his ma-
sonic friend. But Stevens waved the appeal 
aside. 

"Y ou started this." He grin~ed. "Go 
ahead and tell 'em what's been bothering 
you. They took your lic1<ing gam~ly out 
o,n the course. Sail into them , now and tell 
:em why down in Oklahoma they don't 
think Cath,olics are real Americans;" 

"Well," said Overman, almost , defiantly, 

-=-6-

j 



"I'm going to hurt your feelings. But blame 
yourselves. I'm convinced that Catholics 
can't be one-hundred-per-cent Americans. 
They have ' an allegiance to the Pope, who 
is a foreign' potentate. They are opposed 
to institutions that are essentially American, 
like the public-school system and divorce . 
A~erican history is essentially Protestant, 
not Catholic. The outstanding heroes of 
America have been Protestant. I don't for 
a minute doubt that you and Kelley 'here 
are good 'citizens and ready to ,defend your 
cO)lntry." (Kelley t,hought, almost ruefully, 
or' the deep wound in his thigh which 
would always be with him to remind him 
of Chateau-Thierry.) "But I doubt that 
Cathqlics as a body and on principle can 
be one-hundred-per-cent Amflricans. Your 
traditions, doctrines, attitudes are against 
it; and you are living now, not in Spain or 
Italy, but in America, which is firmly and 
historically non-Catholic." 

Frankness Among Friends 

It was quite a speech, and they all listened 
intently. Stevens felt that what his fra-
ternal brother said was substantially true. 
He liked his Catholic friends, but he frankl y 
distrusted their church. He had found them 
in the main honest and straightforward and 
clean, but there lurked in the dark places 
of his mind vague id eas about the Inquisi-
tion, the ghosts of St. Bartholomew's night, 
and how Catholics believed that all non-
Catholics roasted e~e'rnally, in hell. 

" 
, ,Kell ey, wh o se one meth,?d of , defending 

= ! = 



his faith was to support the Church Mili-
tant with his fists, was utterly and deeply 
indignant. Overman was glad he had it 
all out of his ' system. Floyd was the only 
one who regarded the whole matter smil-
ingly. 

"Thanks," he said. "I really appreciate 
your frankness. Do you mind if I take up 
the charges?" 

"Not at all," Overman replied, decidedly 
relieved that the two Catholics had not got 
up and left the table. "I'm an open-minded 
and, I hope, fair-minded man. (We Protes-
tants pride ourselves on our tolerance.) 
And though I think I see the problem more 
impersonally than you can, I'd be glad 
enough to hear your side." 

"Thanks," said Kelley ironically. 

"Thanks," said Floyd sincerely. 

The waiter made a deft transfer of dishes 
and the conversation was resumed. 

Catholic Roots 

"To begin with something simple," said 
Floyd, "I'll take up your statement that 
America is firmly and historically non-
Catholic. On the contrary, no country in 
the world is so thoroughly Catholic in its 
roots and origins." 

"I don't see where you get that," flared 
Overman. 

"Every great discoverer who touched the 
shores of America and brought back to the 
Old World word of the vast new continent 
was a Catholic in faith and tradition. Amer-

-8-



ica, please remember, was discovered and 
largely explored before there was such a 
thing as a Protestant Church. When the 
Catholic Columbus, backed by a Catholic 
king and queen, touched our shores, the 
date was 1492; Luther began Protestantism 
in 1521." 

"Of course," said Overman, waving this 
aside, "Columbus was a Catholic, but the 
Cabots sent out from England-" 

"-were Italian Catholics. They were 
sent out and financed by an English Cath-
olic king, Henry VII. And so were the 
entire group Catholics sent out by a Cath-
olic king; Cortez, Balboa, Magellan, and 
others who gave America to the world." 

Steven s shook his head in disagreement. 

"History "has pushed the discovery back 
long before Columbus," he said. "If Leif 
Ericsson was not the discoverer, then the 
Welsh seamen of an even earlier date 
were." 

Anti-Catholic Laws 

"And"-Floyd turned to face him-"Leif 
Ericsson was a Catholic; and so were those 
early Welsh fishermen-if they really came 
at all. Catholicity came to America certainly 
years, perhaps centuries, before Protestant-
ism was established. There is something 
tragically ironic about prejudice against 
Catholics in a land discovered, charted, ex-
plored, and given to Christendom by Cath-
olics." 

"I'll grant you the discovery," said Over-
man. "But the real development of the 

-9-



country was essentially Protestant. It was 
the English Protestants, Puritans and Epis-
copalians ,and Congregationalists who estab-
lished the Colonies .and ,at the . same ..tim~ 
laid down our mo,de'rn principles 'of : Amer-
ican freedom." "_ 

"And I'll grant you," agreed Floyd, "that 
the narrow strip along the ' seacoast was, 
from the year 1600, predominantlyProtes-
tanto But I very m1,lch question the wide 
and modern freedom established there. 
When the colonists came from ' England 
they built their villages and at the . same 
time enacted their laws against Catholics, 
Quakers, an~, all those who did , not agree 
with ' their particuI:l.r type of religion. ·Free-
€lorn was not the only consideration; anti-
Catholic laws were enacted at the same 
minute that freedom of conscience was 
granted to tho s e whose consciences agreed 
with their ideas. Practically every colony 
had fines, prison, and death for Catholics 
and their priests. Priests had a price set 
on their heads. Mass was forbidden under 
terrible penalties. Catholics were halted on 
the fringes of the Colonies and turned away 
to the often more hospitable Indians, or to 
Canada." 

Freedom in Maryland 

"Why," s aid Stevens in surprise, "I 
thought liberty o t conscience existed from 
the start ," 

"It did," Floyd replied, "in one colo'nY', 
and only one colony-the solidly Catholic 
colony of Mary land. There , the Catholic 

~'10--



governors of a Catholic population enacted, 
for the first time upon the soil of our coun-
trv. 'aws permitting freedom of worship. 
MarYland, solidly Catholic, was first in 
America to put in practice the principle 
that a man may worship God according to 
the dictates of his conscience. And as soon 
a~ Maryland came under Protestant gov-
ernors, those laws were revoked as far as 
Cathulics were concerned." 

"I didn't knuw that hefore," said Over-
man, honestly. 

Pioneers 

"Vet I'll wager you've been told it a 
dozen times. At any rate, while Prutes-
tantism was holding tight to the sea coast, 
Catholic prie s ts advanced into the wilder-
ness beyond the Alleghenies, into Florida 
and Canada and what was to be the Louisi-
ana purchase, in the hope of bringing 
Christianity and civilization to the Indians. 
In the Everglades and the forests of Maine 
and ,np rthern New York, along the water 
route.s of the Midwest, the ln,dians were 
hearing the voice of the priest at mass; and 
for preaching' Christ's name ,,· to hostile 
savages men were dying frightful martyrs' 
deaths. The only pure Americans are our 
Indians; the Catholic Church gave its best 
efforts to saving them from war and 
savagery and the extinction desired for 
them by the first colonists. 

"Vou said that America is from its be-
ginning Protestant. Well, just follow the 
footsteps of the Catholic pioneers across 

-11-

1 



faint Indian trails or down unknown rivers 
L far from the relatively safe settlements of 
I the coast. Father Marquette and Joliet, 

Champlain and DeSoto, Frontenac and 

~ 
Bienville were the advance guard of civiliza-
tion. They had a vision of a country vastly 
bigger than the narrow ribbon along the 
Atlantic. 

"The exploration of the Great Lakes, the 
discovery of the Mississippi, the founding 
of New Orleans, the extensive colonization 
of mid-America, the opening of the Pacific 
Coast, the roads through the Southwest to 
Santa Fe and beyond, were the work of 
Catholic priests and explorers. 

"} esuits in northern New York and in 
Maryland and the far south, Franciscans 
from Santa Fe along the road lined by the 
missions of California, Lazarists in New 
Orleans and the Mississippi Valley, and the 
colonists from Catholic countries who fol-
lowed them, opened up the vastly greater 
part of America. And you'll never be able 
to blot that record from our history unless 
the whole map of the country is changed. 
Study your railroad map sometime. Cathol-
icity is written in the names of American 
cities from St. Paul to St. Augustine, from 
San Francisco and Los Angeles through 
Corpus Christi, Santa Fe, and St. Louis." 

Naturally Americans 

The sun had been slowly setting back 
of the course and the sky was now laced 
with dull reds and yellows. A steward 
flashed on the porch lights, which seemed 

-12-

... 
I 

. j 



gaudy and tawdry after the soft light of 
the sunset. 

"What happened to all that Catholicity 
you claim was there when those sections 
of the country became American?" 

"The Catholicity remained, though the 
colonists pouring in from the seaboard and 
from Europe soon, in most places, greatly 
outnumbered the Catholics. But as the 
United States absorbed section after sec-
tion, though it was as solidly Catholic as 
Louisiana or the Southwest or Southern 
California, Catholics accepted American 
principles and ideals without the slightest 
reluctance. 

"When General Clark came with his ex-
pedition to conquer the French colonies 
beyond the Alleghenies, he was welcomed 
with open arms, though the Frenchmen had 
little reason for liking the American col-
onists. No blood was shed and absorption 
was absolutely peaceful when we annexed 
Catholic Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky and 
California. . These Catholics seemed to be 
Americans almost by instinct." 

Histo~y Pleads 

"I'm afraid," said Overman, "that you 
are a special pleader." 

"I think that history is doing my plead-
ing," retorted Floyd. "We Catholics are 
accused of weak patriotism, in charges 
-founded on a vague understanding of our 
-doctrines or on wild theories about them. 
:History shows us to have been Americans 

-13-



heart and soul from the stan. Bigotry ac-
cuses us of treason; history shows not a 
single instance in which we have even at-
tempted to betray our country. A mis-
understood doctrine of double allegiance 
is thrown at us, when history shows us giy-
ing our wholehearted support to our coun-
try in everyone of its c::rises. 

"N ow you'll have to forgive me if for 
a moment I seem to boast. It's really not 
boasting; it's just the effort to give you 
the facts on the attitude of Catholics to-
ward our country. 

"When the Revolution broke out, Catho-
lics :tlong the Atlantic Coast were a hand-
ful, pitifully poor, living under laws that 
restricted their liberty and penalized their 
religion. These Catholics had fled to the 
Colonies in the hope of finding there the 
religious liberty denied them in England, 
Scotland, and Ireland. Instead they found 
exact copies of the laws they had hoped 
to escape. 

"Yet, from the moment the Colonies 
broke with England, no voice dared for a 
minute to question the:: patriotism of the 
Catholic. A Catholic signed the Declara-
tion of Independence. Charles Carroll, who 
added Carrollton to his signature to make 
it easy for the Redcoats to locate him if 
the Revolution failed. 

Catholic Canada 

"You probably remember that to the 
north of us were the very unfriendly 
French-Canadian colonists, who felt that 

-14-



America had given them a shabby deal. 
The first Archbishop of Baltimore, another 
Carroll, made a personal visit to Canad1. 
and held the Canadians neutral at · a time 
they were thinking of adding their attack 
to the attacks from England. Had Catholic 
Canada remembered its old grudge and 
sided with England, the Revolutionary War 
might have ended very rapidly and with 
far different results. Archbishop Carroll's 
Catholic influence with a Catholic people 
held them neutral and saved the Colonists."' 

"That is something else you probably 
didn't know," commented Kelley. 

"You're right," agreed Overman and 
Stevens in a breath. 

Traitor and Bigot 

"There's one funny thing," Kelley contin-
ued, glad to be of some information, "that 
I happen to have read. Benedict ArnolJ 
was the outstanding anti-Catholic 'of his 
day. He made a fierce protest because there 
were so many Catholics in the Continental 
Army." 

"Incidentally his complaint proved how 
many Catholics must have enlisted under 
Washington," supplemented Floyd. 

"But isn't it funny," persisted Kelley, 
driving home his point, "that the country's 
greatest traitor should be the man who ob-
jected .to the presence of Catholics in the 
army?" 

"It is," agreed Stevens. 

"In those days the words Irish and Cath-

-15-



olic meant just about the same. So it is 
interesting to find General Robertson writ-
ing that half the Continental Army was 
Irish. Washington's secretary and aide. 
John Fitzgerald. was a Catholic. So was 
Stephen Moylan. adjutant general. quarter-
master-general. and commander of the cav-
alry. At sea the United States Navy was 
being founded by Commodore John Barry. 
Father of the Navy. And you'll not find a 
trace of Toryism among the Catholics of 
the Colonies." 

France Arrived 

"History is full of 'ifs· ... suggested Floyd. 
"We always wonder what would have hap-
pened if Napoleon had won at Waterloo. if 
Pickett's charge had turned the tide at Get-
tysburg. if the French had failed at the 
Marne. if the old Greeks had not held the 
pass at Thermopylae. But there is one 'if' 
for which we have a pretty clear answer." 

"What's that?" they asked. almost in a 
breath. 

"We pretty well know what would have 
happened if Catholic France had failed to 
throw its army and fleet to the side of the 
Colonists. When the French transports 
and warships scraped hulls off our coast. 
the Colonists were in much the same state 
as were the Allies in the World War just 
before America began to pour its men into 
the trenches. Our backs were against the 
wall and our star was sinking fast. 

~ 
"But the Catholics Lafayette. Rocham-

beau. DeGrasse. and their fellow Catholics 

-16-



came to join with Catholic Kosciusko and 
Pulaski, who had already come from Po-
lalld. And . with their coming the war was 
practically over and our cause won. It's 
amusing to remember that the Protestant 
Hessians fought · against the Colonists, 
while the Catholic French sided with the 
Colonists. We ended the Revolutionary War 
deep in the debt of Catholic France. 

"The beginnings of this country of ours 
were a great .deal more Catholic than you 
were taught to believe. And-here's some-
thing interesting, t00"7""when the national 
government was shifted from Philadelphia 
to Washington, a Catholic architect, Pierre 
Charles I'Enfant, was called in to make 
the plan for our national capital. We are 
governed from a city designed by a Cath-
olic." 

Where Have We Failed? 

"The Revolution," said Overman, almost 
inaudibly, "was a long time ago." 

"Yes," replied Floyd; "at the beginning 
of our present national life. And Catholics 
were in it heart and soul. But if I've spent 
a lot · of time on the Revolut·ion, it's just 
because what Catholics did then they have . 
done every time there has been a national 
crisis. Bigots accuse us with the vaguest 
of charges. We answer simply: 'Show us 
a single time we have been traitors or failed 
as patriots. Never mind what might hap-
pen. Look at what actually has happened 
during the. ISO years. of our history.' 

"The years before the Civil War were 

-17-



often bitter ones for Catholics. The Know-
Nothing Party made hatred of Catholics 
a national issue. Catholic convents a.nd 
churches were burned and cannon were 
trained on a Catholic cathedral. It was not 
easy or pleasant to be " Catholic when 
hatred of Catholics flamed across the land, 
fed by the most unscrupulous agitators. 

"But when the Civil War came, all that 
was forgotten. Catholics furnished, beyond 
their quota, men and money. Solij Irish-
American Catholic regiments went out to 
war. General Meagher's famous Irish Brig-
ade had 4,000 killed in action. Forty Catho-
lics attained the rank of general, with such 
men as Phil Sheridan and General Rose-
crans at their head. And in the Confed-
erate army General Beauregard stands out 
as the perfect type of fine officer and 
staunch Catholic gentleman. 

First and Last 

"The charge of . a lack of patriotism is 
easy to make. The Ku Klux Klan, of which 
you may have heard down in Oklahoma, 
dared to make it after the Great War, in 
which one of the first three soldiers killed 
in action was a Catholic, Thomas F. En-
right; the first officer killed was a Catho-
lic, Lieutenant William T. Fitzsimons, and 
the last officer killed was a Catholic priest, 
Chaplain William F. Davitt. 

"Almost 900,000 names of Catholics were 
listed in the army and navy. We had twen-
ty-five Catholic generals, including General 
Robert Lee Bullard, commander of the 

-18-



First Division, G e neral Hugh A. Drum, 
chief of staff to General Pers hing at St. 
Mihiel, and General James W. McAndres, 
in command of the General Staff Coll ege 
in France." 

In Time of Peace 

Overman looked up from his dinner lon g 
tnough to enter a mild defense of himself. 
"I've never tor a moment thought Catho -
lics lacked courage. There were too many 
Catholics in my outfit in France to leave 
me any doubts about that. And I remember 
the K. C.'s with considerable gratitude. But 
I don't think that war is the supreme te s t 
of patriotism. The big question is, What 
does a group of people do for a country 
day after day, year after yea·r?" 

"We are certainly more than willing, we 
Catholics, to meet you on those grounds. 
As a group we think we do our share to-
ward the peace and happiness of our coun-
try. Certainly, in proportion to our num-
bers , we are throughout America doing our 
share to relieve the misfortunes of our fel-
low men. 

"Look around any city, large or small, 
in the United States and see the buildings 
marked with the Catholic cross. They are 
the foundling hom es where babies without 
parents ca pable of caring for them are 
taken in and given a mother's love in the 
arms of Sisters. Orphanages carry boys 
and girls safely through youth into decent 
homes, honorable trades, or married life. 
We have built and maintain some of the 

-19-



most magnificent hospitals in the country, 
and care for the mentally afflicted and th.e 
incurable. We have our refuges for the 
young woman who has fallen and does not 
know where to turn. We have homes , for 
the aged. Our St. Vincent de Paul char-
ity work and the work of our nursing sis-
ters carry Christ's presence into the homes 
of the poor. Which of these things makes. 
us the menace to the country we are some-
times supposed to be? 

"A church cannot be much ot' a peril to 
a country when it holds up before its wom-
en the ideal of the Madonna and tells them 
to be pure as she was and devoted mothers 
after her example. It certainly does not 
harm the manhood of a land to hold up to 
men as their 'ideals those honest carpen-
ters of Nazareth, Christ and Joseph, and the 
long line of saints who lived and died for 
God and humanity. 

Sanity and Stability 

"In these days of crack-brained theories 
and perpetual and dangerous tampering 
with everything sacred in human life, from 
marriage and home and children to the 
complete abolition of private property, it 
seems to me that the Catholic Church is 
making just about the most important con-
tribution to the stability of our nation and 
our government." 

"What do you mean?" demanded Over-
man. 

"The Catholic Church keeps insisting with 
absolute authority on the sacredness of the 

-20-



home and the sanctity of marriage. It 
keeps fighting for the right of little chil-
dren to be born, when theorizers are de-
manding laws that would mean the falling 
of our birth-rate and the gradual elimina-
tion of our more cultured groups. It de-
mands that employers treat their employees 
with justice and honesty, listing among the 
greatest of sins the crime of defrauding 
a man of his just wage. On the other hand 
it also insists that employees, whether in 
shop or factory, in store or office, give 
an honest day's work in return for their 
salary or wage. 

"And in the confessional the priest must 
see to it that Catholics live up to these im-
portant elements that make for the stabil-
ity and justice of a nation's life. 

No Radicals Here 

"You won't find Catholics in the ranks 
of socialists and communists, running up 
the red flag and oeclaring for the destruc-
tion of our constitution and a man's right 
to own anything. You won't find Catholics 
in the wildly radical groups, whatever the 
type of radicalism. 

"And though we Catholics dread the 
thought of war and realize that war in the 
future, thanks to modern invention, will be 
terrible beyond imagining, you have not 
heard any Catholic going on record as say-
ing that he would refuse to take tip arms 
to defend our country if it were unjustly 
attacked. We love peace and are working 
for peace. But we have left to non-Catho-

-21-



lies the un-American attitude of refusing 
to defend our land even if the enemy were 
pounding with battleships at the doors of 
New York and San Francisco. And I'll call 
your attention to the fact that more than 
a few ministers of other denominations 
have said they would do just that." 

Constitution Foreseen 

There was a' moment's pause as once 
more the waiters performed their feats of 
agreeable sleight-of-hand. 

"Yet, surely, you cannot say," protested 
Overman at last, "that the Catholic Church, 
as a church, is friendly to American prin-
ciples." 

"If you will go back to Suarez, one of 
the greatest theologians of the Catholic 
Church, a man held in highest esteem by 
that church, you will find the principles that 
underlie our American government, its con-
stitution and its democracy, laid down by 
him with prophetic approval. And he wrote 
two hundred years before the Declaration 
of Independence. 

"You cannot find a line written by any 
Pope that has in any way thrown dispar-
agement upon essential American prin-
ciples. On the contrary the Catholic Church 
has never declared that any form of govern-
ment was exclusively right. It has been 
equally at home in absolute and limited 
monarchies, in aristocracies and democra-
cies, in empires and republics. So long as a 
government is justly established, the Cath-
olic Church recognizes its right to govern. 

-22-



And it is extremely slow to recognize the 
lawfulness of a revolution. Only the grav-
est and most serious reasons allow citizens 
to rise against a government justly estab-
lished. 

"For that reason the Church is one of 
the most powerful forces back of stable 
government. If it defends the stability of 
home and marriage and private property, it 
defends with equal vigor the stability of 
just governments. No state has the slightest 
thing to fear from the Church as long as it 
serves the best interests of its citizens and 
simple justice and right." 

Divided Allegiance? 

"It seems to me," said Overman, "that 
you are dodging the most important point 
in the charges against the Catholic Church. 
You are losing sight of the fact that a 
Catholic cannot be wholly devoted to his 
country. He must divide his allegiance 
between his country and the Pope, a for-
eign monarch. And if, once he is in public 
office, the Pope were to give him orders, 
he would be obliged to obey. He has no 
right to public office while such a possi-
bility exists. Can a man be a fully loyal 
citizen when he has this divided allegiance?" 

Floyd smiled at his questioner. "The 
first answer to that question is an answer 
of fact. The United States government 
has been in existence for almost 150 years. 
Tell me one instance in which Catholics 
have shown a divided allegiance between 
their country and their church. We have 

-23-



had thousands of public officials in the 
United States, ranging from sheriffs to 
Chief Justices of the United States. Give 
me a single case in which anyone of them 
has received an order from the Pope that 
in any way affected his office. Give me any 
single instance where Catholics have had 
to choose between loyalty to country and 
loyalty to Pope. Tell me one order issued 
by the Pope that even slightly weakened 
our patriotism." 

Floyd looked around quietly. Both of his 
non-Catholic friends shifted in their chairs. 

Not Once 

"Well," said Overman ' at last, "I don't 
know history verY "wf;!II." 

Floyd laughed. , "Do you imagine for ;) 
moment that if a thing of that sort had 
ever happened you'd have to blow the dust 
off a history to find it? It would be shouted 
from the housetops. It would be blazoned 
in the headlines of every anti-Catholic 
paper. Franklin Ford and bigots of his 
lying type would scream it by radio. But 
they have nothing to scream, for in 150 
years there has never been even a slight 
conflict and the Pope has never once issued 
an order that affected a United States 
official as an official. And if this hasn't 
happened for 150 years, we can be pretty 
safe for the future. 

"Even when we fought Catholic Spain, 
American Catholics leaped to arms on the 
side of America, and the Pope issued no 
orders to us Catholic Americans as we went 

-24-



out to smash the ancient fleets of the king 
known as His Most Catholic Majesty. 

"But when you talk about a man being 
wholly devoted to his country, you're talk-
ing nonsense. No man is. He divides his 
loyalty among a number of things . He is 
loyal to his family, to his fraternal organ-
ization, to his business and the partners in 
that business, to his college, to his friends. 
And he is loyal to his country because it 
makes safe his enjoyment of the other 
loyalties as well. 

F x;ee dom of Conscience 

"But to insist upon a blind, exclusive 
loyalty to any country is simply to destroy 
the freedom of conscience of which Protes-
tants were once so fond." 

"Now I don't follow you at all," said 
Overman. 

"If exclusive loyalty to any country were 
es sen tial, there never would have been any 
Protestantism. Protestants became Protes-
tants by being flatly disloyal to their coun-
try and its laws." 

"That I deny." 

"Yet it is a fact. Catholicity was written 
into the constitutional law and the common 
law of England, Germany, France, the 
Scandinavian countries, all the nations of 
Europe. It was part of the -civil code. 
Protestants could only 'come into existence 
by defying that law, changing it where pos-
sible, and utterly disregarding or escaping 
fr o m it where it could not be changed. 

-25-



"In England it was changed. But the 
Puritans set up a government that defied 
the Established Church, then Protestant 
Episcopal, of England. The Pilgrim Fathers 
left their country because they objected to 
the type of religion demanded of . them by 
law. So did the Huguenols of France. 
Some Germans claimed that Catholicity 
should remain a part of the state law of 
the German nations; some Germans de-
manded that it be removed. They fought 
for thirty years to see which would prevail. 

"If the Protestant reformers had in the 
beginning acted on the principle 'My coun-
try, may she always be right; but right or 
wrong, my country,' they would have stayed 
Catholic. since Catholicity was the law of 
the land. On the contrary. they demanded 
freedom of conscience. the right to do 
something their countries forbade; and 
where they did not succeed, they packed up 
and left for other lands. 

No Tyranny , Is Right 

"N 0 man is such a fool as to say. 'I'll 
obey my country and be loyal to it even if 
it turns into a tyrant and robs me of my 
constitutional rights.' Right here on the ~ 
table before us, I regret t,o say, is an asser-
tion of our American love of freedom of 
conscience." 

Floyd picked up his more than half empty 
glass and motioned with it to the three 
other glasses on the table. 

"The Constitution of the United States 
forbids me to buy or sell or use the con-

-26-



tents of this glass. You and r and millions 
of others, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, 
who don't approve of that law and think it 
hampers .our rights , as , human beings, are 
exerclsmg 0 u r freedom , oi' -conscience, 
rightly or wrongly, and drin'king when and 
where we can. If that pl'inciple, "but ,right 
or ' wrong, my country! were .. a trll.e one, we 
would all be the objects of the deep dislike 
oraW real Americans:' 

Catholics Hold 

The three other men laughed a trifle 
sheepishly. 

"Let me tell you what the Catholic 
Church actually teaches about this divided 
allegiance, and you'll see that it is not a 
menace to American .life but a positive pro-
tection of a man's highest privilege, the 
privilege of freedom of conscience." 

They all looked at him intently. 

"First of all, the Catholic Church insists 
that its members obey all just laws. It 
believes in Christ's principle, 'Render to 
Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' 

~'Then ·the Pope has no right to give any 
command to us American citizens which 
does not bear upon faith or morals. If 
he tells me that Jesus Christ is the Son of 
God, I accept what he says. But if he tells 
me to elect AI Smith ,or I, Herbert Hoover 
or Cardinal HayesdJ're:sident of the United 
States, 'i I can simply , ignore and ' I would 
ignore his order. He has no rights there. 
I might :< Tegard his -. advic.e as I would'dre-

- '27-



gard the advice of any other man who had 
his world outlook; but as Pope he has 
nothing to say about how I vote or for 
whom. He can te'll me not to eat meat on 
the Wednesdays of Lent or to pay my just 
debts to the last penny. That is in his 
right. But he cannot teB me to vote for or 
against an income tax or to change my 
vote from the Democratic to the Republican 
Party or to side with Japan against China. 
Purely civil and political matters are out 
of his field. Only faith and morals are his 
province, and I obey him only there." 

"Ah," subsumed Stevens, taking the side 
of his friend, "and that is just the point. 
Faith and morals are questions on which 
divided allegiance constantly arises." 

Others Disobey 

"Perhaps. But your allegiance is just as 
divided as mine, if you are the honest man 
I think you." 

"How do you make that out?" almost 
flared Stevens. 

"Because if the United States Govern-
ment, with the backing of the whole Su-
preme Court, ordered you to act against 
your conscience and do something you felt 
to be wrong, you'd refuse fo obey. If, let's 
say, it ordered you to kill a sick child or 
poison a weB during the course of war or 
steal from your partner, you'd refuse point-
blank. Your conscience is dearer to you 
even than your country. And you would 
.obey your conscience. 

"Don't forget that recently we have heard 

-28-



much applause for the type of ministers 
who have said that, if the Government 
ordered them to go to war, they would 
flatly refuse. They have put conscience 
above country and are ' being, in cert a in 
Protestant quarters, warmly praised for it. 

No Conflict 

"Now in all the nineteen hundred years 
since Christ established the Papacy upon 
the Rock of St. Peter, the Popes have never 
commanded anything that conflicted with 
the law of a nation unless the law of the 
nation commanded something that was 
flatly wrong and against conscience. If 
America ever puts through a law that 
violates justice or human rights or morality, 
the Pope may conceivably forbid Catholics 
to obey. But he won't ne ed to forbid them. 
Their consci ences will already have for-
bidden them. 

"Don't forget that if the principle of obey-
ing the state no matter what it commands 
had been practiced there would never have 
been any Christia nity. The Roman Empire 
forbade the Christian Church, ordered men 
and women to offer incense to the statues 
of the gods and worship pagan deities with 
lustful rites. The law was wrong. The 
consciences of the Christians, backed by the 
commands of the Popes, would not permit 
them to obey. They refused obedience and 
through martyrdom established the Chris-
tian Church throughout the world." 

Stevens looked particularly thoughtful. 
Overman, however, had an argument he 

-29-



was saving. "You forget that since t,he 
Vatican State has been ,established the Pope 
is a temporal monarch too. By giving your 
ob,edience to l),im" no matter in what HI)"e, 
you are giving your allegiance to a ruler ',Qf 
another nation." 

Pope as King 

"I see," replied Floyd., "But you've got 
that badly muddled. 'As Pope the HolY 
Father' is spiritual head of the' world. ' Ch';ist 
gave him ~ommand over all Christians when 
He gave him the shepherding of His' flock ; 
'Feed my lambs ; feed my sheep.' 'But 'as 
head of the Vatican State he is temporal 
ruler of those people only who live in it'. 
So the laws that he makes for them do 
not in the , least affect us in America. And 
if in the course of a world war, for exampl~, 
by some queer twist of circumstances the 
Vatican State were to side with the nations 
opposed to the United States, we Catholics 
would go out and fight against the Pope's 
tiny little army just as we would against 
that of any nation. He commands us in 
spiritual things. He is temporal ruler 
merely over the people who live in Vatica~ 
City." 

Catholic Opposition 

Cars were beginning to curve up the long 
drive that led to the club house. The young 
people were taking over the club, and from 
the main dining room (now clea,red of 
tables) came the sound of the prelim.inary 
trills and scales of an orchestra. 

"You said something abouh us ,Catholics 

-30-



being opposed to American institu.tions," 
Floyd suggested. 

"And there I know I'm right. You are 
opposed to the public school, heart and 
soul. And, you know, we Masons are 
pledged to support it with all our power." 

Public Schools 

"First of all," Floyd answered, "don't 
forget that public schools are ' not,the 
original schools of America. Private schools 
existed long before public schools were 
thought of, and Americans, for the first 
fifty years of our national life, were edu-
cated in them. Public schools began to de-
velop in the thirties, and private schools 
have continued to remain an important part 
of our educational system-beginnin g with 
some of our largest and most famous uni-
versities and continuing down to privately 
owned and controlled kindergartens. We 
Catholics are not the only ones who think 
that parents have a right to pick the school 
their children shall attend. 

"I want you to remember, too, that we 
Catholics own the public schools quite as 
much as you Masons do . We pay our taxes; 
our sons and daug hters teach in the system ; 
we are as heartily in favor of education as 
you are, 

"But we also believe that we have a right 
to , send our own childre n to schools in 
which God is acknow) ,edge <l, and hOllored. 
We hold that children belong t,o.,the, parents, 
not to the state. And like the other m il-
lions , who send their children to priy atl; 

-31-



;chools, we know that education, and not 
necessarily public education, is essentially 
American, that we have a right to see that 
our children are taught about the Creator 
of the world as they are taught about the 
world itself, and that we, and not the state, 
control the destinies of our little ones. 

Divorce 

"You mentioned divorce, didn't you? Yes, 
the Catholic Church is -opposed to divorce, 
and so are its m em bers. We have not for-
go tten what Christ said about a man who 
put away his wife and married another. 
But we're not the only ones opposed to it. 
The State of South Carolina recognizes no 
divorce. Does that make the citizens of 
South Carolina un-American? If those who 
are no t Catholics recognize divorce, we are 
sorry a nd disagree with them. But we do 
not interfere. 

"Persecuting Catholics" 

"Yet don't you honestly think," Stevens 
put in, "that if we had Catholics in control 
of th e country persecution would be g in 
agai n ?" ., 

Floyd la ug h ed. "Persecution is not an 
essentially Catholic practice. You have for-
gotten th a t En g land hanged, drew, and 
quartered Catholic priests, and that Calvin 
burned Servetus at the stake. And if you'll 
look around the world today, you'll find 
that persecution is being waged, not by the 
Catholics, but against Catholics. Orange 
Belfast has its death-to-the-Pope parades; 

-32-



the Catholic Free State has the freest wel-
come for Protestants. Catholics are being 
persecuted in Mexico and Russia; atheistic 
mobs are burning Catholic convents and 

schoo ls in Spain. Restrictive laws still exist 
against Catholics in some of the Scandi-
navian countri es. And you'll scarcely find 
a vestige of persecution in even the most 
thoroughly Catholic country. 

"When persecution raged in Catholic 
countries. the countries were solidly Cath-
olic and the Catholic religion was written 
into the law of the land. To act against 
that religion was to break a law as one 
would break a law by theft or arson. The 
p ersecution s were conducted to keep heresy 
with its wars and disunion out of the coun-
try. The Inquis ition in Spain acted against 
Moors and Jews who professed to be Cath-
olics so that they might burrow from within 
and bring back the Mohammedan rulers 
who had held Spain captive so long. They 
were traitors to country just as much as 
they were traitors to faith, and they were 
punished as traitors are punished every-
where. 

"Y ou need not fear Catholic persecution . 
It's just an ancient and weary ghost out o f 
the past." 

Rooted in Ignorance 

A waiter presented the check, and Floyd, 
with a quick gesture, signed it. 

"Well," said Overman, "I'll have to tell 
my friend Hutchinson that I talked reli-

-33-



gion to you for hours, or rather that I 
listened to you talk religion." 

"Have I bored you?" 

"N o. You've really not. I think I've 
learned a lot." 

Floyd looked down and then looked 
straight at his guest. "May I say that prac-
tically all the prejudice and misunderstand-
ing and bigotry we suffer from is simply the 
result of ignorance?" He held up his hand 
to forestall a protest. "Please understand 
me. It's an inevitable ignorance. We have 
been lied about most atrociously. I remem-
ber reading in a bitter anti-Catholic journal 
that everyone of our assassinated 'Presi-
d'ents was killed by a Catholic, when as a 
matter of fact no Catholic had anything to 
do with any of the assassinations. During 
the Smith campaign, the whisperers had 
the Pope arriving in Washington the day 
after election. The Pope has not left Rome 
for fifty years and would no more think of 
coming to Washington than he would think 
of transferring the Vatican to a Labrador 
trapper's hut. 

"Our teachings are deliberately distorted 
by our enemies. Vague charges are piled 
up until it seems that there must be some 
foundation for them. Enough mud is thrown 
to give basis to the hope that some of it 
will stick. While this is going on, friends 
are separated and embittered, small shop-
keepers feel their patronage falling away, 
little children are taught to hate one an-
other. and Catholic men and women walk 

-34-



surro"unded by a chill atmosphere of sus-
picion and dislike. 

Weary of Lies 

"Catholics discovered America. Catholics 
fou·ght and died in every American war in 
numbers beyond their actual obligations. 
We love our country and are deeply grate-
ful for the freedom and opportunity we 
have found here. We give it our best serv-
ice. If there are Catholics who are grafting 
politicians in New York, there are non-
Catholic s who are grafting politicians in 
Philadelphia and Chicago. Believe me, no 
grafting politician dares tell his graft in 
confe ss ion and hope for absolution unless 
he promises to restore what he has stolen. 

"We're not cowards, but we are weary 
of the fe eble, ancient lies thrown at us and 
the stupid doubts of our patriotism that 
re s t, not upon history or facts, but upon 
old wives' tales and the shameless lying 
of professional bigots who make a fortune 
out of their attacks upon the Catholic 
Church as dope peddlers grow rich selling 
opium to ignorant addicts. 

"We find it just a little odd that our 
patriotism should be questioned. when the 
patriotism of Seventh Day Adventists and 
Holy Rollers and Moravians and German 
Lutherans and Chri s tian Scientists is ac-
cepted without question. 

Facts Prove 

"If we have proved traitors, we deserve 
the treatment accorded to traitors. But 

-35-



where have we ever failed? If our theonef> 
and principles are detrimental to the i public 
good, show us how this is the case? Does 
it hurt the country to follow Christ, to be-
lieve in pure womanhood, to accept the 
spiritual leadership of the Popes who led 
all Europe out of pa g anism, to practice 
universal charity, to stand for the sanctity 
of home and family, to preach honesty to 
employees and justice to employers, to ac-
cept the principle that just government is 
from God and that we have the double 
obligation of giving to Caesar the things 
that are Caesar's and to God the things 
that are God's? 

"No one can answer lies as fast as they 
can be uttered. We have been overwhelmed 
with lies . Our answer to those lies is the 
blood of our men and the purity of our 
women. We love America even when our 
fellow Americans distrust us. Weare 
patriots even when our patriotism is ques-
tioned. We have never failed our country. 
Please God, we never shall." 

They rose, shook hands around, sent 
messages to mutual friends, and departed. 

A few days later, on Floyd's desk rested 
a small package postmarked from Okla-
homa. He tore open the wrappings and 
found a small silk flag and with it a card 
and a brief message. 

"Put the flag up somewhere on your 
wall," it read. "Somehow, Mason though 
I am, you convinced me that it is very safe 
in Catholic hands." 

And the signature was Overman's. 

-36-



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