THE CATHOLIC HOUR

CHRISTIANITY AND

INTERRACIAL JUSTICE

iUG 2

The seventh in a series of addresses by prominent Catholic laymen

entitled “THE ROAD AHEAD,” delivered in the Catholic Hour, broad-
cast by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with the
National Council of Catholic Men on July 21, 1946, by G. Howland Shaw,
former Assistant Secretary of State. After the series has been concluded

on the radio, it will be made available in one pamphlet.

National Council of Catholic Men

Washington, D. C.



K\

CHRISTIANITY AND INTERRACIAL JUSTICE
In his first Encyclical after

his election Pope Pius XII de-

clared :

“Those who enter the Church,

whatever be their origin or their

speech, must know that they

have equal rights as children in

the House of the Lord, where

the Law of Christ and the peace

of Christ prevail.”

And again in a magnificent

passage of that most magnificent

of recent Encyclicals, “The Mys-

tical Body of Christ,” the same

Pope says:

“Men may be separated by na-

tionality and race, but Our Sav-

ior poured out His blood to re-

concile all men to God through

the Cross and to bid them all

unite in One Body. He has

taught us not only to have love

for those of a different nation

and a different race, but to love

even our enemies. We chant the

length, the width, the height,

the depth of the Charity of

Christ which neither diversity

of race or culture, neither the

wasteless tracts of ocean, nor

wars, be their cause just or un-

just, can ever weaken or de-

stroy.”

We read or hear such words.

We admire them. We say to
ourselves: Yes, that is what I

believe* And then we forget

them. Rather should these words

make us hang our heads in

shame so great is the distance

between that in which we claim

to believe and a state of things

radically at variance with those

beliefs for which we cannot

escape responsibility. It is a

convenient alibi to say that in-

dividuals guilty of acts contrary

to interracial justice and charity

have blundered or were tactless,

but they would not have blunder-

ed or been tactless if you and I

translated our Christian beliefs

into practice. And it is easy too

to say that these things are very

unfortunate, but that there must

be a long process of education

before they can be changed.

That puts our consciences effect-

ively to rest and relieves us of

any compulsion for immediate

action.

What are we Christians to

do?

There are three important

things we must do as individ-

uals. Let us at least know just

what Christianity teaches with

respect to race relations. That

is basic. And then let us get

some clear picture of what the

interracial problem is in this

country at the present time.

There are countless excellent

books, pamphlets and magazine



articles on the subject and they

are readily available. They can

be supplemented by first hand

observation. But we should go

further than study and observa-

tion. We should make every

effort to get beyond such facts

as high infant mortality, poor

schooling and worse housing and

discrimination of all sorts and

in the measure that such is pos-

sible feel with the victim of dis-

crimination as he or she faces

the conditions of living. There

must be at least some real emo-

tional identification.

There is a final stage in this

preparation of the individual

Christian. The human mind is

curiously liable to function in

water tight compartments and

there are undoubtedly many

Christians who keep their theol-

ogy in one compartment and

such knowledge of the inter-

racial problems as they possess

in a quite different and very

much separated compartment.

Christian teaching and the reali-

ties of that problem must be con-

sciously compared and the in-

compatibility between them

vividly understood. That is the

conclusion at which we must in-

dividually arrive before we can

effectively participate in any use-

ful program of action in the in-

terracial field.

There are many such pro-

grams. There is The Interracial

Council organized on a religious

basis. Today there are Catholic

Interracial Councils in New

York, Detroit, Los Angeles,

Washington, Brooklyn and Chi-

cago. They bring together Negro

and white Catholics to know

each other, to pray and to work

together and to study the im-

plications of their faith with re-

spect to race relations. The

members of the Washington

Council, for instance, pledge

themselves

:

“1. To act with equal justice,

courtesy and consideration to-

wards white and colored, Jew

and Christian.

2. To condemn any discrimi-

natory practice.

3. To fight any interior bit-

terness that may have resulted

from past and present experi-

ences or racial prejudices.

4. To do all in my power to

obtain the acceptance of these

principles by others.”

To implement this pledge the

members of the Washington

Council have prepared and use

a very specific examination of

conscience.

Young children are naturally

tolerant and unaware of racial

and national differences

Through adult influence the;



grow into intolerance and be-

come aware of these differences

and they are led into the un-

christian interpretation which

many adults place upon them.

The role of the school therefore

in correcting racial and national

tensions is of paramount impor-

tance and has received wide rec-

ognition. However, a greater

stress must be placed on inter-

cultural relations in our school

systems, for American and

Catholic principles demand a

marked emphasis on interracial

justice in the curricula of those

schools such, for example, as is

found in the Archdiocese of

New York, where a very com-

plete syllabus of inter-cultural

education was prepared well

over a year ago by the Office of

the Superintendent of Schools

and Fordham University. Dur-

ing the past scholastic year it

has been in use in one third of

the parish schools of the Arch-

diocese. The results have been

highly satisfactory and at the

opening of the school year next

autumn the syllabus, revised and

made more concrete as a result

of teaching experience, will be in

use in all of the parish elemen-

tary schools of the Archdiocese.

In the field of higher educa-

tion there are also significant

moves to record, Fordham Uni-

versity, for instance, at its

School of Social Service has of-

fered during the past year a

course in “Community Organiza-

tion and Cultural Relations” and

St. John's University in Brook-

lyn has given its students the

opportunity to enroll in a course

in “Interracial Problems and the

Principles of the Encyclicals."

The School of Social Studies

founded in Chicago by Bishop

Sheil has likewise made a not-

able contribution along similar

lines.

Two weeks ago, under the aus-

upices of the Social Action De-

partment of the National Catho-

lic Welfare Conference, and with

the ardent support and personal

interest of the Apostolic Dele-

gate, a Seminar on the Negro

Problem was held in Washing-

ton. For four days a group of

leaders, clerical and lay, Negro

and white, discussed all aspects

of the problem and arrived at a

series of recommendations to

stimulate as well as to guide

Catholic action in this field.

It is notorious that racial ten-

sion thrives upon rumors. Deal-

ing with such rumors is, of

course, a negative approach but

it has its value and importance.

As an example may be cited a

practice followed by the Back

of the Yards Neighborhood



Council in Chicago. The Coun-

cil has taken a particularly ser-

ious view of the danger of irre-

sponsible rumors. On one occa-

sion not so long ago a rumor to

the effect that Negroes were

causing disturbances on street

cars was gaining wide local cre-

dence. Three priests, after care-

ful investigation, as a result of

riding the street cars, discovered

that the rumor was unfounded

and so reported from the pulpits

of their respective churches on

the following Sunday.

These are samples of Chris-

tian programs in the interracial

field, but there is one more as-

pect of the problem which must

not be forgotten. Events of the

past few years have shown that

the time has passed when the

world of color could be pushed

aside and classified as inferior,

colonial or uncivilized. That

world is in process of taking its

rightful place in contemporary

life. The process may be long,

but it is well advanced. From a

Christian and a Catholic point

of view it should- present no diffi-

culties, religious or intellectual.

Catholics do not always realize

how Catholic the Catholic

Church really is. They are

those who are astonished when

they are told that the Church,

besides Latin, recognizes Greek,

Armenian, Syriac, Slavonic and

Coptic as liturgical languages

and that the rites in these lan-

guages are protected to the point

of decreeing excommunication

for everybody who encourages a

person of an Eastern rite to pass

to the Latin rite. They have

also perhaps failed to grasp

fully the meaning of certain im-

portant acts of the present Pope

:

His consecration of twelve Bish-

ops of different races and na-

tionalities in St. Peter's as one

of the first acts of his pontificate,

the creation of thirty-two Car-

dinals representing nineteen dif-

ferent nationalities, including

the Chinese, and most recently

the change of status of the

Catholic Church in China from

the missionary category to one

of equality with the Church in

the United States and Europe.

When we are considering

what we as Christians should do

in efforts to solve the interracial

problem, let us never forget that

we shall not be judged by the

prudence we display nor by the

skill with which we compromise,

but by that part of our convic-

tions which we translate into

action and with which we chal-

lenge the world.





i



THE CATHOLIC HOUR
1930—Seventeenth Year—1946

The nationwide Catholic Hour was inaugurated on

March 2, 1930, by the National Council of Catholic Men

in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company

and its associated stations. Radio facilities are provided

by NBC and the stations associated with it; the pro-
gram is arranged and produced by NCCM.

The Catholic Hour was begun on a network of 22

stations, and now carries its message of Catholic truth

on each Sunday of the year through a number of sta-

tions varying from 90 to 110, situated in 40 states, the

District of Columbia, and Hawaii. Consisting usually

of an address, mainly expository, by one or another of

America's leading Catholic preachers—though some-
times of talks by laymen, sometimes of dramatizations

—and of sacred music provided by a volunteer choir,
the Catholic Hour has distinguished itself as one of the

most popular and extensive religious broadcasts in the

world. An average of 100,000 audience letters a year,
about twenty per cent of which come from listeners of

other faiths, gives some indication of its popularity and

influence.

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