THE CATHOLIC HOygL29l94t

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

BY

G. HOWLAND SHAW
Former Assistant Secretary of State

The fifth in a series of addresses by prominent Catholic laymen
entitled 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 7, 1946, by G. Howland ^haw,
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.



EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

In a booklet entitled ^'Religion

and the Professional Man** Arch-

bishop Cushing of Boston has

written these stirring words

:

‘‘Our Blessed Lord constantly

illustrated his concept of the

spiritual life by striking phrases

suggestive not of repose or las-

situde, but of energetic action,

heroic struggle and dynamic vi-

tality. They miss the whole

point of the Faith who permit

it to become a refuge from real-

ity. Religion must never play

the part of a mere policeman in

our lives
;
it must be the dynam-

ic, positive impelling center.”

There are, however, the Arch-

bishop goes on to point out, many

persons who claim to be relig-

ious but who “live in the past”

and make of religion “a secret

bjnvay to the sweet peace of res-

ignation from life’s challenge

and turmoil.” They have lost all

sense of the radicalism of Chris-

tianity, of the revolutionary im-

pact of its tenets upon the indi-

vidual soul and upon society as a

whole.

What, for instance, could more

properly be described as revolu-

tionary in its nature and in its

effects than the Christian belief

that each and every human being

is of infinite value and signifi-

cance and in the language of the

preamble to the Declaration of

Independence, is endowed by his

Creator with certain inalienable

rights? And yet while we Chris-

tians often repeat such words

how weakly, with how much un-

certainty do We translate them

into action. As a result the

Christian Church is far too often

made to appear as on the side of

conservatism and many Chris-

tians would be shocked at the

mere suggestion that there is

anything revolutionary in the

beliefs which they profess.

At least in Europe there are

signs that words such as those

of Archbishop Cushing are be-

ing heeded. In a recent article in

a Catholic periodical C'What I

Saw in France,** C. H. Bishop,

The Commonweal, Vol. XLIV

No. 6) the Church in France is

described as “a springboard

from which Christians go out

into the world to bring Christ

everywhere, to be other

Christs.” And the recent im-

pressive victories of Christian

Democratic Parties are to be

noted as a particularly hopeful

factor in the picture of contem-

porary Europe. These parties

stand for economic and social

reforms very much to the left

of center but these reforms are

derived from traditional relig-



ious and philosophical principles

and from the social teachings of

Papal Encyclicals from "‘Rerum

Novarum’’ to ‘‘Quadragesimo

Anno.’^

With us in this country the

story is different. There are

many reasons.

An obvious one immediately

comes to mind. We have not

passed through the crucible of

suffering and destruction

through which Europe has pass-

ed and is passing. We face no

such compelling task of recon-

struction from the foundations.

We are not forced by the impact

of events to go back to first prin-

ciples and start from scratch in

re-applying them. We can still

believe in the genial opportunism

of the politician and the conven-

ient doctrine that something can

be worked out somehow. There

are other reasons.

We—and I am now speaking
of Christians in general and of

Catholics in particular—^we have
lost far too much of the vitality

and the comprehensiveness of

the genuine missionary drive.

We have become too satisfied

with ‘Victories” in which the

spiritual factor is none too evi-

dent. Perhaps our Church,

school and institution buildings,

our plant, have induced in us a

complacency which is more prop-

erly characteristic of the activi-

ties of the material world and

of their vested interest point of

view. But whatever the causes

the fact remains that our drive

to apply religious truths to all

aspects of contemporary life has

been blunted.

In the place of the view of the

Church as a springboard from

which Christians go out into the

world we have developed a policy

of protection, of conserving with

the utmost care what we already

have. At times and in some

places this policy has been car-

ried to a point amounting to se-

gregation. It is of course both

natural and proper that we

should build up our own organi-

zations. There is no danger in

that. Danger does arise, how-

ever, when loyalty to such or-

ganizations is emphasized in

such terms as to amount to con-

demnation of any participation

in organizations which bring to-

gether different groups in the

pursuit of a common objective.

Efforts along such lines are

sometimes sought to be justified

as a measure of quarantine

against ideas which are often

radically at variance with our

own. The implications are

scarcely complimentary either to

the strength of our religious con-

victions or to existing methods



of religious instruction. They

underestimate moreover the

thoroughness with which ideas

—

good, bad, and indifferent—are
spread through the public print,

the air and on the screen. Today

we can fortify; we cannot pro-

tect.

We have put something else

in the place of an authentic mis-

sionary drive: an extreme sen-

sitiveness to criticism. That sen-

sitiveness takes two forms. First

of 'all a tendency to take far too

seriously and to reply at far too

great a length to criticism which

when analyzed are either not

such at all or are too trivial to

deserve notice. The effect is to

pull us over on to an essentially

negative and sterile terrain and

to draw us away from the more

positive and constructive state-

ment of our beliefs. The second

form of our sensitiveness is even

more important. We often reply

to criticism, however honest and

sincere, by name calling and

with a vigor of epithet which,

whatever credit it reflects upon

the range of our vocabularies,

certainly does not incline our

opponent either to understand

our side or even wish to under-

stand it. As Father Trese wrote

recently (The Commonweal, Vol.

XLIV, No. 5) : ‘We have come

a long way from the spirit of

Christ who sought to win, ra-

ther than to answer, an honest

opponent.''

At times we have come dan-

gerously close to trying to jus-

tify our failings in the name of

two great virtues : Humility

and Prudence. Humility is in-

deed a very great and a very im-

portant virtue. Its essence has

always seemed to me to be a

vivid and painful awareness of

all that we have received from

God as cqmpared with the little

we have done in return. In that

sense it is a constant spur to ac-

tion to reduce the discrepancy,

but Humility is sometimes made

to mean that we can do little or

nothing and when so construed

it becomes no more than an ex-

cuse for inaction. Prudence too

can be thought of as a wise ad-

justment of means and ends, but

also as the point of departure for

an attenuation of principles and

for the obscuring of issues which

cannot and must not be obscured.

The description of our fail-

ings, although a practice in

which we do not sufficiently in-

dulge, is a relatively easy task.

What of the remedies?

The first and the most impor-

tant by far is a constantly re-

newed sense of the supernatural,

a deep awareness of the super-

natural, a conviction of close and



intimate relationship with the

supernatural. We live in a ma-

terialistic, a naturalistic society

and we cannot avoid its impact.

Our judgment as to values, as to

what is primary and what is sec-

ondary can easily become ob-

scured by the importance attach-

ed to organizations, public rela-

tions and the many other factors

which contribute to the quanti-

tive impressiveness of the ma-

terial society with which we are

surrounded and of which we are

a part. A far more than ordi-

nary effort is required in order

to supernaturalize our lives.

It is not sufficient that we who

profess religious beliefs should

have memorized our catechisms

or should have followed more or

less attentively some course of

religious instruction. We must

do far more. In the words of

a Catholic layman, the late

Thomas F. Woodlock (The

Thread of Arachne, Columbia,

March, 1943)

:

'The plain truth is that a

Catholic who is not trying to be

a theologian to the limit of his

capacity—subject to the condi-
tion of life in which he finds

himself—is not pulling his
weight in the Catholic boat as

his Creator intends him to do.’’

That is the foundation, but a

clear grasp of the applications of

that theology with respect to the

problems of the day is scarcely

Jess essential. The Fatherhood

of God and the Brotherhood of

Man are doctrines of theology,

but their applications in terms

of international relations, race

relations, a living wage, decent

housing and the treatment of the

delinquent and the criminal are

by no means always clearly and

efficiently proclaimed. In this

respect Catholics enjoy a privi-

lege which carries with it a cor-

responding responsibility. The

applications of our theology to

the kind of problems I have men-

tioned have been clearly and re-

peatedly set forth by succeeding

Popes from Leo XIII to Pius

XII. We at least cannot plead

ignorance of these applications

nor that knowledge of them can

be obtained only through long

and difficult research.

Granted that our knowledge of

theology is profound and our

understanding of its applications

clear, what then? Are this

knowledge and this understand-

ing to be kept behind closed

doors and for our own exclusive

benefit or are we to seek out our

fellow citizens who at least in

fundamentals believe and think

as we do and labor strenuously

side by side with them to fashion

a Society, international and na-



tional, more in harmony with

those fundamentals? And even

with those who do not think at

all as we do but who are persons

of good faith and sincerity are

we to avoid them or at best pro-

ject our answers upon them in

provocative terms and with no

effort on our part to understand

their point of view and there-

fore with no prospect of winning

them instead of merely answer-

ing them? The present state of

our civilization as well as re-

peated Papal directives furnish

a convincing answer to such

questions. We must concert with

all of our fellow citizens of good

faith to discover and pursue

common objectives and inciden-

tally help to dispel misunder-

standings and assure an accurate

grasp of differences.

These are some of the obliga-

tions of the layman and laywo-

man. We must be able to count

upon the quality of their relig-

ious instruction, upon their cour-

age, but above all upon their ini-

tiative.





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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Huntington, Indiana