THE CATHOLIC HOUR

LIGHT ON THE PATH

BY

FULTON OURSLER
An Editor of the Reader’s Digest

The second in a series of addresses by prominent Catholic laypien

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 June 9, 1946, by Fulton Oursler,
an editor of the Reader’s Digest. 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.



LIGHT ON

We have seen that the trend

of the nations in their approach

to the future has seemed to bend

toward evil rather than good.

Each day the need for moral

leadership grows more nakedly

visible. We behold that need in

every failing and collapsing pow-

wow of the prime ministers, as

in Paris and London; with every

compromise and stale-mate in the

Assembly sessions of the United

Nations here in New York.

Greed and fear and hypocrisy,

yes, and even hatred, and scorn

for principle, can no longer be

concealed from the dullest eye.

The international discord is loud

enough to jar the ear-drums of

the deaf. Yet the stern, clear

voice of conscience speaks in the

souls of common people every-

where. They want their leaders

to make peace. In many places,

'we are hearing that moral

leadership of all mankind should

be assumed by the United States.

The question is, are we capable

and deserving of such leader-

ship? How stand matters with
our own conscience? Toward

what destination is our country

headed? Whither goes the great

Republic? Have we, in our na-

tional life, demonstrated such

moral force and strength that

THE PATH

we may admonish the rest of the

world?

At first glance, it would surely

not seem so. If ever there was a

time when moral leadership was

needed at home, it is now. To-

day the problem of character

education is concerning far-

sighted men and women in every

field, precisely because in every

field there is the inescapable evi-

dence of internal moral collapse.

If I had hours to speak, there

would still not be time enough to

recite the penalties already visit-

ed on our national life solely be-

cause we have turned our faces

away from plain and simple duty.

We are living through a year
of formidable and dangerous

strikes. Are strikes immoral

then? Men are driven to strikes

by immorality. Force is always

the confession of moral failure.

And that is what a strike is

—

the employment of force, of su-

perior power to make sure that

you get what you want. The

fault may lie with a greedy or

power-crazy employer or with an

equally greedy or power-crazy

union leader. Often it lies with

both. Where the blame lies is

incidental; the fact remains that

when all negotiations fail, and

the strike order comes, there can

be but one conclusion—on one



side or the other, someone want-

ed too much!

The black market ! Who would

dare defend it in principle? Who

will not admit its corruption?

Yet who does not patronize it?

All too few ! The black market

is caused by the meeting of two

immoral forces—in him who
buys is gluttony or pride or

covetousness
;
in him who sells is

greed.

Juvenile delinquency! Ex-

amine into its causes and you

will find first blame laid by all

authorities on the doorstep of

home. Further, you will find the

home weakened to its deepest

foundation by three modern de-

vices of evil—a conspiracy of
mutual infidelity, regarded as

modern and sophisticated; sepa-

ration and divorce. And these

destroyers of family life are born

of deadly sins; they rise out of

lust and anger, covetousness and

pride. Who will deny that juve-

nile delinquency represents a

moral breakdown in our national

life?

As for crime—does an intelli-
gent American audience need to

be reminded that, no matter

what trophies we win or lose in

international sports, we never

lose our trophy as the world's

champion in crime? Since I be-

gan talking into this microphone

there have been committed in the

United States 21 crimes. I do

not mean minor offenses or mis-

demeanors. I mean highway rob-

bery, murder, arson, kidnapping,

and other crimes of violence.

Every 22 seconds of all the

minutes, of all the hours, of all

the 365 days of the year—three
major crimes a minute is our

average. The cost to you and

me, as taxpayers, is more than

fifteen billion dollars a year.

That is four hundred percent

more than we spend for edu-

cation. It exceeds all our normal

taxes. It figures down to one

hundred and twenty dollars a

year for every man, woman and

child in the United States.

Yet, even as a matter of dol-

lars and cents, the average citi-

zen is cynically indifferent to the

situation. He thinks the cost of

crime does not reach him per-

sonally. He thinks he does not

pay any part of this underworld

bill. He is very much mistaken.

Because of the police and courts

and prisons, but more especially

because of racketeerings in busi-

ness and industry, every Amer-

ican citizen is taxed to keep the

criminal army going. There is a

crime tax on every meal we eat,

on the hats and coats and shoes

we wear, on our' rent, laundry,



moving picture tickets—on al-
most everything.

Clearly, if we could cut that

cost only in half, we could pay a

large portion of our defense bill

without further expense of any

kind. Only a strange public

apathy to this disease of demo-

cracy prevents us from greatly

reducing our annual crime bill,

a bill reckoned not only in bil-

lions of dollars but also in untold

human misery and death.

In twelve months nearly one

million five hundred thousand

violent crimes were committed

in the United States—robbery,
assault, burglary, larceny, kid-

napping, manslaughter, murder.

These figures are from the Fed-

eral Bureau of Investigation of

the Department of Justice.

Take murder as an example.

In one year eleven thousand and

nine hundred criminal homicides

were committed. That was at the

rate of thirty-two murders a day,

more than one murder every

hour. In that same year there

were more than fifty-five thou-

sand robberies and forty-six

thousand assaults. That is why

we have to finance one hundred

and twenty state and federal

prisons, four thousand city and

county jails and ten thousand

police lock-ups, with a prison

population of half a million.

And when we realize that only

twenty-two percent of the crimi-

nals who are put on trial are

ever convicted, and when we

further consider the percentage

of unsolved crimes for which no

one is ever tried, we begin to get

a true understanding of the ex-

tent of this problem. Nor can

we tell the police they are not on

the job; they will retort that the

prison population has increased

more than eighty percent in the

last ten years.

In suggesting that the United

States assume the moral leader-

ship of the world, who can ig-

nore this unparalleled and fac-

tual picture of our own immoral

record?

For much of this, we may hold

accountable the secularized edu-

cation in our public schools. You

can teach about banks and labor

unions, about hospitals and or-

phanages, about public buildings

and art museums, but you dare

not say one word about the

churches and synagogues in the

community—for that would be
religious instruction. In this na-

tion religious instruction in the

public school is illegal. It is a

crime to teach about God. Is it

any wonder that millions of

Americans are religiously illiter-

ate, that they entertain a nega-

tive prejudice towards religion?



In the name of separation of

church and state a havoc had

been wrought in public schools

that would make our founding

fathers turn in their graves. We

have deviated a long way from

the principle of the Northwest

Ordinance— "religion, morality
and knowledge” are "necessary

to good government and the

happiness of mankind.”

The one grave question of the

future is—in what direction will
this country go? Whither the

United States? Far beyond our

boundaries that riddle is impor-

tant. To many it must seem that

here is the last sanctuary of

freedom; if the fires lighted by

Washington and Jefferson and

Lincoln die out on this hearth,

then there will be no fire in all

the world to warm the hands of

freedom.
.
The greatest oppor-

tunity the United States will

ever have is right now. We have

the chance to better the world

by setting our own home in

order. By being true to ourselves

we shall give the rest of the

world its greatest moral example.

No iron curtain can hide that

example forever from men’s eyes.

What then shall we do to be

true to ourselves as we seek to go

down the road of the future?

Again, as always, while the de-

tails may be complex, the whole

is simple. Our duty is never hard

to understand, if we face prob-

lems honestly. In the teachings

of our Church there is light on

the path.

As a nation, we must help the

rest of mankind. Not within our

means but beyond and far be-

yond our means. We must over-

come in ourselves the sin of glut-

tony, and, forgetting the full

dinner pail, the two chickens in

every pot, two cars in every

garage and such cheap-jack ap-

peals to the stomach and well-

being generally. We must go the

second mile, we must give not

only our coat but our cloak also.

We must never be able to sit at

banquets and forget that mil-

lions of babies perish for food

that we can spare them. The

nation must go back to God.

For the pride of nationalism,

we must prefer the humility of

heavenly citizenship under our

Father, Almighty God who has

made us brothers and sisters to

red men, yellow men, black men

;

one family. We must not
%
only

abjure covetousness in our own

national policy but we must re-

fuse to be a party to it in im-

moral deals with other powers.

We must not be an accessory to

the fact of another nation steal-

ing its neighbors’ land or re-

sources. Yet in all this, we must



lock up anger so that it cannot

destroy us. In meekness of spirit,

we must be firm as the saints

were firm; meek as they were

meek when they were burned to

death for the faith that gave

them strength to die as martyrs.

For envy, we must turn to

brotherly love.

Let the world see in our eyes

as we meet the scrutiny of other

nations, charity and patience,

fidelity and mercy. Let them

know that we are sincere in our

high ideals, because we practice

them at home.

To practice the virtues and

works of mercy here at home, as

they are taught in our Holy

Mother Church can be the only

right road into the future for us.

Let us in our domestic life go

back joyously to the sanctity of

the home, and return moral and

religious education into every

school room. These are the very

first steps on the road that will

lead us forward in achievement

—because it leads us back to
God.* Let us be Christians and

pray to the Holy Ghost for wis-

dom and understanding; forti-

tude and the fear of the Lord,

which, so we were taught of old,

is the beginning of wisdom.

Let us be Christians and seek,

as the fruits of the Holy Ghost,

all patience and goodness and

joy—for that, too, belongs to the
Christian.

Let us remember and practice

the Beatitudes as uttered by Our

Lord in the Sermon on the

Mount. If we are truly Christian

we shall be poor in spirit, not

lauding .ourselves over others;

we shall mourn not only over our

own sorrows but over the sorrow

of our fellows, and know that

they, as well as we shall be com-

forted. Mourning over the sor-

rows of others means that we

care about all the social injustice

that man has worked upon his

brothers and his sisters. We

shall hunger and thirst after jus-

tice—and having found it, we
shall practice also the Beatitude

that comes right next to justice

—“Blessed are the merciful !”

We shall be clean of heart and
m

we shall be peace makers—and if
it becomes necessary, we serve

notice on the world, we are ready

to suffer persecution.

And let us be so Christian

that in all the struggles that

seem to loom on the road ahead,

we shall most surely avoid these

final, horrible ultimate sins that

cry to heaven for vengeance. Let

the world never forget what are

those sins, worst deeds of all,

sins that cry to heaven for ven-

geance. Wilful murder! Natu-

rally! All would agree to that.



The sin of Sodom. Yes! But the

other two! Let all the church-

haters and atheists and mission-

aries of class hatred, and stirrers

up of working people against

their brothers be reminded of

this—the two remaining sins
that cry to heaven for vengeance,

in the glorious historic position

of the Catholic Church are—op-
pression of the poor and de-

frauding laborers of their wages.

Let us be Christian and prac-

tice these virtues in our domestic

life. Their observance is a part

of our Christian duty. Let Amer-

ica as a nation go back to these

first principles. By practicing

them, we shall have taken the

only sure way to moral leader-

ship, because we shall be prac-

ticing morality before we seek to

impose it on others. Until we do

that, all admonishment to the

rest of the world will avail us

nothing. The way to moral

leadership is to lead a moral

national life.



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.

Our Sunday Visitor Press

Huntington
,

Indiana

454