IN THE LIGHT OF CHRISTIAN

PRINCIPLES AND THE TEACHING

OF THE PAPAL ENCYCLICALS

A DISCUSSION CLUB MANUAL

FOR YOUNG PEOPLES GROUPS

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Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016

https://archive.org/details/modernquestionsiOOband



Modern Questions

In the light of Christian Principles and the

teaching of the Papal Encyclicals

A Discussion Club Manual for Young

People's and Adult Groups

by

Rev. Rudolph G. Bandas

SERIES V



IKS'

Nihil Obstat

Right Reverend H. Moynihan, S. T. D.

Censor Librorum

die 25a Aprilis, 1940

Imprimatur

* JOANNES GREGORIUS MURRAY,
Archiepiscopus Paulipolitanus

die 26a Aprilis, 1940

Second Edition

9,500 Copies

Published In U. S. A.

July 20, 1945

by

Our Sunday Visitor Press

Huntington, Indiana



Introduction

The chapters in this book are brief explana-

tions of topics which proved interesting to open

forums and discussion clubs of young people as well

as of adults. The chapters do not pretend to be

exhaustive explanations of the subjects but serve

rather as an introduction to the question. They

contain basic principles which are indispensable for

the proper evaluation of any modern problem.

We wish hereby to express our gratitude to
Benziger Brothers for permission to quote from

their copyrighted publication, “The Great Encycli-

cals of Leo XIII,” to the Paulist Press for permis-

sion to quote from the “Five Great Encyclicals,” to

the National Catholic Welfare Conference for per-

mission to quote from their copyrighted edition of

the Encyclical “Vigilanti Cura,” and to Letouzey

and Ane of Paris for permission to use certain

ideas from the “Dictionnaire Theologique.”



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I Spiritism 5

II Foretelling the Future 16

III The Liquor Traffic and Drunkenness 26

IV Salacious Literature 39

V The Movies 60

VI Dancing 63

VII Gambling ....
r

73

VIII Activities of Catholic Youth Organizations 84



Chapter I

SPIRITISM

The word spiritism is applied to the theory

that, given a certain favorable environment, the

living can communicate with the souls of dead per-

sons ; it also designates the various means by which

such communication is effected. The purpose of

spiritistic inter-communication is to obtain informa-

tion about various topics, especially about the state

of the departed and about the nature of life beyond

the grave.

A medium is a person through which communi-
cation with the spirits takes place

;
a medium is said

to be endowed by nature and by education with

those psychic and magnetic gifts enabling him or

her to serve as an intermediary between the living

on earth and the spirits.

A trance is a sleeplike state—produced artific-
ally, hypnotically or automatically—in which the
medium becomes dominated by another personality

;

the spirit replaces the medium’s personality and

uses the medium’s bodily organs as if they were its

own. The medium does not communicate directly

with the soul of the departed one but with a “con-

trolling spirit” on the “other side” who supplies the

information on the person with whom communica-

tion is desired. In spirit materialisation the con-

trolling spirit is said to abstract from the medium’s

body a vaporous material and gradually to assume

the appearance of the departed person. This proc-

ess is said to prove extremely exhausting to the

medium.



6 MODERN QUESTIONS

A seance is a place where spirit-communication
takes place—a place especially adapted and equipped
for spirit-manifestations. The following phenomena,

indicative of spirit-communication and manifesta-

tions are said to take place in a seance : knocks, raps,

taps in answer to questions; automatic writing and

trance-speaking; planchette writing; tipping and

rotating tables without any physical contact; ap-

pearance and movements of objects without any

physical support; levitation of objects and of the

medium by superhuman force; spirit-materialisa-

tion; spirit-photography where features of the ma-

terialized spirit resemble those of the photographed

deceased person.

The roots of spiritism are to be found in the

magic, divinations, occult practices, and necromancy

(art or science of evoking the dead) of ancient peo-

ples. In its actual form Spiritism dates from the

experiences in 1848 of two girls at Hydesville, New
York, Margaretta and Katie Fox. The Fox sisters

heard strange sounds and rappings in their home.

These knocks were gradually explained as coming

from the spirits who wished to communicate with

men upon earth through the mediumship of the Fox

Sisters. A close scientific investigation, however,
revealed that the mysterious sounds were due to

the movements of the girls' knee-joints. The Fox

girls at first admitted but later, for pecuniary reas-

ons, denied the fraud. In the meantime the move-

ment kept on developing in enthusiasm and in the

number of votaries. Mediums in various parts of

the world proclaimed themselves the providential

intermediaries between the spirit world and our

own world. The evil spirit, the “father of all lies,”

apparently insinuated himself at this point into



SPIRITISM 7

what was at first an amusing enough though con-

temptible human deception. From popular interest

the movement gradually passed into the stage of

serious inquiry and scientific investigation.

The popularity of spiritism is due to several

causes. In the first place, the movement is a reac-

tion against the gross materialism of the day. Man’s

innate desire for personal immortality and for per-

fect happiness is not satisfied by the empty babb-

lings of atheists about an ideal survival and immor-

tality in the thoughts and souvenirs of men. Spirit-

ism offers an escape and relief from this intolerable

philosophy of life. Secondly, spiritism is a reaction

against agnostic and Kantian philosophy. Kant and

his followers closed all avenues to the world be-

yond, contending that man can neither know nor

affirm anything about the things outside of the do-

main of the five senses. Spiritism offers a shortcut

to the domain of spirits and of personal immortality.

Finally, spiritism is a substitute for the disinteg-

rating Protestant sects and churches which leave

unsatisfied man’s interest in the next world. In it-

self, however, spiritism is a vague and uncertain

groping after those great religious realities which

the Church has from the very beginning placed be-

fore her followers in the teachings of faith.

Spiritism is forbidden in the earliest pages of

the Old Testament. In the Book of Deuteronomy

we read: ‘‘Neither let there be found among you

any that consulteth pythonic spirits or fortune-

tellers or that seeketh the truth from the dead. For

the 'Lord abhorreth all these things” (1) .

The legislation of the Church is no less precise

and emphatic. Speaking at once of magnetism.

(D XVIII, 10-12.



8 MODERN QUESTIONS

hypnotism and spiritism the Holy Office in 1840

published the following decree: “Where all error,

sorcery and invocation of the demon, implicit or ex-

plicit, is removed, the mere use of physical means

which are otherwise legitimate, is not morally for-

bidden, provided it does not aim at unlawful or evil

results. But the application of purely physical

principles and means to things or effects that are

really supernatural, in order to explain these on

physical grounds, is nothing else than unlawful or

heretical deception.
,,

The decree was repeated in 1847 and again in

1856. In the statement of 1856 the Holy Office

complains about the alarming spread of the prac-

tice of divination: By purely physical means and

legerdemain men are trying to come to a knowledge

of invisible, occult, unknown and distant events;

nay more, some men even attempt to “call forth the

souls of the dead.”

The second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866)

Decree 36, describes spiritism as the principal error

of the day which is contributing in no small meas-

ure to the ruin of souls. “After due investigation,”

the Council continues, “it has become clear that

many of the marvelous phenomena said to take

place in spiritistic seances are wholly deceitful and

produced by the fraudulent collusion of the spirit-

ists; or they are to be attributed to the imagination

of the medium and to the credulity of the spectat-

ors
;
or to a certain human dexterity ; some of these

phenomena are no doubt to be attributed to Satanic

intervention.” »

The practice of spiritism, whether as medium

or as inquirer, is gravely illicit. In 1898 the follow-

ing case was put before the Holy Office: “Titius,



SPIRITISM 9

excluding any pact with the spirit of evil, is accus-

tomed to evoke the souls of the deceased. He pro-

ceeds as follows : Being alone, without any kind of

ceremony, he prays to the leader of the heavenly

hosts to grant him the power of conversing with

the spirit of some definite person. He waits for a

little time and then he feels his hand, prepared to

write, moved, and by this he becomes certain of the

presence of the spirit. Then he explains what he

wants to know and his hand writes the answers to

the questions which he had proposed. All these

answers are in accord with the faith and with the

Church's teaching concerning the future life. For

the most part the replies relate to the state of the

soul of some dead person, the need that it has of

prayers and the complaints of the negligence of its

relatives. In the circumstances explained it is ask-

ed whether the practice of Titius is permissable.”

The Holy Office handed down the following answer

:

“In the circumstances explained it is not lawful,"

and the decision was approved by His Holiness,

Pope Leo XIII, on April 1, 1898.

In 1917 it was specifically inquired of the Holy

See, whether it was permissible to take part in spir-

itistic seances of an unfradulent and reverent na-

ture if the one present expressly or tacitly protests

that he wishes to have nothing to do with evil

spirits: “Is it permitted, through a medium or

without a medium, whether hypnotism be employed

or not, to assist at spiritistic seances or manifesta-

tions of any sort—especially such as present an ap-
pearance of sincerity tand piety—by interrogating
souls or spirits or by listening to the replies given,

or by merely looking on, having made a tacit or ex-

press protestation against wishing to have any deal-



10 MODERN QUESTIONS

ings thereby with the evil spirit?” The Holy Office

replied in the negative to every part of the question,

and the decision was approved by Pope Benedict

XV. The Holy See answered in the negative because

such assistance favors curiosity, undermines faith in

Christ's Divinity and in Christian doctrines, favors

superstition, and finally leads to a complete loss of

faith.

Students of spiritism and contemporary scien-

tists acknowledge the intricate, complicated and

serious character of spiritistic phenomena. They

realize that the happenings of the seance rooms are

not to be lightly brushed aside or dismissed as in-

significant trivialities and passing fads. In trying

to arrive at some explanation of these mysterious

facts they have adopted solutions which have already

been suggested by the Third Plenary Council of

Baltimore. They are the following

:

1) Human dexterity: Some mediums are so

dexterous in the use of their mental and physical

powers, so quick in managing complicated and diffi-

cult situations, so skillful in inventing expedients,

so sure in manipulating things, that they can pro-

duce unusual and even stupendous effects in a pure-

ly natural way.

2) Fraud

:

The methods used by the mediums

are so cunning, subtle and tricky, their legerdemain

is so deft, that even scientists and experts are de-

ceived and misled. Fraud is all the more easy with

the devotees of spiritism who are exceedingly credu-

lous and who see in every stir in the seance room an

activity of the spirit world. The emotion, excite-

ment and suggestibility of the seance room contri-

bute indeliberately to this deception.

3) Radiations from the subliminal self: Be-



SPIRITISM 11

neath the threshold of consciousness there is the

subliminal or subconscious self. In this subconsci-

ousness are stored up emotions, experiences and

ideas which we have forgotten long ago. Effusions

from this subconsciousness penetrate other souls.

In the seance room the medium is receiving impress-

ions from the minds of both the spirits and of the

sitters.

4) The double self: According to some psy-

chologists each man has a double made of a certain

astral, psychic and vaporous stuff. In the seance

room it is the “double” of the medium which com-

municates with the spirits.

The first two theories are partial explanations

;

they do not account adequately for all the spiritistic

phenomena. The other two theories—strongly con-
tested and openly rejected by a great number of

students—presuppose the intervention of spirits in
seances and pretend to explain how spirits can com-

municate with mediums. Most students of spir-

itism today admit the activity of non-human

intelligences in the seances. The question which

now arises is this: What kind of spirits are they?

Are they souls from Purgatory or from the Beatific

Vision? Or are they the souls from limbo or the

damned souls from hell? For a departed soul must

be in one of these four places. Or are they the evil

spirits or demons?

They are not souls from purgatory or from

heaven, a) The souls in purgatory are in the “hand

of God.” They are sure of their salvation and can

sin no more. They “rest and sleep the sleep of

peace.” Shorn of all earthly impediments and plac-

ed beyond the world of sense, they now concentrate

their attention wholly on God. They are tormented



12 MODERN QUESTIONS

with an agony of love of Him Who still hides and
withdraws from them. b) The souls in heaven

have a clear and intuitive vision of the One and Tri-

une God. They see and know all things which per-

tain to their own state. They embrace the Supreme

Good with a beatific love and with an absolute con-

formity of their will to His, experiencing at the same

time the ineffable “joy of the Lord.” They enjoy

the companionship of the elect and with them as co-

heirs of the same glory they reign in God’s eternal

kingdom. They experience in this Beatific Vision

and love a complete satisfaction, happiness, and de-

light.

Now it would be against God’s holiness and

majesty to permit His chosen souls to wander about

spiritistic seances, satisfying the vain and morbid

curiosity of the devotees of this cult. It would be

against the dignity of a soul in purgatory or in

heaven to come to us through the raps and taps of a

rotating or tilting table or through the tricks of a

weird seance. Communications from the blessed

depend upon God and are extremely rare (e. g.

Lourdes). They occur only for most serious reasons

and cannot be elicited by the commercialism of a

spiritistic center. The blessed are not at our dis-

posal to satisfy our vain curiosity and our quest for

earthly gain. The Church prays for the dead in-

definitely, thereby indicating that the lot of the de-

parted, apart from canonized saints, is not to be

ascertained on this side of the grave.

In addition, messages from our departed friends

are unnecessary. God’s mouthpiece on earth is the

Church, which is fully qualified to instruct us about

the next life and about salvation. Communications

from the souls in purgatory and heaven are outside



SPIRITISM 13

of the divine plan and arrangement. Dives in hell

besought Abraham to send Lazarus to the five broth-

ers in his father’s house “that he might testify unto

them, lest they also come into this place of torments.

And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and

the prophets; let them hear them. But he said:

No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from

the dead, they will do penance. And he said to him

:

If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will

they believe if one rise again from the dead” (2) .

Every indication seems to point to the conclus-

ion that if any spirits intervene in spiritistic seances

they are evil spirits. “By their fruits you shall

know them.” The following characteristics of se-

ances justify this conclusion:.

1) The physical phenomena accompanying the

seances are often vulgar, coarse and obscene.

2) The communications are frequently trivial,

frivolous, irrelevant, inane, vapid, intellectually

worthless, self-contradicting—so unlike what one
would expect from the serious world beyond the

grave. Often they contain evasions, falsifications,

gross lies, and prevarications.

3) The communications give an erroneous no-

tion of the soul, picturing it as an exact duplicate

of the body, even in outline and color. They ignore

divine revelation and tend definitely to alienate men

from Christianity. God is represented as imper-

sonal, man as a spark of the Deity, religion as mere

feeling. The messages are definitely antagonistic

to the Divinity of Christ, to the Incarnation and Re-

demption. Heaven and hell are said to be mere men-

tal states. The next life, where we shall receive an-

other chance, is much like the present one.

(2) Lk. XVI, 27-31.



14 MODERN QUESTIONS

4) The moral tone of the messages is usually

very low. They stress the relative human character

of all moral laws, and pass over in silence the justice

of God and future retribution. They contain hints

and suggestions which have led to a disruption of

home and family life and caused endless misery and

sufferings. The spirit often parades under the as-

sumed name of great celebrities and fails utterly to

reveal his identity. All this befits not good angels

but the . “father of all lies.
,,

5) The fact that devils are fallen angels and

that like the good angels they have great power over

matter and can assume bodies, explains the possibil-

ity of spirit-materialisation and spirit-photography

in the seances.

6) Spiritism has disastrous effects on both

the medium and on the sitters. The passivity of the

medium in the trance, the disintegration of her per-

sonality, the entrance of foreign personalities, leads

to a weakening of the normal personality, to a dis-

equilibrium of the mental powers, and to eventual

insanity. The sitter is gradually overcome with

lassitude and apathy, and in the measure in which

he becomes addicted to spiritism suffers a deteriora-

tion in his mental, moral, and physical powers.

Discussion Aids

1. Define: Spiritism. Medium. A trance.

2. Give a brief history of spiritism.

3. How account for the rapid spread of spiritism?

4. Enumerate the principal rulings of the Church

concerning spiritism, and briefly summarize

the contents of each.



SPIRITISM 15

5. Can spiritistic phenomena be sufficiently ex-

plained by fraud and human dexterity?

6. What are the theories of the “subliminal self”

and double self?

7. Are the spirits present in the seance souls from

purgatory? Souls from heaven?

8. Give some reasons why these spirits are not

the good angels.

9. Spiritism is a distortion of what Catholic be-

lief and practice?

10.

How would you counteract the influence of

spiritism?

Religious Practices

1. I will frequently dwell on the consoling doc-

trine that the Church Militant, the Church

Suffering and the Church Triumphant are in-

timately united in the Communion of Saints.

2. I will often pray for the dead that they may

be loosed from their sufferings and admitted

into the joy of the Lord.

3. I will not indulge in a vain and idle specula-

tion about the lot of the dead but by a virtuous

life on earth prepare to be numbered among

the saints.



Chapter II

FORETELLING THE FUTURE

“Let steps be immediately taken against such

people as, for the purposes of divination, practice

the study of signs or points in rocks, trees or papers

and the like things—and this is known as Geomancy,
also against those who make a study of signs to be

found in water—and this is known as Hydromancy

;

or signs in the air

—

Aeromancy

;

or in the fire

—

Pyromancy; or in dreams— Onomancy
;

or the

marks and lines occurring in peoples’ hands— Palm-
istry; or who devote themselves to Necromancy

when, that is, they cause the dead to rise in appear-

ance, to speak or teach
;
as well as all other witch-

crafts and superstitions of this sort which cannot

be indulged in without at least a tacit compact with

the evil one” (1) .

The foretelling of the future by improper and

inadequate means is frequently characterized as

divination. The practice of divination is an attempt

to obtain knowledge of future, hidden, and distant

things by means of the help or counsel of an evil

spirit, who is either expressly called upon to give

his help, or else thrusts himself in secretly in order

to foretell certain future events unknown to men

but in some way known to him. The means of divin-

ation are very numerous, as is evident from the

decree of Pope Sixtus V quoted above. We shall
enumerate and briefly describe the principal meth-

ods of divining.

1) Astrology explains the effects of stars upon

(D Decree of Pope Sixtus V, 1585.



FORETELLING THE FUTURE 17

human conduct and tries to foretell the fate of in-

dividuals and of nations from the positions and as-

pects of planets. The astrologers divide the globe

into twelve “houses” by running circles from pole

to pole. Each one of these spaces between the lines

is dominated by one of the celestial planets. The

respective sign of the zodiac exercises its character-

istic influence and control over the “house.” Each

one of the “houses” passes by the sun, moon, and

planetary system every twenty-four hours. Hence

the “houses” vary in strength, advantages and dis-

advantages. A horoscope is the position of the heav-
ens at the moment of birth. From this many astrolo-

gers pretend to foretell a man’s future.

2) The Ouija Board is a small board support-

ed by casters or wheels at two points and by a verti-

cal pencil at a third. When one or more persons

rest their fingers on it, it begins to move of its own

accord while the pencil point below traces out words

or complete sentences.

3) The nature, arrangement and succession of

images and emotions in dreams frequently serve as

a basis for divining the future.

4) Palmistry is the art of determining a per-

son’s conduct and character and of predicting his

future from the lines and marks in the palms of his

hand.

5) The visual images produced with the aid

of one’s imagination by concentrated gazing upon a

crystal or into a cup are frequently said to be indi-

cative of one’s future.

6) Augury is the foretelling of the future

from the flight, chattering and singing of birds.

In examining these various methods of divina-

tion we shall first lay down certain general princi-



18 MODERN QUESTIONS

pies which are applicable to all of them. We shall
then devote special attention to some of the more

popular practices. In this critical study we shall

take as our guide Question 95 of the Second Part

(of the Second) of the “Summa Theologica” of St.

Thomas.

General Principles

Future events can be known in their causes or

in themselves. According to St. Thomas all future

effects may be grouped into three categories.

1) Certain causes produce their effects of

necessity and always. Such effects can be foreknown

and foretold by a mere consideration of the cause.

Thus astronomers predict eclipses with absolute ac-

curacy hundreds of years in advance.

2) Some causes produce their effects in the

majority of instances. Certain atmospheric and cli-

matic conditions bring about a certain kind of

weather ; certain conditions in the body give rise to

a certain kind of disease. Hence the predictions of

the weather forecaster and the diagnosis of a physi-

cian are usually sound and well-founded inferences.

3) Certain future events depend upon chance

and upon man’s free will—causes which have not a
determined inclination to a certain specific effect.

These future events cannot be foretold or inferred

from their causes. We shall be able to know these
only when they actually happen. God alone, Who in

His eternity sees the future as though it were pres-

ent, can know the events which belong to this third

class.

Now what is the fundamental common-sense

reason why no fortune-teller, crystal-gazer, cup-

reader, or palmist can predict future, distant or oc-



FORETELLING THE FUTURE 19

cult events? The reason is this: There must be a

proportion between the cause and the effect. The

knowledge of future events entirely exceeds man's

natural cognitive powers. In the present order no

knowledge can possibly reach the mind unless it has

first entered through the portals of one of the five

senses. If all our senses were defective our mind

would forever be a blank. If our eyesight or hear-

ing were defective our knowledge would in that

measure be imperfect. Now future events, our fut-

ure conduct and actions, cannot possibly affect the

senses of the palmist or fortune-teller because they

do not as yet exist. Stimulate the cognitive sense

faculties as much as you like, the psychological law

still holds that the cognitive faculty cannot attain

future and distant events. If the fortune-teller or

palmist is in possession of such knowledge, he has

it not of himself but from a superior intelligent

cause.

Now who is this superior intelligent agent? It

is neither God nor the angels. It would be against

Gpd!s_maiesty and dignity and against the dignity

of angels to submit to the frivolous, trivial and often

unbecoming methods used to obtain this knowledge.

It would be against the dignity of God and of the

angels to satisfy man's curiosity and his desire for

temporal advantages and gain. Hence the only

hypothesis remaining is that this superior intelli-

gent agent is an evil spirit.

The evil spirit is a fallen angel and consequent-

ly possesses the superior and more perfect know-

ledge of an angelic intelligence. Spirits, says St.

Thomas (2)
,
can know better than men the effects

First Part of the “Summa Theologica,” Question 57,
Article 3.



20 MODERN QUESTIONS

which are derived from the second group of causes

mentioned above, because their knowledge is deeper

and more universal. They can penetrate more pro-

foundly into the multiplicity, complexity and inter-

relation of causes. They have a more precise know-

ledge of the nature of things and of the hidden

forces of nature. Again, the evil spirits have had

a long experience with human nature and with men.

They can divine men's thoughts and secrets of the

heart from a mere word, gesture or facial express-

ion. Hence demons can not only predict certain

events but they can foretell them with considerable

precision and accuracy. Strictly speaking, however,

men's future actions and the secrets of men's hearts

cannot be known to them unless God reveals them.

Any invocation of or pact with the devil to ob-

tain knowledge of future events is gravely sinful for

the following reasons: 1) It is rendering honor

and tribute to him who is God’s greatest enemy, who

hates God, who is bent upon lessening God’s glory

and destroying the work of the good angels. 2) It

is consorting with him who, though he may occas-

ionally transform himself into an “angel of light,”

is a deceiver and the father of lies and who is bent

on man’s physical, moral, religious and eternal per-

dition. 3) It is a rebellion against God Who has

hidden from us many future things
;
it is attributing

to the demons the divine perfection of omniscience.

Special Principles

1) Astrology. This pseudo-science is being

promoted by newspapers, the radio and the cinema,

and its principles are being applied by private per-

sons and professionals who often charge a handsome

fee for the information imparted. In a sense as-

trology contains a kernel of truth. The sun revivi-



FORETELLING THE FUTURE 21

fies the earth’s vegetation, influences man’s psycholo-

gical outlook, and frequently infuses new strength

into an ailing body. But to extend the influence of

the sun to other elfects, and to predicate the same in-

fluence of the moon and stars, is wholly unwarrant-

ed. According to St. Thomas, astrology as practic-

ed by its votaries, is open to three serious objections

:

1) The heavenly planets are irrational, inanimate

creatures; they move in an invariable, uniform and

necessary manner, being governed by unchanging

natural laws impressed upon them by the hand of

the Creator. Man is a rational and free being; his

conduct is not predetermined to one necessary line

of action. Now between necessity and liberty there

can be nothing in common. If one’s career were

fatally controlled by the planets, his liberty and

freedom of choice would be destroyed. 2) Free

will is a faculty of the soul and like it is absolutely

spiritual. The sidereal bodies, on the other hand,

are corporeal. Hence the heavenly bodies cannot

make a direct impression on the mind and will. 3)

Do the heavenly bodies affect the mind and will in-

directly—by acting first upon the senses and imag-
ination? This is possible, but since the lower facul-

ties are subject to the higher, man is able by his

reason and will to go counter to the influence of the

heavenly bodies.

There are other serious objections to astrology.

In the first place, astrology is disproved by experi-

ence. Men born in the same part of the world and

at the same time have not the same career; twins

born at the same time were found to have a different

character and a different future. Secondly, astrol-

ogy has been disproved by scientific tests : when in

1932 several men submitted themselves to several



22 MODERN QUESTIONS

expert astrologists, who were unacquainted with the

life and history of these individuals, the horoscope

cast was entirely wrong. In fact, astrology seems

to have no scientific basic principles but rests on a

certain number of traditions and on a few fortui-

tous coincidences. To conclude with St. Thomas:

“If anyone applies himself to the observation of the

stars in order to know casual and fortuitous events,

or to know with certitude future human actions, his

conduct is based on a false and vain opinion
;
and so

the operation of the demon enters therein, where-

fore it will be a superstitious and unlawful divina-

tion
,,(3)

.

2) The Ouija Board. No method of communi-

cating with the spirits has been so disastrous in its

effects upon the body and mind of the operator as

that of the Ouija board. Some people use the board

at first as a toy; they are amused and intrigued by

its unusual answers, quite unaware of the danger-

ous possibility of such practices—the possibility of
the demon himself insinuating these responses of

the board. The practice demands an excessive pass-

ivity of mind which leaves the door wide open to the

suggestions and activities of external and non-

human agencies. At the same time the operator is

led on by a great curiosity and hushed expectancy.

The information, which in the beginning is suffici-

ently accurate to gain the confidence of the operator,

becomes trivial and gradually hostile to the Divin-

ity of Christ, to Christianity, in fact to all religion

and morality. The operator is gradually losing his

faith, and for the worship of the One and Triune

God is substituting the cult of spirits. In the meas-

(3) Second of the Second Part of ‘Summa Theologica”;

q. 95, a. 5.



FORETELLING THE FUTURE 23

ure in which he becomes enslaved to the practice,

his nervous energies are sapped, his interest in

daily tasks lost, and insanity and suicide are often

the ultimate results.

3) Dreams. That dreams cannot reveal future

events to us becomes apparent when we study the

causes of dreams. Some dreams have a mental

origin: the thoughts, ideas, and emotions which

occupied the mind during the waking state recur to

the imagination in sleep. Other dreams have a

bodily origin; the peculiar or unfamiliar position

or posture of the body in sleep, distress or over-

activity of the gastric organs, accelerated heart beat

and circulation of the blood, an over-stimulated sen-

sitive nervous system, may give rise to various

phantasms in the imagination during sleep. Fin-

ally, dreams may be due to the external stimuli such

as sounds, lights, heat, cold, odors or to the pressure

of the bed clothes. Now it is clear that none of these

causes is of itself capable of yielding information

about future events.

Dreams may also be caused by external spirit-

ual agents. God Himself frequently made use of

the dream as a medium of communicating divine

revelations to men: “God speaketh once—By a
dream in a vision by night, when deep sleep falleth

upon men, and they are sleeping in their beds
;
then

he openeth the ears of men, and teaching instruct-

ed them in what they are to learn” (4) . And again:

“If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I

will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him

in a dream” (5) . When God is the cause of a dream

He endows it with qualities which enable the recipi-

< 4 > Job XXXIII, 14 sqq.
(5) Num. XII, 6.



24 MODERN QUESTIONS

ent to discern its supernatural origin and character.

Sometimes, however, as St. Thomas says (6)
,

“It is

due to the action of the demons that certain images

appear to persons in their sleep, and by this means,

they, at times, reveal certain future things to those

who have entered into an unlawful compact with

them.”

~^>
o! c. q. 95, a. 6.

Discussion Aids

1. Define astrology; horoscope; Ouija board;

onomancy; palmistry; crystal-gazing
;

cup-

reading; augury.

2. Explain the three kinds of future events.

Which can be known by man? Which by God

alone?

3. Why cannot man predict anyone’s future?

4. To whom are we to attribute the palmist’s or

fortune-teller’s knowledge of future and dis-

tant events? to God? to the angels?

5. How explain the superior knowledge of the

demon?

6. Why is invocation of the devil gravely sinful?

Give three reasons.

7. What arguments can be urged from reason

against astrology? from experience? from

scientific experimentation? Has astrology a

scientific foundation?

8. Show the effects of the use of the Ouija board

on the mind; on the body; on one’s religious

faith.

9. Show how the supposedly prophetic character

of dreams is disproved by a study of the causes

of their origin.



FORETELLING THE FUTURE 25

10. Did God make use of dreams in revelation?

11. Can the demon make use of dreams for his
purposes?

Religious Practices

1. “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have
strange gods before me; thou shalt not make
to thyself any graven thing to adore it.”

2. I will rely on constant prayer and frequent re-

ception of the sacraments in my struggle
against the temptations of the devil.

3. I will not speculate idly about the future and
about the next life but I will so live that I need

not fear the judgment-seat of God.



Chapter 1 1

1

THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND DRUNKENNESS

The mind of the American bishops in regard to

the liquor traffic in the United States was clearly

expressed at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore

in the following decree

:

“We admonish those Catholics who are engaged

in the sale of intoxicating liquors, that they serious-

ly consider how many and how great are the dan-

gers and the occasions of sin which surround their

avocation, however licit in itself this avocation may

be. Let them adopt, if they can, a more decent

method of gaining a livelihood. Let them, at least,

labor with all their ability to remove occasions of

sin from themselves and from others. They should

sell no drinks to minors, or to persons who are

likely to take it to excess. They should close their

saloons on Sundays; at no time should they allow

within their saloons blasphemy, cursing, or obscene

language. If by their fault or cooperation, religion

is dishonored, or men are led to ruin, they must

know that there is in heaven an Avenger, who will

surely exact from them most severe penalties” (1) .

In commenting on this stand by the American

prefates Pope Leo XIII in 1887 wrote: “It is well

known how ruinous, how deplorable, is the injury,

both to faith and to morals, that is to be feared

from intemperance in drink. Nor can we suffici-

ently praise the prelates of the United States, who

recently, in the Plenary Council of Baltimore, with

weightiest words condemned this abuse declaring

t 1 ) “De Societatibus ad Temperantiam Promovendam.”



the LIQUOR traffic AND DRUNKENNESS 2?

it to be a perpetual incentive to sin, and a fruitful

source of all evils, plunging the families of the in-

temperate into direct ruin, and drawing numberless

souls down to everlasting perdition
;
declaring more-

over, that the faithful, who yield to this vice of in-

temperance, become thereby a scandal to non-Cath-

olics, and a great hindrance to the propagation of

the true religion. Hence we esteem worthy of com-

mendation the noble resolve of those pious associa-

tions, by which they pledge themselves to abstain

totally from every kind of intoxicating drink. Nor

can it at all be doubted that this determination is a

proper and truly efficacious remedy for this very

great evil
;
and that so much the more strongly will

all be induced to put this bridle upon appetite by how

much the greater are the dignity and influence of

those who give the example. But greatest of tall in

this matter should be the zeal of the priests, who,

as they are called to instruct the people in the word

of life, and to mold them to Christian morality,

should also, and above all, walk before them in the

practice of virtue. Let pastors, therefore, do their

best to drive the plague of intemperance from the

fold of Christ by assiduous preaching and exhorta-

tion, and to shine before all as models of abstinence

;

and, thus, earnestly strive to avert the many calam-

ities with which this vice threatens both Church and

state” (2) .

In 1894 Monsignor Francis Satolli, Papal dele-

gate to the United States, ratified the following regu-

lations made by Bishop John A. Watterson for his

diocese of Columbus: no liquor dealer or saloon

keeper shall be president or an officer in an existing

Catholic organization, or branch, or division there-

< 2 > S. D. N. Leonis Papae XIII Allocutiones, etc. Vol. II.



28 MODERN QUESTIONS

of
;
no new Catholic society, or new branch of an old

organization, shall admit even to membership any

person engaged in the manufacture or sale of in-

toxicating liquors; saloon keepers who persist in

selling liquor on Sunday or who otherwise conduct

their business in an unlawful manner, shall be ex-

cluded from the Sacraments.

The Catholic Church does not teach as did the

Manicheans of old, that liquor is intrinsically evil.

She does not, like the Encratites, forbid liquors

when the use of them is necessary to safeguard a

man’s health, etc. She does not teach that the manu-

facture and sale of intoxicating liquors are of them-

selves sinful actions, or that saloon keeping is of

itself a moral evil, or that a moderate use of drinks

is wrong. She is mindful of the action of our Lord

who partook of wine at banquets and at the Paschal

suppers, Who changed water into wine at the wed-

ding feast of Cana, and Who made wine one of the
essential elements in the Holy Eucharist. She re-

members, too, the saying of Our Lord that “not that

which goeth into the mouth defileth a man” (3) and

the admonition of St. Paul to “use a little wine for

thy stomach’s sake” (4) . She recalls finally, the

words of the Old Testament sage who says that

“Wine was created from the beginning to make men

joyful, and not to make them drunk. Wine drunken

with moderation is the joy of the soul and the heart.

Sober drinking is health to soul and body” (5) .

But while she acknowledges that all things cre-

ated by God are good and are intended to serve a

useful purpose, the Catholic Church also realizes

that hers is a religion of moderation and of tem-

< 3 > Mtt. XV, 11.
< 4 > I Tim. V. 23.
< 5 > Ecclesiasticus XXXI, 35-37.



THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND DRUNKENNESS 29

perance, a religion of the evangelical counsels, a

religion of the Crucified One. The essence of Chris-

tian perfection, it is true, is love; but love of God
and of neighbor, the observance of the Command-
ments of God and of the Church, demand constant

sacrifice, mortification and self denial. We live only
in the measure in which we die to ourselves and to
our inordinate tendencies. Our Lord constantly

warns us that “unless you shall do penance, you

shall all likewise perish
,,(6)

, and St. Paul makes

mortification an essential element of his gospel : “If

by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you

shall live” (7)
;

“I chastise my body, and bring it
unto subjection, lest, perhaps, when I have preach-
ed to others, I myself should become a castaway” (8) .

The triumph of the Spirit over matter through self-

denial, the complete mastery over the senses and the

lower faculties were the outstanding qualities of

the Church’s saints and heroes.

Hence while the Church admits that the produc-

tion and sale of intoxicating liquors may in them-
selves be legitimate, yet if the beer parlors are the

source of the intemperance and of the moral and

physical evils which desolate the land, she must

wage a relentless war against them. For the Church
to compromise with saloons, taverns, and beer par-

lors, would be to renounce her principles, nay, her

very life.

Those who appeal to the Scriptures—and not
incorrectly so—to prove that the use of intoxicating
liquor is not evil, should also keep in mind the fol-
lowing Biblical texts, terrific in their warning and

import, which condemn the immoderate use of the

Lk. XIII, 3.
<7 > Rom. VIII, 13.

I Cor. IX, 27.



30 MODERN QUESTIONS

gifts of God: a) “Wine drunken with excess rais-

eth quarrels, and wrath, and many ruins. Wine

drunken with excess is bitterness of the soul. The

heat of drunkenness is the stumbling block of the

fool, lessening strength and causing wounds” (9) . b)

“Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to fol-

low drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be

inflamed with wine” (10) . c)“Take heed to your-

selves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with

surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this

life, and that day come upon you suddenly” (11) . d)

“Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor

thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers,

nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God”
(12)

.

e) “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury”

(13)

.

Complete drunkenness, when brought about

voluntarily, without necessity, and out of mere

pleasure, is always a mortal or serious sin. It im-

plies a complete privation temporarily of reason,

and is characterized by the following qualities: in-

ability to distinguish between right and wrong;

perpetration of strange and unusual acts which one

would abhor in the sober state ; inability to remem-

ber on sobering the things said and done in the

drunken state. Complete drunkenness is a mutila-

tion whereby one deprives himself of his greatest

natural good, the power to act reasonably, and places

himself in a state where he can neither use nor re-

cover his reason. It is a mutilation of the moral

judgment and by it one exposes himself to the dan-

W Ecclesiasticus XXXI, 38-40.
UO) iSaias V, 11.
<n> Lk. XXI, 34.
(12) I Cor. VI, 10; Gal. V, 21.

(13) Eph. V, 18.



THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND DRUNKENNESS 31

ger of perpetrating all kinds of sinful excesses. It

is a mutilation of the dignity of man and by it one
reduces himself to the level of a brute.

Incomplete drunkenness, which is characterized

by a confused mind, befuddled brain, unsteadiness

of body, incoherence of speech and uncertainty of

sight, though in itself not a mortal sin, may become
a serious sin by reason of the circumstances: for

example, if a man by reason of his office gives great
scandal, or does serious harm to his health, or
spends in drink money necessary for the support of
the family or the payment of debts, or excites him-

self by drinking to lust, or neglects his family, pro-

fessional or religious duties.

Drunkenness has disastrous and ruinous effects

upon the mind and the body, upon the family and
society, upon religion and morals. A brief consid-
eration of the effects of alcoholism in these respects

will bring out the truth of this contention.

1) The mind. The mental faculties of a
drunkard are befuddled, the sharpness of his mind
dulled, and his power of retention diminished. The
finer degrees of judgment and reflection, acquired

through education and constituting man’s prudence

and restraint, are gradually lost. The power to con-
trol moods is likewise lost—there is causeless merri-
ment or sadness, friendliness or hostility. In com-
plete drunkenness the power to use or recover rea-
son is temporarily blotted out completely. The same
is true of moral judgment. Man sinks to the level
of a brute, destroys in himself the likeness of God,

lets loose his animal passions, throws aside the res-

traints of decency and self-respect and indulges in
all kinds of buffoonery, violence, offensive conversa-

tions and filthy actions. In his article on “Alcoho-



32 MODERN QUESTIONS

lism” in the “Catholic Encyclopedia,” (14) Dr. Charles

Edward Nammack, Professor of Clinical Medicine

at Cornell University, writes : “Alcohol has a spec-

ial affinity for nervous tissue, and as a result chiefly

of its direct contact, but partly from its effects on

the blood current, the working cells of the brain

shrink, the supporting structure hardens, the cere-

brospinal fluid which should act as a protective

water jacket, increases in quantity and exerts in-

jurious pressure, giving the familiar picture of

“wet brain” so common in the autopsy room of hos-

pitals caring for large numbers of habitual drunk-

ards. Existing in a less degree, these brain changes

are objectively shown in the impaired mental power,

the muscular trembling, the shambling gait and the

lack of moral sense of the chronic drinker.—It is
probable that if alcohol could be stamped out for a

century insanity would shrink in prevalence seventy

five per cent.”

During the last fifteen years almost 329,000

people were killed in automobile accidents caused by

drunken drivers. This is 84,000 above the number

of soldiers who were killed or who died from wounds

in all the six wars of our country's history. Ac-

cording to Dr. Edward Spencer Cowles, as many

people in the United States died from alcoholism as

from cancer. During the first eight months of 1939

the Minnesota Highway Department revoked 758

drivers' licenses; all of these, except 45, were for

drunken driving. The “Philadelphia Inquirer” stat-

ed on September 27, 1936, that more than 1,500,000

girls and women were employed as barmaids, “host-

esses,” “come-on girls”, etc.—a condition which has
no parallel in American history,

mi
j, 275.



THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND DRUNKENNESS 33

2) The body. Drunkenness not only prostrat-
es the nervous system but injures—sometimes per-
manently—the vital organs, predisposes the body
to contracting all kinds of diseases and often brings
about an early death. “Nearly all the organs of the
body,” says Dr. Karl M. Vogel, Professor of Clinical
Pathology at Columbia University, speaking of con-
tinued immoderate indulgences in his article “Alco-
holism” in the “Encyclopedia Americana” (15)

, “are
affected and exhibit a new growth of connective tis-
sue, the blood vessels show the lesions of arterio-
sclerosis, the heart is affected in a variety of ways,
commonly becoming fatty and weak, the kidneys de-
velop nephritis, the liver cirrhosis, and the stomach
is the seat of a chronic catarrhal condition giving
rise to nausea, vomiting and distaste for food. There
are congestive ,and catarrahal changes in the respira-
tory apparatus

;
the bodily strength is decreased and

there is a tendency to obesity. There is also mark-
ed involvement of the nervous system leading to
complete mental and moral deterioration with loss
of will power, loss of memory and incapacity for
the responsibilities of life. Chronic alcoholics have
lessened power of resistance to infectious diseases
and readily break down under the stress of any
mental or physical strain.”

3) The family. Drunkenness is one of the
most frequent causes of the dissolution of family
life. The husband stays away from the home and
squanders the money necessary for the sustenance of
the family. The children are poorly educated, lead
a miserable life, and finally indulge in the same vice.
The result is dissensions, divorce, and the disintegra-
tion of the family. “Drunkenness has wrecked more

(15)
I, 349.



34 MODERN QUESTIONS

homes, once happy,” the Irish Bishops tell us in a

pastoral letter of 1883, “than ever fell beneath the

crowbar brigade in the worst days of eviction; it

has filled more graves and made more widows and

orphans than did the famine; it has broken more

hearts, blighted, more hopes, and rent asunder fam-

ily ties more recklessly than the enforced exile to

which their misery has condemned emigrants.”

4) Society. For the solution of its economic

problems, for the promotion of its industries, com-

merce and agriculture, for the preservation of its

peace and security and for the maintenance of its

defenses, the country needs men with a keen mind,

clear vision and a strong body. But all this becomes

impossible if children inherit a constitutional weak-

ness from intemperate parents. “Greater calam-

ities,” said William E. Gladstone in the House of

Commons on March 5, 1880, “have been inflicted on

mankind by drink than by the three great historic

scourges of war, famine, and pestilence combined.”

In 1937 the Americans spent about $2,000,000,000

for education while at the same time they spent

$3,602,000,000 for liquor. In 1937 and again in

1938 the people of Minnesota spent $64,000,000—

or $123 a minute—for alcoholic beverages. Had this
money been spent on the poor and unemployed, the

economic problems of the State would have been

solved.

The contention that the repeal of prohibition

has contributed to the return of national prosperity

can hardly be sustained in the light of facts. The

brewers claim, for example, that they use yearly

the products from three million farm land acres.

But suppose they do? Does this mean that the



THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND DRUNKENNESS 35

breweries brought prosperity to the American farm-
er? Not at all. Since according to the United States
Statistical Report there were in the United States
m 1935 1,054,515,000 acres of farm land, the brew-
eries benefited about 1-3 of 1% of farm land. The
1939 World’s Almanac shows that in 1938 the farm-
ers received 54.6 cents per bushel for barley, while
m 1928, during prohibition, they received 73.6 cents
per bushel. According to the U. S. Bureau Report,
the alcoholic beverage industry employes 95 work-
ers for each $1,000,000 of manufacturing prices,
while fourteen of the larger industries average 231
employees for each $1,000,000 of manufacturing
prices.

We shall bring our considerations to a close by
a few remarks about the necessity and means of
combating this dreadful plague of drunkenness.
Priests, educators and parents must point out the
manifold evil of alcoholism and stress the necessity
of temperance. They must at all times confirm by
example what they inculcate by word of mouth.
Men must be taught to cultivate harmless methods
of recreation and to avoid dangerous companions
and the occasions of sin. They must be taught to
practice self-control by avoiding occasionally what
is pleasant to the taste, by discontinuing to eat and
drink before full satisfaction of the appetite, by
realizing that man eats to live and that he does not
live to eat. They should be encouraged to join tem-
perance societies and to take the pledge when they
understand its nature and its obligation. They
should contemplate the marvellous moderation and
the rigorous fasts of the great saints and heroes of
God. Finally, they must seek in prayer and in a fre-
quent reception of the sacraments the graces neces-



36 MODERN QUESTIONS

sary to strengthen the will in the exercise of its

mastery over the lower impulses of man.

At times the state has interfered and has limit-

ed the number of saloons by proportioning them to

the population. It has imposed a high restrictive

license-fee and determined the time, place, and per-

sons to whom liquor may be sold. Against all such
regulations a protest is frequently raised; a protest

in the name of personal rights and personal lib-

erty. But as an American prelate has so

well said in one of his discourses : “Liberty

means not a license for one portion of the

community to prey as hungry beasts upon the other,

but the rights of all men to enjoy without distur-

bance life and property. Liberty—to what base
service the liquor dealer would chain thee! In thy

name he demands license to rob of soul and life the

minor and the habitual drunkard, to break in with

riot and shame upon the quietness of our Sunday, to

track the poor laborer to his home and workshop lest

he bring bread to his starving wife and children.

The liquor dealer demands license to trample under-

foot the laws of the land, to level death-dealing

blows against the Republic. Not more audacious

would be the clamoring of the spirit of the furious

waters of our great rivers, demanding license to

sweep away whole cities, and to engulf in its mad

torrent hecatombs of human lives.”

Tobacco smoking: According to the testimony

of physicians the evil effects of tobacco are due

principally to the nicotine which it contains. If the

person becomes accustomed to smoking and uses it

in a moderate degree, nicotine does not exercise its

usual harmful effects. This immunity is ordinarily

acquired in a short time, although much depends



the liquor traffic and DRUNKENNESS 37

upon the physical condition of the individual and
upon the manner in which he smokes—if he inhales
expectorates, etc. Smoking neither aids nor hin-
ers psychic processes, but seems to give a sense of

relaxation and repose. It seems to increase the en-
joyment of a pleasure and to decrease the force of
an irritant.

,, /1
th® measure of moderation is not observed,

the following symptoms will gradually appear: irri-
tation of the mucous membrane of the mouth, throat
and pharynx, leading to catarrh and hoarseness:
palpitation of the heart, accompanied by distress in
breathing and a growing arterio-sclerosis

; loss of
appetite, indigestion, alternating constipation and
diarrhea, anemia, and emaciation; fatigue, lack of
initiative, headaches, insomnia, and neuralgia.
Occasionally these same effects will appear in mod-
erate users but only after many years of smoking,
lo the Christian man and woman smoking should
furmsh opportunities of self control, mortification
and self-denial, of that fine sense of moderation and
proportion which should distinguish a true Chris-
tian.

Discussion Aids

1. Summarize briefly the pronouncements of
Church authorities on the liquor traffic.

2. Is liquor intrinsically evil? Explain.

3. Why does the Christian religion necessarily
imply mortification and self-denial?

4. Quote Biblical passages which condemn drunk-
enness and intemperance in drink.

5. What is the difference between complete and



38 MODERN QUESTIONS

incomplete drunkenness? Is sin absent from

either?

6. How does drunkenness affect the mind? What
evils are to be attributed to drunkenness and

to the liquor traffic?

7. How does drunkenness affect the body?

8. How does drunkenness contribute to the dis-
integration of the family?

9. How does alcoholism undermine the founda-
tions of society?

10. Has repeal of prohibition brought prosperity?

11. Is the regulation by law of the liquor traffic

and of the consumption of liquor an infringe-

ment of human liberty?

12. How would you combat the evils of intemper-

ance?

Religious Practices

1. I will try to understand that man eats and

drinks in order to be able to carry out his

duties towards God and neighbor: “Whether

you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God”

(I Cor. X, 31).

2. I will steel myself in self-mastery by denying

myself occasionally things which are licit.

3. I will try to imitate in a small measure at least

the wonderful moderation and the rigorous

self-denial of the saints and heroes of God.



Chapter IV

SALACIOUS LITERATURE

We read in the history of St. Albert the Great
that the Saint once made a statue which was carv-

ed stf skillfully that it could move and utter sounds.

St. Thomas of Aquin, who was then Albert’s pupil

and who knew nothing of the statue, one day enter-

ed his master’s workshop; seeing the statue, and

thinking that it was the evil spirit who had appear-

ed to him in human form, he raised his hand and

struck the statue with such force that it fell to the

floor in a hundred pieces. When Albert entered the

room, and saw what had happened, he exclaimed:

“Thomas, what have you done? In one moment you

destroyed the work of thirty-three years!”

The salvation of our soul was also the work of

three and thirty years. On account of our soul God

descended from heaven and became man, was born

in poverty, earned His bread in the sweat of His

brow in a carpenter’s shop, wandered over moun-

tain and valley, suffered hunger and thirst, was

scourged and nailed to the cross. On account of our

salvation Christ founded the Church and establish-

ed the seven sacraments, the seven channels con-

veying divine life to our souls.

When the soul becomes the abode of the Holy

Trinity and is adorned and beautified by God’s own

life, sanctifying grace, it becomes a partaker in the

Redemption, in Christ’s work of three and thirty

years. Yet the soul is not a sealed citadel, but

through the doors of the five senses communicates

with the outside world. Through these five portals



40 MODERN QUESTIONS

various forces may gain entrance into the sanctu-

ary of the soul and seriously threaten and finally

expel the Divine Guest from it.

Some of these hostile forces may enter the soul

through the sense of hearing in the form of dirty

and smutty conversations. Yes, let a person with a

foul mouth join a group of persons whose souls are

beautiful with the splendor of divine grace, let him

start spewing forth the filth that is in his own mind

and heart, and in a few minutes he may destroy

Christ’s work in the soul of every one of his hear-

ers. He might have talked about theft, robbery or

murder, and his conversation might not have become

an occasion of sin to others. But such is the nature

of acts forbidden by the sixth commandment that

we cannot think or talk about them without immedi-

ately being placed in the danger of committing a

sin of thought. Besides, what a misuse of the fac-

ulty of speech sinful conversations are—a misuse of
the tongue, which is one of God’s great gifts to us,

which was the first member of the body to be bless-

ed in baptism, and which is so often consecrated by

the Body and Blood of the Immaculate Lamb of God?

When a man goes hunting he takes with him dogs

who seek out the prey and drive it within shooting

distance of the hunter. What Satan would not ac-

complish himself on account of his repellant and

hideous nature, he accomplishes through the scan-

dalizer, especially through the foul-mouth.

Is it not strange that man should use the most

sacred things in life as a means of degrading the

human race, and especially womanhood? For the

author of both sexes is God : “Male and female he

created them” (1) . God, too, is the author of the

<!' Gen. I, 27.



SALACIOUS LITERATURE 41

married life: “God blessed them, saying: Increase

and multiply, and fill the earth” (2) . The human body

itself has been fashioned by God and is consequent-

ly something good. If it were in itself evil, if it

were, as it is sometimes represented, the fons et

origo of all sin, the Eternal Word would not have

assumed it and operated through it the Redemption

of mankind. Again, how can anyone who believes

in the mystery of the Incarnation, who believes in

a God born of a woman, look at or treat disrespect-

fully her who was so exalted in the person of Mary,

the Mother of God? At any rate, those who are

using the female sex as a means of degrading them-

selves and others, should pause and remember that

they would wish no one to adopt the same objection-

able attitude toward their own mother and sisters

as they assume towards other women. Or is the

imagination of some so morbid that they must needs

see filth everywhere? Are they like the gentleman

who begged that fhe bare legs of the dining-room

table be covered because they were suggesting bad

thoughts? Under pretext of inculcating habits of

purity, we sometimes adduce the example of St.

Aloysius who is said never to have looked into the

face of any woman—not even of his own mother.
But if Aloysius was the normal strong and healthy

boy that he was, he certainly not only looked into

the eyes of his mother but found the purest happi-

ness and delight therein.

The second sense through which influences des-

tructive of Christ's work enter the soul is the sense

of sight. And this brings us to the question of salac-

ious literature. Before describing the extensive dif-

fusion of this kind of literature and the means of

(2) Gen. I, 28.



42 MODERN QUESTIONS

combating it, we shall try to explain what we mean

by salacious literature. The National Organization

for Decent Literature, established by the American

Bishops a few years ago, lays down the following

five marks of salacious literature, any one of which

is sufficient to place a magazine on the banned list:

1) Glorifies crime or the criminal. A publica-
tion comes under this classification when it contains

characteristics such as the following: Ridicules

human laws and creates sympathy for their viola-

tion
;
represents the police and guardians of the law

as stupid, inefficient, and tyrannical; throws the

sympathy of the reader (or audience) on the side of

crime
;
presents methods of the criminals in such

vivid detail as to excite imitation—for example,
methods of theft, robbery, safecracking, breaking

windowpanes noiselessly, dynamiting of trains and

bridges, use of firearms and machine guns, use of

gloves in burglary, picking pockets, gambling with

drunken persons, use of a master key, removing

doors from hinges, smuggling, and illegal drug traf-

fic. A publication also comes under this heading if
it creates in the young a desire to be “big shots,”

“big guys,” to “act tough,” to wish to “punch” and

beat up some one, to rob newsboys and break into

stores, to earn money easily, to own “swell mach-

ines,” to rise quickly to “high society,” and if it

makes of the crook and gangster a popular and at-

tractive hero.

2) Is predominantly “sexy,” that is, which

carries stories that detail immoral conduct, or show

pictures selected for their sex appeal; justifies meth-

ods of satisfying the sex urge outside of legitimate

marriage.

B) Features Illicit Love: that is, which con-



SALACIOUS LITERATURE 43

tains stories calculated to arouse passion
;
introduces

scenes of passion, lustful kissing, and embracing,

indecent dancing
;

portrays impure love without

condemnation, or as material for laughter
;
condones

and justifies sex experience of young people before

legitimate marriage; connives at marital infidelity,

adultery; justifies the sacrifice of purity and virgin-

ity to obtain easy money, position, etc., represents

lust and infatuation as love.

4) Carries illustrations or cartoons indecent

or suggestive: For example, introduces scenes of

semi or complete nudity (in fact or in silhouette or

in translucent devices), brothel scenes, undressing

and bedroom scenes; suggestive gags under other-

wise unobjectionable cartoons.

5) Carries disreputable advertising , that is,

advertises openly or in a veiled manner lewd and

immoral periodicals, magazines, books, articles,

cards, etc.

It is almost impossible to estimate the extent

of the circulation of these objectionable periodicals

and indecent objects. Bishop John F. Noll, to whose

excellent pamphlet on “Lewd Literature” we are in-

debted for much valuable information, estimates

that new crime and erotic magazines appear

at the rate of eight each month. He tells us that

the monthly circulation of these magazines is 15,-

000,000, and that, since the magazines are often

passed around to others, about 60,000,000 read them

every month. Almost 90% of these salacious maga-

zines are published in the City of New York, and

are sold at about 150,000 newstands throughout the

country. The publishers and sellers of these maga-

zines frequently exchange names and addresses:

write to one of them and in a few days you will hear



44 MODERN QUESTIONS

from ten others. A large number of these lewd
magazines have been barred from Canada.

The channels through which these magazines

reach the public are very numerous. In each larger

city there are usually several distributing agencies

which supply the magazine racks throughout the

city. These magazine racks are found in drug stores,

cigar stores, hotels, and on street corners of down-

town sections. Magazine racks are often operated in

postoffices by ex-service men. Travelling libraries

and lending libraries, maintained in drug stores and

department stores, frequently make available to a

large number books which because of their salacious

character are barred from the shelves of public

libraries. Newsboys are now being engaged in in-

creasingly large numbers to carry these magazines

from house to house. Obscene pictures are often

found inside of match pa-ds. Certain drinking

glasses, when filled with water, manifest pictures

of nudes. Certain cards, when slightly dampened,

show lewd figures. Operators of filling stations,

pool rooms, root beer parlors often sell objection-

able literature and contraceptives; to escape the

force of the law, the latter are often advertised as

“sanitary articles/’ articles of “feminine hygiene,”

etc.

Salacious literature is frequently shipped by

freight and express. Trucks and buses convey it

during the night to druggists and newsdealers in

country towns. In one instance, a truck delivered

a ton of salacious literature to a Minnesota town

where it was distributed to the children as they left

the public high school. Since in so many instances

obscene magazines, pictures, cards and objects are

distributed freely, the question naturally arises:



SALACIOUS LITERATURE 45

Who, or what organization, is behind this immoral

propaganda? Who is so intent on destroying the
morals of American youth? Perhaps the time does

not seem right to some to attack the religious faith

of the American people directly. On the supposition

that deeds will eventually make creeds, is the relig-

ion of our young people being destroyed in a round

about way—by first destroying their morals (3) ?
What methods are we to use in stemming and

finally eliminating this flood of obscene literature?

In the first place, we may approach the distributors

and vendors of this literature in a friendly way and

ask them to cooperate with us in our effort to pre-

serve the morals of the youth of the land. Again,

letters from indignant readers to advertisers will

soon convince large businesses that it does not pay

to advertise in filthy magazines and will eventually

change the policy of the magazine itself. Protests

from people against the presence of such magazines

where clients wait and read will soon eliminate such

literature from beauty parlors and from dentists’

and doctors’ offices. Since the American bishops

are now combating this evil in a systematic man-

ner through the National Organization for Decent

Literature any one desirous of performing a genu-

ine piece of Catholic Action should become an active

member of the parochial unit of this organization.

Occasionally, recourse will have to be had to

the law. Where there is question of a simple mis-

demeanor or where the city has an ordinance pro-

hibiting the circulation, sale and distribution of im-

(3) Arnold Lunn, in his work “The Science of World Revolu-

tion” (N. Y. 1938), pp. 52-53 tells us that pornographic

literature and pictures were the weapons with which

Spanish Communists sought to destroy the Christian

morals of the Spaniards.



46 MODERN QUESTIONS

moral literature, prosecution may be initiated by
the city police or by the city attorney (4) . Where

there is question of a gross misdemeanor or where

there is no local ordinance prosecution is initiated

under the state statutes by the county attorney (5) .

(4
> Ordinance 922 of the City of St. Paul reads as follows:

“Nudity — Indecent dress — Indecent exposure — Im-
moral conduct — Indecent books, pictures, plays.
“Any person or persons who shall appear in any street
or public place in said city in a state of nudity, or in a

dress not belonging to his or her sex, or in any indecent

or lewd dress, or shall make any indecent exposure of
his or her person, or be guilty of any obscene or filthy

act, or of any lewd, indecent, immoral or insulting con-

duct, language or behavior, or shall exhibit, sell or offer

to sell any indecent or lewd book, picture or other thing,

or shall exhibit or perform any indecent, immoral or

lewd play or other representation, shall be guilty of a

misdemeanor.”

(5) Statute 10187 of the State of Minnesota reads as follows:

“Obscene literature—Every person who

—

“1. Shall sell, lend, give away, or offer to give away,

show, have in his possession with intent to sell, give

away, show, advertise, or otherwise offer for loan, gift,

sale or distribution, any obscene or indecent book, maga-
zine, pamphlet, newspaper, story paper, writing, picture,

drawing, photograph, or any article or instrument of

indecent or immoral character; or who shall design,
copy, draw, photograph, print, utter, publish or other-

wise prepare such a book, picture, drawing, paper, or

other article; or write or print, or cause to be written

or printed a circular, advertisement or notice of any

kind, or give oral information stating when, where, how,

or to whom or by what means such an indecent or
obscene article or thing can be purchased or obtained; or

“2. Shall exhibit upon any public road, street, or other

place within view of any minor any of the books, papers,

or other things hereinbefore enumerated; or

“3. Shall hire, use, or employ any minor to sell or give

away, or in any manner distribute, or shall permit any
minor in his custody or control to sell, give away, or
in any manner distribute, any of the articles herein-
before mentioned

—

Shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor, and be
punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not
more than one year nor less than ninety days, or by
a fine not less than one hundred dollars nor more than
five hundred dollars, or by both.”



SALACIOUS LITERATURE 47

Because of their stand against salacious liter-

ature, Catholics are frequently accused of being

prudish and Puritanical, of confusing morality with

what is purely a matter of art. We readily grant
that the human form has frequently been the topic

of poetry, painting and sculpture. In Greece and

Italy, for example, one may see the human form in

the nude painted or sculptured in such a chaste and

idealistic manner as to be a matter of esthetic in-

spiration and pleasure. But we seriously doubt that

the vendors and distributors of magazines are bent

upon satisfying the artistic and esthetic instincts of

man. The tastes to which they pander are definite-

ly of a different and low type. We must always re-
member that man is a fallen creature, that his lower

faculties are no longer subject to the higher. The

only place and time when sight of the nude body

excited no lusts of the flesh was in the Garden of

Paradise before the Fall.

The publisher, seller, distributor and promoter

of salacious literature is a murderer of souls and the

greatest enemy of all supernatural life. His retri-

bution is foretold in the words of Our Lord: “He

that shall scandalize one of these little ones that

believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone

should be hanged about his neck, and that he should

be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the

world because of scandals. For it must needs be

that scandals come; but nevertheless woe to that

man by whom the scandal cometh” (6) . If God

threatens such severe penalties to the scandalizer

—

to him who becomes a stumbling block in the path of

others—what great reward will He have in store for
those who, far from scandalizing others, have done

(6) Mtt. XVIII, 6, 7.



48 MODERN QUESTIONS

all in their power to remove occasions of sin from

the path of their neighbor?

Discussion Aids

1. What religious truth is brought out by the

story of the incident in the lives of St. Albert

and St. Thomas?

2. Why are impure conversations such a threat
to the supernatural life of the soul?

3. Prove that the difference in sex, the married

life, and the human body itself are God’s

creations.

4. What are the five marks of salacious litera-

ture? Explain each briefly.

5. When does a magazine misrepresent facts?

Offend against religion and morality? Under-

mine patriotism?

6. What is the extent of the circulation of salac-

ious periodicals?

7. Through what channels do they reach the read-

ing public?

8. How are they transmitted from the publishers

to the readers ?

9. What means may be adopted to counteract this

spread of salacious literature?

10.

Are Catholics confusing obscenity with art?

Religious Practices

1. Sight and hearing are great gifts from God:

I will never use them to read vicious periodi-

cals or listen wilfully to objectionable stories.

2. My tongue has been consecrated by the Body

and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. I

will never use it to tell or repeat sinful stories.



SALACIOUS LITERATURE 49

3. Out of love for my neighbor I will strive to

remove scandals and occasion of sin from his

path.



Chapter V

THE MOVIES

“It is one of the supreme necessities of our

time to watch and to labor to the end that the motion

picture be no longer a school of corruption but that

it be transformed into an effectual instrument for

the education and elevation of mankind” (1) .

The motion pictures constitute one of the most

influential educational agencies which have sprung

up alongside of our schools during the past half

century. Pius XI calls the movies “a universal and

potent form of entertainment and instruction” (2) .

Motion picture theatres are being opened in ever

increasing numbers in both civilized and semi-civil-

'ized countries, and millions of people go to the

movies every day. Almost eighty million Americans

—of whom thirty-eight per cent are young people
under the age of twenty-one—attend the movies
weekly. Just as the newspapers have in the past

gradually supplemented books, so now the new and

superior technique of the movies is gradually replac-

ing both the books and the newspapers. Producers,

must, therefore, realize the tremendous importance

of their work and make of the movie an instrument

for propagating truth and a correct philosophy of

life, “a light and a positive guide to what is good” (3) .

This duty is especially incumbent upon American

producers since four-fifths of the pictures shown

throughout the whole world are of American origin.

(!) Pius XI, Encyclical “Vigilanti Cura” (N. C. W. C. press)

p. 11.

(2) ibid, p. 11.

(3) ibid, p. 14.



THE MOVIES 51

The Encyclical “Vigilanti Cura” enumerates the

following reasons for the great popularity of the

movies (4) .

1) The movies are a pleasing form of recreation

for people who labor under the trying and fatiguing

conditions of modern life.

2) Motion pictures captivate man through all the

avenues of sensibility, they influence the whole man

without exacting any special mental effort. The

audience is not obliged to concentrate as in reading

;

it is absolved from the necessity of abstract and

deductive reasoning. In the talkies the interpreta-

tion becomes even easier, while the music adds charm

to the action and drama.

3) The atmosphere and the comforts of the the-

atre add to its attractiveness: “A motion picture

is viewed by people who are seated in a dark the-

atre, and whose faculties, mental, physical and often

spiritual, are relaxed.”

4) The universality of the theatre is another rea-

son for its popularity: “One does not need to go

far in search of these theatres; they are close to

home, to church, to school, and they thus bring the

cinema to the very center of popular life.”

5) The capable execution of the theme and plot

constitutes another attraction : “The acting out of

the plot is done by men and women selected for their

art, for all those natural gifts, the employment of

those expedients, which can become, for youth par-

ticularly, the instrument of seduction.”

6) Finally, the audience, especially the young, are

fascinated by the luxurious appointments, pleasing

music, and vigorous realism of the movies.

(4) ibid. pp. 7-10.



52 MODERN QUESTIONS

Apart from these considerations, there are other

reasons why the movies exercise such a profound

and lasting influence on the mind and hearts of the

young. In the first place, all knowledge comes to us

through the senses, and the sense of sight is said to

be the channel of sixty-five per cent of our knowl-

edge. The concrete and attractive pictures of the

movies appeal to the sense of sight and supply ideas

to the mind ready made. Secondly, movies are said

to be levelled down to a twelve year old intelligence,

a fact which makes it easy for children to absorb

the images and form their ideas about life from the

movies. Thirdly, children’s minds are “virgin un-

marked slates,” which receive writing with remark-

able ease. Their mental field is not crowded with

a host of acquired images which frequently exclude

or render difficult the entrance of new ideas. Just

as a new unused blackboard records writing with

unusual brightness, so also children’s minds regis-

ter new impressions with unusual clearness and in-

tensity; they receive impressions from the movies

with the pliability of clay and retain them with

the durability of marble. In fact, the knowledge

obtained from the movies seems to have a peculiar

expansive power; the child’s reflecting and ponder-

ing on what has been seen on the screen gradually

yields a fuller and more detailed knowledge. Fourth-

ly, the child’s emotional reaction to the picture is

ten times greater than that of adults. It leaves, as

has been shown by scientific experiments, an im-

pression on the child’s brain and nerves which lasts

for several hours, increases his restlessness in sleep

for several successive nights, and in this way im-

prints the picture indelibly on the child’s memory.

Lastly, the child is by instinct an imitator and tends



THE MOVIES 53

by natural impulse to imitate the examples set be-

fore him. The movies because of their concreteness

and vividness are one of the great sources for pat-

terns of a child’s conduct. When the boys in the

backyard or on the playgrounds are playing robbers,

cops, gangsters, cowboys, etc., they are merely exter-

iorizing the ideas derived from the movies.

In the light of these principles we can easily

understand the statement of Pius XI that “at the

very age when moral sense is being formed, when

notions and sentiments of justice and rectitude, of

duty, obligations and ideals of life are being develop-

ed, the motion picture, with its direct propaganda,

assumes a position of commanding influence” (5) .

The Pope goes on to indicate the immense blessings

which good movies could produce: “Good motion

pictures are capable of exercising a profoundly mor-

al influence upon those who see them. In addition

to affording recreation, they are able to arouse

noble ideals of life, to communicate valuable concep-

tions, to impart better knowledge of the history and

beauties of the fatherland and other countries, to

present truth and virtue under attractive forms, to

create at least the flavor of understanding among

nations, social classes and races, to champion the

cause of justice, to give new life to the claims of

virtue, to contribute positively to the genesis of a

just social order in the world”
(6)

.

Movies, then, can be of immense service for

wholesome pleasure, entertainment, education and

enlightenment. They can stir an audience to com-

passion, love and repentance, to noble resolves and

to a change of life. Unfortunately, however, movies

(5) ibid. p. 10.

(6) ibid. p. 9.



54 MODERN QUESTIONS

have often been exploited in the wrong direction and

have been productive of much harm. “Everyone

knows/’ says Pius XI, “what damage is done to the

soul by bad motion pictures. They are occasions of

sin; they seduce young people along the ways of

evil by glorifying the passions
;
they show life under

a false light; they cloud ideals; they destroy pure

love, respect for marriage and affection for the fam-

ily. They are capable also of creating prejudices

among individuals, misunderstandings among na-

tions, among social classes, and among entire

races” (7) . In the preceding chapter we indicated

the various marks of salacious literature, namely,

1) it glorifies crime or the criminal; 2) is predom-

inantly “sexy”; 3) features illicit love; 4) carries

illustrations or descriptions indecent or suggestive;

5) carries disreputable advertising; 6) misrepre-

sents facts; 7) offends against religion and morality;

8) undermines patriotism. The criteria enumerat-

ed under these headings are also applicable to the

movies, and for a fuller description of them the read-

er is referred to the chapter on “Salacious Litera-

ture.”

The American Legion of Decency was born of

the desire to obtain and maintain fundamental re-

ligious and moral standards on the screen. Its great

objective is the following: “A screen conforming

to the accepted and God-given morality upon which

our homes and civilization are builded. We would

stamp out films which present false and immoral

standards. We would revitalize on the screen the

ideals of natural and Christian rectitude. We have

taken the field against the motion picture which is

immoral in theme or indecent in treatment. By time-

(7) ibid. p. 9.



THE MOVIES 55

tested standards of morality, adultery is wrong;

murder is wrong; stealing is wrong; lying is wrong;

honor is due to father and mother. These norms of

human conduct spring from a code of right and

wrong written by God Himself upon the tablets of

men’s hearts. The Legion of Decency is not a cen-

sorship body. It urges the producers to exercise a

self-control responsive to public opinion aroused and

insistent upon decency” (8) .

The American Legion of Decency as well as all

similar organizations in Europe (9) lay down the

following rules in regard to the presentation of evil

on the screen.

1) Evil must not be presented in too great

detail nor too extensively. The film, of course, must

be true to reality and must represent life as it is.

It is not required that all reference to evil be ex-

cluded. But it is necessary to observe a just pro-

portion. The film should not devote the greater part

of the time to an exposition, for example, of the

morals of a night club and consecrate only the clos-

ing moments to a condemnation of the evil. The

picture should show the conversion of a criminal

rather than a criminal converted.

2) Evil must be represented as evil, crime

must be depicted as crime and not as a mere social

blunder, as a mistake in our evolution from the

animal, or as an unavoidable consequence of our

make-up.

8) Evil must be condemned for adequate rea-

(S) From a radio broadcast (CBS, 9-26-37) by the Rev.
John J. McClafferty, Executive Secretary of the National

Office of the Legion of Decency, 485 Madison Avenue,

New York City.
(9) e. g. Office Catholique International du Cinema, 6, rue

Traversiere, Bruxelles, 3, Belgium^



56 MODERN QUESTIONS

sons—not merely for temporal and pragmatic rea-
sons but for religious and supernatural reasons.

4) Even when properly and quantitatively re-

duced and clearly condemned evil must not be pre-

sented in such an attractive way as to excite imita-

tion.

5) Evil placed in the past diminishes in force.

The more distant it is in time and space, the more

removed it is from contact with our own world, the

less suggestive and the less influential it is, and the

more difficult it is for the spectator to make the

application to his own life. But historical and exotic

settings must not be made means of presenting what

in itself is condemnable.

6) Certain habits and customs, proper to sav-

age countries, may become offensive and occasions

of sin if presented—outside of their natural setting
and environment—before civilized audiences.

The same Catholic organizations lay down cer-

tain principles concerning the relativity of movies.

They point out the fact that the influence exercised

by a picture on a particular individual is determin-

ed not only by the contents of the picture but also

by the degree of education of the spectator. More

specifically, they consider a motion picture in ref-

erence to each of the following three groups

:

1. Children: The child’s intelligence is not

sufficiently developed to enable him to distinguish

between error and truth, between fiction and reality.

He believes all that he sees and hears. If a child,

as experience shows, can commune with irrational

creatures as flowers and animals, how much more

will he identify himself with the living and speak-

ing human beings on the screen? He cannot “dis-

count” as adults do, or dismiss the movie with the



THE MOVIES 67

thought that “real life is not like that.” With the

seeming approval of the adults sitting about him, he

can only assent and accept. Again, being by na-

ture and instinct an imitator, the child reproduces

the acts of those whom he admires, even before he

reflects. Stealing, lying, disobedience in the home,

etc., have often been traced to the suggestive power

of the movies.

Again there are certain questions, as the sex

problem, which should be imparted to young people

only gradually.

2. Men with an average education: The aver-

age spectator lacks the necessary critical sense to

examine dispassionately the ideas presented to him

on the screen. He cannot discern the carefully cam-

ouflaged error. He lacks the necessary education

to examine the value of a theory, thesis, or teach-

ing. This is especially true in regard to social doc-

trines. The movies frequently depict an unreal

world, and present a deceiving image of the individ-

ual and of social life. They often minimize patient

effort and perseverance, represent the home as a

jail, ridicule honest and hard working people, and

picture the heroes as leading a lazy and luxurious

life. In this way they accentuate the rancours in

the popular mind and aggravate the hatred between

classes. In the minds of those who are unacquaint-

ed with Communistic sophistries they create a dis-

dain for authority and a desire for revolution.

3) The well-educated spectators. Members

of this class are aware of the unreal character of

many features of the film. They are acquainted with

the various artifices used to produce a desired effect.

They view the screen in a critical manner. They

know that the moving picture is one thing, reality



58 MODERN QUESTIONS

another. They like to be entertained for two hours

in an imaginary and fairy land. But once they leave

the theatre they come down to earth. They labor

under no misconception as to the ideas, tendencies

and suggestions of the screen.

In conformity with these principles of Chris-

tian morality the National Office of the Legion of

Decency issues regularly classified lists of films. It

divides the pictures into the following classes.

Class A—Section I—Unobjectionable for Gen-
eral Patronage: Pictures in this category are suit-

able for all ages and for all types of theatre-goers.

Class A — Section II— Unobjectionable for
Adults: The subject matter of these pictures is

often too mature for youth, and as a result does not

interest or appeal to youth. Again, the subject

matter may be of such a nature as to demand greater

maturity of thought and judgment than youth poss-

esses and hence disconcerts and disquiets him and

even harms him.

Class B—Objectionable in Part: This classifica-
tion is not based on the technical value of the picture

but on its ethical implications. Pictures of this group

glorify divorce and approve remarriage; or treat

lightly the married state, family life and parental

authority; or solve the main plot by suicide; or im-

ply that fundamental moral standards are change-

able. To this class also belong pictures which con-

tain offensive vulgarities or immodest suggestive-

ness in dialogue, dance, situation and action, or

double meaning lines and remarks. In classifying

an otherwise good picture the Legion must condemn

these transgressions of ethical principles, propriety

and good taste, and hence says that it is objection-

able in part, and places it in class “B”.



THE MOVIES 59

Class C—Condemned: To this category belong
all pictures which are harmful or positively bad;

for example, films attacking or ridiculing Catholic

religion or morality; films featuring or condoning

or justifying illicit sex experiences, voluntary pros-

titution, Lesbianism, sex-perversion, white slavery.

To this category belong almost all of the Russian

films which are full of atheistic and Communistic

propaganda.

Some contend that the publishing of the lists

gives an advantageous publicity to the objectionable

pictures and brings them to the attention of the

public. But this claim has little to support it in

fact. We might as well say that the Holy See
should not issue the Index of forbidden books, or

that theologians should not publish moral treatises,

or that parents and educators should remain silent

about forbidden things, lest evil be brought to the

attention of others. Our appeal is to men of good

will, to those who have the proper dispositions. Be-

sides, forbidden and objectionable movies receive

such wide publicity in newspapers, posters and

radio broadcasts, that those whose mind is intent

upon evil will experience no difficulty in finding it.

Others accuse us of confusing amorality and

immorality with art. The essential purpose of art,

however, as Pius XI writes, “is to assist in the per-

fecting of the moral personality, which is man. For

this reason it must itself be moral” (10) . A good
movie, like truly great literature, is a portrayal of

life, a record of human experience, an expression

of human emotion, and must needs take into account

the unceasing striving of the soul after God. Hence

(1 °) o. c. p. 3.



60 MODERN QUESTIONS

an artistic movie cannot be amoral, much less im-

moral.

In conclusion we shall outline, in conformity

with the directions contained in the Encyclical

“Vigilanti Cura,” a program of Catholic Action in

regard to the motion pictures:

1. Catholics must strive to imbue the produc-

ers of motion pictures with the principles of Chris-

tian morality. Members of Catholic Action especi-

ally should strive to diffuse the Christian viewpoint

on movies and plays. They should urge upon pro-

ducers the following three considerations: first,

light, sound, color, motion are God's handiwork and

hence the motion-picture together with all created

gifts must be ordained to the glory of God; second,

the law of charity should prevent producers from

placing obstacles in the way of Christian living and

salvation
;
third, motion pictures which attack basic

moral laws, married and family life, human dignity

and rights, undermine the foundations of our demo-

cratic government.

2. We must strive to make Catholics, who hold
important positions in the movie industry, conscious

of their duty to promote the observance of Christian

principles in the production of movies.

3. Pastors should obtain from their people a

pledge in which they promise to stay away from

motion pictures and plays offensive to truth and

Christian morality.

4. Classified lists of motion pictures should be

published frequently and regularly, making the peo-

ple aware of which films are permitted at all, which

are permitted with reservations, and which are

harmful or positively bad.

5. Each country should set up a central per-



THE MOVIES 61

manent reviewing office to classify the motion pic-

tures. Where the character of the region demands it,

the respective bishop may add severer criterions to

the national list.

6. An exchange of views among offices of the

various countries will conduce to greater efficiency

and unity.

7. Catholics should organize their own motion-

picture theatres which would demand that the in-

dustry produce pictures conforming to Christian

principles.

8. All high-minded citizens should strive to

procure legislation which will protect youth against

evil and pernicious movies.

Discussion Aids

1. Why is the motion picture a factor which mod-
ern education must take into account?

2. How account for the great popularity of the

movies ?

3. Why do the movies exercise such a powerful

influence on children?

4. What good results could be brought about by

the movies?

5. What are the criteria for judging a movie?

6. What is the objective of the Legion of Decency?

7. What are the rules for the presentation of evil

on the screen?

8. What is meant by the relativity of movies?

How do movies affect children? Men with an

average education? Well-educated men?

9. What pictures are assigned to Class A? Class

B? Class C?



62 MODERN QUESTIONS

10. Are Catholics confusing immorality with art?

11. What can Catholics do to improve the movies?

Religious Practices

1. I will live up conscientiously to the Legion of

Decency pledge.

2. I will consult the classified list of motion pic-

tures before attending a movie, and patronize

only those theatres which present pictures

which are in no way objectionable.

3. I will consider no motion picture as a work of

art unless it gives a Christian solution of all

problems.



Chapter VI

DANCING

1. Dancing has been variously defined as a ser-

ies of graceful and measured steps executed in ac-

cord with music, or, as a series of varied and regu-

lated movements, postures, and paces ; or, as a vivid

representation by measured movements of the senti-

ments and passions of others (operatic and theatri-

cal performances). At times it may be a combina-

tion of graceful and rhythmic movements, arrang-

ed in decorative and harmonious figures, in order

to give expression to physical charm and beauty

and to afford pleasure for both the participant and

the spectator. Perhaps the most comprehensive

definition of dancing is the one given by Webster’s

Dictionary: “Dancing is a series of movements

executed by the body or limbs or both, in rhythm;

a measured leaping, tripping or stepping, commonly

in unison with music, hand-clapping, or other rhy-

thmic sounds as an expression of personal or group

emotion, a religious rite, a theatrical entertainment,

a means of physical education, a social amusement,

or especially in modern times, as a form of art” (1) .

Dancing, like poetry and music, is a conse-

quence of man’s psychophysical nature, an exempli-

fication of the principle of psychophysical inter-

action. It is a well established fact that there is

no internal idea or emotion which is not accomp-

anied by a physical reaction—no psychosis without
a corresponding neurosis. Conversely, certain bod-

(D Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English
Language, 2nd. Ed. (Springfield, 1935).



64 MODERN QUESTIONS

ily postures and attitudes evoke definite mental

states. This intimate relation between the mind

and bodily movements is due to the substantial union

of soul and body. If a man’s sentiments reach a

certain intensity he will not only manifest them by

facial attitudes but will give expression to them in

words. And if they reach a further degree of in-

tensity he will not be satisfied with ordinary lan-

guage but will seek poetic expression. And if they

reach a still higher degree, ordinary intonation will

not be sufficient, but he will sing exultantly. And

if they still increase in intensity bodily movements

will be instinctively and spontaneously added; man

will leap with joy, move back and forth, stop ab-

ruptly, clap and clasp his hands—he will dance.
What rhythm and measure and short and long syl-

lables are to poetic language, what pauses and

breathings and the varied combination of sounds of

the scale are to music, what the various colors of

the artist’s palette are to painting, bodily attitudes,

gestures and movements are to dancing.

Dancing, as an instinctive and spontaneous

manifestation of internal sentiments is of frequent

occurence among children and among all primitive

peoples. Especially was it used in antiquity for

externalizing one’s inward religion, and eventually

it came to form an integral part of religious wor-

ship. Dancing around the altar to the harmonious

sound of musical instruments formed an important

part of the Greek religion ceremonial. In Egypt it

formed an integral part of the training for liturgi-

cal services in the temple. Sometimes the dances

represented the deeds of the gods who were being

honored.

Among the Hebrews dancing was an express-



DANCING 65

ion of pleasure, joy, religious exultation and piety.

A rapid glance at the passages listed under the term
“dance” in a Biblical Concordance will acquaint us

with the texts which refer to dancing among the

Hebrews. Mary, the sister of Moses and Aaron

—

together with other Israelite women—danced after
the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, while sing-

ing the Canticle composed by Moses in honor of

God (2) . The daughter of Jephte met her father

“with timbrels and with dances” after his victory

over the Ammonites (3) . When David returned from

his slaughter of the Philistine “the women came out

of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to

meet King Saul, with timbrels of joy, and cor-

nets” (4) . David himself “danced with all his might”

before the ark of the Lord (5) . It is very probable,

too, that dancing formed an important part of the

liturgical services in the temple of Jerusalem. In

fact, during the early Christian ages dancing ac-

companied the celebration of certain Christian

feasts—at least in some localities—and was only
gradually forbidden and eliminated by the authority

of the Church.

Dancing was also fostered as a mere art to ex-

press the beautiful and to develop physical grace,

charm and dexterity. The Greeks were of the opin-

ion that grace and elegance of bodily movements

soften and refine manners, develop rectitude and

adaptability of the mind, and produce urbanity in

action and conduct. Among the same Greeks danc-

ing was also used as a military exercise to develop

(2) Exod. XV, 20-21.

(3) Judges XI, 34.

< 4 > I Kings, XVIII, 6.

(5) II Kings, VI, 14.



66 MODERN QUESTIONS

physical strength and agility with a view to future

combats.

The ancients also knew the value of the prin-

ciple that certain physical movements evoke corres-

ponding mental states. They resorted to martial

dances in order to develop a warlike spirit among

the natives. They knew, too, that indecent dances

were the quickest way of developing lustful thoughts

and desires. Paintings at Herculanum and Pompeii

still depict today the lascivious dances which pre-

vailed in these ancient pagan cities. The fathers of

the Church inveighed repeatedly against these ob-

scene and revolting dances bequeathed to society by

a rotten paganism. No wonder that the converts,

not wishing to have anything in common with pag-

anism and its practices, refrained from all dancing.

Today dancing is principally a means of recrea-

tion and entertainment. Homer in his Iliad fre-

quently spoke of dancing in this sense, and many

of the Biblical passages use the term with this

meaning. St. Mark’s Gospel tells us that the daugh-

ter of Herodias “danced and pleased Herod, and

them that were at table with him” (6) . St. Mark

does not tell us explicitly whether the damsel execut-

ed one of those indecent dances, which took place

after Oriental feasts and orgies—dances which the
degenerate pagans had introduced among the Jews

and which probably prevailed at the court of Herod.

In the face of the rising tide of paganism the

Church is anxiously vigilant lest any one of the

many new species of dances harken back to its an-

cient degenerate predecessors. She determines the

conditions under which dancing may be permissible.

(6) Mk. VI, 22.



DANCING 67

She is mindful of the warning of the Book of Eccles-

iasticus against dangerous and promiscuous danc-

ing: “Look not upon a woman that hath a mind

for many, lest thou fall into her snares. Use not

much the company of her that is a dancer, and

hearken not to her, lest thou perish by the force of

her charms” (7) .

II In judging the morality of dancing we may

consider dancing 1) in itself; 2) in regard to the

person dancing; and 3) in connection with the cir-

cumstances in which dancing takes place.

1) Dancing considered in itself. Eminent

theologians, such as St. Thomas, St. Alphonsus, and

others do not consider dancing as evil in itself. If

the canons of prudence and decency are observed,

dancing cannot be considered as a lustful act, but

rather as an expression of joy and as an innocent

recreation. Says St. Thomas: “In itself dancing is

not evil
;
but according as it ordained to such or such

an end, and accompanied by such or such circum-

stances, it can become a virtuous act or it can be-

come a vicious act” {8) . St. Alphonsus gives expres-

sion to the same judgment: “Dances in themselves

are not evil, since in themselves they do not strive

to procure sensual pleasures but-joy. However, they

become evil, if we engage in them with an evil in-

tention, or in a manner to rouse our own passions

or those of another, or because of some other blame-

worthy circumstance” (9) .

The dance then must not give rise to any un-

becoming gestures, positions and attitudes nor con-

tain any indiscrete touching, clasping and embrac-

Tn IX, 3, 4.
< 8) Commentary on Isaias, Ch.III.
< 9) Moral Theology, Book IV, 4, 482.



68 MODERN QUESTIONS

ing. Characteristics such as these do not seem to

be wholly absent from our modern dance. When one

considers the leaping, jumping, side-sliding, swing-

ing and whirling which form an integral part of so

many of the dances, he is inclined to brand them all

as indecent and suggestive. But we must not be too

rash in our judgment. Theologians point out that

modern dances are so complicated, imply so many

minute movements, and demands such ease, elegance

and precision that the inward attention which they

require of the dancer may crowd out all sinful or

lustful elements. Incidentally, however, the danger

may be greater for the unoccupied and quiet spec-

tator than for the participant

Modern “swing” music was condemned in the

following severe terms by the Most Rev. Francis

J. L. Beckman, Archbishop of Dubuque, at the Con-

vention of the National Council of Catholic Women

at Biloxi : “Under the captions of ‘sur-realism’

‘neo-paganism,’ etc., we find whole groups and or-

ganizations fostering within our very border a type

of art embodying evil and malicious propaganda as

its central core. A degenerated and demoralizing
‘musical’ system is given a disgusting christening as

‘swing’ and turned loose to gnaw away the moral

fibre of our young people. We permit, if not freely

indorse by our criminal indifference, ‘jam sessions,’

‘jitterbugs,’ and cannibalistic rhythmic orgies to

occupy a place in our social scheme of things, woo-

ing our youth along the primrose path to hell. We
gaze idiotically at an impressionistic mass proudly

defined by its sponsors as the painting of the future,

marvelling at its drabness, commending its motives.

In such a setting art has been robbed, as was the

man of Jericho, of its most beautiful essence and



DANCING 69

meaning, and left to die along the highroad of Com-

munistic endeavor” (10) .

2) The dance considered in relation to the par-

ticipant. So much depends on the particular edu-

cation, temperament and impressionability of the

individual, that it is almost impossible to lay down

a general rule. Each particular case must be judg-

ed by itself. Of course, dances formally obscene and

lascivious are forbidden; to attend them would be

a mortal sin against prudence by putting oneself in

the proximate occasion of sin or inducing others to

do so. Again, if there is a probable or almost cer-

tain connection between a sin and a dance, the lat-

ter is a proximate occasion of sin and must be avoid-

ed under pain of serious sin. But as some theolog-

ians point out, what is a proximate danger for one

is only a remote occasion for another. Some people

because of their particular disposition may fall

where others will experience no serious temptation.

Again certain features of a danger may be a stumb-

ling block for some while they leave others unaffect-

ed. Again, some people are so blase and such slaves

to social custom that they dance out of mere habit

without paying much attention to the nature of the

dance itself. The fact that some experience isolat-

ed impure thoughts or desires at a dance, is not suf-

ficient reason to condemn the dance itself, since

these inward movements of concupiscence may arise

even in solitude.

3) The circumstances of the dance: (1) The

place (11) . Home and community dancing is less

'(

10 ) “Catholic Bulletin” Nov. 5, 1938, p. 5, col. 4.

dD The Sacred Consistorial Congregation issued a decree
on March 31, 1916, forbidding dances at any gatherings

that were held under the auspices of the Church, for

the benefit of the Church or in presence of the clergy.



70 MODERN QUESTIONS

objectionable than dancing in public ball-rooms,

hotels, taverns, beer-parlors, night clubs, etc. A
supervised and duly chaperoned dance is better than

a public dance. The latter is frequently attended

by people of questionable reputation; girls and

women come and go unaccompanied; there is danc-

ing without introduction or acquaintance
;
the dance

hall is often connected with a bar room; drinking

is going on at the dance itself and some of the par-

ticipants are intoxicated; the hall is overheated;

with bodily fatigue comes a corresponding relaxa-

tion of will-control, etc. And if virtue has not suf-

fered shipwreck at the dance itself, it is in great

danger of doing so after the dance.

2) Attire. It would be a grave sin to attend

or promote dances and theatrical performances

where the participants are dressed immodestly or

appear in various stages of nudity, or are dressed

in a thin gauzy material, of the color of the skin so

as to make the participants appear as nude. The

climate and customs of dress in a country, however,

must always be taken into account. Men gradually

become accustomed to styles which at first seemed

shocking, objectionable and provocative to sin. So

too the decolletage prescribed for formal functions

in official circles may, according to some theologians,

excuse from sin. But all theologians agree that a

woman would be guilty of serious sin if she appear-

ed at a dance in an unusual decolletage or strove to

introduce such a custom
;
for what is extraordinary

attracts attention and may provoke to sin. Public

masquerade dances, where the person conceals her

or his identity, are likewise objectionable. Masked

persons may take liberties which they would not

take openly. A mask frequently conceals an evil



DANCING 71

intention, an insidious danger. Masquerades carried

on in the home and among friends are usually only

a source of entertainment.

3) Time. Frequent dances hardly remain

mere amusement. They develop a certain familiar-

ity and undesirable intimacy, especially if one dances

with the same person the entire evening. Again

dances which are held during the first part of the

evening are preferable to those which last until the

early hours of the morning. In the latter case the

will is affected by physical exhaustion and sometimes

by intoxicating liquor—and no longer exercises that
firm control which is necessary under the circum-

stances.

Discussion Aids

1. Give a definition of dancing.

2. Describe dancing as

a) an expression of internal emotion

b) a manifestation of religious joy

c) a mere art

d) a means of evoking mental states.

3. In order that dancing be ethical, what is requir-

ed on the part of

a) the dance itself

b) the participant

c) place

d) attire

e) time.

Religious Practices

1. The body with its strength and faculties and

powers is a gift from God. I will not dishonor

it by unbecoming recreation.



72 MODERN QUESTIONS

2. In dancing I will never assume a bodily atti-

tude or posture which might be an occasion of

sin to myself or to my companion.

3. I will never assume postures which may be

harmless to me but a stumbling block to the

onlookers.



Chapter VII

GAMBLING

DEFINITIONS

Before stating the ethical principles govern-

ing gambling we shall define the terms which shall

occur throughout this chapter:

Gambling is the risking of considerable sums

of money or of things of value between two or

more persons on a contest of chance of any kind.

A bet or sl wager is a bilateral contract where-
by two or several persons, in disagreement upon the

truth of an unascertained proposition, or on the

realization of an uncontrollable and uncertain event,

agree to cede the stake or sum of money to him who

upon verification of the facts is found to be correct.

A game is a tacit contract between two or more
persons by which the players, engaged in a pastime

game, agree to cede the stake to him who through

skill turns out to be the winner.

A lottery is the distribution of prizes to per-
sons who by means of a ticket purchased in ad-

vance procured the right to be included among those

from whom the winner or winners are chosen by

chance or by lot in the manner determined by the

manager of the scheme.

Speculation is the foreseeing and taking advan-

tage of the variations of prices of merchandise, ac-

cording to the difference of time and place, and by

means of buying and selling the realizing of a posi-

tive gain or avoiding a loss.



74 MODERN QUESTIONS

A future is a contract whereby a buyer and
seller fix at once the price of the commodity but de-

fer to a more or less distant future the delivery of

the object.

When the contract leaves to the seller the choice

either to deliver the stipulated commodity at the

price agreed upon or to pay the difference between

the contract price and the actual market price at the

time that the contract expires, the contract is called

an option.

Sometimes an option is taken in a more gen-

eral sense to denote a contract by which for a con-

sideration paid one acquires the privilege of buying

or selling to another person certain goods at a fixed

price and within a certain time. A “Call Option”
gives the privilege of buying or not. A “Put Op-
tion” gives the privilege of selling or not. A
“Straddle” gives the right to buy or sell or either.

Difference transactions and margins are trans-

actions in which no real transfer of goods is exe-

cuted or intended. It is a speculative contract con-

cerning the price of a commodity at a future date.

For example: Mr. Jones agrees to buy from Mr.

Smith on June 1, 1000 bushels of wheat at $1 per

bushel. If when the day arrives wheat sells at $1.10

Mr. Smith pays Mr. Jones the difference; if it sell

at 90c Mr. Jones pays Mr. Smith the difference or

margin. (1). A margin occasionally denotes a
sum of money or its equivalent, placed in the hands

of a broker or dealer, as security to the broker

against losses which may result from the purchase

for the principals' account, of stocks and commodi-

ties.

“Bulls” and “bears” are dealers who attempt

respectively to stimulate or depress the prices.



GAMBLING 75

Principles

I. Gaming. In order that gaming be ethical

certain conditions must be verified in regard to the

stakes, liberty of the players, methods of playing,

and relative skill of the players.

a) The stakes must belong to the player and

must be at his free disposal. A guardian may not
stake the property of his protege, the treasurer may

not stake the money which belongs to his organiza,-

tion, etc. Again, a man may not alienate what is

necessary for the support of his wife and family, or

what is necessary to meet his debts and personal

obligations of justice.

b) The player must be in full possession of

his intellectual and volitional powers. It would be

unjust to play with an idiot, feeble-minded or in-

toxicated person or one who is coerced by kidnapp-

ing or otherwise.

c) The players must not resort to fraud and

cheating; to adopt certain attitudes and strategy of

skill, is permissible.

d) There must be a certain relative equival-

ence of skill among the players. However, it is

difficult in practice to determine the skill and value

of an adversary. The problem becomes very actual

when the stake is considerable and when the loser

had no way of ascertaining the ability of his oppon-

ent before the play began. At any rate, it is wrong

for an expert to play with amateurs and novices.

The fact that theologians lay down certain con-

ditions for the morality of gaming does not mean

that the Church recommends or approves gaming.

In fact, from the so-called canons of the Apostles,

down through local councils and the Council of

Trent, and up to the First and Second Plenary Coun-



76 MODERN QUESTIONS

cils of Baltimore she has looked with disfavor upon

all gaming and gambling. And why? Because she

sees in gambling the following dangers : setting up

stakes which should be reserved for the necessities

of life and of the family, or which put the player in

a position of being unable to fulfill the obligations

of his state; giving scandal or entering into the

occasion of sin because of the time and place of

game or because of the persons or bad company

played with; playing in unwholesome conditions

where intemperance, improper language, quarreling

and fighting accompany the game
;
developing a pas-

sion for gaining money easily and the habit of lead-

ing an idle, lazy, useless life. These dangers have at

times become so great that the civil law itself was

forced to step in and make stringent regulations in

regard to these practices (1) .

(1) The following are the statutes in the State of Minnesota

concerning Gaming:

10209. LOTTERIES. Defined—A nuisance—Drawing
—How punished.

A lottery is a scheme for the distribution of property
by chance, among persons who have paid or agreed to
pay a valuable consideration for the chance, whether it

shall be called a lottery, raffle, gift, enterprise, or by

any other name and is hereby declared unlawful and
a public nuisance.

Every person who shall contrive, propose, or draw a
lottery, or shall assist in contriving, proposing, or draw-

ing a lottery, shall be punished by imprisonment in the

state prison for not more than two years, or by a fine

of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.

10210. Selling tickets, advertising

—

Every person who shall sell, give, or in any way
whatever furnish or transfer to or for another a ticket,

chance, share, or interest, or any paper, certificate, or

instrument purporting to be or to represent a ticket,

chance, share or interest, in or dependent upon the event

of a lottery, to be drawn within or without the state; or
who, by writing, printing, circular, or letter, or in any

other way, shall advertise or publish an account of a

lottery in or out of the state, stating how, when, or

where are the prizes therein, or any of them, or the



GAMBLING 77

price of a ticket, or any share or interest therein, or

where or how it may be obtained—shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor.

10214. GAMBLING.
Gambling with cards, dice, gaming tables, or any

other gambling device whatever is hereby prohibited.

Every person who deals cards at the game called “faro,”
“pharo,” or “forty-eight,” whether the same is dealt

with fifty-two or any other number of cards, and every

person who shall keep any gambling device whatsoever
designed to be used in gambling, shall be punished by im-

prisonment in the county jail for not more than six

months, or by a fine of not more than two hundred dol-

lars, or by both; and every person who shall bet any
money or other property at or upon a gaming table,
game, or device shall be punished by a fine of not less

than five dollars nor more than twenty dollars.

10215. Gambling devices on premises

—

Every person who shall suffer any gaming table,
faro bank, or gambling device to be set up or used for

the purpose of gambling in any house, building, steam-

boat, raft, keelboat or boom, lot yard, or garden, owned,

occupied, or controlled by him, shall be punished by

imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six

months, or by a fine of not more than two hundred dol-

lars or by both.

Ordinance of the City of St. Paul concerning gaming:

450. Gaming prohibited

—

That all descriptions of gaming and fraudulent de-

vices and practices in gaming, and all playing cards,

dice, or other games of chance are hereby prohibited.
451. Gambling devices, gambling houses, card, etc. pro-

hibited

—

All E. O. or roulette tables, faro or pharo banks, and

all gaming with cards, gaming tables, or gambling
devices, and all description of gaming, and all houses

and places for the purpose of gambling and fraudulent

devices and practices, and all playing of cards, dice, or

other games of chance, are hereby prohibited from being

set up or used, or kept for gaming or gambling purposes,
in the City of St. Paul.

452. Faro and gambling devices prohibited

—

No person within the City of St. Paul shall deal
cards at the game called faro, pharo, or forty-eight (48),
whether the same shall be dealt with fifty-two (52), or
any other number of cards, and no person shall keep,
to be used in gaming, any gambling device whatever.

453. Betting prohibited

—

No person shall bet any money or other property at
or upon any gaming table, game or device prohibited
by this ordinance.



78 MODERN QUESTIONS

II Betting. In itself betting is not wrong if

it observes the following conditions : the better may

not stak6 money which does not belong to him or

which is necessary for the fulfilment of his other

obligations or for the support of his family; if a

better risks and loses what is already due to a third

party the other party to the bet has no right law-

fully to retain it; apart from this, the better must

make good the stake, if he loses; the object of the

bet must not be something immoral, as for example,

that a certain city official will rob the city treasury,

or something forbidden by the positive law of the

Church, as, for example, the use of simony in obtain-

ing the appointment of an ecclesiastic to office; the

bet must be free from violence, deceit and fraud,

and the uncertainty of the event must not be created

by false rumors
;
the thing must be something equal-

ly doubtful to both, and both must have a fairly equal

chance to win
;
if a person professes to be in posses-

sion of absolute certitude, and if another neverthe-

less insists on betting with him, the first may accept

the bet, but the bet in that case becomes a gift ; the

participants must have a clear understanding of the

bet and the conditions of a bet. An equivocation or

a misunderstanding fully nullifies a bet.

Although a bet which fulfils these conditions

is not a sinful transaction, yet betting like gaming

contains many temptations and may easily become

a dangerous occupation and the sure road to ruin.

A small winning may spur a man to take risks which
will end in the loss of all his possessions. The habit

of gambling is easily acquired, the betting fever gets

into the blood, and large sums of money may be

squandered in a very short time.

III The conditions for the morality of lotteries



GAMBLING 79

are much the same as those for gaming and betting.

All must have an equal chance to win, there must

be no manipulation, fraud or deceit in the drawing

of the numbers, and there must be some reasonable

proportion between the cost of the ticket and the

chances of winning the prize. The lottery presents

the same dangers as gaming or betting: buying

tickets beyond one’s means, the vain hope of getting

rich quickly and without any effort, developing hab-

its of greed, cupidity and gradually of dishonesty.

IV Speculation, Futures, Difference Transac-

tions, Margins.

Speculation in the sense of foreseeing the vari-

ations in prices and the realizing of gain or the

avoiding of losses by timely buying and selling, con-

tains nothing illicit or immoral. It constitutes a

laudable act of economic prudence, and examples of

it are to be found in the fifty-first and fifty-seventh

chapters of Genesis.

Real speculation, which deals with existent,

negotiable and deliverable objects, cannot be con-

demned by any principle of moral theology as long

as the contractants do not fraudulently influence the

markets and as long as they fulfil their obligations

on the day specified. A seller who has contracted
for the future delivery of a certain commodity knows

that he can obtain the goods—probably at a cheaper
rate than he charges—before the contract expires.
All this is lawful trade, and renders immense serv-

ives to the public. It assures a supply of provisions

and brings about, by the natural interplay of supply

and demand, an equilibrium of prices. It spares the

producer the embarrassment of storing his goods

while awaiting a sale.

But what about fictitious speculation or pure-



80 MODERN QUESTIONS

ly speculative purchases (about ninety per cent

of the speculation on the exchange is of this na-

ture), where there is no transfer of goods? In sub-

stance, they are wagers on the course and variations

of prices and are governed by the same principles

as betting and gaming. Considered in its essential

elements as an aleatory contract, fictitious specula-

tion on future differences and margins is not illicit.

Many arguments are adduced in favor of this

kind of speculation. These transactions are said

to increase the volume of business for commission

houses, brokers and agents. They stabilize prices

and protect them against the fluctations occasioned

by the law of real supply and demand. The specu-

lators are well informed about the world’s market-

able supply and the world’s consumption of any

particular commodity. By means of elaborate sta-

tistics they can determine the price of the commodity

at a particular future time and this estimated price

will play an important role in determining the actual

price.

Nevertheless, moralists, economists, producers

and manufacturers are of the opinion that these

gambling operations on the exchange lead to disas-

trous effects. The following are some of the objec-

tions to these practices:

a) Gambling is apt to become a passion. The

gambler gradually abandons industry, thrift and

honest work and begins to rely solely on chance. He

directs money into unproductive channels. He

squanders his talents and becomes a sort of parasite

preying on the community instead of benefiting it,

and eventually brings misfortune upon himself and

upon society.

b) This world-wide market for futures, this



GAMBLING 81

universal market of exchange dealers multiplies

competitors to such an extent as to cause grave

harm to trade. Producers of a commodity in one

country, who labor under unfavorable conditions,

suffer serious losses because they are obliged to com-

pete with others who produce the same commodity

under very favorable circumstances.

c) Gamblers do not take into consideration the

cost of production, transportation, taxes, customs,

and tariffs but are concerned solely with margins

and differences. They overlook natural and vital

factors which effect profoundly the determination

of prices.

d) Only professional gamblers can success-

fully play the markets
;
the rest are fleeced. The

losses, which become the gain of the great operators,

are borne by those who can least afford to lose.

e) Then there is the constant temptation of

the powerful “bears” and “bulls,” who have great

resources at their disposal, to manipulate the mar-

ket to their advantage and profit. In fact, it has

been conservatively estimated, that fifty per cent

of the prices on the exchange are manipulated. This

manipulation may take place in various ways:

1) By circulating false reports about the mar-

ket value of a certain property. For example, a

rumor goes about that a certain railroad is about

to declare dividends on its stocks. Immediately the

stocks of the railroad go up. The director and his

friends, taking advantage of the situation, sell their

stocks. Then as the favorable reports subside, the

stocks begin to fall, and the small stockholders sell

out in fear to the big ones.

2) False reports are circulated for the sole

purpose of depressing the value of stocks, creating



82 MODERN QUESTIONS

a panic and confusion among the small stockholders

and forcing them to sell out.

3) An exaggerated account about the value of

some stock, which in reality is worthless, is circu-

lated by the owners, and at the same time the sale

of this stock is artificially stimulated on the mar-

ket. When the stocks reach a high point, the specu-

lators sell out to a gullible public and the stocks rap-

idly fall to their former level.

4) By means of a conspiracy among speculat-

ors who buy from and sell to one another, and who

in reality effect no turnover, an impression is given

that the investment is experiencing an enormous

demand. The purpose of this ruse is to inflate the

stocks and invite the public to buy investments

which soon drop in price.

5) An artificial fall or rise in prices may

bring untold misery to countless people. A fall in
prices may destroy the fruits of the farmer’s labor

and the just wage of his work and reduce him to

bankruptcy and ruin. On the other hand, a sudden

rise in prices may bring sufferings to the poor in

the cities who are unable to meet their expenses and

procure the bare necessities of life.

From all that we have said above it is clear that

any one who engages in gambling on the exchange

runs a great risk of participating in transactions

which in one way or another are colored by immoral

practices.

Discussion Aids

1. Define the following terms: gambling; a bet

or wager; game; lottery; speculation; a “fut-

ure”
;
margin

;
difference transactions

;
“bulls”

;

“bears”.



GAMBLING 83

2. What are the conditions for ethical gaming?

3. Does the Church approve of gambling? Why?

4. What are the conditions of ethical betting?

5. What are the dangers of betting?

6. What are the conditions for an ethical lottery?

7. Is real speculation ethical? Why?

8. What about fictitious speculation ? What argu-

ments are adduced in its favor?

9. What arguments are justly urged against spec-

ulation on the exchange?

10.

In what ways do speculators manipulate the

prices on the exchange? What are the effects

of such practices on the farmers and on the

poor in the large cities?

Religious Practices

1. I will pray that I may be a careful and pru-

dent administrator of those earthly goods

which God has entrusted to my care.

2. I will not squander by gambling goods which

should be used for the support of a household,

for paying my debts, or for relieving the poor.

3. In providing for the necessities of life I will

rely on industry and labor rather than on

chance.



Chapter VIII

ACTIVITIES OF CATHOLIC YOUTH

ORGANIZATIONS

In 1930, on the occasion of the Catholic Jubilee

Congress, Pius XI addressed the youth assembled in

Rome in the following affectionate terms: “Young

people, you are Our co-workers, We demand of you,
the Vicar of Christ demands of you, your collabora-

tion.” And what was to be the purpose of this par-

ticipation in the apostolate of the Pope and of the

bishops? To re-Christianize a de-Christianized

world.

The first requisite for this lay apostolate is

personal holiness. In his letter to Cardinal Bertram

in 1928 Pius XI stated that while personal Christian

perfection is not the sole pursuit of Catholic Action,

it “is, however, before all others its first and great-

est end.” And since the practice of virtue presup-

poses an enlightenment of the mind, the first step

in personal sanctification must be a careful and

thorough study of one’s religion. This can be done

in various ways ; in study clubs where a small group

of young people under the guidance of a leader de-

votes itself to a systematic study of religion; in

open forums where larger groups under the direc-

tion of a trained leader investigate a religious prob-

(i) Qf. “Youth Leaders’ Handbook” (N. C. W. C.); “Official
Manual, Catholic Youth Organization of the Milwaukee

Archdiocese” (With supplements), 225 E. Michigan St.,

Milwaukee, $1.00; Daniel Lord, “The Guidance of

Youth,” Queen’s Work, 3742 West Pine Blvd., St. Louis,

$1.50; Pamphlets on “Youth” by the Committee on Youth

Problems, Superintendent of Documents, Washington,

D. C.; Youth Section of Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington,

Ind. a weekly magazine, $1.50 per year.



ACTIVITIES OF CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 85

lem; or in classes and round table discussions, and

by means of question boxes conducted by priests.

Since in the words of Pius X a renewal of Christian
life is to come specially through an intelligent par-

ticipation in the Liturgy, young people should de-

vote themselves to a study of the Mass, of the Litur-

gical year, of the Sunday Epistles and Gospels, and

of the externals of the Liturgy. Since the world

wars have brought the Church face to face with

unprecedented problems, a study of Church History

will show how Divine Providence guides the Church

in every crisis. Since the young people of today are

the leaders of tomorrow, they should be acquainted

with the great questions of the day and with the

Catholic solutions of these problems.

Young people who know, appreciate and love

their religion, will spontaneously mould their con-

duct according to its doctrines and precepts. They

will attend Mass not merely on Sundays and holy-

days but whenever circumstances permit, and re-

ceive Holy Communion whenever they can. They

will attend all parochial devotions such as the Holy

Hour, Forty Hours Devotion, October and May devo-

tions, the Way of the Cross, and missions. They

will cultivate a special devotion to Mary, reciting

frequently her favorite prayers and devoutly cele-

brating her feastdays. Young people who aspire

to collaborate in the regeneration of society should

observe an annual day of recollection and take part

in an annual closed retreat together with the cus-

tomary retreat exercises.

After having prayerfully applied their minds

to a study of the Church’s doctrines, young people

should then project the mind of the Church into the

mind of the world. “Catholic Action,” says Pius



86 MODERN QUESTIONS

XI, “must have as preliminary the individual sanc-

tification of each one of its members: so that the

supernatural life abounds and superabounds with-

in them. But after this first and formative element

comes the second—the distribution of this life, the
action of apostolate, which means putting into prac-

tice, in all its extensions and in all its possibilities,

the first apostolate of all, that of the Twelve Apos-

tles”
(2)

. The apostolate which young people are call-

ed upon to exercise may be conveniently divided in-

to the Apostolate of Catholic Truth and the Aposto-

late of Christian Charity.

Young people may share in the apostolate of

Truth in the following ways:

1) By enrolling in the Confraternity of Chris-

tian Doctrine (3) : Here they may serve as lay teach-

ers of religion instructing Catholic children attend-

ing public schools, the inmates of orphanages, poor

houses, reform schools, etc., or they may form a

Motor Corps, furnishing transportation for Sisters

and children to and from the classes; or they may

visit homes in order to enroll children for the cate-

chism classes and to check on absentees
;
or they may

establish and conduct religious discussion clubs for

others.

2) By promoting the work of the Propagation

of the Faith: Members of the Propagation of the

Faith support by prayer and financial aid not only

the foreign but also the domestic missions, especi-

ally the Negro and Indian Missions.

(2) Pius XI, To the Directors of Catholic Action of Rome,

April 19, 1931.

( 3 ) For information on Confraternity activities consult your

diocesan director or write to the National Confraternity

Center, 1312 Massachusetts Ave., N. W., Washington,

D. C.



ACTIVITIES OF CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 87

3) By assisting the pastor with Convert

Work (4) : By means of news items in the press,

posters, mailed invitations, and personal telephone

calls, young people can advertise the Inquiry Classes,

Round Table Discussions, Convert Classes, Question

Box, and missions for non-Catholics held in the par-

ish. With the pastor’s permission they can form a

group whose task it will be to bring prospective con-

verts to these classes. They can also establish the

so-called Benson Clubs for converts received into

the Church.

4) By encouraging the public to “listen in”

on Catholic radio programs
,
and by exercising vigi-

lance over radio programs with a view to correct

anything that might be opposed to religion and

morality.

5) By distributing Catholic Literature: Young

people should strive to introduce Catholic papers,

magazines, and books into the home, into the public

library, and into public institutions. They should

maintain a pamphlet rack in the church vestibule

or in the assembly hall. They should leave Catholic

literature in such places where it will likely be read,

as for example : doctors’ and dentists’ offices, lounge

rooms of hotels, bus stations, depots, street cars,

busses, trains.

The apostolate of mercy and charity should,

after the example of Our Lord, be combined when-

ever possible with the apostolate of truth. The Dio-

cesan Office of Catholic Charities will gladly offer

suggestions to the young people in this regard.

There are always children who are in need of First

Communion outfits, prayer books, rosaries, pencils,

< 4) Cf. John A. O’Brien, “The White Harvest” (a sym-
posium), Longmans, Green & Co.„ New Yor^ City, $2.25.



88 MODERN QUESTIONS

tooth brushes, hair cuts, etc. Clothing for the poor

and the destitute will be accepted at all times. Dur-

ing the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons bask-

ets for the poor and needy will always be welcomed

by the Charities' office. Young people should also

arrange entertainments for the shut-ins at home,

for the inmates of hospitals, orphanages, old folks

homes, etc. They should transport the sick and poor

to Mass, devotions, lectures, shows and socials. They

should visit the sick and send flowers to them. When

there is a death in the family, they should send con-

dolences, visit the bereaved family and lead the

prayers for the departed soul, attend the funeral

and have a Mass said for the deceased person. Dur-

ing all this time they should be Crusaders for Christ

in society at large, bringing Christian principles

and the social teachings of the Encyclicals to the at-

tention of others.

“The true Christian,
1” says Pius XI, “does not

renounce the activities of this life, he does not stunt

his natural faculties; but he develops and perfects

them, by co-ordinating them with the supernatural.

He thus ennobles what is merely natural in life and

secures for it new strength in the material and tem-

poral order, no less than in the spiritual and etern-

al” (5) . Among the activities which belong to this

“full” life of man and which should develop sim-

ultaneously and harmoniously with the supernat-

ural, are the following: A study of philosophy—an
investigation of reality from the viewpoint of its

ultimate causes; parliamentary law—a training in
effective membership, fair and speedy conduct of

business, and cooperation in group activities; ora-

(5) “The Five Great Encyclicals” (Paulist edition, 1939),

p. 66.



ACTIVITIES OF CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 89

tory—the training in the power over the spoken
word, in thoroughness of research, logical thinking

and leadership; debate—training in the investiga-
tions of public questions, in public speaking, in co-

operative thinking; dramatics—a means of enter-
tainment and of developing the powers of speech;

elocution—the interpretation of artistic selections;
and finally training in music appreciation not only

by an acquaintance with theoretical principles but

by active membership in choral groups, orchestras

and bands. This cultural development is further in-

tensified by visits to places and entertainments of

interest such as art centers, museums, libraries,

symphonies, debates, operas, concerts, etc.

“Christian education,” says Pius XI, “takes in

the whole aggregate of human life, physical and

spiritual, intellectual and moral, individual, domes-

tic and social, not with a view of reducing it in any

way, but in order to elevate, regulate and perfect it,

in accordance with the example and teaching of

Christ
,,(6)

. And again: “It is no less necessary to

direct and watch the education of the adolescent,

‘soft as wax to be molded into vice/ in whatever

other environment he may happen to be, removing

occasions of evil and providing occasions for good

in his recreations and social intercourse; for ‘evil

communications corrupt good manner/ More than

ever nowadays an extended and careful vigilance is

necessary, inasmuch as the dangers of moral and

religious shipwreck are greater for inexperienced

youth” (7) . Some of the social and recreational activ-

ities, which a Catholic Youth Organization may

undertake and which will provide a wholesome en-

(6) o. c. p. 65.

(7) ibid. pp. 63-64.



90 MODERN QUESTIONS

vironment and furnish desirable contacts for the

members, are the following: parties (Halloween,

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year)
;

amateur

nights; movie theatre party; roller skating and ice-

skating parties; sleigh rides; dancing (where the

bishop permits it)
;
national folk dances

;
hikes,

bicycling; camping; picnics; nature study. Games

such as checkers, chess, cards, and dominoes, not

only furnish a pleasant pastime but sharpen mental

efforts and develop strategy and wit (8) .

An excellent method of filling time not occupied

by organized activities are hobbies or hobby clubs (9) .

A hobby is an object or activity which persistently
absorbs one’s attention and interest. A hobby de-
velops skill, affords pastime, pleasure and sometimes

even profit. We are all well acquainted with hobby
collection—Madonna collections, stamp collections,
old coin collections, autograph collections, zoological

and botanical collections, etc. Interesting hobbies

for boys are model airplanes, model boats, bird

houses, carving, scroll saw work, etc. Girls, on the

other hand, are fond of such hobbies as cooking,

sewing, needlework, lace-making, beadwork and in-

terior decorating.

The educational environment of the Church, ac-

cording to Pius XI, includes recreation and physical

culture : “The educational environment of the

Church embraces the Sacraments, divinely efficac-

ious means of grace, the sacred ritual, so wonder-

fully instructive, and the material fabric of her

churches, whose liturgy and art have an immense

(8) Cf. “Handbook for Recreation Leaders” published by the

Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor, Wash-

ington, D. C.

Cf. “Hobbies—A Bibliography” published by the United
States Department of Education, Washington, D. C.



ACTIVITIES OF CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 91

educational value; but it also includes the great

number and variety of schools, associations and in-

stitutions of all kinds, established for the training

of youth in Christian piety, together with literature

and the sciences, not omitting recreation and physi-

cal culture” (10) . The inclusion of recreation and

physical culture in a well-rounded program of Chris-

tian education is based on the conviction that the

mind can develop its capabilities to the highest de-

gree only in a healthy body. “A sound mind in a

sound body” is a proverb well known to all of us.

An athletic program also develops such natural

virtues as altruism, loyalty, courage, self-control,

co-operation and fair play. The most popular ath-

letic sports are the following
:

golf, football, horse-

shoe pitching, archery, tennis, table tennis, bowl-

ing, track, basketball, badminton, softball and base-

ball, volley ball, wrestling, dartball, swimming,

roller skating and ice-skating parties.

Since the state was designed by Nature’s Auth-

or to do for man what he cannot effectively do for

himself, and since the authority wielded by the state

comes from God, a well-grounded training in civics

forms a necessary part of the young person’s com-

plete education. Young people should accustom

themselves from the very beginning to vote intelli-

gently on political candidates and political meas-

ures, and to pay the various taxes. They should be

well acquainted with their city, state and national

governments. They should read, study, and evalu-

ate editorials in the newspapers and public addresses

dealing with government. They should participate

in the observance of Independence Day, Memorial

Day, Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays, and

GO) o. c. p. 59.



92 MODERN QUESTIONS

other civic holidays. They should visit museums

and places of historic interest. They should invite

army chaplains, representatives of the American

Legion, legislators and other public officials to ad-

dress their groups. Since they are not isolated in-

dividuals but social beings and members of Christ’s

mystic body, they should take an interest in the

beautification of their city, in public recreational

facilities, in local welfare organizations, and in low

cost housing facilities.

4-H Clubs

The activities which we have just outlined may

be roughly divided into two groups: the purely

spiritual and supernatural, and the recreational and

cultural activities which, however, can be harmon-

iously correlated with the former. The religious

activities are adapted to both urban and rural youth.

Those of the second group probably fit urban youth

better than rural groups. However, an apposite and

appropriate adaptation of these activities to boys

and girls on the farms is being accomplished through

the 4-H Clubs.

The 4-H Club is an organization of farm boys

and girls fostered by the Extension Division of the

United States Department of Agriculture. The Ex-

tension system aims at “extending” to boys and girls

on farms the various findings and aids of the Na-

tional Department of Agriculture and of the State

Colleges of Agriculture. The national director of

Extension works in close cooperation with the Sec-

retary of Agriculture, while the state director of

Extension is responsible to the dean or president of

the Agricultural College. Both have at their dis-

posal a staff of experts and specialists. Directly

under the state director are a number of district



ACTIVITIES OF CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 93

supervisors, each having under his charge 15 or 20

counties. The local Extension worker is the County

Agent who assists with the formation of 4-H Clubs,

formulates the program for the year, supplies the

Federal and State bulletins, and has general super-

vision of club work in the county. Ranking in im-

portance with the County Agent is the Home Dem-

onstration Agent whose principal task is to give in-

struction to farm women and girls concerning home

activities.

The purpose of a 4-H Club is to train farm boys

and girls in the best methods of agriculture and

home-making and to fashion them into types of

worthy manhood and womanhood. The emblem of

the 4-H Club is a four-leaf clover, with the letter H
on each leaf, against a, white background. White

is a symbol of purity; green of youth, life and

growth. The 4 H’s stand for Head, Hands, Heart

and Health. The 4-H club member pledges to train

his head by learning new methods, his hands, by

acquiring new skills, his heart, by learning to co-

operate with others, his health, by learning to re-

sist disease, work efficiently, and enjoy health.

The objectives of the 4-H Club, which are prin-

cipally educational in nature, are the following (
11

>

:

1. To help rural boys and girls to develop de-

sirable ideals and standards for farming, home-

making, community life, and citizenship, and a sense

of responsibility for their attainment.

2. To afford rural boys and girls technical in-

struction in farming and homemaking, that they

may acquire skill and understanding in these fields

(11) Gertrude L. Warren, “Organization of 4-H Club Work,

A Guide for Local Leaders”, U. S. Department of Agri-
culture, October 1938, publ. No. 320, p. 2-3.



94 MODERN QUESTIONS

and a clearer vision of agriculture as a basic indus-

try, and of homemaking as a worthy occupation.

3* To provide rural boys and girls an oppor-

tunity to ‘‘learn by doing” through conducting cer-

tain farm and home enterprises, and demonstrating

to others what they have learned.

4. To teach rural boys and girls the value of

research, and to develop in them a scientific atti-

tude toward the problems of the farm and the home.

5. To train rural boys and girls in cooperative

action to the end that they may increase their ac-

complishments and, through associated efforts, bet-

ter assist in solving rural problems.

6. To develop in rural boys and girls habits of

healthful living, to provide them with information

and direction in the intelligent use of leisure, and to

arouse in them worthy ambitions and a desire to

continue to learn, in order that they may live fuller

and richer lives.

7. To teach and to demonstrate to rural boys

and girls methods designed to improve practices in

agriculture and homemaking, to the end that farm

incomes may be increased, standards of living im-

proved, and the satisfaction of farm life enhanc-

ed (12) .

( 12 ) The above information has been derived principally from

the 4-H Club bulletins released by the Extension Depart-

ment of the Agriculture College, University of Minne-

sota. Cf. also Edgar Schmiedeler, “A Better Rural Life”
(Wagner, $2.75) p. 116 ff. “Some Suggestions for
Catholic Leaders of 4-H Clubs” published by the Queen’s

Work, 3742 West Pine Blvd., St. Louis, Mo.; “4-H Club
Leaders’ Manual” published by the Agricultural Exten-

sion Division, University of Minnesota; Gertrude L.

Warren, “Organization of 4-H Club Work, A Guide for
Local Leaders” published by the U. S. Department of
Agriculture, publ. no. 320; “The National 4-H Club

News” published bimonthly at 56 E. Congress St.,
Chicago, 111.



ACTIVITIES OF CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 95

The Pax Romana

The Pax Romana is the Secretariat of National

Catholic University Students’ Federations. Only

national federations are admitted to full member-

ship. The Pax Romana aims to unite among them-

selves all the University men and women of the

Catholic world. It is not a super-federation, exer-

cising a control over its affiliates, but a Secretariat

employed by the different National federations to

carry on their own work when it rises above local

and national conditions. By employing a, common

secretariat the federations can maintain interna-

tional contacts and in this way promote Catholic

world solidarity. So far the Pax Romana has

brought together approximately forty federations.

The Pax Romana serves as a clearing house for the

problems and methods of University Catholic Action

all over the world. At the same time it strives to

develop a spirit of mutual understanding, sympathy,

brotherhood and peace among all the university

federations of the Catholic world—in fact, among
all nations*

13

U3) por further information write the “Pax Romana,” Cath-
olic University of America, Washington, D. C.

Discussion Aids

1. What is the ultimate aim of Catholic Action?

2. Why is personal sanctification an essential pre-
requisite for Catholic Action?

3. In what ways may Catholic young people par-

ticipate in the Apostolate. of Catholic Truth?

4. In what ways may they exemplify the Aposto-

late of Christian Charity?

5. What is meant by the “cultural” activities?

What is their value?



96 MODERN QUESTIONS

6. What is the purpose of the “social” activities?

7. What is a hobby? What is its value? Mention

some well known hobbies.

8. What is the purpose of athletic activities?

9. Why should civic training be a part of one’s

education ?

10. What are 4-H Clubs? What do the 4-H’s sym-

bolize?

11. What are the objectives of 4-H clubs?

12. What is the Pax Romana?

Religious Practices

1. I will sanctify myself before I attempt to sanc-

tify others.

2. I will apply my mind to a study of the Church’s

teachings in order that I might be qualified to

introduce the mind of the Church into the mind

of the world.

3. I will practice the spiritual and corporal works

of mercy.