bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Videant Consules
Authors: Thomas H. C.
Published: July 2007

‘Let the Consuls see to it that no harm befall the State ; that was the mandate given to the chief magistrates by the Roman Senate constituting them supreme in times of crisis. But even in the ordinary course of events the consuls were preceded by those bundles of rods encircling an axe, which signified the power of life and death. To-day this emblem once again means power, and those who wield the Fasces possess, or mean to possess authority which is supreme and against which there is no appeal. For some years now we have been accustomed to them as the standard of the Fascist party in Italy, and already, in rather more than a decade, they have been invested by British eyes with a host of relevant and irrelevant associations, for the most part noble and joyous, but among those who equate liberalism and liberty often sad and regretful. Yet even those many Englishmen who pass secure and easy judgment of approval on the new Italy may have found it something of a shock to discover the axe and rods being carried through the length and breadth of their own country. On the bookstall and in the hands of the newsvendor, on the political platform and even in the lapel of the coat, this sign has appeared with dramatic suddenness, proclaiming the birth of a new organization whose members are determined that the people shall pass the final decree, entrusting them once for all with the task of seeing to it that no harm befall the State.
The Film in Education
Authors: Valentine Ferdinand
Published: July 2007

Shorn of wearisome details the recent dispute between Sir James Marchant and the British Film Institute — which acts as liason between the teachers and the Cinema Trade— reveals the disquieting fact that a complete mechanical education is to be part of our conditioned life of tomorrow. The teacher already challenged by robot Radio is to be superseded by the Talkie Educator; and even a Peoples’ Cinema University.

The Cinema Trade offers itself as an instrument in the cause of education; it would say:

‘You teachers know little of film technique, and for our part we know little about teaching; let us collaborate: we will turn out the films you need.'

Could anything be fairer than that? Make friends of the Mammon of Iniquity, of a giant organization involving some five hundred million pounds of capital, and chiefly controlled by an international ring of Jews!

A remarkable article appeared in La Revue Catholique des Idees et des Fails, Feb. 1929, under the title Les Juifs et le Cinema in which we are told that the production and distribution of the film in England, America and most other countries is directed by Jews with the intention of undermining, the Christian Religion. This may or may not be true; but when we recall the Jewish origins of Louis Meyer, Samuel Goldwin, Szarwassy, C. F. Bernhard, Louis Bernstein, Eisenstein, Eward Stoll, J. W. Rosenthal, Ludwig Plattner, Lupu Pick, Harry Day Levy, Denman, Hyams, Woolfe. to name but a few, there seems little doubt that the power behind the film trade is largely Jewish.
A Hundred Years of Psychology
Authors: Elrincton Aidan
Published: July 2007

In comparison with such sciences as Chemistry, Physics or Physiology, which have acquired a certain stability of doctrine and method, Psychology at the present day appears to have little of either of these characters; an excuse is often made to the effect that psychology is still one of the younger sciences, and has not as yet quite found a firm footing. The truth is that there are no clear-cut generally-accepted principles governing either the subject matter or methods of this science, as may be seen by consulting various text-books or that interesting volume of essays, Psychologies of 1930. Psychology may perhaps be considered young as an experimental science, but in regard to a part at least of its subject, it is about as old as any enquiry one can think of, for man has always been interested in man. Speculation on the existence and nature of ‘Soul,’ of mind, of thinking, of appetition, of character and conduct, reaches back to the centuries B.c., when Greek Philosophy was at its highest and best in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. These are subjects with which psychology to-day is still concerned, but having lost contact with the ancient philosohpy it has also lost a great deal of coherence.

It is this perhaps that accounts for the vagueness in the usage of the word ‘psychology’ to-day. But this very vagueness has certain advantages which must not be under-estimated, since it provides an incentive to research, and to scientific, that is to say methodical, investigation of the problems presented by human nature.
Peace and Intellectual Co-Operation
Authors: Hely- Hutchinson F. R.
Published: July 2007

The idea of extending the purview of the League of Nations to ‘international intellectual relations’ was first launched at the Peace Conference, where it found but little favour. The first official recognition of a movement which to some extent originated in the desperate situation of intellectual circles in the early days after the war was obtained in 1921, when the Second Assembly of the League decided to constitute an International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation—a decision which was reinforced in 1924 by the foundation, by the French Government, of an International Institute with headquarters in the Palais Royal. The lists of men and women of international repute which the League succeeded in winning for this cause include some of the greatest names of science and art: Einstein, Bergson, Madame Curie. Paul-Valery, Gilbert Murray, Galsworthy, Felix Weingartner and Bela Bartok. to mention only a few.

The central idea of intellectual co-operation is to promote, in all spheres that come within its range, co-ordination of effort and collaboration capable, not merely of saving time and facilitating information, distribution and progress, but also of encouraging the creation, gradually perhaps—but none the less surely—of an international outlook.

This programme falls naturally into two parts. The first, designed to facilitate study and research, may be described as the perfecting of an international machinery which consists largely in relations between ministries of education, ministries of fine arts, universities, students’ associations, institutes of art and history, museums, libraries and record offices.
The Cardinal'
Authors: de Zulueta A.
Published: July 2007

To attempt the biography, however modest, of a public man, and an ecclesiastic at that, during his lifetime, or a( least during his tenure of office, is, for obvious reasons, no easy task. Mr. Dingle, who, we are told on the wrapper, is ‘a publicist of wide experience.’ has had the courage to attempt the task on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Cardinal of Westminster, and he has laid English-speaking Catholics under a debt of gratitude.

One need not be suspected of flattery for saying that the general feeling of English Catholics towards their leader in these past thirty years is one of filial veneration and genuine affection. To the younger generation he is synonymous with the history of the Church in this country as they have known it, whilst in the longer memories of their fathers he is justly appraised as the successor of three great men, and in some respects as one Lo whom it has been given to surpass their work. Multi congregaverunt divitias . . . the treasures of Catholic England, so warily and carefully brought out from their hiding holes by Wiseman and Manning and Vaughan, have been freely opened to a more universal appeal and a greater place in the nation's life under the beneficent rule of the present Archbishop of Westminster.

Providence gives to each age the pastors it needs—or deserves—and with the final close of what may be called the mentality of the Penal Times in England, and the beginning of an age of expansion and of Catholic Action, there has come to the See of Westminster and to the effective leadership of the Church one eminently fitted to that period of fuller development.
Leo XIII on Reunion
Authors: White Victor
Published: July 2007

The publication of this collection of Papal pronouncements and correspondence relating to the union of Christendom could not have been better timed. The explosion of ‘Father Jerome’s’ squib has alone been sufficient to blow away whatever cobwebs may have been thought to have gathered round Satis Cognitum and Apostolicae Curae. The new Anglican endeavour towards understanding with Christians on the Continent through the pages of (Ecumenica makes the reappearance of Leo XIll’s utterances about the A.P.U.C. and Pius XI's Mortalium Animos singularly opportune.

Quite apart from the authority which belongs to these documents, an authority which establishes them permanently as the basis of every Catholic endeavour to forward the union of Christendom, they possess an intrinsic quality which puts them in a place which is unique in the literature of reunion. It is nothing less than a burning passion for the cause of Christian unity which flames up in Pope Leo's Encyclical Praeclara Gratulationis and his moving letter to the English People Amantissima Voluntatis. Despite the formal language of pontifical docunicnts, which reads so stiffly in translation, it is difficult to find a parallel in the writings of Catholic or non-Catholic reunionists to the warmth of Pope Leo’s appeals.

The reason is not far to seek. For Leo XIII the unity of Christendom was a matter not merely of expediency, however urgent, though nobody realized better than he did, as pages of Praeclara Gratulationis show, how urgent was the need for unity in the face of modern conditions.
That They All May Be One
Authors: St. John Henry
Published: July 2007

The recent publication of ‘Fr. Jerome's’ A Catholic Plea for Reunion was unfortunate. It put forward, with great persuasiveness and candour, an unusual view of the Anglican problem, in a way calculated to rouse bristling hostility in those for whom Anglicanism is coloured by the prejudices of upbringing, and not likely to win acceptance even from those who have any real inside knowledge of the Church of England. Apart from its appearance without ecclesiastical sanction, ‘Fr. Jeroine's’ book showed considerable misapprehension of the religious situation in England, and in particular of the nature of the Church of England itself; it made at least one dangerous suggestion in regard to matters of Faith; moreover, its writer betrayed a disgruntled outlook, the result of some purely personal grievance, and this had the effect of discounting the value of much that he had to say.

So A Catholic Plea for Reunion was seized upon by the reviewers and commentators, much of it was justly, though perhaps over-violently, torn to shreds, and an unusual and even fruitful approach to the problem of Anglicanism was swamped in a flood of indignant condemnation.

The pages that follow are an attempt to restate ‘Fr. Jerome's’ main contention in a modified form and, it is hoped, without his misapprehensions of the situation. Ignorance of the nature of the Anglican problem can hardly be urged as an excuse for an explanation of the opinions of the present writer. He was born and brought up in the strictest of Anglican circles, and had passed through every phase of Anglo-Catholicism, from moderate High-Churchism to the most extreme pro-Romanism, before he saw by God's Grace that the religion he believed had only one divinely authorized Teacher on earth.
I Private Property In a Cultural Civilization
Authors: Robbins H.
Published: July 2007

The importance of private property as one of the fundamental institutions of a Christian State is the central idea of all Catholic thought on social reconstruction, and the widest possible extension of property among the community is regarded as an essential requirement of social justice. It is, however, too readily assumed by many that a diffusion of private ownership of productive property, whether it be in the form of land or the possession of any craft or business, would of itself provide a solution to most of the problems that now afflict us. But a more detailed survey of the economy of modern civilized society will reveal the fact that few, if any, of its members can be entirely self-supporting, and that an interchange of goods and services is a daily requirement. However widespread individual ownership may become, this necessity for a constant series of exchanges on the part of the owners is the dominating feature of any civilized community. This aspect of the question of the reconstruction of our social order has not so far received the consideration that it deserves, but the importance of its bearing on social justice can be gauged by a brief examination of the peculiar nature of property in our economic system.

Whenever Catholics speak of private property as being natural to man, and, having regard to his condition of susceptibility to the effects of original sin, as the arrangement most conducive to social harmony, and argue from this that ownership implies the right of the possessor to the unlimited return or profit accruing from its use, it is seldom remembered that property as possessed in the majority of cases to-day depends €or its value on the functioning of a highly complex and interdependent series of economic operations.
Personal Yet Universal Ethics
Authors: Gilby Thomas
Published: July 2007

Apart from size, tortoises all look very much the same; mostly shell, and an unvarying, somewhat expressionless countenance — when it emerges. However, a recent correspondence in The Times has drawn attention to the range of individuality possessed by these creatures. Mr. and Mrs. Shelley are now famous characters, and the tortoise who nibbles the tennis shoes of visitors; then there is one who thrives on a diet of ground bones, another who has his shell brightened with furniture polish. Some are surly, but many recognize with pleasure their masters and mistresses. Once you know them, almost all betray different characteristics. Antony and Cleopatra in the garden at Blackfriars have quite distinct ways of their own, but watching them this morning it struck me that they have very much in common, after all; that were they just entirely different substances we should never distinguish them from the pansies they have savaged; that, in short, the idea of a tortoise covers them almost as completely as their shell does.

Unconsciously and lazily, I was thinking my way across the ground of the disputes on the nature of universals which occupied the early middle ages; but I was led to reflect that the problem is still very much to the point. If Gerbert and Roscelin thought of it in terms of logical forms, and I was considering it in regard to the realness of tortoiseness, a present and urgent interest applies to the matter of human conduct.
‘Clean Films’
Authors: Leslie Arthur
Published: July 2007

The film industry to-day is a huge commercial organization involving something like £500,000,000 of capital, of which about four-fifths is invested in the United States, and this industry stretches itr great bulk into every corner of the globe. It caters for all classes of people; it provides comfort, cheapness and continuity of performance, as well as recreation, distraction and relaxation after the daily monotony of business and working hours. It transplants the visitors into a new world of surroundings (very often, however, to the detriment of home life), and exerts an influence far beyond the auditorium. It saves time and money in buying and reading books, and, in some cases, supplies the mind with an increase of knowledge of other nation', races, countries, their customs and manners, and this without appealing to any intellectual exertion on the part of the visitor.

If we pause for a moment to consider the work conditions in Hollywood, the most important hive of the industry. we gather from press reports and other eve-witness accounts that the atmosphere brought about by scandal and divorce is not at all conducive to persons fit for theresponsihilitv of producing world entertainment. Such an attitude towards life is bound to show itself in the work. The standards of morality, whether of the performers, producer, director or scenarist, express themselves most clearly in the films they make. If these people disregard the real issue between self-control and immoral self-gratification it seems to follow that they view life in one aspect only, and therefore are incapable of giving the world true art through this powerful medium.
Belloc on Social Credit
Authors: Drinkwater F. H.
Published: July 2007

Many recognize in Mr. Hilaire Belloc not only gicat achievement of literary genius, with sincerity and courage, but also a realistic judgment of practical allairs which has over and over again been proved right by the logic of events. His considered verdict, on the claims of Social Credit is therefore an event of sonic importance. It is given in an article published over Mr. Belloc's name in G.K.’s Weekly for June 14th.

Few men of Mr. Belloc's generation seem to be still capable of the mental application, the few houi-s of serious reading and critical thought, necessary to form an opinion of their own about monetary reform. Some distinguished contemporaries of his are still unable to take in (for instance) the ordinary quite undeniable facts of credit-creation; or again, they cannot hold steadily in their mind (even when the); have perceived and admitted it) the fact that abundance of production has now abolished all excuse for poverty.

None of these failings can be imputed to Mr. Belloc. He realizes fully that we have entered upon a new’ epoch in the world's history; the long ages 01 scarcity, of man’s desperate struggle to gain a living, are over; for good or for evil, the age of plenty has come.

Science and invention, he says, have ‘made a vast increase of production possible. We have conic to an era of potential ahundance . . . This is even true, in a large measure, of organic raw materials . . .
A Hundred Years of Psychology
Authors: Elrington Aidan
Published: July 2007

The story of the recognition and treatment of those peculiarities of the personality known as neuroses, or psychoneuroses, is one in which a good deal of charlatanism has acconipanied much genuine investigation. Differing from actual insanity, these states of mind are so varied in their expression and causes, that it was a long time before any very clear conception of their nature and origin was reached. That they are now generally recognized as having to a great extent a psychological rather than a physical basis is due to the labours of the Viennese psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, who by his special technique of psychoanalysis gave a different complexion to this branch of psychological medicine.

The interest in this study begins with the rise of mesmerism and hypnotism. Soniewhere about the year 1760, Mesmer, a young Austrian student of medicine, happened to see some cures obtained by the use of magnetised plates, and being attracted by this new mode of treatment, discovered that the human hand could be just as effective a means of magnetising as a metal plate. The human body was then thought to possess a magnetic influence, which came to be known as animal magnetism. Mesmer eventually settled in Paris, where he became famous! whilst ‘mesmerism,’ as it was called, spread rapidly throughout Europe. This aroused at the same time much opposition, commissions being appointed to investigate the alleged cures, the upshot of which was the denial of magnetism of any kind as a cause of the cures, which, though admitted to be real, were thought to proceed, like the illness itself, from imagination.
'The Christian Virtues
Authors: Thistlethwaite B.
Published: July 2007

In his recent booklet on The Catholic Conscience, Fr. Joseph Keating, S.J., states that ‘the chief obstacle to the conversion of the world to the Catholic Faith is not the opposition of its enemies, but the unworthiness of those who already possess it,’ and lie goes on to ask. ‘Why are Catholics not conspicuously better than those less bountifully endowed?’ May not the answer lie in part in a relative lack of emphasis on the practice of the simple Christian virtues, and a certain absence of precision in working out the practical application of these virtues to the circumstances of everyday life?

The problem is of course, the attainment of a true balance; we need a perception of the relative importance of the different factors of the Christian life. A discussion of this sort is apt to seem ungracious in the midst of so much that is excellent, yet it may be argued that, just as the activities and outlook of the individual tend to become unbalanced and call for adjustment, so also does the Catholic. body in this country need from time to time to review its position and restore its equilibrium.

External circumstances are constantly changing, and in this matter of the Christian virtues the attitude of the world differs greatly from what it was in the not distant past. As a sequel to the general lack of confidence in religious doctrine, it has become customary to doubt those things which have been commonly associated with religion; and aided by the ingenuity of the playwright, the novelist, the scientist and the philosopher, each of the Christian virtues has been examined with suspicion, and speciously undermined.
The Meaning of Catholic Action
Authors: Kildany Herbert
Published: July 2007

We are all familiar with a number of societies and associations which pursue their peculiar missions under the guidance of the Church. There are the Confraternities and Third Orders which promote self-sanctification, there are the works for the formation of the young; others which, like the S.V.P., provide material assistance to the poor, while the Guilds are concerned with professional interests. Lastly there are the societies concerned with larger questions of propaganda and defence of principles, such as the Catholic Truth Society, Catholic Evidence Guild and Catholic Social Guild. They all play an invaluable part in the life of the Church, and they depend upon the laity for success. They all aim more or less directly at the spiritual welfare of souls. So it would seem that they must be entitled to consider themselves part of Catholic Action since this is, according to the Pope’s definition, ‘nothing other than the participation of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy.’ To question this may at first sight seem excessively punctilious. But when it is seen that the distinction between the strict use of the term and its haphazard bestowal can and should be made it will, perhaps, be used with more caution than has been the case hitherto. If Catholic Action is to prove itself other than a new name for ‘the old firm’ or a fresh panacea such as our economists favour some little care will have to be used by responsible authorities.
Catholic Action and Unemployables
Authors: O'Hea L.
Published: July 2007

‘Make him a farmer,’ used to be the hopeful proposal for the difficult member of the family. It was really a compliment to the oldest of the civilized professions—that farming might do for him what other occupations could not. In general, however, it must be recognized that settling on the land requires qualities of character all too rare and that the agricultural labourer, dull though he may appear to those who do not know him, must possess a resourcefulness of varied skill and knowledge beyond comparison with wage-earners in other trades. The Catholic land movement in the different phases of its development must call for men and women of at least average human qualities. It is to be hoped, however, that in due time its enthusiasts will find themselves able to give some attention to the value of the land as giving training and livelihood for young people of the ‘problem’ type. So far as ‘Catholic Action and Unemployables’ are concerned, what follows is purely speculative—a suggestion to the Catholic body, drawn from work done on interdenominational lines by others.

Turner’s Court Farm Training Colony is just off the London road, fifteen miles short of Oxford, in the Chiltern Hills. There are some three hundred colonists, divided among five homes, on a 1,000-acre farm; among them some Catholics, varying in number from twenty to forty. The Colony is governed by the Christian Service Union and provides for lads who are ‘unemployable.’
Two Friends
Authors: Shewring W. H.
Published: July 2007

I met them five years ago, during the yearly visit south; saw them on several occasions at Bath and Bristol; stayed with them at the Bell in Malmesbury; and for three years spent Christmas at Whitehouse Terrace. With others who knew them, I see in their death an epoch ended.

It was not merely that they had survived from the ‘nineties, not even that they had been at the centre of that society. Each of them in his way had shaped himself to the new age; they read, made friends, and generally lived, with zest, while they kept without display those gifts which they did not see renewed around them—certain courtesies, a certain social sense, certain refinements of understatement. Hence their charm, hence their elusion of many who would have courted them had they taken a conventionally veteran air. When in 1931 Canon Gray published his Poems, the clerical reviews observed that a well-known parish priest had written a book of verse; the secular referred briefly to the modernisms of Mr. Gray. Amateurs of the Yellow Book period were still seeking copies of Silverpoints.

In private they did not discourse on the past, but there were allusions; most often to Beardsley and his sister, sometimes to Pater or Lionel Johnson. If one heard mass at St. Peter’s early in January, one’s prayers were asked for the soul of Paul Verlaine. A chance naming of Dowson permitted me a question on Cynara; it was well received. Yes, she was as Symons had described her; tris gentille; no one saw her much, not Dowson himself. So far one might go; but any plot to elicit a narrative would have been delicately countered.
The Corporative Order
Authors: Crawford V. M.
Published: July 2007

It is a matter of deep regret to some of us that the Corporative Order, something different from the Corporate State, should have become in the public mind so closely identified with Fascism. Admittedly the corporative organization of industrial life, now in process of being introduced into Italy, Germany and Austria—even in Italy it is still far from being fully developed—is based on Fascist conceptions and implemented in a Fascist spirit. What Catholics, however, should remember is that a corporative organization of industry as an alternative on the one hand to unrestricted competition and free trade and on the other to State intervention, was being discussed by social-minded Catholics on the continent at least half a century ago, long before the centralized Fascist State was dreamed of. The first gropings after the corporative formula go back as early as the days when the Marquis de La Tour du Pin and Count Albert de Mun, appalled by the horrors of the Commune, founded the Catholic Workmen’s Clubs in an attempt to counteract the class war. The immediate reputation of La Tour du Pin, the centenary of whose birth has been celebrated in France this year, was somewhat overshadowed by that of his brilliant oratorical friend, but it is now recognized that his was by far the more constructive mind of the two, and he devoted long years to elaborating a Christian social order on corporative lines, which might ultimately, in his opinion, not only regulate industrial life but replace the parliamentary system.
Spain, To-Day and To-Morrow
Authors: Muñoz H.
Published: July 2007

The change which Spain has undergone since the fall of the Monarchy three years ago can hardly be appreciated except by those who were well acquainted with the work of the Dictatorship previous to the establishment of the Republic. Out of the debris of the centuries-old Monarchy a new Spain is born with new ideals and a new spirit. The old traditional institutions which routine had rendered feebler with the passage of time, have in the end been overthrown and are now being superseded by new organizations with fresh energy and a new vitality. The destructive work of the Republic has been severe; but it had become necessary. The Agrarian Reform framed by the Socialists and passed by the first Cortes in 1932 was a marvellous piece of communistic propaganda. Its aim was to deprive the nobility and the big landowners of their immense property, much of which was cultivated indifferently or not at all, and to distribute it amongst the workers, and, in some cases, to consider it as a common property of the workers. This plan was put into practice for a time until the new Cortes after November 19th, 1933, revoked it, with the result that the country is in such a state that reform cannot be delayed any longer.

The religious question has similarly been discussed warmly by all the political parties, and one is glad to be able to say that the Spanish Catholics have endured an unpleasant though fruitful ordeal.
A Living Church Art
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: July 2007

In England, and in most English-speaking countries, we are still bound fast by convention to styles of ecclesiastical art which have long since ceased to live. We are struggling to be free, but we can only think in terms of Classic or Gothic. If we only dared, some of us might build a church in the style of an Egyptian temple; but that also would be a revival. Rather than be deprived of our Gothic arch we prefer to sling it from the ferro-concrete roof. There is nothing new, no development from the past into the terms of the modern. It must all be copied. We can build beautiful factories and cinemas, but we can hardly produce one pleasing statue of a religious character.

In this state of decrepitude it is of great assistance to look to our contemporary ecclesiastical artists abroad. In Italy, Germany and Holland a modern style has developed since the War. It has not broken with the past, but in the true living tradition it is not interested in copying. An English visitor in Holland, for example, will be amazed at the modern architecture which he there finds flourishing. He has become accustomed to entering a new church and finding a Perpendicular, Romanesque or Gothic building in stone or brick covered with plaster. He expects to see lifelike statues in gaudy colours, and windows trying to look as though they were not windows at all, but sentimental pictures in stone frames. In Holland it is different. The material, being the material of the country, is nearly always the same beautiful Dutch brick in its various shades of warm brown.
Laxton Week-End
Authors: Gilby Thomas
Published: July 2007

Twenty-Nine Catholics, most of them lay and many belonging to what is called the modern generation, spent the second week-end of September at a Dance and Phillipson mansion—elegant and comfortable, says De Quincey, who stayed there, but not splendid—square and Ionic, set in a park of rough Northamptonshire turf and beech clumps and encircled by woods of oak. Their purpose, more easily recognized than described, was to form contacts; to discuss the widening of Catholicism in themselves and their society, of Catholicism considered more as a habit of life than a system of revealed principles and organized procedure; and to prepare, if possible, for some form of group action.

The first general meeting started with the statement of two principles: first, the continuity between supernatural religion and the rest of life; secondly, the Catholic significance of every human action. ‘Spirituality’ is not a special occupation, remote from other human interests: the sacred and the profane imply a distinction but not an antithesis: there is such a thing as religious worldliness, which is not a comfortable but a difficult ideal: Catholicism is not a spasmodic treble, or for that matter a treble at all, but covers the whole human movement of living—all these are merely chapter headings, indications of an emphasis, not scientifically stated conclusions.

But while Catholicism is as wide as life, organized Catholicism denotes a special kind of life. From this life springs a special kind of activity called Catholic Action, in which all who attended the Laxton week-end take part in varying degrees.
The Economic Causes of Communism
Authors: Howard Edmund
Published: July 2007

The economic causes of any political movement or system are related to certain fundamental needs or wants of man's nature and upon the measure in which that system claims to be, and is actually, able to fulfil those wants. In the purely physical sphere these requirements of our nature are easy enough to define. But nhen we come to consider the mental and spiritual requirements of man's nature we must at the outset make a distinction between what a man needs and what he wants, far there is great diversity here. It is true that in different ages different needs and wants will predominate, and that in one century the emphasis will be laid where afterwards it is bur lightly stressed. Yet because the human body has within historical memory developed far less rhan the human mind we may say thar essential wants of the human body are constant. The want of food, for instance or the want of warmth for the body. Without these wants being satisfied the body could not survive. Now it is especially to these wants—to the complex of living conditions—that I refer when I say that the economic causes of any political system are related to certain wants of man's nature.
The Politics of Industrialism
Authors: Gill Eric
Published: July 2007

Machinery runs according to the laws of mechanics and not according to the moral law. This is not to say that the laws of mechanics are immoral, but simply that they are non-moral. Now the main principle of mechanical invention is the elimination of waste energy. Of two machines doing the same work, that is the better which costs less to run. This is the same as saying that the better machine is better designed for its purpose; for the purpose of machinery is to reduce the costs of production. The chief cost of production is human labour. Even the cost of materials is chiefly made up of the cost of human labour. Stone would be as cheap as dirt if it could be dug as easily. Petrol would be as cheap as water if it came down as rain. It is always labour which costs money. I leave out of consideration here the question of bank interest and interest on money borrowed. If interest is not in some way payment for effort it is usury, and as such an unjust charge, something for nothing, a thing to be abolished as a thing ruinous to society. It is labour which costs money and it is to Save the cost of labour that machinery has been invented and its use spread throughout the world. Tools are not machines in the common sense of the word. A thing is a tool when it helps. A hammer helps a man to get a nail into a wall. A chisel helps a man to cut stone or wood.
The Coming Conflict
Authors: Prince J. F. T.
Published: July 2007

A strange anomaly confronts us to-day. We turn from a State inordinately preoccupied with the affairs of the individual to the anarchical interests of Capital hardly conceding to the vast majority of individuals the right to live. Twin Apollyons straddle right across the way with the forces of the world arrayed severally behind them; they have enlisted, between them, every influence, cultural and to a great extent religious; whether or not it be argued that the latter is detached from its true fons et origo. Recurrent contacts between the two, here hostile, there sympathetic, are evidently too many and too involved for anything less than an economic atlas of the world to review. And Catholics in England do not lack their prophets to foretell the destiny of every straw in the wind. At present we must be content with little more than the acknowledgement of certain chilly spasms of apprehension that stir us as the westerly breath that suggests the stormgib. For all we are very much at sea there may be precautions to suit any manner of emergency.

Or, to revert to Bunyan’s metaphor, we will enquire what armament poor Christian can call exclusively his own.

To the muddled vision of this world Catholicism presents a stream of contradictions. The Church, for instance, who is the friend of sinners, is the relentless enemy of Sin. Unmollified by respectability, by the appeal of polygamy to the Law (or of marital onanism to the economy of hygiene) it is She nevertheless who flings wide her doors to the too-unclean for Mammon’s Temples, that prostitute and outcast may enter with the blest. It is a matter of some scandal to our contemporary the progressive protestant.’
The School of Baudelmre
Authors: Turnell G. M.
Published: July 2007

Transition and decadence are terms that are often applied to the literature of our time. It all depends on the sense in which we use them. Properly understood both, I think, can fairly be used to describe certain tendencies that belong to modern literature in general and to our own age in particular. There is a widespread feeling that we are in the process of changing from one age to another, that we are in fact on the threshold of a New Age. This may be true, but that the signs of the coming spiritual revival are to be found in the works of contemporary writers is an assumption that we are scarcely justified in making. On the contrary, there is abundant evidence to show that contemporary art belongs not to the beginning of a new age but to the end of an old one. That we seem to be on the verge of spiritual collapse is certainly no guarantee that immediate regeneration will follow.
The Spirit Quickeneth ….
Authors: Tunmer Ceslaus
Published: July 2007

Last May saw the publication by Messrs. Sheed & Ward in the Heythrop Theological Series of an important manual of Moral and Pastoral Theology by Father Henry Davis, S.J. This book undoubtedly deserves careful consideration for two reasons: for its notably good qualities and for the conception of Christian morality that animates it.

In four large volumes Fr. Davis treats of the principles of moral life (Vol. I); of the commandments of God and of the Church (Vol. II); and of the Sacraments (Vols. Ill and IV). His clarity of exposition, simplicity of expression and liveliness of style contribute towards making the work not only readable but even attractive—a rare quality in works of this sort.

Moreover, this ease in diction is made the vehicle of an accuracy of information, a thorough knowledge of Canon Law and the results of wide experience in dealing with souls that combine to make the book a work of real value. The treatise on the Sacraments has received the author’s more special attention and is particularly successful. In it will be found, accurately and concisely set out, copious instructions and practical directions which will be of great service to the worthy and efficacious administration of the Sacraments and will be readily and profitably referred to by priests engaged in the active ministry. Finally, the author has courageously given unusually full treatment to more delicate questions; he has made considerable use both of papal encyclicals and the results of scientific research on such thorny subjects as education and the difficult problems that confront the consciences of physicians and surgeons.
The Realism of St. Thomas
Authors: Noel Leon
Published: July 2007

While it is trite to speak of the realism of St. Thomas, it is less so, perhaps, to attempt to give its precise shade and meaning. The initial question, which I should wish briefly to answer, is whether or not this realism is in the technical sense a critical realism. We are all aware of what is meant by the critical approach which is said, rightly or wrongly, to mark one of the great advances of modem thought. It is just this critical approach which is said to separate thought lifted to the philosophical level from thought which remains on the popular level of ordinary, and perhaps puerile, intelligence. The critical approach requires that the mind should no longer accept anything that does not completely justify itself before the mental court of enquiry. Anteriorly, common sense accepts without discussion a certain number of natural certitudes. Moreover, it is possible to conceive of a philosophy rooted in common sense, which accepts all that the latter accepts in order to hasten forward to the discovery of new truths. To delve into the mystery of things, to scale the heavens, to soar on intrepid wing up into the infinite heights of metaphysics, that is indeed worth the labour of the dialectical effort it demands.

Of what use is it to philosophize except in order to know a little more than that which everybody knows without even having learnt it? But first of all Descartes and, following him, Kant, and after them the whole of nineteenth century philosophy, come to pour cold water on this fine enthusiasm. Before leaving for the stratosphere they require that the mind should assure itself of its jumping-off ground and test its equipment.
Germanism and Christian Civilization
Authors: Sturzo Luigi
Published: July 2007

A Letter from the Anglican Bishop of Chichester on May 30 of this year raised an interesting question. “In his speech on May 21,'’ he wrote, “Hitler made a great point of his strong desire for the friendliest relations with the British people. But the British people are lovers of freedom and loathe and abhor religious persecution. Their friendship cannot be won while freedom is denied and religious persecution prevails.” And noting that Hitler has proclaimed that Germany can give a lasting contribution to the great work of bringing about a resurrection of the West, he pointed out that “the resurrection of the Occident is not to be achieved by making the race principle into a religion, and attempting to substitute it for the Christian faith which has given its distinctive character to our common Western civilization and which has been the source and inspiration of many of its highest values.”

These firm and clear words had immediately a considerable echo, and an interesting discussion followed in the Times and other papers. Dissenting voices were not lacking, some speaking from the purely political standpoint, others from that of psychology. The former remarked that friendship between peoples is a matter of mutual interest that has nothing to do with community of ideas or sentiments, but is governed simply by utility. The latter feared that blame or criticism of the methods of Hitler and his government could serve no purpose and would only aggravate the sufferings of those persecuted for their religion or race.
The Elements of Social Justice
Authors: Kildany Herbert
Published: July 2007

There are many who profess Catholic Doctrine concerning:

the respect due to society,the rights of property,the rights and duties of workersthe relation between capital and labour,the relation between Church and State,the rights of Christ Our Redeemer over all men,

but these same many in their words, writings and whole tenor of life behave as if the teaching of Leo XII, Pius X and Benedict XV were no more than a dead letter void of all authority.

(Ubi Arcano.)

These words were among the first published by Pius XI and yet the indictment is still as true to-day, despite all that the Holy Father has done in the last thirteen years to make it inexcusable. Quite obviously the trouble is that the majority of Catholics do not even know that the Church has and propounds a specific social doctrine. And of the small minority which is aware of the existence of the encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Casti Conubii, how many consider these to be enunciations of principles rather than practical instructions?

It remains for the few who have mastered the teaching and applied it to extant conditions to disseminate the precious fruit of their study. The task is indeed herculean and would seem to be too great for early realization but for the signs of active assistance from unexpected sources. The most encouraging of these is the curiosity shown by secular experts; for economists, lawyers and politicians who have been impressed by the claims of Catholic authors are beginning to study the encyclicals in both the old and the new world. Whether they be favourable or otherwise, their reactions should prove of great value to sociology. But it will be some time yet before the result of this interest can be assessed, and meanwhile it is imperative that Catholics of every kind, and clerics in particular, should be increasingly well-informed on this most important topic.
Florentines Both
Authors: Raybould A. N.
Published: July 2007

Socialist, atheist, revolutionary—Christian, Catholic, defender of tradition—from Papini, the man of paradox, but true Florentine withal, we were bound to hear sooner or later, something new on the subject of the great Florentine poet. This Giovanni Papini has now given in his Dante Vivo}

The subdued light of conventional criticism is hardly to be expected from Papini. His volcanic mind erupts, leaving sometimes his thought buried in the cinders, but when it comes to the surface it is at least original, and holds, if it fails to convince.

By way of parenthesis it is not so extraordinary as it at first appears that Papini came eventually into the Church: a man who had taught himself everything, who had run his head as a battering ram into every form of thought and philosophy, who had tasted the bitterness of human insufficiency, what possible way was open to such a one, but to stoop and enter the lowly portal that leads to peace. But this is only by the way.

In his criticism of Dante, Papini often purposely leaves us in the dark, he is apt to lose all sense of proportion and to overshoot the mark. Then at the moment when we begin to chafe against his methods, he pulls us up by his own shrewd common sense, or else infects us with his own admiration for the poet. It is his aim to depict the man rather than the poet, but the poet often carries him away. The man Dante is his subject, a subject for which he has personal interest and sympathy. Dante with his unparalelled daring appeals to this daring modem Florentine.
The Rise of the Conception of Absolute Ownership
Authors: Lamb R. A.
Published: July 2007

In considerations of the way in which commercial transactions during the Middle Ages accorded with moral laws, the significance of the direct economic power wielded by the Church on account of her great material possessions is often disregarded. The early Church accumulated little property; this was to ai certain extent connected with the marked chiliastic attitude adopted during the first few centuries, and the Church was fully occupied in spreading her doctrine as widely as possible. In the late second century Clement of Alexandria not only upheld the institution of private property but declared that it was justifiable for Christians to amass large fortunes. There was a law dating from A.D. 321 allowing anyone at death to leave what property he wished to the Church. Statutes such as this favouring the incipient Church in Constantinople marked the beginning of an acquisition of wealth that in the Middle Ages was unrivalled by any other corporation or individual, and this accumulation of riches by the Church was even more marked in England than elsewhere.

The period of the Crusades brought a great increase in ecclesiastical property, for many raised money from the Church on the security of their lands and as a fair proportion never returned their lands reverted to the Church. This process went on for two centuries. In England for centuries before the Reformation the pious rich had been heaping up treasures for the clergy by gifts and endowments, and this tendency towards accumulating worldly wealth coupled with the policy of never alienating it made the Church a great business as well as religious corporation with interests touching the whole economic life of the people.