Evening star., 1939-10-09
Jay Franklin Views
RidicuIed by Priest
CoIumnist Accused Of SEEKING
CothoIic Support for
Left Wineers

CothoIic Support tor
Left Wineers
To the Editor Of The Star:
have q suggestion which, hope, will
not bring me into suspicion Of advo-
eating censorship. It would have been
happier had some Of your wise and ex-
perienced staff talked Mr.. Jay Franklin
out Of the bad humor and worse logic
displayed in his Star column of October
6. Mr. Franklin recommends to the
Catholic Church a philosophy based on
distinction between Father Coughlin
and Cardinal Mundelein. Many will not
recognize the column for what it is: The
attempt of left-wing New Dealer to
frighten the hierarchy into supporting
Mr.. Franklin's party Of party. Pope
Plus XII has received clear mandate
from Mr.. Jay Franklin. He now knows
what kind of a prelate to appoint to the
see of Chicago Why should the Holy
Father maintain curia when for 3 cents
he can buy enough advice to last him
to the next General Council?
AS for Father Coughlin, have very
little to say. The pink weeklies invented
the childish fear of his leading Fascist
movement in America. When the New
Dealers of the left no longer found him
to their liking they took over this po-
litical bogey and made the most of it.
I have heard the reverend gentleman
utter many an unsound argument. If I
say that have also heard him state i'm
portant truths, 1t does not follow that
should wish to see him march on Wash
ington. Like most of the Catholic clergy
truculent baritone with the accents of
the Redeemer
In his statements on Cardinal Munde-
lein, Mr.. Franklin betrays the naivete of
the politician who identifies his party
Of a party with everlasting truth and
justice. 1t sometimes happens that those
who have given no study to theology
confuse Eternal Being and Goodness with
an existing politician. In the long run
this confusion is always embarrassing.
Cardinal Mundelein, as an American
citizen, appeared to agree with Mr..
Franklin's fellow politicians. Other
clergymen, as American citizens, appear
to disagree. 1t Immediately becomes
clear to Mr.. Franklin's hasty and inno-
cent mind that Cardinal Mundelein was
true disciple of Christ and that the
others are false ones
Cardinal Mundelein was impressed, as
many Catholics are impressed, with Ger
tain similarities between the encyclcals
and the philosophy of the New Deal as
expressed by its brilliant leader. But
others among us are aware that Mr.
Roosevelt Is not the whole New Deal
any more than Hitler is the whole of
NaZi-ism. However much we may credit
the wide and generous impulses of the
President, We have less enthusiasm for
some of the friends who surround him.
We should be more impressed by the
humanitarian feelings of a New Dealer
like Mr.. Franklin if we had seen any
evidence of those feelings shown for the
Catholics who were murdered wholesale
by the left-wing New Dealers of Red
Spain Cardinal Mundelein believed, as
most believe, that Mr.. Roosevelt valued
the precepts of the Gospel. Doubtless
even Cardinal Mundelein did not identify
the White House Janizariate with the
College of the Apostles, nor did he forget
that even social justice in it's political
realization is only part of the Kingdom
of God.
Whatever the attitude of the Catholic
clergy and hierarchy on the political
friends of Mr.. Roosevelt, they do not
have to demonstrate today their love for
the poor. Many nowadays vote for the
poor. We not only vote for them but
live for them and with them The
the light and wisdom of the encyclicals
but we did not have to wait for them to
learn love for labor that springs from
the very Gospels. Any one who knows
the history of American labor for the
past IS years can testify who has been
the steady friend of the American work.
ingman. If we refuse to grasp the left
hand of men whose right hand is red
with the blood of our brethren and
whose heart is red with the violent
ideologies of the left, we have no apollo
gies to make to the biologists and no
explanation to make to the common
people with whom we are united in
every bond of love and loyalty.
1t was not the happiest inspiration of
some of the New Dealers when they dis
covered the axiom that old age is dis
grace. Do we sense some reflections of
that philosophy in Mr.. Franklins con-
temptuous allusion to the encyclicals as
the opinions of a weary pontiff"? At the
time of the death Of Plus XII we are glad
to recall the noble tributes of the Ameri-
can press, which, in general, discerned a
substance of glorious achievement be-
meath the passage of his many years.
When Mr.. Franklin and his close
friends have brought about the great
millennium and distributed social justice
impartially to the moral universe, there
will be still residiuum of human weak
ness and sorrow. The priesthood of that
time will be socially justified" with all
the rest of mankind. But it will have
objects for its ministry. Not all the ills
of man spring from social justice. Most
of them come from his confused mind
and turbulent heart. Doubtless even in
that paradise of the well-clothed and
well-housed and well-fed we priests and