Evening star., 1961-11-21
O Temporo! O Mores!

The latest annual statement of the
Roman Catholic Bishops of the United
States constitutes an eloquent warning
that deserves to be listened to most
carefully by all Americans, regardless
Of creed, who are adult and patriotic
enough to be concerned about the future
Of their country. For the warning is
very much to the point, and nobody with
eyes to see and ears to hear can shrug
it off, or belittle it, as if it were COM
ment of minor consequence on a subject
of no great Importance.
Actually, the subject is truly basic
and vast in it's significance, and this is
so because it has to do with nothing
less than the moral health and the
moral Survivability of our Nation. AS
the bishops statement indicates, the
problem involved is global in character,
and at the root of it "haS been the
influence of SeculariSm-the baniShment
of God from public and private life and
the enthronement of human nature in
His place." A consequence of this, in the
statements words, is that many modern
men find themselves ION a lonely
eminence Of their own making q. . . forced
to determine for themselves what is
good and evil, right and wrong"
AS far as our own country is con-
cerned, here is something quite new in
our history. Despite certain decisions
by the Supreme Court in recent years
(Such as the one outlawing voluntary
interdenominational religious instruc-
tion in public SchoolS), the Founding
Fathers of our Republic were God-fear-
ing men who believed in the abstract
moral law and favored (as did Thomas
Jefferson at the University of Virginia)
a solid education in religion. Yet today,
as the Catholic bishops have asserted,
"our national ideal no longer rests upon
a foundation of broad and solid popular
morality. Ignorance of moral principles
and the rejection of the very notion of
morality are on the rise today and
threaten to undermine our Nation and
its most sacred traditions" This does
not seem to us to be an exaggeration.
Anyhow, again to quote from the
prelates' statement:
The evidences of our moral decline are
everywhere to be seen: In the alarming in
crease in crime. particularly among the young;
in the sensational treatment of violence and
sexuality in literature. on the stage, screen
and television; in the disclosures of greed
and cyniciSm in government labor and
business; in the stubborn continuance of race
prejudice and injustice; in the multiplication
of divorce and in the rapid disintegration Of
the family; in harsh and pagan disregard
of the sacredness Of human life. This
present moral deterioration cannot be in
terpreted as mere temporary relaxation of
standards. :. -. The conditions we face are
unique; for them, the past gives neither
precedent nor guide.
1t seems clear enough that in our
time, which surely has been one of the
most tumultuouS in human history,
there has been a sort of stupid tolerance
of decadence here in America and
abroad. Nor can there be any doubt
that large numbers of moral illiterateS
and educated ignoramuSeS-incl
some in Hollywood and the publishing
world-have poisoned our society with
productions equating liberty with license
and licentiouSneSs. The Catholic bishops
are undeniably right: The United States,
not less than the world in general, is
in need of spiritual catharSis that will
revive the kind of God-fearing morality
that marked its character until rela-
lively recent years. Otherwise, in due
course, it may well go the way of the
old Roman Empire, declining and falling
of its own hedoniStic exceSses, not with
bang but with whimper.