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The Pope Is Dead Long Live the Pope by DOROTHY DAY Miserere Mei, Deus, Secundum Miserecordiam Tuam

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The Pope Is Dead Long Live the Pope by DOROTHY DAY Miserere Mei, Deus, Secundum Miserecordiam Tuam • CATHOLl.C Sub•cription1 Vol. XXV No. 4 2.5o Per Yen Price le The _Pope Is Dead Long Live The Pope By DOROTHY DAY Miserere mei, Deus, secundum miserecordiam Tuam. [Have pitJ' Last month Bob Steed talked so on me, Lord, according to Thy mercy.] , optimistically about the loft we had These words which, aware that I was unworthy and unequal of rented that our readers began to them, I pronounced at the moment in which with trepidation I ac­ congratulate us on finding a place. cepted election as Supreme Pontiff, I now repeat with even more But the loft is all window, east, foundation at a time in which knowledge of the deficiencies, of the west and south and there is no failures, of the sins committed during so Ion&" a pontificate and in heat, and the one large gas stove so grave an epoch has made more clear to my mind my insufficiency is totally .inadequate. One huge and unworthiness. lleindow is out in front and the I humbly ask pardon of all whom I may h"'e offended; harmed only work we were able to do was or scandalized by word or by deed. the cleaning out and painting of I pray those whose affair it is not to bother to erect any monuments the place which had been left in to my memory: sufficient it ls that my poor mortal remains should a fearful mess by the theatrical ·be laid simplJ' in a sacred place, the more obscure the better. t!Oupe and the ballet schoof which I do not need to ask for prayers for my soul. I know how many Jiad occupied it last. I have enough are those the custom of the Ai>ostolic See and the piety of the imagination to see the windows faithful causes to be offered for every Pope who dies. repaired, Hatty hanging up cur­ Nor do I need to leave a "spiritual testament," as so many zealous tains, a big kitchen stove and bake prelates are In praiseworthy fashion used to do; because the not in­ considerable number of acts and speeches emanated or pronounced ~>Ven moved in, and the place a by me by reason of my otlice suffice to make known, to whoever satisfactory day center. It will he should by chance desire to know my thought on the different reli- good for meetings, for an offici!, &'iOus and moral questions. • and probably for a dining room Therefore, I name as my universal heir the Holy Apostolic See ,and kitchen. from which I have had so much, as from a most lovin&' mother. But there remains the problem <Last Will and Testament of Pope Pius XII). of sleeping. Where are people going to be lodged. We are, of There is no time with God. We have lost a Pope and we have c.>urse. hoping for a miracle. First another Pope, and yet that is not the way to say it at all. We have .of all, an apartment which will not lost a Pope. The life of Pius XII, our dear HoJy Father, "is hold twelve women. And in the changed, not taken away. And the abode of this earthly sojourn same neighborhood, somewhere beinc dissolved, an eternal dwellin&' is prepared in heaven." No near enough to keep the sense of more movin&' around tor him, no more uncertainties, responsibilities, community which we have built up. no more exhanstinc labors. I'm sure the _present Holy Father, John Two apartments in the same house, XXIIl, in spite of his robust appearance must siirh with envy when anrl one for men,-this will do to he has time to stop and think. No, we have not lost a Pope. Our slllrt. Other men we can put ht life bu been enriched and made more lnterestinl' by the accession one of the cheap hotels on the of another Pope. It was a-ood to see tbe breathless Interest of peo.Ple Bowery, three block away. At 65c all over the world, as they waited the news on the radio. It was rood a night. We will manage, of course to see the dant headlines in the Pa»er. The death of one Pope, the we will manage, but the expen.>e accession of another, is of tremendous importance in the lives of "of rents will be enormous. We people. Catholic or non-Catholic. cannot buy, even if we wanted to, What kind of a man is he going to be, this new Pope. What kind even lf a suitable house came along of man has he been, this former Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, who is for which we could -get what the now 7'7 years old, and who remarked when he took ·the name of John city calls a certificate of occupancy, that all the other Popes by that name had had short reigns-all but because so far there has been no John the Beloved Apostle who rested on the breast of Christ at the offer of money made to us for our last supper, and who lived to so great an age, that the only sermon bouse. he could preach at the close of bis life was, "My little children, love People write in from all ovO?r one another." The other John whom our new Holy Father was com­ saying that they cannot believe It memorating was John the Baptist, who died a martyr, whose head to be true that the city can take was chopped otl because he would not cease from criticizing the mor­ a house and not pay for it. What ality of the ruler of Galilee. Our own Ammon Hennacy is John the - does happen is that the house is Baptist Hennacy, and bis greatest veneration is for -those martyrs · taken by right of eminent domain, who have shed their blood for love of God and their fellows. .. and payment ls made from six ' "Son of I!- farmer," all the newspapers told us in their headlines­ ' months to a year later. A long time <Continued on page 2) · for people to do without their money. And the city does not pay · us interest on the money they are withholding. Instead they. allow u:; CHICAGO CW to borrow some of it back and then What is news? ' Certainly fires the Green Revolution paid a migra­ ask us for 6% interest. Another are, and we have had three of them tory call. Certainly a trash strewn Incident of the month,-an ap­ LET'S KEEP THE JEWS ·, in our building, not related to our slum alley is not the natural habi­ praiser came in, took a swift run work or any opposition to it, but tat of the hermjt thrush. And yet through the house while a cab only because the building where this quiet timid bird, surely an in­ stood outside waiting for him, an:i FOR -CHRIST'S SAKE, we live with four floors of families timate of Thoreau a century ago then went to our lawyer, offering By PETER MAURIN (1877-1949) above us is a horrible firetrap. in the woodlands of Concord and to be our aopraiser for $400. Four One fire started where someone denizen of the memories of my hundred dollars is enough for the ,\ MYSTERY they also decided must have dropped a match down own Vermont childhood, came and down payment many a poor family 1'he Jews to drive the Jews out. the front cellarway. The fire de­ stayed with us for a few days, not makes on some shell of a house. are a mystery St. Vincent Ferrer partment arrived shortly and put imposing on our hospitality, buf What big sums people deal in. to themselves. tried to convert the Jews: it out with portable extinguishers, dropping into our backyards early We Are "Family" They are not a nation, be did not start a crusade but that did not calm my anxiety, each morning. Washing my face No, we have no money .to get although the Zionists to drive them out. because I am afraid not of fire but at the kitchen sink I would see him . another house, and we will be try to build up one Driven out of Spain, of the fire inspectors who might do even as I might have seen him sev­ living from hand to mouth in order in Palestine. the Jews found a refuge the same thing to us and our neigh­ eral years back by some fresh to scrape together the rents. Good They are not a race in Saloni!Ca, bors that they did to you. The woodland stream. The majority of friends from the Catholic Chari- for they have Intermarried which was then other fires were on the back porch men, said Thoreau, pass their lives tlt.s, and Monsignor Brennan from with many other races. under the Turkish flag, wher& a dozen half-empty drums in quiet desperation. They do not the Holy Name Mission both have They are not a religion, Spanish is still spolcen stand among heaps of trash ex­ know the joy because they do not offered to help in any way they since their belief by Jewish workmen creted from the apartments stacked know that in the midst of the ·can, but it would not mean finding calls for one Temple in Salonika, above us. In tb.e morning we sit squalor something wild has visited us a place to keep our family and the Jewish Temple in wonder at breakfast watching them. 'fo them it is only another together: And that ls what we has not been in existence IN THE PAPAL STATES yesterday's trash cascading past sparrow.
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