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Thomas Merton Center Digital Collections TH&· .CATHOLIC· WORKER Sub•eription1 Vol. XX No. 8 25o Per Yemr Price le • Page T"'° THE CATHOLIC W O RXER • March, 1954. Vol: .:xx No. 8 March, 1954 -Few Catholics Draft Objectors CATHOLIC rh!b WORKER Pabllshetl Monthly September to J-e. Bl-monthly .lnlJ-A•t••• ('M em ber of Catholi c PreH Association) Blit Church Helps CO Program ~ ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT According to a N.C.W.C. news re- must be approved by his draft Catholic institutions, principally PETER MAUJUN. Founder lease picked up in the Boston Pilot: board and is for two-year du,ration. hospitals, ~roughout the country, Associate Editors: Conscientious Objectors to service MF. Curry said there are some are taking part in the program. He T OM SU L LI V AN A MMON H E N NACY 56 Protestant denominations par- said the fact that a CO is not a Managing Editor and P ublishers 00!'t01 HY DAV in the nation's armed forces .µ-e c h ll d 223 Chrystie St., New Vo rl< City-2 ticipating in the program, includ- at o c oes not preclude his em- Telephone GRamercy 5-88~6 "a ver'I scarce article" among ing the Mennonites, the Brethren, ployment by a Catholic organiza­ Catholics. However a Catholic or­ Quakers, Presbyterians, Baptists, tion or institution. liubacrtpt1on. Unite<! ·states, 25c Yearly Canada and . ~ · ure1gn . SOc 'Yearly ganization and a number of Catho­ Methodists, and the National Cou - The Selective Service spokes­ Subscription rate of one cent per copJ plus postage -a;>~/'es t td ~u~:•.fm!: taundred or more cop!~s each month tor one year to be rec e o lic institutions throui:hout the na­ cil Of the Churches of Christ in the man estimated that, at present, tion are taking-part in a program U.S. some 6,000 conscientious objectors. Reentered u second class matter AUl\lst 10, 1939, at the Post Oftl ~ for employment of CO's in civilian Mr. Curry said that a number of· have been recorded by draft of New York. N. Y. • Under th" Act of March 3, 11711 work in lieu of military service. - boards. The spokesman said that Commenting on the fact that :'ll~PIP-~~h some 3,700 are now at work in ap.. War Relief Services - National vroved jobs; 1,500 had passed phy­ /o ce8'U: Catholic Welfare Conference, had sical' examinations bu have not \ been approved by Selective Service been placed in jobs yet and that as an agency for civilian -employ­ some 1,600 are awaiting physical - ment of CO's, A. Stauffer Curry, examinations. On Pilgrimage 'director of the National Service Editorial note: One of the rea· By DOROTHY DAY Board fo~· Religious Objectors, a sons why there are very few known private organization assisting in Catholic conscientious objectors is Last month, the Holy Father w a~mth of the sun"· (we think of tile program, said that he had not that the draft boards will give a said to me, as he said to all who the Puerto Ricans and Negroes in heard of more than a half dozen Catholic c.o. any other status rath­ are sick, " I have thought of you, our slums and of little Bryan Mur­ cases 'of Cathe1ic CO;s. er than of CO. The growing move· beloved ailing sons and daughters, phy· in Detroit "youth whose r'are Selective Serviee headquarters -ment among Catholic youth to look ·with particular right among those smiles expresses the strength of here said the program was _begun into this position is discouraged by who are closest to our Spirit and the soul rather than the freshness in 1952 after the draft law was both priest and laymen. who are pressed to our heart." of your years;" (we think of the amended. Purpose of the program, often on the draft boards. Again The Holy Father himself was wounded in our veterans hospitals, a Selective Service spokesman said, and -again Catholic young men are sick; and with what warmth and in prison camps throughout the was to get CO'i; into civilian work told that tt ts impossible for Cath· tenderness he spoke to the suffer- world) "mature men bitterly. re­ outsiae of their own communities. ollcs to be conscientious objectors, ing. My <!ilments were slight but moved from your proper dynam­ It was explained that a CO or .an that it is against the teachings of painful. I was in the hospital when ism" (and with all the others we approved -organization wh-ich em­ the Church. We refer our readers I read General Deari's story of his think of Ed Willock and what he ploys him must pay his expenses to Fr. John J. Hugo's articles in imprisonment and suffering in has meant to us all with his speak­ to and from his place of ·employ­ .former issues ·of the Catholic Korea, and I thought of the an- ing, wri ing, drawing, building) ment and that he is not .allowed to Worker, Cath.,llcs' Can Be Consci­ guish of the world, . and what a "old people, to whom natural fa­ be employed by a profit organiza­ entloua Objectors •and The Crime tiny drop mine was in the ocean of tigue, ·disease adds discomforts tion. The CO's civilian employment ot · Couerlption. D. D. pain. There were many refugee an,d sufierings." . doctors in the hospital where I 'We have a1ways supplicated was, and one of them said to me_ Jesus to ~a~e our heai;ts in some when I spoke of how the body manner ~1m1lar to His; a God STREE ~T CHRYSTIE II ' seemed to overcome the spirit,, heart, a kind heart, a heart open t~ "Oh it is only for about three all sufferings, and to all sorows. By TOM SULLIVAN weeks! After that one becomes We are grateful indeed to the Last month I broke off this col­ dog Fido. Her husband grieved feel in the larger> cities of the more used to it, and the spirit Holy Father, and we know that umn as I was about to set foot on more over the money spent than he United States. takes hold again!" Her husband through these desires, th~ pray­ an ocean liner to Eurepe. To get did over the do1'1 death. He wu Bolt Walsh bears the scars on his body of his ers, such news as that which we on with this serial. I spent the next further dlstreued when he read It wu a pnuine pleasure _ _ __. days in a concentration camp. p~t th.is mont.h of what is hai:- five days as a toarist elass passen­ the inscription that hi.a wife had meet an4 enjoy an evenin& with The Holy Father called the sick pemng m Russian labor camps IS ger on a very medem ocean liner. cut in the tombstone. It read, Bo& and Molly Walsh who publish and now that I am recovered I ca~ made possible. May God bless him The food abroad wu plentiful and "Good old Fido! One Fido is the English Catholic Worker. Their no longer be in that noble com- and lreep him with us many more· the living conditions were ftaw­ worth more than two husbands." combiBation of home and publish- pany, "the precious jewels of the years. less, consequently the voyage over Empt;r Churches ing office reminded me of the at· Church, and valid sources of The Sick in t~e House proved to be a grand rest and a , - I was never so forcibly struck mosphere of ..several Catholic spiritual energies," o·n whom he When ·1 came home from the change of pace from Chrystie with the tremendous Catholic tra- Worker centers in the States. They relies this year to obtain '.'help for hospital to St. Joseph's house on Street. dition that is England's as I was live in holy poverty and exhibit a humanity and the Church itself." Chrystie Street I was filled with Lendon on this my first visit. Innumerable true apostolic spirit. I felt truly at He speaks, he tells them, thanks gratitude for having a house of Late one afternoon the ship monuments still stand today which ·home with these excellent people to the radio, to .all of them, Ian- hospitality to come to. We were docked in Southampton, - England bear witness to the age when Eng- -and their small staff. guishing in hospitals, great' and one of those hospices the Holy and I took the boat-train. to Lon­ land was a Catholic country. Many Eliot small, in sanjtoriums, in cli~cs , in Father was praying for. Up on the don. I spent four days in London of the beautiful old churches On a Friday night, I went to see hospices, in prisons,. in barracks, top ftoor Nellt' Lampkin, as she where I lived in a hotel-on Russell which ~ere once· attended by T. S, Eliot's play The Confiden­ in. the desolate garrets of the most told me her name was once years Square. I had been told that this Catholics are now like so many tial Clerk. When I bought the poor, in the divided little rooms ago, tho she is generally known as particular h tel was inexpensive museum pieces - you seldom see ticket I thought I was getting a is of your homes." Nelly Post, is failing. She over -it was not. The hotel was situat­ anyone prayinf in them. The big bargain; tickets in London "Children with pallid faces like eighty.
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