Existentialism Particularly Evident in the Case of Give Us a Sense of Beauty and the Sartre with His Cartesian Reduc
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THE CATHOLIC ' WORKER Sub• cr1ption: Vol. XIX No. 8 MARCH, 1953 25c Per Year P rice le Capital Punishment The Sword Is Not the Answer By ROBERT LUDLOW "We see the work of the devil spreading throughout the world There isn't a great deal written those who do fail to show any today ~nd we are appalled by the wickedness of it all. We are over in English by Catholic theologians significant difference. If people whelmed with the compromise of ostensibly sincere and good men on capital punishment. That is realize this and still want capital with the forces of evil. from the standpoint of opposition punishment then it is simply that to it. I remember a paragraph or they want vengeance-and venge We see the church in many countries back to the days of the cata'- ' so in one of Father Luigi Sturzo's ance is mine, saith the Lord. combs with our bishops, priests, sisters and brothers murdered or books and then a statement from One's Ideol ogy in chains. Father Weir who was for many I bring this matter up again be years chaplain at Joliet prison. cause of the Rosenbergs. And be We see large standing armies ready for the march of plunder ancl Father Sturzo feels that capital cause some Catholics and some rapine and murder and the subjugation of whole peoples into slaveey. punishment is a relic of barbarism liberals have made it an article of And with our souls groaning in anguish, we ask ourselves: "What and that as we outgrow this and faith to believe in the guilt of the ·become socially mature we will Rosenbergs and to clamor for their can we do about it?" Shall we, the followers of &be gentle Christ, eliminate it. Father . Weir opposes execution. There seems t o be little take the sword and place our hope in retaliation and revenge? capital punishment on both ethical concern for the truth in all this. and pragmatic grounds. Ethical, One judges the Rosenbergs guilty The answer to that qu'estion was given by Christ in the Garden because he feels it is but an ap or not guilty depending on one's of Gethsemane as Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the plication of the pre-Christian prin ideology. If you are a Communist servant of .the high priest. "Put up again thy sworil. into ·its place,'' ciple of an eye for an eye, a you believe it self evident the Ro Christ said, "for all who t ake the sword sh~ I perish with the sword ... tooth for a tooth. Pragmatical be senbergs are not guilty, if you are cause, on the basis of statistics, he a certain type of Cc1tholic or a - The sword then is not the answer and it never was the way of Christ.,. finds that it does not decrease the certain type of liberal you believe Excerpted from a sermon given at St. Patrick's Cathedral by Reverend amount of crime-that a compari them guilty. In all of this there David Gannon of the Graymoor Fransiscan Friars of the Atonement. son of crime statistics between is little concern for the Rosenbergs Cardinal Spellman presided at the Mass on January 15, 1953 which those states and countries that do themselv~s or the case on its not have capital punishment and {Continued on page 6> marked the end of the Chair of Unily Octave. Holy Father Begs ~ercy On Pilgrimage For the Rosenhergs By DOROTHY DAY By MICHAEL HARRINGTON: Spring begins in February, I tell Pope Pius· XII has intervened to ask for clemency for the Rosen everyone exultantly, but if they bergs. He did not do so out of don't visit the country they won't consideration of the merits of the know it. Tamar's garden has snow case, but because of motives of drops blooming and they came out charity. on the Feast of Our Lady of That is .the fact. It is largely un Lourdes. acceptable to the American press, I went there the other day and and every effort has been made to found Mar y Elizabeth sitting on a suppress or impeach it. heap of dirt, watching John Murray The Press dig a ditch for a drain from the ,- cellar so that Tamar can set up The story broke in the American her laundry in the cellar instead press on February 13. At that time of in the bathroom. Mary Elizabeth, , it .was given a straightforward 19 monlhs old, is only as big as a statement. Thus, the New York minute, but full of a tremendous World Telegram eight-column ban energy and joy of life. At that mo ner: "Pope Urged Mercy For ment she was still, quietly enjoyi ng A-Spies," and the subhead, "Char a large hunk of clayey dirt which ity-Not Merit of .Case-His Mo she ate while she watched John. I tive." hear that down south there lre The World Telegram story was regions where people are known as a United Press dispatch from Vat clay eaters and medical men have ican City. It quoted Osservatore decided there is something in the Romano, semi-official Vatican pa soil craved and needed by those per: "As he has mercifully done who eat it. But all children love to in other similar cases, so also in eat dirt. this one he has not failed to 'in Nickie, the terror; is the most tervene.... " talkative member of the family. He The New York Times story, a is a great conversationalist and his special dispatch from their corres tones contain all intonations, pondent, Arnaldo Cortesi, substan moods, emotions. He· boasts, he tiated the Pope's intervention. It thrusts out his chest, he is deep made a point of the fact that voiced and aggressive, he struts; intervention was not unusuaL or he is tender, embracing his little "L'Osservatore Romano was care sister, having just knocked her ful to point out that when it was down; or "I'll kiss Gr.anny,'' imply a matter of saving human lives, ing that none else will, and he will the Pope never refused to inter come to the rescue; or he is full of vene, 'though without being able fierce excitement over a dog, a to enter into the merits of the bird, a truck, a bus, which· he calls case.' " The Times listed recent upon everyone to share; or resigna appeals: for .the Italian General, tion, "Okay, all right; I won't," OI). .Pilg~ W t '9 I • I • {Continued ,7) I . ~ f • • • • • 4 I A t • II {Continued on page . 8~ ' •• I!' a • • .... Page Tt00 THE C ·A·T H-() LI C W 0 R KE R March, 1953 Vol. XIX No. 8 March, 1953 LIFE AT HARD LABOR By AMMON HENNACY I CATHOLIC rfJ!b'M>RKER "Digging it up good, eh!" said a with gopher holes so one boy neighbering youth to me as I was pushed the mower and the other Pabllsbed ,Moathly September &o Jane. Bl-monthly laly-AQUI clearing the basin for a good space boy pushed him and they got it (Member of Catholic Press A'isoclatio"n) around the olive tree to hold the done somehow. Four older girls ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMJ!:NT water. This was for the Old Pio PETER MAURIN, Founder were married and the oldest boy neer. was in Korea. The father of the Associate Fditors1 ROBERT LUDLOW TOM SULLIVAN AMMON HEN-NACY "Yes," I replied, "got to get this family: tall, broad, raw-boned Managing Editor and Publisher: DO ROT HY DAY rubbish out- of here." and red-faced; had farmed near - 223 Chrystie St., New York City-2 Bukeye and had. been in California Telephone GRamercy 5-8826 "Where can a fellow get a job?" the young man asked. for a dozen years. One day I went to the store to' get a gallon of kero• llubscription_ Unite<! States, 25c Yearly. Canada and Foreign. :Siie: Year!7 ")Vhat can you do; do you know Subscription rate ot one cent per copy plus postage a;>plles to bundles of one sene and he was there with his hundred or more cop!a each month for one year to be directed to one addrem how to irrigate?" I asked him. old oversize-Buick. He asked me to "Well, I ma~ my living last year ride home after saying farewell to Reentered as second ciass matter August 10, 1939, at the Post Oftlc:e sho!?ting dice," he said smilingly. a man who was the worse for the of New York. N. Y~ Under th .. Act of March I. 1871 "Anybody's that smart enough to product of the corner saloon. I do that is smart enough not to! drink some myself, but I don't -49U: How much do you have left?" I want nary other man who i drinks asked. to tell me what to do and how to "Not a cent; that's the trouble: do it: so I'm glad that guy is on easy come; easy go," he replied his way," he drawled as we drove CHRYSTIE STREET ~ sheepishly. homeward. By TOM SULLIVAN ' 'You could go down the road * . - * whom was fortunate to · m!)ft and ask at every house for work and Recently I irrigated eleven After spending two weeks on a 1 in time you might find something .nights for James for from eleven trip to Europe it is somewhat diffi through a friend. This man knew if you do what you say you will do to thirteen hours a night.