CATHOLIC WORKER ... Subacription1 Vol. xvn No. 11 25o Per Year Price le Open letter The Danger~ To the c. ·w. ·Of Political Editors on War Christianity By JULIAN P"LEASANTS By REV. J. A. CORREIA, C.SSp. I look hopefully but in vain for We see too often, among ortho­ at least one ·article in the CW dox believers, a practical repudia­ which would consider the present tion of other people's rights, of war in the light of traditional Cath­ other people's sincere conscience, olic ethics. You must have thou­ while many agnostic liberals sta.Qd sands of readers who cannot be firmly, sometimes at their own ex­ convinced that violence is essen­ pense, for the rights of man. Is it tially un-Christian. T h o u s a n d s because material orthodoxy can co­ more are probably unaffected by exist with practical negation of liv­ the argument that modern war is ing faith (which works through essentially evil because they find love-Galat. 6), while a certain un­ modern war too abstract an idea. ~onscious faith may lie under ap­ Others reject your arguments with­ parently dead coals? . ("A out a hearing just because you bruised reed He will not break; a openly profess to throw out the smoking wick, He will not quench" traditional Catholic morality con­ -Mat. 12,20). cerning war. Yet I feel that you I imagine that it was about liv­ · O\Ve something to the consciences ing and loving faith, not about ex­ of all the people whom you have act orthodoxy, that Jesus has im­ at least awakened to the possibility plicitly announced a sad destiny, that we are fighting unjustly. when he said: "When the Son of Surely you agree that a particular Man comes, will He find, do ·you war could prove. to be unjust not think, faith on earth?" !Luke, 18,8). only in the light of your own ex­ The conversion of the · Roman treme position but also in the light Emperor, Constantine, and the of the common Catholic teaching outer conversion of the Roman was of war. a glol'ious event; but it was It always seemed to me that most ·fraught, as some of the best things of what you say against modem sometimes are, with many serious war is merely an expression of the perils. It became useful, even for traditional Catholic teaching that temporal welfare, to be a Christian. the evn to be prevented by a war The Church gained a prote~tion, a must be worse than the evil which defender. "According to RQman will be wrought by the war. That notions," writes Fr. Hugo Pope in rule is logical enough, even though his St. Augustine of Hippo, those who glibly recite it do not "Church and State were always re­ believe that a case could ever arise garded as one; the conversion of in which it would be better to let Constantine had only meant the your enemy conquer you than to change from one religion to an­ fight against him. How would thls other. The Donatists themselves, rule apply to our fighting in as Augustine keeps reminding Korea? Since we entered into the them, had not only been the first (Continued on pa&e 6) (Continued on paJ" 6) The Val ue of The Quick and N o n~ Conf ormity The Dying By ROBERT LUDLOW By BETTY BARTELl\IE Perhaps the message of Christ We were leaning against the door found its first adherents among of the chart room, the nun and I, those who were predisposed to The lncomatibility_of Love and Violence talking about the cases on the floor. non-conformity, whose natural "We're rather empty right now," bent was, as it were, confirmed by AFFIRMATION ( 1933-1?51 ) she said to me. "Spring is here &race. The Christian message was and the pneumonias are out on the one of opposition to the world. To By DOROTHY DAY street again and the stmkes haven't th~ world in that Scriptural sense begun to come in." It seemed an which is not a repudiation of mat­ With the May issue of the paper we. are beginning our nineteenth year. And· with this oddly impersonal way of talkinl about the men whom I had seen ter but of principalities and pow-. beginning we wish to state again our faith, in this our life here on earth, that AU men are ers. The powers of darkness, the gi·oaning and. turning in their beds principalities that externalize and brothers. It is our faith, our conviction, and we do state it again solemnly, in regard to Rus­ during the winter past, and about make concrete these evils that op~ sians, Chinese, Indians, all the people of the east and the west, and we must treat them so, the ones for whom the smooth, clean sheets were waiting. The tone press men's souls. The Christian and love them so. It is only in tliis way that we can show our love for God. To love God, message was one of opposition to of the nun's voice, however, dis­ and to love our brother as Christ+------ -------­ the 1ipirit of evil in high places. persed the implied anonymity of Consequently it was bound lo ap­ loved him, to the laying down of the words, and I · remembered her peal to those temperamentally in­ Chry~ti e Street His life for him-this is the great Maryf arm concern about Mr. Duffy's tea, her clined to non-conformity. On the command, and Christ also said, arm around a woman crying in the natural level the psychology of By TOM SULLIVAN "Do this and thou shalt live." By iANE O'DONNELL corridor, the weariness on her face many early Christians is the psy­ When we first moved to .this It ls because of this. affirmi.tion Paschaltide for Maryfarm has when Mr. Delario, suffering from chology of left-wingers in a capi­ that we . write as we do in the a malignant cancer, refused to see house on Chrysth Street we. were Catholic Worker month after been a "period of qulet" and re- a priest and signed himself out of talist society. It is among such pose from active duty in providing that God might be likely to choose reasonably sure. that we had finally month, year after year, and why the hospital, possibly and probably His messengers for it would do less achieved a semi-sanctu~ry. I guess we tell of houses of hospitality, retreats. There was only one re­ t'o die without the Last Sacrament. violence to their natures. And God, it is the idle dream of every city farming groups, retreat houses on treat during this time, for an active A student nurse came by, paused who did not become incarnate till dweller. You insist on living in the land, and the works of mercy apostolic group who used Low Sun­ to ask a question, and went on He had first obtained Mary's con­ the city and still refuse to be of that are the life of these commu­ day week-end for deeper indoc­ down the wide hall. We looked sent, builds on man's natural in­ the city. You are willing to par=- nities. It is not enough fo say trination of new contacts in the idly after her for a moment, then ( clinations, utilizes them and, by tlcipate in the life of the_ city but it, to repeat it, to hear it sing in apostolate, and the post-Easter op­ picked up the conversation again. doing so, produces a balance that on your . own terms. You look at our hearts, as in that great chorus portunities for the praise of God "What happens to the men when otherwis~ might not be. the doors and gates enclosing your in the last movement of the Ninth in the Mystery of the Resurrection. they're discharged, Sister" I Unlike the Manichees the Chris­ home and they give the appearance Symphony of Beethoven. It must Nonetheless, plans . for the sum­ asked? tian faith is not one which seeks to of sturdiness, at least, it seeins as be translated into act, into flesh mer are being made for those of She looked at me, hesitating be­ suppress nature or to produce a though you will have a remote con- and blood, into ·our eating and you who long to be refreshed in fore she answered. "They' worry universal psychological pattern. trol over those entering. ·The 11- drinking and ·working and loving. the way Maryfarm offers: through me," she said slowly. · "Most of 0 And so the individual wlfose nature lusion of privacy and seclusion has It is the great and -glorious hope accent on the Holy Sacrifice of the them come olf the Bowery and is predisposed to non-conformity been shattered sufficiently enough of all men, the longing of all Mass, Silence, common prayer haven't got a home; no family, no in our little world to convince us hearts. The great Chinese classic through .Prime .and Compline •. and one who cares· about them. • If could have an historical and im­ 0 portant role in the history of the that the life of a gold.fish · in com- that .• nurtured Mao-tse-T-ung '\\'.as cooperatioJl witll t)l.e, chores •ar'is-; they're c'ured when they leave ua. (Continued on page 7) (Continued on page 2) (Continued on pa.. ~ 2) (Continued o~ pagti 8)- Jf::ontinued on page 7) Page Two THE CATHOLIC WORKER May, 1951 Vol.