The Catholic Church is deeply affected by the apocalyptic events which have shaken Europe since the opening of the twentieth century and by the prospect of a future even more convulsed than the past. Enormous losses in membership and the increasing strength and daring of its mortal enemies have compelled it to look Westwards. Here Catholicism seeks new fields in which to consolidate and expand as compensation for its weakened position in bankrupt Europe.

This process, which had already begun in the opening years of the present century, was greatly accelerated during and after the First World War, and received a tremendous impetus particularly during the Second World War.

The Vatican has given more and more attention to the young and flourishing Church in the Americas, from which it had already greatly benefited. Its gains are not local only, nor exclusively in the religious field. They extend beyond America and to spheres with which at first sight the Catholic Church appears to have little or no concern.

The Vatican, in fact, is eager to transform the Americas into a solid Catholic Continent, to counterbalance the already half-lost Continent of Europe. If this statement sounds exaggerated it should be

remembered that we are dealing with an institution accustomed to carrying out its plans, not in terms of countries and years or even generations alone, but in terms of continents and centuries.

Long-range policies usually escape the notice of those who are preoccupied with more immediate issues, but it is possible to observe the Vatican's plans in the Western hemisphere developing under our very eyes. The increased tempo of the Catholic Church's activities in the Americas and the success it has already achieved in that continent are more than remarkable. This success, however, is due, not only to the energy with which the Catholic Church has undertaken its task, but also, to a very great extent, to the fact that general economic, social, and cultural conditions are infinitely more stable than in Europe. This favors the plans of the Church, which has begun to be regarded by many as a stabilizing factor and a barrier against the revolutionary spirit of the age.

Such affinity of outlook and interests is not only to be found in those parts of the Continent which the Catholic Church has spiritually ruled for centuries---such as Central and South America---but has begun to penetrate and influence the attitude of Protestant North America as well. For it is there that the Catholic Church has directed its main activities for a generation and is still striving to conquer. The United States of America has become the key to the policy of the Vatican, not only with regard to the American Continent, but in relation to the whole world.

The policy of the Vatican, which for centuries was based on alliance with Catholic countries in Europe, now has been shifted to the West. The Vatican, foreseeing the disaster impending over Europe, has been preparing for the creation of a new Catholic world in the Americas on which it will be able to rely for the secular support it needs.

For such a policy to succeed it is necessary for the Vatican, not only to exercise spiritual dominion over South and Central America, but also to capture as completely as possible the fountainhead of American dynamism---namely, the United States of America. the United States of America, being the most powerful, wealthy, and active country in the Western hemisphere, has quickly become the undisputed leader of the American countries; and even before the Second World War it was obviously destined to be one of the most powerful countries, if not the most powerful country, in the world.

In view of this the Vatican, during the last generation, has concentrated its main efforts on making progress in the United States of America. By so doing it has followed the rule which has guided its policy throughout the centuries---namely, to ally itself with powerful secular nations.

The activity of the Vatican in relation to the United States of America becomes even more interesting when one considers that North America is a Protestant country. Catholics have formed only a very small minority, and powerful forces of a religious character are aligned against the incursion of Catholicism in that country.

What was the position of the Catholic Church before this new Vatican policy was put into operation---and what is it now? How does the Catholic Church intend to tighten its hold over a great Protestant country? And, above all, what is the Catholic Church's influence in social and political matters and how far has its hold affected the course of the United States of America's foreign policy before and during the Second World War?

When Washington took command of the Continental Army, Catholicism had only one Church (in Philadelphia); while Protestant America had a yearly celebration on "Pope's Day" (November 5), during which the Pope's image was ceremoniously burned at the stake (1775).

On the entry of the United States of America into the Second World War (1941) the Catholic Church owned or controlled a network of churches, schools, hospitals, and newspapers spreading from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. It had become the biggest, most compact and powerful religious denomination in the United States. The American President deemed it necessary to keep an "official personal" envoy at the Vatican, besides having scores of private envoys journeying backwards and forwards between Washington and Rome as the situation required. All this happened within the period of just over a century and a half. The feat as such is remarkable, and becomes even more so when one considers the influence that the Catholic Church has begun to exercise on the life of the nation as a whole.

What contributed most to the numerical increase of Catholicism was the mass emigration from Europe which occurred at the close of the last century and the beginning of the twentieth century. It was at that period that the Catholic Church gained most in strength

and spread all over the States. The following figures give an idea of the enormous numerical gains made by Catholicism only through immigration: Between 1881 and 1890 the American Catholic Church acquired over 1,250,000 new members; from 1891 to the close of the century another 1,225,000; and between 1901 and 1910 the figure was well over 2,316,000. In the brief space of three decades Catholicism had been strengthened by almost 5,000,000 new members through immigration alone.

Parallel with this numerical increase the establishment of churches and all other religious, social, and cultural branches kept step with the demands of the new Catholic populations. Their efficient supervision required a proportionately expanding hierarchical machinery.

The Vatican, already watching the progress of the American Church, was not slow in creating the necessary ruling bodies, represented by arch-dioceses, which in 1911 rose to 16, while bishoprics were brought to 40. Religious, semi-religious, and lay institutions grew everywhere with the same rapidity. Within thirty years, for instance, Orders for women, consisting mainly of small diocesan organizations, reached the figure of 250. The activities of some were nation-wide, such as the Ursuline, whose members were mainly concerned with educational work, the Sisters of Charity, and so on. Similar Orders for men grew all over the country, although they were not so numerous or varied; the principal and most active of them all was that of the Jesuits.

All these factors contributed to a steady increase of the Catholic population in the United States during this period and in the following decades grew in proportion. By 1921 the Catholic Church was already conducting 24 standard colleges for women and 43 for men, 309 normal training schools, 6,550 elementary schools, and 1,552 high schools; the total attendance at these establishments exceeding 2,000,000.

This increase in the numerical strength of American Catholics and their hierarchical machinery did not stop there, but continued

to soar upwards, gaining great impetus with the entry of the United States of America into the Second World War. By the end of hostilities (1945) the American Hierarchy was made up of: 1 cardinal, 22 archbishops, 136 bishops, and about 39,000 priests; while the Catholic Church controlled over 14,500 parishes and numerous seminaries, where well over 21,600 students were being prepared for priesthood. The number of monks was 6,700, and of nuns 38,000, while Religious Orders included 6,721 Brothers and 139,218 Sisters, of whom 61,916 nuns were engaged in works other than teaching. (In 1946 Pope Pius XII created four additional American cardinals.)

In the field of general education the Catholic Church has made even greater strides. In the years immediately following the First World War there were not sufficient high schools in the United States of America to deserve a separate report or an official directory, but by 1934 there were 966 Catholic schools, with 158,352 pupils; by 1943 1,522 schools, with 472,474 pupils; and by 1944 the Catholic parochial schools, with 2,048,723 pupils. In 1945 the Catholic Church owned, controlled, and supervised a grand total of 11,075 educational establishments, giving Catholic instruction to 3,205,804 young people (an increase of 167,948 pupils over the preceding year).

No branch of education escapes the attention of Catholicism. It meets the needs of the youngest elementary pupils, the pupils at parochial and secondary schools, and the students at Catholic colleges and universities (769, in addition to the 193 seminaries).

American youth is cared for by the Catholic Church not only in schools, but also outside them. For that purpose societies and organizations of all kinds have been established. Bishops and others concerned with such activities are provided with a National Catholic Youth Council consisting of the leaders of the diocesan youth councils. Other important bodies are the two Catholic student institutions, the Newman Club Federation and the National Federation of Catholic College Students, with more than 600 clubs. The Boy Scouts are supervised by a special committee of bishops.

Once the young people have reached manhood or womanhood, the Catholic Church provides for their needs through the National Council of Catholic Men and the National Council of Catholic Women. These Councils have set up thousands of parish groups, each responsible to its respective bishop, whom they are ready to help in his

various religious and non-religious undertakings. The building up of high schools, strengthening the Legion of Decency, sustaining the "Catholic Hour" and similar programmes on national radio networks, and so on, constitute the duties of the Councils.

The Catholic Church, which has also set itself to control the field of charitable institutions, has made similar striking progress in this direction and in the same period set up 726 hospitals.

During the Second World War the Catholic Church did not abandon its work amongst the troops, but built up a Catholic army of chaplains, which, from a mere 60 before Pearl Harbor, rose to 4,300 by 1945, Mgr. Spellman having been appointed "Military Vicar of Army and Navy Chaplains" as early as 1940.

The average number of Americans received yearly into the fold of the Catholic Church is about 85,000. Within a single year, 1944, 90,822 American citizens became Catholics, and during the years of the Second World War the Church gained a total of 543,970 converts.

With figures like these it is no wonder that the Catholic Church, within the brief period of 150 years (1790 to 1945), has increased the number of its American members from 30,000 to over 24,000,000 (including Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands---see Catholic Directory, 1945).

The efficiency and success of all these nation-wide and manifold activities of the Catholic Church are due in part to the zeal with which the Catholics work for the maintenance and spreading of the Faith. Not less important are factors of a purely spiritual and administrative character. The most notable of these are without doubt the Catholics' singleness of purpose, unity, and discipline and last, but not least, the powerful nation-wide organization which directs the innumerable activities of the Catholic Church in the United States of America---namely, the National Catholic Welfare Conference. This organization was created during the First World War to deal with problems affecting the interests of the Church in the United States of America, and appeared under the name the National Catholic War Council. It was subsequently known as the National Catholic Welfare Council, and finally as the National Catholic Welfare Conference. In it the American Hierarchy has almost unchallenged sway, although theoretically its power is of purely advisory nature.

The N.C.W.C. has come to the factotum of the Catholic Church and on its driving force the expansion of Catholicism depends.

In addition to the various activities of a charitable, cultural, and educational character at which we have just glanced, the N.C.W.C. is responsible for the efficiency of another instrument for the furtherance of American Catholicism---namely, the Catholic Press.

In 1942 the Catholic Church in the United States of America had 332 Church publications, with a total circulation of 8,925,665. These comprised papers of all descriptions, including 125 weeklies, 127 monthly magazines, and 7 daily newspapers. Within the brief period of ten years, up to the end of the Second World War, the circulation of Catholic papers increased by over 2,500,000---or nearly 35 per cent.

All these papers are in close touch with the Press Department of the N.C.W.C. This Department describes itself as the "International Catholic news-gathering and distributing agency founded and controlled by the Catholic archbishops and bishops of the United States of America." It is ruled by journalists skilful in their profession, and maintains correspondents in all the most important towns of the United States of America and the rest of the world, collecting news items from all five continents, which are then distributed all over the country and treated from the angle best suited to the interests of Catholicism. The N.C.W.C. Press Department during the Second World War forwarded between 60,000 and 70,000 words a week to about 190 publishers; and in 1942 it claimed to be serving 437 Catholic publications in the United States of America and other countries.

Many of these Catholic papers had a good circulation, at the end of the Second World War. To cite only a few:

Sales of Catholic pamphlets in the United States of America by 1946 approximated 25,000,000 a year. In spite of war conditions, 650 new titles were published between 1942 and 1946, many attaining "best-seller" status with a sale of 100,000 copies each. The Paulist

Press leads, its sales totaling 5,967,782. More than 10,500,000 people in 1946 bought the 367 publications of the American Catholic Press. In the three preceding years thirty-five publications were launched and 1,500,000 subscribers gained. There were four Catholic dailies in foreign languages.

In addition to serving papers in the United States of America, the N.C.W.C. also serves Catholic papers abroad, especially in Central and South America. Its Noticias Catolicas, for instance, go to all four daily papers of Mexico City.

Besides the N.C.W.C., the Church controls the Press through the Catholic Press Association, which is a Conference bringing together hundreds of publishers and editors, arranging for advertising the Catholic Press, reducing costs, encouraging Catholic outlook and Catholic journalists, and so on.

The Catholic Press, whose largest circulation is in parish papers, reaches all cultural and political strata. Chief among such papers are the Jesuit weekly America, The Commonwealth, the Catholic World (published by Paulists), and the Inter-racial Review, which is said to be the most influential with regard to racial problems.

The last mentioned journal attempted to deal with the question of the Negroes, who at the end of the Second World War constituted one-tenth of the American population (13,000,000). During the decade preceding Peral Harbor the Catholic Church had started a drive for the conversion of this minority, and, although it made no remarkable progress (300,000 in 1945, as compared with the 5,600,000 acknowledging Protestant denominations), the attempt is worthy of notice.

Hostility had existed in the past between Negroes and Catholic minorities consisting mainly of immigrants who competed with the cheap Negro labor. This began to disappear with the stabilization of the economic life of the country and with the rebellion of the Negroes against discrimination by Protestant society and the Protestant Churches.

With the passing of the years the Negro has tried with increasing success to fight back at all those forces which endeavor to keep him a second-class citizen. The Catholic Church, by preaching racial equality and the right of the Negro to be on par with men of other races, will one day be able to swing to her side that minority---

with the racial, social, economic, and political repercussions which would automatically follow.

The Catholic Church's main instrument for the conversion of Negroes is its usual one---namely, education. Thousands of nuns are engaged exclusively in teaching Negro children.

Almost one-tenth of the 85,000 American citizens who are annually converted to Catholicism are Negroes. In the period between 1928 and 1940 the average per year was about 5,000, but during the war that figure greatly increased, the major gains being in urban centres.

During the Second World War the Catholic Church made great strides in its missionary work, and the number of priests devoting their full time to Negro conversion was 150 times greater than it was fifteen years before Pearl Harbor. Religious Orders for women assigned to work amongst Negros were 72, with almost 2,000 nuns, while religious Orders for men during the same period increased from 9 to 22. Most prominent of these Orders were those of the Josephite Fathers, founded in 1871, the Society of the Holy Ghost, the Divine Word, the Redemptorists, the Jesuits, the Benedictines; and for women the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, an Order for Negro women, and the Sister of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Catholic Church runs a university for Negroes, the St. Xavier University; and while in 1941 only ten Catholic institutions of higher learning admitted Negroes, in 1945 more than a hundred had opened their doors to them, as well as opening and encouraging on a large scale the priesthood for Negro youths.

By the end of the Second World War the Catholic Church in America, although it had prepared the machinery for the conversion of the Negroes, had by no means seriously embarked on the work, feeling it was premature. But on the day it deems opportune it will start a full drive in the racial field and without doubt will make great inroads. This particularly in view of the fact that about 8,000,000 Negroes claim affiliation with no religious denomination.

We must remember that the Catholic Church thinks in terms of centuries, and that, having a long-range policy, it prepares its machinery long before it intends to use it. One of the great moves of the Catholic Church to convert America to Catholicism will be its efforts to win over the American Negro to the Catholic Church. Significant activities in this field were already taking place before and during

the Second World War, and increased with the end of hostilities. To quote only two: the work of the Inter-racial Review, as already mentioned, in the sphere of propaganda, and the activities of the Catholic Inter-racial Council in the field of practical endeavor.

In addition to all these activities, the Catholic Church, again through the formidable organization of the N.C.W.C., interests itself in social questions and the problem of labor.

The task of the N.C.W.C. is to drill the Catholic and non-Catholic population the social teachings of the Church in the controversial economic-social sphere, by endorsing all that the various Popes have said on the subject, based on the proclamations of Pope Leo XIII. Thus questions dealing with the family, just wages, private property, social security, labor organizations, and so on, are propagated as seen and taught by the Catholic Church. This teaching in the hard field of practical politics boils down to the advocacy of the Corporate State, as attempted by European Fascism, and hostility to Socialism and, above all, Communism.

The N.C.W.C. specializes in this important work through a "Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems," which organizes discussions on current social issues---conferences which have been rightly described as "travelling universities." From 1922 to 1945 more than a hundred of these conferences were held in the principal industrial cities, sponsored by churches, labor leaders, professors in economics, and the like.

The Catholic Church also began a drive to train its Hierarchy in social problems. To this end the American Hierarchy organized "Priests' Summer Schools of Social Action" and Congresses such as the National Catholic Congress on Social Action, held in Milwaukee in 1938 and in Cleveland the following year, the first being attended by 35 bishops, 750 priests, and thousands of laymen.

Such activity is aimed at two great goals; the penetration by Catholics of the economic-social field of America, and the gaining of influence amongst workers and capitalists alike in order to fight the menace of Socialism and Communism.

To achieve both these aims the Catholic Hierarchy again employs the N.C.W.C., whose first great organized and open attack against Communism was launched in 1937, when its Social Department made a detailed survey of Communism in the United States of America. It was followed by each diocese setting up a committee of

priests to follow the progress of Communism and to report their findings to the N.C.W.C. Catholics Schools, Catholics workers, professors, etc., had the task of passing on any news of Communist activities and were kept supplied with anti-Red pamphlets, books, and films, while the most brilliant priests were sent to the Catholic University of Washington to become experts in social science. The Catholic Press was flooded by anti-Communist advertisements and articles, while Catholic workers and students were continually warned not to co-operate with the Reds.

This campaign was not merely theoretical, but entered the sphere of Labor itself; and also, in 1937, a special organization to fight Communism was created with the blessing of Cardinal Hayes of New York, and the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists was set up to carry the war of Catholicism into the very unions. In addition to this Association there were many others bent on the same task, such as the Conservative Catholic Labor Alliance and the Pacifist Catholic Workers Group.

Another field in which the Catholic Church exerts a disproportionate influence is that of the screen.

In view of the immense importance that the screen has assured in modern society, it has been one of the primary goals of the Catholic Church, particularly of the American Catholic Church, to control, either directly or indirectly, an industry whose power to influence the masses it is generally agreed is unequalled.

Although at its inception the Church did not take much notice of this new industry, with the passing of time it grew increasingly interested, an interest which finally culminated in the Pope himself taking the unprecedented step of writing an Encyclical on the subject (Vigilante Cura, issued July 2nd, 1936, by Pope Pius XI). The Church, having realized the power of the film to influence the millions for bad or for good had determined to intervene, because as Pius XI put it, "the motion picture with its direct propaganda assumes a position of commanding influence." In his letter the Pope advised Catholics to see that the screen be inspired by Christian principles, to watch what was seen by the public, stating that it was their duty to have a say in the production of such a new medium and when possible to boycott films, individuals and organizations which did not conform to the tenets of the Church. Indeed, Pius XI went even further, declaring that it would be a good thing if the whole film

industry were inspired (read controlled) by the Catholic Church. "The problem of the production of moral films would be solved radically if it were possible for us to have the production wholly inspired by the principles of Christian (read Catholic) morality," Pius XI asserted.

Such directives came from the Vatican at a period when in the United States Catholic organizations were already hanging like invisible Damocles' swords over every Hollywood studio, and the most important of which, the Legion of Decency, was warmly praised by the Pope himself: "Because of your vigilance and because of the pressure which has been brought to bear by public opinion, the motion picture has shown improvement." (Vigilante Cura.)

Although previous to the issue of this Encyclical Catholic pressure on the film industry was considerable, after the Pope's injunction it became even stronger, until nowadays there is hardly an individual in the whole of the film world who before planning a new production does not first reckon with Catholic approval or displeasure.

How can a religious body like the Catholic Church exert such power over an industry which at first glance has not the slightest affinity with religion?

In the same way as it does in the case of the Press or other similar means of public information or entertainment which deal directly with the masses; that is mainly through public pressure.

As early as 1927 such pressure had already become so considerable that certain producers made it a point to submit scripts to the National Catholic Welfare Conference for approval of ideas and scenes.

This custom, although unpopular, spread with the growing of the main Catholic organization which more than any other had set out to censor the film industry from coast to coast, namely the Legion of Decency, which assumed that name in 1930. In that same year the Production Code was written and presented to the Association of Motion Picture Producers by the Rev. Daniel A. Lord, S.J. and Martin Quigley. The Code was meant to advise producers what to film and what not film, what would be approved by the Catholic Church and what the Catholic Church would boycott.

This Catholic incursion into the film industry received further impetus when three years later the Papal representative summoned American Catholics "to united and vigorous campaign for the purification

of the screen, which has become a deadly menace to morals." (Most Rev. G. Cicognani, in his capacity as a representative of the Pope. October 1, 1933.)

The heavy machinery of boycott and threats was put into action with more vigor than before. Millions throughout the States signed the Legion of Decency pledge: "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost...as a member of the Legion of Decency I pledge myself to remain away from them (films disapproved by the Church). I promise further to stay away altogether from places of amusement which show them as a matter of policy."

When, in addition to the rather stringent censorship through which every American film had to be subjected by the Legion, the Catholic Bishops followed the instructions of the Pope to the effect that besides the censorship of the Legion of Decency they should set up special reviewing boards in their own diocese so that "they may even censor films which are admitted to the general list (or the Legion of Decency approved list)," Hollywood became scared.

Will Hays announced that the Production Code (which until then had not been taken very seriously by the studios) would become a moral guide, and, later, took the unprecedented step of reporting to the Pope that he, Hays, thought as Pius XI did; indeed that "he found himself in accord with the Pope's views on the morals of modern movies."

Since the Second World War, Catholic pressure has increased a hundredfold. Film producers who are not careful can get into trouble through being ignorant of certain moral teachings of the Catholic Church; those concerning marriage, for instance, which caused Mgr. McClafferty, Executive Secretary of the Legion of Decency, to declare: "the light of the screen as a death ray of disintegration...is attacking the family...by pictures which treat marriage lightly, which solve marital troubles through divorce." (Detroit, September 1946.)

At the conference at which he said this, 700 women representatives of more than 500 Catholic High Schools, colleges and universities in 30 states attended, pledging themselves to combat films which do not conform to Catholic teachings.

There are occasions when the Legion of Decency openly condemns certain films before or during production, thus involving the film company and actors in serious financial losses. This occurred when

the Catholic Church through the American Legion of Decency, "condemned" the $4,000,000 film "Forever Amber."

Following this "condemned" rating by the Legion, numerous Bishops throughout the States denounced the film. As a result, "some who booked the film already are reported asking to be left out of their contracts," as Variety reported (December 1947). After earning more than $200,000 in the first fortnight of showing, "the film receipts have fallen off considerably, due to the Church ban."

20th Century Fox Company had to make an appeal to the United States of America Hierarchy, who insisted on certain specific conditions by which Catholic morals could be respected. The Company had to submit to changes willed by the Legion of Decency in order to lift the film out of the "condemned" list. Not only had the film company to appeal to the Catholic Tribunal to revise the film according to Catholic dicts, but the President of the Corporation, Mr. Spyros Skouras, had to apologize for earlier statements by Fox executives criticizing the Legion for condemning the picture.

Thus a great Film Corporation had to submit before a tribunal set up by the Catholic Church, sitting above the Courts of the United States of America, judging, condemning and dictating, not according to the laws of the country, but the tenets of a Church which, thanks to the power of its organizations, can impose its standards upon, and therefore indirectly influence, the non-Catholic population of the country.

The Fox case was not the only one. It was preceded and followed by several others no less remarkable. To quote a similar case: during this same period the Loew Company followed up the Hollywood sacking of the ten alleged Communist writers, directors and producers by banning Chaplin's most brilliant film, "Monsieur Verdoux," from its 225 cinemas in the United States after a protest by the Catholic War Veterans that Chaplin's "background is un-American" and that "he does not love the United States of America." Shortly before this, the Catholic Legion of Decency forced the temporary withholding of "The Black Narcissus," a British film, on the ground that it was a reflection on Catholic Nuns.

The Catholic Church, however, does not confine its activities to condemning the motion picture industry. It has been able to deepen its influence in Hollywood and elsewhere to such an extent that in the years following the Second World War, Protestant United States

of America saw, not without bewilderment, one Catholic film after another appear in quick succession on her screens.

In 1946 plans were laid in Hollywood for the production of 52 educational Catholic films a year for schools and parish halls, under the direction of Fr. Louis Gales. Since then various projects have taken shape in Hollywood and in influential American financial circles.

The Catholic Church has set out to capture the screens of the globe. Hence the tremendous efforts of the American Hierarchy to exert increasingly heavy pressure upon the motion pictures of America; the American motion picture industry is the paramount supplier of films to the 90,000 cinemas of the World (1949).

And when it is remembered that large organizations such as the Knights of Columbus with its 650,000 members, the Catholic War Veterans, who in 1946 began a nation-wide campaign to increase their membership to 4,000,000, the National Council of Catholic Men, Catholic Trade Unions, the National Council of Catholic Women wit more than 5,000,000 members, the Senior Catholic Daughters of America, Catholic students, and so on are all working in unison at the bidding of the American Hierarchy, it is not difficult to guess how a religious body like the Catholic Church, although still a minority, can already exert a disproportionate influence upon motion pictures, one of the greatest industries of Protestant America.

In addition to the film industry, the Catholic Church has also made great strides in the direct and indirect influencing of other instruments of public entertainment, education and information, such as the stage, the advertising business, etc.

The increasing power of the Catholic Church in practically every department of life has made it a very adventurous task for anyone to disregard discretion or prudence in the publishing world. One could quote innumerable cases when national dailies have had to water down and very often to leave out altogether some items of news simply to avoid arousing the wrath of the Catholic Hierarchy.

Pressure on the press is exerted more often than is believed through the boycotting of advertisements, as in the well known case of David Smart when "the Catholic Hierarchy scared the shirt off his back with a boycott of his whisky advertisers in Ken and Esquire" before the Second World War. (George Seldes, The Catholic Crisis.) With the passing of the years, such instances have occurred with alarming frequency.

The same methods are employed with publishers of books, most of whom, before even considering a manuscript, try to guess in what light it will be judged by the Catholic Church, which besides "paralyzing" and killing a book can indirectly hit back at the publishers; by withdrawing or refusing acceptance of advertisements; by publicly condemning certain types of literature; by promoting wars on "bad books," like the one initiated in 1942 by the publication of a radio talk given by Cardinal Spellman, and later on led by the New York Journal American and supported by leaders and societies of all faiths; and by hundreds of such sundry devices often involving anyone thus boycotted in serious financial losses.

These activities, although perhaps not as spectacular as those connected with the screen, yet are bound to have profound repercussions on the life of the average citizen of the United States of America, particularly when in addition to such negative Catholic pressure one remembers the ramifications of the Catholic, or Catholic sympathizing, press and the vast machinery of the N.C.W.C.

Catholicism in the United States of America also owes its progress to another factor, which, although not so well known, is greatly responsible for Catholic influence---namely, the fact that the majority of the Catholic population live in urban centres. It should be remembered that it is chiefly through the urban population that religious, cultural, social, and political changes are effected, and that it is the urban masses who exert decisive influence on issues of national importance.

The Catholics' numerical strength and the fact of their living mainly in urban centres have made them a force of considerable account, with which every politician, from the town attorney to the Presidential Candidate, must reckon.

The great strength of Catholicism in the United States of America

and the progress it has made there in the twentieth century, as compared with that of the other 256 recognized religious denominations which have tried to convert America is united into one solid bloc, and that all its forces are directed to the one goal---namely, to make America a Catholic country.

This unity and definite purpose has, first, made the Catholic Church the largest of all religious bodies in America; in 1945 Catholicism stood foremost in the number of its church members in thirty-eight out of fifty largest American towns. Secondly, this unity has given birth to a peculiar brand of Catholicism known as "American Catholicism," which was first snubbed by the Vatican then tolerated, and finally encouraged in the form in which it stands to-day.

The man who gave organized impetus to the unification of American Catholics was Father Hecker, who in the last century maintained that in order to make progress in the United States of America the Catholic Church must make itself American. Father Hecker fought against the tendency of that period among Catholic immigrants to create their own churches with their own national bishops speaking their own languages, thus forming innumerable Catholic bodies within the Catholic Church of America.

As an illustration of what that meant, as lately as 1929, in the City of Chicago alone, there existed 124 English Catholic churches, 38 Polish, 35 German, 12 Italian, 10 Slovakian, 8 Bohemian, 9 Lithuanian, 5 French, 4 Croatian, and 8 of other nationalities, making a total of 253.

Had this tendency been allowed to grow, Catholicism, in spite of its religious unity, would have split its effort, and consequently, like the Protestant denominations, would have remained a comparatively obscure body in the United States of America. But the spiritual and administrative unification of Catholicism and the effort of making the Catholic Church "American" produced another factor of great importance: it gave birth to a new brand of Catholicism peculiar to the United States of America. This was noticed as early as 1870, when Europeans began to state that "Catholicism in the United States has about it an American air" (M. Houtin).

At the beginning of the twentieth century the characteristics of American Catholicism were already well marked. The most important

of these were the American tendency to give "the active virtues in Christianity predominance over the passive"; and secondly, to show a preference for "individual inspiration to the eternal magisterium of the Church to concede everything to non-Catholics, while passing over certain truths in silence if necessary as a measure of prudence" (Premoli, 1889). This tendency was very important, for it greatly influenced the attitude of American Catholics toward the teachings of the Catholic Church in social and above all, political problems.

These, in fact, instead of being the intractable and insoluble problems which they were in Europe, were treated with a liberality and breadth of mind which no Catholic would have dared to dream of in Europe. This allowed American Catholics to co-operate with the Protestants and to live without invoking, in the religious, social, and political fields, that extremism which was the source of much bitterness elsewhere.

American Catholicism came to the foreground of the political life of the country on a grand scale during the election for the Presidency in 1928, when Governor Smith, the Catholic candidate, issued his "credo," which became that of approximately 95 per cent of American Catholics. In answer to factions whose slogans was, "We do not want the Pope in the White House," and especially in answer to those honest Americans who began to ask themselves whether, after all, anyone could be at the same time both a loyal American and a devout Catholic, Alfred E. Smith, after having stated that American Catholics, for whom at the moment he spoke, accepted the separation of Church and State, made this pronouncement:

I summarize my creed as an American Catholic. I believe in the worship of God according to the faith and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. I recognize no power in the institutions of my Church to interfere with the operation of the Constitution of the United States or the enforcement of the Law of the land. I believe in absolute freedom of conscience for all men and equality of all Churches...in the absolute separation of Church and State..."

This was something new in the history of Catholicism in that the great bulk of American Catholics, as already indicated, as well as a good portion of the Hierarchy, openly supported Smith. Yet their Church clearly teaches that "the State ought not to be separated from the Church," and that no Catholic can really believe in equality of religions for the simple reason that Catholicism is the only true

religion. All others, it is claimed, are false and therefore ought not to be treated on a par with the Catholic Church, and all Catholics must follow the teachings of the Pope. This means they cannot support true democracy, complete freedom of the Press, and similar doctrines.

This American attitude had shaken the Vatican for several decades. When finally it was enunciated, and, what is more, supported by the American Church, the conservative Vatican, although jolted, nevertheless deemed it a wise policy not to restrain this new Catholicism too openly. Some degree of recognition was allowed to this unheard of freedom, this independence of thought. But that American Catholicism should indicate what the Church ought to teach instead of accepting what the Church actually teaches was considered a very dangerous tendency.

What made the Vatican slacken its doctrinal rigidity as it would never dream of doing for any European nation? Its plan to make of the United States of America a direct and indirect instrument to be employed to further Catholicism within and outside that country. The Vatican became aware that to impose its rigid principles too dogmatically on the American Church would contrast too much with the Liberalism, independence, and general concept of life in America. To so do would alienate not only non-Catholics, but also many American Catholics. It was therefore decided to allow the authority and doctrines of the Catholic Church to be submitted to a process of transformation which would modify the conservative European Catholicism into a Liberal and progressive American Catholicism.

By permitting the American Hierarchy to organize itself and be to a great extent independent of Rome in matters of administering and propagating Catholicism, and by allowing Catholics to treat their opponents with that freedom which is the basis of the American way of life, the Vatican rightly thought that it would make it easier for the American Faithful to execute their task of furthering Catholic principles, ethics, and influence.

So far the Vatican has proved right and has succeeded in the its first important steps. How far it will allow American Catholics to alienate itself from the traditional Catholicism of Europe it is difficult to say. A great deal will depend on the progress made in the United States of America, on the social and political trend of the world, and, above all, on the gravity of the earthquakes which will continue to shake Europe more than other countries in the years to come.