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1821 lines
95 KiB
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28 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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This file, its printout, or copies of either
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are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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**** ****
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Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
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THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL No. 19
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DOES FAR MORE HARM THAN GOOD
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by Joseph McCabe
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HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
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GIRARD -- : -- KANSAS
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**** ****
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CHAPTER
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I Progress in Catholic and Non-Catholic Countries ..... 1
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II The Black International always in the Rear .......... 8
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III The Wicked World Educates the Church ............... 14
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IV The Contrast of Russia and Priest-Ruled Countries .. 19
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V The Monstrous Attempt to Restore the Middle Ages ... 25
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**** ****
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Chapter I
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PROGRESS IN CATHOLIC AND NON-CATHOLIC COUNTRIES
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Throughout these ten booklets, in which I have shown that the
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Church of Rome is the natural ally of the German, Japanese, and
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Italians, I have asked the reader to see it as primarily a vast
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economic corporation, the Black International, fighting for
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survival, in an age in which educated people despise its doctrines
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and all informed people loathe its methods. Whether any, or how
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many, of this monstrous regiment of cardinals and bishops, priests
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and monks, sincerely believe the medieval sophistication of ancient
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Greek and oriental superstitions which they profess is here
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entirely irrelevant. We are studying the Church as an institution
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because we are trying to understand its action throughout the
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world.
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It admits that it seeks wealth and power but insists that this
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is only in order that it may more effectively promote what it calls
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the spiritual and eternal interests of men. With that pretext also
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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we are not concerned. The apologist will hardly expect us to admit
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that it entered into an alliance with (in this order) Italy, Japan,
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and Germany because it believed they would help it to look after
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the soul's of men. Such a plea would raise a broad grin from
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Cologne to Tokyo. Those nations sought wealth and power; so did the
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Bleak International. They meant to secure and protect this wealth
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and power by a regime of bloody tyranny; and the Black
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International, which has for 800 years relied upon that method,
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needed it more urgently than ever. The bandits wanted the
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international influence of the Vatican to help to dupe the world
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about their designs; and they promised it a very large share of the
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spoils of victory by annihilating its critic's and recovering its
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lost provinces for it.
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After what we have seen that is as obvious as the Empire State
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Building. Men of the Munich mentality as regards the Church of Rome
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petulantly exclaim that it is a monstrous charge. Yes: and the war
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and the Pope's share in it, the debasement of France by priest-
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ridden traitors, and the horrors of the Spanish and Portuguese hell
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are a monstrous reality. If these narrow-minded folk who think
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themselves so superior to prejudice were to look facts in the face
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they Would see that we accuse the Church of doing only what it has
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done over and over again since the Albiginsian Massacre and the
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founding of the Inquisition 700 years ago. They would find that the
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Roman Black International is not the only spiritual army that has
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prostituted itself for gold in our time.
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In 1937 there was a Parliament of Religions at Calcutta. The
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report of the proceedings in two fat volumes makes a materialist
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like myself blush. Representatives of all the world's religions and
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sects joined enthusiastically in the good work, and the speeches
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glitter like Woolworth jewelry with nice phrases about the
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spiritual and the Ideal, the sins of men and the wickedness of the
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world, the lofty morality by which these folk are going to save the
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race. As you will remember, the Japs had by this time completely
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enslaved and debauched Manchuria and the north of China and they
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were openly gathering for their next orgy of brutality. And not a
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single one of these Asiatic word-spinners of the hundred beautiful
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religions said one single word about it. One foreigner, a British
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professor, ventured to say ten very mild words about it.
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If you want to know why, though of course nobody did at the
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time, it was not simply because people who live on these shining
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heights find it difficult to see the common earth. It was mainly
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because the Black International or Japanese Buddhism was doing in
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Asia just what the Roman priests were doing in Europe and America.
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We must not offend our Buddhist fellow-citizens.
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Some of my readers will remember that in 1937, while these
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spiritual folk were having their jamboree in Calcutta and the
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world-press was following their beneficent work with admiration. I
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published, through Haldeman-Julius, a booklet with the title
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Imperialistic Japan and its Aims. I described how by that time the.
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criminal plot of the Japs was so far from being secret that scores
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of patriotic societies, some with millions of member's, publicly
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boasted of it and gloated over realistic pictures and panoramas
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exhibited in the stores of the cities, of the destruction of the
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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American fleet. I gave the evidence that the Buddhist priests and
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monks, 150,000 strong, had been bought by the government and the
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capitalists and were conducting an intensive campaign all over
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South Asia to create a Fifth Column for the "Japanese Liberator's."
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They had been bought in cash, just as the Vatican had been bought
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by Mussolini, and, like the Vatican, they looked for even greater
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profit when the job was done.
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They earned their pay. Not only did they work up the Japanese
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people to a fanatical enthusiasm for the plan of making themselves
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rich by exploiting a third of the world but they created nests of
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traitors from French Indo-China to the Persian Gulf. There were
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10.000 Buddhist quislings in Rangoon alone and there were others in
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key-positions all over Burma. Ceylon teems with them. For ten years
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the work has proceeded under a very thin disguise of Buddhist
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concern for the spiritual interests of men. Yet in a Parliament of
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Religions held at Chicago in 1939 America had been emphatically
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warned that these Buddhist priests had already grown fat on
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imperialist gold.
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While disreputable atheists and materialists like Haldeman-
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Julius and McCabe, who told the world the truth, were very properly
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ignored by all respectable folk these spiritual gasbags, who
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blinded it to the realities of life, where loaded with laurels and
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dollars. It is nice, and so profitable, to be profound and
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spiritual!
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However. Immense as is the work which I bring to a close with
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this booklet I have no space to enlarge, upon even so important a
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side-issue as the corruption of Buddhism (which was quite willing
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in every age to entertain a business proposition) by the fine
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imperialist's of Japan. It is enough that "our two great religions"
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have made a mockery of every compliment, that every long-haired
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idealist in America had lavished upon them. They have prostituted
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themselves to the Butchers Union, while atheistic Russia, upon
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which most of these idealists have poured abuse for the last twenty
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years, has won a splendid tribute from a disillusioned world. But
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I have still an important point to make in regard to the Church of
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Rome to complete the explanation of its behavior.
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In his recent work, 'You Can't Be Too Careful,' H. G. Wells
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says: "The most evil thing in the world today is the Roman Catholic
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Church." It is also one of the most respected things in the world
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today, especially in America. But there is no mystery about the
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respect, the power, even the adulation which it enjoys. It commands
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about 10,000,000 votes, nicely bunched together for the most part
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in certain states and at the disposal of the priests. It has
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$4,000,000,000 invested, an income of about $1,000,000,000 and an
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army of about quarter of a million paid agents of one kind or
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other. It has a very large press and radio-service. It has about
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5,000,000 auxiliary troops, open fanatics and secret intriguers,
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sworn to promote "the welfare of the Church." It has immense
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opportunities of rewarding loyalty, from a Papal Knighthood to a
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job as janitor. It has a control of editors, politicians, writers,
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libraries, cinemas, radio programs, owners of halls and theaters,
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professors, booksellers, even the police, the public school's,
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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parole-boards, the mails, etc. It has . . . But maybe that will do.
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What we had better ask is what excuse is made for themselves by the
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politicians, professors, and others who chant the praises of "the
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venerable Church."
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You know it. They reply that the Church does good -- oh, an
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enormous amount of good: so much, in fact, that it is one of the
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foundations of the state. In a recent book (Mission to Moscow),
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which the pious Mr. Gollancz spreads in England, Ambassador Davies,
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discussing the vices and virtues of Russia, says that with all its
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faults it must not be classed with Germany and Italy, as a
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totalitarian state. Phew! Are there still folk who talk like that?
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However, what Mr. Davies mean's is that the Russian state is, and
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the Nazi state is not, "based upon the altruistic principles of the
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Christian religion." If that is true of Russia -- if you will
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pardon the supposition -- how far more true it must be of the
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American civilization with its 100,000 parsons and its more
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brilliant exhibition of those principles. And of the Churches which
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render this inestimable service the Church of Rome is immeasurably
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the greatest: the Church that regards all the others with
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contemptuous tolerance and pronounces them rebellious and
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ineffective offshoots of the age-old Church on which the sun never
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sets.
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In western stories, of which I am fond, I often read in
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descriptions of cow-town of the "false front" of the bank. the
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saloon, and the store. The phrase fits the Roman Church In America,
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for it is, to Americans, the false front of the international Papal
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Church. That is why so many Americans hesitate in face of the most
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conclusive evidence to admit the charge we bring against the Black
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International. Why, they say, this is the Church that first raised
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the banner of religious freedom on American soil: the Church that
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gave even Europe the idea of democracies: the Church that
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periodically provides the whole world, in Papal encyclicals, with
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a guidance on problems of the hour which the press reproduces in
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letters of gold: the Church that gathers 350,000,000 happy and
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virtuous folk, without distinction of class, color, or odor, under
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its White mantle: the Church that promotes culture and exerts an
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inflexible moral rule over the nations.
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That is the false front. In these 20 booklets I have taken you
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behind it and shown you the real Church of Rome. Its apologists lie
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outrageously about it. They lie about its political and ethical
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principles, its history and its law, its numbers and its quality,
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its plots and its open action. They dare not allow the press today
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to let the world know the truth about the social condition and the
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action of the Church in a score of countries from Bolivia to Japan.
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I have proved all this.
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In my long literary career I have written books in strange
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conditions -- in the smoking rooms and Marconi cabins of liners, in
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crowded apartments-houses or on the sunny beach, in the bed-rooms
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of hotels of all grades -- but I never before wrote, as I have
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written these 300,000 words, on a battlefield. The National
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Library, in which I delve for material, is charred and battered and
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almost deserted and the books for which I call come to me sometimes
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disfigured by fire or water or fail, and evermore fail, to come...
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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4
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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But you can guess all that. I say that in spite of all this these
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twenty booklets are from beginning to end just statements of fact,
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on incontestable evidence, and they prove that the Catholic Church
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is, if not "the most evil thing in the world," certainly the most
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treacherous and mendacious.
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It may seem that I have reserved to the last the question
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which will seem to many the most important: the question what the
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Church is worth to the world on a balance of services and
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disservices. But I have been replying to that question all through.
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Many folk say that they do not care what the Church did in the 4th
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Century, or the 13th or the 16th; and there is so much blood and
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dirt on the pages of medieval history that Catholics often
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encourage that feeling, or they would at least like you to believe
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that the services they claim -- usually by a gross perversion of
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history -- to have rendered were due to a noble spirit which is
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ever fresh in the Church, while those immense splotches of blood,
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those vast areas of servile squalor, and those equally vast areas
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of priestly and monastic corruption were just temporary and local
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foulings of the garments of the Church in the mud of a wicked
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world. If you fancy that that childish stuff is really not written
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today dip into any Catholic book that deals with these matters.
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We might leave the past of the Church in its smelly historical
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tomb if Catholic apologists would let us, but they will not. They
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lie heroically about its history, and it is vital to an
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understanding of the Black International that we should know that
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its writer's lie habitually. In this connection their lies take the
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shape of claiming that the Church rendered massive services to
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civilization, and it is largely on the ground of these fictitious
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services that they demand consideration today.
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Moreover, the Church boasts, and on the whole justly, that it
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never changes. It is a strange boast in a world that decidedly
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grows in wisdom and sheds innumerable errors as it advances, but it
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does at all events justify us in judging what the Church does today
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by what it did in the Middle Ages, when it was perfectly free to
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carry out its principles. When modern Popes are stung into
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indiscretion they use just the same language as medieval Popes did,
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as we found Plus XI doing in his open letter to Cardinal Gasparri
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in 1929. The Canon Law, which is kept in a dead language so that
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priests alone can read it, makes the same monstrous claim of a
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power over life and death as the medieval Popes made. The
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bestiality which the Pope encourages in Spain and Portugal today is
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the same as Popes encouraged a century ago in the whole of Southern
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Europe and in all Europe during the Middle Ages.
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No, it is folly to ask us to let dead Popes bury their dead.
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This work, however, is concerned with the Church today, and there
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is so much to be said about it that I have to avoid history or
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confine my short excursions into it within the strict needs of my
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present task. So to the question whether the Church has done good
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in the past and the race is indebted to it I just say bluntly that
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practically every claim it makes is fictitious, as I have
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exhaustively shown in earlier works, and on balance we must say
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that it has retarded the advance of European civilization by many
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centuries.
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Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
5
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I must say a little more than this in regard to what I call
|
|||
|
|
the modern period. I believe that when scholarship and literature
|
|||
|
|
are again free, when the disgraceful power over them of the Black
|
|||
|
|
International is broken, historians will date the beginning of the
|
|||
|
|
modern age from the outbreak of the French Revolution, The broad
|
|||
|
|
ideal of a just life was then clearly formulated. The revolutionary
|
|||
|
|
armies carried it, with their symbolic tricolor, as far as the
|
|||
|
|
southernmost tips of Italy, Spain, and Portugal and Napoleon's,
|
|||
|
|
armies bore the ensign of at least a liberal civilization to the
|
|||
|
|
bounds of Europe. Naples and Madrid were for a time more advanced
|
|||
|
|
than London. Latin America throbbed with a new passion.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
From that age to ours the outstanding event of history has
|
|||
|
|
been the long-drawn battle for those ideals, and Rome has
|
|||
|
|
throughout been on the side of our enemies. Ever since the bloody
|
|||
|
|
shambles it countenanced, if it did not inspire, in Naples in 1794
|
|||
|
|
the Black International has allied itself with every power, however
|
|||
|
|
corrupt and brutal it was, that took the field against those who
|
|||
|
|
were fighting for the elementary rights of man, for freedom and
|
|||
|
|
democracy. What has happened in the last ten years is simply that
|
|||
|
|
the Vatican, which had been compelled for half a century to profess
|
|||
|
|
in democratic countries that it was reconciled with the new age --
|
|||
|
|
in America alone the Black International has the effrontery to
|
|||
|
|
claim that the Church is the actual source of modern ideals --
|
|||
|
|
became convinced that it had found more powerful allies than ever
|
|||
|
|
in the fight against liberalism, and the war which began in 1798
|
|||
|
|
and in one country or other (especially Spain) has been almost
|
|||
|
|
continuously maintained, has entered upon a new and terrible phase.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is the key-idea that you must keep clearly in mind if you
|
|||
|
|
want to understand the relation of the Roman Church to the world-
|
|||
|
|
war. It is an idea of crucial importance in estimating the world-
|
|||
|
|
situation but no journalistic oracle in the United States dare say
|
|||
|
|
it, while what we may call the literary and ethical oracles who,
|
|||
|
|
discuss the more profound aspects of the situation will put forward
|
|||
|
|
any fantastic theory, from the growth of materialism to the
|
|||
|
|
diversion of the Gulf Stream, rather than risk offending Catholics
|
|||
|
|
and injuring their own prestige and circulation, by telling the
|
|||
|
|
plain truth. That this is the plain truth I have shown, as regard's
|
|||
|
|
the last ten years, in these 20 books and for the earlier phase in
|
|||
|
|
larger works, The True Story of the Roman Catholic Church and The
|
|||
|
|
A peal to Reason Library.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A third work would be of very considerable use to the modern
|
|||
|
|
reader, especially in America, where, apart from the one or two
|
|||
|
|
brushes with Britain, the historical development has encouraged a
|
|||
|
|
real cultural isolation from Europe as fir as our present theme is
|
|||
|
|
concerned. An American writer who visited me some years ago
|
|||
|
|
confirmed me in my suspicion that there is no good and adequate
|
|||
|
|
work available on the mighty struggle in Europe in the 19th Century
|
|||
|
|
against the clerical-royalist-capitalist attempts to kill what
|
|||
|
|
survived of the best ideals of the French Revolution. For that
|
|||
|
|
matter there is today no work published in England, for it would
|
|||
|
|
have to tell the ghastly truth about the Church, and in both
|
|||
|
|
countries the Black International uses its new power, not merely to
|
|||
|
|
exclude the truth from literature and education but to see that
|
|||
|
|
false versions of the story of man from 1789 onward are imposed
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
6
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
everywhere. In the absence of such a work I can but reiterate that
|
|||
|
|
from 1794 (in France and Italy) until its present alliance with
|
|||
|
|
Fascism (in Spain and Poland, for instance) the Church has allied
|
|||
|
|
itself with brutal oppressors and enemies of freedom, as I have
|
|||
|
|
abundantly proved in earlier works, and sum up the evidence given
|
|||
|
|
in this series of booklets in regard to the last ten years.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is useful to take a broad view before we look at the
|
|||
|
|
situation more closely. The alleged service of the Roman Church in
|
|||
|
|
promoting civilization can be very soundly tested from this broad
|
|||
|
|
viewpoint. Just glance at the leading countries of the world and
|
|||
|
|
note in each case what we -- the great majority of men and women in
|
|||
|
|
the best-educated countries -- would assign as the grade of its
|
|||
|
|
civilization and what proportion of the people the Roman Church
|
|||
|
|
claims to control; and to allow for the present appalling confusion
|
|||
|
|
or violent distortion of conditions we will survey the world as it
|
|||
|
|
was in 1939 and regard only countries where the Roman Church is
|
|||
|
|
substantially represented.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Granting that total wealth or size is not of itself a
|
|||
|
|
criterion of civilization there would be general agreement to name
|
|||
|
|
these ten countries as having attained the highest rank: the United
|
|||
|
|
States, Great Britain, Russia, France, Switzerland, Holland,
|
|||
|
|
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Argentina. In none of these countries
|
|||
|
|
does the Roman Church command the allegiance, of more than one-
|
|||
|
|
sixth of the population except Holland. where its members and
|
|||
|
|
political representatives are one-third of the whole -- still not
|
|||
|
|
enough to have Influence on the general character -- and Argentina,
|
|||
|
|
where, however, the constructive class is (or was until 1935)
|
|||
|
|
mainly skeptical (and probably still is). Argentina is, in any
|
|||
|
|
case, the one, power whose place in this list would be disputed.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There would be general agreement to put these countries at the
|
|||
|
|
lower end of the scale; Poland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Eire,
|
|||
|
|
Brazil, and most of the smaller South American Republics. In these
|
|||
|
|
the Church claims the great majority of the people and certainly as
|
|||
|
|
regards the constructive forces they are Catholic countries. They
|
|||
|
|
are all Fascist, as none of the above ten are, but, for the moment
|
|||
|
|
I am looking at what by general agreement would be called their
|
|||
|
|
grade of civilization. The place of Hungary might be disputed, but
|
|||
|
|
it is only little more than half Catholic and its dictator is not
|
|||
|
|
a Catholic. Czecho-Slovakia as a whole was in the highest class,
|
|||
|
|
but events have shown that the progressive qualities were in non-
|
|||
|
|
Catholic Bohemia, and that Catholic Slovakia is at the level of
|
|||
|
|
Poland. I have omitted Mexico, which on the ground of recent
|
|||
|
|
accomplishment (reduction of crime and illiteracy, social
|
|||
|
|
legislation, etc.) I should be disposed to put in the first class,
|
|||
|
|
because its place would be warmly disputed. But one thing is not
|
|||
|
|
open to dispute: whatever progress has been made in the last 20
|
|||
|
|
years was due to an anti-Catholic body of statesmen and supporters.
|
|||
|
|
Germany must be left out of account unless we go back to pre-Nazi
|
|||
|
|
days, but even then Catholic's were a one-fourth minority and they
|
|||
|
|
are In large part responsible for the triumph of Nazism and ruin of
|
|||
|
|
the country. In Belgium the forces are about equal, and the grade
|
|||
|
|
of civilization corresponds.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
7
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
You will see the full significance of this if you recall that,
|
|||
|
|
as I said, all these countries entered upon the great race, as we
|
|||
|
|
may call it, of the last 150 year's with much the same equipment of
|
|||
|
|
ideals. The Revolutionary and the Napoleonic armies, beating a path
|
|||
|
|
for French literature, made those ideals familiar from Portugal to
|
|||
|
|
Sweden, and Latin America was awakened from one end to the other by
|
|||
|
|
the echoes of the struggle. Even Ireland had quite a notable body
|
|||
|
|
of Deists and humanitarians (Robert Emmet, Wolfe Tone, and many
|
|||
|
|
others) amongst its educated men in the last years of the 18th
|
|||
|
|
Century. It has none today or not one who dare open his lips, and
|
|||
|
|
the country remains, with all its political and religious pride,
|
|||
|
|
poor, squalid, ignorant, and of inferior general character. in
|
|||
|
|
other words, every country in which the influence of the Papacy was
|
|||
|
|
paramount failed to advance in the path that was indicated by those
|
|||
|
|
new ideals of civilization which we all regard as sound. But the
|
|||
|
|
countries in which Rome had no such influence or where, as in
|
|||
|
|
France, it lost its power, joined the predominantly Protestant
|
|||
|
|
countries in advancing to the higher rank. That is the first reply,
|
|||
|
|
and it is perfectly sound from the sociologleal angle, to the claim
|
|||
|
|
that the Roman Church promotes civilization.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Chapter 11
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL ALWAYS IN THE REAR
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In this general survey I have repeatedly referred to the
|
|||
|
|
ideals of freedom and democracy. For most of us these are partial
|
|||
|
|
expressions of the modern spirit, the demand for justice, which, in
|
|||
|
|
alliance with the advance of science, has lifted the ten countries
|
|||
|
|
I named to the highest rank. The attempt of Catholic writers in
|
|||
|
|
various countries to represent them as mere political claims, or
|
|||
|
|
even as a liberalism, that the world has tried and found wanting,
|
|||
|
|
are mere excuses to cover the Vatican's alliance with Fascism or
|
|||
|
|
the Fascist Encyclical of the Pope Quadragesimo Anno. It must be
|
|||
|
|
understood, however, that I have not assigned these 20 nations
|
|||
|
|
their place in the scale of civilization on that test. If one
|
|||
|
|
proposed to do this it would be simple and accurate to say that all
|
|||
|
|
Catholic countries are now Fascist and all democratic countries are
|
|||
|
|
non-Catholic. But it is more convincing if we apply a broader test
|
|||
|
|
of civilization.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Catholic apologist would define the service of his Church
|
|||
|
|
by saying (first and chiefly) that it defends the family, that it
|
|||
|
|
trains all people whom it can influence in general moral character,
|
|||
|
|
that it preaches and insists upon justice, individual and social,
|
|||
|
|
and that it is zealous for education and philanthropy. And since,
|
|||
|
|
he would say, the family is, according to very many if not most
|
|||
|
|
sociologists, the foundation of the state, the particular zeal and
|
|||
|
|
rigorous measures of his Church, which distinguish it in an age of
|
|||
|
|
growing laxity, must especially recommend it to the statesman and
|
|||
|
|
the social student.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Piffle, as usual. The Roman Church has three distinctive
|
|||
|
|
features in its teaching about the family. First, it insist that
|
|||
|
|
its priests, monks, and nuns shall not marry and shall not have any
|
|||
|
|
recognizable families; and since the implication of this is that
|
|||
|
|
sexual commerce has some sort of taint even where it is licensed
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
8
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
one does not see how we can speak here of the Church guarding this
|
|||
|
|
particular foundation of the state. Secondly, it alone amongst the
|
|||
|
|
Churches -- in fact, it shares this distinction only with a few
|
|||
|
|
groups of the lowest savages on earth -- forbids divorce; and since
|
|||
|
|
this harsh restriction of human rights has either, as in Catholic
|
|||
|
|
countries, to be alleviated by the general use of mistresses or
|
|||
|
|
brothels, or it amounts to a positive deterrent from marriage, we
|
|||
|
|
again fail to perceive any service, and no statesman of any of the
|
|||
|
|
leading civilizations has any respect for the Church's teaching on
|
|||
|
|
this point. The law of divorce which now exists in every
|
|||
|
|
civilization except those of lower grade that are subject to the
|
|||
|
|
Pope is based upon the collective recognition of social experience
|
|||
|
|
and upon a mature adjustment of the rights of the individual and
|
|||
|
|
the needs of the state. The Catholic opposition to it professes to
|
|||
|
|
be based upon some words of an ancient Jewish prophet of which we
|
|||
|
|
have two contradictory versions in the records and which other
|
|||
|
|
Christian Churches, of equal scholarship and greater sincerity,
|
|||
|
|
find compatible with divorce. It is in any case really based, as I
|
|||
|
|
showed, on the fierce determination of the Popes of the early
|
|||
|
|
Middle Age's to get complete control of life. On such frivolous and
|
|||
|
|
anti-social grounds does this particularly strident claim of the
|
|||
|
|
Church to render human service rest; and our contempt deepens when
|
|||
|
|
we find the Church playing fast and loose with its "indissoluble
|
|||
|
|
marriage" when its own interest or profit is involved, as I showed
|
|||
|
|
in my analysis of the clauses of the Canon Law and the practice of
|
|||
|
|
the Papal Courts.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Thirdly, the Black International boasts that it renders a
|
|||
|
|
unique service to the state because it is the only Church or
|
|||
|
|
institution that condemns, and very fiercely condemns birth
|
|||
|
|
control. The Black International is as usual, out of date. For the
|
|||
|
|
last ten years it has shared that distinction with the criminal
|
|||
|
|
leaders of the Italian, Japanese, and German people. They wanted
|
|||
|
|
soldiers and the excuse of over-population to cover their
|
|||
|
|
imperialist greed. The Black International wanted more contributors
|
|||
|
|
to its treasury and, as priests have admitted, to beat rival
|
|||
|
|
Churches by outbreeding them. The clerical opposition to birth
|
|||
|
|
control is, in fact, such an obvious piece of priestcraft and has
|
|||
|
|
so little foundation even in their own weird and wonderful theology
|
|||
|
|
that they confess (as I quoted), the Catholic laity in America are
|
|||
|
|
to an alarming extent ignoring their sulphuric orders and
|
|||
|
|
restricting their families: which makes their "social" argument
|
|||
|
|
look rather anaemic.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The apologists have recently been encouraged by the appearance
|
|||
|
|
of a new school of opponents of birth control whose leaders and
|
|||
|
|
statements are not religious. These professors and their learned
|
|||
|
|
lady friends recognize that the old opposition was based upon a
|
|||
|
|
demand for as many soldiers as possible and that the industrial and
|
|||
|
|
professional markets are, in normal times and in capitalist
|
|||
|
|
countries, already overcrowded. They say that the really sound
|
|||
|
|
scientific plea is that the birth rate is so far falling out of
|
|||
|
|
balance with the death rate that there will soon be a debilitating
|
|||
|
|
preponderance of old folk over young. They do not take into account
|
|||
|
|
the fact that science and common sense are steadily raising what we
|
|||
|
|
may call the vitality-period of men and women. I could write
|
|||
|
|
caustic pages on my own recent experience in being rejected (as one
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
9
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
in senile decay) from all departments of the British national
|
|||
|
|
effort by men whose laziness, short hours, and easygoing methods
|
|||
|
|
are notorious, But I have space only for one point. France has
|
|||
|
|
practiced birth control for more than half a century almost as much
|
|||
|
|
as America or Britain does today. But it was not old men who let
|
|||
|
|
France down. It was a few Catholic old men, who were pushed into
|
|||
|
|
office by these priests who are so concerned about the vitality of
|
|||
|
|
civilization, Catholic adventurers like Laval and Bonnet, and
|
|||
|
|
younger statesmen who were seduced by Catholic mistresses.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In short, all this rhetoric about Catholic marriage and the
|
|||
|
|
social welfare is hypocritical claptrap, and every statesman and
|
|||
|
|
social student knows it. Every state finds in time its equilibrium
|
|||
|
|
on grounds of experience in sex-matters. Sex-laws and restrictions
|
|||
|
|
that are based upon ancient philosophic's or religions, ultimately
|
|||
|
|
upon more ancient taboos and superstitions, merely distract
|
|||
|
|
attention and hamper the social activity. Apologists for them have
|
|||
|
|
to repeat outdated and thoroughly exposed statements about the ruin
|
|||
|
|
of older civilizations by vice. Five year's ago most folk would
|
|||
|
|
have said that the two most vigorous nations were the German and
|
|||
|
|
the American, and both enjoyed an advanced degree of sexual
|
|||
|
|
freedom. Today we should say that Russia and America are the most
|
|||
|
|
vigorous nations. But according to the priests the American people
|
|||
|
|
are only restrained from a monstrous parade of sex, in their books,
|
|||
|
|
pictures, and theaters, by the severe paternal cheek of the clergy,
|
|||
|
|
while Russia has always had a liberal divorce law and for quarter
|
|||
|
|
of a century has denied that marriage is a sacrament and birth
|
|||
|
|
control a sin.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
For reasons -- reasons of self-interest -- which I discussed
|
|||
|
|
in an earlier book Catholic apologists have always put this sex and
|
|||
|
|
marriage-business in the forefront of their statement of claims. It
|
|||
|
|
more or less excises the absurd official virginity of their
|
|||
|
|
priests, monks and nuns: It evokes a golden echo in the hearts of
|
|||
|
|
rich widows and spinsters: and it really does mark a distinction
|
|||
|
|
between the Church and "the world." In theory, that is to say. And
|
|||
|
|
not only is the theory itself an antiquated ethic rehabilitated for
|
|||
|
|
priestly purposes, so that those who profess to lead civilization
|
|||
|
|
are far in the rear of modern thought, but in practice Catholics
|
|||
|
|
are no more "moral" than other folk. I leave it to my readers'
|
|||
|
|
knowledge of American life what the situation is in America, saying
|
|||
|
|
only that I have a very extensive familiarity with the best
|
|||
|
|
American fiction of a realist character and that I have made
|
|||
|
|
extensive inquiries during the two years (at intervals) I have
|
|||
|
|
spent in America. But for "Catholic countries" you may take as
|
|||
|
|
typical the pleasant exaggeration which Byron wrote when he saw a
|
|||
|
|
statue of the Virgin Mary in a Portuguese city: "Well do I ween the
|
|||
|
|
only virgin there." He had probably made inquiries.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Apologists obstinately insist that Irish girls are remarkably
|
|||
|
|
chaste," though I have for 30 years given proof and bitter
|
|||
|
|
complaints of English Catholics (including leading priests) that
|
|||
|
|
the Irish girls are sent to Britain to drop their burdens and keep
|
|||
|
|
down the record of illegitimate births in Eire. A New York attorney
|
|||
|
|
writes me, or wrote me 30 years ago when I took up the question,
|
|||
|
|
that the same complaint was made in the New England States. Sanger
|
|||
|
|
says in his History of Prostitution (1919 edition) that on personal
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
10
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
interrogation of 2,000 New York prostitutes he found that 977 (706
|
|||
|
|
of whom had been born in Ireland) had had Catholic parents, and had
|
|||
|
|
been brought up as Catholics. The Catholic Times (May 31, 1924)
|
|||
|
|
quoted Canon Hughes, one of the highest Catholic authorities,
|
|||
|
|
saying that 60 percent of the prostitutes of Liverpool -- one of
|
|||
|
|
the most Catholic and most vicious cities in England -- were Irish
|
|||
|
|
and only 30 percent English. Ten years later another Catholic
|
|||
|
|
expert, Mrs. Ellison, stated in a book that the situation is the
|
|||
|
|
same in the cities of London, Glasgow, and Newcastle (big centers
|
|||
|
|
of Irish immigration). A leaflet on the subject issued by the
|
|||
|
|
Protestant Truth Society (British) gives a mass of Catholic
|
|||
|
|
testimony and replies to the charge that illegitimacy is 3.4
|
|||
|
|
percent in Protestant Ulster and (for the above reasons) only 0.7
|
|||
|
|
in Catholic Connaught that it was at the time 9.30 in Belgium,
|
|||
|
|
14.89 in Austria, 15.67 in Bavaria, and 50.00 in Guatemala. Since
|
|||
|
|
emigration was checked the Irish have not boasted so much. I quoted
|
|||
|
|
an editorial in the Irish Times (June 12, 1937) describing a
|
|||
|
|
disgraceful official record of sex-crimes in County Clare which is
|
|||
|
|
in Connaught!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This chastity-talk is not only outdated from the ethical and
|
|||
|
|
sociological angle but it supported by a remarkable variety of
|
|||
|
|
untruths. And if it is suggested that the real service of the
|
|||
|
|
Church lies in promoting morals or character in the broader sense
|
|||
|
|
the reply to just as devastating. This plea is just a relic of the
|
|||
|
|
old and purely rhetorical assertion that a religious basis is
|
|||
|
|
required for sound conduct. The sufficient reply is that, I have
|
|||
|
|
repeatedly shown, the general level of character in the leading
|
|||
|
|
civilizations has risen in the same proportion as Church influence
|
|||
|
|
has decayed. For the moment we are not concerned about cause and
|
|||
|
|
effect. The fact is enough. As my friend Mr. E.S.P. Haynes, a
|
|||
|
|
distinguished London attorney, has written -- and he is approvingly
|
|||
|
|
quoted by Julian Huxley in his Religion Without Revelation (P. 52):
|
|||
|
|
"If morality did really depend on other worldly sanctions, the
|
|||
|
|
religious changes of the last fifty years would by now have
|
|||
|
|
dissolved society at large." What has happened is much the same as
|
|||
|
|
with the old superstition that it is unlucky to pass under a
|
|||
|
|
ladder. People now see that a good reason for not doing it is that
|
|||
|
|
the man who does not keep clear of a ladder raised against a
|
|||
|
|
building is apt to get drips of paint or bricks dropped on him. In
|
|||
|
|
the same way they discover that sound moral law is a sanitation-
|
|||
|
|
regulation of the social life.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The irony of paying attention to the Romanist version of the
|
|||
|
|
old apologetic, which is the noisiest of them all, is that the
|
|||
|
|
Papal Church promotes sound character even less than the other
|
|||
|
|
Christian Churches. Middle-class folk, to which class most writers
|
|||
|
|
belong, argue on these matters in the most slovenly fashion. Their
|
|||
|
|
acquaintance with Catholics is confined to their class, and in this
|
|||
|
|
they meet many Catholic men and women of admirable character. So,
|
|||
|
|
they lazily conclude, Catholicism molds character. Middle-class men
|
|||
|
|
who are not puritans have insisted to me -- two of them were
|
|||
|
|
attorneys -- that they find Catholic girls easier to persuade or
|
|||
|
|
less in need of persuasion than other girls. But let us remember,
|
|||
|
|
the nature of the Church as I analyzed it. Of the 100,000,000 or so
|
|||
|
|
adult subjects of the Pope at least 80,000,000 have not the least
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
11
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
resemblance to the middle-class American or British Catholic. Half
|
|||
|
|
of them are imperfectly civilized Latin Americans (with Cuba and
|
|||
|
|
the Philippines) and most of the remainder are illiterate or poor
|
|||
|
|
and ignorant Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, Slovaks, etc.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The general level of character in a nation is an elusive
|
|||
|
|
factor but it is fairly determined, if we make allowances for
|
|||
|
|
police-conditions, by the volume of crime. Criminal behavior in the
|
|||
|
|
extreme form of unsocial conduct, and the number of criminals is a
|
|||
|
|
good indication of the amount of unsocial conduct generally. If,
|
|||
|
|
therefore, we find, as we do, that Catholic countries are more
|
|||
|
|
criminal than non-Catholic, and that as a mixed country a quite
|
|||
|
|
disproportionate number of the criminals are Catholics, we must
|
|||
|
|
conclude that the Church is no more effective in inspiring sound
|
|||
|
|
social behavior than in securing the chastity about which it talks
|
|||
|
|
so much.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I have given a few statistics in book No. 13. As Catholics are
|
|||
|
|
apt to contest this I may add a few more. In No. 23 of his
|
|||
|
|
Questions and Answer (p. 87) Haldeman-Julius gives, from a book by
|
|||
|
|
a Catholic prison chaplain (Fr. Leo Kalmer, Crime and Religion) a
|
|||
|
|
most damning series of figures. The priest ascertained from his
|
|||
|
|
colleagues the percentage of Catholics in 36 American
|
|||
|
|
penitentiaries and the result extends to the whole of America the
|
|||
|
|
truth disclosed in the figure's I gave for Sing Sing (48.50 percent
|
|||
|
|
in Joliet, 46.92 in San Quentin, 57.31 in Auburn, 63.64 in
|
|||
|
|
Wethersfield, etc.). Analysis by the Rev. L.B. Lehmann brings out
|
|||
|
|
the fact that in 28 states, in which Catholics are 17 percent of
|
|||
|
|
the population, they are 33 percent of the criminals. The whole
|
|||
|
|
article in Haldeman-Julius' book should be read.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The only other mixed states for which exact comparative
|
|||
|
|
figures are available are the Commonwealth of Australia and the
|
|||
|
|
Dominion of New Zealand. In the case of Australia the figures are
|
|||
|
|
particularly interesting because the Roman Church has as much power
|
|||
|
|
there as in America and is just as blatant in its claims. It is 36
|
|||
|
|
years since I first reproduced the full figures relating to crime
|
|||
|
|
and Catholicism in that country, and I have brought them up to date
|
|||
|
|
every few years. They are as damning as those of America, yet
|
|||
|
|
Catholics continue to claim in the most brazen manner that they
|
|||
|
|
guard the foundations of the state by promoting character.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Queensland State Schools Defense Fund issued a leaflet
|
|||
|
|
quoting the figures from the official publications. This showed
|
|||
|
|
that in Victoria in 1936 the Catholic prisoners numbered 2,164,
|
|||
|
|
whereas since the Catholics are only 18 percent of the population,
|
|||
|
|
their ought to have been only 754 Catholic prisoners if their moral
|
|||
|
|
quality was equal to that of non-Catholics. In New South Wales they
|
|||
|
|
had 454 prisoners instead of the 145 to which their percentage of
|
|||
|
|
the population entitled them. In Queensland the disproportion was
|
|||
|
|
the same. In the Commonwealth Catholics, mostly Irish, had three
|
|||
|
|
times the number of criminals they ought to have had if they were
|
|||
|
|
as good as and no better than their neighbors. As Catholics in
|
|||
|
|
Queensland had just published a new demand for the preferential
|
|||
|
|
treatment of their schools, the Protestants retorted humorously
|
|||
|
|
that they ought themselves to receive preferential treatment in the
|
|||
|
|
matter of taxation because they maintain extra police and jails to
|
|||
|
|
look after Catholic criminals.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
12
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In 1937 Archbishop Mannix, the bitter muddle-headed Irishman
|
|||
|
|
who in his very Christian hatred of England used all the influence
|
|||
|
|
of the Church to induce Australian's to confine themselves to their
|
|||
|
|
pleasures and dollar-making while Britain fought and suffered for
|
|||
|
|
ideals -- until the hideous face of the Japs appeared on the
|
|||
|
|
horizon and Australia cried frantically to America and Britain for
|
|||
|
|
help -- made one of his usual attacks on the public schools of
|
|||
|
|
Australia. They were demoralizing even Catholic boys. He said this
|
|||
|
|
in Melbourne (Victoria). Shortly afterward's the Report of the
|
|||
|
|
Victorian Children's Courts for 1937 was published. Of 973 child
|
|||
|
|
delinquents it appeared that 582, or 37.4 percent were Roman
|
|||
|
|
Catholics; and Catholics are only 18 percent of the population of
|
|||
|
|
Melbourne.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That is typical of the value, of these loudly-shouted claims
|
|||
|
|
of Catholic apologists. They know that none of the papers will test
|
|||
|
|
the claims by statistical or historical facts, and that letters to
|
|||
|
|
the press which do this will be suppressed as "offensive to
|
|||
|
|
Catholics." The Protestant Watchman of New South Wales in 1941.
|
|||
|
|
published, an analysis of the space given in the four daily papers
|
|||
|
|
of Sydney to Catholic and Protestant affair's respectively. In a
|
|||
|
|
period of three months the Roman Catholics got 491 inches, the
|
|||
|
|
Church of England 280 (if we count out a large photo with the queen
|
|||
|
|
in it), and the Methodists and Presbyterians 186. Is Sydney a
|
|||
|
|
Catholic city? Far from it. The Roman Church controls only 17
|
|||
|
|
percent of the population: the Church of England 40 percent: the
|
|||
|
|
Methodist and Presbyterians 14 percent. But the arms of the Black
|
|||
|
|
Octopus are everywhere, strangling freedom and truth, from the
|
|||
|
|
office of the cabinet minister or the trade union to the editorial
|
|||
|
|
office and the public libraries.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Most countries do not now publish the figures of the religious
|
|||
|
|
professions of criminals, and full figures of crime in Catholic and
|
|||
|
|
non-Catholic countries are not so easily obtained as one would
|
|||
|
|
suppose. Few sociologists or criminologists omit to mention the
|
|||
|
|
Church, and prominently, amongst the agencies which make for social
|
|||
|
|
sanity and stability, but, though it will be understood that my
|
|||
|
|
acquaintance with such literature is not complete, I do not know
|
|||
|
|
one of them who dares to follow this up by examining the statistics
|
|||
|
|
of crime and the profession's of criminals or the religious status
|
|||
|
|
of the various countries.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The article "Homicide" in the Encyclopedia of the Social
|
|||
|
|
Sciences has a little merit in this connection. It quotes Ferri's
|
|||
|
|
table showing the reduction of it in recent times in five of the
|
|||
|
|
leading European countries by giving the percentage per 100,000 of
|
|||
|
|
the population:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Germany 1.0 in 1865-85 and 0.6 in 1906-10
|
|||
|
|
France 2.4 in 1827-31 and 1.4 in 1911-15
|
|||
|
|
England 8.1 in 1856-60 and 0.7 in 1906-10
|
|||
|
|
Spain 9.4 in 1881-85 and 5.2 in 1911-15
|
|||
|
|
Italy 12.2 in 1871-75 and 4.1 in 1911-15
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Italy, remember, was despotically ruled by the Papacy until
|
|||
|
|
1870 and had an appalling record of crime to reduce. I may add that
|
|||
|
|
crime doubled in a few years after the Fascists usurped power in it
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
13
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
and was not reduced when the Vatican made its corrupt bargain to
|
|||
|
|
share the control. Spain and Italy were both predominantly Catholic
|
|||
|
|
in the last century when they had such a high record of the gravest
|
|||
|
|
crime, and the modern sociologist scorns the excuse of "the hot
|
|||
|
|
blood of the south." I question the figure for Germany, as there
|
|||
|
|
was no "Germany" only a number of separate states -- until 1871.
|
|||
|
|
Bodis (in Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics) gives this percentage
|
|||
|
|
of trials for murder in 1876-84: United Kingdom 12, Germany 14,
|
|||
|
|
France (still mainly Catholic) 23, Spain 105, Hungary 107, Italy
|
|||
|
|
134. Add these to the figures I gave in No. 13, and you get such a
|
|||
|
|
reply to the claim that Romanism promotes a high standard of
|
|||
|
|
character that you wonder that any apologist has the effrontery to
|
|||
|
|
make it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But all Catholics make it, and very emphatically, because it
|
|||
|
|
is the only excuse they can provide for the politicians,
|
|||
|
|
professors, and writers whom, in one way or other, they get to
|
|||
|
|
praise the Church and denounce critics. If this claim is so
|
|||
|
|
decisively disproved by the only exact test we can apply -- the
|
|||
|
|
volume of crime in Catholic lands and the proportion of criminals
|
|||
|
|
in mixed lands -- so decisively that no sociologist in America
|
|||
|
|
thinks it prudent to discuss the matter, where must we look for
|
|||
|
|
even a plausible bit of color for it? The language of Papal
|
|||
|
|
encyclicals and the gorgeous comments of apologists on them suggest
|
|||
|
|
that there might be more sincerity in the claim that the Church is
|
|||
|
|
more effective in inspiring social justice. We will defer the
|
|||
|
|
examination of this to the next chapter, but the reader will be
|
|||
|
|
prepared to smile. Social justice in Italy, Vichy France, Spain,
|
|||
|
|
Portugal, and Brazil as compared with America, Britain, Russia,
|
|||
|
|
Denmark, Sweden, or Switzerland! It sounds like a bad joke.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But what other test can we apply? Is the great 'service of the
|
|||
|
|
Church that it provided, or moved the authorities to provide, free
|
|||
|
|
education for the children of the workers? See the table of
|
|||
|
|
steatitic of illiteracy which I gave in No. 13 (p. 21). They are
|
|||
|
|
more damning than the statistics of crime or illegitimacy. Our
|
|||
|
|
search for these massive social services of the Church begins to
|
|||
|
|
remind us of that naughty definition of metaphysics -- looking in
|
|||
|
|
a dark room for a black cat that isn't there. Let us, in order to
|
|||
|
|
be quite just to our Catholic fellow-citizens, approach the subject
|
|||
|
|
in a different way.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Chapter III
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE WICKED WORLD EDUCATES THE CHURCH
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This ghastly war and the Fascist-Catholic conspiracy that led
|
|||
|
|
to it interrupted an unsteady and unequal but very real and
|
|||
|
|
Substantial advance of civilization in Europe and America. If my
|
|||
|
|
readers are not tired of my giving proof of that, I am. I have
|
|||
|
|
routed the Lippmanns and Spenglers who Strangely persuaded so many
|
|||
|
|
to doubt it. I have riddled the sophistry of the novelty-monger and
|
|||
|
|
pseudo-idealists who ranted that in our race to get ahead we had
|
|||
|
|
created a monster of the Frankenstein order or had let the
|
|||
|
|
cultivation of our intelligence outrun our cultivation of
|
|||
|
|
character. The revelation of the share of "our two historic
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
14
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
religions" in drenching the planet with mud and blood ought to make
|
|||
|
|
these prophets of the spiritual feel small, but I notice in the
|
|||
|
|
American press that they are as cocky as ever, and our Joads in
|
|||
|
|
Britain orate at Empire Pageants. These people have nearly a
|
|||
|
|
monopoly of the after-the-war planning which absorbs all our finer
|
|||
|
|
spirits just now. They would return to just that distracting
|
|||
|
|
activity of theirs under cover of which Japs and Germans shifted
|
|||
|
|
the attention of the world from the real evils that menaced it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The world was making a very creditable progress on most lines
|
|||
|
|
of a real advance of civilization, though it was checked by the
|
|||
|
|
interests of wealth and religion, until the privileged folk and
|
|||
|
|
their politicians were duped into thinking that the Black and Tang
|
|||
|
|
(or yellows) were merely accumulating power in order to annihilate
|
|||
|
|
the Reds. This progress became appreciable about 1870, when the
|
|||
|
|
United States settled down after the Civil War and Europe
|
|||
|
|
triumphed, in most countries, over the vicious clerical-royalist
|
|||
|
|
reaction that had followed the fall of Napoleon. Briefly, the
|
|||
|
|
period characterized not merely by an advance of from 1870 to 1914
|
|||
|
|
was characterized, not merely by an advance of applied science
|
|||
|
|
which more than doubled the wealth-reducing capacity of a nation
|
|||
|
|
but by the employment of a very large part of the new wealth to
|
|||
|
|
create systems of universal free education, an immense
|
|||
|
|
multiplication of free libraries, the establishment in most
|
|||
|
|
countries of fully democratic political regimes and the
|
|||
|
|
enfranchisement of women, factory-legislation, schemes of old-age
|
|||
|
|
pensions and health and unemployment insurance, sanitation, re-
|
|||
|
|
housing, and other measures which doubled the average expectation
|
|||
|
|
of life, a considerable growth of temperance (or temperateness),
|
|||
|
|
and great reduction of crime, the doubling (generally) of real
|
|||
|
|
wages, the enormous improvement of hospitals and services for the
|
|||
|
|
distressed, and the spread of an anti-war sentiment.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Some say that that is a materialistic conception of progress.
|
|||
|
|
Most men and women in 1914 would have said that they did not care
|
|||
|
|
a damn what you called it but that -- if they read a candid account
|
|||
|
|
of life before 1870 -- the world, in spite of its lingering
|
|||
|
|
defects, was a very much better place to live in. But let me again,
|
|||
|
|
in passing, point out the humbug of this "spirit" and "matter"
|
|||
|
|
business.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I have just been reading, dreary as the occupation was, one of
|
|||
|
|
those numerous recent works on the beauty of modern high-brow
|
|||
|
|
Buddhism and how it will save the world. Out of the mush of
|
|||
|
|
Verbiage I picked the general statement that the Supreme aim of
|
|||
|
|
Buddhism is "the extinction of suffering." Funny. That is exactly
|
|||
|
|
the supreme aim of atheists and materialists. I pointed out years
|
|||
|
|
ago that progress is not to be judged by some misty goal in the
|
|||
|
|
clouds but by the success of a nation in reducing suffering. And
|
|||
|
|
while a certain number of people in every generation can be
|
|||
|
|
persuaded to lessen the risk of suffering for themselves by
|
|||
|
|
despising the wicked world and its wine, women, and song, and
|
|||
|
|
retiring to a semi-nudist colony to contemplate their navels --
|
|||
|
|
which seems to be Buddhism -- it seems to us atheists and
|
|||
|
|
materialists far better to remove or reduce as much as possible the
|
|||
|
|
sources of suffering (disease, poverty, war, ignorance, etc.) for
|
|||
|
|
millions of people.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
15
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Talking of our navel-contemplators, I fancy you will find a
|
|||
|
|
little irrelevance well worth inserting here. I do not know whether
|
|||
|
|
you ever came across a priceless book published nine years ago by
|
|||
|
|
Professor T. O'Conroy. It ought to have been reprinted in 1938 and
|
|||
|
|
scattered by the million over America, at the time, when the Japs
|
|||
|
|
were spending millions a year in lying propaganda. O'Conroy lived
|
|||
|
|
in Japan, teaching in one of the leading universities, for 15
|
|||
|
|
years. He married an aristocratic Japanese lady and was more
|
|||
|
|
intimately admitted to Japanese life than any other white man. And
|
|||
|
|
in 1933 he wrote this scalding indictment of the nation, showing
|
|||
|
|
that for corruption, cruelty, and unscrupulousness the Japs could
|
|||
|
|
not be beaten. Buddhism, he shows, fully shared this corruption,
|
|||
|
|
though it was at that time -- the government had not yet invited it
|
|||
|
|
to prostitute itself to the national greed -- a fat, indolent, and
|
|||
|
|
useless body. But what I want to quote is an illustration of its
|
|||
|
|
corruption which he gives (pp. 87-8) and which, sensational as it
|
|||
|
|
is, like the similar revelation in German monasteries, I have not
|
|||
|
|
seen reproduced or referred to since in American literature or
|
|||
|
|
journalism.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A few mile's from Tokyo was a large and rich monastery of what
|
|||
|
|
was understood to be the very strictest sect of Buddhist monks.
|
|||
|
|
They were so holy that they closed their doors against the wicked
|
|||
|
|
world and wanted to be alone. But in their extensive grounds there
|
|||
|
|
was a home for feeble-minded women, tended by the good monks, and
|
|||
|
|
a rumor spread in Tokyo that numbers of these unfortunates were
|
|||
|
|
just unwanted wives whose husbands paid the monks to take them
|
|||
|
|
over. A Tokyo paper organized a raid in 1928, and though the police
|
|||
|
|
at once suppressed it, published an amazing story. The Buddhist
|
|||
|
|
monastery was a colony of sadists, just as the German Franciscan
|
|||
|
|
friars were found to be colonies of sodomists. When the raiders
|
|||
|
|
burst in they found the monk-keepers gambling and squabbling with
|
|||
|
|
blood-splotched paper money, while the women, half mad or half
|
|||
|
|
dead, lay about, mutilated, exhausted, fouled with the monks'
|
|||
|
|
excrements. Women were chained even in the temple, and rape, sexual
|
|||
|
|
mutilation, and ignominy were but a few of the foul performances
|
|||
|
|
that took place." And this is the second greatest "spiritual"
|
|||
|
|
religion of our time: the religion over which our idealists and
|
|||
|
|
scorners of materialism go into ecstasies!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Like the monasteries in the Catholic provinces of Germany and
|
|||
|
|
the more Catholic republics of South and Central America and the
|
|||
|
|
Philippines, these Buddhist monasteries -- O'Conroy says that
|
|||
|
|
decent Buddhist priests told him that 60 to 80 percent of their
|
|||
|
|
body were corrupt -- illustrate what is always likely to happen in
|
|||
|
|
medieval conditions; that is to say, wherever the monastery is
|
|||
|
|
surrounded by a drowsy or drugged population of believers free from
|
|||
|
|
the taint of heresy. It was the normal condition of Catholic
|
|||
|
|
monasteries throughout the Middle Ages, and it lingered, as in
|
|||
|
|
Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Spanish America, and the
|
|||
|
|
Philippines, wherever this parasitic Catholic atmosphere lingered.
|
|||
|
|
This is the first broad proof that the Church was taught sense and
|
|||
|
|
virtue by what it calls the wicked world or the materialistic age.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
An examination of the progress and the causes of social reform
|
|||
|
|
in each country would clinch this proof, but obviously a
|
|||
|
|
satisfactory treatment of that subject would require a large
|
|||
|
|
volume; and, as it is one of those inquiries that the Church does
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
16
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
not like, no historian or sociologist has taken it up and there is
|
|||
|
|
no work to recommend to the reader. I have, as some readers will
|
|||
|
|
know, not only given a large amount of material for the study in
|
|||
|
|
previous works but have written one in which enough of the evidence
|
|||
|
|
is condensed to satisfy any candid inquirer (How Freethinkers Made
|
|||
|
|
Notable Contributions to Civilization, Haldeman-Julius Co. 1938).
|
|||
|
|
In this work I examined the record of progress, particularly during
|
|||
|
|
the last 100 years, in respect of the struggle for freedom,
|
|||
|
|
education, social and political rights, the emancipation of woman,
|
|||
|
|
philanthropy, and general improvement, and I showed that, while in
|
|||
|
|
those days religious folk, though by no means so lenient to
|
|||
|
|
Catholics as they now are, at least thought them an immeasurably
|
|||
|
|
larger and more respectable body than freethinkers, yet fully one
|
|||
|
|
half the pioneers in all reforms were freethinker's and none were
|
|||
|
|
Catholics.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
You wonder what Catholic apologists, loudly claiming that the
|
|||
|
|
Church leads in progress and civilization, say to that. The answer
|
|||
|
|
is: Nothing, as far as I can discover. I have several times quoted
|
|||
|
|
a very popular apologetic work, published under the patronage of
|
|||
|
|
heads and professors of several American universities, entitled The
|
|||
|
|
Calvert Handbook of Catholic Facts. It ought to say "of Catholic
|
|||
|
|
Rhetoric" or "Catholic Lies." It makes the usual generalized claims
|
|||
|
|
but, as the Church must have exerted this mighty influence on
|
|||
|
|
progress and civilization through definite individuals, the leaders
|
|||
|
|
of chief workers in reform-movements, I look for the names of these
|
|||
|
|
-- and find none. There is a lot about Catholic relatives of
|
|||
|
|
Presidents, rich Catholic men of business, Catholic diplomatists,
|
|||
|
|
Catholic judges, and so on, but for every Catholic named as a
|
|||
|
|
worker in reform-movements I will undertake to name a hundred
|
|||
|
|
skeptics.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There is in the book an article on Catholics who contributed
|
|||
|
|
to American civilization in particular or civilization in general.
|
|||
|
|
It names Sobieski, whose monument is Poland, Ferdinand and
|
|||
|
|
Isabella, whose monument is Spain, and the discoveries of America,
|
|||
|
|
who would have gone to the stake if they had not professed
|
|||
|
|
Romanism. That covers the later Middle Ages. Then we have a Father
|
|||
|
|
White, who is said to have set up the first printing press (from
|
|||
|
|
England) in America, another who was great at shorthand in its
|
|||
|
|
infancy, another who invented a balloon; and another who (getting
|
|||
|
|
the idea from England) built the first railroad in America. Two or
|
|||
|
|
three are credited with naval and military distinction, and there
|
|||
|
|
is the usual bunch of great Catholic scientists (Pasteur, Fabre,
|
|||
|
|
etc.) most of whom were skeptics. There are the men who wrote
|
|||
|
|
"Maryland" and "The Conquered Banner," the architect of the White
|
|||
|
|
House, the man who sold the estate for it, and the man who planned
|
|||
|
|
the city of Washington (a "majestic plan"). There you have the
|
|||
|
|
sweepings of three centuries, from Europe as well as America. They
|
|||
|
|
do not represent a small body of Quakers or still smaller body (at
|
|||
|
|
that time) of freethinkers but the biggest religion in the world.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Did anybody ever say that no Catholic ever won any sort of
|
|||
|
|
distinction, even in shorthand, ballooning, or writing songs? We
|
|||
|
|
are familiar with Catholics writing any sort of tripe for their own
|
|||
|
|
hypnotized people, but this sort of thing is written for non-
|
|||
|
|
Catholic Americans and has the patronage of Nicholas Murray Butler
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
17
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
and the President of the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The
|
|||
|
|
great work for civilization was achieved from 1870 onward. How many
|
|||
|
|
of these illustrious Catholics fall in that period? Only the
|
|||
|
|
balloonist as far as I can see. We may admit that gas and hot air
|
|||
|
|
are entitled to clerical respect, but what the Catholic apologist,
|
|||
|
|
claims is the inspiration of our progress in education, the
|
|||
|
|
reduction of social service. How many of crime, and poverty, and
|
|||
|
|
suffering these brilliant men figure in those fields? Not one.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Let us try another way. As the Jesuits are supposed to have
|
|||
|
|
inspired Jefferson and Adams, who loathed Jesuits and their creed
|
|||
|
|
as much as Haldeman-Julius does, perhaps it will be claimed that it
|
|||
|
|
was the subtly compelling influence of Papal encyclicals that
|
|||
|
|
permeated the world and somehow fired large bodies of men and women
|
|||
|
|
(mostly skeptics) to devote their lives to ridding the world of its
|
|||
|
|
medieval evils and miseries. This would be very singular when we
|
|||
|
|
reflect that of those who are supposed to be the closest readers of
|
|||
|
|
the encyclopedias, the priests, not one -- unless you want me to
|
|||
|
|
count Father Coughlin -- figures in the long list of reform-
|
|||
|
|
leaders, and not one Catholic layman is found in any list of, say,
|
|||
|
|
the hundred leading social workers of the 19th Century. The
|
|||
|
|
influence of religion on leader's of reform is one of those studies
|
|||
|
|
which our sociologists carefully avoid, though most of them give
|
|||
|
|
religion a high-place in the list of inspirational agencies, but I
|
|||
|
|
have made the research elsewhere, and the grotesque scratchings in
|
|||
|
|
the byways of history of the Calvert Handbook confirm me. The Papal
|
|||
|
|
encyclicals moved the world to great deeds and through atheists and
|
|||
|
|
Quakers! Really, apologists ought not to advertise so blatantly
|
|||
|
|
what they think of Catholic intelligence.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But what are these grand encyclicals (or "to the whole world")
|
|||
|
|
letters of the Popes on social matters. Even a Catholic would beg
|
|||
|
|
me not to go too far back, so let us begin about the beginning of
|
|||
|
|
the modern progressive period. Pius IX (of "Blessed Memory," the
|
|||
|
|
Catholic writer always adds, though Italians who knew him have
|
|||
|
|
written some funny things about him) opened the series in 1864 with
|
|||
|
|
the encyclical Quanta cura and the Syllabus. Your apologists now
|
|||
|
|
never mention it. He, having still at that time the reactionary
|
|||
|
|
French emperor to protect him against the wicked Italians, scorched
|
|||
|
|
the whole reform-movement with the choicest Papal invectives. He
|
|||
|
|
put "liberalism," which we now call pink tea, on a level with
|
|||
|
|
Satanism, which is several notches lower than rape.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Then came the great encyclical-writer Leo XIII. He was as fond
|
|||
|
|
of writing encyclicals as Churchill is of writing speeches. Two of
|
|||
|
|
them are still gorgeously praised -- and falsely interpreted -- In
|
|||
|
|
American Catholic literature. But just keep your eye on the dates
|
|||
|
|
and the historical background. Leo won the tiara in 1878, when the
|
|||
|
|
reform-movement was full on in Europe. America he knew only as a
|
|||
|
|
raw outpost of civilization -- I suspect he knew it mostly from
|
|||
|
|
Dickens's Letters and Martin Chuzzlewit -- and he had many a brush
|
|||
|
|
with its bishops, but he did follow social and political movements
|
|||
|
|
in Europe. Yet it was not until thirteen years after his accession
|
|||
|
|
that he issued the first encyclical which the most ingenious
|
|||
|
|
apologist can call socially inspiring. He had not been silent. In
|
|||
|
|
1878 he had issued an encyclical cursing Socialism root and branch.
|
|||
|
|
Next year he had imposed the medieval "philosophy of Aquinas on the
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
18
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Catholic world. In the following year he had thundered at the
|
|||
|
|
world, which was reforming its marriage-laws, that divorce was a
|
|||
|
|
mortal sin (except in the ingenious form in which rich Catholics
|
|||
|
|
can get it from Rome). In 1881 he pointed out, apropos of the
|
|||
|
|
assassination of the Tsar, that these appalling outrages were due
|
|||
|
|
to the decay of religion (not, of course, to the bestiality of the
|
|||
|
|
Tsarist regime), and in 1884 he put Freemasonry Under the ban. In
|
|||
|
|
1885 he issued the Immortale Dei, which Ryan still applauds as a
|
|||
|
|
fine democratic appeal; and I have shown that it is nothing of the
|
|||
|
|
kind. In 1888 he savagely attacked the claim of religious freedom
|
|||
|
|
and liberty of discussion. It was not until 1891, when he saw
|
|||
|
|
Socialism gaining ground rapidly at the expense of the Church, that
|
|||
|
|
he issued the one encyclical, Rerum novarum, which Catholics claim
|
|||
|
|
to give a lead in social reform; and the only "revolutionary"
|
|||
|
|
sentence in it was the statement that the workers must have a
|
|||
|
|
living wage. (which he refused to define), which had been a
|
|||
|
|
platitude of liberal literature for half a century. And in his last
|
|||
|
|
beautiful messages to the world he retracted this and died
|
|||
|
|
sputtering the most reactionary sentiments.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I pass on the next two Popes. Ryan does not quote them. They
|
|||
|
|
were stuffy and ill-informed reactionaries all their lives. And in
|
|||
|
|
1931 the late Pope, or the present Pope writing in his name issue
|
|||
|
|
the Fascist encyclical Quadragesimo anno which the British and
|
|||
|
|
American hierarchies dare not translate into English! It opened the
|
|||
|
|
blatantly Fascist, conspiratorial, warmongering career of his
|
|||
|
|
"holiness" Pius XII.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Need I point the moral? The Papacy was throughout the whole
|
|||
|
|
period the enemy of progress of the rights of the people. It was
|
|||
|
|
just compelled for a time to temporize because it looked even to
|
|||
|
|
these owlish Italians priests as if democracy had won its war and
|
|||
|
|
the world was adopting the liberalism in social matters which the
|
|||
|
|
Popes scorned. Yet even when concessions had to be made to check
|
|||
|
|
the leakage of millions of workers from the Church they took only
|
|||
|
|
the feeble form of saying that if the French people really insisted
|
|||
|
|
on having a republic they might, provided it kept the Catholic
|
|||
|
|
Church established by law and that capitalists must grant their
|
|||
|
|
workers a "just wage," which it was left to them to determine.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
What do I mean then, you will ask, by saying that the wicked
|
|||
|
|
world educated the Church? The Popes apparently, never were
|
|||
|
|
educated in sound views of social ethics. What I mean is that in
|
|||
|
|
America, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy a social-democratic
|
|||
|
|
movement (without the capital letters) spread in the Catholic world
|
|||
|
|
after 1900. Quite bold books appeared, and there were "social
|
|||
|
|
experts" and all sorts of novelties. What was the inspiration?
|
|||
|
|
Evidently it did not come from the Papacy. Had local hierarchies
|
|||
|
|
and their Ryans and Williams a finer appreciation of the
|
|||
|
|
implications of the faith than the Holy-Ghost-inspired Pope's and
|
|||
|
|
all the great theological geniuses of the Middle Ages?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Enough of this nonsense. The plain truth is that after leaving
|
|||
|
|
it to non-Catholics for a century, when the work was heart-breaking
|
|||
|
|
and the penalty often death or jail, to break the paths of social
|
|||
|
|
and humanitarian reform, the local Black International in some
|
|||
|
|
countries concluded that in the interest of the Church they must
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
19
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
join in the work. It was a death-bed repentance. But the patient
|
|||
|
|
recovered. That is to say, the Black International, which for a
|
|||
|
|
time had despaired of life on the old lines of privilege and
|
|||
|
|
autocracy, saw a new hope in the rise of Fascism and became
|
|||
|
|
convinced that it was going to conquer the world. So the death-bed
|
|||
|
|
confession of sin was torn up in Rome and in all countries that
|
|||
|
|
passed under the pirate-flag, and it is only in one or two
|
|||
|
|
countries like America and Britain, where democracy may survive and
|
|||
|
|
may even regain the world, where in any case Catholics are a
|
|||
|
|
minority and must behave like the Japanese in California or Oregon,
|
|||
|
|
that one still hears how freedom and democracy are grand old
|
|||
|
|
Catholic ideas conveyed to a wicked and despairing world by the
|
|||
|
|
august, and fearless, and un-compromising encyclicals of the Popes.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Chapter IV
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE CONTRAST OF RUSSIA AND PRIEST-RULED COUNTRIES
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
While the services rendered by the Church to civilization are
|
|||
|
|
as hard to find as the black cat in a dark room, the services it
|
|||
|
|
rendered to the repulsive forces which have attempted to wreck
|
|||
|
|
civilization are as plain as the peaks of the Rockies. The
|
|||
|
|
alliances contracted by the Vatican with Italy, Japan, and Germany
|
|||
|
|
are events of recent history like the New Deal or the Atlantic
|
|||
|
|
Charter. The dates and terms of the agreements are public property.
|
|||
|
|
But one service requires special consideration: the organization of
|
|||
|
|
the entire resources of the Church to engender hatred of Communism
|
|||
|
|
in general and of Russia in particular.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This service began, explicitly as far as the documents I have
|
|||
|
|
seen tell us, in 1936, though the Vatican had begun its furious
|
|||
|
|
attack upon Communism and even, in effect, its appeal for a crusade
|
|||
|
|
against it, much earlier. From 1919 to 1924 the Pope was, we saw,
|
|||
|
|
straining, every nerve to get on friendly terms with Soviet Russia
|
|||
|
|
so as to bring under his control the Orthodox Church when its
|
|||
|
|
leaders were scattered. The Russians repeatedly detected the
|
|||
|
|
Catholic clergy in treachery and in 1924 closed the country against
|
|||
|
|
missionaries from Rome. So in December of that year Pius XI, who
|
|||
|
|
had hitherto in great charity kept in check his hatred of
|
|||
|
|
Communism, attacked it in his Consistorial Allocution (December 18)
|
|||
|
|
and called the attention of all "heads of "governments" to the
|
|||
|
|
danger of it. He, in fact, coupled Socialism with Communism as
|
|||
|
|
equally dangerous. In 1931 he, we saw, ordered all Catholic states
|
|||
|
|
(in encyclical Quadragesimo anno) to adopt the Fascist state and
|
|||
|
|
sternly forbade Catholics to take up either Socialism or Communism.
|
|||
|
|
He said that Communism had brought "massacres and ruin upon Eastern
|
|||
|
|
Europe." This attack on Russia seems to have been taken up or
|
|||
|
|
fostered by his representatives everywhere, as on December 30,
|
|||
|
|
1932, the British Daily Worker said that "the clergy of all creeds
|
|||
|
|
and denominations are, with religion as their pretext following the
|
|||
|
|
lead of the Pope in his call for a crusade against the U.S.S.R."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The direct and more pointed attack began, however, in 1936,
|
|||
|
|
shortly after the outbreak of Franco's rebellion in Spain. We must
|
|||
|
|
remember that Italy and Germany were not at that time open allies
|
|||
|
|
of Franco, and America and Britain had not declared their attitude
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
20
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
to what everybody still called a rebellion. But there was no
|
|||
|
|
reserve at Rome. In a blistering and most untruthful attack on
|
|||
|
|
Communism, which he represented as the aggressor in Spain, the Pope
|
|||
|
|
spoke of it as a force that was attempting to subvert established
|
|||
|
|
order of every kind from Russia to China, from Mexico to South
|
|||
|
|
America." From this year onward he appealed repeatedly for "the
|
|||
|
|
extinction" of Bolshevism in Spain, Mexico, and Russia, and, as we
|
|||
|
|
saw, "he holy cry for blood was taken up in the Catholic section of
|
|||
|
|
every country.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
When the Czecho-Slovakian crisis, which might be called the
|
|||
|
|
first stage of the world-war, arose in 1938 the service that the
|
|||
|
|
Vatican and its Black International in every country had already
|
|||
|
|
rendered the imperialist thugs by this propaganda was apparent.
|
|||
|
|
Joint action at once by Britain, France, and Russia would have
|
|||
|
|
strangled Hitlerism in its cradle and put a cheek to the ambitions
|
|||
|
|
of Japan. But Britain was under obligation only to support France,
|
|||
|
|
and France was persuaded by its Catholic politicians and military
|
|||
|
|
leaders, the present Vichy crowd, that Russia could not be trusted
|
|||
|
|
to keep its word: in reality, that active partnership with so
|
|||
|
|
disreputable a power and helping it to cheek the strength of
|
|||
|
|
Germany must not be undertaken by France. As late as 1940 British
|
|||
|
|
generals of the stuffy Tory type were saying: "We may have to ally
|
|||
|
|
our selves with Russia, but God forgive us." That contemptuous
|
|||
|
|
attitude the Black International fed in every country for ten
|
|||
|
|
years, to the very great profit of the bandits.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We admit the double root of this hatred of Russia, or the
|
|||
|
|
capitalist and the Catholic roots, but we have to recognize this
|
|||
|
|
difference: that the capitalists, who make no pretence of moral
|
|||
|
|
principle, are honest opponents of a dangerous rival system,
|
|||
|
|
whereas the priests, who profess to be the moral saviors of a
|
|||
|
|
wicked world lie about their motives and by their action run the
|
|||
|
|
risk of bringing upon civilization precisely that ruin which they
|
|||
|
|
untruthfully accused the Communists of contemplating. The Pope's
|
|||
|
|
outburst in 1936 which I quoted in an earlier book and which was
|
|||
|
|
clearly written by the present Pope as Secretary of State, was a
|
|||
|
|
tissue of untruthful charges. Instead of trying to "subvert
|
|||
|
|
established order of every kind" by "an un-parallel confusion of
|
|||
|
|
forces so savage and cruel as to have been thought utterly
|
|||
|
|
incompatible" -- whatever the last phrase may mean -- Russia had by
|
|||
|
|
1936, as the whole world knew, wrought a miracle of the creation of
|
|||
|
|
order out of chaos. In 1923, as a result of the European War, the
|
|||
|
|
Civil War, and the great famine, Russia had been reduced to a
|
|||
|
|
condition of disorder and misery which had not been seen in Europe
|
|||
|
|
since the end of the Thirty Years War (1648). The restoration began
|
|||
|
|
in earnest a few years later, and by 1936 the most respected writer
|
|||
|
|
of Britain and America reported, with a few reserves, that the
|
|||
|
|
Soviet government had, especially in regard to the reduction of
|
|||
|
|
crime and the establishment of social order, won a remarkable
|
|||
|
|
victory.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Apologists in America had generally, to be less wild than the
|
|||
|
|
Pope in their indictment of Russia, but they were reckless enough.
|
|||
|
|
The old lies about the massacre of priests and the persecution of
|
|||
|
|
religion flourished in Catholic literature from year to year; in
|
|||
|
|
fact, there is good ground to believe that the official
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
21
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
representatives of America demanded assurances on the latter point
|
|||
|
|
when they began to negotiate with Russia about military aid. The
|
|||
|
|
conspiracies in which some of the leading Bolsheviks were involved
|
|||
|
|
were eagerly snapped up as proof that the country was ruled by a
|
|||
|
|
murderous bureaucracy, whereas we now have the weighty assurance of
|
|||
|
|
Duranty (with a reserve in one case) and Ambassador Davies that the
|
|||
|
|
men were certainly guilty. Davies himself repeats a perennial libel
|
|||
|
|
in saying that the Russians are lamentably inefficient as compared
|
|||
|
|
with the Americans and the British. He has had the cruel experience
|
|||
|
|
of seeing his book appear, with this reproach, just at the time
|
|||
|
|
when the world had proof before it daily of the relative efficiency
|
|||
|
|
of the British and the Russian military machine.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There are two plain reasons for the sacred fury of the Church
|
|||
|
|
against Russia, and the first is entirely discreditable. It is
|
|||
|
|
because the attack upon Russia brought the Black International into
|
|||
|
|
line with wealth and privilege in accordance with its old and
|
|||
|
|
unwavering tradition. For an attack upon the Communist political
|
|||
|
|
system the Church has no ground whatever since it declares that it
|
|||
|
|
never interferes in politics. And when it plans its attack on
|
|||
|
|
economic ground's it recognizes that it can make no distinction
|
|||
|
|
between Communism and Socialism, since the degree of socialization
|
|||
|
|
is not a matter of moral principle. But its claim that any moral
|
|||
|
|
principle at all is involved is ludicrous. Ryan is very eloquent on
|
|||
|
|
the moral right of private ownership: he is, in fact so sure of it
|
|||
|
|
that he says a Socialist government would be a violation of moral
|
|||
|
|
law, and Catholic Americans would be justified in rebelling against
|
|||
|
|
it. Piffle. A people has a right to choose its economic form just
|
|||
|
|
as well as its political regime. The apologists who talk like this
|
|||
|
|
are simply saying to the world's capitalists: The Church of Rome is
|
|||
|
|
your friend so help to protect it from further decay.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The second and stronger reason is the tremendous loss which
|
|||
|
|
the spread of Communism had inflicted upon the Roman Church. I gave
|
|||
|
|
the facts in the first book. The press and most writers conceal
|
|||
|
|
them and leave the fierce hostility of Rome to Russia not very
|
|||
|
|
intelligible and cover up the vast amount of harm that the Vatican
|
|||
|
|
did by spreading it's hatred over the world, yet Rome itself is
|
|||
|
|
much more ready to admit this motive than to talk about its support
|
|||
|
|
of the capitalist system. It, of course, does not speak of losses.
|
|||
|
|
With its usual complete indifference to truthfulness it invites the
|
|||
|
|
world to unite against Russia because it "attacks religion." All
|
|||
|
|
criticism of the Catholic Church or telling the people the truth
|
|||
|
|
about its history and its aims is "an attack" but criticism by the
|
|||
|
|
Church of other Churches or philosophies is, however acrid and
|
|||
|
|
untruthful it may be, just a kindly warning to the world of the
|
|||
|
|
dangers that surround it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We may readily admit that for many years the Soviet government
|
|||
|
|
gave every assistance to the voluntary organization that opened the
|
|||
|
|
eyes of the people, but this official cooperation had ceased at the
|
|||
|
|
time when the Vatican was shrieking about attacks on religion, and
|
|||
|
|
in the other countries (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and Spanish
|
|||
|
|
America, etc.) in which the advance of Socialism and Communism
|
|||
|
|
detached tens of million# from the Roman Church there was certainly
|
|||
|
|
no official encouragement of the movement. The mechanism of
|
|||
|
|
propaganda was a substitution of facts for lies, of knowledge for
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
22
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
ignorance. The policy of the Church when the Fascist reaction began
|
|||
|
|
in each country sufficiently proves this. It closed the schools,
|
|||
|
|
suppressed freedom of discussion, and strangled literature; and it
|
|||
|
|
filled the jails with the men and women who had been most prominent
|
|||
|
|
in exposing the clergy, and it had, and continues to have,
|
|||
|
|
thousands of them labelled Communists and shot.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We talk about the blindness of men in the red haze of war, but
|
|||
|
|
the third year of this most terrible of all war's has been, to the
|
|||
|
|
intense mortification of the Black International, a year of
|
|||
|
|
illumination. Self-interest has, of course, helped the British and
|
|||
|
|
Americans to surmount the prejudices that have been pumped into
|
|||
|
|
them by press, pulpit, literature, and the cinema for 20 years, but
|
|||
|
|
it will hardly be questioned that the magnificent conduct of the
|
|||
|
|
Russian people has been the main fact that opened the eyes of folk
|
|||
|
|
to their great qualities and the soundness of their system. Right
|
|||
|
|
until the hordes of Nazi tanks, set free by the absence of any
|
|||
|
|
opposition on the western front, were within a few hours run of
|
|||
|
|
Leningrad and Moscow, Britons and Americans were whispering that of
|
|||
|
|
course the Russian people would not fight with real devotion and
|
|||
|
|
the requisite energy for a government that usurped power, treated
|
|||
|
|
them despotically and mercilessly, and robbed them of their
|
|||
|
|
previous religion. Novels, the class-books of so many millions,
|
|||
|
|
still circulated in which the Commissars and leading officials were
|
|||
|
|
represented as sadistic monsters who lived on champagne, caviar,
|
|||
|
|
and Christian virgins.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
History has rarely seen such a revulsion of sentiment, such a
|
|||
|
|
triumph over two decades of priestly and aristocratic slander, as
|
|||
|
|
has happened in the last six months. Conservative leaders now speak
|
|||
|
|
in public about "our noble Russian ally," and deputies from Russia,
|
|||
|
|
who only six months ago were admitted at the back doors, so to
|
|||
|
|
speak, are received with royal hands. And it is only in the last
|
|||
|
|
few months that the press or most of it -- many papers still crab
|
|||
|
|
at Russia and frown on the popular enthusiasm -- has supported the
|
|||
|
|
change of heart. In England most of the cinemas still treat Russia
|
|||
|
|
as a power which it would be indecent to obtrude upon the notice of
|
|||
|
|
a Christian people. Bands at Anglo-Russian functions are forbidden
|
|||
|
|
to play the Communist national anthem, and rich if small
|
|||
|
|
organizations continue to publish the old libels. But, the facts
|
|||
|
|
have for the vast majority of people swept away the long-standing
|
|||
|
|
prejudices as the first warm rains of spring wash away the snows.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The next step will be for the public to reflect how it has
|
|||
|
|
been systematically duped over a long series of years. The share of
|
|||
|
|
the Black International in this has been so conducted that most
|
|||
|
|
people are unaware of it, but the truth slowly emerges and Rome
|
|||
|
|
shudders. The Pope, we saw, already puts out rumors that in his
|
|||
|
|
intimate circle he, from the first, drew a sharp distinction
|
|||
|
|
between what he blamed in Russia, which was virtuous on the wrong
|
|||
|
|
grounds, and what he blamed in Germany and Italy. But no one has
|
|||
|
|
read a line in which he gave a straight moral condemnation of the
|
|||
|
|
Fascists and the Nazis -- he never blamed more than their
|
|||
|
|
interference with the Church and the attempt to annihilate Catholic
|
|||
|
|
Poland -- whereas the Catholic authorities themselves translated
|
|||
|
|
and circularized the vicious, vitriolic speech on the Communists of
|
|||
|
|
Spain, Mexico, and Russia, which he delivered on September 14,
|
|||
|
|
1936, (The Spanish Terror).
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
23
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Into whatever contortion the Black International is driven in
|
|||
|
|
the next few years the world is confronted today by a situation
|
|||
|
|
which sets in a glorious light all that the Pope cursed and casts
|
|||
|
|
a shade of ignominy and cowardice upon all that he blessed. Russia
|
|||
|
|
shines, and even China wins honor and admiration: the two chief
|
|||
|
|
countries in which the Pope had seen the activity of the devil:
|
|||
|
|
Spain, the Land which his shining Catholic crusaders were going to
|
|||
|
|
deliver from bondage and misery, is a country of spectral forms and
|
|||
|
|
general mourning, a land in which innocent men face the firing-
|
|||
|
|
squad daily, while the priests wax fatter, and the Catholic
|
|||
|
|
"nobles" and politicians do actually carouse in Madrid as the
|
|||
|
|
Bolshevik leaders were represented by the Pope's agents as doing in
|
|||
|
|
Moscow.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Portugal, we saw on the authority of a writer whom American
|
|||
|
|
Catholics had imprudently recommended as veracious, is a country in
|
|||
|
|
which priest-ridden jailers use the vilest tortures that were used
|
|||
|
|
in the ages of faith: in which decades of Liberal work for the
|
|||
|
|
education and elevation of the people have been trodden under foot,
|
|||
|
|
and the dictators are richly rewarded by Rome because they declare
|
|||
|
|
that they are ruling Portugal on the lines of the Pope's beautiful
|
|||
|
|
(but untranslated) encyclical.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Italy, dragged at the heels of Hitler's bumping chariot, is in
|
|||
|
|
so pitiful a condition that it wins the sympathy of its democratic
|
|||
|
|
enemies. From his own Vatican windows the Pope looks out upon a
|
|||
|
|
people that in a very high proportion curses the man whom the
|
|||
|
|
Vatican, by a sordid bargain, confirmed in his usurped power.
|
|||
|
|
London, the bombed and ravaged city, is gay with confidence, well
|
|||
|
|
fed, richly entertained at nights, reflecting the summer sun on the
|
|||
|
|
faces of its citizens. Rome is beggared and dejected, despised and
|
|||
|
|
bullied by the men who invited it to share the conquest of the
|
|||
|
|
world.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Vichy France is sullen and simmering. The myth that it was
|
|||
|
|
somehow ruled against its will by a posse of Jews, Atheists, and
|
|||
|
|
Freemasons and would, under such men of piety as Laval and Petain,
|
|||
|
|
flock cheerfully to the churches, is exploded. From Normandy to
|
|||
|
|
Savoy people sigh for deliverance from the regime of Catholicism
|
|||
|
|
and dishonor, rusticity and penury, which has been forced upon
|
|||
|
|
them. The French people have provided most of the $10,000,000,000
|
|||
|
|
worth of loot that the blond beasts, whom the Black International
|
|||
|
|
persuaded the French to admit, have dragged in French cars on
|
|||
|
|
French petrol into Germany. Never since its earliest history has
|
|||
|
|
proud France fallen so low as it is today, and it shudders to think
|
|||
|
|
that it may not have reached the end of its humiliating surrender.
|
|||
|
|
No people in the world today respects France -- except priest-
|
|||
|
|
ridden Quebec.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Belgium lies under an almost impenetrable cloud, earning its
|
|||
|
|
dry bread only by working for the master whom it has for quarter of
|
|||
|
|
a century hated more than any other on earth. Austria has perished.
|
|||
|
|
It is again the despised southern fringe of the German Reich. The
|
|||
|
|
Croats, who were persuaded by their priests to betray their
|
|||
|
|
country, fight the men to whom they betrayed it because they were
|
|||
|
|
the Pope's allies. The Slovaks who were similarly persuaded to
|
|||
|
|
complete the ruin of the country in which they had, enjoyed freedom
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
24
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
and social welfare now melt away on the battlefield of Russia.
|
|||
|
|
Latin America, the huge conglomeration of states which at the wave
|
|||
|
|
of Pacelli's white hand declared itself Catholic, once more, is
|
|||
|
|
rent and bewildered. The Pope's allies, the people find, had
|
|||
|
|
plotted to ruin them and now hang about their shares with murderous
|
|||
|
|
intent. And Germany and Japan, on whose success the Pope had
|
|||
|
|
gambled the whole security of his Church, seem to have reached the
|
|||
|
|
peak of their victories and have begun the decline that leads to
|
|||
|
|
the pit in which the fully developed strength of America, Russia,
|
|||
|
|
and Britain is bound to bury them.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Chapter V
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THE MONSTROUS ATTEMPT TO RESTORE THE MIDDLE AGES
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The treacherous irruption by night of Japan into the war has
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transformed it into the phenomenon which has been forecast, with
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heavy foreboding, for 20 years -- a world-war. Almost the entire
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civilized world is now involved in it. A few powers -- Sweden,
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Switzerland, Turkey, and Argentina -- are genuinely neutral, but,
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however clearly we may understand the difficulties of their
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position, no one regards it as an honorable distinction. The rest
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of the civilized world is divided into countries which live under
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the most hated emblems the world has seen for many centuries -- the
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Swastika and the Rising Sun (for Italy writhes under the former of
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these) -- and countries which are sworn to bring them down to the
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dust.
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Apart from Latin America, which is, as I said, distracted
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between its Papal assurances and the discovery of the perfidy and
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brutality of the Pope's allies, all Catholic countries fall in the
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first category. Their national flags where they still have any,
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are, if not deeply stained with dishonor, generally regarded with
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contempt or a pity that is tinged with disdain. There can be few
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more miserable statesmen in the world than Eugene Pacelli, or His
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Holiness Pius XII. Ten years ago he pledged his Church to a belief
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in the ultimate victory of Germany, Italy, and Japan. In the ruin
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of all liberal, as well as Socialist and Communist, ideals which
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they would effect no strong voice would be raised in protest,
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against his alliance with a bestial greed that sought to attain its
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end's by brutality almost without precedent in history. His
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gauleiter and his gestapo would, as always, loyally support the
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Vatican policy. The end justifies the means. As to the mass of the
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faithful, when did any large body of them ever rebel when Pope and
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Black International were united in their policy? And in the
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glorious extension of the power and wealth of the Church, the
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annihilation of its deadliest enemies, which the Pope anticipated
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from the victory of Swastika and the Rising Sun few Catholics would
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be in a critical mood.
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In the second stage of the war, when the Germans, finding
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nearly all Europe in their power and confident of Subduing the
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remainder, began to disclose their real sentiments about Italy --
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which the Vatican ought to have learned from Mein Kampf 20 years
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ago -- and proposed to share the world with Japan only, the Pope
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had a new dream. It suited the interests of the Vatican just as
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well as it was to the interest of Germany that Southern Europe
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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25
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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should have its industries destroyed. Big industries mean clotted
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urban populations, free discussion, freethought, birth control, and
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so on. The Vatican had seen that painful development in France,
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Belgium, Italy, and Czecho-Slovakia. The Black International was
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ready to join in the plot to de-industrialize those countries and
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let Germany glow rich by a monopoly of industry, in Europe. Petain,
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with the priests at his elbow, openly mumbles it, in his senile
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honesty, and has within the last month closed down a thousand
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industries in France. Leopold of Belgium and his Catholic
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satellites, Franco, and Salazar cheerfully send their skilled
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workers to Germany or to the Russian shambles. Hitler would allow
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a Catholic League of Southern Europe, and through Spain and
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Portugal the 100,000,000 folk of Latin America would be drawn into
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it. Hitler promised the Subjection to the Vatican of all branches
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of the Greek and Oriental Churches. Japan promised a monopoly of
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Christian missions (if thoroughly Japanized) in the Far East. . .
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That these were the plans on which the Vatican worked I showed
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on Catholic admissions and by the plain testimony of facts in the
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first ten booklets. Already the vast field of Catholic triumph is
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a scorched earth. The Pope is ill, silent, desperately watching the
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last critical phases of a conflict that, unless it be won speedily
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by the Axis, will inexorably be lost. From those windows of the
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Vatican Palace which look out upon the world he sees only one flag
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waving above the ruins unsullied: the Hammer and Sickle. Britain
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has won respect by the courage and endurance of her people but,
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after a series of retreats that are rare in British history, has
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still to, and doubtless will, redeem the honor of its flag. There
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is a stain on the Stars and Stripes that has yet to be removed.
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Russia. has made no large blunders but has met the initial impact
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of an irresistible force and the loss of vast fertile provinces and
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great industries and has begun its recovery with a devotion,
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energy, and self-sacrifice that have torn the Pope's libels to
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tatter's. Bring on your stage today representative figures of all
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the Pope's peoples -- the pale and ragged Italian, the gaunt
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Spaniard, the illiterate and poverty-stricken Portuguese, the
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shame-faced Belgian or Vichy Frenchman, the hesitating Latin
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American -- and at the end of the file bring on a Bolshevik, and
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listen to the judgment of the audience. What the Pope cursed the
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world blesses: what he blessed the world curses. The Pope has lost.
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But, aside from the fact that in America the Black
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International is powerful enough to hide this truth from the mass
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of people, remember that the Pope has lost dozens of times before,
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yet he has today more subjects than ever, immeasurably greater
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wealth, and a new power in non-Catholic countries.
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A week ago a powerful British air-fleet bombed Cologne. I had
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wondered how long it would be before this was done. Here was one of
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the most vital and most vulnerable bottle-necks in Europe. Through
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it passed practically all the war-supplies from Holland, Belgium,
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and Northern France. Thoroughly smash the railway through the city,
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where it approaches the Rhine, and the great bridges, and you deal
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Germany a terrific blow. But -- I once spent five or six weeks in
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Cologne -- the cathedral is close to the railway and the bridges.
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It was unhurt, and who will believe that the vital part of the
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railway and the bridge which carries it over the river, which are
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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26
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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only a few hundred yards from the cathedral, were properly treated
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if no bomb strayed across the square? I hear that, at the prayer of
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British Catholics, our airman were told to run no risk of touching
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the cathedral.
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Why was Rome never bombed? There were times when this was
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within our power, and it might have had a very considerable
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influence on our fortunes in the Mediterranean area. H.G. Wells
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asked me the other day if I knew why it was not done. I do not
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know. These things are not put on paper, and if they were the paper
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would never see the light. But there is a grapevine, and the
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message went along it that through Roosevelt American Catholics
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threatened things, and there were Black International threats in
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parts of the British Empire, if we bombed Rome. Mussolini probably
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patted his Papal friend on the back.
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However these things may be, remember that Rome has many times
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in history seemed to be doomed because of its Papal alliances with
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brutality, but it recovered. About 850 years ago the Romans
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themselves drove one of the strongest of the Popes into exile for
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such an alliance. In 1527 Catholic armies wrecked Rome as Goths and
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Vandals had never done. Early in the 19th Century, a contemporary
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tells us, Napoleon's generals, entering Italy and carrying off the
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Pope, decided that this was to be the end of the Papacy; and not
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many years later Macaulay made his foolish prediction that there
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would still be a Papacy when visitors from New Zealand came to see
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the ruins of London.
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I dislike prediction's, and indeed I have accomplished the
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work which I set out to do in this series of books. I proved to the
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hilt the indictment I brought against the Black International, and
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I have now shown that the Church of Rome is of such a nature, so
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dangerous in its structure and so feeble in its intellectual
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appeal, that it is bound to look for such allies in every age. A
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third line of evidence is found in Papal history, especially during
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the last century and a half. Violence has always -- I do not know
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if this was in the protocols given by Jesus to Peter -- been the
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policy on which the Black International relied. The Popes merely
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kept the weapon tucked under their cassocks during the few decades
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between the death of feudal tyranny and the birth of totalitarian
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tyranny. The leopard does not change its spots, but it may have
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them white-washed.
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Nevertheless I may conclude with a glance at the future. This
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German-Japanese horror shall and will perish. As I write there is
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still time for a serious setback to Britain, Russia, or America, or
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all three. I have never been tempted to underrate the ability of
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the men who, behind the miserable tinfoil Siegfried and his greedy,
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friends, direct the German effort or the cunning and lean energy of
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the Japanese. If this serious advance of the Axis does not occur in
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the next few weeks we may breathe freely. Within, two further
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months the retreat will begin. The end, this year (if Britain opens
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a second front) or next, is certain.
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What will Rome do? Remember first that comparatively few
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people know the story of its guilt. A few American papers have at
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intervals reported Vatican events which suggested it. The vast
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majority of the leading papers, both in America and Britain, never
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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27
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM
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gave any news which gave their readers an inkling of the truth.
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Fortunately, much had been reported -- the compact with Mussolini,
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the Concordat with Hitler, the enthusiastic support of Franco, the
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diplomatic arrangement with Japan, and so on -- before the
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bestiality of Fascism had revealed itself, and such facts as that
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the only voluntary "crusaders" against Russia are from Catholic
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countries and the unconverted isolationists of America play up
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strongly to the Catholic minority, give us a basis in the Public
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mind for a proper education.
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It is therefore probable that there will not be the general
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outcry against Rome that a man who has read the full evidence
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would. expect. No other writer of influence has the courage and
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honesty to warn the public, as Wells does, that instead of having
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been reconciled with the modern spirit the Church of Rome is as
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dangerous an enemy of civilization as ever. One thing only would
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cause the Church the deepest alarm: if the victory of democracy
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were to put Communism and Socialism back in the places they
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occupied years ago. Will this happen?
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It depends very largely upon America. When the war is over the
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isolationists will be amongst the loudest to demand that America
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shall have a leading voice in the settlement of Europe and China.
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Every sensible man will welcome the aid of America in such a
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restoration of Europe that, instead of sowing the dragon's teeth as
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we did at Versailles at the close of the last war, we have every
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guarantee that is humanly possible of a lasting peace. But the
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terms of settlement that have been so far announced are ominously
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vague, and we know only too well what "stability" means on the lips
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of these folk.
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You will find, when the time comes, that the Vatican will make
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a brazen attempt to secure a voice as one of the great stabilizing
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forces. You will find Catholics everywhere combining with the
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reactionaries who want to plan the new Europe. They will want
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Leopold restored, men like Bonnet put in power in France Franco
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firmly established in Spain and Salazar in Portugal, the royal
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family propped on the throne of Italy, and so on. By hook or crook
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they will try to get Russia, which will have won the war in Europe,
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excluded from the settlement. They will insist that religion be
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"strengthened," knowing that Romanism,, Buddhism, and Islam have
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worked on the side of our enemies, and that Communism be taken at
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the Pope's valuation. If the present generation tolerates these
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things and does not insist on the guilt of every party being
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stamped upon the mind of the world they will deserve their future.
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The struggle for the rights of man which has reddened Europe with
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blood for a century and a half will enter upon a new phase.
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**** ****
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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**** ****
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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28
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