Christianity and the Mass Media in America: Toward a Democratic Accommodation

Chapter 3: LEADING THE TRIBES OUT OF EXILE: THE RELIGIOUS PRESS DISCERNS BROADCASTING

3 Leading the Tribes Out of Exile: The Religious Press Discerns Broadcasting P P P In 1936 General Francisco Franco and other military leaders revolted against the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, plunging the country into a devastating civil war that would last until 1939. American Roman Catholics faced divided loyalties in trying to stake out positions in the public discourse about the war. Hoping that the Republic would become more democratic, and fearful of Franco’s “crusade,” some Catholics argued for supporting the new Republican government even in the face of its violence against clerics of the state church. Other Catholics believed that Franco’s campaign enjoyed clerical support and might, in spite of its fascist followers, be the better of two imperfect sides in a messy revolt. American Catholics faced a potentially divisive quandary about a war that could threaten all of Europe. Many Catholic periodicals in America hoped to shed some light on the war and thereby serve the church more fully than could the mainstream media. The Catholic press generally sided with Franco and against the Republic , believing that the government was not truly democratic but rather a front for anarchism, socialism, and Communism. One writer portrayed Franco’s efforts as “a nearly faultless crusade to preserve Iberia’s ancient 89 liberties and traditions, including the special place of the Church within Catholic circles.” Only a few Catholic voices spoke publicly against Franco. One of them was a weekly lay periodical, Commonweal, whose managing editor, George N. Schuster, called Franco’s efforts a “military cabal” and a “nightmarish incident.” Schuster challenged the Jesuit journal America, which “stood solidly behind the rebel legions.” A “Right” victory, said America, could not result in anything worse than what was already perpetrated by the “Red” government of the “United Communist Front.” Many of Commonweal’s 15,000 subscribers angrily wrote letters to the editor, while some irate clergy cancelled subscriptions.1 In the months ahead, Catholic magazines and papers vied with each other over the issue of how Catholics should think about the Spanish Civil War. The Catholic Worker, led by former Communist Dorothy Day, condemned every aspect of Franco’s revolt. Regional and national Catholic periodicals in the United States opened their pages to voices from Spain and from American Catholic activists and intellectuals. Father Henry Palmer, a diocesan priest from Long Island, wrote that “the sword [of Franco] does not convert. It kills the good with the bad. It wages against truth as well as error.” “Do you suppose,” he added, “that St. Thomas would justify slaughtering these deluded fools, no matter what their sin? Would he countenance shooting them to death with curses on their lips against God and the Church, when these deluded people might have been so easily brought back to the faith by a more sympathetic appreciation of their grievances and a more intensive manifestation of Christian charity?” Citing Catholic periodicals’ attacks on Day, Schuster, and others, Palmer wrote that a “Catholic paper which makes such frequent charges against the unfairness of the Secular Press, might well examine its own conscience, if it treats so badly an honorable adversary within the Church itself.” Father Charles E. Coughlin, the legendary radio preacher from Detroit, criticized Commonweal for its “silk-stocking class” and its “pussyfooting” on Spain.2 The Catholic press during the Spanish Civil War documents some of the major conversations that American Catholics were having about the war— conversations within parishes, between vocational orders, among clerical and lay leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, within the pages of particular periodicals, between periodicals, and even among Catholic periodicals and mainstream news media. Religious organizations in America have always included in their ranks the kinds of publications that engage clergy and lay members of churches in vigorous conversations about important events, 90 Quentin J. Schultze ideas, and artistic expressions that are shaping culture far beyond the boundaries of the ecclesiastical channels. Christian periodicals sometimes focus narrowly on official, institutional information and events, but often they vigorously engage the surrounding culture, pushing the range of their conversations to new geographic areas and social strata that might otherwise not be able to participate directly in the religious discussions of the day. By engaging religious communities in such conversations, religious periodicals become part of the public mind as it is recorded in their pages and remembered by their participants. Media history, suggests James...