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Page 1
Once a great bastion against
Communism, the Roman Catholic
Church has not been living up to
its anti-Communist responsibilities.
The Decline Of
Roman Catholic
Anti-Communism
by The Reverend Francis E. Fenton
@ FIFTEEN years ago, no one
doubted where the Roman Catholic
Church stood on Communism, Its
words and actions showed it to be as
unequivocally opposed to Communism
as it was to the Devil himself. But the
situation has radically changed since
Pope John XXIII assumed the papal
throne in 1958 — and especially since
1963 when his successor, Pope Paul
VI, became the head of the Roman
Catholic Church. So strikingly has the
stance of that Church been changed in
relation to Communism that the ques-
tion must now be asked: In the fight
against Communism, on whose side is
the Roman Catholic Church? I ask it
in all seriousness.
March 15, 1972
When was the last time the Vatican
spoke out in condemnation of the
Satanic evil that is Communism, and
warned against its designs, and ex-
posed its vile and vicious machinations
and the massive barbarities to which it
has devoted itself, and exhorted
Catholics to inform themselves on the
nature of Communism and to oppose
it in every lawful way at their dis-
posal, as did Popes Leo XIII and Pius
XI and other pontiffs in generations
past? Incredibly, in all of the official
declarations and documents which
emanated from the four years of Vat-
ican Council II (1962-1965), the
word Communism is not so much as
mentioned!
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The Communist Conspiracy and the
Insiders who control it now operate
the largest slave empire in the history
of the world, with over 1 billion
human beings in various stages of
subjugation to their ruthless and god-
less tyranny. But when is the last time
any Catholic reader of these lines
heard so much as a hint of this from
the pulpit of his parish church? He
may well have been urged from the
pulpit to support the infamous United
Nations, and he may well have heard
proclaimed the “living martyrdom” of
the subversive Berrigan brothers, and
he may well have been told of the
“sanctity” and the “dedication to the
poor” of Marxist labor boss Cesar
Chavez. But nary a word is such a
Catholic likely to have heard, from
almost any Catholic pulpit in the land,
of the living death being endured daily
under Communism by millions of his
fellow Christians in the Captive Na-
tions — millions of them imprisoned
and tortured and starved for no other
“crime” than that of believing in God!
Nor is a Catholic apt to learn much
of the ugly truth about Communism
from most of what is being passed off
as the Catholic press in America today.
If those who read “Liberal” Catholic
papers and magazines are well in-
formed on Communism, then it is in
spite of those publications. In 1937,
Pope Pius XI noted and deplored in
the secular press what he termed a
“conspiracy of silence” about the evils
of Communism. His words would now
be just as applicable to most of the
Catholic press of America.
2
The Catholic schools in our country
are almost as bad. Having conversed on
the subject with many hundreds of
informed and concerned Catholics in
my lecture tours around the country
over the past four years, and having
been in a number of those schools
during that period, I can assure anyone
who doubts it that, whatever is now
being taught in the large majority of
Father Fenton
urges Catholic
anti-Communism.
Catholic schools in America, it’s not
the truth about Communism and it’s
not Americanism and it’s not the
traditional Catholic faith! This is espe-
cially true at the college and the
university level. Any Catholic who
thinks for a moment that I exaggerate
ought to make it his business to find
out for himself. The experience,
though gruesome, will prove a real
eye-opener.
The fact is that the Roman Catholic
Church from the top on down,
through so many of its clergy and
nuns, its press and educational institu-
tions, is simply not fighting the Com-
munist Conspiracy. It is aiding and
abetting and furthering the advance of
that Conspiracy. Far from being the
“great bastion against Communism” it
once was, it has more and more
become an ally of Communism. These
are strong words. But I submit that no
The Review Of The NEWS
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other conclusion can be drawn from
the record of the past several years.
The story of those years has been one
of ever increasing compromise and
collaboration with Communism on the
part of the Roman Catholic Church,
particularly under Pope Paul VI.
To give a few examples involving
the Vatican itself:
(1) Some weeks after the Vatican
and Communist Yugoslavia resumed
full diplomatic relations in August of
1970, “President” Josip Broz Tito,
Communist dictator of Yugoslavia,
was permitted to make an official visit
to see Pope Paul VI. According to
press reports at the time, the Vatican
paid “solemn honors” to Tito, and
“the red star flag of Communism flew
over the buildings of the Holy See,”
while the Pope praised Tito for his
efforts at seeking “peace and interna-
tional collaboration.” This same Tito
has been responsible over the years for
the murder of countless thousands of
Catholic and other Christian clergy
and laity.
(2) While the International Labor
Organization (I.L.0.) has been identi-
fied by such authorities as George
Meany as an instrument of the Com-
munist apparatus, Pope Paul VI saw fit
to visit the I.L.O. headquarters at
Geneva in June 1970. Upon his recep-
tion of the invitation to make that
visit, Pope Paul VI described the I.L.O.
as “‘a deserving and representative in-
ternational organism, so very congenial
with our own mission of justice, of
peace and of brotherhood.” Yet even
the U.S. Senate, hardly known in
March 15, 1972
recent years for its anti-Communism,
has refused to sanction an annual
donation of the American Government
to the I.L.O. because of top-level
Communist control.
(3) U.S. News & World Report for
July 5, 1971, was apparently correct
in its observation that “Pope Paul VI
has espoused Red China’s admission to
the United Nations, and has made a
number of conciliatory references to
the Peking regime.” According to the
June 30, 1971, issue of World Parish, a
publication of the Catholic Maryknoll
Fathers, “the Holy See intervened
many times in favor of China’s admis-
sion to the United Nations.” The
Review Of The News for November
17, 1971, recorded further Vatican
dealings with Red China, relating that,
in return for Peking’s “word” that life
would be better for the 4 million
Pope Paul VI
promoted Mao’s
cause at U.N.
oe
Rte mae
Catholics enslaved in Communist
China, the Vatican recalled its Papal
Nuncio from the capital of Free China
on Formosa and recognized 48 Chi-
nese Catholic bishops chosen by the
Red Chinese rulers. One can imagine
what exemplary Catholic bishops were
chosen by Mao Tse-tung!
(4) One of the truly heroic anti-
Communists among the Catholic hier-
archy is Josef Cardinal Mindszenty of
3
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Hungary. During his years as a prisoner
of the Communists from 1949 to
1956, and throughout the fifteen years
(1956-1971) during which he re-
mained in Spartan confinement in the
U.S. Embassy in Budapest because he
courageously refused to abandon his
people and to admit to the false
Communist charges for which he had
been imprisoned, Cardinal Mindszenty
has been a shining symbol to the
world of continuing resistance to Com-
munist tyranny. In September of
1971, he left Hungary only because he
was ordered by Rome to do so. Ac-
cording to the religious edition of The
Herald Of Freedom for November 12,
1971, the agreement between the Vati-
can and Communist Hungary, under
which Cardinal Mindszenty was re-
leased, “provided that the Cardinal
was to remain silent concerning condi-
tions in Communist Hungary and his
treatment while in prison and would
not try to publish his manuscript
exposing the history of Communism in
Hungary from 1918 on.”
Cardinal Mindszenty’s story of per-
secution under Communism would be
a powerful stimulant to the anti-
Communist forces of the world. It is
obvious why the Communists would
want to silence the Cardinal, but why
would the Vatican agree to it? Is it
because the Communist slavemasters
of Hungary gave their “word” that, if
he does remain silent, they will be less
ruthless to the people of Hungary? But
Communists are inveterate liars. Their
word means nothing. If the history of
Communism proves anything, it proves
4
that. What is feared, obviously, is that
Cardinal Mindszenty’s story would ex-
pose too much of the ugly truth about
the “mellowing” Communists, and
thereby prove an embarrassment to
both the Vatican and the American
Government. I, for one, fervently hope
that the Cardinal speaks out loud and
clear — and soon, so that the entire
world may hear him!
(5) The continually increasing col-
laboration of the Vatican with the
pro-Communist World Council of
Josef Cardinal
Mindszenty
has been silenced.
Churches and with “prelates” of the
Russian Orthodox Church is another
case of grave concern. The Russian
Orthodox Church in Russia (or, more
accurately, the Moscow Patriarchate)
is the Soviet puppet “Church.” As
such, we can be absolutely certain that
its “clergy” are in good standing with
their Communist overlords. Nor is this
mere conjecture. Moscow’s Metropoli-
tan Boris Nikodim is, in fact, an official
of high standing in the K.G.B., the So-
viet secret police — the same Nikodim
who offered the liturgy in St. Peter’s in
Rome on December 14, 1970. He is well
described by one familiar with his per-
secution of Christians inside Russia as
“one of the most diabolical and dan-
gerous men alive’; a man whose
“hands are red with martyrs’ blood.”
The Review Of The NEWS
Page 5
Patriarch Pimen is also a Commu-
nist agent. Yet at his installation as
Patriarch of the Marxist Church in
Soviet Russia, Rome was officially
represented by Jan Cardinal Wille-
brands. Pope Paul VI sent a congratu-
latory telegram to “Patriarch” Pimen
on that occasion, which read in part:
“We are anxious to tell you that you
will find in us a brother eager to
collaborate” (LZ Osservatore Romano).
It was this same Pimen who sent an
enthusiastic telegram of commenda-
tion to Communist Premier Aleksei
Kosygin on the occasion of the fifty-
third anniversary of the October
Revolution.
The Moscow Patriarchate, or Soviet
“Church,” is of course a member of
the World Council of Churches. It is
but one more Communist instrument
for the destruction of all faith in God.
Why, then, is not the Roman Catholic
Church exposing it for what it is? Why
is the Vatican collaborating with such
agents of the Devil as Comrades Niko-
dim and Pimen?
And what of the many tens of
millions — indeed, hundreds of mil-
lions — of Communist-enslaved peo-
ples of all faiths throughout the
world? Where are the protests from
the Vatican? Can such silence in the
face of horrible evil possibly be justi-
fied? Ukrainian Catholic Josyf Cardi-
nal Slipyj doesn’t think so. He was a
prisoner of the Communists for eight-
een years, from 1945 to 1963. On
October 23, 1971, he told the World
Synod of Bishops in Rome:
Ukrainian Catholics have sac-
March 15, 1972
rificed rivers of blood and moun-
tains of bodies because of their
loyalty to the Church and they
still suffer severe persecutions.
What is worse, there is nobody
to defend them…. Because of
church diplomacy we are im-
peded. Ukrainians who have suf-
fered so much and so long as
martyrs and confessors are ig-
nored as inconvenient witnesses
of past evils. We have become an
obstacle to church diplomacy.
To read that, and understand what
it means, is to weep. But there is far
more to this collaboration of the
Vatican with Communism. And even
the most casual exposition of how so
many Catholic clergy and nuns and
publications and schools are, here in
the United States, supporting and ad-
Notre Dame
honors radical
William Kunstler.
vancing the Communist cause would
fill many pages of this magazine. Here
are a few examples:
® On April 2, 1971, at once-Catholic
Notre Dame University, attorney Wil-
liam Kunstler, best known for his legal
defense of such subversives and revolu-
tionaries as the Chicago Conspiracy
Seven, was given, in the presence of
over 1,000 students and guests, the
1971 Senior Fellow Award as “an
individual who has the integrity, the
Page 6
decency and the willingness to work
for the best values and finest traditions
of our society’! Kunstler was chosen
for this honor by the senior class at
Notre Dame.
Even the foul-mouthed Ti-Grace
Atkinson of Women’s Lib has been
allowed to speak at Notre Dame. She
gave a speech described by Catholic
Bishop William L. Adrian of Tennessee
as a “vile, sacrilegious, defamatory
tirade.” Bishop Adrian says that abor-
tion is also being promoted at Notre
Dame, not only by campus organiza-
tions but by advertisements in student
publications. A ‘Mass’ has been held
there honoring Chinese Communist
Mao Tse-tung. And the notorious
Bayard Rustin, a convicted sex pervert
and former Communist Organizer,
now serves on the Notre Dame Board
of Trustees.
@ On March 20, 1971, a rally to free
Communist Angela Davis was held at
St. Brigid’s Church in New York City.
The speaker was pro-Communist racial
agitator Ossie Davis. According to
Catholic News, the New York archdio-
cesan newspaper, Davis was also per-
mitted to speak on behalf of Miss Da-
vis, a self-confessed Communist and
Black Panther on trial for her part in a
terrible murder, at Catholic Marymount
College in Tarrytown, New York.
@ Father Lawrence Lucas is the black
pastor of the Resurrection Catholic
Church in New York City. He is
quoted by the New York Sunday
News of November 15, 1970, as say-
ing: “It is now time for the black man
to stand up and fight for what is
6
rightly his by any means necessary.”
That’s right, he said by any means
necessary. Some man of God! Yet
Father Lucas was one of the priests
recommended by the national Black
Catholic Clergy Caucus for the posi-
tion of bishop of the Catholic Arch-
diocese of Washington, D.C.
@ According to the religious edition
of The Herald Of Freedom for Octo-
ber 1, 1971, Father William F. Nearin
of the Oklahoma City-Tulsa Catholic
Diocese “openly denied the existence
of God” at a meeting at Fordham
University of the National Association
of Catholic Laymen in June of 1971.
To my knowledge Father Nearin re-
mains a priest in good standing in the
Roman Catholic Church, as do Lucas,
the Berrigans, Groppi, and others of
that ilk.
@ Anton LaVey is the “high priest”
of the Church of Satan in San Fran-
cisco. According to the Oakland Trib-
Church of Satan's
Anton LaVey
heard by Jesuits.
une of March 17, 1970, “LaVey is a
favorite speaker at the University of
San Francisco” where, says Anton
LaVey, “ ‘the Jesuits are my greatest
audience.’” The University of San
Francisco is also alleged to be a
Catholic school.
@ To every informed American, what-
ever his religion, it is equally distress-
The Review Of The NEWS.
Page 7
ing to observe the continued commen-
dation and support given the godless
United Nations by the Vatican and by
the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the
United States. An article during May
1971 in New World, Catholic paper of
the Archdiocese of Chicago, quotes
from a statement released by the
American bishops at their semi-annual
meeting in San Francisco last year, in
which they call on American Catholics
to join in appreciation of the “noble
purposes” of the United Nations and
to “increase their knowledge and un-
derstanding” of the U.N.’s “efforts
and achievements.” (Presumably in-
cluding the rape of Katanga!)
“In the United Nations,” declared
the bishops, “we see the beginnings of
a new international order to replace
the jealous sovereignty of states and
the fragmenting forces of national-
ism….” Pope Paul VI has made
clear his support of the United Na-
tions on several occasions, and the
Vatican annually gives a donation to
the pro-Communist fraud called
UN.LC.E.F. Interestingly, Ludovico
Montini, brother of Pope Paul VI, is
chairman of the Italian national com-
mittee for UN.LC.E.F., and has
served several terms as the Italian
delegate to meetings of U.N.L.C.E.F.’s
executive board.
@ The efforts of Marxist Cesar Chavez
to promote his United Farm Workers
Organizing Committee were backed by
some $86,000 from the U.S. Catholic
bishops’ national Campaign for Human
Development in 1970. That is the
same Cesar Chavez whose chief advisor
March 15, 1972
has been Communist Sam Kushner.
And Chavez is, to say the least, a
highly questionable recipient of the
charitable donations of Catholics — as
anyone can conclude for himself from
even a cursory look at the Fourteenth
Report of the California Senate Fact-
finding Subcommittee on Un-Ameri-
can Activities, where Chavez is thor-
oughly exposed.
@ The National Lawyers Guild is a
notorious Communist Front. The
House Committee on Un-American
Activities, now known as the House
Internal Security Committee, has
cited it officially as “‘the foremost
legal bulwark of the Communist Par-
ty….which since its inception has
never failed to rally to the defense of
the Communist Party and individual
members thereof, including known
espionage agents.” Father Robert
Drinan, currently a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives from
Massachusetts, was for years vice presi-
Ge ern
‘ i was vice president
of Communist Front.
dent of this Communist Front. At the
same time, he was Dean of the Law
School at Boston College, which is said
to be a great Catholic university.
Father Drinan continues to embarrass
Catholic members of Congress by in-
sisting that they refer to him as
“Bob,” and by using his seat on the
7
Page 8
House Internal Security Committee as
a pro-Communist soapbox.
@ But, bad as these individual per-
formances are, of far more concern is
the ever growing collaboration of the
Roman Catholic Church in America
with the pro-Communist National
Council of Churches. Yet there re-
mains a grim prospect that the Roman
Catholic Church will join the National
Council in the near future.
@ And even if one supposes that the
Roman Catholic Church in the United
States is “soft on Communism,” the
situation is worse, perhaps far worse,
in a number of South American coun-
tries where, under the Marxist leader-
ship of such “Catholic” prelates as
Archbishop Helder Camara of Brazil,
Bishop Antulio Parrilla-Bonilla of
Puerto Rico, and Paul Cardinal Silva
Enriquez of Chile, revolutionary
priests are “a dime a dozen.” In far
too many countries in Latin America
the Catholic Church is, from all indica-
tions, a very significant ally of, the
Communist Conspiracy. And the situa-
tion is growing worse.
ee OF
The Satanic conspiracy of Commu-
nism constitutes the gravest threat that
humanity has faced throughout the
Christian centuries. To resist it unto
death by every lawful means at their
disposal is the moral duty of all free
men who truly love their God and
cherish in their hearts and souls the
God-given gift of freedom. How can
anyone who calls himself a Christian
be anything but the inexorable enemy
of that Conspiracy which despises the
very name of Christ and has impris-
oned and tortured and murdered so
many men, women, and children for
no other reason than their loyalty to
that same Christ?
And how much more does this
apply to those men who, by virtue of
their state in life as clergymen, are sup-
posed to be, in their allegiance to the
moral law of God and in their defense
of freedom, leaders of their fellow
men? Such Christian leaders should be
in the vanguard of the anti-Communist
forces of our nation and of the world!
But where, with relatively few excep-
tions, are the churches and the clergy
in the fight against Communism?
Where is the Catholic Church in this
fight? On whose side is it? If it is, in
fact, on the anti-Communist side,
where is the evidence?
Once the implacable foe of the
International Communist Conspiracy,
the Roman Catholic Church has with-
drawn from the field of battle. Once
the arch enemy of Communism, the
Roman Catholic Church has become,
especially under Pope Paul VI, a col-
laborator with it. The record of recent
years, of which this article claims to be
but the merest sampling, speaks for
itself. For a Church that could have
made an incalculably vast contribution
to the fight against Communism, it is a
shameful and appalling record indeed.
In my humble opinion, those Roman
Catholic clergymen responsible for it
will have much to explain when the
time comes to render to Almighty God
an account of the stewardship en-
trusted to them. m @
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