"Two-Timing Catholics?"

An Irishman, so the story goes, once insisted on being buried in a Church of England cemetery, because "that's the last place the Divil would look for an Irishman."

This yarn, repeated at a businessmen's luncheon early this year, put an idea in the heads of three officials of the Catholic War Veterans. They reasoned that the last place anyone would look for Communists would be within the Roman Catholic fold.* They decided that they had better start looking.

With or Against? With the blessing of National Commander Max H. Sorensen, the C.W.V.'s publications committee got busy tapping the "broadest possible sources" for information about Catholics who might be flirting with Communism: they pored over the daily press, dug into reference libraries, kept their ears to the ground for rumors. Explained Adman Douglas Murphey, a leader of the drive: "As members of an institution whose Founder warned, 'Judge not that ye be not judged,' we have no right to question any man's conscience. Are we then defenseless? No, we have also been told, 'He that is not with me is against me.' "

This week the C.W.V. monthly paper, the Catholic War Veteran, published the third in a series of editorials giving the results of the probe. The Veteran named names, but did not actually pin a Red label on anyone. Instead, it published a sort of catechism, and then listed the names of some "two-timing Catholics" it would like to have answer its questions. Said the Veteran: such persons "publicly profess Catholicism under circumstances or in situations which make such profession suspiciously beneficial to a suspiciously anti-Christian cause."

Toughest questions in the test: What public position have you taken about 1) the present Government of Poland; 2) the trial of Archbishop Stepinac; 3) the present Government of Greece; 4) the Vatican v. Moscow? Would you be willing to be quoted publicly as supporting this statement (from Pope Pius XI's Encyclical on Atheistic Communism): "Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever"?

Why Hesitate? The test was pointedly addressed to U.A.W. Secretary-Treasurer George Addes; California C.I.O. man Philip Connelly; Ernest de Maio, a leader in the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America; Author-Correspondent Quentin Reynolds; Lawyer Bartley C. Crum; Hunter College Assistant Professor Emmanuel Chapman; Radio Commentator J. Raymond Walsh; T.W.U. President Michael J. Quill; Screen Writers' Guild President Emmet Lavery; Josephine Timms, secretary-treasurer of the American Communications Association. And, says the C.W.V., there are a few more to come.

Commented Thomas Walsh, the C.W.V.'s publications head: "We feel we're doing a patriotic act in giving these people a chance to clarify their position. We're hoping that they are all good Catholics and we honestly pray that they'll answer the questions--bang! We wouldn't hesitate to ask these questions of Cardinal Spellman, so why should we hesitate to ask them of an ordinary one of the flock?" By last week, none of the people being quizzed had answered--bang! except George Addes. The C.W.V. did not publish Addes' answers, to which they had replied simply: "Your statement does not answer the questions." But some of the others had grumbled to the daily press. Chapman said that his opposition to Communism was well known, and that he considered the test "shameful." Said Reynolds: his personal religious life was "none of their business."

*In contemporary Europe, especially in Italy, many churchgoing Catholics vote Communist. Recently, when Italy's Premier De Gasperi boasted that 99% of Italians were Catholics, Communist Leader Togliatti reminded him that 4,000,000 Italians voted Communist in the last national election (TIME, April 7).

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