" STORM OVER COUGHLIN

"Radio Priest" May
Not Broadcast
Might Estrange Labour
Split With Hierarchy Over
C.I.O. Ideology
Front Our Own Correspondent
NEW YORK.
Father Charles E. Coughlin, who founded and until last month edited the American paper Social Justice, is still a storm centre this week. Known to the whole world as the " Radio Priest," Fr. Coughlin visited the " old country" during the summer.
His position at the time of writing is that his broadcasts are suspended following, it is alleged, a break between himself and the American Hierarchy over the question of the C.I.O., America's labour organisation, which Fr. Coughlin has condemned.
Mgr. Ryan, one of the most respected Catholic leaders of opinion in the U.S.A., has declared that if the " Radio Priest" were pertnitted to continue broadcasting the Catholic Church would unavoidably be at loggerheads with labour.
" NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK HIS MIND"
Was Fr. Coughlin forbidden by his ecclesiastical superiors, it is being argued, to continue with his series of radio broad casts? Is Fr. Coughlin correct in saying that the C.I.O. (Committee for Industrial Organisation) is " Red," as against Mgr. Ryan's statement that Catholics should be patient with and offer " sympathetic criticism " towards radicals in the CIO.?
It was reported last week in the Catholic Herald that Fr. Coughlin's paper Social Justice which he founded in 1936 is now edited by Walter Baertschi, chief lieutenant of the National Union of Social Justice.
According to Raertschi, Fr. Coughlin will not write in Social Justice "until it is determined whether he can speak his own mind or not."
Mgr. Ryan's Position The questions at the head of this article are discussed in Social Justice for November 1, a propos of an important speech made by Mgr. Ryan to the Knights of St. Columbus at McKeesport, Pa.
Mgr. Ryan's official position adds weight to the attitude he has taken up in the Coughlin controversy. He is the Director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the official co-ordinating agency of American Catholic activities. Archbishop Mooney of Detroit, who expressed disapproval of Fr. Coughlin's attacks on the C.I.O., is the executive chairman of the same organisation.
Mgr. Ryan is reported by Social Justice as having made the following statements: 1. " A crisis would have resulted had Fr. Coughlin been permitted to continue with his series of radio broadcasts."
On this, the editor of Social Justice comments that according to Archbishop Mooney Fr. Coughlin's expressed determination to cancel his broadcasting contract represents an entirely independent decision on his own part.
2. " If Fr. Coughlin's broadcasts had continued the Catholic Church would have become. estranged from Labour."
3. " The Communist peril in the United States has been much exaggerated. We ought to have patience with the radicalism of some of the subordinate officials of the new unions. Sympathetic criticism will be much more effective than drastic denunciation."
The main point at issue is whether or not the CIO. should be supported by Catholics. Fr. Coughlin says it should not. Archbishop Mooney says that no Catholic authority has ever held the published principles of the CIO. to be incompatible with Catholicity, and according to Social Justice at least one Catholic bishop has given the CIO. his official approval. and urges Catholics to join it.
Bishop's Tribute to C.I.O.
In an interview with John Brophy, director of the C.I.O.. Bishop Lucey, of
Amarillo, Texas, said, in part, " It is the duty of working people to join a bona fide labour union for mutual protection and progress. They must organise for their own sake and for the welfare of their families, their community and their nation. Ultimately, organised employers and organised employees must unite to make history and agriculture operate for the common good. The CIO. has taken a long step in that direction."
" Church's Leftist No. 1 "
Social Justice for November 9 contains a violent attack on Mgr. Ryan, the wellknown American Catholic Action leader, whom it calls Church's Leftist No. 1. Mgr. Ryan is a supporter of President Roosevelt, and at the last Presidential election he took a prominent part in the campaign against Mr. Lemke, who was supported by Fr. Coughlin. His task was, in his own words: "To persuade the American people that the economic theories and the campaign methods of Mr. Lemke's principal supporter did not enjoy the approval of the church or the American bishops.
" Thousands of Catholics feared, and millions of non-Catholics assumed, that he had such approval. These fears and assumptions had to be corrected and refuted by somebody.
" The task of deflation was to shake the faith of millions in and to check the conversion of other millions to, the economic theories and the monetary remedies proposed by the principal supporter of Mr.
I.cmke (meaning Fr. Coughlin). Why was this necessary?
" Simply because the preaching of these theories and remedies was seriously obstructing the progress of genuine indus trial reform and confusing the minds of Catholics concerning the social teaching' of Pope Pius XI."
Such a pronouncement from Mgr. Ryan carried great weight in Catholic circles owing to his position as a1 leader of Catholic s
Action in the U.S.A. gr. Ryan, besides being director of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Council, is also professor of moral theology and industrial ethics at he Catholic University, Washington, D.C.
Committee of Five Million
Social Justice has launched a Committee of Five Million whose purpose it will be to implore the Pope to "give us back Fr. Coughlin."
This reaction of the Soeial Justice Units, and Fr. Coughlin's following in general, is hardly a healthy one, from a Catholic viewpoint, and there is some concern as to the turn events will take.
It does appear that Fr. Coughlin, if he wished, could put an end to all the petitioning of appeals, but thus ifar the " radio priest" has taken no step to silence his aggrieved following.