By a Staff Reporter
A meeting organised by the Sword of the Spirit, in Morecambe, Lanes, on Sunday evening, was held " in triplicate." Pint, the meeting place itself, St. Mary's Hall, was filled, then a schoolroom below, and finally an adjoining room, all being linked together by a loudspeaker system.
From this crowded meeting came three practical decisions announced by the chairman, Fr. Arthur Clayton, at its conclusion: (1) A branch of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists will be inaugurated at once; (2) An " inquiry class" for nonCatholics, at which any questions about the Church and its teachings will be answered, will also be started immediately (many non-Catholics were present at the meeting);
(3) A "Parcels of Europe" scheme, which brought a tremendous response from the local townspeople in the past, will be revived.
QUESTIONS
The speaker, Douglas Hyde, had stressed the need for Catholics to give a positive answer to Communism through Christian action and not simply to concentrate upon finding Purely negative answers to the Marx1st creed.
" There is no political answer; he told his audience. " In the long run it must be a spiritual answer and only the Catholic Church has it."
In the audience were many nonCatholics, a number of priests from the surrounding area and local Communists who had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the Daily Worker at the approach to the hall.
After his speech Mr. Hyde answered over a dozen questions from all parts of the hall.
On a question concerning the Communists' attempt to recruit Catholic workers to their party, Mr. Hyde said that this was perhaps the most cynical of all their current activities.
The man who had written a recent pamphlet telling Catholics that they could be members of the party was himself a militant atheist, and so were those who sold it. Once inside the party, Catholics would soon discover that they had to choose between the party and their faith. Such a campaign underlined the need for well-instructed Catholics.