Bingo and schools finance

S1R,-The recent pastoral letter by Bishop Walsh of Aberdeen rejecting bingo, etc., and encouraging instead " straight giving" comes as a refreshing breeee to some of us in England.
When are we going to realize that bingo is not the answer to our schools' finance? One has only to witness a bingo sessionthe purely mechanical processes (devoid of all human thought) leading eventually to the beads of sweat, the feverish and sometimes frenzied excitement, the anti-climax for all save one, and then the repetition of the performance until the actors, and particularly the actresses, become more like animals than human beings-one has only to witness all this to realize that Christ could have no part in it. And at the base of it all, the cause inspiring most of our people is an incredible preoccupation in the pursuit of material goods to the exclusion of all else. Pius Xl in his Encyclical on the Catholic Priesthood says that the priest if he is to be faithful to his ministry must frequently inculcate " to young and old the fleeting nature of the present life, the perishableness of earthly goods. the value of spiritual goods and of the immortal soul". He must so teach his people as " to moderate the feverish search for pleasure and the uncontrolled greed for worldly goods, that debase so much of modern life ".
In the light of this can we justly continue with our bingo? Can we continue to degrade men's minds in order to pay our way? Some will ask, how then are we to pay our bills? The short answer is
let us do without what " straight giving" and " harmless money raising schemes" cannot pay for.
Finally, may God never allow to prosper that most recent means of making money that our Catholic halls have seem The instrument to which 1 am referring, and which is an affront to our sacred needs, is sufficiently indicated in my nom de plume.
One-armed bandit
Thanks to readers I have been deeply touched by the spontaneous response to my appeal for support to an Autumn Fair, which was planned to be held on October 11 on behalf of the Building Fund at St. Francis School for mentally handicapped boys. There has not been sufficient time to make a correction in the arrangements, but the Autumn Fair will instead be held as a Christmas Fair on December 23 at the Corn Exchange, Hertford.
May I especially thank your reader who replied to my appeal by return of post, and who sent a note anonymously, with just the words "For the boys of St. Francis School".
(Mrs.) Florence Faupel