Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception - Annual Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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OOCATHEDRAL COLLEGE dent protector of his well-being, with greater loyalty and affection than his parents. Instances are well known in which children have betrayed their parents to the state for alleged violations of Soviet regulations and were highly extolled for their infidelity. No longer in the Russian home do we come upon the classic Christian scene of the infant in his mother's arms, learning the beau- tiful story of Bethlehem and the Child Iesus and lisping his first halting phrases in adoration and love of his Creator, lnstead we find the unfortunate Russian child deprived of the knowledge of love of God and the care of affectionate parents which are his birthright, and being inspired rather with an idolatrous awe of the unprepossessing figures of the proletarian saints, Lenin, Stalin and Marx. The Soviet leaders are not content merely to debase the child's mind with this unnatural ignorance of his true status in the Divine Plan during the early and all-important formative years of his life. He must be trained and pre- pared for his role as a future disciple of Godless Communism in the satanic program of world revolution. The ideal is expressed by Madame Krupskaya, Lenin's widow, thus, We must make our school boys and girls not merely non-religious, but actively and passionately anti-religious. He is enlisted in the Young Pioneers, an organizations of the Soviet youth who participate most vigorously in the campaign to throttle the Russian soul, especially of the little children. They are particularly energetic in their efforts to obliterate the celebration of Christmas with its joyous religious significance. As the youth reaches manhood he is exposed to forms of anti-religious propaganda more suitable to his maturity. ln work and in play, no oppor- tunity is overlooked which might be utilized for its devilish purpose. Elaborate measures include the introduction of a new calendar and the five-day week with the elimination of Sunday, its religious associations and opportunities for spiritual exercises. ln industry professed atheism is a certain guarantee of preferment and the worker is constantly coerced to embrace this course. ln his hours of leisure he is still more subject to highly supervised anti-re- ligious influences. Literature, the arts and sciences, stage, screen and radio, lectures, posters, workers' clubs, even churches which have been transformed into anti-religious museums-all are employed in the attempt to impress him Hwith the futility of faith and the rascality of religion. lf he remains unimpressed by this constant assault on his faith and per- sists in seeking the spiritual solace which only religion can afford, he finds himself confronted with obstacles which render his efforts all but vain. Prior to l929 the Soviet Constitution at least provided equal opportunity for re- ligious propaganda of all cults and anti-religious propaganda and made some vague mention of freedom of conscience. But in that year even that last remnant of official favor disappeared. A series of new decrees were promulgated that included not even a hint of toleration, except for anti-re- ligious activities which were granted free range and governmental benedic- tion. About the exercise of religious worship was erected a network of ordi- nances whose purpose was to suppress the external practice of religion in order to do away ultimately with the actual existence of religion. Thus the 64

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A N N U A L l 9 3 6 0 0 changing figure of Antichrist. Across the Width of a table the International of Lenin, arrogant, drunken with power, confronted the lnternational of Christ, venerable with an ageless wisdom, and was disturbed by something it could not understand. ln the nascent career of Communism it was a new experience. Previously the Bolsheviks had crashed through every obstacle in their path. But the iron discipline and unfaltering loyalty of the officers in Cl'1rist's army were disquieting and incomprehensible. The Soviet luggernaut had collided with the Rock of Peter. The procedure and outcome of this judicial travesty proved beyond doubt that the Soviet government was determined to destroy all religion. With far- cical solemnity the priestly defendants were found guilty of the crime of teaching so-called religious knowledge to children. Archbishop Cieplak and Monsignor Budkiewicz were condemned to death while the others were con- signed to the living death of the abominable Soviet prisons. lrnmediately an outraged Christendom raised its voice in thunderous indignation. All denomi- nations united to protest against this common menace. ln order to avoid world censure, the Bolshevik leaders compromised with aroused public opinion to the extent of commuting Archbishop Cieplak's death sentence. But Monsignor Budkiewicz they would not save, and that heroic priest of God followed in the footsteps of his Master on Good Friday, 1923. May he not have died in vainl The unparalleled campaign being conducted in Russia today to deprive an entire people of its soul is terrifying not only in the barbarity but in the thoroughness of its methods. Their ingenuity and efficiency must arise from diabolically inspired minds. The talents, energies and resources of the whole nation have been regimented in the drive to stamp out the religious con- sciousness of the people. Every medium of persuasion and coercion, of propa- ganda and education has been drafted into the assault. The program is so comprehensive, all-embracing as to permeate even the innermost lives of every inhabitant of the Soviet state. It is twofold in char- acter: violent suppression of religion and a state-subsidized propagation of atheism. Every single day of his existence from the time of his infancy, the Russian is exposed constantly to anti-religious propaganda. He is deprived of every means of obtaining the knowledge and comfort of religion. lf he does not prove susceptible to these efforts he is either slain outright, sent to a living death in prison, or left to himself deprived of every means and opportunity to obtain the things necessary to keep himself alive. The process of despiritualization begins with the child. Soon after birth the infant is taken from his parents and cared for in state-controlled nurseries. Most parents readily conform with this practice because their own time and energies are for the greatest part expended in the compulsory labor imposed upon them by the Soviet regime. incidentally, it is such conditions that have succeeded in rendering the Russian family a thing of the past. From the first moment of his conscious existence the child's mind is nour- ished on the poison of atheism, and hatred and contempt for God and religion. The child is even taught the alphabet with the aid of atheistic slogans and anti-religious caricatures. l-le learns to regard the Soviet government, the evi- 63

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A N N U A L l 9 3 6 0 0 believer Who courageously disregards the prospects of social ostracism and official displeasure, which is equivalent to certain imprisonment and possible death, attendant upon his heroic resolve to observe the dictates of his con- science at all costs, discovers that the goal which has motivated all his con- stancy has been removed from his reach. By such a long and tortuous path he learns, as so many others have come to realize, that in reality TI-IE ADOB- ATION OF ALMIGI-ITY GOD IS A CAPITAL CRIME IN SOVIET RUSSIA. Communism has shown the ability to awaken in many of its adherents a fanatic enthusiasm. But materialism is a barren creed and Communism is a house built upon sand. Man cannot for long retain confidence in a phil- osophy which offers no basis for hope except in a paradise which is at best uncertain, temporal and dependent upon man's frail nature to be realized. I-Ie is, even if unconsciously, cognizant of his true role as creature and there is in his nature a yearning for God and the things of the spirit that cannot be denied. Even the Godless generations of the future Will not be able to restrain those queries which arise spontaneously in the human heart, Whence have I come? and Whither do I go? God grant that events do not come to such a pass that that assurance Will remain our only consolation. But that realization Will always exist to comfort us. At all events the Catholic Church survives as the only hope of Russia and of the world against the plague of Communism, and it is the duty of all Catholics by the practice of positive Christianity to make that fact apparent to a doubtful humanity. FRANCIS M. TYRRELL, '36. f 65