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Page 43 text:
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Catholic Writers By LEO W. KENNY Among certain of our Catholic laity there unfortunately lurks a decided dislike for the material contained in Catholic magazines. Some of our fel- low-worshippers would fain raise the tips of their sensitive noses when pre- sented with such publications, and deign to spend on them only time enough to say There's nothing in them but childish stories in which the hero becomes a priest, or amateurish essays that require two thousand words to preach 'go to church'. There the subject is droppedg the low stand- ard of modern Catholic writing is de- plored, but the cause of it is not in- quired into. Is the objection of these people true? Much as we dislike to admit it, we fear there is some little excuse for it. Some Catholics who write are, we fear, no more real writers than their attempts are works of art. The more ambitious among them conjure up from the shadowy recesses of their minds a few high-sounding phrasesg in their novels or short stories they take as a hero a young man who, with premature wisdom, walks disdainfully through the pleasure-mad world, scorning everything in sight and many things unseeng who has a hair breadth escape from death, a deadly tussle with the most wily of Satan's lieutenantsg and finally issues forth from combat with a supernatural intelligence to depart at length for the nearest monastery followed by the benedictions of all his acquaintances. Such stories, like green apples, may be enjoyed once in a lifetime. As a rule, romances of this nature are not the most interesting to the average Catholic, who is as human as anyone else, and detests to drink his pleasure in Puritan draughts, that is to say, generously diluted in angelic piety. We do not mean, of course, that real religion of the deeper sort should play no part in the works of Catholic writ- ers. Since man has recognized letters as a fine art, the greatest of his works, regardless of his creed, have evi- denced his native piety. On almost every page of Homer's Iliad, as well as of Virgi1's Aeneid, there is some reference to the gods. The works of both Dante and Shakespeare give evi- dent proof of the religion of these two great authors. And yet the writ- ings of all these men are probably the most widely read compositions to- day. Why? Is it because they re- ferred so often to things religious? It is rather because they depict man as he is, and a normal man believes in Godg but if he believes in Him he will speak of Him, not in the wishy-washy manner of some of our Catholics who write, but as a person of character who is not ashamed of his belief. Thus do the masters picture man, and because they write of man in this life-like way their works have become popular with a world that takes more delight in, and learns more from, the prob- able man than the impossible saint. So the objection is not unreasonable, but it would be much more effective if the plaintiffs had reason to object. The last statement seems absurd, but it is not. The objection itself is reasonable, but those who object have no right to do so. And why not? Sim-
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Page 44 text:
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32 THE OZANAM ply because they themselves have brought about the present condition of affairs in Catholic literature. As an art, they have scorned itg as artists themselves, if any artists be among them, they have derided the idea of a Catholic literature, and because their ridicule has succeeded in keeping from journalism properly gifted young men, whose places are filled by incompetent substitutes, these scof- fers dare complain, and hold in con- tempt our Catholic magazines that never turn away a real writer from their thresholds, and must, at times, accept rather mediocre material be- cause no better is forthcoming. In their eagerness for silver and an im- mediate reputation they despise a life of letters, and follow a career in which they think one may more easi- ly achieve the two purposes in life that captivate them. But that is not the worst of it. Not content with shunning journalism themselves, they teach others to shun it, and bring up their children in a holy fear of author- ship as a life that yields but abject poverty and a nameless grave. They teach their sons to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers, but to deem un- suitable the profession of a writer. Thus many a youth who might become a famous journalist becomes a fairly good member of another profession, and often even attains quite a de- gree of success, yet his name dies with him, and the books in which he might have lived after death are lost to the world. But is it true that journalism entails a life of sacrifice which is rewarded by no fame, which rather results in- evitably in the dishonor of a pauper's death? In the first place, a writer, if he is a true one, will not fear poverty. Gold he will consider as a means not an end. If wealth is forthcoming, all is well and good, if not, he will know that this is due rather to his undevel- oped talents than to his profession it- self. Yet even so, no truly great writer ever starved to death, as far as we know, and even those writers who have died in any degree of poverty have generally their own carelessness or vice to blame for it. It is true that the young writer has to wait some time before his work assures him any steady income, but this happens in any other profession. Does the young doctor realize any great wealth in his first few years of practice? Does the young lawyer not spend many a weary day swatting flies, the only visitors to his virgin office? And doesn't the young engineer build the dog house before he erects the bridge? Why, therefore, should the young author write a dictionary before he produces a pamphlet? As to the other objection, journal- ism is far from being the pastime of the disreputable. In all ages it has included in its ranks the private gen- tleman and the prince, the president as well as the cardinal. Indeed, it boasts the greatest and noblest minds in history, who long ago would have been forgotten but for their work in the field of letters. Writing has been the noble means of handing down the word of God through the ages, of per- petuating the discoveries, scientific, geographic and otherwise of all times, and of giving pleasure to men the world over. journalism as a profes- sion has been ridiculed, and yet while the speech of the lawyer lives a day, the work of the writer lives to the end of timeg while the engineer's pile of stones delights a city, the description
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