RUTHFULLY YOURS

Those observing the cultural landscape in America attempt to understand why Jews vote for leftwing policies that run counter to their own safety and existence.  But many Catholic institutions are also active in disseminating radical left-wing ideology.  It was not always thus.

At this site, one can see the American Catholic pamphlet series on Communism that highlighted the dangers of this murderous ideology.  The following were published in 1947:

• Communism and Fascism: two of a kind by Hermann Borchardt
• Communism means slavery by Henry William Chamberlin
• Enemy in our schools by Eugene Lyons

Regarding  Eugene Lyons, Harry Stein has written:

[I]n The Red Decade, Lyons was, in fact, describing the Communist-dominated American Left of the Depression-wracked 1930s and 1940s.  Lyons’ observations [are] even more meaningful, for it is sobering to be confronted with how little has been gained by hard experience.  The celebration of feelings over reason?  The certainty of moral virtue?  The disdain for tradition and the revising of history for ideological ends?  The embrace of the latest definition of correct thought?  Lyons was one of the most gifted reporters of his time, and among the bravest, and his story of the spell cast by Stalinist-tinged social-justice activism over that day’s purported best and brightest — literary titans, Hollywood celebrities, leading academics, religious leaders, media heavies — would be jaw-dropping if it weren’t so eerily familiar.

Another author and columnist, Ralph de Toledano, penned a piece titled “How Communism Demoralizes Youth.”  It can also be found in his book America, I-Love-You.  In 1947, he wrote, “There are over eight thousand members of American Youth for Democracy (AYD) in our schools and colleges.  They are the storm troops of a new totalitarianism which is attempting to put a halter on America’s youth, to blindfold it so that can be led down the Communist road to its own destruction.”  “[A]ny attempt to expose Stalinoid fascism is ‘red-baiting.'”  Although more than 70 years old, this describes with impeccable accuracy what we are seeing in the halls of universities and the streets of America today.

Toledano described these young people  as coming from “middle class backgrounds” and having gone to “fairly expensive colleges.”

Contrary to current belief, idealism had only played a minor part in [the young person’s] conversion.  But in the main, it was merely that in succumbing to Marxist immoralism, he was taking the final step in a walk which began early in his education.  For the blindfold began to be applied when the whole moral structure of our society was questioned by what has been called scientism.  Democracy is based on moral premises, self-evident principles.  Totalitarianism begins with a total denial of any moral code and sets up in its place power and material advantage, no matter how achieved.

In 2020, “while older people still see socialism and communism as dangerous, authoritarian political systems, younger people are more likely to see them as economic systems, and to care far less one way or another.”  Thus, “a recent poll conducted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation showed that 36 percent of Millennials have a favorable opinion of communism, as do a quarter of Gen Zers.  One in five Millennials thinks the Communist Manifesto better ‘guarantees freedom and equality’ than the Declaration of Independence and thinks society would be better off if the government abolished private property; one in six thinks the world would be better off if the Soviet Union were still around.”

In reality, “‘[t]he historical amnesia about the dangers of communism and socialism is on full display,’ according to Marion Smith, the executive director of the [Victims of Communism Memorial].  ‘When we don’t educate our youngest generations about the historical truth of 100 million victims murdered at the hands of communist regimes over the past century, we shouldn’t be surprised at their willingness to embrace Marxist ideas.'”

In 1941, Lyons explained, “College teachers slanted their lessons to match the latest views out of Moscow, and met with the communist faction among their students in conspiratorial caucuses.”  Hence, “[t]he glorification of youth is a modern development, [because] it puts a premium on lack of experience, mental fuzziness and intuition as against intelligence and maturity.”

In short, perfect pawns.

Not only do we not educate young people about the horrors of communism, but colleges and universities are hotbeds of pro-Marxist teaching.  The left-wing “woke” narrative is also alive and well at Christian institutions of higher learning.  For example, students who opposed Villanova University’s abandonment of its Catholic identity for “woke” ideology have been targeted.  In fact, “adherence to ‘woke’ ideology means changes in doctrine, discipline and worship.”  They are the “ultimate consequences of neo-Marxist philosophical influence,” which emerged from the Frankfurt School in Germany.”  Donald Sensing, a United Methodist minister, explained the pervasive nature of neo-Marxist influence.

The education and social milieu that our clergy and laity have been raised in since the 1930s or so have been increasingly inculcated by the Frankfurt School … and overturning that basic orientation among them is probably past the point of impossibility.

At the College Fix site, headlines like these appear: “Will Georgetown Remain a Catholic University?” and “Catholic University’s accreditation at risk because it punished conservative professor for his tweets,” and “What does it even mean to be a ‘Catholic’ university, anymore?”

Consequently, “many Catholic universities have adopted the political[ly] correct fads of secular universities.”  Though “[c]ampus leaders claim that Catholic universities’ ‘commitment to social justice’ differentiates them from non-parochial colleges … they neglect to mention that they have defined the term ‘social justice’ so broadly that campuses now welcome chapters of the pro-abortion Law Students for Reproductive Justice.”  Thus, “professors who support Catholic teachings have come under siege on their own campuses, usually with little support from their academic administration.”  Hence, “campus progressives, who wanted to move the curriculum away from a focus on Western civilization to an emphasis on race, class, gender, and sexual orientation” prevail in an effort “to render the Catholic identity of … colleges merely nominal.”

For example, “Notre Dame awarded its 2016 Laetare Medal,” the “oldest and most prestigious honor accorded to American Catholics, to the pro-choice Catholic vice president, Joe Biden, who had helped President Obama implement the HHS mandate that forced Catholic institutions, including Notre Dame, to provide insurance coverage for free contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs, to all employees. Kevin C. Rhodes, the presiding bishop of the Notre Dame diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, who declared that Biden’s ‘gravely irresponsible rejection of Catholic teaching on abortion and marriage should disqualify him from Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal.’  Notre Dame’s faithful alumni complained as well, but to no avail.”

The article “Exploring Intersectionality: A Self-Study of Learning Together”[1] is the product of “teacher educators at a small catholic [sic] liberal arts institution in the mid-Atlantic, USA who infuse intersectionality and social justice topics in classroom discourse attending to [their] students’ experiences as first generation college students from immigrant and underrepresented backgrounds.”  Besides the leftist jargon, it is noteworthy that at this Catholic university, the word “Catholic” was lowercase, and “catholic,” which means “all-embracing” or “universal,” was chosen.

Thus, racism is not good except when it is applied to white people; equality of opportunity is ignored because equality of outcome is the ultimate goal; destruction of property is irrelevant as the “earnest young seeker employs a double standard of political morality, suppresses facts, shuts out the truth by smearing it, [and] shouts so what remains of conscience will not be heard.”

Those who have lived under communism know only too well its evil as they warn Americans.  Toledano asserted that for those lured by the deceptive messages, “mass purges, slave labor empires, and systematic assassination no longer offend [because] it’s all for the good of the world [and] if, in order to build the perfect society, all democratic rights and human decencies are jettisoned” so be it.

Continual and “dispassionate exposure of the  communist and fascist totalitarians and their propaganda” coupled with the ardent belief that “our democratic civilization cannot be jeopardized by flirtations with death” must be the antidote to a “blind acceptance of an irrational doctrine.”  It must be a never-ending effort.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.