Westminster's Word

In Pope Pius' latest encyclical (TIME, June 1) His Holiness said: ''No one can be a good Catholic and at the same time a true Socialist."

In Great Britain, where the Labor Party is Socialist in platform and doctrine, Socialist Ramsay MacDonald was urged by his hotter-headed Clydeside followers to flay the Encyclical. But he kept his tem per, mildly said: "I shall wait for an interpretation by some Catholic dignitary in this country." Not until last week did the interpretation come, from Francis Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster.*

His Eminence was once Domestic Prelate to Pope Leo XIII whose Encyclical, Rerum Novarum ("Concerning New Things") was the basis for Pope Pius XI's new encyclical, Quadragesima Anno ("In the 40th Year" after Leo's). His authoritative word was as follows:

"There is nothing in the encyclical which should deter Catholics from becoming members of the British Labor Party. . . . Good, sincere Catholics have been Conservatives and Liberals and Laborites."

Lest anyone should think he had contradicted the encyclical by this interpretation, Cardinal Bourne explained that after joining a political party a good Catholic must beware of "erroneous principles which sometimes affect parties."

His Eminence intimated that a good Catholic can belong to the British Labor Party and yet eschew its Socialist principles. He went further. He boldly intimated that Socialist principles are eschewed by many Laborites. With ineffable mildness Cardinal Bourne said of the Labor Party:

''We shall find some persons therein whose opinions are not in accord with the teachings and principles of the Catholic Church and I suppose there are some who say that they are Socialists in the technical sense--something no true Catholic can be."

Thus His Eminence coined a new and useful term: "Technical Socialist." Hereafter a British Catholic can be a Non-Technical Socialist with good conscience, should avoid the pitfall of becoming a Technical Socialist.

* His enormous, comparatively new red-&-white-striped Westminster Cathedral must be carefully distinguished from the Church of England's ancient stone Westminster Abbey, a few streets distant.

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