Priest in Politics

Accompanied by two detectives and a score of newsmen, a plumpish priest in Roman collar and rabat bustled through Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal one afternoon last week. More police were waiting near the platform gate. Two nights before, Rev. Charles Edward Coughlin. radiorator, had whipped a prodigious Hippodrome crowd up into a red-hot frenzy of approval for President Roosevelt's monetary program. He had also stepped on some very important Catholic toes. Now, still parrying newshawks' questions, he swung aboard his train just as it pulled out, settled down for the journey back to Detroit and Royal Oak, Mich, where from his Shrine of the Little Flower he broadcasts Sundays to an estimated 10,000,000.

When Father Coughlin (pronounced Coglin) arrived in Detroit, he quickly got in touch with his burly, bespectacled friend and superior, Bishop Michael James Gallagher. There were matters to be discussed, counsel to be asked. Father Coughlin had got himself into hot water and headlines. Out in the open, where Protestants and Catholics alike could discuss it, was a ruckus which even the Pope at Rome was to hear about.

In April 1931, Orator Coughlin at a Holy Name communion breakfast of New York firemen launched into a spirited eulogy of Mayor "Jimmy'' Walker who was already in bad odor. Soon after, Patrick Cardinal Hayes ruled that no ecclesiastical visitor might address a religious gathering without the Cardinal's permission. Last fortnight the New York archdiocese felt no more kindly toward Father Coughlin when he hustled into Manhattan without bothering to go through the customary formality, as an outside priest, of obtaining permission to speak. Reading of his scheduled address in the newspapers, archdiocesan officials taxed him with the omission. Father Coughlin then asked permission, which was neither granted nor refused. To newsmen last week Father Coughlin offered halting excuses. Saying that he had understood that permission had been obtained by his Hippodrome sponsors, he amended: "I came here with their permission. No. Change that. 'Permission' is not the right word. Say that I came here with their knowledge."

When this apparent discourtesy to his ecclesiastical superiors became known in the archdioceses of Chicago and Philadelphia it was reported that in the future Father Coughlin would be denied permission to speak in either place. Nor would he be welcome in Boston, whose stout-hearted William Henry Cardinal O'Connell flayed Father Coughlin for his "demagogic talk" last year.

Meanwhile statements were flying thick & fast over Spellbinder Coughlin's accusation that Alfred Emanuel Smith, foe of the Roosevelt program, had gone with two Catholic bishops to the House of Morgan to arrange a loan for his Empire State Building. Al Smith warmly denied this, adding: "From boyhood I was taught that a Catholic priest was under the divine injunction to 'teach all nations' the word of God. That includes the divine Commandment: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.' "

Father Coughlin countered by issuing a series of verbose statements in which he called Al Smith "the outstanding lay Catholic in the country." Declaring "I am not hedging at all," he hedged a little, toned down his story, hung it on one bishop, unnamed. He also said his own Bishop stood by him.

This Bishop Gallagher indeed did. Genuinely fond of Father Coughlin who caused his Bishop's rugged features to be perpetuated in a figure of the Arch angel Michael on his "Charity Crucifixion Tower" which radio receipts made possible, the Bishop has declined to interfere even when he disagrees with Father Coughlin's notions. Last week, disagreeing again, he nevertheless said: "No heresy has been preached. Father Coughlin in his addresses is advocating the principles set down by Leo XIII and Pius XI."

One of Father Coughlin's favorite pronouncements, which he has uttered in his throbbing brogue in many a Sunday broadcast, is that of Statesman Leo XIII: "Every minister of holy religion must throw into the conflict all the energy of his mind and all the strength of his endurance." Last week Father Coughlin also reminded the Press of Pius XI's strictures against "those few who . . . hold and control money ... govern credit . . . grasp, as it were, in their hands the very soul of production so that no one dares breathe against their will."

It was all very well for Father Coughlin to justify himself by papal quotation, thought many a devout Catholic last week, but the fact remained that popes clothe their crusades for social justice in solemn, stately Latin, not in hoarse words through a microphone. Most outraged of the Catholic clergy was plump, garrulous Monsignor John L. Belford of Brooklyn who stormed at Father Coughlin: "The man is an infernal nuisance. He has gone mad with popularity. . . . Members of his Church despise him. . . . His Bishop is even worse than he is. The Bishop has it in his power to stop him and he has not done so, although appeals have been made to him by the most outstanding ecclesiastics in this country. I believe that the time has come when the Apostolic Delegate should step in and stop this wild ranting that is disgracing religion."

Later in the week, with the storm still beating around his ears. Monsignor Belford had a change of heart, telegraphed Father Coughlin: "Regret uncharitable interview. Will broadcast apology today. Extremely sorry." Monsignor Belford on the radio: "I desire to broadcast a very humble and sincere apology to all whom I offended. ... It was uncharitable and I deeply regret it. I am not explaining, extenuating or excusing. . . . No Christian, and certainly no clergyman, should express such uncharitable views."

In his own Sunday broadcast Father Coughlin stuck by his Smith story, denounced the "Morgan interests," excoriated the "Tory Press," declared the U. S. must choose between "Roosevelt or Ruin." Speaking later of Monsignor Belford's apology he boasted: "John Raskob will be next and Al Smith after him."

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