Catholics "Insulted"

Well does a U. S. President know that he must step gingerly among religious sectarians, and always speak softly to all sects. President Hoover, Quaker, has been particularly cautious. His victory over Roman Catholic Alfred Emanuel Smith was fraught with religious feeling. When he sends a greeting to a religious convention--as to the Catholics at Omaha (TIME, Sept. 29) or to the Lutherans at Milwaukee (TIME, Oct. 20) he tries hard to be noncommittal. But sometimes a President, or his aide, slips.* At once some sensitive soul cries out in anguish or anger. This happened last week. A prominent Roman Catholic flayed President Hoover for his greeting to the Lutherans, which was: Hoover to Lutherans. "I send cordial greetings to the Americans of Lutheran faith who are celebrating on October 31 the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and the 400th anniversary of the reading of the Augsburg Confession from which date so many of the changes in point of view from older conceptions both of religion and government.

"The effects of these historical events are reflected in our national life and institutions, in religion through the predominant numbers of adherents of Protestant faiths and in government through the principle of separation of Church and State.

It is fitting that we should commemorate the persons and events from which these mighty forces have sprung." Burke's Outburst. The National Catholic Welfare Conference is a potent defender of U. S. Catholic prestige. Its able, aggressive general secretary is Rev.

John Joseph Burke, who last week spoke out against President Hoover in terms of a harshness such as few U. S. Presidents have endured: "It is altogether in order for President Hoover to send a message of congratulation on the civic work done by Americans of the Lutheran faith. But in the actual message which President Hoover sent to them, for the celebration of Reformation Sunday [Nov. 2], the President clearly violates the spirit, if not the letter, of his oath of office as President of the United States.

"It may matter little that the message is an insult to many millions of American citizens. It may matter little that the statement is historically inaccurate. Luther was not a champion of the separation of church and state, but a most arbitrary defender of state absolutism.

"It does matter very much to the whole constitutional structure of our country and its institutions that the President of all the people, who is called by virtue of his great office to respect the religious rights of all, congratulates one particular religious body on the changes it introduced from older conceptions of religion and government and declares that we as a nation should commemorate the Protestant persons and the events from which 'these mighty forces shaping our country have sprung.' "

White House Reply. George Edward Akerson, President Hoover's Presbyterian secretary, at once replied:

"Any such suggestion or implication as that made by Father Burke is an injustice both to the President's own sentiments and the complete religious tolerance he has always felt and has always advocated both publicly and privately."

President Hoover kept silent.

To prove his Chief's religious impartiality Secretary Akerson reminded Catholics of the Presidential greeting to Catholics at Omaha last month:

Hoover to Catholics. "I will be obliged if you will express my cordial greetings to the meeting this evening of the National Eucharistic Congress,, at which, I am informed, you [George William Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago] will preside, and my appreciation of the value of spiritual ideals and of religious observance in the life of the nation, which are indispensable foundations of the social order and of enduring political institu tions." Lutheran Aside. The Burke outburst astonished Lutherans, still at Milwaukee last week, and suggested to them a new significance in what they had considered merely a formal Presidential greeting.

They did not plunge into the controversy.

Dr. Frederick Hermann Knubel, able, aggressive president of the United Lutheran Church in America, spoke this aside: "This is no quarrel between Catholics and ourselves, but between a Catholic spokesman and the President's message.

"So far as we have any opinion, we deplore that from any Catholic source there should be any objection to President Hoover's sending a message which concerns the more than 10,000,000 of Lutheran origin." Reaction. Catholic dignitaries are never chastised publicly by their superiors. But into the White House last week poured messages of sympathy from leading Catholics who, disapproving Father Burke's outburst, appreciated how President Hoover would deplore the unpleasant and far-reaching political use that might be made of the episode, especially in the South.

*Presidential greeting to a convention is usually drafted by the secretary of the convening body, sent to the White House as a "suggestion." The President, by one of his aides, then edits or approves the greeting and out it goes for public consumption.

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