Body & Soul

The Pope's recent encyclical on marriage, in which he flayed every interference with God's Nature (TIME, Jan. 19), has transformed Roman Catholic doctors from sociological Knight errants into soldiers. The transformation manifested itself last week by the internationalization of Catholic Physicians' Guilds.-- By Dr. Anthony Bassler, president of the Manhattan guild, their declaration of war is now voiced thus: "To constitute a brotherhood of all members of the medical profession; to provide mutual assistance in religious and professional life; to facilitate intercourse between them and cognate branches of the clergy and others, such as judges, lawyers, educationalists and politico-medical organizations interested in the study and discussion of the medico-religious questions and those touching on the science and duty of ethics. . . . "In general, to promote among Catholic members of the profession such solidarity as may be advantageous to both religion and the profession, [as] medical certification in cases of the so-called miracles, the question of sterilizing the criminally insane, race suicide, mental and spiritual healing cults, the relations of science to the Church, the attitude of the Church toward expectant motherhood, and toward the matter of responsibility for crime."

--Potential U. S. membership, 25,000, or one seventh of all U. S. doctors.

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