Penny Roto

In thousands of churches throughout the land this Sunday, devout Catholics will drop 1-c- in a plate in the vestibule, help themselves to copies of a magazine named Catholic Missions. On its rotogravure cover they behold a sea-&-sunset scene captioned: "Enchanted Isles. In the islands of the South Seas 1,566 missioner priests, brothers and nuns are laboring efficiently among 1,835,030 natives." Thumbing through its 24 smooth, substantial pages, readers see rotogravures of the Pope in a procession, a Chinese moppet learning the rosary, a Japanese babe on an old man's back, Indian nuns and Chinese priests, a pagan temple, a Chinese junk, a U. S. pickaninny. Of all the well-chosen, well-reproduced photographs, the one most likely to cause pause is captioned: "Taxi? Here is the Mongolian version of the taxicab, with its toothless and carefree Jehu. Outer Mongolia presents many problems. . . . But its missioners watch and wait patiently-- a policy borne out by the Church's 20 centuries of mission experience.''

Many a Catholic paying his penny for Catholic Missions will marvel that it could be produced so cheaply. Few will be aware that it is not only the first religious picture magazine but also the biggest job of rotogravure ever clone in the U. S.-- 2,843,000 copies of the first issue. That its price was shaved to 1-c- is chiefly due to the work of a boyish young priest named Rev. James G. Keller.

A member of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America at Maryknoll, N. Y., Father Keller was borrowed this year by his Church's biggest missionary organization, the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He discussed with his superior, Rt. Rev. Monsignor William Quinn, his ideas for making a quarterly pictorial of Catholic Missions, which S. P. F. had been publishing for ten years. Father Keller had in mind increasing its circulation from 80,000 to 500,000. Distribution would cost little because each issue could be sent out by freight, disposed of in the churches by the Society's diocesan directors.

Last winter Father Keller went to see Charles T. Fisher, one of the seven rich, Catholic, Detroit brothers. He told Mr. Fisher he wished Catholic Missions might take on some of the smooth quality of Fisher Body advertising. Nothing was simpler, said Mr. Fisher who sent Father Keller to Erwin, Wasey & Co., the Manhattan firm which handles Fisher advertising. Erwin, Wasey agreed to edit captions, help lay out the pictures--for nothing. In three months Father Keller had his pictorial. Advance copies so impressed churchmen that they stepped up their orders to as many as 250,000 copies in big dioceses. As Catholic Missions went on sale this Sunday Father Keller and S. P. F. felt content to recover .9-c- for paper and printing, .1-c- for distributing each copy.

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