VOICE

The 4,661 Roman Catholic publications in the U. S. reach 8,990,657 readers, about 40% of the Catholics in the land. Only Hearst has a larger audience. Last week 100 editors of the Catholic press--many of whom are appointed by their bishops or by the superiors of the religious orders they represent and 50% of whom are priests--gathered at Rochester. N. Y. for the 27th annual meeting of the Catholic Press Association. The proceedings were dedicated to the Supreme Pontiff and under his picture blazed the words: YOU ARE MY VOICE.

Called to order by the Association's president, Vincent de Paul Fitzpatrick of the Baltimore Catholic Review, the VOICE began thundering at the arch foe it attacks all year long in print: Communism. Conventioneers applauded when the Rev. Dr. George Johnson of the Catholic University of America told them that "Catholics recognize Communism for what it is ... a heresy. Whatever Communism creates ... is just so much machinery for eliminating God from human society!" They cheered again when Bishop John M. Gannon of Erie cried: ''Who knows, but that in the secrets of Divine Providence, the Spanish people, the victim on the altar of immolation, are today being called on as the nation to .decisively test and crush atheistic Communism!"

In contrast to many of their lay colleagues, the Catholic editors had no doubts about the freedom of their press. "The Catholic press today is the largest part of what is left of a really free press," expounded venerable Bishop Francis Kelley of Oklahoma City. ''Its very difficulties have helped to keep it free. . . . The solid foundation of Catholic truth upon which it is built holds it back from following the unthinking crowd. . . . True, it is not indefectible, but what it represents is indefectible. . . ." The convention number of the Rochester Catholic Courier added: "Competent observers have stated that it is because of ... restrictions [admonitions of the Holy See and directions of bishops] that the Catholic press is perhaps the freest press in the world. . . ."

Next order of business was to upbraid the secular press, which Catholic journals have long assured their readers is biased in favor of the Government side, for its handling of the Spanish civil war. President Fitzpatrick drew more cheers when he said: "We Catholic editors have been studying for years the conditions in Spain," and offered the services of the Association's members to set secular editors straight.

Businesslike round-table discussions followed on the ''Eternal Question--Renewals," "Building Prestige for Catholic Newspapers as Essential Advertising Media" and "Why Are We Pulling Our Punches?--A Sales Plan for Catholic Newspaper Advertising." Business managers debated the feasibility of getting national advertising through a common national sales staff.

On view was a vast cross section of the Church's journals, copies of everything from the Dubuque Catholic Daily Tribune to the weeklies America and Commonweal, intellectual high for the Catholic press, and the Paulist Fathers' monthly Catholic World. Most professional-looking was the weekly Brooklyn Tablet, whose front page is not unlike that of the New York Times. Oddest was the Catholic Worker, whose editors style themselves "Radicals of the Right," call on employers to recognize workers "not as wage slaves, but as brothers of Christ, members of the Mystical Body."

Syndicated features are supplied by the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service, whose headquarters is Washington, D. C. For young folk Susan Russell writes "Pen Pals--Intimate Chats with the Catholic Girl." President Fitzpatrick, once a Baltimore Sun sports editor, syndicates his baseball articles under the title "Heads Up!" No matter how it starts, "Heads Up!" always produces a moral homily at the end.

Catholic papers do not make much money. Each diocese has its local sheet, usually vended near the church on Sunday. Price of the paper (1-c- to 5-c-) seldom covers the expenses of the publication. Advertisements are often of the sort not acceptable to the lay press. Manhattan's Catholic News, which bears the recommendation of Cardinal Hayes as "a friendly, newsy paper," carries the advertising of foot masseurs, $2 doctors, "a Gonzaga University Priest Chemist's" preparation for the hair. Our Sunday Visitor of Huntington. Ind., which is running a big religious picture contest similar to Old Gold's for a $2,000 grand prize, advertises such products as Mercolized Wax which "Brings Out Your Hidden Beauty."

Editorials in the Catholic press are, of course, invariably uplifting. Headlined "Open Letter to Young Couples Riding Out for the Evening," most earnest front-page appeal in the collection at Rochester last week was in the current Queen's Work of St. Louis: "It's a beautiful thing to realize that two young Catholics like you are together. . . . You are bearing Christ with you, as you know, to your dance, the theatre, the movie, your club, the restaurant where you eat and drink, among your friends, into the car that whisks you out into the country. . . . We are not too optimistic, are we, in believing that you will bring Christ home with you when the evening is over?"

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