Metallurgical Road

Hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholics in the armed forces wear religious medals. So do many Protestants and Jews. For wartime purposes, some medal manufacturers have given their wares a masculine touch by making them larger and heavier.

Fortnight ago Father Hugh Calkins, a leader of Chicago's perpetual novena of Our Sorrowful Mother, himself a dispenser of a popular medal of the same name, thought it time to say a few words on the subject. In his midget monthly, Novena Notes, he declared:

"Superstition comes from ignorance or fear. . . . During wartime superstition leaps sky-high in popularity. During danger periods, medals receive attention all out of proportion to their value. So the service men are being weighed down with medals and good luck charms (too often put in the same class). Department stores are advertising 'St. Christopher Good Luck Pieces.' And non-Catholics are being 'converted' to the phony brand of faith that says: 'Wear this medal and nothing can happen to you.'

"Meantime millions of good Catholics wonder if the only road to Heaven is metallurgical. ... To be sure of God's help and protection over body and soul always keep yourself in God's grace. Then you won't even need medals, though you may use them. And if you are not in God's grace, you are not pleasing to Him . . . though you be wearing more medals than Goring. . . . Wouldn't it be better for many drivers to drive well and carefully and not depend so much on overworked St. Christopher? God still runs His world; it's not run by luck or charms. . . . Wear medals? Sure, but understand them. Put first things first."

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