Religion: Outstretched Hand

In Pittsburgh last week at a Community Forum appeared Editor Clarence Hathaway of the Daily Worker in a debate with Father Charles Owen Rice of Pittsburgh. The question before the meeting: “Can a Catholic Accept the Outstretched Hand of Communism?”

Urbane, soft-spoken Mr. Hathaway, debatably declaring that “tens of thousands of Catholics have already accepted the outstretched hand,” said: “We urge a broad democratic front of Communists, Socialists, trade unionists, of Catholics, Protestants and others to resist and ultimately destroy the Fascist barbarism. . . .”

Father Rice, a founder of Pittsburgh’s labor-aiding Catholic Radical Alliance (TIME, June 28, 1937) and of St. Joseph’s House of Shelter, for which he says “a wealthy Catholic who hates my radical guts kicks in a hundred bucks a week,” retorted: “We will accept the outstretched hand of Communists only when it ceases to be Communist and relinquishes the doctrines and tactics that have put it beyond the pale of normality and ethics.” Father Rice and Communist Hathaway appeared agreed on one thing only: that anti-Semitism is “Fascist propaganda.” The audience did not record its vote.