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Jesuit Editor Decries Effect of Murphy Talk

August 31, 1934
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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The Rev. Wilfred Parsons, editor of the Jesuit weekly America, yesterday expressed regret at the “unfortunate connotation placed upon fragmentary newspaper reports” of a paper on “The Problem of International Judaism read Tuesday before a section of the South Norwalk, Conn., session of the Jesuit Philosophical Association of the Eastern States by the Rev. J. F. X. Murphy, professor of history at Boston College.

“I am sorry,” said Father Parsons, “that certain statements extracted from a historical analysis gave pain to those Jews who read them, because I fear they might add fuel to the fire of anti-Jewish prejudice.

“I feel this is all the more deplorable because Catholics by tradition are opposed to prejudice of that type, having suffered from a similar species themselves.”

The Jesuit editor pointed out that he personally had neither heard nor read the entire paper, which was delivered before a portion of the conference attended by not more than fifteen of the eighty-eight men present at the aggregate session.

“I asked Father Murphy, after my attention had been called to newspaper accounts, whether he had been correctly quoted,” Father Parsons said. “He declared he had, but his study, which was intended as an historical survey of Judaism, also contained numerous balancing portions which the press had failed to mention.”

DENIED BIAS INTENT

He further emphasized the fact that Father Murphy has been emphatic in his denial of any intention to link his interests with

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