“No Catholic can share in these games, either as a participant or a supporter, without aiding and abetting an effort to destroy the Christian faith,” declares George N. Shuster, managing editor of Commonweal, influential Catholic weekly, in an article entitled “General Sherrill and the Olympics” in the issue appearing this Friday.
The argument from “the Catholic point of view” as presented by Mr. Shuster follows in part:
“First. The Berlin Olympics of 1936 are no ordinary athletic games, but are designed to reveal to the world in a grandiose way what the Third Reich has done for the adolescent male.
“Second. Being what they are, the Berlin Olympics have an evident an sinister anti-Catholic purpose. These games are to set the seal of approval upon the radically anti-Christian Nazi doctrine of youth.”
At another point Mr. Shuster writes, “It seems to me quite incredible that the Catholic clergy of these United States will not raise their voices against this new temptation to offer incense at the altar of Baal, provided they realize in time what issues are at stake.”
Replying to the statement of Gen. Charles H. Sherrill, member of the International Olympic Committee, that Jewish opposition to the Olympics would precipitate a wave of anti-Semitism here, Mr. Shuster declares:
“Cowardice beyond compare and hardness of heart deadlier than any that once appalled Jehovah would be rightly attributed to a people who, lest the shadow of some far-off possible pogrom creep nearer to them, voted to overlook the outrages made into law by Hitler. I repeat:- if it is possible to insult the Jew of these United States, then General Sherrill has insulted him.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
