Locust Valley, L.I.                    
 
                      August 30, 1941                       
 
             Telephone message to the President             
 
                    From Myron Taylor...                    
 
                                                            
 
 
As indicated on the telephone this morning, I asked Archbishop Mooney and   
Msgr. Ready if they would in a very brief statement indicate to me the   
substance of our conversation, and suggest a remedy for the situation that   
                      they described.                       
 
                                                            
 
 
I have no received the following confidential statement: It is evident   
that the announced policy of aid to Russia creates a delicate situation in   
the United States.  This is particularly true in regard to the reaction   
created in the minds of the Catholic Citizens.  The irreconcilable   
opposition between atheistic Communism and Catholicity is of course well   
                          known.                            
 
                                                            
 
 
It was indeed heartening that Mr. Wells in announcing this policy made it   
utterly clear that it involved no sympathy on the part of our government   
with Communist ideology, but this statement of principle, or even its   
frequent reiteration will hardly be sufficient to meeet the situation as   
it actually exists.  One of its most dificult phases is the opposition to   
our Governments policy in all the elements of our population grouped   
around the America First Committee, and their willingness to exploit to   
         the full every possible source of support.         
 
The Catholic groups concerned have been quick to utilize an apparently   
clear and pertinent statement in the Encyclical of Pope Pius XI on   
                    Atheistic Communism:                    
 
               "Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would   
                save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in   
                        any undertaking whatsoever."        
 
                                                            
 
 
The discriminating mind might argue from the context that this statement   
refers to the domestic rather than the international field.  Those who   
are using the statement , however, are clever enough to attack any   
distinctions made in its regard as a compromise in principle and failure   
    to accept a clear pronouncement of Papal authority.     
 
                                                            
 
 
This is the line follwed by the Brooklyn Tablet, and some other Diocesan  
papers.  This again is particulary expolited by "Social Justice", which  
is not in any sense a Catholic paper, because not subject to ecclesiastical  
authority, but does actually reach and influence many Catholics of a   
                particularly emotional type.                
 
                                                            
 
 
One might say, why does not some bishop or some group of bishops take   
definite measures to counteract what is fast becoming a widesread