NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR DECENT LITERATURE

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR DECENT LITERATURE. The organization was started in Dubuque at a meeting of Catholic pastors and representatives of all lay Catholic organizations. The announcement of the organization was made on Sunday, March 19, 1939 and effective spread to all parishes in the ARCHDIOCESE OF DUBUQUE by Thursday of the same week. The archdiocesan branch of the organization was headed by Archbiship Francis J.L. BECKMAN. Vice-presidents were the Right Rev. Monsignor Thomas Conry and Right Reverend Monsignor John Wolfe.

Archbishop Beckman set the keynote in a pastor letter of February 8th in which he directed:

                every society, club, and organization, and every individual in every
                parish be urged to enter wholeheartedly into the work of a crusade
                against literature offensive to public decency and harmful to the
                morals of youth.

The directors said the same thought was further developed by the Bishops Committee of the American Hierarchy in a general appeal addressed to citizens of every denomination.

The plans of the campaign was to begin with "pulpit exhortations" for good reading, congregational pledges to boycott bad books and magazines, and the "enlistment of the sympathy and cooperation of all civic and fraternal organizations. An appeal was be sent to retail distributors of books and magazines to create a "united front" of the reading public and newsdealers to bring pressure on publishers and distributors.

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Source:

"Bad Literature Drive Extended," Telegraph-Herald, March 23, 1939, p. 17