Gerald Murnane - A Lifetime on Clouds

Once a month the College Chaplain, Father Lacey, strolled down from the local presbytery to talk to Adrian’s class.

The chaplain was a tired man with white hair. The only time Adrian had gone to him in confession, Father Lacey had said sadly, ‘For the love of God, can’t you use some self-control, son?’ and then announced the penance and rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes.

One day Father Lacey said to the class, ‘The other day I happened to read an Australian Catholic Truth Society pamphlet. It was written by a famous American Jesuit for young people in America, and I couldn’t help thinking how much better off we are in Australia than the Americans — morally I mean. No doubt there are many fine Catholics in America. There are wonderful men among the American clergy. Monsignor Fulton Sheen, Cardinal Cushing, Father Peyton the Rosary Priest — they’re not afraid to denounce immorality or Communism. But decent Americans must be nearly swamped sometimes with temptations against purity.

‘One of the things the pamphlet was discussing was what the Americans call petting. Now this word “petting” was something I’d never come across before. I still think it sounds more like something you do to your dog or cat. Anyway from what this priest was saying it seems that one of the gravest problems in America today is the petting that goes on amongst young people.

‘It’s hard to believe, but apparently American fathers and mothers allow their children to stay out half the night in cars and parks and on street corners. And these young flappers and hobbledehoys (because that’s all they are at their age — they’re still wet behind the ears, so to speak), well naturally they face enormous temptations when they’re alone in these places together. And boys, it’s all so wrong. You know as well as I do that these things are for married people exclusively.

‘Go back for a moment to the Middle Ages, to the great days of the Church. In those days the whole of the civilised world observed the Commandments of God and his Church. There were no problems of courtship and company-keeping then. This petting that’s worrying the people of America hadn’t been heard of. Of course the young people of both sexes had the chance to meet each other and look each other over before marriage. They had their dances and balls in those days too. But it was all good wholesome fun. The young ladies were all chaperoned and watched over by their Godfearing parents. And the parents in their wisdom saw to it that no two young people had the opportunity to be alone together where they might face temptations that were too strong for them.

‘Those were the days when knights sang about pure love. And it was pure. If a young man fell in love with a young woman he might wear her colours into battle or write a poem to her, but he certainly didn’t hang around with her in dark doorways on the way home from the pictures.

‘Young fellows of your age would probably be off to fight the Turks under the banner of Our Lady. That’s who your lady would be. It was the Age of Our Blessed Lady. It’s no coincidence that the period of history when men were bravest and most chivalrous and most honourable in the way they behaved towards the fair sex — that age was also the greatest age in history for devotion to Our Lady.

‘But to get back to America again. There’s another expression I’ve heard and I suppose some of you must have too. It’s a cheap vulgar expression if ever there was one — sex appeal. The way some Americans behave, you’d think it was all that mattered when a man was thinking of marriage. As long as the woman has sex appeal, she’s sure to make a good wife.

‘Well, we can see the result of all this in the divorce courts. I suppose even at your age you’ve read about some of these Hollywood stars getting married — he for the fifth time and she for the third. Think of it. America has gone mad over this thing called sex appeal. But I shouldn’t say that. We know there are thousands of good Catholics in America — people in the fine old Catholic cities like Boston and Chicago struggling to bring up their children away from all the madness in the pagan parts of the country. And I’m happy to say there are even a few good Catholics in Hollywood itself.

‘I was reading the other day in a Catholic magazine about the film star Maureen O’Sullivan. You’ve probably watched her if you go to the pictures occasionally. Well, in the midst of all the temptations of Hollywood, that woman is still an outstanding Catholic mother. She’s been married all her life to a good Catholic man and they’ve brought up six or seven fine young children. So it can be done. And don’t forget Bing Crosby either — a decent Catholic father who’s never had his head turned by Hollywood. But how rare these people are.

‘Boys, whenever I think about Hollywood and what it’s doing to the world I’m glad I’m an old man. I honestly don’t know how I’d save my soul if I had to grow up with all the temptations facing you young fellows today. In my time we had nothing like the films and books and even the newspapers that you fellows have to fight against. Today I suppose there’s not one of you who doesn’t go to the pictures now and then and give the paganism of Hollywood a chance to infect you.

‘ “Ah, but I only watch harmless films for general exhibition,” you’re saying to yourselves. Well, I sometimes wonder if there’s any such thing as a harmless film. Did you ever stop to think what sort of lives these actors and actresses lead outside their films? Did you know for instance that nearly every young woman film star has to surrender her body to the director or the producer or whoever he is before she gets the part of the leading lady? And these are the sort of people that the young men and women of today are supposed to have for their heroes and heroines.’

While the chaplain went on to talk about Our Lady again, Adrian thought hard about the film stars he met on his American journeys. If Father Lacey was right about Hollywood, some of these women might have been through unspeakable agonies when they were younger. For all Adrian knew, Jayne with her innocent smile or Marilyn with her serene gaze might have spent her younger days with her eyes shut tight and her mouth clamped to stop herself from screaming while some pot-bellied Cecil B. De Mille ran his sweaty hands over her naked skin.

The women had never mentioned those things to Adrian for fear of spoiling the fun of their outings together. They were generous courageous creatures. He should have spent more time getting to know their life-stories instead of treating them as beautiful playthings. In future he would encourage them to share their old painful secrets with him. They would soon realise that nothing they could tell him about Hollywood would shock him.

Adrian’s teachers often said that the name ‘Dark Ages’ was misleading and unjust. Protestant historians used the name to imply that the centuries when the Church was at the height of its influence were a time of ignorance and misery. In fact, as all fair-minded historians agreed, Europe in the so-called Dark Ages was more peaceful and contented than it had ever been since. And the countryside was dotted with monasteries that were centres of learning. Catholics should get into the habit of using the term ‘Middle Ages’ to cover the whole period from the end of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance and the Protestant Revolt (or Reformation as it was sometimes called).

Adrian was certain he would never have become a slave to sins of impurity if he had lived in the Middle Ages. A boy in those days grew up in a simple two-roomed cottage and slept in the same room as his parents and brothers and sisters. He fell asleep hearing the calm breathing of his family round him and the comfortable noises of the cows and horses in the byre through the wall. If his parents wanted to have another baby they waited until their children were all sound asleep before they did anything about it. In a home like this there was no opportunity for a boy to sin in his bed without being discovered.