The Story of Dan Lyons, S.J.

The Story of Dan Lyons, S.J., by John D. McCallum (Guild Books, 443 pp., $7.95). That Father Dan Lyons is a magnificent human being becomes clear in the first part of this biography. In the second section the priest-journalist emerges as an indefatigable, globe-circling leader armed with eyewitness knowledge about international personalities and events. His reports and judgments, although occasionally oversimplified, are more concise, colorful, and responsible than those of numerous critics of U.S. policy. Fortunately for the family of nations, Father Dan inspires boundless trust among Jewish and Christian benefactors. The latter, including Frank Malina, Mrs. Roberts Blount, and Patrick J. Frawley, “passed the ammunition,” money enough to enable a modern Paul to finance charitable and educational projects at home and abroad. Every centavo invested in good causes produced considerable impact on public opinion from Melbourne to Djakarta to Damascus. An index to the Lyons influence may be gleaned from the notices he has drawn in Pravda, Izvestia, and the Daily World. For those familiar with Marxist psychology “the rage of Tass” suggests how vulnerable the men in the Kremlin feel themselves to be. Noteworthy, too, is the fact that, as early as 1966, Richard M. Nixon listened with respect to “Father Owl” when this loyal son of Loyola advised the future President to “mine the harbor of Haiphong.” Action followed in 1972, when the subject of this biography praised the port closing as “the first decisive action in ten years,” apt to end the war. In a revelatory chapter, “Behind the Iron Curtain 1972,” the roving correspondent, accompanied by a colleague, Father Cletus Healy, got a first-hand glimpse of the Soviet empire. En route to Moscow, they found that in Czechoslovakia “300,000 members of the Communist Party have been purged, . . . 40 per cent of the writers have been forced out of their profession,” while “fifty thousand union members were liquidated.” In Moscow itself, a clue to freedom is supplied by the two Jesuits: “Father Joseph Richards, an Assumptionist, . . . has a nice but tiny chapel in his apartment, where about thirty persons attend Mass on Saturday night. . . . He offers three Masses in the cafeteria of the American embassy on Sundays, attended by worshipers from various legations.” In such wise are the 1933 treaty provisions fulfilled. Excellent photographs illuminate the text.

JT

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J. F. Thorning

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The Story of Dan Lyons, S.J., by John D. McCallum (Guild Books, 443 pp., $7.95). That Father Dan Lyons is a magnificent human being becomes clear in the first part of this biography. In the second section the priest-journalist emerges as an indefatigable, globe-circling leader armed with eyewitness knowledge about international personalities and events. His reports and judgments, although occasionally oversimplified, are more concise, colorful, and responsible than those of numerous critics of U.S. policy. Fortunately for the family of nations, Father Dan inspires boundless trust among Jewish and Christian benefactors. The latter, including Frank Malina, Mrs. Roberts Blount, and Patrick J. Frawley, “passed the ammunition,” money enough to enable a modern Paul to finance charitable and educational projects at home and abroad. Every centavo invested in good causes produced considerable impact on public opinion from Melbourne to Djakarta to Damascus. An index to the Lyons influence may be gleaned from the notices he has drawn in Pravda, Izvestia, and the Daily World. For those familiar with Marxist psychology “the rage of Tass” suggests how vulnerable the men in the Kremlin feel themselves to be. Noteworthy, too, is the fact that, as early as 1966, Richard M. Nixon listened with respect to “Father Owl” when this loyal son of Loyola advised the future President to “mine the harbor of Haiphong.” Action followed in 1972, when the subject of this biography praised the port closing as “the first decisive action in ten years,” apt to end the war. In a revelatory chapter, “Behind the Iron Curtain 1972,” the roving correspondent, accompanied by a colleague, Father Cletus Healy, got a first-hand glimpse of the Soviet empire. En route to Moscow, they found that in Czechoslovakia “300,000 members of the Communist Party have been purged, . . . 40 per cent of the writers have been forced out of their profession,” while “fifty thousand union members were liquidated.” In Moscow itself, a clue to freedom is supplied by the two Jesuits: “Father Joseph Richards, an Assumptionist, . . . has a nice but tiny chapel in his apartment, where about thirty persons attend Mass on Saturday night. . . . He offers three Masses in the cafeteria of the American embassy on Sundays, attended by worshipers from various legations.” In such wise are the 1933 treaty provisions fulfilled. Excellent photographs illuminate the text.