São Paulo, Nov. 11 —If you think it is easy to probe the thought of Catholic socialists, try spending one hour with the senior figure in the Brazilian hierarchy, the Archbishop of São Paulo, Paulo Evarista Cardinal Arns.
He walks into the studio irradiating benevolence. Here is a man who studied literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he achieved his doctorate; who taught patrology and didactics at highly respected universities; who has written 25 books, including abstruse treaties on medieval literature. At the end of an hour, one seriously doubts that he knows what a supply-demand curve is; or cares. But, when you come down to it, if you had an hour to spend with St. Francis of Assisi (who founded the order of which Cardinal Arns is a member) you probably wouldn’t talk to him about supply and demand; I’d have felt better just sitting and cooing with Cardinal Arns. Come to think of it, he did treat me about as St. Francis did the wild animals.
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