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ent000899-003

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ent000899-003
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    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    5. We?╟╓ve been warning against the nude shows for a year now ?╟÷ for we saw then what could happen if the idea were to spread. Monsignor JOHN J. RYAN, of St. Anne's Catholic Church which is closest to the Strip, and A1 Cahlan, the Protestant publisher of the REVIEW JOURNAL, and Adam Yacenda, the Catholic Managing Editor of the SUN have been with us all theway, but we made very little headway in the fight. So, we have to take the fight to the press and the people. 6. The Pastoral Letter from the Bishop to be read this Sunday in all Catholic churches throughout Nevada is just the first gun in the showdown ---- but it will still have to be up to the public and the press to get across to the legislators and to the operators of resort hotels in such a privileged industry that good taste and &ood public relations are more important than filling a showroom by any method. here is the pastoral letter, in contest: "It seems to be unhappily true that new lows are being reached and that the agents responsible are throwing all scruples aside in appealing to the very worst in man's animal appetites. "It is most encouraging to note that the strongest opposition to this perversion of popular taste and the assault upon decency has come from the better elements of the entertainment world itself. "These producers know full well that entertainment need not be vulgar or dirty or suggestive in order to be pleasing to the American public. "All Catholics are strictly forbidden by the Divine Law itself to have any part in entertainment which is of its nature indecent or suggestive. This means that no Catholic is permitted under pain of grave sin, to participate in the managemrnt, direction, production or even the advertising of such entertainment. "Visitors of the Catholic faith are bound by the same law. There is no ?· vacation from the Ten Commandments." "It is truly a great shame that your Bishop should find it needful to write this letter. It is a shocking thing to contemplate that Nevada should acquire the reputation of being a state which tolerates lewd and indcenent entertainment, and attracts visitors on the strength of such an appeal.lt is even more horrible to think that our young people should be exposed to such influences, if not as spectators, then by way of advertising and common talk. It seems a little futile for us to build our szchools and teeach our Christian ethics if all standards of decency can be flouted with impunity by the purveyors of suggestive entertainment."