By JIM MARK VALOIS
One of the most astounding accounts of survival against all odds became known as the Endurance Expedition. It was named after the ship bound for Antarctica. The voyage was led by an intrepid leader named Sir Ernest Shackleton of Britain. Early on in the journey, the Endurance became locked in an ice floe. Together the explorer and his men faced fierce cold, hunger, and thirst as supplies dwindled. After several attempts to get across the ice floe, the crew was forced to return to the ship.
In time, the ice floe caused the Endurance to sink and the crew had to take the heavy lifeboats and remaining supplies in search of open sea. When they finally found a path to the sea, the men roped the lifeboats together and had to face unpredictable whales that might capsize the boats. In the ongoing ordeal, bouts of recurring despair added to the crew’s misery. But Shackleton’s calm, single-mindedness to save his men made him legendary. And most importantly, Sir Ernest Shackleton clearly understood and spoke of the role of Providence in their harrowing journey.
An equally captivating story involved another intrepid leader. She was a young ten-year-old girl when Shackleton made his calamitous trek to Antarctica. Bella Dodd was an Italian born immigrant to America. As an adult, Dodd became a teacher, lawyer, labor union activist, and ardent member of the Communist Party of America. She employed her great talents to organize, win over, and lead others to make America a Communist satellite of the new world order. This bold and single-minded Communist was misguided into thinking that the promised Marxist utopia would help the downtrodden and the poor.
In a riveting new book, The Devil and Bella Dodd by Mary Nicholas and Paul Kengor, we discover the journey of her life, leadership, and eventual expulsion from the Communist cabal. And even more important, we learn the role of Providence in her unforgettable saga and the crucial relevance of it for our times.
The authors are well qualified to explore this intriguing story. Mary Nicholas is a retired physician and research librarian. Her prolonged study of Bella Dodd and interviews of credible witnesses are key to understanding the authentic narrative. Paul Kengor, a professor of political science and prolific writer, adds further historical depth and understanding into nature of socialism and Communism. At this point, let us examine some of the highlights of Dodd’s life.
Nicholas and Kengor explain that Bella had an Edenic life in Italy as she lived with relatives in a beautiful rural setting. Her widowed mother had immigrated to America with her new fiancé and the rest of her large family a few years earlier. When Bella was five years old, her mother returned to Italy to take little Bella to New York to rejoin the family. Eventually the family was able to settle on a property with some land to do some gardening and life was good, but the family began to drift away from Catholicism.
Also at that time, New York, was home to 30,000 Communists — half of all the party members in the U.S. It was during high school at Evander Childs that Bella encountered socialism. In fact, the authors point out that a New York newspaper reported later about the school: “There have been disquieting rumors for a considerable time that the institution is more or less a hothouse of school Communism” (pp. 47-48).
Also, at Evander Childs a fellow student gave Dodd a copy of The Call which was a leading newspaper of the Socialist Party of America. Since Bella had an interest in politics, she began to ingest articles on social justice and the plight of the poor. The writers point out that The Call newspaper “was a who’s who of American left-wing radicals” (p. 49).
Nicholas and Kengor do a good job of tracing the progressive radicalization of Bella Dodd into socialist-Communist ideology in high school and college. They show that the single-minded and student leader, Bella Dodd, was determined to help the underclass with her developing worldview.
Yet Dodd confessed that the books she began to read “left us with no belief in God, in patriotism, or in goodness” (p. 51). This first part of the book effectively lays out the case for the subtle indoctrination project and thereby gives the reader ample understanding of the inherent dangers of Marxism on a fertile young mind.
Fast forward several years and we see that activist Bella Dodd’s bold leadership played an infamous role in the subversion of America. Dodd’s tireless dedication to the cause eventually led her to infiltrate the teachers’ union and the Catholic priesthood with well-trained Communist agents. The Reds knew that if they could get 1 percent Communists and 9 percent sympathizers into an organization, they would effectively control it.
The authors assert that Bella became a master at infiltration: “As a concealed communist organizer for teachers’ unions in New York state from 1936 to 1938…she was quickly achieving head-spinning numbers: ‘At its peak the Union boasted ten thousand members, and in it the Communist Party had a fraction of close to a thousand, said Bella’,” (p. 227).
In terms of the infiltration of the Catholic and Protestant seminaries, the evidence the authors put forward is legion. For some background, Nicholas and Kengor underscore that the Communists learned that violent actions and rhetoric against the Church were not effective in Western countries — so they changed their tactics. As part of the historical record, the Reds tried the new tactic of reaching out the hand of fellowship to Catholics.
Dodd recalled, “And then before my mind’s eye flashed the cover of a Communist pamphlet on which was a Communist extending a hand to a Catholic worker…it flattered workers by not attacking their religion. It skillfully undermined the hierarchy, in the pattern of the usual Communist attempt to drive a wedge between the Catholic and his priest” (p. 236).
The credible evidence the authors cite include statements of well-known figures such as Bishop Sheen, Blessed Solanus Casey, Communist defector Albert Vassart, and Bella Dodd. They also discuss public cases that lend support to the reality of infiltration such as the account of a Soviet mole named Tondi who got close to Cardinal Montini who later became Pope Paul VI. The book is worth its weight in precious pearls for just these chapters alone. And I might add — these chapters make for very interesting reading indeed.
In Bella Dodd’s story, the amazing role of Providence is seen clearly. After decades of work as a Communist, she began to see the masks come off. The face of Communism started to be seen by Bella in the blatant inhumanity, the violence, and the deceit of the ideology started by Marx. In time, through a good friend, Cong. McGrath, Dodd was put in touch with Bishop Sheen. This started her on the pathway to reconciliation, healing, and a new mission. The warmth, kindness, and counsel of the great bishop made a powerful impact on Bella Dodd.
Upon finishing this well-researched, power-packed book, one lesson came via the great bishop in the mission he encouraged Bella Dodd to do, following her conversion. He asked Bella to educate and expose Communism across America. The need to inform people of the anti-gospel religion of Communism is as important — if not more so today — than ever before. Although not everyone can get on the lecture circuit like Bella, each and every person can enlighten others within their sphere of influence. As Marxism — in its many new forms — seems to have an ongoing universal appeal to many, so too will the ideology need to be refuted well. This of course requires self-education first.
Bella Dodd learned Communism from the inside out and spent the rest of her life educating others about this deceptive religion in order to help our country so it can survive and flourish. Now it is our turn!
(The Devil and Bella Dodd is available at TAN Books and at Amazon.com)
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