PROFESSIONAL BOXING

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27875, 25 January 1956, Page 13

PROFESSIONAL BOXING

Church Condemnation Considered (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON. Jan. 23. The Roman Catholic Church may officially condemn professional boxing. according to tne editor of the authoritative ecclesiastical journal. “Palestro del Ciero." the Rome correspondent of “The Times” said tonight. The editor, a Jesuit priest. Father Alfredo Boschi, in an article in the journal today, said that eminent Roman Catholic theologians and moralists had been discussing such a condemnation for some time and would sooon submit their findings to the Pope. The article enumerated the adverse arguments, but stated dearly that amateur boxing would not be included in the condemnation, the correspondent of "The Times” said. According to the correspondent. Father Boschi emphasised that the moral valuation could not be influenced by the fact that professional boxers included many Roman Catholics, some of them as eminent as Gene Tunney had been, and Rocky Marciano was today. Nor could the condemnation be affected by the fact that many Roman Catholic boxers, among them Italians such as Loi, the light-weight champion of Europe, and Cavicchi. the European heavyweight champion, always prayed and crossed themselves before a bout, the article said, according to the correspondent of "The Times.”