CHURCH'S DUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 45, 23 February 1931, Page 7

CHURCH'S DUTY.

TO SAVE DEMOCRACY.

Australian Bishop's Lenten Pastoral.

SIN OF REPUDIATION.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 10 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. In a Lenten pastoral, delivered in the Bathurst Cathedral, Bishop Crotty denounced the repudiation proposals and hinted that the Church, must soon enter definitely into polities to save democracy from the destruction which was threatening it. Preaching on the text, "Where there is no vision people perish," Bishop Crotty said: "An English preachcr recently placed first in the list of modern deadly sins the cult of policies divorced from principles, thereby putting his finger on the primary cause of our gathering chaos and increasing poison in Australian public life. "When a private individual forswears his debts or lawful obligations, it is a policy without principle and we are; shocked—or we used to be—and when a j nation or its chosen representatives I make the same infamous proposal the' same moral poison is at work. Policy has slain principle, and the moral murder is a callous one." The complete reason was not far to ! seek. Moral principles had been pulled \ up from their roots in God. The acids of modernity had dissolved the ancient faiths. Principle was frankly disavowed j in public life to-day and thereby the doom of democracy was sealed. The community looked to the Church | for a bold, Christian, non-party lead which could be given if the Church's vision was clear and her voice united. She might assert the principle of fellowship as vital to industry. There was no such thing as unordered liberty. The Church stood for equality of human nature, unity of human life and the sacredness of attempts to secure just order by Governments. The moment Governments became obsessed by economic issues and, exploited by men both ignorant and unscrupulous, ceased striving for such order then the man who rose up to challenge j them in the name of freedom was not a | rebel but a saint. Meanwhile it was useless for vested { interests or noisy demagrnrues to attempt | to silence Christian leaders in their public j witness. They were in a position where I it was demanded of them that they j should speak the truth.