The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, MAY 31, 1937. NAZI ATTACK ON CHURCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, MAY 31, 1937. NAZI ATTACK ON CHURCH.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that u>e oar> do.

Most of the few remaining bridges to an understanding between Church and State in Germany will have been broken down by Dr. Goebbels' violent speech on Friday. After .-itch words as he used have been published to the nation and the world there can be little room left for a reconciliation, nor will much doubt remain that the Nazi Government has deliberately launched, and is resolved to carry on, a campaign of persecution against the German Catholics, who number more than twenty million people. It is an appalling prospect, which other nations and men and women of all Christian denominations must regard with mingled stupefaction and horror. The immediate cause of Dr. Goebbels' outburst was a speech made in Chicago by an American cardinal, who is reported to have spoken of Herr Hitler as "an Austrian paperhanger." The context of this remark was not cabled, hut when read by itself it was certain to provoke anger in Germany. Not Herr Hitler's origins, but his policy as Chancellor, was the legitimate object of [attack. But Dr. Goebbels' response to this indiscretion was not a dignified rebuke, but j a torrent of abuse, not a reasoned statement of his Government's case, but a foul slandering !of the whole Church in Germany. He asserted jthat the Government had detected "a sign of 1 a general moral depravity unparalleled in the cultural history of mankind." In the extravagance of its expression this assertion carries its own refutation, but it is ominously significant that it has been uttered by one of the highest State authorities. That fact indicates that the Government is prepared to go to extreme lengths in its attempt to discredit the Church before the public and the world. In its efforts to that end it has at | its disposal two immensely powerful agencies— {the Press and the radio, both completely under !State control. The Government's object is to be the sole teacher of German youth. The Roman Catholic Chureh, as in every other country, insists upon its right to educate the children of Catholics. Faced with this obstacle, what should the Government do? If it cherished the principle of religious liberty it would decide, as democratic countries have long since decided, that resolute adherence to a Christian faith is compatible with the highest ideals of citizenship; in other words, that men and 'women are not less good Germans through being good Catholics. But, denying this principle,. the Government is setting out, in a peculiarly blackguardly fashion, to discredit the Church. It is trying Catholic Youth leaders on treason charges of having been in contact ' with Communists. It is also charging some ' Catholic teachers with immorality. Anyone even slightly aware of the fundamental j (antipathy of Catholicism and Communism, and : !of the rigid mpral code of the Roman Catholic , I Church, might expect that charges of these ' kinds would be the last brought against . Catholics. Yet Dr. Goebbels asks the nation to believe that these alleged offences are not isolated, but symptomatic of "general moral ', depravity." If the nation can be so convinced 1 —and, let it be repeated, a Government in • complete control of Press and radio can induce , its people to believe almost anything—then : the Church's claim to be a teacher of youth ' in competition with the State's organisations ' will be destroyed. The outcome of this l campaign cannot be foreseen, but its existence is a salutary warning to democratic peoples ' not to take their liberties for granted.