CZECH CHURCH AND STATE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25859, 19 July 1949, Page 5

CZECH CHURCH AND STATE

SUPPORT PLEDGED TO BISHOPS DECLARATION BY CLERGY (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 17. Czech priests made no attempt today to act on the Vatican decree of excommunication for all Roman Catholics who support Communism. With the threat of treason charges hanging over their heads if they try to enforce the decree, they have apparently decided to await instructions from the bishops. However, a declaration from the Roman Catholic clergy pledging loyalty to the Archbishop of Prague (Dr. Beran) which was read to-day in Prague churches said that the Roman Catholic priests “stand loyally by our bishops and our archbishop in their fight, and will continue to do so, even if it means persecution. We hope that our Catholic faithful will do likewise.” The declaration accused the Czech Government of deceit and fraud in the encouragement of the separatist Catholic Action movement and of deliberately violating the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. The Associated Press correspondent in Prague says That Communist newspapers have reported that some,of the priests who have been excommunicated for siding with the Government in its fight with the Church are staging sit-down strikes and refusing to surrender their parishes. Forty thousand German Roman gathered at the Reichsports Feld, Berlin, to hear a broadcast exhortation by the Pope to stand firm against Governments which denied God and the Church. The Pope urged German Roman Catholics to put their future in the hands of God.

Professor Emil Dovifat, a lay speaker, said that in the Soviet zone Roman Catholic schools and publications had been impeded. He warned Germans that they faced the same fight against Communism as they had fought against the Nazis to keep their right of worship. In Rome to-day the Communist leader, Mr Togliatti, addressing one of many Communist gatherings held throughout Italy to commemorate the first anniversary of his escape from assassination, said that the weapon of excommunication would never destroy Communism. He charged the Church with using powers “dragged from the darkest ages of human history.” He added: “All these powers will not succeed.”

The secretary of the Communist Party in Rome (Mr Aldo Natoli) said that the Vatican’s decree was "odious, stupid, and impotent.” He added: “Our reply to this is to continue our fight with renewed vigour.” The French Communist Party’s secretary (Mr Jacques Duclos) said in Abbeville to-day that the Pope’s excommunication of Roman Catholic Communists was “an unacceptable instrument.”