MOVEMENT NOT CONDEMNED

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26319, 13 January 1951, Page 7

MOVEMENT NOT CONDEMNED

Church Attitude Defined (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 12. “There is no suggestion in the message from Rome that Catholic members of Rotary should resign,” said an authority in the Roman Catholic Church this evening. He expressed diffidence at commenting on the decree in digest form. As given, it conveyed nothing new to any Roman Catholic. The authority said that there was apparently some reason for emphasising or reiterating what had been the established view ot the Roman Catholic Church on these matters. It was to be noted, nevertheless, that Rotary was not put in the category of societies membership of which was prohibited to Roman Catholics. There had been previous references by the Vatican to membership of Rotary. As to the question of priests belonging to the organisation, they had their own special work to do. “It should be made clear that members of Rotary are good and respectable citizens and no reflection is cast upon them,” said’the authority. “It is possible, however, that some of the principles that apply in Rotary could make conformity by Catholics awkward. “It does not follow that the Catholic Church condemns the Rotary movement. A Catholic is free to regard it as an excellent institution. Some other’organisations, however, are condemned as evil and Roman Catholics are warned against them. The broad interpretation h s to Rotary is that Catholics can perform in other organisations the same services they do in Rotary without the possibility of clash of principle.”

Difference in Rulings A spokesman for New Zealand Rotary said there was a vast difference between the two rulings of the Papal decree—that concerning Rotary and that concerning secret, seditious, and suspected organisations. Rotary was non-sectarian. It worked for the public good. The spokesman said that the present president of Rotary International was a Roman Catholic, Mr Arthur Legueux, a prominent Canadian banker. Several other world presidents had been Roman Catholics. Rotary had progressed equally in predominantly Roman Catholic countries as elsewhere. It was strong in the Canadian Maritime Provinces and in European countries where the prevailing religion made the membership largely Roman Catholic. South America, where the clubs had 25,000 members, was almost entirely Roman Catholic.

Gales Sweep Britain.—Gales swept Britain to-day, bringing rain and new floods. Heavy seas were running in the Channel and waves, lashed by a 60-mile-an-hour gale, broke over the harbour at Hastings, Sussex. Rain fallen along the Thames Valley caused a further rise in the already swollen river and extension of floods in the lowlying areas.—London, January 10.