The Press MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1963. The Pope On Social Order

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30106, 15 April 1963, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1963. The Pope On Social Order

Pope John’s Easter pro-

nouncements must have evoked a sympathetic response among an audience far more numerous than the world-wide membership of the Roman Catholic Church. In his latest encyclical, as well as in his Easter broadcast, the 81-year-old Pope advanced the crusade for social justice and unity among mankind that he began upon his ascension of the papal throne in 1958. He is likely to be remembered not only for his leadership of the Roman Catholic Church but as one who, though set apart uniquely from non-Christian ideologies, yet sought devotedly to destroy the power of such ideologies and thus to bridge the worst chasm separating the dominant physical forces of humanity. In an ecclesiastical context. Pope John proved himself an enlightened innovator by his decision to open the Second Vatican Council to observers from. other Christian churches. Inevitably, as the Pope himself has remarked, this council has had its impact upon the world’s social structure.

But the impact of papal thought has been strengthened enormously by the Pontiff’s two encyclicals on social order—the first published in July, 1961, and the second announced last week. The first encyclical discussed particularly the problems of underdeveloped countries, food production, and workers’ rights. A contemporary report in “The “Times” said:

The Pope approved socialisation. provided that its negative aspects which restricted human freedom and personal initiative were curbed, while reaffirming the individual’s right to private property provided there was effective distribution among all classes He expressed approval of control by State and public agencies over sources of production where there were dangers of injury to the public at large if these were privately owned But he said that the motive of public ownership should not be to reduce or abolish private property as such It would be difficult to

overlook the coincidence of papal efforts for world brotherhood with the recent improvement in the diplomatic climate for negotiations between East and West. Compromise between the Church and communism is perhaps the most improbable of international tendencies; yet there are signs that European Communist attitudes are less rigidly antagonistic. Much careful preparation, especially by the Russians, preceded the historic private audience granted by the Pope on March 7 to Mr Khrushchev’s daughter and her journalist-husband, Mr Adzhubei. Among Soviet gestures had been the presence of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Vatican Council, and the unconditional release of the Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop of Lwow, who had been imprisoned by the Russians since 1945. There is Russian and Vatican authority on which to found speculation about the establishment of normal diplomatic relations between Moscow and Rome. Within the Russian satellite countries, clergy who have resisted Communist dictates appear now to be less harshly treated. Changes at the heart of European communism since Stalin’s death and at the Vatican since the pontificate of Pius XII are reflected in present-day endeavours -to guide the course of social development internationally. Pope John, addressing a group of journalists that included Mr Adzhubei, declared that the Church occupied a position of “supranational neu“trality”—a declaration (as the “ Economist ” has pointed out) by which the Pope “ clearly did not mean “ that the .Church should “ disengage itself from world “problems [but] simply “ that it should place itself “in a better position to in- “ fluence their peaceful “ treatment ”. The papal utterances of Easter, 1963. represent a logical elaboration of that policy.