Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1923. CRIME AGAINST RELIGION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 82, 6 April 1923, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1923. CRIME AGAINST RELIGION

Russia's reign of terror presented so appalling a record that we may be surprised that any fresh atrocity should possess the power to arouse the world. Reckless disregard of human life and wholesale slaughter of all opponents of the Soviet shocked the civilised world when such deeds were first recorded. The perpetrators of the crimes could not even plead that they were forced to use violent methods to punish men who resisted constitutional rule. The Soviet was not regularly constituted by the will of the majority. It established itself by violence, and it sought to make its establishment firm by exterminating those who might oppose it. Yet even with this red record behind it, the Soviet has perpetrated a new horror^ and shocked the nations afresh iby it's savage sentence upon Archbishop Zepliak and its execution of Monsignor Budkevitch, the Vicar-General. The protests now made promise to surpass even the- indignation aroused when the Greek revolutionaries tried and executed-, the ex-Ministers of their

country., In Greece it was the brutality of the executions and the mockery of the trial, no less than the new principle of killing defeated Ministers, that evoked condemnation. The Greek executioners condemned as traitors men whose crime was that, having been lawfully chosen to govern, they had not governed wisely. They were the scapegoats sacrificed to appease a people who were suffering from a war policy which in the beginning they had welcomed -and applauded. But Soviet Russia has never held life sacred, and the protest against the execution of Monsignor Budkevitch would not be so strong were this but another sacrifice of Jife on the Bolshevik altar. So far as the Soviet has attempted to justify its action, it has done so by bringing an accusation of treason, against the Archbishop and the Vicar-Gen-eral ; but the record of Bolshevism strongly supports the statement of •Cardinal Bourne that the Archbishop's only ciime was his endeavour to do his duty as a Christian. The Bolshevik antagonism to all religion, and particularly to the Christian faith, has been made plain in the prosecution to which the leaders of Christianity have been subjected. And now the "Pravda" exhorts Italian Communists to sentence the Pope to death by default pending the establishment of a revolutionary tribunal !

Evidence of the campaign against Christianity is plentiful. It was reported in a message from Riga od 25th Jauuary that the Soviet had definitely banned all teaching of the Bible, and that offenders would be liable to a long term of imprisonment. Recently the London " Times " published extracts from the official Soviet paper, the Moscow " Izvestia," describing the anti - religious propaganda of the "Committee of Soviet Young Men" (Comsomol), deriding the Christian celebrations of the Nativity. Describing the demonstrations in the streets of Moscow, one of the "Izvestia" correspondents wrote:

Two men are riding in front, carrying a huge placard, "To-day is the Nativity of the 'Comsomol.'" Another huge poster fallows. It is the Virgin Mary with & child wearing the helmet of a Red soldier. Joseph is horrified. The legend is: " 1922 times Mary has given birth to Jesus, and on the 1923 rd time she gave birth to the ' Comsomoletz.' " Another writer, who endeavoured to represent the anti-religious activities of the " Comsomol"' as having profoundly affected the community in the desired sense, declared : Kings often go, but gods stay for thousands of years. I do not hesitate to say that the 7th January (the Russian Christmas Day), 1923, was an historical date in the life, not only of Moscow, not only of Soviet Russia, but of mankind. When all the world over the poisonous mist of various religions is dispelled, mankind, looking back on its naive past, will gratefully remember that the first public challenge to God was made in Soviet Russia on 7th January, 1923. . . . Our Soviet young men " Commomoltei " have been the first to break the celestial front, and volunteers rushed forward, so that the breach is ■wide. . . . Silly old women grumble, and the Christ-loving bourfeoisia persists in its ignorance and is isoontented., They felt sick on this his toric day. . . . When the sun rises, owls feel uncomfortable.

"The Times" recorded, however, that, in spite of the boisterous tone of the Moscow Press and of the messages from the provincial towns, it was evident that the Christian community celebrated Christmas in the usual wa-y, and attended Divine service with the same reverence as ever. Derision and persecution may have reduced the number of Christian adherents in Russia; but the history of Christianity from the early ages proves that true faith cannot be shaken by such means. Instead, the Church in Bussia will emerge from its ordeal purified as by fire and strengthened, even though the Soviet may count Christianity as treason and blasphemy as meritorious.