UNIVERSAL MORALITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 103, 28 October 1939, Page 11

UNIVERSAL MORALITY

THE WORLD'S NEED

ENCYCLICAL BY POPE

GOD THE FOUNDATION

EVIL OF STATE AUTONOMY

ißy Telegraph—Press Association—CopyrlglU.i (Received October 28, 11 a.m.) VATICAN CITY, October 27. "The profound and ultimate root of present evils is the refusal to accept a standard of universal morality for the life of the individual, for social life and international relations," declared his Holiness the Pope in a 10,000-word Encyclical. "In other words, the present evils can be traced to a disregard and forgetfulness of natural law whose foundation is God. After a denial of God comes a denial of law. The result is religious and moral agnosticism, from which spring two pernicious errors —firstly, a forget-' fulness of human solidarity and charity; secondly, the error of oretending to absolve civil authority from dependence on God, thus establishing the State as the final end in life. This State autonomy is contrary to natural reason and Christian conscience, since it reduces everything to the level of utilitarian morality, but the rights of the conscience are sacred and inviolable." Referring to the dictatorships, the Pope said: "To consider the State as something ultimate and subordinating everything to it cannot fail to harm the true and lasting prosperity of nations." War alone would not lead to a decisive change in conditions without peace treaties animated by justice and equity to all. The Pope appealed lor peace treaties to end the present war and avoid sacrifices and suffering which hitherto had failed to bring lasting peace. International law could not be torn from the anchor of Divine law without abandoning it to the caprice of private interests and collective egoism, thus opening the door to the domination of force, giving legal standing to accomplished facts inconsistent with treaties, and destroying confidence among the nations. These conceptions brought the world to the present horrible abyss. Since human expedients had miserably failed, salvation could only come from the Church, The Pope expressed sorrow for Poland and promised to do all in his power to hasten the restoration of peace. -