A CHRISTIAN LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 67, 20 March 1943, Page 4

A CHRISTIAN LEADER

Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, and head of the Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain, whose death was announced this week, won for himself a high place not only in the affections of his own people, but of men and women everywhere, and in every walk of life, who subscribe to the principles of freedom and decency, His influence extended far beyond the confines of the Church to which he gave such notable and unselfish service over so many years. The Cardinal was appointed to the high office of Archbishop of Westminster not long after the deadly purpose underlying the Fascist and Nazi creeds was first revealed to the world, and Until his death he remained a formidable and unrelenting opponent of all for which those creeds stand. On every occasion on which he addressed his people when war inevitably came Cardinal Hinsley emphasised the justice of the cause which Britain had espoused—the cause of human freedom against those who, in seeking to dominate and enslave the world, challenged the very foundations of Christianity. In a broadcast address in December, 1939, under the title of "The Sword of the Spirit," the Cardinal used these words:

A cynical and systematic disregard for truth, a reckless breaking of the plighted word, the brutality of force and ruthless persecution: these are the immediate causes of the present war. Of these I hold my country guiltless. . , . By the spirit Britain will conquer, and Britain will sheathe the sword the moment her opponents yield to the force of right and to the claims of freedom.

The pain which war brought to Cardinal Hinsley is evident in all his writings and sayings, but he had an abiding faith that from the evil of conflict would emerge a world ready and anxious to return to the shelter of an order based not on might but on the principles of true Christianity the principles enunciated in the letter signed by the Cardinal, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, setting out the ten peace points of the church leaders. The world he envisaged was a place in

which the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount would be a safe ana sure foundation and where "the spirit, not, the sword, will shape the happiness .of mankind." People of good will everywhere, and not least in New Zealand, where, had war not intervened, the Cardinal would have been a welcome and honoured guest during the Centennial celebrations, will join with the Catholic Church in mourning the passing of a distinguished prelate and a great Christian.