WITHOUT HIS ROBE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1944, Page 4

WITHOUT HIS ROBE

ARCHBISHOP ENTHRONED LONDON, January 18. The new Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev. Bernard Griffin, was enthroned today in Westminster Cathedral. The ceremony had to be completed without the sacred robe, the pallium, which had not arriyed from Rome in time. Possibly this was the first occasion on which an archbishop had been enthroned without this vestment. In his sermon, the archbishop said that Britain had, during this war, [faced a crisis unique in her history, and she had not failed. He continued: "May we hope she will face the post-war problems, however difficult, with the same assurance, the same determination, the same confidence, and,, above all, with the same trust in the power of God." "Divorce Courts and the means to easier divorce are a menace to the stability of the family," he said. "The manufacture and sale of mechanical birth-control devices should be prohibited. Stricter censorship should be exercised over films and books extolling evils and attacking the sanctity of the marriage bond and sacred family life. "One of the most pressing needs of the Church and the nation in Britain is the revival of Christian Catholic life, which has suffered through the forced absence of the father, the removal of children from the influence of their parents, and the absence of the mother from home in outside employment for long periods. "The proper place for the mother with a young family is in the home looking after the children. The greatest possible contribution she can make to the nation, even during the war, is the upbringing and physical, moral, and spiritual education of her children. History has shown that a nation's decline has always begun with the disintegration of the family."