SOVIET'S WAR ON CHURCHES

Evening Star, Issue 18288, 30 May 1923, Page 4

SOVIET'S WAR ON CHURCHES

EYE-WITNESS DESCRIBES PRIEST'S "TRIALS."

PROSECUTOR LIKE WILD ANIMAL.

CRIME TO TEACH CHILDREN RELIGION.

Francis M'Cnllagh, correspondent of the ‘Now York Herald,’ claims to have attended from beginning to end, by tho aid of a journalistic subterfuge, the trial of the Roman Catholic Vicar-General, Monsignor Butchkavitch, and other prelates in Moscow, aa tho result of which the VicarGeneral was condemned to death and other priests to long terms of imprisonment. The execution of Monsignor P.utohkavitch was performed by shooting him from behind in a cellar. M’Culmgli’s first despatches never loft Moscow, but onco safely across the border ho filed a lengthy despatch, in which ho recites in grim detail the farce enacted in tho form of a trial, and exposes the Bolsheviks’ pretence that their persecution was directed against political opponents and not against religion. We give tho story as it is summarised by tho ‘Literary Digest’:—-

Krylenko, who conducted tho prosecution, and Galkin, “a renegade priest,” the presiding judge, made it perfectly clear that the prosecution was merely a thinly disguised attack on religion. They asked every ono of the clerical prisoners whether they had taught the catechism to children, and every prisoner answered “Yes.” As Mr M’Cnllagh continues his narrative in the ‘ Herald ’:

“They then read the Bolshevik law, which makes it a crime to impart religious teaching to anyone under eighteen years old, and asked each prisoner if he would continue to teach the catechism. Tile reply in every case was ‘Yes,’ always delivered in a firm tone . and sometimes accompanied by a smile—a smile of pity, I fancy, for tho ignorance of a man who would ask such a question of priests who had remained with their flock in Petrograd during the last five years of terror. . . .

“The priests were next asked if, after’ tho churches had been closed, they dared disobey tiro Bolshevik law by saying mass. Yes, of course they all said mass. Not only did they own up to the crime, but admitted there was always a congregation of about 150 or 200. . . .

‘‘And, to the surprise of the Red judges, they would not promise to cease saying mass. Thus case, however, does not concern Roman Catholics alone. It concerns all religions, including the Jews. It is a crime under the Bolshevik law to impart religious teaching to any person under the age of eighteen years, even though the teacher be tho mother and tho pupil her child. This law, therefore, strikes at all religions and at one of the moat sacred rights of parents.” The judges were openly biased, says tho correspondent. They all smoked cigarettes during the trial. As for the prosecutor, Mr M'Cullagh writes: —“Of all the bloodthirsty, wild beasts I have ever set eyes on Krylenko is the worst. He raged like a wild animal stinted in its •allowance of blood, and devoured in consequence by a raging thirst. And ho must have known, for lie is an educated man, that he had not proved his case.”

OPEN CONFESSION. CHRISTIANITY AND COMMUNISM INCOMPATIBLE. “ What is really at the back of the religious situation in Russia?” asks tho Chicago ‘ Tribune's ’ Moscow correspondent. “Probably the best answer is given by Bucharim editor of the ‘ Pravda,’ who, in taking Karl Marx’s axiom, ‘ Religion is the opium of the people,’ explains: “‘ It is the task of tho Communist Party to make this truth comprehensible in tho widest possible circles of the laboring masses. It is the task of tho Communist Party to impress firmly upon the minds of tho workers, even upon the most backward, that religion in the past and to-day is one of tho most powerful means at the disposal of oppressors for the maintenance of Inequality and tho exploitation of slavish obedience on the part of the toilers. .Religion and Communism are incompatible both theoretically and practically. A Communist who rejects the commandments of religion and acts in accordance with the directions of his party ceases to be one of the faithful; on the other hand, anyone calling himself a Communist and continues to cling to religious faith ceases thereby to be a Communist.’

“ Such are the tenets of the Communist Party, which is the ‘lnternational’ Party, with branches throughout the world, including England and America. Not necessarily are they the tenets of any nation accepting the Communist form of government. Yet while race, color, and nationality are no bar' to anyone participating in tho government of Russia, the possession of bourgeois or religious tendencies is serious. That is why frequently Trotsky and other leaders ask for a ‘ housecleaning,’ whereby those professing Communism, but through action betray tho tenets of the party, are expelled. Moreover, postulants desiring entrance to tho party undergo two years’ probation.”