SPANISH CIVIL WAR.

Evening Star, Issue 22539, 6 January 1937, Page 3

SPANISH CIVIL WAR.

TO THE BDITOH, - tin article - on Spanish strife and rebel atrocities in your issue of December 31, I .'was reminded of a letter you printed on- December 22 .from “ Audi ‘Alteram. Partem,'l- Ho said; “■For-the past 100, years or .so, the rulers of Spain have been imbued with Liheralistic principles. These the church has constantly 1 opposed. She has striven . to bring about the adoption of the social reforms preached' by her great leaders, Popes Leo XIII. and Pius XI., but the Literalistic rulers would not accept- her teachings. . . . The . Spanish Nationalist leaders have ' claimed, again and again, that their intention is, when they have restored peace to Spain, to adopt in their entirety, the social reforms preached by the two above-mentioned Popes.” Now let ps’ briefly see what some of the social reforms are that these two Popes, have-preached. I can only summarise, but, if challenged, will_ readily give fuller details. Leo XIIL, iii 1885, said. that the church could not _ be looked upon as inferior to the civil ' power, nor in any way dependent upon it.. -In 1890, on the duties of Christians as citizens, he said that they must allow themselves to, be ruled and directed by bishops, and above all by the Apostolic See. In 1888 he said that in the Catholic State, liberty of con- ; science and' of discussion must be understood and practised according to Catholic doctrine and law. In 1890 he also said that if the laws of the State 'were hurtful to the church, then to resist became a positive duty, to obey a crime. In 1888 he _ again said that to treat the various religions alike and to bestow upon them equal rights and privileges was forbidden, but that that religion must be professed which alone is true —Roman Catholicism.' In 1889 be said that theology occupied such a commanding place that it was the duty of the arts and sciences to ’serve it and wait uph it after the manner of handmaidens. In 1902 he said that it was impossible to approve an attitude that dwelt on the introduction of a new order of Christian life, new directions of the church, ’ new aspirations of the modern soul, new social vocation of the clergy, a new Christian . civilisation, and many other things of the same kind. ' In 1888 he had said that in the ’ extraordinary conditions of those times ■ the church usually acquiesced in Certain modern liberties, because she judged it “ expedient ” to permit them, but she would in happier times exercise her own liberty, and he condemned the .“liberal” view that the church should . hot “ legislate, judge, and punish.” And-we know that to “ punish ” means to put to death if necessary. In 1884 . he condemned the whole order of Freemasons, and directed the bishops to leave no effort untried to unmask and punish these “ devilish ministers.” He also endorsed the syllabus of Pius IX., in which is anathematised, as a pestilent error, that tho Pope can and should reconcile himself to modern civi- . lisation. Let us now take Pius XI. In 1926 -.he instituted a yearly feast of the church in support of the objects of a Catholic league in whose official programme its main object is stated to be . to fight to the’death against the “ declaration of the rights of man.” Pius XI. in 1922 also, endorsed the encyclical of Pius X. against modernism, in which . it is stated that Up Catholic may work for the common good without heeding the orders er rebukes of the church, and it is a “ pernicious doctrine ” that would make the laity a factor of progress in tiie church. In Pius Xl.’s encyclical on education, he says that all education belongs pre-eminently to the church, and that the latter is “independent of any earthly power,” not merely in regard to her end and object, but also in regard to the “ means necessary and suitable to attain that end.” Now, remembering these authoritative utterances of Leo XIII, and Pius

XI. that your correspondent says the Spanish Nationalist leaders have proclaimed will be adopted “in their entirety,” we read in the_ article I mentioned on ‘ Spanish Strife,’ that some of the rebel Nationalists had the Sacred Heart of Jesus on their coats, and were shooting thousands of people who were all the Freemasons, most school masters; school mistresses, middle-class Republicans, anyone ' 'who had , sat on a trade union committee, all Syndicalist and Socialist leaders, Liberals of an often very moderate type, hostile to any form of Socialism: the excuse being that they were anti-clericals. In fact, a clean sweep had been made of everyone who in England w;e should class as a Liberal. “ Audi Alteram Partem ” says that the Liberals could not accept the teaching of Leo XIII. and Pius XI. Well— I have shown what some of that teaching is. The “ happier times ” referred to by Leo XIII. have apparently arrived, for a cessation of the expediently permitted acquiescence in “ certain modern liberties,” and the taking up of the power to “ legislate, judge, and punish,” so far as Spain is concerned. The frankness of the confession by “ Audi Alteram Partem ” is one to be pondered over very seriously by all your readers.—l am, etc., Observer. January 6.