EUROPE’S SICKNESS IS INFECTIOUS, SAYS BISHOP BELL

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 October 1949, Page 9

EUROPE’S SICKNESS IS INFECTIOUS, SAYS BISHOP BELL

AUCKLAND, October 5 (P.A.).— “Europe is the sick continent of the world and its sickness is very infectious,” said the Bishop of Chichester (Dr G. K. Bell), who is chairman of the central committee of the world Council of Churches, at a public meeting in the Salvation Army Congress Hall this evening. In one country, Germany, was concentrated the whole sickness of Europe, said Bishop Bell. The fact that trouble existed in the physical heart of Europe was a matter of terrible concern and danger. While sickness remained in the heart the whole body suffered.

“I would call this century a century of refugees,” he said. Between 10,000,000 and 12,000,000 refugees had intruded into the western part of Germany. They were Balts, Germanspeaking Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, and Germans from the eastern provances now occupied by Poland. They were vagabonds lost in spirit and in soul and were the victims of despair. The sickness of Europe was not only one of the body but also one of the soul, Bishop Bell. said. It was part of a general sickness in the modern world. There was a crisis in mankind. Civilisation was rooted in and dependent upon the Christian religion and, if Christianity were to go, Western civilisation would go, too. “In the West today, maybe in New Zealand, certainly in Britain, Christiahity as a positive faith is held oiyy by a small minority of citizens, he continued. ; ..;