MERCY FOR GERMANS

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1944, Page 5

MERCY FOR GERMANS

Anglican Bishop ATTACKS THE POPE’S SUGGESTION. (Rec. 11.35) LONDON, Sept. 20. Doctor Henry Wilson, Bishop of Chelmsford, in his Diocesan chronicle, attacks the Pope’s recent utterances that Londoners should show the Christian sentiments of charity, forgiveness and mercy to the Germans. Dr Wilson says: “It is difficult to remember a single word from the F'ope in condemnation of the Nazis when they swept London with destruction. The plain fact is that Vatican politics are anti-democratic. The best interests of the church, .according to the Roman view 1 , are served by a government approximating to a dictatorship, particularly if, as in Spain, the dictator is a Roman Catholic. There is widespread uneasiness, rightly or wrongly, lest the Vatican .authorities should succeed in having a say in the peace settlement. Several recent incidents roused these fears. One of the surest ways to lose peace would ’ be to permit dubious counsels of Vatican diplomats to have any hand in the business.”