Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 24 May 1939, Page 6

Timely Topics

“A fight against religion is a fight against the impalpable—against the intangible; it is open warfare against

the spirit in its most profound and most signifi-

MUSSOLINI AND religion.

cant force, and it is by this time fully proved that the weapons at the disposal of the State no matter how sharp they may be, are powerless to inflict any mortal blows on the Church, which emerges invariably triumphant after engaging in the most bitter conflicts” (says Signor Mussolini). “When a nation goes to war, for example, it finds it r self face to face with a concrete ma- . terial entity, an entity capable of | being attacked, shattered, mutilated ' and transformed, but when, instead ( iof such a material entity, the 'adversary is a religion, it is impossible to I take a definite and precise aim at \ any target. The passive resistance on \ the part of the priests and of the i faithful is sufficient to frustrate the : i \ most violent attacks by a State.” \ Rl ft ' '■'it jf

“I cannot believe that we are so lost in the real spiritual reaction against this thing,” said Mr McLaren

from the Labour benches of the House of Commons,

AN ELOQUENT APPEAL.

“that we are going to remain here passively moving millions and talking as we are doing now. I believe the time has come now, if it has never come before, for this House to bestir itself, for every man and woman in it to back the Prime Minister, and those who think like him, to face Europe seriously, valiantly, with vital forces behind them, and to see whether something cannot be done to stop this. I am taking this opportunity if for no other reason than to point the moral of the expenditure involved in this state of arms, what it implies, the significance of it. If it has any significance 'at all, all that we have dreamt about in our philosophies and our religions is now damned, because arm in arm with slip and slip we go down, like Gadarene swine, to destruction. If this continues, nothing can stop it, but for men of singular views and with singular faith in the goodness of mankind, men holding leading positions in the States of Europe, to come together at this moment.”