Czech Priests Fail To Carry Oof Decree

Northern Advocate, 18 July 1949, Page 5

Czech Priests Fail To Carry Oof Decree

PRAGUE, Sun (noon). —Czech priests made no attempt today to implement the Vatican decree of excommunication for all Roman Catholics who support Communism. With the threat of treason charges hanging over their heads if they try to enforce the decree, they have apparently decided to await instructions from the bishops.

However. the declaration from Roman Catholic clergy pledging loyalty to Archbishop Beran, which was read today in Prague churches, staled that Roman Catholic priests “stand loyally by our bishops and our archbishop in their fight, and will continue to do so even if it mfiahs persecution. "We hope our Roman Catholic faithful will, do likewise.” ‘DECEIT, FRAUD’ The declaration accused the Czech Government of deceit and fraud in the encouragement of the separatist Catholic Action movement, and of deliberately violating constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. In Rome today the Communist leader (Togliatti), addressing one of the many Communist gatherings held throughout Italy to commemorate the first anniversary of his escape from assassination, said that the weapon of excommunication would never destroy Communism.

He charged the Church with using powers “dragged from the darkest ages of human history. “All these powers will not succeed.” Togliatti said his party “will not bow to the forces of reaction.” The Communist secretary (Aldo Natoli) said in Rome that the Vatican’s decree was “odious, stupid and impotent. “Our reply to this is to continue our fight with renewed vigour.” POPE TO GERMANS Forty thousand German Roman Catholics gathered at the Reichsports field, Berlin, to hear a broadcast exhortation by the Pope to stand firm against governments which denied God and the Church. The Pope urged German Roman Catholics to put their future in the hands of God. “Communities and states may seem to be fastened to the fundamentals of the world,” he said. “If they are- not based on faith 'in God they are doomed to decay.” Professor Emil Dovifat, a lay speaker, assailed the way the Soviet zone had impeded Roman Catholic schools and publications. He warned Germans that they faced the same fight against Communism as they fought against the Nazis to keep their right to worship. The French Communist Party's secretary (Jacques Duclos) said in Abbeville today that the Pope’s ex-com-munication of Roman Catholic Communists was “an unacceptable instrument,”