WARNING TO FLOCK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21358, 6 December 1932, Page 12

WARNING TO FLOCK

SCOTTISH ROMAN CATHOLICS " COMMUNIST GOSPEL OF HATE " [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Nov. 1 In a pastoral letter written by the archbishops and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church ii'i Scotland, priests, Catholic teachers and children are urged to join in a crusade of prayer and penance against "the Communist gospel of hate." The letter was read on Sunday in all Scottish Roman Catholic Churches and chapels.

The power behind this persecution, it is stated, ''is 110 chance outbreak of fury against the Church, but the relentless working out of a system which the Pope tells us is the most dreadful evil of times—a system with its headquarters in Russia and which aims at carrying on a universal and highly-organised campaign of hatred of God and of all mankind. To accomplish this they will stop at no enormity. They will not shrink from drenching the world in blood or grinding the entire human race in appalling misery."

Under the heading of "The Real Enemy," the letter continues: "The preternatural genius displayed in organising this anti-God campaign makes it clear that the directing force is no mere human intellect. . . . The savage endeavours of (he revolutionaries to destroy the Altar, to banish the Holy Eucharist, to silence the Confessional, to quench the voice of Prayer, leavo no doubt as to the arms of which the demons inspiring them stand most in dread.

"The revolutionaries have long recognised that the <?reatest natural barrier to the accomplishment of their designs is the level-headed common sense and balanced character of the people of these islands (Great Britain). Two or three months ago an intensive campaign was launched in this country, conducted by the most skilful organisers of Moscow, 111 the endeavour to introduce into Britain the same shocking uprising against ali religion and against God which has been all too successful in so many other places. Already we are seeing the effects of this skilfully-conducted effort. There are more than 20 periodicals spreading irreligious poison through the country."