World of Religion

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

World of Religion

"NON-CHURCH-GOI

THE question of the continued election of the Pope from the

circle of Italian bishops is discussed by Mr. William Teeling in his recent book "The Pope and Politics," which is reviewed by Edward Shanks in the Sunday Times. The reviewer mentions that Mr. Teeling is a member of the Roman Catholic Church and commends his handling of a "delicate and difficult task."

The author points out that the Lateran Treaty not only gave His Holiness liberation from his self-confinement in the Vatican but greatly changed his relations to the Italian State. He has now become the independent sovereign of a State "that'could be bombed out of existence in five minutes by its nextdoor neighbour." Surrounded by a powerful nation in which everything is made to bend to the furtherance of national policy, the Pope, in arty crisis in which he docs not take clear action against Italy is "almost certain to bo accused of being pro-Italian," as was actually the case in the Abyssinian affair..From this Mr. Teeling deduces that the Italianate Papacy "can continue only at the cost of very great damage to the Church," and that this damage will be. specially serious among Catholic people in America. Catholics In United States Thcro the support of the Roman Catholic Church is pre-eminent. "The United States of America gives for Peter's Pence and for the upkeep of the Holy Seo more than all other nations put together (or nearly so) and it also provides about half the funds for the Mission Field." And, adds Mr. Teeling, that intense loyalty' is not likely to diminish. "It is safe to say that in fifty years' time the American democratic world will lead the Catholic Church in numbers by a large majority." Thus thero is about to rise in an acute form the question as to whether the Americans will bo content s "to tako their orders and pay their money to an Italian, when there is no reason whatever in the laws of the Church why an Italian must bo Pope." In the author's view there may bo one more Italian Pope, hut thereafter not two in succession, and ho has no doubt that the change which he foresees at hand will bo effected without injury to tlio Church or diminution of its influence. Church Attendance "On a clear morning I have seen the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been," wrote Robert Moffat from Africa, and that was the sentence that made David Livingstone a missionary. And on any morning in Auckland a Christian man may open his window and look out upon perhaps as many homes from which no child goes to Sabbath School, no adult attends the public worship of God. It has come to this in our time that non-church-going has become a habit. It is for many the line of least resistance. A public is growing up, has indeed grown up, which is unaware of any reason why church should he attended, why tho Bible should be read, why children should ho brought up to acknowledge and serve God. Were wo to stop fifty per cent of tho cars that stream from the city on any fino Sunday morning, or to mingle with the throngs on tho beaches, and ask why among young find old thcro should be this neglect of good things, scarcely one in a hundred could give a reason worth listening to. ' ' . 1 Here is the supremo problem for the Church —to arrest the crowds, to talk things out with the individual, to put its ovei'whelming case for God and His

By PHILEMON

G NOW A HABIT"

claims on human life. And it is ft problem so indisputably grave that everything hut truth must bo sacrificed to its solution. "Let Him Come Unto Me"

There are those who profess to believe that the worst is over and that wo are on the eve of a return to religious faith and practice. The rainbow, they say, is already taking shape upon the fading storm. It was on the last and waterless day of the Feast that Jesus stood and cried —"If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink," and soon the thirsty crowds will turn from their broken cisterns to Him who alone has the water of life.

It may be so, but the signs are not convincing and tho Church must not delude herself. There lie before her arduous years that will tax her wisdom and resources to the utmost," and were it not for the divine purpose that gave her being, and the divine promises that are her support she might well be overcome with concern. True Minister of Christ Father Damien, the leper-priest, died nearly half a century ago, and the fact that some half a dozen biographies and sketches of his life have since been published, the last a few months ago, is evidence of tho deep impression which his sacrificial life lias made upon the world. At tho ago of twenty-seven he landed in Hawaii to tako the place of - his brother, whom illness bad incapacitated. While labouring there and later in Kohala, he encountered the bane of leprosy and learned of tho conditions obtaining in tho island of Molokai where those affected were segregated. Apparently they were placed there without adequate provision and loft to shift for themselves and in tho end to die. Missionaries passed to and fro to minister among them, but presently this intercourse was prohibited, and in response to the call of the Roman Catholic bishop four of his clergy volunteered to resido permanently among the leprous islanders. Of these Damien was chosen. Commencing his work in 1873 he found the people in an appalling state of neglect, without any form of medical aid, insufficiently nourished, suffering from subsidiary diseases begotten of dirt and ignorance, given to lawlessness and vice. He played the part of a true minister of Christ.

Day by day he washed and bandaged tho noisome sores. He set about the building of decent houses, labouring on three hundred of them with his own hands. Ho brought water from a perennial spring to their dwellings, organised the food supply and established clothing stores, subdued the lawless elements, ministered, to the dying and laid them to rest, himself making two thousand coffins. Wonderful Lovo Then came the day when ho knew ho had contracted tho disease. He inadvertently plunged his foot into scalding water and felt it not. On the following Sunday at Mass ho commenced his address —"We lepers" instead of with tho usual "My brethren," and all knew. He had in an excess of zeal taken unnecessary risks, eating his food with the lepers, sharing their beds, even passing his pipe among them. These perilous acts were meant to express a love that would bear the uttermost lot of human suffering. Nor did they fail. After sixteen devoted years the end came, and Damien was laid to rest among his beloved islanders. In 1936 his body was taken home to Belgium and received by his countrymen with every mark of conspicuous honour for burial in his native soil.