PRIEST'S SERMON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 13

PRIEST'S SERMON

A RECENT BROADCAST ATTITUDE OF DIRECTOR CATHOLIC PAPER'S COMMENT "A serious reflection on the competence of the broadcasting control exercised in the Dominion is provided by an official pronouncement 011 a recent broadcast of a sermon on Communism preached by the Rev. Father K. D. Crowe, C.SS.R., at St. Gerard's, Wellington," states the leading article in the current issue of Zealandia, the Auckland Roman Catholic weekly publication. The full text of Father Crowe's sermon is also published so that readers may be able "to sift for themselves the facts of the case and to judge calmly- of the principles involved in the rash statements of the Director of Broadcasting " "The circumstances of the case have received full publicity in the secular press," adds the article. "What should be noted here is that the two Communist objectors forwarded their telegram and rang up Professor Shelley, the Director of Broadcasting, a few minutes after the broadcast, so it can ■■readily bo gathered how much the Union as such had to do with the matter. "Astounding Statements" "What is the remarkable and most significant feature of the affair is the attitude of the Director of Broadcasting. Observe the professor's use of the expression 'attack' 011 Communism, as if Communism were something having a lawful and an officially recognised status in the community. "The remarks quoted are astounding statements to be made by an official or by any citizen who holds (as we presume Professor Shelley does) to the principle of loyalty to the British Constitution. Communism has 110 more right to escape public censure on the grounds of being a 'controversial' subject than has criminal abortion or the white slave traffic." A Question for Citizens Both as a Christian priest and as a loyal subject of the Crown Father Crowe had a perfectly legitimate right to condemn a movement that was at once at war upon God and a menace to the constituted authority to which this Dominion was bound to be subject, adds the article.

There was also the further question for the legislative and administrative authority to consider: "namely, as to whether it is to be permitted that, in the exercise of their duties, Government officials in the Dominion are to be dragged at the heels of a pair of cheap Red agitators." "The question that arises for every thoughtful citizen is what kind of methods and what suppression of freedom would be likely to obtain if the Communist system were allowed to take charge of this Dominion," comments the journal in another article, "dearly the same methods of 'liquidation' that have been so successfully applied in Russia would be the approved means to stifle criticism and crush' opposition."