CHURCH PROTEST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23115, 13 August 1938, Page 16

CHURCH PROTEST

THE POPE AND FASCISM INTERPRETATION RESENTED CONFLICT OVER RACIALISM NAZI RULE IN AUSTRIA By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON, August 11 The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano strongly protests against the interpretation placed on the Pope's recent remarks concerning racialism, "especially in Italian and German papers which never reported a single word of the address." (Only the scantiest report reached London). L'OsservatOre Romano says the Pope did not condemn two distinct racialisms. He did not say Italian developments in the racial field so far had been copies (from Germany), nor, as far as the Jewish question is concerned, did his reasoning or tho spirit of the address descend to details which people had dared to attribute to it. A long quotation is then from an article irj the Friburg (Switzerland) newspaper La Liberte, which explains that the object of the Pope's address was to point out the dangers of the kind of racialism which creates division? among the great family of human beings. II Duce's Racialism II Duce's original idea of the race, which inspired, for instance, efforts to preserve racial purity in Abyssinia, was not, according to the Friburg newspaper, the kind of racialism which aroused the Pope's anxiety. The Daily Telegraph's Vienna correspondent reports that the Pope's announcement that the human race is one family, and the prompt retort of Fascists and Nazis that it is not, has caused 1 dissension among people who regard themselves still as Christians. Nazi journals publish pages of pictures with the object of refuting the Pope's declaration by contrasting Aryans and Jews, and white and coloured races. Cardinal Innitzer refrains from public utterances, but it is known he is trying to make a compromise between Nazi principles of race purification and the Sermon on the Mount. His conclusions, when made known, will be received with the keenest interest throughout the world. Austrian Church Attacked The Roman Catholic Church in Austria is already half-paralysed. Monks and nuns are rarely seen in the streets. Priests must submit to Nazi domination in their parishes. Vast' religious properties are being gradually confiscated like those of the Jews. No Nazi speaker ever refers to God or Christ, but only to Providence. Devout Catholics are shocked to see caricatures of the Pope in newspapers and magazines, and comments which formerly were inconceivable in Austria. The Daily Telegraph's Rome correspondent says Fascist Party officials told several Jewish business men that they cannot consider themselves active members of their syndicates. This is believed to foreshadow the ostracism of Jews from Fascist life.