World of Religion

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23381, 24 June 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

World of Religion

By PHILEMON

NO reader of The Times can have failed to notice the outspoken and arresting letter from Dean Matthews of St. Paul s which appears in the last issue to hand. He makes an urgent appeal to the leaders of the Christian Churches to take united action in view of the alarming state of international affairs and the possibility of an outbreak of war. He sees the most civilised nations of the world "preparing feverishly to slaughter each other's common people" and utilising all the resources of science to that end. Can nothing lie done, he asks, "before the killing begins, ' to set in motion some spiritual force that shall avert the peril 1 There is but one hope. The ich-nls of the League of Nnlions have been trodden under foot l»v half the world. The fellowship of science is a broken reed. Comradeship in art, music, literature, Rives way under the tension of nationalism. The solidarity of the workers has proved itself an illusion. '"Wo .ire driven hack 011 that niUMcnt, terribK* confused and widely despised international force the Christian Church and the Christian Faith. Immediate Action Tho dean then calls for a more virile Christian leadership to make explicit the mind of .Christ and to summon the Christians of the world to loyalty to His ideals. A terrible responsibility for immediate action rests upon those who can speak with authority for the Christian Church. But, he* adds, they are for the most part old men, "hemmed in by tradition and bv memories of past controversies." 'if they act courageously they will no doubt offend the timid and' conventional, hut there is a latent Christian consciousness to which thev can appeal "if they* dare." And should war rome without tho maximum effort of the Christian leaders to prevent it they will fall under no measured condemnation. "It will be a disaster and a betrayal ii any considerations of dignity, of ecclesiastical or theological punctilio, or of purely national policy stand iti the way of a united Christian witness for peace." If His Holiness the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the leaders of all the great Christian Communions could lay nfride their differences in this momentous hour and "remember only that they are ministers of Christ," who can foresee what might come to pass?

United Appeal How far is it true, as the dean seems to suggest, that in tho tremendous crisis that has come upon us we are without men big enough and brave enough to overpass the historic differences that divide the Church and, for tho sake of humanity, to make one great united appeal in the name of

CALL FOR VIRILE LEADERS

Christ to the conscience of the worl(1 / There must be a way to bring tus about if men who beheve m the guidance of tho Holy Spirit seek tor it. Hut t here should be no delay. Jhe time is short; evil is defiant and quick to act: ;i thick darkness is fast descending from which nothing but our holy religion can deliver us. Recent religions developments in Franco are discussed by Mr. U- '*• (; jllio in the London Spectator, especially the recovery of influence by the Unman Catholic Church, hnglish,noil, he says, are apt to forget how stormv the history of the I- rench Church lias been. Two archbishops of I aris lost their lives during the revolutionary disturbances of the nineteenth century. |„ the decade 1900-15)10 the Church was stripped of most oi its propelty during tho long quarrel which od to the radical separation of Church and A few vears before tho Great "War a French Prime Minister boasted in public speoch—"We have torn the people from their belief. ... We shown that there is nothing behind the skies but a chimera. We have extinguished tho lights <of Heaven, lights that shall never again be relit. Most Precious Ideals ■But with the War a remarkable change set in. The clergy by their national service won the respect oi tho whole nation, and to-day no man stands higher in public esteem than the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, Jean Verdier. And further, says Mr. Oil lie, the Republic and the Church now find themselves allies in defending the most precious idoals of our huninii life. In the words of the Cardinal, "The Church obeys her divine mission and Franco her long tradition. . . . Together they wish to preserve that Christian civilisation which consists in equality, liberty, fraternity, justice and charity." It is a bravo utterance and it finds support in the remarkable address delivered at tho inaugural session of the Chamber of Deputies by its Radical President, M. Herriot, who said "Political and religious liberty are besieged. Persecution and exile are Be on your guard, gentlemen; right is dying and with it are menaced the achievements of tho old humanism, the teachings of the Gospel, the conquests of philosophic reason. In .this anarchy only a few voices are raised in protest. In Pome an old man, to whom wo offer our free homage, is renewing the tradition of the great Popes, the protectors of the weak against outrage." . . Wo quote the words as indicating the change in public sentiment of which mention has been made. But the Church has yet much ground to recover. She is still excluded from tho State schools, tho anti-clerical laws, though niorc liberally applied, are still on the statute book, and according to tho Temps Present, a Catholic weekly, not more than ten million out of a population of four times that number accept allegiance to Catholicism.