ATTACK ON NAZISM DENIED

Southland Times, Issue 23648, 25 October 1938, Page 5

ATTACK ON NAZISM DENIED

“CATHOLICS BOUND TO DEFEND CHURCH”

VIENNA, October 23.

The Archbishop of Vienna (Cardinal Innitzer) in a letter to the churches says thes Austrian bishops’ declaration was dictated by an honest desire for peaceful co-operation with the present Government, whose later measures, however, included some deeply shocking every Catholic. “My sermon at St. Stephen's Cathedral on October 7,” declared the Cardinal, “did not attack the Chancellor, nor nave I fulminated against him or the State or the Nazi Party. I neither foresaw nor desired a young people’s demonstration after the service. It is untrue that the young members sang political songs. I have never spoken the words ‘I have decided on a fight and am ready and await it.’ “I did not overlook the historically significant hour in which my homeland, Sudetenland, returned to the Reich, but along with other German cardinals I thanked the Fuhrer and ordered a thanksgiving service to be held, and also the ringing of the church bells. I still hold the conviction that Catholics are bound by conscience to fulfil their oath to defend the rights of God and the Church.”