MEXICO AND THE CHURCH.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1926, Page 9

MEXICO AND THE CHURCH.

ADDRESS BY BISHOP LISTON. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. Speaking at the opening of a Catholic Church at Outram, Bishop Liston, of Auckland, in the course of his address referred to the religious situation in Mexico. He said: “The Mexican bishops seek no favours, they are merely defending the right of man to worship" God freely. They will not agree to the church becoming a Department of State nor tolerate compulsory attendance by Catholic children at schools in which the Christian religion may not be taught, or in which the most sacred beliefs of Christianity may be openly derided, so they and their Mexican people, OS per cent, of whom are staunch Catholics, go into religious exile. The lights on the altars are extinguished and the public services of the Church are for the first time since 1524 at an end. “But the issue of fte conflict cannot be in doubt. History will repeat itself and the Church will come out of the fire of persecution with her strength renewed. The Catholic world looks on with sorrow in its soul, but with faith and hope in its heart.”