PRIESTS CLASH WITH POLICE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20785, 21 July 1937, Page 9

PRIESTS CLASH WITH POLICE

REBELLIOUS FEUD IN BELGRADE POPULAR OPPOSITION TO PAPAL CONCORDAT United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright BELGRADE, July 19. Trouble over the Bill for the ratification of the Concordat with the Vatican, now before Parliament led to a battle royal of Orthodox priests and bishops against the police. After a service for the Patriarch, a procession, formed contrary to police orders, left the Cathedral, bearing the holy banners and great crosses. Gendarmes blocked the streets but the priests and bishops, holding crosses high, broke through. The police began using rubber clubs on the crowd behind, while fresh cordons of police every 20 yards, tried forcibly to disperse the clerics. The Bishop of Shabat was felled, banners torn to shreds, and crosses trampled underfoot. A handful of priests maintained an unequal struggle, but the police fixed bayonets and dispersed their 5000 followers. The reasons for the disturbance are that anti-Catholics, including the Orthodox C’.iurch regard the Concordat as unduly conferring privileges on the Catholic Church. The Holy Synod and Orthodox Church accordingly ordered clerical members of Parliament, who voted for the Concordat to be debarred from officiating, and lay members will be excommunicated. This decision was read in all Orthodox Churches The priests of both parties were excluded, as a precautionary measure from the Skupshtina, while the bill was under discussion. The President stopped the debate and allowed the priests to break the news of disturbances, which led to a terrific uproar, and the sitting was suspended sine die. The Hierarchical Council met, and considered ths closing of the churches throughout the country, causing consternation in the Cabinet. Priests and many members of the congregations were arrested later for distributing letters from the Bishcps of Gloucester and Lincoln, in support of the opposition against the Concordat, the ratification of which, by the Stoyadinovitch is most unlikely at the end of July, as was intended. Meanwhile the bells of all Orthodox Churches are tolling mournfully Buildings are crowded with people praying against the Concordat. The police pretext for the dispersal of the procession is that the Communists were attempting to use it for their own ends.