POPE AND PROTESTANTISM

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18256, 18 February 1931, Page 7

POPE AND PROTESTANTISM

PROSELYLISM DENOUNCED. GREAT HARM TO HUMAN SOULS. AN’ OCCASION FOR TEARS. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. LONDON, Feb. 17. The Rome correspondent of the Times states that the Pope, in an address to Lenten preachers assembled in Vatican City, said: “A great evil which is afflicting the whole of Italy, especially Rome, is Protestant proselytism. This is promoted with provocative persistence, and is allowed to continue, with the result that great harm Is being done to human souls. This, proselytism menaces the most precious thing in the nation's life, namely, the unity of thought and souls, which always is most efficacious in religious unity. “ Nevertheless, the authorities have allowed it to continue to an extent surprising to Protestants themselves, who have boasted of it, and are even talking of a Protestant pilgrimage to Italy for the establishment of a Protestant Synod.”

The Pope especially criticised the authorities for permitting Protestants to acquire land in the Holy City. Also he declared that Rome was suffering through immoral hooks, periodicals and films, variety performances, and profanation of the Sabbath. Young people who attended these performances resembled “innocents taken to the slaughter yard.” He added his protests and declared that these evils flagrantly contradicted the Italian concordat’s acceptance of “Rome’s sacred character.”

The Pope’s hearers hurst inlo applause at Ibis stage, whereupon he exclaimed: “This is not an occasion for applause, but for tears.”