THE GERMAN BISHOPS AND THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 18 March 1915, Page 17

THE GERMAN BISHOPS AND THE WAR

, A JOINT PASTORAL. The Archbishops and Bishops of the German Empire to all their faithful, greeting, benediction, and consolation in the Lord. Beloved Diocesans, — We have celebrated Christmas as never in life before, Christmas in the world-war, serious and sorrowful but also rich in grace, blessing, and supernatural joy. The war was a stern Advent school; it has brought us and our people nearer the Saviour. The more fearfully the war-clouds gathered over our country the more clearly, to use a beautiful word of the Apostle, did that God Who once said ‘ out of darkness let the light shine forth ’ light up within us the radiant knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Like a hurricane the war burst on the cold clouds and the evil vapors of infidelity and scepticism and on the unwholesome atmosphere of an unchristian overculture. The German people recovered their senses; faith returned to its right ; the soul lifted up its eyes and recognised the Lord. We saw His glory as it were of the Only-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Following the attractions of grace, following the voice of their Pastors and the exhortation of their Godfearing Kaiser, the people entered the churches and found there the Saviour many found Him again who had wandered far from Him. In the hour of misfortune the truth was realised that He alone was holy, He alone Lord, He alone most-high. We heard Him saying to us the earnest and consoling words —when you hear of wars and rumors of wars fear not for such must come to pass. Our soldiers before their march renewed with Him in Holy Communion their covenant for life and death. ]f their spirits began to sink in the superhuman exertions, privations, and deadly dangers they raised themselves up to Him Who said of Himself ‘I have conic not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.’ They invoked Him before the battle and during the battle, and implored Him in the trenches ‘ Lord remain with us for the evening is nigh.’ And He remained with them and gave them to strengthen them His Flesh and Blood in the Most Holy Sacrament. Like a compassionate Samaritan He made His way over the blood-soaked field of battle and through the hospitals, consoled the wounded, blessed the dying, and said to those who tended them ‘ Whatever you do to the least of My brethren ye do to Me.’ He via ted the parents bowed down with sorrow and the heartbroken widows and orphans and said to them ‘ Weep not ’ and consoled them as only He can console. He has raised us all up when our own spirits began to sink. Have confidence, it is I, fear not’ He has above all opened the fountains of His mercy which united into one mighty stream of love and beneficence beside the blood-stream of the war. In Him was and remained established the bond between us and ours in the field, between the fighting hosts abroad and the praying hosts at home, an unconquerable victory-pledging union of all in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus have these hard times brought us nearer to the Saviour. We could rejoice in the special mercies of His divine Heart and hear throughout all the . noises of war the beating of that quiet loving soul-seeking Heart. ft we thank for these salutary fruits of the war. It we thank for the glorious successes and victories with which heaven has blessed our arms. Truly in us has been accomplished the word of the great Pope Leo XIII. in his 'Encyclical of Mav 25, 1899, with which he announced the dedication of the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; ‘ When the Church in the early ages groaned under the yoke of the Caesars the Cross appeared in heaven to the young Emperor Constantine as the sign of a speedy and glorious victory. Before our eyes stands another propitious sign, the most holv Heart of Jesus surmounted by the Cross shining brightly in the midst of flames.’ This sign which has remained to us till now the sign of salvation would we also give, Beloved, for the

entry into the year 1915, which must take over from its predecessor the bloody inheritance of the war. We do it in the conviction that nothing can bring more to our iminds, can make more easy for us our first and weightiest duty in this world-war than an affectionate strong-willed adhesion to the most holy Heart of Jesus. What is this principal duty? We answer without hesitation: Penance and Expiation. The war is a judgment for all nations afflicted by it, and therefore a loud call to penance and expiation. Time of war is time of penance. Woe to the nation which even this terrible chastiser can no longer bring to penance it is ripe for destruction and even victory would be for it a defeat. War opens the account-book of nations before all the world, and registers the result of its reckoning in human blood. We do not want to occupy ourselves with the account-books of other nations but with our own; we do not want to examine the consciences of our enemies but our own. We are innocent of the outbreak of the war; it has been forced upon us; that can we testify before God and the world. Still we do not want to boast of our innocence. In us, too, has the war laid bare heavy guilt. Our people themselves have very clearly pronounced judgment thereon ; things could not go on as they were. How often have we Bishops in the distress of our hearts loudly bewailed the decay of the religious and moral life (of religion and morality!). Now has 'the war restored religion to its rights and again inculcated on mankind the commandments of God with fire and sword. What shameful degrading treatment, depreciation, contempt, had religion been obliged to endure openly, or rather, have we not allowed ourselves to endure in own weakness and- cowardice ! That is our fault, our most grievous fault. In God’s war tribunal it has been made apparent how certain vices gnaw at the vitals of a nation so that its strength dries up in the time of need anji it falls to pieces. But with the deepest confusion we must admit, wo have let it come to pass, that even these vices have also crept in amongst our people to a considerable degree, that also amongst us marriage has been desecrated and deprived of its blessing of children. Our fault, our grievous fault. It has been shown in this war that a nation cannot be more terribly injured than when its religious life-blood has been drained. But, alas! endeavors to (he same effect have not remained quite unknown to us either. Among us also secret forces have been working for a separation of Church and State, for the greatest possible exclusion of Christian spirit and Christian principles from the education of youth, from public and social life : their ideal is a maximum of freedom even for the most dangerous tendencies of the time, but the closest restriction and tutelage for the Church and religious movements. The war has cited the modern anti-Christian irreligious (mind)-culture before its tribunal and has exposed its worthlessness, its hollowness and emptiness, its guilt. But into our country, too, had this culture already considerably penetrated, an over-culture unChristian, un-German and unsound in its whole being, with its external varnish and its internal rottenness, with its coarse pursuit of wealth and pleasure, with its no less arrogant than ridiculous supermen, with its dishonorable imitation of a foreign infected’ literature and art, and even of the most shameful extravagances in, the fashions of women. This is our people’s and, therefore, our own grievous and most grievous fault. It demands penance and expiation. Our soldiers have heard at once in the call, to war a call to penance ; and, therefore, their first march was to the confessional. Their good example has been imitated in all classes of the people, public opinion has changed about; there breathes in German districts a different spirit from that of a few months ago. But it would be a. fatal mistake to think that now all guilt has been blotted out and the German people have been born again together to a new and better life. Long guilt is not atoned for by short repentance. True repentance blots out the guilt but not all the punishment as well. And the guilt of an entire

nation ‘ is only expiated by the earnest penance and radical conversion of the entire nation. Therefore, do, your Bishops invite you all with one voice to a common , and decisive act of expiation on the Sunday after the feast of the Epiphany, January TO. Our invitation is addressed to ail, but quite particularly to men and youths; for they must here, as in the held of battle, stand in the first line for people and country. We shall also inform our soldiers in the field, and invite them to take part as far as they can. We will above all purify and sanctify ourselves by a devout reception of the holy Sacraments; we will next, on the three preceding days, united in divine worship, make solemn reparation to the divine Heart of our Saviour and through it to the Triune God, above all for our own sins, for our negligence in God’s service, for our weakness and cowardice, for our tepidity and lukewarmness; then, for the guilt of the entire nation, for so much blasphemy and denial of the eternal Truth, for such shameful transgressing of God’s eternal commandments, for so much contempt of grace, for so much ingratitude towards the infinite Saviour-love of our Redeemer, for so much injury done to God’s kingdom. We will cry to Heaven with the Prophet Daniel: ‘ O Lord God, great and terrible, Who keepest the covenant and mercy to them that love Thee and keep Thy commandments, we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and we have gone aside from Thy commandments and Thy judgments'. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, but to Thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness.’ How graciously will the divine Heart of Jesus and the Heart of the Heavenly Father receive this reparation from so many thousand repentant sorrow-stirred hearts ! So do we pay olf the war-debt of our nation. So do we do our part to shorten the time of the visitation, to hasten the return of peace, to make our people be born again to truth. Let the act of atonement be followed by the act of dedication. Ye know, Beloved, that Pope Leo XIII., on June 11, 1899, dedicated the entire world to the most holy Heart of Jesus. We will, at the beginning of the year 1915, dedicate afresh to the most holy Heart of Jesus our hearts, our families, our parishes, our dioceses. The gravity and the needs of the time force us thereto. In all Europe the nations stand opposed to each other in two hostile camps. The fire is flaming from the west over into the' east. A great turningpoint in the world’s history has made its appearance. On the bloody field of battle the fate of the nations is being decided. Everything suffers from the consequences of the war, and there is scarcely any longer a house that has no dead member to bewail. Still there is no end in view. So much only is sure, that much misery still awaits us. Therefore will we do everything to make of a time of need a time of grace by closest union with our Saviour and Redeemer. And so let children and adults, men and women, youths and maidens, those at home and those in the field, priests and bishops, unite together for this solemn act of consecration. In truth, this union with the Saviour will bring us blessings and make of the year 1915 a year of salvation. In the Heart of our Saviour our hearts become sound again and their life-beats stronger. From His Heart shall we draw strength in the pains and sorrows of the war, to live a life of strict self-denial, as everyone is bound to do in time of war, to endure in patience and prayer ; strength to take our victories humbly and the final victory which may God grant us soon ; yes, strength and grace that the victory may not make us arrogant, that we may not be overcome by our own victories but in humble thanks give God the glory and after the return of peace remain on the right paths and strive to advance mindful of the Prophet’s word ; ‘ Thus saith the. Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things, that govern thee in the way that thou walkest. O that thou had’st hearkened to My commandments; thy peace had been as a river, and thy justice .the waves of the sea, and thy seed had been

(numerous) as the sand (of the sea).’ —Is. xlviii. 18-19. Such good results do we expect for ourselves; and for our whole country from the holy exercises to which we urgently invite you. In this glad conviction we, your Pastors, united with you in spirit, consecrate before all ourselves and our dioceses to the most holy Heart 'of Jesus. We commend to this divine Heart full of love and grace each and every one of you —for you are all in our hearts in life and in death —our soldiers, to whom our thoughts and go forth day and night; the widows and the orphans of the war on whose wounded hearts may descend, we pray, the balm of divine consolation ; our dear country, to which our hearts are devoted with very special love and loyalty at such a time as this. O sword of the Lord, how long still wilt thou not rest? Return to thy sheath, calm thyself and be still. Jesus, holy Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us and grant us peace! Holy Mary Virgin Mother of God, entreat for us from thy divine Son pardon, grace, and peace. Amen. ***** In accordance with the above Pastoral, it is hereby ordered : (1) The Pastoral shall be read in all Churches on the Sunday after Christmas, December 27, taking the place of the sermon. Those who have care of souls have thus the opportunity of giving the people timely and repeated noticein the Church and by the press of the religious ceremony, so that all may be able to regulate themselves accordingly. (2) On January 7,8, and 9, a Triduum shall be celebrated with a sermon where that is possible, and at least with one evening service or several hours’ Adoration corn in SSmo E.rpoxitn; there shall be increased opportunities for confession. (3) The faithful are recommended to spend one of these days as a fast-day. (4) On the Sunday after the Epiphany, January 10, the day for the Exposition of the most holy Sacrament, there is to be general Communion and solemn divine service with a. sermon in the morning, either at the end of the morning service or after the solemn service with procession of the Blessed Sacrament: in the evening the solemn consecration shall be made in the formula of Leo XIII. (5) school children shall be enlightened in a catechetical instruction on the signification and object of the devotion, and shall be induced to take a proper part in it. (G) The military chaplains will be informed through the army-bishops or their ordinaries, and shall induce the men to join as far as possible in the celebration. Relations can also communicate with their friends ip the army to the same effect. Third Sunday in Advent, 1914. Francis Cardinal von Bettinger, Archb. of Miin-chau-Freising—Felix Cardinal von Hartmann, Archb. of Cologne—❖ Thomas Archb. •of Freiburg —❖ James Archb. of Bamberg—- ❖ Edward Archb. of Gnesen and Posen >J< Adolf Prince-bishop of Breslau —*1* M. Felix B. of Frier — ❖ Adolf B. of Strassburg—❖ Ferdinand B. of Wiirgburg ❖ Paul William B. of Rottenburg Augustine B. of Kuhn Antony B. of Regensburg—- ❖ Willibrord B. of Metz, O.S.B.—Maximi LIEN B. of Augsburg —❖George Henry B. of Mainz —❖ Leo B. of Eichstatt, 0.5.8. ❖ Sigismund Felix B. of Passau❖ Joseph Damian B. of Fulda—❖ Augustine B. of Ermland ❖ Charles Joseph B. of Paderborn —❖ Michael B. of Spires John B. of Munster ❖ Augustine B. of Limburg — ❖ William B. of Osnabruck — ❖Henry Titular B. of Eisamo, and Catholic Head Military Chaplain of the Field Army— Geistl. Rat Fischer, Administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate in the Kingdom of Saxony—Domrapttular Hagemann, Vicar-Capitular of the . ’ Bishopric of Hildesheim.... .