Pope and Moral Reform

New Zealand Tablet, 19 January 1922, Page 18

Pope and Moral Reform

In his message of encouragement tq the Dublin Conference of the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland (writes S. V. Stewart, in the London Oafholic Times ) his Holiness Benedict XV, used the following words : “The Holy Father congratulates the members of that truly useful and meritorious society on its continued success in distributing good literature' amongst the people. His Holiness trusts that all Irish Catholics will co-operate fully in the good

% court, the police courts and the coroner’s courts Husbands and wives seem to regard matrimony as a cloak for the deception of one another.. Marriage is not looked on as a sacred contract which it is sinful to violate.- Married pairs are not satisfied with each other’s society. They are continually in pursuit of so-called lovers, and easily yield to temptation. To secure a divorce they resort to all sorts of disreputable tricks, and the impression which the divorce court reports must create upon foreigners is that for the immorality of married- people Great Britain can easily obtain first place amongst the nations. As to immoral fashions' in dress, who can surpass our "women? One . can scarcely eschew the conviction that their whole' object in life is to seduce the members of the other sex. In trains, in tramcars, in all sorts of public conveyances they adopt arts which it is impossible to reconcile with ideas of morality. Their breasts are exposed in the most shameless manner. Their skirts are usually as short as decency would permit, and it is impossible to mistake the contour of their restless legs, which frequently find momentary repose resting on one another. It is evidently their belief

and necessary work for religion and country, so that all their interests may be safeguarded by a wider and deeper knowledge of the truth.” Assuredly the call on Catholics for the establishment of a better standard of morality was never" more imperative. On Sunday morning last a preacher said they were the only hope for the salvation of the country, « In Great Britain who is there to-day that - ' asks himself whether a question either of public policy or of private conduct is moral? Apart from the Catholics the citizens give scarcely a sign of recognising the necessity of moral safeguards. Take the question of birth-control. It is vital that the practice should be avoided, but we find Lord Dawson, the King’s physician content to assure the Church Congress that there is no use in fighting against it, for it has come to stay. He uttered no warning against it, notary for a rally of Christians to discourage and suppress it. Such a speech is a symptom that nowadays even men in prominent positions fail to appreciate the . need of observing Christian ‘principles in practice. Again, take«the habits of the people as revealed in the newspapers, especially the Sunday papers. Could anything be worse than the revelations of the divorce

that the neck is for special display after being scorched by exposure to the sun, and they take care that its beauties, as to which people do not always agree, are visible to everybody. The conclusion to which the oldfashioned traveller is forced to come is that modesty is a virtue which 'has bade good-bye to public life. At any* rate, when he reads of moral slips and falls, he is inclined to believe that the reports may not be far from the truth. For all the disregard of decency the Sunday Press is largely to blame. These papers cater for people of demoralised taste. They spend money to produce accounts of the ugliest and lowest phases of life. If a husband is quarrelling with his wife and the dispute comes before the law, courts, they present full and special reports of the proceedings. They offer their readers pictures of women which are often immodest and absolute caricatures. In politics they are as reckless they are indifferent to moral principles. They cultivate the sensational, and care not what the effect of a line of policy may be if it proves acceptable to a large number of readers. Altogether they leave the intelligent reader to think that their views of ediorial duties are simply pagan and # that they pay little

attention to morality. What Cardinal Logue said at the Irish Catholic Truth Conference was extremely to the point .-—that the time had come, when, considering the opposition which Catholic truth and even the fundamental principles of the Christian .religion were meeting with, there should be a special effort by Catholics to make truth prevail and it would prevail. There can be no. doubt that the moral condition of the world at the present time is deplorable, and I see nothing that is likely to-lift it up and improve it except the example of Catholics. If they take their Church’s standard of individual and public conduct as the ideal of how they should act they will make many converts and leaven the general body of Protestants, who seem to be without guidance on moral questions.