Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 40, 21 October 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

The Church and the Soviets The Russian infidels are still trying their hardest to destroy religion. In this they show that they are fools, for everyone but the fool knows that it is natural for men to believe in the supernatural. Religion will live and thrive, Karl Marx and bis bumptious satellites notwithstanding. A mediocrity, however, may become an intolerable nuisance, (and that is precisely what the purveyors of Marxian clap-trap in Moscow are making of themselves. They hate religion with the blind hatred of the ignorant, but they have sense enough to know that the Catholic Church is the only religious institution in existence that will test their strength. There are many considerations to he weighed before they can' use the political machine to make an open onslaught on religion, so they confine themselves in the meantime to formulating regulations, ostensibly to prevent the Catholic clergy from conspiring with the Poles against Russia, but really to prevent the maintenance ol existing parishes or the creation of new ones. A copy from an American exchange of one of those regulations lies before us as we write. It appertains to the formalities which have- been instituted by tho Government in the founding of new parishes. Back of space forbids ■ us to give the complete regulation, hut suffice it to say that a priest establishing a new parish must provide, the Government with a. total of twenty-live sets of papers and twenty-five signatures apiece for cadi of the fifty -founders of the community. These papers, with their thousand or more signatures. are taken by the priest to the local Soviet. Alter lengthy discussion by the employees of the local Soviet as to the tax to bo imposed, the priest may finally have to pay a fee of 1000 roubles and then have his application refused. The Inquisition Some idea of the exasperating policy of interference pursued by the Bolshevists against religion may he gathered from the appended copy of a registration card which every clergyman must carry upon his person at all times: “Registration card N 0... (Those who fill in this card with any false information are answerable to the Tribunal of the Republic) of (Give exact name of parish—ecclesiastical community, monastic, religious or sectarian order). “I amily name-religious or ordination name. “1 —Year of birth. 2—Native of 3 -Nationality and mother tongue. 4 —(a) • caste and profession before entrance into religion ; (h) caste and profession of parents. Their material situation, means of support 'of , each member of the family. —Education (give exact name of educational establishments from which you graduated or in which you studied). 6 which political party do 'you belong? Since how long? 7—Among your relatives are‘there any who have been condemned under the authority cf the Soviets? B—Religious belief: cult, sect, tendency. -9—What obligations are you now

fulfilling in your community (give imperarchical (sic) degree, ecclesiastical dignity, monastic order). —When, where and from whom did you receive holy orders? 11 —When and where have you served since your first ordination? (Mention the Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant churches, the mosques, synagogues, etc.) ; what duties have you fulfilled in the religious communities and sects in the cities, villages, in the army, private chapels, convents? —ln what tongue is the religious service celebrated ? 13—In what tongue should it be celebrated 14 —To what ecclesiastical group or tendency do you belong? lo —Amount of remuneration received from the community? 16 —Have you any additional occupations and what income do you derive therefrom? —Material situation. IS —Before the revolution did yon own any property? Of what did it consist? If land, how many deciatiues did you have? 19— Where have you lived, worked or served? What did you do in general? (give address, name of occupation, business, employment: (a) Before the revolution of 1917, (b) on January .1, 1918, (c) during the stay of Petliura in Ukraine, (d) during the stay of Denikin inUkraine. 20—Have you served in the Bed Army? How long? With what rank?. In‘ what corps? Have you a discharge? What is your number? 21- —Did you serve in the army of Petliura or that of Denikin? Where? How long? With what rank? 22Have you any military decorations? Where and why did you receive them? 23—Have you received any punishments of an administrative, judicial or ecclesiastical order? - When? Where? How? For what icnson? What sort of punishment? 24 — (This question applies to Baptists and Evangelists); 25 — Do you desire to add any supplemental information ? ‘‘ ; Signature. ‘•Exact date, address, date of receipt of rcgisteration card. “Second signature.” Espionage The Bolshevists are not at all original in their methods of persecution. Although they boast that they are men born ahead of their time, they have to wander back over the high-ways of history to gather inspiration from every political scoundrel who sought to feather'his; nest by persecuting religion. It is not easy to punish it man for his religions beliefs; it is much better to punish him for plotting ■ against the State. That plan is as old as Christianity. - ' and' the ‘'advanced” thinkers (we nearly said tinkers) from Moscow, finding that tho Catholic clergy are not inclined to, meddle- in polities, borrow duplicity from the ages and manufacture a few conspiracies of their own for which they try to punish the priests. La Croix tells of the espionage to. which priests are subjected “Pressure frequently is brought to bear on the parishioners to got them to denounce the priest as a spy in the pay of Poland. The most- devious methods are used to accomplish this by the agents of the G.P.U., the successor of the

famous Cheka. An agent goes from the local headquarters to the neighboring communities ami forces the Catholics to sign a declaration! ' in which they demand that tho priest-’be made to cease all espionage in behalf of Poland. Sometimes the signatures are given by ignorant people who do not know what they are signing; others are given under protest after many hours of threats by the agents. AI few days later the declaration is published in- the Soviet papers, where it is presented as a spontaneous contribution of the parishioners, seeking to enlist the aid .of the press in proving their loyalty to the Soviets. While foreigners who do not know' Russian and who are willing to believe all that they are told and shown are welcome in Russia, others, especially priests, who know the language and are familiar with the country, are undesirable to the Soviet authorities. The agents of the - G.P.IJ. go to any extreme in their efforts to obtain evidence against the priests. Agents provocateurs oven enter the confessionals. pretending to he penitents, in order f to keep a close watch over them. Efforts frequently are made to bribe them to denounce. their friends and fellow-priests to the. Pope, a notable instance of this being the case of Father Fcdnkovitch, whose case was given much prominence in the press. u This virtuous, influential, and pious but impressionable priest was arrested at Gitomar on a charge of espionage. Placed in solitary confinement, lie was persecuted, tortured, and harassed until at last he wrote a letter to the Pope accusing Polish priests of espionage for Poland. The next day the letter was published in the Soviet papers with additions not of his writing.” The Value of the Classics Of late years the tendency of educationists ■ has been to dispense with the classics, and in this they an* aided and abetted by parents and students alike —the latter because they are relieved from a dull grind, the former because they doubt that Latin and Greek can be made to pay a dividend. Judged by modern standards the last objection is fatal, lor is it not tho whole purpose of secular education to enable the, student to rise to tho dignity of a cheque-book? Obviously, then, the classics have no practical value; but in this case, according to Anthony Beck, editor of The Michujan Catholic , the obvious is entirely wrong. The classics, he says, open up a new world of ideas and culture to the student. Every great nation possesses a certain hind of ideas, certain achievements, virtues, and vices all its own. To know the culture of a country we must know the lan- : guage of that country; and the more languages we know the broader our outlook will be. As a proof of this, the men who have achieved the greatest distinction.in industry, commerce, finance, politics, etc., frankly . acknowledge that their success has been due largely to classical training. Some years ago* a prominent railway president declared that, he would rather employ the young man who; knew only his Greek grammar than one whoV possessed a great , deal of technical knowledge but lacked the classical foundation. The latter would give better results- in the

X V beginning; but the former had a broader ’X h. foundation and a. keener mind, and in a V \short time would master the technical know- -/ ledge and surpass the man who had only a X ■ special training. Alba R. Johnson, until a. few years ago president of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, was not a graduate of any college. His views on the classics were based , on forty years of contact with young men, and he says “The commercial necessities of our country at home and abroad require ; ' that our young people must be educated to conduct the highly organised and complicated business of the country as well or better than 1 our competitors from England, France, and - Germany. . . Business and financial leaders i, may be evolved from the discipline which is essential to success in business and finance. The leadership of mind and spirit is nurtured s i in the discipline which is found in liberal studies, in knowledge of the facts of history, . in communion with the great minds of the i past, in the cultivation of the powers of concentration and reasoning which exper- , ience has shown is best derived from a- study I, of the classics, by the toil of mathematics, and the mastery of philosophy.” Herbert r. Hoover, XT.S. Secretary of Commerce, exX presses the opinion that the value of classical studies js seriously underestimated to-day. Says James Munro, of the Boston Chamber of Commerce : “The old education with its Latin grammar, and more Latin grammar, and still more Latin grammar, produced a hard-headed, hard-fisted, hard-hearted race, but it was in the main a race sound, physically, mentally, and morally.” And Harry Towne, of the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, New York; “I was fortunate X. during my school days in being well drilled in Latin and Greek, and during all my life I have appreciated the benefit of this training.” A Sacrilegious Arrest The modern thinkers of the advanced school, who despise the Catholic Church because they say she is a hot-bed of superstition, find their level among spiritists, for-tune-tellers, and other exponents of MumhoJumbo. From Toronto there comes a story of how two policemen set the gods at defiance during a seance at which a spirit was obliging enough to show itself to some sixtyfive intellectual admirers. The medium, on© Arthur Heldreth, announced that the hall would be thrown in darkness and a spirit would appear. She appeared all right, a shadowy creature in flowing garments and long hair. Constable Mulholland, with an eye for beauty, wishing to see the mystic lady clearer that he might admire her the more, turned his flashlight on her. Spirit-like, she tried to melt into thin air, but the policeman, like a fierce cave man, started in pursuit. The spirit, of course, was anxious to avoid contact with anything earthly,especially anything so earthly as a policemanso she sought Safety in flight, hut she was unforL,r lunate enough to leave her robe and wig in XI the hands of the man in blue. She then I / , . tried to , escape by running into the dark V; hall, hut was promptly apprehended by another policeman. A riot ensued hut the police retained their, prize, who turned out /' to be the medium Hildreth. This gentleman

was lodged in gaol, from which the spirits did not rescue him. An Editor’s Creed There are instances on record to show that commercial journalists sometimes revolt at the ignominious parts they have to play in order, to retain their Jobs. Now and again the soul in the man bursts forth in a torrent of self-scorn and tears aside the veil of hypocrisy to give the public a swift glance at the manner in which their “news” is -manufactured in the great metropolitan dailies. Harper’s Magazine quotes a new type of newspaper manthe complacent editor “who sells his race and country for his daily bread,” and lacks the grace to be ashamed of himself. He puts his case in this fashion: . “Look here, if you and I were hired to feed the animals in the park zoo, we shouldn’t kick, should we, i because we couldn’t give them the same kind of eating we have on our own tables? We’d give them the garbage they liked and take our pay on Saturday nights. "Well, you and I aren’t hired to make the world a better place to live in, or to fight and die for noble causes, or even to toll the truth about this particular main street. We’re hired to feed human animals with the kind of mental garbage they want. We don’t have to eat it. I don’t read my paper for instruction or even for fun. I just read it for errors and to see if we’re banding out regularly what the boobs like for breakfast.” Anatole France When Anatole France was in the flesh he was feted, and flattered, and fawned upon by the world lie served so well. His epitaph, however, makes unkindly reading. W T o can hear him crying with Plutarch, “Surely, I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born.” Whatever Anatole France might have thought during his lifetime, we believe he would prefer to be unwritten rather than live in memory ns the apostle of lewdness. His secretary, Jean Jacques Brousson, in his Life of France, gives his candid opinion of the iconoclast, and it does not lift the latter to the gods. France had heard that the Church was about to consider the cause of St. Joan, and he employed Brousson to hunt up learned references to her so that ho might anticipate the Church. Author and secretary met at the house hf the former in. the presence of guests, hut the secretary was so much shocked at the impious talk of France that he left the house without presenting his letter of introduction. The letter was delivered later, and on this occasion France “examined a little the innocence of M. Brousson.” He wished to know if the young man had been religiously emancipated. His own notion of religion was according to La. Bruyere, that “He , who is in perfect health doubts the existence of Cod, but when he gets a dropsy, leaves his mistress and sends for the priest.” Later he explained that physical degeneration induces a man to give himself over to drugs and the Deity. He deplored the prudery in literature that prevented him. from writ-

■ 3. mg everything that the “little god” of love X inspired in him. His conduct was in keeping with his thoughts, for the translator of « Brousson’s hook , terms him an “indulgent tS| and . salacious old dog.” Notwithstanding Hi his impiety, France feared death, and hated |9 anything that reminded him that life is" short. On one occasion the secretary fainted in his presence, - and he was so disturbed 'at | the . occurrence that he said ho should not like y CI the young man nearly so well if ho did that kind of thing often. He said he did not care for sick people in his neighborhood. On another day M. Brousson caused him keen JIM distress by suggesting that Anatole France would be the next great man of letters to repose in the Pantheon. ' * '■ fS Look at Both Sides 3 Not the least of the evils of our modern ■,l secular education systems is that history is reduced to mere propaganda, in the worst ji|J| sens© of the term. History is a very impor- j;| taut subject as it should be a guide to the ' i future conduct of nations, a forewarning ;yr and therefore a forearming against the blunders and crimes of our fathers. It should - also give us the key to their triumphs ■ so %|l that we might not fail where they succeeded. But history as' it is taught in our schools is little better than imperialistic “Junk,” ; I designed to prevent students from getting a clear view of the past lest they might think- ■ ill of the present and challenge the standing of Sir Tite Barnacle. Therefore, when Mr. | Hilaire Belloc delivered a lecture to teachers on how history should be taught we hope he||M was not optimistic enough to believe that actually it would be taught in his way. He, said that “in the limited time available JhiiM the elementary schools history must, , of. course, be taught dogmatically, but all the same the teacher should endeavor to put the | various views of an historical event before Xl ■ the child. For instance, if 0119 asked what vvi proportion of Englishmen would have been || glad if the Spanish Armada, had succeeded,* 3 the official answer would be ‘ none.’ That -ip answer was nonsense, because a few years before the Armada the whole of the North of England had risen in support of the old religion. Probably at the time out of eight;:®! Englishmen about five would have been wilAp| ling to see the old religion return. . The teacher should give the children the framework of historythe dates and the unquestioned faqts —and should then (taking the same instance) show that there were two ways of looking at the Spanish Armada, and |p that the evidence was not conclusive. Another example of this point was the discus- . sion as to when the French language ceased to be spoken in England. T hold that French k was in habitual use down to the time of the ;3 > Black Death. The child was never taught,’, k - that the English were bilingual at a date s long after the time commonly accepted as'w 5. that at which French died out. The Imf portanc© of giving children two views ,on|a3 s subject was that otherwise, when they grew .J r »P and discovered that the , hard-and-fast - things they had been taught might be wrongf|i s they would become sceptical about■ every-' y thing that had been taught, as had happened. . in the case of religion.” - ' , / ■ '• ' ‘ X'-'' 'X. - XU