BELGIUM'S TRAVAIL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2712, 6 March 1916, Page 3

BELGIUM'S TRAVAIL

CARDINAL MERCIER'S CHALLENGE

SILENCE OF GERMAN BISHOPS

The Belgian Episcopate recently took steps in defence of the honour of the Belgian people and clergy that deserves to bo widely known. Oil November 24, 1915, Cardinal Jlorcier, Archbishop ol Malines, tho Bishop of Ghent, the Bishop of Bruges, the Bishop of Namur, tho Bishop of LiegCj and the BishopDesignate of Tournai addressed jointly to the Roman Catholic Episcopate of Germany aud Austria a letter proposing the establishment of a tribunal of inquiry into the atrocities committed during the German invasion of Belgium. 'The task of the tribunal would be to investigate, ' and to establish tho truth concerning, the atrocities alleged by the German Emperor and by German official documents to have been committed by the Belgtan civil population and those admittedly committed by the German troops. The Belgian Episcopate suggests in. its letter that the tribunal should be composed of . three members of the German Episcopate, and three monitors of i the Belgian Episcopate, under the presidency of a neutral Bishop or Archbishop t-o be designated by the Episcopates of Holland, Spain, ' bwitzerland, or the United States. This joint letter seems hitherto to have been left without reply. • The very l'act of its having been written and sent has been kept sccret, although the "Cologne Gazette" recently suggested that the proposed visit of Cardinal Mercier and of the ißishops of Tournai ond Namur to Rome might be connected with; "a letter addressed by. the Belgian Bishops to the Bishops of Austria and Germany.'J Now, however, a group of Belgian patriots , at ■ Havre liaVe obtained a copy of, and' have published, the letter. The following extracts indicate its character. The letter refers; to the_ Uerman Emperor's telegram to President Wilson, accusing Belgian priests and women of committing "abominable, odious, and criminal acts against German soldiers,"and declaring that his heart bled to see that measures of repression had been rendered inevitable., The. Belgiail Bishops deny absolutely the truth of these accusations, as also of those formulated in the name of Uerman Catholics by the Genjian Professor Rosenberg, of Paderborn; and in order to establish the truth, fliey propose the establishment of a joint Belgo. German Episcopal tribunal of inquiry under thG presidency of a , neutral Bishop. A Solemn and Decisive Inquiry. The Belgian Bishops add:— You will summon before the tribunal, whomsoever you wish. We shall ask to appear before it all the priests of parishes where civilians, priests, monks, nuns, or laymen were -massacred or* threatened with death on the plea that "someoni; had fired." We shall ash ali these priests to sign their depositions on oath, and then, unless it i 9 pretended that whole Belgian clergy is perjured, you will be obliged to ac. cept, aud the civilised world will not be ablo to reject, the conclusions ol" this solemn and decisive inquiry. And we add that you have the same interest as we in-the constitution of a tribunal of honour. . The Bishops' letter then describes tho persecution to which the Belgian people was exposed, and- continues:— If, in formulating' these denunciations, we slander .the German Army, or if the military, authorities had just reasons to order or to' permit, actions Which wo call oriminali the'honour and tho national interest of Germany is engaged in.,confuting us. So long as German justice holds aloof, we retain the right end the duty to denounce what, in all conscience, wo regard as a grave outvage upon justice and upon our honour, . . . We know that you are loth to believe that regiments of which you say you are aware of the discipline, the ncnesty, and the' religious faith can have oommitted the inhuman' acts which we lay to, their charge. You try to per-, guade yourselves that these things are -not true,becauss thov cannot be true. We, compelled by evidence, answer that these tilings can be true bccause they are true. In the presence of foots no argument ■ holds. For you, as for-us, there is. but one if sue; tho verification of the facts by a commission, whose impartiality shall be. and shall appear to all to lie, indisputable. . . Germany caniiot give back to us the blood she has shed, the Innocent' lives which her armies have taken; but it in in her nowi-t *o rostoro to the Belgian people its honour, which she has- violated or has. allowed to be violated. We demand from you this restitution, from you who are above all the representatives of Christian morality in the Church of Germany. A Campaign of Slander. "Beware," said the Bishop of Hildes-

helm to his as early as September 21, Ml, "of the accusations spread by tlit) Press against priests, monks, unci mins of Catholic nations, lest they dig a ditch .between Oatholies and I'rutestants oil German soil and the religious l'uturo of the Empire to imperilled." Yet the campaign of slander against our clergy and our people h:m i:ot Blackened. Herr Eizbergor; a member of tlie Catholic Centre, seems to have made it liis business to foment it. Even in Belgium, in the Cathedral of Antwerp, on the 16t]i Sunday after the Epiphany, one of your priests, Heinrich Jlo'hr. dared to say from thu pulpit ol truth to tho Catholic soldiers of youi Army, ''Ollleial documents have inform- 1 ed us how the Bolgians hanged German eoldiert. to trees, scalded them with boiling liquid, and burned them alive." There is but 0110 means of putting a utop to these scandals —by revealing tlia whole truth, and by the public condom, nation oil the part of religious authority of the real culprits. . . Christ, of whom wo have the high honour to be at onco the disciples and .tho milliliters, said: "My mission is to boai- witness to the truth." At the solemn moment of our Episcopal oonsccration wo promised to God ancl to the Catholic Church never to desert tho truth, to yield neither to ambition nor to fear when it is.a question of proving that we lovo it. Hence, concludes tho letter, the need tor a tribunal which shall dissipate all doubt and prepare the peace invoked by : the Pope, inasmuch r.s truth is the only foundation of justice, of national lion.our, and of peace. .