CARDINAL MERCIER AND GERMANY.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 December 1920, Page 3

CARDINAL MERCIER AND GERMANY.

(Sydney Paper). Belgium has been particularly for tunate in her two great leaders during the recent war. King Albert stnnns out iu the simple dignity of a innn who followed the straight path of honour, and led his people with unwavering courage and upbuilding will through defeat to victory. Cardinal Mercier ! inspired the courage and sustained the faith of a defenceless country ground under the iron heel of a military despotism which knew no mercy and tvns restrained by no law, divine or international. The spirit of Belgium was incarnate in these men, and tlmtr names will ever stand side by side in the tragically glorious story .of a nation which may have lost all, hut kept iLs j soul untarnished. One can understand the urgency of appeal to Cardinal Me:cier to write his experiences during the German occupation of his native land : but the pressure of other duties has compelled him to take what is really a better wny-c-to publish the voluminous correspondence which passed between him and the German authorities. This correspondence is, in brief, an expose of the hateful regime to which his un- ' fortuhate country was exposed for fifty long months of stupidly cruel tortii e As the editor of the correspondence says, “there is, in fact, not a single crime of the occupying Power whie.i this courageous pastor has not stigmatised; not- a single one of its "naroi which lie has not exposed, not a single one of its hypocritical acts which he has not laid bare, not one single act of abuse of its governing power against which lie has not raised his voice ;ti angry protest.” Against the whole military power of Germany he had nothing for defence but the justice or his pleas, the dignity of bis courage, tile affection of bis office. More than once the German authorities uecided t. seize his person and deport him to a German prison, but held back in view of the consequences of such a step; and more than once the Cardinal challenged them to inflict upon him the heavy penalties they imposed upon his subordinates for obeying their ecclesiastical superior. Germany was willing to make use of the Cardinal for her own purposes, but from the very beginning the churchman and the patriot were combined in one person. While ready to respond It. Von Bissing’s courtesy, he made clear on which side he stood: “Whatever ' may be your Excellency’s personal • elinations, the Governor-General is the representative among us of a usurping and openly hostile nation, in the oresence of which we boldly affirm our rights to our independence and to have our neutrality respected.” He counselled obedience to military regulations “in so far as these wound neither our consciences as Christians nor our feelings as patriots;” but in the same letter, which Von Bissing refused to forward to Germany, he characterise I a certain statement of the German Imperial Chancellor! in so far as it referred to Belgium, as “a monstrous lie.” Such language, ns Von Bissing said, “hurt the honour of Germany,” a somewhat elusive target. Repeated conflicts arose over the Cardinal’s pastoral letters, each of which at various times he issued to he read in the churches “without omitting or erasing any part of it, in spite of any orders to the contrary that might be issued by any other Power.” These pastorals were a continuous trouble to the occupying authority, hut the Cardinal claimed on! exercised the right of teaching his j people without interference from any | secular power. The Germans pointed j out that all matter for publication musi ' pass the censor, but the reply was that the intrusion of the censor into the ( right of the Church to guide the consciences of its people would be an ntolerable interference with a divine duty. To the characteristic German suggestion that the Cardinal could “accidentally” leave a copy of his proposed pastoral at some private house, where the Germans would seize it, he replied that he scorned such methods; they would get a copy at the same time 1 as his clergy, hut no sooner.

In an early pastoral Cardinal Merrier boldly proclaimed: “The only leg; timate power ip Belgium is that which f belongs to our King, his Government, ( and the representatives of the nation. 5 He alone lias a right to the affection of t our hearts and to our submission; ‘o - . us he alone represents authority..' 1 ! This was too much for Von Biasing; but the Cardinal, in reply, drew a dis- 1 tinction between the authority which it was a moral obligation to obey and the Power which meantime they were compelled to obey. To the warning of a . high German official that the Govermc- ( General would not let the matter pa is 3 the unbending ecclesiastic replied, “It { is written, and it will remain.” One cannot but feel that at times the Car- f dinal took some enjoyment in bating the beast, for in a pastoral dated 191-5, entitled "A Call to Prayer,” lie asks . his people to “recite for the future with attention” the prayer which is sail , after Mass, and rends as follows: - “And Thou Prince of the Heavenly Host, we beg Thee cast down into hell Satan and the other wicked spirits who , wander through the world for the nun 5 of souls.” If the Germans did not 1 recognise themselves in Satan,' they evidently did in “the other wicked , spirits,” and throughout Germany a , torrent of abuso was poured upon tn.e author of the pastoral. The head of the political administration visited the ] Cardinal and read to him a long lectuie , on Ids conduct. The Cardinal naively , pointed out that the Germans were m i once mentioned in his pastoral a-ul 1 K „t the reply he for: ! tioned, no. But one can read betue.n . the lines.” Naturally the retort came that the author was not responsible Id. the identification. When his visitor re-, ferred to some minor concessions RW'ed to the Cardinal, such as the pnvileg.' . of using his own motor car, '.e silenced with the stem reply, I »• „„ gratitude toward yon on the sco.. ; you mention, because I owe you none, and he added later: “We Belgians are indeed fastidious; we claim 0111 rights, j lmt we do not like favours.