CHURCH AND STATE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1931, Page 3

CHURCH AND STATE

THE CONFLICT IN ITALY. BISHOP Li-rjN’C ADO..LSS. AUCKLAND, July 19. The present reugious troumes in .Italy. were taken by Dr J. M. Liston, Homan. Cathoiic Bishop of Auckland, as the text- lor an address upon the relations between Church and State •which he delivered in St. Patrick’s cathedral bn Sunday. The bishop declared that while the State and the Church each had its own responsibilities and its proper sphere of activity, the duty of the Church and its'members was to see that Christian principles were respected in the activities of the State.

The recent onslaught by the ruling civil power in Italy upon the Roman Catholic Action Society, said the bishop, was not without benefit, because it forced men to consider a wider and deeper problem, the relations of Church and State. The whole world, within and without the Church, was listening in, and it was natural to ask whither all this was tending. Since its foundation: in 1923: this , society had been merely*a grouping o'f older, societies ; it • had "dealt with such questions as Roman Catholic education; family life,'arid young "rrien’s clubs. : "" Aten to-day, Bishop Liston continued were iieingf led in; wrong directions by a group of pernicious theories which 'taught' that the State was ‘supreme in spiritual as vyoll as temporal matters. It was -sgjd that men, must determine .flic things of the , State by their own inferior light, , \yithput guidance from above. It was also said that the State was something apart from the spiritual world; that it could not recognise eternal values; that it could not admit religion to the schools because it would cause trouble and the State was not concerned with the religious life—if any—df the children. The Church might he useful, but it must always be subordinate to the needs of the people as dictated by the : State. -' ■ ' ! ’ '*

These errors, said the bishop, wore accepted ih-.various European countries and partly in Now Zealand. Tile State was , free, and untrammelled in dealing with all the temporal affairs of man, as for example, with the legal relations between men, with taxation arid defence. The Church had much to say to .kings, to armies, and to those in schools, and workshops; it had the teaching of .Christ to impart and the laws of C hrist to proclaim. It was no matter of surprise, but rather to be expected, that there should be conflict' between the principles of the -Church and these of a pagan 'RfTithT'StTblr■'fppfffi’flict bad been in progress for many years in France, more lately- in Russia, and. nowAii was to be found in Italy. “We in New Zeal a n d , u — remarked Bishop Liston, “ere lj' : ng in a fool’s par'diso if we do not recognise the‘chiirigds'that are takplace ip the world of thought, b,ringing with - r tlieru7 new customs, traditions and beliefs.”