MODERN MORALS.

Shannon News, 1 October 1929, Page 3

MODERN MORALS.

CABDINAL'S DENUNCIATION,

("Sun" Special). ,LONDON, Sept. 27.

"None can deny that around us are many things, uncensored and unchecked, which render continence, whether in married or unmarried life, far more difficult than it ought naturally "to be for the average man or woman, while the allurement to vicious self-indul-gence is proportionately increased."

In these words Cardinal Bcurnc, in his inaugural address to the Catholic Congress, which hag opened in the Albert Hall, London, to celebrate the centenary of Catholic emancipation, scathingly denounced v modern morality. The craving for self-gratification, at all costs, he said, was also degrading the holy state of matrimony and bringing in 'contempt of motherhood, which was the glory of the wedded woman. The Christian tradition of moral conduct was gravely imperilled by the uncertain hold of .the principle that strong instincts and passions must be controlled, and that they wore given to: only one' purpose, their use outside of which, for self-grafinct-tion, was unlawful and constituted a grievous sin. It was no exaggeration to say, his Eminence continued, that ideas directly contrary to that principle were being openly"asserted, althoigh sometimes only by implication, but the demand for extended facilities for divorce and birth-prcvcntion was simply due to/ the opinion that these instincts and passions were entitled to self-gratification, despite that by this they were contravening both Christian and natural laws and abolishing sell'-eontroh, which Christianity always taught, and which even paganism upheld to a certain extent.

"Even earnest, well-meaning, eonscientioin men, pathetically quoting their hard cases in view of the extension of divorce facilities," he said, '|only proclaim the impossibility of self-con-trol, while the apostles of birth-pre-vention, in an even more dangerous degree, do net see that their assertions .Mid appeals lead logically and inevitably to the condoning and justifying of every form of self-indulgence, within or without the married state. "What appeal to self-restraint can the. promoters of divorce honestly make to the millions who are necessarily single? How can those interfering with life's natural processes preach purity to the women whom they have taught to avoid the consequences which once reinforced the hestitating voice of va-. dilating conscience, for the young whom matrimony has not joined read and study their evil books?" ' < NON-CHRISTIAN ENGLAND.'' "Authors, painters, actors and women, who by fashion and dress render self-control more difficult for the average man and woman, thereby making the natural craving for sinful selfgratification irfore imperious than itwould' otherwise be, are doing moral evil and sinning in the sight of God. No silly prating about the necessity for elucidating problems, or 'to the pure all things are pure,' or claims that art must be satisfied, can change the moral law and alter fundamental facts of human nature." Turning to education-, the Cardinal said that the fact that teachers were obliged by law to send children _ to schools in" which they were forbidden to give a guarantee that they would be taught that Jesus Christ is truly and really God, must lead to a nonChristian England, unless the trend was turned back by a reassertion. of the traditions of Christian faith.

"I therefore' plead, not only in the interests of Catholic,schools, for a complete reversal of ■.he education policy," he said. The congress opened with a special service in Westminster Cathedral, in which four archbishops and 20 bishops participated. There was a congregation of 7000. The Cathedral's campanile was brnuantly illuminated at night by four blazing crosses