PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA I

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 947, 14 April 1930, Page 14

PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA I

BISHOP LISTON’S APPEAL PRAYERS FOR CESSATION That it could be seen that the j Soviet Government hoped to do away j •with the child and the family, with education, moral and religious tradi- j tions, and consequently with the ■ mighty edifice of Christian civilisation j which had been a-building for twenty j centuries, and under the shelter of j which we were living—formed a part I of the circular from Bishop Liston, 1 read yesterday in all the Roman | Catholic Churches of the diocese of j Auckland. Prayers will be offered in the i Catholic Churches, during Holy Week, j for the cessation of the persecution in I Russia. "Blasphemous ‘anti-God’ campaigns i regularly recur at Christmas and Raster. These outrages, coupled with the official proscription of the practice j of religion in a whole series of Soviet; decrees and a campaign of infidel pro- i paganda, are all part of a deliberate j anti-God crusade, which is directed ! against all Christians and Jews, and j aims at tearing out from the hearts : of the people all belief in God; they j are to live and die without Christ I without God. It is beyond doubt that i many of our fellow-Catholics have suffered imprisonment or death and that many bishops, thousands of priests, monks and nuns, and large numbers of the members of the Orthodox Church have been done to death for their faith,” states the circular. “Men have hitherto looked on at the Russian scene as upon some drama unfolded on the moving film, carrying away with them some general impression. Now its meaning Is becoming plain. All that Christians and believers in God value and love is to be swept aside. What can follow but the ruin of the great institutions of the civilised world, the family, private property, justice, charity, morality and religion? No one can remain indifferent to this menace. "Let us all listen to the appeal of our Holy Father and turn to God in prayer, reparation and intercession; prayer both for the rulers of Russia that they may turn from their evil ways, and for the tormented and tortured sufferers that they may stand fast in the day of trial. I ask the priests, religious, children and people of the diocese to give special heed to this appeal during Holy Week.” The Pope’s prayer is; "Saviour of the world, save Russia”; let us make it our own.”