ROOT OF EVILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1939, Page 7

ROOT OF EVILS

FAILURE OF MORAL STANDARDS DECLARATION BY POPE. DICTATORSHIPS DENOUNCED. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received This Day. 11.0 a.m.) VATICAN CITY. October 27 ‘‘The profound and ultimate root of present evils is the refusal to accept a standard of universal morality for the life individual, for social life and for international relations,” deciared the Pope, in a ten thousand word Encyclical. “In other words, the present evils can be traced to a disregard and forgetfulness of natural law', whose foundation is in God. “After the denial of God comes the denial of law. The result is religious and moral agnosticism, from which spring two pernicious errors —firstly, forgetfulness of human solidarity and charity and secondly the error of pretending to absolve civil authority from dependence on God. thus establishing the State as the final end in life. This State autonomy is contrary to natural reason and Christian conscience, since it reduces everything to a level of utilitarian morality, but the rights of conscience are sacred and inviolable.” Referring to dictatorships, his Holiness said: “To consider the State as something ultimate, subordinating everything, cannot fail to harm the true and lasting prosperity of nations." War alone, he added, would not lead to a decisive change in conditions, without peace treaties animated by justice and equity to all. The Pope,appealed for peace treaties to end the present war and avoid the sacrifices and suffering which hitherto had failed to bring lasting peace. International law could not be torn from the anchor of Divine law without abandoning it to the caprice of private interests and collective egoism. thus opening the door to the domination of force and giving a legal standing to accomplished facts inconsistent with treaties and'destroying confidence among nations. These conceptions had brought the world to the present horrible abyss. Since human expedients had miserably failed, salvation could come only from the church. The Pope expressed sorrow for Poland and promised to do all in his power io hasten the restoration of peace.