THE PAPACY AND WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1940, Page 9

THE PAPACY AND WAR

ATTITUDE EXPLAINED TRINITY OF EVIL CONDEMNED. SERMON EY FATHER MOORE. At St Patrick's Church on Sunday the Rev Father Moore made reference to the present war and the attitude of the Pope. It may be of interest to note the position of his Holiness/ the Pope in this terrifying crisis, said Father Moore. What is the Papacy? What is the attitude of the Papacy to the present universal conflict? What has the Pope done in -the present crisis? Can the Pope keep Italy at least neutral? Can the Pope prevent Mussolini from joining the forces that destroy the foundation of religion and the State? Such are the questions asked by those who are not of the Catholic Faith, and have even perplexed the minds of Catholics themselves. The Papacy is that Divine form of government which Christ established in the Primacy of St Peter, when He appointed him “Head of the Church" —“You are Peter and on this Rock I will build My Church. The Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it.’’ The continuity of the Papacy in the present Pope from Peter to Pius is the unique phenomena of history. Macaulay. Froude and Ranke, the great historians, bear witness to this extraordinary thing, the continuous identity of the Papacy from days of Nero to the present day. What is the function of the Papacy? What part does it play? What office does it fulfil in the world? The Papacy was instituted to govern, rule and unite the Church, to guard the Divine Truths given to the world and closed in the last days of the Apostles. How these sacred truths have been preserved let history declare. The Church cannot compromise with error in doctrine or falsity in words. From Arius to Luther, from Luther to Lenin, and from Lenin to Hitler the Church has battled against principles which destroy the Christian inheritance, said Father Moore. What has the Papacy done in the world conflicts during the present epoch? The late Pope Pious XI condemned Communism. and Nazi-ism and Fascism as essentially false- in Doctrine and immoral in principle. When the world and the Press of the world, stood silently inert the Pope condemned that infamous trinity of evil even though that condemnation brought down the J brutal savagery and the wild butchery /' of Christians as it did in the first ages; of the church. Religion was strangled in Russia, hated in Germany and crucified in Spain. Hundreds of bishops and priests were liquidated in Russia, machine-gunned in Poland and crucified in Spain. Can the present Italy join forces with the incarnated spirit of evil? The answer is no. The Pope has no political power or authority in modern Italy. He does not belong to Italy. He is not even a citizen of the Italian State. Again we must remember that there is and has been in Italy an influence which is fiercely anti-clerical and antiPapal, an influence created, forked and helped from Mazzini and Garibaldi to the present day, said Father Moore. Again, Mussolini is an Imperial pragmatist. He was a Socialist 'and an

Anarchist. He. would roll his tanks over Catholicism and the Church itself. The present Pope and the lasi Pope warned the nations again and again against, the terrific forces of evil resident in the- false theories and doctrines of the age which denies Christ and. destroys the Brotherhood of Man. "The present Pope kneels at. the foot of a Cross with all Christian people and prays for Faith, and the courage of Faith to conquer the terrific evil terror of this age" said Father Moore in conclusion.