Churchmen & The War

The week's news of Christian confusion: P: In Genoa the Cardinal-Archbishop of Genoa, Pietro Boetto, got mad. Objecting to the shelling of Genoa by British warships, he spoke for God Almighty as follows: "The Lord, even in the sight of the innocent victims, will raise His merciful hand above us and will concede a complete triumph to our beloved country." > At the National Republican Club's Lincoln Day dinner, Episcopal Bishop William T. Manning of New York carefully instructed God Almighty as follows: "O God our Father . . . grant that we may give our utmost aid to Great Britain . and that we may do this without delay for the defense of our own land, for the preservation of Christian civilization . . . through Christ our Lord. Amen." >Said Archbishop Chrysanthos of Athens, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church:' "Fascist Italy has indeed forgotten that from our land proceeded the Holy Fathers who first gave her the light of the Gospel and fed her with the milk of true reverence."

> The Roman Catholic Bishop of Buffalo, the Most Rev. John A. Duffy, told a Catholic Charities luncheon: "The spirit of our country today, as represented by the vocal minority, is a spirit of internationalism. . . . They are promoting every cause that has no more connection with the future of America than the condition of the Martians on the planets beyond an astronomer's ken. . . . The continent of Europe is finished--westward will the course of empire make its way. All the efforts that we make to re-establish a past condition in continental Europe will be falsified under the very hydraulic law of history. Europe is finished--every historian knows that in his heart." Same day that Bishop

Duffy spoke, four Catholic bishops signed a letter sponsored by Catholic Layman Michael Williams approving the Lend-Lease Bill. Six other bishops declined to sign.

> Because the Vatican refuses to give Franco veto power over the bishops it appoints for Spain, nearly half the Spanish sees are now vacant. Last week the American Bible Society announced that the Spanish Government had confiscated all copies of the Scriptures which the British and Foreign Bible Society had in its Madrid depository.

> The British believe that the Nazis are using the Orthodox Churches of the Balkans as one of the tools of their conquest. The week's news of Christian fortitude and effort:

>Bravest resistance was in Norway, where the Nazis ordered police to attend all church services and report on any "trespasses" against the "New Order"--a result of the recent letter from the seven bishops of the Norwegian Lutheran Church. Most significant signer: Dr. Eyvind Berggrav, Bishop of Oslo and Primate of Norway, who at first publicly urged the Norwegians to cooperate with the Nazis, but has now apparently realized how fully they threaten everything Norse and Christian. Despite the police, Norwegian congregations continued to pray for exiled King Haakon and the Lutherans were reported backed in their struggle by other churchmen, the Salvation Army and even atheists.

> In Germany, Adolf Cardinal Bertram, Archbishop of Breslau and dean of the German hierarchy, formally protested to Hitler because the Nazis ruled that services could not be held anywhere in Germany before 10 a.m. after nights with British air raids--a rule which keeps many German Catholics from attending mass. > Baptists in the 'Baltic area of the U. S. S. R. (until last year Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) were bravely enduring new active persecution by the Soviet Government.

> In Belgium, Catholic resistance (TIME, Feb. 17) is still strong, as shown by Rexist Leader Leon Degrelle's angry attack last week: "The main point, however, remains Hitler, the Axis and Rexism, which the priests bitterly tear by their teeth every Sunday morning in sermons full of hatred. . . . This abuse of religious freedom for provocation purposes in an atmosphere of rebellion, which is created by numerous Belgian priests, is absolutely intolerable."

>In Manhattan last week Dr. Henry Smith Leiper, American Secretary of the World Council of Churches, announced that leading churchmen from North and South America would gather in Toronto next June "to consider the task of the Church in the present world crisis . . . with special reference to the kind of world order that will follow the present struggle." The Most Rev. William Temple, Archbishop of York, is also likely to be at Toronto. Last month he set a keynote for it by convoking the Malvern Conference in England (TIME, Jan. 20), which drew up a sweeping plan for postwar society.

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