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Registered at the G.P.O.. Perth. for transmission by post as a newspaper.
PERTH, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1941.
SIXTY-EIGHTH YEAR.
" We are Fighting for Civilisation, Culture,
Christianity" Archbishop of Liverpool's Advent Pastoral In his Advent Pastoral the Archbishop of Liverpool (Most Rev. Dr. Downey) analyses the war issue;iivALUES which we hold dearer than life itself are at stake. We have much to learn from the past. We have to learn that a triumph of arms is nut sufficient-victory must come from within ourselves, that even amidst the din of battles we must clear our minds, purify our hearts, steel our wills, if we are to bring this war to a really successful issue. "The justice of our cause proclaims
itself... This war is not of our seeking. It was forced upon us after our every effort to preserve peace had failed. Our hands are clean, our consciences are clear. We unsheathed the sword to vindicate our plighted word to oppose the devastating philosophy that 'Might a Right.' to banish from our midst persecution, cruelty and barbarism. "Since the outbreak of hostilities, we have seen the liberties of many nations trampled on, millions of human beings forced into bondage. We free subjects of the British Empire are called upon, even though we have few active allies in the conflict at the moment, to champion the oppressed, to resist the spread of enslavement, and assert the rights of free peoples. Let us be perfectly dear on the issues at stake. We are fighting for civilisation, culture, and Christianity. The symbol of paganism has been raised against the symbol of Christianity. Hitler has declared: 'One is either a German or a Christian. You cannot be both.' Again: 'True Christianity and life can
not he combined, and above all, Christianity and Germanism cannot be combined.' "Again, the notorious Rosenberg declares: 'When the National Socialist dons his Brown Shirt, he ceases to be a Catholic or a Protestant, and becomes a soldier of Hitler and whose religion is his faith in his leader.' 'lOne refrains from quoting the revolting blasphemies which are freely interspersed among the pages of Nazi literature. These things are not acci-
dental to the regime; they are the essence of its message. So we may truly say that in the present conflict our wrestling is against the rulers of a world of this darkness against the spirits of wickedness in high places. "In the strength of this conviction, we Catholics in this country of the British Empire most readily pledge our complete loyalty, for it must be remembered that to us loyalty is a sacred duty and a virtue. It is something which we owe as part of the wider virtue of piety, by which we ,.ive love and service to Our Father in Heaven as the Author of our being, to our father on earth as God's appointed co-operator in the bestowal of our life and personality, and to our native land, in this sense our Fatherland, as the scene of our labours, the citadel of our rights, the source of our security and of the rich and varied social development which, under God's providence, is ours. "Without these blessings, our lives would be stunted, dwarfed, cabined, cribbed and confined.
"From the ideological standpoin, then, we are in no uncertainty. But, in addition to clearing our minds, we must purify our hearts; we must rise above the ethic of the jungle and see that hatred finds no place in our spiritual equipment. "I think it is true to say that we regard the misinformed, misdirected, misled peoples marshalled by dictatorship against us more in sorrow than in anger. Nevertheless, they must be enlightened. They must be taught a hard lesson in the interests of Christian charity and the comity of mankind. They must learn in the hard school of experience that, in the long run, aggression does not pay. Either they work for the common good of humanity or be ground to bits, even as Sparta was, by a ruthless machine of their own contrivance.
"Satan's enticement to our first parents was 'Ye shall be as gods.' History is replete with examples of ambitious rulers who have fallen under the spell of that specious promise to their own undoing. ',More important than the govern. ance of the mind or the guardianship of heart is the care of the soul. We Continued on Back Cover., . i
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