g--
Registered at the
.P.O., Perth, for/transmission by post as a newspaper.
Johnston's SAUSAGES
and FRANKFURTS
HOLY FATHER ELABORATES FIVE PEACE POINTS
Reconstruction offers Opportunity to Forces of Cood SOCIAL JUSTICE MUST BE ANIMATED BY FAITH IN A PERSONAL GOD allocution in reply to following is the full
"At the dawn of the light which rises in a hopeful and expectant joy out of the darkness of the holy night, the entire world prepares to bow the head and to go on the knees in adoration of the unspeakable mystery of the all embracing mercy of God, Who, in His infinite ove, gave the greatest gift to mankind embodied in His only Begotten Son. In this moment of sacred and joyful expectation, dear sons and daughters, Our heart turns towards you in all -embracing love: you, who are spread all over the world: and, although not forgetting our earth, soars into the realms of heaven. The star which brightly shone over the cradle of the newly -born Redeemer is still shining marvellously after twenty cen-
turies in the heaven of Christianity. "The Gentiles may rant and the Nations may plot against God and His Messiah: the star still shines through the dark clouds of mankind and will never set: as it was in the beginning, so it is now and so it ever will be. The past, the present and the future are His. The star's bright ray shines clearly down on the nations, albeit that storms rage over the world and dark clouds gather, harbingers of destruction and misery. Its light is comfort: it is hope, unshakeable faith, living certainty of the Redeemer's final triumph, which will overflow on the world like a torrent of salvation, in the inward peace and the heavenly glory of all those who, thanks to their elevation into the supernatural order of grace, have received the power of becoming children of God, because they have been born in God. "In the bitter travails of war, tormented by your torments, suffering from your pain, living like you under the heavy nightmare of an evil which is tearing humanity for the third year in succession, We, therefore, on the Eve of the Great Feast, want to address Our fatherly word to you from a heart full of emotion. We want to admonish you to remain strong in your Faith and We want to impart to you the comfort of that great and exuberant certainty and hope, which emanate from the cradle of the newly born Saviour. Indeed, beloved sons, if Our vision were confined to this
world of matter and flesh, Our eye would be unable to behold one ray of cumiort. 'the hells are ringing out the Christmas message into the world: churches and chapels are bright with light: sweet melodies arc resounding to pour joy into our hearts and the places of worship are festively decorated: yet men are tearing each other to pieces in a war of destruction. "In the hour of sacred solemni,y, the Church pronounces the wonderful message which heralds peace and the coming of its Prince. The entire world is anxious to behold His face, but the the message remains unheard in blatant contradiction of events, which in terrifying thunder take their way over valleys and mountains, destroy countries and houses in huge territories and drive millions of families into misery and death. It is true that everywhere the admirable spectacle of indomitable courage can be beheld in the defence of inherited rights and soil: the spectacle of equanimity amidst sorrow: the example of men who burn like fires of sacrifice for the triumph of truth and justice. Yet We feel deeply moved while We think of
the terrible encounters in arms and We behold them in Our mind as they are happening as this years draws to its close: when We think of the terrible fate of the wounded and prisoners, of the mental and physical pain, death and destruction which the air warfare has inflicted upon cities, populations and industrial centres, when We think of the wealth of nations thrown away and all those millions of men, whom war and brutal force have driven into despair. "Religious Anaemia" "The strength and health of the growing youth are threatened by the want created through the war. The steadily increasing war expenses entail a curtailment of the social welfare work that is being carried out by the nations. It justifies sinister fears for a near future Preponderance of might over right, the easy opportunity for individual or collective impingement on the property and life of others, as well as all the other moral devastation, are creating a mental atmosphere in which the conceptions of good and fire, while
The shop for Better Value. Our Any goods Prices lowest in Perth. sent to country not satisfactory we pay
freirat.
NICHOLSON'S PIANOS FOR THE MODERN HOME Select your piano from the most compre-
hensive range in the Southern
Hemisphere
.
evil, of right and wrong, are losing their clear-cut issues and are in danger of being completely obliterated. "He who, as a priest, has opportunity of looking into hearts, is well aware what a mountain -like burden of pain and sorrow is heaped upon souls in many ways: he sees how working capacity and joy of living suffer: he beholds the stifling of the spirit by which men are turning silent, indifferent and suspicious: practically hopeless in the face of the events and of
ever growing misery. These disturbances of the mental poise can leave nobody indifferent who cares for the welfare of the nations and for a speedy return to ordered life, who sees the present time in its intrinsic features: anybody aware of all these circumstances can only be the more sorrowful as no way of an understanding can as yet be discerned between the belligerents, and the war aims of either side are opposing each other without hope of reconciliation. "When we investigate the reasons of that collapse with which mankind is hopelessly confronted nowadays, we sometimes hear the contention that Christianity has failed. Where have we to look for the origin and source of this accusation? Is it among those glorious apostles of Christ, among the heroic fighters for truth and justice, among those many shepherds and priests of Christianity who, with their own blood, sealed their life's task to awake barbarous tribes to Christianity and civilisation, who taught savages to kneel down in front of the Cross of Christ, who laid the foundation of Christian civilisation and rescued the remnants of Roman and Greek scholarship, who united the nations in the name of Christ, who spread science and virtue, who crowned beautiful cathedrals with the Cross-those very cathedrals which still stand as symbols of faith, which still raise their lofty and venerated steeples in the midst of the ruins of Europe? Is it they who make No, Christianity that accusation? that arises from Him Who is the Way, the Truth and the Light, and Who is with us and shall remain with us to the consummation of the world, has not failed in its mission. "But men have rebelled against Christianity which is true and faithful to Christ, and against its doctrines. In its place they have fashioned a Chris-
tianity to their liking: a new ideal which is not sane, which is not opposed to the passions of envy and desire, nor to the greed for gold and silver which fascinates the eye, nor to the pride of life. A new religion without a soul or a soul without religion. A mass of dead Christianity without the Spirit of
Christ! And they have proclaimed that Christianity has failed in its mis,ion. "Let us look deeply into the conscience of modern society. Let us seek out the root of the evil. On the other hand, of course, we do not wish to withhold the praise due to the wisdom of those rulers, who either favoured or desired and were capable of restoring to their place of honour, to the advantage of their people, the values of Christian civilisation, by amicable relations between Church and State, by safeguarding the sanctity of marriage, and by the religious education of youth. However, we cannot close our eyes in the face of an increasing deChristianisation which has come from the decay of morals and afterwards spread to a full negation of the truths and forces which are meant to illuminate and clarify the conceptions of good and evil, and to strengthen family and private, political and public life. "This religious anaemia can be compared with a contagious disease, and has infected many nations in Europe and in the world. It has created a moral vacuum, which no artificial substitute of religion, no national and no international myth are able to fill. For decades and centuries, men knew no better-or rather no worse-than to undermine in word and deed faith in God, the Creator and Father of all, the rewarder of good, and the punisher of evil, and to tear their faith out of men's hearts from their childhood to their old age. By misrepresenting religious education and upbringing, by suppressing the religion and Church of Jesus Christ in all conceivable ways, by oral and printed propaganda, and by misuse of science and political authority, this war against Christianity has constantly been waged. "In the moral vacuum which thus ensued, in this atmosphere of alienation from God and de-Christianisation, the thinking and planning, judgment and actions of men were bound to become materialistic and one-sided, to (Continued on Page 15.)
Our motto is: "We have it; we will get it, or it cannot be had."