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PERTH, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1913.
NO. 3,070.
SEVENTIETH YEAR.
Every day in the Catholic Church has been a national day of prayer . .
emphatic Protests Against
iurr
(-)F
Days of Prayer Should Not be Made to Serve the A message during the week announced that the Anglican Bishop of Adelaide, Dr. B. P. Robin, preaching on Sunday last (proclaimed a day of prayer by the Prime Minister), said that he must apologise for prefacing his sermon with what he considered to be an improper use of a pulpit dedicated to the preaching of the Christian
Gospel,
"Over a year ago," he said, "I was asked for permission for the use of this pulpit to appeal for recruits for the fighting forces. I refused on the szround that this would be an improper use of a Christian pulpit and an exercise of undue influence. I should And if I would refuse again to -day. not use this pulpit for such an appeal for men I refuse to use it on the same grounds for such an appeal for money. 1 am opposed, as many others are, to sudden appeals to the Christian churches-and there have been more than one of late-for what are called 'days of prayer' whether by Prime Ministers or others in moments of difficulty or fright. "For the Church of God every day of the 365 in the year is a day of prayer and a day of prayer about the war. To hear a sudden appeal for a day of prayer means only that she is asked to do what she is already steadily and faithfully doing every day and that a number of people whose faith is too dim or whose energy too small to do their duty normally will come and do it ineffectively under the unworthy spur of fear." A similar note was struck by Father Lalor, preaching at the 11 o'clock Mass in St. Mary's.
His sermon was broad-
cast over the National Stations. Father Lalor said:The Prime Minister has directed that to-day be set aside as yet another day of prayer-to be associated this time with the need of national sacrifice for liberty. There is, of curse, a lag in the Third Liberty Loan! Now there is, too, just a tendency in all this business for "the churches," as they are called, to be considered as a kind of religious department of the Civil Service-that ever-growing and One rings a almighty bureaucracy. bell, issues another office memo, and "the churches" go into action!
For Value and Service
WAR LOANS
PURPOSES OF
Tendency to Regard the Churches as Departments of the Civil Service There is an inclination also among many of our economic and educational specialists and "experts,- and among certain political elements, to dictate to the Church her position in public affairs and in the life of the nation. And apropos of last Friday's report of the irresponsible ravings of a Professor of the Sydney University .he subject of religious edu ation in our schools, I might add that the sooner all these parties come to their senses the better-for both Church and State.
mind us, too, that tanks and planes and shells are not the only factors to be reckoned with in this hour of destiny. In more than one sense this young nation stands at the cross. r,,ads, hesitant as to the path she should choose. It must be obvious to Not that Catholics are not doing their all that in the universal turmoil of the in moment a new Australia is being born. share, and more than their share, 1Vhether it will be what all men hope Not that the the nation's war effort. Church is unconcerned about the so- for depends on so many things. This much at least is certain-the rights of cial stability and welfare of Australia God and of His Church must be acflow and in the post-war years of reknowledged, the principles and teachings of Christianity must be accepted, and a truly Christian nation must emerge from the social revolution or evolution that we are witnessing today. Nevertheless, the fact that we turn to God at all, is evidence that religion is a fundamental thing in human nature, that underneath all else men construction. For all these things are realise they are not sufficient unto the deep concern of the Church. Rather it is precisely because of this themselves, and that ultimately in the concern for the welfare of the nation testing hour all the paganism and mathat she insists on the recognition of terialism in which our civilisation is Christian principles in all matters of steeped has failed, as yet, to bring morality-from the conduct of indus- about a complete and permanent apostrial disputes to the granting of di- tasy on the part of the masses. And that will bring its own reward. The vorce; from the irreligious education Allies, as such, have publicly acknowof the rising generation to her own absolute freedom of speech and action ledged God and the right of the individual to freedom of religion. That divine mission. of her in the fulfilment It is because of her deep concern for too will bring its own reward. And. finally, we Catholics, since the day the future of Australia that she marks the rarity with which the name of that the war began, have prayed in the Mass each morning for Gods guidance and statesmen by our is invoked God political leaders in public pronounce- and blessing; every day in the Catholic ments. One must presume they are Church has been a national day of prayer, and we have offered the Son but the product of their time. It is because the Catholic Church of God on our altars to His Eternal has ever been uncompromisingly realist Father for our country and our peothat she is so fearless in condemning ple-and that prayer above all else the abuses that abound in our public will bring its own reward, now and in Realism should re- the years ahead. Amen. and private life.
and hence her defence of the barbarously persecuted Jews of Nazi -dominated Europe. Not that this insistence suggests for a moment that the Church does not pledge her full support of the Government in the prosecution of the war. of all creeds
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FATHER LALOR'S OUTSPOKEN REMARKS .
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In the circumstances we might reiterate that the rights and prerogatives of the Church are sacred and inviolable. She never has, and never will, submit to dictation from political or educational authorities in those things that appertain to the spheres of morality and religion. And these rights and prerogatives of the Church must be respected, even as She herself re"Renspects the rights of the State. der unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." She insists, moreover. not only on her own sovereign rights in these matters, but also upon the equally sacred and inviolable rights of the family, and of the individual-Catholic and non-Catholic. For the Catholic Church looks to the good of the whole community; She defends the rights of all men, men of all classes, and even men
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Guilloyle's Hotel Austra a Registered at the G.P.O.. Perth. tur transmission by post sq a newspaper.
Murray St., Perth Est. 45 years