Consult
"Taste
Elliott & Elliott
Tells"
Opticians FOR
Johnston's
Your
Eyes !
SAUSAGES
and
Piccadilly Arcade, Perth
FRANKFURTS
Tel. B7988 PERTH, THURSDAY, JUNE 3, i943
NO. 3,075.
PRICE THREEPENCE.
SEVENTIETH YEAR.
Can mutual understanding and respect be established among a diversity of creeds Fellowship is Possible Only if Each Gives the Maximum of Fidelity to His Beliefs No Co-operation by Subjecting Convictions to a Common Index of Doubt
--How the Authority of the Church Guarantees Catholics Maximum Liberty
.
visible body, made up both of just men and of sinners, but specially assisted by the Spirit of God in its mission of truth and salvation.
Thus authority plays a most imBut apart portant part for Catholics.
from the dogmas and their connected truths and apart from the discipline . of salvation, freedom plays a big part . . also, and the diversity of opinion in human affairs is far greater in the Caevident creeds-an of religious The question as to whether the diversity tholic Church than is generally realised by those not in it. I know that and painful historical fact-is an insurmountable obstacle to human cothe teachings of the Catholic Church operation, is examined by M. Jacques Maritain, leader of French thought can deal with every matter connected is which States, (now an exile in America in an address given in the United with faith, but in being internally mindful of this teaching, I can still here reported. disagree most sharply with other Catholics about political or social matto rejoice will think, should to like be adequately cannot Such a topic ters. Democracy, trade unionism, the treated from without; that is to say, learn that the Pope prays to Almighty late war in Spain, the Second World from a merely psychological or socio- God for them also and wishes them War, as well as philosophical or hisJACQUES MARITAIN. every possible good." It was a solWe must try logical point of view. torical questions are included here. It to treat it from within, that is to say, emn occasion when the Pope called "I can still disagree most sharply with is only to the purity and integrity of view. upon all men of good will to an ator social from the religious point of about political other Catholics the word of God that the faithful are Nothing in history, indeed, goes to tempt, a deliberate one, to bring closer matters." bound as such. show that religious feeling or religious together the believers of the various the The teaching authority of ideas have been particularly success- religious families. This was something No doubt the at- and therefore valid and efficacious, if Church intends of itself only to safeReligious dif- relatively new. ful in pacifying men. just this of truth, guard living deposit ferences seem rather to have fed and tempt is partly due to the imminent it is free from all ulterior motives of sharpened the conflicts. And yet if it dangers, to the terrible spiritual evils a temporal nature and from even the as the disciplinary authority of the threatening us: open atheism publicly slightest shadow of a tendency to sub- Church has no other object than to is true that human society must bring ordinate religion to the defence of any enable the faithful to live by that together in the service of the same ter- warring against God, or pseudo -atheism restrial common good men belonging seeking to turn the living God into earthly interest or acquired advantage. truth. It is to the First Truth in perState for the Fundamental notions such as that of son, speaking to my heart, that I adto different spiritual families, how can some protecting genius of the statements of the peace of the temporal society be or some demon of the Race. If this the absolute oneness of God have not here by means the revelation to all. lastingly assured if first in the domain is so, we must admit that it is a stern the same meaning for a Jew as for a dogma that bring and by my Catholic Christian: nor has the notion of the As a Catholic that matters most to the human being lesson for believers. Let me say immediately that this divine transcendence and incommunica- Faith, I am bound in conscience to no -in the spiritual and religious domain theological or philosophical itself-relationships of mutual respect attempt to bring men closer together bility the same meaning for a Christiana human, opinion, however well-founded it may and mutual understanding cannot be may easily be misunderstood. I as for a Moslem: nor the notions of should therefore begin by clearing the person, of freedom, grace, revelation, be, and still less to any judgments on established? contingent or worldly matters, or to. I prefer the word "fellowship" to ground of any possible sources of mis- incarnation, of nature and theforsuperthe any temporal power. Nor am I bound "tolerance," for it connotes something understanding. Such a rapprochement natural, the same meaning the to any particular form of culture or positive-positive and elementary-in obviously cannot be effected at the Orient as for the Occident. isAnd not the civilisation, and still less of race or human relationships. It conjures up cost even of straining fidelity, or of "non-violence" of the. Indian blood. I am bound uniquely to what truth. "charity." same as Christian the image of travelling companions, any lessening of what is due to It is well known that, according to is universality itself and super-univerwho meet here below by chance and Nor is there any question whatever to the Divine, to the words and journey through life-however funda- either of agreeing upon I know not the Catholic Faith, God, after having sality precepts of Him Who said, "I am the mental their differences may be-good what common minimum of truth or of spoken in various and imperfect ways I who speak to you." This in and Truth once spoke a through the prophets, hurnouredly, in cordial solidarity and subjecting each one's convictions to outlook aphuman agreement. I should like to common index of doubt. On the con- for all, in a perfect and final manner, brief is how the Catholic took pears to me. quote in this connection the words pro- trary, such a coming together is only through His own Word, Who truth, of revealed Explicit faith in flesh in the womb of the virgin nounced by Pope Pius XII at his coro- conceivable if we assume that each nation: "Our thoughts go out also in gives the maximum of fidelity to the Israel in order to die for mankind. The therefore, is the first ofduty of everyone through this solemn moment to all those who light that is shown to him. Further- deposit of this revelation of the Word who is not incapable hearing (Continued on Page 4.) more, it obviously can only be pure, of God was confided to a living and a are outside the Church and who, we
For Value and Service
Guilfoyle's Hotel Australia Registered at the G.P.O., Perth, for transmission by post as a newspaper.
:::;4:5;vt,h:1