The copper era and Morenci leader., 1915-09-17
CARDINAL : GIBBONS
 ON. EUROPEAN =. ' WAR :.


 The following is an address from Cardinal Gibbons to the American people on the subject of the great war now going on in Europe:
 The war in Europe, with it's daily toll ot death and suffering has raised the question in the minds of humanity | of why, if there is an all-just, all merciful God, He permits such a con tinuous catastrophe. It has also ere ated doubt in the minds of many as to the efficiency of Christianity and grave wonder as to how Christianity | will be considered and affected after the war is over.
 These are legitimate problems. The crux of Christ's teaching was peace. If the bloodiest, crue1est war in the history of the world can occur in Christian Europe after so many cen turies of Christianity, does it follow that European Christianity is only a futile philosophy which must inevit- ably break when mans passions are opposed to it? And if Christianity has been unable to save the world l from such a war, how can mankind again turn to it for consolation and l strength after the war is over?
 These questions the venerable prel- ate of the church, James Cardinal Gibbons, meets and answers in the following remarkable interview given on the fifty-fourth anniversary of his ordination, to Dr. Leonard K. Hirsh berg of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore:
 | I should quite have forgotten that it was my S4th anniversary had it not been brought home to me by my friends, the people, who are kind enough not to forget nor to fail to celebrate these occasions. 1 thank them for their great interest in me, and through you will gladly send them forth a message in these times of trial for militant and neutral.
 Tell them that on this day, notwith- standing my great age and my full life, I find myself in good health, for which I thank God. For my own part shall spend the time very quietly in the country with my friends, as is my custom, holding a mass of tl1anksgiv- ing at some small chapel. Last year, on this anniversary, I worshipped in Europe, where I had been called to visit Rome to help elect Pope Bene- dict.
 Who but God could have expected at that time the worldwide conflagra- tion which today has so stirred the souls of men?
 Yet the Greater moves in a myster- ious way His wonders to perform, and ultimate good mHst surely come from this as it has come from other con- , flicts of the spirit. Yet the far-reacning effect of the war on Christianity and the morals of mankind is almost question. too stu pendous to discuss. It often happens it usual ly happens-that these world-shatter- ing conflicts and calamities only serve to draw mankind close to God. It is hard at this time, when nearly the whole of the civilized world is plung- ed into sorrow, when war and desola, tion stalk broadcast over Europe then it is hard, I say, to get away from the immediate sadness and seemingly ever present grief, and be- lieve that good will come of it. But looking back at previous strug ! gles, it can be seen that, at their con : cIusion, the effect has been not to weaken and lower mankind, but out of the ruins of the havoc man has returned to the promotion forward movement of the civilization with re newed zeal. The fact that in the midst of tribulation and affliction the human creature instinctively turns to God gives me hope in this present war. Just as, after former wars, men have come nearer to God, so I hape that the outcome of this strife will prove only good, and that hcmanity will gain greater clemency and a keener insight into the all wisdom of God.
 What the practical effect of this war will be on Christianity it is i'm. possible to say, but I hope, I say that out of it all we shall come closer to God and be more what He would have us be.
 War in itself is often a great evil There is, however, by the very nature of an evil, some good in it. You can have a perfect good, but no complete evil.
 The moral forces in the world, reli- zion and the glorification of the Su preme Being, are usually aided by such an unfortunate, though by no means necessary, clash of arms. Gathering clouds are never pleas ant. You, as a rule, pray for clear skies and sunny weather But lower ing skies, like lowering foreheads nav pivp either less security Or a false kind of security, whereas the storm which breaks and does some material d damage, may leave the spiritual at mosphere all the clearer.
 So it is with this horrible and de