The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-10
ACCEPTANCE OF CATHOLIC
FAITH WOULD END WORLD
WAR, SAYS THIS CONVERT

| rs the European war a just war?
| The Church has no answer. The
right answer belongs to the State
The justice of her resort to arms the
State herself must determine. The
| church will not be tempted. 1t was
the enemies of Christ, who asked
Shall We pay tribute to Caesar p
| tempting Him. Just so does the en-
envy question the church today. And
| the same answer is given that her
| Divine Founder gave nearly twenty
! centuries ago: Render to Caesar the
| things that are Caesars, and to God
| the things that are Gods Then, one
| thing that belongs to Caesar is obed-
fence to the call of the state, for 10y
atty to our own coIors is not alone a
| civil claim upon US, it is the law OF
the Catholic Church.
1T is the irony of fate that, though
/ the enemy processes to see in the
man who gives allegiance to the Pope
of Rome a traitor to his country, the
! Catholic. Church teaches the highest
| possible order of patriotism. While
! the self-styled Guardians of Liberty
| froth at the mouth when manufacture
| ing facts that are not so, the real
facts tell the tale that Catholics are
| to be found amongst the bravest of
the brave in all the armies of Chris
! tendon.
Besides, it is most interesting to
| note that those who have cried the
|
Englishman, Frenchman, German, or
American and pay tribute to the
Pope, because ONE interferes with
| matters of State, are now insistently
asking why the Pope does not inter-
fere with matters of State and stop
the war. The strict neutrality of the
Holy Father throws back the insult
that the church is a political ma
chine And the patriotism of Catho-
les should for all time silence their
tra ducers, for while they are obedient
to the Pope, in matters of faith and
M oraJs, Catholics are Loyalty and he
roical1y giving up their lives at the
hest of the several countries at war.
But to expect the enemy to cease
Questioning our patriotism is too
much, for so long as men follow the
counse1s of i'll will, SO long must
Catholics expect to be rna1igned. In
answer to those who questioned his
patriotism, upon his elevation to the
exalted position of a Prince of the
Church, our own great Cardinal o.
Cornell said: Since when was a man
not permitted to love both his father
and mother? since when was IL man
not permitted to obey his God and
his country?'
''The Catholic Church holds the
key to a World Peace today! Just as
she brings peace to the soul of the re-
pentant sinner, just as she reconciles
the differences between man and wife
so has she settled disputes between
King and King, nation and nation. Tt
was Boniface VII. who established
peace between France and England
the differences between Spain and
Portugal over their new found Wes-
tern lands. 1t was Clement VII. who
settled the differences between Rus
STA and Poland over Lithuanta. II
was Gregory XIII. who ended the
war between Bathory of Poland and
Ivan the Terrible 1t was our own
Great Leo XIII. who adjusted the
quarrel between Hayti and San Do
mingo. While, as late as 1885, when
Bismarck submitted the German con-
troversy with Spain over the Caro-
line islands to the Vatican, an agree
rnent was formulated which estab-
lished peace and prevented war Az,
but. yesterday, our Holy Father Pope
Benedict XIV. was selected as arOi-
traitor of the difficulty existing be-
tween Peru and Bolivia.
eft is most significant that those
powers who have SO long ignored
Rome are now sending ENJOYS to her
Court and who shall say that if Eng
land, Russia France, Turkey, Germ
any and all the other nations now
engaged in war, had, before the war,
sent their ENJOYS to the Vatican, that
the great European slaughter now
going on might not have been avert
ed? Even though Rome, by the re-
beIlion of once loyal nations, is linn
tied in the exercise of her Divine pow
er, yet she has done more than all the
other powers put together to bring
relief to those thousands of wounded
soldiers of all creeds and no creed,
who were languishing in foreign
lands. It is the good offices of our
Holy Father that are bringing back
the wounded soldiers to the firesides
in their native lands which they
love and long for. Let us hope and
pray that the day is not far distant
when Rome shall again be recognized
as the great PapaI Court of Arbitra-
ton and so avert in the future the
awful slaughter that the world is a
witness of today. Ay! it is Rome alone
that will ever bring about the under
standing necessary to an enduring
peace of nations. For the Brother
hood of Man divorced from the Faith
erhood of God is a. mere mock.
seWhat a rebuke this war of many
nations is to the pride and conceit
which set up The Hague as the pur-
veyor of international peace! 1t is
Hamlet with Hamlet left out. There
it stands, a magnificent bui1ding-the
Peace Palace at The Hague-to mock
its founders. The money did not
come by multiplying the bits donated
by the poor-no, the money was roll
ed up mountains high by manipulate |
ing the tariff schedules and by grind
ing the face of the poor. The Peace
Palace is now silent. 1t was so filled |
with emptiness that there was no |
room for the Vicar of Christ. 1t med |
itated vain things, and verify it re- !
ceived it's reward. It's reward was not !
peace but the pIauditS of those who |