The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-04-14
BISHOP CARROLL, OF MONTANA,
SAYS EUROPEAN STATESMEN
BEGINNING TO RECOGNIZE POM
TIFF'S POWER.

1
| christianity and the War;" was the
| title of powerful sermon of unusual
current interest delivered recently in
| the new Seattle Cathedral by the RI
Rev. John p. Carroll, d. d., Bishop OF
Helena, Mont. Bishop Carroll with
forceful and convincing logic pointed
to the need of the Pope's moral in
| tluence as a means of establishing a
permanent peace, and preventing such
wars as the one now devastating Eu-
| rope. Because nations had failed to
| recognize the position of the Holy Fa-
Their, Bishop Carroll said, the present
conflict had developed.
Bishop Carroll said in part:
eff God did not prevent the present
war, He must have permitted it, But
what reasons could He have to justify
His permission of so terrible calam-
ity? Two excellent ones. The first
reason is to punish the nations. I'm
like individuals, nations have no eter-
nifty. Their good or evil deeds are re-
warded or punished in time. The ma
tons of modern Europe have sinned
and sinned grievously, and deserve to
| be punished God could have punish
ed them Himself directly by earth
quakes, pestilence or famine. I will
visit their iniquities with a rod and
| their sins with stripes Cps. rs: $50
said He by the voice of the psalmist.
But in His wisdom He permitted the
punishment to correspond to the sin.
| The nations repudiated or ignored
Him, and put all their trust in their
own strength and wisdom-in gold
and silver, in chariots and horses in
guns and battleships, in science and
the secret forces OF nature.
He permitted them to turn all these
weapons against one another. Their
wealth, accumulated by the toll Of gen
erations, is being poured out like wa
| ter. The mechanical inventions and
| scientific discoveries, which were
hailed as the heraldS of golden age
of peace and civilization, have only
made the butchery more swift and hOr-
riblc. The ornaments, whose deadly
PROJECTIONS it was said would make
war so terrible as to render it I'M
! thinkable, are filling earth and sea and
| sky with the dread reality Truly hath
| the prophecy been fulfilled: He will
| arm the creature for the revenge OF
His enemies (Wisdom 5: 49,. He will
| sharpen His severe wrath for a spear
and the whole world will fight with
| Him against the unwise' (Wisdom
5: 2D. Each side was determined to
crush the other. The end, whatever it
will be, will mean for all sides deStruC-
ton hitherto unknown in the annals of
war. But God permits this war, not
merely to punish the nations, but to
make the triumph of Christianity more
| glorious. Nor would the Omnipotent
God says st. Augustine, Who has SUI
| preme power over all things and is in
| His works, if He were not SO great anc
| good that He can draw good out Of
| evil. IS x For He even judged it tC
be a better thing to draw good out Of
evil than to permit no evil to exist.
Thus the blood of martyrs was the
crime ever committed in history, the
crucifXion of the Son of God, was the
occasion of the redemption of the
world. Will God draw good out Of
this war? Already we see signs of 6
great moral awakening. In the bellig
| wi ln Of ;v;n
are crowded by millions who hat
grown careless and Indifferent, or ha(
lost faith in God and His providence
Ministers of religion, who had beer
condemned by iniquities to take par
in the horrible butchery of their fel
low men, are carrying on their apostle
late on the battlefield, in the trenches
in the hospitals, and winning countless
souls to God. Consecrated nuns anC
Christian women of the world are
nursing the wounds and holding to the
lips of the dying the image of the Cru
Gifted Who shed His blood for them
The charity of Christ has stirred The
hearts Of men as it never did before
and the wealth of the world, like the
good Samaritan, is pouring oil anC
wine into the wounds of body and mint
made by the awful conflict The spon
taneOusness with which the people o
the whole world have turned to Coo
in prayer is confession of the weak
ness of human means to save MAJ
from his own folly, and of the depend
ence of man on God, and of his respon
sibility to Gods law.
MateriaIism Useless.
"The governments, too, are begin
ming to realize that unless this war is
to be carried on until all it's partici
pants are eXterminated, they must pu
away from them, in the consideration
of the terms of peace, the purely ma
terialistic ideas which have hitherto
regulated their relations with one an
other. They appreciate now more
than ever the proof of the predictions
made in 1899 by Waldeck Rousseau
prime minister of France, regarding
the peace conference of The Hague
and the necessity of a moral sanction
Your international conventions are
going to have exactly the same value
as my arbitration in labor difficulties
The labor syndicates accept the claus
l. I'll