Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-08-09
CcOutinued from Las. IssueJ

I rezliLe better Inan anyone per
haps. what our poor country has suf-
fered." he wrote And no Belgian
will doubt, l hope. that my citi-
zen's and cardinals soul has been
tortured by the thought of all these
.-...>r.~ The last four months
sM 70 ca=S p@ua n Cvr.-sy-.
~ thousands our brave ones
h-ve been slaughtered: wives and
mothers weep for the absent they
win never see again; homes are
broken UP; misery is spreading and
anguish is poignant At Malines, at
Antwerp. I have known the popula-
ton of two large cities TO be sub
jected. one during six hours and the
other during thirty-four. 20 a con-
tinuous bombardment and TO have
been in the throes OF death. / have
visited the most devastated regions
of NV diocese, Duffel. Lierre. Ber-
laer. Saint Rembaur,- Konings-
Hoyckt. MortSei. Waelhem. Muysen,
re-Sainte-Catherine, Wavre-No-
tre-Dame, Sempst. Weerde. Eppe-
CHEM. Hofstade. EIewyt. Eymenam.
Boortmeerbeek. wespalaer, Haecht.
werchtsr wackerzeel. Rotselaer.
Tremeloo. Louvain and the suburb
an agglomerations (of Malines),
BIauwput. Kessel-Loo, Booven-Loo.
Linden. Herent. Thildonck. Bueken,
Reist. Aerschot, Wesemael. Hers
selst. Diest. Schaffen. Molenstede.
Rfliaer. GeIode. and what 1 saw OF
ruins and ashes exceeds anything 1
could have imagined. Certain parts
OF my diocese which / have not yet
had time to visit, /. e, HaekendoVer'
RooSbeek. Bautersem, Budingen,
Neer-Linter, Capelle- sux-Bois, Hum
beck. Blaeveld, experienced the
same ravages. Churches. Schools
asyIums. hospitals, converts. IN
considerable numbers. are almost en-
tfreIy destroyed or in ruins En-
tire villages have practically dis
aupeared. At Observation-Disclosures
for instance. out of $50 homes, lSO
remain: at Tremeloo. two-thirds or
the community has been razed; at
Bueksn, out of 100 houses, twenty
are left: at Schaeffen. village OF
zoo dwellings. 1S9 have disappeared
AZ I.ouvain. one-third of the town
has been destroyed, 1.O47 buildings
have disappeared; within the city
limits and including the suburbs OF
Kessel-Loo and Herent and Heverle,
there is a total Of 1898 houses burn
ed
In that beloved city OF Louvaln,
from which / cannot succeed IN De
tachinE my thoughts the superb COL
legiate Of ST. Peter will never recov-
er its splendor; the old college Oh
St Ives; the Institute of Fine Arts
OF the city. the commercial and con-
sular school attached to the univer-
sity: the venerable 'Halles' or mar
Eet building. our substantial libra
~ the gallery of its illustoirus
men. from the first days of its foun-
dation portraits Of the rectors,
chanceIIors and famous professors.
AZ the sight Of which masters and
students Of today became imbued
with traditional nobility OF charac-
ter and went at their work with re-
newed ardor: all. this accumulation
Of intellectual. historic and artistic
riches. the fruit OF five centuries Of
toll. everything. has been de-
stroyed-
Many parishes were deprived OF
their curate. 1 hear again the
plaintive voice OF an old man whom
/ asked il mass had been celebrated
in his dismantled church the past
Sunday.
at is two months now since we
have had a priest said he The Gu
rate and the vicar were in a concen-
tration camp at Munster, not far
from Hanover.
thousands OF Belgian citizens
have thus been deported TO German
prisons: 10 Munster. TO Celle, to
Madgeburg. Munster alone held
HfEHnrN will
tell the story OF the physical and
moral torture they endured.
thousands of innocent ones were
shot: I do not possess the sinister
uecrcfogy. but I know that at Aer-
schot ninety-one were killed. and
that there-under the menace Of
death-their fellow citizens were
compelled to dig the burial trenches.
In the aggIOmeration of Louvain and
near by communes one hundred and
seventy-six persons, men and wOm-
en-. old men and women with chill
dren at breast. rich and poor the
strong and the weak were shot down
or burned
In nv diocese alone l know that
thirteen priests were executed one
OF them, the curate Of Gelrode. fell
Undoubtedly Aahr a AAA@-A AAAe-N-~
a pilgrimage to his tomb and, sur
rounded by the flock that he had
pastured only yesterday with the
zeal OF an apostle. I asked him to
safeguard from on high his parish,
the diocese and the country.
We can neither count our dead
nor measure the extent OF our ruins.
What would il be if we undertook
10 visit the regions Of Liege, Namur.
Ahdenue. Dinsnt. Tamines, Char.eroi
and then toward Nirton and the
valley Of the Samois river, all the
provinces Of Luxembourg toward
Termonde, Dixmude and our two
flanders"
The letter was read in all the
nuIpits and within a few hours
many of the priests in the prov
irces who had read the letter had
been arrested. as well as several
priests in Brussels. among them
the Doyen of the collegiate Of Ste.