The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-03-27
MAETERLlNCk: A MODERN
PAGAN.

"TO this Unknown Shore" Of ours
NJ. Maeterlinck comes with mess
age to tell us that the soul of man
lives on after death, and can re-eStab-
liSh communion with embodied souls
in this world, says Il writer in the
Pilot AS he is booked to lecture in
Boston after he has delivered his
message in New York those who
pride themselves with keeping au
courant with the times, are busily en-
gagged in studying the works of this
self-styled Belgian mystic"
The warmth of welcome accorded
to Maeterlinck is due in great meas
ure to his play, The Blue Bird" But
he has been known to the world in
the past more as an essayist than as
a playwright. The nebulous and
elusive charm with which he wells his
obscure utterances has made him d
favorite with the so-called Initiate"
who mistake his vague transcend
entalism for genuine intellectual pro
foundity
The mention of the name of Maeter
minds of well-read Catholics the de-
cree of the Congregation of the Index
which reads as follows: Maurice
Maeterinck: All his works. Where
fore let no one of whatever grade or
condition presume to publish in any
place or idiom, or to read or to keep
when already published the aforesaid
condemned and prescribed works"
Behind the poetic mysticism Of
Maeterlinck the thinking reader can
detect the scorner, the scoffer, and
the agnostic. The Blue Bird is full
of false philosophy and heretical teach
ing: Sister Beatrice represents
the Blessed Virgin condoning sin; the
"SightleSs" is an attack on the
Church; "Pelleas and Melisande'
strikes at all Christian belief: and
Our Eternity is a denial of the souls
immortality For good and sufficient
reasons the Church warned her chill
dren against the poison lurking in
Maeterlinck's works.
If further reason be needed to in
duce Catholics to beware of this Oc-
cultist who claims to have discovered
the secret of the universe. it will be
found in an examination of his So
called philosophy. He is victim CT
the failure of science to satisfy the
moral craving of the soul. There are
moral and spiritual facts in life that
science cannot explain. Therefore he
prOpoundS an answer of his own. He
brushes aside Christianity altogether.
He bases his teachings upon the
gratuitous assumption that Christianity
is a discredited system. He advances
no arguments to prove his premise
that religion has failed. but advances
with appalling cocksurenesS his own
solution of the riddle of the universe.
This he finds in the Unconscious.
In his Treasure of the Humble
he attempts to show that beneath all
human thoughts, passions, and actions
lies a vast ocean of the Unconscious,
through some mysterious occult
power which is manifested by such
modern phenomena as magnetism,
tclepathy, deviation, and spiritism.
When NJ. Maeterlinck respects Chris
tan tradition and Christian teaching
he rejects Christian morality. He re-
iects the Christian idea of God and
without God there can be no moral
sanction. His followers would shrink
from admitting the moral depths into
which the relentless logic of their po-
sition forces them, yet once they ad'
nit Materlinck's philosophy of life
they must accept his moral standard