The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-24
TDEMAND PROBE OF'POPE CONSIDERS
 EXPENDITURES BYCALLING GENERAL. u. $. RAILROADS CHURCH COUNCIL
Vatican Expresses Regret at Strife in World --Deplores Loosening of So-
 cial Ties
By AssocIatnl1 Press

ROME. Dec. 23.-Pope Plus is con sidering the possibility of calling an ecumenical council in Rome during 1925, the next jubilee year of the
 Roman Catholic church. it was an- nounced in the Papal eneyc1ical, is- sued today.
 "A general meeting of the whole episcopaey in this center of Catholi- cism," says the Encyclical, would be most suitable to the jubilee year, whence immense advantage might come to the cause of peace after so long and so profound an upheava1. But the reassembling of the ecumeni- cal council at the Vatican would be such grave event that it Is neces-
 sary to wait and pray as did the pious leader of Gods elect people
 until God gives clearer sign of his wishes"
 Regrets Strife
 The eneyclieal begins by express sions of regret for the strife and vio- fence which until recently have rent
 Italy, the pontiff's own country and the seat of the chair of St Peter This situation, continues the docu-
 ment. seemed to threaten the very l life of the country despite the ef-
 forts of the Vatican to abate it. But in contrast with these deprecated
 events were some happy ones, such
 as the meeting in Rome of the Twen-
 ty-Sfxth International Eucharistic
 Congress, when the pontiff recalls that he was able to meet nearly all
 the members of the Sacred college, | together with hundreds of bishops | from all parts of the world.
 l To enumerate the evils of the pres- ent, the pope says that mankind, the
 social classes and the various peoples
 have not attained true peace after
 the terrors of war. He alludes to
 the public life of the people as still | and mutual differences and offenses | Loosening Social Ties 1 Another most deplorable evil is de-
 clared to be the loosening of social
 ties, chiefly through the class struggles which have become the plague of society. of which they at-
 tack all the vital forces. namely
 work, industry. art, commerce and
 agriculture. all of which contribute
 to the public and private welfare and
 prosperity. The struggles appear to l pC AOAtNci DclnS hin fluenced on the one side by the in- ! satiable avidity of obtaining, and on
 the other by the tenacious selfish
 ness of keeping, material things" Enumerating the causes of the present evils, the pontiff says their chief organ was in the right to do violence which reigned among men
 almost annihilating sentiments of
 mercy, charity and compassion while the fictitious peace written on
 paper has not yet reawakened those noble sentiments, has indeed embit- tered and almost legitimatized the
 ppositeNsentiments of rancor and re-
 venge, making men lose the sense of
 personal dignity and of the value of
 human life, owing to the prevalence
 of brutal force and of overwhelming numbers
 | Love of country incites to many virtues and even to admirable hero
 sms when it Is guided by Christmas
 law, but 1t incites to grave injus- tices when 1t becomes unchecked na- tionalism, when it forgets that all peoples are brothers in the great | family of humanity; that other na- | tions have the right to live and pros- per and that it is never either wise or ] just to separate what Is honest from | what Is useful"
 The encyclica1 denounces atheism as the deepest cause of the evils af- flicting the world. as it separates
 men from Christ, who said: Without
 me. Ye can do nothing"