Evening star., 1937-03-22

NJ nj. lIle prosecutions
to which the
church has been subjected.
But it is also a document inspired
by true and understanding benevolence
toward the German people. The &C
cents of the holy father reveal the
sorrow of one who, placed at the head
Of the chul ch, sees his beloved chill
dren reduced to a condition of living
which grows constantly more difficult;
it is the word of a father who ad-
monisheS and comforts and because
1t is necessary, protests, but who is
moved by sentiment, charity and
compassion, even toward those who
offend and persecute.
Every Word Weighed.
The holy father declared: 1--WE have
weighed every word of this encyclical
in the balance of truth and love"
The concordat:
In the introduction of his encycli-
cal letter the Holy Father treats at
length with the concordat which the
Reich concluded with the Holy See
and in which it assumed the obliga-
tlonS which, unfortunately in a large
part, have not been fulfilled
When in the Summer of 1888, at
the request of the government of the
Reich, we agreed to resume negotia-
tlonS for a concordat on the basis of
the project elaborated some years
earlier and thus reached a solemn
accord which succeeded in satisfying
you all, we were moved by duty and
Of Solicitude to safeguard the free
dom of the church's mission of saliva
ton in Germany and to assure the
welfare Of souls entrusted to it and
at the same time we were, by a sincere
desire, rendering service of capital
interest to the pacific development
and well-being of the German people,
In spite of many and grave mis-
glVlngS, we came then, though not
without effort, to a determination not
to deny our consent. We wished to
spare our faithful and our sons and
daughters of Germany in so far as it
was humanity possible the trials and
trlbulatlonS which otherwise they
would have had to expect in view
OF the conditions of the tie.
I'VE desired to demonstrate, indeed.
to all that we were seeking only
Christ and things that belong to
Christ and do not refuse to extend
to any one, if he himself does not
spurn it, the peaceable hand of the
mother church
IL the tree Of peace, planted with
pure intent in German soil by us,
has not borne the fruit which We
desired in the interests of your peo-
pie, there will be no one in the whole
world with eyes to see and ears to
hear who can say today that the
fault is with the church or with its
supreme head"
The Holy Father, recalling what he
had done for the observance of pacts
freely entered into, adds:
I'VE have done everything to de-
fend the sanctity of the solemnly
plighted word and the inviolability of
obligations voluntarily contracted
against the theories and practices
which, if officially admitted, would
have destroyed all confidence and
rendered intrinsically valueless every
pledged assurance for the future.
IF the time ever comes to expose
to the eyes of the world these efforts
which we have made, all right thinking
men will know where to seek the
guardians of peace and where Ito SEEK
its diSturberS.
"Whosoever has preserved in his
soul vestige of love for truth and
in his heart even a shadow of a sense
of justice will have to admit that in
the difficult years so charged with in
cident which followed the concordat,
each one of our words and each of our
actions had as its norm fidelity to
sanctioned accords.
But he will have to recognize also
with amaZement and inward repul-
sion how, from the other side, there
arose as an ordinary rule, distortion
of facts. their evasion, their voiding
and finally their more or less open
violation"
Confronted with this state of af-
fairs which is constantly getting worse,
his holiness has not found it possible
to remain silent.
Even today when the open fight
against confessional schools protected
by the concordat and suppression of
liberty of choice for those who have a
right to Catholic education reveal, in
field particularly vital to the church,
the tragic seriousness of the situation
and a condition of spiritual oppression
such as never before has been wit
messed, paternal solicitude for the
good of souls counsels us not to leave
out of consideration any prospect
however slight, of a return to the
. fidelity of contracts and to an under
standing such as our conscience will
permit"
The Holy Father, therefore, does not