Evening star., 1938-12-06
Mass Meeting Hears
Pleas for United Action
Against Persecution

Church Leaders and
Senator Join in Urging
Moral Reormoment'
A call for unity of action among
all religious forces and freedom
loving peoples against intolerance
and persecution throughout the
world was sounded last night by
leaders in church and public life at
the fourth annual mass meeting
sponsored by the Committee on Re-
ligious Life in the Nations Capital.
The Right Rev. James E. Freeman,
Bishop of Washington; the Rev.
Edmund A. Walsh, S. j., vice presi-
dent of Georgetown University. and
Senator Edward r. Burke of Ne
braska were the principal speakers
at the meeting at Constitution Hall.
Despite the inclement weather, ap-
proXimately 1000 persons attended.
The meeting was broadcast by the
National Broadcasting Co., through
StdJlOu WMAL.
Jews, Catholics and Protestants
must make common cause against
common enemy, and strong one, "
Bishop Freeman said after describ-
ing attacks on religious institutions
in Germany and other totalitarian
states as the most violent and fan
atical the world has seen for gen.
erationS"
Warning that liberty is wounded
| everywhere when the rights of con-
science are attacked any place in
the world, Father Walsh emphasized
that Ito denounce and protest is
only half our obligation and both
will be sterile unless our faith be
manifest in good works
Burke Urges Protest.
Senator Burke refrained from
mentioning any foreign country by
name, but declared that it is "our
right and duty to voice moral protest
against the persecution of racial and
religious minorities wherever they
| occur"
The Rev. Dr. Albert Joseph Nc
Cartney, minister of the Covenant
First Presbyterian Church and
chairman of the Committee on Re-
ligious Life in the Nations Capital
explained in message of greeting
that the speakers were selected ex-
clusively from Christian groups in
the city to facilitate the opportunity
for Registering our sympathy and
support for the Jews All the three
general religious groups have been
| represented at previous annual mass
meetings sponsored by the commit
tee.
While this meeting is not called
in the spirit of protest meeting
DR.. Mccartney added, mo doubt
many of us have been moved to
attend not only because of our SYM
pathy for the Jews, but because of
profound concern for the fortunes
of religious freedom in all religious
groups - Protestant, Catholic and
jewish.
Moral Rearmament Urged.
Emphasizing that "our cherished
religious freedom cannot survive
unless it is rigidly guarded" he
declared that lit becomes the duty
Of every God-fearing American to
render not lip service, but real serv-
ice to the eternal cause of religious
freedom"
The civilized world has been
shocked and strained by a new ex-
preston of ruthlessness and barbar-
| ity that has marked the course of
great nation" Bishop Freeman
said in referring to conditions in
Germany. Lutheran pastors, Cath
olic prelates. great Jewish people,
all share alike the bitterness and
cruelty of a despot.
The freedom loving peoples of
America cannot remain silent in the
face of such barbarity.
The religious forces of the world
are faced with the most serious
situation they have known for gen.
erations past; violent and persist
ent attack is on, and it cannot be
met and resisted unless the forces
now separated are consolidated"
Declaring it was high time to
sound the alarm against the inva-
sion Of un-Christian intolerance and
religious discord,' Father Walsh as
serted Communistic and Nazi attacks
on religion were the inevitable
course of government which ar
rogates to Caesar the things that
are Gods" and said "the Catholic
church will not compromise with
either of these new Caesars"
Tyrany is a creeping paralysis, "
he said, "and hence resistance to
tyrants is not only obedience to God
but a dictate of self-preservation
against the subtle infection of alb
solution and arrogant autocracy."
Stressing the need for positive
action, Father Walsh said religion
and democracy must not only be
believed in, they must be lived in
the concrete"
Senator Burke emphasized that a
responsibility to promote the cause
of religious freedom rests upon a
democracy, and urged that there
be on this favored spot such a re-
kindling of spiritual forces as will
offer proof to the world of the
nobility of human life"
I'VE must not shirk the RESPONSE
bility for condemning evil" he said,
but our chief reliance must rest
upon opening the way for good, that