The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-03-16
Communism Attacked
 By Father Donnelly
Local Priest Reviews History of Atheist Movement in
 Weekly Sermon Christianity to Meet Challenge
1t on it as spit on all religions" |"
 Written in Blood

1ue ulStOTy OI IIlcSS yedIS lS WTIt~ ten in blood of noble men and wo- men-martyrs and confessors of the common faith of Christendon. Their crime was that they believed in God, taught his doctrines and the moral law. Confronted by an atheistic government they refused to betray the obligations of their office.
 Tn 1936 Russia drew up new Constitution. Our foreign corres- pondents in their censored dis patches hailed what they called the ''new favorable attitude of the gov- ernment toward religion" Thinking men in America regarded it as win dow dressing" for the democratic nations of the world. Article 124 of &he Constitution states; Freedom of worship and freedom of anti religious propaganda are recognized for all citizens" Note well the dis- tinction made between religious worship" and "anti-religious pro- paganda." The freedom of worship" means that any man if he can find a church and minister, priest or rabbi, can worship God according to his conscience. If he could find a church-in Russia in 1917 there were 10000 churches. As the second Five Year Plan was put into effect the Communist Party declared that at the end of 1t in 1897 there would not be single church standing in Russia. In 1895 the atheistic paper could declare declare of the churches We have closed all the opium shops"
 Suppose one did find a church. there are few which have escaped Could one establish 8 religious school? Nol That would be pro- ganda! No religious proganda is al- lowed-only anti-religious proganda Could one distribute religious pamphlets? No! That would be pro- paganda! Could one broadcast a re- ligious talk? NoI That would be proganda. But can the State do all in its power to attack religion. The Constitution guarantees that right. The citizen has the right to worship If he can find 8 church, but the State has the right and uses the right of employing every form of pro- paganda to destroy the purpose and function of that Church. Truly a new conception and a truly Soviet conception of religious freedom. Freedom? The London Tablet in April last year charged that during 1936 with the new Constitution 800 Catholic priests were sent to the labor camps of Siberia; 102 were shot. In 1897 1900 places of worship were closed and they included 240 Catholic churches, 200 mosques, 115 synagogues, 115 Lutheran churches. Truly 8 new religious freedom.
 Visits Russia
 My dear friends, a year ago an American Jesuit, Father Frederick Siedenburg published his story of Russia. Father Siedenburg, Dean of the University of Detroit, was one of the best known sociologists in the United States. Father Siddenburg went to Russia in the summer of 1887 Because clerical garb would be an obstacle in Red Russia Father Siedenburg went to Russia in the grey suit and blue tie of a layman, 9 professor of sociology. But the priest Is always a priest and Father Sei- denburg receiving the most special permission of the Holy Father, car- ried between the shirts of his valise the pages of the Missal with the Masses of Our Blessed Lady and the Mass of the Faithful Departed, A small bottle of wine, thin waters of bread, a little glass and the folded linens went into Russia unnoticed. And in Russia which has exiled God Father Seidenburg each morning in his hotel room, with door locked and curtains closely drawn, placed his linens on table, his small glass acted as a chalice and dressed in his grey business suit, he brought Christ from exile back into the heart of Red Russia.
 A professor of sociology Father Siedenburg saw Russia and he tells us that of the claimed religious liberty in Russia. He says that the Soviet governments, departing from Its earlier policy of ruthless ex- termination, now soft-pedals its anti-religious program and depends on other tactics. He says one cane not belong to the Communist Party II he is connected with any religion. But to get any decent position one must belong to the Party. All pro- perty belongs to the State. Rent must be paid for the church. But the few who could come to church have such scanty incomes that they have little to give to the support of the church. and the church with the rent not paid is closed by the Gov ernment. Furthermore Russia would go to church he must lose his pay. may lose his job, and must publicly proclaim that he believes in God.
 Father Siedenburg says that There were times in Russia when almost sickened by the terrible realization that here was a nation or people to whom the name of God wac rarely mentioned, nation that particularly forbids its people to pray, a nation in which the only pictures of Christ and Our Lady are those few still hang in the museums of art. Religion has been legally banished from the lives of the Rus sian people-no Mass, No Eucharist. no baptisms, no blessing of marri- ages, no Extreme Unction for the dying-no sacraments at all. Al funeral in Russia? A red-painted coffin carried on mems shoulders or on a truck and followed by a few people dressed in working clothes" Russia has exiled God.
 Today the bloody gruesome i1or- TOTS of the earlier days have been to great extent replaced by the more gruesome horror of uniyersal scientific atheism being inculcated | into the soul of every Russian child. Communism today is concentrating | on youth. The old are rapidly dying | and with them the old religions. The | youths will live long. Horrible as | they were, it is not the gory and |