The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-11-13

SICklC aIlu HOuUE kuCMS
 War may become scourge to
 America if it's people continue
 to disregard God and remain too
 proud to pray, warned Father
 DOnnelIy in his sermon, which in
 part was as follows:
 WAR AT THE HANDS OF GOD
 This morning we gather on the eve of the twenty-second anniver' sary of the first day of Armistice which in 1918 brought peace to a warning world. And on this morn- ing of 1940 we look sadly and sor- roWfully on world which has no longer an Armistice, a world in which this light struggled val iantly to shine bright with hope in the midst of disruptoin and despair But today that light, having flick cred long in the turbulent passions of men, has wearily given up its struggle and the black ghoulish pas- sions of men again freely stalk in the horrid darkness of mans hate. Never again would it happen! Never again would we engage in that horrible carnage. The lessons were too bitter to forget. But in twenty years how men have forgot ten. Today we see almost half the world again drenched in blood, be- set by fighting armies and faced with a winter of famine, starvation, misery and disease. They call 1t the Second World War,
 Sad Anniversary
 It is a sad Armistice Day we celebrate in 1940. How different from the carnival spirit of 1918! Today Armistice Day commemor- ates a lost cause. It is still re- hinder of the noble idealism, the heroism and the glorious sacrifice of our American soldiers, but what they fought for was never attained and the lesson of their sacrifice has been lost on Europe. Has 1t been lost in America? We must work and we must pray now before it is too late that the lesson of that noble sacrifice will never be lost in America.
 This morning we ask what causes war. Oh, we know of the balance of power, the need of expansion, the lust of the conqueror and the rest. But we dig below that and we ask why is it that human beings who love peace so much are denied 1t. Why is it that men who hate war are led into the barbarism of war? What causes wars?
 Monsignor Fulton Sheen in his work, Peace, the Fruit of Justice" says that from the point of view of God there may be two reasons for war. It may be something car- ried on in the name of God, or something undergone at the hands of God. We may be either in the cause of God, or it may be a pun ishment of Divine Justice. In the first case 1t would be crusade; in the second 1t would be a curse. In the first case 1t would be the result of mans love for God; in the second, the result of mans neglect of God. Wars of the first class are those wars of history waged in defense of God when nations un- furled the banner of the King of Kings and marched out to do bat tie with those who would banish the name of God from earth.
 Mans Dishonor
 But wars are not always in vim dication of Gods honor, more often they are a punishment of mans dishonor. This is the manner in which we find war judges in the pages of Scripture. As weVturn the chapters of the Old Testament we find the author judging war as a curse on Israel for its forgetfulness of God, its injustice and its wicked ness. And in 1940 man has not changed and God has not changed. The Justice of God still reigns. And in 1940 if men are forgetful of God, if men still unloose their injustice and their sins on the world, it may well be that war is the chastisement of God on our many sins.
 That was Abraham Lincoln's judg- ment of the Civil War. He could write, "The awful calamity of civil war which now desolates our land may be but a punishment in- flicted upon us for our presump- tiouS sins. We have forgotten the gracious hand that preserved us in peace, and multiplied and en- riched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceit fitness of our hearts. that all these blessings were produced by some su- perior virtue and wisdom of our own Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too proud to pray to the God who made us'
 Too proud to pray to the God who made us" That was Lincoln's judgment of the America of 1863. How true it is of our proud America of 1940! "Too proud to pray to the God who made us!" How terri ply true As nation do we really believe in God? Christian America? Christian-with sixty five percent of it's people affiliated with no Church? Christian-and an estima- ted three out of five people have never prayed to God? We are scan. dalized at the GodlessnesS Of RuS- Sla-and 60 per cent of our child ren are being raised without any formal moral or religious training Suppose that goddess generation chose to live out its godlessness The supposition is horrible. Truly our faults are many and our un- faithfulness great. And if wars are generated out of mans forgetful- ness of God. out of mans injustice and mans wickedness. should We not tremble at the imminent threat Of the self-inflicted punishment Of war?
 Condemn AggressOrs
 Today in many parts of our coun. try orators will condemn the az. gressors of the world. And rightly SO! But before VIC begin casting RtOnRG at tha adtilir0seae ahraad u4o