Evening star., 1942-01-24

As regards Germany, q Swiss S
Church is practically without leader
bers Of the church are now i'm
prisoned unless they are in the mill
tary service. Eighty-six per cent of
confessional clergymen are said to
have been called up.
The Catholic Universe Of London
reports that q total Of $40 Roman
Catholic priests in Germany are now
under arrest. Many of these, the
newspaper said. have recently been
arrested In the Rhineland and in
Austria. All priests under IS years
Of age are being called for service
In the armed forces.
In regard to the occupied coun-
tries, the Centre of Information Pro
Dec, Catholic group in New York
having connections in Europe and
Latin America, reported this week
that the suppression Of the Roman
Catholic Church is now most COM
plete in four European areas. These
were described as:
/. In South Styria, q part of Slo-
venia, where 81 per cent of the
priests have been deported. No mass
or religious marriages are allowed.
All monasteries and religious houses
have been confiscated.
2. In Poland, where 1t was said
that more than 80 per cent Of the
priests have been ill-treated, ban
ished or imprisoned. Confessions in
Polish and marriages between Poles
are forbidden.
8. In AlSace-Lorraine. Here more
than 10 per cent of the clergy have
been expelled, and bishops have not
been permitted to return to their
dioceseS.
4. In Luxembourg, where all semi
nartans have been imprisoned, all
religious houses closed and 70 per
cent Of the clergy kept away from
their parishes. The bishop is said
to be prisoner in his own house
1t was also reported this week by
the Religious News Service London
correspondent that hate cam
paign" has been launched against
anti-Nazi Dutch Catholics. The more
extreme Dutch Nazis, according to
the correspondent, are advocating
that Catholics in Holland wear
visible cross or other distinguishing
badge, much in the way that Ger
man Jews are forced to wear a spe-
cial emblem.
New Nazi Church Plan.
not1ilS unro rocoiuol fLie ,S
a Nazi plan to unity the religious
life Of number of occupied coun-
tries In Eastern Europe and the Bal
kans. The plan calls for the creation
OF unified Orthodox Church under
NaI protection and having its pa
triarchate in Breslau. The new
church would weld together Russian
Orthodox Churches N Paris, Jugo-
slavia, Poland. Bohemia, Slovakia,
Hungary. Austria, Roumania, Bull
garia. the Ukraine and White
Russia.
The Orthodox Church in Poland,
according to this plan. has been
selected to form the rallying point
for all other autonomous national
churches in Europe to bring them
under NaZi control.
The prime instigator Of this uni
f1cation movement is said to be the
orthodox Archbishop of Badin. Sera-
phin, alias Alfred Ladde, described
as the son Of a German prison gov
ernor in Bavaria. who was educated
in Russia and has a Russian wife.
He is believed to have been mixed
up in a number Of underground in
trigues in the religious and political
sphere. There is some doubt as to
whether his episcopal conservation
and even his ordination has ever
been recognized by the proper ortho-
dox officials.
Meanwhile, evidence mounted that
the churches of the two leading Eu-
ropean neutrals-Switzerla and
SWeden-are determined to resist
Nazi pressure.
Neutrals Resist Pressure.
For the first time in history the
Swedish Parliament and the Church
Assembly OF the Swedish Lutheran
Church recently met in joint ses-
sion and issued an appeal to the
Swedish nation to reaff1rm its love
OF freedom and to stand united in
support OF Christian civilization. In
joint proclamation to the people
OF Sweden, personally signed by rep
resentatives Of both church and
state. the participants declared that
"Sweden's line is the Christian line"
In Switzerland, the churches have
taken a firm stand in defense of
freedom and Christian principles.