Evening star., 1943-01-16

/ resistance. Recognizing this, the
! German occupation authorities have
recently imposed heavy restrictions
on requiem masses for Belgium war
victims or for Belgians executed by
the Nazis.
A degree issued by Gen. Won Falk-
enhausen. military governor Of Bel
gium and Northern France, directs
priests to give advance notice of
renuiem masses for executed Belgian
patriots and for soldiers killed in the
war or who died in Nazi prison
camps.
In the case of an executed patriot
the mass. which must be low mass,
can only be held in the victims par
ish church and no announcement of
the service may be made from the
pulpit or in any other way. Only
relatives OF the executed person may
be present and the number of these
may not exceed 90.
The Belgian national colors may
not be displayed in thu case of
masses for soldiers who died in the
war or in prison camps, and pa
triotic organizations are barred from
participating in the service. Ser
mons and hymns must be purely re-
Igious. 1t is forbidden to give the
SERVE a political character by the
choice of the day. the hour or any
other suggestive detail"
According to reports, the order
has been ignored in a number of
cases. In one instance. during funer-
al services for a Belgian soldier,
the altar was decorated with two
large Belgian flags, the national an
them was played and seminarians
sang a patriotic song which ends
with the words, May God protect
free Belgium and her King"
Conflicts between the Nad au-
thorities and the church have oc-
Cured frequently since the occu-
patton over the question of masses
for slain Belgians.
The Nazis have made persistent
but unsuccessful attempts to turn
religious services into political DEM
onstrations, chiefly by trying to Sc
cure burial with full military hon
ors for Belgian Nazis and other
Belgians who have died fighting for
the Axis in Russia. These demon
strations were usually preceded by
party gatherings in town halls, ad-
dresses by party leaders and Nazi
parades.
AS a result Cardinal Van Roey is
sued an order that no military or
political honors are to be allowed
at requiem masses, that Nazis are
not to attend the church service in
uniform, that the coffin may not be
draped ith the NaZi flag and that
political songs may not be sung in
the church during the religious cere-
mony.
The Nazis have now retaliated by
issuing equally stringent restric-
tions in the case of services for
anti-Nazi patriots. These services
apparently have been utilized by the
populace to demonstrate its anti
Nazi feelings.
Balkan Cauldron.
The Balkan cauldron continues to
involve religious groups. The Ru-
manian government, having dis
solved free church bodies, now seeks
to justify its action by charging
that the church bodies involved,
especially the Adventists and Bap-
fists, were endangering relations be-
tween the nation and the off1cial
State Orthodox Church.
The Bukarester Tageblatt. ex-
planning the government stand, fur
ther stated that the Baptists and
Adventists were supported by the
British and American governments
and that the press in those countries
constantly reported the persecution
to which these sects were subjected
in Rumania.
The Tageblatt also charged that
the religious bodies carried on a
propaganda in Bessarabia against
the war, with the support of the
Russians, and that in Transylvania
the freedom which Baptists enjoyed
proved helpful to Hungarian in
terests.
The only truth in these charges,
according to churchmen here, is
that the Adventists and Baptists are
opposed to the Rumanian dictator
ship, although it is pointed out that
these groups merely demanded po-
litical and religious freedom. They
took no part in politics, however,
and had no relation whatever with
the governments of Great Britain
and the United States.
Meanwhile Roman Catholic op-
position to the Nazis is growing in
Hungary. Dispatches this week said
the opposition is being expressed
increasingly in the Hungarian press.
The Catholic paper Namzeti Ujsag
published an editorial which de-
clared:
I'VE have our own way of living
and have never slavishly initiated
other nations. Hungarian students,
for example, have never adopted the
German eer-drinking bouts or the