Evening star., 1945-03-30
Counsel Of Churches
VitoI to Just Peace
Observer Recalls Pronouncement
OF Catholic Bishops Last Fall
BY David laurence

OF Catholic Bishops Last Fall
By David laurence
Again and again In the last I'VE
years or more people have cried out:
why must there be war? Where was
the church in the years that led up to
the Second World War;"
Sensitive perhaps to this question:
ing, the Catholic bishops Of America
and the Federal Council Of Protestant
Churches, as well as Jewish groups, are
expressing themselves rather frankly
on current problems and especially on
the Bill Of Rights or provisions Of the
general international organization +"
be set up to maintain peace.
Whether the statesmen or the poll
ticians or the exponents OF expediency
as against principle will accept the
counsel of the churches, with their
plainly disinterested advice, remains
to be seen. Already the so-called
practical" school OF thought is trying
to disparage the defenders of principle
and to belittle them as "perfectionists.
But 1t is doubtful whether this will
either discourage or drown out the voice
OF the church groups.
approximately 1000 years have passed
since the code Of Judeo- Christian ethics
was given to the world and yet the
time for the application of that code
is suggested always as being somewhere
IN the dim distant futwe-certainly
not now.
Basic Equality Of Rixhts,
One utterance in particular, however,
stands out as not likely to lie dormant.
1t Is the pronouncement Of the Catholic
bishops OF America who met for
several days last autumn and on No
vember 10 issued their statement of
principles, which In part reads as fol-
lows:
I'VE have no confidence In q peace
which does not carry into effect, with
out reservations or equivocations, the
principles OF the Atlantic Charter. We
feel, too. that it should provide assist
ance for PROSTATE nations in recon-
structing their economic, social, and
political institutions. If justice Is COM
promised If unreasonable concessions
are made to might, grievances will ran
kle In the bosom of agerieved nations to
endanger the peace Of the world. If
PROSTATE nations are not assisted in
giving to their peoples fair economic
opportunities, they viii become the
arena Of civil strife and turmoil. No
international organization viii be able
to maintain q peace which is unfair
and unjust. :.
=
'The international institution must
be universal. It must seek to include,
with due regard to basic equality OF
rights, all the nations, large and small,
strong and weak. Its constitution must
be democratic. While 1t is reasonable to
set up security council with limited
membership, this council must not be
an instrument for imperiahstic domi-
nation by few powerful nations. Be-
fore 1t every nation must stand on its
rights and not on its power. It must
not allow any nation to sit in Judgment
In its own case. Frankly 1t must recog-
nize that for nations as well as in
dividuals life is not static. 1t must
therefore provide in its charter for the
revision Of treaties In the interest of
justice and the common good Of the
international community, as well as for
the recognition of peoples coming Of
age in the family of nations 80.
Idealogy Of Nation.
"The theology Of nation in its in
ternal life Is concern Of the inter-
national community. To reject this prin-
ciple is tantamount to maintaining that
the violation of the innate rights Of
men in . county by its own govern
ment has no relation to world peace.
Just at this moment, in the interest Of
world peace, our nation Is sxerting it
self to root out some ideologies which
violate human rights in the countries
we are hberating.
I'VE hold that If there is to be
genuine and lasting world peace, the
international organization should de-
mand as a condition Of membership
that every nation guarantee in law and
respect in fact the innate rights of
men, families, and minority groups in
their civil and religious life.
Surely our generation should know
that tyranny in any nation menaces
world peace. A nation which refuses to
accord to its own people the full enjoy
ment of innate human rights cannot be
relied upon to cooperate in the inter-
national community for the mainte-
nance of a peace which Is based on the
recognition of national freedom. Such .
nation will pursue its own selfish inter-
national policies, while paying lip serv.
ice to international cooperation -"
1t is interesting to note how the sug-
gestions that are coming from various
quarters for amendment of the Dunn
barton Oaks plan are founded on these
simple basic principles of the great
declaration by the Catholic Bishops.
Reproduction RiEhts Reserved)
Make Giving Harder
ox Ca.