Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-11-16

chaos, the world owes its pre-
dicament today to a combina-
ton of Communism and secu-
larism, the Catholic Bishops OF
the United States said in a
statement last night.
The prelates appealed for an
awareness of mans responsibility to
God, denouncing secularism, or the
practical exclusion OF God from
human thinking and living, as the
root of the worlds travail today"
In the statement concluding their
annual meeting here, the bishops
decried secularism for giving our
country the greatest divorce problem
in the western world" for excluding
God from the common schools, for
producing unrest in the workaday
world, and next to communism, for
creating the most insidious hind
rance to world reconstruction.
Hope for Peace Reduced.
There would be more hope for
Just and lasting peace If the
leaders Of the nations were really
convinced that secularism which dis
regards God, as well as militant
atheism which utterly denies Him,
offers no sound basis for stable
international agreements, for en-
during respect for human rights, or
for freedom under law" the state
ment said.
In a day when shocking crimes"
against weak nations are being
perpetrated in the name OF national
security, the international COM
munity is fouting more openly than
ever before in the Christian cen
turtles the natural law which calls
to God, its author, and derives from
Him its sanctions, the bishops said,
"Atheistic Communism
stands out plainly today as the force
which, through violence and chican-
cry, is obstructing the establishment
of a right jurisdical order IN the
terna Ito nal community" the
statement continued. But thought
full men perceive as we'll that secu-
larism, which over the years has
Slapped the divinely laid founda-
lions Of the moral law, bears heavy
burden of responsibility for the
plight of the world today"
Economies Discussed.
Dealing with the economic prob
hat loom large in the social
and confusion of our times,
.tement said:
c Christian view of economic
me supports the demand for organi-
cation of management, labor, agri-
culture and profession under gov
ern encouragement but not control
in joint effort to avoid social conflict
and to promote cooperation for the
common good.
I'm default of this free co-opera-
ton, public authority is finally in
voked to maintain a measure of eco
nomic order. but it frequently ex-
ceeds the Just limits of its power to
direct economic activity to the COM
mon good.
"In the extreme case, where
MARKHAM communism takes over
government, it abolishes private
ownership and sets up totalitarian
State capitalism, which is ever
more intolerable than the grave
evils it pretends to cure. Surely II
ought to be plain today that there
is no remedy for our economic evils
in return either to 10Th century
individualism or to experiments ir
Marxianism.
Secularism Is Denounced.
Speaking of secularism and Its
affect on the family, the bishop
stated:
God planned the human famil,
and gave it its basic constitution
When secularism discards that plar
and constitution it lacerates the
whole social fabric.
Artificial family planning OIL
the basis of contraceptive immoral
ity, cynical disregard of the noble
purposes of sex, a 60-fold increase
in our divorce rate during the pas
century. and widespread failure o.
the family to discharge its educa'
tional functions are terrible evil:
which secularism has brought to oul
country"
The prelates said they were con-
vinced little will be done abou
curing the evils of juvenile delin'