Evening star., 1952-10-12
Rome Jesuits Attack
Furore Over CLOSING
OF Churches Of Christ
By the Associoted Press

VATICAN CITY. Oct. II. -
Civilta Cattolica. the Jesuit
monthly. bluntly criticiZes Protes-
tant groups in Italy for the furore
they raised abroad in the past
month in misunderstanding" of
religious liberty in Italy.
A lengthy legal article in the
issue due for publication october
Is says such groups "Wilfully or
through ignorance" failed to un-
derstand Italian constitutional law
and unjustly raised cry of per-
secution.
The article. printed in advance
IN L'OSSerVatore Romano today,
refers to two specific cases: A
demand by the Council of Evan
eelical Church in Italy for gov
eminent recognition of all ProteS-
tant faiths here, and to the recent
closure of Church of Christ in
Rome and other cities.
ClOsings Called Lawful.
The closure of some temples of
the Church of Christ by public
security officers in the lawful exc
cution of their duties has raised
such a hue and cry in some jour-
nalistic circles" Civilta says, that
the agitation reached even that
great republic across the ocean,
provoked quasi officials declara-
tions, and caused intervention by
ministers and ambassadors of the
United States"
For our part" the Jesuit pub
lication continues, 1--WE would even
prefer to suppose the Devil Ito be-
in good faith. All the more Eve
would like to take in good faith)
men of church with whom at least
we should like to feel we have
more in common than just being
descendants of Adam and believ-
ing in a better world
Civilta says, however, its most
charitable view must be that argu-
ments advanced by or on behalf
of the Protestant groups result
from ignorance, or involuntary er-
ror and not just plain bad faith. y
Sharp Attacks Charged.
It adds that it was hard to be-
lieve error alone could cover such
sharp attacks" as came in the
strange event of invoking for
eign intervention to persuade the
Italian government to apply in
Italy the actual Italian conStitu-
ton"
To foreigners it should not be
necessary to make apologies OF
excuses" Civilta says, but il
should suffice to repeat firmly anC
with dignity that in our country
also. when a law is in force il
must be observed :.
Our constitution, like the laws
and constitutions of other coun-
tries all over the world. does not
confer only rights, but imposes
obligations as well, on citizens
and foreigners alike"
Civilta quoted a half-column o1
legal decisions.
Constitution Cited,
Basically, it made these points
/. The Italian constitution, in
Article 8 on religious liberty, &C
cepts the 1929 concordat between
the state and the Vatican.
?. The concOrdat fixes legal
means by which non-Catholic
cults can 90 about obtaining gov
ernment authorization to operate
in Italy.
Temples of the American-led
Church of Christ were closed for
several Sundays last month by
police. Last Sunday, after inter-
vention of the United States State
Department, the churches were
told they could reopen tempor-
arily, pending action on theil
applications for government recog-
milton. Cline R. Paden, Rome
evangelist of the church, said he
made such application several
days before the first of hi!
churches was ordered shut.
The Assemblies of God, some Of
whose churches also were closed
complained they had been making
applications without result fol