Don't Knock The Rock

Sir,—Your reply to my letter in the last issue of "Salient" gives rise to considerable doubts about your policy as Editor of that paper. In a previous issue you described your editorials thus: "Rather they are nothing more than an attempt to set the ball rolling. Every reader is invited to send in his own viewpoint and in that way correct any mistakes that the editor might have made." Having done this to the best of my ability, I was promtply told that in future such letters would not be acceptable. I would like some clarification on this point; are the only acceptable letters to be those that agree with your own opinions, or is "Salient" to be a genuine expression of student opinion.

I am afraid that your rather laborious reply not only evades several of my points, but signally fails to refute the others.

Calls for peace, and pleas for an end to all strife are characteristic of the Catholic Church, which is a past-master in the art of saying one thing, and doing another. Effective measures towards a much-publicised end are only undertaken at the convenience of the Church.

The Pope never condemned fascism, and the fulminations of the Bavarian Bishops cannot be accepted as a statement of Official Vatican policy. The two encyclicals "Mit Brennender Sorge" and "Non Abbiamo Bisogno" have been quoted ad nauseam to prove the antagonism of the Pope towards Fascism, but they are nothing of the sort.

In "Non Abbiamo Bisogno" (1931), the Pope simply denounced fascist violence against Catholic Action, and fascist doctrines about the education of youth, which tended to place the supremacy of the State above everything, including the Catholic Church; I quote from it: "We have not intended to condemn the Party and the regime as such. . . . We have intended to condemn only those things in the programme and in the activities of the Party which have been found to be contrary to Catholic doctrine and practice."

In "Mit Brennender Sorge (1937), the Pope condemns certain of the more extreme Nazi doctrines, but does not condemn political and social totalitarianism. The encyclical made no attempt to break diplomatic relations between Berlin and the Vatican, German foreign policy was not condemned, and Hitler was not excommunicated. The complaints were wholly ecclesiastical, bemoaning the lost privileges of the Church, and the lost control of schools. The Vatican never protested against Nazism as such, as it could not afford to offend such a valuable political ally.

The Spanish Civil War did not break out until July, 1936, and Spanish Catholics had contacted Mussolini with a view to planning it as early as 1933. (See "Manchester Guardian" 4/12/1937).

The present educational arrangement in Quebec originated in the British North America Act of 1867, which provides for subsidised separate schools for Catholics in Ontario, on condition that Catholics in Quebec contribute to Protestant schools, which are really public schools, as they are undenominational for all practical purposes and wholly unsectarian, whereas Catholic schools in Ontario are entirely separatist Church schools controlled by the clergy. It is obviously in the interests of the Catholics to treat the Protestant schools fairly, which they certainly do not do because of any altruistic ideals. Incidentally, Quebec spends about one third as much per capita on schools as does Ontario. The "educational democracy" of Quebec, as a matter of interest, does not permit divorce, forbids birth control and has no public schools. Its capital city has no public library. Comment would be superfluous.

Your reply raises a question which I am sure you will explain for me: who are these "thoughtless" people, whose reading the Church guides so assiduously? Are they members of your own religion? But surely, if anyone is fit to accept Roman Catholic doctrines, and partake in the observances of that faith, he cannot be classed as thoughtless. Perhaps these "thoughtless' people are deliberately being kept in ignorance and superstition.

I sincerely hope and trust that these few comments of mine will lead you and many others to study this subject from a less biased position, and to formulate an individual assessment of that most complex organisation, the Catholic Church.

—R. G. Hall.