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THE BULLETIN OE THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE
LENTEN PASTORAL OF THE BISHOP OF SAVANNAH
To the Clergy and Faithful of the Diocese of
Savannah.
Four years ago we entered into a war with Ger
many, from which by Divine aid we came out vic
torious.
From the day the armistice was granted the hope
was expressed on all sides that such awful loss of
precious lives and tremendous destruction of prop
erty, together with the horrible results which always
accompany and follow war would make all the nations
of the world determine that war must cease, and to
attain that desired end the world must be forced to
accept arbitration and compelled to keep peace.
Since the signing of the Peace Treaty there has not
come a day which did not show war in some part of
the world.
God was not called into the meeting of the nations
and selfishness, revenge and hatred were the prevail
ing motives.
We have seen fit to separate ourselves from the
other powers with whom we were allied in the set
tlement of peace. We had neither a desire for terri
tory nor indemnity. We had fought for justice and
outraged rights. The common enemy laid down his
arms and acknowledged his defeat and we were
satisfied.
Selfish rivalry in trade, hatred, and a desire for
revenge had been great factors in bringing on this
war. It was the Will of God that victory should
crown the efforts of the Allies. The results of the
war have satisfied nobody. As dogs growling over
a bone the statesmen of Europe are discussing the
money they are to get from Germany.
It assuredly is not to be expected that in a letter
addressed by a Catholic Bishop, to his flock, he should
discuss questions of a more or less political nature.
I have made these passing - references to the condi
tions of the world, because one of the consequences
of the war has been seen and felt in our own land,
and has caused much anxiety and deep apprehension
in the minds of all good men. There has been a
spirit of unrest all over the country. Doctrines sub
versive of constituted government have been openly
taught, and a very large number of men and women
have been engaged in a well-organized propaganda of
disseminating these dangerous and treasonable doc
trines.
We, though at peace with the German people, have
been compelled, in self-defense, to keep on our statute
books laws passed during the strife and stress of
war and which were deemed necessary. The extrem
ists, whose sympathies are with the anarchists and
murderous bolshevists of Russia have been sent out of
our country, but many, only a little less violent in
their utterances, yet remain and misuse the freedom
which our laws guarantee. The constant unrest flow
ing from the repeated misunderstandings and con
flicts between labor and capital is yet manifest, though
I would fain believe that desire to apply to this ques
tion the principles of the Christian religion so plainly,
fully and carefully proclaimed by Leo XIII, and more
lately declared in the united Pastoral of our Bishops,
will sooner or later find expression in practical legis
lation and mark the end of these unhappy conditions.
We cannot build a State without recognition of the
paramount claims of God. We can make laws, but
they will never remedy existing evils unless based
on eternal justice and recognizing the rights of man.
Destructive Radical Doctrines.
We have given attention to the destructive doc
trines preached by the anarchist, socialist and bol-
shevist, recognizing that they were destructive of our
government. History tells us that the great govern
ments of the past have been destroyed sometimes by
forces from without, but more generally from in
ternal causes.
Invasion has often been the prelude and the cause
of the loss of national independence, it is true, but
the land fell an easy prey to the invader because the
people had fallen into habits which had enervated
them and sapped their moral and physical strength
as well. A hardy, industrious and home-loving race
will seldom yield their independence unless attacked
by overwhelming forces of the invader. A love of
home is the first spark of the ardor of patriotic and
self-sacrificing love of one’s country, and what is
home? It may be hard for any one to define exactly
the meaning which this word conveys to each of us.
Practically it is where mother and father are, and
where the happy days of our childhood, boyhood and
young manhood are spent. Its beginnings came when
the young man and the young woman in God’s pres
ence took the solemn vows of conjugal fidelity based
on mutual love.
What, after all, is the State or Nation but an ag
gregation of such homes! The necessity for such a
condition of family unions was abundantly evident,
and so for protection of rights, for mutual defense,
for peace, order and undisturbed enjoyment of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, States, or gov
ernments, were formed. The State came from God,
from Whom comes all power. Its initial step was the
Divinely constituted marriage bond. We have passed
stringent laws against those who attack our form or
system of government. We not merely permit, but
we solemnly, by legislative enactments, countenance
and favor attacks on the family.
In every State, save one, the laws permit, and often,
for trivial reasons, a total separation of husband and
wife with permission to contract other alliances. What
becomes of the love? A ju dge, in the face of God’s
eternal law, decides that the father may take another
wife, or the wife another husband. What of the
children? They, too, come under the supervision of
the State and mayhap for six months visit the mother,
where a new husband is installed, and for the rest of
the year visit their father, where a new wife is found.
By Divine law they were given to both parents and
their training and education are the God-given duty
of both.
If a love of home is the initial step to a love of
country; if patriotism begins at the fireside, where
such passionate love of home is developed that one
would die in its defense, and hence is easily and nat
urally moved to the defense of all homes; then what
ever weakens home ties and lessens home influences
is harmful to the State. Yet there are hundreds of
thousands of families broken up every year by the in
famous divorce legislation in the United States. There
almost seems to have grown up a rivalry among our
judges in the matter. I read recently of the grant
ing of fifty divorces at the morning session of a court,
but in another city of that State a local paper, in
quoting the disgusting story, calmly stated that more
than forty divorces had been granted in an hour in
that city.
A typical illustration of our divorce system and its
consequences has fallen under my observation. A
prominent lawyer, who had retired from the practice
of law, moved with his wife and young daugh
ter to the country where he had built a magnificent
residence. Within two years serious differences arose
between them and a divorce was granted with per-
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