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2 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- (Continued on Page 17)