The Pope on Conquest Speaking at Manchester on Tuesday, the
President of the Salford Branch of the Catholic Truth Society explained that in regard to the Italo-Abyssinian dispute the Pope " has kept a dignified silence because he is hound to. Ile is Pope not only for the Italian Catholics--he is Pope for the Abyssinian Catholics too, and therefore lx• must observe absolute silence and strict neutrality." Unfor- tunately at precisely the same moment the Holy Father, inaugurating a World Exhibition of the Roman Catholic Press, felt it well to 'point out that the opening of the Exhibition almost exactly synchronised with " the triumphant happiness of a great and good people in a peace which it hopes and confidently expects will be a prelude to that new European and world peace of which the Exhibition seeks to be a symbol." To quote these words is sufficient comment in itself. Most Roman Catholics in this country will share the views of most Protestants regarding this unequivocal laudation of a " triiimphant " aggressor. Nothing could be sharper than the contrast it provides with the courageous and uncom- promising words used by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other leaders of religious thought in Great Britain.
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