30 DECEMBER 1922, Page 2

What the policy of the Vatican really lacks just now

is courage. That, and that alone, can prevent that complete petrification of the Roman Church of which there are already too many ominous signs. As proof of want of courage in -the Papacy, take its utter failure to speak plainly and sternly to those who profess to be its zealous followers in Ireland. If moral questions, like that of the advocacy of private murder as an instrument of policy, had been taken up by Rome during the past three years, the world would have had a very different feeling towards those who make claims so tremendous on behalf of the occupants of the chair of St. Peter.