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CORRESPONDENCE. i -..../'-/"')

--....----........ . THE MERTHYR…

THE I.L P. ACTION APPROVED.

THE ALLOTMENT GARDENS AT CYFARTHFA.

MINERS OUT OF WORK FUND.

REV. MORGAN JENKINS, ABERCYNON,…

SOCIALISM AND THE CATHOLIC…

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

SOCIALISM AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Sir,—It is very kind of "Merthyr Vale Demo- crat" to treat my opinions anent Socialism and the Catholic Church "with toleration and re- spect," especially when it is put in the form of an innuendo implying that there are some opinions which he cannot treat in a similar spirit. Social Democrats should treat every- body's opinion "with toleration and respect," and not only those of a brother Socialist. In this connection your correspondent has appar- ently fallen from grace. In your issue of the 10th ult., "Merthyr Vale Social Democrat" quoted me as saying that religion must go be- fore Socialism can be realised when I had only said that the church must go before Socialism can be attained. In your last issue he is still more reckless in his misrepiossntations. My statement that I "was not speaking for the S.D.F. or any other organisation" is hopelessly juggled. I am made to admit that I "do not speak for Socialism or the S.D.F."—an ad- mission which I never made, and which if made would be absurd, and a flagrant self-contra- diction. To say that the church must go before Socialism can be realised and the same moment admit that I am not speaking for Socialism, is so glaringly ridiculous, that one would have expected even a Roman Catholic to see it. Of course, I am speaking for Socialism when I say that the church must go. etc., and I may hero claim that the great majority of international Socialists are of the same opinion. I merely stated that I was not speaking for any organisa- tion simply to safeguard myself. When one remembers that there are many Christian Soci- alist bodies in our land fervently believing that Socialism is the best conceivable social and economic expression of Christ's teachings, it would but compromise the S.D.F. if I were to speak in the name of that organisation when contending that the church must go before So- cialism can be realised. Your correspondent is a Roman Catholic first and foremost, whilst Socialism is the fag-end of his philosophy. So- cialism, to your correspondent, is merely a question of bread and butter. To the philoso- pher the movement is capable of a wider appli- cation. It is all very well for your correspond- ent to glibly re-iterate the formulae socialization of the means of production, etc., when he has never reflected upon the great change in our religious systems the realisation of such a for- mula would involve- I maintain once more that the church, as an or- ganised institution, must go in virtue of the logio of events that make for the Socialist re- public. The church is a hindrance to the evolu- tion of the Socialist Commonwealth, and when a Social Democrat contends that the Catholic Church can co-exist with a Socialist Society-in fact, and in part, the religious expression of that Society—one can but say, to indulge in a paradox, that it would not be a Socialist so- ciety at all. The Catholic Church did not agree with the French Republic, and the church had to go over the borders. If a class republic has found this procedure necessary for her spiritual welfare, what price a Socialist republic? Be- ing that there is already a conflict of creeds, and which, to all appearance, will be accentu- ated in the future, can we ever hope for an agreement in religious matters? I think not. Consequently it is plain that r.o church will be maintained by the State. Religion is a private matter, and as such, will not tolerate State in- terference. The Catholic Church can never be internationalised in the Socialist sense; and her failure to adapt herself to this demand, will mean her natural death. The new religion will be founded on science, because science is the same here, there, and everywhere. Science can be applied internationally, so can Socialism. Socialism is essentially scientific. The Catholic Church is unscientific. Her cosmic theories are ba,d on Genesis 1, xi. If "Merthyr Vale Social Democrat" under- stood Socialism he would no longer remain a member of the S.D.F. That paradox is easily explained. If your correspondent understood Socialism he would find out that the movement is the church's greatest enemy, and instead of devoting time to Socialist propaganda, he should rather fight it in the interest of the church and his religion. Again, Marxian Socialists—and they are in a majority—subscribe to what is known as the materialist conception of history, which briefly means that the ideological activi- ties of any historical epoch are but the reflex of the economic conditions of that particular epoch. In instance of this the Catholic Church as existing to-day, is a reflex of capitalism. I That being so the stupendous revolution im- plied in Socialism will entail a collateral revo- iutigg in thft id^.logical projiace oi human ac- -r: tivities, It is true that the Catholic Church has always managed to adapt herself to every eco- nomic change known to history—for the simple purpose of self-preservation. But the coming social revolution will deprive the church of her economic nutritive, and she will accordingly die from financial hunger The Catholic Church —-I say once again—is a negative obstruction to the growth of the economic and political forces that make for Socialism. The church will, there- fore, have to go.—Yours sincerely, HUW MENAI.

-.1 WELSH DISESTABLISHMENI

THE MEANING OF ESTABLISHMENT.

THE CHURCH AND ITS ENDOWMENTS.

MARRIED LADIES. -.:--

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Physical Culture in Quakers'…

.Whitsuntide at Pontypool."…

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