THE TABLET A Weekly N ew sp a p e r an d R ev iew
DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR ANIMOS E T IAU ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS V E S TR IS CONSTANTER MANEATIS
From the Brief o f His Holiness Pius IX to The Tablet, June 4,1870.
V o l . 157. No. 4,730. L o n d o n , J a n u a r y 3 , 1 9 3 1 .
S i x p e n c e .
Registered at the General P ost Office A3 a Newspapeb
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News and No t e s .............. 1 A Speech from the Throne 5 La Fuga in Egitto . . . 6 “ Christmas Goes ” .............. 7 Review s :
The Immortality of the
Soul ......................... 8 Liturgiology for All . . . 8 Alter Christus .............. 9 Leaders in the French
Revolution .............. 9 Assumpta Est Maria . . . 9
C O N T E N T S
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New Books and Music . . . 10 Letters to the Ed it o r :
Soviet S o ftw oods.............. 10 St. Disibodus .............. 10 “ Pax Christi ” 11 From The Tablet of Ninety
Years A g o ......................... 14 Coming Events .............. 14 Correspondence :
Rome (Our Own Corre
spondent’s Weekly Letter from) ......................... 17 Ch e s s .................................... 18
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Et C/ETERA......................... 19 1930: A Retrospect ... 20 Sermons for the Times . . . 21 Catholic Education Notes . . . 22 Memorial to Bishop Bidwell 23 Orbis Terrarum :
England, Scotland, and Wales ......................... 23 Ireland ......................... 24 Algeria ......................... 24 Belgian Congo .............. 25 Belgium ......................... 25 Canada ......................... 25
Orbis Terrarum ( Contd.) :
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Czechoslovakia .............. 25 France ......................... 25 Mexico ......................... 26 North Borneo .............. 26 Poland ......................... 26 Spain ......................... 26 Switzerland 28 Yugoslavia 28 Episcopal Engagements 28 London Examination Results 28 Social and Personal . . . 28
N O T A N D A
A timely Speech from the Throne by the Sovereign Pontiff. False and true Peace. The Tablet’s news-pages present a full translation o f the discourse, and a leader-writer emphasizes its importance (pp. 5, 11).
More about Russia. The Northern timbercamps. H ow the Prime Minister could obtain trustworthy information in a few days and almost without cost to the public purse (p. 2).
W ere the Ages o f Faith also Dark Ages? A Hibbert winter’s reasoned “ N o ” (p. 3).
Christmas Carols. Sparkhill’s inroad into the non-Catholic monopoly o f a once Catholic custom (p. 7).
For to-m orrow ’ s feast. A sermon on the H oly Name, by Father Oswald Donnelly, C.P. (p. 21).
Christmas in Rome. A n outline picture, from The Tablet’s Rome Correspondent, o f the religious and secular rejoicings (p. 17).
The Old Year. Some figures o f Catholic progress in England and Wales during 1930 (p. 20).
Protestant women fo r Protestant ministries. Friendly comments from Catholic outsiders (p. 3).
NEWS AND NOTES f I 'O -M ORROW is the Feast of the Holy Name.
Our “ Sermon for the Times ” this week dwells on that Name’s measureless power. But we must beware of investing a mere vocable with miraculous attributes. In Hebrew (especially in the Psalter) “ the Name of God ” often means God Himself. lik ew ise “ the Name of Jesus ” means our Divine Lord, the God-Man, our Saviour. Therefore, it is with more than a battle-cry and name-cry on our lips that we go forward into this New Year. Procedamus in Christo: not merely in nomine Christi. “ The Lord of Hosts is with us ” in His very self. It would be “ taking His Name in vain ”
N ew S e r ie s . Voi. CXXV. No. 4,129.
to use it in a spirit of magic : but when we use the Name reverently, remembering all it stands for, there is no limit to its wonders.
Molotoff has been an unfamiliar name to readers of newsprints. Henceforth we must be prepared to meet it o f te n ; because Molotoff has pushed out Rykoff from the very important Presidency of the “ Council of People’s Commissars.” To be President of that Council is to be one of the most powerful personages in Soviet Russia, second only to Stalin himself. Therefore it is important for Britons to know what manner of man is Molotoff. We are sorry to say that he is one of the worst. Rykoff belonged to the little group which worked with Lenin in the first phases of the Bolshevist experiment. His faults and crimes do not blind us to the fact that R ykoff’s fall from power does him credit. He is disgraced and thrust out because he has tried to restrain Stalin from the vilest extremes, such as putting poor peasants legally in the wrong and then sending them off to fill up the vacancies which death and disease and despair are always making in the Northern timber-camps. Molotoff has no such scruples.
During the year just ended, The Tablet was often scolded by Protestants, and even bv one or two Catholics, for what was called its tepidity towards idealistic schemes of complete and immediate Disarmament. I f we deny the tepidity, it is because frigidity would better describe our temper towards such projects. When warmth returns, it will be a heat o f indignation against those professing Christians who have so lost the Crusader spirit that they refuse to look Russian facts in the face. Molotoff backs up Voroshiloff, the Commissar for W a r ; and Voroshiloff’s colleagues never weary of assuring the sorely tried Russian masses that there is a Good Time Coming in the shape o f a stupendous WorldWar which will end in a Bolshevist triumph. When the “ Capitalist nations ” have been thrashed, say the Soviet war-lords, Russia will be the Primate of
