FOREIGN RELATIONS: Moscow: Catholic View

The first important public criticism of the Moscow Agreement came this week from the U.S. Roman Catholic hierarchy. Said a statement issued by ten archbishops and bishops:*

“Responsibility for the postwar social reconstruction will fall on the victors. Many serious men have misgivings that there may be tragic compromises and a fateful repudiation of sound principles. These men are not pessimists or obstructionists, but they know the forces at play in the world about us.

“The Declarations of the Moscow Conference do, indeed, open the way to necessary international cooperation for peace as well as for war. In this they represent a definite step in the right direction. They do not however dispel the fear that compromises on the ideals of the Atlantic

Charter are in prospect. Some things these documents imply by statement, and more significantly still by omission, leave an uneasiness in minds intent on peace with justice to all.”

The bishops’ fears were clearly grounded on their old suspicions of Russia. Said the bishops:

“No nation has under God authority to invade family freedom, abrogate private ownership, or impede, to the detriment of the common good, economic enterprise, cooperative undertakings for mutual welfare and organized works of charity.”

*Archbishops Edward Mooney of Detroit, Samuel A. Stritch of Chicago, Francis J. Spellman of New York, John T. McNicholas of Cincinnati, Joseph F. Rummel of New Orleans and John J. Mitty of San Francisco; Bishops John F. Noll of Fort Wayne, John Mark Gannon of Erie, Karl J. Alter of Toledo and John A. Duffy of Buffalo.