Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1920 — A CARDINAL’S JUDGMENT [ARTICLE]

A CARDINAL’S JUDGMENT

Those Sinn Feiners who are murdering policemen under the pretense that they are carrying on war recently received a severe and deserved rebuke from Cardinal Logue. He calls the act by its right name —murder. Thus speaks the Roman Catholic primate of all Ireland. Secret .assassination is not war, and governments can not be built on it. Nor can the sympathy of the world be gained or held by any such mpans. Rather the cause of Ireland has suffered greatly because of these murders. The assassination of Irish policemen by Irishmen is a crime for which those guilty of it, tt!e cardinal says, will be held “guilty before God." This declaration ought to have great weight both because it is true, and also because of the high character and official rank of the man from whom it comes. That Cardinal Logue is a friends of the Irish people, as he is their chief pastor, can not be denied. He is the representative of a church that has always stood, as it stands today, for law and order. The words of the cardinal are, therefore, expressive of the thought and moral sense of the church —indeed of its very, life. Even if these men do not admit that they are bound by the laws of Great Britain, they are nevertheless bound by the moral law. And in the forum of morals murder would be a hideous crime even if there were no statute forbidding it. The case is, however, so plain and clear that no argument is needed to support it. If the British government sees fit to treat these criminals as political prisoners, as it seems to have done, that fact does not alter the character of their acts. Even so, crimes are still crimes, though they be political. Cardinal Logue’s position is the only one that could have been taken by a man who is pledged by his call-, Ing to uphold and defend the moral law. That an overwhelming major-

ity of the people of Ireland sympathizes with the view of the cardinal can hardly be doubted. It is to be hoped that sound public opinion, and the Influence of the church as exerted through Cardinal Logue will prevail. It is to the interest of Ireland —and the Ireland of all parties —that they should prevail.—lndianapolis News.