Religion: Our Duty Is Plain

So far, the World Council of Churches had no reply from the Vatican. But the appeal from 70 Protestant leaders of eight nations that Christendom unite to insure a Christian peace (TIME, Aug. 12) had stirred a deep response in many a Christian quarter. Last week two U.S. publications, one Protestant, the other Roman Catholic, expressed with equal anxiety the hope that Christian hands could be joined.

Said the Christian Advocate, official weekly publication of the Methodist Church: "If the disciples of the Lord Jesus cannot work together for the world's salvation, then they dare not exhort the politicians to work together toward the same end. . . .

"It must be admitted, of course, that the Vatican is faced with some very great difficulties in any effort it may make to cooperate with the Protestants ... in even so vast a cause.... Its solemn claim to be the exclusive and infallible authority in all things spiritual ... [is] a hurdle which only a holy passion for the security of the world can enable it to surmount....

"The Roman Catholic Church can speak with a united voice, if it will, in support of an agreed-upon interpretation of the Christian message to this stricken world. The Protestant problem is that of uniting its voice."

Congenial Atmosphere. Before publication of the Advocate's editorial, the Commonweal, liberal Catholic weekly, took a strikingly similar position: "There is a strong sentiment among Protestants ... for joint action with Catholics on world problems. . . . It is up to Catholics to accept such gestures in the spirit in which they are offered: to greet them in all sincerity and without suspicion. . . .

"The gesture . . . does not mean that the Protestants have overcome their anxiety about the Catholic Church [But] the point is that Christians (and Jews) everywhere realize that unless the moral forces in the world are brought to bear jointly in the cause of justice and peace, power politics in general and the cleavage between Russia and the West in particular will bring the peoples of the world to a holocaust ruinous literally for generations. Interfaith collaboration in this area is of the essence now. . . . Our duty here is plain."

Uncongenial Minds. In this symphony of friendship, many a Protestant thought he saw a disturbing possibility: would the Vatican want to employ a united Christendom to wage a holy war against Russia?

In the Protestant Episcopal weekly, the Witness, Presiding Bishop Henry St. George Tucker gave his answer:, "I certainly cannot conceive of the World Council nor any of its commissions joining with any group in an anti-Russian campaign. . . . What we are trying to do is to find some way in which nations who disagree can work together in achieving world peace and unity. . . . The great contribution which the Christian religion can make is to demonstrate the possibility of a 'Fellowship of Uncongenial Minds.' "