[Box on page 5]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Monday, September 25, 1939.

German Soldiers Rallied by Churches

Protestant and Catholic Exhort to Reich Victory and Just Peace

Wireless to The New York Times

FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, Germany, Sept. 24​—Periodicals of the German Protestant and Catholic Churches are now publishing many exhortive articles explaining the duties of soldiers fighting in the defense of their country and admonishing the German soldiers to fight in the spirit of Saint Michael for a German victory and a just peace.

The archangel is shown, brandishing a battlesword and piercing a dragon with a holy lance, on the front page of Catholic papers.

In the western and southern German Catholic dioceses, the clergy headed by the Archbishop and Bishops, are actively engaged in work for the welfare of refugees evacuated from the western frontier districts. Many cloisters have been transformed into hospitals and the monks and nuns are working under the direction of the Red Cross.

The Catholic Bishops of Germany have issued a pastoral letter stating:

“In this decisive hour we admonish our Catholic soldiers to do their duty in obedience to the Fuehrer and be ready to sacrifice their whole individuality.

“We appeal to the faithful to join in ardent prayers that the Divine Providence of God Almighty may lead this war to blessed success and peace for our fatherland and nations.”

Each Bishop in addition has issued a special message to his own diocese, including the Bishop of Rottenburg in Wuerttemberg, who was expelled from his diocese last year for refusing to vote in a national Socialist election.

Cardinal Archbishop Bertram, head of the German Episcopal Congregation, has similarily issued a patriotic message to his flock urging that all “be strong in your heart, all you who confide in God Almighty.”

Church historian Roland H. Bainton reports on the situation when the United States entered World War I: “American churchmen of all faiths were never so united with each other and with the mind of the country. This was a holy war. Jesus was dressed in khaki and portrayed sighting down a gun barrel. The Germans were Huns. To kill them was to purge the earth of monsters.”​—Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace, pages 209, 210.