Religion and Democracy

Franklin D. Roosevelt is an Episcopal churchwarden and an occasional worshipper, but he has never been so prone to invoke his Maker as were Calvin Coolidge and Warren G. Harding. To many devout churchmen he appeared to have the failings of most modern political liberals -- a secular conception of political morality, an indifference about religion's place in the modern state. Last week, as Franklin Roosevelt delivered his message to the 76th Congress, it was evident that he, like other liberals, had come to feel differently about religion in the world about him. His opening words were texts for sermons which were sure to be voiced in thousands of U. S. pulpits. Excerpts:

"Storms from abroad directly challenge three institutions indispensable to Americans, now as always. The first is religion. It is the source of the other two -- democracy and international good faith. Religion by teaching man his relationship to God gives the individual a sense of his own dignity and teaches him to respect himself by respecting his neighbors. . . .

"Where freedom of religion has been the attack has come from sources opposed to democracy. Where democracy has been overthrown, the spirit of free worship has disappeared. And where religion and democracy have vanished, good faith and reason in international affairs have given way to strident ambition and brute force. An ordering of society which relegates religion, democracy and good faith to the background can find no place it for the ideals of the Prince of Peace. The United States rejects such ordering and retains its ancient faith."

> As significant as the President's speech the comment made upon it by Walter Lippman, who, though a typical agnostic moralist, found himself obliged to declare that "to dissociate free institutions from religion and patriotism is to render unworkable and, in the last analysis, defenseless. . . . The final resistance to tyranny . . . has been made . . . by devoutly religious churchmen who alone had a conviction which made them say that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. . . . This message contains within it . . . the outline of that reconstruction in their moral philosophy which the democracies must undertake if they are to survive."

> President Roosevelt, who regards the Roman Catholic Church as a potential ally in fighting democracy's battle, maintains contact with Pope Pius XI through the New Deal's good friend, George Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago--who might very well become Papal Nuncio to the U. S. should diplomatic relations be re-established with the Vatican. Last fortnight there was further evidence of the new collaboration between the Church and the U. S. in the departure for South America of two able representatives of the U. S. Catholic hierarchy -- Bishop James Hugh Ryan of Omaha and Rev. Dr. Maurice Stephen Sheehy of Catholic University. Bound on an 18,000-mile goodwill tour to "develop cultural relationships'' among the Roman Catholic republics of Latin America, these hefty, affable churchmen embarked with the blessings not only of Mother Church but also of the U. S. State Department and the President.

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