The Appeal

For two months, the No. 1 spiritual adviser to Quebec's isolationist-minded millions had been very close to the war. As Military Vicar of all Roman Catholics in Canada's armed forces, His Eminence Jean Marie Rodrigue Cardinal Villeneuve had toured battlefronts, talked to fighting men of all ranks. Last week a big Lancaster brought him home.

The war had made a deep impression on the 61-year-old prelate. In London, speaking to a gathering of Canadian servicemen, he had said: "This war is a fight to the bitter end for the vindication of human rights and the preservation of Christian civilization. That conviction has increased by what I have seen in Italy, in Belgium and in Holland of Nazi barbarism, and by the tales I have heard from unimpeachable witnesses--tales that shock and anger. . . . We are deeply grateful to you for having joined with our other Allies in waging a war overseas. ..."

Now, in Montreal, Cardinal Villeneuve added: ". . . You cannot fight this war by condensing the horizon to this continent. The Nazi has got to be completely defeated, or there will be no peace for our way of life."

Canada's military authorities had just opened a drive to get recruits for overseas service. War Services Minister Leo Richer LaFleche had said: "If we put forward the proper appeal to the French Canadians, they will respond. . . ." Perhaps Cardinal Villeneuve had made the proper appeal.

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