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Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info Info The Apostolic See, through the medium of Pope Pius VIII, wrote on June 30, 1830, to the Bishops of the Rhine Province . It is in virtue of a Divine order that the Church, spotless spouse of the Im- maculate Lamb, Jesus Christ, is free and subject to no earthly dominion. This freedom of the Church, continues Dom Gueranger, is the bulwark of the very sanctuary, hence, the shepherd, sentinel of Israel, should not wait until the enemy has entered into the fold to sound the cry of alarm. The duty of protecting. his flock begins for him at the moment of the enemy s siege of his outposts, upon whose safety depends the police of the entire city. In the execution of this duty of our pastoral office we protest, dear brethren, against the injury which the forcible seizure of church property will cause to the liberty of our mother, the Holy Church. We add that the removal of the bells without the consent of the religious au- thorities and despite their protests will be a sacrilege. The bell is, in fact, a sacred object, its function is sacred. It is a consecrated object; that is to say, it. is devoted irre- vocably to Divine service. It has been not only blessed but anointed by the Bishop with the holy oil and the holy chrism, just as you were anointed and conse- crated at holy baptism ; just as anointed and consecrated as the priest s hands which are to touch the consecrated wafer. The function of the bell is holy. The bell is sanctified by the Holy Ghost, says the liturgy, sanctificetur a Spiritu Sancto, to the end that, in its voice, the faithful shall recognize the voice of the Church calling her children to hasten to her breast. It announced your initiation into Chris- tian life, your confirmation, your first communion. It announced, dear parents, your Christian marriage ; it weeps for the dead ; thrice daily it marks the mystery of the Incarnation ; it recalls the immola- tion of the Lamb of God on the altar of sacrifice ; it sings the joys of Sabbath rest, the cheer of our festivals of Christ- mas, of Easter, of Pentecost. Her prayers are associated with all the events and all the great memories, happy or unhappy, of the fatherland. Yes, the seizure of our bells will be a profanation ; whosoever assists in it will lend the hand to a sacrilege. The Catholic Bishops of Germany and Austria will not deny these principles. If their patriotism has wrung from them concessions which must have cost their religious spirit dear, patriotism with us confirms on the contrary the law of re- sistance. We would be betraying the Church and the fatherland were we so cow- ardly as to permit without a public act of reprobation the taking away of metal to be converted by the enemy into engines of destruction, destined to carry death into the ranks of the heroes who are sac- rificing themselves for us. The authorities, strangers to our be- liefs, will not be greatly moved, I fear, by the protest, however worthy of re- spect, of our religious consciences, but at least they should remember their given word and not tear up a juridical code which their believers have elaborated with us and promulgated. Morality has force of law for Governments as for individ- uals. On Oct 18, 1907, the representatives of forty-four Governments gathered together at The Hague, drew up a convention con- cerning laws and customs of war on land. They were assembled, they proclaimed unanimously, for a double purpose in the first place to safeguard peace and prevent armed conflicts between nations; and, in the second place, in the extreme hypoth- esis of an appeal to arms, to serve, never- theless, the interests of humanity and the progressive demands of civilization by restraining, as much as possible, the rigors of war. To this convention there was annexed a set of regulations which, the general tenor of its clauses having been examined a first and a second time, respectively, during the peace conferences held in 174 at Brus- sels and in 1899 at The Hague, was sub- mitted a third time, in 1907, to careful study at the second conference at The Hague and signed by the plenipotentiaries of all the great powers. The first signer of this code of interna- tional law in wartime was Baron Mar- schall von Bieberstein, delegated by his Majesty, the German Emperor, King of Prussia. Articles 52 and 46 of the regulations an- nexed to the convention are formulated as follows . Article 52. Neither requisitions in kind nor service can be demanded from com- munes or inhabitants, except for the necessities of the army of occupation. Article 46. Family honor and rights, individual life and private property, as well as religious convictions and wor- ship, must be respected. Evidently bells and organs are not neces- sary to supply the needs of the army of occupation, they lie in the domain of private property, are destined for the exercise of Catholic worship. The transformation of these articles of the Church into war munitions will be, therefore, a flagrant violation of inter- national law, an act of force perpetrated on the weaker by the stronger because he is the stronger. We Belgians, who have never wished nor acted other than well toward Ger- many, we are the weak ones. I call you all to witness, brethren, is it not true that prior to 1914 a current of sympathy, of esteem, of generous hospitality was turn- ing our trusting hearts toward those who are today so harshly oppressing us? You will remember that on the very day of the invasion the first lines that flowed from my pen spoke to you of those whom we have the sorrow to call our enemies. For four years Germany has been rewarding us. Nevertheless, we will not rebel. You will not seek in desperate recourse to material force the sudden triumph of our rights. Courage does not reside in passionate impulse but in self-mastery. We will offer to God in reparation for the sacrilege which is about to be committed against Him, and for the final success of our cause, our supreme sacrifice. Thee and to tarnish the glory of the temple. Remember us, O Lord. Reveal Thyself to us in this hour of our tribula- tion.O God, Thou art exalted above all, hearken to the voice of those who place their hopes in Thee. Deliver us from the blows of injustice and grant that our courage may control our fears. In the name of the freedom of the Church, in the name of the sanctity of the Catholic religion, in the name of interna- tional law, we condemn and reprove the seizure of the bells and organs of our churches ; we forbid the clergy and faith- ful of our diocese to co-operate toward their removal ; we refuse to accept the price of the sacred objects taken from us by violence. The Belgian Government, shortly after the Bolshevist Government of Russia de- serted the Allies and disbanded its armies, sent this eloquent appeal to Petrograd. BY the treaty of April 19, 1839, Rus- sia placed her guarantee upon the independence and neutrality of Bel- gium. On Aug 4, 1914, when Germany had violated this neutrality which the German Government also had uaranteed Belgium appealed to Russia for aid. To this appeal Russia replied on Aug 5 by promising the assistance of her arms. Thus Belgium entered into the struggle for independence and neutrality, trusting in the unswerving loyalty of the Russian people. On Feb 14, 1916, Russia undertook to renew by a solemn act the pledges she had made regarding Belgium, heroically faithful to her international obligations. Russia declared before a listening world that she would not cease hostilities until Belgium should be re-established in her independence and liberally indemnified for the losses she had endured. Further- more, Russia promised her aid in assur- ing the commercial and financial rehabili- tation of Belgium. The authorities placed in power by the Russian revolution have just signed on Feb 9 and March 3, 1918 treaties under which they lay down their arms before the German and Austro-Hungarian Em- pires. LAW