5.48 THE KING’S BUSINESS mediation by the Pope with the possible co-operation of neutral sovereigris, Similar information of the Pope’s intention, it is said, has reached Berlin, where it has been received sympathetically.” We do not wonder that it was received sympathetically in Berlin. To propose Pope Benedict as a mediator in the present conflict is about as reasonable as to propose the Kaiser as a mediator. He would be just about as fit a mediator as the Kaiser, and no more fit. As we have indicated in another editorial, it is plain as day that his sympathies are all with the Kaiser. His suggested proposal was received so unfavorably that later infor mation from Rome indicatèd that he had never had any intention of making any such proposal. Those' who wish to see the triumph of the right in the present world conflict would do well to keep their eyes on the Pope as well as on the Kaiser. Something is constantly arising to show how the papacy, as a system, blindly favors the Central Powers, and is antagonistic to the Entente Allies. In the Province of Quebec the priests have been very largely back of the opposition to conscription to the army of the Allies. Cases have not been unknown before conscription was passed, where the priests quite openly dis couraged the Roman Catholics from enlisting, and have suggested to them that it was well to let the Protestant farmers go, and then they would get their farms. In some localities' some have thought this was almost a settled policy. In the recent opposition to the conscription in Ireland the Roman Catholic authorities, priests and higher ecclesiastics have formally, in a regular ecclesi astical gathering, made public announcement of their determination to resist the draft. No protest against this was made by the Pope or the Papal Court, but on the other hand, when the Archbishop of Carniola placed himself at the head of the revolutionary movement in a part of Austria-Hungary he was instantly taken to task by the Pope. In a despatch by Reuter’s Limited of May 1st it was said: “ It has been learned from Serbian sources that unmistakable signs of an approaching revolution in Austria-Hungary are becoming,daily more evident. .A plebiscite is being held among the Serbs, Croats and Stovenes in favor of their union with Serbia and Montenegro in one national independent' state under the scepter of King Peter ,of Serbia. Thé prime archbishop of Carniola is at the head o f the movement. Demonstrations of a very serious character are taking place in the Jugo-Slav provinces. Now comes news that at the request of the Austrian government, and with the sanction of the Pope, the nuncio at Vienna has opened a disciplinary inquiry against the archbishop of Carniola for placing himself at the head of this revolutionary movement. Great developments are expected,” Why didn’t the Pope institute a disciplinary inquiry into the action of the Roman Catholic prelates and priests in Ireland for putting then .selves at the head of the anti-Ally conscription movement in Ireland? Simply because the latter was in favor of the Allies, whereas the action of the archbishop of Carniola was against the interests of the Kaiser. It is well known that the Sinn-Fein revolution that Germany stirred up in Ireland, and that did So much to hamper the British army, was largely manipulated by Roman Catholic rTHE ATTITUDE OF THE PAPACY IN THE WAR.
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