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Show THE AMERICAN WAY PISSTA TURNS RACK TO GOD M By George Peck i r''v-::;;v"-J i We have; stated repeatedly that Russia is -no longer communistic. i Her having abandoned persecution of the churches is just one further fur-ther prof of the truth of that statement. Joseph Stalin and his associates governing the Soviet Union hve come to believe that freedom 1 of religion is in the best interests of Russia and her people; and the churches have come into their own again. Russia should not be judged on what transpired there twenty to twenty-five years ago, when she first threw off the yoke of the Czarist regime. The three outstanding out-standing leadera of that day are dead; Trotsky, murdered while in exile In Mexico; Zinovieff and Ka-meneff, Ka-meneff, while not banished from Russia, were severly punished and died under circumstances which have never been made clear. Russia, must be evaluated on what she is today-upon her magnificent mag-nificent performance as our ally in' the struggle against Hitler. Father Fa-ther Oremanski probably didn't intend in-tend to do it, but in making what he considerde to be solely a religious re-ligious pilgrimage to the Kremlin, -he actually learned somthing of great political significance to America Am-erica and to Christians the world over-that Russia is not the Godless God-less country that the early for-menters for-menters of the Russian Revolution Revolu-tion tried, to make of her-that her policies expressed in her actions today, argue well for a real friendship friend-ship between Russia, Britain and America in the Post-war period. The Reverand Stanislaus Orle-. nianski went to Russia, saw Stalin, Stal-in, returned to America, was stripped strip-ped of his priestly privileges by his bishop, apologized for what was apparently an unauthorized jaunt, and had his priveleges restored, re-stored, j Wether or not Father Orleman-ski Orleman-ski had a right to make 'the trip to Russia, or wether his bishop was in order chastising1 him, is really no concern of the American public-that is exclusivly a problem of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to settle. What is important is that the Polish-American priest reports that he was cordially received by Stalin, Stal-in, but adds that the Russian Prime Minister, in answer to his plea for the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, the Ukraine and White Russia, "went beyond my expectations and agreed not to persecute the Roman Catholic Church not only in those countries, coun-tries, but in any other part of Russia. Rus-sia. He went even further than that and agreed to co-operate with the church against persecution persecu-tion anywhere." Father Oremanski may or may not have been surprised at Stalin's 1 most friendly reaction, but it is; no revelation to this columnist.' We believe that the Priest has not misquoted Stalin nor misunderstood misun-derstood him, and further, that Stalin meant exactly 'what he said. We base those Treliefs on Stalin's previous attitude toward religion, because soon after he ousted Trotsky from Russia and assumed supreme leadership of his country, he began conferring religious freedom on Russia's population. pop-ulation. In fact, he has restored complete freedom of conduct to the Russian Orthodox Church. This is a far cry from the early days of the Russian Revolution of the early 20's when religion was publicly proclaimed the . '"opiate of the people," when hundreds of relates of all religious denominations denomin-ations were arrested and thrown into prison where they languished until their trials took place, and many, for years afterwards. Pure communism cannot exist in a nation na-tion of God-fearing citizens it can only live in a Godless atmosphere at-mosphere and so, in attempt to make communism take root, the leaders of the revolution engaged in mortal combat with the church organizations of that day. For a time they achieved partial success. |