all longed for it during the
war!--one voice above the conflict, the voice of the Church, the
voice of Christ! If the Pope had only spoken out, with no reference
to the feelings of the Austrian Emperor!--what a gain that would
have been for religion. But the great authentic voice never
sounded. Instead of the successor of St. Peter we had to content
ourselves with the American Press--excellent, no doubt, but hardly
satisfying.

Let me tell you a rather striking remark by an Italian friend of
mine, an editor of an Italian review, and not a Roman Catholic. He
was saying that every Church that persisted for any time possessed
something essential to the religion of Christ. I asked him what he
saw in the Roman Church that was essential. He replied at once,
"The Papacy." I was surprised for the moment, but I saw presently
what he meant. The desire of the world is for universal peace,
universal harmony. Can that ever be achieved by a disunited
Christendom? The nations are rivals. Their rivalry persisted at the
Peace Conference, disappointing all the hopes of idealists. Must it
not always persist, must not horrible carnage, awful desolation,
ruinous destruction, and, at any rate, dangerous and provocative
rivalries, always dog the steps of humanity until Christendom is
one?

* * * * *

Personally, I think reunion with Rome is so far off that it need
not trouble us just now; there are other things to do; but I would
certainly refrain from anything which made ultimate reunion more
difficult. And so I hold fast to my Catholic doctrines. But I tell
you where I find a great difficulty. A man comes to me for adult
baptism. I have to ask him, point by point, if he verily believes
the various doctrines of the Church, doctrines which a man baptised
as an infant may not definitely accept and yet remain a faithful
member of Christ's Church. What am I to say to one who has the
passion of Christian morality in his heart, but asks me whether
these verbal statements of belief are essential? He might say to
me, "It would be immoral to assert that I believe what I have not
examined, and to examine this doctrine so thoroughly as to give an
answer not immoral would take a lifetime. Am I to remain outside
the Church till then?" Here, I t