Religion: Church v. I. R. A.

In recent months the Irish Republican Army has terrorized England with many a bombing. Last week the Roman Catholic hierarchy of England and Wales unlimbered its biggest gun against the I.R. A.—threat of excommunication. In a statement read in all Catholic churches in Britain, the hierarchy declared: "Among the causes of the present unrest are workings of certain secret societies. The church sternly condemns all societies which plot against the church or state. They are guilty of crime against human society. Members of such secret societies incur excommunication."

Ireland's own Catholic bishops have taken no official stand on the I.R.A. While deploring...