Religion: Prelude to Judgment

Since Hitler came to Europe, Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church have begun to lead as exciting lives as their predecessors did in the Renaissance. Last week came news that the Primate of shattered Poland, August Cardinal Hlond, had made his third escape from the Nazis; the Archbishop of Munich, Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber, had once more openly defied the Nazis:

> Three years ago Cardinal Hlond fled from Poland one jump ahead of the Germans and took refuge in Rome. When Italy entered the war, he hastened to Lourdes in Unoccupied France. There he became a virtual prisoner; under German pressure Vichy refused to let him go. But when the Nazis swallowed Vichyfrahce last fortnight, Cardinal Hlond fled over the Pyrenees to Spain.

> German Cardinal von Faulhaber has never concealed his hatred of Naziism, and hence has long been under close surveillance in Munich. Smuggled into Switzerland last week was a statement he issued after the bombing of Munich on Sept. 19. In it the uncowed Cardinal declared that, despite Nazi propaganda that the victims of the air raid were buried without crosses, he personally had erected crosses over the graves. He urged all Roman Catholics to insist upon the “unassailable personal right of burial under the cross.” Of the bombing itself, Cardinal von Faulhaber said: “What happened eight days ago over Munich was the prelude to the Last Judgment.”