YOU ARE IN A WAR OF THE MIND
From Our Correspondent in the Netherlands
THERE is a war of the mind being waged now and
in that war the Catholic intellectual must be in the thick of the fight, Mr. Frank Sheed told Catholic intellectuals and students of 50 nations gathered last week in Amsterdam for the Pax Rornana world congress.
It was the first Pax Romana congress in which the student and graduate bodies had cooperated, and the first actually to be organised on a work! scale.
From Britain Catholic students from all parts of the country cornblued with members of the Newman Association in a strong delegation led by Mgr. McClement. London University students' chaplain.
The proceedings took the form of morning " key " lectures which laid down broad principles, given by eminent scholars of many lands, and afternoon group discussions preceded by lectures on various aspects of the subject dealt with in the morning.
Mr. Sheed's lecture at the Tuesday morning session was a challenging one.
NO TIME
"The war is on, and the ship is in danger of sinking." he declared. " Under the circumstances everybody must be at the pumps, and there is no time for decorating one's cabin— unless one prefers to sink."
British speakers led two of the discussions, Mr. E. L. Watkin lectured on "The Artist, Instrument of Grace," and Mr. Douglas Hyde on "Communism, Doctrine of False Redemption."
An exceptionally large number of delegates attended Mr. , Hyde's lecture and took part in a lively and prolonged discussion.
It covered such topical and practical aspects of the subject as how far Christian cooperation with Communists is advisable and the need for a distinotively Christian approach to the question in a situation where military expedients are increasingly being forced upon the democracies.
A resolution passed at the end of the congress welcomed the United Nations' opposition to " the viols