La Vie Spirituelle and Pax Christi

Extract

With pleasure we welcome once more the arrival of the Vie Spirituelle in this country. It was not found wanting in the time of trial for it continued to appear throughout the occupation and has maintained its high standard. We wish it prosperity in the future and judging from the vitality of the first two numbers for 1946, it will play an important part in the work of spiritual reconstruction. Everyone knows the chaos of the present world, but few have any definite ideas as to what is to be done to remedy this state of affairs. The Vie Spirituelle tackles the problems in a most concrete and realistic way. The January number has a searching article on the nature and purpose of religious life, for the religious has to provide a concrete pattern of holiness to the world. Another article deals with the aims and methods of thè formation of seminary students. Both make fundamental suggestions and criticisms. There is also in this same number a most moving account of the charity shown by German catholics to Frenchmen conscripted for labour in Germany. As chaplains were not allowed to accompany these workers, priests went in disguise among them. The writer of the article, Fr J. Doyen, O.P., gives numerous instances of the help he was given by Germans, frequently with considerable danger to their own safety. One incident, particularly worthy of mention, records how he was able to say Mass every evening in a parish church without fear of being betrayed, although the whole parish knew about it.