Reports from the City of Rome tell of recent demands by certain parties in the Italian Parliament for a revision of the Concordat; called the Lateran Pact; between the Vatican and Italian Government, signed in the time of Mussolini. Some Italian leaders are to ask the Roman Catholic Church to examine possible changes in the treaty. The Concordat binds Italy to many Church laws, such as the banning of divorce, although the Pact states that the Vatican and the Italian State are both sovereign and independent. But whatever motives the politicians in Italy have in seeking revision of the Lateran Treaty, they are awake to the fact that the Vatican imposes its will upon the Italian State, although the two are supposed to be independent. The Vatican would impose all its Church laws not only upon Italy, but every other nation in the world. Communism and other modern influences at the very door of the Vatican, however, reveal in no uncertain manner, the impotence of the Pope to stem the tide of anti-Roman Catholic feeling in many quarters in Italy today. An Italian Pope is always appointed and should be expected to put his own nation “in order” before professing to be the bulwark against Communism for other nations to support.
Drug-taking Among Boys
A report from the Home Office Prison Department states that there has been a serious increase in drug-taking among boys sent to Borstal last year. It is said that many boys aged 14 years and upwards appeared to have taken drugs to a greater or lesser extent. The report avers that for many boys drug-taking has become a “status symbol.” These statements are consistent with all we read and hear concerning drug-taking by youths all over the country. And because intoxicating drink can be purchased freely and at will, the argument now being presented on behalf of drug-taking is that drugs presently unobtainable over the chemist’s counter at will should be, in law, made available to any who wish to purchase these drugs. Drink and drugs! To these many of the present young generation are resorting. They may obtain a fleeting mental and physical satisfaction; but we do not hear of the real extent and depth of the misery experienced. We learn only of a fraction of the distress and trouble following upon drug-taking and drinking. Truly the kingdom of Satan and darkness is working with the design to destroy the young, the rising generation, morally and physically, by promising them pleasure, which is pleasure involving self-ruin. Behind all this there are many causes. One thing is certain, the abandonment of the Word of God and Christian principles by an older generation of parents, has left family life and homes throughout the nation without moral guidance, example and discipline. “They that sow to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.”