NORWAY TO END

BAN ON JESUITS ?
Most of Lutheran Bishops in favour
A NEVV movement to raise the ban on the entry of Jesuits into Norway is causing a controversy in Norwegian newspapers. Paragraph 2 of the Constitution reads : "Jesuits shall not be tolerated." It is hoped that Parliament will repeal it.
The paragraph dates from 1814 when it was declared that Jesuits and " other monks" shall not be tolerated.
Apparently it was aimed directly at the Jesuits for it•was feared that after the restoration of the Society of Jesus they would " invade " the country, and even before the restoration that they would seek refuge there under the disguise of other religious orders.
In 1897 the paragraph was altered and the phrase " other monks" deleted.
FREEDOM
In 1925 a motion to delete the whole paragraph was rejected in Parliament by 99 votes to 36.
Apart from this paragraph Norway. having repealed its antiJewish legislation in 1851. has the most complete religious freedom of all the Scandinavian countries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has apparently brought about the renewed discussions. At the European Assembly at Strasbourg, Norway. when signing the convention of human rights with the other memberStates. had to make a reservation because of paragraph 2.
The inquiry about its abrogation was submitted to the Ministries of
Ecclesiastical Affairs and Education and to the Department of Justice. The matter was also referred to the Lutheran Bishops and other religious institutions.
So far only one Lutheran Bishon, Bishop Schjeldup of Hamar, has mado a statement and be is entirely in favour of the abrogation, and he states that the matter was discussed recently by the Bishops and the majority favoured the repeal of the ph ph Articles have appeared in the leading Oslo papers, the Dagbladet and A rbeiderbladet, and the evening paper A ftenbladet..
The Dagbladet says : "The Norwegian State must be tolerant, even if the Church [the Lutheran State Church] and the Christians them selves are not."
Two professors of the Menighets (Pietistic) Faculty of Oslo University Dr. Hallesby and Dr. Seierstad, and the Rector, Dr. Wisloff, are strongly against the repeal.
They argue that Jesuit morals are lax, and the paragraph is aimed not against religious freedom but against Jesuits who cannot be trusted c However, the Dean of the Theological Faculty of• Oslo University(. Prof. Molland, demands the abrogation of the paragraph.