Communist hits outworn Marxist views on Church

Catholic Ilerald Reporter
COMMUNIST'S throughout the world should "hold out their
hand in friendship to those of the working classes who believe in a religion". This is the theme of an article in a recent issue of Kottmittiriw, the Russian Communist Party's official cultural and political review.
The article. by a writer named Mtchedlov, is summarised and commented upon in the French publication Informations C' a/ha/lanes Internationale which asks: "Does this mark a turning point in the Kremlin's attitude to religion'?"
It says the attitude expressed by lvItchedlov is not very different from that of the "testament" of Signor Togliatti, the Italian Communist leader, published after his recent death,
It points out that though the October issue of Kononunist in which the article appears was published after Mr. Khruschey's downfall, the article itself appears to have been written before that event.
Informations publishes the following extract: "To refuse to recognise the changes, the deeper and deeper crisis of a religious doctrine which is striving to reawaken in a new form. not to take into account the outline of the attempts by the Church to emerge from the old days of 'the Crusades and witch-hunts' is to show a blindness which has nothing in common with Marxism."
Objectivity
The French publication goes on to quote Mtchedlov's criticism of a treatise published last year by the Educational Institute of Yaroslav. "The scientific Basis of Atheism".
He wrote: "Certain writers, incapable of bringing themselves to making an analysis of new phenomena, continue through inertia to criticise characteristics in their ideological adversaries which no longer exist . . .
"For exampJe, to present the relations between the Vatican and the Governments of the United States or West Germany as being governed by the orders of various imperialist groups is a childish interpretation."
Mtchedlov himself, Comments informer/rms. "analyses reality objectively". He sees that "so as not to lose control of their flock the clergy must find new issues and new possibilities of dialogue
with the world, and revalue their values".
He considers that the activity of Pope John and of the Vatican Council is significant of this search and must he taken seriously.
This is particularly true, Mtchedlov wrote. "of the realistic position of the Hierarchy on the question of war and peace. and the co-existence of the two political-social' systems, the search for a new basis of relations between two incompatible ideologies — Catholicism and Communism.
"But there are in the Church C ertain influences radically opposed to this new attitude. Pope Paul himself could be described as a member of the Centre group. And it must not be forgotten that the reforms on the Church correspond to what 1.enin called a process of 'cleaning up' and emphasised that a 'cleaned up' Church is even more dangerous.
Collaboration
"A Church is driven to reform itself by the aspirations of its revolutionary. believing members among the workers. These aspirations and these workers must not he despised and put on one side because they express themselves in religious terms.
"A movement or an activity or an opinion cannot be classified as 'counter-revolutionary' or 'reactionary' simply because it appears among Christians. Such a simplification has nothing in common with an objective Marxist analysis of phenomena . . .
"The absence of a revolutionary movement in a country can be no argument against close collaboration between Communists and believers in a common struggle towards the good of the people. Ihi, possibility is growing, for a hdst of political and social reasons, and above all if a change comes about in the political attitude of an important section of the clergy ...
"Communists in capitalist countries appeal to fellow-workers among the faithful to join in defending peace and progress against reactionary regimes and the menace of Fascism."