Words & Works

P: In a message to the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists, Pope Pius XII reminded the lawyers that however hard it may be even for theologians to believe it, eternal punishment is a dogmatic fact. "Revelation and the teaching authority of the Church clearly establish that after the end of this earthly life, those who are burdened with grave guilt will receive from the Most High God a judgment and an execution of penalty from which there is no liberation or condonation. God could, in the next life, also remit such a punishment; everything depends on His free will; but He has never granted it and will never do so ... Such a divine disposition is in no way contrary to any of God's attributes; neither to His justice nor His wisdom, neither to His mercy nor His goodness."

P: Enrollment in U.S. theological seminaries in 1954 jumped five percent over 1953, according to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Last fall's enrollment: 28,760.

P: The Rev. Philip S. Land, S.J., assistant professor of economics at St. Louis University, declared in a newspaper interview that income-tax evasion is morally as well as legally wrong. Moralists who justify it on the grounds that some tax money finds its way into graft and some into pork-barrel projects are dead wrong, said Father Land. Despite some mistakes, the President and Congress "have given us a prudential judgment" in preparing the national budget and setting taxes. It is therefore "hard to conceive what more could be required of a legislature for a law binding in conscience."

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