Untitled
New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 31, 4 August 1904, Page 1
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Consistency is a jewel that is clearly not intended by the lodge for everyday wear. While the brethren in Qhriitchurch were busy raising the steam-pressure of
their fury over the reinstatement of a resjpectaMe Catholic worker at Addington, the heads of the Order in Ireland were busy securing the reinstatement ot a non- Catholic constable of evil reputation who had been dismissed by the Crown on grave charges of immorality testified to on the sworn evidence of competent and unexceptionable witnesses. The inquiry was conducted b 7 two police Inspectors, who reported that the charges were proved, and the fellow— who promised to marry a girl that he had irretrievably injured— was accordingly ca/ihiered. Then the heads of tlie Orange faction set to work, and used their influence with such success that the offender was, without further trial, reinstated by tthe authority of the Chief Secretary, who refused any further inquiry into the case But the oath-bound fraternity have over had a soft place in their hearts for lapses from sexual morality. One of their rules runnet»h thus Any member guilty of AN OFFENCE OF AN AGGRAVATED CHARACTER AGAINST RELIGION OR MORALITY shall be only LIABLE TO EXPULSION.' And note that the offence must be 'of an aggravated character befoie the liability to expulsion begins. But any member marrying a Catholic, voting or using his influence for a Catholic candidate, or refusing to vote for the candidate selected by the lodges shall be expelled.' The rule is peremptory, and it is enforced with relontless vigor.
wjiith is working such havoc on fundamental Christian beliefs in many 1 Piotestant pulpits and professorial chairs.
It) is an open secret,' says Isidore Singer, a njn- Catholic writer, in the June numibcr of the Illustrated Magaiioic,' that perhaps not five per cent of the prpfes-sors of the Paotestant theological facullies of the twent s'-'Mio (;rrm,ui uni vcrsM h>,s npy nuive tSi.m tlh'ose at the majoniy of their sister institutions m othei countries, believe implicitly m the divinity 01 the founder of Chnstianity they accept for thomseles ai.d teajch Iftio result of the so-called Higher Criticism n<t only with regard to the Old but also to the New Festani'ofnt. That they thcieby dcst'ioy the dogmatic basis of tihe Christian faith is their lookout In ISj97 the infidel lectuier-buffoon, Ingersoll, threatened to retire from b)UMTicss because (said he) 'so many preachcis aTe climbing upon my platform that they are crowding me out Both I/ngersoll and Singer nuv ha^ c fallen somewhat into hyperbole. But, at anyrate, the mutilat.e"d cartcatuic of the Scriptiures which the B»ble-insi'hjools CV>nference are pining to place in t|ie hands of £>thool-chi!dren, at the public etvp^nso, has IJIO dm;-m'atic basis of the Christian fanfh tom out of it and ilung over the fence When mischief is done, it matters little in the en.d to the hapless ictims whether it was done for moties that were bad, 01 mdifieient, or gpod In, its way, the slaughter-yard editing of the Bible-in-sehools Confeienee— no matter wluit its immediate motive "would produce pretty nearly as bad lebiilts a.s if it w ei e dutated hv a conscious leiettion 01 the dogmatic basis of the Christian faith
In one of his hooks Mr. Stead spoke of the Orange bogey that (under the title of tflie American Pioteeti/ve 'Association) made night hideous by revisiting the pale gHnVpses of the mi)on in Western America. 'It is,' says he, the same old demon, with its familiar hoof anjd horns and tail, seating the old women of both sexos wit,h the bogey of impending massacres aifd of the domination of sixty millions by six.' In his letter t«o the N.Z. Times Dr. Gibb tries to scare the old w.omen of both sexes here with a fantastic tale of the domiiiaticrfn of six-sevenths of the population by the remaining seventh Parliament,' said he, 'is afraid to act contrary to the wishes of Roman Cathplijos,' And them, to clinch matters, he adds 'We
khmv this.' Prodi-gi-ous The Rev. Dr. Gibb''S conti: t versies m and with the newspaper presis are not usually marked by the amenities ot The Polite Letterwriter.' But to suggest that our Parliament is a Parliament of polt 100ns so palsieU and knoc/k-ikneed with terror of one-seventh— and that, perhaps, the poorest seveuith of the population, that they have no freedom of action left And, right worshipful good masters, tihc Doctor, 111 1 Pal tli knows this to 'be mj To us, in oar pu/^le- headed way, it seems passing strange that a Parliament v'hich 'is afraid to act contrary to the wishes of Roman Catholics,' should, for a generation, have persistently flouted our educational claims. But let that pasis Our readeis, a,'nd leaders of our local mioming and evening contemporaries, will not be profoi-ndly lmpicysed with the e-Al operator's catalogue of the thungs that the ex-,Moderator Knows for Ins reading and experience seem to have a.eVJed to his stioie of knowledge' a vast and variegated amount of misinformation that has time and again proved to be a deculedly mcotnenicfnt acquisition to him. Jle has, m fcV-t, found it necess,aiv to jettison quite a little cargo of tHinngs wlmh he tiliought he knew,' and which 9 a,sseited with a positivoness that was as emphatic as the snap of a steel train. One could not safely stake so much as the value of a btas.s pin-head 071 ctven the nvist. dead-sure assertion of one whose abandon eid or plucked-out I-knows are littwcd so boutit ifully over .1 good slice of New Zealand.
Bui the of one-seenth of the population terrorising the other si-se- enths— in the pensions of their iepjeseiil.il mon 111 P.u li.ipient w as .1 ieliv c<ulpa,' a happy lapse fi 0111 sane asset turn, because of the pretty play of the dditional horsewhip that it provoked. The Roman Catholic Church is solid on the (Bible-m-sehools) question,' says the N Z. Tunes the other ("Hurch.es aie not If they wet a, "Parliament," as Dr. Gibb puti.s it, "would he afraid t.o act contrary to the wishes" of Protestiamtx Parliament is not afraid of Protect an t«s on this question, just because it knows that Pi otcstant s- aic divided up an it Parliament peiceies that Protestants are not in earne.sl that no Church ecept the Catholic Church puUs its hand ir its pocket to instil religion into the mii.ds of its dhiMion with their daily lessons th.it eery other Clnuoli but the Catholic calls loudly but not seriously fo: legislation Since 15.77 the other Churches have stood by riupinely inactive whilst then children have been educated in godless schools One Church only has actocb— am! acted at v.vt cost to its membeis The Anglican Geneial Synod, the Presbyterian (icneral .Viseni'toly, the Methodist Conference, show un.-n.mity which Di Gibb o-pplauds highly But that unanimity goas no fuither than to unite Parliament to act for thorn', and they are entirely indifferent to the fact tduti if Parliament acted as they de-sue a deep injustice would be inflicted upon a Urge nunonty of their follow-colonisK. We are quite well awaie that Dr. Gibb and his frionds argue that the introduction of t<heir lesions would not be an injustice to the Catholics but the Catholics are the bost judgos m that mattor, and tihey support their judgment by an appeal to then purses, which is a much more practical and earnost evidence of their belief than Dr Gibb and his friends have ever aftoi'dod either to Parliament or the electors. "We repeat our strong conviction that the electors are overwhelmingly against any alteration of dur present education system siich as Dr Gibb pro- I o^es.'
ktoiows, ,ol course, that the Vatican Council is merely suspended— not finished. In 1870 the Fathers wore obliged to discontinue their labors owing to the disturbed state of Italy atad tihe imminent fall of the temporal power and the occupation of Rio me by the Piedmonte.se. Happily they had been able to defme the greit dogma of the infallibility of .the Pope, but they wore obliged to defer a settlement of a gicat part of their programme, such as the enactment of disciplinary laws aad the definition of many important points conceined wifeh the Sacred Scriptures. The mat tor is discussed among many ecclesiastics, whe consider t>hat the idoa is one which would aip/peal to the apostolic 7eal ai;d energy of the present Pontiff, and who are agreed that the times are more propitious now than tihey have been since 1870. lint it is generally felt that at least a couple of years of preparation will be netes^ary. Jf the Council does meet now it will certainly surpass all records in the number of bishops who will attend it. The Catholic hierarchy increased by leaps and bounds during the Pontificate of Leo XIII. lie added two new Patriarchal sees, 13 new archdioceses, 22 dioceses raised to Uhe dignity of archdioceses, 118 episcopal sees, three abbacies itullius, five apostolic delegations, 50 new Vioaiialos apostolic, 1G icanates created fron Prefectures apostolic, and 39 new Prefectures apostolic, thus increasing by ahout 200 in round numbers the hierarchy of the Church. It is estimated that at the future sessions of the Councils some 3000 ecclesiastics will be present, either as Fathers, theologians, stenographers, etc. There are at present in the Catholic Church slightly oer 1000 bishops with residential sees, and half that number of titular bishops. Of course it will not be possible for all of those to come to Rome for the Council, but considering the present facilities ot tracl, and the unprecedented number af Msjiops, it is quite certain that all previous records for numbers will be put into the shade. Italy heads the list of all Countries as regards the number of residential sees as it did whMi tho Vatican Council was opened for the first time, but at the future sessions tihe United States will take the second place, instead of France, which has occupied i: for a gieat many centuries.'
