THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF ABBE LOISY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 66, 17 March 1908, Page 6

THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF ABBE LOISY.

(' (To the Editor.) | j ' r 1 quite agree with your leader of j _ ♦Wednesday on the excommunication of 1 ■the Abbe'Loisy. ICMs chiefly a matter j f for Roman Catholics only, and I do not 1 see how the Pope could avoid taking ( -the steps he has done about Modernism 1 .and those who preach it. It seems very -\ difficult to understand why persons who 1 hold some of the doctrines condemned . dn the Syllabus of Pius X.. and in the J .Encyclical Pascendi, should wish to be i called Catholics, or to remain in the communion of the Catholic Church. As regards clergymen, there can be no doubt what they should do; they have no right to hold themselves out al Catholic priests, and officiate as such. I _ and take the emoluments and honours ; _ oi the position, while holding opinions j _ .that arc utterly condemned by the head . aof the Catholic Church. j But there are in every Catholic country many thousands of aiucate-l Laymen , -who hold some, at of tiie proposi- _ tiocs condemned by th.-> _?op-?, but who _, have been brought up as Catholics, have bflffl conJrined anJ eonim__r.icr.ted, have been married in a Catholic Church, and * •will piolably, on their death-beds, yield j to the (ntreaties of their female re- . latives. and send for the priest, and die "'fortified by the rit?s of the Church."' j They do not go to confession; they at- 1 tend Church occasioailly to avoid scan- L da!, and to gratify their wives; they I. allow all their children to be brought ' up as Catholics. A few such men are to be found amongst English Catholics. . In view of the re-ient, action of the J] Pope, what ought such men to do: Practically many educated men in Catholic countries are either avowed and open •unbelievers, or conformists suck as 1 Lave described. For many years I have . oeionged to the latter class, and if the Pope had resolved quieta non movere, 1 should have taken no steps to separate myself from the Church to which 1 f .belonged for 4ti years. But there are limits. To declare that the Old Testa- , ■ment is immune from error, and to virtu- . ally express my belief in the Mosaic account of the Creation is more than 1 can stand. I therefore, on the appearance of the Encyclical, formally resigned j my membership of the Roman Catholic , Church by a letter to Bishop Lenihan. I did this in order that 1 might have • freedom of speech and writing. A man, ' d consider, has the right to leave a ! society which he has voluntarily joined, -hut he has no right to remain in it and ' .disturb it. or refuse to obey its rules. - < —1 am, etc.. * ' AN ENGLISH CONVERT.- ! S_farch 14th, J 90s. '