CLERGY AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3007, 19 February 1917, Page 6

CLERGY AND WAR

THEIR CONSCRIPTION RESENTED

ADDRESS BY ARCHBISHOP O'SHEA

FINAL APPEAL TO BE INVOKED

Speaking at St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, last evening, His Grace Archbishop O'Shea dealt with tho question of tho conscription of the clergy. He said that a groat deal that was beside the point, and a great deal that was nonsense, had been said and written on the subject.. The criticisms directed ,-against the clergy in this matter were duo in part to the ignorance of some otherwise well-intentioned persons concerning tho position and duties of priests, but unfortunately they were due in part ah;o to an organised attempt by sectarian' bigots to injure the Church. They wero prompted by the same spirit that prompted the statement made in this country that the Pope had caused the war. He would leave that to the contempt it deserved from fair-minded men. The law of the Church against priests going into war as combatants went back andVas a prohibition, not a privilege! It was enacted by the civil power at the demand of the laity, and was promulgated in its present form about the beginning of tho ninth century by Charlemagne in answer to a petition by the people. This Imperial law.had been frequently re-enacted by the Church, and for at least 1100 years had been the law for Catholic priest's. The reason was well summed up by St. Thomas, who said: "Fighting is forbidden, the clergy, not because all fighting is wicked, but because all fighting, even the most justifiable, is out of keeping with a priest's vocation." Many othei; things were forbidden priests which were lawful for the laity, such as engaging in professions, trades, and commercial enterprises. A priest's work was predominantly of avreligious or spiritual nature. To devote themsleves tho more thoroughly to the service, of their follow men. mHosV nv-o sacrifices from the beginning of their career, such as no other class of men wore called on to make. They had; to discharge duties of a sacred character in regard to their people thattho clergy of no other denomination were called on or expected to First there was divine worship itself, .which for Catholics consisted chiefly in tho sacrifice of the Mass. Then there wero other demands made oii them by their people, the Sacrament had to be administered, confessions must be hoard, Holy Communion must be given, the sick and dying must be visited and attended to, special services must be hold, and a host of other things were multiplied, not in war time.

"Law Affects Only Catholic Church." Even from a. military point' of view tho priest following his proper calling had a very great value. The moralo of tho civilian population left bohiud and that of tho troops had to be kept up by the clergy. So even from that point of view it would be mismanagement to draw for other purposes on the limited and irreplaceable body of the clergy. Not that the priests, who had no fear of death, would not go anywhere and do anything at tho call of duty, and would not light as bravely as the bravest! Ask the survivors of Gallipoli what they think of the bravery and de~ votedness of tho priest chaplains there! Although a priest may lawfully expose his own life, and would cheerfully do so at the call of duty, to require him to take the life of another would, be an outrage on the sanctity of his profession, and an outrage on the Catholic conscience, more deeply, resented by the laity and the Catholic soldiers than by the priests .themselves. There was in New Zealand (the only ■part -of the British Empire) a law which did not exempt the clergy from fighting. When it was made, an un- :' dertaking was given to the bishops that conscription of the clergy was against the policy of the Government and that means would bo taken to have priests and students exempted. On Saturday, a' board refused to exempt two students. These two young men were students in every sense of the word bound-by nearly all the obligations of a priest, and they were under the prohibition against soldiering. This law as it stood affected for all practical purposes the clergy of the Catholic Church only, for they must be unmarried. .All the priests of military age (about two-thirds of the total) were in the First Division, while the clergy of the other denominations were for the most part in the Second Division. Therefore, all the Catholic clergy in the First Division would eventually be drawn in the ballot, and, if lit,' compelled to go before the non-Catholic, clergy. So this law struck principally at the Catholic Church, and Catholics, because they could not accept the spiritual ministrations of any but unmarried clergy, were to be singled cut for this special treatment, and have their priests taken away from them, and be left to live and die without the sacraments, and he buried like cattle. If that was not religious persecution he did not know what it was._ The spirit that animated it (unconsciously, it might be true) was the same spirit that animated the Penal Laws. But conscription of the clergy of any denomination betokened an apostacy fiom the Christian ideals that the _ British race in the past held in veneration, and still professed.to hold so dear. Title, it was only in this far-off part of the Empire that such an apostacy had been perpetrated.

The Church Doing its Share. What about France? they would he asked. The law sending priests to light in France was made by an infidel Government, and the Church had always protested against it. Also, the French Government would not at first allow chaplains with the army, so ■the soldier-priests were able toi administer to the soldiers. The conditions were quite different here. ' The Church had its chaplains at the front. This country had sent a large number of men, and would be able to send even more than the proportion expected of it withoiii calling upon a handful of clergy, whose small numbers would not influence.the.actual fighting in the least, but* whose help in God's work would have a mighty influence in winning the war. For no matter bow just-our cause—and it was a just cause I —wc could not win without God's blessing. * Then there was the senseless cry that we must send every man to the trenches in order to win. That showed a deplorably erroneous idea of what organisation meant. It was a proper organisation of our. superior resources, and not an indiscriminate throwing of men into the trenches that would win. That applied not only to the clergy, but to many other trades and professions. The Church was doing its full share in providing chaplains for the sniritual wants of its soldiers, and was likelv to bo called on to do even more, and please God, would do it. The Catholic chnnlains would <jn anywhere with their soldiers, and the Catholic soldiers would go anywhere with their, ohanlains. The people who were left behind, who bvcl •liven up their sons and brothers for the cause of their country, had many sorrows and trials ;>t Ibis time. and. needed the consolation that religion and the spiritual ministrations of their priests brought. Surely this should appeal to the. sense of iiistire of the community. We should have this much

sense left to endeavour to work to-' gother iu harmony during these critical times and avoid exasperating any section of the people. It was for a little more of this spirit that he pleaded. Catholics were resenting deeply the attempt to conscript their clergy, and would resent it still more if it was per-sisted-iu. They would use every means in their power to prevent it, and would appeal against some of the recent decisions of tho military boards to the Final Appeal Board. But they appealed more than all to the Christian sentiment and fairness of the British community not to persist in a policy that the Catholics looked upon as useless persecution, and would resent to the end.