POSITION OF THE CLERGY

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 48, 24 February 1917, Page 5

POSITION OF THE CLERGY

TO IHB EDITOR. Sir,—Your correspondent "Patriot"professes a deep respect for the rank and.file of the Catholic community, but I greatly fear that, after reading his letter in. to-night's Post, the latter will say to him: "Keep your respect for yourself. We want none of it." For, instead of pouring oil on the troubled waters, "Patriot" heaps on more fuel on the fire, thus helping to fan the fiamss of bigotry—surely a wasteful effort, considering that we have the Rev. Mr. Lowry and the whole of his Methodist forces in our midst these days. It is right and proper, sir, that we should suspend party strife and take counsel before the common foe during this tremendous conflict. But I fail to see how our request for the redress of an educational grievance can be caUed party strife. . For surely "Patriot" daes not believe that we are asking the State for his money.. We are asking for our own, which the State has pocketed for close on 40 years, without giving us an adequate return for it. How could ttie redress of that grievance keep us from winning the .war? Wo arc in this war because "Hobbery under arms'' was committed in Belgium and France by the Raiser and his. associates. ■ Is that a reason, forsooth, why robbery should be allowed in Kew Zealand? If/Patriot" were thus robbed—and robbed repeatedly—would he tell the robber: "My good friend, go home in peace, for the war is on and we must all pull together in such a grave emergency?" 2. Cannot "Patriot"' understand that there aro teachers and teachers? There were not a few Catholic lay-teachers engaged in their profession when this war broke out. Has any bishop appealed for them? I airi told that they are practically all gone—and gone with the bishops' blessing. Why then, do we appeal for the Marist Brothers? .because they cannot be replaced. You cannot clap a cassock on a layman's back, put him into a school and say .to him: "Henceforth you will be' a Marist Brother!" These Brothers have taken the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and our people look upon them as consecrated to God, only in a slighter degres than fcho priests them-, selves. But "Patriot" urges that they should be replaced by the willing women workers of whom the church lias so many. Where does "Patriot" ■ get his knowledge of the Catholic Church? Is it from the same storehouse, from which he has brought forth that highly-edifying and so wonderfully relevant piece of information about Charlemagne's private life? Will it surprise him to learn that the Sisters of Mercy, whom a humorous correspondent suggested the other day, os likely to replace the priests' in the confessional, in the pulpit, and on the altar—that they are already overworked, and that their ranks must first be filled, before they can replace any one elseS 0. But it is in his remarks concerning canon law that your correspondent -is most highly amusing. He seems to have no conception whatsoever of what the ' term means. It is because the article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the subject was too'long, to digest at one evening sitting? "When did canon law come to New Zealand ?" he asks. Canon law came to New Zealand when the first French priest landed here, and it will remain, binding upon every priest until—and long beyond the time when— Macauky's New' Zealander will stand upon the broken arch of London bridge. "Was it ever promulgated here?" he asks again, and.. I verily believe- he must have studied for the law once upon a time, for what a dreadful cross-examina,-he submits us to! Let me ask him if the ten commandments have ever been promulgated in New Zealand.. And, if ho ever mentions them in- this controversy, will he, please, produce the stone tablets of Mt. Sinai, so that we can check his quotation ! The authority of canon law does not depend on the character of Charlemagne, as the authority of many a- law which "Patriot" has' to obey does not depend on the character of the AngloSaxon "thieves and thugs and smiters" (vide Chesterton), by whom they were framed.

4. And, sir, "it is not playing the game to besmirch our French Allies." Who besmirches them? Not ..we, their fellow-Catholics ! . Not, we, who "' admire them far more than "Patriot" can ever do ! Not we, who know and 1 share the' source from which they draw their sublime love of country and their superhuman courage in this tremendous struggle! Not we,, who are proud that the Catholic faith of the " Eldest Daughter of thp "Church," which a handful of atheists Tiad hoped to extinguish, has blazed forth'into a mighty flame, that lights up'every hill and valley in "la douce France," and brings warmth and consolation into the humblest home as well as the richest! Let "Patriot" study the history of Franco—and also a little canon law—and the next time he rushes j into print we may possibly find him not ' only moro .enlightened, but also in a more ,generous frame of mind.—l am, etc., H.B. 23rd February.