ARCHBISHOP O'SHEA'S ADDRESS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 16, 18 July 1918, Page 8

ARCHBISHOP O'SHEA'S ADDRESS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —If "No Camouflage," obviously a non-Catholic, keeps in his drawer "files" [ consisting of the Catholic Press ac far j back as 1913 and the Melbourne Age of 1914 {or extracts from these papers), he must have a professional interest in the I Catholic Church. He is possibly a member of the P.P.A., and therefore vitally interested in justifying that body by proving the Catholic Federation ni> better. And see how typically he does this. He simply takes two statements made by two persons in Australia on Australian matters and proffers these as proof of the political character. of the New Zealand Catholic Federation. Then he ironically subscribes himself "No Camouflage!"

Getting down to tintacks. whj on earth should Catholics not use their votes to remove an injustice done to them because of their religion?. Does "N.C." deny the right of Catholics (or any others) to hold and to practise their re|ligion? t Does he deny them the right to have their children educated in that religion? These are rights belonging to Catholics as human beings and cannot be taken from them by that social con- ! venience which is called Parliament. And no Parliament which overrules these i rights and forces upon a minority an educational system designed to wean children from all religion, let alone any particular religion, can be described as other than tyrannical. j In New Zealand Catholics have managed to extricate themselves from [ the clutches of this agnostic system, but j the Government continues to make them pay a large sum towards the upkeep of the so-called "National" system. The recovery of this sum of money is the limit of the politiV.l interest of the Catholic Federation. It is undoubtedly very useful to the Government in helping to pay .for a system which does not appear to be giving as much satisfaction as it might; but it is nothing less 1 than a fine extracted from the Catholic body as a penalty for sticking to their beliefs'. Restore this unjust fine—or merely such I of it, as will, cover the secuinr instruction given (in accordance with State. require- • ments) _in Catholic schools—and the federation will have nothing more to interest itself in politics about".-—I am, etc., EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL. 16th July.