ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 February 1917, Page 3

ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS.

CONSCRIPTION RE3E NTED.

ARCHBISHOP O’SHEA’S ADDRESS.

' WELLINGTON, February 19. Following upon the decisions of ihi Third Wellington Military Service last week Archbishop O’Shea spoke or the subject ~of conscription and the clergy at St. Joseph’s Church. last night. He said * that the law of the Churci against priests going into war as core batants went back centuries and wfts 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 beginningj of the ninth century by Charlemagne in answer to a petition : by the people. This imperial law had been frequently re-enact-ed by the Church, and for afT least 1100 y&ars had been the law for Catholic priests. A priest’s work was predomin antly of a religious or spiritual nature* To devote themselves the more thoroughly to the service l of their fellow men priests made sacrifices from the- beginning of their career such as no- other - class of men were called on to make. They bad to .discharge,duties of. a sacred character in regard to their people that the clergv of no other denomination were called on or expected to discharge. First there was -Divine worship" itself, which for Catholics consisted chiefly in the Sacrifice of- the Mass. Then there were other demands made on them .Jby their* people. The SVrament had to be nd- 1 ’ ministered, confessions must- be heard, Holy Communion must be 'given, the sick end - dying must be visited .and attended to, special services must; be held, and. a host of other things, which were multiplied, not. diminished, in war time. A lthough a priest may -.-lawfully expose i his own life, and would cheerfuly, do so'at the call of duly, to .require him'- to take the life of another would la? an outrage on the sanctity of his profession and an outrage on the Catholic conscience, more deeply resented by the laity and til* Catholic soldiers than by the priests themselves. v - ,

was in New Zealand (the only of the British Emp re where it y\i so) (i law which did not exempt the °:*’ r o. v fi'om fighting. When if was made rn nndeitaking was given to the bishops thiU conscription of the clergy was against the policy of tlie Govtrnment, and ih’t means would be 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 Chinah only, for they must be unmarried. All the priests of military age (about twothirds of il\e total) w'ere- jn the First Division,- while the clergy of the other denominations wert for the most part in the Second Division, therefore all the Catholic clergy m the First Divison would eventually be drawn in the ballot, and, if fit, compelled to o-o be fore tbt non-Catholic clergy. So° this law struck principally at' the Catholic Church, and Catholics, because they could not accept the spintu.il ministrations ot any but unmarrieu clergy were to be singled out tor this special treatment and nave their ’priests .taken away from tuem.'und be lett to hve and die without the sacraments, and *a buried like cattle. If that was not religious pcrstcution lie did not know what was. 'The spirit that unlimited it (unconsciousIp, it might he true) was the same spirit tout animated the penal laws, but conscription of the clergy of any denomination betokened an upostacy from too Christain ideals that tht British race in the past held in veneration and still professed to hold so dear. True, it was only in this far-off part of the Empire that such an apostacy had been perpetrated.

Alter referring to the very different conditions in Trance, wheie priests were fighting, Archbishop. O'Shea said this country had sent a large number of men, and would be ab.e to send even more than the proportion expected of it without calling upon a handful cf .clergy; whose small numbers would not influence the actual nglitmg in* the least, but whose help in God’s work would have a mighty influence in winning the war. Then there was the senseless cry that, must send every man to the trenches in order to w?n. Tn t showed a deplorably erroneous idea cf what organisation meant. It w'as a priper organisation .of our superior resources and not an indiscriminate throwing of men into the trenches that would win. That applied not only to tlie >clergy, but to many other trades and professions. T,ie Church was doing its full share in providing chaplains for the spiritual wants of its soldiers, and was likely to be called dn to do even more, andj please God, would dp it. The GathoTlc chaplains would go anywhere with their soldiers, mid the Catholic soldiers would go apywhere with their chaplains'. The people who were left behind, who had given up their soils and brothers for the cause of their country, had many sorrows and trials at this time, and needed the consolation' that religion and spiritual ministrations of their priests brought. Surely this should appeal to tiie sense of justice of the community. “We ought,’’ said his Grace in con-, elusion, “to fiave this much sense left, to endeavour to work all together in harmony during these so critical times for our country and avoid needlessly exasperating any section of the people. It is for a little mpro cf this spirit that I plead. Catholics resenting deeply the attempt to conscript thetr clergy and will resent it still more if it is persisted ~in. We will use every means in our, power to prevent it, and will appeal against some of the recent decisions of th<p Military Boards to the final appeal board, but we will appeal more than all to the Christain sentiment and fairness of a British community" not to persist in a policy that we J look upon as -useless persecution, and will resent to the end.”