BISHOP LISTON

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 April 1922, Page 5

BISHOP LISTON

LETTER TO MR. MASSEY. MISUNDERSTANDING REGRETTED. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, April 6. Bishop Liston in a letter to the Premier says :—• “I yield place to no on© in love for this beautiful country of New Zealand, in which I was born, and loyalty to the King. Insofar as any reported remarks of mine should have misled those who do not know me, I quite frankly regret my share in the misunderstanding, and I trust when the people of New Zealand come to know me better, they will flunk of me as my friends do. I speak in that matter as a citizen of New Zealand no less than as a Catholic Bishop. The Church is the mother of my faith in things external, and New Zealand is my country and protectoress of my liberty and of my fortunes on earth. I could not utter one syllable that would belittle either my Church, or my country, and when I assert, as I now solemnly do, that the teachings of the Church are in thorough harmony with the interests of my country New Zealand, I know in the depths of my soul, that I speak the truth. That Catholics in New Zealand have carried out this obligation of loving their country, their generous part in her children’s toil and sacrifice, is honourablc proof. Loyally, however, does not preclude me, or anyone else, Ironi striving for betterment of any part of the Empire. What I said and what I sav now with all sincerity is this : In spite of the all too unhappy past. Irish people at home and abroad and their sympathisers are both willing and eager to hold out the hand of friendship. The very first to strike this note, were the Bishops of Ireland to a man, and one amongst them, who was often denounced as an out and out extremsit has hailed the Treaty which binds his country to the Empire, as the very gift of God.”