BISHOP MOHAN IN THE PULPIT.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 375, 19 May 1876, Page 3

BISHOP MOHAN IN THE PULPIT.

What I wish to 'allude to is : thi3 : In the course of last week a deputation of gentlemen representing Koman Catholics waited upon the Government of the country for a certain purpose. This has been the occasion selected by some very unworthy people to say things in reference to Oatuolics which are not true. . . ... It is true that at present there is much to complain of with respect to education in Italy, but the Church is not responsible for that. For twenty years Italy has been the scene of revolution, and the power which- is the outcome of the revolutionary.spirit has literally taken the Catholic Church by the shoulder and turned it out of the schools, and their own school s have been taken from them. Tf ignorance axists, as I believe it does at jjresent, the fault lies, not with the Church, but with those who .have persecuted.sthe Church Those are the men who calumniate us—who proclaim their love of education, and prove it by the wholesale destruction of schools jstablished and maintained by the generosity jf centuries. Love of education, indeed ! Their object is not enlightenment, but the lestruction of truth. It is not enlightenment they are seeking for, but ignorance. Else why destroy schools which existed for iges. and wherein was concentrated all the earning and enlightenment existing at present? _ But anything will serve

the purposes of certain'peisbns, provided tha it will injure Catholic institutions. Thost letters to which! refer were, written anony mously, and therefore by cowards ; because an injurious writer who slanders his nei<;h bbr is a coward, and a base coward. If. he is conscious that he is speaking the truth he would not slrok behind a false name. Why do not those writers come out (like men, anil let us see who they are, and what their motives are ? I know that theAvriters of some of these letters are personally and pecuniarily ;interested in injuring the Catholic schools. Yet these are the men-who ask to teach your .children. Do ihey not show their fitness for it ? Where is their knowledge ? Have they not given testimony of the most profound ignorance ? Yet they want to be the teachers of your children. They show how qual - tied they are for the position by insulting you. 'I hey trample upon your convictions, and ask to be the teachers of your children. What wtmld they instil into the minds of your children ? Falsehood in fact, falsehood :n history, falsehood in philosophy, calumniation of the Church, and misrepresentations of everything which we hold sacred, and the inculcation of. principles we believe to be immoral. They' ask to be the educators of your children. Are they not well-qualified teachers : that you should take your children away from your own trusted ones and send them to these, where they will be taught lies and calumnies, and contempt and hatred of the Church ? I speak a little warm perhaps this evening, but it i 3 because I feel indignant. No man but would feel; indignant at seeing men coming forward pretending to be enlightened, and at the same time proclaiming notorious falsehoods. It is enough to excite any man who is not a slave. These men who wai\t to educate your children talk about an injustice being done by the establishment of Catholic schools. Their qualifications for teaching are the most profound ignorance, absence of taste, and indifference as to truth. Who would depend upon a man who comes forward and states a notorious falsehood ? Who would trust men who come forward and recklessly state that to be true which they could easily know to be untrue? Now,, my brethren, you know the men who want to be the teachers of your children, and you know what they would teach them if they got the chance. F>ut T have no fear of your giving them the opportunity. You" have given too much evidence of acting as your fathers did, and of your intention to rear your children as Christians. I considered it my duty to take notice of these things and speak of them, and I will always follow the same course. On no occasion will I allow calumnies to pass unchallenged and unrefuted. I spoke on this subject this evening because, as T' am about leaving Dunedin for afortnijiht, T. was unwilling to allow so long a time to. elapse without pro setting against the injustjeu.—' Guardian.'