CHURCHES AND POLITICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16671, 16 October 1917, Page 6

CHURCHES AND POLITICS

J PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION. i H RECENT POSTAL INQUIRY. FINDING CRITICISED. . A jtsbtinq under the auspices of. the Protestant Political Association was held " in the Town Hall last evening. There was a a very large attendance, and the proceed- » ings were marked by considerable en- •' thusiasm. Mr. S. 'M. Moore-Jones preJ sided. Apologies for unavoidable absence J were received from the Hon. J. A. Hanan./Minister' for Education, and Messrs. W. Nosworthy, E. P. Lee, and J. S. Dickson, M.P.'s. Tin chairman opened his remarks by referring to the formation, about four years ego, of the Roman Catholic Federation, and to the aims that it had enunciated. One of its latest demands, made to the Minister for Education, was that the Roman Catholic schools should be sub- . sidised by the State. The Minister had refused to grant the request, and had ; statod that a. long as he held his present position he would stand by the Act. (Ap- , plause.) The speaker declared that an effort had been made to dominate local politics as well as State Departments in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church, and that, on the occasion of the last City Council election in Auckland, an implied threat had been made against him, but ho had refused to bo influenced by it. It might be said that the formation of the Protestant Poli-! tical Association was calculated to create ! strife at a time when all should present : a united front to a common enemy, but i it was their duty to see that those liber- j ties which their sons were fighting for on the battlefield were not menaced during their absence. (Applause.) It was no part of the aims of the association to; attack any person's religion, but no: Church or religion should be used as an ! instrument to dominate politics. In those j countries in which the Church of Rome held political sway there was nothing but turmoil, non-progressiveness and intolerance in its -most repulsive form. He referred to Ireland, which, he said, had contribute! only 17.4 per cent, of its available righting men to the British Army in tho present war, whereas England, Scot- ' land, and Wales together had contributed 70.7 per cent, of their available strength. Protestant Ulster had supplied £1.2 per cent, of the total Irish force. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church, he declared,

3 was not. in sympathy with Britain and her allies ii - the present war, Tho motto of ' r the association was "Equal rights for all . and special privileges for none," | Platform of' the Association. • • Pastor 0. K. Meyers said that tho plati form of the Protestant Political Associa- > tion was one on which fair .discussions on i the aims and aspirations of the Roman ] > Catholic Church would continue, but it J 1 would be barred to any who wished to ' L discuss them with, a spirit of animosity ' . or religious hatred. - (Hear, hear.) It : must' be patent to. every student of his- • tory that the Roman Catholic Church was ; not satisfied, to work as .a ', religious : organisation " and to concern itself with a religious . mission <in • the world. A great ; deal, had keen ( heard 1 about the Catholic ; s vote. Why, he asked, should there be a ! Catholic vote at all ? When aknan wentl ' to the ballot-box he should be tram-' i infilled by the ' doctrines of 'any. Church, i •: (Applause.) In 1912 an American ■ Roman ~ Catholic ' archbishop ''-.stated,. 'in response to'* av, query ■ from /a member >of ; ■ his Church, - - that' he \ must ; submit himself • to : the - decision of ! the Church, even if he -: had -to sacrifice : political ! principles. It was a state- [■ ment, but - itj; could -be proved that the • Roman Catholic Church, through its politi- ; f cal associations challenged all that was ? best country's constitution. Free-'", ■ dom :of opinion and * the - right to - express • these opinions throogh the medium of the : press, > and of - speech,; were : our best 'and \ greatest rights. - ,'■ '■> \ i ' Continuing,- Pastor - Meyers. " said • the ! ; Roman Catholic Church' was uncompromis- ! ; ingly opposed to a free press. ' In 1864, ' Pope Pius IX.■ issued an encyclical, in , which; he condemned and proscribed the ! doctrine : that '' liberty of conscience and : of worship is the right of every man—a >ight: which ought to be proclaimed and established in law in every well-constituted State, : and - that, citizens are entitled to : make, known and declare, with a liberty which 1 neither the ecclesiastical nor .the civil -authority can limit, their* convictions of whatever by either word of mouth or through the press, or by other means." The Speaker : said that this encyclical also proscribed - the' contention that " the will.. of the people manifested by - what is called i public opinion constitutes supreme law!" It. could only be in keeping with' such a pronouncement to find that all fair criti-' cism. calculated 'to undermine the political', aspirations of the Roman Catholic Church F resented in the same spirit in- which they were condemned by Pope Pius IX.. \ /" Catholics and, Newspapers. . ! Sir. Meyers said that in Washington a 1 newspaper had'been- boycotted .under tho ' ■ authority of :-; Monsignor Russell, of ' the I Roman Catholic Church. In Cbristchurch 1 a newspaper, comment on Bishop foodie's 1 utterances at a jpublic meeting showed that : the same spirit of suppression : existed, j ] Although, opposed to ..a free press for 1 ' others,®the greatest liberties were taken 1 by Catholic journals'.; Pastor Meyers read, ] extracts from the New Zealand. Tablet to show how Intolerantly' public men were j ] attacked and how openly the cause of the ;■ ' Empire was criticised. In view of these { facts one judgment only could be passed 1 on the increasing activities of the Catholic ' Federation. " j The speaker proceeded : "We must say ' I to every Protestant Church, ' You are free , to fulfil your mission,' and to the Roman ;•{ Catholic Church we can suv ' Vmi i •

• vawwuu vuurcu we can Bay, iou, tOO, ' are free ; but, remember, all of yon, that I the.price your Church: pays for this liberty . is an absolute divorce from political inter- • ference.' Remember Abraham Lincoln's words, and 'here highly resolve that those dead shall not nave died in vain, , that this nation under God shall have a 1' new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'" (Applause.) ' Reply, to the Rev. Father Ataswoith. : Mr. Georg| Aldridge, the next speaker, , criticised a sermon preached by the 1 Rev. Father Ainsworth in St. Patrick's .Cathedral recently. Father Ainsworth, , said the speaker, had assumed the task of 1 publicly rebuking the association, and had attempted to frivo it a lesson in toleration , and charity. He had indignantly declared , that Catholics had been subjected to a [ bitter campaign directed against "the | sacred institutions and sacred personages of the, Catholic Church," that " ridicule, misrepresentation, and bitter calumnies were hurled with sickening reiteration against them," Any campaign at. all had been directed not against persons, or Roman Catholic morality, but against , Romanism as a system which now, as ■ always, opposed the principles of civic and ; religious liberty. (Applause.) Father i, Ainsworth had termed the association a f villainous association, and its members as ignorant, intolerant bigots. He had r either spoken without knowledge, .or he I had. wilfully misrepresented it, when he had declared its avowed purpose was to "procure justice and equal rights for all Protestants."; The association would be : unworthy 'Of its name, and would forfeit its right to>; existence, were Its objects thus limitS. (Applause. It might suffice for the Catholic Federation to limit , itself to the ( interests'* of ' its • own co-religionists, . but j true ' Protestantism had in .it i something '.wider ; and . more generous. Its motto, .was' " Equal : rights'; for : all; special privileges for none.'' That was the association's 'Standard. ■ (Applause,) The association had come; into peine not because it was believed that Romanist doctrines were unsound, nor because of the Church's ceremonies or charities. ? These might.be considered as private matters, with which no outside association and no man had a right to interfere. But it waa the system

* which concerned, -;.' with v seorei ) diplomacy,' international intrigue,', anc ;■', political meddling, which the associatior opposed; The speaker < said that; Roman Catholicism contained features mimical tc • the. State, .and- detrimental to the 1 interest! ;the individual, and they must be withstood by all who wished to conserve the liberties so hardly won by our forefathers, (Applause.)- ;■'-••■ t■'■;■ :■■..;.;.■. .'. ■'V ■ There were two ( factors which ■ had , contributed to , the formation;' ■of >.: the association, and both - were , important , enough to demand such an organisation. 3 The first .was the origin, progress, aul , possible outcome.of the war. This had awakened: the activities •of British and 5 American Protestantism. Apart altogether - from the clearly-understood actions of the - Vatican, it was the boldly-declared inten- . tion of the German centre— War Party . —to secure the renewal of the Tomporal Power of the Papacy. The London Stan- ' dard has stated that at a private sitting 1 ! of the Finance Committee of the Bavarian ! Diet "the Premier of Bavaria stated definitely that Germany and her allies, , including Mahommodan Turkey, < had pledged themselves to assign a portion of Italian territory for the revival of tho Papal State abolished half a century ago." That, with all tho consequences which belonged to such a grant, was of itself sufficient to call into existence throughout the British . Empire strong Protesting Associations to stiffen the backbone of the rulers in their resistance to this scheme (Applause.) But there was a more immediate cause, and that was the birth and existence of the Catholic Federation, which was an organisation to be used by the Church to push its claims, primarily to disintegrate and wreck our system of education. These two things were sufficient to justify the cxistenco of the Protestant Political Association. (Hear, hear.) Question of Christian Charity.' Dealing with Father Ainsworth's statement that the Roman Catholic Church i was ever the practical exponent of Chris- 1 i tion charity in its widest sensed Mr.. Al- . dridge gave what he considered instances of the lack of charity on the part of the I Roman Catholic Church and its represent*- ! tives. He said that in no country where I Romanism was strong was Protestantism tolerated. It was presumptuous for Father Ainsworth to talk of Christian charity, _ seeing that he was a member of a bier- ■ archy which pledged itself to the persecu- ! tion and extermination of heretics. Roman j Catholic bishops were compelled to take 1 a vow that heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our Lord tho Pope I will to I my uttermost persecute and oppose." i Archbishop Bourne had stated that this part of the oath was not required from English bishops. 1 That was because Protestant England would not permit such action. The speaker said' he did not know if Dr. Cleary was also exempted, but if he sore it was for the same reason. It we*, exacted, however, from Roman functionaries in other lands. If the chairman of the Ministers' Associa-

; tion took a similar oath, would the det nominations represented be able to boast lof their Christian charity? 1 , " Mr.' Aldridge concluded by asking if the Papacy had set aside its claims of supremacy for its head and laws in Great Britain and in this Dominion. Had it repudiated its claim to depose kings and princes, and to absolve their subjects . from allegiance? Did it no longer claim ; the right to kill heretics? Did it now ' concede equal rights for all, special privileges for none? If not Father Aina- ; worth's laudation of the charity of Romanism was worthless. ' Preparation for Election. -The Rev. Howard Elliott was the last • speaker. Before dealing with the Post j Office inquiry, he referred generally to the aims < and aspirations of, the Protestant Political Association. Dealing with the • cry of " sectarian strife," he said the i association protested against- it as unjust and untrue, v (Hear, ; hear.) ' Neither on the : platform of lihe association, ; nor in any of' the literature published by it, had any word been uttered or written that ' reflected upon tie doctrinal beliefs or the religions practices of the Roman Catholic Church/ That Church, however, was something more ■ than a church. By its organisations, and through its publications, it- was a political institution, adventuring ; into politics both local and national. Because of; its menace the Protestant Political Association 'was being organise# The Roman . Catholic Federation, during the { East three years, had . been organising by , • oldine . public meetings ana enrolling members in the political interests of its ' Church, and cry of sectarian strife had , been raised. But as soon as the Protest- ' ants commenced to organise, the , cry of sectarianism was started.' The Protestant Political Association was not raising any sectarian issue, except the one raised by the Catholic Federation three years ago. : When . the Church of Rome essayed to i enter ,th i political arena'she had no right to resent either ' criticism or counter ! organisation. (Applause.) - ( • It had been said by some good PrStes- i tants, continued Mr. Elliott, whose con- i cern for the Empire and the great neces- • sity for winning the war caused them to i object, that the present was not the time | j for inaugurating a great Protestant organ- | isation. Had the matter been left to the ] option of Protestants they would have .chosen'almost any other time in the history of the Dominion for such an organisation. The choice did not lay with the association, however. Tli2 necessity had j been forced upon it. The painty! fact 1 was that during the period of the , war the ' aggressions and arrogance of the Roman ' Church had become so marked and dan- r gerous to the interests of Protestantism c and tho Empire that in every part of c the Empire Protestants had been forced 1 to organise an Protestants were now doing c in New Zealand. Tho Protestants of New ( Zealand were the last of all to take" up I the" work. To wait until after the war a would be to piny the game of the associa- ' tion's opponents. It would be impossible ( to organise effectively the Protectant 1 forces under one year. An election was certain to take place before the elapse' of J that period after the war, and Protest tantß would be found unprepared for the attack as Britain was unprepared for a Germany's onslaught. They would be l blind men, and traitors to their great heritage if they allowed themselves to be caught, whilst irreparable injury would E

i be dono to the future well-being of our f land. (Applause.) " The Recent Postal Inquiry. t Referring to the postal inquiry Mr. , Elliott said that the opinions of men of 1 all standing; throughout Now Zealand were - that the fiading of the commissioner was r j thoroughly unsatisfactory, and 'against the » weight of evidence, and attempted to justify an unjustice that was intolerable. The censorship was still being exercised over Box 912, and the people of the , New Zealand now knew that the corres--5 pondence of Protestants' was singled out 5 , for censorship -while no correspondence of ( • a Roman Catholic organisation, institu- [ tion, or publication was subjected to I such a scrutiny. The commission was of l such an inadequate and restricted charac- [ ter, providing , only for the investigation k i of the charge of non-delivery of the letters ( , to the ministers, and for the inquiry to bo , held in the Minister's room at the post i office, that when the speaker, saw its | 'terms after going to Wellington to get a , copy of the commission, he declined to j appear before such a commission, and de- . manded, through his counsel, that the ■ commission should cover all the charges , that it be a public inquiry, and that a I Supreme Court Judge should be ap- . pointed to bear the evidence. A new , .commission was then issued, but it was . I so drawn up that it effecutally prevented , any satisfactory inquiry into the censor's , action, and the service of a Supreme , ! Court Judge were refused. Formal objection was then taken to Mr. Bishop hearing the case, on the grounds of want of confidence. The objection was based on the grounds that Mr. Bishop was an extreme High-church Anglican, and as such mora inclined to Rome than to Protestantism, that he had just been ( an inmate in a Roman Catholic private hospital in Christchurch, that his expressed opinions as chairman of the Canterbury Military Board on the exemption of Marist Brothers indicated his sympathies, and, lastly, that he was not a lawyer, and. had no legal training. This fact alone justified the claim for the services of a Supreme Court Judge,, but Sir Joseph Ward had decided and Cabinet could not interfere. • ' . The inquiry, paid Mr. Elliott, had established that there were nine letters * %

it which were ? delivered without >; contents,»? d The association knew there were more, but' n could not secure the evidence, Mr. n Bishop's ; finding .on this : point was • after 0 the mariner of the surprised disciple, is '' What are theso amongst • so many?" i- The margin of . error accounted for everyie thing,- although it was shown in evidence 5. that it revealed an average of error 500 times greater than the average for the d year of the whole postal service of the e Dominion. it ' : ' . . lt ' The Undelivered tetters. ] As to the letters undelivered to the . ministers, Mr.' Elliott said that that was the work of the censor, who was not perImitted to say anything. His mouth was closed, and behind that mouth lay all the '' facts thai were relevant to the real rea-~ J son for the censorship. The censor, like the King, could do no wrong. An auto- " cratic tyranny might not be questioned,, [ but if questioned, would give no answer. [ The evidence of the Solicitor-General, revealed the reason, if not the motive, for j the censorship. He , said that it was owing j to the circulation of- the' pamphlet j Rome's Hideous Guilt in the European, > Carnage,'' which ho thought to be misI chievous, although he probably was in [ profound ignorance as to the facts which ; it contained. The pamphlet was an ~ article taken from the Churchman's MagaII zine, which was published in London and . I circulated throughout the British Em- • , | pire. It was published in the religious nress in every one of the British 'Dominions and circulated broadcast in : | -pamphlet form in Australia, but nowhere ' , else in the British realm was it banned or i its circulation interfered . with—notwith- , standing the efforts of Rome to securd its 1 , prohibition in New Zealand, and ( then at the dictate of a Govern- < ment official who knew nothing ■ whatever about the matter. (Applause.) • Here was revealed an unrestricted autocracy, which put in peril the rights of 1 free speech and a free press, because the 3 (Solicitor-General thought the matter mis- ] chievous. Whilst the Roman Catholic newspaper, ! the Tablet, was publishing matter so nearly sedition that only the Attorney- 1 General could sea the difference between , the paper's statements and the real thing, 1 no censorship was placed upon the box of ] any Reman Catholic organisation, institu- t tion, or publication in tne Dominion. The 1 Green Ray, which was printed and pub- j lished at the same office as the Tablet, ( contained statements so offensive to Bri- ' ■ tishers that had the paper been sup* ] ' pressed it would have caused no surprise, j j Mr. Elliott said there were statements in I these two papers, which if they had ap- £ peared in one of the local papers, or if £ the speaker had spoken them th » gaol doors would have been swinging to re- 1 ceive the editors and himself. The / could „ not even b»ve hoped to have been allowed to pay a fine, as was the priest convicted V of grossly seditious utterance in an Auckland hotel. The speaker said that the T censorship, however free the Solicitor-

General might be from suspicion of bias, i operated entirely in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church, Mr. Bishop's 1 finding had not lessened the conviction 1 of the people of the country as to that. ' Attitude of Auckland M.P.'b. Wher the finding was laid on the table of the House by Sir Joseph Ward, noither of the men who had taken an especial interest in the setting up of the inquiry were informed, but certain others appeared to have been rimed with misinformation. Messrs. G. Witty, P. C. Webb, J. T. M. Hornby, J. Payne, J. McCombs, and L. M. Isitt were "the speakers, and attention needed to be drawn to the' fact that, apart from Messrs. J. M. Dickson and W. Nosworthy, nd Protestant member of the House protested against the great in* justice done over the censorship of the Protestant box. Every Auckland representative, except Mr. Dickson, sat silent. The speaker said he wondered whether Mr. C. J. Parr, Mr. C. H. Poole. Mr. A. E. Glover, or the Hon. A. M: Myers would have sat silent if a censorship had been established over the box. of the Roman Church or its federation?. Mr, Isitt spoke without full knowledge, and need, tne occasion to catch votes. Mr. Isitt's record' of late pointed to only one conclusion. His appearance and his speech"'at the Roman Catholic gathering in Christchurch some months ago, when sympathy was expressed with the Dublin rebels, and an appeal was made for the widows and orphans of the rebels who 1 now deride the uniform of a British sol-, dier, and his motion to exempt Marist Brothers, classed Mr. Isitt with those who sell their Protestant birthright for the Roman vote. Mr. Elliott thanked those who/ from all parts of the Dominion, had written to him since Mr. I Isitt's speech, and especially his brother j ! ministers, for their encouragement and! support.. The/ Post Office inquiry, said j Mr. Elliott in conclusion, had served V great purpose. It had . added whatever wan ,necessary to arouse the Protestants' of New Zealand to the peril in which they stood through their disorganisation and. tolerant indifference.' A now spirit wad possessing then), . such as possessed their forefathers, and' it would result in the > greatest organisation that had ever been made in this lancL It would bring a new life into politics. Resolution ol Protest Carried. Mr. Elliott concluded by moving: "That' thin meeting of the Protestants of Auck-- , land, held under the auspices of the Pro- i ( testont Political ■ Association, protests against the finding of the Post Office Com- ] mission in that it was against the weight' j of evidence, that the evidence dis- ( closed that the censorship on Box 912 waß ( unwarrantable, and that the censorship » operated in the interests of the Roman ' Catholic Church. Further, this meeting ( protests against the refusal of Cabinet to 1 appoint a Supreme Court Judge to con- 1 i duct the inquiry, and demands that the' 1 Government should immediately remove 11 the censorship from Box 912." It The moilon was seconded by Mr. A. j c McCosh Clark, and carried by acclama-1 c tion, ; The meeting concluded, as it! had com-' 1 menced, vvi'h the singing of the National r Anthem. , • ' — c