THE VATICAN AND THE WAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17375, 24 July 1918, Page 6

THE VATICAN AND THE WAR.

TO THE EDITOR. e S ß~ Thc . letter from Mr .?. P. Murphy of limaru. in your issue of the 19th instant oonastinff, as ,t does, of a series of gxoea misrepresentations, demands criticism Truly the attitude of some people is divertfnir Your correspondent writes of "desolated I'ranee, which contains only one Protectant to every 40,000 persons." ~A S a matter of fact, thc number of Catholics in Franco is a shade over 6.000,«X>, and a Roman Caiholio prelate m Wellington quite- recently denounced France «s an "atheistic and materialistic nation," and declared that tho pneets to whom Mr Murphy refers were forced into tho trenches." The treatment Rome received at the hands of tho French Government some vears ago conclusively proves that whatever the nation may be it certainly cannot bo classed as of the Roman obedience. • .J ,1 * Murphy refers to Cardinal Mercier. VV el!, let us hear what this prince of the Onuroh has to say about, not Roman Catholicism, bat Vaticanism—an entirely different thing. Addressing the deans and parish priests of the diocese of Malines, lie said: " Tho Catholics from over tho frontier found no word of disapproval for the slaughter perpetrated by the Germans when they invadwi Belgium, shot down our priests, and set fire to our open towns; those same Catholics who represented tho criminals as innocent, and for three years have watched with folded arms tho torture of a formerly friendly people, are now singing songs of praise about Christian brotherhood, peace, and forgetting the past. , " ™ Mr Murphy again writes: "The man who says thai;, if we get the peace Catholic* want 'the hatchet must be buried in tho Protestant skull' is periloi:sly near to sedition." What about Dr Mannix? Tho victonan paprrs have, reported this genial prelate as claiming for his Church that •" it was justified '.n employing physical force in the treatment of heretics." Leo XIII was still more explicit. In strongly recommending a work on canon law published by the Vatican press, he cemmited himself to the policy foreshadowed on page '261, voL I, where we read "that tho civil authority rmist at the command of the Church put heretics to death." Surely these pacific intentions evince a somewhat peculiar method of Catholics "minding , their own business," as Mr Murphy declares they- do. Tlio Catholic Church is the " same in all things and everywhere," s>a.ys Mr Muiphy. Is this so? When Germany and Austria conscript Catholics for purposes of their own the adherents of the Vatican offer no opposition, but when Great Britain attempts this the Irish Catholic bishops, the Romish Archbishop in Quebec, and Archbishop Mannix, in Australia, actively fan the anticonscription campaign ;—an influential section oi the Church' which is " always tho same" protests. Let us hear the Catholio Union of Great Britain—a powerful body of English lay Catholics. It adopted a series of resolutions this year, two of which are: (1) "Tho Catholio Union cannot regard without serious misgivings any interference by ecclesiastical authority in questions which are purely temporal and political, and in no way connected with faith and morals." (2) " The Catholio Union desires to emphatically disassociate itself from a movement which cannot fail to hamper tho .full development of the military forces of the Allies, and thereby endanger the cause, of humanity."—l am. etc., Reason. Duncdin, July 20Sir,—Mr J. P. Murphy, in condemning the utterances of Professor Dickie and the Rev. Mr Davies. says "Tho discussion is regrettable and painful, for New Zealand Catholics have no grievance against their Protestant fellow-citizens." This, no doubt, is true, and it can also be said with equal truth .that the Protestants havo no grievance against their Catholic fellow-citizens, but Mr Murphy says "There is a small section that should be protected against the malice of these, disturbers of unity." I say there is a largo section who should be so protected. But who constitute that section of the disturbers of unity? It is not the loyal generals, officers, or soldiers of tho Catholic faith, who are fighting so gallar.tjy and loyally against the mightiest and wiokedest foe that over existed, neither is it the loyal Catholics who are doing their duty among us during this crisis. Where then is the disloyal section to be found, whose headquarters is tho Vatican in Rome? Sometime ago, sir, I was in the presence of a gathering of Protestants and Catholics, and among them were several dignitries of the Catholic Church, who, by their actions, shamed those of their own faith and insulted the Protestants present and spoiled the harmony of the gathering. I never before , or since seen tho ordinary Catholic layman act so disloyally, and it was pleasant to see that those present did not follow the examplo set them. Let me ask Mr Murphy why Catholic France, which ho parades before us, exDelled the Jesuit order, with its institutions, from their country? Was it because tho members of tho order were loyally supporting that nation, and doing what they could, aa leaders of the Catholic faith, to uplift and benefit its people? If they wore doing that, why wt?r« they expelled—and that by those very people whom he mentioned as now ldyally lighting for their country? Again, what section is it. that is so prominent and so loud in disloyal.utterances and actions in Ireland and Australia? Thousands of loyal Catholics from both these countries would now bo fighting the tyrant against liberty and righteousness but for the restraining influence of that section whose headquarters is tho Vatican of Rome. Why, too. is Catholic Italy fighting the nation wJiose Emperor declares that he has for the last 20 years been plotting and planning ior the most awful war that ever devastated tho earth, with a view to liberate the Pope from his self imposed imprisonment in the Vatican of Rome? And why that self-imposed imprisonment, in a Catholic country? Why does Italy debar t-hn Vatican from having anything whatever to do with her national affairs or with tho education of the youth of that country? Surely if the inflv.enco and activities of tho Vatican would oontributo to the benefit of tho nation, and to the prosperity and tiplifting of the people, the Pope "need not suffer even a self-imposed imprisonment for a single day. I say, all honour to tho multitude of faithful and loyal Catholics who refuse to listen to this section, which rver seems happy when sowing strife and discord among naiior.s to gain its own selfish oikls—ends which havo been proved not to bo in the interests of tho people.—l am. eta. Protestant.