IRISH ENVOYS

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 13 June 1923, Page 14

IRISH ENVOYS

BISHOP’S STRONG DENUNCIATION. "UNWORTHY OF A PRIEST.” “Every sentence that this priest uttered last night in regard to the Irish bishops was so unworthy of a priest that no decent Catholic could sit and listen to it without protest.” This denunciation was uttered by Dr. Duhig, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, in a letter to the Press following addresses delivered in Brisbane by the Irish Republican envoys, Father O’Flanagan and Mr O’Kelly. “As an Irishman born and a Catholic bishop I cannot let pass without protest an unwarranted attack which Father O’Flanagan made on the character of the Irish bishops,” writes Dr. Duhig. “I have recently returned from Ireland, where I met many members of the hierarchy. Taken as a whole they are as patriotic, zealous, and learned a body of bishops as is to be found in cj>y other portion of Christendom. For several days I was the guest of one of ( these bishops, whose outstanding courage in } the time of the “Black and Tans” helped largely to keep the soul of Ireland alive. ’ i “That man is Dr. Fogarty, the Bishop 1 of Killaloe. I met bishops in Ireland who ‘ through love of their country were prac--1 tic ally driven from their own dioceses. The ! bishops that I walked side by side with ‘ at the funeral of the late Michael Collins I were idolised by the voung men of Ireland. ‘ 1 It is generally believed in Australia that , j one of these, Dr. O’Doherty, of Clonfert, was in highest favour for the Coadjutor ‘ 1 Archbishopric of Sydney, now held by Dr. I Sheehan. GRIFFITH’S LAST WORD. ■ ' “Does Father O’Flanagan seriously at- . tempt to tell us Irish people and Catholics t ' of Australia that men like Bishops Fogarty, O’Doherty, O’Donnell, Mcßory and Hallinan 5 have betrayed Ireland because they have . become advocates of the Free State, which Arthur Griffith declared with his dying ’ breath to be the only economic salvation of Ireland? * “Father O’Flanagan’s insinuation about English influence in the appointment of I bishops in Ireland cannot be accepted by . ' any persons but those totally ignorant of , how Irish bishops are chosen. . I “I pass over the breach of this State’s . I hospitality by Father O’Flanagan’s colleague r 1 in his unwarranted attack on the State . j Governor, and his transgression of Catholic

’ etiquette by his personal attack on myself in my own cathedral city. One would have expected better manners from the editor of a Catholic periodical, which I believe Mr O’Kelly is. “UNWORTHY OF A PRIEST.” “Father remarks, however, because they are grossly offensive to Catholic sentiment and calculated to scandalise the young native Catholics of this country, who owe so much to the Irish bishops at home and abroad, cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. “Every sentence that the priest uttered at the Trades Hall last night in regard to the Irish bishops was so unworthy of a priest that no decent Catholic could sit and listen to it without protest. Thank God the young men of Ireland have turned a deaf ear to voices like that of Father O’Flanagan, and have rallied to the defence of their bishops and their church.”