“SECTARIAN SPECTRE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 9

“SECTARIAN SPECTRE”

DIRECT REPLY TO CANON JAMES

CATHOLIC LEADERS LETTER In a reply to the address of Canon James at the Orange demonstration on Sunday last on the question of Bible-in-Schools, the Rev. Dr. Buxton, of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, accuses Canon James of raising the spectre of sectarianism, and denies any implication of disloyalty on his own part.

Dr. Buxton, in a letter to The Sun, says: “It is much to be regretted that Canon James, a Christian minister, has yielded to the temptation ot' raiding the spectre of sectarianism, an attitude in striking contrast to the contemporaneously reported utterances on toleration by our distinguished English visitor. Father Martindale. I shall make no further comment on this aspect of Canon James’s ‘Twelfth of July’ assertion, nor on his repetition of the already exploded myth that the Labour Party is chained to the char-iot-wheels of the Catholic Church. 1 shall leave him to the tender mercies of Dr. Cleary, on whom he regretted on last Sunday afternoon he had to ‘waste so much time.’ On his Lordship’s return to the city, he will doubtless answer the Canon in his own way, in the proper place, and not only where Catholics Are invited to attend. IMPLICATION RESENTED

“On Sunday last, with the Christian charity for which all nun look to him. Canon James declared that the Churvlt to which 1 have the privilege to belong is inimical to the peace and concord of this country: that lw and his friends have no ‘divided loyalty’; that in the forefront they place the high duty of loyalty to this Dominion. As a New Zealander-born, I strongly resent this implied disloyalty. And I shall allow no man to impugn my loyalty b« - cause of my faith. I ask the exotic Canon to state in plain, unambiguous language what he means. “Once more. Canon James has published a travesty of the Catholic position in regard to the Bible in the schools. He maintains the fallacy that tho Bible was excluded from our system of education to placate the Catholics, and that ever since 1870 the have exerted all their influence to Kce,» tho children of the schools of this country strangers to God. What terrible people we are! What is tho truth? Over and over again, we have given tlie lie to the suggestion that A are as dogs in the manger. We d«* not wish to deprive the children of other faiths of their birthright, or to violate the conscience of one of them. All that we ask, in common justice, is that the Bible-in-Schools League should put forth a proposal which will introduce religion into the schools on fair and equal conditions till round. Granted protection for the consciences of our children and our teachers, wo will welcome the league's efforts to bring religion into the schools, and the more they introduce the better we shall like it. LED TO INDIFFERENCE “Before 1870, all denominations of any size conducted their own schools with State aid. In that year, the secular system was introduced. Though there was but feeble protest from our Anglican friends, the Catholics of the day stoutly opposed the measure. They clearly saw' (and said) that such a system would lead to religious indifference; that they could not conscientiously support it; and that they w’ould, for reasons of conscience, build, equip and maintain their own schools —because of the very’ secularity of the ‘national’ system. Fifty years elapse. All the denominations, according to Canon James, want religion back in the State schools, except the Catholics. He wants the pre-1870 conditions wherein State schools shall teach only a Protestant form of religion. “He ignores the just claims of the Catholics, who, for 50 strenuous years, have backed their conscientious convictions with the ever-present argument of hard cash. In that period, the Catholics have saved this country millions of pounds in the erection, maintenance and upkeep of their schools, and the total salaries of the teachers therein. Wherefore—wherefore, says Canon James, because Catholics in their consistency cannot subscribe to his proposed ‘national’ system for non* Catholics only, we are creating discord in this country! “In "other words, we are henceforth and for ever to pay not only for teaching acceptable to our own children, but we must pay our proportionate share of the cost of teaching in the State schools of a form of religion to which we cannot conscientiously submit This point of view. Canon James apparently cannot, or will not, see.”