CATHOLIC FREEDOM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 638, 15 April 1929, Page 12

CATHOLIC FREEDOM

CENTENARY OF FAITH’S EMANCIPATION OBSERVANCE YESTERDAY ••Although conditions were not so favouarble in the early days of Australia, Catholics in New Zealand had to be particularly thankful that religious oppression has never entered into the life of the Dominion,” said the Right Rev. Dr. Cleary, Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, at St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday morning. A special address was given by Bishop Cleary to commemorate the centenary of the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill by the British Parliament. He said the Bill was passed into law on April 13. 1829, and although it was an imperfect and halting piece of legislation, leaving much to be desired, it nevertheless marked the opening of a new epoch in the history of I Homan Catholicism throughout Great Britain and the Empire, i In remembering the passing of the i Bill. Catholics had to be thankful for i the removal of so many old laws of ; discrimination against them, simply j because of the faith they professed 1 and caressed. The old laws made it a punishable offence for Catholics even to practise their religion, and made their most sacred acts of divine worship a crime, and the priest a hunted felon, with a price on his head. In addition, public service careers were closed to Catholics, who also were debarred from taking any part in the teaching profession. Another important point for gratification was that the granting of Catholic emancipation by Parliament also led to the emancipation of the Protestant .mind from the calumnies and slanders which were levelled against the Catholics from the highest sources. From 1829 the Church, throughout the Empire, had flourished as never before.