The Empty Cradle.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 21, 20 November 1912, Page 54

The Empty Cradle.

DENt’KOTATIOX AND APPEAL.' *Die crowded congregation that attended the mission service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Auckland on Wednesday night of last week was treated to some very plain speaking from the Very Rev. Father O’Connell concerning the subject of the violation of the Sanctity of marriage, in a sermon which was at onee a denunciation of birth-re-striction, with its attendant evils and

practices, and an appeal to the muiihboil arid womanhood-of; the Catholic life of the city to preserve the virtues of the home and the vigour of the raee. “I have come prepared to speak plainly,” said Father O’Connell, “and 1 am speaking with the full authority of my priesthood.” lie prefaced his words on the subject with remarks on the tendency of the age to turn from the Christian life towards Paganism, and stated that there were evils in the world to-day which were tolerated by so-called respectable men of ths world, and not condemned, because the spirit of the world was selfishness, selfgratification and the enjoyment of sen-

sual pleasures. He recalled the encyclical letters of Pope Leo XIII.. who traced the evils to three causes—hatred of. a humble and industrious life, horror of suffering, and forgetfulness of future glory. The spirit of selfishness made a man detest the responsibilities of life, have a hatred of the simple life that was enjoyed in the home, and took him away from home ties to seek self-gratification and enjoyment in the world. It fostered a hatred of humility and industry and raised a desire for inde|»endeiiee. for equality, and rebellion against rightly constituted authority, and contempt of the responsibilities of life. “Because of a dreadful sin which is so prevalent in our country and other lands, men in every land are raising their voices against that terrible crime known as the decline of the birth-rate. There are many whitened sepulchres parading the streets, adorning their bodies with all that money can buy, despising the authority of God and refusing to do what God has decreed, they are-bringing down the curse of God upon their homes and on all those connected with them.” The horror of suffering was advanced, he continued, as a reason for violating the Divine decree. 'I hey found round about them the great cry : ‘-'J here „ lus t ], e llt> nlore children.'' So there were empty cradles, an absence of little ones from the schoolrooms built at great cost to the country and the outcry that the lands would never be peopled, because of the abominations that were I ,r; i (ti «'d in the homes of New Zealand. J" ]d . I ‘ IS I,and a Pamphlet entitled -Infanticide. That word meant the murder, the slaughter of children. It ex P le »si««. but it came from Archbishopfair, one of the champions of the ( athohe Church, and one of the most prudent men in Australasia. Father O’Connell quoted the pamphlet relating to the restriction of birth in Australasia ami America. They knew, he continued, that th* I tor«T ’ w. Vt ‘ W Zealand - that legislatois laiscd their voice against it. They knew that in Australia, to their shame hood W< H °“ Cr,n / a 1,011113 for motherl ood. He feared very much that men and women entered the state of marriage through unworthy motives, rather than tor the saeiamental help offered in the Divine decree. He knew excuses were made by married people—that it was then- owp business whether thev had children or not. But he told them plainly it nas not their own allair. and there was a responsibility on them for the manner in which they discharged their duties in the marriage state. Touching another phase of the question, the preaelier quoted l ather Coppens’ opinion ils given in the pamphlet referred to: “No censure can be too strong for those physicians who suggest to a young mother that, because of some more than usual suffering in her first child-bearing, she must avoid having any- more children. Probably- enough, if the imprudent suggestion about the’dangers of a second child-bearing had not been made by tin- doctor, the young wife might have become the happy mother of a numerous family of healthy- children.” Again. Archbishop Carr was quoted as saying that any unnatural interference with the primary- end of marriage was not only in open opposition to its Divine institution, but was also a practical denial of God’s supreme dominion, and a grave outrage against his extrinsic glory. Suppose, according io God’s will and the order of nature, five or six children would be born of the union of a married couple, but they previously limited the number to one or two, or, worse still, determined that no children should gladden their married life, ditl they not usurp the.prerogative of the Almighty, violate the order of nature, and deprive marriage of the first and greatest of its blessings and prerogatives’ The yyoi.ds were very strong, stated Father O’Coimcll, but he was there to sound a note of warning against the abominations that were so prevalent ii: the world to-day. There was a great amount of child pre.yeptipn, a great deal of child murder, and Catholic men and women had to be warned against those terrible evils. They must lie put on their guard against the medical man, or the nurse, or’ the chemist, who would e.ncourage the vile practices that must of necessity bring punishment upon the heads of those who indulge in them. If they knew of any medical man who so far degraded his profession as to encourage or mislead any Catholic woman to what was contrary to God’s decree, he warned them to keep that man outside their homes. He exhorted them not to go to the shop of a man who sold preventives, nd matter’ how respectable his' name might Im-, and instructed them to keep from their homes the nurse or Hie neighbour who advised them in evil practices.

Tn conclusion, the preacher quoted Archbishop Carr’s prayer: “God grant that our country may never become the victim of such unnatural and iinholy praetices as are here condemned; mav she retain the vigour of youth and the' love of what is chaste into distant generations. May’ she never know that decrepitude of age and curse of decay which comes, not from the natural deterioration of the stock, but from artificial interference with the laws which the Almighty has established for the propagation anil perpetuation of the human family.”