THE "IGNORANT" JESUITS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 29, 15 November 1873, Page 12

THE "IGNORANT " JESUITS.

"Bt the QoTomment organs in Rome " says the well-known writer "Contiellan," " tlie religious are classed as "ignorant, as obscurantists, M oppressors of learning, as aiming at keeping back the progress of thought for their own ends. As hatred is greater against the Jesuits, to these charges are repeated over and over more constantly •gainst them. Father Secchi, they reluctantly admit, knows a little about astronomy ; but his brethren are mere nullities." "Connellan" then translates from the 'TTnita Catholiea ':— " But Father Secchi is only 000, and the ' Perseveranza,' in order to preserve the monks, would wish that " all the monks were like Father Secchi." The pretext is very insolent, and if all the monks were like Father Secchi, it would lower his value very much. Nevertheless, those who come nearest to Father Secchi are found in greater abundance in the Religious Orders than among any other class of Italians. Great men are not born in groups; but they come one after the other; and, keeping to the Society of Jesus, and to the Roman College, and to the exact sciences, we find there Father Olavio, the Euclid of his time ; and after him Father Ricciardi, and Father Borgundi, and Father Boscovich and Father Asclepi. Before Father Secchi, was not Father De Vico equally famous, not only in Rome, but throughout Europe ? With how many festivals wa» not he received, as well in England as in the United States of America, when he was barbarously expelled from Italy, in 1848 ? And Father Caraffa, Pianciani, Turner, De Sinno, Fanton, were not they celebrated in this century amongst mathematicians, physicists, and chemists ? Not only was it Italy which admired them, but even Copenhagen rewarded their labors with medals. And in this very day they live again in Rome, in the person of the Jesuit Francesco flaverio Provensali. Did not Cardinal Mai come from the Jesuits, he, who boasts of hating had Father Luigi Fortis for his master. Have you not Mezzo* fcnti, living again, to-day, in the Roman College, in the person of Father Giovanni Bollig ? He might give you another scientific feast, ■peaking currently to you in more than forty languages, principally the ancient and modern Oriental tongueß." The 'CTnita Catholica* gives a list of distinguished priests, and continues:— r • L "^ nat we naTe Ba "* °f tne Jesuits, we might say likewise of the other Religious Orders. Assuredly Italy is poor in learned men today, but it is principally among the clergy that they yet abound. Ana we will draw profit from the revolution which assails us, and we will study to render ourselves still more useful to the Church and advantageous to our country, obliging our enemies, when they wish to assist at a scientific feast to recur to their great despite, to the conferences of a priest or a monk. Carlo Botta, most inimical to the Jesuits in his History of Italy, Vol. X., can do no less than confess: "Truly it is seen, that from the House of the Jesuits come forth not a few excellent men, either in moral sciences, or in physics, or mathematics, or in the sublime art of preaching." This was seen in the time of Botta, and it is seen to-dny, and it will be seen to-morrow and always. Minister I Scialoia go to the Jesuits' school, if you wish to learn the mode of directing publio instruction."