THE ENGLISH WORKING MEN AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 30, 22 November 1873, Page 13

THE ENGLISH WORKING MEN AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The article on '« The Church of Rome," which recently appeared in the London • Daily Telegraph,' staged that for the past forty years the poorer portion of the English people have been in the habit of attending Lathoho plaoes of worship, and judging for themselves of the character of the Catholic religion. With reference to this, I remem™r. wading a book published some 30 years ago or more, on the cononion of -the working classes of Eni'land and some other European States. The author of the book was a Mr Kay, brother of the Sir damea Kay Shuttle worth, who took a leading part in the Government scneme of education in those days. Mr Kay mentioned, among other wnngg, that great numbers of the poorer classes were even at that time 'going over to Rome," that the priests in tho various large manutactunng towns were acquiring great inflaence over them. H© £aa been told as much by an English clergyman, of the Established ynurch, who, he paid, was neither a bigot in his own religion, nor yet indifferent to it. He added, if the Anglican clergy did not exert themselves the entire English poor, he believed, would ere long become Ol " 110 ' ICs - Mr Ka y endeavoured to account for so strange a fact. -He said the English poor saw that the English Church was not the poor man s church ; and, moreover, the ritual or external form of worship m tlie Catholic Church was far more attractive to them, as it struck tne senses" more, and was not so intellectual as the English Church service. He mentioned, moreover, that odo of the noblest buildings in a mere architectural point of view, in Manchester, the commercial capital of England, was a Roman Catholic OUnreh, erected almost entirely by the pence of the poor. The English working man is naturally a wise and understanding man, and, when emancipated from prejudice, almost certain to form a sound judgment oa what ho hears and sees. Tho only hope of keeping him from becoming a Catholicis to keep him in ignorance of what tho Catholic religion really is, and what are the real motives or springs of aclion which . influence those wn.o profess it. But it is not easy, or rather impossible, to keep him f£ lon1 o no l t>anee of tliese things now with so many Catholic Churches open throughout the country, iv many of which sermons are being preached by priests who at one time were w=jll known as zealous ministers of the Established Church, and even in some cases Nonconformists. Not merely the schoolmaster, but the Catholic priest'is " abroad " in England no w-a-days, and they are playing into each 'Others hands. It w simply impossible to keep any Protestants from becoming Catholics if they be well educated, and at the same time be sincerely religious, if they have piety, and charity, and humility, «uoh as befit true Christians, lue Jinghsh working men marks the conduct of the Catholic priest • he contrasts his self-denial and zeal with the love of ease, money and pleasure of the bulk of the Protestant clergy of all denominations and lie naturally infers that the cr^ed of the Catholic n>uet be the true one even without any learned and critical examination into its grounds! ■tie feels as it were by a sort of religious instinct that a religion which produces such fruits must be from Gtod, and that, therefore, he ought to embrace it. See an illustration. A simple minded but most amiable Catholic priest, an Italian and chaplain of an English military station m India, where I was oa«e qn lrter^d, rela'ed to me the following anecdote. A Protestaotrsoldier one day came to him and asked to .be admitted into the Catholic Church. The priest said—" But do you know the tenets of tho religion you propose to embrace ?" He replied—" No, sir, Ido .not. I am no scholar, but a poor soldier. My wife is a Catholic. When I see her conduct, and observe her punctuality, and the fidelity with which she performs her religious duties, ar d all the duties of her state of life as a wife, a moiher, and a neighbour, jl c-mnot doubt but that the religion she proteases v the true one, and that it is my duty to embrace it." JNow, here is an unlettered man, who knew the "grammar of assent" by mstmct, and even a great deal better than Dr Newman could teach it «to him. It is by such a process of reasohing as that, I verily believe, that thousands of humble souls among the working men of England and America, and some possibly in New Zealand to°o, are being conducted— humanly speaking— into the Catholic Church, but ultimately, of course, by the grace of God. If we lay-Catholics generally were to exhibit to others such an edifying example as the poor but honest soldier's pious wife above referred to did, wo should soon have the Catholic Church filled to overflowing. We wonder how Protestants can resist the proofs in favour of the Catholic religion. Our wonder ought rather to be ho.v so many of them do embrace it seeing there is often so much in the conduct of lay Catholics to repel them, and evea to justify their worst prejudices against it. By far the worst enemiea of the Catholic religion are to be found not among Protestants, but among the Catholic laity themselves. Perhaps it is wrong in me to say so, but such is my opinion, founded on much observation and experience in this and other countries, as well as on what 1 read. Auckland. x w