THE CHURCH IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 35, 27 December 1873, Page 13

THE CHURCH IN IRELAND.

In a letter from Sis Grace the Archbishjp of Westminster to His Grace tlfe Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland the following occurs* — • ' Edmund Burke said that, with Borne changes, the Catholic Church in Ireland, to hw mind, bore the- closest-resemblance of any Church on ■ earth to the Cliurch of the" Apostles. I fully beliere this-; for it is the most pastoral Church in the world, «vhere pastors and flock are in tha closest bonds of confidence and lore. Where this is, Christianity is, in its primitive purity of life. lam not goin* to dwell on these topics now. Ireland, its adversaries being both judges and witnesses is at the head of the nations for purity of morals and freedom from ordinary crime. For years I have . declared my belief that Ireland is the most Christian country in the world. Its Christian traditions are universal and unbroken ; .its people know their religion ; the intelligence of Ireland has been illuminated, quickened, enlarged by the> faith of fourteen hundred years ; to your flocks Christian and Catholic aro convertible terms. An Irishman without faith is a shame to his mother and to Ireland. The laity of Ireland, as I well know, are as - prompt and clear: when Catholic doctrine or principle are at stake audspeuk as authoritatively and logically in dafonoa of the Catholic religion, as if they had been trained in a semina-y. The whole action of Irish homes, Irish public opinion, and the social life of the nation, moulds-thorp, not by constraint and unwillingly, but insensibly and sponta-neouMy, to the instincts and character of Christians. May Q-od-preserve this inheritance of his grace to you. la England it haa been BhaHereu, and wasted ; every year mutilates more and more the remaining Christian traditions of public life and opinion among us. We can test this comparative difference under our own hands. Tho difference of Catholic form ition between those who come to us from • Irelund and those who arc born of Irish parents in England is sadly mat-be J. The atmosphere of Ireland unfolds and ripens the Catholic instincts of faith ; the atmosphere of England, like uutimely frosr checks and cuts them off. ' '