PRESENT SUPERNATURAL GROWTH. OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION IN ENGLAND. ITS PROSPECTS N NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 64, 18 July 1874, Page 9

PRESENT SUPERNATURAL GROWTH. OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION IN ENGLAND. ITS PROSPECTS N NEW ZEALAND.

Bx way of appendix to some remarks on the present wonderful progress of the Catholic religion in England, which lately appeared in your paper, the following passage from tho pastoral of " Archbishop "Manning and the other Bishops of the Province of Westminster, in Provincial Council Assembled," may be read with interest. " The Church in England," says this pastoral, "is now so rooted and fruitful, that it needs only time to grow to its fulness. The malevolence which forty years ago threatened us, has now given way before a truer knowledge of what the Catholic faith and Church really are. For three hundred years both have been hidden from the intelligence of England by Penal Laws, and by controversial miarepresentation. Ever since this Church has regained her liberty, this has become impossible. She is now seen, and heard, and known. Educated Englishmen know us better. The poor of England have now no animosities against the faith of their fathers. Our people are mingled ■with them. They live and labor together. They have learned that the Catholic religion is the Church of the poor. We have heard them say more than this ; but this is enough. There is at this hour spread over the breadth of England, a beuevolence towards the Catholic Church and the faich of their ancestors, such as for three hundred years has never been." * * * * The present effort of the Good Templars to bring about a union with Catholics, is one proof of what is here stated. If such be the present benevolent feeling of the people in England, generally, towards the Catholic Church and the faith of their fathers, we may reasonably hope that a like feeling will soon pervade the people of this and other British Colonies. Indoed there are not a few indications that such a friendly feeling towards the Catholic Church is already beginning to gain ground even in this Colony, notwithstanding tho ungracious attempts of some journals, such as tne ' Bruce Herald,' and some public men, like Mr Gillies and Mr Barton, *to encourage in tho public mind sentiments of a very different kind towards us j and it is possibly just because of such favourable signs that theso men express themselves so bitterly or sarcastically against Catholics, and you, the Catholic organ in this Colony. When our bigotted enemies show such anxiety to put us i;a the wrong, and manifest such Btrong feelings of irritation against us, we may safely infer that we are making headway, and conciliating tho good will of the public generally— the just and reasonable portion of the people. The English naturally lean to

the side of justice when not misled by bigoted and designing men, who practice on their prejudices and credulity. We all know how fond men of the Gillies and Barton stamp are of representing Oatholicß as the victims of ignorance, superstition, and priest craft. It is a happy omen that a new edition of the works of Bishop Hay is now being published in Edinburgh by one of the oldest book-sellin» firms in that classic city. If the Catholic religion is to flourish in this Colony, as it is now doing; at home, its progress, uuder God, muafc be due to the same causes here as there— the zeal and prudence of ouc Bishops and Clergy, sustained and augmented by the hearty co-opera-tion of the laity. Let us show to all men that " the Catholic religion is the religiou of charity, and that the Catholic Church is the Church of the poor;" and that the Catholic schools, though unmistakably rohgious or denominational in their character, are yet not one whit behind any other Colonial schools in their standard of secular instruct Km. To accomplish this last work will require no ordinary offorts. We are a small minority. We are burdened with poverty, and for the present we have all the influence and wealth of Government to contend against ; and whafc is harder still to endure, we have the influence of some inconsistent or unfaithful Catholics brought to bear agaiust our schools— though thank God the power of such Catholics is not great— not worth naming in fact, and is not likely to increase. We must look to just and generous Protestants to aid us in obtaining redress. They have not failed us in the old country, and we may bops they will not be less just or generous in this hemisphere, if we only be true to ourselves. But we must not condemn Mr Gillies and our other enemies, or more properly speaking our conscientious opponents, rashly or too severely. We must make allowance for those prejudices which they have imbibed with their mother's milk, and whfoh. has grown and strengthened in the course of years. The power of early prejudices over the strongest intellects and most benevolent hearts is great, beyond calculation. Yet it must be owned that it is extremely difficult even for charity herself to frame excuses for the hostility of such men as Mr Gillies to the Catholic religion, at this time of day. A blindness to Catholic truth such as his, one can harJly suppose to be other than a voluntary blindness, an obstinate resolution not to see the light, however clear and bright it may be. Yet there was a time when something of the same kind, possibly, could be said of Archbishop Manning and Bishop Hay. Though Archbishop Manning and Bishop Hay loug resisted the truth, they yielded to it at last, and it cannot bo said that their belief and profession of the Catholic faith was the result either of ignorance or prejudice or self interest.