THE ' NEW ZEALAND WESLEYAN ' AND THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 191, 24 November 1876, Page 13

THE ' NEW ZEALAND WESLEYAN ' AND THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.

The Wesleyan body in this as in most other parts of the British dominions is numerous and respectable. Its ministers are generally remarkable for their religious zeal and the correctness of their morals. Not a few of the best of them in America if I mistake not have entered of late into the Uoman Catholic Church, which culls the fairest flowers in every religious garden. John Wesley in his own way and according to his lights did much to rescue the humbler ranks of English society from that state of religious ignorance and moral degradation into which they had fallen in consequence of the religious indifference, selfishness and greed of the ministers of the National Protestant Church. He and his followers, however, did much to intensify and extend that feeling of morbid antipathy to the Eoman Catholic Church which the Wesleyans labor to keep alive even to this day and in this colony. H n JIt S Slye y% diatnbe s against "Popery" and "Papists" were among the chief causes which led to those disgraceful riots known as the Gordon riots which occurred in London during last century. thP ™ « yy f nS /£ d othei \™ leilt sectaries were then indignant at the prospect of Roman Catholics being placed on afootin- of SS£ y "Vf gI ° US a ?; d £ vil "S hts with the* Protestant fellowsubjects. It appears the Wesleyans in this colony have an "organ" ti2? TThT hhh T ed ; W i y^° Wesleyan ministers, the Revs. A. R. Jntchett and J W. Wallis, and called the 'N. Z. Wesleyan.' Among the articles in the September number of that periodical is Zlt^^riT 01 " *° *terest "Romanists," as low-bred Silj ?r « a \? rote %* nt writ ei-s are in the habit of designating & £XS£^ °« CS ;, ? be article is entitled " Romanism and Criminal 3h£ ™'n 1, * *i° *% , lfc 2? not over flattering to the self-love 02/vm ° f -& eHoly Church ' Provided thS figures be fully From J£ g fi en- *? ey Pl "° fess to be drawn from official sources 7 «fTi, , UrOS l( \ a P ears th *t there is fully double the amount So th£ m?tflT Om y att V° ng Catholic s than among Protestants F,»SS»S^ K '?Sdo m the British colonies, a nd° Continental «3?~ P r °P° rtlon t0 their respective numbers. It is well to see omselves as others see tis, and to know the worst that can be said ?£? *, y-y -h OU TT C "?T^ 1 ? ore can be no doubt that among CathoJrWn^ " ed T? inß t' m and these colouies a vast amount of crime and immorality and irreligion does exist, whether the 'N Z. Wesleyan s statistics be correct and fairly put or not. The evil springs .from religious indifference. The drift of the « Wesleyan's ' PW X J° V T Q a 4 V he s P llitlial agency of the Roman Catholic cWb r°. TTh" h *, he S °r ces of crime and immorality so as to check or control men's evil passions. Another object is to warn

the Protestant public against the designs of " Romish" priests in ™ 1S colony. "We trust," says the writer of the article, "we trust that the readers of this paper are not unwatchful of the movements ot the Roman hierarchy in this land to multiply attractive if not efficient schools for the retention of their own youth and also the winning of Protestant children. Denominational education," he adds, " has been tried and found wanting." It is plain the •N. Z Wesleyan' dreads Roman Catholic schools, and he rightly regards them as the means of retaining Roman Catholic children within the Church, but is wrong in supposing they proselytise Protestant children or attempt to do so. He is in error when he says denominational education has been tried and found wanting. The Government school returns in England for primary education in 1874-5 show the following results : — Number of passes Church of England Schools ... 70 56 Nonconformist do. ... 7L45 Roman Catholic <j o ' 71'g B , oard , D do! ::: v&u • -o ,, a PP ears from tliese figures that Denominational education in England is the reverse of a failure, and that Roman Catholic schools, in spite of every obstacle they have to contend against keep fully abreast of Protestant schools and " Board schools" there too. Were the Government of this colony to act towards the Roman Catholic schools the liberal part which the British Government does, we should have the same results here, and the Inspectors' reports would show that Catholic schools here could successfully compete with Board schools, or any other. The C N. Z. Wesleyan ' has the rudeness and injustice to speak of the Catholic hierarchy in this colony as "Wily leaders of a politico-religious church" because they have the temerity to ask their share of the public tunds devoted to educational purposes. The 'N. Z. Wesleyan' thinks adverting to the criminal statistics he quotes that however well the education in Roman Catholic schools miy be fitted to make faithful Catholics it fails to make good citizens and moral characters. But Catholics are bad characters either because they are ignorant of their religion or because knowing it they do nob practice it. The history of the Jews teaches us that men may have a true religion and yet be given over to the worst forms of wickedness through their own perversity of mind. If there were great sinners among the Jews there were also great saints. Certain classes of men remarkable for the outward decency of their lives, and of high pretensions to zeal for religion we know on the highest authority are often very far from God by reason of the hardness and pride and inward depravity of their hearts. Though there may be many wicked sinners among Eoman Catholics there have been and are still many among them who are eminent for their heroic virtues— who have exhibited such piety, charity, selfdenial and public spirit as no Protestant, no, not even the best of Wesleyans ever so much as dreamt of aiming at. But boasting ia excluded. These conspicuous virtues of Roman Catholics proceed from the grace of God. Their vices are their own. The history ot the Eoman Catholic Church is the history of human depravity on the one hand and of the operations of Divine grace on the other. Catholics like the Jews have received from God °reat tavors, special graces, and like the Jews they have too often ungratefully abused them. Need we wonder if the evil one be permitted to have his wicked will with them to a great extent as a punishment for their base infidelity. Their enemies have been permitted to triumph over them for the past three centuries and to oppress them in every way. The ' Wesleyan' has looked on and said in effect — hit them hard, they have no friends. Yet the Wesle /an is a devout, amiable and tender-hearted man. Every student of linglish history roust see that the wisest and best of English sovereigns, those of them who were the real fathers of the people and patterns of every royal and Christian virtue, were remarkable for their devotion and fidelity to the Catholic Chnrch. To take only two instances, who in the long line of our sovereigns is worthy to be compared to Alfred and Edward the Confessor? Those English sovereigns who were remarkable for their vices, for their selfish ambition, their heartless tyranny, and impure and immoral lives were also remarkable for their enmity to their Holy See Witness King John, Henry VIII. and his daughter, the so called "Good ' Queen Bess ; and, to come down to a later time, Charles 11. and George IV. of chaste memory. Ed^ar, one of the most eminent of our English Catholic sovereigns, was, like David, a great sinner and afterwards a sincere penitent like David, the man after God's own heart. Even the so-called " Bloody" Mary was an angel of mercy compared with her vindictive and heartless sister— Elizabeth. Mary pleaded for clemency to her enemies but in vain. She was over-ruled by her " responsible advisers," who saw no safety for her crown or her life but in severity towards her deadly enemies. Elizabeth appeared actually to gloat, to revel in bloody cruelty to her enemies, and her conduct towards her unfortunate kinswoman, Mary Stuart, has left a stain upon her honor and humanity such as no lapse of time can efface and no apologies can extenuate. Since the days of Edward the Confessor the throne had never been filled by so religious and good a sovereign as Queen Victoria, I verily believe. Like sovereign like people. Under the rule of this exemplary Queen the Catholic religion is now beginning to revive in England and is spreading with a. rapidity which appears miraculous — more especially among the upper ranks of society, among those vho stand nearest to Her Majesty's throne. When the Catholic Church gains a moral supremacy the mass of her children will become virtuous, and her enemies will no longer be in a position to taunt them with their vices as the 'N. Z. Wesleyan ' has now done. We may say that a i great experiment is now being made in the United Kingdom and her colonies. There the Protettant and Catholic systems are in operation side by side, though not under very fair conditions. It is no use reverting to the past j let us look to the present and future. It is mainly in the schoolroom that the two parties are to compete for supremacy. At a great Catholic education meeting

held lately in London, the Marquis of Bute moved a resolution to the effect that "It is of great importance at the present time that Catholic elementary schools should be maintained in a high state of efficiency." He said as tho poor were more numerous with us than any other body it behoved us to show more educatienal activity than any other class in the country. He quoted the saying of a great man, " the future is in the hands of the schoolmasters." I believe we may say that the Catholic people of Ireland and New Zealand voluntarily spend more of their money on education and religion in proportion to their number and means than any other class. The Parliamentary Returns some time ago showed that while the paupers in England were between nine and ten per cent, of the population, in Ireland they were under two per cent. — 1.5. The Irish Excise returns also showed a much smaller consumption of alcoholic liquor in Ireland than England in proportion to population. Pauperism and drunkenness are the reproach of England, and the cause of the greatest amount of crime and vice there. Poverty is common to every country, and no crime or reproach; but that degrading form of it called "pauperism" is the direct fruit of Protestantism, and it is a subject of congratulation that Catholic Ireland shows so small an amount of pauperism. The •N. Z. Wesleyan ' has laid himself out to depreciate the moral character of Catholics and to cast suspicion, on the purity of the motives of the Catholic hierarchy, very unfairly not to say very uncharitably. Of course he wishes us to be informed that Protestants in general and Wesleyans in particular are getting our superiors in morality and in every thing else. For myself I have nothing to sp-y against Wesleyans. Some men speak against them as modern Pharisees — outwardly correct and severe in their measures and devout in their habits, but worldly-minded and inwardly full of evil. I shall say no more in that direction ; I would merely suggest that if the Wesleyan Protestants generally would stick to their principles, read the Bible, and practice its sacred lessons honestly, and especially its mission of Divine charity, it would be well. They would then all see, as so many of them are coming to see now, that however many bad Catholics there may be the Roman Catholic Church has irresistible claims on the obedience of] all men; as the Jews were found to accept their religion, though so many of its professors, from the throne to the cottage, " did evil in the sight of the Lord." Auckland. Laic.