ENCOURAGING PROTESTANTISM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 301, 7 February 1879, Page 19

ENCOURAGING PROTESTANTISM.

Perugia, of which the Holy Father is Bishop, possesses a municipal corporation, the members of which are Republican and haters of the Pope, as well as of the King. They have lately given the premises Piazza di Sojtramura, which formerly were used by the Fine Arts Academy, to an evangelical school, or church, for an annual rent of 2,000 francs. This act of the municipality has caused a profound sensation among the fifty thousand Catholics of Perugia. The Catholic religion is that of the State, and it is an insult to Catholics to establish amongst them an anti-Catholic propaganda. The Perugian corporation is poor, and cannot refuse the money offered it by Bishop Bowman, who is a Bishop of the American Methodist Church, the same church, I believe, to which Bishop Gregg, who lately tried to found another schismatic church in England, belongs. Perugia is a pleasant summer residence, and much frequented by English and American Baptists and Methodists American and British gold is always freely lavished for the establishment and maintenance of anti-Catholic schools and meeting houses. The Italian Republicans do not care for any religion, but they know that nothing serves the Republican cause so much as Protestantism, not, indeed, the Anglican form of Protestantism, but that form of it which is adopted by Baptists, Methodists, and so-called evangelizers. The Italians who allow themselves to be brought over by these proselytisers rapidly become freethinkers and atheists, and are ready to join the Republicans and Socialists in their secret or open societies. Mancini, the late Minister of Grace and justice, plainly said that he encouraged Protestantism, not because he believed in it, but because it would help to overthrow Catholicism and cement the unity of Italy.