STRANGE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 345, 28 November 1879, Page 17

STRANGE.

We have received the following letter from Mr.M. de H. Dnval, under date Timaru, Nov. 18th. We regret that it did not reach us last week until after we had gone to press, we were therefore obliged to hold it over to our present igsue : — Sib,— l read in your issue of Friday, Nov. 7, the Rev. Mr. Green's reply to the Rev. Father O'Leary's letter in reference to the statement made by me in my letter to the Right Rev. Dr. Morau of Oct. 23. f Pressure of business did not allow me time to forward you at ■ *ny reply to Mr. Green's accusation of misrepresentation on my , but I trust that, though perhaps a little late, you will nevertheless manage to find a little space in your next issue to insert the following —

Mr. Green begins his letter by saying that "my statement is anything but correct, and indicates that I am a person of strong feelings and biassed judgment, and whose memory under these circumstances is not to be relied upon." 1..A person of strong feelings.— Does Mr. Green think that any Catholic worthy of that glorious name will allow Mm or any other person to insult, calumniate, and slander his Church and her priesthood with impunity. 2. My judgment is biassed.— l deny it. " The boot is on the other leg," as the saying goes, for I never heard a public speaker more biaßsed, more utterly ignorant of the subject he was lecturing on, than what Mr. Green showed himself to be, and this I am willing to prove to him at any time, at least if what he said on the subject of ms lecture was all he knew about it. 3. My memory is not correct.— l beg to inform Mr. Green that what I stated in my letter of Oct. 23 I repeat, not from memory, but from shorthand notes taken by me while he was speaking. These notes are now lying before me, and Mr. Green may deny them as much as he likes. I will and do repeat that he did make use of the very words given by me. Mr. Green talks of my memory. What about his own ? What abont the occurrence taking place, first, a few weeks ago, second, three months ago, and, finally, in May last, that is to say, six months earlier ? What about the man who first died with curses on his lips, and the man who, secondly, did not die ? Talk about other persons' memories after this. But what abont the little box and the wafer which the priest put on the blaspheming tongue of the dying man ? Will Mr. Green repeat it, in face of Father Sheehan's denial that he administered the Blessed Eucharist? It is said that the informant was the very person who placed the screen round the man's bed. If so, how aid he see what the wicked priest was doing ? did he look like a spy over the screen, to watch what mysterious things were going on ; or, did he "guess " 1 Again, Mr Green asks whether I mentioned anything about all the beautiful things he said, about the good the Eoman Church had done m the so% disant Middle or Dark Ages, about the dreadful persecutions she underwent under the reigns of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and James I. ? No I did not, for what followed was quite enough to destroy it all. This rigmarole was like the action of a man who, having stabbed another, goes to him offering his hand saying that he felt sorry for having wounded him, but that he would, nevertheless, do it again, and with the words plunges his dagger deeper still. These are the words which followed :— " There is this difference, however, between persecution as carried on by Protestants and Catholics. Protestants persecuted in self defence, to protect their dearly bought and glorious right of worshipping God according to their own light, to defend the glorious work of the Reformation. The Catholic Church, however, persecuted because it was and is the spirit and teaching of the Romish Church to persecute and burn all heretics and those who will not bow down to her iron and corrupted yoke, and she would and will do it again, if we are not on our guards against her, tor every Catholic bishop, at his ordination, takes an oath to persecute all heretics, schismatics and unbelievers," &c, &c. Now the merest tyro in history will know at once that the first part is a gross misrepresentation and slander, the latter part a deliberate falsehood. Where Mr. Green got the information I am at a loss to know, for in no ritual for the ordination of a bishop that I know of is such a word as persecute to be found. But this is but one of the many slanders and false accusations in which Mr. Green's lecture abounded. Another before finishing. In what theological work did Mr. Green ever learn the astonishiug doctrine of the Romish Church as propounded by him— That an indulgence is a licence to commit sin, that indulgences are even at the present day sold and bought for money, and that, by this means, the rich are able and allowed to lead voluptuous and immoral lives with impunity, since, by means of their wealth, they are able to purchase any amount of licence to commit sin, which will be all forgiven them on the production of their tickets of indulgences ; while the poor man is left, for want of means, to do the best he can. These diabolical proceedings were invented by a corrupt and greedy clergy. But, looking over my notes, I see that were I to continue and bring Mr. Green's absurdities and misrepresentations before you I would be filling columns after columns J OU V aluable P a P e r- I must, therefore, pass over them at present, and will stick to and conclude with the real matter at issue— did Mr Green make use of the words stated by me in my letter to Dr. Moran on Oct. 2,-i, or did he not ? I here repeat once more that Mr. Green did make use of them, word for word. lam positive tliat he made useqf the words, " A few weeks ago, 1 happened to be in an hospital xn Dunedyn where, a fen beds from wliere I was, laid a Papist who nas cursing, &c, &c. (see issue Oct. 31) He may deny it fill he is black m the face ; it will not alter matters. The fact that he said it will remain.

And now, before concluding, I would wish Mr. Green to take a few words of advice— never to attempt to try and lecture on any subject in any way connected with the history or teachings of the Catholic Church, unless lie tries to learn a good deal more than what he knows, for unless he kept his knowledge all to himself, he proved to me, on the night he delivered his lecture on Martin Luther, that he

knew but very little about the man, and that as to the teachings of the Catholic Church and ecclesiastical history, he knows nothing, absolutely nothing -whatever.

M. DX H. DtJVAL.