THE POPE IN IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 357, 20 February 1880, Page 19

THE POPE IN IRELAND

The correspondent of the Freeman at Rome writes :—: — The channel of communication between the Pope and the Irish Bishops is the Propaganda, not the secretary of State's office, and I am able to assure you that on the subjectof the land agitation in Ireno representations have been made to any Irish prelate. Jt is perfectly true that the present distress in Ireland has deeply engaged the sympathies of the Holy Father, who will at his own time and in his own way give expression to his sentiments of sorrow for the sufferings of the Irish Catholics. But the idea of interfering in the land agitation by prescribing to the bishops any particular line ot conduct has not yet crossed the mind of the Holy Father. The idea is yet more absurd of supposing that Leo XIII. volunteered to champion the cause of the British Government, by representing that Government as anxious, by means of state aid, to diminish Irish distress, and as eager to open the purse of the British nation to relieve Irish

misery. The feeling emtertained in higher clerical circles in Rome is one of amazement at the apathy of the British Ministry, and at the hard, unfeeling manner in which the misery of the Irish people people was treated. That many of the Irish ecclesiastics should have displayed vehemence and excitement in advocating the cause of the suffering poor is considered nothing extraordinary, artd is far from deserving severe censure from the Vatican. If any Catholic ecclesiastics of Ireland, in their zeal for the interests of their flock, are outstepping the bounds of prudence, is it not the Vatican which must condemn or reprove them. The priests are amenable to the laws. If they have transgressed those laws, let the civil auth >ritiea prosecute them. If they have not transgressed those laws, no more need be said.