THE POPE'S LETTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 412, 4 March 1881, Page 19

THE POPE'S LETTER.

A letteb of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII., to the Archbishop of Dublin, will be found given by out Roman correspondent. In communicating- the letter in question to his clergy, the Archbishop wrote as follows : —

It is not for me to recommend this letter to your most respectful attention. Had the Holy Father no other claims on our respect than those which gratitude alone could give, his merest word should command our reverence. But his words are the utterances of the highest authority on earth. He speaks to his ever-faithful Irish children from the fulness of a paternal heart, and he speaks from the chair of Peter, to which Ireland always clung in the fiercest tempests and the darkest hours of her history. He speaks to us as the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and to that Vicar the words of our Lord are specially applicable, "He that hears you hears Me, and him who sent Me." Now, in what terms does the Holy Father address himself to us? An attempt may be made to distort his words, and to make it appear that the Holy See is hostile to the demand of this country for the repeal of barsb laws, which have wrought misery and crime amongst us for long generations. la this the objfet of the Holy Father? Most certainly not. He knows the injuries inflicted on our people by the present land code, and he prays that these injuries may be speedily redressed by a change in the laws from which they flow ; but while he blesses our determination to obtain justice for an oppressed tenantry, there are in the agitation, as carried on, things which he cannot approve. No better exponent of the Holy Father's views can be had than the Holy Father himself, who draws a wide distinction between the end aimed at and some of the means employed to achieve that end. A few weeks ago, when we knelt at his feet to ask a blessing on our priests, our people, and ourselves, his Holiness entered earnestly into the question of the present condition of Ireland. As we wish to lose no word of an interview which was evidently intended for others besides ourselves, we asked the venerable prelate by whom we were accompanied to make a memorandum of the words of the Holy Father. As the memorandum accurately expresses our remembrance, we give it as it was written :—: — ' At the audience which his Holiness was pleased to grant to his Grace the Most Key. Dr. M'Cabe, on Friday, December 17, he again expressed his intense regard and affection for Ireland, and his gratuitude for the generous attestations of her attachment to the Chair of Peter and to himself which he continually receives. It is this, his great regard and affection for his Irish children, that makes him so anxious on account of the present state of things there. Hence he requested that his Grace the Archbishop should recommend all his suffragans to inculcate on the minds of the people their obligation of guarding: against being led into any illegal or unjust acts, to caution them 'as you have done' (addressing himself more especially to his Grace), against any course that is not approved of by our holy religion. His Holiness did not in any way disapprove of the people seeking by legitimate and constitutional means the redress of their grievances, but he said ' that in the present agitation, as it is carried on, there aTe certain things done which I cannot approve of.' The people, he said, should be encouraged in doing what is right, but they should be duly impressed with the duty of keeping always within the bounds of law and religion."

What these things are to which the Holy Father cannot give his approval it is not difficult to point out. However, let us hope that the wisdom of Parliament may devise means to satisfy every legitimate demand without violating the rights of justice, and to bring back to our midst peace and mutual confidence between all c' asses. Rumours to which we would be unwilling to give credence are already in circulation that the scheme about to be proposed by Government for the settlement of the land question will be but a half-hearted attempt to grapple with the evil they wish to cure. This would be a deplorable misfortune. Unless the cancer which has been eating away the life of the nation be cut out to the last fibre, health and security c*n never be restored, and sooner or later the disastrous scenes of to-day will return, but with increased violence. Whilst, then, very rev. and rev. dear Fathers, we deplore with the Holy Father the many occurrences which have affllicted the true friends of our country, let us pray that God may give wisdom to our rulers and the spirit ot moderation to our people, so that we may once more hecome, in the language of the Apostle, " One body in Christ and each one members one of another."