FAREWELL ADDRESS OF THE LATE PRESIDENT OF THE CANTERBURY CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 9, 20 June 1884, Page 19

FAREW ELL ADDRESS OF THE LATE PRESIDENT OF THE CANTERBURY CATHOLIC LITE RARY SOCIETY.

At the meeting of this Society held on the 2nd inst., Mr. Maslcell, ihe retiring President, delivered the following address. After bavlu g o n a few P reliminar y remarks referred to the present state o£ the Society, and the progress made by it during the year, as well as tbankei those gentlemen who had given it their assistance, he eaid :—: — m Now, is there anything in tbe progress of events since June last, or in the condition of Catholic affairs at the present moment, as far as we can tell, calculated to encourage us to be less "gloomy " than } ?un, ?*?• the world shown a °y disposition to be less antagonistic to the Catholic Church ? Are Catholic principles less hated, Catholic maxims less execrated, Catholic practices less abused? Is more ■!ÜB?Doometed! ÜB ?Doo meted out to Ca * nol »c Bin any part of the world in 1884 than in 1883 ? And are we justified in believing that at last the tide of conflict is turning in our favour, and that the Church is at last in the W i*£ °*.. 88 * lft v >ctory. Let us see. First, turning to that great centre OE Catholic veneration and affection— the metropolis of all Christianity,—what has happened Bince Jnne last to His Holiness the Pope : then, he was a prisoner ; now, he is a prisoner still. I see no improvement here, for his gates are barred as strongly as ever, and no eignhasbeen vouchsafed that bis gaolersarein the leastrelaxing the strictness of their guard ; but, if this were all, I might perhaps be told that at least things were no worse : that in Rome, at least, the cnurch had held her own. You, gentleman, are well aware how far this is true. It is not true. The newe, month after month, has been that worse and worse attacks have been made on the Pope and the Church, until at last the climax seems to be near at hand. There ib an institution in Borne which has existed three hundred years, and the like of which has never been seen in the world. Societies for the bjpport o£ missionaries may be found in England and America ;— societies upheld, doubtless, by vast subscriptions, and making a great parade of their activity and doings. But what are these to the Propaganda 1 Even the Protestant Press has been unanimous in the expression of regret at the action lately taken by the Italian Government. Begret, indeed, is all that they do express ; indignation could not, of course, be expected from them. The confiscation of the property of Propaganda— the attempted destruction of the greatest institution in all the world for the spread of Christian faith, could not <lraw forth more than phrases such as this, taken from the London Junes :—" It is to be regretted that the Court of Appeal at Borne •could not discover cause for excusing the Propaganda " from the operation of the law. It is much that we should get even such •civility as this. But now, what is it that has been done, and what will be its effect 1 It is not for me this evening to go into details ; but, practically, what has been done has been a direct and wholehale confiscation by the Italian Government of the most sacred and important property of the Ohurcb in Italy, and the effect will as it appears, be the forced departure of His Holiness the Pope from Borne. Plainly put, it is not too much to say that we may expect, ere many months— perhaps weeks— are over, to see leo XIII., the "Vicar of Const, a wanderer on the earth— driven from his proper home and leeking refuge whereverlany king or emperor may grant it to him. Ido mot mean say that this is certain. His Holiness will doubtless exhaust all possible modes of action before taking so decisive a step as flight *T ■ "?* Yet i% i 8 hard to see "hatelseis indicated in that phrasa of his lnhia last allocution :~» We know that our enemies have determined to fill the measure of outrage against the ttoman Pontiff, tinti , irom one difficulty to another, he is driven to the last extremity. "We foresee, ' says the Pope, " still harder trials, and we are ready to bear them." And, gentlemen, it maybe our fate to read, any day, in the telegraphic intelligence from Europe, that the last exuemity has come ; that Leo XIII. has been driven into exile : that the Vatican has become the prey of the spoilers ; that the Church has once more fled away into the desert— once more, for it will not be the nrst time : nor, indeed, must we be any more anxious for the ultimate result than were Catholics when the Popes were driven, centuries ago, to Avignon ; when Pius VII. was a prisoner to the first Napoleon; when Pius IX. fled from the ruffian Garibaldi to take refuge with the King of Naples. We have no cause for anxiety in the end. But it would be absurd to imagine that, during the past year, the assault on the Church, in the person of Leo XIIL, has been any less active than before. As I said just now, the Pope is a prisoner S?« 8 n % 7 aS m - 18 ? 3 5^ U , fc Uiß with this difference, that h e P is now compelled to seriously think of planning his escape, lest, from being a prisoner with a -measure of nominal liberty, he may become the inX* ?? T tU £ ,i dungeol ?' or ' worse «i». danger of personal >njury. Undoubtedly, gentlemen, you are as well aware as lam that bach persecution as this defeats its own ends. Persecution is the life of the Church, and by the blood of martyrs is the Faith nourished. It was at the very time when Pius IX. had been forced to leave Borne, when a great cry of jubilation arose from the enemies of the Church * when "Popery » was stated to be at last crushed to the ground, it was at that very time that a new hierarchy was given to Enlland, and Cathohcity began to flourish there anew. It Wai the persecution in Ireland which gave to all the world so, many thousands of noble missionanes. It was the persecution in France three years aeo, and the persecution in Germany somewhat earlier, which permitted the estabhsbment of monasteries, missions, Catholic settlements, in heretic or heathen lands. And such a persecution of the Pope as may drive him into apparently ignominioos exile, will have, in theend, precisely * *v am ,u eff l ct^ Y ? t it; would be wron S to imagine that the enemies of the Church have been in the least instructed by the history of the past. Anti-Catholic feeling is just as ripe now as ever. In what are called cultured circles, amongst the educated and the intellectual, Catholics are very tolerably treated. No overt insult may be expert' I^* n °«P»^flMe"ltatioiiatoor trials may be openly put forth But the feeling of hatred is still there; we are merely tolerated, ajmply becauseof the pretence to liberality whioh is so fashionable in T&e present day. lam not by any means sure that this is a good

thing for us. We might -probably be much better off if the feeling against us were more forcibly expressed— more openly shown. Luckily, as I think, we have our share of persecution in the educational system of this country, for that helps to bind us together, and keep our muscles, as it were, constantly braced np. We might be worse off than we are, speaking from a Catholic point of view, if we hadnot something of the kind going on. But, leaving that aside, I world not have you imagine that the feeling of Protestants with regard to the Church is less strong than it used to be. They will, doubtless, flock to any of our public ceremonies, very often simply to gaze upon a peculiar and puzzling exhibition, sometimes, perhaps, in a kind and generous sympathy. Such an occasion as the founding of St. Patrick's College will attract them in crowds; even so ordinary a thing as a diocesan synod is thought worthy of being telegraphed all over the country with a sort of hint of mysterious ceremonial : and any public doings of ours are narrated with, I freely admit, a decent impartiality in the newspapers, just as if we were really much the same Bort of people as anybody else. But we are no nearer th« heart of the Protestant world than ever we were. Whenever there is any chance of a cut at us it is taken ; and in the full and firm belief of the greatest part of our Protestant fellow-citizens we are deserving of'.bnly two things, contempt and detestation ; or, if not of both, then of at least one of the two. I said just now that no overt attack is made, upon us ; and this is true, on the whole, for.this. country. For there is in New Zealand so, very general a laxity of opinion upon matters of faith, a laxity which is growing very fast indeed, that really there are not many amongst us, outside the Catholic Church, who care more than the very least little bit (in the absence of some exciting cause) about religious differences. There have, however, been two queer ltttle assaults delivered lately, the. one under the leadership of a not very wise gentleman holding high ecclesiastical position ia Dunedin. Archdeacon Edwards thought fit to publicly accuse the Catholics of Otago of refusing to contribute to the cause of charity; The Benevolent Association down there has not-been- properly supported as he thinks, by tbe Catholic clergy and laity, and his opinion was expressed (perhaps involuntarily) in such a way as to point to a grave dereliction of duty* The charge was not wisely made ; the reply of His Lordship Dr. Moran was clear, unanswerable, crushing. The abstention of the Catholics of Otago was shown to be due, not to any want of charity on their part, but to a failure of justice on the part of the Association. Like all open attacks upon Catholics, this attack has failed, of course. Still, it has Bbown the continued existence of that anti-Catholio feeling of which I have been speaking ; and doubtless, Archdeacon Edwards and his allies will take another opportunity of courting defeat as soon as possiblr. The other assault was less direct, and I only refer to it as illustrating the curious state of ignorance of -Catholic affairs shown by (professedly) educated Protestants. A Presbyterian minister, running a tilt against the Salvation Army, made it one of his main charges that the Army resembled the Jesuits in being, what he wanted his readers to infer was a dangerous secret society. Nobody .took much notice of this sally which, in itself, is simply absurd. But it is characteristic of the persistence of anti- Catholic feeling that a minister, whose business, one would think, it should be to -study, and inform himself of the truth, should repeat publicly such a worn-out slander against the great Catholic society. The actual power of intellect possessed by the minister in question I do not know and need not discuss. But, when men in his official position are unable to refrain from exhibitions of ignorance u^on plain facts, how can we expect the. great body of our Protestant fellow citizens to do anything else 1 In point of fact they are not one whit better informed, or more inclined to favour Catholic truth, than they have been in the past Let us look for an instant at the condition of things in other directions; what improvement is noticeable as to Catholic questions? None, I fear, in France, where the anti-Christian war is being waged just as fiercely as ever ; and where the indication points rather to an aggravation than to a relaxation of it. The Bepublicans who are now in power in France are not likely to hesitate or grow cold in their rage, but they have hitherto found some slight obstacle to their career in the conservation, such as it is, of the Senate or Upper House of Parliament. The French people have fallen into a sort of lethargic apathy, for which, doubtless, many causes might be given, but which is eminently calculated to give the ruffians who govern them plenty of scope for their active malice. The persecution of the Church in France is due as much to the laziness of the Catholics as to the energy of the infidels. Still, there have been some little remains of opposition, and they have beeu found chiefly in the Senate. The Government have been able in many instances to bear down this opposition and procure a majority in the Senate, but with some degree of trouble. And now it is announced that they are going to greatly reduce the powers of that body, so that as far as can be seen the condition of the Church is to be worse in the future than it has beenfin the past. In Germany there has really been a slightimprovemeni, The May Laws which have for years been pressing so heavily upon Catholics have been Bom.ew.hat.relaxed, and a few bißbops and priests have been able to return to their flocks. Still, the new state of things is not altogether satisfactory. The two greatest of the German, bishops are still exiles, and the Government absolutely refuses topermit their return. Moreover, the relaxation which has been been granted is due, not so much to any feeling on the part of PrinceBismarck, in favour of the Church, or of toleration, as to his dread oE Socialism and anarchy. The Catholic party in the German Parliament hrvebeen able to hold the balance of power ; and Bismarck, in order to> avoid ruin from the Socialists, has been simply forced tothrow a sop to the Catholics. Whether the improved state of affairs will last for any time seems to depend greatly upon anything rather than a sense or justice and truth in the German authorities. If we turn to the United States, we find that, although there is in that country no active persecution the Church enjoys nothing more than toleration, whilst if we are to believe published statements the moral and social condition of the people generally is getting worse every year. In Belgium, the authorities, acting up to their Masonic i principles, are continuing in the same way ot violence and outrage I which have marked their past career.- In Spain, republican (that is

at the present day, anti- Catholic) sentiments are making .rapid progress. In Portugal, the law which absolutely forbids anybody -in that country to become a monk or a nun is producing its natural fruit. In Austria, whilst the Emperor is a true and fervent Catholic, the ministry are endeavouring to break down Catholic truth, and they have begun by attacking, the Sacrament of Matrimony. In Brazil, Mexico, and Chili, the Church is subject to constant assaults, and it is stated .that, in Mexico especially, what are called Protestant truths are making great progress. The commemoration last November of the anniversary of Luther s birth was, doubtless, a spectacle tat laughter or for pity from alL decent-minded Christians ;.yet it was celebrated with much of a certain kind of enthusiasm, and even up to the present day well-known writers are busy showing how Lnther was to be revered not for any particular excellencies of his own, but for his assault upon the Catholic Church. All over the world, gentlemen, much as men outside the true faith differ amongst themselves upon every conceivable question, they are not in the least less eager to hate to revile, to persecute, if possible, the Church, than they were last year or ten years ago. When we come nearer home, and enquire what is being done in England, we have even less grounds for satisfaction As far as Ireland is concerned, I do not know that, during the past year, any question has arisen affecting Catholici truth, and probably the Church in that country may even have gained somo little advantage. In England, lam sorry to say that the same conflict which we are passing through in this Colony, has begun in almost the same way. It is the question of education which is being made the battleground men, ten years ago, the Imperial Parliament established school boards and a State system of education, it was apparent to anybody who had watched the progress of affairs here that the great fight of secular versus religious education was beginning ; that it was only a matter of time when the two parties would meet face to face; that compromise would never do more than delay the actual struggle. Compromise, however, was resolved upon. Whether from want of knowledge of such facts as were happening here, or from trust in the good intentions of their adversaries, or from a desire to exhaust all possible modes of pacification, or from some other cause, the Catholics of England accepted the new system and tried to work their schools in accordance with it. The inevitable result came The secularists, having gained an inch, soon wanted an ell. The system which was established there seems to have differed from ours in this ■ that, whereas here the expense of State education is charged against the consolidated revenue of the Colony, at Home it has been a charge against the local rates, and tbe adversaries of the Church have been acutely taking advantage of local feeling and the usual hatred of ratepaying. Tbe State board schools and the denominational for. as they are called at Home, the voluntary) schools, seem to have been receiving simultaneously aid from the rates. Of course, the board schools had the advantage ;-backed up by the power of the Government, fostered and petted by the Education Department, puffed and advertised in every way, they were made to show better results for less money. Every little thing to the detriment of the voluntary schools was laid hold of ; every means was adopted for aggravating little grievances against them ; they have been handicapped more heavily year after year, till of late it has become the acknowledged boast of the secularists that they are in a fair way towards gradually extinguishing them. All this, of course, has been done with the usual crafty aud mendacious policy of secularism. Successive ministers and secretaries, Lord Sandon, Mr. Mundella Mr Forster have expressed every possible desire for the welfare of religious teaching ; but—and the London Tablet, hitherto eager to accept their delusive asseverations, is obliged to admit it— they kept tbe word of promi.se to tbe ear, and broke it to the sense. It has become, at last, clear to the, unluckily, too confiding hearts of English Catholics that they are bemg rapidly drawn into a severe and deadly stru<Me, and that they must make up their minds to fight. Unluckily, again I fear that they do not even yet realise the whole truth Coupled with them in the management of "voluntary" schools, and so exposed also to the assaults of State secularism, are the members of the Established Church of England ; and English Catholic* are at present, relying with much confi Lena* upon th s co-operation with them of the Anglican bishops, clergy aad people. Gentlemen, you and I know bow delus.ve euch a hope is. We, too, in this little Colony, have had to ask for the assistance of the Church of England Catholics at Home are now calling the Anglicans their "allies"' they feel sure that the great Christian hearc of tbe Establishment will impel it to the fight a? ardently as the heart* of Catholic.". Vain «HS specious, buc all too uselebs. expectation I True, the Church of England is there what it is uot here, an institution established by the law of the land. But, as the Anglican bishops and clergy in W Zealand basely diserted the cause of religion in the fear of losing the favour of their masters the laity, so at Home, when the hint of disestablishment, now only whispered, becomes a real attack (as it must aud will be, if they fight on the Catholic side), where will the Anglican bishops and clergy be found to range themselves? lne new Keform Bill, now passing through Parliament, will give enormous additional power to the advocates of board schools -the assault upon denominational teaching will very soon become sharper and more direct ; the people of England will do as Dther peoples have done, and they will not brook the opposition of their own creatures the Anglican clergy; and ere long there will be at Home only the two camps which we have here in New Zealand— secularism and the Catholic Church. The Engluh Catholics do not yet seem to realise this. I fear they will be only too soon awakened from their dream And so, gentlemen, when we glance round the world and see how it tarts elsewhere with the Church, can it be said- that there is au improvement on last year? Scarcely ; and if only on one point there may be a great aud lamentable change for the worse, yet that is m the most important of all, the condition and the prospects of Mis Holiness the Pope. Far be it from me to say that there may not be consolation for other things. There is no doubt that the Catholic faith is, in many directions, spreading as usual ; that converts by thousands are coming in ; that, perhaps, there is less open hostility shown to us. tftai, Ido not think it would be right to say that, in

1884, the Catholic Church can be considered as having any less severe a struggle to undergo than in 1883, and I shall be greatly surprised- if, in June, 1883, your n3w President will be able toassure you that the' tide has turned, and that "all is going well. As for New Zealand, there is little' to chronicle. It is supposed, and perhaps rightly, that public opinion is changing on the education question, and that we may soon have our rightful position acknowledged. 1 am myself doubtful on the point. Ido not deny that people are getting uneasy at the cost of the State system, that complaints are getting rife, that here and there a member of Parliament or some public man has spoken against the system. But. after all, that is'merely a question of money ; it does not touch the principle. And if, as is not unlikely, some mode can be discovered of easing the pockets of the people without interfering with secularism, I am sure that it will be adopted without giving to us Catholics any relief. The Protestant community likes to keep its money, but it hates Catholicism as it loves its gold ; and I am not at all sure that, if it were fairly shown to the Parliament of this country that reduction of the expense of education would load to relief to Catholics, members would not deliberately elect to t iko the more expensive course. However, though that may be my own opinion, many others may differ from aae. Let us hope that they am right and that a change of the present abominable system may not be far off. lam sure, gentlemen, that much of the evil condition of things which I have mentioned is due to the timid reticence of the Catholic laity. Prance, certainly, affords an example of this. The majority of the deputies in the French Assembly are strongly antaganistic to the Church ; and it is from them that proceeded tv« persecution of late years, from the dispersion of the religion* Orders to the suppression of tie salaries of bishops and clergy, from the compulsory military service even of students for the priesthood to the expulsion of the Sisters of Mercy from the hospitals. They are driving France to utter and destructive Atheism, and why 1 Because the Catholic laity will not move to stop them. In the great cities, no doubt, Atheism is in power, and returns its congenial deputies But in the country districts the Catholics are in majority, and there" instead of returning Catholic deputies, the people too often elect the scum of the Secularists. I see also signs of similar dangerous timiiity in England. Thera is a body there called the Catholic Union, and it includes a great number of the most influential Catholic laymen. The Duke of Norfolk is its President, and peers, and baronets, and gentlemen of influence are numerous in it. But I find the London Tablet, in one of its last numbers, rebuking the Catholic Imion for too much reticence on the education question, and this reticence is founded, as it appears, on the expressed fear of interferiug with the action of the bishops. Therd is precisely the fault of the Catholic laity. Sound and warm-hearted as they may be in matters of faith, they are apt to carry effacement too far. Sooner than incur the slightest risk they wait and wait till the bishops and the clergy set them in motion, and then the result is that when they do move they can effect little ; their adversaries openly taunt them with being no more than mere instruments ; any isolated refusals by laymen calling themselves Catholics to follow the lead of the clergy are eagerly laid hold of, aad the enemies of the Church march on securely to their brutal victory. But, holding as I do, the conviction that the Church, whether here in New Zealand or elsewhere in the world, is not in the least in a better position than last year ; feeling, as I do, that the moment may at any time come when the battle to be fought may be at our own doors and in our own defence, I cannot close this, my last address to you as your President, without earnestly expressing my hope that you, as Catholic laymen, will keep yourselves prepared for the fight. If you have followed with me the courso of events of the past year, if you have watched the world progressing, as it seems to be, rapidly towards Socialism and anarchy, you will not fail to realise how fatal must be the error for the laity to imagine that they are only useful as followers, that they are to be dumb till ordered to speak. And you know al o that it is the correction of such a mistake as this which has been one of the objects of this Society of ours. Do not misunderstand me. Do not imagine that I desire to advocate rash, independent action ; anythin<r°but that. Nobody values more than Ido submission to the Church and the Catholic virtue of obedience. But it is impossible not to feel that the Parliament of this Colony would have bjen lea* ready to oppress us, less stubborn in refusing us justice, if it could be made clear to the people of New Zealand that the Catholic laity march us they really do march, in the educition conflict, side by side with their priests. We ourselves know this to be true ; the Protestant public and the Protestaut Parliament do not know it, and unfortunately some colour has been given to their view by the reckless conduct of some renegade members of the Assembly whom I will not insult you by mentioning here by name. I may be told; perhaps that there is nothing for the laity now to do ; or ie may be asked what they are to do at any time. In the limits of such an address as this as it is impossible to enter iuto details. But there is at least this to be said : Keep your Society flourishing ; never allow that bond of union which you have made amongst you to slacken or to creak ; keep yourselves in unison with, and, if possible, in communication with other societies in other parts of the country • lose no opportunities of impressing your Catholic views of education upon the public; and, above all, make up your minds to use that power which you do possess when anelection for the Assembly puts so to speak, your enemies in your hands. Personally, as you all know, I am strongly in favour of a definite course of policy at elections. I believe that Catholics ought, in the present juncture, to give up auy ideas, ieelings, or predilections to which they may have tor one party or auother, and vote a3 Catholics alone. Sir George Grey and Liberalism, Major Atkinson and Conservatism, dejentralisatiou, taxation, the "unearned increment," public work/ national borrowing, railway tariffs and such things as triese are as nothing. Paramount over all, surmounting all as'the heavens surmount the earth, infinite in comparison with all as space is infinite in comparison with this joom of ours is the great Catholic question, the quesition of truth againstfalsehood, of justice against injustice, of the Catholic Church against secularism. And it has been, and still is, my

own opinion that this, and this alone, should be the object of Catholic action at the coming general election. You, gentlemen of this Society, have it in your power to do much towards this end. You, if you choose, may exercise much influence. It is nay earnest hope that you will de so. And now it is time for me to bring to a dose this long and tedious address. Yet I cannot do st without taking the opportunity of bidding you all fare well, for as far as can be seen now I am here for the last time as a member of this Society. It is possible, but only barely possible, tbat next year 1 may be ordered to return to Christchurch once more. But in all probability I shall be stationed elsewhere, either in Auckland, or Dnnediu, or Wellington. It scarcely needs saying that though absent in body, my spirit will remain here with you. Nay, I trust still to keep my name on your roll, and my annual subscription will still be paid to your Treasurer as long as it is in my power to pay it. I propose also to continue to contribute to you the numbers of the London Tablet as heretofore. Gentlemen, it is a great blow to nte to leave you, Many amongst you have followed with me the ejrowth of our Society since that first evening when we met in the old Presbytery and founded it. We have watched it in its struggling infancy, we have seen it grow to a vigorous youth, aid we have not to be ashamed of our work for it. You know how I myself have looked upon it as possibly a useful weapon in the cause of the Church. Bat, be-sides that, there has been for me a personal advantage. One great boon which this Society has procured me has been toe acquaintance a -id the friendship of many a Catholic whom perhaps otherwise I should never have known. Doubtless every one of you can say the same, priests and laymen, Citholics of Christchurch or elsewhere, we have met and communed together under the bond of a mutual friendship and in frank cordiality. And I may safely say for my own part, that, during the three years of this Society's existence, no sin^lu tiling has occurred to indicate that the feelings of esteeoa and friendship with which, we began have lost any of their warmth or intensity. In these three years I have made many Catholic friends. I believe I have lost none. To this Society the fact is due ; to its members aie due also my warmest thanks for their constant kindness to me, for their cordial appreciation of whatever it has been in my power to do, for their still kinder forgiveness of any failure on my part to serve them better. Friends of the past, farewell ! The tie between us is severed ; Gone is the golden chain, its links too suddenly broken. How shall I measure the days gone by 1 How gauge in the future All that in these three years has come as reward of our labour 1 Nay, shall I measure by time ? What matter if only a minute Bounded our span of life whilst here we communed together 1 What is a month, or a year, in the awful infinite cycle ? What are the centuries more than a point in the vanishing distance ? Better a grasp of the band, in frank sincerity tendered. Better a quick, true word, than the acted lie of a lifetime 1 Alas for the friends of an hour I I may look on their faces no longer, And memory whispers regret for the pleasant days chat have vanished; Fancy would fain recall the past, with a sigh for the present, Sternly reality cries— Forget, forget them for ever 1 Ah ! though the night come fast, let memory lengthen the twilight, As, 'neath our own Home skies, day lingers awhile in the sunset.