IBISH PRIESTS IN" IRISH POLITICS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 10, 27 June 1884, Page 21

IBISH PRIESTS IN" IRISH POLITICS.

Thr Wexford People reprints the following notable soeerti on tip S°B? oSrSTSJii }" WiS *\^^^^t U * Mi -« «° 2M At public dmneis there is always a toast which is the toasfc of it is eaitymg to lead tins cant in a corrupt Press and hear it on thp ear, near). And who wrung the Magna Oharta from the pnsil-

lanimousJohn? Mainly a Catholic bishop, the renowned Langton, at the head of " the army of God and our Holy Charon " (cheers). Cardinal Wolsey, Cardinal Pole, Father Petrie— doe3 nob each name recall the history of an era io which he was the most prominent political figure ? (Hear, hear.) The bishops and Abbots who sat in the English Parliament miking laws till the Protestant ReEormition shut them out mix^d in politic* as ranch as Mr. Gladstone or Me. Disraeli does to-day (cheers).- The Karats Templars Wire hoc only priests but politicians, as much as the birristers, who, like my Erien \ , fll". M'Mahon, sit in the ancient place*. When this stupil sUag U talked, do men forget who is prince aniru'er of the S;ates of R>me ? (Ctunrs.) Is not Pio Norio a priest? Is not Cardinal Antoaelli, his Secreiaryof Stafe, a priest? Are not the entire executive of Home ecclesiastics ? You kaow this very well ; but I speak of things so familiar, became this ab3utd' novelty is presented to us, as if it were an old and indisputable Catholic truth (hear and cheera). But somebody will say Rome is an exceptional case ; it is nec9ssary that the Pope should govern his dominions by his ecclesiastics. IE -there were any incompatibility betweei th \ nation\l politics and 1131 13 office of a priest would any nscessitv induce the Holy Father to put such adutv upon ecclesiastics? (Cheers.) But take another case. The Jesuits are priests, and in Paraguiy the government, the magistracy, all the offices oE State, from highest to lowest, under the rule oE tnj Jesuits, were filled by priests. lam ashamed of talking these commonplaces, bat it has besoms necessary to defend rights which priests have enjoyed and exercisad for eighteen hundred years (loui cheers). I have called this a new doctrine— it is certainly new in the mouths of Catholics ; but it is not withoit a large party oE a lheivmts in Europe (hear, hear). Mazzini is for the doctrine oE no prints in politics (hear hear). Garibaldi is for tint doctrine- it is written 01 the banner of the Eels and Soaiilists (cheers). It has alsofrienis in England, at least as far as its apolicition to this country is conceded (hear and cheers). I and my honourable friend hire have the opportnnity of healing it enunciated with greit vehemence two or three times a year in the House of Commons by Mr. Newdegue aad his colleague, Mr. Spooner(cheers). But this doctrine has no friends, and I verily believe will never have friends, countenance, or racsption in the Court of Rome (cheers). There the escablishel pjlijy and discipline have been exictly the other way. Tnroughout our entire history the priests of Ireland have been habitually encouraged and commanded to take part in politics by the Holy See, Let °me prove this. I will not go beyund the Reformation, though the fact is the same before as since that event ; but let us jmt see ajw it ha? been since. The first armed resistance to the Reform itioa in Ireland was by the Earl of Desmond in Munster. Did the Pope look on in silence ? On the contrary. Paul the Fifth sent a bull to Ireland, commanding the clergy and exhorting the chiefs to take pirt iix the holy war, and bestowing certain graces and privileges on ths sjldiew in the good cause (cries of hear, hear). Nor d<d he stop hero ; 113 granted six hundred men as a subsidy to the Irish army, and confurred on their commander a title which ought to be remembered in these parts— the title of Earl of Wexford and Baron of New Ross (hear, bear, and cheers). The next resistance was by Hugh O'Neill in Ulster, and his Holiness did not see it either with indifference. He sent the gallant soldiera plume blessed by himaelf, he commanded the priests to aid him, and .furnished a contribution of upwards of £20,000 in money — an eaormous sum at that period— to pay and feed the army of the North (bear, hear, and cheers). Fifty years after the people of Ireland were again in arms tor taeir liberties, and again the Pope blessed and aided the cause. A Nation il Synod of the Irish Church was held at Kilkenny, at which three of ihe' four archbishops w-re present, and with a crowd of suffragan bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries. Did this synod warn o ff the priest i from nolitic3? You shall judge. After appealing to thdir "inferior* as well as churchmen as laymen," the fathers of the synod passed the following resolution :: — •• We d > declare and judge an I every such as do forsake this unioa " (they were speaking, my friends, of the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny), ''fight for our e-iemies, accompany them in war, defend, or in any way support them, to be " what think you?— "to be politicians, with whom we c.in hay« no concern, as our duties are restricted to spiritual affairs ' 7 No, but "we do declare them to bs excommunicated, ani hy these presents we do excommunicate th^m" (cheers). To this confederation Urban VIII. s*nt Scarampi, a priest oE the Oratory, with a bull exploiting them to perseverance (hear and chiers). •' Nor," says Father Meeuau", from whose history of the Confederation I am about to quote— "nor did the Holy Father confine his liberality to transmuting such spiritual weapons as a Jubilee, with a plenary indulgence to all who had taken up arms in defence of religion. He also sent a larjji quantity of arms and ammunition" (loud cheers). This was in 1643, Shortly after Pope Urban died, and how did his successor, Iniioaeut the Tenth, treat.the bishops, priests, and laymen sitting in political council, making laws and equipping armies to fight for the deliverance of Ireland ? Did he exhoit them not to mix in politics'/ He sent over a nuncio (the highest ambassador in Papal affairs), the famous Rinuccini. and with him certain token 3of his favour, of which Father Meehan shall eive a list : — "2, 000 muskets, 2,000 cartouche belts, 4,000 swords, 400 brace of pistols, and 2,000 pikeheads " (cheers and a laugh). You see the Holy Father knew the customs of the Irish ; but if he had been a military instead of a spiritual prince he would have made the proportion of pikes to muskets as three to one (laughter). That confederation was managed chiefly by bishops, and first among them was the illustrious Nicholas French, the great bishop of this diocese (cheers). Last year I visited the church where he lies buried in a foreign land— an exile in life and death for his devotion to Ireland. Mr. Duffy, after referring to the struggle under James the Second, and the pirt tauen in it by the Holy See, repeated that the Court of Rome, which did not lightly change it's policy, had habitually encouraged the Irish Church to take a large part in the public affairs of Ireland. He did not believe a different course would ever be parsed— above all in the Pontificate of Pius the Ninth (cheers). The appeal at present being heard at Rome would infallibly end in the confusion of the Whig intriguers and in the satisfaction of the Irish priests aad people (cheers).