PROPAGANDA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 14, 25 July 1884, Page 25

PROPAGANDA.

At a monster meeting of all creeds and classes held recently in Boston to protest against the spoliation of Propaganda, Archbishop Williams, as reported by the Pilot, spoke as follows :—: — " Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen :— This evening I had not intended to sty anything, because this was an open case. I did not think it a case where ttie hierarchy of the Church should say anything but I thought it advisable to let the gentlemen of the Catholic Union and iheir friends speak upon the subject. On the other hand, I did not want to be absent from such a meeting, and finding that if I should come I should be forced to speak, I consented, and in speaking on this subject T shall say nothing of the injustice of the act nor of the legal question bearing upon the act, but shall confiue myself to one feature of the subject which interests us as Catholics. As the President of the Union said in opening the meeting the Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith is the right arm of the Church, the mews by which the Holy Father governs more than three-fourths of the Catholic world. Under the authority of the Propaganda is comprised all except the old countries of Europe that were formerly all Catholic. So that at present all of Amer'ca all of Asia, all of Africa and the islands of the ocean come under the authority of the Propaganda. This Congregation is about two centuries and a-half old. Ie commenced a few years before the opening of that little school which has expanded tcf such an extent in the town of Cambridge, Harvard College. Only a few years before thafc the Propaganda was founded. At that time, before the great change in religious matters iv Europe in the sixteenth century, the governments of the world being Catholic, the Catholic Church protected her missionaries everywhere. Then the Holy Father, to give his help to those nations which lequirad the assistance of missionaries, gave his adhesion to the good work. •'The old Catholic countries of B ngland, Scotland, and Ireland baoarae subject to the authority of the Propaganda, and it is a coincidence worthy of mention that the same Pope that commenced the foundations of the Propaganda at the same time laid the foundation of the Irish College at Rome. They hud no college in Ireland to educate the Levites, and this college, which still exists at Rome, w.is founded (applausa). The college which w<ts then established aud called !t.he Urban College, after the Pope uuder whose pontificate it was built is the same as that in Rome to-day. The ideal of this college was to bring young men from the uttermost parts of the world and teach them all the civilisation tben known in the world, under the guidance of the Holy Father, with the traditions and faith of Rome, and send them out to distant countries with as full a knowledge a3 if they were to exercise their ministry in the most civilised part of Europe. Tnia plan, commenced 250 yews ago, is carried on to-day as it was then. During my late visit to Rome I visited the College of the Propaganda to listen to some of their exercises, and heard the students there 'speak in thirty-five different languages, and all the subjects treat-id of were ou American topics. When the Propaganda commenced there were Catholics herein this Country who required the services of priests aud afterwards of bishop 3. It was through that organisation thac all the series of priests and bishops have been maintained in this country. Young men have been brought to Rome and educated ami sent back, and not one cent paid to Home for ic. Sach has been ta« system. Ie is impossible to make thorn take a cent for anything they have done. " Rome is the great centra of all the Catholic world. Ia Roaiij ' there are great societies' which we call bureaus, as ia Washiu^ou they are called bureaus, which take charge of different departments of the Catholic Church. People going to Rome think they see a great many priests who do nothing but live in idleness, bat they have the care of 200,000,000 of people, while the clerks in the departments at Washington do the work for only 50,000,000. Every bishop is

appointed by the Propaganda, with the approval of the Holy Father. Every appeal from tbree-fourlhs of the world comes there- every decision that is required, and every new effort before it goes into effect must pass through the Propaganda before it is presented to the Holy Father. All this work is done for us, and done for nothine For 100 years we have derived these beneats from Rome. This is not a sentiment ; this is not crying out against the Italian Government doing this or doing that ; it is not interfering with their laws • it is claiming aright which we have enjoyed for 260 years, and for an institution which was not founded by the Italian Government, but by all Christendom. ' " There is one regret which I wish to mention. It strikes me as unworthy a nation like Italy, which has such glorious memories and traditions of the past, that it should ba so blind" to its own interest, so blind to its glorious institutions, and particularly this one institution, which has no parallel in the world-so blind as to try to stamp it out of existence. It is to be recited that a great nation should know so little of its own glory. If the Propaganda should be destroyed although at present they simply wish to curtail its power, the next move of course will be the absence from Rome of him who rules the Hnli 6 ST* ° liC i W ° rld> t ad JI hen *S? J*°P'«»Ada has left, and the Holy Jathor leaves where then will be the glory of Rome? Then wKn 7ll hi th ? 5 " ?° fc the Italia i a Q °™mment that makes Rome. Sn lirl H o^ father has gone, and his right arm is stricken down France. So it will be again if they are ever so unfortunate as to drive him out of their city (applause). Well, now, I apprehend that every American citizen, whether he b 3b 3 Catholic or whether he be Protestant, has occasion in this day and at this hour to look at the direction of the win i. As I understand it, this fire which has been •et » to my next-door neighbour's house, and unless I assist in arresting it the next thing that will be consumed is my own house. Because if I understand the position of the Church in Ohistondom, Rome, Christian Rome, with all its religious organisations and its institutions, stands tc .the windward of every other Christian institution in Christendom (applause). The fire that consumes that city, consecrated by the lives of martyrs and by their sufferings, consecrated by the prayers of the faithful m all generations, will consume every Christian institution upon the whole planet, and it will extinguish those altars l-x pagan lands from which now comes up the prayer for the conver81 onof the heathen world. We here in this country may feeMhat we are entirely safe from the likelihood or the possibility of any such confiscation of funds devoted to the purposes of piety *j but we had better not take that feeling to our hearts with too much conndence. We have seen all over the world and all through the ages that feeling which leads P 3ople to confiscate the rights of other " Some sixty years ago, when one of our institutions of learning hero in this country was endangered, the protection of the Constitifturn was invoked and it was given, and saved an humble institution of jearn.nKs.ancl to-day every institution of learning and piety incorporated is notopon to the effects of legislation and stands to-day nrmon its constitutional right. You cannot invade its t>rivile<W< you cannot confiscate its funds ; you cannot divert them from °tbe purpose for which they were given by wise and pious men and women. If these institutions are worthy of constitutional shield which protects them from the robber, from the bigot, bow much more should be protected an institution whose iufluence is as wide as the land and whose purposes are as lasting as those of eternity. I undeistaud that this great missionary society has f >r its purpose the conversion thecmlmtion of the world, that pious men and pious women from" all countries and withm the last 2 .o years have devoted such portion of their means as they could conveniently spara to build up this K reat missionary organisation, designed locairy the light of the Gosnel designed to carry learning and the insitutions of civilisation into" the remotest part of the world. Certain ly if there is any organisation which should coui-nead itself to the sober judgment ol Sfcountry we whole community, the whole world, it is one having such noble purposes in tow, and for one I desire to protest against any actioa which shall impair in any degree the usefulness of an institut on having such noble ends in view (applauses ° '-We must all recognise, of course, the right of every Government to administer its affairs according as it «hail seem fae/c to itself I understand this meeting is not called to undmake to overthrow of the Italian Government or to dictate to it with reg »rd to the managewent of its internal afiairs, but that it is called to protest a-uinst a great public wrong, and if we cannot call this Government iuto any court having constitutional jurisdiction to reverse an action so disastrous to those great interests, we can at least summon them into the IS? °f £ I T ScienCe ' aQd hol(i tbem u *> to the indignation of the world if they shall presume to outrage the sentiment of humanity of this era (applause). It is not, if I understand it, the case of a Government which has undertaken to manage one of its own in Btitutions, incorporated it may be by a legislative Act of it* own and supported by fund< contributed by its own citizens, but it is an endeavor to overthrow substantially, to bumble completely, an intitution built up by the world, an institution in which the worJi has , an interest (applause). This is simply a question, shall the Italian |Government keep public faith? Shall it disturb funds which have been attributed by wise and pious meu for two ceaturies for a specific purpose? Shall it by a simple despoJc $aL I defa « DCe . of L- ttie P ublic of all countries under? nn e pfl S confiscate th s property, or in any way impair its uSfulness ? I can conceive of but one answer to that question Every Catholic, every Protestant, every believer and every unbeliever must reply alike. For if there is nothing in the sublime Sof these men who have done their duty, irrespective of all personal consequences- aa missionaries remote from civilisation, that touches the hart of the world, there ought at least to he something which w.l [touch the judgment of those who observe that hand in hand with oht wtiamt y goes science and all those institutions which make the world worth living in. It seeius to me that this act must aSear to everybody one of simple outrage against religion, against liter*

ture, against civilwahon, and in this great presence I wish to add my voice to the voices of those who protest against this great wrong done to religion, civilisation and learning."-(Great applause )