A FORGERY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 31, 26 November 1886, Page 23

A FORGERY.

The following correspondence has appeared in the Dunedin Eoeninq Star, TO THB EDITOR. 8ir > — Apropos of the correspondence given place to in your columns oh the subject of Roman Catholic education, and the principles of the Church of Rome, it may be interesting for your readers to peruse the following extract from a speech recently delivered by Archbishop Kenrick at ht. Louis, America, and published in a Roman Catholic organ under the title of " The Bhepherd of the Valley " :— " We avow that the Roman Citholic Church is intolerant— that is, that it employs the means which are in its power to extirpate error and sin ; but this intolerance is the logical and necessary consequence of its infal'ibihty. It alone has the right to be intolerant, because it alo ie is the truth, and possesses the truth. The Church, indeed, tolerates heretics here where she is under restraint, but she hates them mortally, and employs her forces to secure tbeir annihilation. As soon as the Catholics here are in possession of a considerable majority— as certainly they will be some day, although tne moment may delay its coming— thoir religious liberty will have come to an end in the United States. Our enemies Bay so, and we agree with them. Our enemies know that we do not pretend to be better than our Church, and, as to what concerns that Ohurcb, its history is open to the eyes of all. They know, then, how it acted with heretics in the Middle Ages and how it acts with them now, wherever it has the requisite power. In no way do we pretend to deny these historical facts, any more than to blame God's saints and the princes of the Church for effecting or approving these events. Heresy is a deadly sin ; it kills the soul and casts the whole man, body and spirit, into bell. Moreover it is a very contagious malady, and propagates itself infinitely wherever it finds a foothold, thas imperilling the temporal and eternal happiness of innumerable generations to come. This is the reason why Princes, truly Christian, extirpate heresy whenever they have the power. If at this moment we abstain from persecuting heretics here, it is solely because we are too weak to do it : and, in such a state of things, we think that by the attempt we should do more harm than good to the Cnurch." Such a statement so straightforwardly male by the Arcabishop should be widely published. It is one of the clearest averments of the true aim of tbe Roman Catholic teaching which I have met with in the whole course of my reading upon this subject, and coming from such an authority carries much weight, and may be respected by all classes as the truth fairly sUted. — I am, etc., Patriot. Dunedin, November If).

TO THE KDITOR 01' THK EVENING STAR. IK > — In your ishue of last evening, a c 'rrespoudbnt who signs himself " Patriot" gives a long extract from what he says is a speech recently delivered by Archbishop Kmnck of S<\ Louis, United States of America, and published in a Roman Catholic organ under the title of " Shepherd of the Valley." In reference to " Patriot's" letter I beg to say that I have now before me a list of Catholic newspapers and other periodicals published in the United States and Canada, and that I do not find any paper or periodical called the " Shepherd of the Valley " in this list. For man) years I have regularly received each mail from San Francisco some of the h ading Catholic organs of the United States, and I have never seen the name of the " Shepherd of the Valley," mentioned nor have I found any reference whatever to the speech of Archbishop Kenrick mentioned by " Patriot." It is possible, nevertheless, that such a Catholic organ as the " Shepherd of the Valley " exists, and Archbishop Kenrick may have quoted the words, said to be his own. from some disciple o£ Foxe and tfurnet, for the purpose of refuting th«m. But lam convinced that Archbishop Kenrick never delivered tbe speech put in his mouth by " Patriot," and that it will be found on investigation that what is here attributed to him is a forgery ; such as was the speech attributed some years ago to Bishop Strossmayer, and which in di fiance of his denial w is persevermgly printed and published years after he had publicly declared Le had never spoken the <-p cch.— l am, sir, yours etc., ,f P. MOHAN. Dunedin, 19 November, 1886. P.S. — Since writing the above I have ascertained that the American Catholic papers have stated that Archbishop Keurick did not make this speech attributed to him by the " Shepherd of the Valley." t P. 54.

" Buchu-PaibA.."— Quick, complete cure, all annoying Kidney Bladder, and Urinary Diseases. At chemists and druggists. Ketnpthorne, Prosser and Co., Agents, Dunedin. To restore, nerve and brain waste, nothing equals Hop Ritters Believe this and take none but American Co.'s. See Protestantism is not so succ '8-<ful at Home as was hoped when the Italians made it free to every form of religion. The efforts of the EpiscopU Amuiictn soct to reproduce the " old Catholic " system by means of the so-called " Italian Citholic . hurch " has fallenthrough. Fiouithu galleiy in the Via Genova tn< j new religion has migrated to' meaner quarters in the Piazza Victor Emmanuel, wheie it is fading out for want of means and membeis, like so many ottur branches of Protestantism in Rome. One of the Catholic journals remarks that Komj furnishes no market for certain sorts of m jrchandise. The Romans still remember what the Evangelical pastor, Witte, narrated in the Dlntto of the 3rd of March, 1879, in an article entitled " Evangelisation in Italy." He s>ud that " when the banner of the cross of Savoy wa<, on the 20th of Sept. 1870, unfurled o.i the wall of Rome tbe first vehicle which entered into ihe Eternal City by the breach of Porta Pia was a little cat drawn by a dog and filli d with Bibles and religious writings" (tracts in all probability). And yet the temples of the new sect are deserted, even by the dog and his little cart.