A WORD FOR OUR CATHOLIC FELLOW JOURNALISTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 30, 18 November 1887, Page 17

A WORD FOR OUR CATHOLIC FELLOW JOURNALISTS.

We write the following with considerable hesitation, and influenced solely by solicitude for tbe honour of Catholic journalism. For a considerable time we have not'eed that, with the exception of the New Zealand Tablet, all the Catholic newspapers of Australasia have been in the habit of calling the sees of the Archbishops, archdioceses. This practice, we are advised, is incorrect. We have the highest authority for saying 'that such a title as archdiocese is not known to Catholic theology, or Canon law. The word archdiocese, indeed, is to be found in English dictionaries, but these are not authorities to be relied upon by Catholic publicists in reference to the usages of the Catholic Church. So far as the word itself is concerned we have no objection to archdiocese, and should the Holy See, or approved Canonists use it, so shall we. But at present, as we are advised, neither the Holy See nor Canonists use it,

Nowhere in Canon law, we are told, is the word to be found ; and certainly we can say that from our own observation of the practice of their Eminences Cardinals Cullen and Manning, we have been correctly advised. We have been in the habit of reading the pastorals addressed to their people by these eminent and learned ecclesiastics, and when our 'Mention was dawn to tins subject • c went to the trouble to look up these pastorals, and our former reading and recent investigation enable us to say that never, not even once, have these great ecclesiastics used the word archdiocese. It will be seen by all who care to make invest : gation for themselves that both these Cardinals have invariably addressed their pastorals to their respective dioceses, not archdioceses. Both always head the'r pastorals " to the clergy and faithful of the diocese " of Dublin or Westminster respectively. The last number of the London Tablet which has come to hand, viz., October 1, says in page 526 :—": — " In a Pastoral Letter, read in the churches of the diocese of Dublin, the Archbishop of Dublin says," etc. We know it will be said that we have some unworthy motive in writing thus, but we are conscious of the contrary, and the only blame we can take to ourselves is the cowardice that prevented us from saying all this long ago, through fear of the imputation of unworthy motives. We have now, however, assumed cou.age enough to do what we think is a public duty. As journalists, we are naturally solicitous for the lionour of our craft, and we vrrite thus to call the attentio l of our brother journalists to this subject, in order that they may be induced to look into the matter, and if they find we are correct in our views, that they may amend their practice. We feel humbled at the thought that our learned fellow publicists in Catholic countries should have reason to laugh at the want of knowledge of their fellows in Australasia.