THE IRISH QUESTION AT ROME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 15, 3 August 1888, Page 29

THE IRISH QUESTION AT ROME.

(Spe« al correspondence of tke Pilot.) Home, May 26. Archbishop Walsh, of Dublin, left Rome on his homeward journey to-da? at 3.40 p.m. He was accompanied to the station by the venerable Monsißn^r Tobias Kirby, Archbishop of Ephesuß, and rector of the Irish college ; Very Key. Father Gl } nn, 0.5.A., Prior of the Irish Angustinian Couventof Santa Maria, in Posterala ; Very Bey. Father Luke Carey, 0.8. F., Guardian of the Irish Franciscan Convent of St. Isidore ; Father Beardou, of the Irish College, and the Pilot correspondent. The Archbishop went to Pisa, where he will be joined by his secretary, Father Pettit, who has been staying at Fiersola, near Florence, for some weeks past. During the time of his stay here the Archbishop of Dublin has been made the object of most unworthy attacks on the part of English journals. Scarcely a day passed without some deliberate lie or insulting remark being made about him ; and a few d*ys ago the R.me correspondent of t!,e Londo i Times, publicly defied him to say that wnai the corresponds stated about him a.% facis were notfacisl To all this series of unjust attacks the Archbishop has made no reply in public. Perhaps the moßt painful of all insinuation made about mm during his stay here was that made by Catholic and friendly journals to the effect that his testimony was giTen before the Holy Office previous to the publication of the now famous aecree. The Congregation of the Holy Office had to determine on tho morality of a series of statemetna of f tcts furnished them and they were not a commihsion for the acceptance of testimony Ihe document or statement of Ireland's case prepared by the Archbishop m obedience to the Pope's commaid, was not laid before the Holy Office, and would not hare had any r3ason to be presented to that tribunal. What this congregation judg«d upon so far as ein be seen, wai the report furnished by Monstgnor Peraico, the Apostolic Delegate to Ireland. Perhaps some day or other a complete and detailed account of Mgr. Persico's mission will be made public and then it will be seen what were the materials on which the Delegate drew up his report and what weight and value should be attached to them. A passage :n the resolutions drawn up by the Irish Catholic Members of Parliament at t.ieir meeting in Dublin on May 17 to the effect "that the allegations of fact which are put forth in the circular of the Holy Office are, to our knowledge, unfounded, and could not we venture to aftum, hare been promulgated ut der the authority of the Hulj Office if statements so prejudicial to the Irish people hal been tested Dy leference to the prelates of Ireland an 1 the elected representatives of the^eop c," conveys a very serious reproach against the method of ex .mi, aiun con tucied by M.gr. Persico These representatives are certaiuly entitled to speak far the Irish people, and if they have been passed over by the dele;** in bis examination of persons qualified to inform him, whtn he was receiving testimony from landlords and Orangemen, it looks as if his examination was a >mewhat incomplete, ihere has been a torrent of indignation launched by tender-mindei English Catholics agamit the Irish because it is said, these take v for granted that the Pope is capable of being ben' towards England's policy and msy be mad* to act a-jainst Ireland Perhaps the ln^h people have trusted to the justice of their cause morelully than was n-uicnt. At any rat*, tlu-y made little or no apparent effort to represent their cause at Rome. Toe whole policy of England with regard to Rjme, almo*t Bmce the accession of the present Poje, has bern to strive and bead him to put his ha D d on Ireland. Henco arose the "unofficial ageat," feu- George Erritiuton, and the •• mis-ion " of the Duke of Norfolk. Bat besides these no onous and public aitenipis to win the Pope to the English way or thinking, there were the puvate indivilual tffjrrs of English Catholics, sucn as that ot the late Mr George B wytr w! o announced to His Holiness that a continuance of Mgr., no* Cardinal, Bchiaffino'B journal, the Aurora, in which gome liihh wrongs were calmly and temperately legated, would retard the conversion of England by fifty years 1 Again, thine was that of the English Bishop who suggested to the fopj the propriety of sending ov^r English priests to convert thu Insn, and who receive! the cutting rebuke of the Pontiff. Tneie are, bumks, a number of English ou«>-badie» who have moio or le-s influenced I ahan Prelates to believe tint lieland is in league with ihu iud revolution ct thu Coutni^it, and ra-jat be submitted to severe an., lphne. It is net the Irish who behove that the Pope will ever Jo or say aught but what is jußt and fitting to themselves or to auyoae Hse. i'&y KngusU are the believers m fiis and true to their naticnal ch^racterirttics-, ihey act upon their belief and use their best efforts to render it elective iv their favour. T . v Kouie, June 2. It is remar.caole that the Liberal- Unionist newspaper, the Daily Chronicle of London, should dwe 1 so frequently and sj fo idly on the sayings of the Moniteur de Rome concerning ihe" I ishquestion. Itisto be Loped that the reason of this strange affection will be divulged someday. 'Ihe hainviiy betwi en them at prcssnt is curious. 'Ihe Komeeoiiv-poudent of tlu Chronicle tele^rapus, May 30. as follows ■ " In au aitleie, winch 1 have ieason to know hai bo n directly inspired by the Pope, the Moniteur de Rome sharply condemns the attitude of the Irish Catholics who tuve taken part in ihe mejiin -s which have been held in Ireland fo. the pu po,e of piotesting against the Papal Rescript." In the same aiticle ot the Moniteur, of which fie above is an inaccurate summary, the writer says : •• Let us be allowed to remark tLat this (the rebolul ods protecting aga'Uht the pretended intervention of the rope, nis in.ertere.nce in the politic.il affairs of Ireland) is a perversion and absolute falsifying of the conduct of the Holy See, which, in condemning the Plan "i.f Campaign and borcotting, has kept in a sphere superior to po itic*." The Moniteur de Rome refers to the results obtained by Catholic Prussia ami pio^o-es it as an example to the Irish. Th>s is not a * parallel case, and, in the case of Prussia, the Popes interference was admittedly political, while his Holiness h;s just declared— and the Moniteur also— that his acion in reference to Ireland is in a domain f«r above politics.

In a later iasne, the Chronicle (Jane 1) has a telegram from Bom* which contains the following santences : " The chief grievance of the Nationalist bishops in Ireland is that the Brief of the Holy Office was madT known through the medium of the English Press— tfia London Daily Ck-oniole having been the first to announce the decision—even Deforo it was communicated to them. It is of this that Archbishop Walsh complained to the Pope." Tfiat the Papal Decree was communicated irst to the newspaper in question is a fact which r flect3 Bhame on the person connected with the Tatican who made the communication. la all probability we have not yet heard the end of this act which brought about so much bitter feeling, and which was one of the causes that produced the agitation in Ireland on reception of the news that a decres was about to be issued. This agitation has produced one good result. This is the farther assurance of the Pontiff, this time to all the Bishops, that he has not the remotest intention of interfering in the political affairs ot Ireland —which comes forth at the same time that the people are asserting their determination to have no foreign interference ia their political affairs. It is a remarkable and a happy coincid nee. The whole superstructure built by Tory journals— Catholic and Protestant alike— on this decree, as a deathblow to Irish Nationalism, has fa len. aven those here who regarded it as the first step towards a renewal of diplomatic relations between England and the Vatican are disappointed, and now d< clare that such relations are indefinitely pjstponed. That result id owing to the action taken by the Irish people, as well as to the superior wisdom of the Pope. His Holiness, although desiring the establishment of such relations between BngUnd and the Va ie >n, is not likely now to eacourage the permanent appointment of an English slanderer of the Irish at the Vatican. It is bad enough to have to contend with the falsehood!, misrepresents* tions, extenuations, and such like, of an unclassified group fulfilling " missions," or running •• agencies," or simply spreading their stories on private grounds ; it would be woree to have a chartered reporter here in permanence. Bat such a danger is, in all probability, post* poned for an indefinite period. P. L. CONNBLLA.N.