Correspondence.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 28, 2 November 1888, Page 15

Correspondence.

[We are not responsible for the opinions e> pressed by our Correspondents' J . _

A GOOD PRIEST'S ADVICE.

TO THE EDITOR N Z. TABLET. Sik, — I have read with alaim the ungrateful notice, " Stop my paper, ' with which payment for the Tablet has, in some instances, bern accompanied. My alarm is not fjr you, but fur those who are so short-sighted as to send the notice. Father Hurley published in the "Irish Ecclesiastical Record" some of the c iuses of the Idlhng off of the lribh in the colonies from the old fnith.for which their fatheis used to sacrifice not only ihen own live?, but those of th< lr families father and mother, wife and children,— consen ing to lose them in this life that they might be iot cvi r united vuih them in the next. Add to ttie means of pn serving the inth. which h" ci umerutes, the Catholic newspaper. As >i Catholic and a pin st. 1 should, of course, wish to '•cc a Catholic pravir buuk m eveiy Caihol c family ; but, ll I bad to choose between tiie iusut book ai d the newspaper, 1 would Bacniice ti e prayer book, Tne (i( i j; le know th- Our Kith< r the If ll Mary, the Cretd aud the \>L,u\i and with t 1 at they could very well get to heaven. But io one hk"s to be on the ksmg side. If thu children of Catholics aie, on the one hard, without the universal example of Catholic beat-l and piactie ■ to sa'ur.ite them with their religion, and on the ot' ci without in liith Catholic in wspuper to stand between them and the unc a-ing attacks on Irishmen and Catholics, they i el thcm=e.ves on the Inking side, they tiisl cease to profess openly their religion, then they cease to practise i f , and finally they, or their childien, in mr.ny cases, abandon it. Many of these young Catholics are cLvtr inough, but few aie instructed enough, and none are or can be irte c v ugh to answer adequately ttie calumnies heaped upon us. \\ c set Cice a certain number ol men to protect us from donitM.lo wiong-doeis, or fi n 'bt for us ai_'«in-t f .reign loes. We pay our policemen and soldi i*. So it must be in the literary world. We mu^r bet hee learnt I. ab'e, piudent men to right for us. We confer no la\ our on them. The lavuui is all the other way. Ii the soluier risks his lite for me on the battlefield, have I conferred a favour on him because I contributed to buy the gun with which he keeps my foes at bay.

I have bfin aaputed by some of the leading Catholics of Dunedin that before the Tablet was ( stabhshod, Catholics felt like pariahs ; they went al out with their he ds hung down, clinging to their religion, but halt ashamed of it. .Morning a;.d evening hostile papers were pouiing red-hot shots into ttum ; «ud it was impossible to reply. No man, however brave, cm fight an aitny. What was the use ot an odu letter / And Low man) men hid the nec^sstuy knowledge, or could find m the pre^s ot busiuess, the iueess;iiy time to write it .' Inshmeu and C.ahu'nc^ wae tin non the losing side. But it is no loi.ger bo. The Tajjle'i hai changed all that. It has tought our battles splendidly , it is our dtny to furmsj it with arms und ammunition. It is true that a stingy Irishman or two cannot bribg disgiace on a nation so generous ah curs, Still \ve fael ashamed it snob, a one is discovered in. the midst cf us, and a natural impulse would make us wi^h he would change Ins name and bever his connection altogcthei. — But Ido not take this vitw. lam a priest, and I am bound to look to the btrious results to a Catholic community which would allow its Catliouc papLi to (all. Of old it was said that every soldier who threw awhy his s-rueld contributed to bring about defeat. To-day we may saj that e\eiy Catholic who throws away his paper contributes to the defeat of the Catholic cause. — I am, etc., An Irish Priest.