FATHER DAMIEN'S SLANDERERS AGAIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 47, 14 March 1890, Page 5

FATHER DAMIEN'S SLANDERERS AGAIN.

These are certain natures whose instinct it ie to belittle or belie the her. ism of which themselves are incapable. The worst recent instance in pom' is the persistent slanders of the memory of Father Damien, instigated in the first instance by a Protestant minister and a Protestant puysiciaa of Honolulu, and diligently propagated since by the Protestant Minibterial Assoc ation of Riverside, Cal., and a few Protestant newspapers. In justice to the Protestant community wbo have been, as a whole, most generous in their tributes to the martyr's memory, tbe Pilot hastens to add that these ministers and newspaptrs are in no sense representative. Respectable Protestants repudiate them as heartily as they do the self-constituted champioasbip of Protestantism by Mrs. Shephard, Justin D. Fulton, and others of the same stripe.

We are amazed, however, that a great newspaper like the Boston, Herald should editorially identify itself with Father Damien'a calumniators by declaring that the published charges " are more than substantiated by privvte letters from parties in the Hawaiian Islands to persons in this country." Why don't these cowardly detainers of the deal give their names 1

Vice Consul Hastings, a Protestant, during many years' residence in Honolulu, heard nothing but good of Father Damien. The protestant, Eiw^rd Clifford, lived intimately with him for weeks, and testified before large Protestant audiences in Boston, not only to the holiness of the priest's life, but to the cleanliness and propriety of his person and surroundings. The official reports of the leper settlement show Father Drmien to have been its sanitary as well as its moral reformer. The only school at Molokai was the Catholic school which he instituted.

It should be remembered, however, that when Father Damien's Divin* Exempler walked on earth, healiuc the sick, giving sight to the blind, and raisiDg the dead to life, the Pharisees said Ha was possessed ot the devil. The Pharisee type has not changed in nineteen centuries, and cannot be expected to be more tolerant of Father Dami< n than it waa of Christ, The servant is not above tbe master. —Pilot.

If the Holy Father has had his sorrows during the year 1889, he bas also had his joys. Never, in truth, hjn religious life beea more active, and never have Catholics given more unequivocal proofs of their devotion to thf Holy See. From conferences in Austria, Spain, Bavaria, tie Dnued States, and other countries have gone forth testimonies of the vitality of Catholics, and of their unalterable determination to yin licate tbe temporal as well as tbe spiritual rights of the Supreme Pontiff The international relations of the Holy See, too, have been satisfactory. The difficulties which arose with France with regard to episcopal nominations have been happily removed. The negotiations with Russia have provtd successful. And as fr> the important questions upon which our own reprts 'ntative, Sir John Lintorn Simmons, has been commissioned to tteat with Lto XIII., an arrangement is in a fair way to being perfected His Holiness haa during 1889, not only well sustained, but elevated the prestige and influence of his august office. — Liverpool Catholic Times,