THE LENTEN PASTORAL OF HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 17, 12 February 1892, Page 25

THE LENTEN PASTORAL OF HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF WELLINGTON.

Francis, by the Grace of God and favour o! the Apostolic See, Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan. To the Clergy and Faithful of the said diocese, health and benediction in the Lord.

{Concluded.) 80 much for the pension of Socialism. Now we come to study its action. Tbat there exists a vast world-wide conspiracy of Socialism is a fact required by tin very force of things. To plot is for the revolutionary a second nature, a sort of necessity. As long as there will be something to destroy, some wrecks of social order to pulverise, some faint vestige of God to efface, the Bevolution will conspire. But Socialism is only the Bevolution in its widest manifestation, the last word of revolutionary geniuß. It conspires because it bates. In the disorder occasioned by the fall of our first parents, our bad passions are a permanent conspiracy against truth, against goodness, and against God. See what happens in our largest modern cities at the time of public disturbances, especially when Bevolution and Socialism lash the popular waves as the storm lashes the ocean. Then all the fiercest passions rage like savage beasts. With fiery eye, threatening lip, ears open to every disturbing breath, arm uplifted, and foot ready to speed withersoever the Bevolutiou leads, they stand prepared for the most tremendous deeds of crime and bloodshed. The throne, the altar, the constitution, nay, the very elements ot Society, are not sacred in their estimation. They want only the word of command to desolate the homeß and sacrifice the lives of men. Nor does this fearful conspiracy make a secret of its existence. It boldly rears its bead. It has its leaders, its organisers, its orators its widely circulating propaganda. Nay, its very failures only attest its strength and quicken its audacity. Besides, it has but too well* grounded hopes of ultimate success ; for its disposes of formidable means. It wields at least four mighty forces, not to mention many others which baffle description. Firstly, it has the Preu. There is a whole army of writers, eminent or otherwise, working day and night, like one man, for the triumph of its cause, and putting forth all the resources of genius which hatred can inspire and human speech unscrupulously employ. A thousand voices in France, in Germany, in America — not to speak of other nations— are ever repeating in endlessly varied formulas against society what Cato said Against Carthage* Deltnda est," we must destroy it. And, saddest fact of all, a crowd of dupes, even in the ranks of pretended conservatives, read these publications, subscribe to them, and assist their propagation. Secondly, it has the power of gold, that other mighty engine of the world— gold which corrupts souls, buys consciences, subverts thrones, and dissolves nations. And where does Socialism find those treasures of gold ? A mystery 1 But it has seemingly exhaustless funds to suborn traitors, stir up seditions, and multiply the soldiers enrolled beneath its banners. Thirdly, it has numbers— millions of men devoting to its services their hands, intellects, wills, and energies. Lastly, it has organisation, which increases strength a hnndredfold, and, by discipline, opens the way to victory, This organisation is conspicuous in the Press, ever attentive and faithful to the word of order ; in the systems of education, and educational leagues, which jealoutly excluding religion and God, are the straight road to Socialism ; and, particularly, in elections, where we behold crowds of men, heedless of the true merits of the candidates, vote like one man for the person designated by the imperative mandate of their leaders behind the scenes. And what readers tta danger more terrible is that the Socialistic conspiracy is universal. Kept under in one country, it spreads into another — having its adepts and accomplices everywhere. It is permanent : beaten once, it begins again, tens, scores, hundreds of times ; crushed to-day, it crouches in the shade and feigns death, but to-morrow it will re-appear with re-doubl«d audacity. Can it always be foiled or suppressed ? No, it will, we fear, it must triumph, at least for a time. And then woe to the conquered 1 For it is implacable : nothing can satisfy it ; it must needs domineer and destroy. Only yesterday it wrote : " Our aim is to work the irrevocable destruction of the ancient world " It is irreconcilable ; no concession can propitiate it, or, if it makes peace, it imitates Nero ; it strangles in the very act of embracing. It is conspiracy unto death. In one of the most celebrated meetings of contemporary Socialism these atrocious words were uttered : " Tyrants have drawn a deep furrow between themselves and the working-men ; that furrow must be filled wih tlie corpses of the one or the other party \ What defenders c*n modern Society array against so formidable a foe 1 It has men not a few who are determined to banish God from the souls of nations and the hearts of the rising generation— these, of course, push on the chariot of civilisation towards the aby 38. Again, it has nnmbers of mentally blind men, wedded to errors, and accomplices of the crimes which have brought about the present lamentable situation. It has crowds of inconsistent men, who desire the mafctenanca of order, and yet are afraid to attack the principle of disorder ; who dread the triumph of evil, and dare not unfurl the ban

Ncr of good ; who sincerely wish for the victory of right and justice, and who take mean steps to cnrry favour with injustice and iniquity on the dreaded and truly dreadful day of its anticipated triumph . It has indifferent men, who curiously watch the tide rise, and do nothing to prevent its devastation.

But there are, thank God, many men of heart and coarage and faith. Let theße men unite, let them organise aa their opponents do, let them form a Berried compact army to fight for truth, justice, virtue, and liberty ; then there will be means of crushing the hydra of Socialism. But where are these men to be found, and on what prin. ciple are they formed ? We fearlessly assert that, if ever Socialism, is to be permanently put down, and Society secured in its foundations, men must return, at least in practice, to the teachings of the Catholic Church, the enlighiened and undying foe of the Revolution.

We have seen what Socialism is in its idea, passion, and action We have next to look at its doctrines. It rests on two fundamental errors which are peculiar to it : the one regards the starting-point, and the other the goal of social life.

Socialists start with a very grave error about the evil found in life. That there is evil in humanity is a manifest fact. But humanity being composed of men living in Society, where lies the seat of evil ? Is it in man or is it in Society 1

Some sophists of the last century used to say, " Man is born good, but Society depraves him" A disastrous utterance, if ever there was one, leading directly to this conclusion : revolt against Society is legitimate, and social war is not only a right, but a duty. For, it is not only man's right, but his duty to attack evil and extirpate it wherever he meets it in the road of his destiny. If therefore the evil from which he suffers is not in him, but in Society, against Society he most aim his blows. Dispensed by this convenient opinion from struggling against himself, he turns all his energies outwardly, and assails everything rather than himself, for the evil which he endures. And this is true especially of a multitude, which is a collective being irresponsible, and in some sort unconscious ; it readily rushes at whatever is presented as tbe cause of its misery. Thus the proposition apparently sd harmless and bland, "Man is born good, bu t Society depraves him," consecrates rebelli on on principle, and leadg Btraight to social warfare .

Moreover, it alsocontains this other maxim : " All instincts are legitimate, all passions are innocent." Our age has seen more than one man draw this conclusion. According to them, man has not some inclinations which he must res.st, and others which be must follow ; it is not a struggle, but a harmony, that we must establish i n his inclinations. Tbe condition of his happiness in this life is the simultaneous evolution of all his passions. Create a system of association which makes this law operate, and you have solved tbe social problem. This doctrine is absurd, but it contains in germ the destruction of Society, because it begets egotism, despotism, and anarchy. Egotism or selfishness : for if the expansion of every passion is legitimate, moral, and holy, every repression of the passions is illegitimate, immoral, and unholy. Now, passion has but one aim—enjoyment, gratification. Therefore, farewell devotion ; farewell fraternity. Hence comes despotism : for, passion displays itself with blind energy, brutally suppresses any contrary force, and by its very nature becomes oppressive. Hence, in fine, anarchy or absolute dis order ; everybody referring everything to self, no authority is fouad to direct all wills towards a common end ; all wish to command, none to obey— you have a social chaos. If ever such unbridled passions happened to invade the world, we should have a universal reign of terror, the total ruin of Bociety. And for such a result what is needed ? Only that tbe material force whicu keeps the passions in check should be wanting for a day, and that tbe social mechanism should fail.

To this fundamental and initial error of Socialism the Catholic Church opposes a truth which Socialism detests because it is the barriei against its progress, we mean Original 8m and the Redemption. Man was created in goodness ; his fall was the victory of evil. Restored by Redemption good henceforth combats evil and overcomes it. Such is our philosophy. " Deny thyself," with the help of God struggle against the evil which is in thee and mortify thy passions. Such is the Christian law, and its voice echoes every manly and generous voice of our common race. To overcome one's self has always been regarded as the most heroic act of virtue. Socialism with its formula and what it calls modern thought, contradicts this affirmation of mankind. To attack evil in man, to reform men, in order to reform Society, in a word to begin with ourselveß ; that is the grand secret of social peace. He who earnestly wages war with his own passions dreams not of disturbing others. This doctrine also produces true liberty, which is the faculty of moving in the range of good unfettered by evil. If our bad passion s are repressed by moral force within us, there will be no need of material force to repress them outside of us. Fraternity, in like manner, grows by whatever is retrenched in generous renunciation from selfishness. Without abnegation fraternity is an idle word. What, indeed, is meant by self-devotion, unless it be the sacrifice of our own interests and pas. sions for the Bake of others ? These principles duly applied to the

savagest tribes have before now converted them into an admirable people, and made them patterns of civilisation aad progress.

The other fundamental error of Socialists is to make this earth the end-all, the final happiness of man. The golden, age, they say, is not in the past, according the vulgar belief, bat in the future. The earthly paradise lies before us. The day will come when humanity will enjoy the earth perfected by its toil ; that is the only bliss in store for it, and any other neaven is a chimera. This doctrine is eaten* tially false and leading to the most fatal consequences.

It is false, because it contradicts tbe id6a of oar destiny, the aspiration towards our destiny, and tbe pursuit of onr destiny.

And, in truth, what is an indefinite destiny— that is, an undeter. mined goal ? What is a destiny inaccessible to almost all who are made to tend to it ? What is a destiny which, bestows neither rest nor happiness ? Now such is the paradise promised by Socialists on earth— a vague perspective, an ever-receding limit of indefinite pro« gress, an indefinable horizon which it is an absurdity to attempt to outline with precision. It is an unattainable goal — no nan has ever reached it. " Humanity will reach it," they say. But what it humanity, unless it be men ? And if it is the destiny of humanity to be happy on earth, bow comes it that it finds woe and is so cruelly disappointed in its aspirations ?

The yearnings of man invincibly impel him towards a happiness lying beyond time and matter ; all generations on this point afford the Bame testimony. Has humanity been deceived ? And yet who ought to know human deßtiny better than it ? " Wait for the future," we are told. But on what grounds is it affirmed that the past which we know will be contradicted by the future which we do not know ? If a small number of men in the past have boasted of limiting their hopes to this life only, suoh monsters have been the object of universal contempt. But the greatest, noblest, most yirtuous, and heroic souls have always tended to heaven as the aim and goal of their existence. " Up there in my country" said Aoaxagoras, and with him the sages of antiquity. All the martyrs and saints of Christianity bave ever believed that heaven was their eternal rest. Even now-a-adays, if we set, on one side, all those who place their paradise on earth, and, on the other, all who place it in hearen, where would virtue, science, and number stand ? Thus the opinion of Socialists in regard to our destiny is false. It is also fruitful of disaster. Instead of its loudly vaunted progress, it produces degradation. Aod, indeed, what noble flight can that soul take which, like the brute, confines its desires within the narrow circle of matter and time, and which is without God, heaven, and immortality ? In lieu of felicity it has desolation ; its sufferings are aggravated by the absence of resignation and the soothings of hope; Instead of the marvellous creations it was promised, it finds only ruin and destruction. Instead of a heaven, it has a hell upon earth. For, if present enjoyment is the supreme end of our life, as every being must tend towards its end, all men are in duty bound to procure, with all possible prompitude, the most intense delights. What can be opposed to the imperious desires inflamed by such a doctrine ? The law of abstinence ? Why abstain from what renders happy ? Virtue ? But there is no virtue save for the purpose of attaining our destiny. If our destiny is earthly gratification, all the obstacles to it must be forcibly removed. What ruins will accumulate round a multitude armed with such a principle, and goaded on by impetuous passions 7 Behold the paradise of Socialism : Debasement, desolation, destruction, terrestrial hell !

We, on the contrary, have in the Christion hope of heavenly bliss a reason to bear patiently the ills of the present life; we envy not the goods an'l pleasures on wnich we do not stake our happiness ; our faith solves the social problem in a simple, pacific, efficient, and consoling manner.

We bave yet a few words to say about the origin of Socialism. Its remote origin lies in the abyss opened at the cradle of the human race by the fall of Adam, in the hot-bed of oar rebellions passions, in what the Church calls the threefold concupiscence. The Revolutionary principle finds a ready accomplict in the pride which prompts man to repudiate ah authority, and to claim a foolish, absolute independence. By cupidity, by the glitter of gold and the preatiga of wealth, it succeeds in fascinating peaceful populations, and even sometimes gets possession of Christian multitudes. But it owes its progress chiefly to ignoble lost. The profligate form its moit numerous recruits. Thus the ambition to rise, the passion to possess, and the craving to enjoy, together with a horror of suffering — such are the remote sources which give rise to tbe Socialistic torrent.

How has it grown in our day to such alarming dimensions 1 It has been swollen by all the errors produced by the human mind for the last three centuries ; receiving new tributaries along its course, it has at last overflowed its banks, threattniog widespread destruction.

Luther pretested against the authority of the Church and cried 11 down with the Pope," thus assailing the highest embodiment of God's authority oq earth. His v^as the Bevolution in Christian Society. Voltaire protested against Jesus Christ Himself, agairut the authority of God in Christianity ; and, shortly after, phU

ciphers proclaimed man sovereign, while the world beheld a Asneration intoxicated with impiety adoring reason under " the living marble of a degraded Jlesh." It was the second stage of the Revolution, or man's protest against the sovereignty of God. Mirabeau protested again Bt the sovereignty of any authority under any form of Government. Hitherto the right of God had reigned ; henceforth the right of man was to be supremt. Obedience to an authority ruling in God's name had been the law of the ages gone by ; the right of insurrection In the people proclaimed the only sovereign and acknowledging no authority but man, was the law of ages to come. Later on the satanic genius of the Revolution protested against God Himself, denying Him, and uttering the horrible blasphemy " God is evil" Is this its last stage 7 No. One thing Btill remained instinct with the authority of God who made and sustains it, one thing which is not the work of man's band and which the Revolution would fain remove in order to expel from it the very last image and shadow of God, and stamp its own horrid effigy exclusively upon it ; that something in which the band of God who gave it being and subsistence is always conspicuous, is society— not this or that government, this or that monarchy or republic, but human society itself. The Revolution protested against it and said : " Iprotest against social order, I deny Society." This time we have the last word of the Revolution.

But, if Buch is the caße, whatever prepares the Revolution, prepares the reign of the Socialistic Republic, that is, the paradise of Socialism — a democracy in which family, and property are transformed, a State without Christianity, and a religion without God. On the contrary, since the Catholic Church loudly proclaims all the truths against which Socialism as fiercely protests, it follows that to defend and uphold the Church, is to work for the salvation of Society.

Therefore, we have the logical choice of Religion or Be volution, of Christianity or Socialism. Either the nations will return to Christianity, and then will continue the upward progress which Christianity originated and promoted, or else they will become, or continue to be, un-Chriatian, and then they will roll on from fall to fall until they plunge into the horrid gulf of Socialism. May God in His mercy ever preserve this young and hopeful country of New Zealand from so dire a misfortune I Hat we confess, the signs are ominous and the future gloomy, when we behold the vast majority of our youth systematically excluded from tne knowledge of Goi in our public schools, and when we see, as was the ease not lon^ ag j, our leading statesmen subscribing to the ostensible maintecauce of men for the direct purpose ot blaspbeming God and Religijn in lecture-halls on Sundays. Irke causes produce like effects ; and if godless education an<l pub ie a'tacks on Uuhgion have made other countries rife f >r the outbreak of Socialism, we may, in the course of some years — Go 1 knjws how s-jon, tor the downwaid course is rapid — expect the same disastrous results. We Cathol cs, therefore, must have no part, be it ever so remote, in the effort of moderu Society to do without Gol ; we must.hate id shaie in modern lawlessness, no share in social apostacy, do pbare i-i antiChristianity. But, upholding the doctrines o£ Jesus Cm is,t and the teaching of the Catholic Church in our belief an! practice, we must Bave our own bouls, and hep to rescue the Society in which our lot is cast from the jaws of utter destruc'ion.

We again repeat what we wrote to you last year on the allimportant matter of education.

Amongst the myriad surrounding dangers to Christianity, one of the greatebt, nay, in its widespread aad lasting influence, the greatist, is secular education divorced from religion ; and, accordingly, in filial obedience to the doctrine and direction of the Catholic Church, you have always, thanks to G >d, strenuously opposed it. Wd heartily congratulate you, beloved brethren, on the marked success wnich had so far attended your generous s iciifices in establishing through the length and breadth of the Archdiocese so many efficient and excellent schools. We regret the injustice aa<l unwisdom — not to say suicidal f o lly_ w hich baa banished Go 1 from the schools of Christiau children, and forces you to pay against your will and juat rights for the maintenance of schools to which you conscientiously object, while you are so heavily burdened tosuppoit your own. Bar, as you prize the fa tli and morality of your children above all worldly advantages, you will do in the future whut you have done in the past ; and if any ot you have been somewhat backward or lukewarm in the support of your Catholic schools, you will, we hope, be sorry for it and ashamed of it, and henceforth take your place among the foremost in the advocacy of the great cauße upon which the rea. welfare, spiritual and temporal, of your children depends. ' As God brings good out of e*il, we have one result of the unfair treatment of our schools in which we may sincerely rejoice. Our schools enjoy the most perfect internal freedom and are thoroughly Catholic; cons; quently, our education is consistent and complete. This is a great b'essing and an immense g liv. Before very long, we hop°, the Legislature of the land will come to admire our past pacrifieis and r< cog )i-e our just claims, by gr.inting us our fair shire in the p.ibhc funds for the secular part of education, under Government luspLction, which we impart, and eflace the foul blot which now dia-

graces oar Education Act in regard to a seventh of the population of the Colony. Your generosity is again solicited, as usual, for the propagation of the faith, for the Seminary fund, for Peter's Pence, for the Aborigines of Australasia, for the holy places in Palestine consecrated by the adorable footsteps of Oar Lord Jesus Christ. We rely on you to do your duty in regard to all these excellent purposes as yon hare done in the past with that whole-hearted zeal and liberality for which this Archdiocese has ever been conspicuous. Lastly, we ask your fervent prayers for all the people and all the enterprises of our Arch-diocese, and, with particular emphasis, we exhort you to pray daily for the conversion of England and the return of so many of our sepaiated brethren to the fold of the true Church. May your pleadings with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the powerful intercession of His Immaculate Mother, and her spouse St Joseph, obtain for all of us the graces we need to work out onr salvation and receive the crown of glory in the realms of everlasting bliss 1 The grace and blessing of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. f Fbancib, Archbishop of Wellington. Wellington, Feast of St Francis of Sales, Jan. 29, 1892. The following are the Regulations for Lent, which we make in virtue of special faculties received from the Holy See :—: — Ist. We grant permission for the use of flesh meat at dinner only, on all Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and also on all Saturdays except one, that is the second Saturday during Lent, and Monday in Holy Week. 2nd. Lard and dripping may be used after the manner of butter, at dinner, on days of fast and abstinence during Lent, and also throughout the year, with the exception of the first and last Wednesdays of Lent, and Good Friday. 3rd. White Meats — Such as butter, milk, cheese, and eggsare allowed on all days at dinner and collation, with the exception of Ash Wednesday and Good FniUy. A little milk is always allowed in tea, coffee, or other b'verage. 4ih. For those who, thjugh not bound to fast, are bound to abstain, the kinds of food which are allowed at fieir chief meal to those who are bound to fast are allowed at all times to those who are not so bound. sth. Fish and fljsh are not allowed at the same meal during Lent. There is neither fast nor abstinence on Sundays in Lent. His Holiuess Pope Leo XIII has caused St Patrick's Day to be no longer a fast day in Australasia, or a day of abstinence, unless it happens to fall on a Friday or during the Quatuor Tense. All who have completed their 21st year are bound to abstain— unless excused by the state of their health or the nature of their employment — accordirg to the regulations stated above ; and all who have arrived at the use of reason, though not bound to fast before the completion of their 21st yeai, are nevertheless bound to abstain from the use of flesh meats on the day appointed — unless exempted for a legitimate cause, of which the respective pastors are the judges. All who have arrived at the years of discretion, are bound to go to Communion within Easter time which, in this diocese, commences on Ash Wednesday and ends on the octave of Saints Peter and Paul. The collectica for the Holy Places in Palestine will take place on Good Friday. The collection for the Seminary Fund will be held on Whit Sunday, or on the Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or more churches in the district. The collection for the missions among the Aboriginals of Australasia as required by the late Plenary Council of Sydney, will take p ace on the first Sunday in September, or on the Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or more churches in the district. The clergy are requested to read these regulations from the several altars as bon as possible, and to cause a copy of them to he placed in their respective churches and chapels. t Fbancib, Wellington, Jan. 29, 1892. Archbishop of Wellington,