Untitled

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 24, 1 April 1892, Page 18

Thb mission of the Bedemptorist Fathers at St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin, came to an end on Sunday evening. The chief feature of the day was a proceifiion of tbe school children which took place at 3.30 p.m. The children assembled in their several schools and marched thence— the boys under the care of the Christian Brothers, and the girls looked after by members of the Society of the Children of Mary— to the cathedral where some hymns were sung. They then left the church, headed by a cross-bearer and acolytes, who were followed immediately by the Society of the Children of Mary— the girls walking first, the boys next, and the celebrant (Eev Father O'Neil), vested for the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and attended by acolytes coming last. The procession went out by the door of the nave and descending the newly erected steps in front into Smith street, turned to the right into Eat tray street, passing round the church on the South side and by the back of the temporary eaoctnary into the grounds of tbe Dominican Convent ; thence, through the grounds of St Joseph's school, into Dowling street and thus returned to the cathedral — where Benediction was given. The banner of the Children of Mary and those of the various schools and sodalities— of St Joseph, St Catherine, St Patrick, St Anne, tbe Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, aud many more than we can recollect were carried each at the head of a division — adding much to the imposing nature of the scene: The results of the schools were seen to great advantage, and it was a significant, as well as an interesting, sight to s«e uch long liaus of well-dressed, fine looking, well behaved children — a eight foretelling a prosperous future for Catholicity in this city. No more striking testimony could be borne to the sucoess of the efforts made by tbe Bishop to establish thoroughly efficient schools. Tbe scene in the church also was very impressive. The organ was played by one of the Christian Brothers. The ceremonies were carried out with great solemnity. Tbe close of the mission took place at 6.30 p.m. The preacher was the Bey Father Hegarty, and the ceremonies included the renewal of their baptismal vows by the congregation — each holding in his hand a lighted taper. The church was densely thronged. The renewed mission was extremely successful, Communicants throughout the week were numerous, and on Sunday they approached closely to 1000. On Monday the Rev Fthers Uowell, Mangan, and Hegarty left Dunedin for Wellington en r*ute for Sydney — to the great regret of tbe Catholics of this city, many of whom assembled at the railway terminus to bid them God speed and receive their parting blessing in return. Since their arrival in the diocese of Dunedin some four mouths ago, the Fathers had laboured incessantly and arduously. The fruits of their labours are abundant, and their reward will bj Becure in that better land where they are constantly eagaged here below in laying up treasure for themselves. The drawing of prizes in the Ashburton Art-union will take place on May 2. But a short interval, therefore, remains for the disposal of tickets. Persons who hold them are requested to do their best, and to send in the blocks without delay, so that everything may be in readiness. A project has been adopted of holding a baziar in aid of the building fund of St Patrick's church, South Dunedin. Tte time epoken of is the month of November, and the suggestive title of the All Nations' Fair has been chosen for the event. No doubt charitable bands will be kept busy during the interval in making preparations for a famous success. Certain would-be wits and festive boobies have taken it upon them to " poke fun " at Dr Moran, because of his having lately demanded that tbe original Latin of bo me assumed translations from Papal Bulls should be laid before him, so that he might explain what was tbeir true sense. Our would-be wits and festive boobies in the profoundness of their ignorance and the intolerance of tbeir presumption Euppoße that any jackanapes who can decline hie hceo htc, with only a mistake or two, is capable of dealing with such documents. Men who know what they are about are of a very different mind. Here, for example, is the eminent French Economist, M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, engaged of late in writing in the Revue des Deux Jfotidcs a series of articles on the Pope's last Encyclical, who is of a very different opinion. M. Leroy-Beaolieu recalls the Italian proverb — Traduttorc trtbdit»re — which we are warned to give in the Italian tongue. "We cannot permit anything," he says, "to be placed in th* mouth of the Sovereign Pontiff that resembles a formula against which science and reason protest." "In those passage!

of the Pontifical Encyclical which we have quoted we hare sometimes permitted ourselves to depart from the translation called official to have recourse to the original text." The man of science and intellect sees the difficulty of the matter. The jackanapes, inflated by having passed the sixth standard, thinks it ia as plain as bis a, b, c. We quote the case for the benefit of would-be wits and festive boobies — not, however, wita the faintest hope than it will teach them better manners. Their bray, as we hare seen elsewhere, is irrepressib'e. M. Anatole Leroy-B«aulieu has also a word to say that may be taken to heart by men, who, less scurrilously but quite aa determinedly, are also opposing Dr Moran in his demands on behalf of Catholic education. He, at least, who is certainly entitled as an emiuent man of science to an attentive hearing, has evidently no faith in the moral effects of a pure seculsiism. "We are thus brought back in every thing," be write 9 in concluding one of bis articles, " to ths same conclusion : there is nothing truly efficacious, jiothing Boiid and durable for our democratic societies outside of the Gospel, outside of the Christian spirit and Christian brotherhood* The State and the law have nothing for souls." The following circular has been banded to us for publication :—: — To prevent as far as possible the confusion aid delay resulting from the practice of writing to the S. Congregation of Propaganda in English, the undersigned Secre ary deem* it necessary to notify that according to ettablisbed tradition, all communications to this 8. Congregation should be written in Latin, French or Italian. Moreover Much communications should be addressed not to the Secretary, but to His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect. It would be well to give extensive publicity to this notice, if needs be, through the columns of the Catholic Press. Borne from the Propaganda, Ist February, 1892. f IGNATIUS PEBBICO, Archbishop of Damietta, Secretary. Ws have said, in effect elsewhere, that, although it were proved, as it has not been, that intellectual culture of itself could diminish crime, little would be gained, while the vice it could not diminish remained rampant. An article in the Forum for January, from the pen of Mr Warren F. Spalding, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Commissioners of Prisons, seems to bear us out. Mr Spading writes to disprove an assertion made that a milder system of prison discipline in the State had led to an increase of crime. Instead of the increase being as asserted, he says, fifty per cent in fif y years it has only been seven per cent, or at a rate twice as rapid as that of the entire population. Serious crime, he states, has markedly diminished. The increase shown in the aggregates, he says, is "solely in offences against order and decency, such as adultery, ni<?ht-walk-ing, disturbing the peace, drunkenness, beint* idle and diaorderlyt violation of liquor laws, vagrancy and the like, the vices of the peopie or the results of their vices." "We are n>i bee >nnng a nation of criminals," he says again, " but we are overw clmed by a great lido of drunkenness and kindred vices." And y. t a o 'un, " W** have more than held our own as a State in the si; ug^le against crime though we have failed to keep down the vices. ' *h ipal<iin^, moreover, bears testimony, thouph incidentally and unidteotionally, to the value of religious influences. Alluding to the greater pr>poitionuf crime a3 due to the foreign born population and their children, he says, " The;e has been & steady improvement in the character of our foreign population, under the influence of uur in^itutions." We kuow from other sources that among tbis population the Catholic Church has bjen steadily increasing her influences, and largely by means of Catholic schools. What, again, is true of tie Irish Catholic population in Great Biitain, and in tntse colonies seems alao to be true of them in Maamchuset s. There, hkewne, they appear to be uccjuntable chiefly for minor offences, often committed over and over again by tb.3 samu individual. " A comparatively small number," s-tya Mr Spalding, " give a bad name to our forugn-bjrn population." Mr Spaldmg's argument, as we have said, is in support of an imp ove.l and milder prison-discipline. Can nothiug of me kind be adduced in fxpla: a'ion of the falling off in ennae quoted by Sir 11 ib re Stout for New Zealand, as proof of the superiority of the secular system ? Sir tobert, we know, although we have so far accidentally omitted to acknowledge it, arguea negatively, but then we understand hiai to mean positively. Massachusetts, therefore, thougn leas criminal, seems rather more vicious. Has New Zealand anything iv common with it ? A NEW relay of donkeys are uplifting their tuneful voices in the Evening Star, One of them who appropriately cills himself " Public School," the pedagjguish donkey beiug the most egregioas of al>, thinks he has fouud aa ongiaal argument in thj f*(> cud of <<ne threshed oul years ago. He cleverly likens t ha Catholic detn mi to that of a private citizen, who should despite the police and claim an especial night-watchman from the city. Common sens 13 , sajs Gojige Eliot, teaches men tv avoid extremes. But where there is no common sense— no sense of any kind — what is to b*. done ? Wny, hold your tongue and let the fool go his own way. Our fool, however, makes a significant slip, " Most of us who keep a conscience, ' he

says, " have to pay for it some way or other," That is it. Freedom of conscience for the Catholics, provided they pay for it — and pay for it too in hard cash . Need we say any more ? In a correspondence which has taken place in the Otago Daily Times between Sir Robert Stoat and Mr Joseph Braithwaite, relative to religion and crime, and to which we shall refer at greater length in our next issue, Sir Robert gives as an instance of the insufficiency o£ Catholicism to restrain crima, the reign of King Henry 111., when, | he says, tuere were " more murders, rapes, and robberies, in one shire of England in one year than are now in 10 years in all England." Whether it was so or not we do not stay now to inquire. But let us set ca^e by case. We go back to a much earlier time, and instance Ireland, while she was still the Island of Saints and Scholars. " Order and contentment and social happiness followed in the train of this just rule," writes Cardinal Moraa, referring to the reign cf King Brian, whose whole basis of action was his Catholic devotion, " and the annalists relate, not as a matter of poetic imagery, but aei a stern fact, that in those times of peace, a fair maiden decked out with precious jewels, and bearing rich treasures in her hands, could traverse the whole island, from shore to shore, without injury or insult being offered to her" (Occasional Papers p. 142). For the diminution in crime alluded to by Sir Robert Stout as characterising the England of the period, Italian authropologists would, no doubt, at least in part, account by tbosa judicial slaughters of the criminal classes carried out by Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, by which the heirs of the pre-human rac* were thinned in the country and the crimin:! element in a great degree diminished . These judicial slaughters as conducive to such aa end, moreover, have evoked the applause of ceitain of tbe scientists in question. We do not think, on the whole, Sir Robert Stout has much to gain from his argument aa to the reiga of King Henry 111. Eren if it were grounded on fact, it would not hi altogether conclusive.