Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 2, 10 May 1895, Page 3

Current Topics

fINCENDIABIBM IS THE Otago Daily limet

AT HOME AND ABROAD. OUB contemporary the Otago Daily Times has ODce more treated us to an (ffuston worthy of the Bcribe who does our contemporary's American correßpondt nee. The coi respondent, we mny remind our readers, as we were publicly inf jrmed by a Dunedin journalist sonic; little time ago. hails from Dunedin — and there is little difficulty in recognising Us style as that of the screaming band who now and then make rabid, though puny, antiCatholic demonstrations in the sh^; c of letters to our daily contemporaries, This worthy has necessarily fraternised with the A PA, and ihe Orangemen, whose companionship his antecedents in New Zealand had admirably fitted him to enjoy with mutual profit. The subj ct with which thu correspondent de^ls is tbe education question in Manitoba, concerning which an article we quote elsewhere from the Irish World will give our renders true details. They are not, we fancy, much interested in the matter as seen from the A.P.A, or Orange point of view. The passage in the Daily Times to which we specially refer i§ the following — and we refer to it, not as marking any importance which we attribute to the ineolent and stupid assumptions and the crude opinions of a writer of such a class— but in protest against the publication by our contemporary of open incendiarism. The passage runs thus :—": — " This provicce (Manitoba) stands for State rights as against Federal interference, and for free, unsectanan, broadly intellectual schools as against the narrow prejudices, the oldtime bigotries, the outworn superstitions of a dead and bygone age, and for such schools will tight if necessary. And the fi^ht must come some day, Such a political institution as the Church of Home will not let go her hold on th 1 : mind of the child without a smuggle. Everyone foresees the coLthct, and most people say the sounor 11 comes the better. It will come in Canada, and it will come in the United States, and it will come in the Austra'asian olonies. The good-natured tolerance and indifference of l*rge numbers of easygoing men and women who don't want to be bothered, and of a fairs:zei portion of the Press, to the most glaring attacks upon tb lr public school system must one day give place to a more determined and resolute front; and when that day does come, 1 feel tolerably certain the outcome will be the permanent supremacy of that gys em which eeeks on the broadest, most generous and comprehensive plan to train the young of every tongue and nationali y in o one homogeneous whole, free for all time from the everlasting and s.uldegrading bickerings of tho past — for are Wt> not children of the one All-Faihtr V As an example of "hifalutin," illiterate stuff this paseage exceeds the bounds of ridicule — and the severest censure to be passtd upon the intellectual standing of its writer h to almit that he writes as well as he can and in all sincerity be'ieves the ldtocy he babbles. Men of intellect — men, indeed, in thj foremost ranks of tba literature and enlightened experience of tbe day, such, for example as M. Jerdinand Brunetiere — from whose articles in his periodical, the first and ablest of Us class in contineatal Europe and second to none in the world, we recently quoted, an 1 the late M. Scberar, one of tbe most distinguished critics and men of letters of hiß time, have c mdemned this syst. m that this nameless acribe, wLose lucubra'ions are barely readable in the ephemeral columns of a colo. nial paper, laudi>. But, as we have sail, thi ma 1 poss bly is sincere in his expression of opinun. It ac ualiy does n« d sjoi'i degree of knowledge, however slight, tor a man to recugnia-*, or even susp c , his own ignorance, and avoid an exp mure of it. l\m smou? p.-ut 1 cru is bat the Daily Timrt oj i i.a Us c I'umnn fui .u,y such txpn stio or exposure. " For are we n'>t children of tli • one A 11-FatiiL-r." luh Is the cant by which this corr 'pp. indent j ist. lies ma exhortation 'o outrage tbe Catholic home. " There is no God but Al.ab," shou's the Turk, as he betakes hioveli to his deeds of blocd in Bulgaria or Armenia. The spirit is the same. The difference is n degree, but hardly in kind. This fellow also, if he had his will, would violate, in tne name of his God, the heartn of the Catholic, and drag the Catholic child by force from his mother's side, lie invokes the strong

hand, and clamours for the day when it shall be brought into use. Iq (hie, however, there ia nothing to astonish as. The mutual sympathy of the anti-Catholic z»alot and the Tnrk is a time honoured matter. Tt dates from the sixteenth century, from the reign of the Kood Queen Bess— at which period not only was a Mohamedan alliance against Catholicism solicited and arranged, but deeds such ai wert witnessed some years ago in Bulgaria, and jast now in Armenia were parpetrated in Ireland. All this is in the blood of A.P.Aißm'. and Orangeigm, and must needs come oat. The significant point is that the Otago Dally Times has made its columns a vehicle for such an exhortation and the expression of such sentiments, and thusiden-tifi-d them with incendiariem. Perhaps, however, there is nothing in this at which, after all, wo need be astonished. Mr Bow«n's Bill, fur example, as it came from hi* bands made provision for a re-enact-ment of a penal law — and Mr Bowen is now claimed by the party 'hat the Times represents aa an ancient hero, who deserved for them the support of posierity. Oar contemporary's lapse into incendiarism , therefore, may not be without its explanation and its object.

ODTB AND KNDd.

According to a Melbourne cablegram published here on Saturday, Bishop Thornton, speaking at the opening of tbe Anglican Assembly at Ballarat, made a speech that needed come explanation. "While," he said, " tr ey hailed with joy the reunion at H me that was again uniting with the original Christian Church the oon-Papal or Protestant Enelish bodi a, they would consider any union with Rome (which would in ffL-i^t place the Church of England once mure under the sutho iiy of the Bishop of Home) to be absolutely objectionable as it was hopelessly impracticable." What, then, is that reunion, or what is the original C< ristian Church ? Tt c Salvation Army, fir example, which is the only non-Papnl or Protestant English body that of recent yearß has made, or pretended to make, any progress in England, and wh'ch has numerously gathered in adhereuts from a 1 the t'ro'estant sects? As to the Bishop's cUim that tie Church of Knglund had once been under the authority of the Pope, it belorga to the new and extravagant imagination of Anglican "continuity." The Church of England was never under tbe authority of the Pope. It wis, on the contrary, the f»ct tha Catholics npostatwei and threw til the Pope'rf authority, which e&v it bir h. The Bishop, nevertheless, spoke the tru h when he said that the union of the Church of Eng'and with the Catholic Church would ba absolutely o* jectijnable and hopelessly impracticab c. Whit is imp;Bsibe must necessarily be both obj ctionable and imprac icable. The Church of Kng'anl would cc j aJd to exist w.-re her members to undergo the conversion that alone could obtain for them admit'a' cc to the membership of the Catholic Oriurch. The Chu'ch of Englanl, as a body, can be received into the Ca'hohc Church only a* individual converts, cleric as well aa laici are received — that is in virue of their eincere and unconditional acceptance of all thit she, tie pillar and ground of truth, proposes for their belli f. So far, then, Bishop Thornton h\a spoken truly— no further, however, if the cablegram has correctly reported him. The Anglican Prima'e at Sydney also, we are told, baa been making reftrei.ee to the rnU'er. His Lordship "denied that thj tendency of the Church of England was Homeward," The denial, we admit, was comparatively sife — much safer th m an affiimitioi on the eubj ct would be What the teude: cy of ih^ Curch of KnglaLd as a whole is would be a su* ject rot easy to deil with. Whether, in f >i c r , as a wh >lr, it haa a tendency at all miy very i rly be ca' ed in questn n — unle i a its tnd icy be to fill a^unfer. Huw it has man itji-d as a umou cf co^'eniircg uc's to hold tuff ■> her mi lot <i may vn;il foe a m itter fur w nder— tiou^h, no d)uk>, la pibitH'ii as k State Ouurch b,n hai s'lmeti ing to dv wi h this, 'l hut anrcdote told the o her day hy a West Coast paper about a fquad of volunteera who, at a church parade, described thetns'lves as '■ nothing," and were, in conseqaenc*, directed to betake themselves la the Anglican place- of worship, may fairly Srirve as an illustration — thoug h , to make it complete, it should be mentionad that, as the men went into the church iv question in the character of nondescrip f, so, 100, thay camp out. What maybe t^e ♦end'-ncy o'a Church of thiskiud,

we repeat, it would not be easy to affirm. To deny that its tendency is towards any particular point, »b we have said, is much less i hazardous. There are many roads, no doubt, that lead to Rome. It : does not necessarily follow, however, that, in a particular instance, I mnny and various paths of error all converge there. But this, in effocr. and nothing more it is that the Anglican Primate at Sydney has denied. The Bishop of Salford, in his reply to the Anglican Bishop of Manchester's recent attacks upon the Catholic Churcb, confirms the conclusion?, which, as we said a few weeks ago, we had formed of Dr Moorehouse when he was Bishop of Melbourne— that is that bt& Lordship was a prelate who had a great deal »o say that it was hardly wotth while to listen to. Dr Bilsborrow takes up, as an example of Dr Moorehonse's method, the case of the monks of Whalley Abbey, whose memory, as the Bishop shows, he had libelled foully, and with an ignorance that could scarcelj be accidental, but tba*, at any rate, was inexcusable. Everyone but an utter clown must know whcD he is ignorant, and then the obligation, which also he must perceive, rests on him to hold hit tongue. Dr Bilsborrow doss not spare the libeller, bnt shows him up in his true colours. " I have lingered," he •ays, " upon the Bishop of Manchester's address on the ruins of Whalley Abbey, because as a distortion of historical facts and truths, at once superficial if not malignant, it affords a not unfavourable specimen of bis treatment of all Catholic questions. For, not only does violent partisanship incapacitate him from treating Catholic questions with a judicial mind, but, I grieve to add he seems to revel in giving circulation for the thousandth time, without a hint that they have already been answered, to the scandals which Protestant prejudice has accumulated during the last three hundred years •gainst the Church and the livea of her Pontiffs, and this nauseous offal Dr Moorhouse is not ashamed to pour over the diocese on the tsstimony of writers (the only ones he appears to consult) who are notoriously untrustwonhy." The unsavory addition to hiß froth, then, of anti-Catholic venom, hag done little, apparently, to raise the reputation of the Bishop of Manchester. Here is a cablegram nnder date, LondoD, May 3, whose acceptance needs reservation. "The Pope, in a political testament, asks the cardinals to hasten the election of his successor so as not to afford any time for intrigue. His Holiness says although he has not gained temporal powsr the Vatican is able to dictate condition's when it is opportune." The recent celebration of the Pope's 85th birthday, has drawn attention to his great age t Speculation neces■»rily ensues — whence, in all probability, the paragraph has emanated . Its genuineness Beeme more than doubtful. The usual growl (says the Thames Advertiser of April 25) ha 8 gone the round of the meetings of householders about the cost of school books, and variouß resolutions have been passed to minimise the only charge that now stands in the way of our national education being absolutely free from cost. The teaching is free, the stationery is gratis, and the Government need only chuck in the books to make the gift complete. And then at the next meeting of householders growls would begin to be heard that parents actually have to clothe and feed their children, and resolutions wonld be passed that the Government ought also to undertake this charge. Really this education fad is being carried to an absurd degree. Children have no more right to be educated for no 1 hing— beyond the mere rudiments —than they have to be fed and clothed, by the Government. Education would be more valued, both by parents and children, if it cost ■omethiug directly, and the state of education and morals in this country would have been infinitely more satisfactory if a greater measure of the conduct cf the education of our youth had been left ti the individual cost and tastes of parents. Children would then have been educated more in accordance with the position in life their parents could afford to place (hem in, and we should not have to face the question which we shull before long have to settle, of what is to be done with the thousands of educated (?) loafers whom our public schools are steadily turning out of ore monotonous and vicious pattern. Our intentions have been very well meaot in this education matter but the result is bad, How (says the Catholic Review) non-Irish opinion in Americacjrj. aiders the itatu quo in Ireland, may be inferred from this editorial utterance of the Springfield Republican : — "Justin McCarthy wisely remi ds his associates of the Irish Parliamentary Party that they cannot txpectmuchm mey from America at present, because the Irhh people hereareinnoc ) idition togive i. He might safely have added that ther c is much less disposition among Irish Americans to give money to either wing of the Parliamentary party than there formerly was, because to much of what they have given has been spent in faction Oghting and in advarcing the fortunes of Redmond or McCarthy, instead of in he ping on the cause of Home Rule. From all accounts, Irishmen io this country who have money to send home c^n do fully as well with it to send it to friends, or some one in Ireland who will use it to alleviate distress, or to help some evicted tenant or other." The only remedy ia a national convention to Belect policies and designate loadeiß.

Speculation is rife also in America with regard to the Papal succession. An American Pope is considered more doubtful ; but a Pope of American proclivities is looked upon as probable. Tbere are two of the Cardinals who have the qualifications desired, namely Cardinals Persico and Mazzella. The choice falls on Cardinal Persico, His Eminence formerly spent about seven years in the United States where he wen', in 1866, from Bombay of which diocese he had been Bishop, his health suffering from the Indian climtte. He was for five years Bishop of Savannah. la the early seventies he returned to Rome. In the eighties, as our readers will remember, he was Bent by the Pope on a mission to Ireland. In 1887 he was elevated to the College of Cardinals. He issiid to be a warm friend of the Pope, and as he is well informed on the condition of the Church in Amer:ca, it i 9 believtd that he has more than a chance of succeeding him. He is now about 60 years of age, and is a man of large frame, with anno voice that attracts much attention when he intones the ceremonials of the Catholic Church. The succession of Cardinal Maszella seems less likely. His Eminence was for some time resident in America as a Professor in a seminary of his Order— the Society of Jesus. All this is gossip, telegraphed from Washington and must be taken for what it is worth. The concluding paragraph I is worth repeating intact :— ln the four Cardinals— Gibbons, Tascbereau, Persico, and Maszella — the Catholics of this country have a good chance, if not to secure an American Pope, at least to have one who is favourably disposed toward them and their institutions. The eighth centenary of the first Crusade will be celebrated from the 16th to the 20th inst, at Clermont in Auvergns where the Crusade was preached by Pope Urban II in person. In a brie' addressed to the Bishop of the diocese the Holy Father speaks as follows :— ln truth the Council of Clermont marked an svent of exceptional importance in the pages of history, and the capital ot Auvergne has good right to ba proud of having been its ssat. Without speaking of the many distinguished personages who tcok part in it, that Council will ever remain fresh in the memory among all otherß on account of its having given origin to the first of thoße heroic military expeditions whose scope was to dry the tears of the Chris'ians in Palestine and to liberate the Holy Placeß sanctified by the Presence, Passion, Deatb, and Resurrection of the Saviour of men. Often had the Roman Pontiffs, as Silvester 11. and Gregory VII., made heard their complaints and their prayers, and raised their voioes in their favour. For Blessed Urban, however, was reserved the joy of seeing the nations respond efficaciously to his call. The expedition was decided upon, and three years afterwards the Obiistians in triumph entered Jerusalem. As you have said in your letter, Vsnerable Brother, that great expedition obtained so wonderful a success because it had been prepared under the patronage of the Qaeen of Heaven by means of public prayers, the use of which has been perpetuated in the Church. Such are the grand and pious memories which the coming centenary will recall to the minds of the faithful. They will supply them with a new motive for turning their gaze to that loved land where were carried out the mysteries of man's redemption, to those olden churches of the East for which, We have elsewhere said, We bear to great a love, The following paragraph from the Bjston Pilot will explain to our readers the responsibility incurred or risked by newspapers that publish the correspondence of writers wbos« sympathies are with the A.P.A. :— " The burning of two Catholic churches and the attempt to burn two more in B >ston a-.d vicinity within a space of two or three weeks raises the suepicon of something worse than ordinary incend ariem. Is the A.* A. cruside of falsehood beginning to result in such deeds as Maria Monk's slanders brought about when a ruffianly mob, sixty years ago, burned the Ursuline Convent of Mount Benedict in Charlestown? Pending a solution of the mysiery we should advise the pastors of churches in this vicinity to keep their insurance policies carefully paid up ; though no precaution can avert such a danger as that which threatened the congregation of St Peter's Church in Dorchester, when an .unknown miscreant deliberately attempted to fire a building in which 1,200 people were present." Father Lambert has been kept busy of late replying to correspondent who wrote to him from various partß of the world, inquiring as to the truth of the report of his apostasy. His last reply published in the New York Freeman's Journal, of which the rtv gentleman is now editor, runs as follows. It eeems pretty conceive :— "We assure our esteemed contemporaries of Jamaica, the Gleaner, Gall's News Letter, Colonial Standard and Dispatch and Jamaica 1 Post, that we are a Roman Oa'holic, a Papist, and with God's grace, will remain so until the curtain falls, and hides from our vision for- > ever this busy, feverish scene. Boing of a logical turn of mind there : is for us beyond the lintel of the Catholic Church no stopping place, ! no lodgment, short of downright infidelity. It is a toboggan slide. If the Caiholic Ohurch is nrt of divine institution Christianity is a delusion, a superstition, for the Catholit Church is concrete, historl- > c»l Christianity. Were the Catholic Church to cease to be it would i be but a short time when Christianity would be as dead as the reli3 gion of ancient Egypt, and its tenets would be a subject of interest only to the inquisitive antiquarian. It would require a new Cham-

pollion-Pigetc to unlock the mysteries of ita symbolism. Oathol.city ia to Protestantism what the affirmative is tb the negative. When the affirmative ceases to be, the negative loses its reason to be, and pasits away as a shadow when (he body that casts it ceases to be, Whatever of positive or affirmative truth there, is in Protestantism is found in Catholicity. All else of it is negative, which, as a basis of religion, is worse than a foundation of quicksand. No thing, no in«titution.can live on negations. They constitute at best but a Barmecide feast, and are ioftrior even to the bitter dust of Dead Sea appleß." A reaction (says the Brooklyn CatUlio Revien of March 9) has set m against th. A.P.A. It is evident in the invitation to Father Doyle to deliver a lecture in Union Theological Seminary, in the nmon of the Protestant and the Catholic cl.rgy of Bay City, Mjchigan, to put an end to religions intolerance there, in the aughter that greeted the proposal of a member of a far Western egisl.ture to deport the Papal Legate, and in the wtloome extended to Biihop Watterson to address the Young Men's Christian Associaturn of Oolumbua, Ohio, last Sun lay night. This reaction may give plaoe to another and a mightier sweep of the Know-Nothing movement at the time of the next Preaiientiat election, but, if so, that will be followed by a still stronger counter tendency that will land multitudea within the boundaries of the Catholic Church. The Bight Beverend Bishop of Oolumbas was greeted by an audience that packed the building, and so great was the desire of his nonOatholio neighbours to bear him that as many were unable to gain admiision aa were in th. hall. He chose for his subject " Christian Citizenship " and spoke for an hour and a half. Ha was frequently and enthueiastioally applauded Columbus has been a stronghold of the A.P.A , which has captured every political office in the city lately open to public conteat, but the action of the V M.C.A. in requesting the chief representative of the Catholic Church there to speak to them, ihows that intelligent members of the community are disposed to doubt the atatemeata of the secret society, are investigatiog the matter for themselves, are taking the right course in going to Oatholiog themselves, instead of to their vindictive enemies, to find

oat the doctrineß of their religion, and are willing to listen to explanations of the Catholic position. The result ia inevi'able. The man of good will among them will be convinced that they have been misled by the A.P.A., and, once turned towards the Church favourably in one respect, some of them will not stop until they join it. Thus, in the Providence of God, gooi will be drawn from evil. A work that is now gaining a good deal of attention in America is "Catholic and Protestant countries compared," written by the Rev Father Young, a member of the Paulist Orler. Our contemporary, thi Catholio Review, quotes the testimony of an enemy, in the shape of a paragraph contributed, in a criticism of the b ok, ( o the New World quarterly, by the Boy Charles 0 Starbuck, Congregational minister and professor in Andover Seminary, Mass. " The substance of this book consists in a tremendously effect, ve array of quotations from Proießtant writers, believers and unbelievers. They are quite sufficient to turn the coarse impudence and calumniousness of popnlar libellers of Roman Catholicism to despairing silence, if anything were capable of changing the nature or abating the effrontery of these nbaldi He (Father Yom^), succeeds abundantly, but by quotations, in showing that in many points of popular happiness, kindly intimacy between the high and low, sexual morality, equal division of the land, devotion to the Christian ideals of character above possession and eternity above time, many Catholic countries stand decidedly above many or most Protestant landi. He urges with cogent force that our lack of authoritative power to bring home to the nusses the deoisiona of Christian faith and morals induces a sad measure of spiritual impotet.ee, which is felt more and more painfully in Protestant countries, aa tv« lingering force of ancient Christian tradition dies away. Hh brings facts and statistics and reminders enough for an ample justification of Prehident Woolsey's half-expresiod wish that in view of the lack of pedngogical power in Protestantism, it mi^ht be desirable that Catholic influence should increase among our m sssi'B, and save the Christian family in large re/ions, indeed tha population itself, from the danger of extinction He shows that in many parts of Catholic ifiurope, if there is comparative night, it is, as Carl H iso said of the

century in Germany before the Reformation, 'in many respects a sacred night. 1 " Professor Startjuct, nevertaelesg, has holes to pick, of which the Catholio Revie* easily disposes. But Ibis mak^s his favourable testimony nil the more vnlmble. When a body of men or their majority, a board or a committee, describe themselves as boobies and numbskulls we must necessarily Uke them a? their own valuation. The case in point is that of the Nelson Education Board, who bave passed, as an ameodment on a resolution proposed by Mr Franklin in support of the Catholic hierarchy's request for the ins-pectio-i of Catholio schools, f e'following :-" That his Grace the Archbishop and Right Rev Bishops cf the Roman Catholic Church be informed in reply to their application that upon any special occasion upon a request by themselves, or their or managers, the school would be examicel upon such terms as to the Board might seem fair, but that the Board is of opinion that it had no statutory powers to undertake the general inspection of schools other than those established onder the Education Act." Boobies and numbskulls only, we repeat, can fail to see that the Act gives full powers to the Boards. The aole point that may seem doubtful is that relative to the compulsory or permissive nature of the clause in question. The gentlemen who voted for the amendment and so conferred upon themselvss the distinction to which we have referred were MeFsrs G. Talbot (chairman), Maginnity, Sinclair Best, and Hnrbthouse. Messrs Franklyn, Colvin, and Philipa supported the request of tho Catholic hierarchy.

A great pilgrimage for Padna, Loreto, Aaaisi, and Bom* is being organised in Belgium. It will be under the personal guidance of Cardinal Goossens, Archbishop of Malines. The Bey L. Byan, 0.M.1., Inchicore, has been appointed Superior of the house of his Order at Freemantle, Western Australia. Despite the intemperate weather, the Holy Father's health is excellent. His Holiness takes frequent walks in the Vatican gardens. The sum of twelvs thousand lire has been given by the Holy Father for distribution amongst the poor in the villages of the Boman province who have been suffering from famine. On Good Friday, the 12th April, the Btars will be in the same position in the firmament which they occupied on the day of Our Lord's death on the Cross. It will be the first time this has happened since the commencement of the Christian era. We learn from the Mistions Cotholi^uei of Lyons that, according to the latest intelligence from the Catholics in Manchuria, the Catholic missions have fared well during tne war, thanks to the Chinese and Japanese authorities.