Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 33, 18 December 1896, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The retirement of Bishop Keane came very THE REAIi largely in the nature of a surprise to the Catholic state of world in America, and it is certain that that feeling retirement is widely and deeply regretted. The IN AMERICA, late rector was a man of ripe scholarship, sound judgment and abounding energy, and under his regime the institution realised the very highest hopes that had been entertained with regard to the University scheme in the United States. It would, therefore, be scarcely creditable to the American Catholics if they heard of his retirement with indifference. But the wisdom of the general rule on which the Holy Father has acted is admitted on all hands, and its application in this particular case is oheerfully acquiesced in, in the most edifying way, by all concerned. The individual most immediately concerned, Bishop Keane himself, published the following statement simultaneously with the publication of the official correspondence :: — '• I welcome my release from the office of rector of the University with profound gratitude, both to Divine Providence and the Pope. While I always regarded its duties as a labour of love, they had grown to be far beyond my strength and abilities, and the deliverance from the burden is a response to many prayers. I was too loyal a soldier to ask to be relieved from my post, no matter what the difficulties, but feeling that my nine years of strain and solicitude in the work had brought me close to the end of my brain and nerve powers. I was fully ready to welcome what has been done. I shall now enjoy some months of greatly needed rest on the Pacific Coast, leaving all plans for the future to a later date. Of course, no one needs to be assured that the action of the Holy Father is prompted not only by personal kindness toward myself, but also by earnest solicitude for the best interests of the university. He believes in " rotation in office," as all sensible men must. He knows the evils of allowing any official, and especially the head of a university, to fossilise at his post, and in this all must acknowledge his wisdom. His enlightened prudence and that of the trustees who have to present the nominations will be sure to elect a rector in every way fitted to guide the work to fuller and fuller success."' The same admirable spirit is shown by the other prelates of the Church. Though they share in the universal regret felt at the retirement of Bishop Keane there is not the slightest symptom of soreness or division, and their actions have been characterised by perfect harmony and unanimity. When the Board of Trustees met to nominate a successor, so far from there being the '" impending conflict " predicted by " Ulysses," the board were absolutely unanimous in their selection, and their choice (which, we may mention, fell on the Rev. Thomas J. Conaty, D.D., of Worcester, Mass.) has been received with great satisfaction on all sides. Our readers can now see for themselves what a tissue of falsehoods and fabrications this story of '* Ulysses " really is. The anti-Catholic animus displayed in the paragraph only shows how pleased the enemies of the Catholic Church in America would be to see the Catholic body, clergy and laity, divided among themselves. That pleasure, however, they are not likely to enjoy. The interests of the Church are perfectly safe in the hands of the American hierarchy, and under their guidance the Church will continue to move proserously on to the fulfilment of her great destiny, with the harmony and unanimity which have hitherto characterised her mission in that country. " Ultsses," we need hardly inform our readers, is '• ulysses " the veracious individual who " does " the American and his rilly correspondence for the Dunedin Evening Star. stouies. Readers of the Star will admit that in that capacity he is representtive of the very worst type of penny-a-liners. He has all the instincts, without any of the brains, of the regular sensation-monger. Like many small minds he shows a violent anti-Catholic animus and he is thrice happy if he can unearth anything disparaging or detrimental to

Holy Church. In the absence of any solid material to go upon he can depend with the utmost confidence on his mendacious instincts to make good the deficiency, and thus it comes about that he is seldom without something sensational or startling to say about Catholics. A characteristic paragraph appears in his notes of last week in whioh with ill-disguised malevolence he tries to make it appear that the Catholic Church in the United States is in a state of serious dissension and division owing to the retirement of Bishop Keane as rector of the Catholic University at Washington. The Holy Father, in accordance with the practice universally observed in the Church, that those appointed to preside over Catholic universities should not hold the office in perpetuity, had asked Bishop Keane to resign. The plain reason stated by the Pope was altogether too matter of fact for '• Ulysses " and so the readers of the Star are regaled with stories of plots and counter-plots which have no existence outside of the disordered imagination of the writer. First " Ulysses " tells us the retirement was brought about to please the Germans ; then — silliest of all silly stories — that it was owing to the displeasure of Leo XIII. at Bishop Keane's Americanism, and finally he concludes somewhat lamely by trotting out our old familiar friend — a plot of the Jesuits. We shall explain the full facts and circumstances of the case presently. Meanwhile we would refer to one or .two incidental statements which this correspondent makes, which are absolutely untrue and which he must have known to be untrue First as to his insinuation that the Jesuits plotted to " depose Bishop Keane and thus remove his influence in the instruction of young priests." At the public meeting to which " Ulysses " himself refers the very first speaker was the president of the Jesuits 1 university at Georgetown who, in an eloquent speech, reviewed his lifelong friendship with Bishop Keane. and gave many proofs of the kindly feeling subsisting between the two universities. The Boston Pilot thus concludes its report of his address :: — '• Father Richards grew eloquent over Bishop Keane's influence over young men. and was touching in his references to Bishop Keane's tender sympathy and unbounded charity." Yet this is the man who, according to •' Ulysses." plotted to •' remove his influence in the instruction of young priests." " Ulysses " had evidently read the reports of this meeting and he must, therefore, have known that his miserable insinuation was absolutely without foundation. " Ulysses" further asserts that the '• Board of Trustees of the university have refused to accept the resignation of Bishop Keane as rector, but." he sapiently adds, " that will make no difference." So far from that boing the case the Board not only accepted the resignation but at once proceeded to nominate a successor. The only resignation which was declined was Bishop Keane's resignation as a member of the board which was tendered at the time he resigned the headship of the university. Even the limited intelligence of '"Ulysses" should be capable of recognising the distinction between resigning as member of the board and resigning as rector of the university, and he must again stand convicted of having deliberately written what he knew to be untrue. These are only incidental statements but they are interesting as showing precisely how veracious and reliable an authority on Catholic affairs the Star correspondent really is. The best refutation of the malevolent insinuations the true of Ulysses w r ill be found in the official corresrACTg ok the pondence between the Holy Father and Bishop caSe. Keane, which was published by the latter, and which gives the true facts of the case in the simplest and clearest way. Bishop Keane received, through his Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, the following letter from the Holy Father :: — •' To Our venerable brother, John Joseph Keane, Bishop of Ajasso : Venerable brother, health and apostolic benediction. It is customary that they who are appointed to preside over Catholic universities should not hold the office in perpetuity. This custom has grown up through wise reasons, and the Roman Pontiffs have ever been careful that it should be adhered to. Since, therefore, venerable brother, you have now presided for several years over the University at Washington, in the first establishment and subsequent development of which you have shown laudable zeal and diligence,

it has seemedbest that the above-mentioned custom should not be departed from, and that another, whose name is to be proposed to u s by the bishops, should be appointed to succeed you in this honourable position. In order, however, that in your resigning this office due regard may be had to your person and your dignity, wo have determined to elevate you to the rank of archbishop. Being solicitous for your future welfare, we leave it to your own free choice either to remain in your own country, or. if you prefer it, come to Rome. If you choose the former we will destine ior you some archiepiscopal see. by vote of the bishops of the United States. If you prefer the latter, we shall welcome you most lovingly and will place you among the consultors of the Congregation of Studies and the Congregation of the Propaganda, in both of which you could do much for the interest of religion in the United States. In this latter case we would also assign you a suitable revenue for your honourable maintenance Confidently trusting, venerable brother, that you will accept this' our administrative act, with hearty good will, we most lovingly bestow upon you the Apostolic Benediction as a pledge of our paternal affection. Given at Rome, from St. Peter's, this loth day of September, 18!><>, in the nineteenth year of our Pontificate, (.-igned) Leo XIII., Pope." The next day Bishop Keane mailed to the Holy Father the following reply :— " The Catholic University of America, Washington, September 2',), 1 S!M. Most Holy Father, — His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons yesterday handed me the letter in which your Holiness has made known to me that my administration of this university now comes to end, and that another rector is to be appointed. Without a moment of hesitation, I accept the will of your Holiness in the matter as a manifestation of the Providence of God, and from this instant I resign into the hands of his Eminence ' the Chancellor the office of rector, with all rights thereto attaching. Thanking your Holiness for the freedom of choice granted me, I choose to remain in my own country, and, moreover, without any official position whatsoever, in tranquility and peace. Your Holiness' most humble son in Christ. John J. Keane, Bishop of Ajasso." The firm yet temperate manifesto of the Irish THK JUST Bishops on the subject of Irish university educaDEMAND OF tion should extort the respect and admiration even THE IKIBH of those most bitterly opposed to the claim bishops. advanced. In forcible and eloquent language and with clear and unanswerable logic is the claim of the Irish people to justice in this matter set forth. The first point referred to by the bishops in their declaration is the necessity of provision for university education for Catholics. "In this matter," as they say, l> the Catholics of Ireland have a grievance." and the fact is proved on very high authority, to which the bishops thus refer in their statement. "No later than the closing days of the last session of Parliament, the Chief Secretary for Ireland made the memorable admission in reference to this same question, that through the want of university education among the Catholic of Ireland he found it necessary from time to time to pass them over. and to give Protestants public appointments which other\vi>e he would have thought it right to give to Catholic*." This is, indeed, '• a memorable admission " and a clear recognition of the material injury suffered by the Catholic people of Ireland through the want of facilities for university education. Well may the bishops say in their comment on the admission ; '• To be crushed by law into a p"osition of inferiority, and then be made to suffer in consequence, has for a long time been the lot of Irish Catholics."' But for these unequal laws and for the robbery ot former times under British law I they would not so much need to ask even for the equality which is theirs by right, as the bishops point out. '• Even the generous provision which our forefathers had made for religion : and which would have enabled us to provide for education al^o, wan long ago taken from us ; and we have been forced, out of our poverty, to provide all the means for the maintenance of our Church, and of its multifarious institutions."' Having thus amply demonstrated that the Catholics have just cause of complaint, the bishops next proceed to state their claim, and every fair-minded man must admit the moderateness and reasonableness of their deman-ls. Those demands cannot be better stated than in the bishops' own words : •' Whatthen do we claim .' Simply to be put on equality with our Protestant fellow countrymen. We take Trinity College, Dublin, with its endowments and its privileges, and, seeing what is done by public funds and legal enactment for half a million of Protestants of the Disestablished Church of Ireland, we claim that at least as much should be done for the three millions and a half of Catholics. We do not seek to impair the efficiency of any institution. We do not want to take one shilling: from the endowments of any other body. We 100k — apart from the consideration of our own inequality — with much admiration and sympathy upon the work which Trinity College and Belfast Queen's College arc doing. But we auk, as a matter of simple justice, that the Catholics of Ireland should be put on a footing of perfect equality with them." This,

then, is all that is asked for ; no privilege, no favour, no advantage over others, but simply equality for Catholics with their Protestant fellow-countrymen. The Protestants have the richly endowed university of Dublin, known as Trinity College. They have also the Queen's colleges practically all to themselves and these are all amply supported by State funds. The bishops do not ask that these advantages shall be taken from those who possess and enjoy them but that similar advantages shall be made available for Catholics. They commit themselves to no one scheme but are prepared to consider with an open mind any possible scheme that may be suggested Such is the fair and just demand of the bishops of Ireland, made in the name of the Irish Catholic people, who comprise more than three-fourths of the Irish population. It is by no means a new demand. For twenty-three years the question has been a " Cabinet question," and yet, in spite of repeated protests, nothing has been done to remedy the injustice. It remains to be seen whether this last earnest and weighty deliverance of the bishops will be ignored and whether in this, as in so many other matters, justice will still be denied to Ireland. Lacordaiue and Reunion. — The following odds AND ends, remarks form part of a letter addressed by Lacordaire to a noble lady of the Russo-Greek Church, who had written to him concerning Reunion between that Church and the Holy See :-" .... The most ardent passion of those who are sincere outside the Church, is the passion for union Union is the deceitful shadow of unity. They imagine it enough to' make us one, if, on meeting, we embrace each other. ... the source of an endurable union is unity, and whosoever destroys' that even by so much as an embrace, destroys the root of union. . . [ Unity is that which is not self-contradictory in any respect whatever . . . is only to be found when no contradiction exists whereas on the contrary, union, which is but the surface of unity may have a momentary existence in despite of contradictions, just as we may touch one another without blending into one. This is the primary reason why the Catholic Church proceeds by the way of exclusion, while all heresies and schisms proceed by way of Reunion. The Church excludes all, without exception, who contradict her . . . so far is your attraction towards union from being your justification that it stands as your accuser. You have only one defence before God : you must prove to Him, and to yourself that the Greek Church is the one sole Church of God— out of which there ia no salvation, which all others ought to recognise for their Mother and Teacher. But can you do this ? Take, then, to your heart this truth : all that schismatics can say before the throne of God is, that they really desired reunion with the Roman Church : and this is the very thing which condemns them, because they know enough to understand that they themselves are not the whole Church, whilst they exert not their will enough to submit themselves to that Church which both knows and proclaims herself to be the whole Church. The prayer of your Greek priests, that prayer which has moved you so deeply, and in which they ask for the reunion of the Apostolic Church**, is the judgment which they daily utter upon themselves, in the face of heaven and earth. The real Church does not ask for the reunion of the apostolic Churches • she asks that all may bend the knee before her, and be submissive to the Vicar of Christ who rules her, to the end that the day may come when there shall be but One Fold and One .Shepherd. She prays thus because she alone is conscious that she is the Spouse of Christ. . . ." The Sacred Congregation of rites has recently decided some interesting points regarding the consecration of churches. The questions were : I. Is a church to be held validly consecrated if the consecration of the altar has been omitted .' 2. Does a church remain consecrated if the interior coating of plaster has been entirely removed and replaced/ 3. Can an altar composed of different pieces, or an altar which has been broken to a considerable extent and of which the pieces have been cemented together bo validly and licitly consecrated ? The answers are : To the first Affirmatively— that is. it can be validly consecrated ; not licitly' however, unless an Apostolic dispensation be had. To' the second Affirmatively. To the third, Negatively— that is, such an altar cannot be validly and licitly consecrated.— Catholic Time* A very important legal decision has juht been given at Alencon which apparently exempt* all the •■ authorised "' congregations or religious bodies from the consequences of recent legislation. The authorised congregation of the Holy Family at Sees was sued before the local tribunal and condemned to pay 4.ti<)o francs the tax payable on the death of fifteen members of the congregation between lssr, and 1*1)2. But on appeal to the higher court at Alencon the judgment was reversed, on the ground that there could be no arrroixsrmmt in the caso of an authorised congregation which had a legal entity and was not a collection of individual members, as was the unauthorised congregation. Therefore Article 4 of the law of December 28, 1880, did not apply to authorised

associations, and subsequent modifications of the law did not change the principle, although imposing a different mode of taxation. Apropox of the recent Anti-Masonic Congress at Trent, it may be well to note that many erroneous notions are at this moment being circulated with regard to the Church's views on Freemasonry. Some newspapers are laying it down as certain that the Pope's opposition to the sect arises from the alleged Satan- worship of certain of its members, and that his judgment is based on the assertions of such writers as Leo Taxil and the so-called Diana Vaughan. This is not the case. On the contrary, it is to be observed that in none of the many Pontifical documents on Freemasonry is there the least allusion to these assertions, and the absence of such allusion clearly allows the inference that they were not believed in, or at least not considered reliable. As to '' Miss Diana Vaughan." it will be observed that Mgr. Fava, Bishop of Grenoble, who wa< given as the authority for the reality of her existence, now denies that he ever saw her ; and possibly M. Leo Taxil and others who have made fame and fortune by Fi # eemason revelations know her for a mere figment of their own brain. This, however, does not mean that Freemasonry is cleared from all tarnish and that no positive evil can be alleged to its charge. Far from it ; the evil is all too real, and the Sovereign Pontiff is as firmly resolved as ever to take due steps for the unmasking of the working of the society in so far as it is baneful to religion and morals. A commission is at present sitting in Rome to inquire into the subject. lbs result may be awaited with full confidence in the judgment and discretion of those whom the Pope chooses as his advisers. In the meantime it is to be remembered that undue credulity should not be indulged in with regard to the eon versions and relations of alleged Freemason*. Under the heading of the '• Teachers' Tenure Problem'" The School master gives details of the case of Miss Butterly. late headmistress of the Lower Stondon school, in Bedfordshire, who, although the school is under the jurisdiction of a school board, has received her dismissal after joining the Catholic Church. The particulars as given by The School master show that Mis-, Butterly was appointed head-mistress in 18N.">, and for nine years performed her duties entirely to the satisfaction of the Shillington School Boaid. under which she worked, and her Majesty's inspectors. In I *'.)."> she was received into the Catholic Church, and shortly afterwards, in consequence of a letter from the vicar (who was not a member of the board), the board requested Miss Butterly to resign, although no question as to her religious teaching had been raised by any ot the parents. Acting upon the advice of the National Union of Teachers she refused to do so, and on August 1 of the present year she received her dismissal. The officials of the Union state that the religious difficulty is the only one which exists.