Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 51, 23 April 1897, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The warm interest which the Holy Father takes in recent the progress of the Church in England is well CONVERSIONS known, and in accordance with his special desire in his Eminence Cardinal Vaujrhan has collected England. statistics from the various dioceses as to the number of recent converts in England. The reports show that during the past fifteen months the splendid total of 15,000 converts have been received into the Church. The records also show that there have been upwards of 2,000 in the diocese of Westminster alone. In face of the tremendous obstacles that had to be overcome — the almost hopeless ignorance of Catholic teaching, the deep-seated prejudice, the pressure of worldly interests, etc. — such a result must be regarded almost as phenomenal. It is a remarkable fact that the great majority of the conversions are from the educated classes, so that so far from being the friend of darkness and ignorance it is becoming- more and more patent every day that as education and enlightenment advances the Catholic Church reaps freßh harvests of adherents. Some doubt has been expressed as to the possibility of fifteen thousand conversions in fifteen months but the figures are taken from carefully kept and altogether unimpeachable diocesan records. With God all things are possible, and it is simply wonderful what consecrated zeal and energy can achieve. It may be interesting, for example, to doubters and unbelievers to know that Father Gahvey, the famous Jesuit missionary, now resident in London, in credited with ten thousand conversions as the result of his individual efforts. Father Luke Rivington, until a few year ago head of the Oxford mission in Bombay, India, has made three thousand converts in his still very brief Catholic career. Another English priest is credited with four thousand. There are four hundred convert priests amon^ the diocesan clergy and the religious Orders of England. Naturally a convert is anxious to enable his friends to share the feaine blessing-, and these convert priests are certain to make the most earnest and unremitting efforts to bring their countrymen into the Church. Though l.">, 000 is a large number yet it represents after all but a small proportion of the enormous Protestant population of England. Though a large number in itself it is small as compared with the number still outside the Catholic fold, and that is why Cardinal Vaughan and other prominent English Catholics do not favour the dream of an approaching corporate reunion between England and Rome, but bend all their energies to further the slower but surer process of reunion by individual conversions.

In his Lenten Pastoral for 1897 the Moat Rev. Dr. IN praise of Hedley, 0.5.8., Bishop of Newport, discusses with THE GREGORIAN grreat clearness and lucidity the subject of church chant. music, with especial reference to the use of the Gregorian chant. His Lordship begins by layingdown certain general guiding principles in connection with the mubic to be used in the great Christian Liturgy. The music of that august rite must be no common music, but music that is appropriated, sanctified, and completely dominated by the Liturgy itself. If we are to worship by or with music, music must be worthy of the act of worship. If the Mass admits music, the Mass must have music of its own — music dedicated to it, made for it, fashioned to honour and enhance it — just as royalty has its proper robes, or as a devoted artist carves a precious casket to hold and guard the charter of his city 'B freedom. In order to produce its deepest and most spiritual effects, mu^ic must first of all be of such strong texture and worthy idea, as to be removed from that obviousness which speedily passes into staleness ; and secondly it must be associated with words. The Gregorian Chant, says Dr. Hedley, complies in a very special way with both these conditions. The very strangeness and inaccessibility of the Gregorian Chant render it all the more suitable for the Liturgy. It is music of an age gone by — as the

vestures of the sacrificing priest are survivals of past centuries. There is history in every phrase of it. Its progressions, its rises and falls, its intonations and its endings, are not heard in the modern world — not heard in the theatre, or the concert-room, or the street. He who would use it, must seek it apart, where the steps of men do not tread. When he comes to be familiar with it he finds that it is a true art ; that it has form, symmetry, variety and beauty. He comes to love the turns of the stately melody, to recognise its sequences, at first so strange, and to rest in its unhackneyed closes — to rest as the Christian heart should rest, with the consciousness that the end is not yet, and that the final close of all can only be sung in eternity. But in order to produce this sublime effect it must be allied to appropriate words which give it form and soul. The words to which the Gregorian Chant is sung are the noblest words of all language — words of ancient prophet and psalmist, words of doctor and pontiff, words of angels and apostles, words of the Son of God. Linked to words like these the chant of the Church is the handmaid of devotion, shutting out distraction like the walls of the sanctuary, and drawing the thoughts and emotions to the altar and the Blessed Sacrament. The Gregorian Chant, in order to be appreciated, requires study, use and intelligence. Without pains and practice the Gregorian Chant is out of the question. But it would be well, concludes his Lordship, that the clergy and the choirs of churches should have their attention drawn to it. It is coming back. This generation, thanks to the efforts of skilled and devout musicians, is begining to understand and appreciate the Church's idea in clinging to it. It is now seen that church music ought to be music of a distinct and peculiar kind. In proportion aa the matter is looked into, it becomes clear that what church music haß to do is to carry the sacred words of the Liturgy as the oxen in the Book of Kings carried the Ark of the Covenant — white, majestic, slow and peaceful. Better, more elaborate, more brilliant, more taking- music may perhaps be easily had ; but not musio that will be equally worthy of its sacred burden of adoration and prayer.

Many of our readers would notice with surprise catholics at the item which appeared in our Imh News non-catholic column a week or two ago to the effect that the services. Catholic Mayor of Cork had attended in his robes of office at the " Consecration of a Protestant bishop in the Protestant cathedral of that city. That such an incident should have happened in a Catholic city of Catholic Ireland renders it still more a matter for surprise and wonder. The Catholic clergy of Cork, as well they might, spoke strongly on the subject, and condemned the Mayor's act as a violation of God's law as well as a scandal and an insult to them and their people. Several of them referred to the subject in their sermons on the Sunday after the incident. The Right Rev. Monsignor Maguire pointed out that the Church " has at all times prohibited and condemned the religious association of Catholics with those who are outside the pale of the Catholic communion. He also spoke strongly in reprobation of the scandal which he held to be involved in the act of a Catholic representative of a Catholio people " who enters a Proteßtant church, sits down to listen to a sermon of one in whose teaching he cannot believe, whose words he cannot regard as he should those of his own minister, and whose ceremonial is essentially wrong, as the Holy Father has in a recent decree declared.' ' The conduct of the Mayor on this occasion and its condemnation raises a question which is of more than local interest. To non-Catholics the attitude of the Cork clergy will savour strongly of bigotry and intolerance, and there are unfortunately not a few even of Catholics who have free and easy ideas as to their obligations in this matter. Why then does the Catholic Church forbid attendance at non-Catholic services 1 The condemnation is based on the divinely-revealed dogma of the unity of the Church and of the unity of the Faith. The Catholic Church teaches that there is but one true Church and one true Faith. The Catholic* therefore, who take 8 part in non-Catholic worship is disloyal to the Church and unfaithful to the teaching which Christ has revealed to the Church. In the case of the Protestant Church, the disloyalty of which the Catholio

who took part in its worship would be guilty is indicated in its very name. It calls itself '• Protestant." What does it protest against ? Simply against the Catholic Church. Hence it is that Catholics, no matter what regard they may have for Protestants as individuals, and however much they may respect their earnestness and sincerity) cannot consistently or conscientiously take part in their worship' In doing so they would be disloyal to the Church and unfaithful to Christ, and would be setting an example which would give grave offence and scandal to all their fellow-Catholics who became aware of their conduct.

The bishops of Ireland represent the very cream Lenten of Irish intellect and piety, and their pastorals, pastorals dealing as they do with matters of vital impor. IN IRELAND, tance to Catholics, are always deeply interesting and well worth a careful reading. Quite a number of the pastorals make special reference to the evil of pernicious literature, and his Eminence Cardinal Logue deals at length with the subject. A zealous and vigilant watch, he writes, should be kept on the books, periodicals, and journals which circulate among the people. But we should labour in vain did we try and combat the evil of dangerous reading by merely endeavouring to cut off what is injurious. The best antidote to the poison of irreligious literature is to furnish the people with good, sound, useful healthy reading. His Eminence regrets that we are not so favourably situated as many other countries in the matter of good Catholic literature. The smallness of our reading public and the consequent want of encouragement have contributed to limit the supply. But that which we have should be carefully fostered and generously encouraged. Much is being done, says his Eminence, by writers and workers through the Catholic Truth Society, " an organisation which I cannot praise too highly or recommend too warmly to the clergy and people." The Most Rev. Dr. Sheehan, Bishop of Lismore and Watorford, refers at length to the same subject. Bad books, snys his Lordship, are a dreadful and, we fear, increasing source of danger to faith. Immoral literature we have always had in the shape of novels, but to these we have now added a new and more formidable cause of corruption in journals, books, and magazines, some infidel in their own nature, many others in tendency. There should be no need to point out that such poisons the very wells of spiritual life. If we are wise, then, if we really desire to save our souls, we will take care to regard our faith as the precious treasure that it is. We will guard it with scrupulous care. Parents above all will guard it for their children, children for themselves — all, old and young alike, will avoid irreligious reading of every kind, as they would a pestilence, rather as they wish to avoid eternal ruin ; for let it be said again : Bad reading is the sure road to eternal ruin for many a one, in every country on the face of the earth to-day The Most Rev. Dr. O'Doherty, in the course of his pastoral, deals with the evil of secret societies. No stronger proof, he says, of the evil of those societies is needed than the very secrecy with which they are surrounded, " for every one that doth evil hateth the light and correth not to light that his works may not be reproved " (St. Jonr, iii 20). If any one wish to serve his country or his fellow-man, let him do it by honest and open endeavours, and not by secret, unmanly methods suited only to the coward or the knave. And let our young men also remember that all members of secret societies are debarred from receiving the sacraments till they have sincerely and entirely severed their connection with the organisation in which they have been enrolled. The vice of intemperance is referred to by tbe Most Rev. Dr. Owens, Bishop of Clogher, who writes thus : " Thank God the combined efforts of priests and people have so far been wonder. fully successful. Having put our hand to the work, and having already gained an important advantage, we will continue our efforts in the good cause until, with the blessing of Heaven, a complete victory shall be gained over intemperance, the worst evil of our times." The Most Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick devotes his pastoral to a vigorous condemnation of the anti-clerical tendency of the day. It cannot be denied, he writes, that in recent years a certain change has come over a section of our countrymen that bodes no good for the future of many of them and their children. Politics were outside the sacred precincts where these words would be read, but he might say this, that any political movement in Ireland that based its hopes on the overthrow of the influence of clergy was, to use a homely phrase, " knocking its head against a stone wall," and would go the way of its many predecessors. In purely temporal things it might happen sometimes tbat pc«ple should differ from the priest, but if they did, and if compelled to express that difference in words, it should always be with the restraint and evident reluctance of a child who differed from a father whose honour was still near and dear to him. S6 it was with the vast majority of the people, and he was confident their relations with their clergy were so rooted in faith that they could never be disturbed until they were both torn up together. In this diccese itself there was, thank God, very little of this evil of which he complained ; but, unfortunately, some newspapers published

in Dublin circulated amongst them, and from time to time he had read articles in them which were positively shocking.. Cardinal Logue, whom we have already quoted on the subject of pernicious literature, refers also to the vice of gambling : " There is another evil," he writes, "widespread and deep-rooted, which threatens large sections of the people with temporal and spiritual ruin. It has begun to permeate all classes, from the merchant in his office and the clerk at his desk even to the very children in the schools. I refer to the spirit of gambling in all its branches, but especially to gambling on horse races, which is so actively fostered at the present day by newspapers, betting agents, and others who find their profit in it, as to have become a social and moral plague. It is needless to point out in detail the fearful consequences which flow from indulging this passion ; they are pretty well known from sad experience. It not only works the ruin of its unfortunate victim, but often that of an entire family. Under its baneful influence fidelity, honesty, honour, the sense of justice, mutual confidence among men, in a word all regard for what is due to God and what is due to our neighbour vanishes. It blights many a life and cuts short many a promising career. It is an evil, therefore, to the rooting out of which both clergy and people should devote their best energies. Heads of families and those in positions of responsibility should not only discourage this practice in those under their care, but should, as they are strictly bound to do, give good example by avoiding it themselves."

The Hawke's Bay district has just been the scene the of perhaps the heaviest and most disastrous flood great flood that has ever been experienced in the Colony. The IN the flood took place on Good Friday night, and has north. resulted in most serious loss of both life and property. From the telegraphic report just to hand we learn that it rained heavily on Thursday and Friday morning, and there was a large quantity of flood-water on the lowlying lands. Towards evening the rain had ceased, however, and nobody anticipated further trouble when just after dark the Tutaekuri broke its bank above Taradale, and an immense body of water poured through the township towards Napier. At the same time the Waitangiand Ngaruroro, backed up by the heavy sea, broke inward through the railway line into the lagoon joining the watara of the Tutaekuri. The result was a rise of four to five feet in a few minutes, and the lower part of Napier was suddenly covered with water which rushed through the streets in a raging torrent, flooding some of the houses to the extent of five and six feet. Boats were promptly manned to remove the people from the most threatened houses, and no lives were lost, though a good deal of property was destroyed. In the meantime urgent requests for boats came from the country, where many settlers had had to take to the roofs of their houses to escape the flood waters. A number of boats went out and saved many lives, but unhappily two of the boats which set out for Clive never reached there. They were swamped in the raging torrent, and all the occupants, ten in number, were drowned. Two other lives are also known to be lost, and it is rumoured that there are several more. Tbe damage to property is enormous. Over a vast area practically not a head of stock remains alive. Fences have been washed away in every direction, several houses have gone out to sea, and the scene is said to be one of indescribable desolation. On receiving news of the disaster the Acting-Premier, the Hon. John M'Kenzie, promptly forwarded a message of sympathy and an undertaking that the Government would assist in every possible way in alleviating the destitution and distress. Funds are being raised in the district to provide permanent aid, but it is felt that the necessities of the case are beyond the resources of Hawke's Bay, and the following telegram, which speaks for itself, is being sent to the mayors of the principal boroughs :—": — " Your immediate assistance is most earnestly solicited to enable us in some measure to cope with the effects of the most disastrous flood which has ever visited Hawke's Bay. Hundreds of families have been rendered homeless by the destruction of their homes, some of which are bodily swept away, and the loss of property in cattle and all kinds of stock, besides miles of fencing and the ruin of their crops, has left them practically destitute and the country desolate. The loss of life, too, I re* gret to say, has been large. Twelve persons have, it is now known, been drowned, and, as most of them have left widows and children entirely without support, funds are urgently required to meet their most pressing necessities. Ten of these men nobly gave their lives in endeavouring to rescue their fellowsettlers by means of boats, which have, there is now no doubt, been swept out to sea by the current. The loss altogether cannot be estimated at less than £80,000 to £100,000. Under thes« most distressing circumstances I feel compelled to appeal to the well-known generosity of my fellow-colonists, and to ask them to give us their kindly co-operation in whatever steps may be taken to alleviate the misery and devastation which has fallen upon us. Besides many settlers who will need aid to save them from starvation or bank-

roptcy, there are 30 widows and children left by men who were drowned in rescue work, all practically left unprovided for." The deepest sympathy will be felt throughout the Colony for the sufferers by this disaster and there is no doubt that the appeal for assistance will be promptly and generously responded to.

Two questions are perpetually coming up before odds and perplexed Bishops and clergy of the Church of ends. England. They are " Fasting Communion " and what is called " Non-commumicating attendance." The former has been discussed by the Upper House of York Convooation. The verdict seems to be that Fasting Communion is highly appropriate and edifying, but that there is no rule upon the subject. One Bishop complained that he was terribly troubled by many {of the younger clergy, who were perpetually begging his Lordship to grant them a dispensation from the rule. The Bishop, it seems, is in the habit of telling these rampant Eitualists that (1) there is no rule ; and (2), if there is, he cheerfully dispenses them from all observation of the same. This reminds us (says the London Tablet) of a story concerning the Anglican monk Ignatius, 0.8.8., which we heard not long ago. Ignatius planted himself in Wales, whether with or without Episcopal permission we cannot say. A certain feast fell upon a Friday, which day most Anglicans, quite erroneous'y, call a Fast Day. Ignatius, 0.5.8., wrote to the Bishop and asked for leave to eat meat on the Friday. The Bishop, with cruel good nature, replied that it was a matter of perfect indifference to him what Ignatius 0.5.8., ate on Friday or on any other day. We fancy that it is also a matter of perfect indifference to all the Anglican bishops whether their flocks receive the Lord's Supper before or after breaking their fast.

The following letters, which have been published in the Irish newspapers, speak for themselves. Mother Aloysius Doyle, of the Convent of Mercy, Gort, the recipient of the distinction graciously conferred on her by her Majesty, has attained the venerable age of 76. She was one of the heroic band of Irish Sisters who volunteered to nurse the sick and dying in the Crimean hospitals during the war

over 40 years ago :— -'Pall Mall, London, S.W., I.lth February, 181)7. Madam, — The Queen having been pleased to bestow upon you the Decoration of the Royal Red Cross, I have to inform you that in the case of such honours as this it is the custom of her Majesty to personally bestow the Decoration upon the recipient when Mich a course is convenient to all concerned, and I have, therefore, to request that you will be so good ab to inform mo whether it would be convenient to you to attend at Windsor some time within the next few weeks. Should any circumstances prevent your receiving the Royal Red Cross from the hands of her Majesty it could be transmitted by post to your present address. — I am, madam, your obedient servant, George M. Fakquhakson. Sister Mary Aloysius." — " St. Patrick's, Gort, County Galway. Sir, — I received your letter of the loth, intimating to me that her Most Gracious Majetsty the Queen is pleased to bestow on me the Order of the Red Cross in recognition of the services of my Sisters in religion and my own in caring for the wounded soldiers at the Crimea during the war. My words cannot express my gratitude for the great honour which her Majesty is pleased to confer upon me. The favour is, if possible, enhanced by the permission to receive this public mark of favcur at her Majesty's own hands. The weight of 76 years, and the infirmities of age will, I trust, dispense me from the journey to the Palace. I will, therefore, w ith sentiments of deepest gratitude, ask to be permitted to receive this mark of my sovereign's favour in the less public and formal manner you have kindly indicated. — I am, sir, faithfully yours in Jesus Christ, Sistee M. Aloysius. 17th February, 1897.

Referring to the plague in Bombay, the Catholic Mraviin-r of that city writes in a leading article : " In this uncertainty of life the religious sentiment of the people has asserted itself in a way ■worthy of notice ; Hindus and Mohammedans, Jews and Parsis, and the various Christian communities acknowledge alike that the dire epidemic is a visitation from God, a punishment for their sins and they are not slack in the offering up of prayers and supplica-

dons to draw down the mercy of God upon the stricken city. As regards the Catholics in particular, it is consoling to observe that the frequentation of the sacraments has increased, that the specif devotions carried on in'the various chapels and churches, the work-dny Masses the solemn votive Masses, the processions are well attended, and that the special patrons against the plague, as the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, St Sebastian, St. Rogue, St. Ignatius, are much called on. We beg our readers far and wide to j oin the prayers of their brethren in Bom bay, Bandora and Karachi, that God may withdraw His punishing hand from their heavily visited towns and preserve poor India, already suffering from the pangs of scarcity and famine, from the farther spread of this dreaded disease."

It may be remembered that in the beginning' of last December a Protestant missionary in Shanghai, Dr. John Boss, made an extraordinary accusation against Mgr. Guillon, of Mukden, Vicar Apostolic of Manchuria, which caused a considerable sensation at the time He declared that the Bishop had erected in the courtyard of his residence a pillar to which he was accustomed to have Chinese tied by their pigtails, scourged, and cruelly tortured. He even asserted that one Chinaman, who had abjured Catholicitylfor Protestantism, had been beaten to death. This incredible story was at once declared by one of the Manchuria missionaries to be an absolute false hood ; but Dr. Boss answered he should abide by his statements until such time as Bishop Guillon himself should deny- them Meanwhile another of our missionaries, Mgr. H. Lemasse, declared Dr. Boss's accusations to be untrue, and challenged that person to lay his charges before a committee of merchants in Shanghai, who should act as a jury in the case. He also made the following offer : Both parties to pay a sum of 2,000 dollars into the hands of the Committee, and whichever party proved to be in the right to receive the whole 4,000 dollars. If Boss's charges were declared to be correot, Mgr. Lemasse further offered to pay over 500 dollars a-piece to every Chinaman, whether Catholic, Protestant, Mohammedan, or Heathen of whom it could be proved that he had in any way been ill-treated by Bishop Guillon. Also Dr. Boss might publish the decision in all and any newspaper he pleased. If, on the other hand,

the decision went in Ross's favour, the challenger was willing to spend the 2,000 dollars for mission purposes in Manchuria, and requested that all newspapers which had published Ross's charges should also publish the fact of his inability to prove them. "If you refuse my challenge," he concluded, addressing Dr. Ross, " I leave it to public opinion to judge of your worth." Although a considerable time had elapsed, up to the middle of December, the date of the communication from which these facts are taken, Ross had made no reply. Even the Japanese papers have taken the matter up, and declare that Ross's position in Shanghai is seriously compromised.

After three-quarters of a century the mystery surrounding the name of the executioner of Robert Emmet has at last been unveiled On August 5, 1878, an extremely old man (99 years) died in the workhouse at Ballina, County Mayo, and was consigned to a pauper's grave. His name was Barney Moran. He was a native of Dublin and so long as he was able to tramp about he made a livelihood as a professional itinerant ballad singer. On his deathbed he made a singular revelation to the doctor, master, and chaplain of the workhouse. Moran's statement was to the effect that he was on military duty at Portobello barracks in the evenißg of September 19, 1803, when an emissary from Major Sirr came and offered him a considerable sum if next morning he would officiate as hangman for Emmet. On the morning of September 20, Barney Moran stood on the plat' form in Thomas street, directly opposite St. Catherine's Church, with Emmet beside him, pinioned and standing beneath the gallows'. The story runs that Emmet expected a rescue, and gazed about him longJ and wistfully, as if trying to read hope in the upturned faces of th^ crowd. He protracted his preparations as long as possible. Even with the halter around his neck, in answer to the executioner's question whether he was ready, he several times exclaimed : " Not yet ! Not yet ! " At length the executioner, weary of waiting, turned him off with the words " not yet " coming from his lips'. Moran quitted the army, and, after a wandering life of hardsh ; p" and privation for half a century, exactly seventy-five years after Emmet's execution, his hangman found a pauper's death and nameless grave in the poorhouse.