A BOGUS 'EX-PRIEST.' CAUGHT LIKE A RAT IN A TRAP.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 5, 2 February 1899, Page 28

A BOGUS 'EX-PRIEST.' CAUGHT LIKE A RAT IN A TRAP.

Canon Scanxkll, of St. Joseph s Church, Southampton, one of the most learned priests of England, made a cruel exposure, on November Hi, of the ignorance of that notorious fraud, Riordan, alias Ruthven, who has tramped around the world posing as an ' expriest.' Ruthven has been • exposed 'in every quarter of the globe, but still he goes his way smiling and succeeds in gulling antiCatholic bigots. Father Scannell, in a letter to the Southampton Southern L'cho, describes his encounter with the fellow Howl came to be present at such a meeting may seem to require a word of explanation. For some days previously handbills were scattered broadcast over the town announcing a I'rotestaut lecture, and everyone who read them must have noted particularly the following paragraph • 'Priest John Scannell having seen fit to aitack Mr. Ruthven in his absence ... the ex-prieat hereby ckallerges him, or any other priest in Southampton, to disprove his charges . . . Father Ruthven will admit them to his platform.' No sooner had Canon Scannell seen this bill than he made up his mind to go to the meeting, as otherwise Ruthven and his friends might make capital out of his absence, and very likely the question -would be put, ' Where is Canon Scannell to-night /' In the meantime he kept the matter a complete secret, except from one friend, and at a Catholic meeting held on the previous Wednesday, it was unanimously decided that the Catholics of Southampton should not attend these lectures. Immediately before the lecture commenced Canon Scannell's appearance on the platform, bring-ing with him all his volumes of Moral Theology, was quite a surprise to the lecturer's supporters, as they had expected that lluthven would make a decided ' hit' on commencing his harangue, by taunting the Canon with cowardice. Somewhat to their annoyance and disappointment this part of the programme did not work out as they expected. What followed we will let the Canon, describe in his own words ' The lecturer," said he, ' had come there to prove from the works of Uomish theologians that "Rome was a teacher of murder." Hereupon I asked him what Catholic theologians he proposed to quote. " For," said I. "we have here St. Alfonso Liguori, Frassinctti. Lehmkuhl— " " But," he asked, " have you Gury's Bullenni !' ' You mean Balk-rims Gury " Ah, yes ! that was what he meant. So Ballerini's Gury was added to the volumes before him. When he announced his first theological proposition I asked him whether he could find that in Gury. As lie assured ua that he could, I at once clapped the two volumes into his shrinking hands He began his search. Every eye was fastened on him, and assuredly none more keenly than mine, to see how he would handle the books of which he had said so much. lie went from one volume to the other, and then back again ; he consulted the table of contents, and then the index ; he grabbed rep in his confusion one of the volumes of Lehmkuhl. There was a long five minutes of absolute silence — the stillness before the storm — and then he bunged down the books, protesting that there was no correspondence "vhatever between the numbers on the index and thoje on the pages of the volumes ! ' The storm burst at last in a peal of derisive cheers. The audience became hopelessly divided. Some kept calling for the passage in Gury ; others cried that they would have no more

theology for they wanted the lecture. The man then declared that He had brought his own Gury with him. "Show it us, then !' shouted a number of voices. He held up a red-bound volume before them. Let us examine it !" they cried. He clutched it close to him, and when I, who, being near him, had seen that it was only a controversial work in English, asked him to submit it to the inspection oi anyone present he screamed out, in a voice that drowned all others, that "Canon Scaunell was an utter blackguard " ' Ruthven, having been worsted on this point, next weßt on to his usual harangue about the crimes of nun. and priests which he said took place in Italy. This was the nearest he went to locating the districts. As Canon Scannell went to the meeting for the dennite purpose of disproving the statement that Catholic theologians countenanced murder, and which Ruthven did not even attempt to prove, he declined to reply to the vague and indefinite assertions of the lecturer. As Father Scannell says, in concluding his letter. The tone of his voice (Ruthven) had led me to believe that he himself had become ashamed of the manuscript he was sent there to read and yet had to ero on reading. I appealed to all present to ask themselves whether they believed in their hearts tnat what he said waa true. I asked them whether their knowledge of the Catholics of Southampton, a God-fearing and Godloving people, whether what they knew of me and my thirteen years work amongst them, warranted them in Huspecting that the omircn, to which we owe our allegiance, for which we were bo willing to work and so willing to die, was a Church that preached to her children the lawfulness of wilful murder I In a simple peroration to this simple address, " Let me in conclusion," I said, say something of Mr. Ruthven. At this stage I will speak none but words of kindness. While the stormy discussion was going forward he and I had a few quiet words, for I forgave him what he said ot me, and I would rather convert him than refute him " '