Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 9, 2 March 1899, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AXD ABROAD

AN EX \GGERATri) CABLE.

A c\ble message which appeared in the daily papers of Thur^diy List stated that his Holiness the Pope, in a later to Cardinal Gibbons, had cond -rnncd t Tie doctrine ol Father Ilecker, founder of the Pauli-4 Oidu. There ate grounds for believing that the 'cable ciammer,' as usual, has greatly exaggerated the matter, though it is of course impossible to '-peak with certainty on the subject until the text of the Holy Father's letter has been made public, and Catholics will do well to suspend judgment on the matter until that has been done. At present all that is publicly known is that the letter deals in a general way with the development of American Catholicism, and makes special reference to certain political doctrines enunciated in the biography of Father Hecker. The Rome correspondent of the London Tunes states that the Life of Father Hecker was brought before the notice of the Congregation of the Index by members of the Society of Jesus some lime last summer, but that the Pope afterwards appointed a commission of Cardinals to inquire into the question. It is probable tint the Holy Father has not formally condemned Father Heckei's teaching, but that the present letter to Cardinal Gibbons, to quote the words of the Turn's' correspondent, only 'cont'nrs in guarded form a warning to Liber.il (. alhohcs not to over-tcp the bound-, of Catholic dogma and discipline' Meanwhile it ib inter estiiv to notice that the work tor which this great Older was established — the conversion of ron-Cathohcs — is still being earned on with undimmished suiccss. The Mi^sim,,] ry, the olTici il organ of the Order, in its list issue, gives the following h t of notable conversions icccntly made .—. — Miss Annie liuirilt, of Bi idgcport. Conn , a well-known member of the Trinity F.pi-copU Chuich ol that city. 1 hree remaikable Jewish conveisions hi\e taken pi ice -Kdvv.ud Victor Wibb and Henry John Weiss, i O ns o [ Alexander Weiss, a ph) siuan of Vienna. '1 he brothers ai c graduates of the Lyceum at \ lenna. Mis Rosa Die liter is the thi.d Jew.-h conveit. Dining a <-tay at the Sisters' hospital at li thimore she was pt'isuaded of the truth ol the ( hurdi and icceived baptism, though under great protest from her husband, who is a devout Jew. Mr. John M. hutch, ol C hester, Tlx is, was received into the Chinch. Another conveit ol lexis is Miss Clara Church, a school teacher of Pul iski. A n.>l ible conurt of Pnil idclphi i is Miss Minim kit/ ihcth S.imh, eldest daughtei ol Dr. Henry Vale Smith. She was baptised by Archbishop Ryan, Mio kle.inor (_ . Donnelly acting as sponsor. Mi. Maynard C hilds, I .S. Volunteers, was i,_c ned December \>. John Shannon and his exemplar) mothei , Mrs. William P. Shannon, wile and son of an clhcunt country treasurer, Tilden, Tex., have m ide their submission to th'j Church recently. Not content with even these successes the Fathers have determined to carry on operations in the non-Catholic mission held on a larger scale than they have cv ci beloie attempted, and the enlarged programme will be inaugurated by a huge mission to be held in Grand Central Palace, New \ 01 k City, during Lent.

T H I-. \\ A R \UAINST KIT UM.ISM.

The Established Church in Knglind Iris certainly fallen on p.nlous limes. The aimRitualistic movement, which has been going on for jears in a kind ol subdued way, w,h recently raised to the level ol an organised agitation, and since then it has inu'ea->t d in a iatio and with a rapidity quite unparalleled ( yen in the histoiy o! I'iotestinl Church "agitations." Practically the picseiu inovrinuit 1-. running along three distinct andcntiicly independi_nt lines. l'lr^t, there is the anti-Kitualisiic part)' in the Church ltbeil, which, like the poor, the Anglicans have always had with them. Then there is the Nonconfoi mist paity, who ha\e established

an organisation of their own to agitate for Disestablishment. And hmlly, there is the political anti-Rituilistic party, headed by Sir \V. liar court, which has been formed amongst members ol the House of Commons. Of the thice agencies the Church party will probably etlec-t least, though it cert li.ily makes the most noise and thrusts itselt most ptominrntlv on the public notice by its multitudinous " protests." But if any change is to be made, if an) thing practical is to be done, it will only Le effected by pressure from the House of Commons. Tic bishop-, ate not Inghteied of anti Rituilistic " protest-, "—they have survived scores of them in the p-i-t— but th -y are frightened of the lloihc ot Commons. And so, if anything practical results Irom the present ferment— and there is every'"indication that the movement will hi\e some practical outcome — it is the political paity that is most likely to achieve it. Lite exchanges show th.it the political campaign is being cai ried on with great vigour. Kve.ywhere the members of the Liberal party are taking the matter up in their addresser, to their constituents, and the country is ringing with denunciation of the alleged illegal practices of the Ritualists. !t is gratifying to notice that on the whole the campaign is being carried on without any offensive reference to Catholics. What is specially objected to is the inconsistency of the Ritualistic clergy in remaining in the ministry and receiving the emoluments of a Church whose articles repudi ite in the strongest language the doctrines and practices which they h ive in recent year-, adopted. It is not a etyol 'No Popery' but a cry ot 'No treachery.' As one spe.ikcr put il,i 1 , he 'h id nothing to say against Roman Catholic-, — o»c ol the noblest nui he had ever knovvn was an lush piie-t-bu the Ritmhsts worked m seciet, teaching docli uifs coiiliaiv tothut open pretensions ' And even Mr! s.unu 1 Smith, M.P., onoot the iiv>,t b g >t->d ot the Protestant lead. is, ded ii dthit he ' resp -cteJ R>min C ithohes because they weie smite and honest— th -y be-hjved their doctrines and pt.uiised them— but he did n>l believe in men entering the Wi'Hl' ot a ( httuh and thea te idling tho^e doctrines whiji ih it (hi.,!i ii'pudi led ' And that is the attitude which the politn i t,is genuahy .we t iking on (his question.

Till \O \ - C () N 1 i ) R M I s 1 S I U\l. \ \l \\l).

As has been said, th;: Nonconformists have rallied their turccs and joined in what is \ntuallyan attack on the K^tabhshed Church. So lot iij ago ,h Mi)ot 1 i^t > ear a preliminary inLClin^ «,h Ik-Icl at which it \vb decided to e^tihlish i NoiKtiiioiiuhL Pai hum-nth urn-nt uy Council, whose duty it should be to " ex i. nine and witch measures submitted to Paihament, to as-ist m lorni'ng a stro iger Noncontormist opinion on pjhtiL il i.vi,s ol mo n nt to the 1m cc Chinches, to communicate with the public Dep utment-, upon such questions, and t i piomo c by every means in its powei elljclivc legi-1 uion lor the ienunal ol the gt wv.wcc-, now admittedly sulfereu by NoiKunloimi-ts." That was a general '■taU-inent oi the objects of the Council, but the speeches that were d'lncrcd made it clear th;.t the aim was to check "a^ressue clericalism," and that the ultimate i;oal ol the muvennnt w.is comj)lete religious equilit) — m other word-., Disestablishment. The first p"ubhc g[atheriii» under the auspices ot the Council was held in November last, and a representative ot the i % \CLtT who happened to be in London at the time strolled into the meeting- so as to be able to judj>e for himself as to the luture prospects of the movement. There was a \ cry large attendance, and he tells me he could not help being- struck with ih? earnest and determined spun which seemed to an mate the leathering-. lhcie was a good deal ol what might be c died "heobgica'l spread-eagleism on the part of the speakeis -especially among the la) men, who seemed to thoroughly enjoy the opportunity ol anmi> their knowledge ot theology in public — 'nit, on the whole, it was evident that tin-, Norn onloi nu-,1 Parhamentaiy Count il incins business. Mi. K. \V. l>e,ks, AI. P., occupied the (hair, the opening addie-sc wcie cKh\(red by our old frund-. the Rev. Dr. 'Hoitc>n and Mi. S imuel bmi'tli, M.P., and nculy ail the gieat guns ol Nonconlot nrty m 'London madeshoit speeches on the piospcels ard programme ot the mo\ement. \\ ith the exception ot Dr. I lot ton, who delivered

one of those inflammatory harangues for which he has become rather famous of late, the speakers were most respectful and, in some cases, even complimentary to Catholics.

A St'UPRISK J OR MR. HOCKING.

Only one subsequent spcakei lapsed from this high level, and he was " sat upon " with a promptness and vigchir that must have come as a great surprise to him. The offender was no less a man than the Rev. SiUs Hocking, the well-known writer of fiction. Mr. Hocking, who sat in the body of the hall, rose to say that he wished to make a suggestion to the Council, and that was that they should pay more attention to the interests of Nonconformists on the daily Press. He had been tcld that when Cardinal Vaughan first came to London it had been proposed to him that a Catholic paper should be suited in the city. The Cardinal, it was said, had vetoed the proposal, saying that their work could be far more cheaply and more effectively done by sprinkling the daily papers with Catholic reporters. He (Mr. Hocking) believed that that policy had been adopted, and with what effect they all knew. They could now understand how it was that Catholic conversions and Catholic functions were so piominently reported in the papers while Nonconformist doings wete almost entirely ignored, and it would be necessary for them to take a leaf out of the Cardinal's book if they wished to got proper attention at the hands of the daily Pi ess. The speaker had scarcely finished when an irate-looking old gentleman on the platform rose and addressed the meeting, 'i his was a Mr. P. W. Cla^dcn, an old pressman and ex-editor of one of the London dailies. He was evidently very excited, and he proceeded to literally " wipe the floor " with the unfortunate Hocking, evidently in blissful ignorance of the fact that it was the great novelist whom he was thus pulverising. " I had not intended," he said, "to make a speech, but I could not let the nonsense and absurdity uttered by the last speaker pass without contradiction. As you are aware I know something about this, subject. I know' what I am talking about, and I say that the statement about the Catholic i epoiters and the daily Press is the biggest piece of humbug and superstition 1 ha\e heard of for a long time. We sometimes talk of the superstition of the Catholics. I say that Catholic superstition isn't in ft compared with the piece of superstition uttered before this intelligent audience by the gentleman who last spoke.' And so the indignant old pressman went on, in a strain \ery surprising to the Rev. Hocking, but very entertaining to the single Catholic auditor who was present. An even more crowded meeting was held in the evening, and judging b> the earnestness and enthusiasm displayed it is eudciu that the Nonconformist Parliamentary Council intends to m.ike- Libtr.il Members of Parliament ' sii up,' and eilhci vole straight on anti-Kitu ilimii and Disestablishment, vt get into The House the best \\a) they cm without the Nonconformist vote.

V Jl \f THE EM) "U ILL BE.

An agitation which has behind it such wellorgamscd forces which is carried on with such vigour, and which aims at operating on Parliament, dirrrt, is bound sooner or 1 iter to be attended with practical icsult. The anti-Rituahstb have undoubtedly got the ear of the nation, and it is only a question ot time when Parliament will take action in the matter. That action may take one of tv\o iorms the Commons tmy decide to amend the establishment nr they may decide to end it. The former course will probably be tried fust by way ot giving the Church a last chance to right herself. The amendment will in all likelihood take the fcim of an alteration of the Public Worship Regulation Act, by which the right of veto, which the Bishops at present possess on all prosecutions against the clergy, will be taken away, and a further clause be added by which any clergyman who teaches doctrines inconsistent with the Thirty-nine Articles or adopts ecclesiastical practices not authorised by the Book of Common Prajer will be liable to be deprived ot his living and prevented trom continuing in the ministry of the Church. Even if these stt mgent piovisions be adopted, howe\ei, they will prove .it the best a mere temporary expedient because the Bishops, the great majority of whom are themselves Ritualists, are not in the least likely to enforce them. Ihe only practical and pumanent solution of the problem, therefore, is to be lound in Disestablishment, and that is the end towards which the progress ot events is fast hurrying the English Church. In the meantime the present agitation brings out into strong rtluf the hopeless weakness of the Anglican Church and the amn/ing inconsistency ot those who, calling themselves Anglo-Cathula-,, violate every Cat! ohc principle by remaining in communion with such a body. They believe that the Church should be one, jet they remain in a Church which not only teaches directly contradictory doctrines, but in which the opposing parties are living from day to day and from week to week with their hands on each other's thioats. They believe that the (.lunch should letch and teach v ith authority, and they remain in a Chuich which does not

know its own mind on such fundamental points as the Doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist, and which has no authority whatever to enforce its teaching even if it had made up its mind. This inconsistency will be even more accentuated as the agitation progresses, and it will be milter for surprise if many of the Anglo-Catholics are not led to notice the contrast between the weakness and helplessness of Anglicanism and the supernatural strength and stability of the Catholic Chrch. The Anglican Church is hke the house that was built upon the sand, and the day of its fall is coming visibly near. The Catholic Church is built upon a rock, and though the gates of hell may attack, they can never prevail— though the rains may descend, and tlie flood-, pour, and the winds beat against it, the House that was built by Christ Himself can never fall.

TWO PATRIOTS.

Ii the New Zealand Government is in need of an advance agent to push its interests through the world at large, the editor of this paper can cordially recommend one of its readers who has been touring in America not long since. He systematically kept before the notice of all he met the superlative character of everything in New Zealand — its lakes and mountains, its frozen mutton, its compulsory arbitration, its old-age pensions, and its Stewart Island oysters— which, by the way, he somewhat injudiciously described as being each as large as an ordinary dinner-plate. I have heard of only one person who would be in the running with my patriotic reader. And he is dead. Good people usually die young. The story runneth thus :—: — When in the States he heard much — over-much — of the glories of the great republic that has been licking creation, as if creation were merely a mighty postage stamp. One day he inquired of a stranger : ' D'ye know Dunedin ? ' It was in the Far West. ♦ Wai,' said the stranger, ' I guess it's in Ohio.' 'Ohio be hanged ! They haven't such things in Ohio. Why, man alive, Dunedin is in New Zealand. I'm surprised at ye. Why, I thought all the world knew about Dunedin. There's half-a-million people in it, without countin' a standin' army of 100,000 men— horse, foot, and royal artillery. Not hear of Dunedin ! Maybe you'll tell me next you never heard of Balclutha or Kokonga or Makikihi or Billy Taylor or ' But the man of the drawl had sought refuge in another part of the railway car from the fast-growing consciousness of his ignorance of the great things of the world outside the States.

SI ZINC, TIIKM I 11.I 1 .

Mr. Labouchere's organ, Truth, has probably done more to expose frauds than any newspaper of the present century. Among the rest, it has mercilessly torn the mask ot itli^ion Iro-n th^ hideous Mokruina features of the real and bogus " e\-piiost " and " ex-nun' 1 frauds that for many a year past have been perambulating the United States, the British Isles, and the Australasian Colonies, blasting the atmosphere as if they were so many moving masses of asafcetida. In his issue of January 12, Mr. Labouchere has the following additional note on the " lectures " of the unfortunate Slattery and his female companion : — ' Now it must be perfectly obvious to any one with the slightest knowledge of the world that these lectures are delivered simply for the purpose of putting money into the lecturer's pocket, and that to gain this end the lecturers are appealing to the pruriency and indecency under the guise of religion. It is difficult to understand how the managers of a building like Exeter Hall can allow such performances to take place on their premises. I see that Slattery prints on his handbills a testimonial dated October 5, 1597, from the secretary of the Protestant Alliance. When the official representatives of Protestantism are prepared to adopt such men as this for the champions of the cause, I do not wonder that we hear of Protestantism being in danger.'

ONK U \V OV BLEEDINU CATHOLICS.

There are two particularly heaitless classes of fraud practised on the green and credulous public. The one is that of the Spiritists, who, for a fee, will profess to put a credulous parent into communication with the loved child that has gone before. This is an ©utrage on the sacredness ot parental love. Catholics are happily seldom caught by the silly platitudes and the clumsy conjuring of the Spiritistic tricksters — did they even charm as wisely as the notorious Mrs. Mellon As a set oft, Catholics are the victims of a class that is without a counterpart among Protestants. I refer to certain oilj-longued vendors who perambulate the country at intervals, disposing cf pious lumber at a price that varies from four to ten times their intrinsic value. Several brief visits to Canterbury, Otago, and Southland, coupled with correspondence received from other paits of the colony, have convinced me that sundry small fortunes have been made by adventurers whose stock-in-trade consisted of easily learned pious talkec-

talkee, plus some gimcrack and more or less useless article of small first-cost, offered at a price which would supply a family with thirty to sixty volumes of interesting and useful Catholic literature, or one and a half to two years' subscription to the N Z. Tablet, or other benefits which would be of real advantage to a Catholic home. Bleeding people through their most sacred domestic aflections is, in all reason, a nasty trade, but vhat shall we say of the glib-tongued sons of Ananias who, .'^Jftly by strenuous lying and a cheap affectation of piety, Extort enormous profits out of the religious feelings chiefly of the Catholic women-folk of New Zealand, and then flit from the colony with little fortunes in their fob. The N.Z. Tablet has from time to lime written on this matter. A newspaper can give good advice to (he best of its ability. When it has done so its duty is discharged. It cannot give good sense.

THE DUEL,

In the British Isles and Colonies the duel is as extinct as the dodo. Anybody who would attempt would be, figuratively speaking, swept off the surface of the planet upon a vigorous storm of healthy ridicule. Many Tablet readers will remember the answer given by the Irish M.P., Or. Tanner, to a challenge. He was quite prepared to meet his opponent on any ground and with any weapons from horsewhips to Gatling guns — a hundred years from the date of challenge. The case of General Miles and the head of the commissariat department proves that the institution is dead in the United States. Before, during, and for some time after the Civil War, the duel was, in many instances, de rigueur. There is more sense nowadays in the brain-pan of the American officer. Duelling is now strongly discountenanced in the German Army. French newspaper men and politicians hold fast by their eyelids to this curious and absurd code of so-called honour. Sometimes the combatants succeed in piercing each other's epidermis. But, as a rule, the surgeons who are on or near the spot earn their fees lightly, and the non-fatality of such encounters is a matter of unholy merriment to the journaux pour rife. * 9k X

A story in point records how a Monsieur (say) Paume one day waited upon a Parisian dame — let us call her Madame Viard — to inform her that her husband was probably at that very hour engaged in mortal combat with a brother of the pen. He found her already in deep distress of mind, due, however, to apprehension of quite another sort. The husband had made the usual pretence of a visit to the country on business, and news had just come to hand of a serious accident on the train in which he ought to have returned. After some hesitation the visitor managed to blurt out the real facts of the case. His announcement was received with a burst of tears — not of sorrow, but of joy and gratitude. ' A duel !' cried Madame, clasping her hands , ' bless you lor this news ' Thank God ! He's safe !'

AN ORATORIO \L VIREBRAND.

M \\"i N.Z. Tablet readeis may have heard ot the pyrotechnical displays of the notorious Scottish no- Popery orator who bears the name of the Rev. Jacob Piimmer. This perambulating nuisance keeps breaking out in fresh places with great fervour and assiduity. One of his latest displays is thus douched with cold irony by the Scot* Pictorial — a nonCatholic magazine : — 'The Dunfermline Protestant Association, headed by Messrs. Piimmer and Wallace Drysdale, have been on the war-path again. They slung bombs m the shape of resolutions into the enemy's camp with the usual result. The enemy flippantly replied with squirts of cold water in the shape of letters from Lord Balfour of Burleigh and Lord Salisbury. The resolutions protested against the two recent appointments in the University of Glasgow as being gross outrages on the Constitution and Christian sentiment ot the country, and an unmitigated insult to the Protestants of the nation — that is Dunfermline. My Lord of Burleigh, in returning- the documents, declined to receive or acknowledge them in their present form. This was chilly. The Prime Minister's note was simply free/ing. Here it is : "I am directed by Lord Salisbury to acknowledge receipt of your letter, enclosing a copy of the resolution passed by the Dunfermline Protestant Association." That is> all. But how coldly courteous and how eminently unsatisfactory. But, .ill the s.une, the Rev. Jacob Piimmer compels my admiration. He is a born fighter, and has come through what would have broken the heart ol John Knox. He, the great reformer, had always the holy recreation of burning or smashing other peoples' property to fall back upon — a substantial satisfaction, I should think, as compared with the mere passing of resolutions. But Mr. Piimmer has been snubbed by the clergy, laughed at by the laity, sneered at by the Press, and stoned by the cads of the capital and other centres where he has held his conventicles, and still he comes up, not smiling indeed, but solemnly — ready to resume his mission and sign more resolutions. I verily believe the man is quite happy.'

ALLEGED HIBERNICISMS.

Has the Mount Ida Chronicle any Irish readers? If it has, the N.Z. Tablet is wondering if they have been perusing the fill-up paragraphs with which the editor has been steadily adorning odd corners of his paper week in week out for some time past. A paper's politics are usually as plain upon its face as a sign board over a hotel door. But the personal tastes and whims and mental bent of the editor's mind in minor matters may often be guaged from his fill-up paragraphs, supposing them to be really his selection. But why and oil ! will not some of his Irish readers point out to the editor of the Mount Ida Chronicle that Pat and Brigid (or, as the name is wrongly spelled, Bridget) are not in the mass such rough and tumble idiots as his paragraphs make them out, and that Irish wit is of vastly finer fibre than such cheap buffooneries, and that the language he puts into Irish mouths is as unknown in Ireland as Choctaw ? ' Tay ' for tea is an honest Irish provincialism, following the general rule that the ' c ' sound is dropped in ' ea ' combinations, and the stronger and opener 'a' sound predominates. But we can offer a prize for the discovery of an Irishman who says 'swate' for sweet, or 'oi' for I. The Chronicle is helping to perpetuate an impression that is as fals£ as it is ridiculous. A passing acquaintance with old English writers, from Chaucer, say, to Butler of Hudibras fame — not to come down to writers of a later date— would convince a reader of ordinary intelligence that many of the provincialisms current among the Irish peasantry were once part and parcel of the literary English of a past day. The Irish people have been more tenacious of certain forms of expression than writers of English undefiled across the Channel.