'A CATHOLIC LAYMAN'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 22, 1 June 1899, Page 28

'A CATHOLIC LAYMAN'

and an Anglican clergyman have nailed two of the foolish falsehoods that occur in the side-issues raised by Rev. Mr. Gibb. The former thus scores his antagonist on his having published so grievous a charge on no other evidence than the statement of a friend who claims to have seen the alleged leader in the Times some 15 years ago: — 'I venture to say that no Christian minister who had a proper sense of the responsibility of his position would dream of supposing that he was justified under these circumstances in making such an odious charge in the columns of the public press. The injustice and the iniquity of the thing will perhaps be more apparent to Mr Gibb and his Presbyterian friends if we suppose the position of things to be reversed. Let us suppose that some prominent Catholic ecclesiastic, say the rev. editor of the Tablet, had stated in the most positive way in the public press that the Moderator of the Presbyterian Assembly had been guilty of a certain definite act of hypocrisy and double-dealing, of course Mr Gibb would indignantly call for proof. What would he and his friend* think it the editor of the Taiilei r plied that he had never seen the paper from which the statement was taken, that he had no idea in what issue it had appeared, that in fact he had never heard of it until the other day, when he had it from a Catholic priest who had Been it lo years ago ? Would not Mr Gibb and his fuends be asking themselves whether the man was most knave or fuol who could. with such criminal recklessness, make such a serious charge against a public man in the public press? Yet, mutato nomine, that is precisely what Mr Gibb has clone. From reports appearing in the daily papers I notice that Mr Gibb has lately been delivering a course of lectures on " What would Jesus do ? " There is one great principle at least \\ hich our Saviour has laid down with great clearness, and which all the world agrees is a safe guide for our conduct towards each other. I mean the grand principle of the Golden Rule, as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount : " Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even &o unto them : for this is the law and the prophets." Mr Gibb would not like to see the official representative of the Presbyterian Church wantonly traduced in the public press ; he should extend to other religious bodies the charity and considerateness which he •would like to see shown towards his own.

' Mr. Gibb (' A Catholic Layman ' continues) attempts to cover his retreat by the favourite device of introducing a number of fresh and altogether extraneous issues. For the most part he contents himself with making sweeping general statements without any attempt at proof. There is one slight exception, however, when he attempts to support one of hia contentions by giving a truncated quotation from Father Faa di Brunos work on Catholic Belief. I am afraid this quotation must also have been supplied by a "triend who saw it l."> years ago/ I cannot think that Mr. Gibb took the quotation direct from Catholic Ikluf, for I cannot think he would be so unfair as to quote the firat part of the passage and deliberately omit the concluding sentence, which in the most important way modifies what preceded. Mr. Gibb was trying to prove that it was quite in line with the regular teaching of the Catholic Church that a Catholic may profess publicly to be an Anelic-m and yet remain a Catholic in secret. He quotes Di Bruno as fallows : " Alter being received into the church piivately, if weighty reasons in the judgment of your spiritual director justify it, such as loss uf home, property, or employment, and so long as those weighty reasons last,

you need not make your Catholicity pnWi-, but may attend to your Catholic duties privately.'' At this point, ve^y conveniently, but very unfairly, Mr Gibb ends his quotatian. Here is the concludinjr sentence which Mr. Gibb omits : " Circumstances, however, may occur in which either plain duty or the saerednees of truth, or the honour of God, or the edification of neighbours may require of you 'to contend earnestly for the faith,' imitating Nicodemus himself who, when required boldly came forward and attended to the burial of Christ." Take all the above quotation together and I leave it to the intelligence of your readers to judge whether there is anything in it to convict the Catholic Church of teaching that her children may publicly profess to be Protestants and yet remain secretly Catholics all the time. ' Altogether Mr. Gibb has certainly not added to his reputation by the very unnecessary excursion into the No-Popery domain So far as controversy goes, he will be henceforth known to fame as the man who ' had it from a friend who saw it $ years ag-o ' Here ends the letter of ' A Catholic Layman.' An Anglican clergyman, Rev. H. Brooke, has torn another of Rev. Mr. Gibb's statements to tatters. Altogether, the over-credulous Presbyterian clergyman finds himself in a remarkably tight place Up to the moment that this sheet goes to press, Rev. Mr. Gibb has not replied Ihe controversy xs being watched with intense interest in Otago