THE ACCESSION OATH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 26, 27 June 1901, Page 3

THE ACCESSION OATH.

PROTEST OF THE AUSTRALIAN HIERARCHY.

His Eminence Cardinal Moran, as mentioned in our last issue, recently wrote to the Hon. K. Barton, Premier of the Commonwealth, enclosing a protest by the Catholic Hierarchy of Australia »gninf»t the terms of the Accession Oath. The protest, which was signed by his Eminenoe. was as follows :—: — ' We. the Catholio Hierarohy of the Australian Commonwealth, hereby record our solemn protest against the studied iusull uffcreJ to the Catholic subjects of the Empire by the Declaration and Oath required from the Sovereign on his Accession to the Throne. • We protest against the Catholics of the Empire being branded as idolaters, and we protest against terms of insult being used regarding doctrines which are Jearer to all Catholics than life itself. • We cannot but regard such a Declaration and Oath in this twentieth century as an outrage against common sense, no less than against religion, and we protest against it as an infringement of the religious equality to which we are entitled by the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and which we cherish as our birthright. 1 Devotedly and joyfully our Catholio people throughout Australia have proclaimed their loyalty to the Throne, and to its present August Occupant ; but they will not endure from any source words of insult hurled against the truths of the Divine Faith which they profess. ' One-third of the Australian military contingents who are fighting for the honor and the interests of the Empire in South Africa are Catholics With them religion and freedom and loyalty go hand-in-hand. It cannot be prudent or honorable or wise to repay their heroism and patriotism by wanton insult, and to brand their mo-»t sacred convictions with a stigma of infamy from which the beliefs of all other subje ta of the Empire are exempt. ' We request the Right Honorable the Premier of the Commonwealth to forward this protest to the Prime Minister of his Majesty's Government ; and we most respectfully ask him to bring the influence of the Commonwealth Government to bear upon the Home administration, that those offensive phrases, whicb are a relic of barbarism from the penal days, may no longer deface.the Statutebook of the Realm.' Mr. Barton, in acknowledging receipt of the protest, informed his Eminenoe that he had forwarded it to the Governor-General for transmission to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In concluding his letter he said :—: — ' I have pleasure in informing you that Ministers sympathise with the proposal for a revision of the language of the Coronation Oath. They understand that it is the intention of bis Majesty's Government to take action for this purpose, and theyihave expressed their hope that it may be taken.' In connection with the protest of the .hierarchy the following letter, received by the Cardinal-Archoishop from Rev. H. J. Rose, Strathfield, chaplain to the New South Wales Tranßvaal Contingent, is of interest : — ' I Bhouldlike your Eminence to know how entirely in common with the majority of thinking men I sympathise with the membera of your communion in their desire to see retuoved from the Coronation Oath certain expressions insulting to their Church and to one of its crucial doctrines. The day is past when the retention of such expressions can in any way safeguard Protestantism or the Protestant succession, and the mere fact that such retention is a just cause of annoyance to millions of his Majesty's loyal subjects is sufficient warrant for an immediate alteration. ' I have just returned from South Africa, and I can testify to the exuberant loyalty of his Majesty's Roman Catholic soldiers. I may also refer to the cordial good feeling which always existed between myself and the chaplain of your communion. More than once when a soldier lay dying I have ventured in the unavoidable absence of his priest to beg him to fix his thoughts upon the teaching of his Church, and above all upon the brow of our common Redeemer, and I have been thanked by the authorities of your Church for such obvious action. The same line of action has been taken, ceterii parilut, by the chaplain of your communion, with regard to our own men. I cannot speak too warmly of the great and generous kindness I have always received while in active service from both priests and laity,'

Rev. Walter R. Yates, now attending to the colored missions in Virginia, U.S., is a convert, a graduate of Yale, and an excommonwealth attorney of a southern State. Soon after his conversion he decided to give himself to the work for negroes. He was ordained priest in Baltimore in 1896. Mr. F. Marion Crawford, the novelist, who is now at work on the life of Leo XIII., characterises him as one of the greatest scholars of the present age. 'It was no light task,' he said, 'to undertake to write a comprehensive biography of the man who was born before the battle of Waterloo, and has lived into this century after attaining such great eminence. His career in the last 21 years has been so identified with every great move of European diplomacy that to comprehend it one must study every important development of European history during that time. The Pope is a 'man of wonderful vitality to endure the fatigue he has recently undergone. When you and I are 91 we shall not be celebrating jubilees. But there is no doubt that in spite of his vitality the Pope is steadily growing weaker. Though I have not seen him lately I hear what is going on in the Vatican. He talks less than formerly and spends Beveral hours a day on a couch, lying down, with ejes closed. Of course there are moments when he rouses himself, when he Bhows his old strength, but not often. Those who are near him tell me that he may live for some years.'