Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 34, 22 August 1901, Page 1

Current Topics

Si ferSt^c n^^y SS fubbish that is made to catch the fancy of incautious houseselves in readiness to unchain the dog.

Spring sermon to the Volunteers in i3SB the author iiiiiHi ™ y q kno* Htm, and the power ol His Resurrecuon! poetic numbers : — ' A little eun, a little rain, A soft wind blowing from the West— And woods and fields are sweet again. And warmth within the mountain a breast. So simple is the earth we tread, So quick with love and life her frame Ten thousand years have dawned ard tita, And still her magic is the eanie. * • A little love, a little trust, A soft impulse, a sudden dream, And life as dry aa deeert dust

The Coronation Oath. . A good many things come to those who wait. We have been waning for some time for an explanation of the abandonment, by Ihl Salisbury Government of the Bill to modify the terms of the declaration required by the Sovereign of Great Britain at his accession to the throne It was stated that both Cathol.cs and extreme Protestants had alike objected to the terms of the proposed alteration. The expla nation has come in the columns of our Home exchanges. So far as the Cathohc attitude on the matter is concerned, ,t could not have been any other than one of strenuous opposition to a proposed alteration which, in some respects, was scarcely less offensive than the old ' rehc of barbarism ' which it was intended to replace. The old formula ran as follows : — ' I A B by the Grace of God, King (or Queen) of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, do solemnly and "nee dy, in the presence of God. profess testify, and declare that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord s Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Chnst, at or after he consecration thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the mvocation or adoraUon of the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous. And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify and declare hat Tdo make tins Declaiation and every part thereof in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by English Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever and without any d.spensation, already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or any other authority or person whatsoever, or xuthout any hope of any such dispensation from any person or authority whatsoever, or without thinking that I amor can be acauitted before God or man, or absolved of this Declaration orTny part thereof, although the Pope or any other person or persons or power whatsoever should dispense with or annul the Tame, or declare that it was null or void from the beginning. * The Catholic Peers agreed to leave the terms of the modification of the oath to the decision of a Select Committee says f I ondon contemporary, ' the proposed changes in the Declaration required by the Bill of Rights are said to have been disposed 07,n a sitting of 20 minutes, and without the formality o hearing any evidence. We understand that an influential Peer strolled clown to the committee-room with a draft of he nrnnoid chances in his pocket, and that this was adopted ScaUy without discussion. It is,' concludes our contemporary? hardly surprising to find that the result is profoundly

I? fresher than a mountain stream. So simple is the heart of man, So ready for new hope and joy ; Ten thousand years since it began Have left it younger than a boy.'

unsatisfying to all parties.' Here is the modification which they elaborated :—: — 1 I, A.8., by the Grace of God, King (or Queen) of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever. And Ido believe that the invocation vi adoration of the Virgin Mary or any o ( >er Saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church ot Home, are contrary to the piulebUnl Rtligiuii. And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare that I do make this declaration and every part thereof unreservedly.'

' The verbal improvements proposed by the Committee are,' says the London Tablet, ' considerable. The first sentence which involves a denial of Transubstantiation, is unchanged. It effectually excludes any Catholic from the throne. And here it is impossible not to be struck by the apparent liberality of the formula forced upon the Sovereign under penalty of the loss of three kingdoms. It allows him to be a Mahommedan or a Buddhist, or a Parsee or a Unitarian, or a member of any other non-Christian body. The King of England may be a Fire-worshipper or an Atheist, or a Mahommedan, but he must not believe that 'at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is a Transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever.' The King of this realm may be Pagan or Infidel or Protestant, but he must not believe in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. In the second section the words ' superstitious and idolatrous ' are omitted, and the King is solemnly committed to the statement that Catholic doctrines are not Protestant doctrines. He might just as usefully point out that black is not white. The words run as follow : ' And I do believe that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint, and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are contrary to the Protestant religion.' Sir William Charley, with all the air of a person who has made a profound discovery, explains in the columns of the Times that. ' a Buddhist could make this declaration with a clear conscience' At the risk of frightening Sir William Chat ley, we tnijjht add that Leo XIII migr,t join the Buddhist in making thi-, declaration. Unfortunately, although this clause of the Declaration i-> absolutely useless for the purpose for vvtiidi it w is intended, it stiM manages to be offensive. Surely the twelve million Catholics of the Hmpue are entitled to say to their future Kings: ' Deny our doctrines it you must, but at least do not misrepresent them.' I! Lord Salisbury's Commitee had decided after instead ot before hearing evidence, they would have learned that v\e do not "adore " either the Blessed Virgin or the Saints. The generous confidence shown by the Catholic Peers when they intimated their wish to leave the whole question of the revision of the Declaration to their Protestant fellow-countr) men has surely been strangely repaid. The least we could have hoped for was that they would take the trouble to ascertain what was Catholic doctrine before proceeding to condemn it. The alteration in the third section is of the Declaration is all to the good. The Pope is no longer alluded to as likely to give a license for lies ; and to make the Sovereign declare that he has given his kingly word "unreservedly " is at least less humiliating to him than to exact the additional assurance that he has not been equivocating.'

A Proselytising Tale. Thackeray says somewhere in his Vanity Fair that ' slander is a touching proof of regard.' There is so much of this particular form of ' regard' in the following paragraph — which has found its way into the brimstone columns of the New Zealand secular press — that it is worth giving in full. One paper published it under thefheading ' Anti-Protestantism in Limerick ' :—: — Interne indignation has been created in Protestant circles in Ireland by recent dit-plays of Roman Catholio intolerance in the city of Limerick, by which Dr, Long, of the Limerick Medical Mission, has b^en a sufLrer. Dr. Long, who is a fully-qualified practitioner and an M.D. of Dublin University, combines his work of making concerts to the Protestant faith with free medical aid to those who require it, and has thereby made himself extremely obnoxious to the Roman Catholic priests of the town. Some time ago Dr. Long was called in to attend a Catholic patient. Shortly after his arrival the Rev. Father O'Leary, a Roman Catholic priest, followed him into the house, told the people of the house to turn him out, and failed the doctor a ' brute' twice. On another occasion a crowd followed the Rev. Father OLearv to the patient's door, and in the presence of the crowd, which waf» composed of the lowest rabble of Limerick, the priest said : ' This is a propelytiser,' and told Dr. Long to 'go away from this' On this occasion the doctor was not admitted to the houfe, and as he turned away and went down the street the crowd followed him. One woman threw half a brick at him, and another, who is said to have been the Rev. Father

O'Leary'B own servant, struck him with an egg. On these grounds Dr. Long summoned the Rev. Father O'Leary. The oaae was heard by Mr. Hickson, resident rmgistrate, ami four other magistrates, and though there was practically no defence it was dismissed, Mr. Hickson accompanying his judgment with the advice to the people to give Dr Long no employment as regards his profession. Mr. W. Johnston, MP, announced his intention of bringing the matter under the notice of Parliament, and the City of Dublin Grand Orange Lodge passed a strong resolution calling upon the Government to dismifb the resident magistrate. Maik Twain sa>s that there arc S6g different forms of lying. The story quoted above lies by omission, by commission, and by insinuation. As More said of Tyndale's pamphlets, ' the lies come in by lumps.' (i) In the first place, there is no ' anti-Protestant ' feeling in Limerick or in any other part of the South of Ireland. It is only in the northeast and Orange corner of Ireland that sectarian hate and religious strife are a running sore. Cork and Limerick, which are about the two most Catholic cities in Ireland, have ever displayed a broad-minded tolerance and friendly feeling towards their few Protestant inhabitants — in marked contrast to the state of persecution in which Catholics live in such Orange centres as Belfast, Derry, Armagh, and Portadown. From the passing of the Reform Act of 184.1 till 1886, Catholic Limerick elected thirteen Protestant mayors, and ever since Irish Corporations received power to elect sheriffs, it has appointed Protestants to that office. The same kindly feeling is displayed to Protestants in Limerick to this hour. The present agitation in Limerick is not against Protestantism, but against proselytism and ' souperism,' and the Catholic objections to the methods employed are equally shared by respectable Protestants of every degree in the city. * (2) We have had one eye upon this Dr. Long and his ' medical mission ' for some time past. The methods adopted by this class of proselytising agent are the free distribution of pamphlets, leaflets, etc., which are grossly offensive to Catholics, unasked and unwelcome intrusion into the homes of poor Catholics, and the standing offer of temporal inducements to apostacy. In a country where the infamous records of the ' soupers ' of ' Black Forty-seven ' have been burned so deeply into the memory of the people, such methods could not fail to lead to disturbances of the public peace, and, on the Deuteronomic principle, the blame of such disorder must be l.i id at the door of those who liist lighted the fire. We quote the following from a home exchange, with the remark that Mr. Hickson, the Resident {Magistrate, is a north of Ireland Protestant and that lie was appointed to that position by Lord Londonderry — On Friday, February l,"j, four men were charged with forming part of a disorderly crowd by which Dr Long was hooted through the streets. Mr. Hickson, the Resident Magistrate, in announcing the decision of the court, eaid that such conduct as that of Dr. Long was etrongly to be deprecated. It not only disturbed harmony of feeling, but led to the endangering of person and property. It also helped to provoke a bad feeling, which it took a long period to eradicate. The court wished that those responsible for Dr. Long be ng 111 Limerick engaged in this most despicable work would take sue h means as would lead to the removal of the disturbance from the city. There should be no interruption in court, but what he said he said honestly and conscientiously, and as a Protestant he must deprecate any kind of attempt at proselytising, which waa the cause of this disturbance. Coming from a part of the country where sectarian animosity pcevailed, he could say it was much increased year by year wherever proselytising was carried on. But that was not all. The Lord Chief Justice also applied the cat-o'-nine-tails to the epidermis of Dr. Long in his remarks to the Grand Jury of the City of Limerick at the Spring Assizes. Here is how he was reported at the time in one of our Irish exchanges : — In the course of his charge he (the Lord Chief Justice) said he understood that the presence of a Dr. Long, an agent of what was described as the 'Irish Church Missions to Roman Catholics,' had excited violence, which was much to be deprecated. If the people took his advice they would leave the agents of that Society entirely alone. Let them uot make martyrs of them, because if they did so they only pecured that the monetary stream came in greater volume from England. The respectable Protestants in Limerick and throughout Ireland did not associate themselves in any way with the attempts of this Society. The Irish Church Missions were supported in England by people who were very well-meaning and religious, but who had no conception of the worthlessness of the Irish Church Missions in Ireland. tt • The remainder of the story may be briefly told. On Friday, June 7, Father O'Leary, C.C., St. Munchin's, saw Dr. Long entering the house ot a Catholic family in Thomondgate. Suspecting the object of the visit, Father O'Leary entered and remonstrated with the proselytiser. Dr. Long thereupon charged Father O'Leary with having used threatening language towards him and sought to have him bound over to the peace. ' The case,' says an Irish exchange, ' was

simply scouted out of Court, and Mr. Hick son, R.M., who presided — himself a Protestant — gave the proscl\tiser a lecture that should do him good — that is, if anything could do good to such a fanatic' On Tuesday, June 18, a question was asked on the subject in the House of Commons by the veteran Orange leader, Mr. W. Johnston. In the course of his reply, the Chief Secretary stated that no threats had been used by Father O'Leary, and that ' the police reported at the time that Dr. Long's action was often injudicious, and that he seemed di?po c ed to rnurt an exhibition *>f hostile feeline-' The Chief Secretary said in conclusion : 'It is, I think, to be regretted that Dr. Long, or the society whic l^ employed Him, should conscientiously have thought it right to offer gratuitous medical attendance with the avowed object of making converts in the midst of a Roman Catholic population.'

Among- the mmy decent and fair minded Protestants o Limerick who condemn the tactics of Dr. Long is an Anglican clergyman, the Rev. S. L. Maxwell, of the Rectory, Ardcanny, Kildimo, Limerick. Writing to the Dublin Freeman's Journal under date June 25, he says that the methods adopted by the proselytisers and their friends are ' very often ill-advised, and that their tone towards their Catholic fellow-countrymen is greatly to be deplored.' He concludes his letter as follows :—: — For myself, I can say that I have been through almost every street in Limerick and have never received the slightest insult from anyone, young or old. I have lived half my life in the South of Ireland, the last eeven years being in the ultra-Catholic counties of Kerry and Limerick, yet I have never had the smallest difficulty in being on good terms with my neighbors ; and my experience invariably has been that Protestants, and especially Protestant clergymen, who wish to do so, can with perfect ease cultivate good relations with their countrymen of a different faith by simply making their rule of life the Divine precept which tells us to do unto others aa we would that they should do unto us. I wish with all my soul that the converse could with truth be said of Belfast and some other places in the North. If any Protestant clergy have been insulted in Limerick I greatly fear they brought the insult on themselves, and that, like their friend Dr. Long, they sought a little cheap martyrdom by ' courting an exhibition of hostile feeling,' as our ornate Chief Secretary would express it — Yours truly, S. L. Maxwell. It is, alter all, a rather singular thing that the papers which had no word of condemnation for the violence offered to the Mormon elders who were quietly and decorously preaching their peculiar tenets in Dunedin, should roll in frothy hysterics over a much milder demonstration of disapproval that took place against insolent, insulting, and aggressive ' souperism ' in far-off Limerick. It is the old story over again : one man may steal a sheep, but another dare not look oxer the fence.