Alleged Bible-burning.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 9, 26 February 1903, Page 1

Alleged Bible-burning.

It evidently matters a good deal, after all, whose ox is goaded. There was no protest by non-Catholics, either in Sydney or in any other part of Australasia, against the frequent, open, and undisguised plundering and destruction by hre of churches, sacred vessels, costly vestments, liturgical books, Bibles, etc., by American Boxers during the recent barbarous conflict in the Philippines. But, according to the rather meagre cable-messages that have been trickling into our newspaper offices during the past few days, there is in Sydney something like an eruption of volcanic feeling over the alleged burning of Protestant Bibles in the Fiji Islands by natives who had embraced the Catholic faith. It appears that a large number of Fijians in the district of Namosi recently abandoned the Methodist body and joined the Catholic fold. The circumstances of these numerous conversions were set forth by Bishop Vidal in our issue of February 5; and Cardinal Moran, who is in constant communication with the islands, states (according to a recent cable message) that • the chiefs had informed Bishop Vidal when at Namosi that the Methodists were preying upon them and doing them no good. The desire for a change of faith was the voluntary choice of the natives, and decided upon after holding several councils of the chiefs of the province.' The 'Catholic Press' considers it possible that Wesleyan literature may have been destroyed, but does not believe that Bibles were burned ; and Cardinal Moran, on the assumption that this has been done, believes that it was the work of the converts themselves, and that the priests had no part in such a proceeding. His Eminence would not approve of any such action ; and we, for our part, would likewise reprobate anything so highly calculated to wound the reasonable sensibilities of Protestant people a* the burning of those Bibles however mutilated and incorrect they may be as representations of the written Word of God. It is, however, necessary to accept, with a good deal of caution the usual version of stories regarding the burning of Protestant Bibles. Some years ago Mexico was made the scene of a holocaust of some Spanish version of the Scriptures. But it turned out that the story jviw, like that of the • walled -up nun,' another Mexican myth set afloat by some minor Ananias who held, with the character in 'A Day's Work,' that there is no sense in telling too much truth. In November, 1895, a story crept into a Victorian provincial paper to the effect that a somewhat A theatrical case 6f Bible-burning had taken place in Ballarat, at some unstated period, during the course of a Catholic mission in that fajr golden city. We instituted, careful inquiries on the subject among representative Catholics and Protestants who had been 40 years and more residents of the place — including a clever and greatly-esteemed Protestant pressman and old identjty who wrote over the pen-name of 'Tom Touchstone,' The result of our investigations was that the truth of the story was denied on all hands ; one man classed it among the ' fish and snake yarns ' that fill out the dull moments of the silly season.

"It is just as well to reserve judgment on the Fiji story till the full facts of the case are laid before us, a«?, in all probability, they shortly will be. J 3