Professor Tyrrell's Calumnies.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 4, 28 January 1904, Page 10

Professor Tyrrell's Calumnies.

In our last issue we made extended reference to the rough calumnies of Professor Tyrrell, of Trinity College, Dulfcin, against the Catholic priesthood and laity of Ireland. In addition to the blistering -given to him by Bishop Dwyer in the columns of the ' Freeman,' the rampant Professor has been flailed to some purpose by Mr. Hugh Law, a Protestant Member of Parliament, in the ' Daily Express.' Mr. Law's letter runs as follows. ' Sir,— lt not infrequently happens that the letters whioh people write in vindication of some action of theirs which has met with critism serve exactly opposite purpose. ' That, I think, will be proved true of Dr. Tyrrell's letter in your columns some days ago. What a very strange document it is ! First of all, he declares that he " never said, thought, or wrote anything against the Catholic religion," and then proceeds to repeat in prose what he had already stated in verse — viz., that " the Catholic clergy inculcate on their flocks cold acts of observance in lieu of sincere feelings of religion, and exact from an impoverished peasantry money to be spent on sacred buildings erected in places where no such edifices are needed, and where there are but a handful of worshippers to frequent them." And, finally, he seeks to clinch his argument by a quotation from a writer in the " Daily Mail," who finds in the cheap decorations of the Irish country chapel " the ugly expression of an ugly kind of disease," and who deplores (good Christian man !) the fact that " the shillings of the people, cheerfully given to God instead of to the nourishment of themselves, have raised the fabric of these chapels." ' I will not insist on the discrepancy between Dr. Tyrrell and his chosen witness on' the point as to whether the shillings are " exacted " or " cheerfully " given." My own knowledge, so far as it goes, indeed, bears out Mr. Young's rather than Dr. Tyrrell's view on the matter. I have known an old woman give literally and actually— nay, insist upon giving— all she had in the world towards the building of God's house, trusting with an apostolic faith (not often found, I regret to say, among Anglicans) that He to whom s*he gave would not fail to remember her Nor will I express more than a passing wonder in what part of Ireland are these churches erected with " but a handful of worshippers to frequent them." I do, indeed, recall many edifices where the congregations are very sparce indeed ; but, oddly enough, these belong not to the Roman Catholic but to the Irish Church. On the other hand, many people must, like myself, be but too familiar with the spectatcle of worshippers kneeling outside the doors ol a Roman Catholic chapel during the celebration of the Mass, the interior of the building being too full to hold any more ' As to the first part of Dr. Tyrrell's invective, I do not know what the Roman Catholic clergy " inculcale " on their flocks (no more, I very strongly suspect, does Dr Tyrrell), but I do know something of what these flocks believe I live amongst a Catholic peasantry, and I have over and over again been ama/ed (and I must add, as an Anglican, humiliated) by the evangelical simplicity, fervor, and reality of the faith by the light of which they live their daily lives. ' Dr. Tyrrell would be better employed, I am quite sure, in inculcating similarly " sincere feelings of religion " amone the members of the Communion to which he and I both belong. ' I have only to add that it is strange to find a man like himself nbieetine; to sacrifices made for Ihe sake of religion I should have thought that it was rather a matter for congratulation that still, in some small portion at least of the modern world, there are some few people who are still prepared to seek first the " Kingdom of God and His righteousness." 1 Very faithfully yours, • Hugh A. Law ' 1 December 2nd, 1903.'