Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 21 April 1904, Page 1

Current Topics

War News Trust

According to the Sidney ' Freeman,' Australasians would do well to expend upon local trusts some of the hot shot with which they bombard the Rockefeller and other distant monopolies at long range. It appears that we have nothing less than a war news trust. The next move of the gold bugs will, perhaps, be an attempt to secure a ' corner ' in atmospheric air. • Australasian newspapers,' says our Sydney contemporary, ' just now publish war news from the one correspondent in London. It comes cheaper, no doubt, but it kills individual enterprise on the part of live >our- ' nals. It is in the bond that this cable news they shall print and none other. If Great Britain declared .var to-mlorrow and a Sydney journalist happened to get wind of the rumor first, his editor dare not cable for confirmation to an independent source and pjublish the reply without incurring a crushing fine. There is no scope for individual distinction in such a systdm. The daily papers might as well corner the domestic intelligence of the Australian Continent on the same score of economy. It would not then be difficult to predict the views of the Sydney citizen reared on siich a newslpaper diet. The part of him that read the cable news would idolise ChanYberlain's protective policy while* the local portion of him would be a rabid Freetrader. The Australian voter is the product of his daily newspaper unless he happens to read other journals. The bursting of the cable news monopoly is one of more immediate interest to Australia than even the dissolution of the Ice Trust in Chicago or some other distant foolishness which local leader-writers keep on worrying.'

It is well that we have not to believe all the syndicated war news that comes tingling through the wires from Fleet Street. So scrappy and contradictory Is it,, that it is an open question whether iti is primarily intended for the mystification of the recipients or the ' divarshun ' of the senders. The conveying of information is clearly an insignificant part of its purpose.

Another Move

It is interesting and instructive to note the various progressive steps that have been taken to capture the State Schools in these colonies and utilise them for

sectarian purposes. They began with a coy request for mere reading of the Protestant Bible ' without note or comment.' Then followed a demand for ' literary and geographical explanations.' Historical a»nd • etftiical ' (that is, moral) explanations formed the next step in advance. Then came ' non-sectarian ' religious instruction — ' non-sectarian,' in this connection, being synonymous with ' Protestant.' And now forth steps Dr. Clarke, the Anglican Bishop of Melbourne— one of the standard-bearers of the Bible-in-schools movement in Victoria— with the bold and frank admission that the ultimate object of a body of the supporters of the Scripiyure Instruction Campaign in that State is, in effect, the turning of the public schools into so jtiany Sunday schools for out-and-out denominational Protestant instruction. He is reported to have said on a recent occasion that ' he was fully aware of the importance of the desire of the signatories for special religious instruction, and he would bring their wishes before the Scripture Instruction Campaign Council. The campaign in which he was taking part was first and foremost for the purpose of having removed from the act the secular clauses, AND WHEN THIS WAS DONE THERE WERE OTHER THINGS TO BE DEALT WITH WHICH WERE MATTERS OF ADMINISTRATION RATHFiR THAN STATUTE. . t A majority of his own clergy had made similar representations to him as those laid before him tjhat morning, and he was glad of the opportunity o^ giving his views, in order to remove any false impressions as to his attitude. He believed in children being taught THE FAITH OF THEIR FATHERS, and considered that it was the duty of the clergy to TRAIN UP THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN THAT FAITH.' The campaign in New Zealand takes its inspiration and its leajd from that which is proceeding in Victoria, and Catholics would do well to watch the movement as it develops. Clearly, the present Bible-in-schools movement is only the insertion of the thin end of the wedge. If successful, it would inevitably lead to outright denomina-\ tionalism.

For Peace

* Like his illustrious predecessor, Pius X. is an apostle of peace. The war between Russia and Japan was (says the New York ' Sun's ' Rome correspondent) viewed -by the Vatican 'as a great disaster, and the beginning of serious complications.' The Holy See never ceased to intercede with the Great Powers for peace, from the first moment that Russ and Jap began to talk fro each other in terms tthat smelled of nitroglycerine, almost to the day when diplomatic relations

were severed and East and West drew from its ' calm repose the vengeful blade.' One of the appeals of the venerable Pontiff on behalf of peace was made by him through his mincio in Paris to the Japanese Ambassador accredited to the French Government. But (says the ' Catholic Citizen ') 'the Mikado's representative, however, frankly informed the nuncio that while- he wcfuld be happy to forward the Pope's request to his government as a matter of form, there was not the slightest hope for its success.' And so the two nations are at each other's throats. Japan (as somebody has alptfly remarked) is fighting for life while Russia is fighting for a second dinner. Japan has got her back to the wall, and realises that— in Doruglas Jerrold's words—' chains are worse than bayonets.'

A « Fish Yarn '

Some weeks ago we planted some ' live ' dynamite cartridges in the dtfuble-ended theory of Dr. HJutchiinson's that leprosy is caused by the consumption of decomposing or imperfectly cured flsti, and that the Catholic Church, by its discipline of abstinence, is responsible for the spread of tihat dread disease amons; the members of its faith. The good old doctor's fish hypothesis is at hopeless loggerheads with the generally accepted theory of medical experts, that leprosy is propagated by personal contagion, and that it may be stamped out by the segregation of its victims But the fascination of theory is upon Dr. Hutchinson, and he continues to knock his head against the stone-wall of fact with the .serene and emphatic aplomb of a bluebottle fly that bangs its flying brain-case against a plate-glass window. The annals of science furnish instances of the imperious 1 domination of a darling theory. Darwin was a curious case in point TTaeckel is another and more extreme instance of a theorist in the toils. And who does not recall the story of the ' phlogiston ' theory of fire whi-ch held the field till, in 1787, the renowned French chemist, Lavoisier, demonstrated its absurdity in an overwhelmingly conclusive way. Rut (says Routledge in his ' History of Science,' p. 36 8) the English chemists, almost to a man, clung to their beloved " phlogiston " ' Priestly, in the very' tooth of demonstrated fact ' died in the " phlogiston " faith, and the otrtier British chemists imitated Cavendish by throwing up the study in disgust.'

Dr ITutchinson seems to be another of those that are not open to fact or reason when these tell against their pet theones. The ' Lancet ' and ' Nature ' have of late been "doling his fish hypothesis with bioa'dsidcs of shiot and shell. But the bellicose Doctor is apparently armor-proofed against facts, and will probably continue to lepeat his ' fish yarn ' as serenely as if ]t were a demonstrated truth of science In the ' Lancet' article (p. 505) ' reference is made,' says the ' Glasgow Observer,' 'to a work lately published in Pretoria"" by the Medical Officer of Health for the Transvaal, Di George Turner. Dr. Turner does not agree with Mr. Hutchinson's view tshat the eating of decomposed or badly-cuied fish tends to cause leprosy. The Basutos, among whom leprosy is very common, never eat fish at all , while the Malay, who is a constant fish eater, siuffers much less from leprosy than the Hottentot^ w*ho is most fiequently attacked, and whose consumption of fis-h does no# at all approximate proportionately that of the Malay Perhaps (adds our Glasgow tontemporary) the most convincing evidence of all is that supplied by a table quoted by Dr Turner, an<l giving a return regarding the, leprosy patients in the Pietona Leper Asylum. It shows what percentage of them had eaten fish and what percentage had not " There) arc fewer cases of loprosy in the Asylum amongst those who had habitually eaten fish than those who had not" —a conclusion which leads the " Lancet " to the remark . " These observations would seem to disprove

the theory enunciated by Mr. Hmtchinson." ' The London ' Tablet,' summarising an article on the « Fish Hypothesis ' in ' Nature,' says that Dr. Hutchinson's ' anxiety to prove his case has led' him into at least one serious error, in ascribing the recent alarming increase of leprosy in South- America— notably in Ecuador and Colombia— to this cause (the Church's law of abstinence). Theso count ries-where, it may be obberjved, tfie lepeis as&ociate freely with tho healthy— are dispensed from the rule of abstinence by the Spanish Indulgence extended to all colonies of Spain. They may be fish-eaters, but if so, they are so from choice.'

A Brace of Falsehoods

Some one has said that sin m has- many tools, bat that a lie is the handle that fits them all. Calumny— as we have shown full many a time and offo-is the gjeat handle used by tine crusade against! religion in lodge-ridden France and Italy to its efforts to discredit the Church, its ministry, and its institutions. The campaign of calumny is sedulously carried on by a gang of writer^ on the anticlerical press with pens rammed full of venom ' and cheveril consciences that will stretch. 1 Samp time ago we recorded the doings of a bpreau of defamation whose headquarters were in Milan, and whose career was cut short by the German Catholic Truth Society and by the imprisonment of the Ahanias-in-chief for a series of gross crimes against mjorality.

Thjose cowardly enemies of all religion in France and Italy halve willing allies in a few violent ' religio,us ' weeklies in England that go snuffing about like unclean animals among the stench and garbage of the gutter press of the Continent in search of salacious morsels about ' Rome.' It is emphaticaJly a case in which the receiver is as bad as the thief. It was from the ' Christian ' cqpyists of the anti-Christiah press that some New Zealand papers some months ago took a sensational story of the ill-treatment of a sister of the parish priest of Oreglia, near Saleprno, Italy. It was, in good sooth, a gruesome tale. It told how this poor woman, Regina Regone, was shut up for years by her inhuman brother in a dark, damp, clammy cellar. Her only clothing was a dirty towel ; her bed some filthy straw in a corner ; her food, odd chunks of coarse bread or uncoo-ked Indian meal. The fearsome tale of woe was rounded off by such details as a pallid fa-ce, sunken cheeks, glassy eye-balls, and homeless insanity, resulting from a long course of inhuman barbarity. The story told was, in fine, one to freeze the soul anld gx>rge it upon a feast 'of horrors There was nothing, the matter with the tale except the one trifling circumstance that it was a thundering Ue from the ground right up. Only that and nothing more It was one of the cases in which ' imagination frames events unknown.'

The) story has been torpedoed with satisfying completeness by both Catholic and anti-CatVholic journals in Italy. We have the details at hand in the ' Voce della Yenta ' (Rome) of February 15 and February 27. The ' Filangen,' the ' Roma,' and the ' Discussione ' have also taken a hand in the woik of blowing up tihis atrocious calumny. The ' Roma ' was one-- of the anticlerical journals that ga\e prominence to the brutal slander. In its isslue of February 25 it found it desirable to swallow its words ciown to the last syllable. It declared, on the authority of information received by its Salerno correspondent at the local Commissariate of Police, t.hat the whole story was ' addnittura inesislente '—without the least foundation in fact ; or, in plain terms, that it was a fabrication through and through The ' Filangen ' goes into the story in fuller detail. It shows as the lesult of investigations made on the spot, that Regina Regone never lijved in a cellar ; tlhat she was comfortably clothed, had three persons in attendance upon her wants, was treated in the

matter of food and in all other respects like other members oi the family, that no restrictions were placed Upon her liberty, and that the harmless idiotfcy from which she suffers is congenital— her father (Andrea) and one brother (Vincenzo) being similarly afflicted. The aged and venerable pastor who was made tine object of that sihocking calumny has come out of the ordeal with full honors. And the libel actions which lie is taking against some of his anticlerical journalistic slanderers will enable him to touch the rascals in the only spot in which they have a substitute for a conscience— to wit, tihe pocket. Here is another fairy-tale from a far-off lartd. This time the scene is shifted to Madrid. It tells of a new sort of clerical Freemasonry that has been discovered in Spain. It is described as ,a secret organisation called ' The Knights Of the Nightly Vigil ' or ' The Brotherhood of the Nightly Adoration,' i 9 alleged to be under the control of the Jesuits, that it counts in Madrid alone over 10,000 associates, that it • imposes ujpom its members strict secrecy and blind obedience,' that it has ' special signs of recognition,' and that • tthe words of summoning are : " Jesus in the Sacrament expects you to-night at such and such a church for a love-audience 1 .' 1 ' ' So the story mmneth. Any instructed Catholic will at once see that this tale of ' Jesuitical Freemasonry ' is a hoax or a grotesque and farcial description of a Confraternity of Nightly Adoration. Our inquiries into the affair were anticipated by our enterprising contemporary the ' Bombay Catholic Examiner,' which got into correspondence with the Director-General of the Confraternity in question aJid published the result in detail in its issme of March 5. The information received runs, in brief, as follows : The Confraternity — known as tihe ' Spanish Nightly \doration ' — extends throughout the whole of Spain, lias a membership of 2G,000 worshippers, and ' has created a profound and ' gratifying impression" on account of its piety.' It has likewise ' excited the wrath of the sectaries and their newspapers — especially the "' Pais •' and " Evangelio " '— anid the story summonsed above seems to have been borrowed from the former journal. Its branches (over 200 in riumber) are ' all established with the permission of the local episcopate ' ; the society ' is neither Jesiuit, nor Dominican, n<o>r Franciscan, being directed in all its branches by secular priests ' ;; it has no ' secret signs for mutual recognition ' ; it has not the remotest connection with politics ' ; and 'no other weapon is used exceipt prayer and the spiritual improvement of the members by silent meditation during night-watches of a'dcration, with the obligation o? confession and commmnion at their conclusion.' And thus another evil tale is torn to tatters and flung to the winds of heaven.