THE PRIESTS AND PEOPLE OF IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 17 November 1904, Page 5

THE PRIESTS AND PEOPLE OF IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

PAPER READ AT THE CATHOLIC CONGRESS By His Eminence Cardinal Moran We are told by some writers of the present Jay that, throughout the century just closed, the Irish people have proved themselves wholly devoid of enlightenment and energy, without thrift or industry, without patriotism, without religion. Furthermore, it has been remarked that, at the close of the centiury, matters were far worse than at its commencement ; everything had. heen stagnant, decaying, hopeless ; and the climax of Ireland's misery may be looked for in the century now opening. Those writers assure us that the cause of this ' universal and national degeneracy ' is not far to seek : the Irish are a priest-ridden people. For the decay, and degeneracy, and ruin that everywhere prevail, the priest is the ' universal cause omnipotent in Ireland.' Our Presbyterian friends, assembled in England a few months ago, at one of those meetings that bring the name of religion into disgrace, , addressed to their co-religionists in Ireland the affecting utterance that ' the desolating, power of priestcraft in Ireland is unexampled in Christendom.' As attempts are made amongst us to scatter broadcast such calumnies against the Irish priesthood and the Irish race, I have thought that it might not be without interest for your Congress to take an accurate survey of the situation, to look at matters iin their true light,. to see what has been achieved by the Priests and People of Ireland during tihe 19th century. Scf far from those calumnious statements being verified, I am convinced that, precisely through the cordial union of the Priests and People, great difficulties were overcome, and great victories achieved. Ido not know that any country in the world has, during the century, made greater progress — material, intellectual, industrial, political, and religious progress— than Ireland. Prejudices) had to be overcome, and evils, the growth of centuries', had to lie rooted out. All this hasi been but tihe beginning of the triumphs that marked the country's progress 1 , so that for the century now opening we have the dawn of a bright era. On hearing the evidence, I thiink you will conclude with me that the Irish priests have proved themselves zealous and enlightened pastors, the unpurchasable champions of their nation's rights, and

that, taking all in all, the sons and daughters of Ireland are, beyond all question, the most enlightened,- the most progressive, and the most virtuous people ' ot Christendom at the present day. The secret of all the contention against Ireland -.is, ' that neither force nor bribe could weaken the confidence of the Irish people in their devoted pastors. It is the old story of the Grecian parable. The wolves, being assembled in grave session, issued a proclamation to the effect that the watch-dogs wore the cause of all the trouble amd hubbub in -hhe fold Remove this turbulent element, and peace and honor, with general contentment, will rule supreme When considering the condition of Ireland in the last century, there is one factor that cannot be overlooked— and, indeed, its importance cannot be overrated—that is, The Penal Laws which, tar into the century, continued to oppress 1 the energies of her Catholic people. In the history of Christian nations, there is nothing to be compared to the tyranny and oppression endured by the Irish Catholics under these Penal Laws. Living, as -we are, in an age of toleration, and in an atmosphere of freedom, it is not easy for us to realise how merciless was the persecution, and how fearful were the vicissitudes that befell the Priests and the People of Ireland in those days. I will allow the impartial Mr. Justin M'Carthy to sketch these laws :— 1 Under the Penal Laws,' he says, 'the Catholic population of a Catholic country were deprived of almost every right that makes life precious. Dopping,, Bishop of Meath, had proclaimed from the pulpit that Protestants were not bound to keep faith with Papists. Lord Chancellor Bowes and Chief Justice Robinson had proclaimed from the Bench that the law did not suppose any such person to exist as an Irish Catholic. The Penal Laws certainly did their best to ensure that no such person should exist. In their own country Irish Catholics were shut out from every civil or military profession ; from every Government office, from. Iyhe highest to the lowest ; from almost every duty and every privilege that can be obeyed or enjoyed by citizens. A Catholic could not sit upon the benches of the Lords or Commons of the Irish Parliament. He could not record his vote for the election of a member of Parliament ; he could not ser*ve in the army or navy ; he could not plead at tihe Bar or give judgment from the Bench ; he could not become a magistrate or a member of a corporation, ®r serve on grand juries or in vestries ; he could not be a sheriff, game-keeper, or a constable ; lie could not give education ; he could not receive education ; he could not send his children abroad to be educated. If, in defiance of the law, he, a Catholic, did send his children to receive, in Continental colleges, that knowledge which was refused at home, he was subjected to a line of £100, and the child so educated was excluded from inheriting any property in Ire^ land or England. Not only was the Catholic denied the practice of his own religion, but conformity to the Protesitant faith was enforced by statute. Every Catholic was liable .to a fine of £60 a month for not attending a place of Protestant worship, anU at any time any two justices of the peace could call a Catholic oven sixteen years of age before them, and bestow what property he possessed upon his next of kin, if he refused to turn from his faith. Any four justices of the peace could, without the formalities of a trial, send any Catholic reftising to attend Protestant service into banishment for life. Every Catholic priest in the countrypursued his sacred calling under a penalty of death. Deprived alike of his civil amd religious rights, the Catholic was further plundered of his property. No Catholic might buy. land or inherit it, or receive. Ji,ti as' a gift filom Protestants, or hold life annuities or leases for more than 31 years, or any lease on such terms as that the profits of the land exceeded one-third the value of the land. Any Protestant discovering that a farm held by a Papist produced a profit greater tfian one-third of the rent, could, immediately upon announcing this discovery, dispossess the Catholic owner and seize the farm for himself.'

It Required the. Most Heroic Fortitude

and heroic patience to enable the nation to endure under such unlaw. Edmund Burke tells of its oppressive and degrading results. ' The Ponal Laws,' he says, ■' were a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation ot a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.' Mr. Goldwin Smith also declares that they ' will remain a reproach to human nature,, and a terrible monument of the vileness into which nations may be led when their religion has been turned into hatred, and they have been taught to beHieve that the indulgence of the most malignant passions of man is au acceptable offering to God,' Mr. Lecky is not

less explicit. He writes :— ' It would 'be difficult, in the whole compass of history, to find another instance in whuh such various and such powerful agencies concurred to degrade the character and to blast the prosperity of a nation ' '1 he result of the Penal Laws was to cement inseparably into one the national and the religious life of the Irish people. The people were despoiled of every thine; that Lhe tyranny ol man could reach, but nothing could pluck Ihe love of the Catholic Faith from theix devoted hearts Impending suftermg brought into bold relief the inffomiiable courage and heroism of the catholic priests. Many and many a time was (the sacrifice of the priest's life li^ed with the holocaust of Holy Mass, which he was offering at the altar ; many and nany a time was the altar-stone, the Co r rig-an-Afrroin, reddened with h:s blood. Mr. Lecky gives unstinted praise to the Heroic Devotedness of the Irish People and the Irish priests during this dismal period Of Ihe Irish people he writes :— ' They clung to their old faith with a constancy that never has been surpassed, fluring generations ot the most galling persecution, at a time when cvety earthly motive urged them to abandon it, wihen all the attractions and influence of property and rank and professional eminence and education were arrayed against it. They had their reward. The legislator, abandoning the hopeless task of erusihing a religion that was so cherished, contented himself with moviding that, those who held it should never rise to influence or wealth, and the Penal Laws were at last applied almost exclusively to this end. 7 Of the lush priests he writes ■— ' The 7eal with which they maintained the religious life of Uieir flocks during the kng period of persecution is beyond all praise. In the very dawn of the Reformation m lieland, Spenser hid contrasted the negligence of the "idle ministers "—the creatures of a corrupt patronage — who, " having the livings of a country opened unto them, without pains and without peril, will, neither for any lo\e of God, nor for zeal tor religion, nor for all I he good they may do by winning souls to God, be drawn forth of their warm nests to look out into God's harvest "' — with the r /eal of Popish priests, who " spare not to come out of Spam, from Rome, and from Rheitns, by long toil, and dangerous travelling hither, where they know that peril of death awaiteth them, and no rewa:d or riches is to be found, only to draw the people unto the Church of Rome " The same fervid 7eal was displayed by the Catholic priesthood in the days of the Cromwellian persecution, and during all the long period of the Penal Laws.' The First Great Victory achieved in the century just closed by the Inited liish priests and In^-h people was to fling aside for ever the chains and fetteis of those Penal Laws. The lush ia<e \\,as not extirpated, its faiWi was not overcome. Lord Macaulay attests . — ' It is not under one, or even twenty administrations, but tor centuries we have employed the sword against the Catholics of Ireland. We have tucd famine, we have had recourse to all the artifices of Draconian Laws, we have tried unbridled extermin ition, not to suppress or conquer a detested race, but to eradicate every trace of this people from the land of its birth. And what has conic of it 7 Have we succeeded "' We have not been able to extirpate, nor e\en to weaken them.' Some features of this great \ictory achieved by the united priests and people of Irchnd merit to be considered. The British Government left nothing undone to separate tihe priests from the In-m people. Early in the century they made an ofTicial pioposal to subsidise the Catholic clergy, but the clergy spumed the bribe, and chose to share the poverty and hardships of the faithful, whom they loved. Emancipation was then offered, if only a veto were allowed to Government in the selection of the spiritual pastor-,. But such a veto would weaken the confidence of the people in their religious guides ; and, with genuine nation il and religious heroism, priests and people resolved that nothing would separate them. They would ref.i ;<i Emancipation sooner than accept the veto. The Km.; again and again publicly called God to witness that lie never would sign the Act of Emancipation. Despite a ] l tins, lie had to sign it. The Duke of Wellington, \n\z leader of the party hostile to the Irish claims, was fotrced to avow that such was the union of the priests and the people, there was no alternative. Sooner than face civil war, it was necessary to give victory to the Catholic cause. And how far-reaching has been the victory thus achieved ! Not only was the Penal Code cancelled from the Irish legislation, but religious freedom was granted to the Catholics of England and Scotland ; the same liberty in matters of divine worship, to last throughout all time, was extended to the colonies ; and if, in Australia, we enjoy to-day that priceless heritage of re-

ligious ireedom, with its manifold, imperishable blessings, we are indebted for it to the happy union of the Priests and People of Ireland. The Next Great Victory achieved was en the battlefield of education. Throughout the penod of the Penal Laws, the Charter Schools dewsed by the Piotestant Primate, Boulter were lavishly subsidised by the. State, and were forced upon the country wilh the intent, to rob the Irish children of their nationality and their Faith. None but the outcasts and Pr o t extant children eoul'ri be got to attend them. Pailiamentary Commissions reported that they were nothing better than seminaries 1 of irreligion and vice Nevertheless, far into the late century, they continued to be patronised and richly endowed by Governmenti till at length, with every accompaniment of national execration and ignominy, they were consigned to a dishonored grave. Throughout all this time, there was a price on the head of the Catholic schoolmaster. It was penal lor a Catholic parent to send his child for instruction to a Catholic teacher. The hedge-sthools were the only resources of the clergy to bring the blessings ot education, to their flocks' in those perilous -jrnes. Hear how Mr. Justin M'Carthy writes of "these schools .—. — ' On the highway ana on the hillside, in ditches, and behind hedges, in the precarious shelter of the ruined walls ot some abbey, or under the 1001 of a peasant's cabin, the priests set up schools, and taught the children ol their race With death as 'the. penalty of their daring— they gave to the people of their persecuted faith that precious mentai food which triumphantly thwarted tihe cflorls of the Government to brutalise and degrade the Irish Catholic oil the face of the earth. In those " hecigtvscnools," as they were called m iscorn, the principles of religion, of morality, and of patriotism were kept alive, and those elements of education, which are the very life-blood ot national existence, freely dispensed. Eagerly as it was given, it was no less eagerly sought for. The readiness of the priests to teach was only equalled by the readiness of the people to be taught The proudest place of honor in Irish history belongs to those hedge-schools and their heroic teachers. But foe them the national cause and the national existence would have withered away under the blighting curseof the Penal Laws. Frlom those hedge-schools came some of The Brightest Ornaments of Modern Irish History.' It is a cheering thing to look back upon tihe efforts of the clergy to keep alive the sipark of learning, among their devoted flocks, amid these horrible scenes of desolation and persecution. We see, for instance, the venerable pnest, who was soon destined to be Archbishop of Armagh, the Venerable Primate Crcagh, whose cause of Canonisation is at present before the Roman Court, teaching a school tor the poor children in Limerick. The illustrious Bishop of Kildare, Dr. Leverous, in a thatched cabin near Naas, gathered the scattered youths around him, to teach them the rudiments of piety and secular instruction. Another priest chose the centre of the bog of Allen, far away from military pursuit, for his literary home, and we aie told that many of the Irish youth, even from a distance, hastened thither, and built their cell's, enduring heroically every hardship that tneir minds and hearts might be equipped with the enlightenment which he no less heroically imparted. The Kildaie Street Society Schools, and other fimilar schemes, were deviso'd early in the century, under pretence to educate the Irish youth, but in reality to undermine their Faith. The National System, introduced in 1831, gave promise of better things-, ibut it was practically entrusted for its working to avowed proselytisers, the Anglican Archbishop, Dr. Whately, and the Presbyterian, " Rev Dr. Carlyle. After a while they were able to boast that they were weaning the Catholic children from their loyalty to the Church, and sapping the foundations of the whole vast Catholic fabric. But the watchmen on the towers of Israel we'-e not asleep. They warned their flocks of the imminent dangers. * (To be concluded.)

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