Catholics and Crime

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 13, 30 March 1905, Page 1

Catholics and Crime

A zealous and amiable friend of ours among the clergy is a constant and observant visitor to one of the largest prisons in New Zealand. An article contributed by him some time ago to our columns on the question of relative denominational criminality attracted a good Heal ot attention, not alone among our readers, but beyorrid tihe Tasman Sea, and even acroas the Pacific, where it was quoted by many of our American exchanges. The Rev, Father has just sent us a seiies of interesting tables, containing returns of the numbers of prisoners who passed through the gaol in question during the year 1901, together with a statement <-l the crimes with which they were charged and the religious denominations to which they belonged. The compilation occupied a good deal of our reverend correspondent's time during the past few months Its value is enhanced by a complete name-list of the prisoners vho were—whether rightly or fraudulently— cnlorod upon the register as ' Roman Catholics.' • Our correspondent draws our attention to some of the outstanding features of his returns. 'In the matter of sexual crime, 1 he says, 'no serious charge whatever was laid against any Catholic in this prison during the year.' We find, on referring to his figures, that there were no fewer than thirty-three persons in that prison for crimes against morality— many of these being of a shooking nature, ranging up to incest and wilful murder. Among the thirty-three there was only one Catholic, and he was ' in ' for the smallest offence upon the list. 'In the matter of assault and robbery,' says our informant, 'we seem to score badly— six out of eleven convictiors. But it is very doubtful that seme of the six are Catholics at all. One of the worst criminals in the prison— a fellow who was sent to gaol a few years ago for assault and robbery, and has to " do " fourteen years for it— had himself entered upon the register as a Catholic ; but he admitted to me the other day that he never was a Catholic. I find,' adds o'-ir reverend friend, ' that when Catholics (and by Catholics I mean those who really belcng to the Church) are cftairged with robbery, forging, stealing, or theft, the amounts " annexed " by them are, as a rule, small when compared with the depredations committed by criminals of other denominations. In regard to the offences technically Known as l< stealing " and " theft," many of those "up " for them are not Catholics at all. They enter themselves as such in order, in a way,

to cover up their identity.' Of the oae hundred and forty-one cases under these two designations in the prison referred to here, thirty are credited to Catholics. But on the detailed name-list supplied, no fewer than nine of them are marked oft as not being Catholics at all, or as baing, at best, ' strongly doubtful.' As matters stand, the number of known Catholic prisoners In' for stealing and theft is twenty-one in one hWndred and forty-one. * 'In the matter of drunkenness and vagrancy,' our esteemed and painstaking correspondent continues, 'we again appear to score badly. But these (as you remarked in the 1" Tablet " some time ago) are— so far as they ap,pear upon our statistical returns — to a great extent crimes of temperament and poverty. The poor man — and ouirs are among the poorest in the Colony — has few to tal*e an interest in him and save him from getting into the grip of the police. Our mercurial Celt, when hd takes a glass or two, docs so in the open, and takesi pains to let the whole world know the fact. He gets " run in," while your cool-headed Englishman or canny Scot keeps his tongue quiet and his hands' in his pockets, arid sneaks quietly to bed and sleeps it off. Your poor roysterer, too, has not the vfrerewitbal to meet his fine. He, therefore, " goes up," and has his religious belief chalked up against him on the statistical returns, while scores of worse sotti escape it all, owing to their ability to square with hard cash the legal consequences of their drinking bouts. Catholics, a1?a 1 ? you ha^e often stated, form a considerable portion of the poor of our community. And I think your challenge to all comeis a fair one— to show, if they can, that either in this or in any other res/poet they compare unfavorably, in propoition to their percentage of the population, with the corresponding classes of other creeds.' 'I am firmly cenwnced,' says our rcverdnd friend, ' that many self-styled Catholic criminals are not Catholics at all. All my experience goes to show that s'ucTi men will never hesitate to lie about their religious belief if tihey get it into their heads that there is the faintest shadow of a prospect of any advantage to be gained by doing sjo. The other day I asked a nonCatholic " Roman Catholic " here : " What parish d 0d 0 you belong to ? " " Australia, sir," was the reply of this " Catiholic " criminal. I may add that few of the genuine Catholic criminals here were educated in Catholic sonools. Most of them are State-school products, and they l>now nothing, or almost nothing, about the Catechism.'

Our thanks, and the thanks of the Catholic body throughout New Zealand are due to our judicious arid painstaking friend for, his valuable contributions towards a rmuch-tdebated and mucK-mis-understood question of New Zealand sociology. And we venture the hope that his pen may often grace the columns of the ' N.Z. Tablet.'