THE LATEST ORANGE CALUMNY

New Zealand Tablet, 4 October 1906, Page 13

THE LATEST ORANGE CALUMNY

ANOTHER SENSATION EXPOSED

The Orange campaign of calumny against Catholic Sisterhoods in Australia goes recklessly on. The slanderers (clergymen all) seem to be undeterred and unashamed by the repeated exposures that have been steadily following their unmanly efforts to blacken the character of those devoted Catholic women wlio have given their . lives to the arduous work of reforming the fallen and bringing up orphans in the love and fear of God. During the past twelve months we have given detailed exposures of a number of "wild anticonvent stories. The latest and most sensational was given to the world by a Methodist clergyman (a prominent Orangeman) in Melbourne. The story met with a most complete and satisfying exposure at the

hands of the Archbishop of Melbourne. Speaking to a packed congregation in St. -Patrick's Cathedral on • Sunday». September 16, his Grace said in part (we quote a portion- of the ' Advocate ' report) :—: —

. . . If anyone should guard against the appearance: of 'Uhcharitableness more than another, a minister of religion is specially bound to do so, for his own sake and for the sake of the example he gives •to others.

But the (Opportunity was not to be lost. A blow was Jp.Jbe struck at Catholic institutions. Public prejudice ;was to be aroused, and here was the occasion for accomplishing so meritorious a purpose. On the first available Sunday, and before a hostile crowd, the great revelation was made, with all the controversial tricks and innuendoes of the professional petty pleader. These innuendoes suggest to the public that a dreadful and unheard-of thing had happened ; a girl had actually ' escaped ' from a convent home, where she had been confined, detained, and imprisoned* Her convent and convict number was 66, she had jumped three fences, and police, priests, and nuns were called out to. hunt her down as if she were a wild animal ; and, when the chase became too hot, she was secretly brought to v Melbourne, and fell, by a special providence, into the hands of her clerical champion. Her time at the convent home was for long, dreary hours spent jn laundry work, and terrible penances, including ' twenty Masses, thirty-three Glorias, and a long silence.' No wonder that she was ignorant, and could neither read nor write. How could she, when she was '-drafted for laundry work, at the age of 11' from the South Melbourne Orphanage to Rosary-place where at that tender age she was worked unmercifully ? And this was a fair sample of the other prisoners. Now, under the skilful tuition of a .prodigy of ten years— a little thing, but mine own— she 'was making as good progress as Gould be expected under the circumstances, etc., etc.

' Oh, the satire of it ! ' But the satire of it is in the concoction, and not in the reality Iji addition to the sensational manner in which the incidents of this ' escape ' were reported, three definite charges of a serious nature have been made, each of which, it will be shown, rests on the foundation of falsehood and innuendo, unsupported by one single .shred of evidence.

Not Penance, but a Spiritual Bouquet. (I) It has been stated that her penan.ee for August was :— ' Twenty Masses were heard, and 33 Glorias and a y long silence.' In whatever way we take this statement, it has no foundation in fact. The word ' penance • is defined by Webster as ' pain, sorrow suffering, a means of repairing a sin committed and obtaining pardon for it, consisting part in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression.' Penance, then, presupposes the idea of sin or transgression, so that from the ' neatly typed card '■. of Lucy Penberthy the public would draw a conclusion as unjust to the girl herself as to the convent authorities, viz., that she was suffering punishment inflicted on her for some crime. But what is the meaning of that card ' neatly typed ? When we remember the relations that exist between the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and the girls committed to their care, we can easily understand how, on the occasion of the feast of the Sister who is in charge of the class, the children recognising her care and attention to them would wish to make her some offering. And what means have they to carry into effect this sense of gratitude ? Like St. Peter and St. John at the Golden Crate in Jerusalem, they can say in truth :— ' Silver and gold I have not,- but what I have I give unto Thee ' They <have not the goods of this world to offer Sister, if Sister would accept such an offering but, they can make an offering which any Religious will prize beyond all earthly goods— they can offer -her the gifts of heaven. For this purpose the children of the class combine among themselves on the approach of the Feast Day of her whom they lookup to and call Mother, and they determine, in addition to their ordinary devotions, to say some private prayers, and to do some little acts of self-denial for the mistress of the class, and to make their united offerings to her on her Feast Day ' This practice has the effect of increasing the spirit of Piety, and ■ developing the sense of gratitude in the individual soul, .besides offering some recognition to her who has abandoned the pleasures of the world ' and devoted her life to ' the service of others. Nor is this spiritual bouquet, as it is called, confined to children and nuns. •I' myself on several occasions have received . from sofiool children and others a presentation of a similar character, and I assure you no offering I receive gives me greater pleasure.

A meaning has, then, been attached .to the word ' penance ' which it will not bear. Nor is this all. It is said :— ' Twenty Masses were heard.' The truth is' that the girl got this 4 neatly typed ' card- on the fifth of August, and she left the institution that same evening, so she had no opportunity of hearing a single Mass. This ' penance ' alarm is 'branded with falsehood in substance and in detail. The GiTls' Orphanage, South Melbourne. (2) The charge made against the Girls' Orphanage at South Melbourne is of a far more serious character still. Here we are assured, on the same authority, that the education of this girl- was so completely neglected that now, at the age of 17 years, she has to be taught how to read and write her own name by a ' little girl of teiL' The whole~ of Lucy Penberthy's s,obool years were spent under the care of the Sisters of. Mercy at South Melbourne Orphanage: That institution has a school attached, and the orphans are placed on the same level as the children attending of the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese The Inspector .of Catholic schools, Mr. Cook, makes an annual visitation to this school, and on the occasion of his last visit, in April of_this year, he reported most favorably both of the quantity and quality of the knowledge imparted. He singles out for special commendation the reading and writing of the orphans. I now make this oflef :— That' if the Government, who have an interest in the orphanage, wish to send any of the State school inspectors to examine this school, without a moment's notice to the Sisters, I have no doubt but he will find that, taking* into consideration the class of children being educated, it is fully equal to any primary school in Victoria. Lucy Penberthy attended this school till she was twelve years and eight -months. The sohool rolls show that during the last" nine months of -her schooling years she was absent only twelve days ; and the fact of her not making the same progress as the ?SS? r ol * ildren is explained by the Sister in oharge :— Through bad' sight she was" under Dr. Kenny's care and forbidden school work ; but on the whole she received more years of regular education than the generality of children. She was an extraordinarily wayward child, and at times not considered accountable for her actions. The effort to gain her attention and keep her out of mischief required a greater strain than the care of a large class of children.' That same character she has fully sustained since she left the orphanage. But, in the face of those huge difficulties, was there no progress made with her education ? Is she so completely ignorant of secularknowledge as to require a « little girl of ten ' to teach her how to write her name or read ordinary print ? This, charge, like the others, is .'built on the foundation of falsehood. I hold in my hand a scrap of her writing, which she left after her in 'the convent at Bendigo. Her signature, Lucy Gabriel, to this writing would do credit to many ladies in society • and the composition itself, although not perfect, is wonderfully good, considering the mental condition of the writer. It reads :— « Make our dear Lord in the Blessed Sacrament your constant thought, recollect that He is your friend, tell Him all your sorrows ro often in the day, if only for a few minutes, to relieve your mind in trouble, and you will find that the hardest trials will seem to pass away in a moment. ( k This, then, is the poor, bunted, uneducated orphan who, we are asked to believe, is being taueht how to write her name by the ' little girl of ten.' A More Definite and Glaring Falsehood. (3) The third charge hurled against the Catholic chanties is one of so grave a nature that the author of that calumny is likely to hear more about it This girl is said to have been 'drafted for laundry work *to Rosary-place, Albert Park, at the age of eleven.' Here two institutions are assailed— the one which acts in loco parentis sending away a child to hard work during school years, and the other enriching: itself by child labor. If parents sent a child •of eleven years tp hard work they woutd_.be justly considered unworthy of the charge committed them -by Crod; if the proprietor of a laundry accepted the labor of a child of eleven, what would be his position ? Yet both those acts of cruelty would be contained in the charge I have quoted, if that - charge Fortunately, however, this charge stands on the same foundation as the others, except that the falsehood here is of a more definite and glaring character.

But what are,. the real, facts of the case,* as opposed to the libellous - slander" ami the .fiction with which it is supported ? • - ' ' .The -birth certificate of Lucy Pemberthy shows that she was. born on August 28, 1889. -' On ' the recommendation of the late Pal her Moriarty (whose -letter is still at the orphanage),^ of Koroit, she, with her sisters, was admitted to- the orphanage on- "April 5, 1891. The books both at Rosary-place arid- at the orphanage show that she was transferred to the care ?l + ood She Pberd Sisters on January' 8, 1903— that is, in her fourteenth .year. This, then, •is - the girl who, Vf(y are assured, was ' drafted to laundry work' at 11..' As a matter of fact, she never did laundry work in the ordinary sense- of the term In reply to inquiries 1 have made- both at Rosary-place and at Bendigo, I am told 'that she was employed at any light duties ef which she was capable— at one time for a couple of hours in the packing room, at another, m the flower garden ; then, again, assisting in the house work.' And the Prioress of the Benaigo Orphanage writes : « Some days of the week the girls here have not three hours' steady work. Lucy Penberthy never did a day's work; and as she was inclined to distract other girls, she was 'merely kept in the packing room to keep her out of mischief,' A Cowardly Defence. There is one, and only one, defence that can be set up by defeated bigotry in the face of those facts It is the cowardly defence set up by Adam after his deliberate sin: "Ihe woman whom thou gavesf me to be my companion gave me of the tree and I did eat.' ihe fruit— the story in this case— was fair to the eyes and delightful to behold, and the -bigot did devour it with a relish. But he may now, like a coward, say that the woman deceived him If so ■ft hat are we to think of h-is injustice in not in-miir-V ng V ol'o 1 ' a. S cr ? dulit y in believing such perversions of facts ? Adam forgot his duty to God, to the human lace, and to Ins own conscience. The man who publishes false testimony to the injury of others, and on insufficient evidence, and then blames -bis informant imitates the sin of Adam. But if she were capable of deceiving him, or if &lie were so defective in intellect as to believe the stories he has published on her authority, we can well undersiand how such defects of mental fibre would result in the position in which she is now placed.