Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 19, 9 May 1907, Page 9

Current Topics

The Wrong Address An unknown correspondent has forwarded us sundry newspaper cuttings having reference to recenit unpleasant incidents among certain of our separated brethren oversea. These cuttings have been sent to the wrong address. The Oatho'lic newspaper is neither a pillory for the frailties (real or alleged) of individuals outside our 'fold ; neither is it a record on which to blazon them. Circumstances may, and often do, arise in which, the fa/ults or crimes of individuals have to be exposed— as, for instance, in the just and necessary defence or warning of others, Till then, the Catholic journalist will leave the ujv&ggressive culpiit in his sanctuary, under the .mantle of Swoetc Sanct Charitie. ' Non pascitur leo vermibus ' — the lion does not feed 0n worms ; nor will the Catholic newspaper make guilty shekels by the methods of the Man with the Muck-rake. A Word to the Wise Our friend's of the Wellington Citizens' Bible-in-schools League are busy telling the press of the Colony the things that (they say) are being dome for religious education in Austria, Etjypt, New Brunswick, Hamburg, Cape Colony, and other places that are far, far away. But why have they no mention of the splendid work that is being done for Christian education by one section of the population of New Zealand ? Why is thare no whisper, not a breath, about .what has been achieved -by other ' Wellington Citizens '—Catholics, t 0 wit— right in front of the eyeballs of the League ? Is their sight adjusted only to long-range vision ? Or, like Rabelais' witches, do they wear their eves in their slippers when at home and fix theirs in their sockets only when they gjo- abroad ? A man's best things are often, unknown to Mm, round about him. Could not our good friends of the League alter their focus so as to see the things that are at their feet ? And thenwell, let them do as the good engineer does, harness'th© horse-power of their zeal as directly as may be to its normal and natural work; New Zealanders are a pretty, practical people. They would be % astly more interested in what the Wellington Citizens' Bible-in-schools League is doing for religious education in Wellington, than in the (sometimes misleading) things which the League has to say about what other people are doing for religious education ' ez far away cz Payris is '. An ancient saw saith :— 4 Say-well and donwell end with one letter, Say-well is good, do-well is better '. Is there, in the League's breast, no connection between feeling and action ? Is it all to end— as ail such movements have thus far end cm in New Zealand — in words, words, words— or, as the French proverb hath it, in ' Beaucoup de bruit, Peu de fruit ' —big talk, little work, as we may phrase it ? Can not our well-meaning friends in the Empire City take heart of -grace, seize their courage with both hands, follow the good example that other ' Wellington Citizens ' offer them, and let their feelings blossom into action on the normal lines ? One religious school, built, staffed, and maintained by the League woutti create a deeper impression upon New Zealand than a geyser of printer's ink or a shipload of talk about far-off Shanghai or Timbuctoo. A New * Reformer ' " Some Wairoa friends send us" a copy of the ' Christian Herald ' of recent date. It contains a laudatory notice of 'Father Jeremiah Crowley, the famous Roman Catholic priest '. The Father (says the ' Herald ') is . 4

carrying on a ' crusade for the purpose of purifying the Church of which he is a rrveiruber '. The new 'reformer ' is (so at least says the ' Herald ') ' like Savonarola of old ' ; he is also ' like the Master Himself ' ; ' both Protestant and Roman Catholic pulpits have b)cen placed ajli his service '. And so on. We have twice during -the past twelve months set forth sundry facts connectef with the new ' reformer '—partly from personal recollection, partly from official documents furnished to us toy the Archbishops of Chicago and St. Paul. We may a&Vun have occasion to ' return to the unpLeaaant subject. Por the present we content ourselves with the following summary statement for the information of inquiring Northern friends. The unhappy man was excommunicated by his archbishop in Chicago while the writer of these lines was in that city in 1902. After various fortunes h© finajly dropped into the role of, itinerant No-Popery Lecturer. lie still delivers from the platforms of small halls (at ' front seats one shilling, back seats sixpence ', or thereabouts) \iolent attacks upon the faith of 'his baptism, written for him by an Amer - can hack journalist. lie is also welcomed in the pulpits of conventicles to which an onset of Billingsgate is a joy and the breath of slander sweet. But the hotheadedi itinerant is no more ' a member ' of the ' Roman Catholic Church ' than the Master of tine nearest Orange lodge. l Roman Catholic pulpits ' are no more open to him than they weie to Chiniq'uy, or than they are to the Slatteiy pair. The new ' reformer ' begins (as such 'reformers" generally do) by leforming ' the other fellow '. He does this, moreover, on a curious anid rather puzzle-headed method : not by appeals to the reason or the religious sentiments of" ' the other fellow ' but by rough and slanderous vituperation of ' the other fallow ' to ' the other fellow's ' enemies— for a consideration. These are the methods, not of Christ and His Apojstles, .but of the typical rough No-Popery barnstormer of limited mentality. Yet there axe in the poor 'ex ' under notice a few sa\ing qualities (chiefly negative), that may yet lead hin^ back to the kindly light against which he has for the time being sewn up his eyelids. As for his ' fame ' : While he was honored (more or less) in the sacrcU ministry, the people who now sound the loud timbrel a/bout him would not have gieeted ox even noticed him upon the street. When hi's services are no longer appreciated in the Church of his best days, and h|e turns in his anger to rend her, the obscure and unnqticed cleric of yesterday suddenly toecomes (to people who like that sort of thing) the ' famous ' man of to-day. And the language of eulogy is exhausted upon him. It is the old story of the poodla fighting the lion. The poo le, of course, got^ the worst of the encounter. ' But only think of it ', said the other poodles ; ' a lion attacked J ' Thjat sort of Brummagem ' fame ' is cheap and easily aaqiuired. And the lacq.ucr soon wears off the brass. ! A person ', says Dr. England, ' needs no other qualification to> write against the Roman Catholic religion than to be" so disposed ; and the abundance of the spirit becomes manifest in the vehemence of the phraseology. Little attention need be paid to facts ; circumstances need not be examined ; nor is it always necessary to have regard even to probability itself '. Catholics have no use for the cast-off ornaments of other creeds. But to some of our separated brethren an 'ex ' (on account of his happily extreme rarity) seems almost as great a treasure as the Orloff diamond. If they had only the grace to refrain from making unfair capital out of the new jewel in their casket, we should have been spared the pain of showing th>&t their diamond is merely paste. Fine Professions, Foul Practice ' Eivil ', says Lowell, 'is a far more cunning and persevering propagandist than good, for it has no inward strength, and is driven to seek countenance and

sympathy '. This' is most commonly done by fine professions that are cheap ami easy. Like Pudd'nfoead ■Wilson's maxims for ' luring youth to high moral altitudes ', they need not be gathered from practice, but merely from observation. 'To be good ', says he, 'is noble, but' to show others how to be <gocid is no^Lr, and is no trouble. In his ' Psychologic de-lAnar-chis fee-Socialist c ' (' Psychology, of the Anarchist-Social-ist ', Paris, 189&) M. Hamom, for instance, tells us that ' ioMe of liberty ', ' teiider-heartudness ', ' a feeling of justice ', ' a sense of logic ', ' love of others ',' and ' a thirst for knowle ge ' are the guiding principles of the underground fanatics who explode picrine bombs in thronged streets and ciowd'ed theatres on Cati'Un.ental Europe. Th\us, when it suits, ruthless massacre is invested with an aureole of patriotic pity — just as on Wall Street, the wholesale picking of the pockets of the poor by wheat-magnates or oil-kin^s is disguised by the euphemism of ' high finance '. Ihe aggressively atheistic Freemasonry of Continental Europe can, on occasion, assume as sweet a. political face as that of the Fair Damosel. Herein it resembles the hideous shape tliat Dante d'esqribes in the seventecii'lh chapter of his ' Inferno ' :—: — ' His face the semblance of a just man wore, So kind awl gracious was its outward cheer ; The rest was serpent all . . . The fell monster with tlrc? deadly sling. 1 * The various Grand Orients may from time to tin.c indulge in iridescent social or political catchwords or platitudes. Such bubble-blowing muy amuse the initiated and impress or mystify those outside the portals of the well-tyled lodge. But their leaders have been at pains to make it clear that, in the matter of religion, their creed is the creed of their socialist brother, the revolutionary Blan'qjui : ' M Dieu ni Mai t re ! '—'Neither God nor Master ! ' And full many a time has the woid gone forth, t-bat (in su-bstanae) their final aim is, lixe that of A'*oltaire and the Gieat Revolution, the annihilation of Catholicism ami of ' the Christian idea '. Our columns have from time lo time ,l.orne witness to the piominent and directive part taken "by the Masonic organisation during the past few ycais in the war a outiance against Christianity in France. Referring to the activity of the brethren in this regard, Mr. Algernon SarlO'ris (a non-Catholic writer) says in an article in the ' North American, Review: 1 : ' The disgraceful carefei of the Freomaisons in France po'pits to the danger of any secret society, however worthy its Oiigin may be, degenerating into a political' machine, wit/h selfish purposes uppermost ' Still, the work! of men of Gold's open day is not to be ruled for long by rats hoMinJ; council in a cellar. E\il has won', and will again win, its passing \ictories. -But a \ictory, *or even a series of vtictorics, does not necessarily constitute a conquest. A stiff dose of persecution generally acts as a tonic to the faith and' moral fibre of a people. It often teaches even those who are poltroons by nature to face death itself serenely, ( ' Or turn again to s<ta:id it. out, And those they fled, like lions rout '. The Pope (as the ' Saturday Review ' recently said) is figiMinK the battle of Christianity against aggressive atheism. And in the present war between the lodge and the Church, we have faith in the power that in more evil times stayed the invading hordes of Genseiic and Attila, saved Italy from the Lombards and the Saracens and Europe From the conquering Turk, witnessed the downfall of Napoleon, and in -our own day saw even the masterful Man of Blood and Ir On knocking at the gates of Canossa. The Meanest Controversy In his 'Democracy anl Liberty' (vol. ii, pp. 81-5) the rationalist historian Lecky says in reference to ' tne religious war ' in Fiance : ' To cut down the in-

come of an opponent is the meanest of all the forms of controversy ; and the very moderate ecclesiastical budget, which was originally given in place of the ecclesiastical property that had been taken at the Revolution, has seemed too large to the modern Republican. Between- 1883 and 1889,' adds Lecky, 'the stipends were reduced to the smallest limits. . . In everything relating to the Church the bias of the Government is displayed. The salaries of- the bishops have been .cut down to four ' hundred pounds a year— t!he sum at which they had stood in 1801— though the expenses of living have nearly doubled sinee N then. The usual funds for the support of the chapters have been withhold. Many small grants, which had for generations been made for assisting the education of poor clergy and for various forms of clerical ch.uity, have been ruthlessly suppressed.' Arjd then the noted non-Catholic historian goes on to rccoid variojs other forms of great and petty persecution that was carried on against the Catholic Faith in France when he penned these lines in 1899. Matters have moved fast and far since then. ' The religious war ' has entered v; on a more crucial stage. ' The meanest of all ths forms of controversy ' has found a form still meaner. For not alone have the salaries — the one per cent. interest on stolon ecclesiastical property, guaranteed by a solemn Concordat— been reduced : they have been swept away by one great act of national repudiation. ' The very moderate ecclesiastical budget,' to which the ' country's honor was plodgeil by treaty, has been entirely stopped ; every stick and stone and square metre of ecclesiastical property has been confiscated— the great pillage has not evrn spared so much as a iytper of pins or an iron, spoon ; the clergy have been driven out of their homes, and the faithful out of the churches in which their fathers had worshipped for ages. The Second Reign of Terrdr has set sacrilegious hands on much that even the first had spaied. The American ' Ecclesiastical Review ' states that the number of priests -deprived of their homes and incomes by the so-called Separation, Law is (according to the official statistics of lasi year) 41,721. Seventeen of these are archbishops, whose allowance (on account of the Church property confiscated during the Revolution) was about £8(0 ; 67 were bishops, with allowances of less than £100 each ; nearly all of the remainder were parish priests (whose ' traitement ' varied from about £60— the highest*— to about £40 a year), a>nd assistants, who received from about £50 to £18 per annum. And what does the Radical-Socialist ' Bloc ' or ' machine ' offer to France as compensation for the wholesale proscription, plunder, and persecution .of the past six years ? The answer is supplied by Mr- Algernon Sartoris, a non-Catholic writer, in an article in the ' North American Review ' on ' The War against Christianity in France ' : ' Simply to save the money which used to be spent by the State in upholding not only the Roman Catholic, 'but alto the Frotestant and Jewish creeds, by the suppression of the Budget of Public Worship, and thus to lessen the burdens of taxation I The. legislators,' adds Mr. Sartoris, ' begin their economies with singular -unanimity by voting an increase in their own salaries from $ 1750 (£350) per annum to ?3OUO \£6oo).' We wonder what Lecky, if he were still in the la<nd of the living, would say to this refinement of ' the meanest of all the forms of controversy ?' The economists of the ' Bloc ' remind us of the red-hot republican in ' Lothair ' who was also a landowner and duke. 'He was ' (says Disraeli) ' opposed to all privilege, indeed to all orders of men— except dukes, who were a necessity. He was also in favor of the equal .division of all property— except land.' Ah, well : political consistency's a Koh-i-noor. And Koh-i-noors are too precious for everyday wear— especially in a land where the Government itself is so busy with its new role of

burglar and pickpocket that it has not time to protect the public from the cut-throals and the tribe of unofficial magsinen and other criminals that are having a run of unexampled tranquility in their work. France's Sole Established Church Things are not always what they seem. According to Article 11. of the Frcn.h Separation Law, ' the Republic recognises, salaries, and, subventions no religion.' But (says Mr.- Brodhead in his just-published ' Religious Persecution in France, IDOI-1806,' ' pp. 183-4),. this must not be taken literally. For this law is ' made against thirty-five million French Catholics,' and 'is not applicable to six million Mohammedans of Algeria. Their mosques, their ulemas, their schools and congregations will continue to be supported by the Republic which neither recognises nor supports any religion. This is just, seeing .that the Third Republic took all their ecclesiastical property, promising annual subsidies instead, just as the Jacobins of 1790 did with regard to the Catholics— only in the latter case the capital appropriated is retained, while the charge is repudiated. Meanwhile Islamism is the State religion of France, ipso facto— the only one whose ceremonies and mosques are honored by Government officials on solemn occasions. Shades of Godfrey de Bouillon and St. Louis !' •