Sighing for Persecution

New Zealand Tablet, 20 August 1908, Page 10

Sighing for Persecution

-'Bigotry,' said O'Connell, 'has no head and cannot think, no heart and -cannot feel. When she moves; it is. in wrath; when she pauses, it is amidst ruin; her prayers- are curses, her God is a demon A her communion is death. '- This is a dark picture to draw.- But O'Connell saw at work", in all its fell fury, the bigotry which described. One of its forms exists, and, maintains a. baleful, though diminished,- activity to our day. We- refer to the association, of the saffron sash, - The spirit which moves -it is sufficiency, indicated -by the : - oath. . which every 'brother: is required tortake, on bended;knees,. and folding- the Bible in hjs hands, when he is initiated -into • the first oe~ Orange degree. By .that-,oath< he. binds himself never- t6" vote -for^a Catholic at any Parliamentary or municipal election. - it reprc--sents-the ..dream of the organisation 1 to restore the Penal ■ Code and. make the profession of .the Catholic faith*. a legal bar to Parliamentary and municipal life,- as- it. was in the 'good 'old days! before /-that .fatal error".' (as . the- • brethren: - calf it)" was perpetrated, and • the Emancipation r Act nwas placed upon •-the", statute-book.' . . • - . -» -„ _ - , . . That -well-known oath, however, is usually, for prudentialreasons, kept rather, in the background r among the outer- fringe ' of . the arcana or secrets of the welUtyled" hidge. „At times, however, the Orange press and indiscreet members of the" lodge, -throw aside rhc thin veil of reserve which is usually thrown" loosely over ■ the brethren's first- oath. Thus, - at a -recent celebration at" Mudgee (New South Wales) one of the ■ brethren (Mr.. Varney Parkcs, M.L.A.) frankly and publicly admitted that his object and that of his association was the exclusion of every. Catholic from Parliamentary life. Here is, in part, . has- profession of political faith, as reported in the S 3 dne y papers. ' With regard to politics, said, he, 'there was a great work to be "done by the Orange bodies. It should be part of the -work of the-Orang-lodges to watch the general trend of politics.- -In Nev^Soufh' Wales they should fight for a Protestant Parliament " That should be the only objective at present, and it should --continuel;f h UU t le y \ ?d <**•* what they, sought. -Protestantsshould be ready to bury every other issue before, them at- present,WhenT" U ?h tiU , Uiey hVXI a "P Urel --- P^^t J ?arHam«TtWhen they got that they could support tha.JSawmnent or the Oppoß,t,on «l,ke, for the sustenance of Protesjant .interests would be assured of .whoever should', hold- -the -reins of Government. In Parliament there should always be- a Governjnent to formulate measures, and .an ' Opposition " to ST better measures. At the present, time, as,a results *rote££ ' Roman C7V™ ,* °^ th^ sstion w^ Roman Catholics. It. was the bounden duty of every ■ Orance- • mar, o work persistently, for a Protestant Parliament." Heft