The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1908. CATHOLIC DISABILITIES, 1909

New Zealand Tablet, 31 December 1908, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1908. CATHOLIC DISABILITIES, 1909

TOfir^ HE epigraph to Bancroft's History of the rj!f \\Ml United States runnetli thus: ' Westward the VPf S ?^x° f - e ™P iro takes its way.' This is a ■CliLt f^Sbt variant on Bishop Berkeley's famous ..tfcS^K -me:i ne: y« stward tlie course of empire takes S^a-IsC TW, But a great di Plom»t has recently »t!X3w !? d *? at the course of em Pire is turning to X y e™ c awakening East, and that the world-centre W of the coming time will not be in- London, or New lork, but in the Distant Orient. However that maybe with the shifting course of empire, the pathway of religious liberty seems to be shifting to tho Last. Japan extends a wide measure of tolerance and protection to the religious beliefs, both Christian and nonChristian, within its borders. China has, during the year which as we write, is flickering out, placed the full toleration of Christianity . upon a standing that gives -promise of permanency. And even in the realm of' £ the unspeakable Turk' the Catholic faith enjoys a measure of freedom that is unknown to it in sundry Western lands thab boast or the hlcrty and the progress to which they have attained .^uch are the conditions that prevail at the dawn of 1909 and almost at the close of the first decade of t*ie century of radium and Hertzian waves and air-slups and flying machines. * In France an active and bitter persecution of Christ! tin faith and practice is still being waged by an official atheism that is dressed with a little brief authority. In. the J? 1 " c f^Sdom Catholics are still penalised, because of their faith, m certain public employments; the religious Orders suffer under various odious disabilities: and there still smudges the statute-book, at the dawn of 1909 that 'relic of barbarism,' the accession oath, which binds the' Sovereign to single out for calumny and insult the Catholic faith, alone of all the ten thousand creeds within his far-flung Empire. Catholic Emancipation has left sundry rags and tatters of the old Penal Code still hanging *° S l6 B^-iiish statute-book. In like manner, the repealv t 1 ll . ( :.> ult £ urkam P f . m Germany has left many grinding disabilities from which our co-religionists in .that Empire will still be suffering m the opening days of 1909. To this"' hour Jesuits, Lazarists, .and members of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart are alike forbidden by law to teach to preach, to conduct missions, or to exercise in any wav the functions of the sacred ministry. <In Prussia,' says the American Messenger for November (pp. 506-7) <r e hgious communities of Sisters may not be' established Ti. ™- -i & c , onse " t '" f the Minister of the Interior and the Minister for Public Worship; nay, more, .the authorities insist on being informed once a year of the status ?\ ce IQTyl QT y convent, nor are the inmates free from State interference. The kindergartens and working 1 men's homes may not receive non-Catholics, while PrStestan* mstitnY tions of the same kind are free from such restrictions It is true that most of the Orders and .Congregations' aw tolerated m Prussia; but tlmr existence is precarious because of the law that empowers the king to suppress : theui Jy a stroke of the pen. In many other German States the position of the Church is even worse. The constitu tion of Saxony forbids the founding of new convents and J excludes all Orders and Congregations that have "no estab-

lisliments. in that conntry. Sisters who deypte tliemselves V exclusively to education or the care of 'the sick may perform their, work of charity and self-sacrifice, but only as individuals and under tho supervision of the Government. Up to to this day no, Orders of. men can be established in Wiirttemberg or Baden. In Mecklenburg tho Government claims the right to decide whether any religious services, such as the Mass, are necessary in places where no parishes are erected. In Braunschweig the Catholic priests are not allowed to exercise any sacred function without leave of the authorities. In emergency cases, for the administration of the last Sacraments, the prefect of the district can give tlie necessary permission. An outsider cannot even say a low Mass in the presence of a congregation, no matter how small it may be., without permission from the highest authorities of the little Duchy.' All this is confirmed by the facts set forth in a paper read by Herr Marx,- at the Dusseldorf Congress, on 'Tho Present Situation of German Catholics. 5 We may add that the approval of two Cabinet Ministers is necessary for the opening of a new house by a Catholic Sisterhood— but not by a Protestant one. Moreover, a simple Order in Council suffices to suppress any convent or other establishment conducted by Catholic religious — but not by a Protestant Sisterhood. In Prussia a Catholic church may not be built without the permission of the Government- - a permission which is at times refused under circumstance of great hardship to our co-religionists. ' For more than sixteen years,' says the German correspondent of tho Philadelphia Catholic Standard of October 17, 'the Bishop - of Hildesheim has been negotiating with the ducal Government of Brunswick regarding permission to hold divine service in a town of the ducliy in which there are actually resident more than six hundred Catholics. After much " most humble petitioning," etc., the Government has "graciously" decreed that divine service may be held four times a year in the said town, the days to be fixed by tho authorities at a future date.' ' And one by one in turn, some grand mistake Casts off its bright skin yearly, like the snake.' So, too, in Germany the penal disabilities of Catholics art being, one by one, cast off through the energising action of tho Centre Party. The principle of religious toleration, though denied with brutal frankness by the atheist rulers of France, is theoretically acknowledged by the. great body of the legislators of Great Britain and Germany. Tlie steady growth of a more reasonable legislative mind and of a more placid legislative temper will, no doubt, bring about the early removal of the religious disabilities which arc at present a blot upon parliamentary institutions in Germany and Great Britain. And this is a consummation most devoutly to bo wished.