Catholic Disabilities

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 20, 20 May 1909, Page 22

Catholic Disabilities

The Evening Star (Dunedin) of Monday, May 17, describes ' certain Catholic disabilities ' (which Mr. W. Redmond's Bill — now shelved — sought to remove) as ' the irritating and belated survivals of a semi-savage age.' ' There are not wanting signs,' adds our contemporary, ' that no future Monarch . of England will be called upon at his accession to take an oath which was deliberately couched in the most offensive terms possible, and purposely intended by its authors to wound and insult. The Protestant succession, in these days of large-hearted charity, humanitarian sentiment, and the preaching of universal brotherhood, can be secured, as Mr. Asquith sensibly suggests, without calling upon the Monarch to insult the religious faith of millions of his most loyal and honored subjects. That there are bigoted, bitter, and unpleasant Catholics is only to say that among tens of millions of people of the one faith there are many who possess the least admirable passions of ordinary humanity. , But the highest and best) Protestant religious thought to-day has absolutely no sympathy with attacks upon or tirades against Roman Catholicism as a form of religious faith. . .. We shall be glad to hear that the Prime Minister's suggestion to appoint a committee to draw up an inoffensive form of declaration has been given effect to. That now on the Statute Books, along with other "brands," should go the way of the old penal laws, the rack, the ducking-stool, the whippingpost, and the stocks.'