The Press and the Congress

New Zealand Tablet, 7 October 1909, Page 1582

The Press and the Congress

Kind words, as the old saw has it, butter no parsnips, but the practice of mutual courtesy and respect, even if it brings no tangible benefit, at least serves to - keep the social machine in good order, and to make the wheels of life go more sweetly and smoothly for all concerned. We do not expect our secxilar contemporaries to agree with all the opinions expressed or decisions arrived at at the recent Congress, but it -is not too much to look for that our leading journals should recognise the gathering as a weighty and important one, and that in discussing 'its utterances there should be shown some largeness of view and some superiority to mere petty prejudice and parochial narrowness. The attitude which a high-minded and public-spirited journal might be reasonably and fairly expected to assume towards such' a representative Catholic gathering, is admirably illustrated by a leaderette in a Wellington contemporary, the Dominion. -

Says our contemporary: ' The present is an age of conferences and congresses — commercial, political, social, religious — and the latest, though certainly not the least interesting, is the Australasian Catholic Congress now being held in Sydney. When it is borne in mind that the Roman Catholic Church is the largest religious body in the Christian world, it becomes evident that the carefully-weighed pronouncements of its leading representative men on some

of the most difficult intellectual, social, and religious problems of the day must be "of exceptional interest to all thoughtful' people even though they may differ very widely from- many of the opinions expressed. The Sydney Congress is all the more important from a New Zealand point of view by .reason of the fact that the Roman' Catholics of this. Dominion are represented by Archbishop Reclwood and other leading men, one 'of whom has read a paper on the question of religious education. The" majority of the people of this colony are opposed' to the principle of the claims and policy of the Roman Catholic Church on this matter, but few will withhold their admiration for the great sacrifices its people have made, and are making, in order to provide an education system on lines which they feel to be the best. They have shown their sincerity in this matter by the Heavy burden which they have voluntarily placed upon themselves for the support of their schools. It is a remarkable thing that while this great Church has lost ground of late years in France, Spain, and Italy, it has made a vigorous recovery in such progressive countries as Germany, Switzerland, the United States^ and Australasia. It has its external and internal troubles, yet owing to its splendid organisation it is able to cope with difficulties with wonderful effectiveness^ and it exercises a powerful influence even in communities where its adherents are comparatively few. As Professor Kruger, of Giessen — who is not a Roman Catholic, and who writes purely as an historian — points out in his recent book on the Papacy, " To-day Rome is still a world-power. . . The spirits of .the great Popes still walk the world, and will continue to walk as long as there is a Roman Catholic Church.'-' '