Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 27 January 1910, Page 143

Notes

The Confessional and Public Morals Although one rarely hears nowadays the silly stories regarding the confessional that were once in vogue, it is none the less useful for Catholics to be able to point to high expert evidence in refutation of the old prejudiced notions. A Catholic doctor Dr. J. C. McWalter, M.A. — points out that the most recent work on Heredity and Morals by a non-Catholic writer (Dr. Scott), published by Appleton, London, 1908, says when discussing certain subjects, page 275: ‘ The private, spiritual and hygienic directions which are given in the “confessionals” by men who are usually intelligent and saintly are undoubtedly of great value to certain classes of people who are incapable of judging rightly for themselves.’ And again: ‘ln fairness to the Roman Church it must be said to its glory that its women rarely resort to this crime (abortion), the priests giving the soundest of teaching to their parishioners on these vital points.’ Further, on page 276: ‘The Special Committee on criminal abortion believes that if the Protestant clergy would properly present the subject to their congregations . . . the crime would soon become as rare amongst the Protestant as the Catholic women. But these clergy claimed to be ignorant on the subject. They must therefore be instructed and urged on to their duties.’ Dr. McW alter adds that every twentieth century writer on the topic of public morals lays down as the ideal practice what has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church —marriage or chastity although most of these scientists are professed unbelievers. Germany and the Congo We have referred elsewhere to the fact that the other Powers interested in the Congo do not assume that hectoring attitude towards Belgium for which England has been so unpleasantly conspicuous, and the terms in which the administration of the great Belgian colony has been referred to in the German Reichstagas reported in late Horae filesconfirm our statement. The Times’ correspondent states that the German Foreign Secretary ‘ barely referred to the question .of. humanitarian reforms,’ and that in regard to the Belgian Government’s recent promulgated scheme of reform he said that ‘ he was glad to welcome it as representing a fulfilment of treaty rights, which, if loyally carried out, would contribute to the welfare of the population and realise freedom of commerce in the Congo Basin for all nations. The full significance of the proposals could, not, however, at present be judged, and he could not express himself definitely upon this question.’ * As showing the sense in which this utterance was accepted, and as further indicating the general feeling of the Reichstag on the subject, we quote also from the speech of Baron von Hertling, in which the speaker takes precisely the attitude which we have described as the obviously fair one. Speaking in the name of the great Centre Party Baron von Hertling said: ‘lf in this connection I think of the Congo question I desire that Germany should not he taken in tow by a certain section of the English press, which conducts uninterruptedly a campaign against the Belgian Government for the purpose of pursuing totally different aims under the pretence of humanity. The present Belgian Government cannot be held responsible for. the evil conditions which now exist in the Congo Free State. On the contrary, the Belgian Government have elaborated a programme of reforms which they are determined to carry out, and it is our duty , to wait and see how this will be done.’ An Anti-Catholic Paper in Trouble - The Catholic Church and its ecclesiastical persons and institutions are at all times fair subject for fair comment, and when opponents observe the laws of chivalrous combat it is possible to thresh out differences without any dimi-

nution of mutual esteem. But for the man or the paper which plays the part of Mr. Facing-both-ways, and flatters you one week only to slander you the next, it is impossible to have the smallest feeling of respect. Papers which set themselves to pursue this see-saw policy are always in danger of striking trouble, and one of the latest apparently to find itself in pickle is the San Francisco Examiner . Hie following remarks, taken from an article in the San Irancisco Argonaut chuckling over the troubles of the Examiner, explain themselves: * ‘ But perhaps funnier than all is that paroxysm of enthusiasm for the Youths’ Directory, that sudden and passionate outburst of .sympathy for Father Crowley which just now animates tlie pages of the Examiner. By a series of curious lapses or accidents this exponent of the principle of all things to all men has, during the past year or two, gotten itself into bad odor with the Catholic Church. The incidents are many, but a few will suffice: There were the Elbert Hubbard articles with their ribald reflections upon things sacred, and especially upon things Catholic. Then there were the Barcelonian riots, with which the Examiner in its sympathy with labor unionism and other elements of downtrodden and advertisementreading humanity forgot that in blasting the. Spanish Government it was doing offence to the Catholic Church. There have been other things in the same linethings in which the Examiner has through the stumbling of its young men gotten on the wrong foot in its dealings with matters and things allied with Catholicism. Father Yorke, in his mild way, called attention to these matters from week to week in the Leader, and finally the Monitor, which conceals a hand of iron in a glove of velvet, said a plain say or two with respect to the Examiner and the Catholic laity. The result, so it has been gossiped, took the form of a tremendous fall-off in the Examiner’s subscription-list among Catholic and wage-earning elements. The Chronicle and Call have profited largely through the resentment of Catholics in San Francisco against the Examiner . Indeed, these papers have profited to such a degree that it has been whispered about among advertisers that the Examiner is no longer the great and only “medium” South-of-Market that it has been for many years. And so, feeling the pinch of Catholic resentment, the Examiner has been casting about for means whereby it might win back the favor of its old-time Catholic readers.’