OUR DUTY TO THE CATHOLIC PRESS

New Zealand Tablet, 17 March 1910, Page 412

OUR DUTY TO THE CATHOLIC PRESS

Speaking .before a large Catholic gathering in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, on January 24 (says the London Tablet), Father Bernard Vaughan said that Catholics in this country do not seem to have fully grasped the power of the press. The press shapes and moulds modern democracy. It makes our laws, forms our minds, influences our character. It is the teacher who is always teaching, the preacher who is always preaching, the Parliament which is always sitting. It is the great medium for the circulation of ideas. It used to be said: If you want to* spread an idea, telephone, telegraph, or tell a woman.’ A much more effective way is to tell the press. There are various bodies of men in England who have got hold, as they think, of great and beneficial Nonconformists, Socialists, Rationalists, political parties, Social-Reformers. They know the power of the press. They tell the press, and the consequence is that their ideas get poured over the democracy in torrents and affect the popular mind and, the popular will. We Catholics have got hold of. the greatest and most beneficial of ideas. But we do not ‘ tell the press ’ —with the result that those ideas are not brought before the nation. Yet those ideas are the ideas which the nation needs most of all if it is to be saved from the decadence of paganism towards which it would seem to be rushing. We have The Best of All Messages to deliver, and we do not deliver it. The Catholic Church, which has built up European civilisation, is still the beacon light by which nations must steer if they are to avoid shipwreck. We are all of us concerned to keep that light shining. Yet we neglect the press, that mighty flash lamp which might diffuse it. The Catholic Church is the City of God set upon the hill. Let us put lamps in our windows so that the stumbling wayfarers in the valley beneath may be drawn by their brilliancy. We are too apt to keep the light for our domestic parochial illumination. We pull down the blinds. • The wayfarer is left to grope his way in exterior darkness. The Catholic Church is not limited to your parish. Cardinal Newman’s message to Catholics in England was that they / should force and compel men to look at the Church: ‘ Oblige men to know you persuade them, importune :them, shame them into knowing you. Make. it so clear what you are that they cannot affect not, to see you, nor refuse to justify you. Wherever Catholicism is known it is respected, or at least endured by the people. . . A religion which comes from God approves itself to the conscience of ; the people -wherever it is really known (‘ Present Position,’ last lecture).

Let your light shine before men’ —by example, by charitable word and deed, by holy living. Yes, hut let it shine before them, too, through the medium of the Catholic press, -for in that way it will reach thousands who will never see you nor listen to your spoken word. ; What would not I give to have the whole world for an audience as I have to give it a message from God Himself? • * ■ r We Catholics in England have to contend against a blizzard of misrepresentation, calumnies, lies. 1^ 1 Popular prejudice against us gets embodied in penal legislation, in unjust action, in unfair treatment, in studied misrepresentation. Let us not be content to protest against penal laws, to repudiate slanders, to repel unjust deeds. Let us meet the evil at its source, and enlighten the prejudiced minds • which have issued in injustice. Many ! of those who attack us are well-meaning men who are swayed by ignorance or else steeped in prejudice. They attack not us hue a figment of their own imagination. Make it clear to them what you are, what you believe, and why you believe .it; compel them to see the beauty of Catholic doctrine. This is a point on which Leo XIII. much insisted in my last audience with him. Oh! the splendor veri. Some, I know, there are who are so embittered that they will not be brought to see the truth. But the searchlight of the Catholic press, if it cannot be made to attract them, will at least diminish their power to injure and revile us. It can show up their injustice in the eyes of all right-thinking fellow-men. It can make the issues plain, and prevent those aggressive revilers from poisoning the public wells of knowledge. The Pope and the Journalist. The Catholic press! It is our great weapon if we but knew it. The present Pope knows it. Pius X. once took the stylograph out of the hands of a Catholic journalist, kneeling at his feet, and blessed it with these words: ‘I bless the symbol of your office. My predecessors used to consecrate the swords and armor of Christian warriors. I am happy to draw down blessings on the pen of a Christian journalist.’ Ignore, neglect the power of the press, and you are undone. Let me give you one example of such neglect and its consequences. In 1875 the President-General of the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul in France warned, the committee that the support of the Catholic press was being neglected in France, and that as a result their religious communities would be expelled, and their charitable institutions and schools confiscated. He further told this to explain to the people the need of an apostolate of the press. Behold here an object-lesson. . Practical, Suggestions. ’ What form is this apostolate to take? < What have we got to do here in England to-day? Let me offer you some practical suggestions. In the first place I would ask you to attach the greatest importance to the Catholic press. Labor to promote it. Take a personal interest in it. Do not regard it with a cold critical eye as something which does not concern you. Regard it as a family affair, a matter which touches you closely, a business in which you are, or ought to be, involved. Nay, I would have you regard it as an extension of your own Catholic personality, your message to the de- . mocracy, the picture of yourself thrown on the public screen. See to it that the picture is not unworthy of you. Make sure that true Catholicism is presented to the world through the medium of your press. Be loyal to your press and your . press will be loyal to you. Show your best side to your press and your press will show your best side to the world. Our Catholic side is this best side. Do not be for ever criticising the Catholic press. Do not disparage those Catholic newspapers with whose political opinions you may happen to disagree. The majority of the Catholic newspapers in Europe represent some political opinion. It is a necessity of the time that they should do so. But remember that they are not mere political papers. They are Catholic as well. Do not hastily accuse . them' of wanting in Catholic spirit because they do not ? reflect your own political opinions. Wish them well for their Catholicism, and leave their politics alone, or should you find one paper too Irish and another too English, take both and strike the difference. It would be a sorry sight to see the editors of Catholic newspapers harpooning one another instead of directing their weapons against the enemies of the Church, against tyranny and injustice, against racial and social wrongs. Let the rivalry between our various Catholic papers be a friendly rivalry, a generous rivalry. We all stand together upon the high platform of the Catholic Church. Is. not that enough to lead us to sink our minor differences? Let us join hands and we shall be invincible. Till we do so we must be content to remain a negligible quantity. Let me illustrate this by the recent history of the Catholic press in Austria, the story of which was well told a few months ago by my friend, Father , Charles Plater, S.J. . A few years ago there were only two Catholic newspapers in Vienna. One was what we should call High Tory. * The other might be described as Radical. Now . for ten years these two newspapers devoted all their ener- ’ gies to attempting to cut one another’s throats. The consequence was that neither of them succeeded in defending the Catholic interests which were menaced by a powerful

anti-Catholic press. All that they did was to split the Catholic population into two acrimonious factions. In 1905 a few. Catholics became aware of: the fact that this policy was ; suicidal. They held a great meeting :in Vienna, and resolved to , forget their feud and to support the two existing newspapers in Vienna, and the other Catholic papers in the provinces. ' Keep your ; politics if you will,' they said. For the sake of your Catholicism we will support you both.' That great association, the Fiuaverein, was founded —named after the present Pope, who sent a brief of encouragement. To-day it numbers oyer 100,000 members, each paying a small annual subscription. .Catholic newspapers are subsidised impartially, and their circulation has gone up by leaps and bounds. Mi They are now a great power in the country. Each goes -on' its own political line without interference. f But all are helped by Catholics for the sake of their Catholicism. I regard that incident as a noble and generous manifestation of the Catholic spirit. Sink political differences, foster the Catholic spirit, and go forward inspired by faith and enthusiasm for the great cause.