Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 1 December 1910, Page 1963

Current Topics

The * Special Correspondent * Again It was Artemus Ward, we think, who remarked that Shakespeare wouldn’t have succeeded as a newspaper correspondent because he ‘ lacked the requisite imagination.’ Certainly in point of inventiveness and exuberant fancifulness, the present-day ‘ special correspondent ’ —especially where ‘ Roman nows.’ and happenings are in question would leave the immortal William far behind. The other day the Milan correspondent of the Daily Chronicle announced, with the most circumstantial and minute detail, that the Pope as about ‘to promulgate a decree altering the law which ordains that those about to receive Holy Communion must fast from the previous midnight.’ ‘ Impressed by the grave inconveniences both to clergy and laity attending this custom,’ said this sapient scribe, ‘ especially in the not uncommon case of a priest having to celebrate a late Mass up to midday, or of communicants in a weak state of health, Pius X. 'abolishes the old law. The Pope permits priests a light meal if taken three or four hours, or sufficient time for digestion, before the celebration of the Mass, while the fasting for the Catholic laity is reduced to a period of six hours before receiving the Holy Eucharist.’ There was not a syllable of truth in the statement; and immediately on its appearance the Osscrvatore liomano gave it an explicit and emphatic contradiction..

Another 'well-informed' correspondentthis time in the Saturday Review —comes forward with the still more sensational announcement that: 'A rumor is current in Rome at the present time that if the anti-clerical demonstrations become more violent and frequent during the coming year, which is to be devoted to a series of festivities, commemorations, congresses, etc., the spirit of which is directed against both the temporal and the spiritual aspects of the Papacy, his Holiness will, on the invitation of the Emperor of Austria, retire from Rome and take refuge in Tyrol, whilst the German and Austrian Embassies will keep the Vatican until this jubilee of freethought," as Signor Nathan [Mayor of Rome] calls it, is elided.' It has been said by a great Cardinal: 'Read what you can of the. special correspondents' accounts of what is going on in Rome; believe the exact opposite, and you will be somewhere near the truth.' The Cardinal's method is evidently the one to apply in the cases we have just quoted. |

Mr Asquith’s Pledge Up to the time of writing the cables have had nothing further to say regarding the alleged anxiety in Ireland about the absence of a definite pledge in the Prime Minister’s speech at the National Liberal Club. For our own part, we have never had any very confident faith in Mr, Asquith’s ‘ pledges ’ —any more than in those of any other politician. Our real hope for the realisation of Home Rule rests, not on the pie-crust promises of politicians, but chiefly on the fighting power and voting power of Mr. John Redmond and his trusty followers. Taking such pledges, however, for what they are worth, Mr. Asquith certainly gave a. very definite undertaking on the subject of Home Rule in his speech at the Royal Albert Hall on the eve of the last general election; and from Home exchanges just to hand we gather that we were right in our surmise that Mr. Redmond was relying on that assurance. In a speech delivered at a great meeting in Limerick last September the Irish leader said : ‘ I say that with common prudence we can extract Home Rule from the present Constitutional crisis. 1 don’t base my opinions on the intention of the Government, upon any unknown irresponsible person; I have them on the declaration of the Prime Minister himself, and who, at the most solemn moment of his life, just at the eve of the general election, when for the first time as Prime Minister he was appealing for the fullest support of the English masses, he solemnly declared that the policy of himself and his party and his Government was — not Devolution, not a new Councils Bill, but free legislative and executive control by the Irish people of purely Irish affairs.’

As to the immediate future, Mr. Redmond sounded a very confident note. ' That,' he continued, ' was the great issue to be decided, when they, were making up their minds to support or to oppose the Irish Party. He repeated what he said that day fortnight in Kilkenny, that in three months from now they would be engaged in either of these two ways: They would be engaged in discussing the details of a scheme agreed to by both parties in England to so modify or destroy the power of the House of Lords that Home Rule could bo carried in spitfJ of }t, or else the

Conference would have disappeared, and /they would bo engaged in one of the most momentous Constitutional crises of the last 200 years, and they would be going in'with their ranks well dressed and their hearts confidents that the new general election would, as he confidently believed, result in a defeat for the House of Lords, and'would mean the instant and certain destruction of their power, followed by Home Rule for Ireland.' [Since the foregoing was in type the cables have intimated that Mr. Asquith has formally renewed his Albert Hall assurance.] ' £

Grange and Qreen : A Hopeful Sign Those familiar with Irish affairs and the history of the Irish question are well aware that religious bigotry has no foothold south of the Boyne, and finds congenial soil only in the Unionist districts of Ulster. This was amply demonstrated some short time ago by Mr. J. McVeagh, M.P., who, in the course of a lengthy speech, brought forward ■’ unanswerably conclusive evidence on the point. ‘ Ours,’ he said, ‘is no sectarian movement, and we certainly have no desire to pull down one ascendancy in order to erect another on its ruins, or to do the slightest injury to . the denomination that gave to the service of Catholic Ireland Protestant leaders like Emmet, Fitzgerald, Wolfe Tone, McCracken, Davis, Butt, Parnell, and dozens of others whose memories are cherished and whose names are; still reverently spoken in every Irish home. No Nationalist, in selecting a representative for Parliament or for any local body, over thinks of asking a candidate at what altar he worships, and in the Irish Party to-day many of our most honored colleagues arc different in religious faith from the men who,elected them, and are the representatives of overwhelming Catholic constituencies. The veteran and respected Mr. Samuel Young sits for East Cavan; Captain Donelan, one of the most popular men in the present-Par-liament, represents a Cork division Mr. William Abraham also represents the “Rebel County”; Mr. Jeremiah Jordan, a Methodist of the Methodists, has been chosen to represent in turn several Catholic constituencies; Mr.'; Edward Blake was received with open arras by the Catholics of Longford, who have now parted with him with deep sorrow; Mr. Hugh Law has been “persecuted” by the Catholics of Donegal as relentlessly as our friend Mr. Swift Macncil; and Mr. Guyson can tell you about the “ bigotry ” of the City of the Tribes. I often wonder whether the men who profess these idle and unworthy fears ever really entertain them, but it may not be amiss if to-day, standing upon a County Down platform, I point out to those who differ from us how absurd their suspicions arc.’

Even in Ulsternotwithstanding the wild words of the Ulster Unionist Council, chronicled in this week's cables there has been for some time past steadily growing evidence that bigotry is breaking down, and that the Homo Rule bogey has no longer any terrors for intelligent Protestants. The latest testimony is that afforded by the proceedings at the Protestant Church Conference held in Belfast on Tuesday, October 11. The Protestant Bishop of Down and Connor (Dr. Crozier), in the course of his presidential address, dealing with the question of Church unity, pointed out that: ' Catholics and ;. Protestants united on the platform of various philanthropic and literary associations; Catholic and Protestant Bishops, with Presbyterian Moderator and Methodist President, shared in the crusade to abolish two plague spots on the Dublin road. Orange bandsmen on the 12th of July silenced the flute and the drum while marching past the Catholic hospital in the Crumlin road, and the MotherSuperior wrote them a letter of thanks for their courteous consideration.' The Rev. Canon Flewett, Mallow, bore similar testimony. ' He had read,' he said, ' from time to time very dismal letters pointing out what would happen to the Church in the South and West of Ireland if Home Rule were granted. It was assumed in those letters that they were so few and so feeble that a little puff of persecution would blow them into nothingness. They might be few, comparatively speaking; they refused to be classed among the feeble. . . The Protestants were less opposed to Home Rule because all the evil they anticipated from it they had already experienced as the result of the introduction of local self-government.' ' If we get Home Rule,' proceeded Canon Flewett, ' I do not anticipate any dire disaster to the Church in the South; and I am glad to bear testimony to the kindly consideration and the cordial generosity which have always been extended to me by Catholic neighbors in the County Cork. I cannot believe that this happy relationship would be altered under a Homo Rule Government. What we do fear is that some stupid Government will arise and impose upon us a bogus Home Rule, which, will not satisfy Nationalist - aspirations, and which will ; only plunge the country, into Another period of unrest and. unsettlemont,'

Protestants and Modernist Professors When the Holy Father, some short time ago, prescribed certain disciplinary regulations to guard against the dissemination of Modernism as we have already shown in these columns, is at bottom a form of Agnosticism or Rationalism, varying in virulence from a vague and dreamy Deism to the coarse atheism of an Ingersoll or a McCabe — his Holiness became the butt for the usual amount of cheap and shallow criticism. Such convenientbut ques-tion-begging—epithets as ‘obscurantism/ ‘ reaction,’ etc., were flung freely at him, and he was represented as being the open and avowed enemy of ‘progress.’ Apparently there is only too much need for every preventive measure that can be applied; for, according to the Corrcspondancx t/c Koine , there is still going on—under the shadow of, but not, of course, from within, the Catholic Church —a secret propaganda of Modernism, even after all the condemnations of the Holy Father. According to the Curvespovdunce dc Home, ‘ the papers have announced that a secret meeting of the Modernists has recently been held at Lugano, and that it is proposed to found two scholarships to be given each year to two young seminarists obliged by their bishops to give up their studies on account of Modernist tendencies.

. . . Means have been discussed for introducing into the seminaries Modernist books, tracts, and reviews, and for uniting more and more solidly the various groups of Modernists. As regards scholarships, several of them are already being paid to young clerics to enable them to frequent Catholic institutes of learning so that they may act there as agents of the Modernist centre, send it reports concerning the lessons, the influence of this or that professor,' etc. The Correspondance knows the names of some of these young men, so it is safe to assume that their career at Catholic Universities will not be a lengthy one.

But what we wished to point out was that those of our Protestant friends who still profess some definite belief in Christian revelation are coming to see that the Holy Father was right, and that Modernism is a menace, not to Catholicism only, but to all religion. The ' World's Congress of Free Christianity' which was held at Berlin recently, has moved the Prussian Evangelical Church to register a formal protest against Modernist teaching, and against the way -in which Protestant chairs of theology are being utilised for the purpose of propagating the evil. The protest is thrown into the form of two resolutions, as follows:—' I. The profession of faith of the Evangelical Church is, and will remain, the profession of faith in tho Triune God, who as Father has created the world, as Son has redeemed it, and as Holy Spirit has sanctified it. A Church which recedes from that profession ceases to be a Christian Church. We, therefore, utter a decisive protest against the attempt of the ' Congress of Free Christianity ' to promote in religious life a reversion to a non-Christian faith, and in theology a tendency to rationalism. We maintain that it is the sacred duty of faithful Evangelicals to remain in that ancient and perennial profession of faith and to go forward always most energetically in defence v*'i More it devolves upon the organs of the Evangelical Church as a matter of duty and out of their love tor Christian society, to watch over the maintenance of that faith in the Church and in the school. 2. In view of the profession of faith of the Evangelical Church and of the religions and moral life of our parishes, rooted in the Word of God, we cannot in justice permit that the chair of the professors of theology be shared equally by liberals and positivists, as is demanded. But since in the actual state or things in the governmental institutions of learning the organs of the Church have no decisive influence, wo ought at least to exact for the students of theology, in the interests of conscience, and in the interest of the community that they may be guided in evcrv University bv ordinary professors who are faithful to'the Confession. We are bound in conscience to demand this, especially as the Congress or Free Christianity, held under the direction of German professors, has shown how the progressist theology leads to the rum of the Church and the Christian Lfl if •♦ V S ,7" that dogmatic Protestantism-what is left of it-should at least register its protest: it is only to be regretted that it should be so utterly unable to give any effect to its resolutions. b

The Jesuits as Educators . A North Island correspondent has drawn our attention to a glaring misstatement which somehow crept into the senes of ‘Pater’s Chats with the Boys/ contributed weekly to the Otago IT itness. Pater’ was dealing with Portugal • and in a reference to education he made the following quotation . The Jesuits obtained control of the national education and carefully checked intellectual development ’ We have looked up ‘ Pater’s ’ articles on Portugal, and'we are

bound to acknowledge the studiously moderate tone of the half-dozen ' Chats which we perused. That a contributor should have succeeded in writing a lengthy and elaborate series of articles on the recent revolution without working oft* on us the wearisome and ignorant twaddle about ' tho wealth of the religious Orders,' and the ' dominance of the Church over the State '—the fact being that for years past the Church in Portugal has been the veritable bond-slave of the State—is certainly to be set down to his credit. Speaking, however, as he does, a; cathedra, and addressing boys who will accept - his every utterance as gospel, there is thrown upon ' Pater' a sevenfold obligation of strict accuracy and impartiality. In introducing—and inferentially endorsing—this quotation, ' Pater' has blundered badly, and has gravely misled his youthful readers. At tho very time that he is telling the boys how Jesuit educators ' checked intellectual development,' the British Government is selecting a Jesuit educator Father Cortie, S.J., of Stonyhurst College—to come to' the South Sea Islands, and on its behalf observe an approaching eclipse of the sun; and for this purpose a British war-ship has been placed specially at his service. About a score of years ago another Jesuit —Father Perrywas commissioned by the same Government to observe the transit of Venus. Education in Portugal is not in the hands of the Church, but has been for many years superintended by a council, having at its head the Minister of the Interior; and it is as free from clerical supervision and control as State education is in New Zealand. As a matter of fact, it was when the Church had power in Portugal that literature flourished, and the great Coimbra University, (one of the oldest in Europe) was founded. Its establishment was authorised by Pope Nicolas IV. in 1290, at the instance of the Abbot of Alcobaza, who was able to assure the Pope that several priors of convents and parish priests had agreed to defray the salaries of the doctors and masters from the revenues of their monasteries and churches. Two or three centuries later, a Colegio do las Artes, which had been established for the teaching of the classical languages and literatures as a preparation for the graver studies of the university, was incorporated with the latter institution. Its management was entrusted to the Jesuits; and it is interesting to note that one of its first professors was the Scotch Latinist, George Buchanan, afterwards principal of one of the colleges at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and still later tutor to King James VI.

A fortnight ago we quoted in those columns the weighty tribute of the Anglican .Dean of Manchester to the educative work of the Jesuits, both in the Western World and still more notably perhaps in South America. ' Voltaire •himself,' said the Dean, 'could not help speaking of that work as a "triumph of humanity." . . Not in Paraguay alone, but in many regions of the Western World, where the land has been scientifically cultivated, where the native Indians have been morally elevated, and where heathenism has yielded place to Christianity, it is still possible to trace the abiding, influence of the Jesuit Fathers.' And leaving altogether the region of opinions, however valuable, a writer in a recent issue of America gives 113 some solid facts which prove beyond question the almost over-zealous devotion of the members of the Order to the work of education and intellectual advancement. ' Just as the Church in Europe,' he says, ' had covered every country with a profusion of institutions of learning, in which, be it noted, all instruction was gratuitous, and not, as after the French Revolution, making classical training the special privilege of the bourgeoisie, so all through Latin-America, Spanish, and Portuguese alike, the religious Orders built numberless colleges, universities, and common schools. The Jesuits alone, at the time of the destruction of the society, in that part of the world namely, in 1767 —had in the Spanish colonies 78 colleges, of which 15 wero in Peru, 10 in Chile, 9 in New Grenada, 23 in Mexico, 10 in Paraguay, and 11 in Ecuador. The old catalogues are there to prove it. Besides this there were 18 ecclesiastical seminaries, some of them annexed to tho colleges and some independent. In Brazil, which was under the dominion of Portugal, they had 9 colleges and 1 seminary; that is to say, a grand total in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of 87 colleges and 19 seminaries. The Jesuits," says du Dezert, in his Ensiegnement public en Espayne, au 18 slide —and he cannot be suspected of partility to the Order— had literally' covered South America with their establishments." '

What kind of instruction did the Jesuits give in these colleges and universities? On this, point the unfriendly du Dezert, in the account he furnishes—in the work already quotedof public education in Spain in the eighteenth century, expresses \ himself as follows: The Jesuits were certainly at the head of education, both for the excellent equipment of their houses and the ability of their professors,

and even for the variety of their programmes. While a good many other schools taught Latin without knowing much about Spanish and confined themselves to the mechanical teaching of grammar, the Jesuits on the contrary introduced into their schools of nobles the study of mathematics, physics, and even navigation and gunnery. . . In brief, every talent was brought into requisition to make accomplished gentlemen of the scholars.' 'lf it is objected,' says the writer in Am erica, referring to the Jesuits' work in South America, 'that there were too many colleges and universities for a Creole population of 10,000 souls, we give our cordial assent, but in the name of common decency let there be an end to the accusation that "the clergy never did anything for education." ' And in the name of common decency, we may add, let there be an end to the accusation that the Jesuits —as educators — have 'checked intellectual development.'