Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 23 February 1911, Page 325

Current Topics

The * Asino ’ It is with sincere satisfaction that we are able to announce that that vilest of all gutter-journals, the Asino (published by the enemies of religion in Rome, and constantly hurling all sorts of indecent insults at the Holy Father) is now banned by the postal authorities in New Zealand, in the Australian Commonwealth, and in the United States. New Zealand is the latest to fall into line A number of copies of that coarse rag were collected in the Dominion and submitted to the postal authorities—nothing could surpass the coarseness, vileness, and obscenity of those numbers, even our Lord and Saviour being introduced in a blasphemously indecent connection. The result was as stated: the Asino is barred from New Zealand as an obscene and indecent publication. Carlyle once advised that certain raw sceptics should be covered under a glass bell, declaring that the atmosphere there would cause them to perish in their own corruption. If the editors of filthy publications such as the Asino were treated in the same fashion their dissolution would be accomplished even more speedily, and in a very brief space all that would be left would be an odor of brimstone. While heartily rejoicing that this leprous productionthis moral cancer-planteris prohibited from entering New. Zealand, we cannot refrain from pointing out that the verdict of so many nations on the Asino ought to open the eyes of the Italian. Government to the shame of their allowing such a filthy rag to be published, when they have laws against such productions, and when the Law of the Papal Guarantees is supposed to protect the Pope, as it would the King, from such coarse infamy and insult. Of what are the Government afraid? The supporters and disseminators of the immoral press represent neither the sense nor the sentiment of the Italian people; and as regards weight and influence in the community Podrecca and his party are absolutely insignificant. A little firm dealing with the motley crowd, and this plague spot and reproach to Italian journalism would be once and for ever removed. To apply the words of Shakespeare; in ‘ King Henry V.:

‘ Do but behold yon poor and starved band, And your fair show shall suck away their, souls, Leaving them but husks and shales of men. There is not work enough for all our hands; Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins To give our naked curtle-axes stain.’

A Southland Ebullition

A Southland paperthe* Southland Times of February 10, to wit —has quite needlessly and gratuitously butted into the now somewhat played-out discussion on that very mixed marriage in far-away Belfast. Our contemporary has really nothing to say; and in his leading article of nearly a column he just about suceeds in saying it. He admits that ‘ as no change has been noted ’ in Mr Devlin’s electorate— electorate in which the facts were best known— ‘ the effect the case had politically could not have been very great, and it also may be quite true that Presbyterian ministers were less interested in the woman than in using the case as an example of what would happen when Ireland secured Horae Rule.’ He further states > that ‘in most countries including all Englishspeaking countries, the State absolutely ignores the decree, and the question merely resolves itself irito one of conscience among Roman"* Catholics themselves.’ That being so, what in the name of all that is sensible has this southern Solomon to do with the matter; and why does he waste his wisdom at all on a question that is merely one of conscience among Roman Catholics themselves.’ When he does attempt to deal in facts—as distinguished from prejudices— blunders every time. It may be mentioned,’ he says, writing out of the fulness of his ignorance, ‘ that the German Kaiser objected to the decree, and as a result it does not apply in Germany.’ What authority be has for the first of these statements we know not—perhaps the Kaiser sent our southern luminary a private wire —but we do know that the exemption of Germany has nothing to do with any protest from the Kaiser or from anyone else. As * explained by the Rev. Father Coffey, in the columns of the Dunedin Evening Star the other day, Pope Benedict XIV., in 1741, and Pope Pius VI,, in 1785, exempted certain countries’ from the laws of the Council of Trent in regard to clandestine

Carriages and most of Germany was exempted as the Council of Trent decrees were never promulgated in the Protestant States. The present Pope extended the exemption to the whole of Germany by a constitution, in January, 1906i.e., more than a year before the decree Ne Temere —which simply embodies a decree of the Council of Trent — was issued, and more than a year, therefore, before the Kaiser could have had any chance of protesting. The extent of this Invercargill innocent’s knowledge of the whole question may be gauged from the following sentence The whole thing,’ he sapiently remarks, ‘is evidently an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to override State law, and it has been seriously questioned, even by prominent Roman Catholics, if the Church possesses the constitutional power to proclaim mixed marriages, no matter where celebrated, as being illegal.’ The Church has, of course, never proclaimed that the marriages under discussion are illegal; she has simply laid it down that, unless certain conditions are complied with, they are, from her point of view, invalid. If the Southland Times writer does not know the important distinction between the two terms, he ought to be sent promptly back to school. * As we have said, the Southland leader-writer had really nothing to say, and no light whatever to throw on the mixed marriage question; and it is obvious that his motive in ►dealing with the subject was one of wanton and wilful bigotry. To bigotry, our journalistic Chadband adds a nauseating hyprocrisy. ‘ The McCann case,’ he says, ‘ will no doubt be used to promote discord among religious sections of communities, and for that reason it is unfortunate that it should have occurred.’ The hypocrisy which can pretend to shed tears over the prospect of religious discord while it is itself engaged in the very act of promoting such discord, is beneath contempt. We have read a story of a certain Bishop of London who, travelling on one occasion in a third-class carriage with a number of workmen, was pained at' hearing the volleys of oaths and curses that came from the mouth of one of the grimy sons of toil. Determined to inflict upon the sinner a dignified rebuke, his Lordship said: ‘ My friend, you possess a very lurid vocabulary of oaths; may I ask where you learned it?’ The workman, looking at him with unaffected surprise, said : Learned it? Sir, it’s a gift! ’ The bigotry of the Southland Times writer is probably a ‘ gift ’; blit it is a gift that constitutes a very poor asset for a working journalist. Leaders such as that on ‘ Clerical influence ’ may tickle the ears of the Orange groundlings, but assuredly they will make the judicious and fair-minded members of the community grieve. Sooner or later, both the paper and the individual responsible for such writing find their level — it is never a lofty level. A Notable Protest We conclude this week our publication of the very striking and notable protest issued by the Very Rev. Father Luiz Gonzaga Cabral, Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Portugal, against the exceptional and outrageous treatment of which the religious committed to his charge have been the victims at the hands of the Portuguese Revolutionary Government. It is, perhaps, not so much a protest as a vindication; and the_ document is remarkable not less for its clearness and succinctness, than for the weight and effectiveness of the considerations advanced. A moving picture is given of the sufferings and insults endured by the religious, and their cup of bitterness must surely have been full when, as Father Cabral puts it, ‘ Venerable elders, distinguished men of science, held in repute at home and abroad, religious venerated for their virtue- youth still almost boys, with innocence stamped on . their features all had to go to an anthropometric station, and to be treated like notorious criminals, being described, photographed, and measured in every detail, down to the joints of their fingers. The photographs then appeared in the newspapers, with the number assigned to each as to a convict.’ Commenting on this fact, the Rev. Father C. —himself one of the victimsrecords the interesting and noteworthy fact that President Taft interfered, and with some effect, on behalf of the persecuted Jesuits. ‘ Thanks are due,’ says Father Torrend, ’ to the benevolence manifested by the English press on occasion of these cruel trials, and especially that here spoken of in these anthropometric measurements. In particular may be mentioned The Saturday Review and a strong protest of The Bystander November 16, p. 329. As to the United States, we can hardly find words to express our gratitude for their intervention on our behalf. The Echo dc Paris (December 19) and the Memento of Turin (December 18), verify the report that President Taft himself expressed by wire to his Minister at Lisbon the painful impression which had been produced in the United States by the knowledge that the Jesuits had been imprisoned. Moreover, the new Portuguese Government was warned that it would never be recognised if it did not put an end to such treatment, which was

described as a disgrace to the civilised world. A few days later, all of our Fathers were released.’ After dealing with their sufferings and treatment, the Provincial gives a detailed, comprehensive and conclusive reply to the charges that had been made against them —a refutation that will long stand as one of the most telling, spirited, and effective vindications of the great Order that has yet been made. The police in Lisbon have received orders to suppress this document but it is being promptly issued as a penny pamphlet by Messrs. Burns and Oates. * In the meantime it is interesting to note that under the stimulus of persecution the whole body of Portuguese Catholics are stiffening up, and beginning to take some definite steps to assert themselves. The following petition has been presented to Provisional President Braga, and copies of it have been forwarded to the principal newspapers in the United States and Great Britain; — Mr. President, —The Catholics of Portugal, who, ever faithful to their principles, submitted at once to the newly constituted powers, now using the right of petition which is guaranteed in all free governments, apply to your Excellency to express their sorrow at the stand that the Provisional Government has taken in religious affairs. We respectfully but strongly protest against the measures that have already been taken. With regard to proposed measures, we remind you, with the calmness of those who claim it as a right, that we are Portuguese citizens, and form the majority of the country, and that it is not licit to coerce our consciences by forcing us to accept a state of affairs which is odious and makes us aliens in our own country, which we love ardently and in which the Christian spirit has for many centuries wrought prodigies in education and beneficence. There is no just law, Mr. President, which does not find its mainstay and foundation in the collective conscience. In the name, therefore, of this collective conscience, of history and of justice, we appeal to your Excellency that our consciences may not be oppressed, that our rights may be respected, and that the sacred interests of the nation may be placed above disputable theories.’ Bogus Priests and Imitation Masses A somewhat serious charge is being made against Presbyterianism in Canada, and in parts of the United States, in connection with the operations of the Presbyterian Home Mission Society. The facts are so surprising as to be at first blush almost incredible but by independent investigation, and other means, they have now' been placed practically beyond dispute. The charge is that with the connivance of the Home Missions Board, and under their direction, missionaries ’ have been feigning the Mass and the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, with' the view* of proselytising Ruthenian Catholics. There are many Ruthenians in Western Canada, and a number also in Newark, Pittsburg, and New York, and other cities of the United States; and the Horne Missions Society, so the allegation runs, either employs its own missionarieswhere any can be found who speak the language— or, hires bogus priests to say bogus Masses and to administer bogus Sacraments. The form of Mass which is the basis of their imitation is the Greek Liturgy, which is used both by the Greek Catholics and the Greek Orthodox, and which is, of course, unfamiliar to the ordinary Catholic of the Latin rite, or the deception would have been discovered long ago. It appears to have been first detected by the Most Rev. Andrew Sheptytski, Archbishop of Lemberg, Austria, and Primate of the Galicrans, who is now on a visit to his countrymen and coreligionists in Western Canada. His Excellency has this to say of the fraud which has been perpetrated upon his people: _ 1 c ‘I did not understand this sort of Protestantism. I find their mission societies paying anybody that can speak their language to celebrate a bogus Mass, hear confessions, administer the sacraments, and, strangest of all, openly and publicly, so that the deception might bo more complete, pray fervently for our Holy Father the Pope. It is a great shame. Good, honest Protestants are more consistent than to do it. It may destroy religion in our people where they have not their own priests and rite, but it will make them unbelievers in the end and ruin them as citizens.

The Rev. Dr. McLaren, the Canadian representative of the Presbyterian Home Missions, in answer to Archbishop Sheptytski’s strictures, admitted that a portion of the Mass was said, but not the entire Mass. A letter addressed to the Board of Missions of New York elicited the admissions that ‘the work is among a poorer class of people, and that ‘ the services are carried out with much of the picturesqueness of the Greek liturgical service ’ * xf A personal examination of the facts was undertaken by Mr. Andrew J. Shipman, well known as a capable and

careful writer, and in this special case a particularly well qualified investigator. ‘The Greek rite,’ he says, waiting in America, ‘is perfectly familiar to me, having witnessed it in Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches all over the world ,and a pocket edition of the Slavonic Liturgy or Mass of St. John Chrysostom enabled me to accurately compare all portions of the Greek Mass, which I did not already know by heart.’ Mr. Shipman personally attended and closely followed the Presbyterian services for Ruthenians held in the city of New York and also in the city of Newark; and ‘ in order that there may be no mistake about the Presbyterian maintenance of a form of Mass, which is to outward appearance a close imitation of the real thing,’ he gives in the pages of America an elaborate account of what he saw and heard. We have not space for the detailed description but it will suffice to say that in both churches Presbyterian pastors, vested in alb, stole, and golden chasuble, celebrated ‘High Mass’ with all pomp and ceremony, incensing the altar and the congregation, ‘ elevating the Host,’ and waited on by an altar-server ringing the bell at the ‘ Sanctus ’ and ‘ consecration.’ Moreover, the members of this Presbyterian congregation frequently crossed themselves, kissed the cross and the Gospels, and knelt devoutly at the ‘ consecration.’ Here is a specimen of the responses to some of the antiphons. ‘The response to the first antiphon was: “By the prayers of the Mother of God, O Saviour, save us!” That of the second antiphon was: “By the prayers of thy Sainta, 0 Saviour, save us!” _ At the end of each of the three antiphons the celebrant intoned : “Commemorating our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, with all the Saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ our God.” . . The celebrant elevated the chalice and paten as already described, and again intoned loudly: “ Especially our all holy, all pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary,” to which the choir sang the response; “Meet indeed it is to praise thee, Mother of God, ever blessed and immaculate Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, thee, verily the Mother of God, we magnify.” The pastor—the Rev. Waldimir lyndowski—who intoned those invocations, studied at the Presbyterian Seminary, Winnipeg, Canada, and was received into the Newark Presbytery last October. * - ‘The celebrant (at the New York church),’ says Mr. Shipman, ‘ said his name was Basil Kusiv, and once described himself as a priest and at another time as a minister. I asked him to let me see the service book which he used, and going towards the altar he directed the church attendant, who was then extinguishing the candles, to show it to me. It was a beautifully printed edition (of which I have a copy) of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in Slavonic, issued and printed by the Basilian monks at Zhowkwa in Galicia, dated 1906, and bearing the imprimatur of Most' Rev. Andrew Sheptytski, Greek Catholic Metropolitan of Lemberg. The Book of the Gospels used on the altar is the regular one printed in Lemberg for the Greek Catholics. The vestments used by this imitation priest were of the well known Greek form and were very fine and new. Every gesture, every word and accent in intoning the service, were according to the Greek ritual, and the very books on the altar, and those used by choir and congregation, were Greek Catholic ones. In fact every means seems to have been taken to completely deceive and lead astray these poor Ruthenians and to give them the idea that they are attending a Catholic Mass, as in their old country.’ * The quality of the offence to which the American Home Missions Society have thus been parties may be gathered from the official teaching of the Presbyterian Church in regard to the Mass, as set forth in the Westminster Confession. It is thus expressed:- ‘ The popish sacrifice of the Mass, as they call it, is most abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sms of the elect.’

‘ Private Masses, or receiving the sacrament by a priest or any other, alone, worshipping the elements, lifting them up, or carrying them about for adoration, are all contrary to the nature of this sacrament and to the institution of hrist. (Westminster Confession, chapter xxix., secs. 2 and 4).

. In other words, the Home Missions Society, in sanctioning this travesty of the Mass as an act of Divine worship, have been guilty of copying acts that are, according to the teaching of their own Church, ‘ abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice ’ and ‘ contrary to the institution of Christ 1 and all this for the sake of proselytising a handful of poor Ruthenians. As we have said, the facts

appear to be quite beyond dispute. Presbyterians as a body are much too downright in their own beliefs to be willing to stoop to a policy of proselytism by deception; and when the circumstances become widely known we cannot but believe that there will be a strong and general repudiation of such unworthy tactics. ,