THE LOYALTY OF CATHOLICS

New Zealand Tablet, 15 June 1911, Page 1121

THE LOYALTY OF CATHOLICS

The recitation of * the late Thomas Bracken's poem ' Not Understood' at a Catholic function in Melbourne reminded Dean Phelan, who presided in the absence of his Grace the Archbishop, of speeches recently delivered in Melbourne and Sydney. Catholics, he said, were charged with want of _ loyalty .to the throne, flag,^. and sovereign. No accusation could be more ridiculous. -Of course, Rome must be the football to be kicked, and the occasion was the asserted want of loyalty. The sins of Portugal, of Spain, and of Timbuctoo, were brought forward. Nothing could be said against the Catholics of Victoria with: the elaborate preparations being made to celebrate the Coronation at the Cathedral, and by the great national concert, so other people's sins must be credited to them. He wished to protest now that there was no body in. the community more loyal, more faithful than the Catholic body. During the year of his travels he had touched on many shores, and gone over many seas protected by many flags, but one flag under the folds of which it occurred to. him he would be safest was the British flag. The passport as a British subject took him to the remotest part of the Turkish dominions. A Bank of England £5 note would be bought at a premium in any part .of the world, because it represented England and England's power. With the freedom they enjoyed under the British flag as Catholics in Australia, they would be foolish, almost as foolish as the people of whom he was speaking, if they were anything but loyal, and as a Catholic body and as descendants most of them from Irish stock their loyalty had been put to tests that few other sections had been put to. They had stood the tests which, he thanked God, would not remain much longer. Part of those tests had gone; others he hoped would soon go. Catholics were loyal, and were particularly interested in giving manifestation of their loyalty on the occasion of the Coronation of the King this month, for King George V. would be the first sovereign who had ascended the British Throne since William and Mary who was not to be called upon at his Coronation to insult millions of his Catholic subjects. Might George V. live to sign a declaration giving Ireland the right to govern herself. Catholics would manifest' on the occasion of the Coronation of the King loyaltv never equalled, certainly never excelled, and would show these people that they would not need Orange sword and Bible to instruct Catholics in what was due from them as subjects of their sovereign. .