Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 24 August 1911, Page 1625

Current Topics

A Lesson from Lloyd George We wish our Cabinet Ministers and departmental officials were not above taking a lesson from Mr. Lloyd George. We have before now commented on the disposition shown by our Government departments to bring about a sort of State monopoly in the administration of charities, industrial schools, etc., and to cripple and hamper and throw every possible difficulty in the way of private institutions. The policy of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer is in diametrically the opposite direction. In a powerful speech on Religion, delivered in Welsh on Sunday, June 24, Mr. Lloyd George laid it down that the dynamics of Christian teaching should and must be applied to the affairs of . the State; and that the motives and inspiration of religion must be given their due scope and place. ' All the poverty of London,’ he said, ‘ was really at the door of religion. It was the responsibility of the Christian Church to look after the poorthat was the first thing the Christian Church did when establishedand to see that there was not a single poor man in their midst.

He would also tell the. audience more than that. Reforms were won through the aid of people who lost personally by them. . . . Where did their selfsacrifice come from? From the Christian religion.’ Mr. Lloyd George’s views on this matter are shared by other members of the Government, notably by the Home Secretary, who has set up a new administration for utilising the agents of Christian charities in reclaiming criminals. Therein is shown the breadth and large-mindedness of the statesman. New Zealand politicians please copy.

More Snubs Our amiable friends the Orangemen, and NoPopery zealots generally, have fallen on evil days. Everywhere, they have grievances and are protesting — and everywhere they are getting slighted and snubbed. We referred last week to the pointed rebuff administered to the Rev. Jacob Primmer. We may supplement that now by a story of the painful disrespect shown recently to London ultra-Protestants. In connection with the Festival of Empire pageant in London, correspondence has passed between Mr. Walter Limbrick, acting-honorary secretary of the London Council of United Protestant Societies, and Sir Laurence Gomme, chairman of the Historical Committee of the Festival. According to a press paragraph, Mr. Limbrick ‘ complained of the omission from the arrangements for the pageant of adequate reference to the Reformation. Sir Laurence Gomme replied that the Protestant point of view had not been lost sight of, but it had been the desire of the Committee not unduly to emphasise points on which different sections of the community were still at variance. In a further communication, Mr. Limbrick called attention to the fact that the Roman Catholics of London had been specially requested to furnish one scene by themselves.’ A whole scene to the Catholics the Reformation squeezed out!

About the same time the following absurd and utterly uncalled-for epistle was sent to members of the House of Lords by the ‘ Imperial Protestant Federation’:— * On behalf of the Imperial Protestant Federation, I beg to express a hope that, should the Parliament Bill obtain a second reading in the House of Lords, your Lordship will use your powerful influence, as the Bill passes through Committee, to secure that the Bill of Rights (1 William and Mary, Sess. 2, Cap. 2), and the Act of Settlement (12 and 13 William 111., Cap. 2), may be excluded from its operations. It is respectfully submitted that these Acts,’ which secure the Protestant Succession to the Throne, the Coronation Oath to maintain the Protestant Religion, and deny to the Sovereign the power of dispensing from, or suspending the laws of the Realm, being of supreme National , importance, ought, under no circumstances, to be altered without the united consent of both the

House of Lords and House of Commons. Both Lords and Commons have an equal interest in their maintenance. I have the honor to remain, your Lordship’s obedient servant, (Sgd.) James W. Walsh, Secretary. 325, Clapham road, London, S.W.’ The Parliament Bill has passed this gratuitous and officious petition has, of course, been ignored.

The Eucharistic Congress It was confidently anticipated that the Madrid Eucharist Congress would be a great success ; —as will be seen from the particulars given elsewhere in this issue the anticipation was amply , realised. In point of enthusiasm, of the magnitude and representative character of the attendance, of the fervor and devotion shown, and of the practical effect in cementing and solidifying Catholic influence, the Congress will bear favorable comparison with the impressive gatherings held recently at Cologne, London, and Montreal. Out of many interesting features of the proceedings, two may be singled out for special notice. One was the presence of the Bishop of Beja—a victim of Masonic persecution, who had been removed from his See by the anti-Christian Government of Portugal. He received a great ovation on rising to address the assembly. After pointing out that he represented Catholicism in Portugal and that he was a Bishop who had been removed from his See and exiled by a Masonic Government, he spoke sorrowfully of the ' imprisoned Portuguese priests and of the banished episcopate, but was firm in his hope of a complete restoration of Catholicism to his country. And in one pregnant sentence he laid bare the root cause of the troubles alike of Portugal and of France, and hinted at the lines along which the restoration of the faith must come in both countries. Under present circumstances,’ he said, £ I consider greater glory is given to God by the support of the Catholic Press than by the erection of a church or a monastery.’ There is significance in this remark for Catholics everywhere.

The other notable feature of the gathering was the outspoken profession of faith made by King Alfonso. Your Eminence, he said, in a speech delivered on the closing day, ‘when the labors of this assembly were inaugurated I sent the Infante Don Carlos to represent me, and I charged him to express to you the feelings which the Queen and I felt on such a solemn occasion, 10-day, when your labors are almost completed, we have come in person to tell you with what pleasure we have followed them, and how gladly our hearts have seen these representatives of nations here met together varying in their history, their speech, and their customs’ but all welded together in one flock by their ardent t? v ®. of the Most Hol Y Sacrament of the Eucharist Sublime power of faith and love ! . .. . Lastly, your Eminence, our final greeting must be for the representative of the Roman Pontificate, of the Universal Shepherd of the Catholic people. Tell his Holiness that both the Queen and I desire him many long years of life, that he may continue the indefatigable apostle of the love of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and that while giving testimony of our filial and respectful affection to him, we implore his Apostolic Benediction for ourselves, for our family, for Spain, and for all the nations lepresented here.’ We confess that we were of those who some time ago, thought that there were signs of weakening m the Catholic fibre of King Alfonso: but this manly expression of sincere belief in the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist dispels all doubt. The net result of the Congress is to bring out and to emphasise the fact that, at heart, the King, Queen, and people ot Spam are, as ever, staunchly Catholic. ‘ When from sordid motives,’ cried Father Calpena, in an eloquent oration at the closing session of the assembly, ‘ people represent Spain to the world as a nation losing its faith asking for anti-Christian reforms in its codes and as an enemy of the religious Orders of the Church and of the Pontificate, say that is not Spain. You here present have seen Spam as she truly is, for the true P Spain rs Spain Catholic, Spam the faithful, Spain of the