Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 30 May 1912, Page 21

Current Topics

A Census Absurdity Our Australian Catholic contemporaries are ventilating a very real grievance in connection with the taking of the recent census in the Commonwealth, or rather with the method of presenting the results of the census in respect to the numerical strength of the religious denominations,. All who enter themselves in the census form merely as 'Catholics'—the name which those in communion with the See of Rome habitually give them- • selves—and who fail to describe themselves as Roman Catholics '—a title which we never give ourselves except under compulsion —are returned as 'Catholics undefined) and the Commonwealth Statistician, in his official statement showing the relative strength of the various denominations, insists on keeping the Catholics (undefined) ' entirely separate from the ' Roman Catholics,' as if they were in point of fact a distinct denomination. In 1901,- as our contemporaries are pointing out, the ' Catholics (undefined) ' were returned as 5179, and in 1911 they are given as 75,379. So that the public of Australia are gravely asked to believe that they have amongst them a body of Catholics of a hitherto undescribed and indescribable brand, who are neither ' Roman Catholic,' 'Greek Church,' nor 'Catholic and Apostolic,' who are 75,000 strong, and who have increased during the last decade at the stupendous rate of 1400 per cent.—a rate of increase which is leagues in advance of that of any other denomination. The thing is, on the face of -it, a grotesque absurdity; • and if the Commonwealth Statistician had a little of the saving sense of humor he would see that he is making, his department ridiculous. The matter admits of a simple and practical test. If this hitherto unheard of body exists, where are its churches and who are its clergymen ? By this ridiculous pretence of the existence of "a separate body of. Catholics (undefined) the true" Catholic total is wrongly stated, and the rate of increase of the Catholic body in Australia is made to appear as 8.3 instead of 16.3, as it really is. Our contemporaries are naturally calling upon Mr. Knibbs to amend his methods, but properly speaking such a call should be quite -unnecessary. If the Commonwealth Statistician were imbued with the proper spirit of his office, he would, on finding that his figures are manifestly and indisputably tainted with inaccuracy, allow himself no peace of mind until he had of his" own motion found and applied the remedy. We do some things better in _ New Zealand, and this is one of . them. With us, those who set themselves down as ' Catholics ' are counted technically as Catholics (undefined); but in all official statements, as given in the Government Official Year Book, of the relative strength of the religious bodies, the Registrar-General--who corresponds to the 'Government Statistician '—adds the Catholics (undefined) to the ' Roman Catholics, 'and the total is given as the ' Roman Catholic ' strength for the Dominion. This has been the practice for years; and it has been followed in every Year Book that we have consulted, from that of 1901 to that of 1911. The position is sometimes'put in this form'Roman Catholics (including Catholics undefined),' and then the complete total is given. In the later Year Books even the mention of the ' Catholics (undefined)' is dropped. They are incorporated— as everybody knows they ought to be—with the 'Roman Catholics,' and f the total given accordingly. That solution of the problem is in accordance with the facts and with commonsense ; and. if it should happen to be brought under his notice die Commonwealth Statistician might, perhaps ■ not be above giving the New Zealand example his favorable consideration. .Kipling on the Down Grade Over a dozen years ago ' Mr. Dooley ' described Mr. Rudyard Kipling as ' a r-ready pote that sleeps like th' ' dhnver iv u h 7 Ck 9, with his poetic pants in his boots beside his bed, an' him r-ready to jump out an' slide .down th pole th' minyit th' alarm sounds.' < ; He's

prisident iv th' Pome Supply Company,' continues tho Archey Road philosopher,' fresh pothry delivered ivry day at ye-er dure. . Is there an accident in a grain illyvator Ye pick up ye-er mornin' pa-aper, an' they'se a pome about it be Roodyard Kipling. Do ye hear iv a manhole cover bein blown up ? Roodyard is there with his r'ready pen. ; ~- •/.-■'""-.• "■'■' --"- -"■ ■ ' 'Tis written iv.Cashum-Cadi An' th' book iv th' gr-reat Gazelle, That a manhole cover in anger Is tin degrees worse thin hell.' ' He writes in all dialects an' army language, plain and fancy pothry, pothry fr young and 01d,.. pothry be weight or linyar measuremint, pothry for small parties iv eight or tin a specialty. . . ' . No col' storage pothry f'r Kipling. Ivrything fr-resh an' up to date. All lays laid this morning.' ■x The • lays ' are still laid new and up to date; but of late years they have, nevertheless, been sorely addled. A few months ago Kipling perpetrated a ' poem ' on Women Suffrage, under the title of ' The Female of the Species.' It was a fearsome production —so full of spite and bad temper that a penetrating American critic at once, surmised that some woman had stolen Kipling's umbrella., His latest effusion is what Mr. Weller would call a werry affectin' copy o' werses' entitled ■ Ulster.' Here arc two specimen stanzas: , ' The faith in which we stand, The laws we made and guard, Our honor, lives, and land Are given for reward To Murder done by night, To Treason taught by day, To folly, sloth, and spite, . 1 We know the war prepared ' On every peaceful home, We know the hells declared For such as serve not Rome The terror, threats, and dread In market, hearth, and field— We know when all is said We perish if we yield.' From every point of view that is sorry stuff : and we venture to say it would never have been published in any paper of literary standing if the verses had not been backed by a name that once stood for power and greatness. The most that can be said for Kipling's versified exposition of Orangeism is that it is worthy of its subject and of the ' cause ' which it is meant to sustain. Anglicans and Prayers for the Dead Many of our readers will remember how, in Samuel Lover's tale, Rory O'More took the ( Popery ' out of Denis Sweeney's tombstone, at the request of the latter recreant and apostate son. The inscription on the memorial over the old man's bones in the weed-grown graveyard ran as follows: Pray for the Soul of Denis Sweeney, j Who departed this life, etc. It was the simplest thing in life for the redoubtable Rory to ' desthr'y the Popery' in the inscription. Four letters did the business, and then the inscription read thus: Don't - * ._ Pray for the Soul of Denis Sweeney, Who departed this life, etc. The Anglican Bishop of Auckland (the Right Rev. Dr. Crossley) has been restoring some of the ' Popery ' in this matter of praying for the dead; and has been urging on his people that the practice is .fully permitted

in the Church of England. ' Permitted ' is the strongest word that even the most ardent High Churchman could use in this connection. If it was really the mind of the Church of England —so far as that sorely-distracted Church can be said to have any collective or definite 'mind' at all on these disputable doctrinal subjects—that prayers should be offered for the dead, the fact would naturally and necessarily find expression in its service for the burial of the dead. Yet this service totally omits all prayers for the dead— is essentially and wholly a service for the living. The service of the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. did indeed contain many beautiful and strictly Catholic prayers for the dead, but in the Second Prayer Book of 1552 these were deliberately cut out or converted into prayers for the living, the whole direction-current of the service being changed The present service declares that the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and- felicity ' —the implication being that they are no longer in need of the prayers of their friends. If it is the mind of the Church of England that prayers should be offered for the dead, her burial service has been so framed as to very effectually conceal the fact. * But whatever may be the formal attitude of the Church of England formularies on the subject we cannot but warmly sympathise with the feeling which is» prompting our Anglican friends to revive amongst them the primitive practice in regard to the Christian dead, and to regain for themselves a privilege of which they have been so cruelly robbed. It is gratifying to note, in connection with the movement, that there is every disposition to irankly acknowledge that on tins subject the Catholic Church has all along been in" the right, and that she has been a faithful custodian of the doctrine and practice of the apostolic days. In addition to the plainness "of speech regarding the reformers indulged in by Bishop Crossley,' we find the following outspoken declaration in a sermon delivered the other Sunday by the Rev. D. Jamieson, M.A., of Oam Our quotation is from the Oamaru Mail renort of tie discourse. 'ls it surprising,' asks Mr. Jamieson, 'that men like Bishop Crossley, with their eyes upon the meaning of Christ's ascension to us, should cast off a temporary and false tradition and return to an earlier and truer faith ? It is a matter of history that until within a few centuries of our day the Church believed in the communion of saints, and" practised prayers for the dead as well as the living.. Why has tins beautiful and holy practice been abandoned? Because of the insane hatred which has been gendered and fostered by bigoted and ignorant preachers against the Roman Catholic Church. Because she has continued the practice, which in the best days of the Church was universal narrow bigotry, and ignorance have denounced enaction as a sin. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Roman Church in this matter. She has at least preserved an open communication between the members of God's household on earth and those in Heaven, and enabled us to put some meaning into our creed when we say : I believe in the communion of saints." ' We note that the sermon is ' Printed bv Request'; and we welcome the intimation as indicating that the feeling that death should not, and does not, break the bond between Christian people, is deeper and more general than is commonly supposed.