Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 26 December 1912, Page 21

Current Topics

A Slanderer Brought to Book In one respect, at least, : and that a : by no means unimportant one, we ; are v. free to: maintain that "'the law is a hass.' •;'-; In the present state of the law as to slander and defamation, while a foul-mouthed libeller may be mulcted in substantial- damages for assailing .the fair .name of John Doe or Richard Roe, he .may serenely and • with perfect impunity," and even under the aegis of the law, make and publish the most abominable calumnies against a -creed or community, and may even excite public odium against them to the very verge of endangering,the public peace and arousing the passions of the mob with his harangues. The longeared folly of this lop-sided legislation is frequently brought home to the Catholic body what time ' expriests 'and sham nuns rage and rave upon the stage, or low-minded pamphleteers send out their noisome wares. The bigoted No-Popery 'journals who make a regular trade of attacking and abusing the Catholic Church are usually cunning enough and cowardly enough to give their scurrilous statements a perfectly general application so that, in the present state of the law, there is no one particular individual who has the right to bring the libellers to book and claim redress. Occasionally, however, their zeal outruns their discretion, or rather, it would be more correct to say, their malice gets the better of their cunning; they fix upon some one individual the stigma of the calumny they wish to circulate, and then—they very quickly strike trouble. ~ -

* That is what has happened in the case of one Mr. John 'Frederick Leaworthy, who, on Sunday, September 23, told a gathering of people in Fihsbury Park, London, that Monsignor Grosch, the Catholic rector of Islington, had undertaken to obtain the release of a lady's husband from Purgatory if she paid him the sum of £5 ss. Monsignor Grosch at once took legal action; but generously stayed proceedings on receiving a humble, not to say abject, apology. The following is a copy of the apology made by this ' public lecturer/ as published in all our English exchanges: (Copy of apology.) To the Very Rev. Mgr. Henry J. Grosch, Rector of St. John's, Duncan. Terrace, / ;„- Islington. "- On Sunday, the 23rd of September, 1912, in Finsbury Park, in the hearing of a number of persons who were gathered together, I made the statement that you had undertaken to obtain the release of the husband of a Mrs. Davis from purgatory if she paid the sum of £5 ss. Such statement was absolutely false, and without any foundation whatsoever. The statement was made by me in the heat of the moment, but on consideration I realise that it is not only untrue, but one calculated to affect all members of the Catholic Faith, and you in particular as a Priest. . Under these circumstances, I unreservedly withdraw the statement, admitting that it is untrue, and I express my sorrow and humbly - apologise for having made such a statement. * & You may publish this apology if you think fit to do so. „ Dated this sth day of October, 1912. (Signed) John Frederick Leaworthy, 34 London Street, Caledonian Road, N. Witness to the signature of John F. Leaworthy. - .(Signed)i H. H. Turner, Managing Clerk, Messrs. J. Deacon Newton and Co., 16 Finsbury Circus, E C Solicitors. ' •" ,v/ - This old calumny about priests undertaking to take souls out of purgatory for a given sum has seen

long - service in no-Popery,. campaigns and it is well that it should be thus definitely and effectively sent into retirement. ; ‘

Prohibition and the Celebration of Mass New Zealand is not the only country where hotheads and extremists in the s Prohibition party aremaking their presence felt, and where Catholics are faced with a more or less serious risk of legislative barriers, being placed in the way of the celebration of Holy Mass if the movement is allowed to develop alongexisting lines. ■■: In parts of- the United States the Catholics are 'up against' precisely the same difficulty as New Zealand Catholics encountered at the last election, and, in consequence, Catholic bishops—including some who were prominent workers in the temperance cause—haverhad to declare themselves definitely and emphatically against the Prohibition proposal. This is what has recently occurred, for example, in Los Angeles. A pjoposaal for the adoption of prohibition, framed in such a way as to bar the celebration of Holy Mass if the proposal were carried, was submitted to the. people, and was defeated by a majority of 14,000 votes. At first it was thought that this result was due to the operation of woman's suffrage;; and a prominent prohibition advocate went so far as to declare that 'no State has adopted woman suffrage without setting back the temperance cause twenty-five years.' The true facts of the case, however, are given by the correspondent of the Sacred Heart Review who writes to explain that the defeat of the prohibitionmovement in Los Angeles was due to the Catholic voters of that city who had nothing against prohibition as such but who objected to a law which was drawn up by a set of non-Catholic fanatics who made the provisions of the proposed - amendment to the city charter so narrow that it would have been impossible to offer the sacrifice of the Mass without violating them. The correspondent writes: 'Bishop Con at y, whose work in the temperance cause is too well known to need any words from me, threw the : full force of his very forceful pen against the amendment, and the Tidings (official organ of the diocese) came out strong urging all Catholic men and women to vote against the amendment, and told them the reason why. The defeat of that proposed amendment to our charter was due more to the Catholic vote than to anything else, for the reason I have stated. -It; was , a law that would not have stood the test of the constitution, and would have caused endless trouble and law suits and conflicting decisions, and would have been r simply the means of defeating any definite action in the" future, because people would have been thoroughly disgusted with the results.' -■".'.''- •,'; ■■■ : -:l'f.% ; .:. ;:.

It is greatly to be regretted that the more rabid spirits in the : movement take such a fanatical attitude; and their action makes it difficult for Catholic priest or paper to take that strong stand against the drink evil which both would wish to take. It is coming ,to this in this country— Catholic priest or press can hardly expound, especially • about election time, the Church’s recognised teaching regarding the virtue of temperance without the liability of having their words distorted and misconstrued, or without having the uncomfortable feeling that by indirectly helping the prohibition movement they may be preparing serious trouble for the Catholic body later on. Under the circumstances, if the extremists persist in their narrowness Catholics have only one alternative — that is to stand firm for freedom of conscience and of religious worship. This much is fully acknowledged by the Sacred Heart Review , which is itself one of the staunchest and most thorough-going advocates of temperance. The Review is very glad,’ says our contemporary, ‘to present the facts in this case. We are long enough acquainted with prohibition and prohibitionists to be aware that fanaticism, and anti-Cath-olicism even, are all too often ear-marks of the movement and its supporters. In such, a case there is nothing else for Catholics to do but to rebuke the narrowness that would discriminate against them.’

Lord Russell on Confession The late Lord Russell, man of intellect, man of affairs, and model Catholic, bore the following fine testimony to the value ■■' and salutary , influence ■■> of Confession : ' During over sixty years I have made .- certainly more than 1700 confessions, to hundreds of different confessors, and in T various countries, and I have never discovered therein any trace of wrong or harm. In addition to my belief in a priest's power of absolution, which 'as & Catholic I hold, I have found that the duties incident to every confession, of making a. l careful examination of my conscience, an express and vigorous mental act of sorrow and a firm resolution to avoid sin, most useful and though these mental acts may be made without intending confession, the habit of confession certainly causes many of them, which would not otherwise be made. My experiences of confession have, so far as man can judge, been those of my mother, sisters, wife, and. daughters, and of many female friends, and I have always noted in myself and others that devoutness and regular attendance at confession and at Holy Communion, - which it ordinarily precedes,. ebb and flow together.—Russell.'

The Primitive Methodists and the Bible in Schools .'Our Presbyterian contemporary, the Outlook, credits the President of the Primitive Methodist Conference with a quite Machiavellian turn for scheming and plotting. According to our contemporary, the Rev. Knowles Smith published his recent deliverance on the Bible-in-schoois question with malice aforethought, and with the wilful and deliberate intent of smashing the present union in the Methodist ranks on the subject and ultimately inducing the Methodist Conference to rescind the motion of approval of the Bible League proposals which it has already adopted. Here is how our contemporary figures it outand we give his version without expressing, without, indeed, possessing, any opinion as to the correctness of- his diagnosis. 'ltis a curious fact,' remarks the Outlook, -' which may well give pause to the thoughtful, that the most effectual opposition to any and every practical proposal to restore the Bible to the public schools thus giving back to the children of this Dominion the grand national heritage of which they are at present deprived —has ever come, not from atheist and rationalist, not from the Roman Catholic Church itself, not even from public school teachers, but from ministers of certain sections of the Protestant Church. The latest instance of this anachronism is the lengthy deliverance—published in full in the Dunedin papers, and telegraphed in substance throughout New Zealand—of the Rev. G. Knowles Smith, President of the Primitive Methodist Conference and minister of one of the Primitive Methodist congregations in Dunedin. The tactic that inspires the policy of attack on the platform of the Bible-in-Schools League indicated in this address, is sufficiently clear, and it is as well that it should be stated. 1 Arrangements for the absorption of the Primitive Methodist Church of New Zealand into the larger Methodist Church are now in active progress, consequent on the agreement for union some months since decided. Mr. Knowles Smith is giving this lead to Primitive Methodism in the hope that, when amalgamation is complete, there will be in the united Methodism a sufficiently strong opposition to the Bible-in-schools proposals to compel Conference to rescind the motion of approval which it has already given to those proposals. And it is anticipated by those who view with disfavor the present movement for importing religious instruction into the schools, that such action, on the part of a united Methodist Church, taken together with the negative official attitude of the Baptist and Congregational Churches, .will give denial to the statement that the Churches of New Zealand, with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church, are in practical agreement on the matter; and thus so influence the minds of the ever-susceptible members of Parliament as to hinder the passing of the necessary legislation providing for the taking of a plebiscite or referendum.'

Catholics and Freemasonry : \r■.•■-"':./■:■ -The following resolutions, first publish in English dress by America, are going the round of our exchanges ; and they are well worth placing on permanent record. They will certainly leave little doubt in the mind of the reader either as. to the relations which Masonry has to Catholics or as to the relation which a Catholic ought to have towards Masonry The Bien Public of Ghent (according to our contemporary) quoting from the principal Review of the German Freemasons, the Ikiuhiitte, in its issue of March 30, published a series of theses, or maxims discussed and voted on at a Masonic meeting held at Frankfort to consider the admission of Catholics in the Order. The most important of the resolutions formulated are the following:—' I.The Catholic Church is one and. the same as Ultramontanism and Clericalism. Ultramontanism is the doctrine of the Church applied to life; Clericalism is the guardian and' champion consecrated by the Church. 2. —The Catholic Church is the irreconcilable foe of intellectual culture, that is to say, of civilisation. It opposes progress, while Freemasonry favors it as a means of promoting and diffusing intellectual education. 3. the much controverted questions of education and human destiny there is open opposition between Freemasonry and the Catholic Church. 4. —If a believing Catholic cannot become a Freemason it is not because any Lodge will refuse to admit him on account of his faith, for men of all beliefs are admitted, but it is because the laws of his Church forbid it. s.—lt is, . nevertheless, true that no sincere Freemason can be a Catholic who can properly be regarded as such. For no Catholic can accept the idea of an emancipated humanity. His faith exacts from him the sacrifice of his intelligence.'

.- * ' 6.—Every Catholic who e aspires to be a Freemason ought to be warned, before being received, of the ecclesiastical censures with which his Church will strike him. After his reception he must be told that in order to rid himself and his family of annoyances on the part of the clergy, he must declare by his last will and testament that he is to renounce Christian burial. The following is the formula of such renunciation: "Knowing the laws of the Catholic Church with regard to Freemasonry, I declare by these presents my firm will—(a) That at the approach of death I renounce the assistance of a Roman Catholic priest, as I do not wish to renounce my masonry, or violate my promises, or betray my brethren, (b) That after my death my obsequies shall be performed according to masonic usages, which, however, wfil not prevent my family from requesting the presence of a minister of any sect they may choose for their own spiritual comfort." 7.—Freemasonry recognises the moral and civilizing resources of the Catholic Church, nevertheless, it should not close its eyes to the general anti-social tendencies of that Church. B.—Wherever the Catholic Church puts its ban on religious, toleration, or crushes liberty of belief, and wherever it eliminates freedom of research in its effort to make ecclesiastical dogma the basis of all intellectual culture, Freemasonry should be its avowed enemy and combat it with the greatest vigor.'