Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1913, Page 21

Current Topics

A Story With a Moral The moral of the following story is so obvious, and at the same time so excellent, that it is a pleasure as well as a duty to pass the narrative on, and thus do our part,- at least, towards giving it the publicity and wide circulation which it deserves. The story is told by our able New York contemporary, America, in its issue of September 13. A journal of national reputation, seeking to forward a movement for the establishment of local non-sectarian homes for wayward girls, adopted the rather circuitous though well-trodden course of an attack on the House of the Good Shepherd. With an unfortunate accident to one of the inmates as its news item, it was easy to give the headlines a tinge of ochre and then throw open its correspondence columns to the vaporings of all who had views to vent. Rumors of "an investigation"the American panaceas—filled the e&r and crowded the printed page. Just who was to investigate what, was not very clear, but it all made good copy and was very offensive to everyone who knew the good work done by the Sisters under very ordinary circumstances. The institution was made as disagreeable for self-respecting Catholics as broadcast insinuation could well effect. The exact legal rights in the case being fairly cleared up and the nature and extent and agents of any probable investigation being pretty well defined, it began to occur to some people of sense that the thing had gone about far enough. Bub the demand for copj was insistent and the raw material so tempting that a cessation seemed far away. When lo! some one discovered "the pocket nerve." Advertisers to whom Catholic patronage was a matter of value, not to mention Catholic advertisers themselves, wrote a few well-pointed notes to the advertising editor of the paper. The effect was magical, and the depleted columns soon became filled with matter less calculated to exasperate the much-tried patience of Catholic readers and subscribers. Ex uno disce o?nnes.'

The Irish Pilgrimage to Lourdes Many of the English dailies have given considerable prominence to the recent very successful Irish Pilgrimage to Lourdes and to the interesting cures reported in connection with the pilgrimage. The Daily Mail, in particular, devoted a large amount of attention to the visit; and in both the London and Paris editions gave detailed reports of miraculous cures, vouched for by its own medical correspondent who went specially to Lourdes to see for himself. The case which appears to have attracted most notice was that of a girl afflicted with incurable knee trouble. Grace Maloney had had tuberculosis of the knee for nine years, and after eight operations had failed to relieve her was for nine months incapable of movement. As the result of the visit to Lourdes she was able to rise from her bed and walk, and is to all appearance perfectly cured.

A reckless and entirely unwarranted paragraph in the London Evening News was the means of eliciting fresh and unexpected testimony to the success of the pilgrimage. The paragraph was as follows: “I don’t think there have been any cures,” said .one of Cook’s men who assisted on the tour. “Out of 2500 it has been said that four left their crutches behind. Well, we haven’t seen anything of the kind. Some of them appear to be much worse than, when they left Ireland. They went to Lourdes full of confidence, and I am afraid many of the poor souls have returned heartbroken.” 5 The paragraph was an obvious misrepresentation, for though the pilgrims numbered 2500 there were only some 250 actual invalids. Seen by a representative of the London Catholic Universe, Messrs. Thos. Cook and Sons emphatically disclaimed any such interview as that referred to, and contradicted the whole statement of the paragraph, ‘ The first thing we

did on seeing the article,’ said the head of the department concerned, ‘ was to at once write a letter to the whole of the conductors engaged on the Lourdes Irish Pilgrimage, 22 in all, enclosing them a copy of the article, and asking them to reply specially as to whether in the first place they knew anything about such an interview, and next what their own individual experience was. The first replies came to hand from the eight conductors who arrived at Victoria with the 80 invalids on September 17 at 5.20. If any of our conductors had given an interview these were the most likely; but they each denied most emphatically having done so. We have now received replies from all the 22, and each repudiates any knowledge of such interview, and many of them give instances which show that the trend of the whole article is contrary to their personal observation and experience. One says: “I understand there are several distinct cures, and the report of the condition of the pilgrims on their return is greatly exaggerated.” Another says: “I have seen about six cures myself.” The best testimony is a letter from one of our conductors, dated September 14, and written at Lourdes. In it occur the words: “ A blind man can see now, and a girl was cured who had been ill for nine years.” 5 There will be the usual attempts to explain away or to deny these cures; but the simple testimony of the patients themselves—the ‘ One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see,’ of the man in the Gospelsremains as the unanswerable answer to all the sceptics.

The Victorian Referendum Bill Last Saturday's cables brought the intimation that ' the Victorian Legislative Assembly, by 30 votes to 27, negatived the Bill providing for a referendum at the next election in favor of unsectarian Scripture lessons being given in the State schools.' The result was not unexpected, for the Bill, which was introduced more than a month ago by a private member, has met with active opposition both in the Assembly and in the country. In Victoria, as in New Zealand, an Education Act Defence League has been formed to meet the campaign of the Bible-in-schools organisation; and before the debate closed each of the members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly received from the Defence League a copy of a well-worded and carefully thought out protest against a Bible referendum. The League took its stand for the most part on the absolutely incontestable ground that a question of conscience is not a proper subject for a referendum. ' This committee,' it said, ' has already addressed you in support of the contention that no referendum should be taken upon a religious question, and we again desire to urge upon you the proposition that the application of majority rule in any religious question is inconsistent with the principles of religious toleration. No majority, however great, is entitled to claim the assistance of the State for the propagation of religion. A true democracy can make no distinctions between its citizens on account of their varying religions. It is therefore inconsistent with democratic principles to submit to a vote of the people any proposal which Would necessarily identify the State with the support and maintenance of a particular form of religious teaching. The mere proposal to hold this referendum has been responsible for much sectarian rancour and bitterness. If you allow the proposal to succeed, this already great evil will inevitably increase.' In the Assembly the strongest opposition came from the Minister of Education (Sir A. J. Peacock), who made a powerful speech and one which made a marked impression on members. We quote a few representative sentences: How can a nondescript body of men, holding all sorts of belief in Scriptural matters, expound those Scriptures to the young ? The attempt to do so would result in strife, and not peace. The Bill before * Parliament is one for a Referendum to the people, asking them to say whether or not they desire to have the Bible taught at the State expense. That sounds on the face of it fair enough. But it is not fair because there are some things to which a Referendum can never be equitably applied. Questions of conscience are such matters. Even if a majority of the people were in this State to decree that they wanted the Bible

taught by the State, it would be an improper exercise of the franchise. For the State, being representative of people of all religions, can itself have no religion and, having no religion, cannot teach any. It could have no chance of satisfying all its citizens should it try to teach some one form of religion. If it paid its teachers to give Bible lessons which satisfied one set of people, it would do an injury and commit an injustice upon others. The conscience of the people is above human laws, and no Government should meddle with it. -If the State were to pay for Bible lessons satisfying to one section of the people, it would be teaching the religion of some at the expense of others and he asked the House to say whether it ever can be right for the State, representing all, to give preference to one sort of religious teaching over others?' These are precisely the arguments which are being marshalled against the religious referendum proposal in this country ; and it may safely be taken for granted that they will carry weight also with the New Zealand Parliament when the time for decision comes.

'The Woman Thou Gavest Me' The fact that Hall Caine's latest perpetration, The Woman Thou Gavest Me, is an attack on the Catholic doctrine of divorce, and contains, incidentally, many ridiculous misrepresentations of things and persons Catholic, will doubtless strongly recommend it to a certain section of the public, and particularly to certain types of cheap news-sheets which love to fill their columns with the sensational and melodramatic and which are not at all particular as to the accuracy or moral quality of what they purvey. Already it has been seized upon as a suitable serial by the Christchurch News, an evening print published in connection with the Christchurch Press, and one which, according to information supplied to us, is becoming notorious for the quantity and quality of the anti-Catholic rubbish which finds hospitality in its columns. We referred to Hall Caine's story some time ago—before it had appeared in volume form—and showed the absurdity — and worse—of many of its incidents, characters, and situations. To what we then said we need only now add that the whole plot and story of the book is founded on an ignorant mistake as to Catholic teaching regarding marriage. The main theme of the plot is that a young lady who ' was banished to a convent in Rome ' decided to become a nun, but eventually succumbed—under threats and practical compulsion—to the decision of her father that she should marry a dissolute lord. The marriage naturally proved unhappy : and the lady falls in love "with an Arctic explorer, with whom, however, according to the author, she is prevented from marrying by the Catholic Church's prohibition of divorce. After all the explanation that has been given, in connection with the Ne Temere decree, regarding the Catholic Church's doctrine of marriage, one would have thought that even the man in the street would know that as the lady in this case had refused consent to the contract and 'for that reason declined to cohabit with her legal husband the Church would hold that such a marriage was not a marriage at all but was from the beginning invalid. The whole ' moral ' of the story, therefore, falls completely to the ground in the light of the actual facts as to Catholic teaching.

Apart from the scant respect shown to its Catholic subscribers, the Evening News pays its readers a poor compliment by presenting them with this sort of pabulum. For even as a story and from the point of view of its literary quality, The Woman Thou Gavest Me has been severely criticised by leading English and American papers. The New York Times, of August 24, in a scathing review, pronounced it ‘ lengthy, sentimental, melodramatic even to the point of clap-trap, and abounding in unconvincing and absurd situations. . . The serious aspect of the problem becomes mawkish and loses any claim to the attention of the intelligent reader.’ The London Church 'Times says that ‘ Were it the very highest form of art, were it even the sturdiest

in its moral claim, we should solemnly protest against the coarseness and the unrestraint of its process. Mr. Hall Caine forgot that he was writing for the tender eyes of ladies which, not having seen the evil in the world, can never afterwards look on life with the same fearless purity. It is a big responsibility to take.’ ‘lt has the drawing power,' says the Morning Post, of a sensational divorce case and the emotional appeal of an Antarctic tragedy. It arouses at once the basest curiosity under the gloss of sacred simplicity and the noblest sentiment of admiration for the adventurous spirit. It appeals directly in terms that no one can misunderstand to the God and the beast in all of us. It will have a record sale. Is the literary merit of The W oman Thou Gavest Me in any way commensurate with this probable success ? . ■ . . We must confess that to us The Woman Thou Gavest Me is unconvincing and meretricious.’ The Daily Graphic damns it with faint very faint —praise. ‘lt is a book,’ it says, which, if it had been written by an unknown author, would probably have been dismissed as a work showing great possibilities in the writer, but very greatly marred by certain faults.’ And the Times roundly declares that as a constructive literary effort the work is chess, not life and that it is lacking in the first essential of every work of real art. ‘ The Woman Thou Gavest Me it says, ‘is a game of chess, not o-f life. And though All Lost for Love” may be a tragic denouement in a world of the tepid, Mr. Caine too deftly juggles with his theme. In a story that reveals a hand that has lost nothing of its skill, fine powers of description, lucid consistency, and genuine if somewhat flaccid sensibility, it is the clean unflinching grasp of imaginative reality that is wanting, and the assurance essential to every work of art of a naked intrinsic sincerity.’

Lunacy and Forgery The same Christchurch paper, in its issue of November 1, devotes two columns of its space to a gruesome account— ' A Priest's Crimes'—of the doings of one Johannes Schmidt, who, a few weeks ago, was found guilty of the murder of a young woman in New York. As the case was the subject of two or three brief cables it may be well, for the information of our readers, to give a short summary of Schmidt's career. Two words explain the extraordinary crimes of this unfortunate and the fact of his temporary admission to the American priesthood. They are lunacy and forgery. The following cablegram sent to New York by the head of the diocese in which he was ordained summarizes the facts as to Schmidt's career in Germany: ' Vicar-General Mooney, diocese of New York.—J. Schmidt was born at Aschaffenburg. He was a priest of the diocese of Mainz, ordained in 1907. He ran away from Mainz because of attempted frauds and his arrest by the police. He was declared insane by a court and discharged. He was suspended by the Bishop of Mainz for his acts and for presenting falsified documents regarding the studies he pretended to have made. Then he left the diocese.—Bendix.' After his suspension in Aschaffenburg Schmidt had the hardihood to attempt to celebrate Mass there, but the ecclesiastical authorities prevented him from committing that-sacrilege, and he was compelled to flee the country.

After making his way to America 1 he gained admission, through forged papers, into the diocese of Trenton, from which, however, he was soon expelled.. His connection with it ceased when he received from Bishop McFaul a note couched in the following plain terms: You are hereby notified that you must leave this diocese immediately. It is evident that you are wanting in common sense, and, therefore, I do not desire to have anything more to do with you.’ Again his forged documents were brought into play, and unfortunately, they enabled him to deceive the ecclesiastical authorities of New York, where he was assigned work as assistant pastor in one of the city parishes. The story of his double life and evil doings has been told over and over again in the American press, and has furnished abundant ‘ copy ’ for sensation papers. That the Munich Court was clearly right in adjudging

him insane may be gathered from the following cablegram which appeared in the New York Times ; ‘ Aschaffenburg, September 16.—The parents of the Rev. Johannes Schmidt, the confessed murderer of Anna Aumuller, say the young priest is hereditarily abnormal. Several members of the family are confined in asylums for the demented, and there have been four suicides in the family within the last five years. The letters sent home by the young priest are said by his relatives to be written in a confused and hazy style. Local physicians consider that the murderer’s perverted instincts were accentuated by forced study.’ Such is the sum and substance of the melancholy story of Johannes Schmidt. The Church in Germany cast him off; and in America he thrust himself upon her by fraudulent methods. In no way can the Catholic Church be held responsible for him or for his evil courses.