UNION IS STRENGTH

New Zealand Tablet, 25 January 1917, Page 43

UNION IS STRENGTH

- At the half-yearly meeting of the Wellington Diocesan Council of the Catholic Federation, held at Palmerston North on January 17, Very Rev. Dean Power, Hawera, spoke as follows; : ' When I was a little boy my mother would often draw my attention to .the beauty of a summer rainbow, and would encourage me to trace it to its source, telling me that I should find there a friendly fairy who would discover to me a golden treasure. There were boys of greater age than min© who would smile at her fond conceit and quaint presentment of a silly tale; but I always felt the friendly spirit would be there to dazzle and delight my eager eyes. _ ' Since then I have become a priest, and it is my vocation now to chase and catch a fairer rainbow. The dear and lovely lady, whom we call our Holy Mother Church, draws my attention to the _various groups of Catholics to be found in this Dominion. They belong to different social grades, they have various shades of politics, they have come from different countries, and have their own ideals and racial characteristics; but she wraps them up in a sweet vision, and points them out to me, forming together one grand harmonious arch to shed its gifts of light and sweetness upon the earth. She urges me to run in pursuit of this holy sign, assuring me of treasure beyond (lie dreams of Ormuz and of Ind. Again there are warnings of a, silly tale, impossible of realisation, but I have faith in my spiritual Mother, and am now in pursuit of the vision, and you are partners in the chase. For have we not all entered with confidence upon a great campaign to bring every Catholic in this Dominion, no matter what his social standing, his political ideals, or racial characteristics may be, into that grand union called the Catholic Federation ? And surely .no argument is needed to emphasise this duty, or to justify the confidence with which we enter upon it. The whole world proclaims that union is strength ; and the whole world is eager to put its watchword into action. Wherever we turn we have trades unions and employers’ unions, commercial, political, and social unions ; and experience tells us that these are a necessity for those who are individually weak and at the mercy of stronger forces. Pope and prince, patriot and peasant preach and proclaim the power of union ; and the poets who write the people’s songs turn to this same watchword for the source of their finest inspirations. The sweetest national melody known to me is the Irish poet’s appeal for union to his distracted countrymen. He saw the common enemy across the water, fomenting strife between the different sections of his native land, dividing to conquer, and sorrowfully he pointed out to them that the secret of their misfortunes, the source of the silent tear, and the cause of the languid smile lay all in this, that while their tyrants joined in hate, they never joined in love, Erin ! thy silent tear never shall cease ; Erin ! thy languid smile ne’er shall increase, Till, like the rainbow’s light, Thy various tints unite, And form, in heaven’s sight, One arch of peace. Now, we are living in a fool’s paradise, if wo imagine that the world is not radically opposed to us to-day, and determined as ever to counteract the influence of the Church of God. Does not the State openly glory in its repudiation of one of our most sacred rights ; and have we not worldly-minded Catholics who make a fetish of the State, pud who for their own petty ambitions are ever" ready to minimise and obscure all that Christian parents and the Church hold dear ? The State has certain attributes which alone give it the right to command; and one of these is ‘ the restraint it puts upon itself in presence of rights more personal and sacred.’ It is not by right, then, but by might the State of New Zealand enters upon the

domain -of parents and the Church in the matter of education..- The action of the State is not the ■ action of authority ; it is a wicked ; invasion like that. of the Huns, applauded by the sworn foes of Christ, and tending to destroy the fairest fruits of. civilisation. The upholders of this devastating system are to be commended, when in another sphere , they cry out against the evils of Prussian ism ; but they- make themselves ; a spectacle •to men and angels when they gather up the cerements which in this matter ,Prussia has long since healthily shed, and clothe their . own / burlesque of a policy in their deadly, grave-smelling folds. Our nominal, worldly-minded Catholic does not like this kind of talk it hampers him in the society after which he apes. The difference- between Christian and godless education, he tells us, is a minor matter which should not be made too much of. But it was to emphasise this difference Christ was born on; Christmas Day it was to emphasise this difference Christ established His teaching Church : it was to sanctify and make perfect this Christian school Christ shed His blood on Calvary, and it is to crown its results fie will come and judge Hie living and the, dead. No minor difference this, but vital and essential, as our weakling Catholic should learn from the action of . the godless Government of Prance, which in its propaganda of atheism, shut down the Christian schools, and sent the Christian teachers adrift to beg for bread on foreign soil. No minor difference, if he but bear in mind how the introducer of the godless French system into Australasia boasted that it would be the death knell to the calling of the priests of Home. The prophecy of Parkes has been falsified; the priests of Rome are growing more active year after year in the pursuit of their holy calling; their labors are ever on the increase; and they will increase and lie prophecy of evil will continue to be falsified in the measure in which the Catholic Federation develops and grows perfect. Each successive year since, the introduction of the godless system has seen our Catholic schools increase in every diocese in Australasia, and this divine work will continue to go forward under the united efforts of bishops, priests, and Federationists until every tiniest hamlet in the land will have its Christian school. , This is one, but only one, of the many works for God in which we seek your co-operation. While the State does not hamper us in other matters, there are forces, a frightful host of them, arrayed against every activity of the Church. Wherever we turn we behold the forces of evil combining against human souls, and we have a right to call upon every Catholic to take up arms and claim a hero’s part in the noblest of all wars. When the natural, fighting against the supernatural, strives to rob men of the benefits conferred upon them by Christ and Christianity, is ours to be the motto, cursed by heaven and by God: ‘ Every man for himself and God for us all’ ? Is each to be content with looking after himself alone, and then crying in the face of heaven :‘Am I my brother’s keeper V No, a thousand times no. We must go down into the arena and fight for the cause that is ours. We must fight, and suffer, and die if needs be in defence of our fellows. We must look to youth especially. The young man is the hope of the nation and the Church. We must seek out the dangers that surround him, and arm him against them. His position in this country is really dangerous; he is free as the breeze on the mountain top ; but unless wisely used, freedom leads to license. In an age when most men ape the world’s manners, and dote over the world’s mummeries, and scramble after the world’s goods, and boast of the world’s spirit, and preach the world’s gospel, what will save the young and immature from becoming mere moneygrubbers, and pleasure-seekers, and wide-gaping admirers of this loud-braying mountebank ? Come down then into the midst of the fray and hold up the standard of Christ before their gaze. Tell them it is a proud ahd glorious standard, too high indeed for mere flesh and blood but not too , high for the freeborn sons of God, It is n standard that will inspire

them .to heroic endurance and heroic deeds in the battle they - will wage under Christ, their Captain and their King. - Tell me if we in New Zealand have not reason to be Aproud of our young countrymen who are fighting so heroically on the battlefields of Europe to-day. Their praise is on the lips of all, but no lips can adequately speak their praise. ’ We all knew them before the war and had our various opinions of them. But the spirit of patriotism has touched them; and once timid they are now brave, once hard' they are now sympathetic, once selfish they are now devoted, once weak they now rush with joy to save their country’s honor, and write their own names on records sacred and imperishable. If the call of patriotism evokes such grand response, should not the call of religion be more appealing ? Is not God more than country ? Are not His fields the fairest of all fields of fair renown, and does He not need our help and call for it? Yet many who think themselves friends of Christ and should be in the midst of the ; fray, stand idly by, looking on at the battle raging before their eyes as if they were mere spectators at a picture show. They argue themselves into the strange belief that they are asked to take no part; and no one can be surprised at their inevitable process of. decay. They begin by making excuses for the,world’s worldliness, they fine down their religious professions to meet the world’s standard, they learn the world’s language and repeat the world’s watchwords, and when brought to book by manly men, they excuse themselves on the plea that the world, forsooth, has its claims upon them. And their Leader still cries ‘ Follow Me,’ but, deaf to His voice, they come to heel at the world’s bidding like whipped and whimpering slaves. Shall it be so with the young men who are listening to me? No, I repeat emphatically, no. The days of chivalry have not passed away, nor the days of faith, \ nor the days of grand ideals. Old age and decrepitude may freeze the souls of mammon worshippers and the votaries of pleasure; but . while youth lives on, chivalry and faith and love and every high ideal will endure, for the heart of youth is their cradle and their native home. Come, then, and join this glorious army; enrol to-night in the ranks of the Catholic Federation. We have recruiting sergeants here from every parish in the archdiocese, who will encourage you and fill you with enthusiasm. Under their guidance, you will aim henceforth at the highest and the best. Undismayed by the low aims, the low tastes, the low morals of the shirker and the coward, you will aim at the highest your minds can discover, knowing that your destiny will be higher still. Let the common herd live on for common ends, and be ground to earth- by mean aspirations; but the Catholic Federationists believe in honor, in virtue, in manliness, in grace, and they will grow into the likeness of the things in which their souls believe.