Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 10 May 1917, Page 21

Current Topics

Conscription of Clergy A Decree of the S. Congregation of Consistory, January 2, 1917, forbids the ordination of candidates to Sacred Orders who are in the Italian Army or likely to be called to the war. For those who are already in Holy Orders, special recourse to the Holy See must be had in each case. This rule indicates the attitude of the Church towards conscription of the clergy. Canada on the Treachery of Lloyd George The following cablegram was sent to Premier Borden, now attending the Imperial Conference: ‘ The advocacy of immediate Home Rule for Ireland by your fellow Premier, Sir Edward Morris, closely followed by Lloyd George’s new act of treachery, supply both contrast and lesson to the friends of small nations in all parts of the world. How can the people or representatives of Canada trust a Government headed by a man who has been false to his leader and "’his principles, more particularly when that Government is dominated by Carson, the inciter of armed resistance to constituted authority and the avowed friend of the Germaift Emperor.’ Mr. Campbell on Ulster Loyalty Here is how Mr. Campbell describes the loyalty of the people whom the Sun sets itself to protect when they attack us:— ‘ We had a great contempt for England and everything English, which was only excelled by our hatred for Ireland and everything in it. We did not put it that way, but that’s what it came to. We were terribly down on the Papists, the Home Rulers, and everything they represented. We formed the worthy belief that outside our own little corner, Ulster, all the rest of Ireland was in a hopelessly benighted condition, and more or less seditious. What we thought sedition is not clear to me, considering that our loyalty to the flag could not be held to be loyalty to England, but only hostility to Catholics of Ireland. It strikes me that there is principally what Ulster loyalty is now.’ Mr. Campbell’s appreciation of Ulster bluster is surely justified by the speeches of her leaders at the time the Home Rule Bill was brought in. And all the bloodshed and turmoil that followed in Ireland were the logical outcome of the tolerated treason of Ulstermen. If a strong Government had shot Carson as he deserved there would have been no Colthurst murders in which England became an accessory after the fact. The Ulstermen abroad are endowed with the same high virtues as their prototypes at home their religion and patriotism are of the same peculiar brand; hatred of Catholics is the keystone of their faith. The * Sun,’ the Moon, and the Orangemen The Orangemen look out for a full moon, and the Sun looks after the Orangemen. This curious Christchurch paper describes our notices of the wild antiCatholic campaign of Mr. Elliott, and of the blasphemies of the L.0.L., and the efforts of Messrs, Allen and Hanan to injure our Church— which they were hounded on by Stiggins—as unprovoked attacks. To give the genealogy of the King, as Chesterton does, to express an honest view of the military situation, as the better informed magazines do, and to protest against the appalling murders in Dublin, as humanity itself does, is, according to the Sun. unpatriotic and undignified ! As we are sure that the Sun, whatever be its standing, could pay for an editor who knows the elements of English grammar, we surmise that the attack on the Tablet, reeking as it does of the Twelfth of July, was written by an Orange Stiggins, hired for the bludgeoning. It is altogether in keeping with the tirades of the Orange organ, just as futile, puerile, and hysterical. It is a habit with these people to describe our protests.—eypn when they come from a bishop—as. undignified. This is particularly good , from op©

who can neither quote nor write English correctly. The dignified thing for Catholics seems to be to sit down and smile while the Orangemen here throw rotten eggs at us, and the Ulsterites at Home cut the throats of our friends. The Sun has broken out its colors at last! Nobody will mistake them for the Irish flag. The Omniscient ‘Triad We have the Sun and the full moon and the Orangemen here. Australia has a compensation in naving the ■Triad. Archbishop Mannix, too, has been as unpatriotic and as undignified as ourselves ! He is a loquacious Irishman, and a seditious person. We know his Grace, and we rejoice to find ourselves in such good company. Amongst other unpatriotic and undignified persons we may mention Bishop O’Dwyer, G. K. Chesterton, the late W. Stead and his son, Lord Loreburn, Gladstone, Lord Brougham, the Pope, all the unbribed American editors, and human nature minus the Jingoistic germ. Later on, when the shrieking has subsided, the people of Australia will rejoice that they have a Man amongst them. The Triad is interesting and entertaining, even in spite of the decadent poetry of Frank Morton ; but it tackles too large a proposition when it undertakes to write leaders on Archbishop Mannix. Does the, editor assume this attitude because he was the target for the attacks of the Jingoes some time ago ? It is surely a mistake for the Triad to find itself in such company as the Orange organ, and the Christchurch Sun. From them we expect no better; from the Triad we do.

The ‘ Journal of Education ’ Once again the Journal of Education pats Mr. Hanan on the back for his efforts in the cause of irreligious education. The State,’ says the Journal, ‘ provides-for the free, secular, and compulsory education of the children of New Zealand. In the State school syllabus ample provision is made for the physical, mental, and moral welfare of our boys and fdrls.’ We know of one teacher in a State school who attended to the moral welfare of the children by delivering diatribes on the Catholic teaching, and by holding the Irish people up to ridicule for- the edification of his class. We know that he is a warm supporter of Mr. Hanan’s ‘ System.’ And we do not wonder. We have been given the name of a school in which a Catholic boy stood up to protest against the attacks made by a teacher on the Church. In the light of that read this from the Journal ; ‘lt behoves everyone, therefore, who wishes to prevent the introduction of religious strife and sectarian bitterness into our school system to strenuously oppose (sic) every attempt by any denomination to secure State grants to their schools.’ * * Those parents or guardians who are not satisfied with what the State provides are not compelled to send their children to the State schools ; they may send them to private or to denominational schools.’ No; but those parents are compelled to pay for the education of other children in schools which they conscientiously regard as objectionable, on the ground, recognised in every progressive country in the world, that there can be no sound education where religion is not an important part of the curriculum. We do not demand that the other denominations be compelled to pay for the proper education of Catholic children. We demand that the money extorted from us be applied to the only education that is worthy of the name. We are paying, in round numbers, £1 per head for the education of children in schools which we refuse to recognise as educational at all. All we ask is that the Minister of Education and his colleagues be guided by the elementary principles of statesmanship. It is a bankrupt statesmanship that in defiance of right and reason wrings taxes from people who derive no benefit from them. Until we unite and make our numbers felt we need expect no consideration, and no respect for the rights of citizens from these people. In the meantime the products of Mr, Hanau’s schools go to . meet

death without ever having used the name of Christ except in blasphemy. He appears to be even proud of the result. It is as nugatory to point out that to teach, not to interfere in politics, is the business of the teachers, as it is to appeal to the Minister of Education for justice. We hope the Catholics of the electorate at present represented by Mr. Hanan are storing all these things up in their hearts against the day of reckoning. Even if his successor be equally bigoted and ignorant of the meaning of education he may be able to sing a new song. We have had enough of Mr. Hanan’s now. Vulgarity and Want of Dignity Did our readers ever notice that as soon as Catholics reply to attacks made on their Church, especially if they reveal the dishonesty and hate behind such attacks, the attackers fall back on the wonderful argument of telling us that we are wanting in dignity? They do not attempt to argue: that is quite beyond them. Like acidulated spinsters they gather up their skirts and retire hissing, ‘ How undignified !’ Catholics perhaps have after all a better working knowledge of the Bible than their enemies who soon forget that the strong language described as £ vulgar ’ and ‘ undignified ’ was similarly resented by the Jews. The reason is the same now as it was then. Hypocrites, then and now, resent being told that they are whited sepulchres, full of rottenness, or, haply, compared to a dog returning to his vomit, or to a sow wallowing in the'-mire. Personally we should never call the use of the right word—however hard it might hit—either vulgar or undignified. And we want no higher example than the Book we have referred to to guide ns in applying the lash to the enemies of our religion. An Orangeman, in the Dog days, has no scruple about breaking a Catholic's head, but if the Catholic remonstrates, and tells him that he is an assassin, he is a vulgar Papist. So, too, a journal that will quote, the profligate Chiniquy, and the waster McCarthy, and repeat charges proved to be false, will protest against the violence and want of dignity of Catholics; and another will mutilate passages, misquote sentences, pick and choose words to build upon them accusations that, even after all these dignified methods, are their own refutation. And although exposed and dishonored and shamed, they will cheerfully return to their vomit, and wallow again in the mire they love (Do you remark the vulgarity?), and continue to be blind guides, whited sepulchres, and masses of rottenness until they cease to cumber the earth. Of course the fundamental reason of these childish complaints is ignorance: a man who has a schoolboy’s acquaintance with English can see that the ‘ journalese ’ of these people is not the English language at all. A little time ago a bishop who made an appeal tor the starving children of Dublin was ‘ undignified ’ ; Archbishop Mannix is the most vulgar and loquacious and seditious person in Australia to-day ; Archbishop Kelly has had his share of such compliments too. We do—really we do—admire the superfine culture, the lofty sincerity, and the abiding dignity of our Orange friends, and of the extraordinary journals that support them. Why does not Mr. Hanan recognise them as they deserve and compel the children to read extracts from them daily? We would not be one bit surprised if he did. That would complete his ‘ system.’ The Poems of J. M. Plunkett Whatever we may think of the wisdom of the cause which led Plunkett to his early grave we cannot withhold our admiration for the man himself. He was of the stuff of winch are made men who die for lost causes. Father Augustine spoke of the ‘ sweet and courtly ’ manner of him as he stood, with hands tied behind his back, waiting for the rifle to end his young life. Sweetness, courtesy, sincerity, piety—old-world qualities largely possessed by most of the gallant gentlemen whose names arc written large across the pages of history—were the dominant notes in the character of Joseph Mary Plunkett. He was in the grand old sense of the word that few now understand, a gentleman. ‘ I am dying for the glory of God and the honor of

Ireland,’ he said simply to Father Augustine a little before the end came. To all who cherish his memory, and to all who love real poetry the volume of his poems will be welcome now. His personality lives in his verses.: They are lit by Keltic genius and afire with its warmth. And, as is due to poetry, they are set in beautiful language. Here is a word-picture of his travel-years in Algiers; The clatter of blades, and the clear Cold shiver of steel in the night• Blood spurts in the strange moonlight— The pattering footsteps of fear, A little thud and a sigh— The babbling whispers are still, Clouds come over the hill, Silence comes from the sky. And for a sample of the clear lyric call of his soners read this:—- 5 The wind rose, the sea rose, A wave rose on the sea, It sang the mournful singing Of a sad centenary. It sang the song of any old man Whose heart had died of grief, Whose soul had died and withered At the falling of the leaf. It sang the song of a young man Whose heart had died of pain, When the spring was black and withered And the winter conies again. The wind rose, and the sea rose, A wave rose on the sea, Swelled with the mournful singing Of a sad centenary. He was of the mystic school. Like most Irish poets the Keltic fire of his soul was fed by ideals of patriotism and religion, and more than most, he was of ‘ such stuff as dreams are made of.’ There is a rapt intensity and a white heat of fervor in such verses as the following: • I see His blood upon the rose And in the stars, the glory of His eyes, His body gleams amid. the eternal snows. His tears fall from the skies. I see His face in every flower; The thunder and the singing of the birds Are but Ills voiceand carven by His power Rocks are His written words. All pathways by His feet are worn, His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea, His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn. His cjross in every tree. When we look back on the promise and the fulfilment of his twenty-nine years which had their tragic termination in that grim moment when the little twists of rifle-smoke lingered around his lifeless body, let us recall the following words:

When I am dead let not your murderous tears Deface with their slow dropping my sad tomb, Lest your grey head grow greyer for my doom And fill its echoing corridors with fears: Your heart that my stone monument appears While yet I live—O give it not to gloom When I am dead, but let some joy illume The ultimate .victory that stings and sears. Frater, Ave clique Vale! May the memory of Joses&i Plunkett find a place in the prayers of us all.