Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 14 February 1918, Page 14

Current Topics

Ireland .. •.i *.;,.?. i .v.f:dr - : --rf:r;iU.i.r’o -••• ; ••; With ■ - that delicate t regard 'for the feelings •of ?• the awful Orange Order 'which ?is 'a mark <of ! our ; press ■’ we have , been told that Carson’s ( resignation took place us a result of .Ins unwillingness to \ embarrass ‘ the Government in the business of settling the Irish question ! Carson, with more ? regard • for truth than * his j admirers out here, has since then told us exactly why he left,the Cabinet. -.-.t] The /German agent ’of - Ulster,") the ■ man 1 who suborned the officers of the - English' army to mutiny; the importer of German; guns, i has already taken his stand' on ; an: Ulster -platform > and * announced that he is *' there to see that Ulster will never surrender. The British Empire (which so lately made him ’ a Cabinet Minister) may go to Jericho, : or even to a more tropical dimace, for all Carson cares now.’ *- He is out to secure the survival of Prussianism and the tyrannical rule of r a : bigoted minority. ;v. His lieutenant, : F ; , E, Smith, has been recalled from the * United ! States; where with true Orange delicacy he has been insulting the people and doing all in his power to "i stir : up f hatred of Great Britain ; We wonder what post in-the English Government will be high enough to reward - Smith’s idiocy ! Up to the time of writing there has been no new' development as far as the packed Convention is : concerned. The Convention may fail, but *it will be a historical record of Lloyd George’s effort to ~ fool America. - The Sinn Fein party keeps, on its : self-reliant way. '■ : Distrust of England, a proper estimation for British promises, has at last been burned into the people, " and they " shall never be ' fooled again I'* ■ They are willing to give the “ Convention a chance of succeeding and to accept any reasonable" scheme it may produce.' However, Carson is furbishing his German guns and 1 thumbing his German works on tactics in the North, and there' is a possibility that he may cause serious trouble. ' The War ", On all Fronts there is little doing as a consequence of the impossible conditions due to winter. The submarine campaign goes on relentlessly. The losses are still serious, the most important of late being ah American transport sunk in the Irish Sea; Paris and London have been raided by airplanes with considerable damage to lives and property. " v Immediately after 1 the details of the air raids some of our papers told us calmly that the defences were now so perfect that the danger- from 'the'airplanes was much less! ' In like way a report of serious losses due to the submarines is usually followed -by a' ‘ naive ‘ statement that the Government is effectively checking the U boats. We sometimes Wonder ' if " the editors responsible for . such idiotic paragraphs assume that the people are all fools. A casual cable tells' us ; now and then how things are in reality. For instance we read last week" that a re-, sponsible speaker declared that ' Britain was in the rapids and the food problem was really serious. That conveys more true "information regarding the U boat campaign than - columns of 'the essays of our amateur critics. What is most worthy of 'notice"is the manner in which Lloyd ’ George has climbed ; down to meet the proposals of the Labor Party. ‘ Lloyd George comes daily nearer to the terms of the ‘Pope’s Note which he had not manners enough to answer." The influence of Russia is making itself felt. ’ President" Wilson’s terms are almost identical with the Pope’s proposals. - More portentous still is the fact that the 1 Labor Leaders are now speaking with a calm assurance and a confidence of- their strength that cannot be wholly groundless. In France and in England and in Germany. Labor is steadily.: growing more powerful and more sure of its strength: How sure, may be gathered'; from Mr. Henderson's recent assertion That 'the'Unionsi will soon be in a position to enforce ; peace. All talk of - putting the Kaiser on Saint Helena andi locking up von Hindenburg in -the i' Zoo is now out of - date. Even Turkey is assured ■ that she will { not; be wipedtclean. off the map.

Which reminds us that a year ago we were told wo. were unpatriotic for pointing out the very lunacy of such talk. What a reasonable, logical people we are ! Still we have the same 3 ; old unwholesome conceit of iV our omnipotence as ; ever* : . ...... , —L" *,> &'•'// ,7* a ■> -* r n --rl - ;,. Mexico '-'j v:\hu-- y -, ,f{ President Wilson’s attitude \ before j coming into .the; war. won for him the admiration ;of all sane ; people and - the abuse of, the Jingo i press which is incapable of taking a fair view , ; of ; anything. ; J Now he has 1 changed his attitude and ; his tone, although - still far and away the ' sanest of the Entente statesmen. . He has been told by some , Americans - that -he would h never have come into the war ‘were* it, not for the pressure: of i the ; Wall | Street plutocrats who saw ; that the money they had lent; to the Allies was -in ; danger of being ■ lost.l He may have been i a very honest ; man; • he ; may . have \ i also ~ been a very strong man ; we would' be much, readier* to believe both if he had : shown as much anxiety to right the wrongs of the oppressed in America as he now says he feels for the Belgians and Poles and j Serbs. - 7 What-has he - done for the . Catholics ; of '■ Mexico . ■ WLat evidence has; he shown that - the sufferings of a persecuted people at his own door y concern him? In the greater turmoil of ■ the universal war we have been too ; deaf to the cries of the persecuted Mexicans. . The clamor of the Allies about the rights of small- nations in -Europe; has distracted, the attention: of { people from the troubles* of the” Mexican nation. The soldiers of , the United States will march away to do battle for the cause of Belgium or Rumania while a cause that calls, for their valor and their manhood is left behind deserted. What is happening ? Every license ;is permitted against Catholics under the rule of Carranza. > ; Sacrilege and infamy of all sorts are the; rule of . the day. , An archbishop and a bishop have been left to die in prison. The churches are almost all confiscated and the: sacred vessels stolen. The Marist Brothers have been expelled and-in some States there is not a single priest left. The Archbishop of Guadalajara had to flee for his life, and prisoners were tortured to wring from them information; as to his hiding, place. -. The most : revolting ; crueltiesand abominations have been testified . to on oath., Soldiers were allowed, if not actually encouraged, to pillage churches, and the most sacred places were polluted by nameless iniquities. Tabernacles were broken open and the Sacred Species trampled on the ground by r lewd soldiers and their companions in shame. The Catholic Hierarchy of the United States have protested; even a prominent American Freemason, , Colonel By am,. has spoken in unmeasured condemnation of the atrocities of the Carranza Government ; but it seems that; the protests are all in vain. u President Wilson was too) busy writing his Notes to attend to the appeal of the suffering people of Mexico. He was too short-sighted to see what wrong i was j done just s across his: own border. And when a time came for action :he forgot that charity { begins at home and his efforts in - favor ..of - “Small)* Nations’- were all directed beyond the seas, giving in j the eyes of many a sufficient plausibility;to the. charge i that until Wall Street-put on the .pressure he was not able to discover that America had any reason for intervention. It is true that in the opinion of., many critics America’s, coming in was merely a pretext, for. the raising and equipping of a large army, which, should the need arise, would .be a - bulwark against, invasion from the growing powers in the West. , ; Butwhatever brought America in it is no credit to the President or to. the people that - Mexico should \ remain a scandal which leaves American soldiers liable to the suspicion of being sent abroad to fight for the dollar® of the Wall Street plutocrats. •

Ernest Psicharl

.. For some years now there (has been . a renascence of , Christian r ideals * among the best. ,writers.. of France. ; Twort; decades ago Catholics, hailed -. with- delight the return to the religious, practices rof their youth of such men as i; Huysmans, Coppee, and Brunetiere, whose names were among, the brightest stars (in France’s ; liter- V

ary firmament. To-day younger writers of genius are /following in the footsteps; of i such- 1 pioneers and retracing the way down which so many Frenchmen had slipped ■ from the guardianship of God. . With the light shining on their faces they are toiling upwards again,' eager to do great - work, and : doing it splendidly, for the ; Church which ‘France’ loved and still loves in "her heart of hearts. One of these brilliant young Frenchmen was Ernest Psichari, whose light has gone out too early . in the tempest of the-war: Jachques Maritain was a nephew of that celebrated Freemason, Jules : Favre; , Albert de Mun was a grand-nephew of the ' scoffer, Helvetius; Ernest Psichari was the grandson of Ernest Renan, whose works spread so much insidious poison among a public which a charm-of ; style rarely equalled attracted while blinding to the real superficiality of the writer. ;g Psichari ,is one of rithe three French writers who have been ' described as the mystics of the war. He like Peguy and Lotte sped at the call of France to defend -her frontiers against the invader ; all- three fell fighting not only i for France but for their Christian ideals _of patriotism and charity. When we call them mystics we used the -word in its improper and wide sense' to signify-that-here were three young men consumed by a religions fervor, by a love of the Church, by devotion to the Sacraments and to the practices of Christian life. This was the mysticism which inspired their writings : just as it ’inspired their conduct as heroes of the French army. The ways of God’s grace are inscrutable, and the coming of the Spirit is as gentle and as imperceptible as the passing of a spring zephyr. Francois Coppee tells us in that, lovely book, La Bonne Sonffranee , how his conversion came about simply/from watching during his convalescence the Sister who nursed him at her prayers. Huysmans attributes his -change of heart to the marvellous influence which the i music and the liturgy of the Church had on him. Ernest'Psichari, son of Renan’s daughter and of a Greek schismatic, found his soul through his military profession : through its spirit of discipline he was led to study and to love the discipline of Catholicism and to see that the spirit of Protestantism, like that of his grandfather, led to anarchy and rebellion. How his conversion ..was accomplished he has described in that fascinating book La Voyage Du Centurion, now translated into English under the title of A Soldier’s Pilgrimage. The English version may not have yet arrived in this country ; but when it does come let our readers remember that it is well worth reading—and if at all in keeping with the original a book of profound beauty. It tells how the young French lieutenant, who calls himself in the book, Maxentius the Centurion/was brought face to face with his soul and with the problems of eternity in the solitude of the desert, and how he came to realise that the glories of France were nothing in comparison of the Kingdom of God on earth. Maxentius, solitude, and God met in the desert. Prayer soon came; and at length the cry from the young; heart: / ; / • .... 1 -.-■ 0, Lord , how easy it is. to love Thee! This young man has died a hero’s death on the fields of his beloved France, and France mourns in him a gifted child. He has written his name among her immortals. The critics have found a large pleasure of accomplishment in La Voyage Da Centurion, and an infinite promise of what the future for which he was not spared might have held for him. ■ : _ Dean Hyland and the ‘“Tablet” - t . Speaking at the meeting of the Catholic Federation in Christchurch, Dean Hyland was good enough & express,, his appreciation of our efforts to fulfil our mission. The - Dean’s speech was a , graceful and comforting assurance that our policy has the approval of the majority of our * readers in Canterbury as well 'as * in l Otago. - It is something to be ’ very pleased | about ' that Catholics ■ are fully - convinced of the necessity - of ; defending - their rights, and that the number of those ; who imagine that,; any thing can be gained by the out-of-date way T of ''epnciliatiouj/ is daily growing t smaller,

Our rights are worth fighting for. Our principles are not sprung from : the > brains of any individual x members of our community :- they have come down to us tried as by fire < and - burnished by « the wear of * centuries to increasing - brightness./ ; Here and there one meets a timorous Catholic/ who • prefers r, the . easier J.. and - more cowardly way of ; avoiding -trouble;’: or one ; who' thinks more about his temporal interests than about the sturdy maintenance of ,Catholic policy. - Certain, words spoken by - Archbishop Mannix . over, the/ grave of .his great predecessor ought to sound ■; for ever, the death-knell of the foolish poljpy ; of conciliation. / Archbishop Mannix told his hearers in the thronged aisles- of St. •• Patrick’s that ; Dr. .Carr— suavest and '• kindliest of men confessed at , the end of his - long life that it was absolutely useless to expect fair.play from our -foes or to rely on their sense of .justice - where Catholics were concerned. Conciliation, >: trustfulness .in the honor ; of Governments, is as utterly, unsound here as it has been in . Ireland, where for trust the reward was ever betrayal, and for conciliation perfidy. The Dean also pointed < out that many of the papers which, having ,-an axe to ; grind ;we presume, ; attacked us for our endeavors to tell the truth about the: war and for our frank criticism of certain t Ministers who were setting up in New Zealand a system of Prussianism as intolerable as ever, obtained under Czar T or Kaiser, have since distinguished themselves by . following very much /in our footsteps. He called attention to the fact that the justice of our comments on the European : situation was fully .borne out by the sanest and most enlightened English paperspractically by every paper which is independent enough to respect the truth. But of course what is fair criticism in a fair country is intolerable disloyalty among ’a community of wowsers ; arid any excuse is good enough as a pretext, for attacking a Catholic paper. The past year has been for Catholics a strenuous time. We trust its events have opened their eyes. It will be a great step onwards if we in New Zealand have learned one lesson from Ireland : that lesson is to rely on ourselves alone. ~ As the honor of God and the glory of Ireland .is the Sinn Fein watchword, let it be ours too. We are not forgetting New Zealand; for in no way can we serve New Zealand better than in being faithful in all things to our ancient faith, in jealously guarding Catholic interests, in always putting motives of right and justice before our own private interests. . In Ireland there are to-day. millions , who can .do that. If we imitate them here we shall be fighting for the welfare of this Dominion, for its purity, for, the soundness and sanctity of family life, for the promotion of justice and chastity among the people, for the up-lifting of society. There' may be peace if we .sit, down under insults, to .our religion and if we allow our. rights to be -taken ; from, us. But what man worthy of the name would have such a peace ?. If we were cowardly enough to adopt such a policy we should have nothing ' but the amused contempt of our enemies as a. reward ; , and we should deserve no, better. As a matter of fact we have no choice at all.. We are Catholics and as such we have our, obligations to our . faith. Not the least of them is to defend it manfully. When at Confirmation the bishop. # signed the Cross on our foreheads with Chrism we were enrolled as soldiers of the Church and pledged , to .defend our faith before all considerations of self-interest: if we fail. to do so we may , be ; very successful; citizens and. very popular with /our, fellows, . but one thing we are not ; and, that is good Catholics. /- '//•/V /