IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 30 May 1918, Page 35

IRISH NEWS

Most Rev. Dr. Fogarty has received a cheque for £IOOO for religious purposes in the diocese of Killaloe from the Most Rev. Thos. O’Dea, who, in transmitting it, says that he gives it out of the estate and in accordance with the wishes of his brother, Mr. Matt O’Dea, Ennis. Ireland is the land of centenarians. The death has taken place of Mrs. Feeney, Ryefield, Elphin, at 110 and of Mrs. Margaret Crimes, Lurgan at 106. “’The remains were laid to rest in the Catholic cemetery at Lisnaskea the other day of a centenarian named Mrs. Murphy, who had reached t he remarkable age of 110 years, . and was the oldest woman in Fermanagh. Deceased was a native of that part of the country bordering along the shores of Lough Erne. She is survived by two unmarried daughters, who lived with her—the oldest of these being well over the septuagenarian span. The National College for the Maynooth Mission to China has been opened in what was formerly the mansion of Lord de Clifford, near Simile, Co. Mayo. The new college is dedicated to St. Columba, and its opening crowns the splendid efforts of Father Galvin and Father Blowick, the latter being president of the new seminary. At the inaugural functions the attendance included the Bishops of Clonfert and Achonry, Mgr. Kilkenny, D.D., P.P., Y.G., Claremorris ; Canon McCaffrey, D.D., Maynooth: Rev. Fathers Eaton (Tuam), O’Connell (Mullingar), Begley (Roundfort), etc. “Rambler’’ in the Daily Mirror (London) says the next V.C. list will contain the name of an Irish priest of a well-known family. Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., is cited by the New York correspondent of the Daily .Vnr* (London) as fearing that the “majority of the Irish-Americans remain sullen and anti-English,’’ an attitude which he attributes to the “executions after (he rebellion and the postponement of Home Rule, which keeps up the talk about the English being at. their old game of perfidy.” Mr. Justice Madden at the Donegal Assizes stated there were only six cases for trial, which showed the satisfactory condition of the county. Serjeant Matheson, Assize Commissioner, at the Kildare Assizes said there was only one case for trial, showing the county to be normal. Mr. Justice Gordon at the Cork Assizes congratulated the Grand Jury on the state of that great county. There was an extraordinary decrease in drunkenness, and only three cases would go before them for trial. In Derry County there was no criminal case. At the Belfast Assizes, Mr. Justice Dodd informed the Grand Jury that there were twenty-one cases for trial. Burglary cases had largely decreased in the city, but in the neighboring County of Down they had increased from four to forty. IRISH BISHOPS ABUSED. The Catholic Church has ever been, through the medium of the literature of the country, the subject of virulent attacks, but never more so than at present (writes “Brittas” in the Edinburgh Catholic Herald). Anyone who frequents the libraries of our cities and large towns cannot fail to notice the persistent and aggressive hostility displayed towards her in many of the leading books and magazines of the day. One might expect to find such in a gutter press, but in the so-called “high-class” reviews, subscribed to by Catholics as well as Protestants, we look for something better. Scarcely a month passes but, in one or another of these, untruthful and malicious statements in the form of notes and articles on institutions dear to every Catholic heart may be found, evidently from the pens of those who firmly believe it their duty to strive for the extermination of the Catholic religion, people who regard Catholic emancipation as a political blunder and who would rejoice to see “Popery” again made a penal offence. Many of these articles are written with

the seeming object of trying to show that the Catholic faith and patriotism cannot go hand in hand; others again are a vehement denunciation of Catholic “errors” ; but the bulk are violent attacks on the Vatican. These all cater for a certain portion of the public taste—the taste of a people who, although they have lost all faith in the Thirty-nine Articles or any other formulary, and seek vainly for something that will take the place of their vanished beliefs, never cease to look upon the Catholic Church as given over to idolatry, as worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, as keeping the Bible out of everybody’s way and making people easy about their sins. A sample of this antiCatholic spirit permeating the literature of to-day appears in the February issue of the Fortnightly Jtevi nr. Answering the question, “Has our current religion stood the tremendous test of war so widespread and so awful ? it says (after commenting on other religions): “The Vatican works as the most covert friend of the destroyer of churches, monasteries, and hospitals amid the pillage and torture of Catholic population; and in Ireland prelates and priests abet rebellion and help anarchy. 1 ( ’o another question, “Have the Orthodox Catholic and Lutheran priests done anything to prevent war, to mitigate war. to stop war?” it answers: “So fiir from trying to soften its horrors their voice has given fresh ferocity to the warrior caste. . . Protestant Christianity has done much, but human nature, modern training, the religion of social duty, effected t nee parts of the blessed work.” Such indictments against the Church, which is the one bulwark of law and order, sound passing strange in the face of the numerous manifestations of loyalty and patriotism of Catholics bishops, priests, and people—which are so constantly before the public eye. From the Scotsman (February II) we quote the following reference to the lecent Lenten pastoral of an Irish Bishop, which shows how utterly unfounded such charges against Catholics are:—“The Bishop of Galway refers to the raids for arms, and states that, every man who joins in such raids is guilty of a gross breach of the Ten Commandments, lalse to his religion, and a rebel against God.” But the Church needs no defenders. Scrutinised, confronted at every turn, subjected to every indignity that power could devise and inflict, she stands to-day, as she has stood for nineteen hundred years, a queen without a rival, with her attendant evidences, miraculous and historical, fully establishing her claim to universal dominion. ST. PATRICK’S DAY IN ENGLAND. The Rev. J. M. Hayes, Church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, preached on the night of the National Festival in fet. Patrick’s, Liverpool, the panegyric of lieland s apostle. We take from his eloquent discourse this passage:—What more sorrowful and yet more glorious tale can you read in the history of any land than Ireland’s story from the 16th to the 19th century. 'lhe Irish went abroad, but everywhere they went they carried the Faith. Here into Liverpool they came in their thousands. They lived in wretched cel-' lars ; they died with starvation and disease but yet from out those disease-laden cellars shot forth the light of Faith. Seventy years ago our churches here were only a few scattered ones; to-day from over 250 altars in the archdiocese the Holy Sacrifice is_pffered each Sunday morning, and our Catholic population is well nigh 400,000. Patrick’s blessing appears to be upon us, especially here. Perhaps it is because his holy feet trod our city ground, as story tells —where Great Crosshall Street is now there was formerly erected a cross, from which the street takes its name, to commemorate Patrick’s preaching there.