THE POLICY OF SILENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, 4 July 1918, Page 34

THE POLICY OF SILENCE.

It is a mistake to imagine that the people approve of the policy of hush. When the faith they cherish so dearly is maligned or ridiculed in any way they naturally expect someone to take up the cudgels of the Catholic Church. They are proud of the man who ably and openly defends the cause of country and religion. How slow we are to speak! Plow cautiously we write! How blind we are to what is-going on around us ! How many misdeeds or falsehoods we allow to pass unnoticed, or at the very most refer to only indirectly and in polished language. We are more inclined to attach more to expediency and to certain false notions of etiquette than to duty, even of a sacred kind. We try to justify our silence by holding that the best way to treat present-day opponents is to ignore them ; that to be rushing into print in defence of Catholic teaching at the beck of every bigot or carping critic is only calculated to belittle religion and to magnify petty difficulties.