Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 19 June 1919, Page 14

Current Topics

Good News . Readers do not need a long memory to recall how our press told us a few months back that Sinn Fein represented only a few cranks in Ireland and a few seditious, persons (like the Editor of the Tablet) outside Ireland. And when the elections made it clear, even to the editors of the Harmsworth league of liars, that Sinn Fein represented all the sane people in Ireland, as well as" all those to whom the cause of small nations was not a mere hypocritical catch-cry, the press began to tell us that it was unthinkable that Sinn Fein should be heard at the Peace Congress, and that no matter how just and how right Ireland’s cause was the dominant interest of England must prevail, and Ireland must still serve, for the truly Prussian reason that her servitude is useful to the champion of small nations. If Ireland had only England to deal with the press would have been right. However, there were a few other Powers to be considered. America wanted to know why her soldiers were asked to fight for self-determina-tion if Ireland was to be denied that right. Paris, too, had something to say about the sincerity of British war aims and the rights of small nations. The result is that we have now strong reason to hold that Ireland will be heard at the Peace Congress, and that the almost indecent haste made by Lloyd George to facilitate the sending of Sinn Fein delegates to France is the consequence of his conviction that the game is up and that England must face the awkward situation created by her constant oppression of Ireland in favor of an Orange gang of outsiders who are more Prussian than Prussians.

Some Details We have already pointed out that America was so much in earnest about securing Irish freedom that not only did Congress and the Senate urge the Peace Conference to take up the Irish problem but also special delegates were sent to Europe to see that Ireland’s case was not neglected. Reading between the lines of the fablegrams that have reached us since the arrival of the American delegates, it is easy to see that their presence is already felt and that it is now a question of how much Ireland will consent to take by way of settlement. Although the first thing to be demanded in justice ought to be the hanging of. Lloyd George and parson, and although Ireland’s right to complete independence is beyond argument, we have no doubt that Sinn Fein will accept a full measure of selfgovernment on colonial lines, but 'nothing short of this will meet the case. Recall that a few days ago the censored cables revealed to us that one of the Tory lords was very angry on account of some step taken by Paris with.regard to.lreland. What that step was we can only surmise! Very probably it was that Paris had the “impertinence”- to suggest that there was no reason why John Bull should not be reminded that a champion of small nations ought to put his own house in order. At any rate, something was done in Paris, and clearly that something was the result of the activities of Sean Ua Ceallagh and of the American, envoys. New light is thrown on the situation by a letter from the Bishop of Killafoe from which we are able to quote a very interesting passage now. His Lordship, writing to Father Fogarty, said that Paris was sending a delegation to Dublin to invite De Valera to the Peace Conference and to find out what he wanted. As the Bishop points out, this means that Lloyd George has knuckled down and that we may be certain that Ireland will get full self-government.at least. Taking this letter from so authoritative a source with the hints that can be gathered from the cables, we conclude with great satisfaction That Sinn Fein has won. f And from our heart we say. Deo gratia*! \ .V

Ourselves , - • * . * h-.-r . b We never had 5 any doubts as to the-: final victory of Sinn Fein. When we were fighting a lone hand for the cause, and when people who thought they knew more about Ireland than we did went on telling us how' far mistaken we were, we never hesitated once. Our belief, like Pearse’s and like -De Valera’s, was based on the certainty that a united people : who are ready to make the last sacrifices for their just cause can never be beaten. Ireland was Sinn Fein long before the elections made the fact clear to the world, and we knew that when priests and people, men and women, were working as one man for Ireland victory might be delayed but it was assured. Possibly we have made a few enemies because we did not allow them to dictate our Irish policy to us, but on the other hand we receive, month after month, testimonies from Ix-eland which make it clear to us that what little ye have . done for the Old Land is appreciated there by those who love Ireland best. Here is what the Bishop of Killaloe thinks, of the New Zealand Tablet and its services to Ireland : “Your letter arrived with a bundle of Tablets, which I read with pleasure. It is a very able paper, and I rejoice to see that it is Irish of the Irish. Please remember me to the Editor, and may God bless him.” A little: word like that from the man who stepped into Dr. O’Dwyer’s shoes is more to us than the praise of a million Imperialists. To know that we have done our duty according to our lights is consolation enough, but still we are human enough to be pleased when a tribute comes our way from such an authority. . More than once an adviser of the ordinary colonial infallible type has said to us that the Tablet is too Irish, and that it does no good to give so much attention to the wrongs of Ireland. Apparently the people in Ireland who are best judges are not of that opinion. Apart from their approbation, it is clear that our own people here would be sadly misinformed if we did not in season and out of season devote ourselves to the task of contradicting the reports circulated in the British press about Sinn Fein. From that point of view alone it has been a matter of simple duty to dwell at considerable length on Irish affairs during the past few stormy years. Moreover, the Tablet is a Catholic paper, and, although some persons do not like to be reminded of the fact, Ireland’s cause is vitally connected with our Catholic interests. It is a curious psychological puzzle that the persons who owe most to Catholic Ireland are often the first to show their ingratitude. As time goes on, and when Ireland has come to her own, we will devote more space to various other topics that have had to be passed over hurriedly of late. When things settle down again and when the task of contradicting official liars is not so imperative, we hope to be able to do more than we have done in the past towards inculcating those sound Catholic social principles which lie at the root of the world problems with which Democracy must grapple in its efforts to reconstruct society on a sane and safe basis. We have now come to the dawn of a more hopeful day than any we have known in our lives. Unless we read all the omens wrong,- the future is Ireland’s, the long night of sorrow is drawing to an end, the crown is ready for the heroic people who so bravely bore the cross. And when an authoritative voice from overseas tells us that we may be prepared to rejoice for Ireland’s victory, it is not a little thing to be told by the same voice that we too have done our part towards it. ..... - .

The Catholic Mind vas > s.t Just as there is a worldly mind and a business mind, there is also a Catholic mind. A person may be in the world and not of it, engaged in business, with a mind far removed from it, a member of the Catholic Church and in no wise .of a Catholic mind. ■One, may subscribe to every doctrine, that the Church requires her children to believe, go regularly to Mass and to the Sacraments and at the same. time be very un-Cath-olic in , mind. The Irish people, the pious French and

Italian Catholics, do more than subscribe to a 6 creed and "scrupulously fulfil their obligations. They feel as Catholics ought to feel they ' act as Catholics ought to act- in ; every conceivable situation. They do not have to reason about it; the right thing to do comes to them by a sort of instinct. They have the Catholic mind. -By heredity and by custom and by environment they are so saturated with Catholic feeling that they act on it spontaneously. If our readers want a concrete illustration of this, let them consider the lives and the habits of thought of the old French people and of the old Irish who brought the faith to this country, and let them contrast with them the lives and habits of thought of the average Catholic boy or girl of this- Dominion. The difference is surely clear to those who have eyes to see. And what is" the explanation of it First of all the young people have not had the same thoroughly Catholic home life as their parents had. They have not learned to keep the Fourth Commandment, which is the all-protecting law of the Home; they have not been brought up to habits of unquestioning obedience and to deep, loyal, sincere reverence for their parents. From childhood they have been immersed in an anti-Catholic atmosphere which acts as fatally and as surely as slow poison. The papers they read every day are hostile to our religion in spirit. They are edited and owned by persons who have been, imbued with the traditional lies about us; they can never repress an ill-mannered sneer at the Pope and his policy when opportunity arises : at their very best. they are totally ignorant about us and totally incapable of conceiving how vital a matter religion is to us. Here, where Government, schools, public opinion are of a frankly secular tendency, the most we can expect from the press is impartiality, and taking the world as we find it, impartiality would be a miracle from men , who are traditionally biassed against us. English literature at its best is bigoted too. Even Dickens professed that he would never publish anything that might lead sincere persons to approach the Catholic Church, : and Dickens is held up to us as one of the safest and soundest of our novelists. In most novels' that touch at all on the Church we find falsehoods or lies. The bias is there always : innuendoes, sneers, covert and open attacks on our doctrines are part and parcel of the literature which grew up on the great Protestant lie which started when lying about us became the official policy of* Protestantism. Quite apart from the • gutter literature of people like Chiniquy, Robertson, or Maria Monk-—whose outrageous calumnies are nevertheless accepted as Gospel by many of our benighted Protestant neighbors—there is a vast body of fiction and so-called history which could hardly have been worse were it written for the express purpose of blackening the Catholic Church in the eyes of the public. Books of this sort find their way into State schools; we have known such used as text-books; we have seen them given as prizes. Even in Scott, even in Thackeray you will find the snake in the grass. . Men write as they think, and habits of thought, among Protestants are certainly not fair to us. An environment such as this cannot fail to react on Catholics. If even harmless light reading is ultimately bad because it relaxes the mind and enervates the intellect, how much more deleterious is poison thus subtly instilled in small doses day by day and week by week. The environment is enervating; it causes what might be called Catholic form to run down: it lowers the tone of Catholic mentality. Therefore to counteract all such influences and to raise Catholic tone is an apostolate for us all, whether lay or cleric. The harvest is great and the workers ; few.

The American Hierarchy and Social Reform Some short time ago the American Bishops issued a Manifesto dealing with Social Reconstruction". This striking document is worthy of a place beside the great pronouncements of Leo XIII. It does not aim at being a complete programme of economic reform-, or the last word on the subject. It is a 7 helpful," thoughtful

summary of reforms that are necessary and it indicates the broad Christian lines';- on which the reforms ought to proceed in order to produce their full fruit in a regenerated, stable "society."""Among a few points of the Manifesto may be mentioned the declaration' that no woman should retain any occupation harmful to .:. health or morals, that female employees should ; receive the same wages as men for. equal amounts' and qualities of work, and that there is no reason why workers should' not have more than a living wage if the industry will support it. It declares against bad housing, monopolies, middlemen profiteers, and advocates that workers should have a share in industrial management. The Bishops are mindful of the words of Leo that "Society can be healed in no other way but by a return to Christian life and Christian institutions," and they advocate earnest action by the Catholic Church towards making Christian principles more widely known and appreciated among the masses. The Manifesto has made no : small stir in the United States. It is described by Frank P. Walsh, former Joint-Chairman of the National WarLabor Board, as "one of the most significant and farreaching developments of recent years, a triumph for true religion as it is a triumph for the cause of economic democracy." John Fitzpatrick, the recent Labor candidate for the office of Mayor of Chicago, writes that the Manifesto "is virtually the programme of organised Labor as expressed in the official declaration of the American Federation of Labor," and goes on to say that "its declaration in favor of maintaining the present wage-rate and progressively raising it, while at the same time taking steps to reduce the cost of living and to . control large fortunes, constitutes the strongest possible support for the position taken by organised Labor. It should be printed in its entirety in every Labor journal in the country. Nothing will' do more to strengthen the cause of orderly but fundamental economic reform as opposed to the plans of those who would destroy our entire civilisation at on< blow in the hope of bettering the conditions of the masses." Socialist papers in many instances are loud in appreciation of the wisdom of the Bishops. Upton Sinclair, writing in the New Appeal, calls the Manifesto "a Catholic miracle." The Seattle Union Record says: "We are glad that the Catholic Church sees the coming of a new day. . . This official pronouncement of the Catholic Church can beheld up to strengthen many who are starting on the road to an understanding of the new world that is to be." In the New York Nation, Raymond Swing writes that the Bishops have taken a courageous step, "possibly one * that some day will be designated as the most serviceable that Catholicism has reently ventured in America." We have seen some months ago that Cardinal Bourne issued in England a Pastoral much on the same broad lines. The Church everywhere is wide awake to the need of reform and her only anxiety is that through the erroneous views of demagogues who are dominated rather by greed than by Christian principles the attempts at reconstruction may be rendered futile or even harmful. The Church calls on her children to

insist on the necessity for basing reform on the principles of Christian charity and true brotherhood, and the task of Catholics in the present hour is to do all in their power to help in the remaking of the new world on the only lines that guarantee stability and good order. Priests can do much, the Catholic press can do even more, but here is peculiarly the harvest which invites the zeal of the Catholic laity whose hour it is now. - ; •■ ■ • ■'- fwOiii!