TRIFLING WITH THE TRUTH.

New Zealand Tablet, 4 September 1919, Page 18

TRIFLING WITH THE TRUTH.

It is now pretty commonly held that if a Minister, of State has made an assertion there is some reason to doubt its accuracy (says the London Catholic Times of recent date). But, bad as is the tradition established by the Government, one of its members surely has not quite so much reason. to feel ashamed of deliberately departing from the truth as an organ of the Church of England. The Anglican Church, which is a State institution, may reasonably be expected to set the State a. good example a bad one. Yet we find the Church Times, which speaks for it, declaring the other week that the history of the Church of England—the Protestant Church as by law established—"extends back for fourteen centuries." This trifling with the truth may seem a small matter to the author of the statement, which even school children must know is false, but as an instance of disregard for truth "it is a pitiable exhibition. It is not a case of ignorance. The writer knew— have —that the Protestant Church of England did not exist 14 centuries ago and that it differs so essentially from" the Catholic Church which was then the Church of England, that when it came into existence the Catholic altars were smashed and Catholic priests banned and martyred. The readers of the Church Times might as well be assured that white and black are but one and the same color. .