THE LATEST ESCAPED” NUN

New Zealand Tablet, 26 August 1920, Page 17

THE LATEST ESCAPED” NUN

ORANGE BIGOTS WORK UP A SENSATION. Philosophers have always found it difficult to define space; but it is no difficulty for the editor of a daily newspaper (says the Catholic Press, Sydney, of August 12). He would say that space is something which expands or contracts, according to the way the wind blows. A week or two ago the dailies had no space for indignant protests when Mr. Hughes was playing havoc with Australian liberty this week, when a sick nun leaves her convent, and falls in with a pack of mealy-mouthed bigots, they have oceans of space. One paper in particular gave two of its best columns on Monday to the vaporings of frothy Orangemen, though falsehood and insincerity were conspicuous in every line. The unfortunate cause of the sensation was Sister M. Liguori, one of the Wagga nuns, whose health had not been good for some months. She had been moved from convent to convent in the hope that change of scene would improve her health. Latterly, she had given up taking food under the illusion that the doctor who had been attending her and the nuns were couspiring to poison her. One day last week she left the convent, and went to a house near by; but the nuns were informed, and she was taken back. That night, when the nuns were engaged in other duties, she fled in her night attire to another house, and this time she found herself in the home of an Orangeman, who at once seized the opportunity to_ exploit her. While there she wrote a letter to the Bishop, in which occurs the accusation of attempted poisoning. - His Lordship Bishop Dwyer felt that his duty compelled him to see that no misfortune overtook the wanderer. If the poor girl were sane she was entitled to act as she pleased; but if she were sane she would know that she could leave the convent at any time, and that there was no need for her to fly in the night! In addition, the letter seemed to be evidence of & an unbalanced mind. If she were not sane, then Dr Dwyer considered that it was his duty to protect her from miscreants, into whose hands she might ultimately fall, and who might exploit her for their own purposes. m He, therefore, sought to have her examined by experienced medical men; but as those who held her denied that she was in the house, he was compelled to take out a warrant for her arrest under the Lunacy Act. In the meantime, the head of the Orange Society hastened to Wagga, and spirited her away to bydney. To this egregious blatherskite, it was a case ot Koine versus the Orange institution," as he told

the. Daily : Telegraph. That paper, ..quite in the sty re of the Police Gazette, printed a long 1 rigmarole of the way in which she was brought to Sydney, and handed over to a Congregational . parson of the acidulated Orange type'. It even went so far as to'publish photographs of the parson and his wife, describing them as people with whom the poor girl had ‘'lived,” though the editor must have known that she had never . heard of them until.a few hours previously. At their house she was arrested and taken to the -Reception House. On Monday she was brought before Mr. Gale, P.M., when Mr. T. J. Ryan, K.C., instructed by Messrs. Collins and Mulholland, through the good offices of Mr. P. J. Minahan, M.L.A., appeared to see that justice was done. There was only one course to take, namely, to remand her for medical observation. If we can judge by the newspaper report, the magistrate failed to do that simple duty without making unnecessary observations. The issue of the matter will be : If the girl is sane, then she can go where she likes, even if she chooses to associate with big-headed fanatics and renegades. If she is not perfectly right in her mind, she should be sent to her relatives. In spite of the Orangemen’s alleged plaints, there is no question of taking her back to the convent. It is more than likely that the community would not accept her if she wanted to return.