Why the Catholic Church is Hated:

New Zealand Tablet, 19 January 1922, Page 17

Why the Catholic Church is Hated:

Mr. T. Healy Gives the Reasons Surrounded by the bishops of Ireland (says the N.C. WO. News •'Service, under date, Dublin* November 7), Mr. Timothy Healy, the renowned lawyer and publicist, stood before the Catholic Truth Conference at Dublin to tell “Why the Catholic Church is Hated.” Apart .from his jptufessional work in the courts, it was his first public appearance for several years-. The occasion was one of extreme interest. For what seemed an appreciable interval he stood mutely surveying the vast and brilliant assembly. His presence bushed the house to deathlike stillness. At length he spoke: Answer to Protestant Contentions “When I was floundering for a subject I read in the •great Protestant organ of Dublin a review of a book on •the Lily's of the Saints. It contained such a complete ; syllab'fis of errors that I thought I could not do better than regard myself as counsel for the plaintiff in a libel against the Catholic Church, The review appeared on May 27, B>2l. In the article there was a statement that the modern ’ child had not long left the nursery when he - questioned the- stories of the supernatural. Life to him, it was said, was so full of wonders that lie bad not time for the pious fancies of mediaevalism. The child of to-day was not ready to swallow the miraculous conversion of the Irish chieftains at Tara. I said to myself, when I read this, that it was not St. Patrick who was being attacked. It was Moses. It, was not the scone in Co. Meath that was being desecrated. It was Mount Sinai and the Ten .Commandments. For if it were the case that God had ceased His workings in this world, why should anyone believe that they had ever commenced?” Mr. Healy showed with what systematic repetition the press of all countries gave forth such views. He quoted this statement made in a daily paper a week later: '“The microscope is a great emancipator of the human mind. It has revealed to us data in geology, astronomy, biology, and embryology, as well as in the industrial arts and sciences, without which we would still be wallowing in the muck of superstition and dogmatic ignorance.” He cited aft extract from an Irish journal which some days previously bad reproduced an American paper’s account of 'the creation of man. It represented man as having sprung from a monkey. “Such 'teaching,” Mr. Healy asserted, “leads straight ‘to Paganism, and it is because the Catholic Church says sq, and -says it boldly, that she is bated.” Humbug Scientists “There are no greater humbugs than the so-called •'scientists of modern times. They are continually puffing ‘one another. One fellow at Oxford lately said he had 'discovered the beginning of life — though he could not start ’the hind-leg of a flea. There are no greater bubble-blowers than these reputed philosophers. “I will admit,” said Air. Healy, “the many advantages of paganism. A man could rob his neighbor’s till, covet bis wife, and divorce his own. He could also keep a harem. Free thought gives a right to loose living and loose thinking. You may box the compass of unbelief in any way you like. You may decorate it with the pretences of human liberty. But in the end it comes down to nothing else than the license to defraud one’s neighbor and dishonor his wife. It is better that these sham scientists should have that fact put down their throats occasionally.” Freethinkers and Freedom In a passage of corrosive irony Air. > Healy made it clear that the free thinkers were never genuinely on the side of democratic freedom. They saw Ireland taxed out of existence, yet They never tried to save her from the exactions of the State. When the poor Irish people were able to put up a decent church somewhere, as, in Letterkenny, the scientists and professors wrote sonnets against it. When their people emerged from -their thatched cabins and mountain caves and erected some shrine in God’s honor, these men Were struck with horror that the poor Irish peasantry should be so bled by its voracious priests.

til Sentences of' deep emotion Mr. Healy the service's they received •from their priests. Her'Mwelß Oii the action of the clergy during the recent warfare Irelandhurrying to the side of stricken and dying/lriskß ing their lives from bullets, stray or intentional, and doihjß God’s work day and night without counting the dangefsß That calm and pertinacious zeal was, in his opinion' onfl of the larger reasons why the Church was hated. ® Pope Adrian’s Last Bull B Wtih considerable humor he dwelt on the touchinjß faith evinced by anti-Catholics in Pope Adrian’s Bull—H the Bull which is alleged to have ordered England to coiifl quer . Ireland. He was in a" museum lately, - and theß showed him Magna Charta, signed and sealed by Kirin John. Then he asked to see the famous Bull issued bjl Pope Adrian to King John’s father, Henry the Second* But the Bull couldn’t ,be found. It was mislaid. Then hadn’t got it. In 'fact, it hadn’t been seen, for seven and a half centuries —and then the only person who saw it wan King Henry himself, “a man who couldn’t tell the trutM without getting lockjaw.” '•■'■Niß “I thought,” said Mr. Healy, "they would have kepiß that Bull more jealously than Magna Charta, that theyß would have it in a steel chest in the strong room. 4 Per-B haps, as sensible men, we may say that the story about* Pope Adrian’s Bull is about as true as the story that weß have been evolved from monkeys.” , T ?lSB The free thinkers claimed to be men who faced facts]. Having no moral standard they disbelieved that the weak had any rights. They held out an appalling prospect to the masses —bankruptcy in this world, and nothing in the! next. . e | Made a Mess of the World I Look at the great men who were on the side' of the State against the Church. See what a mess they had made of Europe. He would even say they had made a mess of the United States, in spite of their Fourteen! Points. AVhile the Pope was preaching charity and peace, these men could only agree in passing acts of death and murder. The statesmen had piled the lot of misery and death higher on the. shoulders of the poor all over Eufbpe than ever in all its history. Yes, the thinkers and governors rejected the Church. They were sceptics and proud of it. And it was wonderful how credulous these sceptics were. All the notorieties? from Sir Oliver Lodge down to Conan Doyle, had honored the mediums with a visit. If they wanted to put a medium to crucial test they had only to ask for a tip for a horse race. That would expose how little the spirits knew about futurity. They couldn’t even cure a toothache. Yet the lying, disconnected vaporings of any ticket-of-leave spirit were received with awe and reverence by the new scientists. They thought it a triumph of reason when they tapped the other world at the lunatic asylum end. The Church warned them that they were the victims of: a twofold deception. They were imposed upon by a mixture op human fraud and devilry. The Church said so plainly, anrL it was still another reason why she was hated', • --U Every year a Reuter, telegram (and no one would sayi the great news agency was too friendly to their religion) issued a candid paragraph that at Naples the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius had taken placed Just as it had gone on for hundreds of years and would go on for hundreds more. One English scientist said: “It whs. damned odd.” - Wi Irish Catholic Faith Unshakable Concluding, Mr. Healy said: “Will any lure of science or glamor of great names separate the heart and mind of Erin from Catholic truth, or dispel the constancy that underwent persecution and confiscation rather than desert the Church? No. Daily we have to encounter .assaults and attacks on her Cachings. It is therefore fitting that - to-night we should renew our* allegiance to her altars. am. proud to be here in presence of the successor ‘of 'St. Patrick. And I say to the Church: 1 Take your doctrines, without blemish or decay, to the extreme limits of the universe/” » .. •_ j '' Nd iharhCcript was used in the delivery of the addriß

The orator spoke in clear, impressive tones. Each syllable was followed with* anxiety, by an audience that scarcely dared to' applaud, so eager was the .attention commanded by this man whose once familiar face was now of ivory pallor 'and whose beard had gone completely gray. When he returned to his seat the feelings of the spectators found vent, and the chamber became a scene of enthusiasm such as has been "seldom witnessed even within the walls of the old Mansion House.