Dogmatic Modernism

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 16, 26 April 1923, Page 45

Dogmatic Modernism

ARCHBISHOP AND THE NEW POLITICAL TEACHING His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Harty, Archbishop of Cashel (Ireland), in his Pastoral, writes;“The evils of civil war have come upon us and we feel the sadness in many heart-rending ways. The economic burden is heavy for a small country beginning its life of independent nationhood. Had all our countrymen worked together for the re-organisiation of our economic life Ireland would be amongst the most prosperous nations of the world. Now, however, we have to face an increasing debt which Will be a yoke round our necks for many years. More serious than the economic burden is the shattering of the spirit of unity which a short time ago won the admiration of the world. We see around us many things that bring shame on our motherland. Banks and Post Offices are raided; roads and railways are broken; private houses are pillaged and burned to the ground the sacredness of human life is set at naught even women and children are done to death by men guilty of a most grave crime against God and society. The people from the depth of their souls condemn the orgy of crime, recoil with horror from the deeds of violence and robbery, and long for peace. Recognition of •spiritual and temporal authority is the only safeguard against religious and civil anarchy. In religious affairs the legitimate authority that rightly claims obedience is found in the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops of the Catholic Church. In temporal matters the legitimate authority in modern democratic states, where representative institutions prevail, is the Government established by the will of the people. Each of these authorities had its own sphere of influence within which its laws and discipline have force in conscience. In his Encyclical Letter on ‘ The Christian Constitution of States,’ Leo XIII. says: ‘To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite to revolt is therefore treason, not against man only, but against God. Many, by the spoken and written word and in their whole manner of life, act as if the teaching and the repeated precepts of the Sovereign Pontiffs, Leo XIII. ms X., and Benedict XV., had lost their efficacy or were completely out of date. In all this we recognise a kind of moral, judicial, and social Modernism, and we condemn it as strong as we do dogmatic Modernism.”

Farewell Social and Presentation at Balclutha of vr A m r i P GaSa .!, evening was P en t at the residence ° Mr. T. Kirby, Balclutha, on Saturday evening, the 24th ult, when the members of the Catholic congregation to the number of about thirty met to bid farewell to Miss Roche, prior to her departure to take up a position at the Kensington School, South Dunedin. The Rev Father Howard, in presenting Miss Roche on behalf of the congregation _ with a silver writing set and silver-mounted morocco writing case paid a high tribute to the work she had done as Sunday .school teacher and secretary of the Altar Society for the past t*ght or nine years. She did this with no expectation of earthly reward, but from a higher spiritual motive, and he hoped that the good work she had done there would bear fruit in future years. He' regretted very much her departure, but on behalf of himself and the congregation wished her every success in her new sphere of labor, and hoped this small memento would help to remind her of the many pleasant associations she had had while in Balclutha. Mr. T. Kirby also made a few remarks, eulogising Miss Roche’s work in the Sunday School and decoration of the altar, and said she had denied herself outside sport to attend to the church, and was deserving of the thanks of the congregation. Miss Roche made°a very feeling reply, and said that what little she had done had been a labor of love, but she thanked the Rev. Father Howard for his kind remarks and the congregation for their present, and said she would ever remember the many friends she had made while in Balclutha. Songs were nicely rendered during the evening by Misses Athy (Milton), N. MacFarlane, and Mrs. Perniski, while Miss Ellie Ryan danced a clog dance. The remainder of the evening was devoted to card games, etc* Miss Roche was also the recipient of a handsome ebony hair brush, and comb, as a parting gift from the teachers of the local high school.