Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 31, 23 July 1924, Page 18

Current Topics

The Gypsy’s Guessing Recently we had a visit from a travelling preacher, who came with beating drums and flying flags to preach to the Protestants of Dunedin. • His preaching and his singing was his concern and theirs, but he had right to stick to his last. Through the pages of the Outlook we learn that Gypsy Pat- Smith guesses that there was no pogrom' of recent years in Orange Ulster. No doubt such a guess.is'a fitting preparation for a debut in the pulpit of Knox Church, which we shall always associate with the yelping of the Orange pup, as interpreted by Professor John Dickie and his learned colleague, the Reverend Davies, on a Twelfth of July not long ago. If organised burning of homes, if murder of people in cold blood, because of their religion, if political persecution be not enough to constitute a pogrom the Gypsy gentleman was right. Like many more of his kidney he probably regards the persecution of Catholics as far more lawful than playing tennis on Sunday afternoons; and among the readers of the Outlook he would find not a few, churchmen and otherwise, to hold that all facts that tell against their friends in Ulster ought to be sternly suppressed and vigorously denied. We all recall how the editor of the Outlook was denounced with bell, book, and candle because he had the courage, honesty, and love of truth to publish certain letters .written in defence of the victims of the organised British pogrom- carried on by the Black-and-Tans and other gentlemen who marched under our great and glorious Union Jack, which Mr. Parr would have all children fall down and adore. Tolerance There be people who hold that tolerance is incompatible with strong conviction, and on this principle the savagery of the Protestant Puritans finds apologists. Others there arc who say that if you arc tolerant you are apathetic or sceptical or godless, whereas often the atheists are the most intolerant people of all. Catholics believe that they belong to an infallible Church, and that all other religions are wrong. How, then, says the outsider, can Catholics be tolerant? In answer to this difficulty, the editor of the Catholic World points out, with the catechism, that we are intolerant and we are tolerant. We are intolerant of error but tolerant of those who err. Truth is incompatible with falsehood, and therefore we cannot tolerate error; but that is no reason why in all sincerity and in all humility we should not be very tolerant of those who cling to error. It is no credit to ns that we have the true faith. It is a gilt of God. Why He gave it to us and not to others is something which we do not understand but ought to be humbly thankful about. This humility is the basis of tolerance, and on the other band intolerance of others who have not received the gift as we have is the fruit of foolish pride. “Intolerance is fundamentally pride. Pride ruins faith, or if it does not ruin faith, it damns the soul as effectively as if it had ruined faith.” A Protestant usually is ready to admit that “the other fellow” may be right. Hence, he can hardly claim to be tolerant at all. What credit has he for tolerating what ho admits may be as good a religion as his own? Catholics know that they are right, and when they tolerate others whom they believe to be wrong they exercise true toleration, which must not, however, be mixed with arrogance and condescension. If I am conscious that I got the true faith, not from myself or from any desert of mine, but from God, it is no virtue in me to be tolerant of ; a person who did not receive the same gift. But it is common sense. And, as the- Editor of the Catholic World remarks, “how uncommon is common sense!” The most amusing book of recent times is one by Bishop Brooks

who .holds up to the Protestant world as an example of tolerance Oliver Cromwell! That recalls to us that once upon a time the same murderous scoundrel was held up to Dunedin people as a champion of liberty by the KnowAll Christchurch parson, J. J. North, It does take a lot of people to make a world. Two Horrors Gone In other days, when rambling round Paris, we went like all the world to visit the Morgue, which once seen can never be forgotten. Perhaps it had its moral lessons. When one wandered from the splendor and glittering life of the Bois, or from the vanity and seductiveness of the boulevards, to this little island in the Seine, under the shadow of Notre Dame, and looked there on the naked terrors of death, the contrast was a sermon indeed. But it was a horror, and it is without regret that we read that the building which used to house the bodies of the Seine's victims has now disappeared. For some years past it has been closed to the idle public and was no longer one of the sights of Paris. Now it has gone completely, and Paris is surely brighter for its absence. The second horror is of a less material kind. That gilded book of snobs, the Almanack dc Gotha will bo published no more. For a hundred and fifty years, the stubby little volume, bound in scarlet and gold, has lain on the tables of all the snobs in the world. Only those of the bluest of blue blood could get their names between the sacred covers. The Beerage-Pcerage of modern England ; the , War-Dishonors; and the Party-Fund-Princes were ignored by the Almanack. A ring was drawn somehow between the descendant of old-time pirates and robbers and the present successful schemers. That the hands of a Duke’s ancestors dripped with the fat of sacrilege was no bar; but that money was made from “Dope” or from Soap and a Peerage bought therewith was disqualification for life. The offspring of robber-barons was eligible, but the book was closed against the modern robber-bankers. Dcbrctt and Kelly might give hospitality to your modern tuppenny-ha’penny Earl, but in the 7b; Oof ha there was no thoroughfare for such. Blueness of blood was the sole test. And as modern developments have left very little of that, and as blood that is not blue is in the veins of those who hold the purse in our day, it was natural that the demand for the old Almanack. Availed. Grand Dukes, Transparencies, and Serene Highness have had their season. The breath of Democracy has withered them and the breath of Bungdom and the Ghetto has asphyxiated them; and, so, the passing of the little book is a symbol of their fading glory. Now that it has gone, there will not be even that means left of distinguishing between a Vere do Vere and a Peer dc Boer. Sic transit gloria mundil The Holy Year From America we learn that on May 29 the Holy Father addressed a- Papal Bull to the “Bishops, servants of God, and to all tho Faithful,” in .which ho calls upon all to “celebrate the twenty-second jubilee,” inviting them to restore human society and to return to holy customs. Fervently docs he pray “that all non-Catholics should seek refuge in the true Church of Jesus Christ,” for — “In the perfection of charity We desire that the churches, which through age-long and deplorable differences keep far from the Roman Church, be joined to ns. Nothing that could happen would be dearer or more pleasing to Us than that. If not all collectively, many at least . . . should pass to the one and only fold of Christ on this occasion of great jubilee. Wc would embrace them with special affection, numbering them among Our dearest sons.” Insisting that the jubilee will be for himself and all the Faithful a time of special petition and prayer to God, the Pontiff continues: “I speak of peace, not of peace written in treaties, but peace written on hearts which .must be restored among the peoples. Though to-day it is not as distant as in tho past, it still is more remote than, all of ns desire. At the

tomb of the Apostles I implore this precious boon that Christ, the Prince of Peace, who with a sign calmed the waves of the Galilean Sea, moved with pity for His own, should command that the tempests by which Europe is being beaten down be calmed, in order that a durable peace and charity, too long forgotten, should again be embraced by the peoples and should'inspire governments.” The Holy Father exhorts the Faithful to spend the Holy Year in a spirit of penitence and prayer, seeking exclusively the interests of their souls. A Republican Bishop Writing of the difficulties of the Free State Government, the Nation and Athenaeum considers that a remark made by the Bishop of Clonfert indicates what is perhaps a new source of trouble for Air. Cosgrave. It ought not be a matter of astonishment to anybody to know that there are Republican Bishops in Ireland, Mr. de A 7 alera has often declared that he is (or as) not a doctrinaire Republican, that ho was not wedded to the Republic, and even that ho did not like the idea over much. But what he and most of us have in common, whether we call the ideal an Irish Republic or something else, is an Ireland absolutely free from all interference on the part of the British Empire. Free Staters and non-Free Staters differed merely as to methods of attaining the common ideal. A majority, not indeed a large one, decided to make the best of the Free State for the time being; a minority tried to make the majority think as they did, not by constitutional means but by force. In that they were wrong; and in that no bishop backed them; for their way was a denial of the first 'principle of democratic government. But had they tried by constitutional means to gain their ends, the vast majority of the Irish people would have been in sympathy with them from the beginning. The Bishop of Clonfert, therefore, said nothing that most Irishmen, be they bishops or not, would find much fault with. He did what ho had a perfect right to do —that is, he expressed his opinion frankly. The correspondent of the Nation and Athenaeum writes;

I write before a statement has been issued in regard to the conference the three Prime Ministers held last week-end on • the Irish boundary question; but it is understood that little progress was made in modifying the non possumus attitude of Ulster. Mr. Cosgrave, unfortunately, has to fight his battle on both flanks. On the one side, the hard, irreconcilable position of Ulster weakens him in his conflict with the Republicans, and on the other, the Republican menace increases his difficulty with Ulster. I have before me a report of a speech of the new Bishop of Clonfert last Sunday which will indicate one aspect of Mr. Cosgrave’s anxieties. The speech was delivered in reply to addresses of congratulation from Sinn Fein clubs in the neighborhood of Loughrea, Co. Galway, The Bishop declared himself a Republican, and advised his hearers to continue, by constitutional means, their efforts to establish a Republic. “As far as I can see,” he said, “no one is satisfied with the present position, and I predict that the Republican Party is certain to be returned to power in a short time. Catching a Tartar Tact, knowledge, sense of humor are three things sadly lacking in the common or garden No Popery fanatic. They have often contributed to the amusement of reasonable people by their egregious blunders in the domain of history; their descriptions of Catholic ceremonies smack of pure farce; and their capacity for swallowing patent absurdities and expecting their dupes to do the same is astounding. Recently one of these busy-bodies, as who should say another J. J. North, fell in beautifully. A certain Mr. Skinner, anxious to start a movement to stop the. “Homeward drift,” wrote to the Earl of Denbigh to ask him to lend his name to the good cause. The Earl’s

reply was a gem which we recommend our friends to enjoy. Here, then, are the documents: Mr. Skinner’s epistle, and Lord Denbigh’s answer: —• Mr. Skinner’s letter to the Earl was addressed from West Croydon, and is as follows: ■> My Lord, —A learned (religious) society is about to bo founded, and I write to gain, if possible, your support. Membership will be confined to authordox (sic) Christians of the Church of England or Free Churches ho accept the 39 Articles without reservation. The objects of the society are to oppose by lectures, indoors and outdoors, the German rationalistic theology of our universities, the teachings of the Communist Sunday schools, and the Homeward drift of our Churches. If you are in sympathy with these objects we shall be gratified if you will lend the splendor of your great name to this truly worthy cause by becoming a Vice-President of the society. We shall strive to make a strong feature of the outdoor work, and especially make a strong onslaught against the Communists from the religious point of view. We shall probably call ourselves the Advocates of Scripture. . . Your acceptance of a place on the Vice-Presi-dential roll will greatly hearten the council. I have the honor to be, Your Lordship’s humble and obedient servant, S. Elliott-Skinner, ph.d., b.sc.

Writing from Rome, Lord Denbigh says in reply; Sir, —Your somewhat amazing letter of March 22 followed me to Algeria, and, rather appropriately, has reached me here. I fear you will have to carry on your new society without the added glamor of what you are pleased to call the “splendor of my great name,” an expression which, under the circumstances, I regard as a sample of that empty and fulsome snobbery which is occasionally encountered, and which, to mo, is especially repellent. You evidently know little or nothing of my unworthy self, but I do not think you would have had to pursue inquiries very far without discovering that I happen to be a Catholic. I may mention incidentally that I have been President of the Catholic Association of Great Britain for over 20 years, and am one of the Treasurers of the Catholic Union. Among the objects of your proposed fulminations I observe that you bracket Communist Sunday schools along with the ‘'‘'Homeward trend of our Churches.” Your valued testimony as to the latter will no doubt be interesting to my fellow Catholics, but it seems to me that your ignorance as to Catholic teaching and practice must be unusually and deplorably profound, and I would suggest a ually and deplorably profound, and I would suggest a course of elementary instruction under the auspices of the Catholic Truth Society, the offices of which are in Victoria Street, Westminster. 111-informed action and misdirected zeal very often lead to ridicule. Pardon me if I say that, if your letter is to he taken as an indication of the general intelligence which is to be expected in directing the activities of your society, I cannot help thinking that the Catholic Church will still survive, though I wish you all success in your campaign against the Communist Sunday schools. I feel certain that the Catholic Church will continue to take a great place as a steadying and peaceful influence in the conditions of turmoil and international jealousies which now afflict the world. Few people can go to the Vatican and have any knowledge of its work and see the large numbers "who go there daily from all parts of the world without being deeply impressed by its world-wide influence in the cause of religion and peace and the general uplifting of mankind. Such a visit, it occurs to me, might be strongly recommended to your good self. ;> I am, yours faithfuly, ! Denbigh.