Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 22, 17 June 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

Godfrey Isaacs and Cecil r, Chesterton i America remarks' that the burial at London, with Catholic 1 rites and from a Catholic church, of Mr. Godfrey Isaacs, -brother of the Earl of Reading,' 5 -arid 1 until; recently ■ director of •Marconi's; 'gave/ rise to a Very general surprise" since he was f thought'to be of the Jewish faith. !4 The English; Catholic News Service recalls the"*'^ fact that l at ,r the /time of the Marconi shares scandal one of Mr. Tsars' greatest critics was the J late Cecil Chesterton. For his article in 'the New Witness Cecil was tried libel--and^;sentenced •to a fine of a hundred pounds. ;i At' •.•'period neither of these two men was sis yet a Catholic. In death they are united and laid to rest: with the blessings of the" same 1 Mother Church. '"'^•.': 7 '/■"■ " ; "; : '■"'-.';.' lil "'-'^. , '~' Growth of Divorce .ij:.::. r Catholic writers frequently, emphasise fact that it is impossible to limit divorce. Once wo admit . the i principle & that marriages may : : be annulled by- legislators , for certain reasons, -we. L really admit the principle that theyj/jmay be annulled for any cause for if men are given the power to grant divorce, arid/then to decide upon what grounds divorces ought to be granted, !it f/follows that the r legal reasons for divorce will become more //and more numerous, until at length marriage

itself will degenerate into an empty Ceremony without any binding force upon .fitter of the contracting parties. Th« whjms of fickle and fuddled legislators are ; but a;poor foundation upon which to build stable homes. Figures supplied by the American Federal Census Bureau show a steady j growiHVdf;divorce in: the United States since 1870."/.It appears that in 1870 the ' ratio , of/divorces per 100,000 of population was 28. Ten years later it was 39. By 1890, it. had increased to 53;, by 1906, to 84; by 1916, to 112; and . by 1922, to 136, ; or almost? five . times what it was in 1870. Other: statistics-show that ■ while in 1916 there was one divorce to every 9.3 marriages, in, 1923 the proportion 'j was one in every 7.5 marriages.: Thus, the tendency is towards polygamy. ; Soon we:'shall have returned to the customs of the, ancient pagans. Historians tell us that just ;before Christianity came toisavo the world from the consequences of its own ic-l'y, divored ; by mutual consent was -a" 1 simple affair; Tyith which the law did not interfere; and some . of the ancient writers have left behind some curious statistics which show the lengths to which degraded man will go when he sets j his feet upon the downward [path';, 'Cicero's daughter, -Tullia, who died at the age of 33, had married three times: and divorced twice. Her own father divorced his wife at the age of 63, married, and divorced again. ,/Julius /Caesar divorced his wife on a mere suspicion, giving no other reason than that "Caesar's I wife must be above "suspicion/""" Seneca-wrote that /"Roman matrons no ; more numbered /the years by the.-consulates -.but by -I? their | marriages." '•/ Juvenal" criticises a lady for having had, eight husbands in five years. An j inscription "in Pompeii records of a lady who Jwas Jiburied by 'her 'eleventh"*. and / St;/ Jerome' mentions the case of a woman

who was the twenty-first wife of : her twenty-y third and last husband. Wives, according to Juvenal, were no more than their husbands' neighbors....•:, ,; / ; j ; ;j/i:/ <i; A Lying Circular A /type-written circular, dated May. 12, 1925, lies before us. It is headed "Protestant Political Association," and bears at. its foot the legend, "A. M. Kinmont, Organiser," also type-written. The two opening paragraphs run as follows: .: ';.(.- -:,;,;? /'Dear' Friend, — year is promising to prove ; ono ! of the most important in cur ' history on account of the present uncertain state of the political world and we have in front of us the hardest light the P,P.A. . has yet had to face. .... It is certain that a policy is being developed between the combined forces of "Rome" and the "Red .'"Feds'' to attempt to disrupt the Empire which demands the opposition of organised loyalists, and as you have shown in the past by your membership that you have at heart the interests of Protestantism and : the Empire as a whole, we appeal to you to renew -.your membership. It is the very least that can be done to help and you will readily realise that we require this, year .both/ members and money. -

We believe in calling things by their, proper names, and so Ave say that the person /w composed that circular is a vicious liar, trying ; once again to stir up sectarian: hatred amongst people who have no cause to quarrel with; one another. The circular indicates that the forthcoming General Election is to be made the occasion of a campaign of slander against the Catholic Church and the New Zealand Labor Party. - We hold no brief for the Labor Party, and we defy anyone to produce an atom of evidence to prove tint there is or ever has been an understanding of any kind between the Catholic Church and the Labor Party in New Zealand or anywhere else; but we do say that if there is a political party in New Zealand or elsewhere that must be bolstered up by calumny and sectarian strife, then the sooner it is kicked out of existence the better. Also we say, that:if; Protestantism needs the support of malignant falsehood to enable it to hold its ground, this country would be well rid of it; and if the people of,New Zealand are foolish enough to swallow the contemptible fabrications of those who propagate hatred in the i name of ■ religion and patriotism, they, well deserve the stomach-ache that is bound; to follow. However, we have sufficient confi- | dence in, their good sense and decency, to believe that ..they will not allow themselves to ..be-mrile the..victims of the, low tactics ,referred \ to ; above. These enemies of public i welfare have beeen trying for years to stir . ih) ; bad, feeling against the Catholic population of this country, and it is ,a.matter. for ! congratulation all round that they have j failed signally in the; attempt. And we ; predict ..-fcafhtre ,for. this their latest effort. ; It .is s a healthy , sign ; that they are short , of money anyway. .:■■,. ■■.■■■. ■■ .-. ■ ~;,.'■,-■-., ■;.;:■:,•,'.■:.:

Science and the Creator ~r ^ II Matter and' Motion are the objects of scientific research, so that only the folly of absolute scepticism can conceive the nonexistence of the one and the other. The vexed prob-r lem to which so many i contradictory solutions ,have; been offered ; is how to explain the existence of Matter and Motion. There are some scientists' who say frankly "We;. do not know.".,- From a/strictly, scientific; point of view, their attitude is reasonable.; Du Bois Raymond laid down that .- f there;.. are seven enigmas■ confronting r the scientific enquirer (1) The nature of Matter and Force. ■/// (2) The origin of Motion. u ; v , i; ;,/ ,/y (3) The origin of Life. ;h; . r ,.,/ : (4) The order, of Nature... , u ; ; .;;-.",: ■_;■'■ (5) The origin of sensation arid Consciousness. :..s- : /' ... -;...';,-,,-M\-'/! ; ;$i fi./j •' :••;•-■• :--; ; vf (6) The. origin of rational thought and speech. ..; ;,.,,,.,,-,,;, r, , \,,f., ~-> iv,! (7). Free-wi11..,, ~ u ~_ ;; ; -,,,;,. Scientific Agnosticism is reasonable because science cannot offer any . satisfactory solution for the great fundamental enigmas. Science/tan, however, supply facts which may afford the philosopher sufficient premises for an explanation of the problems. A man of science is justified by being agnostic within the limits of his own province; where he is not justified is when/he wanders beyond it and manufactures unscientific theories designed rather to attack Christianity than to explain difficulties. Apart from Agnosticism, there are two possible explanations of the origin of Matter and Motion. Either Matter was created or else it is self-existing.- Further, self-existing Matter must be alive: Here we have the, explanation of the Bible -on the one band, and that of Pantheists and ISergsonians on the other. Science, finds ab- . sol rite ly no reasons to support the, view that ,- Matter is eternal and alive. Eminent scientists who honestly, seek for light are driven to the conclusion thus expressed by Professors Balfour Stewart/and' P. G. Tait "We maintain that what we are driven to is not , an under-Vfe resident in the atom, but rather .to adopt the words of a recent writer, a I)' >• •■; e over-life in which we live and move .and have our befog." : To the question: Is Matter eternal or is it created? these two eminent men of science answer frankly/that

it cannot be eternal and alive. They do not hesitate .to "proclaim their faith in a Creator of/the/ Universe. Even , more eminent ..than tin was' Lord Kelvin, who affirmed in an address to the students of University College, London, in 1903, that Science/ positively 'points' to creative power: "I cannot admit th't; with regard'to the origin of life, science neither affirms nor denies creative power. Science positively affirms creative power which ' she compels l us to accept as an article of belief." that notwithstanding the scoffing of sciolists like MacCabe and the cheap .writers of the cheap R/P.A". prints, the highest authorities tell us that Science., supports the Catholic who believes in God, .the Creator of nil things, visible and invisible." Ill;the beV ginning God created Heaven and the earth.',V The catechism , teaches us that, and the. greatest brains that : have explored the secrets of Nature tell/ us /that' the Catechism right and that the rationalists and materialists are wrong. The verdict' of Science, therefore,

upholds, the decree « of.the Vatican Council )| which teaches us that reason can -prove the existence of a God. Modern enquirers throw |j their weight 1 in the scale with Aristotle Who long ago by the light .: of reason deduced the ,- t existence of a First Cause who must be One, I Immaterial, Eternal, Infinite, and "Air-power-l: ful. Here again. we have an illustration of I Lord Bacon's saying that a little knowledge leads men away from God but a great deal I brings* them to Him again. J's&Yi£ \;ImH \ Protestant Missionaries and Hard Work j } Protestant "missionaries are not very fond j of hard work; " at least that is the only; opinion |: one may ; form from the report■. of ■■'■ the \ Com- \ mission on Unoccupied Fields, which was ] delivered during the first, week /in; April to | the; Congress on Christian Work-in South I America;" The Congress/was held Montef video, and much satisfaction was expressed I at the "wonderful- progress Evangelical Protestantism was alleged to have made in' the I work of converting South America to r Chris- | tianity. The number of churches, Sunday I schools, and pastors were detailed with 1 much ""'gusto,' but what was really a damning admission was disposed of in an apologetic whisper. It showed that the Protestant "missionaries, I while pretending , to evangelise South f. America, were really confining their opera- | tions to proselytising campaign in the chief | centres, along the coast. The interior of the I country they have left severely alone. This | is what they call the "unoccupied field," an ;.area of approximately six million- square miles, admitted to be "almost the shape of South America." "Part of the, reason" they Have left this vast area untouched•-• is /on account of "the primitive state of .much of this, country,, including dense ; forests, vast agricultural lands, upon which there is comparatively scant population, and the fact that it is largely a tropical country." Which <;,means in plain terms that they are evangelis/'South America in much the; same fashion that Dr. Cook discovered the North Pole—that is, they are. not evangelising it at all. ; They /penetrate, into the wilds of Montevideo and other large towns on the coast line, toil painfully over long streets in electric trolleys or automobiles, stand at street corners /and harangue the barbarians on "Romish )superstition." Which, when done, they be- " take themselves to their boarding houses, and swelled out with triumph and weak tea, write to their friends"offering up thanks that their . labors in „the .Lord's?,,.Vineyard have been so blessed. 'That is not the way the j Catholic missionaries went to work, as Alex- | ander von Humboldt testifies in his Travels \ in, the Equinoctial Begidns of. the New Coni tinent. The great 'naturalist, as far back as the year-1800,. found them at the very source of the Rio Negro, in the heart of the Conti- | nent. He found them in the densest wilderi ness, far in advance of Government officials j and traders, and he is reminded of what a. North American Indian told representatives " of the American Fur Company when they bragged of having penetrated so far. With a touch of sarcasm they were informed that the Black Robes had been there long beforec them. Humboldt is eloquent in his.tribute / to . the heroism of the Catholic missionaries with whom he came in contact. ? He savs that these men first established civilisation in ♦ South America, and he declared, further that>

"it is possible to overcome all the difficulties of a long journey overland, on a stretch of eight thousand miles, from the coast of .California to Valdiva at the mouth of the Rio ; de la Plata, if one enjoys the protection of the American clergy." /The man : who

wrote that" was born 1 and raised a Protestant, and he came from Europe at a time when Rationalism had increased the dislike for tho | Church and monks. In the face of what history records concerning the achievements |of the Catholic missionaries, it is an admission of abject failure for the Protestant i Churches to say, in these days of quick tran- ; sit,,,that they cannot venture into primitive !or tropical regions. "If they possessed the t true spirit of Christ they would not fear I the wilds, or the burning sun. ■•?■■■■, ,-.* I The Return of Lord Balfour- a'sxnas jHome papers., to hand tell of .the great ovation accorded to Lord Balfour by ardent Zionists on, his return from Palestine. He told the gathering that all would be well in Holy Land were it not for the agitators who are t bent on. stirring up" strife.- It was the same Balfour ; who said, away■,. back in the eighties, that there was then no genuine Irish discontent,, hut that - Ireland's troubles "ore due. solely to wicked agitators. / The Irish WeeMg remarks that; by this time the whole world lias realised that "agitators" and agitations, were the' -consequences, not the cause, of Irish conditions. However, the noble Earl's visit to Palestine is not regarded as seriously in other quarters as in official London. Thus the Catholic Herald of India on the nobleman's mission : —"Earl Balfour' inaugurating a Jewish University in Jerusalem, and saying that Hebrew was a great anguage but that he was sorry he did not know a word of it, and that the ceremony" marked a great epoch in Jewish history and a great milestone in the future career of Judaism, then dilating on Jewish intellectual achievements. and their share in the progress of know edge and civilisation, finally expressing the belief that the Hebrew difficulty could be overcome, is about the most ludicrous incident of modern history. Even the Arabs who dosed their shops in hartalio dismay', must have laughed behind their shop screens' . The humor of the situation did not arise from the fact that, Earl Balfour, not being a Jew, talked like a, Jew, but that not being an Empire, he -talked like an Empire. The whole sham of modern Governments affecting "ot to have any religion was shown up in tin's unaffected scene where a statesman impersonates an Empire and praises the beauties of a 'language lie does not understand, boosts up a religion he does not believe? in, Wishes' well to a c.vilisation he would rather see at the bottom of an Arabian desert, pays tributes Jo.. Jewish -theories -which lie has refuted" 1,1 his own books, and pronounces blessings upon Jewish ventures?which he would ? probabied- In the closeted presence? of his "ire. Such is the modern conception of Government. It believes in -everything-to-please all, it believes in nothing "to please anybody in particular,. it believes in something to please anybody who is financiallv worth it; and all the various attitudes'must be expressed by people who believe exactlv the reverse. Medieval "Governments, in lUirppe were run by Christians for Christians, and everybody understood them when

they talked, and they said what they meant; modern Governments are run by (the) people . for (the) people, and they cannot find » |i/ single man who can reasonably talk like (thsr) people, as that abstract does not-exist." .

Poison Gas - What a scream of horror ibelched ; from \ the throats of i our war lords when it 1 became known "that Germany was using poison gas in the Great War! This was the-one- thing wanting to convince ■ the patrioteers that the Germans were not human beings at all. The • newspapers exhausted the dictionaries in obtaining a supply of sufficiently strong adjectives to describe the new r frightfulness in adequate terms; and the gouty old gentlemen, whoso chief sorrow was that they were not young' enough to do more than make huge profits" out of tho necessities of the people,, were shocked, horrified, staggered lat the latest outrage perpetrated upon civilisation by hellish -fiends masquerading in the skins of men. But all that is forgotten now, and the use of poisonous and asphyxiating gas clouds is , now recognised as one of the normal methods of \ modern war. The Catholic Times says that what was once described as "the poison gas atrocity" is. now known as '.'chemical' warfare." All the great Powers; and some of the smaller ones, In-. clude in their military organisation, "a-,1 department for" "chemical warfare /research." This includes the devising of poisonous and stifling gas mixtures, and the methods of using them, the designing and testing of gas masks. When a satisfactory mask has been found a new gas mixture that will pene-> trate it is produced, and then a new kind of gas mask ; must be looked for. It is an interminable business, and an official answer given by the British War Office reveals to everybody what was long, known to experts —namely, the fact that it is necessarily?; associated with much suffering for wretched animals of various kinds, on which the gases . are tested. According to this official statement, last year the number of victims thus sacrificed to chemical warfare research at the British research station was 1001. XOf these 337 were killed by gas, the rest were destroyed after the experiments. A quarter of the number were rats, which, once captured, would have been killed off in some: other way, and perhaps suffer more. ,«.-BuU amongst the remainder were .rabbits, cats,; . and goats. It was explained that? the object of/; the investigations and experiments was to find means, of protecting our own men? from -gas attacks in a -future war?'"lt was all purely a defensive business: This very ■ like mere camouflage, for from the day when it was declared that Allied troops could not meet gas attacks unless they were given the means of replying in kind to the enemy, defence against gas includes the use, of gas. The whole thing is horrible, and all the. more horrible because in future wars, unless;, the civilised world repudiates and bans the whole thing, it will be used "inevitably against noli combatants, including women and chilchen So far ?as testing gas masks.. and .; protector goes, the "tests- can be made; without inflicting pain or death on man or beast. H would seem/ then, that these experiments must be largely directed to testing gas on living creatures. This is one of the new .lorrcrs Of peace. • > --.V''?•'/". '''■ '.■"•*".■«•;■;'-.:•