Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 30, 12 August 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

Lord Birkenhead on Divorce ! ‘ ? Lord Birkenhead (the “Galloper.’” Smith? ' that was) has suddenly become the opponent of privilege and the champion of the poor. y He wrote to the London Standard to say that “in practice the Catholic Church has made certain exception . [in the matter of ■ divorce] for the rich and powerful on the [ ground of nullity.” As a lawyer Lord! Birkenhead may with reason be expected m to furnish specific instances to prove his case. i Tp' V j ' ' C v',. America characterises his Lordship’s statement as . “an absolute falsehood” that •/ amounts to a charge that the Roman Rota- ■ is • open to bribery and intimidation. Our |i contemporary emphasises the truth that a y‘\ true marriage, ratified and consummated, is p indissoluble, and that annulment operates only when an alleged or assumed marriage I v bond is found to be not such in fact. The •; Church has never submitted to the rich and . powerful in the matter of annuling mar- / riages. This truth is expressed in unmistakable terms in the pages of history. Did not Y\ f the Church withstand Lothair, Philip II of France, Henry VIII of England, and the Great , Napoleon at the height of his power and arrogance? And does not the judgment : delivered a. few months ago in the dc Castcl- ' lane-Gould case refute the charge 'that the Catholic Church always yields to the claims g*;of money and rank? The Rev. J. P. Arendzen, Ph.D n D.D., pointed out in the London I Universe that the very few declarations of nullity pronounced by the Church “are based |s£ on justice and truth, and are mostly given g|to the poor and not to the rich.” Dr. Arendzen concludes by challenging Lord . Birkenhead’s outrageous calumny, and defies : y English lawyers to point out any case in which they can detect bias or bribery.” The accusation that the Church wilts in the face |mof -wealth sounds strangely on the lips of Lord Birkenhead, who has himself been a willing servant of wealth and influence ever since he entered politics. The exploits of “Galloper ” Smith, of Carson’s rebel army mark him a person who waits at the gate of those who have place and pickings to bestow. History at Trinity Professor Edmund Curtis, of Trinity College, Dublin, has some curious reasons for opposing the compulsory teaching of Native ; history in Ireland. He complains that what passes for history in Ireland is the work of the legend makers. “A good deal of what passes for Irish history,” he writes, “consists of fireside stories, or- impressions derived from sermons, political speeches, or :■ trashy articles in newspapers, or else it is y “ taken from the D’Arcy McGee or John I Mitchel type of historian, who make-' the 0. history of Ireland that of a noble, intensely patriotic, and deeply religious race. When -; you examine them on the Penal Laws you evoke a perfect/shoiverbath of facts and assertions in which the comparatively vnimY r portant law that the Roman Catholic could V not possess a ; horse; worth more than five . pounds is put alongside really weighty mat-c-i . r -.- ■ , .. , , . ~ —. • ters — procedure that has neither discrimi-

nation nor restraint.” The Professor declared he does not want that kind of history. What he does want is “a scientific r history, founded, on fact and judicial research.” For example, he would have the ‘children, taught that the Irish Brigade hunted down the Huguenots in France. This weighty piece of . information, “founded on fact and judicial research,” .he admits having derived from a schoolboy’s answer to a history question. He loves it for its tone, for he declares it “a welcome sign of the passing away of a lot of 1 oui* national self-righteousness.” And so, in his lust for “scientific history, founded on fact and judicial research,” he opens his heart to a schoolboy “howler” ! Dame Rumor Again Right Hon. gentlemen in the House ofCommons love to tear a passion to tatters. Their ears are ever open to catch a tale of insult to the flag or crown or some such theme as will unlock their , lips and let the hot words flow. Much savage excitement pervaded the , Ministerial group at Westminster at the newspaper report that a uniformed British soldier who ventured into the Free State was clapped into gaol as a warning, to others to leave their imperial trappings behind them when they cross the Irish Sea. Irate Ministers of the Bagstock breed stamped and fumed at this outrage, as if a. British soldier in full harness should be welcomed in Ireland as a kind of Santa Claus. The protest of the Right Hon. gentlemen, the questions they asked, the opinions they expressed were cabled out to the Antipodes lest we forget that the flag is protected in the House of Commons by sturdy, patriots who condescended to let the working classes protect it in France and Flanders. A Scottish soldier now supplies to the Home press the facts of the “outrage.” His testimony is directed from Omagh: “Heaps of lies have been published about the adventures of a British soldier who recently went to Bundoran, The facts of the case should be made known. When the chap was seen in the street by some little fellows of the hooligan type, he was followed around as if he were a sort of curiosity. For fear, some idiot might be tempted to kick up arow with him, the Guards took the soldier to their barrack and provided him with a cap and overcoat. He enjoyed his visit, returned the cap and overcoat, and came back to Enniskillen pleased - with himself. I understand he made no complaint, and it was just a lie to publish that he was, placed under arrest. Some of our men have gone to the Free State as far as Dublin, wearing their uniforms and no.one has paid any attention to them. There is no ill-feeling between soldiers and people anywhere, but a lot of malicious persons are determined to provoke such ill-feeling by circulating untrue stories. We who wear the uniform fear not to show it anywhere, and no one in his senses has ever objected to it in any part of this country while I have been here. Is it . not a pity the press helps .mischiefmakers by giving, publicity to inventions and esaggera-

tions ? I have learned to love this country,. • arid' ■I ■ am ; a Scot"• with - a Scottish ancestry Mb reaching back beyond the time of- Macbeth :i O and < Duncan. This is written at • the suggestion of several comrades.” • Viv ~ £ • ■- Vr. :.■■■■-■-.■ ’jn •f _ *g\ ■ ' •* *'•* gy *•'' ■• • *■ u j Mary, Queen of Scots , , £ \ After . the lapse of 350 years, Mary, Queen , , of Scots, has been . re-tried and acquitted on. the charge of conspiracy against the life of ; Queen Elizabeth. The re-trial, of course, ; was strictly unofficial. Mr, Ainsworth . Mitchell, the Home Office expert, after spend-j------ing several years collecting and, examining the original records and actual documents —ink, parchment, seals, and details of. handwriting—declared that Mary could not possibly have written the letters that sent her to the block. Describing his investigations in the June number of Discovery , Mr. Mitchell goes farther. He adduces evidence that would to-day bring into the dock William Maitland of Lethington, Mary’s secretary and betrayer. Letter by letter, photo- ~ graphy and research show the identity. between the letter and letters in Maitland’s , v own hand. Mr. Mitchell has figured in many important trials in which contested docu- > ments played a part. He is the author of a number of scientific books, including Science and the Criminal. His investigations are important, for at his bidding truth rises from the centuries to do justice to the memory of the ill-starred Queen. , ; The Failure of Secular Education The failure of purely secular education is seen by the attempts in several parts of the world to have it diluted with a little inoffensive religious instruction, necessarily without bite or body. American papers re- •.** port that plans for a “united movement,” to bring about general compulsory religious • education, were discussed at a meeting in New York of the Universal Christian Conference cn Life and Work, a non-Oatholio organisation. This body has recently completed a survey of the country’s school’ system, which, it is said, indicates that the State is a “fosterer of non-religion or’v> atheism.” “When the public schools coni cerned themselves with but a fraction of life, as they did a generation ago,” the re-port...-of the survey says, “it was of little consequence that religion was omitted from their programme. But, to-day, when the public schools, are taking on the dimensions of life itself, - arid when they , undertake . 'to ■; furnish to children an environment simplified, balanced, and rightly .proportioned, the omission of religion conveys a powerful condemnatory suggestion.” This declaration vindicates the Catholic attitude towards the education problem, and we may say in passing, that many of those who to-day support .Mr. Isitt’s Bill to introduce Bible reading in the New Zealand State schools, oppose State , justice to Catholic schools on the ground that if the Catholics want a special kind of education for their children they ought to pay for it themselves, and that private schools . are a menace to our national system.? olics know that religion is not going to gain much from a few minutes spent each day 1 in ' Bible reading,- for they are well aware that religion, to be made effective, must be

V:/ : woven through the entire system Dr. Cooper, at the meeting mentioned above, said that , “the children of Catholic schools take their i,:;/ religion quite as a matter of course. It is intimately organised into ' the rest of life. Jt hey consider it quite as natural to pray -'for. success in exams as to pray for strength in temptation. The genesis and growth of faith is usually a simple, gradual process, , , , ' ° r 7 >■/ begun at home, and expanded and reinforced , 1 , V . . I ■: . ’ . by school instruction. The tenure of faith and of the doctrines of faith is nearly al.ways calm, convinced, and unruffled. There is little or no evidence of restlessness, doubt, or, confusion.” Catholics generally sympathise with the desire of those who want to save the children, from being brought up like cattle, but certainly they would oppose any attempt to make religious instruction in the State schools compulsory. It is not the business of the State to teach religion any / I more than it is the business of the State to prevent religion being taught. A Catholic exchange sums up the position . as follows : “Is there no hope, then, no solution for those who believe in and insist upon the jointure of religious and secular instruction ? || Catholics contend there is. They offer a solution fair and equitable to all groups, bes lievers or non-believers. The solution is the denominational school which imparts religious and secular instruction for those who .i. want it, the school which for years has operated so successfully in Canada and England. That’s the solution of the problem—- / the equitable solution, the only solution that V ; will do no violence to fundamental laws, H State or Federal, because under it the State will pay only for secular training.” Dean Inge in Pillory 1 The Gloomy Dean belongs to that gigantic multitude who measure the world’s achievei ments by their own scattered wits. Prior U to his recent visit to the United States Dr. || lilge was quite convinced that he knew the V ins and out of everything that has taken place t>n this planet since it began to spin, and he was just as cocksure that anything • of which he had not heard could not possibly have happened. However, Mr. Patrick Scanlan, Editor of the Brooklyn Tablet , has . done much since then to shake the Dean’s // faith in his own infallibility, or, at any rate, to shake the public faith in it. Dr. Inge told the Americans that “the Catholic ■ ■Church did nothing to abolish slavery,” and ; : Mr. Scanlan thus refuted the defamer in a letter to the New York Times: |V; “The Dean states: ‘The Catholic Church / did nothing to abolish slavery.’ This state- /’ ment will appear humorous to any student IH of history. From the earliest days of Christianity the Church was a mighty power in either ameliorating the condition of the slave or in /suppressing traffic in human beings. One may look up the writings of St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. John Chrysostom to see in what respect slavery in the first centuries was held. He can turn to the Decree of the Councils of Orleans, 511, 538, 0 549; of Epone -- yW Arles 452, and a dozen other Councils f around that time to find a fitting answer to the /Dean’s charge. He should not overlook that in 1462 Pope Pius II declared slavery I ‘ 1 ‘ ' . • ( . _ . 1 ■ v , lo be ‘a great crime that in 1537 Pope Paul 111 forbade the . enslavement of the

f* V;.-' 1 . , ■ ■ • r H ...... ~ Indians; that Pope Urban VIII forbade it in 1638, Pope Benedict XIV in; 1741, r and Pope Pius VII demanded of the Congress' of Vienna in , 1815 the suppression/ of the slave trade, and Gregory XVI condemned it in 1839; that in the Bull of Canonisation of the Jesuit, Peter Claver, one of the Church’s many illustrious opponents of slavery, Pope Pius IX branded the supreme villainy V of the slave traders. Many know of the beautiful letter which Leo XIII in 1888 addressed to the Brazilian Bishops,- exhorting them to banish from their country the remnants of slavery—a letter to which the Bishops responded with their energetic efforts, and some generous slave owners, by freeing their slaves in a body, as in the first ages of the Church.” The Pope and Science The uncompromising hostility which the Church has always directed against science and scientific investigation of every kind was exemplified in atypical fashion recently when the Pope procured the publication of two new German scientific works of the first order, works which could not have been issued without - his assistance. The depth of his animosity against science may be measured by the fact that one of the volumes was compiled by a Protestant professor and is published by a Protestant house. The first of the two works is the Concilium Tridentinum, the ninth volume of which has just been issued. Its editor Writes in the preface: “How shall I be able to express my thanks to the Holy Father! Truly, if this volume has some merit, and friends of truth praise it, we must thank God and the Popes Benedict XV and Pius XI, who made it possible for us to publish this work.’’ The second work is the fifth volume of the Acta of the oldest Ecumenical Councils. Professor Schwartz, of Munich, writes in the introduction: “The noble' liberality of Pope Pius XI brought very much help, which softened the greatest darkness like a saving light. By his repeated aid and support, in spite of public need which seems to continue, the continuation and publication of this work has been made possible.” The Lords and Journalism The Bolshevist spirit shrieks bitterly in the popular protest now being made , in England against the practice of Members of the House of Lords engaging in journalism for a living. The Earl of Birkenhead’s case is said to be notorious; he writes for the Sunday papers on anything and everything that comes into his head. He is reminded that “people' in India, even more than in Great Britain, can scarcely be blamed for thinking that the Secretary of State is not 'giving that undivided attention which is required 1 in a. Minister that 'demands intense and serious industry from those who lack previous acquaintance with its problems.’’ It is pointed out also that the Lord Chief Justice of England occupied two long columns of a Sunday newspaper with a technical discussion of legal objections to the admission of women to the House of Lords. The noble lord is reminded that the appropriate place to discuss such legal issues is not in the’ Sunday press but in the House of Lords ' itself, where Lord Hewa-rt can argue at what length he please

with Lord Birkenhead, There is a’ sting ;in the following comment from the Westminster Gazette: ' .'■■*' '"' *’ ' '

“It is true that if his Sunday’s article had* been a speech in the House of Lords no news editor would have ; given it one-quarter of .. -•• • ~ T r '• v ‘ •iv 'v • ,v----its space. Nor are speeches paid for—which;? • «| m ’ « * is really the gist of the matter. Yet the man in the street, who sees (for we doubt whether he reads) these ponderous articles, and hears that enormous fees are paid for them, is beginning to wonder whether it does not lower the dignity of public life that highly-paid public servants should thus supplement their salaries by popular journalism. And he has an uneasy feeling that public duty would be better served if the practice were stopped, and that these prolific, peers who hold high office should be told firmly that their public duties require all their time and energies, and that their salaries are not so small as to make it necessary to supple- ' ment their incomes by constant incursions into Fleet Street.” > / / > Mr. Baldwin has since announced that the practice complained of will be discontinued. Hard Times in Ulster Ulster is in hard condition these days./: Unemployment mocks the cupboards of the poor. The depression in Belfast is partly the off-spring of Reparations. Britain received a number of German vessels as part payment of the debt alleged to be" due to the Allies by, Germany, for what reason Heaven alone knows. The British Government in turn passed on these ships to the British shipping companies, good customers of Belfast. Hence, activity slackens at the shipyards, and the / workers of the north suffer the dog’s life of hunger and ease. The - magnates, of course, deplore the woes of the workers with the same breath in which they absolve themselves from all responsibility by declaring with the cheerful fatalism of the well-to-do that nothing can be done to relieve the situation; that money is tight; that what cannot be cured must be endured; and that in the days to come the birds will sing again* However, the spectre that haunts the doorsteps of the unemployed has no terrors for . the “unemployables,” who, like the birds of the air, toil not, neither do they spin, nor gather into barns. Five hundred of these men of “substance and standing” the other day hied by motor to a place near the border in order to gather around a cockpit, as gentlemen should. Sir James Craig’s Specials, whose wages the British taxpayers are paying, chased the gamesters over the border into the Free State. The Free State offi- • cers saw the ‘ fugitives coming and chased them back again, and the greater part of the day was spent by the gamblers in crossing and : re-crossing the border in a futile en- : deavor to discover a quiet spot where they could enjoy without police interference the, edifying spectacle ,of two game cocks tearing each other to , pieces with spurs of steel; It is estimated, that £SOO was' spent in motor car hire in police evasion alone. This money would have been better spent in relieving the necessities of the poor, and this. advice applies with equal force to every place/ in which Waste . and Want look i into each other’s eyes. ■ ■ .