The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: FRIDAY, SEPT. 7, 1877.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 166, 7 September 1877, Page 5

The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: FRIDAY, SEPT. 7, 1877.

Bishop Moran has more than once paraded himself before the public of Otago. Recently by sermons, by speechifyi&g, and by letter writing, he has stepped out of the darkness and secrecy in which Roman Catholic prif sts •and dignataries seek to work out their ends. The Bishop has spoken out. His tone has been an angry one. His utterances have 'been characterised by the most exaggerated misrepresentation. And in regard to the past and present : action of the Ohurch to which he belongs, and of the governments over ■which it has ruled, he has not hesitated to belie what all history now and in times past has proclaimed, and is proclaiming with trumpet tongue. He has j ventured to assert in the pages of one of ■onr Dunedin contemporaries that in .Roman Catholic countries intolerance •has been manifested not towards the subjects of these countries, but only to* wards strangers. That strangers, claiming the right to worship God according to their own conscience, and to propagate their faith, as Roman Catholics are to do in Protestant countries have indeed been denied a like toleration, and been made the victims of persecution, more or less refined and •cruel, is true, and in admitting this, the Bishopspeaks the truth, and unwittingly •condemns the Church of Rome as an intolerant Church, — not doing to others she claims others should do to her. She thus violates, on Bishop Moran's •own showing, the second great com■mandmpnt of the law as set, fort : h by

bun whose Vicar and representative on •earth, the Bishop's Head, — the Pope ■claims to be. But it is not true, it is thft very opposite of truth for the Bishop 'to say that in Roman Catholic countries persecution has not been made to fall '■(and that at ihe instigation of and as the desired result of the doctrines taught by the priests of the Phure'h of Home,) on the ■native-born subjects of such ■countries. Were the Waldenses and Albkrenses strangers in the land where the Roman Pontiff by force of arms sought to coerce them to renounce their Bible faith and Bible worship, and to adopt the Romish faith and worship 1 Were the Hugnno'ts strangers to the soil of France, whose massacre has left so foul a blot on the escutcheon of the Bishop's Church? Were Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, with hundreds of other English martyrs who perished during the reign"of bloody Mary, strangers in England? Were the unnumbered victims of the Spanish Anto-de-Pe not Spaniards born ? And in our own day, whatwerethe Medici in Italy, and Matamoras and others in Spain that suffered so long- and so severely because they •chose to follow the Word of God rather than the word of the priest, to renounce the faith of Home and adopt the faith •of Christ? Were not the one Italian born, and the other of Spanish birth, citizens of Italy — citizens of Spain ? But what of the recent attempt made by Cardinal and Pope to have the meagre toleration, granted under the new constitution of Spain taken away, and every other form of rel'gion, save ttha't of Rome, proscribed and forbidden. It is not possible that Dr Moran has forgotten or could be ignorant of the now querulous complaints, and the now arrogant demands that issued from the Vatican to the young Alphonso in connection with the liberty of worship, to natives and strangers seemed by the new Spanish Constitution- It is in "vain for Dr Moran to suppose that because he and his co-religionistsshut their eyes to the facts of history his Protestant fellow-citizens will do the same. His statement? may pass for gospel with the members of his own Church, from ■whose education history is excluded, or Vho are only furnished with such historical statements as will hide from their eyes the real facts of history. But it "will be otherwise with those who can ■read for themselves, and whose minds are not a bit of soft chy in the hands of the priest, to be made only what the priest will allow. History tells a tale of intolerance and persecution that may well make Bishop Moran hide his face, and blush for his Church's doings. And is n not the same tale of intolerance that comes from his utterances on the Education Bill. Are these not the old and ever continued demand that Rome must be supreme, that only what will please and benefit her shall be permitted? le it not the demand that lie makes of the Protestant Colony of JNew Eeahnd that the wishes of the Komisn

priesthood shall determine what the education to be given in New Zealand shall be, and that their wishes shall take precedence, of the wishes of the. Protestant majority of the people? Full liberty is given to the members of the Church of Rome to have schools of their own, if they are dissatisfied with those which the general interests of the community demand-. With this, which in Rome and -elsewhere they have refused to allow to Protestants, they are not satisfied. Nothing short ot the complete sacrifice on the part of a Protqstant eommunitv of their most essential principles, will satisfy the demands of Bishop Moran and his satellites. If this be granted them in the matter of education on which so largely depends the future of New Zealand, soon will similar demands in otheT directions be made, which the country-, having once yielded to such intolerance, will be unable to refuse. Will our New Zealand Parliament be 'foolish enough to place themselves and their constituents under the iron heel of Romanism, and retard the progress of this new country for many a year ?