FATHER TYRRELL DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 562, 17 July 1909, Page 5

FATHER TYRRELL DEAD.

» \ TETJE TO HIS PRINCIPLES. AT HIS WISH, RECEIVES RITES OF THE CHURCH. (Bj Teleferaph.-Preja Aeaoclatlon.-Ooprrisht.) (Rec. July 16, 9.20 p.m.) London, July 16. The death is announced of, Father Georgo TyiTell, of Storrington, Snssox, a recognised leader of tho Modernist movement in tho Roman Catholic Church. Father Tyrrell—who was excommunicated in 1907—wished to receive the rites of the Church, and expressed contrition for bis sins, but said ho did not wish to receivo tho Sacraments at the cost of retraction of what he had said and written in all sincerity and still considered to bo tho truth. The dying prieat recoived conditional absolution, and subsequently Extreme Unction. He was unable to take the Communion in the absence of the power to ewallow. THE EXCOMMUNICATION. PATHEE TTEEELL DEFINES HIS OW.N' POSITION. The name of Father Georgo Tyrroll stands highest among English Modernists, nnd next to thnt of Abbo Loisy among those Roman patholioS'whb nre indentified with the Modernist movement. Ho wne formerly a member of tho Sooiety of Jesue, but.the connection wae severed in 1906 by the authorities because ho wrote "A Confidential Letter" on cnl mutters to "a friend who is Professor of Anlhropolpgy," A defence of hie action is lecorded in "A llnch-fVbused Letter," published in 1906. In Pope issued his Encyclical neninst the "Modernist movement, and Father Tyrrell issued in "Tho Times," on Soptember 30 and October 1, 1907, a reply that attracted ivide notice. For this ho was oxcommimicnted. Ho was the nuthor of several theological works on progressive critical lines, notably "Lex Credendi." The deoision of the Pope that Father Tyrrell should be deprived of the Saoraments was conveyed to him by the liomnn Cntholie Bishop of Southwark, nnd' Father Tyrrell's reply thereto reflects clearly his spirit and tho j position ho took up, and throws light on tho statements in to-day's cablegram. The letter reads,— ■ * 'Tour Lordship,-4 be/j to ncknowMjjo the receipt of your letter of Octaberr,22. ~,\Vere J, not a Homan Catholic by ineradicable conviction I should, of coiirso, sny Mass in private every day, but being übat I am, I owe it to my own conncience. to respect the decision of the Holy See by abstaining from the Sacraments, You'epepk of 'submission,' but your letter in no' way defines the precise nature of my offence—since to writo to 'The Time*' is not ot itself a canonical offence meriting excommunication. I have rarely or never uritten anything which afterthought would not have amended in some l expects. 1 And therefore if, in defence of the imperilled faith of so many souls inside and outside tho Church, I was at moments carried avsay by indignation into any unbecoming irony or sarcasm; if I forgot' myself and the Gospel so far as to answer reproach with reproach, or biltornoss with bitterness; if I allowed myself to bo drawn down to tho level of personal attack to tho detriment of the courtesy ' and Tovercnce duo to the office of tho Holy ' FathfT, I deeply regret roch a defection from what I hope aro my habitual instincts and principles, and I cordially apologise to those vhom I havo unintentionally shocked or offended. Or agiin, if I have in any point mironderetood or misrepresented ttieir views, or have in any other way deviated from the troth, I eholl be only too ijlad to eay so rmblioly us soon as each deviations are made clear to mo. "If, however, my offence lies in having protested publiclv in the name of Catholicism against a document destructive of tho only possible defence of Catholicism, 'anil of otory reason for snbmittin?, within duo limits, to ecclcsinstical authority—a document which constitutes the greatest scandal for thousands who, like myself, have been brought into, and kept' in, tho< Church by tho influence of Cardinal Newman and of the mystical theology of the fathers and the saints— for such a protest I nm nbsolutely and finnlly impenitent. I may not lie, and for me, in all the circumstances, eilenco would have been tho basest of lice nnd a cownrdly betrayal of the Church whose service hae been tho sole aim of my Ufe.—Your Lordship'o servant in Christ, Q. Tyrrell"