ARCHBISHOP MACCABE'S PASTORAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6501, 28 December 1881, Page 6

ARCHBISHOP MACCABE'S PASTORAL.

An important pastoral, by Arehbtobep 'Maeoabe, of Dublin, was read on Oot. 30, In all line Catholic churches and chapels of the Dublin dloesta. It wit issued In. order to malm known tbo permission grantsd by tbo Pops for " th» osteutioo to Dec. W of the Utn® appointed lor tbo completion of tbo present jubilee §** but tbo Archbishop avail* himself of tbo ocoacion to mako known bit view* faapscUng tbo nwnont crisis, and to deal a but Mi moot damaging blow at tbo Land League, He says j—••Wo fool ourselves :ImperaUssly called upon to enter our most solemn protoal against another indignity which ha* boon offered to tbo moral scnM of our people in thU city-' the centre of Catholic Ireland. Only a few day* ago the over-confiding were startled from their dream of security by the publication of a manifesto which at one* as* •ailed the external law of Clod, and •truck at tbo foundation on which society wtu the right* of property. Passing over <UI tha other cases in which these righto are threatened, let u* coniine ouwelvo* to one particular clan of the community. There were and are, aa wo alt know, hundred* of honest industrious men amongst ue, who, trusting to the faith of the public conscience, ana the security which a duly constituted Government is expected to give, invested the fruits of their years of toll and sacrifice in property, from which they hoped that they ana theirs might draw tbo means of an honourable subsistence. But all this must be swept away by the breath of a handful of men, the bulk of whom have neither stake nor interest in the country. We disregarded the warning* which cautioned us against the danger that lurked in specious programmes, pretending to aim at nought save the redress of the wrongs of an oppressed people t but now God's providence has forced from the lips of unsafe guides an avowal of their aim, and if the notice to pay no rents be not the teaching of Communism, Com* monism it yet to be defined. Let no one suppose wo have a word to say in defence of the oppressions of the poor. We feel as keenly as the most out-spoken of our brethren the cruel injuries worked by bad laws on the defenceless tenants of Ireland j but we must not allow oar abborenco of Injustice to betray ns into a repudiation of the claims of justice, and if God's blessing is to be invoked in oar struggle for right, God's sacred ordinances must not be outraged in that struggle. If today the landlord's claim to his Just rent be questioned, who will guarantee the tenant's right to his outlay of money and toU tomorrow P Injustice will repay injustice, and in the day of retribution the wrongdoer would be laughed at when ho seeks for sympathy in his troubles. Tbo issue is now plainly put to our people which of the two they will follow P The men who hare marked out a road that must lead to anger with God and disgrace before the Christian world, or tho Bishops of Ireland, who, through a glorious and unbroken succession of fourteen centuries, are the heirs of those who encountered poverty, exile—nay, death in its most terrible form—for the people with whom their lives are irrevocably bound up." The Archbishop then dwelt at length upon the moral turpitude and spiritual danger of refusing, when able, to pay just debts, '* which certainly include just rents." " But who," he asks, ” would settle the question what a just rent means P Surely no sane man would allow an individual, no matter how unimportant, to be the judge in his own cause | and the bishops exhorted tho people to avail themselves of the Land Act, under the hope that in tho courts established under it the unjustly rented tenant would find redraw and protection. Call upon your flocks to follow the guidance of the prelates. Let os take tha cate of a man who refuses to discharge the obligations which be has already assumed, because he and his friends have come to the conclusion that their obligations are unjust. Nevertheless, he refuses to bring his complaints before a tribunal which commands the confidence of the prelates, and which has been constituted expressly for the rectification of wrongs such as he complains of. Is this man's position before God a safe one P Again, because a mao has pronounced the Government harsh or tyrannical in certain public note he refuses to keep a contract made with a fellow subject, can that man's conscience be perfectly at rest ? These are momentous questions, involving terrible eonsequences—not for a time, but for eternity."