FREEDOM OF RELIGION VIOLATED IN SPAIN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4320, 25 January 1875, Page 2

FREEDOM OF RELIGION VIOLATED IN SPAIN.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—You are severe and partial in your appreciation of things and persons in Spain. Out of several items very objectionable in your leader of to-day, let mo select one to animadvert upon. Tlio reported closing of two Protestant chapels lu I Cadiz is made by you political capital, and represented a violation of religious liberty. Before adopting such a conclusion, we should attend to the following acknowledged fact. In Spain a I are Catholics, except foreigners and travellers. Thow few Spaniards who seem to have fallen away from the practice of the Catholic religion will not emhrace Protestantism, as it appears to them a middle way that is not tenable. Such being the case, what must be in reality Protestant chapels in that conntrr, but. doubtful conventicles, or even agencies of Zealots, not. of the Church of England, nor even of respectable Presbyterians or Wesleyans, but of fanatic ranters or unclean Mormons well paid to mako, if possible, some proselytes among the rabble, in vilifying and blaspheming what the Catholics venerate and adore. You may depend that those fellows inveigh as much against kings as against priests. Now who shall call the closing of those chapels a violation of religious liberty? Was not their openinj rather an infringement on the freedom of the Spaniards in general ? ■ Have not the people a right ta see, free from public outrages, a religion which mad* their nation, aud kept it at the zenith of power and glory, as long as their Government cherished and honored that religion ? Alas ! we Catholics for a long period, and in several countries, were allowed to worship neither in chapel nor in private houses, nor in the fields ; and in the present day our bishops, our priests are fined, exiled, imprisoned by hundreds. Hundreds of our churches are closed in Germany and . in Switzerland. In some the Pope is stript of hU domains, properties mo3t sacred arc wrested froii tha church by order of Governments. Very few write. few speak against those proceedings—so strange oa the part of the Liberals, and in those days. In conclusion, let the reader pauso and form hla opinion on the closing of Protestant chapels In Spain.—l am, &C; CATBOLIODB. [Our correspondent is surely prejudiced, or he would not accuse us of partiality in our comments on Spanish affairs. The point of our remarks was thia; That on the abdication of Queen Isabella, freedom of conscience, freedom of worship, and freedom of tho Press, was recognised by an organic law in Spain ; but that on the proclamation of the Prince of Asturias as King, a decree in violation of that law wa* promulgated, which gave Prince Bismarck an opportunity of standing forward as the champion of Protestantism and free thought in Spain, in opposition to Ultiamontanism, with which he is engaged in «. life-and-death struggle in Germany. It was a gross political blunder on the part of Don Alphonso s advisers, to say the least of it. But we cannot accept our correspondent's explanation of tho position u correct. Tho Chancellor of tho German Empire would not make an international question of the decree if it were levelled against pestilent innovator! and disturbers of the public peace. Moreover, it is absurd to supposo that the European Pourert will tolerate a return to the religious intolerance which characterised tho reign of Isabella. Wo s.v thi.? quite apart from the question as to the theoretical right of the Spanish Government to ordain that no Church hut the Church of Homo shall be tolerated within that realm. Indeed, it is useless arguing such an abstract right at the present day, as its cxerciso i» opposed to modern thought, and to the practice of powerful Catholic States like Italy and Außtrl*. Spain is not isolated from the rest of Europe, and she must he governed in accordance, more or less, witlt those principles of civil and religious liberty which arc accepted by the sisterhood of Christian nations. Even the Porto has been compelled, hrough foreign intervention, to order the Governor of Syria to respect lie Protosiant schools throughout his p&shalic. -Ed. N.Z.TJ