CHURCH, STATE-, AND PEOPLE.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 9 April 1919, Page 3

CHURCH, STATE-, AND PEOPLE.

REPLY TO ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD ON THE TRAPPIC IN LIQUOR AND ITS PROHIBITION. (Published by Arrangement.) So even archbishops must rush into print., and what a fatally foolish spectacle is provided thereby! It is attempted to hide the "split” by a preteace of freedom of opinion, which (ho,.Vu libisliop’s "call on all Catholics in the .Dominion” does, not support. lie ■j rays they "naturally look to their .Metropolitan for right guidance (in vain) on ilic matter of Prohibition — National Prohibition—with which this Dominion is threatened." lie admits ri rbriii is needed, and asks for regulation, but regulation after years eenI luries—of painful trial is a confessed [ failure. He touches a matter which surely he had better have left put— j the "sexual instilict"—and argues ! that abuse should not mean prohibition. | He theh does not approve the prohibition of houses of ill-l'amc. He says ! National Prohibition is a step back- | t ward. When did we have it? We only 1 m-1; a fair trial for it. Ho says: "It is J odious and inquisitorial tyranny, i foreign to the basic principle and spirit of British law"; while Bishop Cleary • says: "Every law, both human and , divine, is a restriction on the libeitj i of the individual, with a view to secur- J ing the greater liberty and well-being j of all; and such restrictions . . . arc justifiable when they are for 11:e common good.". The essence of all law is restraint. British or other Prohibitionists, having conquered themselves are proceeding also to "conquer the ten j cities" of "tied" and "loose".houses. The Archbishop says: "Prohibition is a yoke." It is clearly not the one ho bore in his youth. If temptation of drink, resisted, is necessary to moral strength, this perhaps somewhat accounts for tlic moral sturdiness of Prohibitionists; but should it not be equally strengthening to the morals of others to resist the temptation to break the law for selfish indulgence, greed or gain, by the sly-grogging, and worse ovils, prophesied under Prohibition. The Archbishop says: "Prohibition is the symbol for hypocrisy and deception; sure to generate a low moral atmosphere. Onee let a young man be-, come contaminated by the moral tone of the sly-grogs (and who arc they?) ho will be damaged moially if not utterly ruined." Well, he is prohibited from marrying—perhaps this accounts for a good deal of the milk in his eocoanut, and some other things. He says again: "Wc may expect shortly that the land will be filled with dens, all of which will be schools of hypocrisy, evasion, lawlessness and deception." What a chance to "acquire merit," as they say East, were this not flatly contradicted by the facts and experience, not to mention the contradiction of "divines" no less, divine tjian himself.

Bishop Cleary declares that liquor is the occasion of a serious amount; of disease, of v ice and crime; of domestic strife and misery, and economical loss; and that "not one of these evils is capable of statistical expression except to a quite insignificant extent." Archbishop Redwood says the ioachisig of hating the cause instead of the consequence would "render morality impossible and make anarchy and lawlessness rampant, and abolish the Ten Commandments!" Well, well, and this not from a budding school boy, but an Archbishop! But if so, wc arc not afraid, and the Ten Commandments must go, and give place to the "new low which I give unto you—that ye love one another," as said the Great. Reformer of Nazareth, whom the Archbishop professes to sincerely, serve. Wc are not amazed after these exhibitions at his want of perception, that he does not see, for instance, the moral restraint of the good citizen in obedience to law made for the nation's welfare and comfort "This National Prohibition craze is the work of a handful of fanatics,” he says, as if playing a harp of one string. Yet these handful of fanatics rose to a Dominion majority ; a few years ago of over 50,000. He says: "Some Catholics, owing to what they have suffered from drunken fathers or mothers, husbands or wives, relatives or friends, put sc-niiment before reason"!. Y'ou crafty man! Y'ou pit the Adam selfishness against their love and responsibility, and back it with your Metropolitan guidance and authority. Y'ou call us bitter enemies (for your own purpose) of the Catholic. Church and the Mass. Bitter enemies of freedom and truth have sometimes risen higher than archbishop. You quote the Governor of Florida as saying: "The man who needs liquor for his religion had better prepare Jo take his religion ijut of Florida.” Our rulers, you know, satisfied Bishop Cleary, satisfied Father Cronin, satisfied the thousands who will vote for Prohibition as Catholics. The supply •for- religion will rtof debauch our young nation. As to Florida, religion did not gfr®-liquox did. The exception for sacramental purposes here is not a precarious regulation, but rests on statute law. On what more does it now depend "in. this pretended free land," as he calls it? ‘ He is going the way to make it-hot-for himself, now and hereafter. Nothing so damaging ' to the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand has happened since the promulgation of the No ffemere decree. Thc-y who hang to liquor will -go down with it. It is the eleventh hour. EVELYN MACDONALD. To Horo, Manawaiu.