PROTESTANT CALUMNIES.

Southland Times, Issue 1588, 7 June 1872, Page 3

PROTESTANT CALUMNIES.

" Dictum -est olim odio habebia inimicum tuum" — " It was said of old, thou shalt hate thine enemy," and bo it i 8 said now — not only said, but done, and by those too who pretend to rejoice bo much that the old law haa been made to give place to the new, in which religion has received its full perfection. ; Sib, — I beg you will kindly allow me space in your columns whilst I say a few words in reference to a paragraph which appeared in your contemporary's issue of June Ist. As a general rule, on such a subject, told in such a way, the conduct of the Catholic Church is silent contempt ; however, inasmuch as there is much ignorance of religion, in every sense, in this particular quarter, it becomes our painful duty to raise our voice against lies and bigotry oftener than we should be obliged to do in most other parts of the world. Although the Southland News is not a very pre- j tentious, nor indeed a very important newspaper, , yet, in so far as it so readily becomes the vehicle of filth and ignorance, we are, with regret, even in this respect, compelled to look on it as the exponent of the views and tastes of a portion of the community. The editor must have rubbed his hands, and in jubilation said to himself — " Won't this be interesting to the general public, and especially .to the ladies ?" Very likely " it was, too. " And won't it make my paper sell ?" the proprietor, -must have soliloquised; — curious are : the ways 'in which Borne" people are obliged to ■ earn their bread and butter. But it seems to me : a little strange that the News would not publish ; anything for me, although the proprietor told me he would publish anything in my way, very courteously indeed, so much so that I thought he was in earnest. However, I found I had judged him rashly, for he was not in earnest, as the very first time I asked him he refuied. Now I must

say injustice to myself, I did not want him to publish a filthy scandal story. I did not know he was such an adept in that art at the time. What I asked him to do was to insert a letter of Dr Moran's, previously published in a Dunedin paper. He commenced moralising at some length, saying, "It might cause ill-feeling." This letter of Dr Moran's was on education — that so much abused question, on which the most-illiterate man pronounces an opinion with as much eelf-satisfuc-tion as if he were another Aristotle. The News does not seem to be very scrupulous as to what ill-feeling it may have created' on this occasion. But perhaps the end justifies the means, and that 'tis merely an application of that principle. As regards the end, if it is tlie Thread and butter, 'tia a capital one, and common' to us all. ' ' As to the paragraph in the News to which I allude, and the merits of the case, I must say, from the stab-in-the-dark way in which it is put, it looks awfully Protestant — or, properly, Presbyterian. This paragraph in the News is headed, " Disclosures in a Monastery," and runs thus : — " A very terrible scene has taken place at a monastery in Palermo. The facts a 9 they have reached us are as follows." Away he goes then and states the facts, and never tells us how they reached him, where he got them, or what his ' authority. I suppose, however; the facts have come through the usual channel — a Knox channel or a Fox channel — and are as true aa " Fox's Martyrology." But why should we be surprised at all this, for is it not natural and necessary, if I may so say, for heresy, which is a rebellion against, and a contradiction of, the truth, to spread lies ? lam not afraid to say necessary, for the first so-called reformers themselves admitted the necessity of telling lies without ever putting a tooth on it. Hume (a Protestant author) says that " Protestants seemed to have thought that no truth should be told of Papists." The learned Grotius reproaches the Protestant ministers for lying about Catholics, and what do you think was the reply ? Here it is : — " That they found it necessary for the public good of the reformed religion" (see letters to Vossius). Again, Vossius bimself, in the very same correspondence, ! says that when he reproved the ministers of Amsterdam for telling lies about Catholics, they | admitted the iniquity in so doing. " But," added they, "if we leave off such language, our people will soon leave us" (read Barnett, 693). I wish to take this opportunity of informing my readers that we have nowadays to deal not bo much with Protestants as with infidels. I have met many Protestants in New Zealand, as well as in the Australias, who go to church to accompany or please their sisters and mothers, but who, if you speak to them, will tell you they do not believe in Christ as a God. Those will register themselves as Protestants, but if you ask them what they believe, you will find they are Epicureans. In fact, one of this class in Auckland tried to convert me I,'1 ,' saying that Christ did not do anything more extraordinary than Heller (a juggler), and this man; called himself a Protestant. I met such another Protestant the other day at Popotunoa, and a few days before at Riverton I met others of the same sort, and from my own experience of. Southland now there is very little more faith to be met with there ; in fact Protestantism is fast approaching infidelity— witness England. But 'tis only natural that, "in whatsoever you will sow of the same also shall you reap." A Protestant historian of note (who, being a student of the ultra-school, must not be suspected of partiality. to Catholics), speaking of the heretics of the 13th century, says — " Some of them denied the reality of Christ's body ; others his being the Son of God ; many the resurrection of the body j and some even a future state" (Hallam, • Middle Ages, iii., 466)1 I said on a former occasion that if our neighbors would lefc us alone, we would let them alone — -a child's bargain, to be sure, but not a bad one for all that. We don't want to convert people by telling lies, or offending our neighbors who are ouißide the pale of the church — that would not be the charity of St. Paul, who said he could be an anathema for his brethren, and by way of episode,lmay say that many of the inhabitants of In.vercargill a3 I meet them don't look as if they are going to become an Anathema for me — looking at me through the little corner of a contracted eye. I never saw euch a quantity of wee «yes before, in any town of the same size. But to; return to the subject — although we are to have all manner of charity for our neighbor, we are to hare charity for God in the first place, and mua,fi defend His truth sometimes even at the expense of the neighbor. Gospel truth does notrequire the sword for its defence — "those who take the sword shall perish by the sword." But when truth is attacked the voice of the Pastor should become as a sword, and if in defence of the truth his voice should not be raised, he would be, not a Pastor, but a hireling. This last story is likely to die the same d 6'ath as the. Btory t the other day of the tyranny said to have been exercised over a nun in Cracow, and ias that of Bishop Straussmeyer. As to Bishop Straussmeyer — the poor man, after contradicting more than once the calumny perpetrated against him on the continent, to the effect that he refused to subscribe to the dogma of Infallibility — had to I send a written contradiction of the same, published in some of the London papers, before they would cease circulating the report there. And although the Melbourne Argus published these reports with its own comments on them to Bet them off, the Argus afterwards, when the reporta were fully , disproved, refused to contradict its publication.' Notwithstanding these examples, et hoc genus bmiie, people ready to venture a lie when in reference, to Catholics, are plenty here to-day. But perhaps some people think they are bound to contmue the work of the ministers of- Amsterdam. i I hope the authorities in connection with' the Southland News will pardon me, for it is not so much them as 'the system, < of uLmster damning that I wish to unmask. ,My Protestant acquaintances, and I may say friends in Invercargill, are not a few. They will understand me. Indeed I would pay a very poor, a wretched compliment ■' to the Protestantg in. general by supposing they would think ill of me for abstaining_ from falsehood, ?r_for not holding my peace, when my office calls upon me to speak. " Legem requirent'.ex ore ejus." Very sorry,to give you so much trouble. — I am, Sir, yours &c, John Cabden; St. Mary's, Invercargill, ' -. Jfuue, 1872. . ' ......' ;