“QUITE OLD-FASHIONED”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 431, 13 August 1928, Page 14

“QUITE OLD-FASHIONED”

RATIONALIST IDEAS EFFECT OF PROPAGANDA FATHER MARTINDALE’S VIEWS “Where once men thought of Catholics as possessing a somewhat remote and exotic creed and wor- j ship of their own, they now took it for granted that Catholicism implied a universal philosophy of life, and that Catholics, priests and laymen, must be expected to have a view, based on some principle, of everything that cropped up from Rugby football to a new sort of art.” In these words Father Cyril Martindale. S.J., the eminent English priest, explained the changed attitude toward Catholicism in a sermon which he preached at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before a large congregation last evening. Father Martindale, although now recovered from the effects of his recent motor accident, still had his head bandaged. A quiet, precise speaker, blending theology with brilliant wit and tolerance, he made the glittering impression that the Oxford man always does. At me opening of his sermon Father Martindale derided the disbeliefs of Rationalism and the gloomy materialistic outlook. He said that since he had been in Auckland various nonCatholic organisations and a Rationalist one had sent him their publications. “The little Rationalist journal interested me,” he said, “because it seemed to be one of the few quite old-fashioned things I have met in this modern country. In it, I breathe the air of mid-Victorian memories.” The preacher went on to say that one writer had quoted him as saying that materialism was on the increase in England. This had been hailed as good news for the British Rationalist Press Association and Secular Society.

“Alas, how those name date him,” said Father Martindale. “They might have had significance about 1900 but even during the war I was surprised to see how utterly without effect all that propaganda had been upon the ordinary soldiers. “A man’s religion might not be orthodox by Church of England or Nonconformist standards, if there are any. but a religion of his own he certainly did have, and not all the R.P.A. publications, which he .rarely came across, would have shifted him from it. I see influences that may produce a materialist generation, but they are connected with machinery, for example, and have nothing whatever to do with rationalist arguments. Denominations lamented that they could not fill their churches; but the Catholics knew too well that they could not build churches fast enough. “When reporters ask me why churches are empty,” he said, “I reply, “Our’s aren’t—they are inconveniently full.”

Father Martindale, continuing, said there would be no sudden conversion of England to the faith, but a strong set toward it could be looked for among many, and a drift of the rest into a vague theism coupled with a reverence for the name of Christ.