MASSES FOR THE SOUL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1481, 12 September 1883, Page 2

MASSES FOR THE SOUL.

■'i ho Jeciaion of j udge?, Freed man, of th©! Superior Courts-;of»JSfew\York, that u'tralt created said for thffsoul.pf the i testitor is .void by the law of that State, has given rise to widespread discussion. The.; Catholic clergy and Press generally condemned it,. and,the Judge was the recipient of many indignant letters, of which this, from Father Schmitt is a sample "Your decision says as much as if there was no purgatory, aid that masses 1 offered up for souls departed are of no avail. Are you ■ not here trespassibg on the domain of religion, and acting'rather the theologian than the judge ? 'Cannot a man leave money. , for any purpose, as long Ba that purpose "does not conflxt .with the lawß pf the jandl Cannot a man do with his -money as he pleases 1 Is there a law forbidding masses to be offered up for the departed souls? Certainly not. And because there are; many persons (Protestants) in the land who do not believe in purgatory and in masses for the dead, it does not follow, that Catholics are wrong in their belief, or that money left for;masses:is .wrong and of no avail to the souls, departed, Mr and Mrs Gilman Ijelioved ;in i masses for the dead, and ho nian on earth, no worldly judge has, a right to say that they were wrong and they should not have left money for masses. "You quote from the laws made under Henry Till, and other English rulers. Now, for your information, I must say that Henry VIII., though adulterer and murderer of niaiiy queens, on his .deathbed left several thousand pounds for masses to be offered up after his death. This is an undoubted, fact of history. So much for money, left for masses for the dead." The- adverse criticisms were so numerous that the Judge; felt constrained to adopt the very iinusual course of delivering a supplementary opinion, explanatory of. his decision. By the opinion he concedes that,any person ,may 'will money to the Church or its priests for masses for his soul; may during life make gifts of money or property to the Church or a'priest to be used for the. same purpose after his death; or may make an absolute gift to a third person ; but money cannot be left in trust to be devoted to procuring masses for the soul of the testator; on the ground that to sustain a trust the person for whose benefit it is intended must be living. The; Now York Herald is of opinion that Judge Preedman's " illiberal" ruling cannot be sustained.