DEFEAT OF ANTI-CATHOLIC MACHINATIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 606, 8 April 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

DEFEAT OF ANTI-CATHOLIC MACHINATIONS.

The exposure of the new Know-nothing order has , called out a hearty condemnation of its principles by the Protestant • press. In the " Globe ", led off with a manly »Ttiole, _ which , conj&ined \ these words: — "There seems ,,tp ( be a, strange , passion among a certain,, class of Americans to form secret orden .oppcaed ' to the power,, and the pretended, malign purposes, ,of the Roman Ca^ho^ic.,, Church. It is born of bigotry and intolerance, and nursed by prejudice and ignorance, and it is utterly unworthy of people making any pretensions to intelligence or generosity. Probably these orders are secret because they cannot bear the light, but no good object is to bs attained by working in, the dark. Whatever dangers we may hare to avoid, whatever difficulties we may hare to contend with, and whatever t problems we may have to solve, it will be far better for us to work above board and in tb.e open day, declaring oar purposes boldly, _ and diseasing fairly and openly whatever iisues we may have to make. By ( free and honest discussion we may hope to reach the solid ground, of truth 4 and justice, but we can never do ij;, by these absurd mummeries and bombastic, fqlrainations in secret. It is about time that the common sense of this country were brought to bear ,on the Catholic Church, and that we left off looking upon it as a, horrible bugaboo, such as • frights the imagination of children, If our people would show a disposition to know what it is and what purposes it really cherishes, aud to judge of it candidly and fairly, there would be much IeBS di&culty t in dealing with the qnestions of polity on which it and the Protestant churches differ. Above all things let us deal with it openly and in the daylight,' and discountenance all «ecret orders and organizations, whose purposes are blind and uncompromising hostility to afoy class of citizens on account of their religious belief."

Vauh of ak Oath, — We hare of Un # heard it questioned whether an oUh taken by a Roman Catholic on a Protestant Bible would be binding from a religious point of tie*. The opinion of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Otago sets that point at rest :— " Wo learn from the " Tablet" that in the courie of a recently delivered sermon Bishop Moran took occaaion to allude to a. paragraph whioh appeared in Dansdin contßmporariei a short time since ; and in wliioh it was itated that a Roman Catholio man had laid iv the Dunedin Police Court that he did not conaider hit oath binding, sine* he bad been sworn on a Proteitant Bible. His Lordship iaid this circumstance, which he hoped was Boi true, had mado him feel ashamed because, of th« grow t ignorance displayed by the nnn }n question ; the essence of an oath consisted in calling God to witness, and the manner of doing this had no- , thing to say in the matter. The man wao bonnd to swear, and his oath was binding."