THE POPE AND IRELAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2470, 10 May 1888, Page 3

THE POPE AND IRELAND.

TO TIIK EDITOR. Sir, —In your leading article of Saturday's issue, you, like the generality of the local press, have taken altogether a wrong view of the aspect of affairs in Ireland. You seem inclined to view the matter from a religious standpoint, instead of it being a purely" national movement. Such being your ideas on the present state of affairs in Ireland, you appear somewhat jubilant, and give vent to your admiration of the Pope's courage and firmness in proclaiming the National Land League illegal, and condemning it as mich, and issuing a Bull of. excommunication against all and sundry of the Catholic Faith that refuse to obey the mandate of a foreign power. For your information, Mr Editor, as an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, I may at the least be permitted to inform you that we are Irishmen before being Catholics, and as such our allegiance is due to the national interests of our unhappy country before that of our spiritual affairs. As Irishmen, therefore, we have the undoubted right to view the interference of the Pope in our national concerns as unwarranted and uncalled for, seeing that he is an alien to the sentiments which animate the nation in seeking at this late hour the restitution of her national rights. We as Roman Catholics acknowledge the Pope as the lawfullyappointed head of the Catholic Church, and as such we are prepared to render him that homage and obedience in all spiritual matters, which his position, as the head of the Catholic Church, justly entitles him to claim at our hands. But, Sir, when, as in the present instance, he so far presumes on his prerogative as the spiritual head of the Church to issue his fuhninations against the national aspirations of the down-trodden country it is quite time enough that he should be shown the difference between mourn and iitum, as the interests of the country at large do not come under his province. It appears to me somewhat strange that the Pope should be so far led astray as to throw the weight of his influence on the side of a powerful nation like England against such a weak nation as Ireland. Yet weak and all as she is she has poured her thousands on the field of battle to die for England. Ireland that has been, and is insulted so vilely for her religion ; Ireland that has been so misgoverned for centuries ; but still Ireland, the friend, the ally, the companion and supporter of her haughty and imperious neighbour to whose tender mercies the Pope is seeking to further bind her by launching the thunderbolts of the Church at the devoted heads of those striving for the liberation of their unhappy country from a thraldom almost worse than slavery. I must protest against the assertion that we, tha Roman Catholics believe the Pope to be infallible both in matters of faith and morals. Such an assertion is a gross libel upon the intelligent portion of the Catholic community. There is no such doctrine attached to the Catholic Church as n belief in the Pope's infallibility. We simply believe the Church to be infallible. But there is just this difference between me and you, Mr Editor. I believe the Catholic Church to be infallible while you and those of your persuasion believe yourselves to be so. I regret that space will not permit me pointedly to controvert all your other points. But to me they appear shallow in the extreme, and I have some hope that their plausibility will at some future time, be exploded, and truth be triumphant thereby should you again venture upon points of doctrine of which you appear to be totally ignorant.—l am, &c. Junius Hiijer.nicts. Cambridge East.