THE POPE'S DEGREE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2493, 3 July 1888, Page 3

THE POPE'S DEGREE.

The San Francisco News Letter of 12th May makes the following comments on the recent Papal Rescript :—We intimated last week tlmt theru would te no very serious revolt among Irish Catholics against the mandates of tho Holy Council, and time is, as usual, demonstrating the couectness of the News Letter's views. There has been some blister, bo.nbast and resentful disposition on the part of those Irishmen who are engaged in politics as "leaders," so also there have been some violent manifestations on the part of those who, although Catholics, are beyond tho pale of sacerdotal influence ; but, in the main, the language of the Papal Secretary of State has been listened to attentively, and will be obeyed. Tho fact that it should be obeyed, that it is, in the abstract, right, will cut no insignificent figure in this settlement. .But the Triah will continue to agitate for Home Rule, and if the Papal Power should presume upon its present success and should seek to muzzle the Homo Rule agitation, it will find itself face to face with a different sort of sentiment. The Irish Roman Catholic priest lias for centuries stood behind the Irish Roman Catholic rebel— anything to hurt Protestant England was the watchword. Causes and methods were altogether unconsidered. To-day the rebellious sentiment of Ireland has simmered down to a demand for Home Rule, and Homo Rule has acquired a broader, more comprehensive, and more liberal meaning. In fact, it means a great many things that the Catholic Church does not favour, and brings the faithful, pious Irish into communion with tho demoralising influence of the English Radical. But. nevertheless, the die is cast. The Roman Catholic Church may slowly, and by those shrewd, indirect methods which it understands so perfectly, divert the Home Rule sentiment, but for the present "the" Church will not dare to openly oppose the clamor of its Irish parishionThe Monde, of Paris, in reply to a Rad cal print which charged the Pope ■with siding with the rich and poweiful a»ainst the poor and weak, iiays : — °" Tho Holy See has never taken up the defence of morality and justice without incurring attacks. The Irish clergy will see, and will make the people see, that the just cause of Ireland cannot be better served than by preserving it. as the Pope does, from the alloy of injustice. Ho prevents the Revolution fron monoiioiis-iii.-'it for its own profit, and thus shows '.;"..;;' ?',,/ cnlii.'httiied defender and The Monitcur dc Rome, the Papal organ, has the following, in the course of an article on " Leo XIII. awl Ireland :" (kUltudb Oil.-— . v i---- —>v ..-vt;' ,v.»isu.

He has always carefully avoided interference with the political and constitutional question, properly so called, as outside of his province. Home Rule, for example, the I'ope neither condemns nor approves. With that tender anil fatherly atVection which he entertains for all his children, especially the unfortunate, Leo XIII. has been able to follow with sympathetic and benevolent eyes the efforts which Ireland is making to recover peacefully a portion greater or less of her legislative independence ; but while the agitation is conducted on purely political grounds, the Pope, as such ,does not interfere. But when in the stress and excitement of the battle, the combatants exceed permitted limits, and endanger the observance of the superior law'of morality and justice which none may blamelessly transgress, then it is not merely the Pope's right, but his duty to interfere." The Moniteur says in conclusion : —"It is only in remaining faithful to that ideal of justice and virtue which the great patroit O'Connell maintained in his time, and which I'opo Leo XIII. has not ceased to uphold in our own, that Ireland will preserve the universal sympathy which goes out to her cause, and that she will bring to a triumphant end her lawful struggle for her just rights."