A CONSTITUTIONAL CATHOLIC MOVEMENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 99, 20 March 1875, Page 8

A CONSTITUTIONAL CATHOLIC MOVEMENT.

The suggestions contained in the following article, taken from the Melbourne ' Advocate/ may prove useful to the colonists of^New Zealand, as well as to those of Victoria : — " When the Catholics of England were threatenod with an Educational Law that would be hurtful to their conscience and oppressive in its operation, they resolved to resist its enactment by all legal and constitutional means. They were admonished by their ecclesiastical superiors that it was their duty to take that course, and. both by argument and persuasion they were urged to adopt it. They were numerous, but their votes were few ; and the small number who had secured the franchise, and usually exercised it wasted the political influence they should have used in defence of the Church. They had no common object of the kind in view whilst Episcopalians and Dissenters invariably studied their own interests at the ballot-box. On political subjects in no way connected with denominational interests there was no combination amongst them ; but in their case there was an exception to that rule, whilst there was no exception amongst the Catholic body. ! To remedy that state of things the Catholic laity were instructed in the duty they owed their religion, themselves, and their children i on the education question, and the Catholic Registration Societies were established wherever there was a Catholic population at all considerable in number. It was the duty of these societies to see that every Catholic entitled to a vote had secured it, and the good effects of that organisation were very perceptible in the results of the last general electiou. Here, in Victoria, our position is some* what similar to, but much worse than, that occupied by co-religion-ists in England, and therefore there is greater reason why we should have recourse to constitutional weapons of defence. The advice on the subj ect offered by Archbishop Manning in England, the Bishop of Ballarat has given to the subjects of his diocese, and we hope to hear that it is being carried out systematically and energetically. Ib is impressed on Catholics by the defenders of the Godless system that the division list is the criterion of right or wrong. This is rather an "uncertain and changeable standard of morals, but as the Secularists govern us by it, we must try by every legitimate means to make an impression on it. And if Catholics are of one mind, as they should be, and as we believe they are, with, a few inconsiderable exceptions, they will succeed in their laudable purpose. They will not be without allies, though they may be few in number, but they must depend upon themselves for deliverance from the persecution to which they are subject. If they will issue a programme stating plainly and concisely their objections to the system of public education now in force, and defining strictly the nature of the relief they seek, it will not fail to make a favorable impression on the intelligent and honest Protestant mind of the country.