THE CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER PRESS. THE LATE 'SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TABLET.'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 202, 16 February 1877, Page 7

THE CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER PRESS. THE LATE 'SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TABLET.'

You announced some time ago with regret the demise of a Catholic newspaper in Adelaide at an early period of its career. It appears that in America, with its eight millions of Catholics, there is not one Catholic daily paper, and even the existing weeklies there meet with a very inadequate support. In England, with its one million of Catholics, and even in Ireland with its five millions, there is not one single daily Catholic newspaper. ■ How is this to be explained P It cannot well be for lack of Catholic zeal. The churches, schools, colleges, infirmaries, and reformatories which the Catholics in these countries have raised of late years, attest both their religious zeal and public spirit. They must hold back from the support of Catholic newspapers, because they think these are not required, and that Catholics can get on very well without them, when there is such an abundance of non-Catholic journals, some, or rather most of them, highly respectable and ably conducted. A newspaper, they may argue, is a thing for this vorld ' only, and, properly speaking, has nothing to do with any interests > beyond it. There is a gocd deal of truth in this view. Yet it is a I very narrow and superficial one. Mr. Disraeli on the occasion of | opening the Manchester Athenseum, reminded his audience, and through them the public at large, that the newspaper was the most powerful arm of the press ; that its office was to inform and'to assist in guiding the public mind on all the great public questions of the day. If Catholics would adopt this just view of the important mission of the newspaper press, possibly they might be more inclined to support Catholic newspapers than they now are. Some of the most important public questions of our day — questions which deeply interest the public mind, and are discussed more or less fully and keenly in almost every Protestant journal — relate to Catholic subjects. These are, it is needless to say, almost invariably misrepresented by the Protestant press, and put in such a j way before their readers as to mislead or deceive them, uninten- ' tionally, of course. This is an evil, not merely affecting the I Catholic Church and her children, but calculated to prejudice j public interests generally. We all. know the inveterate and invincible prejudices which exist in the English mind against the Catholic Church and everything relating to her, prejudices which the press of England, the newspaper press especially, have labored industriously from day to day, and from year to year, to perpetuate ' and render, if possible, still more inveterate, during the long space ! of three hundred years and upwards. I will not impute mercenary or other improper motives to the editors who have thus so long labored, or still labor, to make the Roman Catholic Church and her ministers objectß of hatred or suspicion to the Protestant public. God alone can judge with certainty of the motives of hMßen's actions. Such is the natural deceitfulness of the human heart, that men often fail to know the real motives of their own actions. How, then, shall we dare to judge and condemn the motives of our neighbors. I will suppose that the conductors of the Protestant newspaper press are actuated by the purest, most upright, and disinterested motives, in all they attest to the prejudice of the Catholic Church, however far they may depart from the truth. Yet I may say this much, without giving just cause of offence, that men readily believe that to be true which it is for their worldly interests should be true, however false it may be in reality. The deceitfulness of riches is proverbial. Wealth is a great snare to the conscience. The Protestant party is now in the ascendant in England and Ireland. By means, the reverse of fair or honorable, by sacrilegious robbery and other kinds of injustice in short, wealth and power came into the hands of Protestants almost exclusively in the United Kingdom. Need we wonder if this party, so numerous, so fashionable, so wealthy, and so powerful, should be aided and supported by an able and numerous staff of newspaper writers, firmly convinced that in defending' the views and interests of their party they are doing what is just and right. Such is the present state of things, and has been since the reign of Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, two of the most cruel, tyrannical, and unjust sovereigns that ever sat on a throne, spits

of all their talents. Hitherto, the Catholic newspaper press hag been in abeyance, silent and crushed to the earth. The defenders of the Protestant cause in the newspapers have had the field entirely, to themselves. But circumstances nave now somewhat changed/ The Catholic newspaper press in the United Kingdom and the colonies and in the American United States, has begun to exist. It is yet in its infancy. But it is making itself heard, and letting the Protestant public into a knowledge of many things they did not know before, and which the Protestant press are in no hurry to bring to their knowledge. It is co-operating with the Catholic clergy in opening the eyes of the Protestant people to know how { much, how grossly they have been misled by Protestant preachers and newspapers. It was a rare thing, at no distint day, for Protestant people to enter a Roman Catholic church' for any creditable purpose, from any higher motive, in fact, than scoffingly to gaze at the " mummeries," as they called the ceremonies of the altar, or to hear the music of the choir. But now multitudes of well educated Protestants in England attend Catholic services to learn what the true teaching of the Catholic Cnurch really is, as was the case in Manchester lately, when an immense congregation, consisting mostly of Protestants, assembled to hear Monsignor Capel preach on "Liberty of Conscience." They are surpiised to find Catholic teaching differs so widely from that represented by Protestant preachers and newspaper editors. Pope Pius IX. is a strong advocate for Catholic newspapers, and has publicly signified his satisfaction at the publication of the Tablet in Dunedin. He has given a like encouragement to other Catholic journals in other parts of the world. He says that Catholic newspapers may find their way into many places which the voice of a Catholic priest can never reach, and may thus be the means of correcting many mistakes or refuting many calumnies respecting the Church and her people, which would otherwise be permitted to work their mischief unchecked. This is common sense, and is consistent with experience, even in your own city and this colony generally. The Catholic public, therefore, as a matter of duty, would support Catholic newspapers universally if they had a real anxiety for the credit of the Church and the diffusion of her faith. But Catholic newspapers should be cheap, because Catholics in general, and the Protestant working men too, are not very flush of cash. A penny Catholic paper, published two or three times a week, would be tho thing. If Catholic newspapers are not very generally read by Protestants at present, they are, at all events, read by some of the " leaders" of the Protestant people in the press, the ' New Zealand Wesleyan' to wit. The Tablet, I know, is read by some private Protestants. A Protestant gentleman, eminent in the law, told me he liked to have a look at the Tablet, because it was not so much filled as common newspapers, with matters relating to money and other worldly interests of the common sort. It seemed to recognise the fact that man was made for a higher end than to become rich. Auckland. Laic.