THE DECISION OF THE IRISH HIERARCHY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 18, 30 January 1891, Page 19

THE DECISION OF THE IRISH HIERARCHY.

( United Ireland, December 6 ) A meeting of the Standing Committee of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland was held on Wednesday in Dublin. The committee consists of the four archbishops and six bishops elected to represent the four ecclesiastical provinces of Irclaad. The following address was unanimously adopted and erderei to be communicated to the Press for publication. The Standing Committee deemed it their duty to commuoicite by telegram with their absent brethren of the episcopacy, and have received, np to this, the adhesion of the Bishops whose names, with their own, are signed to the address : — Address of the Standing Committee of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland to the clergy and laity of their flocks. Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers and fellow-countrymen— The bishops of Ireland can no longer keep silent in presence of the all-engrossing question which agitates, not Ireland and England alone, but every spot where Irishmen have found a home. That question is — Who is to be the future leader of the Irish people, or, rather, who is not to be their leader 1 Without hesitation or donbt, and in the plainest possible terms, we give it as our unanimous judgment that, whoever else is fit to fill that highly responsible post, Mr. Parnell is not. As Pastors of this Catholic nation, we do not base this, our judgment and solemn declaration, on political grounds, but simply and solely on the facts and circumstances revealed in the London Divorce Court. After the verdict given in that court, we cannot regara Mr. Parnell in any other light than as a man convicted of one of the gravest offences known to religion and society, aggravated, as it is in hi 3 case, by almost every circumstance that could possibly attach to it, so as to give it a scandalous pre-eminenca in guilt and shame. Surely Catholic Ireland, so eminently conspicuous for its virtue and the Durity of its socia life, will not accept as its leader a man so dishonoured, and wholly unworthy of Christian confidence. Furthermore, as Irishmen devoted to our country, eager for its salvation, and earnestly intent on securing for it the benefit of domestic legislation, we <?annot but be influenced by the conviction that the countenancing of Mr. Parnell as leader of even a section of the Irish Party must have the effect of disorganising our ranks, and ranging as in hostile camps the hitherto united forces of our country. Confronted with the prospect of contingencies so disastrous, we see nothing but inevitable defeat at the approaching sreneral elec ■ tions, and, as a result, Home Rule indefinitely postpone!, Coercion perpetuated, the bands of the evictor strengthened, and the tenants already evicted left without the shadow of a hope of ever being restored to their hjmes. Your devoted servants in Christ — f Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, Piimate of all Ireland. t William J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, Primate of all Ireland. f T. W. Croke, Archbishop of Cashel. f John M'Evilly, Archbishop of Tnam. t Laurence Gillooly, Bishop of Elphin. f James Donnelly, Bishop of Clogber. f James Lynch, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. f Francis J. MacCormack, Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh, f John MacCarthy, Bishop of Cloyne. t William Fitzgerald, Bishop of Koss. f Bartholomew Woodlock, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise . t Thomas Alphonsus O'Callaghan, Bishop of Cork. f James Brown, Bishop of Ferns. f Abraham Brownrigg, Bishop of Ossory. f Patrick MacAlister, Bishop of Down and Connor, f Patrick O'Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe. f John Lyater, Bishop of Achonrv. t Edward Magennis, Bishop of Kilmore. f Thomas McGivern, Bishop of Dromore. f John K. O'Doherty, Bishop of Derry. f Michael Comerford, Coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. t Thomas M'tiedmond. Coadjutor Bishop of Killiloe. f Nicholas D mnelly, Bishop of Canea. Dublin, December 3, 1890.