The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1900. THE FLATTERY CRUSADE IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3, 18 January 1900, Page 17

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1900. THE FLATTERY CRUSADE IN NEW ZEALAND.

fRAUD, even when open and (if we might use the word in such a connection) straightforward, is hateful. Concealed under the appearance of common honesty it is disgusting. But when it assumes the cloak of religion and Lhunks God that ie is not like those Papists, un&&&s£ just, adulterers, impure, and when it prays and groans and turns its hypocritical eyes to heaven, and with lying and indecent tongue invokes the sacred name of the Lord Jesus — and all this ror money, money, and still evermore money — then it is the abomination of desolation : a sight to make demons rejoice, angels (if they could be) sad, and manly men weep with shame or

burn with honest indignation. A good half century ago an unfortunate fallen priest, discharged from the sacred ministry for immorality, discovered that there was money in this, and that the viler, the more abominable, and the more indecent his harangues, the better the filthy business paid. Since that time his tribe has not failed. The trade has prospered despite its risks. A certain number of unfrocked ex-priests of damaged reputation, and in later years two exnuns, have made a dishonourable livelihood by appealing to the bigoted and the prurient minded in attacks of coarse and brutal indecency on the virtue of the priesthood and of the whole womanhood of the Catholic Church. The financial success of these infamous ' ventures ' attracted to the * profession ' a whole horde of unclean reprobates and impostors of every creed. Their general character is sufficiently indicated in the course of the lengthy article which appears elsewhere in this issue. The melancholy thing about this evil trade is this : that there are still to be found clergymen who lend their pulpits and their churches for the purposes of those propagandists of the gospel of filth. Tne only pleasant feature in it is the fact that the number of such clerics is year by year diminishing ; that Protestant clergymen of every denomination have as vigorously denounced the professional calumniators as we do ; that the non-Catholic Press has learned to ignore or to scourge them ; and that there are other indications which point, to the good time coming when such vile cattle will be driven out or the society of decent men and women and this dirty crusade be relegated to the place to which it by right belongs — the haunts of vice and profligacy.

It is needless for us to repeat here any of the damaging facts that appear elsewhere in this issue regarding the career of the ex-priest Joseph Slattery, who is at present engaged in stirring up sectarian hate in Auckland at so mnch per night. We merely refer our readers to what we have published, and notify them that we have yet much to say upon the same unpleasant theme. A man who was discharged from the sacred ministry for intemperance, who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the sale of indecent literature, who seems incapable of truth-telling, and who, for filthy lucre, has associated himself with a female impostor in a crusade of abominable invective against the purity of the manhood and the womanhood of the Catholic Church — this is the latest witness of evil against us that has come to our shores. The hard commonsense of Mr. Labouchere, editor of Truth, hits off the motives and the methods of this precious brace of adventurers in the following words : ' It must be perfectly obvious to anyone with the slightest knowledge of the world that these lectures are delivered simply for the purpose of putting money into the lecturer's pocket, and that to gain his end the lecturer is appealing to pruriency and indecency under the guise of religion.' This has been so fully recognised by intellectual and fair-minded men of every creed in places that have been visited by the Slatterys that — as we shall show in onr next issue — in America, Europe, and Australia, they have been denounced by prominent Protestant clergymen ; non-Catholic printers and publishers have declined to have dealings with them ; public halls have been refused to them ; the better class of newspapers have ignored them, or refused to take their advertisements, or given crushing exposures of their discreditable career. For all this the Catholic body are deeply grateful. It marks the turn of the tide of decent opinion against blackguardly attacks on the character and religious sentiments of law-abiding people of any faith. It is, we trust, an earnest of the fair treatment and friendly sympathy which we hope to receive during the Slattery crusade from every decent Protestant fellowcolonist, and which Catholics and their representative organ here are ever ready, should the occasion demand it, to extend to the members of every creed, whether Jew or Christian or pagan.

In the meantime, as Catholic journalists, we have a plain, if unpleasant, duty to perform with regard to the Slattery crusade. Apart from the broad lines of a newspaper defence of our slandered Mother Church we feel that it (Wolves upon us to furnish the Catholic body with a ready and effective means of forestalling the slanderers in every part of the Colony in which they may attempt to ply their evil trade. It is for this purpose that we have provided in advance, and will ourselves publish, an abundant

supply of pamphlets and leaflets which, duly distributed, will show to Catholic and to Protestant alike the worthless character and thorough-going unreliability of this unhappy pair. Their tour of slander is calculated to affect the Catholic population of the Colony in different degrees. Those that move in the educated and refined circles of society will naturally suffer little or nothing from it in the routine of social intercourse. It is the workers — the girls in domestic employment, the men and women in shops, factories, public departments, on contracts, etc., even ohildren in the public schools — that are usually made to feel the bitterest brunt of the foul and disgusting tirades of vagabond lecturers like the unfrocked priest Slattery and the vulgar impostor that is sharing in the shame, as in the profits, of his tour. To what are called the ' classes ' Slattery's appeal cannot lie. To succeed in his evil mission he must approach the ' masses,' who are the mainstay of the country. The unhappy man practically depends for the financial success of his ' venture ' on setting the working men of one creed against the working men of another creed. We trust that the workers of New Zealand will not fall into the trap that he has baited for them. The matter deserves, and, we trust, will receive the attention of their leaders and of all who have an interest in preserving and increasing the solidarity of the working classes of the Colony.

We give a few parting words of counsel which we hope will be borne in mind by Catholics in every part of New Zealand that is or may yet be afflicted by the Slattery crusade :—: —

1. Keep away, and induce your Catholic and nonCatholic neighbours to keep away, from the Slattery meetings.

2. Do not allow yourselves to be, on any pretext, tempted into counter-demonstrations or any form of resort, however trifling, to physical force or even opposition by word of mouth. In England and Scotland and the United States the Slatterys got mnch of their money because some misguided and ill-advised Catholics foolishly created a sensation by opposing them.

3. Leave no stone unturned, within the bounds of law and prudence, to enlighten your Protestant neighbours and fellow-citizens as to the real facts of the career of Slattery and his female companion. We have placed the means of doing this at your disposal. If any one says ' Slattery !' to yon and you have no effective reply, the fault is yours, not ours. 1 herefore form committees now in every centre that is at all likely to receive a visit from this precious pair ; provide yourselves with a supply of pamphlets and leaflets for free distribution to the local non-Catholic clergy, the members of the local Press, and prominent and respectable citizens of every creed — for the visits of all this class *of slanderers are, for obvious reasons, usually made as secretly and unexpectedly as possible, so that they may be able to get their coin and flit with it before exposure is possible. During the periods of their visits pamphlets should be distributed to every household in the city, town, or district, and arrangements should be likewise made (as in England, .Scotland, and Australia) for their prudent, systematic, and sustained distribution to parties entering their meetings. 4. The suggested committees — always under the sanction or guidance of the clergy — would have another important function in preventing, as far as lies in their power, the letting to Slattery of public halls that are the property of the ratepayers. This has been successfully effected in many places in Australia. No fair-minded man would support a proposal to have halls of this kind used by wandering revilers to spit upon and insult the most cherished convictions of a section of the ratepayers who erect and maintain such buildings.

5. In this Colony we have a newspaper Press of usually high respectability, and generally very free from antiCatholic bias. We do not for a moment suppose that, in regard to the Slattery crusade, they will fall short of the good example set them by the respectable organs of public opinion in England, Scotland, and Australia. We have already briefly indicated their line of action in connection with this unhappy pair. Should, however, any paper so far fall from grace as to aid and encourage the trade of these coarse revilers, or make itself their mouthpiece, it lies with the Catholic body themselves to take prompt and effective steps, within the limits of the law, to see that such

a course of conduct does not pay. When an appeal to a man's heart and intellect fails, there still remains the appeal to his pocket. And as a secular newspaper is a purely business concern, such an appeal, if properly pressed home, is usually effective. We, however, commend our cause — the cause ot truth and common decency — with all confidence to the sense of fair play of the Press, to the nonCatholic clergy, and to honourable people of every creed and class from the North Cape to the Bluff.