Running a Lie to Earth.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 2

Running a Lie to Earth.

'To Protestantism,' wrote Cardinal Newman in one of his earlier Catholic woiks, 'false witness is the principle of propagation. . . . Taking things as they a:e, and judging of them by the long run, one may securely say that the anti-Catholic Tradition could not be kept alive, would die of exhaustion, without a continual supply of fable.' A striking illustration of the truth of these remarks and of their applicability to the Protestantism of to-day as much as to that ol half a century ago, is furnished by the publication of a recent calumny —which has been going the round of the Protestant papers —against the Sacred Congregation for the Piopagation of the Faith. The charge made against the Sacied College —which is, as our readers know, one of the most important and most honored organisations in the Catholic Church—is that it has deliberately and grossly misrepresented the number of Catholics in Australasia with the express object of misleading and deceiving the public as to the progress of the Church 111 the pai t of the world referred to. The charge was first published in thi- Irish Record, thence it was copied into the Church of Ireland Gazette, and from there transferred to the columns of the Irish Times, in which paper it appeared in the following form :-- ' The Record last week drew attention to some extraordinary statistics, which appear in the Misdoncs Catliolicce for 1901, and which are supplied by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Accotdmg to this document the Roman Catholic population of Australia Tasmania and New Zealand has grown during the past five years from 3,008,399 to 4 507,980. But the Rev. John Dixon, of Balmam West, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, produces figures from the census taken ,1 jcar ,igo, showing that the whole population of Australia and New Zealand is only 4,555,803, and oi these the Roman Catholics number yrg.SSo. '1 here i«, therefore, a difference only of 3,591,100 souls between the statement sent in by the Roman Catholic ecclesi istical nulhoi ities and the official records published by the statisticians of the se\eral States in Australia. —'Church of Ireland Gazette' After going the round of the Irish Protestant religious journals, the he travelled to Australia, and w.15 copied in several papers of the CommonwtMlth, final]v appeal 1111^ in the Spectator (the organ ol the Methodists 111 Melbourne) with the added s.ircistic comment. ' Hrn is a very wonciui ful statement, and Us tnar\el is intic iscrl by the fact that, counting nil the population —men, women, and children —in those three

States, they only number 4.555.803. Therefore, if the figures of the Sacred Congregation were correct, all those people, excepting 47,823, would be Roman Catholics.' Long before the lie had reached Australia, however, the Most Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, was on its track, and had put the authors to shame— if it is possible to put such fabricators to shame— in a very forcible and pointed letter. After quoting the statement as it appeared in the Irish Times, and pointing out the obvious intention on the part of those who circulated it to discredit the Sacred Congregation, Dr. O'Dwver continued: J ' I trust you will allow me to inform your readers that the charge in question is, in plain language, a deliberate falsehood. ' I have the book " Missiones Catholicae " for 1901 before me. It contains no such statement as this which you quote. At page 587 it gives the number of Catholics in each diocese of Australia and Tasmania, and then at the foot of the column the total, which is 708,770. It then adds : ' Incolae in Australia et Tasmania sunt/ 3,789,600. At page 609 it gives the number of Catholics in each of the four dioceses of New Zealand, the total of which comes to 97,030, and the < incolae ' of these same four dioceses are given as 718,380. That is, the total number of Catholics in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, as given in the 'Missiones Catholicae ' for 190 1, is 805,800. How, then, did the Record or the Church of Ireland Gazette state that the number is given as 4,507,980? And all of you try to stir the indignation of true Protestants at • the extraordinary statistics which appear in the ' Missiones Catholicae ' for 1901, and which are supplied by the Sacred Congregafion for the Propagation of the Faith ? If you just add together the two numbers given above as representing the ' incoke ' as distinguished from the ' Cathohci,' in the ' Missiones Catholic® ' you will come upon an interesting coincidence. ' Incolae in Australia and Tasmania ... ... 3 7 8g 600 ' Incolae ' in the four dioceses of New Zealand ... 718,380 Total ' incolae ' 4,507,980 Now, this is the exact figure which the Record and Church of Ireland Gazette charge the Propaganda with giving as the number of Catholics. Can it be possible that these people did not know the meaning of the word 'incolae' (i.e. inhabitants) ? On the very page from which they quote it is distinguished from ' Catholici.' Yet unless on the plea of gross ignorance of this kind I can see no escape from the conclusion that these writers deliberately misrepresented the official statements of the organ of the Propaganda for the purpose of discrediting a most important institution in the Catholic Church.' Dr. O'Dwyer's contradiction and refutation was published in the Irish Times two days after the calumny appeared in its columns, yet the Australian Protestant papers have copied the he but have carefully refrained from giving publicity to the refutation. So it has been ;so it ever will be. In the whole history of Protestantism true testimony has been insufficient for her purpose and now, as ever, it is only by wholesale unrestricted dependence on fable that the great anti-Catholic Tradition can be maintained.