Catholic Missionaries in China.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 3

Catholic Missionaries in China.

WEITERS, not well informed or impslled by hostile intention", ha v tried to hold missionaries responsible for the recent events in China passing the same condemnation on all ministers of the different creeds. We (Amrrican Cathohc Qaait'rhj 'Jln-iac) are not in a position to defend Protestant missionaries from the imputations directed against them. Not being sufficiently versed in their affairs, we cannot point out the mistakes that have been published with respect to them. Besides, their societies see that they are respected and have already replied to the attacks and repaired the mistakes of a misinformed or ill-disposed press. In so far as Catholic mission irie.s are concerned, let our first remark be that they are beyond the reajh of the accusation of cupidity brought against missionaries in general. There ia not among them an outcast with a burdensome pa-<t ; no one Li/jly seeking an easy and lucrative present ; no one nmbitious lor a brilliant future. They are all men who have abandoned everything for all time ; fortune, family, and country ; and m a suhliuu; lolly, the folly of the Cross, have pone to live the life of the poov, having many times nothing but a stone on which to rest their htais and bein^ often without the dole of rice neewsary for their existence. They aie men who know how to suffer and die, as they have proved in the last persecution. Catholic missionaries serve the cause of mankind and Christian civilisation by their works of charity ; they call down the blessing of the poor, the sick, and the orphaned on the generous eouls who nave sent them on their mission. They faithfully follow the orders of Leo XIII. , wbo in a letter addre-s.d to the E,np»r:>r Bud that 'those who labor in the name of the Gospel should r. frairi from political affairs, and that one of the piincipul precepts of the Christian religion is to preserve justice in all things, to buboiit to authority, and to honor the King.'