That Great 'Catholic Petition.'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 21, 12 June 1902, Page 1

That Great 'Catholic Petition.'

A couple of months ago a most extraordinary and mysterious cablegram, headed in many of the papers ' An Important Catholic Petition,' appeared in the daily press of this and all the other colonies. The cable, as it appeared in the Niw Zealand papers, was in this form : 'An important Catholic petition has been presented to Parliament, It declares that the Pope and the sacred Catholic congregations claim jurisdiction in regard to ecclebiastical property in England amounting t0 £50,000,000. The monies were subscribed for one purpose, and afterwards diverted to another. The petitioners ask that secular and regular property be controlled by ecclesiastical commissions appointed from the clergy and laity. The petition adds that the difficulties in Ireland and elsewhere would be avoided if the Government exercised the power of veto in the appointment of bishops.' The message was ceitainly a puzzler, but Catholics in this part ol the world are too well used to the vagaries of the cable-tig^er to take any cabled items of alleged Catholic news very seriously. It was obvious at once to any intelligent Catholic tl. at either this 'petition' was a bogus one, got up by somebody hostile to the Church, or that its purport had been hopelessly muddled and distorted by the 'cable crammer'; and most Catholic readers were content to leave it at that, suspending further judgment until luller information was available. The full text cf the document and whatever particulars could be ascertained as to its origin are given in our Home exchanges just to hand, and Ircm thc-e it is abundantly evident that this piecious ' pttition ' is the work of an enemy and of a very cunning and unscrupulous enemy at that. The anti-Catholic animus cf the author is manifest throughout. Thus, after pointing out that the total value of Catholic Church property in the United Kingdom would probably come lo fifty millions sterling, the author ol this ' Catholic " petition goes on to say : ' No account of how these enormous sums are managed is ever given to the public. On the contrary, the present Koman Catholic Bishop of Southwaik, in a Pastoral to the clergy in 1899, declared that he was not bound to render any account oi how he managed the monies of the diocese, except to God and the Holy See ! ' And he proceeds to lament that, as things stand, Catholics have no choice but to admit this ' absolute despotic power ' of the Pope even though they ' know it to be dangerous to the country.' After some making some insulting insinuations as to how ' Koman Catholic ecclesiastical property in this Kingdom has betn mismanaged, how trusts have been violaUd, how secret tiusts, forbidden by law, have been created, and how monies subscribed for one purpose have been diverted to other purposes,' he makes the generous intimation : ' We do not ask for new Statutes, or new penalties. We ask for safeguards ; ' and the modest safeguards he requires are that all the Catholic ecclesiastical property in the United Kingdom, the value of which he estimates at fifty millions sterling be placed under the control of ecclesiastical commissioners ' chosen by the Crown from the Roman Catholic clergy and laity,' that a Concordat be established with the Holy

See, whereby fixity of tenure shall be given to all parish priests, and that the Government shall avert ' grave difficulties in Ireland and other parts of the Empire' by securing the right of veto over the appointment of Catholic bishops. It is evident at once to both the Catholic and Protestant reader that th» man who makes demands like that is no friend or loyal member of the Catholic Church. * And just as the matter of this 'petition' shows the animus, so the manner of getting it up shows the cunning and unscrupulousness of the author. In the first place the document is absolutely anonymous. No name or names are given, and there is no indication of any kind as to whence the petition comes. It was not taken round for signatures as bona fide memorials invariably are, but was sent to Catholics anonymously through the post with the following suggestion : • This petition may be signed by one or any number of persons and then sent to the Member of Parliament for the division in which the signatories live, with the request that he would present it to the House.' It was posted, too, at the end of the week, so that the Catholic papers — all weeklies — would not be able to condemn it until it had got about eight dajs' stait. '1 he whole thing was a cunning and contemptible attempt to take unwary Catholics 'on the hop ' and make it appear to the world that there was serious and widespread discontent among the Catholic laity of England. Of course the attempt completely failed. Yet in spile of the fact that this bogus memorial was absolutely anonymous and obviously anti-Catholic the Press Association agent at London does not hesitate to cable it out to us as ' An Important Catholic Petition,' adding the entirely unwarranted statement that the petition had been actually presented to Parliament. Fortunately all classes in the community are now pretty well on their guard against the absurdities of the cable fiend, and his latest freak, while it will amuse Catholics, will do no serious mischief even among our Protestant friends.