A Retrograde Movement.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 17 July 1902, Page 5

A Retrograde Movement.

The Protestant League that has just come into existence in Victoria, to the great joy of the Orange lodges, has met with little encouragement from the secular Press, whilst the Anglican organ, the Church Commonwealth, administers the following rebuke to the zealots who are endeavoring to stir up religious strife in the State • .No one who reads this journal can accuse us of undue sympathy with the Roman Catholic Church, either in some of her religious developments or m the methods she adopts here and in Europe to achieve political ends. And so we have no compunction in declaring e ™P hat i« a "y that the circular published in Melbourne, which affirms that it is desirable that a league should be formed for the purpose of meeting and counteracting the organised Roman Catholic influence on the legislation and administration of this State (Victoria), and which is unfortunately signed by three junior bishops and a priest of our Church, is utterly unjustified by the facts is an em r in tactics, and is calculated to bring into existence the very Bhadowy and unproved organised Roman Catholicin fluence which haa smitten horror into the aforesaid three bishops and one priest, and the miscellaneous hodge podge of religious opinions represented in the subsequent©! signatures. Surely these ecoleeiastics might have learned statecraft from tho wiße and venerable Administrator of the Melbourne diocese. His long experience and the keen wisdom of the Archdeacon of Melbourne have at least saved the diocese trom become officially compromised in this false move If danger threatens, Anglicans outnumber Roman Catholics by three to two at the least, and if our clergy wish to oppose Roman political influence, let them try to organise their own people instead of associating with those who deny some of the very foundations of our Church s position 'We have denied that there is any organised Roman Catholic vote in Victoria, and the burden of proof is. we think, on those who amrin that there is. But a few instances may be given to show that there is not. So far back as 1883, Sir John O'Shannassy the leading layman of the Roman Church, was defeated at Belfast Vnow Port Fairy), a thoroughly Roman Catholic electorate, and that although the whole influence of the Church from altar and elsewhere was thrown in his favour. The same constituency haa twice rejected Sir Bryan O'Loghlen in favor of a Protestant, who now represents it. The districts about Kilmore, Lancefield and Broadford have a very large Roman Catholic vote, and yet they have at different times defeated the popular Mr. Gavan Duffy Mr P Hunt, and Mr. Rawson, two Protestants, Mr. Argle and Mr' McKenzie, now representing these districts. If the Roman Catholic organised vote were a political influence, Mr. Duffy would have been returned to the Senate last year, but instead he only received about two-fifths of the votes given to the Orange Mr. Fraser, and was hopelessly out of the running. Again, Warrenheip, a thoroughly Irish electorate, returned for many years the genial Mr Murphy but on his death a Wesleyan captured the seat, to the great chagrin of the Tribune, which -loudly prophesied his defeat at the next election. The election came, however, and Mr. Holden still holds the seat. If the Roman Church has ' organised for political purposes ' in Victoria, she is making a worse job of it than one would imagine, or else her power is so small that it is needless to organise against her. ' But let our three bishops, one priest, not forgetting a lonely layman who also signs this foolish document, remember that our Church is fighting in England the very battle that Rome is fightimr in Australia, and that her would-be allies here are her bitter and unscrupulous foes there. For the ragged regiment do not conceal that their aim is to make the education of Roman Catholio children in the way their Church desires as laborious and burdensome as possible. lubtead of endeavoring to follow the magnificent example of self-denial, faith, and energy, set them by that Church in the matter of religious education, they desire to make her task heavier That Roman Catholics conscientiously object to their children attending secular State schools is nothing to them. Rather compel them to violate their conscience than let their children be taught the faith of their fathers. And let us sound a note of warning for the benefit of those impetuous prelates who are bawling "No Popery " in the daily press. If they are content with the nondescript lessons, prayers and hymns drawn up by the Royal Commission on the principle that anything positively affirming any-

thing was to be omitted, then they i^re untrue to their Chur. b, and instead of giving the children bread th>y are offering them stones Bather lft them fi^ht th«ir own b.ittlefi, try to establish their own schoolp, and join with Romau Catlu lies in urging that the Slate, as it is relieved of expense by religious bodies giving adequate and tested secular instruction in addition to spiritual, shall help those taking trouble and financial liability upon the.r shoulders, and not as at present place a double burden upon them.'