The Nancy Convent

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 43, 22 October 1903, Page 19

The Nancy Convent

The Eskimo loves his feed of blubber best when it is 1 high ' enough to drive a clean white man up the chimney and spread a pestilence over a whole country side. In the same way the fanatics of the saffron sash and their leaders in the conventicle pulpits chew and mouth upon every infected and purulent tale which circumstance or the father of lies places before them to the discredit of the great object of their hate, the Catholic Church. They have lately been exploiting to an unconscionable degree what has* come to be known as ' the Nancy Convent affair,' with a view to crippling the reputation and the work of the great institution of the Good Shepherd in Melbourne. Some of their preachers, and especially a clerical firebrand from New Zealand, have attacked such Catholic institutions with frantic violence. Their weapon in every case was the historic one which Sampson used once on a time against the Philistines. Those excitable white Dervishes persist in reminding us of the big drum that plays such a leading part Ln the outer ceremonial of the Irish Orange lodges — they are all noise and emptiness. We have already laid before our readers the facts of the Nancy Convent affair. The vitriolthrowing campaign of the Yellow Agony in Melbourne has resulted in the publication, by Massina and Co., of Melbourne, of the fullest, most complete, and most unanswerable vindication of the Nancy nuns, that has yet come under our notice. It is translated from the ' Reforme Sociale ' of June 16, and is from the pen of Mr. Henri Joly, who is a noted author and crime expert, and Vice-President of the International Society of Social Economy and of the General Society of Piisons. The pity of it is, that we have not yet a Catholic Truth Society 1o spread this excellent little publication to the furthest inhabited corners of Australasia. If M. Joly's article were adequately circulated, the miscalled 'Nancy scandal ' would be speedily snowed under.