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A Brace of Falsehoods

The fellow mentioned in the last paragraph— or one of his schoolt— seems to be ' ait his dirty i tricks again.' The anli-clerijcal ' Etoile Beige ' recently reported a 1 great scandal,' which (it alleged) 'had taken place at St. Quentln. Horrible accusations (it declared) had ibeen laid there against a Catholic p.riest, the Abbe Jacq;ues Lefebre. who was born on October 23, 1856, and was Professor of Humanities in the College of St. Joseph in that city. The accusers were three young men, whose names, ages, and places of abode were all duly given. The police were investigating the matter, and the whole story was as circumstantial as the envenomed romances that emanated from the ' Bureau of Press Information ' in Milan before its gaol-bird chief went, like Judjas, 'to nis place.' But mark how plain a tale did put the St. Quentin story down. Here is the result of the investigation conducted on the spot— we take it from the ' Catholic Times ' of May 2G :

' There is no priest of that name at St. Quentin ; there is no college of St. Joseph , the police know nothing at all about the matter ' Yet tins scandalous report has been issued broadcast, and has, doußtless, been read by thousands, who. in their simplicity, believed it to Ye true. One can only conclude that some infamous agency exists for the manufacture and dissemination of these fiendish lies aga.insjt priests. And as if to support the conclusion, we see that a number of men in Bnttanv ha\e publicly apologised to the clergy for spreading scandalous tales against them, and have thanEed 'them for not insisting on their being punished by law ! '

Another ' yellow yarn,' in the same general style, comes from fait her afield. It tells about a priest ' offering himself as a human sacrifice at the altar of his own cathedral, al Cuale, .State of Guadalajara, Maxico.' The poet Gay laid down in the following couplet, the guiding principle of the ungentle art of falsehood :

' Lest men suspect your take untrue, Keep probability in view." This lesson of caution is, however, losrt upon those who venture upon a description of Catholic usages which they do not understand. A ' priest ' with a ' cathedral ' of ' his own ' would indeed be a curiosity in the Catholic Church. This Mexican story is thus disposed of by the ' Southern Messenger ' (San Antonio, Texas) :—

' We do not usually pay any attention to the sensations and horrors of the yellow press, and we advfse our readers to pursue the same course. Even if this horrible story were true, it would indicate nothing more than that the poor wretch was a madman. But

there is every evidence . that the story is notni&g "tint a miserable invention. The clipping before Tis is from the yellowest kind of a yellow journal, published in New York. The story is dated from " Houston, Texas," and the scene of the event is said to be " the Cathe,dral at idiale, State of Guadalajara, Mexico." Now, there is no Cathedral at Cuaie 1 , and there is no such State as Guadalajara. There is a city named Guadalajara, but it is in the State of Jaiisco. The story is ijftse on the vefcfy face of it, and about as eluin&y a falsehood as we have lately come across.'

The moral of these stories is this : Readers should be very sceptical—or at least suspend judgment —regarding anti-Catiiolic stories that are imported into this country from lands that are far away.

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.I whakaputaina aunoatia ēnei kuputuhi tuhinga, e kitea ai pea ētahi hapa i roto. Tirohia te whārangi katoa kia kitea te āhuatanga taketake o te tuhinga.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZT19050713.2.2.4

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 28, 13 July 1905, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
583

A Brace of Falsehoods New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 28, 13 July 1905, Page 2

A Brace of Falsehoods New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 28, 13 July 1905, Page 2

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