Is it Bashfulness ?

New Zealand Tablet, 4 October 1906, Page 9

Is it Bashfulness ?

4 There is,', says the Philosopher of the Sandwich Islands, ' this difference between bashfulness and modesty : the one soon wears off, the other never does '. Is it bashfulness, or modesty— or is it the repentant publican's humility, or fear of earthquakes— that keeps so many young men glued about the church doors at the Sunday Masses ? Here is' the ' S.H. Review's ' point of view on the subject : 'If some able-bodied young men were as coy about entering a bar as they seem to be about entering a church, there would be a great advance in sobriety. One would imagine from the bashfulness and timidity displayed by some stalwart specimens of masculinity about entering within the portals of the church, that something terrible were likely to befall them if they got in any further than the door. The Catholic who is content to hear Mass kneeling on one knee, and without the remotest chance of seeing the altar or of hearing a word that the priest says, is not a very valuable member of the Church '.