A Feilding Story

New Zealand Tablet, 22 November 1906, Page 22

A Feilding Story

The ' Feiiding Star ' has , gone far afield in searchof -a sensation. In its issue of November 13 it published a story to the' effect that a < priest ' at Crosswardein, Hungary, has formally renounced the Church' in order to. marry 'a .popular singer.' The authority "for the story is— the ' Feiiding Star - itself. Only that'

a^ ,, noth "?'g more- for no' other source ils stated. '"lt so ' happens, , too, . Hint the '"' Star's ' ' geography' "'is slightly Jkinked.. , -.There., 'is no./ : CrosswardeiiL; : in „Hungary. 'Our Northern -contemporary - 'probably .means Gr'rosswardein. The story 'be true,' : 6r it 'maybe false. In either case rid" principloMs _ involved.. , '' And Catholics can only rejoice" that such . iritfde'jity to, sacerdotal vows is . so rare that when it dogs, occur even in a small town hi far-off ' Hungary, 'i>i#j g considered sufficient -of a curiosity ■ for- insertion'"" in a country paper away on the furthermost rim of' the world. Judging- from the form in which the story appears, it" looks suspiciously like a srApping from the' muckrake press. So far, however, we have no. "evidence whatever beyond an uncorroborated assertion that, such a defection has taken place. And we have, of late given ample reasons why all Continental stories injuriously affecting Catholic ecclesiastical' persons "and institutions should be received with a heavy dose of salt. Only a few weeks ago another case in point was furnished by the departure of Father Carones, rector of the Maddclena (Rome) for mission work among the Italian emigrants in New York. The anticlerical press immediately announced that he had eloped, witha fair Delilah— who (as usual) was described as ' young, rich, beautiful, and of noble birth.' But (accord-ing to our exchanges) it turns out that the story of the elopement is a fabrication thro-ugh -and through.

There is one negative redeeming feature in connection with the tale lold by the ' Feiiding Star.' The uncorroborated story of the defection of ' a Roman Catholic priest ' in Hungary is not padded out with any nauseous cant as to the pious ' motives ' that led to the ' conversion.' These are set forth with frank, if somewhat disgusting, brutality. It is, briefly and in substance, an assertion that the animal man over-bal-anced the spiritual, that the' lower law secured within him the lordship over the higher. It was so with one of" the Chosen Twelve. On the question of fact,. Feiiding readers have no opuon but to suspend judgment. But, consciously or unconsciously (most probably unconsciously) the ' Star ' has supplied a variant to the sarcastic comment of Erasmus on ' converts ' of this class : ' Duo tantum quaerunt, censum et uxorem '—two things they are in search of, cash and a wife.'