An Anti-Catholic Crusade

New Zealand Tablet, 13 December 1906, Page 9

An Anti-Catholic Crusade

There, have, been pretty yearly as many crimes p-er-petrated in the iiame of religion' as in the name" of liberty: In Victoria"" there is"an interesting knot- of-~ enthusiasts of ' saffron hue who -call themselves ' The Protestant Electors' Committee '. They Mught out yesterday's Federal elections, but not on Federal, or any political, issues. JTheir platform was a single-plank one—the- exclusion of Catholics . and of tolerant an>;l fair-minded Protestants from public life. ,-And.'this!." great political and social crime—the ..crime- of conspir-'' ing to set aside a fund^menjtal- principle of .the Constitution and injecting- the. rodent virus of '. sectarian hate and strife into "Victorian public life—was committed in the sacred name of religion. The guillotining Reds of the' French Revolution" erected their sta/tue^.t,o Liberty. , The lesser Reds., across- the seas in Victorik may now erect a statue to the wooden-headed idolmore hideous than a. Maori grotesque—that* presides over religious persecution. • A strange," grim ' atua ' indeed is the god of their worship—not the God of mercy and brotherly love,. nor "even the Allah of the Mahomedan, but a dehumanised Blunderbore, wfbh ' merciless club, and ,-single ever-raging eye, and teeth to ■ lacerate his victims. How true the words of Warbui- « ton: ' Tlie - bigot reverses the order of creation, and makes God in man's "image; .choosing the very ■ugliest - pattern to model from—namely, himself.' We,"are not sure that,-there exist south of the Tropic of-.Capricorn uglier patterns of -bigotry-than are to- -be found among the 'ill-guided few who" haye r j)een/for some time past' -• preaching.rthe Moloch gospel of sectarian .hate and strife in Victoria. The recent .grand protest of "the-Mel-^ bourne Catholic laity was both timely and much" heeded/""'" v ' - -"" , ...■*•