Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 21, 28 May 1908, Page 22

Notes

Anti-Convent Romance

Even a weasel may be caught napping. And the purveyors of anti-convent romance sometimes nod or sleep with both eyes shut. In other words, they forget at times their visual saving precaution, vague and general denunciation, and, in moments of distraction mention names of persons and places. And then trouble almost invariably ensues. On June 1, 1907, an English Socialist paper, ' Justice ', published (says the • G-lasgow Observer ' of March 7) untrue and libellous statements against the Sisters of Nazareth at Bexhill-on-Sea. c Scare-heads ' told of ' Brutal Treatment to Girls in a Bexhill-on-Sea Convent ' ' Girls Strapped and Cold Water Thrown over them ', ' Fingers Beaten with a Cane, and other Cruel Punishments '. * Justice ' was promptly brought to book and had publicly to withdraw and apologise. The ' Protestant Alliance Magazine '" stored up the slander— and in a moment of somnolence forgpt- the sequel. .It published the slander. And then the baud began to play. The result was a complete withdrawal of the story by the ' Alliance Magazine' in its December issue (p. 178), in the following editorial paragraph :—: — 'NAZARETH HOUSE, BEXHILL-ON-SEA. ' •'■We much regret ■ that , we have, by reproducing a letter which appeared in .the columns of our contemporary, " Justice ", been the means of spreading a statement against the above institution which cannot be substantiated. . WE UNRESERVEDLY WITHDRAW ANY IMPUTATION contained in the letter, "and offer our apologies, being in this. case (as in all-others) desirous of acting fairly towards every individual when once" we discover WE HAVE BEEN IN ERROR.' • *■ A few week's ago another piece of anti-convent fic--tion met with a somewhat similar fate in St. Louis,

United States- A shameful caricature, reflecting in an' outrageous way on Catholic Sisterhoods, had appeared in the ' Squib 'of January 25,- 1908. The Federation of Catholic Societies of St. Louis took up the- matter. The result was an offer of an apology by the publisher. The Federation insisted upon the apology appearing on the first editorial page of the ' Squib \ In- its issue of 1 - March 14, "it appeared in the following terms':— ' AN APOLOGY. 1 St. Louis, March 14, 1908. 1 jVIr. Anthony Matre, Chairman of Committee on Relations, Federation of Catholic Societies of St. Louis. ' Dear Sir,— The owners and publishers of " Squib " regret very much that the car Loon which appeared in the issue of January 25th, 1908, entitled " Viewed Behind the Scenes and Sharing the Blood Money ,of tlfe Poor ", was ever published, and we hereby make all proper apologies to the Catholic Sisterhoods and to our Catholic fellow-citizens for permitting the said cartoon to figure on the pages of our publication. ' NORBERT J. VOREL, 'Publisher of " Squib ".'

Another Romance

Even the worm will turn. From time to time we have shown how the slandered religious an Italy have successfully brought to book sundry lewd fellows of the b/aser sort— almost invariably the editors of anti-Cath-olic and- anti-Chrdstiian newspapers — who were • btanded together in what was clearly an organised campaign of defamation. The latest case in point is recorded in tbe Rome correspondence of the Philadelphia ' Catholic Standard ' of April 4. It referred to alleged horrifying ' -disclosures. ' published against the religious of S. Francesco della Vigna in. Venice. ' These priests ', says the ' Standard ' correspondent, ' were accused in the ''' Secolo Nuovo ", edited by -Giuseppe Abele, a wellknown Socialist of that city, and they lost no time in giving that worthy an excellent opportunity of proving in a public court of justice the abonrinable charges. You can guess the result. The editor was sentenced by tine tribunal to suffer imprisonment for two years and to pay, in addition, a fine of two thousand francs. Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is that Abele did not await the conclusion of the trial. Seeing hims'olf about to be unmasked, he" fled the city secretly, and has not since been heard of. And thus ends another chapter of the " clerical scandals of Italy " which had been described in certain journals in all the false details that impure imaginations a^d foul minds could string together.' It is from the envenomed stories of gentry like the fugitive Giuseppe Abele that a certain notorious purveyor of ' missionary tales ' periodically ' exposes ' the ' Romish ' Church in Italy, to credulous English! and Scottish audiences at so much per ' expose '— ' a silvercoin col lee ti mi ' or ' front seats one shilling, back seats sixpence '.