The Support of Catholic Newspapers

New Zealand Tablet, 16 July 1908, Page 12

The Support of Catholic Newspapers

(From an Occasional Correspondent.)

Speaking on Sunday morning (July 5) at St. Mary of the Angels' Church, Wellington, on the claims of the ' N.Z. Tablet ' to a more generous measure of support from the Catholics of the Dominion, the Very Rev. Father Regnault, S.M. (Provincial) said that the Catholic newspaper and the Catholic periodical ought to have a place of honor in every Catholic home, because they are the necessary means to promote the spiritual welfare of the people, and also to safeguard them against the worldly thought, the poison as it were^ which is contained in the atmosphere by which we are surrounded. The art of printing is, as you know, a blessing, a gift of God, just as well as the art of speech. The press is a Catholic institution ; we ought not to forget that it was a Catholic who invented it, and in fact the first printed document was a letter from Pope Nicholas, and dated the year 1455 ; and it was a Catholic who issued the first daily paper, therefore the press ought not to be used simply and. solely to promote the interests of the world, but it should also be used to promote the interest of our holy religion, and the spiritual welfare of our people. Many of our Catholic people have very strange ideas concerning their religion. They seem to think it is quite enough for them to have learnt '4 from their catechism, and that it is quite sufficient for the rest of their lives to listen to the instructions which are given to them on Sundays.. They seem to think that they are fully equipped with the knowledge -of their religion necessary in order to work out their eternal salva-

tion, but it is not so. It happens that man 3' of our people only know what is absolutely necessary of their religion in order to prepare them for the reception of the sacraments. - There is a deep ignorance of the Catholic teaching ; Catholics are very often unable to defend their religion, or to explain the Catholic doctrines, or what is^ meant by . this or that special ceremony cf the Catholic Church. There was no profession in the world in which people would content themselves with the little knowledge that many of our people had of their religion. The medical, legal, and fashion world were quoted as instances to which so much time and attention were devoted in order to secure all the information possible, but with regard to the knowledge of their religion many people were content to do with the smallest possible amount. People nowadays have to deal with new phases of religious thought, and to meet new difficulties, yet they do not prepare themselves with the proper weapons which were to be found only in Catholic literature. In fact, he might say that the Catholic newspaper was better than a Catholic book, because it visited them every week ; it was a messenger which brought ■a new message ; it put before its readers the progress of the Catholic Church not only in the Dominion of New Zealand, but in Australia, Europe, and in America, and everywhere the Catholic newspaper was not only a purveyor of news, but was a medium of thought, which would bring before them the opinions of the Catholic men in other parts of the world ; it told them the history of the Catholic Church — of that Church which converts the heathen everywhere ; which has founded universities in places where it was possible to do so, which provides Catholic schools for the poor, which sanctifies the marriage tie and denounces divorce, which teaches the duties of the employers and employed, which has never feared or bowed before the tyrant, and which has never failed in times of persecution. While such a newspaper gives everything connected with the Catholic faith, it, moreover, gives warning when there is danger ; it defends them, it acts when needed, it promotes the social interests in every department of life, and it advocates the principles of justice and morality. The Very Rev. Father asked who would define the Catholic standpoint — the Catholic position ; the Catholic newspaper alone would do it. It gave all the information necessary to form opinion with regard to religious and social questions ; it provided the argument necessary in order to uphold that opinion. Day after day misrepresentation of the Church or false teachings were introduced, and what will expose the falsity of such but the Catholic newspaper? They were very well provided for in New Zealand in that respect ; they had a paper which compared most favorably with any other newspaper in the world, and they had a man at the head of that paper who is, indeed, a man of great ability and in literary warfare is second to none. Finally ,he strongly urged upon his hearers, who were not already subscribers to the ' Tablet,' to hand in their names to the representative of the paper, who was in their midst at the time.