More Tracts.

New Zealand Tablet, 13 August 1908, Page 23

More Tracts.

In> our last issue, we dealt with a-clumsy'and" semi-illiterate forgery which was printed ml -Palmerston North and is. being disseminated throughout New Zealand" by tract-distributors,, for, the conversion, of Papists and the glory of the Lord. This week- we have received from the Hinds district (Canterbury) a copy of another tract which is being circulated, in the district. It, also comes from Palmerston North, and-bears the imprint, of 'E. Whitehead, printer, Palmerston N., <N.Z. It purports-to be the story of a young Irish Catholic girl, and is a,bad. sample of the meaner form of story-slanders that are circulated amongCatholics by persons who apparently believe that the vast majority of' those who bear the' Christian name consist of two classesknaves and fools; and that the cause of the God of truth, i* served by the ungentle art of misrepresentation and calumny.. Within the compass of four small pages of the stuff that the present tract is composed of, we find, for instance, the following direct or implied misstatements in regard to Catholic faith and practice : (i) That Catholics are ' victims of ignorance and superstition '; (2) that they arc not ' allowed to read their Bibles ' ; (3) that if they chance to come across a Bible they must keep the matter a secret from the priest; (4) that the priest ' forbids you to read the Scriptures' from sordid motives of personal profit; (5) that (according to, Catholic teaching) no Catholic goes straight to heaven ; (6) that (according to Catholic teaching) the- fate of Catholics in the next "life is entirely, determined in adyance by the priest, and that they must put up with it and ' follow the way the priest marks out ' ; (7) that (in the Catholic idea) people who ' fall into the flames ' of. Purgatory, may- ' never come out again '; (8) that (according to ' the teaching

of the priests ') Christ suffered a mathematical ' half the punishment due to sin, and that the sinner has to endure ths iest' — that is, the other fifty -per cent. It seems almost incredible that such superstitions in regard to the faith and practice of Catholics should exist, even in the hinterlands of education, at the present day. The schoolmaster is very much abroad." But he evidently has made a very poor impression upon the minds of the people who arc responsible for the manufacture and distribution of those tracts from Palmerston North.

So far as one can ascertain from a perusal of this second bit of 'pious fiction' from Palmerston North, the -system which it substitutes for the alleged ' superstitions' of Rome is a rather, curious travesty of Christianity. According to its theology, it would appear that the sinner (no distinction is expressed) has, to . endure no punishment at all (a very comforting reflection' for the unrepentant burglar and assassin) ; that the Bible errs most . grievously in. insisting so strongly on the confession of sins; that the power of forgiving sins expressly left by Christ in His Church is a mockery, a delusion, and a .snare; that religion is a matter of wheezy sentimentality ; that it normally comes to the true believer with the sudden spasm of a colic or a seizure of apoplexy; that at some psychological moment a voice 'or a special revelation ' speaks to the heart,' the patient exclaims : ' I am saved!' the business is transacted, and a permanent and indefeasible title to 'eternal bliss- is thereby signed, sealed, and delivered. This is just what is alleged to have happened to the dying Irish Catholic girl. After a good deal 'of mawkish (and, for Irish Catholics) ludicrously impossible dialogue, of cruel and unpardonable travesties of our faith and practice, and of good texts of Scripture grievously misunderstood and misapplied," the ' poor- victim of ignorarce and superstition ' abandons the errors of Popery, suffers a sudden spasm of being ' saved,' dies melodramatically, and (as .it were) to slow music. She is

at once canonised by the omniscient tract- writer ,and by him solemnly pronounced, urbi. et orbi, to 'be 'for ever with thfl Lord.' We have. often had occasion to be amazed (though not exactly edified) by the free and easy manner in which the small fry of tract-writers hob-nob- with the Almighty, sit nonchalantly puffing cigarettes at His council-table and J scoop ' the inner secrets of His eternal Kingdom. It is. really pro-di-gi-ous, as Dominie Sampson would say. , He V What is the object of distributing;, these tracts among Catholics? If this is done in the hopes of making, converts, the tract-distributors might as well save , their • money and devote it to some other work — such- as, for instance, learning the difficult

art" of minding- their own.businesSj' or trying? to 'gather in ' the stray lambs: and sheep of (heir ■ own flocks. Our intelligenf correspondent in • the. Hinds district . fairly • voices -the Catholic opinion in regard, to these semi-illiterate tracts by describing them as 'pestilent trash.' ' Is- the, object of this tract-distribution, on - the other hand, the. strengthening,. of the faith of - Protestants ?' If so, to what purpose are Catholics festered and;' insulted '"with, the offensive rubbish.? ' And in "any tease, is it not a desperate, cause for which the truth 'is not ' sufficient, and which 'must fall back upon' the- ungentle and" unchristian art of calumny? -We are glad to- believe tha.t no 'respectable, educated, and- God-fearing non-Catholic would . be associated with this"- deplorable form ofpropaganda. '.''.-- , ' ' -> x