A Shocking Scandal

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12, 25 March 1909, Page 449

A Shocking Scandal

A few weeks ago Cardinal Moran was publicly taken to . task by the Lord Mayor of Sydney for insisting on sending the Catholic contributions to the Italian Disaster Fund direct to the Archbishop of Messina, and for declining to ' pool' them with the contributions from other sources and send them through the regular channels of officialdom and red tape. The Cardinal hinted that he had good reason for his attitude. But the Lord Mayor, in a letter _ the purport of Avhich was' cabled all over the Englishspeaking world, expressed his ' deep pain ' at the Cardinal's perverseness and bad taste, and metaphorically washed his . hands clean of St. Mary's and all its works and ways. The Lord Mayor spoke in his haste —and spoke too soon. His Eminence has not had long to wait for a complete, though painful, vindication of Ms wise caution. In fact, it may be said that his justification has been coming in at the rate of a mile a minute. English papers to hand show that —partly from the presence of too many officials; and partly from endless divisions of authority —there, have been much delay and great confusion in the distribution of reliof —-precious food in enormous quantities, and clothing, etc., lying for long periods on the wharves or in the depots, unused, while the poor, stricken-x^eople were agonising otdyiug with hunger and exposure.

* But that is not all. The London correspondent of the Dublin Freeman, speaking on high authority, declares that a portion of the relief funds are being used in a way which every fair-minded man will admit constitutes a grave and shocking scandal. Wiring from London on 'Wednesday, February 3, the .correspondent says: ' Information ha 3... reached me from a most reliable source as to certain of tho methods which are being employed in the relief of the Italian earthquake victims which should give cause for reflection to all subscribers to the relief funds, but especially to Catholics. When a similar disaster occurred on the Riviera some twenty years ago, a discreditable attempt was made on the part of certain English pseudo-philan-thropic organisations to utilise the helplessness and destitution of the children who had teen rendered orphans in order to estrange them from the Catholic faith in which they had been born and bred. Evidence has come to hand which makes it apparent that the same evil influences are at work now in Calabria and Sicily, but "on a much larger scale. Committees organised through English Protestant and Waldensian channels are busily engaged in this nefari- - ous process of soul-trafficking under the guise of charity. Fifty Catholic orphans have just been handed over to a Waldensian proselytising society to be brought up as Protestants, and those at the head of this organisation " are doing all in their power to frustrate the efforts of the Pope and the Catholic clergy on the spot. Through tho instrumentality of his Holiness, a committee of prominent Catholics was formed in Paris, which took upon itself the special duty of providing for tie physical and spiritual welfare of the children who had been made orphans by this terrible calamity. The Italian Government have placed every obstacle in the way of this committee, basing their ; opposition on an old law which was passed for" the protection of children who were taken out of the country to act as aids to Italian organ-grinders and street showmen in their mendicancy. The result is that the children are being handed over wholesale to an organisation bearing the honored name of " Regina Elena," but at the head" of which is the Jew, Signor Nathan, the Syndic of Rome who is intensely anti-Catholic. A great deal of mischief has already been done, but the further efforts of the proselytisers may perhaps be in some degree frustrated by publicity.' The correspondent adds: 'The moral to he drawn by would-be Irish subscribers to the funds for the relief of the sufferers is that they should not send a penny without assuring themselves that it will go to the Pope's fund, which is really the only one free from all interested motives.'