THE CATHOLIC FEDERATION

New Zealand Tablet, 27 March 1913, Page 29

THE CATHOLIC FEDERATION

WELLINGTON. (From our own correspondent.) Good reports are still coming in from the various branches throughout New Zealand. Catholics are recognising the necessity of unity, and are joining in large numbers. Most of the enrolments have been made at the church doors, but with the formation of parish committees a systematic canvass must be arranged. A good parish committee, with energetic officers and , workers, will work wonders. Another means of success for organisation is the Catholic press. The German Catholics were taught by Ludwig Windthorst, the great Catholic Parliamentary leader, to rely greatly on an extension of their Catholic press as a means of organising their strength, and as a result to-day Germany possesses 500 Catholic journals, 255 of them being dailies. Victoria is following in the same lead, not for the multiplication of Catholic journals, but for the support of existing Catholic papers. This is one of the great works taken up by the Victorian Federation. We in New Zealand/ therefore, should support our only Catholic paper, the Tablet, and this will have to be one of the works for the New Zealand Catholic Federation in the very near future.

WANGANUI.

(From an occasional correspondent..) On Palm Sunday a branch of the Catholic Federation of New Zealand was inaugurated in Wanganui. By a happy coincidence, the day chosen was the Sunday nearest tne festival of Ireland's patron saint. At the 7.30 o'clock Mass St. Mary's Church was crowded, and fully three hundred men approached the Holy Table. During the Mass Very Rev. Dean Holley expressed his sense of deep satisfaction at the sterling response to the appeal made by the clergy to make the occasion a noteworthy one. At the conclusion of the Mass about two hundred men adjourned to St. Joseph's Hall, where a Communion breakfast was partaken of. Breakfast over,' a start was made with the formal launching of the .Wanganui branch of the Federation. Very Rev. Dean Holley presided, and opened the proceedings by the declaration that, under the auspicesof religion and pure patriotism, the Catholic men of Wanganui had met to inaugurate a branch of the Catholic Federation, and declared that all those who' had wrongs to right and rights to defend should organise to make their influence felt. He said that in this matter they were encouraged by the happy experience of federation in Germany and in the United States of America, and quite recently in Victoria remarkable instances of the benefits of federation were being quoted. It was (he said) essentially a lay movement, and purely defensive. Speaking generally, the objects of the Federation were four-fold—(1) To give united expression to Catholic opinion upon religious, social, and public questions affecting the community; (2) to promote- and extend Catholic education; (3) to spread Catholic literature; (4) to support and advance all Catholic -societies and organisations in the Church. He then said that the occasional cause of establishing Catholic Federation at the present time in New Zealand was the misguided, selfish, and - unjust attempt which was being systematically made to intro-

duce what is erroneously called the ' Bible into the State schools of the Dominion, and to do this in the face of inalienable rights.to the. contrary, viz. (a) that public money should not be used for sectarian teaching; (b) that public school teachers engaged to. .impart secular knowledge should not be forced without a conscience clause to teach religion in State schools; (c) that in matters affecting the consciences of minorities it is unjust to follow the principle of majority rule; (d) that the Bible-in-Schools proposals, if carried into effect, would be' adopting the sectarian principle of private interpretation of the ' Scriptures. He closed his address by quoting the charitable words of his Lordship the Bishop of Auckland in his recent Pastoral Letter on the subject to his people: 'Let the. Catholic Federation ever bear itself towards opponents in a reasonable and truly Christian way, and thus help to break down the unchristian rancor that is now being sedulously promoted in the Dominion.' The remarks of the Dean were greeted with prolonged applause. After this introduction, Dean Holley called upon the laymen at the gathering to inaugurate the branch, whereupon Mr. Thomas Lloyd moved that a branch of the New Zealand Catholic, Federation be formed ,in Wanganui. He remarked upon, the fact'-.that similar organisations in Germany, the United States, •Victoria, and other countries and States had -met with marked success. He dwelt- at some length on the'fact'that it was due to the organisation 1 of'German "Catholics on the lines proposed here, that there resulted the partial abrogation of the notorious Bismarckian May Laws, and the repression in a marked degree of the \ antiCatholic doings of the Kulturkampf. Mr. Edward Wilson seconded the. motion, and noted with satisfaction the now infrequent appearance of anti-Catholic articles in the press, and stated that it was his opinion that if a small organisation could achieve such results, the Catholic Federation, embracing as it does all Catholics, could achieve much greater ones. Mr. E. J. L. Whiting supported the motion for the reason that unity amongst Catholics meant strength. He said that the formation of the Federation tended towards the unification of method in the presentation of the demands of Catholics for their rights throughout the Dominion. He stated that for conscience sake Catholics were taxing, themselves to the extent of .£60,000 per annum that their children might be educated in a Christian manner, and added that it would be one of the objects of Federation to have this unjust and heavy financial burden removed from the shoulders of New Zealand Catholics. Messrs. McWilliam, Power, Keogh, O'Leary, and Gaffaney also supported the motion, which on being put to the meeting was carried unanimously. The following parish committee was then appointed : —Chairman, Very Rev. Dean Holley y vicepresidents, Messrs. E. Wilson and T. Lloyd; secretary, Mr. J. D. E. Miles; assistant secretary, Mr. C. Ward; treasurer, Mr. T. Meachen ; committee, Messrs. Power, O'Meara, Richardson, Dowling; H.A.C.B. Society, Messrs. McWilliam and Setter: St. .Vincent de Paul Society (St. Mary's branch), Messrs. Carmody and Whiting St. Vincent de Paul Society (St. •Joseph's branch), Messrs. C. O'Leary and Meaehen; St. Vincent de Paul Society (St. Aloysius' branch), Messrs. Roche and Crotty ; Children of Mary, Misses Kennedy and Donnelly. . At the conclusion of the gathering, a hearty vote of thanks to the ladies of the parish, who had kindly assisted at the preparing of the breakfast, was carried with acclamation.

GREYMOUTH.

(From our own correspondent.) A meeting in connection with the formation of a branch of the Catholic Federation was held on Sunday evening last, a fair number of parishioners being /present. Very Rev. Dean Carew occupied the chair, and explained the objects of the Federation and the need of such an organisation. He said the time was ripe

for the formation of a strong branch in Greymouth, and he felt sure that such would be the case. . ~ Mr. T. Keenan, president of \ the H.A.C.B. Society, in-moving -that a branch of the Federation be formed in Greymouth, dwelt at length on the need of a Catholic Federation. . He felt sure the Catholics of Greymouth would hot be behind in a matter, which of late has been so fully and splendidly explained in the columns of the N.Z. Tablet. . The motion was seconded by Mr. P. Smyth and agreed to. Mr. T. Keenan was elected president and Mr. McGilligan secretary of the branch.