HOW WALES LOST THE FAITH

New Zealand Tablet, 10 April 1913, Page 27

HOW WALES LOST THE FAITH

There is a remarkably well-written and well-in-formed article on the religious history of Wales in fee last volume of the Catholic Encyclopedia (writes J*;F. Hogan m the Advocate). Referring to the circumstances under which the Welsh people became severed from the Holy See and the unity of Catholic Christendom, the writer remarks:—' The 'loss of Wales to the Catholic Church was, humanly considered, entirely owing to the failure in the supply of a native clergy, brought about by racial jealousies between the Welsh and English seminarists in the English College at Rome at the beginning of the seventeenth century This led to a dearth of Welsh priests able to minister m the native tongue. After the persecution of 1679-

80 the few Welsh-speaking clergy who had remained in the country were either executed or exiled, and the chill mists of Calvinism settled upon Cambria's hills and vales. Thenceforward Welsh Catholics were a genus represented by a few rare speciments. Tho Mostyns of Talacre, the Joneses of Llanarth, and the Vaughans of Courtfield are almost the only ancient families of Catholic gentry left in Wales at the present day, and the only old Welsh missions still containing a proportion of native hereditary Catholics are Holywell in the north and Brecon and Monmouth in. the south.' Wales was the cradle of Catholicity in these parts. When St. Augustine came from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons, the first thing he did was to invite the co-operation of the bishops and priests of Wales fact that proves conclusively that at this very early period the Welsh Church was in full communion with the Holy Apostolic See. There is abundant evidence from contemporary records that the Welsh loathed and despised the new-fangled Protestantism that English officialdom endeavoured to introduce among them. It was entirely opposed to all the Welsh sentiments of nationality, popular traditions, and the associations of centuries. By none was it more vehemently denounced than by the Welsh bards, who assailed it with bitter invective and scathing satire. Tiie fidelity with which the Welsh for a long time clung to the Catholic faith is strikingly evidenced by the number of old prayer-books and rosaries that were cherished and preserved in mansions and farmhouses and handed down from generation to generation, and thus helped to keep the faith alive even in the absence" of priests, the Mass, and the Sacraments. One of the Welsh bards of the seventeenth century prophesied that ' the time will come again when the Mass will be sung all over this land and the Bishop will be seen elevating the Host.' The prediction has already been partially fulfilled, and some day it may be completely verified. There are at present two Catholic Bishops resident in Wales— Mostyn in the north and Dr. TTedlev in the south. In the big cities and towns like Cardiff, Newport, Carnarvon, Wrexham, etc., the Catholic Church is pretty strong and is constantly increasing in strength, but in the villages and rural districts it is wofully weak. The great difficulty is how to bring back the old faith to these numerous but small and scattered places. Progress is greatest in South Wales, which is almost entirely served by the Benedictines, who are splendid and zealous missionaries. w Mr. LloydGeorge, although a Calvinistic Methodist* himself, paid a high and graceful compliment to the Benedictines in the third-reading speech already referred to, but it would have been more acceptable if it had not been accompanied by an uncomplimentary allusion to the Jesuits. The Irishmen and the Welshmen generally sit together in the House of Commons. I ■ was once chatting with Mr. Lloyd George when a big, burly Irish Catholic colleague joined us. He smilingly exclaimed : ' I am never happier than when I am among the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists.' 'Then you had better become one of lis,' said Mr. Lloyd George, with a twinkle in his eye. ' Well, no,' rejoined my Catholic friend ; ' I like you, but I don't love you quite to that extent.'