A DISGRACEFUL OUTBURST OF BIGOTRY

New Zealand Tablet, 13 March 1919, Page 28

A DISGRACEFUL OUTBURST OF BIGOTRY

CALLOUS INDIFFERENCE TO INFLUENZA SUFFERERS. When Melbourne was threatened with all the dire consequences of an influenza outbreak, the Minister of Health received a letter from his Grace Archbishop Mannix stating that after consultation with the Chief Health Officer he had found that probably the best service that the nuns could render would be to undertake the control of the hospital at the Exhibition Building. The Rev. Mother Rectress of St. Vincent's Hospital, with the help of the Sisters of. Charity and the Sisters of Mercy, was prepared to take over the management of the hospital immediately. Later on she would have the help of the other Sisterhoods should the need arise. The Sisters would not accept any remuneration for their services, but the equipment and upkeep of the hospital would continue to be a Government obligation. The Sisters expect to get from the Government efficient control of the hospital under the supervision of the proper authorities. It was pointed out that they are able to make this generous offer because their schools are closed, and that when the schools reopen they will return to their ordinary work. The Christian Brothers also volunteered to undertake gratuitously any suitable work that may be assigned to them at the Exhibition Hospital. The Minister said that the Archbishop's offer, which of course had been very gladly accepted, would immediately relieve the pressure of nurses now employed at the Exhibition. The above arrangement occasioned a; disgraceful

outburst of bigotry from a firebrand, one H. Worrall, which has caused all fair-minded men to hang their heads m very shame. Orangeism stands unmasked in all its horrible reality, and the intended for others will recoil on its authors. The man Worrall has the impertinence to make a vitriolic attack on his Grace the Archbishop and the authorities because our noble, self-sacrificing Sisterhoods have taken charge of the patients at the Exhibition Building! To what profound depths of degradation men can descend when obsessed by the evil spirit of bigotry and intolerance! This sectarian outburst had the effect desired by the Orange bigots, the ignominious backdown of the spineless State Government on their previous arrangement being the sequel. The Tribune of February 27 says : "Whatever opinions may. have existed in certain quarters as to the necessity for an' alteration in the management of the Exhibition Hospital, the published correspondence between his Grace the Archbishop and the Health Authorities on the subject of the treatment meted out to the Catholic Sisterhoods establishes beyond any question two facts, viz.: (1) The honesty of purpose of the Archbishop in offering the services of the Catholic Sisterhoods and Brotherhoods to nurse, without fee or reward, the victims of the epidemic at present raging in our midst; and (2) the humiliating position m which the State Government has been placed by the absolute failure on the part of the Minister of Health (Mr. Bowser) to fulfil the agreement he entered into with his Grace in regard to these services. We have been assured by the daily press that the unpleasant situation was entirely due to a bungle on the part of certain officials in not taking proper measures to inform the matron and staff at the Exhibition Building of the change decided upon by the authorities. Later information on the subject, however, clearly indicates that the bungle was not made at the particular juncture stated. When and where, then, was it perpetrated? According to a statement made by the Rev. Henry Worrall, at Wesley Church ON THE SUNDAY PRECEDING THE PUBLICATION OF THE HEALTH AUTHORITIES' DECISION, the bungle was made when the offer of his Grace was accepted, for the reason that it was unthinkable that 'Catholic nuns and Brothers should be allowed to attend the bedsides of the afflicted and dying in State hospitals!' So much for the opinion of Mr. Worrall and his following. On the other hand, we think that any unbiassed citizen, after carefully perusing the correspondence on the subject, will agree with us that the bungle was perpetrated when—for the want of sufficient backbone State Cabinet allowed its judgment to be warped by the dictates of a handful of sectarian bigots. "In his final letter to Mr. Bowser —in reply to that gentleman's request whether the services of the Sisters and the Brothers will be available in the- event of a future outbreak—his Grace had this to say: 'Knowing now the Government with which I have "to deal, I withdraw every offer I have made to you. . After what has occurred the Sisters and Brothers cannot be expected to offer their services to your Government. But if later we have a virulent outbreak, and if the Government—in need of nursesdesires the assistance of the Sisters and the Brothers to fight the epidemic, I shall gladly consider on their merits • any request or proposal that the Government make to me; and the Sisters and Brothers— their desire to succor the sufferingwill forget the conduct of the Government. I must add, however, that I will consider no application which comes to me unless from the Premier and his Ministry, and with guarantees that will make a repetition of the present regrettable incident impossible.' We feel certain that the kindly and generous sentiments expressed by the Archbishop will be warmly appreciated by all fair-minded classes in the community ; and it may prove to the insignificant band of sectaries responsible for the recent outbreak on public decency that they have gone too far in their wild and swirling sectarian bigotry." ; ;