THE ARCHBISHOP AND HOME RULE

New Zealand Tablet, 17 July 1919, Page 13

THE ARCHBISHOP AND HOME RULE

J 8 A LIE’S PROGRESS, ft- O 3 His Grace, the Archbishop of Sydney has received the following letter: | “Sir, —I wish to draw your attention to enclosed marking in Irish Tunes and would like you to refute it, as such a libel appearing in such , a public paper Has given a painful shock to a large number of staunch Catholics like myself. — Yours, etc., A. J. Duff. | “Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, 4/4/’19.” The paragraph referred to is as follows. — ft “The Sydney correspondent of The Times, under date of March 23, states that the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Dr. Kelly, speaking at St. Patrick’s Sports, in the Sydney Show Grounds, demanded Home Rule for Ireland. He said: ‘I do not mind blood, I do not mind slaughter, I do not mind revolution, as long as we get what we wish to accomplish in the cause of right.’ ” .... 1 The Times message, no doubt, originated in a misleading report in the Sun of his Grace’s speech. The following correction by his Grace appeared in the San of March 24 : “Archbishop Kelly writes from St. Mary’s Cathedral: On reading your excerpts from our St. Patrick’s Sports address, in yesterday’s issue, we felt aggrieved as by an injurious misrepresentation, and especially upon two points. “To your initial paragraph in heavier type “ ‘Don’t mind blood, don’t mind slaughter, don’t mind revolution, as long as we get what we wish to accomplish in the cause of right. Archbishop Kelly.— you should' have added this, or some similar clause; “ ‘ Expressing the mind of ardent patriots who were not Catholics, which-he deprecated at length as contrary to the discipline of Christianity, citing as an example the declarations of John Mitchel in his Jail Journal.’

"In a subsequent paragraph, ' Don't Mind,' these very words, deprecated as extreme by us, are run into our. commendation of patient and hopeful endurance, which concludes, ' It is said that the Church is against patriotism, but it is not as long as patriotism does not conflict with God-made laws/ So in your Sunlight we are set in contradiction to ourselves. You seem to have confounded a proposition set. for refutation with its refutation. Why omit sentences of context without an asterisk or a hint?

"The phrase 'England must wash her hands before Ireland would shake hands with her,' had a reference which you conceal from your readers quite unfairly at least. The reference, contained in our reply to a vote of thanks, was to faults proven and reiterated during our address, viz. : "

"(a) Misgovernment of Ireland. | " (b) Commercial impoverishment, of Ireland. | "(c) Upholding alien class ascendancy in Ireland. | "(d) Subsidising universal press misrepresentation of Irish events.

.' "Finally, we beg to send you, for publication if you desire it, our notes preparatory for the address, and our resume of points made after the address.

"THE ARCHBISHOP'S NOTES.

4 j. "Paragraphs 7,8, and 9 in Archbishop Kelly's notes of his address read :

£ " 7. Non-Catholic patriots blame the Catholic clergy as hostile to Ireland's deliverance from misrule The former feel no conscientious restraint upon passionate resentment, and would dare anything in resistance to extermination. Such was Mitchel,

I "' 8. We trust by unity of action;within the law of God to achieve the triumph of Ireland's national cause, as we have "already vindicated the triumph of her faith .&l?h,'hnm ictl hs&3sh-----*&M£j3. b\

’ ‘ - ! '••■lt-.arm i ■ ‘9. England will yet renounce her greed of- commerce, her upholding &alien ascendancy, and her propaganda of misrepresentation. ; V ' . J BlA.ll* To which should be added Noth* 3- of the reply to the vote of thanks : ‘ 3.' When England will have washed her hands of the faults above-named—commercial greed, partisan l ascendancy, and press misrepresentation—we will shake hands in national amity.’ ” ... i V His Grace received the following letter from the editor of the Sun : —• | “32 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, “March 24, 1919. J “llis Grace the Archbishop, St. Mary’s Cathedral,' ■ Sydney. “Your —I have received and have published your letter referring to a report in the Sun of Sunday last. The omission of the last paragraph, of. your letter is due to the fact that one word defeated my attempts to decipher it, and without it, I could not be sure of giving the full sense of the passage. “We regret deeply the misconstruction of your speech. The reporter who was assigned to the St. Patrick’s Day .engagement on Saturday has .been released from further engagements with us. 1 I. . / “I return the notes which your Grace was kind enough to forward.—Yours faithfully, “Adam McCay, Editor.”