Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 6, 11 February 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

France and the Vatican M. Harriot, the French Premier, must have lost his head entirely when, during the debate in the Chamber of Deputies on the proposal to withdraw the French Embassy from the Vatican, he supported the proposal on the ground that during the war the then reigning Pontiff had failed to “demand justice above the clamor of battle,” and <,f having “displayed a curious type of neutrality, even in the face of atrocities.” In a word, he condemned the Vatican because it did not permit itself to become a tool of the Allied Governments by condemning Germany on the strength of the cock and bull stories that rose from, the fertile imagination of enterprising journalists and posturing politicians. The Pope, however, had a great deal more wisdom than M. Herriot, to say which is not to nay him a very high compliment. The policy of the Pope during'the war needs no defence. It has been sufficiently vindicated by those who knew the farts, and all the venom that At. Herriot can pour upon the Pope will not have the slightest effect, save to convince sonsuffe people that the French Premier becomes more childish as he grows older. The proposal was carried, the Chamber approving by 314 votes to 250. Out of it, however, a paradoxical situation arises. The Franco-Vatiean Concordat of 1301, which was renounced by France in 1.905, still exists between Alsace-Lorraine and the Holy See. The French Chamber decided to withdraw the Ambassador from the Vatican, hut it made provision in the Estimates for the continuation of the Alsace-Lorraine Mission. We fancy that AT Herriot was not sorry to find so easily a middle course. In any ease, it was France, not the Holy See, that proposed to re-open the Vatican Embassy, and the withdrawal will not affect the Vatican. France herself will be the loser, hut that will not disturb AT. Herriot ■so long as tin* Lodges are pleased. Modesty in Dress The Church speaks in no uncertain voice with regard to modesty in dross. Secular papers say that few actions of the Papacy in recent years have attracted such general attention in all parts of the world as the definite stand taken by Pope Pius XI on this matter. In Italy, it is reported, the members of the National Union of Italian Catholic Girls have commenced an active campaign against immodest fashions. Their programme comprises two parts: first, to demonstrate the folly, stupidity, and barbarism of immodest fashions; and second, to suggest the most efficacious means of obtaining practical results. “Attractive and modest.” wo are told, is the rule which the clubs are asked to follow. The Archbishop of Clermont, in France, is said to have issued orders that all persons appearing in insufficient costume shall be invited to leave the church, and priests are directed to icfuse Holy Communion to those presenting themselves unbecomingly. garbed. In the United States also the crusade has been taken up. The President of the Catholic Big Sisters of

Brooklyn told mi interviewer that clothes may he very alluring .without being vicious. ‘‘Don’t try to dress the way they do in revues/’ she advises. “It can’t be done in one case out of a thousand.” The pastor of a French church brings a little satire to his assistance in order to bring his parishioners to a. sense of , their duty in this regard. He published the following notice in his parish .bulletin: —“M. le Cure knows as well a~- anyone the difficulties of the high cost of living and the increased cost of cloth. He has the deepest sympathy for the Sorrow of the young girls who are unable to procure for their wedding more than half a dress, which leaves their chests and 'arms bare. He-has therefore purchased a very fine scarf of white wool, which will be kept in the sacristy, and which he will make a point of offering to * all young brides who are too thinly clad and who would risk catching cold in our church. This fatherly solicitude, he trusts, will be appreciated by all interested parties.” A Beautiful Death ! Some months ago we referred to the dictum of Bernard Shaw that “Protestantism in. Ireland is not a religion : it is a side in political faction, a class prejudice, a conviction that Homan Catholics are socially inferior persons, who will go to hell when they die, and leave heaven in the exclusive possession of ladies and gentlemen.” • G.B.S.’s opinion is well, illustrated by a story which is now going the rounds of the Home papers A dying Belfast hoy, having asked for his “wee sash” and his “wee drum,” turned his face to the wall and said, “To hell with the Pope,” and the good Lord took him to Himself. “Ay,” said the sorrowing mother, “it was a beautiful death.” We do not vouch for the truth of the story, but it and Bernard Shaw appear to be in complete agreement. Acrostics and Religion England and the, United States have gone crazy over crossword puzzles. It was inevitable that sooner or . later they would be called to assist Protestant pastors to overcome the living problem of the empty pews. Just as one clergyman recently took to climbing round the walls of ' his church in company with a baboon; just as others have introduced love story picture films to keep their congregations awake and to add a dash of romance to their services, so also has the Baptist pastor of Knoxville Church introduced acrostics to help fill his temple with devout worshippers. The puzzle concealed the words of the preacher’s text, and we are told that all the crossword enthusiasts attended to try their fortune at solving the riddle. The minister said ‘he believed the use of the crossword puzzle as an aid to Bible study would be of immense value to religion. To which we might add, “We don’t think.” We might go further and say that a knowledge of Bible texts does not necessarily mean an increase in spiritual

fervor. Did not the devil quote Scripture- to tempt the Son of God? And what will happen when the crossword craze goes out- of fashion? The new-found religion will evaporate with it; and worried pastors will then, he looking for song and dance artists t$ brighten the weary hour in their churched. The Catholic Church can congratulate ' herself on the fact that the empty pew problem does not trouble her; but she is based upon something more stable than crossword puzzles and tumbling monkeys; and that just makes the difference. The Sutherland Case Much interest was manifested in the recent litigation on birth-control when Dr. Sutherland figured as the champion of Catholic principles and Catholic teaching. That Dr. Sutherland succeeded before the highest judicial tribunal in England speaks volumes for the soundness of Catholic doctrine in regard to the family. The case was well treated by Father Sargent, 0.P., when speaking to a Greenwich congregation a few weeks ago. The preacher said that seldom has there been witnessed a more striking testimony of the Church’s wisdom than the solemn pronouncement made by the highest judicial, court in a non-Catholic land, where the so-called reformed religion has so lamentably led to a weakening of the principles of morality, as seen every day in our divorce courts. Nor can we fail to appreciate that this victory over the powers of moral ruin has been won only amidst the greatest difficulties and against the combined -forces of anti-Catholic influences. The present-day world is spiritually bankrupt of religious values, so that the marriage ideals which once were our surest shield in family life have now become weakened to almost virtual extinction. It is left to the Catholic Church to fight singlehanded the battle for those moral principles which are the mainstay of our civilisation. And yet Catholics are accused—as a certain contentious cleric of a northern city recently had the temerity to accuse them —of being “grandly” isolated and indifferent in matters of national concern and community welfare. But may wo not now ask why it is that our brethren outside the fold have so iso- . lated themselves from this great moral issue while Catholics have fought to uphold, at a supreme cost, the sanctity and integrity not merely of the Christian home but of everything that has counted so far in the greatness of any civilised nation? The answer we shall find, convincing and condemnatory, in the attitude of “other Churches” towards the question of birth-control as reported in the proceedings of “Copec.” There w© see and read and understand how, amidst such chaotic reasoning, the Catholic Church alone is seen to be “isolated.” But her isolation is that of her Divine Founder’s choosing. It is the result of her Divine-given prerogative of being infallible in everything concerning both faith and morals, v A Grave Indictment A The champions of the godless system of secular education will not have much reason to feel proud of their handiwork when they read that the Kings County Grand Jury, in

a presentment to County Court Judge Vause, in Brooklyn, expressed its “amazement and depression at the prevalence of crime and criminal tendencies of the youth of BrookI, lyn.” It declared that “in seeking an explanation of this menacing fact we need look no farther than the homes which have reared them.” The jurymen said parents have shirked their responsibilities by ignoring the spiritual welfare of their children. Business and pleasure pursuits of parents have deprived their' children of the right of loving companionship. Others by their own defiance of law have taught their children defiance of law. /‘Law-breaking homes do not produce law-abiding children. Law-breaking breeds law-breaking.” The jurymen went on to say that an alarming number of children in Brooklyn are growing up with no religious training whatever. A prominent jurist recently declared that in his, twenty years on *'•/. the Bench he could recall but one of the thousand criminals brought before him who had had, a Sunday-school training. If this record is to be accepted at its face value it means that the arch enemies of crime are the religious institutions of whatever creed. “What are the remedies? We are convinced that the most essential is . a revaluation of religious influence in the home. The perfect home is that which trains its sons and daughters not only in body and mind but also in the spirit. Let us see to it that our children shall have learned the golden rule rather than the rule of greed. Let us see to it that they have a square deal. Join the children in their amusement-seeking, and insist that their conception of life shall not be corrupted by vicious movies and filthy books. Gunmen, thugs, and bootleggers are g not made in a day. They are the product j ''of homes where laxity and indifferencereigns. The criminals of to-morrow are in our homes and schools and on our streets today, impressionable, eager to learn, looking for a hero to worship and a gang to join.’' Skulls Sir Bertram Windie has written an ’article in America entitled “Some Wild Writings about Skulls,” in the course of which he’ tells of some ridiculous blunders regarding “prehistoric man” of which some alleged scientists have been guilty. He had said that there was more rubbish written about , prehistoric man than about almost any other subject. Immediately a critic, modestly labelling himself “A Man of Science,” dealt ‘ severely with this opinion and in order to justify his criticism, he said that “from the other side of the world the cables jolted us with the message that a million-year-old human skull has been found in the Patagonian Andes.’ 7 The article was accompanied by a fancy picture of the being called Pithcanthropos ercctus. The discovery was sent to a jury of experts who reported that the thing was not a skull at all nor ever had been such, but merely. an oddly-shaped bit of stone. Sir Bertram also refers to the amusing case of the Talgai T y iskull. This skull, found in Australia ' some few years ago, was dug up in a billabong. It undoubtedly is the cranium of a person of small brain, and it presents other' characters generally associated vjfh a

low level of civilisation. Its ago was immediately fixed at the convent : onal million years. This estimate was no: permitted to pass unchallenged, some authorities bolding that fifty-thousand years was nearer the mark. Then came Mr. Archibald 'Heston, for many years “ Protector of the Aborigines” in Queensland, charged with the sorrowful duty of removing the, Talgai skull from the realms of romance. He said that to his own knowledge a black fellow was shot by the native police and buried in that billabong, the grave being filled in with red basaltic clay in which the supposed ancient skull was found. But even that did not embarrass the “scientists,” for even yet they speak of the Talgai skull as of great antiquity and .fossilised. Sir Bertram W indie then goes on to deal with the current fallacy that the age of man and his standard of civilisation can be accurately determined by his skull. It is quite possible that the specimen may be one of a recently-living individual, perhaps a wandering idiot, with a misshapen skull. Those who are old enough to remember the early ’seventies of the last century do not need to be reminded that Leon Gambetta was one of the most prominent politicians in France at that time. He, was contemporaneous with Bismarck the German Chancellor. It .happened by the accident of the positions occupied by these men that their skulls and brains were examined after death. Bismarck was found to have a brain which weighed somewhere in the region of four pounds, being perhaos as heavy a brain as was ever recorded. Gambetta’s brain, on the other hand, weighed only two and a half pounds, rather more than half the weight of the brain of Bismarck, and a half pound lighter than the average European brain. Yet whatever might be alleged against Gambetta, no one would accuse him of being a fool. Some twenty years ago there was a little Dutch girl, a dwarf, about two feet high, with the brain about the size of that of a child of one or two years of age. Yet she could talk fluently in four languages. All of which goes lo show that the size' of the skull does not indicate the capacity of the brain inside it, and as guide to the period in which its owner lived it must be dismissed* altogether. Crime and Its Causes It was not yesterday we formed the opinion that “popular” scientists are a class who invent unpronouncable words to give weight and dignity to palpable absurdities; and it was not yesterday the theory was advanced that the criminal is the victim of a physical defect of the mass of grey matter, comprising the basal ganglia and the nervous system. The theorists say we should not punish the law-breaker for burglary or murder any more than we punish a person for contracting cancer or breaking his leg. Mr. French Strother attempts, in a series of articles in the World’s Work, to justify this nonsense. He describes the new discoveries in criminology made by Judge Olsen and Dr. Hickson of Chicago, according to whom a particular type of emotional insanity (dementia Praecox) is the cause of practically all crimes. Mr. Strother goes on to say that we now

know" three facts about emotional insanity it'll that we did not know before: 1. Emotional jcM insanity is nearly always inherited. 2. Emotional insanity is incurable. 3. Emotional ||| insanity can now be positively diagnosed and h j accurately measured. A novel cure for this >'i|| disease is proposed. “These pathetic victims ..4.[ of their physical inheritance” should be com- j|| mitted to guarded farm colonies where they may live a civilised life in a place of sun- ; F j f shine and fresh air. And the permanent 'bj solution of the problem of crime is to pre- A vent the victims of emotional insanity from . J ever becoming parents. ' "Jfl [•*: An Able Critic Anthony M. Beuedik, D.D., writing in j America , delivers a caustic criticism of the untenable theory advanced by Mr. Strother, and incidentally he exposes a very dangerous .feature of it which is common to quite a number of the fallacious theories applied to other problems. The dangerous feature is exaggeration. It is undoubtedly true that physical or mental defects may have an influence on the acts of criminals; but it is certainly untrue to say that that influence is the total cause of crime, or that it bears even a • paramount, share. To accept this would be to say that the criminal is not personally responsible for any of his offences. The Commandments, “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not kill” would have no application at all. Again, if emotional in- . sanity is incurable, it follows that when Christ said to the woman taken in sin, “Go and sin no more,” He was just voicing a few vain words of encouragement, knowing that the traits she inherited from her ancestors made it impossible for her to avoid sin. Why was Judas blamed, for he but followed the bent which nature placed in him? And how were great sinners transformed into great saints if the malady from which they suffered was incurable? The truth, of course, is that God gives every man the grace sufficient to enable him to work out his salvation ; and the notion of free will and human responsibility is necessary to explain why, in spite of this grace, men can lose their souls. This new theory is but another revival of the attempt to explain away our responsibility for our own acts. It is said that 128 items of emotional behaviour are _ being studied by members of the staff of one of the American universities, enabling them to classify their students as “introvert, psychoasthenoid, neurasthenoid, schizoid. and hysteroid.” “In their day,” comments the Pittsburgh Gazette Times, when their son’s conduct became too obstreperous mentally the conduct was classified merely as “tantrums.” This had the additional recommendation that it was easier to pronounce as well as to spell than the new terms. In those days campuses were not so spacious as they are —mok y was scarcer and endowments fewerso the usual place selected for observation was a small shed to the rear of the dwelling house, where the winter’s wood supply was stored. The treatment was according to an old Scriptural prescription, indexed: Psalms, 89; 32 t [Douay Version Ps. 88: 33] and Proverbs 13: 24. One dose was ordinarily sufficient to give prompt relief.” A