The New Irish Constitution Part 29

Referring to that Catholic Parliament of Ireland, he says (Vol. I., p.

117):

"The members of the House of Commons were almost all new men, completely inexperienced in public business, and animated by the resentment of bitter wrongs. Many of them were sons of some of the 3,000 proprietors who, without trial and without compensation, had been deprived by the Act of Settlement of the estates of their ancestors. To all of them the confiscations of Ulster, the fraud of Strafford, the long train of calamities were recent and vivid events. Old men were still living who might have remembered them all, and there was probably scarcely a man in the Irish Parliament of 1689 who had not been deeply injured by them in his fortunes or his family. It will hardly appear surprising to candid men that a Parliament so const.i.tuted, and called together amidst the excitement of a civil war, should have displayed much violence, much disregard for vested interests. Its measures, indeed, were not all criminal. By one Act, which was far in advance of the age, it established perfect religious liberty in Ireland, &c."

From that time till our own the Catholics of Ireland have had little opportunity of showing whether they were tolerant or otherwise. During the long and dreary meantime the problem before them was not what sort of civil life they should live, but whether or how they could manage to live at all.

So late as 1759, Lord Chancellor Bowes, in giving judgment in a famous trial in Dublin, declared that "The law did not suppose a papist to exist in Ireland." I have no desire to recall the story of how toleration fared in Ireland down to recent times. It is not necessary, and it is a disagreeable recollection. He would be very bold or very credulous who would think of doubting or denying what that history has been. I take up "Thom's Almanac" of half a century ago, and I find that so late as that time the public offices were occupied almost exclusively by non-Catholics, from the Lord-Lieutenancy down to the Clerks.h.i.+p of Petty Sessions; and I think that it was so down to the office of the rural process-server. How did it come to pa.s.s that Catholics were kept outside, and that non-Catholics got within? Surely not that Catholics willingly yielded all public positions to their neighbours! The arrangement was therefore made by the other side. And what was the reason of that monopoly? Surely not that no Catholic was capable of any civil position except that of paying rates and taxes to the Crown and rent to the landlord. The exclusion was clearly the political penalty which Catholicism had to pay for its principles; the monopoly was the political premium which was awarded to those of the other side.

The Catholics of Ireland have been gradually working their way towards civil equality. But every step has been disputed. Every claim for civil equality made by those who formed the vast majority of the population and who bore the burden of civil duties was met with a charge of intolerance, and with a protest against intruding religion into the affairs of civil life. That is to say, those who had already secured for themselves political and social privileges through religious exclusiveness raised the cry of religious exclusiveness against the vast majority of the population for claiming their just share of civil rights as they bore their share of civil duties. Catholics had either to remain resigned to their condition, or to protest against their faith being made a bar between them and civil justice. In doing so they have not sought to intrude religion into purely civil affairs; they rather have sought to extrude religious intolerance which, having taken up its abode, slammed the door in their face. Thus when Catholics claimed their civil rights it was called religious exclusiveness; when their neighbours were privileged by religious exclusiveness it was called civil rights.

(II) Catholic Tolerance in Practice.

Just a century ago Wm. Parnell, an Irish Protestant who knew Irish Catholics and their history well, wrote that "The Irish Roman Catholics are the only sect that ever resumed power without exercising vengeance."

Let us see if he was a true prophet as well as a true historian. When he wrote his "Historical Apology of the Irish Catholics" they were helpless, and almost hopeless. During the past eighty years they have been gradually regaining instalments of their civil rights. Their numerical strength could, in nearly every corner of the country, use those rights which they already have as an instrument wherewith to avenge the past. Have they, in fact, used their power thus?

For the sake of saving s.p.a.ce I pa.s.s over Government and other such nominations. A better test of tolerance and intolerance is to be found in the statistics of public appointments to responsible positions which are elective. We get in that way a better key to the popular feeling.

Now, in recent centuries, and till 1842, Dublin was not allowed to have a Catholic Lord Mayor. It elected O'Connell at its first opportunity. And were the Protestant citizens ostracized henceforth? Since then it has had 23 Protestant Mayors and 38 Protestant Sheriffs. At present, its City Marshal, its City Surveyor and his a.s.sistant, Superintendent Electrical Engineer and four a.s.sistants, Drainage Engineer and two a.s.sistants, Superintendent Medical Officer of Health, Veterinary Inspector, Collector of Market Dues, and several other important offices are entrusted to non-Catholics. And the Catholics form the vast majority of the population.

In Belfast, the non-Catholics are about twice the number of the Catholics.

The Corporation has never had a Catholic Mayor. Until a few years ago, when the City wards were re-distributed by order of Parliament, there was no Catholic Member of the Corporation. There are about 440 salaried officials, of whom about 10 are Catholics; and that these hold no office of importance may be seen at once in the fact that their combined salaries do not amount to more than 800 a year; whilst the Corporation pays in salaries about 70,000 a year. The anomaly is felt; and the apology made for it is that the Catholics hold offices quite in proportion to the rates they pay. It is implied that the Catholics are poor and pay little rates.

The apology is not more creditable than the anomaly it is made to explain.

It appears to be the custom in Belfast for the landlords to pay rates for the houses rented from them; the tenants thus pay rates in their rents.

That practice nullifies the apology.

I pa.s.s now to the Counties. Co. Cork has a population of 403,000; of which 365,000 are Catholics, and 38,000 are non-Catholics. Of the salaried officials in the County, 151 are Catholics and 40 are non-Catholics.

Co. Tipperary has a population of 160,500; of which 151,000 are Catholics, and 9,500 are non-Catholics. There are 60 salaried officials, of whom 43 are Catholics and 17 are non-Catholics.

Co. Kerry has a population of 165,000; of which 160,000 are Catholics, and 5,000 are non-Catholics. There are 112 salaried officials, of whom 93 are Catholics and 19 are non-Catholics.

Co. Clare has a population of 112,000; of which 110,000 are Catholics, and 2,000 are Protestants. There are 68 salaried officials, of whom 62 are Catholics and 6 are Protestants.

So much for the South; let us pa.s.s to the North.

Co. Antrim has a population of 196,000; of which 40,000 are Catholics and 156,000 are non-Catholics. There are 65 salaried officials, of whom 5 are Catholics, and 60 are non-Catholics.

Co. Armagh has a population of 124,000; of which 56,000 are Catholics, and 68,000 are non-Catholics. There are 50 salaried officials, of whom 3 are Catholics and 47 are non-Catholics.

Co. Tyrone has a population of 150,000; of which 82,000 are Catholics, and 68,000 are non-Catholics. There are 52 salaried officials, of whom 5 are Catholics, and 47 are non-Catholics.

Co. Fermanagh has a population of 65,000; of which 36,000 are Catholics and 29,000 are non-Catholics. There are 75 salaried officials, of whom 17 are Catholics and 58 are non-Catholics. It will be observed also that in those counties supposed to be Protestant, the Catholic population of Tyrone, Armagh, and Fermanagh is 174,000, whilst the Protestant population is only 165,000. In Co. Antrim only, the Protestants are in a vast majority. And in Ballymoney, Antrim, Portrush, and some other towns of that county, there is not 1 Catholic in any elective body. On the other hand, I find that in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, where the Protestants are to the Catholics in the proportion of 1:9 of the population, they are in the proportion of 1:4 in the Borough Council. In Kinsale, Co. Cork, where the Protestants bear an extremely small proportion to the Catholics, they are as 1:4 in the Borough Council.

Nine years ago, through much trouble and correspondence, I made an inquiry into the provision made in Irish workhouses for the religious interests of their Protestant paupers. I made an a.n.a.lysis of the results, some of which I quote here from the 18th Chapter of "Catholicity and Progress in Ireland" (pp. 346-350).

"In 1882 there were 163 workhouses in Ireland; but some have disappeared, or have been amalgamated since then. At present there are 48 of these in which there is _usually no Protestant_ inmate.

The Protestant Minister-

In 7 of these receives no salary.

In 1, a salary of 4 a year for attending to n.o.body.

In 5, 5, ditto In 2, 6 In 17, 10 In 2, 12 In 4, 15 In 5, 20 In 4, 25 In 1, 30

There are 25 workhouses with only _one_ Protestant pauper in each, and the Protestant chaplains receive in each 21 a year on an average. There are 12 workhouses with only _two_ Protestant paupers in each on an average: there is a Protestant chaplain for each; they receive on an average 21 a year. There are 12 workhouses with only _three_ Protestant paupers in each on an average. Each has a Protestant chaplain: they receive on an average 30 a year. There are 5 workhouses with only _four_ Protestant paupers in each on an average: their Protestant chaplains receive an average salary of 20 a year. There are 5 workhouses with only _five_ Protestant paupers in each on an average: their Protestant chaplains receive an average salary of 33 a year. There are 7 workhouses with only _six_ Protestant paupers in each on an average: their Protestant chaplains receive salaries of 25 a year on an average. There is 1 workhouse with _seven_ Protestant paupers on an average: the Protestant chaplain receives 30 a year. There are 2 workhouses with _eight_ Protestant paupers in each on an average: in 1 of these the Protestant chaplain gets 25 a year, in the other 30. In all those workhouses I have named there are 194 Protestant paupers on an average; and the Protestant chaplains receive a combined salary of 2,000 a year for attending them. Now nearly all the Guardians of those workhouses are Catholics; those who pay the poor rates are nearly all Catholics.

I do not write these facts in complaint: rather with pride. I give them as evidence of the sort of religious "intolerance" which is practised by Irish Catholics on those few Protestant paupers; who indeed are so few that their having to be in a workhouse at all is not creditable to the wealthy Protestants of Ireland. The money spent in the vain attempt to proselytize a certain degraded remnant of the Catholic poor, if spent on those few Protestant paupers, would make workhouse life unnecessary for them.

(III) The Papal Decrees.

A great noise has been made about the _Ne temere_ Decree, and the recent _Motu proprio_. They have been used to ill.u.s.trate a phase of Catholic "intolerance" which is supposed to const.i.tute a constant danger to society. I hope to make plain that those who have raised the cry have been shouting into s.p.a.ce, and that, moreover, they have been throwing stones out of gla.s.s houses. Those laws have been made for Catholics only; Catholics only are bound by them; therefore only they have a right to protest if there be any cause of complaint. Or are we to understand that Catholics are not free to have their own religious rules and usages without the approval of outsiders? It will be answered: Certainly, but this _Ne temere_ Decree might affect Protestants also. How? Well, it ordains that unless Catholics get married before an authorised priest the marriage is null; they are not married. Hence, if a Catholic and a Protestant attempt to get married before a parson or a registrar, as the law of the land allows, there is no marriage in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and the Catholic party is bound in conscience to disown it. That is what has been said; but it is not correct. What the Catholic party would be bound in conscience to do in such a case is to set things right by making it a valid marriage. But what if the parties will not comply with the _Ne temere_ law? Then they go their own way, and the Catholic Church has no more to say to them. But if the Catholic party, getting conscience-stricken, should determine to disown it as a marriage, will not the Protestant party be the sole sufferer? Not at all; because the Protestant party can appeal to the law of the land for conjugal rights, since in the eyes of the law the marriage is valid; and an attempt by the Catholic party to contract marriage with anyone else would be punished as bigamy. On the other hand, if the Protestant party should for any reason determine to disown it as a marriage, the Catholic party cannot in conscience appeal to the law of the land for conjugal rights; because according to the Catholic conscience there are no conjugal rights, since there is no marriage. It should be observed that, also in the case of two Catholics, there is no marriage if they attempt to get married before any other priest than the authorized priest. The _Ne temere_ Decree was meant for Catholics only. It was not at all meant for Protestants, and it can only affect a Protestant through a Catholic. Now, the Catholic Church does not wish a Protestant to marry a Catholic. Quite otherwise. In fact, Catholics are forbidden to marry Protestants without a special permission, which is not given without good cause a.s.signed. But if any Protestants should desire to marry Catholics, they know the conditions they have to fulfil. If they object to those conditions they are quite free to seek some other partner less tied by religious conditions than a Catholic is.

If a Protestant say, "I like this Catholic, but I don't like these conditions," the Catholic reply is simple and straight: "If you want the Catholic you must take the conditions too; it is intolerant conceit for you to expect that the Catholic Church should shape its discipline to make it fit in with some possible affections which might some time or other possess you."

The result of all the noise made about this _Ne temere_ Decree has been just what those who have made the noise little thought of, and least of all desired; namely, it has left them without a shadow of excuse, or even the semblance of a grievance. Their cry has become their nemesis. It has so promulgated the Decree that they, no more than Catholics, can plead ignorance of it, or of the consequence of not observing it. Hence what they in future do in regard to it, they will do with their eyes open; and if they count the cost they have only themselves to blame.

But if these remarks I have made help to silence the _Ne temere_ cry, another like grievance is not far to seek. It is remarkable that, whilst there are several Catholic marriage laws the import of which is exactly the same as that of the _Ne temere_ Decree, we never hear a word said about them. Here is one: A Protestant has a sister-in-law who is a Catholic. His wife dies. His Catholic sister-in-law marries him without the necessary dispensation. That marriage is null in the eyes of the Catholic Church. But it is valid before the law of the land since the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act was pa.s.sed. That Protestant and his deceased wife's Catholic sister are precisely in the same predicament in which a Protestant and a Catholic are who attempt marriage in defiance of the _Ne temere_ Decree. There are other similar instances amongst the Catholic marriage laws. There have been for centuries. The _Ne temere_ Decree itself is but a slightly modified form of one three centuries old.

Thus, if the _Ne temere_ cry is serious, the party who raised it have been standing at the mouth of a volcano for generations, and have escaped unhurt. Why then have those other Catholic marriage laws been left in place, whilst the _Ne temere_ Decree has raised a storm? The only difference one can see is that the _Ne temere_ Decree happened to appear on the eve of some parliamentary elections, and the consciences of some scrupulous persons were suddenly awakened to the danger it brought.

_Tu quoque_ is not a logical reply; but at the tail of an argument it does not come amiss. Well, then, in England the law recognises no other marriages than those contracted before the parson or the registrar. Let a Protestant and a Catholic therefore get married before a priest, without the presence or knowledge of the parson or the registrar, it is a valid marriage in the eyes of the Catholic Church and binds the conscience of the Catholic party; but it is no marriage in the eyes of the law. So far the case is the exact converse of the _Ne temere_ Decree. But it goes farther; for it holds not only in the case of a Protestant and Catholic but also in the case of two Catholics. The law of the land will not recognise a marriage contracted by two Catholics in their own church and before their own priest, unless the registrar or the parson be present. On the contrary, the _Ne temere_ Decree does not in any sense touch the case of two Protestants. Now, Catholics think, and justly so, that a priest is quite as qualified a witness for the marriage of Catholics as the parson is for the marriage of Protestants, or as the registrar is for the marriage of either. The Catholics have in this a real grievance; and they feel it; yet their consciences have not been so wounded nor their hearts so broken as to think of exhibiting them bleeding before their country upon election hustings. Political consciences show strange phenomena.

What is decreed by the _Motu proprio_ has been in force since the Const.i.tution _Apostolicae Sedis_ was published in 1869. Yet during those forty-two years n.o.body seems to have been hurt by it; and n.o.body seems to have been concerned except Catholics till lately. The _Motu proprio_ obliges Catholics, under threat of excommunication not to bring ecclesiastics before lay tribunals without the permission of their bishop.

It binds ecclesiastics equally with lay Catholics. It does not, and cannot, touch non-Catholics in any sense; a very plain proof of which is that it threatens with excommunication those to whom it applies. That censure of excommunication should convince anyone that the _Motu proprio_ cannot possibly apply to non-Catholics. They are not within the Church; and how could those be put outside it who have not been within it? It applies to Catholics only, whether lay or cleric. But not to all Catholics. The Holy Office issued a Decree in 1870 in which it declared that "the excommunication does not affect subordinates, even though they be judges." A Catholic functionary acting in his official capacity does not come under the Decree. It will at once then be seen how unfair are the following words spoken by Mr. Campbell, who represents the Dublin University in Parliament. Speaking at a meeting in Dublin on January 4th, 1912, he said of two Irish Catholic Judges: "They might be called upon any day in the exercise of their duty to their Sovereign to put the law in force against a Catholic priest. If they did so, _ipso facto_ they incurred excommunication." He thus explained the meaning of the _Motu proprio_ for his audience, in face of the following words which he also read for his audience. The excommunication is against "those who compel, whether directly or indirectly, lay judges to summon ecclesiastical persons before lay tribunals." Thus the excommunication is against _those who compel_ the judges; so that Mr. Campbell's interpretation implies that _the judges_ are one and the same with _those who compel them_. Catholics, then, and Catholics only (clerics as well as lay) are forbidden to bring ecclesiastics before lay tribunals, without the permission of their bishop; which permission, the Holy Office decrees, "the bishop shall never refuse, in case he fails to reconcile the parties." If a Catholic (lay or ecclesiastic) thinks that an ecclesiastic, for instance, owes him a debt, and the ecclesiastic denies it and refuses to pay, the Catholic (priest or layman) who makes the claim is bound by the _Motu proprio_ to have recourse to the bishop first, in order to have the matter arranged amicably. If the bishop fails to settle it, he is not left free to give or refuse his consent to have the case brought before the Civil Court. The Holy Office decrees that "he shall never refuse." Even in those times and countries when and where Ecclesiastical Courts existed to try the civil cases of clerics, the purpose of the _Privilegium Fori_ was not to grant ecclesiastics any immunity from the civil law of their country, but to provide that in their civil cases they should be tried by an Ecclesiastical Court. The privilege was not as to the law of the land, but as to the court that was to try them according to that law.

What the _Motu proprio_ orders is just what Catholic instinct moves every Catholic worthy of the name to do. In Ireland and everywhere, Catholics, and many Protestants also, if they think they have a cause of complaint against a priest, for debt or otherwise, make known their case first to his bishop. If the bishop fails to compose the question, then they bring the case before the lay tribunals; permission to do which, as the Holy Office lays down, the bishop "shall never refuse."

I have explained the meaning and scope of this _Motu proprio_ as though it applied to Ireland. But according to the evidence of Cardinal Cullen, the highest authority on Canon Law who has lived in these countries for a century, the Caput _Cogentes_ of the _Apostolicae Sedis_ does not hold in Ireland; and that being so, the _Motu proprio_ does not apply to Ireland, for it is a confirmation of the Caput _Cogentes_.

What this awful _Motu proprio_ orders, then, is just what fraternal charity, a sense of the fitness of things, even common sense, would suggest. So befitting does the procedure ordered by the _Motu proprio_ appear to a writer in the January number of _The Review of Reviews_ that he says, "it might very well be extended to all Christian men, whether lay or clerical"; and he suggests that the civil authorities in England would do wisely to take a leaf out of the book of Pius X.

As a matter of fact, something parallel to it exists in every society.

There is not an a.s.sociation of any kind in England, Ireland, or elsewhere, which has not some rules which bind its members under pain of expulsion.

In Chapter VII. of his "Middle Ages," Hallam writes:

"The spiritual Courts in England, whose jurisdiction is so multifarious, and in general so little of a religious nature, had, till lately, no means of compelling an appearance much less of enforcing a sentence, but by excommunication."

He writes in a note: