The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-09 00:00:00

LENTEN PASTORALS.

Two " pastorals " are published to the Roman Catto-
lics of Ireland—the one from Cardinal Cullen, the other
from Archbishop Mac Hale. Cardinal Cullen exhorts
that prayers be offered for the Pontiff, in view of the
meeting of the General Council next December, that
those " may be brought back to the true fold who are
straying in the path of error." His Eminence adds that
" Catholics, if Freemasons, Ribbonmen, or Fenians, can-
not be admitted to the sacraments. It is well frequently
to publish the censures of the Church against secret
societies, and the constitutions of the Popes against Free-
masons." Archbishop Mac Hale (Tuam) expresses a belief
that " with the just and equitable disposal of the question
of the Protestant Establishment in Ireland are intimately
connected the interests of religion, the peace of the coun-
try, and the prosperity of the people." He, as well as
Cardinal Cullen, looks to the coming General Council as
a means of restoring the "happy age" of "one sheepfold
and one pastor." " Ireland, in an evil hour," Dr.
Mac Hale says, " was forced to consent to the ruinous
compact of the Legislative Union." There is a danger,
he thinks, that the Catholic people may nut be sufficiently
" watchful of the snares that nay he concealed under
specious professions of an equitable apportionment
of the surplus " of the Church revenues. "This
is a pitfall cn which the wisest may have cause
to tremble, lest the auspicious dawn of the nation's
hope should prove more disastrous to its religious freedom
than the darkest hour of its past religious persecutions."
In illustration of this danger, Dr. Mac Hale refers to tilt
fall of the iiilldare-place Education Society, which was
succeeded by the mixed system of the National Board.
"The seed of mixed education, being sown whist the
husbandman were asleep, grew and fructified into the
godless Queen's Colleges and their congenial model
schools." Dr. Mac Hale speaks of the result as a
" motley harvest ;" the schools, " bad from the begin-
ning, are daily getting worse ; inspectors, landlords, and
ecclesiastics almost all eagerly competing for the
establishment of schools, and utterly regardless as to the
character of the teachers, the religious discipline of the
scholars, and the quality of the instruction dispensed."
Archbishop Mac Hale further complains of parents and
pastors who permit children to attend interdicted training
schools under contumacious teachers, in defiance of the
solemn prohibition of the episcopacy. "In utter disregard
of the ordinary, some landlords have been vesting
schools in the board of the miscalled National Educa-
tion." Dr. Mac Hale presumes that a Government formed
on the principle of equality of the Churches cannot with
any consistency deny the same principle of equality in
respect to education. "It will be the duty of the bishops,"
he adds, " to enter again ere long on this ample and most
important subject." The archbishop finally rejoices that
the Celtic language is not " dying out." During his last
visitation he confirmed 4,500 persons, and there were " not
twenty of these who did not account in their native
tongue for the principles of faith and duties of morality;
including the commandments and sacraments.'