The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-11-01
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I. Religious /" Robbers.
II.irerpool Ca,holIo rime.. |

The Irish Church, OF TatfTer the Church
the English plantation" in Ireland, Ina
now been disestablisied nearly four years
/, and the time has arrived when we ma.
\ prudently examine the wood, and zee if i
be good for anything, or mere rottennes
unfit for aught but fire.
At this juncture "a Laym of the Irisf
Church" comes to our aid, and in lettel
appearing in the London Times of las
Tuesday. gives US some very valuable, ii
yery strange, information towards guiding
our Judgment. That his statements will
be depied-ipdeed have been, to certain
extept-there can be DO manner OF doubt
but, as the leading journal says in en- arti-
Gle on the subject, eff it be half or quar-
ter true, then we submit that even in Irish
history. Il is dark and disagreeable chap
ser." Very dark, and very disagreeable NO
doubt, hut we must, at the outset, repu
date the transactions recorded as portions
of Irish history proper, and relegate them
to the annals Of the English in Ireland-a
very different thing. Having made that
correction. we can proceed to examine the
"Laymau's" letter, and see what he has to
Nsay about q Protestant sect which should
never have been "establisbed" as q Church
in a Country essentially Catholic. We are
told In Nc Holy Scriptures that the good
shepherd stays to guard his flock, but that
the hireiiay flies because he is u hireling,
and, accnsaiog to the Lay Ei = ," the Irish
pdIbuUS h!t HOt Oily oos
est hirelings. He saSs that when disestab-
lishment became certain, 700 Protestants,
many of them mere youths, were ordained
40 that they might participate in the COM
ing plur!'-' and that having in due course
30 participated, they pock eted their money.
went off to England to fill the thinned
ranks Of parsoDdom there, and have in con
sequence left the Irish Church almost des.>
titute of clergymen. The process, he tells
rs, is Familiarity known in Ireland as "com-
muting, compounding, and cutting"-that
10 to say, their incomes were guaranteed at
q certain rate, then they were allowed to-
capitalize such incomes into lump sum
of money-generally in four figures, as the
1smes has it-and having put that In their
pockets they sscut" of across the Channel,
and took up other curacies, incumbencies,
and places of profit in the Church of Eng
land, leaving the Establishment they had
gambled with, the congregations (such as
they are) they had undertaken to teach
and minister to, and the country they had
plundered, to take care of themselves. We
do not hesitate to say that q more utterly
Abominable proceeding has never before
disgraced the annals Of any religions body,
nor do We think there 10 any Church in
the whole world, save and except the Pro-
testant one, where such outrageous ewind-
ling could have taken place. My House
shall be called the House OF Prayer but
you have made it o den of thieves" said
Sur Lord when he cleared the Temple, and
never, since He uttered those WORDS have
they received such q complete fulhliment
al in the case under consideration. Nor
do we write 30 strongly solely because We
are Catholics, and these reoreant "pastors"
are Professionals. The article In the 1ynses
10 full Of withering sarcasm on the whole
disgusting bueiness, and We are glad to
notice chat even the most strenuous sup
pcrters Of Professionalism in this country
denounce the deed in the most unmeasure1
terms. The Times says, that call OF most
of this company of new preachers, whether
700 or $50, so suddenly and CONVENIENTLY
Q,sakened to Divine call, have COMMITTED,
and cut as> expeditiously
as they were ordained and licensed, and
are already seeking fresh homes and pas
sures new in this con ntry," and it does not
hesitate to describe the deed as ga huge
robbery" We cannot forbear-so that the
Gaze maS<stand forth in its full hideous-
ness-vffom quoting from our contemporary,
a1d indeed, II the exigencies of space |
would permit we would gladly reprint the |
entire article ;-"For centuries immense |
fortunes have been made, families have
been founded, castles and palaces built,
power p~ouired, and titles accumulated out
of Irish piuralities, capitular endewments,
md Episcopal revenues. 1t has been the
beat of trades, the most profitable of specula-
ions--a hundred times better than vulgar
OF laborious agriculture. It
vas the harvest without the sweat of the
brow, and the incoming with scarcely the
rcuble Of adding it up. If "A Layman'
peaks the truth, the ruling passion has
been strong in death, aud the Irish Church,
It her last gasp, has been clutching at
Eealth to be spent far away"
Now from this there Is moral to be
lrawD, and if it is bitter and most severe
N Professionalism, that form of religion has
lothing but itself to blame. We are not
now TO dilate on tho gigantic
'lunder this Protestant Establishment has
fire and sword and wholesale
'loodshed and tOrture--out of the Irish
eople volumes could be written on that
ranch of the subject, and yet not describe
he whole truth but we will ask this
nipple question Is it not fair, from the
)ul rottenness of Protestan tism in Ireland
ow display ed for the horror and disgust
mankind, to infer that Professionalism in
ugland is equally corrupt, equally de-
omposed, and equally flthys Men pro- !
,ss to wonder and stand amazed that iu !
,lligent Christians are passing Wholesale ,