The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-08-06
TIE RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT

!
TIE RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT
PROFESSION VS.. RACrICE.
liverpool Times
It Is we'll known that Proteetants never
| attempt to make proselytes. They think
it wrong. To do SO, they justly consider,
the sacred "right of private Judgment" 1t
Is their peculiar praise that in claiming
that valuable right for themselves, they
have always been scrupulous in conceding
it to others. Certain historians pretend,
indeed, that for q century and a half English
Protestants tortured and murdered Cath
oilcs IN every province Of the laDd-to say
nothing of their savage persecution of one
another-sDd that in Ireland they ve1ed
those who refused to change the old reli-
gion for new one by atrocities which Nero
or Tiberiss would have thought an improve
ment on their own. 1t ia even said that, at
the present day, the eminent confraternity
Of : Soupers " lay snares for the eouls of
rhe same people, and that in Dublin, New
York, and good many other cities, fervid
Protestauts maintain asylume for the kid
mapping of infant Catholics, whom they
Of Ireland and the United States, where
they grow mp IN happy ignorance of the
faith of their parents, to th4 Infinite con-
tentTuent of the Protestant MIND. But
these stories must be dismissed rs fa pulous.
They are in too fragrant contradiction with
the first principle of Professionalism, which
"a, that everybody has q right to believe
what he chooses. Such calurnnies are suf
ficiently rebuked by all that we know OF
the lofty and generous spirit of Protestant
ism. Eallsm may have said, and Mr..
Lecky aud others may repeat in our Own
day, that the Reformation, especially in
England, owed it's success to brutal I" coer-
ricn" and systematic persecution and
Mr.. Buckle and Mr.. Froude may confirm
the statement; but we must be or our
guard against such unjust and erroneous
views, The chief merit of Protestan tism
is that it always diligently examines both
sides OF question, never condemns the
CaEhoiic religion till it has pondeTed all
that can be said in its favor, dislikes preju-
dices and human traditions, and would
rather never make proselyte at all THAI
yin him by intrigue or violence.
1t ia this notorious fact, proved by an
immense array Of unexceptionabIe evil
dence, and resting on solid historical ba-
ais, which inspires US with keen sympa-
thy for Lord Nelson's wrongs, and lively
admiration of the letter to the Times in
which he judiciously narrates them. Some
meddlesome priest has presumed to receive
his sou, at his own solicitation, into the
Catholic Church. Lord Nelson objects to
the whole proceeding. He objects to it in
principle, and he objects to it in detail. 1t
ought not to have been done at all, and q
fortiori it ought not to have been done in
the way iu which 1t was done. We have
heard this before, and may expect to hear
it again. Whenever an Anglican becomes
Catholic, his friends and kinsfolk, who
are far from supposing that God can have
anything to do with 1t, invariably pro
test, by way of reducing the Incident
| was too old or too young, too clever
or too stupid, too learned or too igno-
rant, too docile or too self willed, but
| that in any case the convert was q
victim, and the priest who received him a
rogue. The jews and Pagans said worse
things of the Apostles and their disciples.
Then, as now, that word Of our Divine
| Lord was fulfilled: 90 came not to send
peace, but tue sword. For came to set a
man at u0riGnce against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and
mans enemies small be they of hie own
would tell our Redeemer, and does bluntly
tell His Holy Church, that it is extremely
| immoral, and in fact " making direct use
of deadly weapons from the intidel armory,"
he says that -" to undermine parental
authority" and of course much more
to "eeT man against his father"
He thinks he is better informed on
that subject than Almighty God and
much better than His Church. Yet
even Lord Nelson, we suppose, would
hardly maintained that a son is obliged to
go TO the devil to please his father. That
would be stretching parental authority
to inconvenient limits. By his own ad-
mission, his son, to whom God has been 30
gracious, and for whom we desire hde-
lily to the supreme grace which he has re-
ceived, was in distress of mind "three
years ago." and wished to become a
Catholic. Lord Nelson does not need to be
told that the Apostles were not more
firmly convinced Of the necessity Of con-
vcrston. for cTesaugs Asgdiang. and Mace