Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-05
Monday Morning, Sep. 5, 1881.
THE JEsUITs IN ITALY.

great deal is written nowadays by for. eign correspondents of American newspapers about the influence exercised in Italy by the Jesuits, and they agree in heartily and vigor- ously denouncing it. correspondent of the Boston Ad0ertiser is especially emphatic. He says: ''We are sufficiently familiar at home with political intriguing and wire-pulling j; but we may congratulate ourselves that we thus far know nothing of what band of de- humanized hypocrites without a conscience is capable of perpetrating. There is only one advantage likely to accrue to Italy from the | sleepless malignity of her religious foes, and that is, that in the process of suppressing them she will be compelled entirely to cast eff the bonds of Catholicism. Whatever Catholicism may be elsewhere, however pure and unselfsh its adherents may seem in coun- l tries where they are in a small minority. 1 there can be no doubt that it is at present, | and in it's present shape the greatest obstacle in the way of Italy's well-being. It is this | fact, and the character of the more forward l champions of Catholicity, that justify what at distance, often seems high-handed pro- cedure on the part of the Italian government
 
 | its consecrated teachers are mixed up.'' In his opinion Italy would be perfectly justified as measure of mere self-defence in forbid ding, not only the Jesuits, but the members | of several other other we1l-known orders to set foot upon her soil. Eff it be re- | piled: But the Jesuits and their brethren are themselves Italians, this will only show how little ths interlocutor knows about them. The Jesuits and their brethren are not Italians in any true sense of the term. They are not loyal citizens or subjects of any country. They are simply Vaticanese, and if regarded as subjects of the Pope, very disloyal even to him. Their obtrusive pro- fession of a long-revered religion ought to prevent no country from treating them as what they are-an, international association of interruptions intriguers for political power and the destruction of liberty"
 The correspondent is not only willing to the Jesuits and the other obnoxious relig- ious orders, but he conce des that the large majority of them are well intentioned, or it may be- saintly men. But that is only one side of the story. The good Jesuits have no part in the plans of the order; indeed, they are for the most part ignorant that the order has any political plans, and are often surprised at the dis credit in which it stands They are simply used by the intriguers of the order as pious blinds to deceive the unwary world. Their very piety and simplicity are made means of deception and oppression. ''Of all the peo- pie whom the Company of Jesus deceives none are so completely and cruelty duped as the pious members of the order itself. Poor blind, simple souls. They are held in spir- itual tyranny a thousand times more inhuman than any slavery either ancient or modern.''
 When the Jesuits and other religious orders were turned out of France many impartial newspapers, both in England and Ameica, deprecated their expulsion as an act of relig- ious persecution. On the other hand, it was asserted by those who were in position to know that they were bands of interruptions and disloyal subjects whose aim was to secure to themselves the balance of power. The same thing is now said of them in Italy.