The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-11-13
THE FRIEND" TO THE BISHOP
OF OLHA.

speaking of him as Catholic. /
may easily have BET 4 mistaken as to
the fact. am now informed, APP
parently on good authority, that his
acknowledged Catholic sympathies |
were partly due to Catholic parent
age on one side. have always re-
garded him as an honorable gentles
man as well as learned and able
historian. DR.. Hyde is entitled to
the correction, that the allusion to
Mr.. Fernandez did not appear in his
communication, but in that of
another person.
Permit brief notice of the strict
ures of the Bishop of Olba upon tho
"Friend.. would ask the Bishops
attention to the express qualification
of the term "interlopers" by the
words "as far as the schools are
concerned" meaning the "public
school SYSTEM" as stated in the pre-
cediug sentence. The contention of
the Friend" whether just or not,
is that the Roman Catholic Church
is hostile to the public school system,
and that in consequence, the action
of her clergy, and the part they
take as to those schools is not well
intentioned and beneficent, but in
terfering and injurious. To have
characterized that clergy in their
general activity as ''interlopers"
would certainly have been piece of
insolence. l am sorry that the
Bishop should have charged the
"Friend'' with it.
Upon the face of it, it must seem
rather improbable, that if the
''Friend' believed "that the Board
of Education built the the new
school on School street in order to
prevent the Portuguese children
from going to st. Louis College," it
would have published such fact,
or even "insinuated" it, when such
publication would make against our
side. The "Friend" would assure
the excellent Bishop, that it never
conceived such a thing, and never
heard of it before. We are not in
the confidence of the Board of Edu-
cation, but had heard from general
report, that it was to be q free
school, presumably to meet the
special needs of Portuguese and
other children, whose parents were
unwilling or unable to pay. From
their, point of view, it may be the
duty of the Bishop and his clergy,
to Illustrate those benevolent inten-
tions. In doing so, it is to be hoped
that they will not be led to impute
any sectarian motive to the Board,
unless they have good evidence of it.
AS to the terms applied by the
''Friend" to Roman Catholic doc
trine, which the good Bishop thinks
''bitter" and "abusive," your col
umns are probably not the place for
a defense thereof involving so much
theological discussion as would be
necessary. The "Friend" is sup
posed to stand, however unworthily,
as a representative of the various
denominations of Evangelical"
Protestants living here in harmony
and fellowship. II exercises the
right of characterizing in what it
considers fitting and measured terms,
as occasion requires, any pernicious
teachings or injurious attitude of
other parties who are making
war upon our position and our
work, as it recently did in the case
of the Seventh-day Adventists. 1t
makes no apology for the use of such
language, however painful to the
other party. We regard the Roman
Catholic faith as a very corrupt
form of Christianity, and said so
plainly. The Bishop returns the
compliment by calling ours 'new
religion" implying that it is not
the old religion of Christ, not real
Christianity at all. We do not feel
seriously disturbed by that opinion
of his, nor by the variety and sever
ity of the epithets habitually applied
to Protestants by Catholic writer's,
although we heartily wish that so
excellent man as the Bishop had
less perverted ideas upon religion,
as we see it. We do not at all re-
sent his language as "uncharitable"
or "discourteous." If the tremend-
GUS authority with whice his church
endows him here in Hawaii is from
a divine source, he has the right to
be far more severe than he is in his
language. If on the other hand,
that authority is based upon error,
it is fearful usurpation, and justi-
fies Protestants in much severity of
language IN repelling it. In so
serious a conflict to talk of "dis5
courtesy" when blows are given
and received, seems hardly in place.
AS to CHARITY" we try to dis
crimnate between the piety and
virtues of the man, and the errors
of the system to which he is at
tached. We have at least enough
of charity to feel very hopeful that
the devout and benevolent Bishop
and his priests will be full partakers
of salvation, Notwithstanding their
errors of doctrine, however serious.
Would that we could think that our
charity was reciprocated.
AS to practical Christianity
mo ..a.nsna -, av,, oo,.,oo1 I'll