St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-20

land that very little attention is paid by
priest or layman to such DEGREES as the
pronun ciamentO on the plan of cam
paign. On political questions Rome and
Ireland have seldom been at one. When
Henry Ii. assumed the lordship of Ire
land under the bull OF Adrian w., the
Irish prelates and people took it for
granted that the bull. was authentic.
But they disobeyed it, and they were
not accommodated. O'Connell pub
licly declared that he would not take his
politics from Rome, yet the pontiff did
not denounce him as bad Catholic.
CD. X. l."), in his evidence before a
committee of the house of lords and
in published writings, maintained that
the pope had no authority whatever i'll
matters of public government in these
countries. He remained bishop, I'M
condemned by Rome. Pho Mono was in
duced to condemn Fenianism as a secret
society, yet one archbishop and several
priests refused to consider membership
of the Fenian organization as an offense
against either faith or morals, and were
not reproved by the holy see. Theoreti-
cally it is held that secret society is
bad because it is secret. Nevertheless,
IL is held by Roman canonists that I'M
less the objects are antagonistic to faith
or the moral law, or, its objects being
Justifiable, its methods are bad, it is not
necessarily to be condemned. The
Knights of Labor in the United States
are a secret society, but Leo XIII. has
REFUSED TO CONDEMN THEM.
Yet Cardinal Gibbons, of Baltimore,
possesses full canonical power to de-
nounce the Knights of Labor at any
time he may become convinced that
their objects are against public morals
or their methods unjustifable. When
Pho Mono condemned FenianiSm Cardi-
nal Cullen ''proclaimed'' the Fenian
Dublin, Archbishop McHale quietly
ignored the cenSure in the archdiocese
OF Tuam, and it is notorious that the
members of the regular clergy-that is.
the religious orders, as distinct from
the parochial-thoughout Ireland dis
obeyed the censure by regularly grant
ing the rites of the church to aVoWed
Fenians. Irrelevant as they may seem,
it is necessary to keep those facts in
mind in judging of the authority and
the public effect of the censure of the
plan of campaign. Until applied by the
metropolitans in Ireland under specially
defined and aScertained circumstances,
it has not authority whatever over the
Irish Catholic conscience.
ON THE FACE OF IT
the censure is grounded on the suppose
ton that the plan of campaign is an in
reference with the fulfillment of voun-
tary contracts. The bishop or priest
who promulgates the censure must be
satisfied by evidence that the contract
between the landlord and tenant is
absolutely voluntary and free from any
circumstances of injustice or coercion,
before he can economically censure the
plan of campaign which interfereS with
it. If coercion is exercised in inducing
tenants to join the plan of campaign,
then, if the bishop of the diocese is sat
iSfied on the point, he may apply the
papal censure to the plan of campaign
within his diocese. Even then he can
not withhold the rites of the church
from any person who adopts the plan of
campaign. Pope Leo XIII. knows very
well that any censure he may illuminate
will not injure the national cause in
Ireland, and he does not desire to injure
the national cause. In Ireland there is
regret that his holiness should have even
appeared to aid the enemies of the Irish
people. But this is the only feeling that
has been kindled.