Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-05-12
THAT DANGEROUS DECREE"
From the Chicago Irish Citizen.

has aroused the patriotism of the
Irish race throughout the world.
Indeed the Irish cause needed some
such powerful stimulant to brace its
friends to new effort. The Catho.
lies of the Irish race know their du.
ty to the Pope as head of their
Church-They also know their duty
to Ireland, the mother who bore
them. The court of the Vatican,
pursuing mischievous policy, and
undoubtedly DESTROYS of trucking
to England, has again and yet
again interfered with the political
affairs Of Ireland, under the guise of
guarding the faith and morals of
the IRISH people. The Irish people
do not need any foreign political
guardians over their faith and NOR
ais. If the Pope were to issue de.
cree imposing additional fasts or
other penances on Irish Catholics
they would cheerfully and unani.
mously obey him. That would be
perfectly, indisputably, within his
jurisdiction. But the Pope, with all
due respect to his venerable age and
exalted position, can hardly create
new sins for Irishmen in the inter-
est of the English government.
Irish Catholics are guided by the
Commandments of God and of the
Church as they have been taught
from childhood, but they are not
bound to surrender the right of self
defense, of selfpreservation, recog-
nized by the Catholic Church, and
expounded by such learned Doctors
of the Faith as Cardinal Manning,
because the Duke of Norfolk,
through the medium of his brother,
Cardinal Howard, has access to the
private councils of the Vatican.
Ireland has no respect for the
House of Norfolk. Why should she
have? The Towards, under the
Plantagenets, often stepped their
hands in her blood, and if they re.
fused to follow Henry VIII into the
Protestant camp, it was not because
they loved England less, or hated
Ireland less, than their Protestant
fellow Ountrymen. 1t is useful
thing for England to have Catho.
lie peer or two to do her dirty work
at the papal court on occasions like
the present. Norfolk'S own country
men deserted former Popes by the
million, when they through Philip of
Spain and others, laid hands on the
nationality OF England. In that
same period Irshmen we're bleeding
by the thousand, on the battle field
or on the scaffold, to uphold the
Catholic faith in their country.
From the hour that England, under
Elizabeth, finally broke with Rome
down to the present it has been a
dream of the Roman pontiffs to bring
England once more under the con-
troll of the Church. OF late years it
has become more than a dream-it
is settled policy. That policy
would commend itself to most men,
perhaps, if, for the conversion of
England, Ireland was not victlmized.
The Citizen does not believe that
England ever will become Catholic
in the sense expected at the Vatican,
and even if she did il would make
no difference in her political rela-
tions to Ireland.
Bishop Nulty, of Meath, in his
celebrated pastoral of five years ago,
warned the Vatican that no nation
had been found loyal to Church
that opposed it's national aspirations
or its material interests. Papal in
reference in political matters has
not conduced to the spread of the
faith in Italy, France or Germany.
The Irish are, or ought to be, as in
dependent in spirit as the peoples
mentioned. Render unto Caesar the
things that are Caesars has always
been a favorite text with churchmen
who uphold English government in
Ireland. But in Ireland nothing of
right belongs to Caesar, unless
Caesar is the people. If what be-
longs to the people is rendered
back, there will be nothing left for
the English. Every foot of Irish
soil was taken from the Irish people
by foreign confscation. They have
reclaimed waists tracts of bad lands,
the mountain and the bog, and the
descendants of the original Eng
lish robbers make them pay
rents as the penalty of their indus.
try. They allowed, like the fools
they were, their wives and children
to starve, with plenty, the product
of their own toll, around them, be-
cause the landlords must have their
rents. And even when they paid
those extortionate rents the land.
lords still evIcted them. They shot
a few of the exterminators, and the
Vatican condemned them. They con-
spired together to overflow the
combined English and landlord
tyranny, which had become intoler
able, and the Vatican condemned
them. They sought to raise fund
for the benefit Of their parliamentary
leader, Mr.. Parnell, and the Vatican
condemned them. That time at
least, they defied the political
edicts of the Vatican, and they
rose accordingly in the estima-
ton of the world. Now, as a last
resort, they have combined against
felonious rents, they have revolted
against perpetual beggary and
chronic exodus, and the Vitican
again condemns them. The sacra-