The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-28
THE "FATHER FRANCIS" STORY.

| What was intended as a piece of lit
erary fiction and which was contribut-
ed. as such, to the Kilohana Arr
| League, has been taken with serious
affront by Roman Catholics of this
! town. 1t is not difficult to reach their
! point of view, though people of other
| faiths look at such things about as
| the Puritanic New Englanders did upon
the terrible story of The Scarlet Letter
with one of their own ministers as the
SHINING central figure. Roman Catho-
lies are perhaps more sensitive than
Professionals in such matters OF liter
ature and surely it is not for US to
blame them, seeing how closely related
is the honor of their clergy TO the sue
cess their church has in bringing men
and women TO the confessional and into
the most intimate of the sacred rela-
tons of the faith.
We have the assurance of the au
thor Mr.. Kinney, that he intended no
disrespect to the Roman Catholic
church, and we are quite sure that he
speaks sincerely. The tale he wanted
to write was a study in degeneracy.
He wished to describe a man who stood
upon the highest plane of moral recti-
tude, and by temptation fell to the
lowest ground of human infirmity.
in the guise of Catholic priest-a man
ordinarily, on his moral side, beyond
the suspicion of reproach-was unfor- !
tunate and unjust from the Catholic |
standpoint; but the author evidently I
did so merely to accentuate the height I
from which his Father Francis
plunged. 1t was the fall from a great /
pinnacle he wanted to describe; not a
stumble from a clod.
The matter took a more serious turn
with Roman Catholics and their Bish-
op and clergy because of the fact that
an actual Father Francis once lived a
blameless and useful life IN that very
part of Hawaii where Mr.. Kinney's
character of fiction was given a local
habitation and a name This was a
uckless coincidence and no more; for
the real Father Francis, though he
'eached the pinnacle, never slipped
rom it. nor looked into the depths be-
ow. His was the life of a minister of
God, and could not have suggested
such a story as Mr.. Kinney wrote.
We are quite sure, Furthermore, that
he Kilohana Art League meant no
iisrespect. Its attitude was purely lit 5
,rary. What it saw in Mr.. Kinney's 1
ale was not an assault upon the Rock I
# Peter, but a strong delineation of ,
human character, well-wrouGht story ,
With moral. That was the difference !.
n the Leagues point of view. 1t prob
Ibly did not occur to any member that
he tale would be construed into an in !
ult to the church whose power stands }
ike a wall of brass against immortality. !
Had the leading character been a new 1
Benedict Arnold, for example, the Kilo- +
ANA critics would not have thought of ,
he chapter of his treason as an assault
lpQn the American military service.
he story would have been studied for
he strength of the plot and narrative. n
10 with the League and Father Fran @
is t
AS for the course of any paper in h
the essays, stories and po- I
ms to which a respectable body like /,
he Kilohana Art League gave the seal
f it's literary appreciation, there is but
ne thing to say: A newspaper to be
uccessful in it's field must print the
ews; and the proceedings of the =
league are always a part of the legiti-
nate news of the day.