The claims of the Irish h...
The Times, 1824-11-26T00:00:00

The claims of the Irish have led to a discussion of their religion, at which we are not sorry; for while England continues in its present enlightened state, there can be no question what will be the effiect on the pablic mind, of a free debate respecting the Deculiar tenets of Popery. The Catholics, also, we hear, have found a partisan in old COB- BETT. Neither are we sorry for that: he will be of great service to them, no doubt! The advocate is worthy of the cause. He can also help his clients to a relic or two, if they need such things ; for he has got ToM PAINE's bones, as he says, somewhere or other iii hiF keeping. The time may come, when THOMAS PAINE shall be canonized for his ser- vices by the Romish Church. However, we would gravely and seriously draw - distnction between the errors of Popery, and the claims of those who profess it to political privileges. One question does not decide the other in reason, though, in point of fact, a full exposition of the practices of the Catholic Church will operate fatally against the ad- mission of its members to a participation of equal rights witlh their fellow-subjects. The course that the Catholics should pursue, should be to keep their foreign faith out of sight, and to urge their claims as men. The Catholic faith is-we had almost said, unhappily- restored in France; and our readers may take one, among many other instances, as a proof of the consequenec. In the Chlurchl of St. Genevieve, the Patron she-Saint ef thle metro- polis, is some rubbish or other, placed in an old coffin, which is declared by autlhority to Ee the body of the she-Saint; and huTnani creatures (we blsls that we belong to the same race) are seen kneeling, before the shrine.every houtr of the day. The same chureli is surrounded by pictures *lescrip- tiveof'the miracles of St GsNEvtFva.: in one, ifwe recol- lect rightly, angels are conducting ler tlrouglh a weed: li another, she is staying the pla gue of Paris; an(d priests are employed-Jesuits, and Missionaries, andL others-to bru- talize the wvhole people down into a state at which they shall be capable of believing these absurdities. Is niot no religion, or simple Deisin, better than such a religios at this? Again: there are two heads of JOHN THE BAPTIST at this time, before which Catholics kneel-(we know those who lhave seeni them)---oie in Italy, and the otlher in Bel. gium; and at Nogent-le-Roirou, in France, are the brains of Jo1{N THK BAPTIST, in the very chapel in whieh Popishl priests having offered intdignities to the remains of the ilI lustribus SULLY, as an Hugisnot. Apd here we must observe, that it is not su'flicient for 'the, OLtholics' to say 'that the errors which. we have .btcr dcs'cribing. is inot their faitl, or are not essentials otf it. They exist wherever Popery exists: and the Catholics are not like other sects-they have an infallible head of their Church, uhom all are bbund to obay. Why does he not rOot out such, absurdities-why does he not prohibit them? What-would St. PsTZn, whose representative he claims to be, have done in such case ? Bat wvhy do we talk of the PoPEs, or of the distant parts of their spiritual domninions, when there is scarcely a stone statue in Rome itself, particularly those of the Virgin MARY, " the Qaeen of Heaven," that has not spoken: the POPE himself, for the time being, by a written document openly exhibited, asserting the trutlh of the miracle, -and 1 grantiig " plenary indulgence" in consequence, to those wlho adore beJbre the brute image. We ourselves sawr the liquefaction of St. JANUARY'S blood at Naples; and our readers may rely on it, that the fellow who is nolw going about the streets of London exhibiting Punch and his wire, performs a more respectable twick. Yet a Cardinal presided-Ecclesiastics of every degree assisted. It was in the time of MURAT; and there being a dispositioni in the Church to thwart the Usurper, he sent word that if the niracle were not performed within half an hour, he would shoot two priests whom he named: JANUARY melt. ed within the prescribed timeB WVhIy, we again ask, if these frauds do not belong to Popery-if they do not make a part of it-are they allowved to be performed in the bosom of an Infallible Church, with an omnipOtent Head? But the onmini potent Head, and infallible Church, are parties to, and sanc- tion the frauds. The Catholics, therefore, would do well not to speak of their religion and their Church, while they are contending for their rights as men.