Catholic ecclesiastics, represents Mr. Parnell as the enemy of that political party "which threatens foreign ascendancy in every department of its power"; and the address appeals for subscriptions in order to "cheer and strengthen him for those further achievements which will complete the fabric of National Unity and Independence." From these allusions to the heroes of Irish insurrections, item the fraternising of Mr. Parnell with MM. Clémenceau and Rochefort, and the French leaders of the Communist and Socialist party, and from the resolutions of the Philadelphia Convention, it is clear that the Parnellite movement has now entered on a now departure, with a programme in which land reforms and other remedial measures are regarded with comparative indifference, and .in which the declared aim is to remove the British government in Ireland, which "has no moral right to exist." That Irish Catholic prelates and priests should have openly joined, or rather created, this new movement is a circumstance which in many quarters excites not only regret but astonishment. The new agitation. strange to say, was almost wholly sacerdotal. The members of the Irish Parliamentary party which owns Mr. Parnell as head, have of course joined it. Many farmers reluctantly contributed, under the stimulus of priestly admonitions. Some live or six Mayors, a few Aldermen, Town Councillors, and Chairmen of Town Commissioners and many publicans and shopkeepers, whose interest lies in not opposing popular agitation, gave their names to the committee. The lay element, however, in this committee, was in a minority. From the list of members were absent the names of almost all the well-known Catholic capitalists, property holders, wealthy traders and manufacturers, and professional men of note. The Cardinal Arch. bishop of Dublin, the Catholic Primate, the Archbishop of Tuam, and two thirds of the Catholic bishops Withheld their names. 'Many of the priests, in defiance of "Boycotting," kept aloof.
Over the rock of Cashel hangs the rock of Peter, and Rome, through the Propaganda and through the lips of Leo XIII, has emphatically condemned the action of those ecclesiastics who appear to have encouraged a movement which, while aiming at visionary schemes of Irish independence, threatens to involve Ireland in rebellion, to paralyse the industry of the inhabitants, to bring persecution upon the Irish and Catholics in Great Britain and her Colonies, to draw the Catholic clergy away from their proper functions into scenes of strife and agitation, to demoralise the Irish people and tempt them to crime, and to destroy the legitimate influence of the priests, and injure the Catholic religion itself by degrading it into a more handmaid of revolution, communism and socialism.
This action of the present Pope in Irish politics is not different from that of his predecessor. As Leo XIII speaks now through Cardinal MacCabe, so Pius spoke through Cardinal Cullen. Dr. Cullen was Irish of the Irish. Educated at the Propaganda for the priesthood. he left that College, in 1829, to be vice-rector, and subsequently rector, of the Irish College in Rome, where he remained until 1849. He watched attentively the O'Connell agitation and the events which led to the abortive rebellion of Mr. Smith O'Brien. He was appointed by Pius IX, in 1849, to the primacy of Armagh, being at the same time made Apostolic Delegate; and shortly afterwards, on the death of Dr. Murray, was translated to Dublin. In 1866 he was created:1 Cardinal. As an Irishman his patriotism was never called in question, and he soon gained the confidence of the Irish bishops, while one Roman priest, he knew, as few others did, the mind of the Roman Curia. His official utterances may therefore be taken as representing, in a special degree, the sentiments of Rome and of the Irish episcopate. Before he left Rome he wrote a pastoral to "the clergy and unity of Armagh," in which he denounces those who [1]"invade the rights of property and by preaching up
- ↑ This and the following quotations are taken from The Pastoral Letters and other Writings of Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin. etc, etc, edited by the Right Reverend Patrick Moran, D.D., Bishop of Ossory. In three volumes—Dublin: Browne and Nolan, Nassau Street, 1882. See
