THE IRISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD AND REBELLION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—In the Spectator of June 17th you printed a letter from an Ulster- woman as to the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church to the late rebellion in Ireland. I enclose a pastoral letter from Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of Now York, which throws some light on the subject. A few weeks earlier a still stronger appeal was made by the heads of the Roman Church in this country for collections to be made for the suffering Irish, cruelly tyrannized over by the English Government. The sug- gestion that no reference should be made to the political side of the question is worthy of the German allies of the Church. Americans on this side of the continent are ready to believe anything against England.
—I am, Sir, &c., AN Fazousuwomkm San Jose, California, July 19th.
" At a great mass meeting to be held Thursday evening in the Garden theatre [San Jose] the work of raising relief funds for the needy folk of Ireland will be organized for Santa Clara county. John Cardinal Farley recently sent the following letter on the subject of Irish relief to all the churches in the Archdiocese of New York : Reverend and Dear Father : The unfortunate and tragic events which have recently occurred in Ireland have brought about with other consequences, a condition of unspeakable want and distress. The punishment which England meted out so mercilessly by execution, imprisonment or deportation to hundreds if not thousands of fathers, husbands and sons has fallen with extreme severity and dire misery on countless women and children, and many of the aged of unhappy Erin. Christian charity imposes on us all, irrespective of race, but especially on those of Irish blood, the urgent duty of extending timely and substantial relief to the innocent victims of Ireland's latest affliction. We therefore order that a collection for the Irish relief fund be taken up in all the churches of this diocese at all masses on Sunday, July 9. Please read this appeal at every mass on Sunday, July 2, and add such words as your zeal and prudence dictate. It is hardly necessary to suggest that any reference on this occasion to the Irish question from a political viewpoint would be unseemly and unwise.—Faithfully yours Archbishop of New York."
[Our correspondent would be well within the truth in informing her American friends that the " victims " of English methods in the suppression of the recent outbreak, so far from being " countless,"
were a mere handful, while those who lost their lives or their means of livelihood at the hands of the armed pro-German rebels could be numbered by hundreds.—ED. Spectator.]
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