One hundred years ago
ON Monday, Bishop O'Dwyer addres- sed a synod of his clergy at Limerick in a speech of singular and masculine abil- ity; indeed, as a mere piece of English, we have hardly read its equal for a long time. From it, it appears that the Irish Bishops assembled in conclave at Clon- liffe on Wednesday, May 30th, received from the Archbishop of Dublin a letter officially informing them, by the direc- tion of the Pope himself, that the condemnation of the 'Plan of Cam- paign' and 'Boycotting' as sins was absolute, and was not to be taken as limited by the applicability of the reasons which Cardinal Monaco's circu- lar assigned as some of the grounds for censuring those practices. 'These prac- tices, then, of "Boycotting" and the "Plan of Campaign", as they have actually existed in Ireland, stand conde- mned as violations of the moral law of charity and justice. This is no longer a matter of opinion. It is now the settled and certain law of the Catholic Church, — which all the faithful of the diocese are bound to take from me as their pastor, — that these practices are sinful, and that it is even more sinful, as being against faith, to deny or impugn, under any pretext, the right of the Pope to condemn them.' There is no difference of opinion among the Irish Bishops as to the meaning or binding force of this decree. I am entirely in accord with them.' Of the resistance to the decree, he says: — 'In this diocese that wicked- ness must cease. So far forth as my authority as Bishop goes, I will exercise It to put down covert as well as open attacks upon our supreme teacher and ruler.' It would be better, in my opin- ion, to run the risk by the strong and determined action of putting a few rebellious Catholics outside the fold, than to allow a fatal and ruinous princi- ple that goes to the very foundation of the Church's authority, to pass unchal- lenged and to become a precedent.'
The Spectator, 16 June 1888
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