C ITRRENT LITE RAT URE.
PRIESTS AND PEOPLE IN IRELAND.
Priests and People in Ireland. By Michael J. F. McCarthy, B.A., T.C.D. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 7s. 6d.)—The author of thi.; extraordinary itinerary is an Irish barrister and a Roman Catholic, and he claims the right to speak on the subject of Roman Catholicism in Ireland. In order that the public should see with his eyes the things that he believes to be the MUM of the backwardness—the undoubted backwardness—of Roman Catholic Ireland, he takes the reader on a journey through the towns and country districts of the island, and affirms by figures and alleged facts that the Roman Church is - steadily bleeding Irelluid to death. We do not wish to believe this, and we are con- vinced that the Irish Roman Catholic priesthood contains man of learning, high character, and devoted lives, though what numerical proportion such men bear to the total number is, of course, not within our knowledge. But here is Mr. McCarthy's book, and it certainly states a case against the Roman Church in Ireland of a most appalling character. Inasmuch as this book will be, and deserves to be, widely read, it certainly seems to us incumbe;2t upon those responsible for the administration of RAM= Catholicism in Ireland to answer it in book form with full statistics. Mr. McCarthy alleges that the wretchedness of Ireland is due to "sacerdotal interference and domination. in Catholic Ireland, beginning in the infant school and ending with the legacy for masses after death." The poverty of Roman Catholic Ireland is due to a system of education which makes the layman "prepared to expend millions of money in building churches and convents, and endowing priests and nuns, and thus leaving themselves without a ten-pound note to start a new industry." Mr. McCarthy declares that "the Catholics in other lands who are progressive have not had their progress encouraged or blessed by the Holy Father. They are in a condition of revolt against his authority, and they resent his interference in anything that concerns their secular affairs. The Papacy no longer possesses power Catholic Ireland alone, garrisoned with new churches, convents, monasteries, reformatories, and industrial schools—the home of sacerdotalism—still looks up to the Pope as if he were the possessor of power." Mr. McCarthy alleges that the "industrial schools" kept by Sisters of Mercy are in reality shams, and that the Sisters scour the country for vagrant children, in order to keep such children subsidised by the Government at £23 or £24 per child per annum, "as a means of increasing their slender resources at the cost of the ratepayers." He tells us that there are twenty-three thousand "religious" in Ireland,—namely, one in every two hundred of the population. He points to towns like Newry, situated with every advantage for commerce, which is steadily decreasing in prosperity and popula- tion while it steadily increases its fame as the home of costly ecclesiastical buildings. On the other hand, the neighbouring Protestant town of Portadovrn is leaping forward. A great part of the book is occupied with the description of vivid contrasts of this kind. The author speaks of the mental capacity of the in- numerable nuns as very low. "Such ladies are the last persons in the community who should receive Government money for giving technical instruction." He compares the physical condition of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. "The interior of our Roman Catholic Cathedral [Armagh], on the day I visited it, more resembled the interior of a stable or outhouse than a place of worship. It was dirty and neglected." Mr. McCarthy tells us that he has striven to avoid personalities, but we think it is rather going beyond the limits of peaceful controversy to state "that the greatest school for snobbishness and class-distinction in the world is our Roman Catholic Church Our 'Church' often boasts that it is the Church of the poor, but it only deserves that title in the sense that it keeps the bulk of its members in poverty" ; or to declare that "the nuns of Ireland act as jackals to . the priests." We intuit give an instance of the figures that ought, if possible, to be answered. It is alleged that in Belfast the Roman Catholic " industrial " schools receive £5,540 10s. per annum of public money, while for the same purpose "the entire Protestant community of Belfast city and the whole of the province of Ulster combined" only receive £9,991 lls; 5d. The enormous sums left to the Church by will or given inter vivos, it is alleged, are the cause of Roman Catholic poverty in Ireland. It is done by all classes, and the funds that would make Ireland prosperous are sent to Italy. Is there any truth in this charge ? And we may ask in conclusion if there is any truth in the further charges that convent industrial schools are pious frauds, and that the Roman Catholic poor "are exploited in orphanages, industrial schools, workhouses, and hospitals, for the profit of the priest." If a tithe of the charges made by Mr. McCarthy are true, Ireland's good day will not come until the Roman Catholics themselves destroy the appalling conventual system of education that seems to be eating out the heart of womanhood in Ireland.
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