Bishop Moriarty has gone in against the Home-Rule party in
Kerry, and given in his adhesion to the candidature of Mr. Deese in a very temperate and sagacious letter, which shows how reasonable the Catholic clergy of Ireland would be, but for the mischievous influence of Cardinal Cullen, who demands, nominally at least, in his address delivered on Tuesday in the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Marlborough Street, that the edu- cation of Irish Catholics shall be handed over bodily to the Catholic clergy in Ireland. This is almost as absurd as the Rome Rule demand itself, and much less likely to please anybody except Cardinal Cullen and those devoted to him. We doubt if it would please Bishop Moriarty. We are sure it would not please the Irish people. The principle laid down by Mr. Gladstone for the Government of Ireland,—to let the Irish people decide on purely local questions for themselves,—would solve the Education ques- tion, but probably not in Cardinal Cullen's sense,—much more Likely in Bishop Moriarty's sense, who, though he resists the fana- tical Home-Rule movement, is not at all disposed to strain the influence of the Roman clergy over the people. Indeed, he says, in his own wise and moderate way, in his address to the electors of Kerry :—" It is right, however, to premise that no question of faith or morals is involved in this election contest. You must not, therefore, wonder, or be scandalized if your clergy differ in opinion. Nor will it be a moral wrong if you differ from them." We wish our shrieking anti-Catholic politicians would remember that their policy tends directly to strengthen the hands of such prelates as Cardinal Cullen against such prelates as Bishop Moriarty.
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