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Show CARDINAL VAUGHAN ON THE CATHOLIC PRESS. In his Lenten pastoral Cardinal Vaughan devotes considerable thought and attention to Catholic journalism, and believcing the subject of great interest in-terest to our readers in these inter-I inter-I mountain states we select the following I paragraphs for their perusal: "We take this opportunity to offer a few observations on the mission of the Catholic press. The spirit manifested manifest-ed by some Catholic papers in England during the last year has given pain to many Catholics, and has been a cause of some anxiety. "Catholic journals are perfectly free to take any line they please in mat-trs mat-trs purely political and national, in literature, lit-erature, science, art, the debatable ground of sociology, and other subjects which have not been decided by the church. Herein they are free as all are free. There can be no desire to fetter their liberty within these ample domains, do-mains, when language and temper are kept within the bounds of propriety. "But when it comes to questions directly di-rectly concerning religion, such as the policy of the church, the character and conduct of the Sovereign Pontiff, of the Roman Congregations, of the Car- ainais, in curia, or Uishops in their official capacity, of the laws and discipline dis-cipline of the church, of the clergy in the discharge of their appointed ecclesiastical ec-clesiastical duties, the case is altogether alto-gether different. This is holy ground. "The Church is governor by a Hierarchy, Hier-archy, not by a House of Commons. Her constitution is divine, and not dependent, de-pendent, like a political machine, upon popular agitation and the see-saw of public opinion. Bishops have received a divine mandate to rule and govern their flock. They are teachers and judges in matters of faith, moral conduct con-duct and ecclesiastical discipline. It is I chiefly for them to determine the policy t to me followed in defense or furtherance further-ance of Catholic claims. The appeal against them is not to the people, but to ecclesiastical tribunals and to the Sovereign Pontiff. "The office and the honor of a Catholic Cath-olic journalist is religiously to follow the lead of the Church in matters that concern the Church; to strengthen her action upon the world; to defend the faith and Catholic interests with skill and with courage; sentlre cum ecclesda in all things so to infbrm and convince his readers that they may intelligently j and joyfully co-operate with the Epis- i copate, and thus present to outsiders the spectacle of a church knit together not only in one faith, but in the discipline disci-pline of a common spirit. "But if a Catholic journal habitually fail in its mission, by weakening respect re-spect for authority, by cooling the allegiance alle-giance of Catholics, by sowing suspicions, suspi-cions, doubts, discords and scandals among the faithful, by opening its col- . umns to the propagation of false and mischievous theories, by fostering a i proud spirit of independence and of carping criticism in the sphere of religion, re-ligion, its circulation becomes noxious, like the spread of a plague or a pest. "And then, what is to be done? If good counsel fail, the priests and the people have the remedy in their own hand, by ceasing to support it. They can do this of their own initiative, from their own good sense and Catholic loyalty, loy-alty, without recourse to the last step in such cases, a formal denunciation by ' ecclesiastical authority. Let this much suffice. "The CathoMc press in these days has indeed a high and. noble mission, open to the well instructed Catholic lavman as well as to the nriesf. Tt rpm to j have become a necessary adjunct to the j spiritual influences which genera.te and, ( protect fervor and loyalty among the I children of the Church, and spread the light of faith and the just claim of the Church, even beyond her own pale. "You ought, therefore, almost as a religious duty, value the Catholic press, to exact of it the true Catholic ring and spirit, and to promote its circulation whenever it faihtfully fulfills its missionand mis-sionand this without being too hard upon it, if through oversight, pressure of time or acciident, there occur an occasional oc-casional slii or error of judgment. "We have thought it right to say thus much, or the press is a power for evil as well as for good; and so far as it profenses to be Catholic it fails under the direct purview of the Bishops of the Church." |