Taking leave of the dark and dreary pages which bear the melancholy record
of persecution, we turn, with a feeling of relief, to the more cheering
picture presented by those countries where the great principle of
religious liberty has come, at length, to be fully understood. It was a
great day for the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, when the
legal disabilities which weighed so long on the Catholic people, were
removed. It was the noble and powerful protest of a mighty empire against
the narrow and irrational spirit of persecution, which still disgraces so
many of the European nations. If ever the Catholics, by superiority of
numbers, which is far from being an impossible state of things, should
come to sway the destinies of that empire, the glorious fact will be
remembered and bear its fruit. England, Ireland and Scotland, already
enjoy an abundant measure of their reward, in the increase of piety and of
that righteousness which exalteth a nation. This is manifest in many ways.
It is particularly shown forth by the more friendly feeling towards the
Catholics of the empire which now universally prevails. We may not be
supposed to know much, here in Canada, about the state of sentiment or
opinion in England. But when we appeal to the testimony of so eminent an
Englishman as Cardinal Newman, what we affirm cannot be easily gainsaid.
In a discourse recently delivered at Birmingham, on the growth of the
Catholic Church in England, the very learned cardinal noted the striking
contrast between the feeling towards Catholics in Cardinal Wiseman’s time
and that of the present day, and accounted for the improvement by showing
that there is now a much better knowledge of the Catholic religion among
Protestants. “What I wish to show,” said his Eminence, “and what I believe
to be the remarkable fact is, that whereas there have been many
conversions to the Catholic Church during the last thirty years, and a
great deal of ill-will felt towards us, in consequence, nevertheless, that
ill-will has been overcome, and a feeling of positive good-will has been
created instead in the minds of our very enemies, by means of those
conversions which they feared from their hatred of us. How this was, let
me now say: The Catholics in England, fifty years ago, were an unknown
sect amongst us. Now there is hardly a family but has brothers or sisters,
or cousins or connections, or friends and acquaintances, or associates in
business or work, of that religion, not to mention the large influx of
population from the sister island: and such an interpenetration of
Catholics with Protestants, especially in our great cities, could not take
place without there being a gradual accumulation of experience, slow,
indeed, but therefore the more sure about individual Catholics, and what
they really are in character, and, whether or not, they can be trusted in
the concerns and intercourse of life; and I fancy that Protestants,
spontaneously, and before setting about to form a judgment, have found
them to be men whom they could be drawn to like and to love quite as much
as their fellow-Protestants—to be human beings in whom they could be
interested and sympathize with, and interchange good offices with, before
the question of religion came into consideration.”
The increase in the number of Catholics and of Catholic institutions in
Great Britain, has kept pace with the growth of friendly sentiments in
their regard. That island, “the mother of nations,” appears to be destined
to unite by means of her ever spreading language, the immense family of
mankind. For what end and purpose none can tell. The hidden ways of Divine
Providence are known to God alone. We may, nevertheless, in view of
certain well-known facts, presume to draw the veil of mystery aside, and
discover so far the secret of God’s mercy. In Pius the Ninth’s time the
number of Catholics has been doubled in Great Britain, as well as in the
United States of America, Canada, Australia, remote India and the Cape of
Good Hope.
At the time of the election of Pius IX., there were in England and
Scotland eight hundred and twenty Catholic priests. There are now two
thousand and eighty-eight.(12) The number of churches and chapels had
grown from six hundred and twenty-six to one thousand three hundred and
fifteen. Within the last twenty years religious houses for men had
increased from twenty-one to seventy-three, and convents for religious
sisters, from ninety-seven to two hundred and thirty-nine. Catholic
schools and colleges had more than doubled their number, being now one
thousand three hundred, whilst a little over twenty years ago it was five
hundred.
In the British colonies, generally, including British America, Australia,
India, and the West Indies, there were, in 1855, no more than forty-four
Episcopal Sees, several of which owed their erection to Pius IX. By the
year 1876, the solicitude of the same venerable Pontiff had raised to
eighty-eight, the number of archbishops and bishops who exercised the
duties of their sacred office, throughout the Colonial Empire of Great
Britain. In the whole empire there cannot be fewer than one hundred and
twenty-five prelates, whether vicars-apostolic, archbishops, bishops, or
prefects-apostolic.
In no country have the benefits of religious liberty been more abundantly
enjoyed than in Canada. In 1869, the two Provinces of Ontario and Quebec,
formerly Canada West and Canada East, counted ten dioceses and seven
hundred and seventy-nine churches. Including Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi, and
the vicariate-apostolic of Northern Canada, there are now thirteen
dioceses in the two provinces, whilst, during the seven years anterior to
1876, there was an increase of one hundred and seventy-three churches,
making, in all, one thousand one hundred and seventy-one. In the same
period religious houses had increased from seventy-three to one hundred
and ninety-six. Education of a religious character is, at the same time,
amply provided for. There are, in the Province of Quebec, three thousand
one hundred and thirty-nine parochial, and altogether three thousand six
hundred and thirty elementary schools, for a population of one million
eight hundred and eighty-two thousand souls. These schools, without
including educational institutions of a more private kind, which are very
numerous in Lower Canada (Quebec), allow one school to every six hundred
people. It may be doubted whether Prussia, even, which possesses greater
facilities for education than any other European country, comes up to this
standard. The increase of Catholic people everywhere, throughout the
country, keeps pace with the building of churches and the establishing of
Catholic schools and other religious institutions. This increase is
particularly noticeable in the towns and cities, where the growth of the
Catholic population is remarkably rapid.
In all the British dependencies, liberty, as understood by the British
people, prevails; and, wherever it is held in honor and exercises its
legitimate influence, religion nourishes. Contrast, for instance,
Australia, when a penal colony, and when liberty was unknown with
Australia, as it is to-day. In 1804 two priests were permitted, by the
civil power, to perform the duties of their sacred office. Their labors
sufficed for the very limited spiritual wants of the colony. By 1827 these
wants had so slightly increased that two priests were still able to meet
them all. One of these was Dr. Ullathorne, now Bishop of Birmingham,
assisted by another priest and a lay teacher. So late as 1842, matters
were little better, Hobart-town having one priest, but no church.
Australia, meanwhile, was growing in importance, and it came to possess,
as became an important British colony, constitutional government. This was
a new era for the cause of religion. Australia has now, 1880, two
archbishoprics and ten other episcopal sees. In three of the dioceses,
Melbourne, Sandhurst and Perth, there are no fewer than one hundred and
thirty-five priests.