Cardinal Bourne, of Westminster, has issued a Pastoral letter together
with a re-print of a letter written by Cardinal Manning in 1867. We welcome Cardinal Bourne's letter as one of the most explicit admonitions on the subject of violence in Ireland which have yet appeared from Roman Ciatholic prelates. We can guess what the feelings of most English Roman Catholics must be about the condonation or tacit acceptance of crime in Ireland by the bulk of the Roman Catholic clergy, and we hope that Cardinal Bourne's warning will inspire some of his brother clergy in Ireland to emulate him :-
" The tragedy of Ireland," says Cardinal Bourne, " continues and becomes still more acute. Horror and outrage, in the form both of aggression and of repression, are reported day by day. In the midst of this welter and confusion I have grave reason to fear that some of my own flock, impelled by legitimate love of country and urgent longing for the realization of lawful aspirations, are unwarily allowing themselves to become implicated, by active sympathy or even actual co-operation, in societies and organizations which are in opposition to the laws of God and of the Catholic Church."
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