THE PAPACY IN IRELAND.
IT is probable that the news which the Roman correspondent of the Times gave on Wednesday must be taken with a good deal of qualification. It is, in effect, that the Pope has been either convinced or defied by the Irish Bishops. In 1883, he was all for the English Government and against Mr. Parnell. In 1885, he is all for Mr. Parnell and against the English Government. The proofs brought forward in support of this statement are two,—one, that the Monde»). dc Rome, which is the special organ of the Vatican, publishes articles drawing a sharp distinction between the Irish Parliamentary Party and the dynamite party ; the other, that the Irish Bishops have, in advance of their approaching visit to Rome, entrusted the Parliamentary conduct of the Irish Education question to Mr. Parnell.
We cannot say that either or both of these pieces of evidence seem to us quite a sconclusive as the correspondent of the Times thinks them. After all, the connection, if connection there be, between the facts mentioned and the conclusion drawn, is a matter of inference ; and an Italian Catholic may naturally draw a different conclusion from that drawn by an English Protestant. The former, being a foreigner, is necessarily unacquainted with many minute facts and fragments of facts which are held to make out the case. He sees only that Mr. Parnell is fighting for the independence of Ireland by the ordinary weapons of Parliamentary and popular agitation, and that the dynamite party are fighting for the same end by murderous explosions. But it does not follow, in the absence of any further evidence, that there is more in common between the men who employ these several methods than there is between the methods themselves ; and such evidence as is forthcoming is not of a direct kind. Moreover, an Italian Catholic is naturally indisposed to believe anything to the disadvantage of the Irish Party. He probably suspects the theological orthodoxy of some of them ; and he knows, of course, that their leader is not a Catholic even in name. But they are linked by tradition to the Catholic Party of the past ; and different as Mr. Parnell is from O'Connell, he is still O'Connell's successor, and in the party he leads the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland find their only representatives. This would hold good, even if every word in the Moniteur de Raze were directly inspired by the Pope. But the Pope, unless he is very much better served by his organs in the Press than other illustrious personages who keep a newspaper, only inspires the more important and material parts of . the journal. Probably on all the minor questions that arise, he leaves the Moulton. to take its own line. Now, on Irish matters a Catholic journal published in Rome will naturally derive that line from an Irish Catholic. The opinion of Roman Monsignori and such like dignitaries about the Irish people is. we can hardly doubt, that they are very pious and very hard to make out. Consequently, their inclination would be to leave them to write about their own insular affairs. The piety of the people would make this a safe course ; the difficulty of understanding them would make it much the easiest course. And so long as an Irish Catholic writer kept to
generalities, he would not be likely to say anything that could make the Pope uneasy. The slightest word in condonation or extenuation of the dynamite outrages would be at once noticed ; but while the journalist confined himself
do with them, the Pope would be likely to believe what he would certainly wish to be true. The other point mentioned by the Times' correspondent seems to have even less significance. In deciding to entrust the Parliamentary conduct of the education question to Mr. Parnell, the Irish Bishops were dealing with a matter within their own cognizance. If they had all been gathered together within the walls of the Vatican, the Pope could hardly have done other than leave the decision to them. It is conceivable, indeed, that he might have offered to negotiate in a roundabout way with the British Government, in the hope of obtaining the desired concessions without having recourse to Parliament. But after the refusal —at all events, the omission—of the British Government to give an official character to Mr. Errington's mission, it is unlikely that the Pope would have made any such offer ; and, had he made it, the Irish Bishops would undoubtedly have pointed out to him that nothing could possibly come of accepting it. How would the House of Commons be likely to regard a new departure in Irish education arrived at by secret negotiation with the Pope ? Such an arrangement would literally have no friends. The Opposition would dislike it, because it was the work of the Government ; a large number of Liberals would dislike it., as a victory for Denominational Education ; and the Irish Members, its natural friends and supporters, would dislike it, because it had been carried out behind their backs. Unless Ireland were deprived of Parliamentary institutions altogether, it would be impossible to settle a question of this magnitude without reference to her representatives. Consequently, the Irish Bishops bad only one course to take. If they had come to Rome before taking it, the result must in the end have been the same. The Pope could have suggested no alternative that would not at once have been shown to be impracticable ; and in view of such a demonstration even the Pope must have given way. He could not have bidden the Bishops rest content with the present system of National Education in Ireland, when they are convinced that a system more consonant with what the Catholic Church has always contended for is within their reach. Nor could he have given them what they think to be within their reach by any other means than that which they propose to employ.
Still, though the view taken by the Times' correspondent strikes us as greatly exaggerated, if not altogether false, we do not maintain that it is in itself an inconceivable, or even an improbable, view. The power of the Pope over a national Episcopate is often exaggerated, and the disposition of Leo XIII. to use such powers as he has is exaggerated too. The Pope is almost omnipotent over an Episcopate in matters which concern only the Clergy ; but the very same reason that makes him so, has an opposite influence in matters which concern the Laity as well. That reason is the loss of endowments, and of the independence which commonly went with endowments. In ceasing to be the powerful corporation they once were, the Catholic Clergy have ceased to be anything more than nominees of the Pope. By identifying themselves with Rome they can at least count on retaining spiritual consideration with their flocks ; whereas, if they quarrel with him, even this will probably disappear. But the abolition of endowments has immensely increased Lay influence on all points on which the Laity care to exert influence. They are the paymasters, and as such they will insist on having a
voice in all matters which concern them. Nowhere is this more true than in Ireland, because nowhere is the priesthood more dependent on Lay support. Probably many of the Irish Catholic Clergy would have been Nationalists had they been wholly left to themselves. But the pressure to which they have been exposed is of itself enough to explain their attitude.
If they had declared themselves the avowed enemies of the Nationalists, they would have risked the alienation of the great mass of the Irhh Catholics. It is easy to say that the Pope was bound to have disregarded this, and to override the Irish Bishops in the peremptory way which Pius IX. would have employed. This has never been Leo XIII.'s method ; and it is not likely now to become so. His theory of government is the constitutional theory ; and as a constitutionalist in ecclesias tical politics, lie is disposed to leave the Bishops to manage their affairs for themselves. Englishmen were greatly given to abusing the contrary habit in Pius IX. ; and it is hardly
reasonable for them to blame Leo XIII because he does not do what they blamed his predecessor for doing. Independence and self-government are good in themselves, and not only when they happen to jump with our own wishes.
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