The “Catholic.”
This monthly periodical still holds on its way. It gives an interesting account of Protestant work done in Ireland. It is edited by Rev. Thomas Connellan, an ex-priest of the Church of Rome; an account of whose conversion to Protestant principles is given in his extremely interesting pamphlet—Hear the other side. Mr. Connellan has undergone a great deal of persecution from his former co-religionists, but still holds cheerily on in his way. His intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Church of Rome, and his first-hand acquaintance with Romish theology makes him a power dreaded and hated by the Romish priesthood. The Catholic is now in its fifteenth volume, and is issued monthly at the price of a penny. It may be had from the Editor, 51B Dawson Street, Dublin, for one shilling and sixpence per annum.
Pope Pius IX.’s Blasphemous Statement.
In the newly published History of the Papacy of the Nineteenth Century, by the Lutheran and Danish Bishop Nielsen, there is a quotation from an Encyclical of Pope Pius IX., dated 15th May, 1871, which we do not remember seeing before. “You know full well,” said the Pope, “that we in the blessed Peter have received direct from God all the prerogatives and the whole authority required for the government of the Church. These prerogatives and this authority are like the liberty of the Church, won by the blood of Jesus, and are as precious as that blood” (vol. iv., p. 414). To say that the usurped “prerogatives and authority” of the Pope “are as precious as that blood” of Jesus shed on Calvary for sin is blasphemy as wicked as was ever uttered by a Pope, and that is saying a great deal.—Protestant Observer.
Roman Catholicism in Barra.
The Caledonian Catholics, as they call themselves, at a recent meeting were addressed by Father Campbell, S.J. The Jesuit father said some foolish things about the Reformation, and then addressing his audience in Gaelic told them that in Uist and Barra “no boat was launched without being first blessed; the fishermen never went to sea without a bottle of holy water in the prow of the boat, while their nets were blessed and sprinkled with holy water before being cast into the deep.” The holy water after all will not do very much injury to the boats or the nets, but one cannot help expressing a regret that superstition of this kind still exists in the twentieth century,