INTOLERANT CRUELTY IN BELFAST.
UPWARDS of two months ago, the Church of Rome gave, within the precincts of Belfast, a striking example of that intolerance and cruelty for which she has always been renowned. Her representatives, as we have often remarked, are becoming bolder and more defiant, as time proceeds. Not long since it was published far and wide that the Pope had set his seal to a law that all marriages celebrated between Roman Catholics and Protestants without Roman ceremonies, were to be regarded by “the Church” as invalid, and that the parties who contracted such marriages were to be held as living in open sin. The case about to be stated is an enforcement of this intolerant decree in a cruel and revolting manner by a Belfast priest.
The story is to the following effect:—The daughter of a small farmer in County Antrim, and a Presbyterian, was married in May, 1908, in a Presbyterian church by her own minister, to a man who was and is a Roman Catholic. Before the marriage it was arranged between the parties that she should continue to attend her own place of worship and he his. In June, 1909, their first child (a boy) was born, and he was baptised by the Presbyterian minister. All this time there was no difference between them about religious matters. But shortly before a second child (a girl) was born in August, 1910, the husband began to speak to his wife about changing her faith, as he said the priest was constantly rating him on the subject. The priest then visited the house several times, and told her that she was not married at all but living in open sin, and that her children were illegitimate. He pressed her to come to the chapel and be married properly, but she told him that she was legally married, and refused to yield to his request. On one occasion the husband joined with her in beseeching the priest to leave them alone, as they had lived peacefully before his interference, and would continue to do so if not interfered with. But this had no effect on the representative of Rome, for he threatened the wife that if she would not comply, there would be no peace in the house, that her husband could not live with her, and that if he did, his fellow Roman Catholics would cease to speak to him or recognise him. The wife remained immovable, but from this time onward the husband’s attitude changed towards her, and he made no secret of the way he was being influenced. He took the second baby out of the house without her consent, and got it baptised at the chapel. He also began to ill-treat her and told her that she was not his wife and was nothing to him but a common woman. She bore all this for a period, but one day, after being out for a time, she came home and found that the two children had been removed from the house. Her husband refused to tell her where they were beyond that they were in safe keeping. She did everything in her power to get at least to see them, but her husband said that he dared not give any information, and that unless she changed her faith she could not get them. Not only was the woman robbed of her children, but of her home also, for a day or two after, the husband took her out of the house for about two hours on pretence of taking her to see her babies, and when she returned, she found the house empty—everything taken away including her own wearing apparel and underclothing. She was now left homeless, and without any means, or clothing beyond what she was wearing. To crown all this reckless cruelty, the husband deserted her, and she could not find out where he had gone. Subsequently she saw him at the place where he was working, but he was angry and refused to tell her where the children were, or to do anything. He told her to go to the priest in whose hands, he stated, the whole matter was, and added that unless she was remarried in the chapel, she would never see the children. She went to the priest, but he said he could give her no information and treated her with scant courtesy. Since then, the husband has disappeared, and the wife can get no knowledge of his whereabouts or that of the children. The police appear to be helpless, and the broken-hearted woman has made a pathetic appeal to the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to take some special steps to vindicate her rights and to get her children restored to her. Lord Aberdeen’s reply (no doubt under political guidance) has been of a very formal unsympathetic nature, and simply points out that the only way of remedy is by an ordinary process at law.
This narrative speaks for itself. It sets forth the lengths of cruelty and wickedness to which Romish priests and their slaves are prepared to go, even in a Protestant country, in this enlightened twentieth century. The incidents mentioned have taken place in the most Protestant part of Ireland, and they shew what a terrible power the priest is capable of wielding. Protestants in Scotland have, for most part, very little idea of the complete subjection to the priest, which obtains amongst Papists in Ireland. Those people have no right of private judgment; their reason is paralysed; and they can be led hither and thither like unintelligent machines by their ecclesiastical superiors. The case in hand is a vivid illustration of the truth of this. We are pleased to observe that a feeling of righteous indignation has been aroused in Belfast, and that a large public meeting has been held to give expression to this feeling. We trust the meeting may bring forth abiding fruit, not only in influencing the Government to take steps to bring relief to Mrs. M’Cann, the sorrowing wife, who has been so shamefully dealt with, but in awakening callous Protestants to realise the fearful danger to which our country is exposed from the increasing encroachments of the Church of Rome.
The incident should also serve as a warning to Protestant young men and women against marriage with Roman Catholics who mean to abide by their false religion. Mrs. M’Cann has no doubt suffered for her indiscretion in this respect, and her experience is fitted to be a strong beacon light to others. It is impossible to join Christ and Belial. We have not attempted in this article to answer any of the plausible arguments by which the emissaries of the Church of Rome endeavour to justify the cruel treatment of the present case of mixed marriage. The most that the priest was, in any sense, justly entitled to do was to deny the privileges of the Church to the husband, but to invade the sanctity of the home, and to connive at robbing a mother of her children, as has been done in Belfast, is conduct outrageous beyond expression, which calls for severe treatment at the hand of the criminal law. May the Most High grant that this new Romish development may be overruled for good in exposing the cruel wickedness which Rome carries on wherever she gains the ascendancy, and in stirring up Protestants in these kingdoms to resist her destructive advance! It is a melancholy reflection upon the delusive charity that presently prevails in Great Britain that Rome can assert herself here in the manner described, with impunity, while another country, Germany, that is not supposed to be so decidedly Protestant, has deliberately refused to recognise Rome’s new Marriage Law within her borders, with the result that the Vatican has cringed and yielded in that case. Surely judicial blindness has come upon us as a nation!
Thought for a Freethinker.
Collins, the freethinker, or deist, met a plain countryman going to church. He asked him where he was going. “To church, sir.” “What to do there?” “To worship God.” “Pray, whether is your God a great or a little God?” “He is both, sir.” “How can he be both?” “He is so great, sir, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him; and so little that he can dwell in my heart.” Collins declared, that this simple answer from the countryman had more effect upon his mind than all the volumes which learned doctors had written against him.